Bring God's light into your presence.
Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carring their sheaves.
Jeremiah 26:12-24
Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, "It is the Lord who sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will change his mind about the disaster that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, here I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood upon yourself and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.
Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.." And some of the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembled people, "Micah of Moresheth, who prophesied during the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, said to all the people of Judah: 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.' Did King Hezekiah of Judah and all Judah actually put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord, and did not the Lord change his mind about the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves!"
There was another man prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriathjearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words exactly like those of Jeremiah. And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Achbor and men with him to Egypt, and they took Uriah from Egypt and brough him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and threw his dead body into the burial place of the common people.
But the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over into the hands of the people to be put to death.
Silence
Hebrews 7:11-22
Now if perfection had been attainable through the levitical priesthood - for the people received the law under this priesthood - what further need would there have been to speak of another priest arising according to the order of Melchizedek, rather than one according to the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. Now the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
It is even more obvious when another priest arises, resembling Melchizedek, one who has become a priest, not through a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but through the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of him, "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek."
There is, on the one hand, the abrogation of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect); there is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope, through which we approach God.
This was confirmed with an oath, for others who became priests took their office without an oath, but this one became a priest with an oath, because of the one who said to him, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever'" - accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.
Silence
Collect
O Lord our hope, we know that you are faithful to your promises. We pray for the tenacity to cling to what you have offered us, even when our commitment dims. In this, we will become heirs of your kingdom along with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Micah, Jeremiah, and all the others. In the name of Christ our high priest, and through the Holy Spirit our protector, Amen.
Daily Activity: Logical
Chew on this excerpt from Paul Tillich's The Shaking of the Foundations:
"How could the prophets speak as they did? How could they paint these most
terrible pictures of doom and destruction without cynicism or despair? It was
because, beyond the sphere of destruction, they saw the sphere of salvation;
because, in the doom of the temporal, they saw the manifestation of the
Eternal.. It was because they were certain that they belonged within the two
spheres, the changeable and the unchangeable. For only he who is also beyond the
changeable, not bound within it alone, can face the end. All others are
compelled to escape, to turn away. How much of our lives consists in nothing but
attempts to look away from the end! We often succeed in forgetting the end. But
ultimately we fail; for we always carry the end with us in our bodies and our
souls."
