Joy in Heaven
“There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Texas-based sacred artist James Janknegt depicts one of this week’s parables in a 2003 oil painting titled, The Lost Money. Janknegt adds some additional, delicious layers to Jesus’s simple and evocative little story. The woman, in his depiction, is scarcely visible: she is in the background, half-concealed by the vase of flowers on the table, which occupies most of the scene, along with a table covered in the various artifacts that typify the detritus of modern existence. The painting gives us pause, makes us consider the parable differently. Perhaps the lost money is lost because of the clutter … or perhaps the clutter is part of why money is tight in the first place. We don’t actually know. But what we do know, and what we do see, is a search that is all-consuming; we see a kindly light, streaming in through the windows from the heavens, and we lean forward in anticipation, looking towards the next moment, when search and the light and the clutter will erupt into a new kind of chaos: the chaos of heavenly joy that attends that great end of the Finding.
The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
— The Apostle Paul (1 Tim 1:14)
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us
The lyrics of this mid-19th C hymn — largely a prayerful paraphrase of Psalm 23 —was likely penned by Mrs. Dorothy Thrupp. Thrupp is responsible for a number of hymns oriented towards children, but the authorship is disputed, as this, with many of her hymns, were unsigned, or written under a pseudonym.
The words early became attached to the very “old-school Sunday school”-esqe American tune BRADBURY — named for the composer of the ditty — and it is thus here performed by the one-man acapella hymn team Elliot Bowman, who sings hymns in crisp and pure four-part harmonies on many online music platforms.
