“Oxford historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee died this day, October 2, 1975. He had worked for the British government doing foreign intelligence and research and was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conferences following World Wars I and II. Gaining international acclaim for his history books, Arnold Joseph Toynbee wrote: “The course of human history consists of a series of encounters… in which each man or woman or child… is challenged by God to make [the] free choice between doing God’s will and refusing to do it. When Man refuses, he is free to make his refusal and to take the consequences.”

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

We quicken or deaden everything we see
by the life we live
and the sins that we commit.
--- George H. Morrison


Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history,
nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state
the United States is in now.
--- Arnold J. Toynbee

... from here, there and everywhere

2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a flying swallow,
     an undeserved curse will come home to roost.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                The sphere of humiliation

     If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. --- Mark 9:22.

     After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are, where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab commonplace pitch, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship to Him. Peter thought it would be a fine thing for them to remain on the mount, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mount into the valley—the place where the meaning of the vision is explained.

     “If Thou canst do anything …” It takes the valley of humiliation to root the scepticism out of us. Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned Who Jesus was, you were a cunning sceptic about His power. When you were on the mount, you could believe anything, but what about the time when you were up against facts in the valley? You may be able to give a testimony to sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you just now? The last time you were on the mount with God, you saw that all power in heaven and in earth belonged to Jesus—will you be sceptical now in the valley of humiliation?

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

Look, here are two cronies, let's
  Listen to them as the wind
  Creeps under their clothes and the rain
  Mixes with the bright moisture
  Of their noses. They are saying,
  Each in his own way, 'I am dying
  And want to live. I am alive
  And wish to die'. And for the same
  Reason, that they have no belief
  In a God who made the world
  For misery and for the streams of pain
  To flow in. Mildew and pus and decay
  They deal in, and feed on mucous
  And wind, diet of a wet land. So
  They fester and, met now by this tree,
  Complain, voices of the earth, talking,
  Not as we wanted it to talk,
  Who have been reared on its reflections
  In art or had its behaviour
  Seen to. We must dip belief
  Not in dew nor in the cool fountain
  Of beech buds, but in seas
  Of manure through which they squelch
  To the bleakness of their assignations.

R.S. Thomas Selected poems, 1946-1968

     He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God. --- Micah 6:8.

     When, in England, William Wilberforce initiated his long campaign to outlaw slavery in the British empire, he did not act as a social reformer. He was moved by Christian compassion: he acted because he cared about those helpless chattels that the majority in his day viewed as scarcely human. In working for justice, in showing loving-kindness, in committing his health and fortune to the betterment of his oppressed fellowman, this man uniquely pleased and honored God.

     It is not some utopian dream but a practical concern for people that drives us to seek justice.

     2. It is tragically wrong to view the Christian’s concern for justice as something to be valued or devalued on the basis of its contribution to evangelism. The church has often done this. We have said, “Send doctors—that we might break the power of the witch doctor and win the lost.”

     These statements implicitly assign to justice a value based on the end it is supposed to achieve. Thus “doing justice” is viewed as a means to an end, and when it does not seem to promote that end (evangelism), it is roughly thrust aside.

     But is concern for the oppressed and the hungry a tool? How do we differ from the Pharisees if our commitment to do right by all men is conditional on whether we believe our actions will help us gain other ends? No, we “do justice” because it is right.

     3. It’s an amazing thing that concern for people’s social and material needs is conceived as somehow intrinsically different from concern for their souls. But the Bible does not describe man as composed of an immaterial “soul” captured in a physical body. Instead it speaks of the breath of life breathed into the body God prepared so that “man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7, kjv). Human beings experience life as a unity: we do not separate our selves from our bodies, or from our souls.

     It follows that when we come in contact with others, we are to reach out to them in love and love them fully. We are to care about their every need. There may be little we can do to change basic conditions in our society. But we are not to hold back in loving because one sort of need is “social” and another “spiritual.” If minority children in our neighborhood need tutoring, we do not ignore that need because such a thing in our church would not be “religious.” If an inner-city store gouges the poor who cannot shop elsewhere, we don’t keep silent because the injustice is only bodily and not related to the soul. If pornography is openly sold in a shop near a school, we don’t just ignore it.

     Simply put, the Christian has a commitment to justice, simply because doing justice is right.

