Sunday August 22 Pentecost 13
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Psalm 111
God’s work of justice and restoration of the people are marvellous and we are in awe of God.
Psalm 112
People who are loyal to the God of justice and generosity are never afraid and are always generous.
Psalm 113
Praise God who has made creation and who lifts the poor up out of the dust like the sun shining on everyone.
2 Samuel 24: 1-25 What’s Samuel about?
David decides to take a census of all the people who could be soldiers. By doing this he is not trusting God from whom all victories really come. God offers three punishments, and David chooses that there be a deadly disease. But when David sees God’s angel bringing death to the people he pleads that it is not right that the people suffer for his sin, so he insists on buying a plot of land on which to sacrifice to God and the plague is averted. This plot, which was believed to have been the location of Abraham’s planned sacrifice of his son, will become the place of sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem and by insisting on purchasing the land David makes the site to be legally owned so that the temple can be built there. By concluding the book with this purchase, the writers direct our attention to David’s son Solomon who will build the temple on this site and be the subject of the next book.
This concludes the books of Samuel which trace the evil and good in the lives of the first two kings of Israel. We now turn to the books of Kings, which recount the gradually increasing oppression and injustice carried out by subsequent kings which were understood to have caused the downfall of the nation when it is conquered in 600 BC.
John 8: 12-20 What’s John about?
Jesus is confronting the religious leaders and uses legal arguments to insist that he is the image of God. He is being accused of self-serving by insisting that he is the image of God, but he responds by claiming that God is an independent witness who corroborates his claim.
We can perhaps overhear the Christians of the writer’s time struggling with why many people still rejected Jesus eighty years after his earthly life. The explanation of this failure to persuade people was that if you know God as profoundly opposed to injustice and exhibiting a depth of love that may involve self-sacrifice, then you will recognize that Jesus is the image of God. Either your eyes are open and you see God in Christ or you don’t—the responsibility is ours to see the truth and respond, not Christ’s responsibility to prove himself to us.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
we are taught by your word
that all our doings without love are worth nothing.
Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts
that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtue;
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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