Friday June 18 Pentecost 3
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Psalm 88
A lament that I have been crushed and am beyond hope. When I am dead, there is nothing left, there is no life beyond the grave.
Astonishingly, to be fully with us, Jesus enters completely into such a death. This psalm is appropriately read on a Friday as Jesus is placed in the grave. Only God’s act, on Saturday night—the eve of the resurrection—can reverse death—even Jesus’ death. That’s the only hope there is.
1 Samuel 3: 1-21 What’s Samuel about?
God now speaks through Samuel to warn Eli about his sons. But Samuel is very young and does not understand at first that it is God speaking. When he hears the message, Samuel is afraid to tell Eli and tries to hide it from him. When Eli insists on hearing it, he accepts the consequences of having done nothing to stop his sons’ abuse of vulnerable people.
It takes courage for us, as for Samuel, to hear the call to justice and to confront those in authority, but God persists in calling us to speak the truth when the poor are being exploited.
Luke 21: 5-19 What’s Luke about?
For the next couple of days we read Luke’s description of Jesus’ final conversations before Judas decides to betray him. These talks are set in the then-popular style of writing called “apocalyptic”, used by many people at that time, to describe frightening events at the end of the world. Because the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and its temple not long before Luke wrote, Luke understands that Jesus spoke about those frightening events long before they happened, using the apocalyptic style to describe them. The significance of the events, according to Jesus, is to insist that God’s justice and care are even more powerful than the worst oppressive violence we can experience and to call us to confidence even in the most difficult times.
“By your endurance you will gain your souls” means that by refusing to join in the chaos and allow it into our lives, we remain people of the victorious God of justice and stay alive—an important calling to us in our time.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God, without you we are not able to please you.
Mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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