Wednesday 9 June 2023

Today is Wednesday the 7th of June, in the ninth week of Ordinary time.


Salt of the Sound sings, ‘How Great Thou Art’. As you begin to pray today, become aware of God’s gaze of love upon you now…

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim: "My God, how great thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Saviour-God, to thee
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour-God, to thee
How great thou art! How great thou art!
How great thou art! How great thou art!




Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 12:18-27


Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.’

Jesus clearly thinks that they have misunderstood the whole idea of resurrection. Those who rise from the dead “are like the angels in heaven”. What might this mean?

For Jesus, God is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. These are key figures who passed on faith in God through the ages. Who is it that passed the faith on to you, as these three passed it on to Jesus and the people of his time?

As the passage is read again, notice how Jesus chooses to respond to this attack on his teachings.

Speak, finally, to “the God of the living” about all that is most alive in your own life at the moment.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.