Above: Icon of Hosea
Image in the Public Domain
Sufficiency in God
NOT OBSERVED IN 2024
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According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
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Hosea 2:14-16 (17-18) 19-20
Psalm 103:1-13
2 Corinthians 3:1b-6
Mark 2:18-22
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Almighty and everlasting God, ruler of heaven and earth:
Hear our prayer and give us your peace now and forever;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978)
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O Lord, mercifully hear our prayers,
and having set us free from the bonds of our sins,
defend us from all evil;
through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Lutheran Worship (1982), 30
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…our sufficiency is from God….
–2 Corinthians 3:5b, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition
Our (individual and collective) sufficiency is from God. God qualifies us (individually and collectively) for our callings from God. God, who has given us many reasons to rejoice, provides our sufficiency. God, who forgives more readily than many human beings do, gives us sufficiency.
This truth contradicts an old and ubiquitous lie in my culture. I refer to the lie of the self-made person, as in the self-made millionaire. Considering even only human factors, one should need only a second or so–if that long–to realize the falsehood of the proposition. One may realize quickly that teachers, bankers, and road builders, among others, enabled the so-called self-made millionaires on the way to such wealth. Furthermore, we all depend entirely on God. We depend upon each other, but we also depend completely on God. If we think otherwise, we delude ourselves.
When one reads past Psalm 103:13, one finds this verse immediately:
For [God] knows our devisings,
recalls that we are dust.
–Verse 14, Robert Alter
Psalm 103 goes on to speak of the transience of human lives and the timeliness of God, whose kindness to the faithful never ends. And, as Hosea 2 tells us this week and Isaiah 43 told us last week, God chooses sometimes to forgive the faithless.
We mere mortals are dust. If we are to have sufficiency, it must come from God, not ourselves. May we demonstrate proper humility before God, from whose love we are inseparable.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 14, 2023 COMMON ERA
THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF LENT
THE FEAST OF FANNIE LOU HAMER, PROPHET OF FREEDOM
THE FEAST OF ALBERT LISTER PEACE, ORGANIST IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
THE FEAST OF HARRIET KING OSGOOD MUNGER, U.S. CONGREGATIONALISTS HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF NEHEMIAH GOREH, INDIAN ANGLICAN PRIEST AND THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF SAINT VINCENZINA CUSMANO, SUPERIOR OF THE SISTERS SERVANTS OF THE POOR; AND HER BROTHER, SAINT GIACOMO CUSMANO, FOUNDER OF THE SISTERS SERVANTS OF THE POOR AND THE MISSIONARY SERVANTS OF THE POOR
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM LEDDRA, BRITISH QUAKER MARTYR IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY, 1661
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Link to the corresponding post at BLOGA THEOLOGICA
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ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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