     4. Probably the most compelling reason that Christians today need to be committed to doing right by others is this: that’s the kind of person God is. God Himself is just. He is committed to doing right by all. God, as the Old Testament clearly reveals, does care deeply when injustice and indifference to others are accepted elements in an individual’s or society’s lifestyle.

     As the New Testament adds, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).

     Our study of the Old Testament prophets brings us face-to-face with a dimension of faith that our generation has tended to overlook. The prophets’ constant emphasis and God’s constant call to Israel teaches us that we need to have a concern for the whole person. A concern that God feels deeply, as He calls us today as then to “hate evil, love good, and maintain justice in the courts” (Amos 5:15).

Richards, L., & Richards, The Teacher's Commentary.

     Protestants were slow to embrace the missionary cause. In the sixteenth century, they struggled to liberate themselves from moribund Catholicism. The seventeenth century was consumed with bloody efforts for liberty within the state. Not until the eighteenth century could their attention be drawn overseas. The Moravians were the first, sending missionaries to such fields as the West Indies and Labrador. But still there was no organized missionary enterprise supported by a strong home base.

     Then came a failure-prone shoemaker named William Carey. His sermons, conversations, and his book, Enquiry, finally nudged his fellow Baptists to adopt this resolution at an associational meeting: Resolved that a plan be prepared against the next Ministers’ meeting at Kettering, for forming a Baptist Society for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen.

     Five months later, on Tuesday, October 2, 1792, 14 men huddled in the back parlor of widow Wallis’s house in Kettering, in a room 12 feet by 10. There were 12 ministers, a student, and a deacon. Carey, 31, reviewed the achievements of the Moravians and recounted the Bible’s missionary mandate. By and by, a resolution was worded: Humbly desirous of making an effort for the propagation of the Gospel amongst the Heathen, according to the recommendations of Carey’s Enquiry, we unanimously resolve to act in Society together for this purpose; and as, in the divided state of Christendom, each denomination, by exerting itself separately, seems likeliest to accomplish the great end, we name this the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen.

     Andrew Fuller passed around his snuff box with its picture of Paul’s conversion on the lid, taking up history’s first collection of pledges for organized, home-supported Protestant missions.

     Suddenly missionary societies popped up everywhere, especially in London: in 1792 the British Missionary Society; in 1795 the London Missionary Society; in 1799 the Religious Tract Society and the Church Missionary Society. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society came into being. The era of missions had begun, making the nineteenth century the “Great Century” in the advancement of the gospel around the globe.
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     Afterwards, Jesus appeared to his eleven disciples as they were eating. He scolded them because they were too stubborn to believe the ones who had seen him after he had been raised to life. Then he told them: Go and preach the good news to everyone in the world.
--- Mark 16:14,15.

Morgan, R. J. On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

     EPILOGUE

     BIBLE TEXT / Psalm 1:1–2 / Happy is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, or stood in the path of sinners, or sat in the company of the insolent; Rather, the Torah of the Lord is his desire, and he studies that Torah day and night. [authors’ translation]

     MIDRASH TEXT / Avodah Zarah 19a / Rabbi Avdimi son of Ḥama said: “All who are occupied with the Torah, the Holy One, praised is He, will fulfill their desires.”

     BIBLE TEXT / Deuteronomy 30:11–14 / Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we maya observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.

     MIDRASH TEXT / Eruvin 55a / Rabbi Avdimi son of Ḥama said: “What is the significance of the text ‘It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” (Deuteronomy 30:12) ‘It is not in heaven’—for if it were in heaven, you would have to go up there to get it.”

     D’RASH

     Having heard our Master, Rabbi Avdimi, speak so brilliantly in his Shabbat D’rashah about God holding Mount Sinai over the heads of the Israelites and forcing them to accept the Torah, I decided to sit in on his lecture in the study house.

     I came in and slipped quietly into the last row of seats. Suddenly, everyone rose to their feet as the Rabbi entered; he smiled and motioned for us to sit down.

