Hebrews 10: 15-25
And the Holy Spirit also gives us God’s witness.
First, he says,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
in the days to come, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts
and write them on their minds.”
And then he says,
“I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer.”
So when these have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed.
We have, then, my friends, complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus. He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain—that is, through his own body. We have a great priest in charge of the house of God. So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water. Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess because we can trust God to keep his promise. Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.
This week, we recall the unbelievable horror of Shoah and reflect on the sorrowing and the strength of community on Remembrance Day. Alongside these tragedies last century, God’s Spirit was moving through faith-filled folk, warming their hearts and revealing new understandings of God’s missional call in the midst of misery. Ecumenically, this week we remember with hope, the centenary of the 1921 International Missionary Council that blossomed from the ecumenically significant 1910 World Missionary Conference for Evangelism. These two great ecumenical events expressed hope through faith, as God’s people desired to live out love and care for all, together. This flew in the face of the furor of war, genocide, and consequent fracturing across societal constructs, countries, and the world. With it brought a time of change, a season of renewal, an encouragement of one another, individually and communally. May we hear this beautiful, positive, and hope-filled call again, in our hearts, understood in our minds, and to be lived out through justice and peace-making.
Prayer –
God of the sorrowing,
We cannot turn away from the truth
that, through humanity, misery spreads across all your creation.
We lift before you those with aching hearts,
in anguish and pain through personal loss and collapsing community.
We hear the Spirit’s groan.
We acknowledge the trauma.
God of all, call us forward to bring just peace with willing hands.
We see the earth shattered and broken,
constantly reacting to humanities’ devastation by healing itself, until it can no more.
We hear the Spirit’s groan.
We acknowledge the trauma.
God of all, call us forward to bring just peace with willing hands.
We live in the shelter that does not reach to all.
In comfort, we do not understand the pain.
With sustenance, we do not understand the deep hunger.
Through ignorance, we do not readily respond.
We hear the Spirit’s groan.
We acknowledge the trauma.
God of all, call us forward to bring just peace with willing hands.
Burn in our hearts, Spirit of Oneness,
so that the message of active love is seared in our hearts,
And the knowledge of justice draws us forward.
For you are present and with us, and we your people, offer our willing hands.
May we look to your way and live as your people,
as peacemakers and justice seekers for all your creation. Amen