by Pastor Peter Bean
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Read Genesis 23:1–20
If you have been reading the story of Abraham carefully this week, you’ll have noticed that among all the horrible bits is a story of hospitality. In fact, hospitality and inhospitality are woven throughout this narrative. The Greek word for hospitality literally means ‘love of strangers'. So, Abraham welcomes the three strangers in Genesis 18, feeds them and gives them a drink. This is taken up in Hebrews 13, where we are told: ‘Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it.’ Think back through this week’s readings. Where are examples of hospitality and inhospitality?
So, we come to Genesis 23. Sarah dies. Abraham seeks to bury her. He goes to the Hittites, the adversaries of the Israelites and their (our) God. And as you read the chapter, you will see hospitality played out, back and forth, until there is an agreement all are happy with.
No bickering over whose land this is, no slandering of each other, no questioning each other’s motives. Rather, acceptance of who they are and their place in the world. Peace in their time!
Can we follow their example? Can we accept God’s statement to us through Paul in Ephesians 2:19? ‘So now you are no longer strangers and aliens. Rather, you are fellow citizens with God’s people, and you belong to God’s household.’ And then apply it to our lives?
God accepts all. You, me, your neighbours, the first inhabitants of Australia, those who come from different lands. In our world of social disharmony that we seem to live in, we do well to remember God’s words: ‘You belong to God’s household.’ Then, living in grace and forgiveness, extend that hospitality to all we encounter, all humanity, remembering each person is made in God’s image and is also extended grace.
God of hospitality, who loves humanity in all its various expressions, let me live in your love. Help me to reflect that grace and forgiveness to everyone I meet. Amen.
In early October, Peter enjoyed a family camp with his children and grandchildren at Lake Bonney, South Australia. Then, he returned to weeding, planting, riding, reading and relaxing!
Strength for the waiting
by Linda Macqueen
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Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31a).
Read Isaiah 40:25–31
Yesterday, we left the disciples quivering in the upper room, sensing doom. In the coming days, they will huddle in dark corners, fighting twin tormentors: the fear of abandonment and the loss of all hope. We’ve heard this story before. Or one like it.
Hundreds of years earlier, about 7,000 of God’s people were locked up in a foreign land, broken under abandonment and hopelessness, not for a few days or even years, but for entire generations. Into that national despair, God asks a startling question: ‘To whom will you compare me?’ Through his prophet Isaiah, God calls them to lift their gaze from their exhaustion to the One who names the stars and gives them their orders. Renewal for the exiled people of Judah begins not with pulling themselves up by their bootstraps but with a fresh vision of God’s enduring faithfulness and sovereign strength.
It’s against this dark backdrop that verse 31a – the star of countless Christian memes – shines brightly: ‘But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.’ The Hebrew verb here, qāvāh, carries the sense of hopeful, tensile waiting – like strands twisted together to form a strong rope. Waiting on God is not passive or resigned. It is the active, intentional trust of people who bind their lives to his life, drawing strength through the long, dark silences from the One who holds them.
Just like the captives in Babylon, we can grow weary not only from life’s challenges themselves, but also from the pressure to solve them in our own strength. Isaiah reminds us that renewal comes not from tightening our grip, but from being held. Those who ‘wait’ in the qāvāh sense – who intertwine their hope with God’s promises – discover a strength that is not self-generated. We rise, not because circumstances have changed, but because we are lifted up by the everlasting God.
My Lord and God, who calls out the stars by name, forgive me for relying on my own vision, strength and courage to overcome the challenges I face. Help me to trust in you, to wait patiently on you and to hope only in you, until you raise me up again on eagle’s wings. Amen.
Linda Macqueen retired in September last year, having served 26 years as editor of The Lutheran and communications manager for the LCANZ. She has rapidly adapted to retirement, happily and energetically bringing her long-neglected home and garden back to life. She lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills with her husband Mark.
Parting words
by Linda Macqueen
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Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me (John 14:1).
Read John 14:1–14
In the upper room, the air is thick with a dread you can almost smell. Lately, Jesus has been saying disturbing things – about betrayal, denial, even his death. And tonight, it all seems to be coming to a head. Like a deer with its nose to the breeze, the disciples sniff impending doom.
And Jesus … just imagine what he’s feeling as the sand in the hourglass runs thinner and faster. How will he use these precious final hours – these hours before everything they’d believed Jesus to be would crumble at the cross?
First, what doesn’t he do? He doesn’t give his friends a pep talk. He doesn’t give them dot-point summaries of the teachings he ran out of time to deliver. He doesn’t unlock the meanings of the parables they had failed to grasp. None of that will carry them through the future he sees for them. What they will need is Jesus himself – day by day, leading them to the Father’s heart, leading them home.
Jesus’ parting words are as gut-wrenchingly tender as they are desperately urgent: ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me … I am the way, the truth and the life.’
The Greek word for ‘believe’ (pisteuō) has a deeper meaning than intellectual agreement. It means trust, confidence, leaning your whole weight on someone. On this darkest of nights, Jesus doesn’t ask his disciples to hum along with a creed, recite a teaching or sign up to a theological statement. He invites them to rest the full weight of their confusion and fear – and their future mission – on him.
Jesus’ invitation to his beloved friends on that dark night is the same as the one he offers to us, his beloved friends: ‘Lean on me. Put the full weight of your burden on me. Trust me … and me alone.’
My dear friend, Jesus. You see me when my heart trembles, when I struggle to understand, when nothing makes sense, when I cannot work out what you are doing. Help me to shun all the shaky props I have been leaning on, and to trust you alone – you, Jesus, in whom I see my Father; you, Jesus, who is leading me safely home. Amen.
Linda Macqueen retired in September last year, having served 26 years as editor of The Lutheran and communications manager for the LCANZ. She has rapidly adapted to retirement, happily and energetically bringing her long-neglected home and garden back to life. She lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills with her husband Mark.
My rock and my fortress
by Glenn Crouch
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Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God (Psalm 31:5).
Read Psalm 31:1–5,15,16
When I read the words of verse 5, I hear them on Jesus’ lips as he hung from the cross (Luke 23:46). This is similar to what I experience when reading Psalm 22 (see Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:46). Our Lord knew the psalms well. In the depths of his pain and suffering, they were what he drew on to pray. One of my regrets is not delving more seriously into the Book of Psalms when I was younger. They are not only extremely helpful in my prayer life, but also when counselling others.
Let’s look further at what this psalm has to say to us today.
David has complete dependence on the Lord. Look at the words he uses: refuge, deliverer, rock, fortress. Are you dependent on the Lord? Is he the one you run to when things get all messed up? Can you count on him to deliver you from your fear, anxiety and sin? Is he the most stable thing in your life – your foundation and your rock? When you are with him, do you feel protected, as though you were in the centre of a mighty fortress?
Now that you’ve thought about those things. Read verses 1 to 5 as a prayer to the Lord.
Let’s not forget verses 15 and 16. Once again, think about these words. Is it not your desire to have God’s face shine upon you? Do you not rely on his unfailing love for your salvation, for your deliverance? Read these two verses as a prayer to the Lord.
As our journey together this week concludes, I encourage you to spend time praying through the Psalms and following in the footsteps of our Good Shepherd.
Great and merciful God, you are indeed my rock and my refuge. I so want your face to shine upon me. Help me bring all my problems to you. Help me to trust you more. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Glenn is the pastor of St John’s Lutheran Church in Esperance and looks after St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kalgoorlie–Boulder, Western Australia. Glenn and Karen have been married since 1985. They have two grown sons and are enjoying when they can get to Perth to spend time with their first grandchild.