Tuesday November 16 Pentecost 25
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Psalm 94
Those who oppress and abuse think that God does not care. How wrong they are! God created us, do they think God doesn’t know what is going on? God will act to remove the evil and support us. Some of the feelings in this psalm sound vindictive, but the underlying intention is that God should restore order in the world of human relationships. If oppression has full reign, there will be chaos.
Note that “just deserts” means “what is deserved,” not miles of sand or miss-spelled sweet food at the end of a meal!
Psalm 95
The daily office uses the first half of this psalm every morning. We praise God for God’s creation of the world and for our safety in God. Notice that the psalm assumes there are many gods, but that our God (of justice) is in charge of all of them. The second half is a warning that abandoning God by following evil ways, as the people did in the wilderness, will have consequences.
1 Maccabees 3: 25-41 What’s Maccabees about?
Following the successful revolt by the Maccabean brothers, King Antiochus of Greece is detained by financial issues and chooses Lysias to to lead half the Greek army to crush the rebellion. Lysias leads enormous forces to destroy the temple and enslave the Jews.
Notice the sophistication of the writer—living under Greek rule 200 years before Jesus, he is aware of the impact of international finance on political and military decisions. Earlier writers would have attributed Antiochus’ absence to God’s direct action. Perhaps this writer sees God working even through international finance to achieve protection for the Jewish people.
Matthew 17: 14-21 What’s Matthew about?
Following the revelation of Jesus’ glory the disciples are unable to throw out a demon. Jesus uses the incident to indicate that even the smallest amount of trust is more than sufficient for God to accomplish through us what otherwise seems impossible. Moving mountains is not to be taken as a geological prediction—the mountains to be moved are those of our world’s oppressive policies—the tiniest amount of trust in God’s victory is enough to accomplish more than we could have imagined.
Mark, in his gospel, remembers in this incident Jesus simply saying that the disciples couldn’t throw out the demon because prayer was required. But in Matthew’s time the Christian community is under pressure and feeling helpless, so Matthew remembers Jesus reassuring the community of God’s immense power—enough to move mountains—working through them despite their tiny faith which makes them unable to throw out a demon.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you sent your Son Jesus Christ
to be the light of the world.
Free us from all that darkens and ensnares us,
and bring us to eternal light and joy;
through the power of him
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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