     Rabbi Avdimi began the lesson by closing his eyes and quoting the first two verses of the Book of Psalms:

  Happy is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked,
  or stood in the path of sinners,
  or sat in the company of the insolent;
  Rather, the Torah of the Lord is his desire,
  and he studies that Torah day and night. [Psalm 1:1–2, authors’ translation]

     From the outset, a sense of inadequacy swept over me. First, that the Master could quote from memory these verses from the Bible that were so foreign to me. And second, that the verses seemed to say: You can either be a follower of the wicked, or a desirer of the Torah, and if the latter, you have to study it day and night. “I don’t belong here,” I told myself, and the only thing that kept me in my seat was the fear of being noticed and embarrassed were I to stand up and walk out.

     But as if he were reading my mind, Rabbi Avdimi then asked: “Who among us is able to spend all day, every day, studying the Torah of the Lord, as the Psalmist implies?” The other listeners lowered their heads or grinned sheepishly, acknowledging their own limitations. The Master continued: “Rabbi Eliezer taught: ‘Israel said to the Holy One, praised is He: “Master of the World! We want to labor in the Torah day and night, but we don’t have the time!’ ” The Holy One, praised is He, said to them: ‘Fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin, and I will count it as if you labored night and day!’ ” [Midrash Tehillim 1, 17]

     “Sometimes human beings, like the Psalmist, seem to expect a lot more of us than God does!”

     All of us laughed, not only at the irony of the Rabbi’s statement, but in relief that we were not “wicked, insolent sinners.”

     “What is the significance of the text in Deuteronomy where Moses tells Israel about the Torah, ‘It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it.’ ” If it were in heaven, you would have to go up there to get it. That’s how important the Torah is. But it is not in heaven, it is not beyond our reach!”

     One of the men in the first row called out a question: “Rabbi Avdimi, will this devotion to the Torah be worth all of the effort that we put in to it?”

     The Master smiled. “Go back to the verses from the Book of Psalms. It says: תּוֹרַת יי הֶפְצוֹ/ torat Adonai ḥeftzo, three words in the Hebrew that literally mean ‘The Torah of the Lord is His desire.’ But when we read the Bible, we have to look at more than just the letters and words that we see. Sometimes we have to read the spaces between the letters; sometimes we have to fill in the blanks between the words. That is the purpose of Midrash.

     “I would re-read the verse this way:

  All who are occupied with the Torah
  the Holy One, praised is He—the Lord
  will fulfill their desires.

     “The P’shat of the text is: A good person desires the Lord’s Torah. The D’rash of the verse tells us more: The Lord will reward such a person.”

     “Rabbi,” a man in the second row called out. “It sounds like magic. Study Torah and the Holy One, praised is He, will grant all that you desire. Is it that simple?”

     “Yes …” the Rabbi replied, pausing as we stared at him in surprise, sitting on the edge of our benches. “The Torah is magic. And no, it’s not that simple. If your desire is Torah, then God will fulfill that desire. If you want to study, if you want to learn with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your might (the very words that are in the tefillin, the same mitzvah that the Holy One, praised is He, told us to fulfill!), then you will get it. As difficult as Torah may sometimes seem, it is yours. All you have to do is want it.”

     As our lesson in Torah and Midrash came to an end, we all stood and recited the traditional prayer in praise of God, and in appreciation of the great gift that God had given us:

May God’s great name be praised.
  May there be upon the people Israel,
  their teachers,
  their students,
  and the students of their students,
  and upon all those who engage in the study of Torah
  in this place and in every other place,
  upon them and upon you:
  great peace,
  grace, kindness, and mercy,
  long life, abundant sustenance and salvation
  from their Father who is in heaven,
  and let us say: Amen!

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

     So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. --- Genesis 22:14.

     As Abraham and Isaac traveled up the hill, the son bearing the wood and the father the knife, the boy said, “Where is the lamb?” (Gen. 22:7), and Abraham, steadying his voice, said, “God himself will provide the lamb” (v. 8). (Classic Sermons on the Names of God (Kregel Classic Sermons Series) ) When the wonderful outcome of the trial was plain before him and he looked back on it, the one thought that rose to his mind was of how, beyond his meaning, his words had been true. So he named that place by a name that spoke nothing of his trial but everything of God’s provision.

     It is true that we may cast all our anxiety about all outward things on him in the assurance that he who feeds the ravens will feed us and that if lilies can blossom into beauty without care, we will be held by our Father of more value than these. But there is a deeper meaning to the provision spoken of here. What was it that God provided for Abraham? What is it that God provides for us? A way to discharge duties that seem impossible for us and which, the nearer we come to them, look the more dreadful and seem the more impossible.

