Friday February 26 Lent 1
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Psalm 40
When I was in great trouble, God lifted me up and I rejoiced in God’s care. But now my own sin, and my enemies, have nearly destroyed me. Do not wait any longer, God!
Christians often use this and Psalm 54 on Fridays to mark the mini-anniversary of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Psalm 54
I am in dire straights. Put everything back to right, God. I praise you, because you have done that.
Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Moses continues to describe God’s generosity as the people prepare to enter the land God promised them. Because God was so generous to you, when you were a people worth nothing (they had no power and no moral qualities) they must now act with generosity to everyone (especially those of no power – the orphans and widows), and even to non-Jews (the “strangers” who were thought to have no moral standards). Such attitudes of generous inclusion of those without power or reputation were unheard-of at the time, as they still are today.
The commandment to circumcise, as a way of personally experiencing the sacrifice that Abraham was prepared to offer in Isaac, arises from God’s care for them when they were of no value. They are to make circumcision not a physical surgery, but a “circumcision of the heart” – their loyalty to God is to be shown in their attitude to the poor and the stranger, not just in physical circumcision. Paul will later expand this idea by arguing that physical circumcision is of no value if it does not result in Christ-like sacrificial love.
This idea that Moses speaks of underlies the entire Old Testament: that God chose to rescue a tiny culture that wouldn’t make God look impressive. The only reason God rescued them is that God’s central character is generous inclusive justice to the oppressed. The implication is that the Israelites are therefore required to treat other poor people with equal care. Not to do so is to court disaster. The same applies no less to us today.
John 3: 22-36
For the early Christians there was an ongoing controversy about whether John the Baptist was more important than Jesus. After all, John the Baptist had initiated a revolt against the Roman occupation by leading people across the Jordan river and thus symbolically re-taking the land. Today’s conversation is about why Jesus is the more important.
Firstly, Jesus is also baptizing and more people are following him. Second, John the Baptist suggests that Jesus is the bridegroom at a wedding (notice how John the writer is still using the image of a wedding), and that John the Baptist, like the best man at a wedding, is delighted when the groom gets all the attention. John, was suggesting that allowing Jesus to have the attention, and not ourselves, is the best evangelism.
Finally, this conversation concludes with the idea that Jesus comes from heaven, in contrast to John the Baptist who came from the earth, and that people who trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection live life fully and those who don’t, but trust in their own self-centredness, will have miserable lives. John the Baptist is doing exactly that by insisting that he become less important and that Jesus take centre stage.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are but did not sin, give us grace to discipline ourselves
in submission to your Spirit,
that as you know our weakness,
so we may know your power to save;
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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