Monday April 29 Easter 5
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Psalm 64
The wicked are very clever, but God will defeat them, and everyone will be in awe at God’s power to restore goodness.
Psalm 65
God, you blot out our sins even though they are stronger than we, and just as generously you clothe creation with plenty, and with great goodness. God’s generosity extends to the furthermost ocean and to the gentle rain—water is a recurring image in this psalm. It ends with some other lovely images of hills, meadows, and valleys wearing clothes of joy and plenty.
Leviticus 16.1-19 What’s Leviticus about?
These passages are fascinating insights into the minds of those who, a thousand years later, after their release from Babylon, were editing and arranging the traditions about how the long-abandoned temple sacrifices were to happen. While some of the details seem foreign to us, we can identify with the intention to give honour and glory to our ultimate source, God, and to re-commit ourselves to love, and to love for the community, which we now call inclusive justice.
Aaron, the priest, is to be as holy as possible, in other words as just as possible, which includes admitting to his unjust actions. The threat of death for not performing the details correctly would originally have conveyed the urgency of religion embodying justice—to not take justice and inclusion of all seriously is to endanger humanity, a very real danger in our time, as we are now discovering. The animals to be sacrificed demonstrate Aaron’s commitment to God’s justice. One goat is to be selected to carry the sins of the people away—this is God’s method of ensuring that injustice is forgiven—sins are removed by being carried away into the desert, not by the goat being killed. The animals to be killed are immensely valuable, and as males, in their understanding, the source of life itself. To give the source of life back to God demonstrates how deeply committed the people are to remaining in God’s justice.
Some details of these ceremonies, the white under-garment for example, are still practiced by priests in liturgical traditions who wear a white alb while presiding at the Eucharist, the re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice.
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Matthew 6.1-6, 16-18 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus continues his requirement for a level of integrity that does not have self-interest at the centre of religious practices—providing assistance to the poor, prayer, and fasting are never to be done to make the worshipper look good. Be sure, Jesus says, that you are loving the poor and loving God for their own sake, not as a way of getting status for yourself. You should do these things, Jesus says, in such a way that nobody knows. That will guarantee that your love is genuine and not for your own benefit. This is one of Matthew’s themes—integrity in our worship and service is essential.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
Give us grace to love one another
and walk in the way of his commandments,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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