Jer 17: 5-8; Psalm 1:1-4.6; 1 Cor 15:12,16-20; Luke 6: 17,20-26
Jeremiah lived through a stormy period about 600 BC, before and during the exile. He suffered much through sieges and imprisonments. The despair he felt at the sins of his people against God’s covenant may have led him to doubt. But Jeremiah never lost hope that God is merciful, and that his new covenant would save his people. In spite of temptations and disappointments, we must trust in the Lord.
The psalm praises those who do not gradually accommodate themselves to secular behaviour around us, but who “delight in the law of the Lord” and so achieve true happiness.
Paul had reminded the Corinthians of the centrality of the resurrection to our faith. Now he explains: without Christ’s resurrection from the dead, there is no resurrection of the body for us. Therefore no bodily life after our death – this life is all we have. He compares the resurrection of the dead to sowing a seed: the body which dies “is not the body which is to be”, which will be energised by the Spirit. “What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable”.
In Luke’s gospel Jesus had chosen the twelve from his disciples. Now he proclaims God’s justice is coming, showing the way to real happiness.
Psalm Response: Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
(Jer 17: 5-8; Psalm 1:1-4.6; 1 Cor 15:12,16-20; Luke 6: 17,20-26)