For All the Tears--Oct. 16, 2021

[From Oct. 19, 2013 archive]

 

You know the violence your people have suffered, 

you have counted each tear shed, 

each sleepless night of suffering, 

the executions and the exiles. 

 

The violence continues, the tears are still shed today; 

will the killing never end, O God? 

We pray for all those struck down; 

may all be made alive in Christ. 

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 56; 149; 118; 111

Jer. 52:1-34

1 Cor. 15:12-29

Matt. 11:7-15

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 56:8 

You have kept count of my tossings; 
          put my tears in your bottle. 
          Are they not in your record? 

 

Jer. 52:27 

And the king of Babylon struck [all those captured in Jerusalem] down, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath.  So Judah went into exile out of its land. 

 

1 Cor. 15:22 

…for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 

 

Matt. 11:12 

“…From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.  …”  [Jesus, to the crowds]