The scriptures this week especially from Numbers and John concentrate on what God is doing. It is definitely the God show. As Lawrence writes, “God is turning the world around, redeeming even the worst of the worst, swords into ploughshares, serpents into salves, crosses into trees of life — making all things new.” We have no way to affect it, change it o alter it.
There is much summary. Luther called John 3:16 “the Gospel in a nutshell. ” Tom’s sermon this week said as much. It covers “the fullness of the word of God to us because it lays out for us God’s purposes of God’s love and God’s plan for eternity.”
Sometimes I wonder why the certain weeks of the lectionary are placed where they are. This one takes the story of Jesus past the naming him as God’s son, the various healings that he did like Peter’s mother-in-law to consider his overall role and purpose. Last week it was transforming the temple into more than a building. This week it is about mission involving God, his son and man which involves life beyond Easter. As Lawrence wrote “to correct what can be corrected and makes all things new.”
It was all about the larger issues of life. One of the last segments of God’s Garden took up the “golden rule”. The children reflected the difficulty of applying this to their own family members but much easier to their outside friends.