Tuesday March 29 Lent 4
Click here for simplified daily office prayers
Psalm 97
God’s power in creation is an expression of God’s commitment to justice—righteousness and justice are the foundations of God’s throne and therefore of all creation. We can count on God to uphold those who are without power as surely as we experience enormous power in creation. A wonderful image for our age when science shows us so much power in creation – dignity and justice are equally embedded.
Psalm 99
God’s justice was shown in the way God rescued the people from slavery and cared for them throughout history. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 100
A short hymn of praise that God has remained faithful forever.
Genesis 49.29-50.14 What’s Genesis about?
Joseph buries his father in the place that Abraham had legally bought for burial. This will provides a legal basis for the Israelites’ claim to settle in Canaan after they escape from Egypt generations later. Large numbers of Egyptians accompany Joseph and his family, thereby providing legal and political support for their subsequent entry into the land. Joseph and all his family return to Egypt.
Long after, they will be enslaved by the Egyptians and God will again act to rescue them – nothing ever prevents God’s commitment to humanity from being fulfilled.
Christians see the final fulfillment of God’s commitment to humanity in the death and resurrection of Christ in whom humanity becomes who we really are.
Mark 8.1-10 What’s Mark about?
Jesus is still in the region where the aboriginal people lived. He feeds four thousand of them from seven loaves and has seven baskets left over. There were seven aboriginal nations that the Israelites had been told to exterminate when they escaped from Egypt and entered the land, so it is clear that Jesus is including them as equals. The seven left over baskets show that God has more than enough food for every tribe whom they had thought God had commanded they exterminate, and there’s still lots of food.
Notice that this miracle happens after the crowd has been “three days” with Jesus. In the gospels “three days” is often a reference to Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. Mark seems to be saying that despised people will be given an overwhelming resurrection.
It’s not hard to imagine the implications for our time as we take responsibility for those our culture despised and attempted to annihilate.
This week’s collect:
Gracious Father,
whose blessed Son came from heaven
to be the true bread which gives life to the world,
evermore give us this bread,
that he may live in us, and we in him,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.