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| Image by Dirk Dallas |
LC† Living Our Faith - DAY 4
Pray. Read. Worship. Love.
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A Greeting
O God, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
(Psalm 51:15)
A Reading
Recalling your tears,
I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith
that lived first in your grandmother Lois and
your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
(2 Timothy 1:4-5)
Music
(This is hymn 664 in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship book, with Spanish and English lyrics)
A Meditation
Think of all your own past life as gift.
Consider the people and the things that surround your present life
as gift. Consider: will the God who gives gifts be present in the
future to give grace, so that you really have nothing to fear?
- from Praying the Catechism, by Donald W. Johnson*
A Reflection & Prayer
My mother, Lois, was not fond of today's verse from Timothy
when she was a child. She was teased and called grandmother Lois.
In the last twenty-nine years that she’s been a grandmother,
however, she has come to love this verse. She and my father have
both been gifts to me in the way my dad describes it, especially in
my faith formation. When I was ordained bishop, my parents
presented me with a bible and it was this scripture passage that
they read to me. God is gracious indeed!
God of all generations, we give you thanks for those who have
brought us to faith or strengthened our faith by their faithful
witness. Give us the faith that lay in Lois and Eunice that we
may nurture others in faith and love. Amen.
- Bishop Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Verse for the Day
For I sent you out with sorrow and weeping,
but God will give you back to me
with joy and gladness forever.
(Baruch 4:23)
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"Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.” Today’s reading is the last part of the greetings to Timothy, in which the writer remembers the women who gave Timothy faith. The flow of strong emotion in the ancient world was more naturally expected than it might be for us today and an average day, as the psalmist shows us, could bring both weeping and joy. In the reading from his book, Pastor Johnson is encouraging us to believe that because we are faithful, there will always be moments of grace in our lives, despite our joys and sorrows, when we are reminded of God's faithfulness to us. When we are able to trust God, we can fear less, knowing that God never abandons or forgets us. The writer is reminding Timothy that this is how it was for his ancestors too: courage and faith have been part of his own family. In the house churches of the first century, facing persecution and meeting in secret, the faith of women like Lois and Eunice held the church together. Friends and family members were dying for their faith, as Jesus had predicted, but the church was also expanding and growing and there was the promise of new life. The flow of joy and sorrow often do go hand in hand in our lives. Grief opens fissures in ourselves and sends us down the backwaters of whatever has not been dealt with or fully understood or lived in our lives. The good news is, we arrive at the source: we become ourselves even more fully, as God always intended us to be. Though we still grieve, we have unexpected moments of joy. ‘Enoikeo’ means ‘to dwell in’. It is a combination of ‘in’ and a word often used to describe the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit in someone. “Give us the faith that lay in Lois and Eunice,” writes the bishop, “that we may nurture others in faith and love.” When we try to live without fear, encouraged by the faith of those who formed us and knowing that God's grace is always with us, we can better love and serve others. Who can you share this love with today?
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LC† Living our Faith is a collaborative project of Lutherans Connect and The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada National Office.
*Excerpts from Praying the Catechism (1995, 1998) by Donald W. Johnson, reproduced by permission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Contact us at lutheransconnect@gmail.com for permission to quote other content writing. Blessings and peace!
