Monday, January 21, 2013

Through the Bible in one year - Day 21




May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
...
May he grant you your heart's desire
and fulfill all your plans!
...
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

(Psalm 20: 1, 4, 7)

Goodness gracious! Abraham is really having trouble getting this through his head. What was he thinking when he tells Abimelech that Sarah is his sister? This is indeed the question Abimelech puts to him. But then we see Abraham uses it to introduce Abimelech to God and Abraham lets Abimelech know that Sarah is indeed his (half) sister. In the end God has used this for good.

What do you think about this reading from Luke? Isn’t it interesting that Jesus says we interpret the weather by the signs we see, but we do not make the effort to interpret the signs of our time, and why do we take our quarrels to the court when we could take care of it ourselves on the way?

Today, our reading ends with a story of a fig tree that hadn’t born any fruit for three years – the owner gets tired of it taking us space in his garden and says cut it down...but the gardener says no wait, I’ll give it extra care this one last year...and we can wait and see if it produces fruit after that. What do these two tales have to do with one another? How shall we interpret the times around us, how shall we resolve our differences in such a way that we bear fruit for the owner and the gardener?

Today’s readings: Psalm 20, Genesis 20, 1 Chronicles 23 & 24, Luke 12:49-13:9

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