Psalm 93; Deuteronomy 31:1-13; John 16:16-24
Wednesday 20 May - Rev. Jerry Eve
Our Old and New Testament readings today are about transitions. I used to be a volunteer in a project set up to help young homeless people (see ref. to Festival of Shelters today) access accommodation. For three months, fourteen 16-25 year olds stayed in a big house, while a home of their own was being sought. And every time I went in, and it was always for a few hours, I did so just a little bit early for the handover meeting. As one group of key-workers and volunteers left, and another arrived, it was important for information about what had been happening to be shared.
This is what is happening in both Deuteronomy and John today. These are handover meetings. The passage from Deuteronomy is part of a ‘meeting’ during which Moses hands over the leadership to Joshua, and the one from John is part of what’s known as the ‘Farewell Discourse’ (John 14-17). There’s a crucial difference, however, between these two occasions and those in that Youth Homelessness Project. And that’s that there we all knew we would be seeing those going off shift again. Here, the people and the disciples know that Moses and Jesus are no longer going to be around for very much longer. It’s now down to them, and that must have been scary.
Jesus’ analogy of childbirth, though, is good, I think, in helping the disciples. In the case of Deuteronomy, though, while Jesus had done everything right (Je ne regrette rien, he might well have said), that wasn’t at all true of Moses. For, although Moses was 120 years old, he’d have loved to have entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 3:25) with everyone else. Because of something that had happened at the start of Deuteronomy (see 1:35, 32:51 & Numbers 27:14), however, he’s not able to, and that must have been a huge regret.
Which is so often the case – that people work hard for a goal they themselves won’t benefit from, but do so knowingly and willingly anyway, for the sake of the next, and subsequent, generations. It was David, the psalmist (who may have written Psalm 93), for example, who had the idea to build a Temple, but Solomon who realised that ambition.
Incidentally, if you’d like to look at Jude 9, you’ll see an intriguing verse about an argument between the archangel Michael and the Devil over who gets Moses’ body after he’s dead. Does anyone have any idea what that’s about, I wonder?
Let us pray:
Hear our prayer today for all women and men, boys and girls who are homeless this day.
For those sleeping under bridges, on park benches, in doorways or bus stations.
For those who can only find shelter for the night but must wander in the daytime.
For families broken because they could not afford to pay the rent.
For those who have no relatives or friends who can take them in.
For those who have no place to keep possessions that remind them who they are.
For those who are afraid and hopeless.
For those who have been let down by our social safety net.
For all these people, we pray that you will provide shelter, security and hope.
We pray that those of us with warm houses not be lulled into complacency and forgetfulness.
Jesus, help us to see your face in the eyes of every homeless person we meet so that we may be empowered through word and deed, and through all the means we have, to bring justice and peace to those who are homeless,
Amen (Bethany Christian Trust).