Paraphrases
of the Scripture
Lections
for the Tuesday of
Holy Week – 5 April 2011
Lections from
The Revised Common Lectionary.
Copyright 1992 by the Consultation
on Common Texts (CCT)
P. O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN
37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.
* Isaiah 49: 1-7
Everyone, from coast to
coast, listen up!
........All you
people, far and near, don’t miss a word.
Before I was born,
the LORD had chosen me;
........given
me a name and a job while I was still in my mother’s womb.
I
was created to be a surgeon’s knife,
........razor
sharp in the hand of the LORD;
ready and
waiting to slice through any defence
........and
cut to the core with a word.
The LORD said
to me, “Israel, you are my servant,
........the
one who will put my name up in lights.”
But I said, “How
come every thing I do comes to nothing then?
........I’ve
worked my guts out but there is nothing to show for it.
But I gave
it my best shot for you LORD,
........so
you decide whether I’m worth my pay.”
And now the
LORD has more to say to me;
........this
God who chose me as a servant before I was born;
who gave me the
job of bringing home the people of Israel
........for
a great reunion with God.
It is a privilege and an honour to do
this for the LORD,
........and
God has given me the strength to see it through.
But now the
LORD says to me,
........“Getting
the people of Israel back on their feet is great,
................but
it’s a piece of cake for my number one worker.
........Now
I’ve got a real challenge for you!
................I
want you to help the whole world see the
light!
........................I want
you to give my saving love a global reach!”
I, the LORD,
the one and only, who puts things right for Israel,
........have
this to say:
“You have been treated like
dirt.
........kicked around by the
nations,
................and forced
to work in chains for their rulers;
but let me tell you how it is
going to be:
........Kings will stand
up when you walk in;
................Governors
will snap to attention at your approach.
You have my word on this
and I can be trusted;
........I am
the LORD, your one and only, and I have chosen
you.”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton
LaughingBird.net
*
Psalm 71: 1-14
I run to you for protection,
LORD,
........please
don’t ever let me down.
You always do the right
thing,
........so please be there for
me when I need you.
Hear me when I call for help
........and
step in quickly to bail me out.
Keep me safe when I need
somewhere to hide.
........You are
like a mountain hideaway to me;
................like
a bunker than nothing can blast open.
If I fall into hostile
hands,
........be my God and rescue
me;
Don’t let the callous and cruel
........get
their claws into me.
You are my only hope,
........the
only one I can depend on, LORD;
................I’ve
trusted you since I was a kid.
I’ve leaned on you for
support
........since the day I was
born.
You were the midwife who delivered me from my mother’s
womb,
........the safe hands who
pulled me gasping into life.
................I’ll
never stop thanking you for that!
Many people think my name
spells trouble,
........but you stick
up for me when they attack.
How can I ever thank you
enough?
........I go on all day about
how wonderful you are.
Don’t give up on me when I get
too old, LORD;
........don’t
turn your back when I’ve got nothing left to offer.
I’ll
need your help, because my enemies are out to get me,
........they’re
plotting against my life even now.
They’ve put out a
contract on me
........and guaranteed
immunity to whoever brings me down
They say you’ve given up
on me
........and that no one will
defend me.
Don’t ever let me out of your sight,
God;
........jump to my defence at
the first sign of trouble.
Turn the tables on those who
slandered me,
........leave them with
egg all over their faces.
See to it that those who set out to
destroy me
........get the public
humiliation they deserve.
I will never give up
hope,
........because I trust in
you.
Every time I open my mouth,
........I
will sing your praises more and more.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
1 Corinthians 1: 18-31
........The
message about the cross sounds like a lot of mindless cock-and-bull
to those who have thrown their lot in with this present world order
and are going down with the ship. But to those of us who are being
saved from that, it is nothing less than the power of God! God spoke
about this in the Scriptures:
“I will expose the brilliant insights of your experts
........and the wise counsel of your gurus;
I will expose them for what they really are,
........a load of codswallop!”
