January 07, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 27, 46, 114
Deuteronomy 8:1-3
Colossians 1:1-14
John 6:30-33, 48-51

II. Selections
Psalm 27:9a-10
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will take me up.

Deuteronomy 8:2
Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.

Colossians 1:13
He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son ...

John 6:32-33
Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

III. Meditation: Rescued and transferred
O God-even more like our parent
than our own parents are-
for long years, for a long way, you have led us;
you have humbled us, tested what is in our hearts;
but you have not cast us off, not forsaken us.
No, you have rescued us from the power of darkness
and transferred us into the kingdom of your beloved Son.
And you have given us your true bread from heaven,
the bread that gives life to the world.