Lectionary Readings for October 31, 2021
Preparation Song: I Will Delight (lyrics here)
Reflection
As we make our way through this week’s lectionary texts, we’re invited to meditate on and take delight in God’s word. Each of these texts speak to the role that God’s word has played in the life of his people through the ages, and we’re invited to join our hearts and voices with theirs in thanksgiving and surrender.
Before engaging the texts, you’re invited to take a moment to prepare yourself for this time of reading and reflecting on God’s word. Combined with the four readings from the lectionary, this Song of Preparation provides a fifth moment of reflection for those who would like to use these as daily devotionals during the week. As always, you’re invited to read through and reflect on these passages at whatever pace and according to whatever schedule works best for you.
Our Song of Preparation this week is “I Will Delight” by Maranatha Music (sung by Fernando Ortega). It is a musical setting of Psalm 1, which speaks to the power of God’s word to nourish us and form us.
As we enter into this week, spend some time sitting and reflecting on the ways God’s word has transformed your life. How has God met you in the pages of scripture?
Blessed is the one
Who follows the way of the Lord
Blessed is the one
NOTE: FOR THIS WEEK’S READINGS WE WILL BE USING THE TREE OF LIFE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE, WHICH SEEKS TO STAY TRUE TO THE “JEWISH VOICE” OF SCRIPTURE.
Reading One: Deuteronomy 6:1-9 (TLV)
Song: Shema (lyrics unavailable)
Reflection
I remember hearing once about a pastor who approached every sermon with the same question on his heart: “If this was the last sermon I ever preached, what would I want to say?”
I think of that story whenever I read from Deuteronomy, the last sermon of Moses to the people of Israel before they head into the Promised Land. In it, he reminds them of the law God has given to them for their guidance and protection. He calls them to remember God’s covenant promises and Israel’s covenantal duties. Moses tells the people of Israel to always keep in mind who it was who brought them out of Egypt, and to keep that knowledge front and center in their lives and in the lives of their children.
The land into which the Hebrews are headed is fraught with danger. Not just the danger of hostile enemies or military might, but also the danger of false gods. The many pagan beliefs and practices that now fill the land of Canaan will always be a problem for Israel, and will tempt them to run after false gods just as they did with the golden calf.
Moses, well aware of this danger, gives Israel a prayer. A prayer that is considered by many to be the most important prayer in Judaism: the Shema. It’s found in Deuteronomy 6:4:
Shema Israel, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI Echad
“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deut. 6:4, TLV)
The Shema is the heart of the Jewish morning and evening prayers (and can be expanded to include verses 5-9 as well). It takes its name from the first word of verse 4, “to hear.” It is so important that many Jews consider reciting it daily to be a biblical commandment. For the ancient Israelites, it was a reminder that all the cultures around them may worship what they consider to be gods, but only Israel worshipped the one, true God. It was a protection against idolatry.
It’s safe to say that we need that same protection today. The false gods that surround us are very different from those in ancient Canaan, but they are just as dangerous. The Shema is a good prayer to return to again and again, because we need the reminder just as much as those to whom Moses preached: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
As you consider the Shema prayer, what does it mean for you to declare “the Lord is one?” What false gods have the ability to distract you and tempt you to false worship? Spend some time praying the full Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-9. What words or phrases stand out for you and why? How might building this (or something like it) into your regular prayer life be a helpful practice?
Reading Two: Psalm 119:1-8 (TLV)
Song: Every Promise of Your Word (lyrics here)
Reflection
When I was a kid, the only thing I knew about Psalm 119 was that it was the longest book in the Bible (it was a trivia question at youth group). As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate the complexity and breadth of this Psalm, written as a prayer from a faithful Hebrew who delights in the Law of God.
It opens with a declaration that those who walk in God’s ways, who always seek him with their whole heart, will find a blessing. The author cries out to God to help remain steadfast in keeping God’s decrees, in considering his mitzvot (commandments). He praises God for his judgments and commits anew to following his statutes. It is a prayer of total surrender to God’s ways.
