Lectionary Readings for July 4, 2021
Reading One: Ezekiel 2:1-5 (NRSV)
Song: The Prophet (lyrics here)
Reflection
Our first text from Ezekiel sets up a theme for this week’s readings that is likely not one we would willingly choose for times of devotion and prayer—a theme of “difficult words.” These words are not difficult because of vocabulary or comprehension, but because they speak to truths and situations that can push us to our limit and reveal places of deep hurt and need. Each of this week’s passages touches on this theme, but as always we find that even in these difficult words…God speaks in ways that bring healing and grace.
The Ezekiel text speaks to the call of the prophet, as God supernaturally empowers him to go to the stubborn people of Israel and deliver a word from the Lord. Yet even in God’s commissioning, he warns the prophet that the people are rebellious and likely won’t listen.
Sometimes the difficult word God speaks to us echoes this passage from Ezekiel. At times God asks us to be the bearers of truth to those who refuse to listen. Other times we are the ones to whom God has spoken, but our rebellious hearts shirk back from God’s word because we’re afraid of being wounded by its truth. But as the words of the prophetic books remind us, where God speaks a difficult word he also invites us into new experiences of healing and mercy.
As you listen to Michael Card’s song “The Prophet,” which speaks of the prophet’s call and the people’s refusal to listen, offer yourself to God in prayer to whatever he desires to speak to or through you. Are you being called to lovingly speak a word into the life of someone who is drifting from God? Or are you, perhaps, the one who is drifting and choosing not to hear the voice of the one calling you back to his heart? Sit with God and let his word, however difficult, minister to you.
Reading Two: Psalm 123 (NRSV)
Song: I Lift My Eyes (Psalm 123) (lyrics here)
Reflection
Sometimes the difficult words that assault us come from others, and in the flurry of their attacks we can feel overwhelmed and defeated. This is the experience of the psalmist, who cried out to God for mercy and peace in the midst of scorn and ridicule. It’s possible this psalm was written in captivity in Babylon, where the mocking voices of their captors are captured so powerfully in another song, Psalm 137. Whenever it was written, the hurt, shame, and need for mercy speaks universally to the cruelty of human dividedness.
Have you ever found yourself feeling as the psalmist does? Have you ever found yourself on the receiving end of the vast human capacity for cruelty? Take some time as you pray to cry out to God as the psalmist cries, asking for his mercy when those times can seem overwhelming. Ask him to remind you of his power to heal the hurts others can inflict.
Reading Three: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 (NRSV)
Song: Blessings (lyrics here)
Reflection
In this passage form 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to a very specific “difficult word” that we sometimes receive from God. As he cries out to God concerning his “thorn in the flesh,” Paul is told by God that it will not be going away. Rather, his plan is to use it so that the power of God can be displayed in Paul’s life. The difficult word is this: “No, I’m not going to change these circumstances that you find so difficult.” But it is followed by a promise: “I’m going to do something even more amazing in your life. I am going to enable you to persevere through this, and in doing so you will be displaying the glory of God.”
Laura Story’s song, “Blessings,” contains amazingly profound lyrics around this theme. It was born out of personal experience (which she talks about in this video), and speaks to the reality that what God is able to do in our trials and times of suffering, though not what we hope for, is a powerful demonstration of his grace and mercy.
As you sit with Paul’s words, spend some time reading Laura Story’s lyrics in a spirit of prayer as you reflect on your own experiences of God’s power being perfected in your weakness.
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things
‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
As long as we have faith to believe
When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise
Reading Four: Mark 6:1-13 (NRSV)
Song: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (lyrics here)
Reflection
There are a couple of difficult moments in this week’s gospel readings. First is the disbelief and rejection Jesus encounters in his hometown of Nazareth. This leads to a difficult teaching that Jesus offers to his disciples:
He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” (vv. 10-11)
This reminds us of Psalm 123, but adds a new dimension to the experience of rejection, because it is Jesus himself talking about it. And the time will come later in the gospel accounts when Jesus will experience rejection in ways we can only imagine. But from that we can find comfort in our own experiences of hurt and rejection, as the author of Hebrews tells us:
Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. (Heb. 12:3, NRSV)
As we sit with this text of Mark, and reflect on our own experiences of rejection and hurt, we are invited to come to Jesus and lay them at his feet, which bear the marks of his own rejection. Spend some time reflecting on the passion of Jesus, and know that while we may at times find ourselves having to “shake the dust” of broken relationships from our feet, there is comfort to be found that keeps us from “growing weary and losing heart.”