Daily Office Reading for Friday of the 2nd Week of Easter: Year 2
Morning, Psalms 16 and 17; Evening, Psalms 134 and 135;
Exodus 16:23 to 36; 1st Peter 3:13 to 4:6; John 16:1 to 15:
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7)
I used to wonder why people in the Superman comic book series, especially Lois Lane, didn’t realize that if she never saw Clark Kent and Superman at the same time, they might be the same person! It is amazing what a business suit and a pair of glasses will hide.
Jesus says “if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” It sounds like a phone booth transformation to me. So, they are one and the same perhaps. I just feel like Jesus is God’s way of really knowing what it is like to be one of us. In Christ Jesus, God experiences our joy, pain, sorrow, abuse, tyranny, foods, relationships, work, play and on and on. There is no existence or experience in human life that God has not experienced personally in the person of Jesus except for maybe giving birth. Therefore, God knows all, and every kind of our delights and our troubles. As the old hymn goes, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, Nobody knows but Jesus.”
Our Advocate, sent by our Lord Jesus, can best be summed up in the words of the Preacher to the Hebrews as he writes, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin;” (Hebrews 4:15). I think it is very important to believe in, and hope for, eternal life. Without the expected accountability and judgment to come, and the possibility of life everlasting, where is the governance of our conduct now, in this life? We need to learn this message now and improve ourselves daily.
Let us pray:
Oh Holy Lord Christ, as you have sent us Your Holy Spirit to be our Advocate in this life, so open each of our minds to see and behave more faithfully each day until that day we come to you. Amen.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” (Genesis 2:1 and 2). So, for this evening and tomorrow day my friends, Shabbat Shalom.
What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath – YouTube
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Palestine and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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