Desolation and Faith

 

 

How lonely sits the city
   that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
   she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
   has become a vassal.

She weeps bitterly in the night,
   with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
   she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
   they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into exile with suffering
   and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations,
   and finds no resting-place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
   in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion mourn,
   for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate,
   her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,
   and her lot is bitter.

Her foes have become the masters,
   her enemies prosper,
because the Lord has made her suffer
   for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
   captives before the foe.

From daughter Zion has departed
   all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags
   that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
   before the pursuer.

Lamentations 1:1-6

 

Brother and Sister Walk in War-torn Mosul, Iraq

2017

Photograph

Mosul

Iraq

 

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20191005740561382&code=ACT&RC=57162&Row=9

 

 

 

 

 

There is nothing so cruel in this world

as the desolation of

having nothing to hope for.

~ Haruki Murakami

 

 

 

I am tired and sick of war.

Its glory is all moonshine.

It is only those who have neither fired a shot

nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded,

who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.

War is hell.

~ William Tecumseh Sherman

 

 

 

 

 

Chew and Chat

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Karla Byrd, Kay Owen, Carolyn Alexander, Jackie McFarland, Sondra Kellogg

 

Our Rotary Road Warriors at Work!

 

Al Steger, Linda Lovin

 

Oktoberfest

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Thank you, Joan and Bruce Evashevski!

 

Sharron Leonard, Lynn Gilbert

 

 

 

 

 

You must not lose faith in humanity.

Humanity is an ocean;

if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,

the ocean does not become dirty.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 6, 2019  Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

           Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22) 

 

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea', and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”



Luke 17:5-10

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lamentations 1:1-6 with Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137 or
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 with Psalm 37:1-9 and
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

 

 

 

Lamentations 1:1-6

How lonely sits the city
   that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
   she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
   has become a vassal.

She weeps bitterly in the night,
   with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
   she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
   they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into exile with suffering
   and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations,
   and finds no resting-place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
   in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion mourn,
   for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate,
   her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,
   and her lot is bitter.

Her foes have become the masters,
   her enemies prosper,
because the Lord has made her suffer
   for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
   captives before the foe.

From daughter Zion has departed
   all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags
   that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
   before the pursuer.

with

Lamentations 3:19-26

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
   is wormwood and gall!
My soul continually thinks of it
   and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
   and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
   his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,   
   "therefore I will hope in him."

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
   to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
   for the salvation of the Lord.

or

Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon--
   there we sat down
and we wept 
   when we remembered Zion.

And so we hung up our harps,
   there upon the willows.

For there our captors asked us 
   for songs,
and our tormentors asked 
   for mirth,
saying, "Sing us one of the songs 
   of Zion!"

How could we sing God's song
   in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
   let my right hand wither!

Let my tongue cling 
   to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
   if I do not set Jerusalem 
above my highest joy.

Remember, O God, 
   against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem's fall,
   how they said, "Tear it down!
Tear it down down to its foundations!"

O city of Babylon,
   you devastator!
Happy shall they be 
   who pay you back
what you have done to us!

Happy shall they be 
   who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!

or

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
   and you will not listen?
Or cry to you "Violence!"
   and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
   and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
   strife and contention arise.
So the law becomes slack
   and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
   therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

I will stand at my watch-post,
   and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
   and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
Then the Lord answered me and said:
   Write the vision; make it plain on tablets,
       so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
   it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
   it will surely come, it will not delay.
Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them,
   but the righteous live by their faith.

with

Psalm 37:1-9

Do not fret 
   because of the wicked;
do not be envious 
   of wrongdoers,
for they will soon fade 
   like the grass,
and wither like the green herb.

Trust in God,
   and do good;
so you will live in the land,
   and enjoy security.

Take delight 
   in God,
who will give you the desires 
   of your heart.

Commit your way to God;
   trust in God,
and God will act.

God will make your vindication shine 
   like the light,
and the justice of your cause
   like the day at noon.

Be still before God,
   and wait patiently;
do not fret over those
   who prosper in their way,
over those who carry out 
   evil devices.

Refrain from anger,
   and forsake wrath.
Do not fret--
   it leads only to evil.

For the wicked 
   shall be cut off,
but those who wait for God
   shall inherit the land.

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
To Timothy, my beloved child:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am grateful to God — whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did — when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 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. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea', and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"