Readings for Wednesday March 30

Wednesday March 30          Lent 4

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Psalm 101
I am determined to live a life of justice and not to support exploitation.

Psalm 109
A desperate plea for God’s assistance, and rejoicing that God is faithful to the poor. The middle section, which uses violent images against those who oppress the powerless, expresses a profound desire that oppression be removed from the world. At the conclusion the writer rejoices that God is committed to the needy and to protecting those who are unjustly accused.

Genesis 50.15-26                           What’s Genesis about?
Joseph again reiterates that God has been behind all that has happened, even the betrayal by his brothers, and therefore he can be reconciled with them.

Then suddenly Joseph is old and about to die—the story-teller has no interest in casual details about his life. The point is that God has ensured that despite treachery by family and treachery by enemies and despite Joseph’s being the most junior in the family, God’s commitment that they will become a great nation will not be not thwarted by anything. Joseph insists that he be buried in Canaan and thus expresses ultimate trust that God’s promise to them, of being given that land in the distant future, will happen.

We have come to the conclusion of the Book of Genesis, and the scene is set for yet another rescue by God described in the Book of Exodus when a later Pharaoh enslaves the people and God rescues them.

In our day the covenant may be that humanity will always be given the opportunity to become what we were created to be—a full example of God’s love to one another. Like the writers of Genesis, are we looking to see ways in which God is enabling that to happen in our time despite all the forces that seem to make it impossible?

Mark 8.11-26                           What’s Mark about?
More conflict with the religious leaders. They want Jesus to prove he is God. Jesus refuses because his role is not to prove who belongs and who doesn’t, but to enact God’s kingdom based on inclusion of all people without exception.

He then tells his disciples that everyone belongs, as he has just enacted that in the two overwhelmingly generous feedings—one for Jews and one for non-Jews. But the disciples do not understand—the idea that everyone belongs to the kingdom of fulfilment is impossible for them to imagine.

Jesus then heals a blind man, but the healing is only partial at first. In the same way, the disciples’ eyes are about to be opened in tomorrow’s reading, and they will see, but only partially at first, how it is that the kingdom of inclusion for all can happen.

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.

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