Daily Office Readings for Monday of Proper 27: Year 2
Morning, Psalm 80; Evening, Psalm 77, [79];
Joel 1:1to13; Revelation 18:15to24; Luke 14:12to24
“Hear this, O elders, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” (Joel 1: 1 to 4)
In the Joel reading we hear of four different kinds of locusts. There are cutting locusts, swarming locusts, hopping locusts and destroying locusts. Therefore, no matter what kind of defense they plan, there comes a different kind of attack. It sounds similar to our Covid pandemic a few years ago.
But Thanks be to God, we are never without hope. We have had to endure many social limitations and when I read “Grain-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God” (Joel 1:13), I remember that we, in the Church, had to omit the chalice part of our Holy Communion. We did however get the bread or grain-offering.
The ever restructuring locusts were not too different from our Corona Virus. Some catch it, and some re-catch it. In Joel we read, “For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness” (Joel 1:6). However, we believers must remember that no virus or any “bug,” is more powerful than our God. And as the hymn goes, “Our God Reigns.”
And while the virus made us separate, I believe it is coming together again in the right way that we were able to substantially reduce the effects of Covid. Perhaps, just perhaps, these words came from the Spirit of God down through the saints of God. I think the worst effect of Covid was the breaking of the habit of going to Church. We still have not re-gained our pre-Covid numbers. We are only a remnant of what we used to be. But wait! The remnant is the build-back folks that God used to re-establish believers. If we hang in there, believing, we might be okay after all.
Today we remember Martin of Tours; Bishop and Theologian (11 November 397). How fitting as Martin was also a soldier as we remember all who have served in our armed forces. His information can be found at: Martin of Tours.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools. And, 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
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad; [those who have served and those who are currently serving]. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 823)
onewhoponders 