Pastor Albert Douglass, Upper Dublin Lutheran Church, Ambler, PA, offers a daily Bible reading with some reflections for personal study.

He is currently working through the OT readings for Year One of the Daily Lectionary in Lutheran Book of Worship.

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Here is a sample reflection:

Today's reading: Jeremiah 29:1-14

Synopsis: Jeremiah sent a letter, the word of the Lord, to the people in exile in Babylon. The people were to live full lives in Babylon. Instead of listening to prophets who diverted their loyalty to the city in which they now lived, they were to pray for the welfare of their foreign home. After seventy years of exile God would fulfill the promise he is making to bring them back home. When they come home, they will be a new people with an intimate relationship with God.

Reflection: At the garage today, I was enjoying a conversation with my good friends who are also my mechanics. They are a father, a son-in-law, and a son. Since the son has been married for a few years, we enjoy talking about the role of husbands. The father was married the same year as I, and our wives of thirty-three years are good friends.

It was pointed out to us old guys that relationships are more challenging today. Assumptions about the roles we play in marriage must be replaced with lots of conversation and negotiation. For a moment, I felt like the younger guys saw me as an alien in a new world. Life has a way of doing that to us all. Just when we think we figured it out, the rules seem to change.

The rules changed for Judah because the old way separated them from God. Now as aliens, they were told to roll-up their sleeves and participate in this new community, relying on God as they made a home for themselves.

We too can hear this word of God. We can curse our world and hate the strangeness and alienation we feel. Or we can make a home, pray for our neighbors, and trust that God is working to build a new relationship with us that we don't fully understand, but will be made clear.

By the way, the woman I married in 1967 is as much a part of the twenty-first century as my young friend's bride. I am learning not to make assumptions, and we do talk a lot. The only way we made it this far in this new world of human relationships is lots of prayer, and a joyful confidence that God is working with us to allow our marriage to fulfill God will. God's word is encouraging us to remember what God did with the people of Israel when they were in exile whenever we feel exiled, alienated, or isolated.

Saturday: Jeremiah 31:27-34

Sunday: Zechariah 9:9-12

Monday: Jeremiah 11:18-20

Tuesday: Jeremiah 15:10-21