June 18, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 1, 33, 89:1-18
Numbers 11:24-35
Romans 1:28-2:11
Matthew 18:1-9

II. Selections
Psalm 33:22
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

Numbers 11:34
So that place was called Kibrothhattaavah [ graves of craving], because there they buried the people who had the craving.

Romans 1:28-29a
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice.

Matthew 18:7
" ...Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes! ... " [ Jesus to his disciples]

III. Meditation: Even as we dare to hope in you

God of steadfast love, I cannot believe that you
would cause a plague to come upon your people
merely because they had a craving for meat.

I can accept, though, that there are consequences
when I ignore you; and the outcome is separation
from you, which is sin, which leads to hell on earth.

I acknowledge too that the only thing worse than
my own stumbling is causing others to stumble-
of that I have been guilty many times over.

All of which leads me with the psalmist to pray,
"Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you" ... dare to hope in you.