The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
How many of us have witnessed miracles but look for ways to explain them away?
The showers came and everything began to grow again . . .
How many of us have benefited from miracles but shrink from telling others the good news of our own healing?
I’ll bring my people back, gather them up from the ends of the earth . . .
The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that there is always reason to celebrate for those who weep will rejoice, those who are lame will walk, those who are blind will one day see. (Jeremiah 31:7-9)
It seemed like a dream, too good to be true . . .
The psalmists tell us that where we have wept, we will leap for joy. (Psalm 126)
Just as nature turns and returns in her seasons, so too do we turn and return to God. Perhaps it is her fidelity that brings so many miracles forth in nature’s change each season. Perhaps we might also benefit from turning and returning to God’s word each day. When we spend time with these verses, when we search varying versions of these words, we also find much in the power of righteous prayer. As evening falls and we end our day, let us give thanks to the Lord as we offer all that we are and all that we do in God’s holy, healing name.
Spend time with Acts 4:23-32 and re-read a familiar story about the power of prayer.
In these days when we continue to recover from social, political, medical, and emotional turmoil, we look to this longest chapter in Scripture for guidance. Today, joy follows mourning.
Teach me your wisdom and knowledge . . . It was good for me to be afflicted, in order to learn your laws . . .
In this ninth strophe we near the middle of Psalm 119 and here the psalmist reaches out to God, asking for wisdom and knowledge specifically, promising to adhere to the Law of loving one another that Yahweh has written on our hearts. The psalmist expresses a truth we all know but often do not want to admit: we learn life’s lessons best when we are under siege or overwhelmed, and it is from this suffering that God calls forth joy.
God says: I tell you frequently so of this you may be certain: I am with you always, I see your joys and sorrows, and I bring all manner of goodness out of the great harm that some of you plot. So put away any plans of deception and come to the truth. Honesty, authenticity, integrity and love will heal any rift. In my plan and in my time, my love transforms even the darkest of hearts. You may believe my goodness to be hidden . . . but it lives forever in your hearts.
Rather than curse our painful circumstances, let us enter into God’s plan of inversion and allow our sorrow to lead us to the one who can heal the deepest of wounds. Let us allow God to love us infinitely and unconditionally.
When the Lord restored our fortunes we thought we were dreaming. Our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy . . . Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy. Those who go forth weeping, carrying sacks of seed, with return with cries of joy, carrying their bundled sheaves. (Psalm 126)
John 4: The Samaritan Woman and the Official with the Ailing Son
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Henry Siemiradski: Christ and the Samaritan WomanThere is so much about these stories to interest us. There is so much here that Jesus teaches us. There is so much for us to experience and pass on . . . if we only take the time to look.
The Samaritan Woman in today’s Noontime comes alone at mid-day to Jacob’s Well in the town of Sychar. Her delayed arrival indicates that she is a late riser and therefore does not live like other women in the community. Perhaps she is shunned by the other orthodox, early rising women. We do not know.
What we do know is that this woman approaches a man, Jesus, resting by the well and they speak. Jesus tells her more than anyone passing through town can know. The woman recognizes that he is special, she believes him to be a prophet, and she slips easily into a redemptive conversation. After Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah – something he rarely does in the Gospels – and sends her back to her life as a changed woman, she converts others to such an extent that at the town’s request he remains with them for two days. The result is that far more believed because of his word.
Jan Vermeyen: Wedding Feast at CanaThis second part of this chapter is the story of the official whose son who is cured without Jesus physically touching him. The miracle takes place in Cana, the town where, according to this Gospel, Jesus began his public ministry at the wedding feast where he changed jars of water for ritual cleansing into jars of superb wine. Perhaps this official knew about Jesus from the stories circulating after the miracle at the wedding feast. Perhaps this is why the official sought out this healing man in search of a cure for his ailing son. Again, we do not know.
