PREPARATION

I will put this at the start of the next few reflections to explain the reading selection. We use a Lectionary to inform us of the readings for every Eucharist. These readings are in a 3 year cycle based on Matthew (Year A), Mark (Year B) and Luke (Year C). This is year A and focus is on Matthews Gospel. There are times where we are given reading options and have a choice of readings. In this green period the selection for the first reading was from the stories of the Old Testament or the Prophets. I have chosen the Prophets. This adds an interesting dimension for me, as stories are easier to reflect on. Prophets talk in language that at times is hard to understand and can be more challenging. Because of this many clergy avoid them and therefore many people have never heard them. So come on a journey of the Prophets with me.

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Hosea 5.15-6.1-6

5 

15 I will return again to my place
    until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.
    In their distress they will beg my favour: 

6
1 ‘Come, let us return to the Lord ;
    for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
    he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord ;
    his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.’
4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes away early.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
    I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgement goes forth as the light.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.

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REFLECTIONS

Hosea is an interesting Prophet. God spoke to prophet through a life God called him to live. He called Hosea to take a wife from the harlots, prostitutes. In this relationship Hosea experiences God's life with the Israelites. Therefore, Hosea's prophecies are not just knowledge from God, but a lived understanding. In this prophecy we see God declaring that God will move from the people of Israel and leave them until they turn back to God.

We then get another voice. Is it the voice of the people or the voice of Jesus? The reference to two days and '... on the third day he will raise us up.', would suggest the resurrection.  It declares God's goodness. Having praised God, God comes back to declare God's plan for Ephraim and Judah. I love the last line, 'For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.' This prophecy was 700 years before Jesus and God was redefining sacrifice and the relationship with the people. 

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Psalm 50.7-15

7 ‘Listen my people, and I will speak:

O Israel, I am God your God,

and I will give my testimony.

8 ‘It is not for your sacrifices that I reprove you:

for your burnt-offerings are always before me.

9 ‘I will take no bull from your farms:

or he-goat from your pens.

10 ‘For all the beasts of the forest belong to me:

and so do the cattle upon the mountains.

11 ‘I know all the birds of the air:

and the grasshoppers of the field are in my sight.

12 ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you:

for the whole world is mine, and all that is in it.

13 ‘Do I eat the flesh of bulls:

or drink the blood of goats?

14 ‘Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving:

and pay your vows to the Most High.

15 ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble:

I will bring you out, and you shall glorify me.’

 

 

 

Romans 4.13-25

13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’ 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ 23 Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

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REFLECTIONS 

Paul tries to express the faith of Abraham, I write 'tries' because I do not think he is able to express Abraham's faith in words. He explains the actions, but the faith is an act of the heart and we cannot explain that to others. Abraham did nothing to deservice God's grace. He was not chosen because of what he did. He was chosen for the trust he had in God. I would say, how much faith did Abraham have that he heard God. He knew the promise. He did not think it, have a gut instinct, a signed contract. just a relationship with God that God spoke and Abraham heard.

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Matthew 9.9-13; 9.18-26

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. 10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 12 But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’ 18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’ 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, ‘Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.

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REFLECTIONS

We see three thing happening in this story, but with a common theme of healing. Jesus offers the Jewish man who had become an outcast because he collected taxes love and acceptance. The Pharisees are annoyed and yet a leader of the synagogue does not care as he seeks Jesus' help to heal his daughter, and a woman who has a condition which should have had her as unclean and separated from the community dare to seek healing from Jesus. None of these people had done anything to earn Jesus' grace, and all come out of their need to turn to Jesus. Does this not reflect the prophecy. 

I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favour: (Hosea 5:15)

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 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, he knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings. (Hosea 6:6)

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Is this not the faith of Abraham.