Consider the Word, October 13, 2022

Consider the Word, October 13, 2022
Email stpauls@pei.aibn.com for the link to the Bible Study.
 
Readings for October 16

• Jeremiah 31:27-34
• Psalm 119:97-104
• 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
• Luke 18:1-8 
  

Collect:

Almighty and everliving God,

increase in us your gift of faith,

that forsaking what lies behind

and reaching out to what is before,

we may run the way of your commandments

and win the crown of everlasting joy;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:27-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt - a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

 
Reflection Question

1. Where is the hope in the reading?

 
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

 
Reflection Questions

1. Is the persistence of the widow leave us with a positive impression?
2. What does the parable tell us about “faith”?

 
Closing Prayer:

Holy One,

we lift our eyes to you in hope and awe.

Grant that we may reject all apathy of spirit,

all impatience and anxiety,

so that, with the persistence of the widow,

we may lift our voice again and again to seek your justice. Amen.