Coronavirus Pandemic Tuesday of Holy Week

Isaiah 49:1-7;Psalm 71:1-14;1 Corinthians 1:18-31;John 12:20-36

 

Tuesday of Holy Week  From Rev.Jerry Eve

 

With these lectionary readings, I do always try to find a link between them. Sometimes there can be an obvious one, and at other times it’s not so clear why they have been grouped together. Today, if I can discern any connection, it would be in the universal application of the Gospel message.

 

From Isaiah, we have the second of four ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’, which actually ends at verse 6. Its conclusion (“A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles and bring glory to your people Israel.”) is quoted in Luke 2:32 as the conclusion to Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis prayer. And it’s this part that I think is so crucial, for what the Servant is being told is that his vision is too narrow if he thinks his mission is to just one group of people. No, it’s for everyone.

 

And then in our reading from John, we have a demonstration of this. Jesus himself has at times been all too aware of the demarcation between Jewish and Gentile people. At Matthew 10:5 he sends out the Twelve to heal people, and the first thing he says to them is, ‘Do not go to any Gentile territory;’ and then at Mark 7:26 he’s reluctant to heal a Syrian woman’s daughter, because she’s a Gentile. But here, my interpretation of this passage is that he makes ‘some Greeks’ (who Philip and our own patron saint, Saint Andrew, bring to Jesus) privy to his deepest thoughts as he shares with them, for example, that, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

 

As Christians, we believe Isaiah is saying that Christ’s message will be for everyone. And this is then borne out in the Gospels, for example, by the fact that there’s a feeding of the four thousand (for Gentiles – from the four corners of the Earth) as well as a feeding of the five thousand (for Jewish people – whose most sacred texts are the Pentateuch i.e. the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).

 

When we come to St Paul and our passage from 1 Corinthians he, of course, is most famous for his mission to the Gentiles.

 

I want to end, though, with a reference to our psalm, For, its title in the Good News Translation is An Old Person’s Prayer. With the news two or three days ago of what happened in an East End Care Home, it’s impossible to overstate just how careful we do all need to be at the moment, if for no other reason than for the sake of that most vulnerable section of society.

 

Let us pray:

 

Lord,

 

thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everybody’s affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

 

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of other’s pains, but help me to endure them with patience. I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

 

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint-some of them are so hard to live with – but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the Devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people. And, give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.

 

Amen.

 

(Seventeenth Century Nun’s Prayer)

 


 

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