God, We Are Not Our Own--March 1, 2018

O God of our salvation,

our human sorrows are enough

to bring our grey hairs down to death;

do not cast us off, or forsake us.

What are we without you?

How did we come to be?

As a seed sprouts and grows,

we grew, without knowing how;

but our bodies are the temples of your

Holy Spirit, which we have from you;

we were bought with a price;

we are not our own.

We glorify you 

in our bodies,

even in our sorrow.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 27; 147:12-20; 126; 102

Gen. 42:29-38

1 Cor. 6:12-20

Mark 4:21-34

Selected Verses

Ps. 27:9b

Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
          O God of my salvation! 

Gen. 42:38

But [Jacob] said, "My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left.  If harm should come to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol."

1 Cor. 6:19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Mark 4:26-27

[Jesus] also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  …"