Texts for the Day

• Semi-continuous:  Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 and Psalm 78:1-7
• Thematic:  Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16 or Amos 5:18-24 and Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20 or Psalm 70
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
• Matthew 25:1-13

Commentary and Reflection

Wisdom Personified – There are two choices given for the thematic Old Testament reading this week.  The Amos reading is the well-known “Let justice roll down like waters” passage, but you may never have even heard of the book of Wisdom.  This book is one of the Apocrypha.  These are Old Testament books that are used by some Christian denominations and not others.  While they are not considered inspired Scripture by Protestants, they are certainly worth reading.

Read Wisdom 6:12-25 this week.  Wisdom is personified and imagined as a woman in this passage.  For an instance of this image in our own canon, read Proverbs 8.  What do you think about this?  Have you thought of Wisdom as a woman before?

Resurrection of the Dead – While we all know about Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, we pay less attention to our own.  The New Testament writers looked forward to a bodily resurrection of believers, where we will have a new physical body, the same as Jesus did.  We proclaim it in the Apostles’ Creed when we say, “We believe in…the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” Besides the reading from 1 Thessalonians, here are a few other places to look.

• 1 Corinthians 15 – Long, but worth it
• 1 John 3:1-3
• Revelation 20 – Note that these events take place on the earth, not in heaven.

Questions for reflection:

• What do you think of this? How does this fit in with other ideas you may have heard about the afterlife?
• If our bodies are going to be raised, how does this change our relationships with our bodies in this life?