Saturday July 17 Pentecost 7
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Psalm 42
When I am very discouraged, I will remember to put my trust in God. The refrains in these two psalms are said by many Christian priests before presiding at the Eucharist to confess their own sins and to trust in God.
Psalm 43
This psalm is said by many Christian priests as they prepare to go to the altar to preside at a eucharist.
1 Samuel 22: 1-23 What’s Samuel about?
David gathers followers. Saul kills the priests who had assisted David. This is a terrible sacrilegious act, and because the priests were the symbol of God of justice this demonstrates that Saul is not worthy to be king. He has raised his defiance of justice to such an extreme level that his reign cannot continue.
It is not hard to identify parallels in our time, but the challenge for us is to trust that God’s justice is ultimately supreme, whatever happens.
Mark 3: 19b-35 What’s Mark about?
Criticism of Jesus increases. Because his priorities are so out of sync with his society’s, his family thinks he is mentally ill. Religious leaders see him as the incarnation of evil. Jesus responds to the accusation that he can cast out evil only because he is a stronger evil, by pointing out the inconsistency—how can it be evil to heal people? If that is what evil is doing, more power to it—then evil has destroyed itself if it does good! He goes on to say that to deliberately describe something as evil which you know is good, will cut you off from life—this is the so-called unforgivable sin. Returning the attention to his family’s criticism, he insists that all who are connected to God’s justice are his family—so all Jesus’ followers must therefore be mentally ill! He is turning our assumptions, about what makes sense, upside down.
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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