As Christians, we don’t often spend time contemplating the Old Testament laws of God. We have found a “righteousness apart from the law” (Rom. 3) in Christ, and so the Old Testament laws rarely spur us on to the delight found in Psalm 119. But we can still pursue that same sense of delight which the psalmist knows. Reading and learning God’s word is not a chore (or a trivial pursuit), but an opportunity for us to surrender to God’s ways just as the writer of Psalm 119 does.
May we, too, find delight in God’s word. May we seek him with our whole heart as we consider his commandments. May we be steadfast in our commitment to God’s ways, for in them we shall find blessing.
Do you sometimes struggle to “delight” in God’s word? Does reading and learning scripture ever seem to be more of a task than an invitation? Spend some time in prayer before God, asking his Spirit to enliven your heart, mind, and soul to the pursuit of his ways as revealed in his word. Ask him to give you a new sense of delight as you read and encounter him there.
Reading Three: Hebrews 9:11-14 (TLV)
Song: Glorious Day (lyrics here)
Reflection
In this passage from Hebrews, the “righteousness apart from the law” which we have in Christ (Rom. 3) is given vivid description. The superiority of Christ’s sacrifice is placed in the context of the Old Testament law, and in doing so the author points to a sure and certain promise of true redemption.
As Christians, we can never contemplate God’s law in the Old Testament without thinking of Jesus. The law given through Moses was a shadow of what was to come, for the covenant at Sinai was only an echo of the new covenant displayed at Calvary and the empty tomb. The sacrifice of Christ stands as the central moment in the history of God’s relationship with his people, and we do well to spend time meditating on it with awe and gratitude.
As we read Hebrews, we can marvel at the plan of God and how it unfolded. We can put ourselves in the sandals of the Old Testament saints (pictured so powerfully in chapter 11) and imagine the joy they felt when the plan of redemption reached its climactic moment that first Easter weekend. What they knew only in part was now revealed in whole, and the completeness of that covenant promise is now something in which we dwell every day.
There is an opportunity here to gaze at the cross in a new way—to view it as Moses might, or David, or Elijah, or Isaiah. We can step back and see it in the larger context of salvation history and be in awe at the mighty hand of God working his good plan and purposes through all of Israel’s history.
As we do that, we marvel at our redemption in a new way, and with conscience cleansed we are reinvigorated as we seek to serve the living God.
Spend some time in prayer before God, considering the whole of salvation history and how it culminates in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Spend time in worship and gratitude, thanking God for his good plan and that he has brought you into it by his mercy and grace. Let the sacrifice of Jesus resonate anew for you as you see it through the eyes of those who longed for it to happen.
Reading Four: Mark 12:28-34 (TLV)
Songs: My Jesus I Love Thee (lyrics here), & Love Each Other (lyrics here)
Reflection
The two greatest commandments.—back to the Shema and then one step further.
For this reflection we are going to listen to two songs, and simply pray with these two commandments which Jesus calls greatest:
‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
and
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
This is an opportunity for self-examination. Let’s spend some time, through meditating on these commands and the lyrics of the songs, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to us ways in which we can grow in our understanding and our living out of them. In what ways has God enabled you to do so? In what ways is he inviting you to go even deeper in making them central in your life?
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now
I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now
I'll love Thee in life and I will love Thee in death
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now
All the room was hushed and still
And when the bowl was filled
He stooped to wash their feet
And when it was complete, he said
This is what I'm asking you to do
This is why I'm kneeling here beside you
This is what I want my church to be
This is what I want the world to see
Who it is you follow
Love each other
One another
Love each other
In the way that I have loved you
Walk together
And whatever comes
Love each other
In the way that I have loved you
Let the room be hushed and still
Let us go to where he kneels
And join him as he serves
And learn his ways of love