For a Vine and Not a City?--Oct. 27, 2020

 

God of Jacob, you execute justice

for the oppressed; you give

food to the hungry.

 

With a trumpet call remind me—

it was not right for Jonah to worry 

over a small vine and neglect a city,

 

and not right for me to be concerned 

over my small comforts, yet do nothing 

to aid starving children around the world.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 12; 146; 36; 7

Jonah 3:1-4:11

Rev. 11:14-19

Luke 11:27-36

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 146:5a, 6c, 7

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob…
          who keeps faith forever…
          who executes justice for the oppressed;
          who gives food to the hungry.

 

Jonah 4:10-11

Then the LORD said [to Jonah], “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

 

Rev. 11:15

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.”

 

Luke 11:30

“…For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation.  …”  [Jesus, to the crowds]