Week of Proper 27, Year Two
[Go to Mission St Clare for an online version of the Daily Office including today’s scripture readings.]
Today’s Readings for the Daily Office:
Psalms 119:97-120 (morning) // 81, 82 (evening)
Joel 2:12-19
Revelation 19:11-21
Luke 15:1-10
Mornings hardly feel like “mornings” this week. After setting the clocks back an hour last Sunday, it always feels too early to start another day. It’s still too dark for my family to wake up. And because I’m writing this reflection on the “morning” Scripture readings the night before, it feels much too early and much too dark for me to hear their good news. (I plan on sleeping in as much as I can tomorrow, so I have to read the Scriptures ahead of schedule.)
I find right now that I can hardly read past the first reading from Joel. It’s too early, too dark, to forge ahead. The Lord asks his people to “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Is this a day for weeping and mourning? It’s too early and too dark. I don’t know yet.
And what about the Lord’s promise at the end of this passage? The Lord promises, “I will no more make you a mockery among the nations.” Is this a day when shame will pass from us, when we’ll no longer be a joke? It’s too early and too dark for me to tell.
The prophet is speaking to God’s people as a nation, but today we can hear this voice for ourselves, as people dedicated to love of God and love of neighbor. As this day dawns, I hope we find ourselves spoken to, even in the hours that we find too early and too dark for hope and faith.
Lora Walsh blogs about the Daily Office readings at A Daily Scandal. She serves as Priest Associate of Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs and assists with adult formation and campus ministry at St. Paul’s in Fayetteville, Arkansas.