Psalm 107: 1-32
Jeremiah 23: 1-8
Romans 8: 28-39
John 6: 52-59
O God, you have given us the Good News of your abounding love in your Son Jesus Christ: So fill our hearts with thankfulness that we may rejoice to proclaim the good tidings we have received; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Our hope is confidently founded on the days that are surely coming. We hope every time we go to church for the coming of Jesus again, for the Messiah. We hope for the resurrection when loved ones die. We hope for grace in the difficult moments of each day. “The days are surely coming says the Lord” in Jeremiah. The Israelites had been waiting for so long, it is not surprising that they needed some reassurance. We also need some reassurance in our times of waiting and Jeremiah gives us hope. Our faith does not cast out our doubts, it allows us to work through them. As we move closer and closer to the end of Lent, we strain forward, we cannot wait for those days that are surely coming, for the Eastertide, when we can joyfully shout with the angels again. We wait to share the good news of God that we have encountered in love. We marinate, steep, in this waiting and it informs and infuses our traditions and religious language. “The days are surely coming.” And when they do, we will rejoice with all the hosts of heaven.
The Reverend Elizabeth Yale