Daily Office Readings for Saturday of Proper 15: Year 2
Psalms 137:1-6(7-9), 144, 104; Job 3:1-26; Acts 9:10-19a; John 6:41-51
“They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?” (John 6: 42)
If we are to really be people of faith, faith in a God who can do all things, with anything or anybody, then we ought to be looking for such a God at work in all aspects of life, and all people, all the time.
The leaders of Jesus’ old community decided that because that knew Jesus and his earthly parents, there was no way he could be the bread, come down from heaven as he purports to be. They never considered what God might be doing in their midst. They never considered that God might be acting in human form, regardless of what they thought they knew about Jesus.
This is also demonstrated in our Acts reading for today. The Risen Lord reveals the plan for Saul or Paul to Ananias. Ananias knew of Saul and wanted nothing to do with him. But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15). I believe this is another characteristic of God. When God sends us to someone, God is with us, and with that someone we are sent to, in order that they might be open to receive the message.
Yes, our Lord Jesus was, and is, the primary host for God participating in our human life. And while it is our life, it is God’s world. And God is working his purposes out. And God can, and will, do this work with, or without you; around you, or through you.
Anytime we say that because we know him or her (or ourselves), and in our opinion, God would not use him or her (or me), what we are really saying is that we know what God will do, or who God will use. And that’s just not true. We, nobody, knows what God will do, or who God will use. God uses who God chooses. And yes, this includes you. Let’s just be blessed and thankful.
Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to and through the saints of God and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do. John
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