Scripture Readings June 11, 2017

Waterford Congregational

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Scripture Readings June 11, 2017

The First Sunday after Pentecost (Trinity Sunday) About the text

Q

uiet room, lights buzzing.

Photos in frames on the wall, once pleasant to behold, now too familiar. The window that looks out on sky, no landscape or trees in sight. Time blurs, dates slip. A long physical confinement can feel that way. But, there’s different kinds of confinement. The sickbed is one. Emotional disturbance is another. Incarceration is still another. There are the “hidden” forms of binding: grief, poverty, language, oppression, culture, even religion. The Psalmist says: “Enough!” The human spirit can bear setbacks and temporary isolation. A bleak life sentence is no life at all. When we are desperate for change, where do we turn?

New Revised Standard

The Message

Psalm 13 To the leader. A Psalm of David.

1 How long, O LORD? Will you

forget me forever? · How long will you hide your face from me? ·  2  How long must I bear pain in my soul, · and have sorrow in my heart all day long? · How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3    Consider and answer me, O LORD my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, · 4 and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. 5    But I trusted in your stead-

fast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. · 6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.  

A David Psalm 1   Long enough, GOD—you’ve ignored me long enough. · I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. · 2 Long enough · I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. · Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.   3   Take a good look at me, GOD, my God; I want to look life in the eye,· 4 So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face.   5   I’ve thrown myself headlong

into your arms—I’m celebrating your rescue. · 6 I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.  

New Revised Standard

The Message

John 6:35-40 35   Jesus said to them, “I am

the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

35   Jesus said, “I am the Bread

of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. 36 I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. 37 Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. 38 I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me. 39   “This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed— and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. 40  This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”

The Narrative Lectionary presents the story of God’s work in humanity through a single Gospel each year. This is the Year 3 Summer Series.