Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Sunday, September 19. 2010

From today's lectionary: "Is there no balm in Gilead?"

Some have asked my for my source for the Lectionary. There are many sources, but I use the Vanderbilt Divinity School's site, and I just pick my favorite of the moment. I would probably prefer using the King James, but I don't.


Jeremiah 8:18-9:1



8:18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.

8:19 Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?")

8:20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."

8:21 For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

9:1 O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

Posted by Bird Dog at 05:16 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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We just read and sang the same passage.
#1 NJSoldier on 2010-09-19 12:54 (Reply)
I enjoy this part of Maggie's Farm, not the best, but it is nice after church to read some of the passages here.
#2 T.L. Davis (Link) on 2010-09-19 18:04 (Reply)
The balm? THE BALM? Who told you to use the balm?


Sorry. This just goes to show you the extent to which Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David have infiltrated, and rotted the higher functions of my brain. I too like the lectionary. It's just that sometimes His words miss my heart and hit my funnybone.
#3 Jim on 2010-09-19 20:43 (Reply)
that was a good-hearted gentle-minded show (was, i should say 'is') --and laughing at it is laughing at ourselves. So heck you didn't get outta the stream --you just sped up in an eddy is all --
#3.1 buddy larsen on 2010-09-19 20:55 (Reply)
What a downer that Jeremiah can be! We read this passage months ago on the 9th of Av (destruction of the Temple).

Old Jerry's Jewish descendants are now in the full swing of joyous preparation for Sukkot - a holiday that combines a harvest festival with the commemoration of the Jews' faithful wandering in the desert.

Here's just one of the passages that we read repeatedly during the High Holidays - Micah's closing passage:

Who is Mighty One as You, who bears sin and passes over crime for the remnant that keeps Your legacy! He does not hold His anger forever, for He desires kindness. Again He will have mercy on us, bind up all our errant ways, and cast into the ocean's depths all our sins. Give truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, as you swore to our fathers of old.

(I'm obviously not a fan of Jimmy Carter - but he was right to quote Micah: a "minor" prophet of great beauty.)
#4 Ben David on 2010-09-20 03:11 (Reply)
--one can 'have a heart' on some issue or other, and regret having done so only seldom --say, along the 80/20 rule.

Problem is, well mine anyway, is that the 20% of the time it goes wrong, occupies 80% of one's mull-time on the topic --alas!
#4.1 buddy larsen on 2010-09-20 07:47 (Reply)
The King James Bible has accuracy issues and, for those who take their Scripture literally, that is a real problem. The language of the KJV is the most beautiful English translation available, especially the KJV version of the 23rd Psalm.
#5 Geoff Brown on 2010-09-20 11:37 (Reply)

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