Thursday June 24 Pentecost 4
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Psalm 105 Part 1
Praise to God for caring for and protecting the people—God looked after them before they were enslaved in Egypt, and prepared them for rescue from famine by arranging for Joseph to become the Pharaoh’s senior officer. God is committed through a covenant to do this forever. The second half of the poem will continue the story with God’s rescue of them from Egypt, God’s care for them in the wilderness, and God’s gift of a promised land.
1 Samuel 8: 1-22 What’s Samuel about?
In old age, Samuel’s sons behave in the same abusive way as did Eli’s sons. The people therefore ask God to provide them with a king. But the people, who say they hope the king will bring justice, are really hoping a king will bring them wealth as they see has happened with other nations. Samuel warns them that abandoning justice in this way will only result in disaster and more oppression because the kings will seek their own wealth at the expense of ordinary people. God relents, and allows the people to have a king, but only as a way of proving that abandoning justice has terrible and inevitable consequences. Samuel resists because he knows that kings will abuse the people with their power.
Following the release from captivity in Babylon, many centuries after Samuel’s time, the authors arranged these ancient stories to demonstrate that the defeat and exile by Babylon was the fault of the kings leading the people into oppression and injustice to the poor. These stories about Eli and Samuel not preventing their children from committing injustices show how far back this abandoning of God was taking place. Even back then, the God of justice cannot allow injustice to happen without consequences.
This makes so much sense of what is going on in our world.
Luke 22: 24-30 What’s Luke about?
During the Last Supper the disciples speculate about which of them is the betrayer but immediately begin to fight among themselves for seniority—which is itself a form of betrayal in which they all take part. Jesus points out that he is doing exactly the opposite. He is acting as their servant so that they may all have exalted positions at God’s banquet. They have not grasped how fulfillment is achieved in God’s world—by those who enable others to be fulfilled.
The disciples still think that God is offering a contract: “Love each other, and I will give you honour in heaven”, so they argue about who has done this loving the best so they can claim honour in heaven! We are intended to be amused and horrified at their total lack of understanding and at their self-centredness. Jesus is actually saying, “The ability to sacrifice something significant for another person is itself the experience of being infinitely alive.” God, in Jesus, is about to do exactly that, but the disciples don’t yet grasp it. Like them, we also don’t see this until we, like them, experience some form of Christ’s resurrection.
This week’s collect:
O God our defender,
storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid.
Rescue your people from despair,
deliver your sons and daughters from fear,
and preserve us all from unbelief;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and ever. Amen.
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