Thursday, February 21, 2008
From AscensionNYC
Thursday in the Second Week of Lent
by Barbara Head
Psalm 105:16-22
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Luke 16:19-31
These passages are about famine and messengers from God.
The psalmist talks of the famine sent by God over the land, and how Joseph, taken as a slave, was sent as a messenger to Pharaoh, becoming "a master over his household, a ruler over his possessions, To instruct his princes according to his will and to teach his elders wisdom." But Joseph received all this because he trusted in God, despite having his feet bruised in fetters and his neck bound in an iron collar.
Jeremiah also talks of famine. "Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord." The prophet compares these people to a terrible thing for human beings to contemplate — a dried out shrub in a desert, a parched place, an uninhabited salt land. On the other hand, those who trust in the Lord are like trees planted by water, sending out roots to the stream. The final verse, though, is the one that hits home: "The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse — who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings" (bolding mine).
Then we come to Luke. Here is the familiar story of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar at his doorstep, covered with sores. While the story doesn't specifically say that the rich man doesn't give Lazarus food, the implication is there when it says that Lazarus "longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table." Finally, Lazarus dies and goes to heaven with Abraham, while the rich man goes to Hades, where he suffers another kind of famine, the flames of hell.
Now I used to be of the opinion that this was nothing more than each man deserved, and didn't look any further. But on re-reading this passage for the Lenten devotional, I suddenly realized that, even in Hades, the rich man is still treating Lazarus as a beggar, and as such, beneath him. "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue." When Abraham tells him this is impossible, he wants Lazarus to go to his brothers and warn them. Abraham tells him they must listen to Moses and the prophets. But the rich man wants Lazarus to go anyway; his brothers will listen to this beggar, because he is risen from the dead.
Then Abraham tells him what we all know only too well today: "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
In these days of famine, war, and chaotic climate change, are we convinced by the One who did rise from the dead?
Psalm 105:16-22
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Luke 16:19-31
These passages are about famine and messengers from God.
The psalmist talks of the famine sent by God over the land, and how Joseph, taken as a slave, was sent as a messenger to Pharaoh, becoming "a master over his household, a ruler over his possessions, To instruct his princes according to his will and to teach his elders wisdom." But Joseph received all this because he trusted in God, despite having his feet bruised in fetters and his neck bound in an iron collar.
Jeremiah also talks of famine. "Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord." The prophet compares these people to a terrible thing for human beings to contemplate — a dried out shrub in a desert, a parched place, an uninhabited salt land. On the other hand, those who trust in the Lord are like trees planted by water, sending out roots to the stream. The final verse, though, is the one that hits home: "The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse — who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings" (bolding mine).
Then we come to Luke. Here is the familiar story of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar at his doorstep, covered with sores. While the story doesn't specifically say that the rich man doesn't give Lazarus food, the implication is there when it says that Lazarus "longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table." Finally, Lazarus dies and goes to heaven with Abraham, while the rich man goes to Hades, where he suffers another kind of famine, the flames of hell.
Now I used to be of the opinion that this was nothing more than each man deserved, and didn't look any further. But on re-reading this passage for the Lenten devotional, I suddenly realized that, even in Hades, the rich man is still treating Lazarus as a beggar, and as such, beneath him. "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue." When Abraham tells him this is impossible, he wants Lazarus to go to his brothers and warn them. Abraham tells him they must listen to Moses and the prophets. But the rich man wants Lazarus to go anyway; his brothers will listen to this beggar, because he is risen from the dead.
Then Abraham tells him what we all know only too well today: "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
In these days of famine, war, and chaotic climate change, are we convinced by the One who did rise from the dead?
