Saturday June 26 Pentecost 4
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Psalm 107 Part 2
When the Israelites completed their journey through the wilderness God brought disaster on the evil people who lived there (as the Israelites understood them) to make a fertile place for God’s own people. When God’s people were oppressed, God rescued them. Wise people, the poem says, will take this to heart and will trust in God’s care and justice to prevail.
One of our tasks today is to cultivate that trust in God’s care for humanity so that when disaster happens in our world we will have something solid to offer.
1 Samuel 9: 15—10.1 What’s Samuel about?
Saul is indeed from humble origins—the least important family in the least important tribe—exactly the person with the right experience who God needs as king to ensure justice and dignity for all Israelites. God instructs Samuel to anoint Saul as king.
This anointing is still used for British kings and queens. It symbolizes that the monarch is accountable to God as a way of ensuring the monarch does not abuse their power but is committed to God’s justice for all.
Luke 22: 39-53 What’s Luke about?
Jesus is abandoned even by his disciples who cannot stay awake with him in Gethsemane. Jesus heals the wound a disciple inflicts on one of the poorest—a servant of those coming to kill him. The darkness seems to engulf Jesus as he is arrested. Again, Jesus refuses the tools of death to try to defeat death. Instead he will use the tools of love.
This seems at first a strange series of passages to read at a time other than Good Friday, but in the cycle of reading through all the gospels it reminds us that God’s self-offering in Jesus is happening all day every day.
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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