Proper 20 / Pentecost 18 / Ordinary Time 25
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
-- Jeremiah 8:21
Perhaps more attention needs to be given to the pain in the heart of God. Mostly we focus on human suffering, our own or that of others. Occasionally we may speak of God's anger at our behavior. How often do we speak of God's pain? Jeremiah lifted up God's grief over the condition of God's people: "My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick," said God.
Why was God in such despair? It was because God had heard the cry of his people for spiritual sustenance and no one was responding. He had heard them cry, "Is the Lord not in Zion? ... The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." It is one of the striking features of our culture that there is great evidence of spiritual hunger among our population, but many people are turning to everywhere but the church to get their spiritual needs met. God's question, then and now, becomes an indictment on the church to address the spiritual needs of the people. "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?" The many experiments that churches are making now to discover how to reach out to the alienated and the lost often cause grumbling among others in the church. Yet the question remains as to how we are to feed the obvious spiritual hunger of the population.
Perhaps all of us need to recognize the pain that such a condition causes in God's heart. "O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!" Perhaps if we shared God's tears we might be more open to God's possibilities.
-- Jeremiah 8:21
Perhaps more attention needs to be given to the pain in the heart of God. Mostly we focus on human suffering, our own or that of others. Occasionally we may speak of God's anger at our behavior. How often do we speak of God's pain? Jeremiah lifted up God's grief over the condition of God's people: "My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick," said God.
Why was God in such despair? It was because God had heard the cry of his people for spiritual sustenance and no one was responding. He had heard them cry, "Is the Lord not in Zion? ... The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." It is one of the striking features of our culture that there is great evidence of spiritual hunger among our population, but many people are turning to everywhere but the church to get their spiritual needs met. God's question, then and now, becomes an indictment on the church to address the spiritual needs of the people. "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?" The many experiments that churches are making now to discover how to reach out to the alienated and the lost often cause grumbling among others in the church. Yet the question remains as to how we are to feed the obvious spiritual hunger of the population.
Perhaps all of us need to recognize the pain that such a condition causes in God's heart. "O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!" Perhaps if we shared God's tears we might be more open to God's possibilities.
