Bitter Weeping--May 20, 2011

Truly Rachel can be heard, in bitter weeping for her children:
in Misurata and in Port-au-Prince, in Hara and in Fukushima.

O Christ, in whom there is no longer Greek and Jew,
barbarian, Scythian, slave and free;

do you hear her weeping?
Have you compassion for her children?

Truly, no ransom will avail for their lives;
have you paid the price already?

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 96; 148; 49; 138
Jer. 31:15-22
Col. 3:1-11
Luke 7:1-17

Selected Verses
Ps. 49:7
Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life,
      there is no price one can give to God for it.

Jer. 31:15
Thus says the LORD:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
      lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
      she refuses to be comforted for her children,
      because they are no more.

Col. 3:11
In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Luke 7:13
When the Lord saw [the widow whose only son had died], he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.”