     And yet, when the heart has yielded itself in obedience and we are ready to do the thing that is enjoined, there opens up before us a possibility provided by God, and strength comes equal to our day. Some unexpected gift is put into our hands that enables us to do the thing of which nature said, “My heart will break before I can do it,” and in regard to which even Grace doubted whether it was possible for us to carry it through. If our hearts are set in obedience, the farther we go on the path of obedience, the easier the command will appear, and to try to do it is to ensure that God will help us to do it.

     This is the main provision that God makes, and it is the highest provision that he can make, for there is nothing in this life that we need so much as to do the will our Father in heaven. All outward needs are poor compared with that. The one thing worth living for, the one thing that in being secured we are blessed, and being missed we are miserable, is compliance in heart with the commandment of our Father and the compliance wrought out in life. So, of all gifts that he bestows on us and of all the abundant provision out of his rich storehouses, is not this the best, that we are made ready for any required service?
--- Alexander Maclaren

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

PROPER 22, SUNDAY
YEAR 1

Psalms (Morning) Psalm 118
Psalms (Evening) Psalm 145
Old Testament 2 Kings 20:1–21
New Testament Acts 12:1–17
Gospel Luke 7:11–17

Index of Readings

PSALMS (MORNING)
Psalm 118

1 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures forever!

2 Let Israel say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the LORD say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”

5 Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me in a broad place.
6 With the LORD on my side I do not fear.
What can mortals do to me?
7 The LORD is on my side to help me;
I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to put confidence in mortals.
9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to put confidence in princes.

10 All nations surrounded me;
in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
12 They surrounded me like bees;
they blazed like a fire of thorns;
in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
14 The LORD is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.

15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the LORD does valiantly;
16 the right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.”
17 I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the LORD.
18 The LORD has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death.

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the LORD.

20 This is the gate of the LORD;
the righteous shall enter through it.

21 I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is the LORD’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we beseech you, O LORD!
O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!

26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
27 The LORD is God,
and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
up to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God, I will extol you.

29 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

PSALMS (EVENING)
Psalm 145

Praise. Of David.

1 I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you,
and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall laud your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8 The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all,
and his compassion is over all that he has made.

10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
and all your faithful shall bless you.
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The LORD is faithful in all his words,
and gracious in all his deeds.
14 The LORD upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand,
satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is just in all his ways,
and kind in all his doings.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of all who fear him;
he also hears their cry, and saves them.
20 The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

OLD TESTAMENT
2 Kings 20:1–21

20 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: 3 “Remember now, O LORD, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: 5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah prince of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.” 7 Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of figs. Let them take it and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.” 8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” 9 Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: the shadow has now advanced ten intervals; shall it retreat ten intervals?” 10 Hezekiah answered, “It is normal for the shadow to lengthen ten intervals; rather let the shadow retreat ten intervals.” 11 The prophet Isaiah cried to the LORD; and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz.

12 At that time King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13 Hezekiah welcomed them; he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. 14 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah answered, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” 15 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: 17 Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. 18 Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

20 The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah, all his power, how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah slept with his ancestors; and his son Manasseh succeeded him.

NEW TESTAMENT
Acts 12:1–17

12 About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. 2 He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. 3 After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.) 4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5 While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.

6 The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

12 As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14 On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” 16 Meanwhile Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed. 17 He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, “Tell this to James and to the believers.” Then he left and went to another place.

GOSPEL
Luke 7:11–17

11 Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” 17 This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

The Episcopal Church. Book of Common Prayer Lectionary

     The Dead Sea Scrolls have made their way online some 2,000 years after they were written through a partnership between Google and Israel’s national museum.

     The important documents are available in searchable, high-resolution images, accompanied by informative videos, background information, and historical data. So far five of the scrolls have been digitized, including the biblical Book of Isaiah, the Temple Scroll, and three others.

     Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center in Israel, Professor Yossi Matias said they plan to add additional Dead Sea Scroll documents to the site in the future. The AP says nearly all the scrolls will be online by 2016. (PC Magazine)

     Here is technology at its best!           Click Here