Tuesday August 17 Pentecost 12
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Psalm 124
We would have been destroyed in Egypt if God hadn’t been acting on our behalf. A beautiful short psalm of appreciation.
Psalm 125
A prayer that God will continue to protect God’s people by being like the protective hills around Jerusalem. God’s protection included ensuring that good people don’t turn to selfishness under pressure.
Psalm 126
Joyful memories of when they escaped from captivity by God’s act, and returned to their land. A prayer that God will do it again.
Psalm 127
It is useless to trust your own hard work—it is God who makes your household succeed.
2 Samuel 18: 9-18 What’s Samuel about?
Joab, David’s nephew, disobeys David and kills Absalom, David’s son. The plotting and chaos within the royal family continues.
Mark 11: 27—12: 12 What’s Mark about?
On Sunday Jesus had mocked the Roman army, on Monday he had disrupted the religious extortion of money used to pay for the occupation, so today he is confronted. Jesus claims John the Baptist as his mentor and asks if they agree. This puts the authorities in a quandary—if they agree with John the Baptist, the Romans may execute them the way they executed John for starting a rebellion. If they don’t support John’s teachings the people will hold them in contempt as collaborators with the Romans. Jesus is forcing them to choose between collaboration with injustice and the kingdom of God, a choice he has made in his actions the previous two days. They demur. They do not choose the kingdom of justice. Jesus then tells a story illustrating how the religious leaders are being unfaithful to God’s vineyard—a common symbol of the people of God. When they realize the story is a powerful denunciation of their betrayal of the people and of God, they determine to kill Jesus. Within a couple of days he will be dead.
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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