Wednesday March 16 Lent 2
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Psalm 72
A prayer that the king will rule with justice for the poor, and that as a result all will have more than enough to live fully. This can easily applied as a prayer for our political leaders today.
Early Christians saw in this psalm, perhaps originally intended as a prayer that king David would rule with justice, an affirmation of the new world order being instituted by the birth of Christ.
Genesis 42.18-28 What’s Genesis about?
Joseph requires that one of his brothers remain hostage in Egypt to ensure that they will return and bring the youngest brother. In that way they have the option of abandoning the brother kept hostage in same way they abandoned Joseph. Joseph secretly returns their entire payment for the food, and, not knowing it is Joseph who has done it, they are terrified because they believe they are being framed for theft from the Pharaoh—a capital offence. They interpret this as God punishing them for their attempted murder of Joseph. They are beginning to take responsibility for what they had done.
Mark 4.1-20 What’s Mark about?
Jesus’ famous parable about the sower and the seeds. Originally Jesus probably meant to use an obvious common experience (wonderful harvests happen even though most of the seeds which were planted never grow) to say that no matter how much opposition his followers, or the kingdom, encounters, God’s generous plenty always wins in the end. It is a very effective image, experienced by all who would have heard Jesus.
The subsequent explanation that each example of seeds has a special meaning was probably added later by an early Christian who misunderstood the story and thought Jesus had been explaining why, among the early Christian community formed after his death and resurrection, some people remained committed, and others didn’t.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God, whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross,
give us faith to perceive his glory,
that being strengthened by his grace
we may be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Here’s Norman Fischer’s translation of Psalm 25 (1-7)
We are here
Singing to you
Erupting into shouting
At the place of the rock of our salvation
Coming gratefully and gracefully before you here
Affirming with our words, the music of our mouths
That we are possessed by you, yours entirely
For you give us the gift of sovereignty
A power above all others
The majesty of our absolutely being
You whose hands touch the earth’s depths
Whose heart pierces the mountain peak
The always changing sea is yours for it exists because of you
And your hands have formed the firmness of the lands
So we come in awe, offering the earth and sea of ourselves to you
Bending what we are toward you, shaper of us
For you are our beyond and we are your doing
Sheep who graze in your pastures, animated by your hand
If only we could awaken to it!