Thursday September 19 Pentecost 17
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Psalm 74
About 600 years before Jesus, the Babylonians invaded Israel and the Jerusalem temple was completely destroyed. This was a time of deep despair, and many thought Judaism would disappear forever. The psalm asks God to remember what great things God did in controlling the forces of nature when God made the world, and how God rescued the people from Egypt, and to do great things again to rescue the people. They trust this is possible because God is in charge of the whole earth. We face similar issues in terms of the entire planet in our time.
Job 28.1-28 What’s Job about?
The lectionary has placed this earlier chapter at the end of the readings as a summary of the whole book. Job is comparing the determination with which ancient miners probed underground for valuable jewels, with the fact that humans have no idea where to find wisdom. In the end God is the source of wisdom and by being loyal to God we come to understand why things are the way they are. Just as Job himself finally comes to know that all things, even the injustice he has experienced himself, are all in God’s hands.
Tomorrow we return to a more traditional interpretation of how God works, and begin reading the book of Esther.
John 12.27-36a What’s John about?
Jesus commits himself to die, and the crowd hears God’s affirmation, although some think it was just a natural phenomenon.
The same decision between these two options faces people of our time—will everything work out automatically, or do sacrifices need to be made in our relationships and national life for the good to triumph?
The reference about seeing in the light and Jesus hiding, mean that a person just has to see the truth of this—the writer thought that no arguments or demonstrations are sufficient—you either see that love works like that, and you offer your life to someone in love for them, and then you see that God is exactly like that, or you don’t see it. It can’t be proven.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you call your Church to witness
that in Christ we are reconciled to you.
Help us so to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may turn to you;
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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