You Suffer with the Suffering--May 9, 2017

Merciful God, I am not sure whether your people suffer

because you inflict pain as motivation to change,

or whether suffering happens as a part of life;

either way, I believe you suffer with us,

and your desire is to relieve our pain.

Thus, your will is for the hungry to be filled,

for the sick and wounded to be healed,

and for the sorrowing to rejoice;

for those who go through fire

and water to be released

into a spacious place,

where Christ can

present us all

to you.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 98; 146; 66; 116

Jer. 30:10-17

Col. 1:15-23

Luke 6:12-26

Selected Verses

Ps. 66:12

…you let people ride over our heads;
          we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

Jer. 30:17a

For I will restore health to you,
          and your wounds I will heal,
                                                            says the LORD…

Col. 1:21-22

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [Christ] has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him…

Luke 6:21

 "Blessed are you who are hungry now,
          for you will be filled.
"Blessed are you who weep now,
          for you will laugh.  …"