But here is something that we do know . . . in one long elliptical circling journey of physical and spiritual healing, Jesus shows us two stories that speak of the good news of the Messiah’s coming. Through his words and actions Jesus retells the story of creation, and foreshadows the cycle of redemption and healing in our own lives. In one powerful, long, sweeping arc Jesus moves from north to south to north again; and in his path he leaves a wake of people whose spirits and bodies are touched, healed and transformed. The central episode of the calling and conversion of the Samaritan woman takes place at a well, not a cistern of stagnant water. It happens in the full light of day rather than in the crepuscular light of dawn or dusk, so that all can be revealed to her – and to us – through Christ. All is healed when she commits an act of faith and returns to her people to tell them of this unusual man. This outcast and unorthodox woman becomes an immediate apostle for Christ as she calls the townspeople to this well of now living water, Jesus himself. And together they create an immediate temple around him, a place of nourishment, cleansing, healing and redemption.
Detail: Christ and the Samaritan WomanLike the woman at the well, the official realizes that his son was healed at the exact moment Jesus spoke the curing words: So he and all his household believed. The official makes an act of faith in the moment he realizes that he and his son have been touched by something wonderfully special and different, and so he too, becomes an apostle for Christ.
These stories tell us about how Jesus brings both the powerful official and the outcast woman into the temple. These stories offer us a window into our own lives. These stories are our own story of call and answer, conversion and healing, rescue and ransom. They are stories of our own resurrection.
We watch Jesus in this chapter reap these unbelieving souls, convert them, and send them back into the world to continue the harvest. For there is much to gather and the workers are scarce. And just as these diverse followers of Christ make huge, risky changes in their lives, just as they go abroad to tell the good news, so too can we reap the message from our lives and then use it to bring life to others . . . if we only take the time to look.
Written on May 20, 2010 and posted today as a Favorite . . .
When they sow the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind . . .
Today’s Noontimeis about thinking that we are in control and forgetting that God is the creator and managerof all. It is about making idols of the things we choose as important. And it is about reaping what we sow.
Psalm 126 is one of my favorites because it reminds us that nothing worthwhile comes to us without suffering; it is in the turmoil and struggle that we best meet God. Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy. Those who go forth weeping, carrying sacks of seed, will return with cries of joy, carrying their bundled sheaves.
We cannot go much wrong if when we doubt we remain faithful to our relationship with God.
We cannot go much wrong when if when we are discouraged we place all hope in the timeless healing Christ brings.
We cannot go much wrong when if when we are angry we give our frustration over to the unifying force of the Spirit.
We arrive on the earth with our little bag of seed to be sown. We search for fertile soil, sometimes forgetting that the best harvest is often reaped under our noses. We lament the conditions in which we find ourselves; we curse injustice when we hear bad news and we weep as we sow, wondering if anything we do has any positive effect upon outcomes.
Hosea reminds us to stay clear of corruption and deceit. He tells us clear stories of others who thought they might keep their wicked transactions secret. He asks us to hug close to home as we labor in the fields, and he suggests that we keep the one true God ever in our hearts and minds.
The wind goes where it likes, symbolizing freedom; yet . . . it is a freedom that comes at a high cost. Better to remain in the leeward protection of the Lord, Hosea says, so that when the reaper arrives, he will recognize us as those who have toiled long and faithfully in his fields . . . and we not be swept away by the overpowering eddies of the whirlwind.
A re-post from January 15, 2019.
Image from: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html and http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-tornado.htm
Just as nature turns and returns in her seasons, so too do we turn and return to God. Perhaps it is her fidelity that brings so many miracles forth in nature’s change each season. Perhaps we might also benefit from turning and returning to God’s word each day. When we spend time with these verses, when we search varying versions of these words, we also find much in the power of righteous prayer. As evening falls and we end our day, let us give thanks to the Lord as we offer all that we are and all that we do in God’s holy, healing name.![9-teth[1]](https://thenoontimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/9-teth1.jpg?w=250&h=250)
The Noontimes 