Send Forth Your Spirit and Renew--Jan. 13, 2018

Your word, O God, is living and active;

 you know the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Before you no creature is hidden; all are naked, laid bare.

You see that our world is corrupt and full of violence;

we have made your creation into a marketplace,

where billionaires rule over the poor.

For the sake of the poor,

do not hide your face from them;

rather send forth your Spirit and renew--

 O God, renew your people, that we

may renew the goodness

of your creation.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 104; 149; 138; 98

Gen. 6:9-22

Heb. 4:1-13

John 2:13-22

Selected Verses

Ps. 104:29-30

When you hide your face, [your creatures] are dismayed;
          when you take away their breath, they die
          and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
          and you renew the face of the ground.

Gen. 6:11

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

Heb. 4:12-13

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

John 2:14-16

In the temple [Jesus] found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"