January 21, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 56, 111, 118
Genesis 12:9-13:1
Hebrews 7:18-28
John 4:27-42

II. Selections
Psalm 56:13
For you have delivered my soul from death,
and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God
in the light of life.

Genesis 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land.

Hebrews 7:18-19
There is, on the one hand, the abrogation of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect); there is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope, through which we approach God.

John 4:35
Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.

III. Meditation: Famine, or fields ripe for harvest?
We see a famine in our land,
a severe famine,
with harvest far away.
Our feet are falling;
our souls face death.
Must we must become aliens in Egypt?

Deliver us from choosing
between famine and exile,
that we may walk before you
in the light of life.
Show us a better hope
through which to approach you.

You respond;
you bid us look to see,
instead of famine,
fields ripe for harvesting.
Then we know we must become
part of that better hope.