Preparing for Worship - June 30, 2024

The Scriptures this week remind us of the great mercy and care of our Lord for us, and then, in the final reading, the Lord’s call for us to be merciful to others as the Lord blesses us.

The psalm, Psalm 30, is another of the psalms of David. David has had difficult times and has seemed near to death, but he cried to the Lord, and the Lord helped and healed him. If the Lord seemed to hide His face from him, David knew that joy would return. Mourning and weeping may come, but dancing and gladness would also come in time. David knew that he would eventually thank and praise the Lord forever with His blessings.

In the middle of his laments and sorrows about the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, Jeremiah speaks in Lamentations 3:22-33 of the steadfast love and faithfulness of the Lord. There will be times of grief and affliction, as with the Babylonian captivity, but God's people are to seek Him and wait quietly for His salvation. The Lord’s heart really wants to give people His compassion and mercies, above all else.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 5:21-43, we see the great compassion of Jesus, the promised Savior sent from God the Father, for people in need. The daughter of a synagogue leader, Jairus, is near death, and Jesus immediately leaves a crowd of people to go and be of help to her. The crowd follows, and people keep bumping into Jesus, but He notices a woman who just touches His garment in hopes of being healed of a discharge of blood that had troubled her for 12 years, and doctors and others could not help her. Jesus calls for her, and she comes to Him in fear and trembling, for she was considered a ritually unclean person because of her blood flow and yet still had touched Jesus, making Him ritually unclean, too. Jesus simply rejoices in her and her faith that brought her to Him and to complete healing through Him. “Go in peace,” He tells her. During this delay, news comes that Jairus’s daughter has died. Jesus just tells Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe.” He still wants to see the girl, and people laugh at Him for thinking He could still help her, a dead person. Jesus takes her hand and says, “I say to you, arise,” and immediately, the girl gets up and walks, alive again. Jesus even conquers the great enemies of sin and death for us, as we are brought to faith in Him, too, as our Savior. He frees us also from the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, including that which would have condemned the woman for touching Jesus to get help.

The Epistle lesson continues readings from 2 Corinthians - this week, from 8:1-9 and 13-15. As God has shown such great compassion for us, in Christ, Paul encourages believers, including us, to be compassionate toward others, especially in helping others in need. A collection was being taken to assist the believers, the saints in Jerusalem, who were very poor and needy. It was a way of showing support for both Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians. More importantly, Paul is encouraging basic Christian principles of giving in support of the Lord’s work. Paul begins by giving the example of churches in Macedonia, where people were very poor, and yet by faith, how they gave generously and even beyond their means. Paul encourages the Corinthians to excel in this gracious act of giving, too - not as a command, but out of genuine love for others. Paul also points to Jesus, who became poor in this world in order to give them (and us) the riches of His grace, for our salvation. Paul does not call us to become poverty-stricken ourselves but to give as we are blessed by our Lord, and the Lord in His mercy, will help even things out.