Friday, March 6th

The following comes from an Episcopal community – St. Paul’s Memorial Church at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA

Relevant Scripture: Psalm 51 • Genesis 40:1-23 • 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 • Mark 2:13-22

The March 6 readings point, in different ways, to God’s omnipotent power and the corresponding need for Christians to accept that all things are possible through an abiding trust in God’s will.

In Psalm 51, often referred to as the penitential psalm, David cries out to God and asks for forgiveness of his sins. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me (3-4). Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me (10). Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (12).

In Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus is questioned as to why he would have dinner with sinners, he answers, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but (to call) sinners.

In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he refers to the young church as infants in Christ and urges them to understand that they are indeed the foundation of the church. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you? Let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours . . . all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Perhaps the words of the hymn How Firm a Foundation most eloquently define this good news that God has bestowed upon us:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
to you that for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed!
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

— Steve Bevis