This week's Lectionary passages contain such amazing stories and David and Goliath and Christ stilling the sea, but also a deep sense of God's care for the afflicted and desperate.
God, it’s mostly by our own collective blindness
That we have the poor among us.
This is the pit we have made and fallen into;
This is the net that has caught us (1):
We favored the rich
And disregarded the needy.
But, by your mercy, the needy won’t always be forgotten;
Nor the hope of the poor perish (2).
Over and over in the scriptures, we read stories of people who miraculously overcome great obstacles:
Boys who slay giants with stones (3),
Women who defeat armies with tent pegs (4),
Full jars of oil and grain despite famine (5),
Desperate fathers whose daughters rise from deathbeds (6),
Locked prison doors flying open (7),
Dangerous seas calmed at a word (8),
Crucified Christ resurrected (9).
From these stories, and many more
We take hope.
For in our deepest desperation,
You meet us.
In our poverty of spirit,
You meet us.
In our blindness and apathy,
You meet us.
Things don’t always turn out the way we want them to in this life,
But your eye is always on the afflicted.
Come to us now, Holy One, in our desperation and need;
Still our storms;
Bring us all to a place of rest,
And make us glad in the quiet. (10) Amen.*
*I recommend including a pause for silence here.
Psalm 9:15
Psalm 9:18
1 Samuel 17:49
Judges 4:21
2 Kings 4:1-7
Mark 5:23
Acts 16:26
Mark 4:39
Mark 16:6
Psalm 107:30