Sunday July 4 Pentecost 6
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Psalm 146
Joy in God’s victorious justice for the oppressed, the blind, the strangers and the orphans—that justice for all is built into God’s magnificent creation. Appropriate for a Sunday, which is the anniversary of the resurrection—God’s victory over all evil.
Psalm 147
God’s wondrous creation and God’s commitment to justice are intertwined. Other cultures are not aware of this. What a helpful insight in our day!
1 Samuel 14: 36-45 What’s Samuel about?
God does not respond to Sauls’ enquiry about completing the destruction of the Philistines, and Saul consults an ancient ceremony to determine who is at fault. The Urim and Thummim may have been like holy dice to be thrown to reveal God’s answer to a question. The answer is that Jonathan is at fault for eating a tiny amount of honey when Saul had laid an oath on everyone not to eat and so had caused the soldiers to be faint and not complete the killing of the Philistines. So it is really Saul’s fault. Saul moves to execute Jonathan, his son, but the people insist that Jonathan be allowed to live.
We see Johnathan’s growing popularity is undermining Saul’s authority, and so God’s rejection of Saul is happening through normal events. God doesn’t need to intervene dramatically, the writer is saying, rejecting God’s justice has consequences that cannot be avoided.
Matthew 22: 1-14 What’s Matthew about?
On Sundays we are reading through Matthew’s gospel, so we leave Luke’s gospel for today and return to it tomorrow. In Jesus’ story today a king (probably a very wealthy lord) is enraged by the deliberate insults of those invited to celebrate with him who accept his invitation, and then when the massive amount of food is ready, deliberately don’t turn up. This is a disaster in a time when there are no methods of preserving food. The king does the unthinkable and returns the insult by showering honour and food upon anyone available—he is proclaiming that even the scum of society are worth more to him than his former wealthy friends! It could be that this story is based on an actual incident known to Jesus and his hearers.
In the story the king then slaughters those who insulted him and throws into prison someone not dressed as his wealthy friends would have been. Matthew is often stern in his gospel about saying that following Christ isn’t a casual matter—our life depends upon our accepting God’s invitation to live in God’s justice.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ has taught us
that what we do for the least of your children
we do also for him.
Give us the will to serve others
as he was the servant of all,
who gave up his life and died for us,
but lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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