PENTECOST 2C
June 10, 2007
SCRIPTURES
-"Ordinary time" in this season after
Pentecost isn't only about "everydayness." Ordinary is the adjectival form of
ordinal, which refers to a numerical sequence. It's a fitting description for a
season that doesn't lead to Christmas or Easter; rather this is a season of
noticing the days and weeks as they go by.
Malinda Elizabeth Berry
- Note that the word for “only” here is “monogenes,” the same one that is used in John 3:16).
- The son's life was restored and so was hers (mother's). She was restored to a place in the economic community
- Jesus went from speaking wisdom to speaking healing, to speaking life. Eventually God will speak through him on the cross
- Story in 1 King 17 very similar!
- In the end, Jesus' life will be about one thing, overcoming the power of death and bringing new life.
-We are called to be conduits of God’s grace just as Jesus and Elijah were.
-Widows were notoriously poor and vulnerable and this one has lost one last avenue of support, her son. One can imagine grief for her son but also for herself. Luke probably wants us to see the story as typical and representative. Jesus responds with compassion. He raises the dead to life. Perhaps the arrangement already indicates that Luke has an eye to its symbolism. Jesus has come to raise people from death to life, to make possible new beginnings. William Loader
-The ministry of Jesus and ours is about addressing real human need and it is about compassion. This is indeed his mission, God's mission.
- Miracle: From latinmiraculum meaning "strange things". From sanskrit meaning "he smiles"
-A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog. - Jack London
-miracle or sign points to something greater, more eternal.
QUOTES
-Who makes much of a miracle? As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles. Walt Whitman
-"Believe these works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me." John 10:38
-Miracles come on great occasions, at the great ganglions of spiritual history C.S.Lewis
-We all live in second hand suits...(atoms are used over and over again) C.S.Lewis
*-Do miracles give us our faith or is it faith that causes miracles?
-The real miracle is not the event but how we perceive the event.
-New Life for a Broken System? Sojourners June 2007
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HUMOR
- A mortician was asked, "What do you do with the blood after you remove it from the body?" "We bottle it and sell it to mosquitoes."
- The death rate was the same back then.....100%
- I can turn bread into toast
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. George Mueller (1805-1898) built many orphanages at Ashley Down, England. Without a personal salary, he relied only on God to supply the money and food needed to support the hundreds of homeless children he befriended in the name of Christ. A man of radiant faith, he kept a motto on his desk for many years that brought comfort, strength, and uplifting confidence to his heart. It read, “It matters to Him about you.” Mueller believed that those words captured the meaning of 1 Peter 5:7, and he rested his claim for divine help on that truth. He testified at the end of his life that the Lord had never failed to supply all his needs.
2. Accounts of People Raised from the Dead
1. Elijah raised the son of the Zarephath widow from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-22).
2. Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman from the dead (2 Kings 4:32-35).
3. A man was raised from the dead when his body touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20, 21).
4. Many saints rose from the dead at the resurrection of Jesus (Matt. 27:50-53).
5. Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:5-8; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5, 6).
6. Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead (Luke 7:11-15).
7. Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead (Luke 8:41, 42, 49-55).
8. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44).
9. Peter raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-41).
10. Eutychus was raised from the dead by Paul (Acts 20:9, 10).
CHILDREN
1. He Cares For You : A construction crew was building a new road through a rural area, knocking down trees as it progressed. A superintendent noticed that one tree had a nest of birds who couldn’t yet fly and he marked the tree so that it would not be cut down. Several weeks later the superintendent came back to the tree. He got into a bucket truck and was lifted up so that he could peer into the nest. The fledglings were gone. They had obviously learned to fly. The superintendent ordered the tree cut down. As the tree crashed to the ground, the nest fell clear and some of the material that the birds had gathered to make the nest was scattered about. Part of it was a scrap torn from a Sunday school pamphlet. On the scrap of paper were these words: He careth for you. Bits and Pieces, November, 1989, p. 23.
PRAYER RESPONSES
- ....take away our fear of dealing with death. Help us to see in it a natural completion and transition.
Help us know your love and fear not the shadow of death.
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We pray to you today, Lord, that you continue your healing work in us. As we cooperate with you in our ongoing conversion, keep us to be attentive to the wonders and miracles that you accomplish in and around our lives.