31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 1st November 2020.
Lectionary Readings:
Revelation 7 v 9-17 People of every nation.
1 John 3 v 1-3 Children of God.
Matthew 5 v 1-12. The sermon on the mount.
A Sense of Belonging.
In the place of an old testament reading this week we have a reading from the book of Revelation, a book of prophecy with its roots firmly in the Old Testament.
For example, in v 17 we read; ‘The lamb in the centre of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to streams of live-giving water, and God will wipe away all their tears.’
For Jews ‘The lamb’ is a symbol of release from oppression. The highlight of the Passover meal is the eating of a lamb, symbolising their escape from Egypt. (Exodus 12)
For Christians, this symbolism has been applied to Jesus, who as a human passover lamb brought freedom from the bondage of sin. (1 Cor 5 v7)
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said “Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. (John 1 v29)
We are perhaps more familiar with the image of Jesus as the good shepherd. (John 10 v7-21)
Psalm 23 also comes to mind at the mention of a shepherd and being led to streams of life-giving water.
The notion of God wiping away tears is found in one of Isaiah’s prophecies. In a prayer of thanks to God, Isaiah says, ‘The Lord All-Powerful will destroy death and wipe away all tears. (Isaiah 25 v8)
In Psalm 100 we recognise the symbolism of God as shepherd and we as his sheep.
‘You know the Lord is God!
He created us, and we belong to him.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.’ (Psalm 100 v 3)
This sense of belonging is also present in the other two lectionary readings.
‘Think how much the Father loves us, He loves us so much, that he lets us be called his children as we truly are.’ (1 John 3 v1.)
And in Matthew’s gospel;
‘God blesses those people who make peace, they will be called his children’ (8 v9)
‘God blesses those people who are treated badly for doing right. They belong to the kingdom of heaven.’ (v10).
The Bible is essentially a love story. A story about God’s love for us.
As the psalmist says, “He created us and we belong to him.”
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.
Thanks to Mike Peck for submitting these reflections