So where are the intellectuals now? Where are the religious
experts? Where are those who have an answer for everything? What have
they got to show for all their cleverness now that God has turned all
the conventional wisdom on its head and made it look foolish? Seeing
that no amount of human cleverness had ever woken anybody up to God’s
ways, God made the wise decision to use something that seemed utterly
foolish to everyone — our preaching! — to rescue those
who would trust the message. Most people want something more than
this. Those with a religious world view demand to see miraculous
signs to prove that it is from God. Those with a modern rational
world view insist that it should have to prove its intellectual
credibility. But what we are preaching is a Messiah who was strung up
and killed. The religious people find this unthinkable, and the
intellectuals regard it as primitive nonsense; but to those who have
heard the call of God, whatever their background, it is the ultimate
good news of God’s chosen one — as miraculous and
profound as one could ever wish for! When it’s all said and
done, the sum total of the human race’s intellectual
achievements don’t even begin to stack up against the
foolishness of God; and the combined force of all the world’s
powers is puny in comparison to the weakness of
God.
........Sisters and brothers,
you don’t have to look any further than your own experience of
God’s call to see the truth of this. Not many of you were
academic hot-shots. Not many of you were movers and shakers in the
corridors of power. Not many of you were feted as celebrities. But
God chose you! God chose those who were dismissed as fools to expose
the bankruptcy of the world’s accepted wisdom. God chose those
who were weak and vulnerable in the world to show up the corruption
of those who wield power. God consistently chooses what is despised
as the dregs by the world, things which are seen as worthless, to
expose the worthlessness of things which are seen as being ‘it
and a bit’. Because of this, no one who is accepted into God’s
presence has any grounds for blowing their own trumpet. God and God
alone is the source of the life you share in union with the Messiah,
Jesus. It is only in Jesus that we have been able to tap into God’s
wisdom. And it is only in Jesus that our lives have been put back on
track, given a clean bill of health, and set on the path to
wholeness. For this reason, the scriptures make sense to us when they
say:
“If you are going to blow your trumpet about something,
........blow it about the Lord!”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton
LaughingBird.net
*
John 12: 20-36
........Many
people were arriving in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Jewish
religious festival known as Passover. However, not all of the people
were Jewish, and one group of foreigners made contact with Philip,
and said, “Sir, we would like to meet Jesus.”
........Philip,
who was from the Galilean town of Bethsaida, told Andrew, and
together they went and told Jesus about the request from the foreign
visitors. On hearing about it, Jesus said, “If the foreigners
are asking after us, we’ve reached the point of no return. The
time has come for the New Human to be lifted up in all his
glory.”
........He went on to
say:
“I kid you not, a grain of wheat is nothing unless it hits the dirt and loses its life. But if it gives up its life as a single grain, then it will begin to produce a bumper crop of life. Anyone who prizes their own life above everything else will end up losing the lot. But those who treat their individual survival in this world as a matter of no consequence will find life opening up before them without limit. If any of these people want to apprentice themselves to me, they will need to come and stick with me. Those who work for me will be going wherever I go. Whoever works for me will get the thumbs-up from the God who conceived me. But at the moment, I’m all churned up inside. Should I call on the Father to bail me out of what is about to happen? No, I can’t do that because what is about to happen is the pinnacle of everything I came to achieve. So then, I call out to God and say, ‘Father, put your name up in lights!’ ”
........And a voice answered from
heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I
will do so again.”
........The
crowd who were gathered there heard the voice. Some of them said it
sounded like thunder, and others said, “A messenger from God
has spoken to him.”
........Jesus
addressed them, saying, “This voice has spoken for your
benefit, not mine. The world is being weighed in the balance right
now; and the one who has been calling the shots in this world will
now be driven out. As for me, I will be lifted up off the ground, and
when that happens, I will draw all people to myself.”
........With
these words, he gave an indication of the kind of death he was going
to die. The crowd questioned him about this, saying, “The Bible
tells us that the Messiah will be with us forever, so how can you say
that the New Human will be strung up? And who exactly is this New
Human?”
........Jesus said to
them, “The light will only be with you for a little while
longer, so make your move while it continues to light up the way. If
you leave it too late, the darkness will catch up with you, and if
you try to make your move then, you’ll have no idea where you
are going. Put your trust in the light as long as you have access to
it, so that you may become people of the light.”
........And
having said this, Jesus cleared off and made himself scarce.
©2003
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net