Saturday January 30 Epiphany 3
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Psalm 55
I am terrified at what is happening. The city is full of corruption and my dear familiar friend has betrayed me. I will not cease imploring God to intervene and put things right.
Appropriate for a Saturday, when Jesus, betrayed by friends, waits in silence in the grave.
Isaiah 51: 1-8
God speaks to those who have been captured and who are still committed to God’s justice and inclusion of all: don’t forget that your roots are in God like granite from a quarry and that the way things are now can be blown away like smoke and that the Babylonians who have conquered you will be like cloth eaten by moths.
Mark 7: 1-23
Jesus is in conflict with the religious leaders. They believe that loyalty to God means demonstrating that loyalty through religious rituals such as ritual washing before eating. This was not washing in our understanding of washing for sanitation but was a holiness ceremony. Jesus insists that doing justice is the sign of loyalty to God and that when scripture or religion becomes an excuse for injustice, then it is worse than worthless. Religion and scripture are of no use unless they express what is already inside us—the commitment to God’s justice and dignity for all. Being religious in order to get something for oneself is blasphemy. No wonder, Mark is saying, that the religious authorities reject Jesus.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
by grace alone you call us
and accept us in your service.
Strengthen us by your Spirit,
and make us worthy of your call;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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