02/07/2024 0 Comments
Thought for the week - 29 November 2020
Thought for the week - 29 November 2020
# Thought for the week

Thought for the week - 29 November 2020
Readings:
Isaiah 64: 1-9;
Psalm 80: 1-8, 18-20;
1 Corinthians 1: 3-9;
Mark 13: 24-end
Collect:
Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Reflection
Heart-breaking. That’s how I hear Psalm 80. This is a psalm with deep and tragic meaning in a community that has known wealth and plenty, but now is in the midst of death and destruction. We have some insight just how that feels.
In the midst of this pandemic we may not be facing the physical destruction described by the psalmist. The blight that is upon us seems invisible. Invisible, that is, till someone we know is so sick they need to be hospitalized, or dies. We cannot see COVID-19 with our normal eyes, and we may be lured into thinking it is not real. But when it is contracted, and the host body cannot cope, the effects are devastating.
It is out of this devastation that the psalmist addresses God, who is here, and only here, directly appealed to as “Shepherd of Israel”. The image of God as shepherd is well known, but here it is used as a title, an appeal to One with authority to change these circumstances. The psalmist looks to the past with longing and laments the current circumstances, declaring that God has turned away from them and all their suffering.
Those grieving and feeling overwhelmed by this pandemic will understand these words, just how hard this is. There appears to be no respite. It just goes on and on.
As I have read this psalm, the surprise is that the psalmist continues to express total faithfulness to God in such loss, a loss which is so great the community cannot even imagine that it has really happened to them. Not for a moment does the psalmist doubt that God is listening to their plight. God is appealed to directly, even bluntly, to return, to turn again and see them as they struggle.
And then right at the end of the psalm, after the community’s heart has been laid bare before God, then the psalmist calls on God to restore the community. The psalmist wants to see God’s face, in other words, wants to make it clear to God, in no uncertain terms, just how hard this is. Even in pain, even in despair, the psalmist knows it is only God who restores them.
We may be looking for respite, even joy at this difficult time. The psalmist offers us an image of trust in God in all the seasons of life, even the most difficult.
Prayer: Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son, Jesus Christ came to us in great humility: that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Barry Lotz
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