Friday October 1 Pentecost 18
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Psalm 102
A lament at the destruction of Jerusalem 600 years before Jesus. It ends with hope of God’s faithfulness. The imagery of desolation is appropriate for Fridays, the mini-anniversary of Jesus being betrayed, abandoned, and in hours will be dead. Yet God will remain faithful.
2 Kings 19: 1-20 What’s Kings about?
When king Hezekiah hears that the Assyrians are planning to attack, he prays to God for help against the Assyrians, and Isaiah affirms that God will respond.
The writers are saying that God’s faithfulness is illustrated in God postponing the disaster because of Hezekiah’s faithfulness.
Matthew 8: 1-17 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus brings the kingdom of God to several unlikely people: a leper is cured (leprosy was considered incurable), a Roman soldier’s slave (Romans were hated for being the military occupiers) but the Roman trusts more deeply than anyone Jesus has met, and finally a woman, Peter’s mother-in-law. In each case, Jesus is enacting God’s love beyond what was normal immediately after having given the new version of the Ten Commandments. Jesus has proclaimed the kingdom and immediately it comes to pass.
This week’s collect:
Grant, O merciful God,
that your Church,
being gathered by your Holy Spirit into one,
may show forth your power among all peoples,
to the glory of your name;
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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