Thursday April 21 Easter Thursday
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Psalm 146
Joy in God’s victorious justice for the oppressed, the blind, the strangers and the orphans—that justice for all is built into God’s magnificent creation. Appropriate for a Sunday, which is the anniversary of the resurrection—God’s victory over all evil.
Psalm 147
God’s wondrous creation and God’s commitment to justice are intertwined. Other cultures are not aware of this. What a helpful insight in our day!
Exodus 13.3-10 What’s Exodus about?
Moses commands that there be an annual anniversary to remember God’s act of justice in saving the people from slavery. Only unleavened bread shall be eaten for an entire week to symbolize the urgency with which the Israelites had to leave—there wasn’t time to let bread rise with yeast in the usual way. The urgency with which they had to leave so suddenly demonstrated that they did not plan their escape—it was entirely a gift from God and God’s initiative. Even when they have plenty of goods in the distant future, they are not to stop this annual fast from normal bread—they are to remain in solidarity with those who are desperate for justice.
Matthew 28.16-20 What’s Matthew about?
In Matthew, Jesus meets his disciples in Galilee—some considerable distance from Jerusalem because that is where their community was originally formed. It is interesting that Matthew acknowledges that even then there were people who doubted that the resurrection had happened. The disciples are mandated to take to the whole world the message of God’s victory over death symbolized in the drowning and rising of baptism.
This week’s collect:
Lord of life and power,
through the mighty resurrection of your Son,
you have overcome the old order of sin and death
and have made all things new in him.
May we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
reign with him in glory,
who with you and the Holy Spirit is alive,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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