Tuesday September 3 Pentecost 15
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Psalm 36
People who pursue evil are strong and clever. But God’s love and generosity are much greater than they are.
Psalm 39
Our lives are very short, care for us, loving God, in the short time we have.
Job 12.1, 13.3-17, 21-27 What’s Job about?
Job longs to accuse God of not being faithful. He accuses his friends of being unfaithful by falsely representing God as being just, and not fearing that God will find out their partiality. He accuses his friends of being worthless helpers because they will not face the truth—that God has acted unjustly. Even if God kills him, Job will insist on telling the truth—that he has done nothing to deserve his disaster. God is so great, why should God bother to terrify someone so insignificant as Job? Job suggests that by doing so, God is simply a bully, but Job will not stop telling the truth about what God has done.
John 8.31-47 What’s John about?
Jesus continues the discussion about where he comes from. His opponents claim they do not need him because they are already free being descendants of Abraham. Jesus responds that if they are descended from Abraham they would listen to God and know that that is where Jesus comes from. They repeat the accusation that Jesus has no father, a terrible insult. Jesus responds that their father must be the devil because if they were from God they would know Jesus has not sinned and they would listen to him because they would know that he is from God.
These arguments are convoluted from our perspective but probably reflect the ways in which early Christians were defending the faith from attack. In our day the same controversies still happen—is Jesus a kindly teacher like those of any other faith or of common sense, or is he, especially in his violent execution, the image of God? As traditional faith becomes less and less normative in the West, these alternative ideas about Jesus being of no special significance are ones which contemporary Christians must learn to counter.
This week’s collect:
Author and Giver of all good things,
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us in all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
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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