Tuesday June 8 Pentecost 2
Click here for simplified daily office prayers
Psalm 61
I was burdened and God became my strength—be with me always.
Psalm 62
In face of evil, we trust in God to be our solid foundation.
Deuteronomy 30.11-20 What’s Deuteronomy about?
The commandment to be just is not difficult because it is already who we are in our most central part of ourselves. Why else would we be so insistent on justice when we are offended? If we see its centrality for ourselves, then it is easy to see its centrality for others. Moses makes it clear that this is the way of life and that to choose otherwise is to die. So choose life!
Being released from Babylon was the way the Israelites had received life from God after their enslavement, and the compilers of the ancient texts realized that to retain life the people must continue to choose it by choosing the same generosity and justice to each other as God had generously given them. Without that justice they would again become enslaved.
Luke 19: 1-10 What’s Luke about?
Jesus invites himself into the home of a rich traitor who has become wealthy by organizing contracts with the Roman army to violently extort money from his own people. Jesus is criticized for socializing with such a traitor, but the traitor commits to repay all his extortion with interest. Jesus says this is how the kingdom comes—precisely to those whose greed has led them to be rightly hated. Such people are warmly welcomed into the kingdom, upsetting all our usual assumptions about what is fair.
This week’s collect:
O God,
you have assured the human family of eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in him,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Click here to share a comment on the web site.