Sunday November 3 Pentecost 24
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Psalm 24
While entering through the doors of the temple the poet sings a hymn of praise to God who brought order out of the dangerous primordial ocean. Appropriate for a Sunday as we enter into our worship.
Psalm 29
Astonishment at the overwhelming presence of God in nature who rules the untameable ocean and even makes mountains cavort like calves and oak trees “writhe” in a gale! We worship such a God, who makes such strength and peace available to us.
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 36.1-17 What’s Ecclesiasticus about?
Prayers that God will favour Jerusalem and the people against their oppressors.
Matthew 18.21-35 What’s Matthew about?
Peter has realised that an expectation of extreme generosity is the norm in Jesus’ new society but Peter is sure there have to be limits. In response, Jesus makes the expectation of generosity virtually infinite. He illustrates this with a story he tells to Peter about a high-status slave who must have been a skilled accountant and has borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from his owner. When the slave pleads for mercy and for time to repay, his owner cancels the entire amount as if it were a trifle. But the same slave is then merciless to a poor slave and his family who owe him a trifling amount of money. Peter is right about their being limits to forgiving, but not in the way he thought. If we do not enact the unlimited forgiveness we have received, we put ourselves outside the kingdom of Jesus’ new society, the kingdom of life. That’s how serious Jesus is about enacting the generous inclusion of all-including even those who have hurt us.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
whose chosen servant Abraham obeyed your call,
rejoicing in your promise
that in him the family of the earth is blessed,
give us faith like his,
that in us your promises may be fulfilled;
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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