Sunday July 11 Pentecost 7
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Psalm 114
Praise that God frightened the sea so the people could escape from Egypt and frightened the Jordan river so they could enter the land. Even mountains danced at these wondrous acts! God still does wondrous things.
Psalm 115
God, you are strong, we aren’t. The idols that other people worship are not real, but you are real—so, everyone, worship the real God.
The false idols such as power and wealth are still very much alive today, but only the true God of justice can give us full life.
1 Samuel 17: 50—18: 4 What’s Samuel about?
After his great victory over Goliath, David is summoned to Saul’s court, and becomes close friends with Jonathan, Saul’s son. Jonathan gives David his own royal clothes —symbolic of David, rather than Jonathan the king’s son, being called to be the next king. David now lives in the house of the person he will replace as king. We can see the ironies deepening as Saul’s rejection of God results in the inevitable consequence of his being rejected as king.
Matthew 23: 29-39 What’s Matthew about?
On Sundays we read from Matthew’s gospel. Jesus almost violently critiques the religious leaders who have abandoned the God of justice in order to persecute those who keep God’s justice—the holy and just. Matthew understands Jesus to have been aware of the destruction of Jerusalem that will happen at Roman hands forty years later when this gospel was being written. This disaster is being interpreted as the consequence of the leaders aligning themselves with Roman oppression and violence. “Your house is left to you desolate” refers to the temple as the “house” of God which was destroyed by the Romans.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
until they find their rest in you.
May we find peace in your service,
and in the world to come, see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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