Monday August 16 Pentecost 12
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Psalm 106 Part 2
In the wilderness the people repeatedly betrayed God, and then joined horrible religions when they entered the promised land, and there were terrible consequences. Even so, God took mercy on them when they were captured and influenced their captors to let them return.
2 Samuel 17: 24—18: 8 What’s Samuel about?
A battle between David’s army and Absalom’s is won by David. David gives express orders that his son Absalom is not to be killed. But accidents in the forest kill more soldiers than the actual fighting. Even the natural world is rising up against this royal violence, and as we will see tomorrow, may be an agent of God’s displeasure.
Mark 11: 12-26 What’s Mark about?
The story of Jesus cursing a fig tree for not having fruit before it was the season to have fruit is likely a parable Jesus told which was later misinterpreted as a actual event. Israel was often called God’s fig tree, and around the time Mark’s gospel was written, the temple in Jerusalem was permanently destroyed by the Roman empire. So the original parable was likely that Jesus was warning that Jerusalem, like a barren fig tree, was about to be destroyed even though, with Jesus present, it was the ideal time to bear the fruit of justice.
As Mark often does, he wraps one story around another story—the destruction of Jerusalem as a fig tree is wrapped around a second story—Jesus’ overthrowing the tables of the money changers. In the outside story the city—as a fig tree—bears no fruit and is cursed, and in the inside story the religious officials have given their loyalty to the oppression of Rome and so bear no fruit and are overturned.
Jesus overthrew the temple money tables the day after mocking the Roman empire by riding a donkey into the city. The money changers were forcing worshippers to pay exorbitant taxes to the priests who passed the money on to the Roman emperor. Jesus objects to this extortion of the poorest people to support the wealthy in Rome and is incensed that this would happen in the building dedicated to the God of justice whose priority is to include the poor. This action is popular among the poor and no wonder the priests and others start to look for ways to execute him. Each night he leaves the city for the safety of the country.
Today’s passage concludes with Jesus encouraging his disciples, who are us, to trust in our urgent prayers for God’s victory over oppression in the face of overwhelming abusive power, and never to be seduced into violence—that’s the meaning of Jesus’ exhortation that we forgive in prayer so that we are not seduced into responding to violence with more violence of our own.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and sent into our hearts the Spirit of your Son.
Give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that all people may know the glorious liberty
of the children of God;
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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