Ground of My Hope--Oct. 6, 2020

 

Lord My God

My hope is in you.

 

It is not that I distrust 

all humans, for not all 

are evil conspirators;

 

I do not avoid contact

with all foreigners nor 

fear being with them; 

 

I am not an anarchist 

with no trust in 

authority;

 

But my ultimate trust 

is in you, the ground

of my hope, my rock.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 42; 146; 102; 133

Hosea 7:8-16

Acts 23:12-24

Luke 7:1-17

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 146:3, 5

Do not put your trust in princes,
          in mortals, in whom there is no help.  …

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
          whose hope is in the LORD their God… 

 

Hosea 7:8-9a

Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.  Foreigners devour his strength, but he does not know it…

 

Acts 23:12

In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. 

 

Luke 7:8

“…For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.”  [The words of a centurion, conveyed to Jesus by friends]