Global Week - part 2
Readings for this week September 9 - 15
Click here for a pdf of this week’s readings
Day 1 – The Tears of God
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Psalm 78:40
God grieves. He grieves for his people, for his world, for what we do to ourselves and to each other. He grieves for those in pain, he mourns with those in mourning, he cries out over those suffering from injustice and poverty. The world around us is full of the cries of those who are broken, forgotten, tortured, marginalised. God hears the pain and anguish afflicting those who are oppressed, those who cry out from the depths of poverty and shame. He hears our cries of grief and sorrow, our cries of rage and anger, he sees our clenched fists and clenched eyes. He does not ignore us. He does not turn away, but rather turns into our pain. God turns towards those who sorrow and offers comfort and the promise of relief; he does not leave us alone in our grief.
In the New Testament we see God’s response. We hear God’s cry of pain and anguish and abandonment. The work of Christ on the cross is the work that shows us the unsurpassable extreme that God went to in order to answer our pain. He cries out through his son. He joins us in solidarity, holding us to himself in our pain, while at the same time showing us the promise of the defeat of pain and sorrow and sin through this same death of his son. God’s response was to join us, in his son, not to be trapped with us, but to offer us a way out, a salve for our wounds, healing for our hurts, restoration for what we have lost and suffered. He offered us hope – and calls us to offer the same hope to those who cry out today.
Question to Consider
What does God’s grief mean to you? How does it answer our cries? What hope is there in the cry of Jesus?
Prayer
Lord God, you hear our cries, you lament with us, you hold us close in our pain. Thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for your love. Help us be better comforters and driers of tears. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 19:41-44
On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus has told some pretty harsh parables, containing strong warnings and harsh judgements. His reaction once he reaches Jerusalem reveals why his messages have been so intense and blunt, so fervent and unyielding in their urgency. His warnings come from a deep place of love, from a love that both mourns over what will happen to us and desires for all people to avoid the coming judgement and find peace and rest in God. Even though he knows what he faces in Jerusalem, he cries not for himself but for the city and its people. Even though he knows the response that his message and his presence will bring, even though he is heading towards a people who will reject and kill him, still he weeps for the city and its people – and for the world he so dearly loved.
The incarnate Son weeps for his people. God cries for us and he cries with us. Whatever we might be facing, whatever pain and fear and hardship we are experiencing, we know that the almighty, all powerful God knows our suffering and has compassion for us – the active, transforming, restorative compassion that led him to the cross. It is not a helpless love that cannot change things. It is an active, powerful love that joins in solidarity with us – with all of us – and brings healing. Jesus wept over the city. He wanted to gather his people to him and comfort them. He was moved to tears for them – and for us. He gave himself for us. How great is the love of God?
Question to Consider
What makes you weep for the world? What is your response to the pain and injustice you see?
Prayer
Righteous Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours. Give me your tears for the world so that I may know your pain. Give me your love so that I can offer mercy and compassion just as you do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Jesus Wept
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – John 11:33-35
Even though he was the one making promises, even though as God himself in human form, knowing what he knew of the ultimate redemption and reconciliation of all things – knowing that death was not the end for Lazarus – still Jesus wept. Still he was upset. Still he grieved. Jesus knew pain and sorrow and grief. He knew what it was to be deeply involved in the lives of others. He had friends, he was an active participant in human relations, he was fully human and was thus fully emotionally affected by the vagaries of human life. This is grief, pure and simple. This is a man upset at the death of his friend and the effect it is having on others close to him.
God’s tears for the world include his tears for individual human lives and the pain of human loss. God’s love is all embracing, wider, broader and deeper than all creation, but it is not only this. It is also personal. It finds expression in moments of life both big and small, in the lives of all people in all places. The death of Lazarus brought forth tears on the face of the Son of God, real tears produced by the real emotion of real life. But the story did not end there. The raising of Lazarus is the culminating sign of the mission of Jesus. It is the final evidence of who Jesus is: the one who conquers death and can raise the dead back to life. Yes, there are tears. Jesus is always with us in our sorrow. But as we will see, tears – and the pain that can produce them – are not the final word.
Question to Consider
What does the phrase “Jesus wept” mean for you? How has it helped you in the past? What do you think Jesus was thinking as he approached Lazarus’ tomb?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, comfort us as we mourn, as we face the loss of those we love. Help us see beyond ourselves, into the pain of others so that we can mourn together, and so find you in our midst. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – Where to Find Jesus
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 25:31-40
There is no beating around the bush here. Jesus makes a clear link between those who are sick, hungry, imprisoned – those forgotten and isolated on the margins – and himself. He does not tell his audience that when they feed the hungry, visit the sick and the imprisoned it is as if they are feeding and visiting him. No. He says they are feeding and visiting him. He makes a direct correlation between himself and the poor and sick and marginalised. His identification with them is total. In the faces of strangers – the poor, the unknown, the lonely and the sick – in the faces of those deemed unimportant and unlovable, and therefore, we are told, not worth our time and love – we see the face of Jesus.
If you want to be close to Jesus and spend time in his presence, then go to the poor of this world. Because that is where he said he would be. They are the people he has identified himself with and promised to be with. And part of that promise was that he would be there through us, through our presence and our love. Jesus sends us to join with the poor and he waits with them for us to arrive as he commanded us to. That’s where he is. That’s where we should be too. In everything he has done, Jesus has gone before us and made the way. That includes our mission to the poor and unreached of this world. He is already there, waiting, loving, grieving, laughing. We will find Jesus with those who are crying, offering comfort and love.
Question to Consider
Where do you encounter the face of Jesus each day? Who are the people embodying Jesus for you today?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, if we are truly seeking your face, we know where to find you. Help me have the courage to seek your face in the lives of strangers and those in need, wherever they are, however I can help. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – All Tears Wiped Away
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Revelation 21:4
Where is God’s creation ultimately heading? When Jesus was trying to explain what the fullness of the kingdom of God was like, many times he used the image of a great celebration, a lavish banquet feast open to everyone from every nation. Also part of the many pictures he would paint was the promise that he would be present with us, to dwell with us as our God and we as his people. And one of the key things God promises us is that all tears, all pain, all sorrow, all mourning, even death itself, will be wiped away.
God promises that all tears will be wiped away. All pain will be erased. He will dry our eyes and reconcile all things and all people. Our tears, whatever their cause and whatever flows from them, are temporary. The coming fullness of the kingdom of God does not have a place for our tears and sorrow. They will be no more. We are in good hands – the hands of the good God. He will make it happen. He will bring this permanent state of affairs about. What is required from us is faithful obedience. The saving, redemptive power displayed on the cross was God’s doing, not ours. The fulfilment of all that the cross accomplished is likewise his responsibility, not ours. We are to labour for it: to comfort those who mourn, to dry the eyes of those who weep, to be with those who are grieving. But the final form of the glorious consummation of all things is God’s to shape. He will see us through, no matter the course the journey takes.
Question to Consider
What is the purpose of our tears here and now? How do feel knowing that sorrow will not remain?
Prayer
Loving Father, I long for the day of your kingdom, when all things are renewed and all tears are wiped away. May I be a source of comfort for those who weep just as you are. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)