The First Week of November

Isaiah 1:10-18

10 Hear the Lord’s word, you leaders of Sodom. Listen to our God’s teaching, people of Gomorrah!

11What should I think about all your sacrifices? says the Lord.I’m fed up with entirely burned offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don’t want the blood of bulls, lambs, and goats.

12 When you come to appear before me, who asked this from you, this trampling of my temple’s courts?

13 Stop bringing worthless offerings. Your incense repulses me.New moon, sabbath, and the calling of an assembly—I can’t stand wickedness with celebration!

14 I hate your new moons and your festivals. They’ve become a burden that I’m tired of bearing.

15 When you extend your hands, I’ll hide my eyes from you.Even when you pray for a long time, I won’t listen.Your hands are stained with blood.

16 Wash! Be clean! Remove your ugly deeds from my sight. Put an end to such evil;

17 learn to do good. Seek justice: help the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let’s settle this, says the Lord.Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow. If they are red as crimson, they will become like wool.

Psalm 32:1-7

1 The one whose wrongdoing is forgiven, whose sin is covered over, is truly happy!

2 The one the Lord doesn’t consider guilty—in whose spirit there is no dishonesty—that one is truly happy!

3 When I kept quiet, my bones wore out; I was groaning all day long—every day, every night!—

4 because your hand was heavy upon me. My energy was sapped as if in a summer drought. Selah

5 So I admitted my sin to you; I didn’t conceal my guilt. “I’ll confess my sins to the Lord,” is what I said. Then you removed the guilt of my sin. Selah

6 That’s why all the faithful should pray to you during troubled times, so that a great flood of water won’t reach them.

7 You are my secret hideout! You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of rescue! Selah

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

1 From Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy:

To the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God our Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Grace and peace to all of you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Brothers and sisters, we must always thank God for you. This is only right because your faithfulness is growing by leaps and bounds, and the love that all of you have for each other is increasing. 4 That’s why we ourselves are bragging about you in God’s churches. We tell about your endurance and faithfulness in all the harassments and trouble that you have put up with.

11 We are constantly praying for you for this: that our God will make you worthy of his calling and accomplish every good desire and faithful work by his power. 12 Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored by you, and you will be honored by him, consistent with the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 19:1-10

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through town. 2 A man there named Zacchaeus, a ruler among tax collectors, was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a short man, he couldn’t because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to that spot, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” 6 So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus.

7 Everyone who saw this grumbled, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this household because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 The Human One came to seek and save the lost.”

We read…

Confession and forgiveness can be difficult topics to talk about. It isn’t always easy to admit when you have done something wrong, and it can sometimes be even harder to offer forgiveness when someone has wronged you. In Isaiah, we see that God is frustrated with how the people have been living. They are called to completely change their behavior, and this radical change would be seen in doing good, bringing about justice, and caring for the oppressed and orphan. What should we do when we know we haven’t been living in the ways that God has called us to live, like the people in Isaiah? 

The psalmist reminds us that God forgives us when we ask, but that includes a change of heart and posture on our end. This idea of confession and a changed life is seen in the story of Zacchaeus. Jesus offers an invitation to Zacchaeus before he could ever earn or deserve it. As a response to this invitation and grace, Zacchaeus confesses that he has done wrong and offers to pay back more than what he owes. He responds to the love of God in his life and lets Jesus change how he is living. Confession is not meant to be forced out of us, rather it should be a response to the love and grace that Jesus has given to us. We should want to be more like Jesus in how we live, and when we fail to meet that, we should be willing to acknowledge how we have messed up. 

We think…

• What stands out to you in these verses? Does anything confuse you or not make sense?

  
  

• How do these verses compare to your own experience in life or in the church?

  
  

• What are you considering? What questions come to mind? 

  
  

• Isaiah tells God’s people to do good and then describes ways to do this in the world. Why do you think these things matter to God? 

  
  

• Why is confessing sin to God and others important to our faith? 

  
  

• Jesus invites Zacchaeus into a relationship before Zacchaeus could ever earn or deserve it. How does that impact what we think about God?

We feel…

• What emotions are you experiencing today? How are you making space for these feelings?

  
  

• Where have you seen God today or this week?

  
  

• What is pointing you to God (maybe it is something in creation, maybe a friend or adult that cares for you)?

  
  

• What has God made new in your life? In your heart? 

  
  

• Think of a time when you owned up to something you did wrong (or something you didn’t do even though you should have). How did it feel to confess to that? How did the person or people you confessed to react?

  
  

• 2 Thessalonians offers a prayer that Jesus will be glorified in the lives of the readers. How is Jesus glorified in your life?

  
  

• How do you think the crowd felt when Jesus called to Zacchaeus? When have you been offered grace that you didn’t deserve?

We believe…

The story of Zacchaeus reveals a lot about who Jesus is. Zacchaeus was on the outskirts of society - people did not like this man. But unlike some of the other outsiders Jesus encounters, Zacchaeus is on the outside because he has been the oppressor. Zacchaeus has stolen from his own people, and they (rightfully) were not his biggest fans. Yet Jesus offers an invitation to Zacchaeus.

We believe that all are invited to God’s table, even the people who have treated us poorly. Every person is given this invitation from God - people on top of society and people on the bottom, people who are well liked and people who are despised. Sometimes this doesn’t feel too good to know that the people who have mistreated us are also invited in, but like Zacchaeus, all are offered the chance to receive grace and change their lives.

We practice…

A major theme of this week’s reading is confession. Take time to reflect on your attitude towards confession. Is this something that is easy for you to do? Do you struggle to confess when you know that you should? Read the prayer below and make the words your own today. If you feel like God is prompting you to offer a confession to someone you have harmed, be willing to do this with an open heart.

A prayer of confession attributed to John Wesley -

Forgive them all, O Lord:

our sins of omission and our sins of commission;

the sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years;

the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies;

our secret and our more open sins;

our sins of ignorance and surprise, and our more deliberate and presumptuous sins;

the sins we have done to please ourselves

and the sins we have done to please others;

the sins we know and remember,

and the sins we have forgotten;

the sins we have striven to hide from others

and the sins by which we have made others offend;

forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for his sake,

who died for our sins and rose for our justification,

and now stands at thy right hand to make intercession for us,

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.