Thursday October 31 Pentecost 23
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Psalm 50
This psalm imagines God’s response to the people carrying out their religious practices but doing evil and abandoning justice. Rather than simply reacting or punishing, God lays out the case as if God were taking them to court-the idea is that God is being completely fair and getting an unbiased opinion about what the people have done. They have refused to be thankful for what God has done for them in rescuing them from Egypt and have substituted religion for being just to their own poor people and if this continues there will be consequences, but if they return to justice and thanksgiving all will be well.
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 31.12-18, 25-32.2 What’s Ecclesiasticus about?
Advice about good table manners regarding food and wine and presiding at feasts.
Luke 11.53-12.12 What’s Luke about?
After Jesus’ scathing criticism of religious leaders yesterday it is no wonder they begin to plan to execute him. If Jesus is in danger, that means his disciples will be, too. But Jesus encourages his disciples not to be concerned about physical persecution but to be concerned about those who could take away their trust in the kingdom. If sparrows and hairs are individually counted by God, how much more we can trust in God’s power and care for us. Abandoning the kingdom by following greed is to abandon life because we already have everything we need in God’s kingdom.
The “sin against the Holy Spirit” is best understood where Jesus first mentioned it, in Mark’s gospel, the one written closest to Jesus’ life. In Mark it is clear that people who deliberately describe love and truth as if they were evil have crossed a boundary after which, if they continue to deny that good things that are actually good, then they don’t want to change, and so forgiveness doesn’t happen for them. If they really insist good things are evil, then they are rejecting the good forgiveness that God wants them to have and they will call that forgiveness evil. God’s love is so deep God won’t force them to accept forgiveness and so they aren’t because they don’t want to be forgiven. Have a look at Mark 3: 21-30.
This week’s collect:
Lord God our redeemer,
who heard the cry of your people
and sent your servant Moses
to lead them out of slavery,
free us from the tyranny of sin and death,
and by the leading of your Spirit
bring us to our promised land;
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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