Reflection (The readings are below, for your reference)
Have you read the book Number the Stars by Lois Lowry? The title comes from today’s Psalm (147). In the story, which takes place during WWII in occupied Denmark, one Danish family smuggles their Jewish neighbors to Sweden. On the night when they prepare to make the dangerous crossing by boat, they read this psalm aloud and they hear the wonderful reassurance that God gathers the outcast, heals the broken-hearted, binds up wounds, lifts up the downtrodden. But the secret is that God does all those things through human hands and human actions.
Today’s readings all speak about God’s nearness in the presence and gift of one to another. We are all called to seek and find God’s voice and touch in each other’s words and hands. We are also all called to be God’s voice and hands. How appropriate, as we prepare for the celebration of God’s incarnation in Jesus, that we read about God’s incarnation in ourselves.
Namaste! Amen!
The Readings
Isaiah 30:19-21,23-26
Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. God will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when God hears it, God will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’
God will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of the people, and heals the wounds inflicted by this blow.
Psalm 147:1-6
Praise you Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to you God;
for you are gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
You Lord build up Jerusalem;
you gather the outcasts of Israel.
You heal the broken-hearted,
and bind up their wounds.
You determine the number of the stars;
you give to all of them their names.
Great are you our Lord, and abundant in power;
your understanding is beyond measure.
You Lord lift up the downtrodden;
you cast the wicked to the ground.
Matthew 9:35-10:1,5a,6-8
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
The readings are from the website below, with tiny adjustments to make the text more inclusive.
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