Weekly Readings from Everyday Connections by Heidi Haverkamp

Monday, January 29th:

2 Kings 5:1-14

• • Reflection
    Elisha’s prescription is not courteous, either: bathe in the Jordan, Naaman objects: should his cure not be more dazzling, perhaps dipping himself in the pools by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or applying some exotic salve imported from Ethiopia? It is just water, dirty and shallow water at that. It has always been there; it is all around, it is what I am made of…Faith is the crumpling of pride, best achieved through something as simple, as obvious, as unimpressive as a bit of water that only Elisha or somebody desperately thirsty would think of as powerful.

    James C. Howell

Tuesday, January 30th

Psalm 30

• • Reflection
    There is also a pattern of alternation that shapes the content of the psalm….I cried out, and you healed; movement from divine anger to sovereign pleasure; movement from divine pleasure to anger; the alternation of weeping and joy, which anticipates he move from mourning to gladness: the danger of being silenced by death resolved when the soul breaks silence with praise. These alternations establish the psalm’s theological focus: God’s salvation brings change.           Khalia J. Williams

Wednesday, January 31st

1 Corinthians 9: 24-27

• • Reflection
    The footrace and the boxing match…imply one winner, with either one or a whole field of losers. The individualistic tone in the text is unmistakable, yet the point for Paul does not seem to be that we make ourselves “winners,” so we can leave our fellow believers in the dust. Rather, the point seems to be that, in a world still captive to the old con, living according to the norms of God’s new creation in Jesus Christ takes effort and discipline. To think of life according to the Spirit as anything less than serious struggle is to flail at nothing or to run aimlessly and be at risk of disqualification.                  Sally A. Brown

Thursday, February 1st

Mark 1:40-45

• • Reflection
    The prescriptions of Leviticus say that a person with leprosy must be separated from society….and consistently must year, “unclean, unclean”…
    …Jesus does not send the leper away, but talks with him and even touches him. It appears that his healing touch is meant to carry significance, as healings do not always require human touch in the Gospel of Mark. Motivated by compassion, Jesus has chosen here to break into the man’s isolation by come close and touching him.      Patricia J. Calahan

Friday, February 2nd:

Weekend Reflection

In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it….You got to love it. This is flesh I’m talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms, I’m telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. And all your inside parts that they’d just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver – love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too.            Toni Morrison