"You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Monday musical meditations on God's good news
An opening prayer:
Son of God, eternal Savior,
Source of life and truth and grace,
Word made flesh, whose birth among us
Honors all our human race,
You, our Head, who, throned in glory,
for your will ever plead:
Fill us with your love and pity,
Heal our wrongs and help our needs.
Come, O Christ, and reign among us,
King of Love and Prince of Peace,
Hush the storm of strife and passion;
Bid its cruel discords cease.
By your patient years of toiling,
By your silent hours of pain,
Quench our fevered thirst of pleasure,
Stem our selfish greed of gain.
Bind us all as one together
In your church’s sacred fold,
Weak and healthy, poor and wealthy,
Sad and joyful, young and old.
Is there want or pain or sorrow?
Make us all the burdens share.
Are there spirits crushed and broken?
Teach us, Lord, to soothe their care.
As you, Lord, have lived for others
So may we for others live;
Freely have your gifts been granted,
Freely may your servants give.
Yours the gold and yours the silver,
Yours the wealth of land and sea,
We but stewards of your bounty,
Held in solemn trust will be. Amen.
Luke 14:1–14
- One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid.
- 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
- 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they had nothing to say.
- 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.
- 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
- 12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Good news questions
- Jesus surely took the lowest place. He died for you on the cross.
- And he surely is inviting you to the grandest banquet.
- How can you thank him today?
- Whom can you help today who could never repay you?
For others pray
- That God spreads the good news of the kingdom of the Son he loves in Eritrea
J.S. Bach's beautiful music for today
- BWV 47 (YouTube, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled")
- Everything is backwards right now. All the price tags have been switched.
- But as surely as the highest one made himself the lowest when he gave up his life for us,
- In the end, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
- "Take away my taste for worldly honor," we pray.
- "By your bitter death grant me all the eternal glories you have won for me."
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