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Bible Study for September 22, 2024
Opening Prayer:
Creator of all, we thank you for the opportunity to gather in study. Open our minds and hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit, unite us in faith, hope, and love. Help us to be faithful to the gospel and to walk humbly with you. Grant us your peace as we grow in wisdom and understanding. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Mark 9:38-50 What are the ways in which someone might cause another to fall away from God?
The disciples give us hope that, despite numerous blunders, we can still become faithful followers of Jesus Christ. In the first few verses of this passage, the disciples make the same error of judgment that many contemporary Christians make. They attempted to keep the ministry of Jesus within their own hands—possess it, own it. Jesus patiently explained that they must not stop anyone who heals in His name. Indeed, such people would benefit His ministry, for if they did good in his name, they would not be able to speak against Him, “for whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus stretched the scope of His ministry to include as many people as possible. Jesus then calls believers to sacrifice anything that might cause them to fall away. Ending these exhortations, Jesus reminded hearers that the strength to embrace total faith comes from within the community. Believers are to “have salt.” Salt was used as a part of the sacrificial offerings required by law as well to season and to preserve. It was not enough to look like salt; salt was useful when it possessed its proper chemical properties.
James 5:13-20 What, for James, is living faith?
James uses the word ekklesia (church) for the first time in this letter (v. 14). He reminds readers that sickness affects not only the individual, but the entire community as well. James suggests that healing needs to take place in the life of the community—physical, moral, and spiritual healing are intricately woven together here. Moreover, all healing comes from God. Should one doubt the healing power of prayer, James offers an example in the prophet Elijah. Elijah opened and closed the heavens with prayer, and if his faithful prayer could accomplish such a feat, the prayers of the church can do the same. James concludes his letter by exhorting the community to faithfulness and accountability.
Raise us up, O Lord,
for it is you alone who restores life and health
to the suffering
and to those who wander from the truth.
By your grace,
may we offer powerful and effective prayers
for one another and the world,
in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
FIRST READING: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
A reading from Numbers.
4The rabble among them had a strong craving;
and the Israelites also wept again, and said,
“If only we had meat to eat!
5We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing,
the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
6but now our strength is dried up,
and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
10Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families,
all at the entrances of their tents.
Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased.
11So Moses said to the Lord,
“Why have you treated your servant so badly?
Why have I not found favor in your sight,
that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
12Did I conceive all this people?
Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me,
‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,’
to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors?
13Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?
For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’
14I am not able to carry all this people alone,
for they are too heavy for me.
15If this is the way you are going to treat me,
put me to death at once—
if I have found favor in your sight—
and do not let me see my misery.”
16So the Lord said to Moses,
“Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel,
whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them;
bring them to the tent of meeting,
and have them take their place there with you.”
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