Saturday July 6 Pentecost 6
Click here for simplified daily office prayers
Psalm 104
God has wondrously set everything in its place—from oceans to storks to whales to the sun. Praise to God who has made this earth and whose power and care is expressed in every part of the world.
Numbers 24.12-25 What’s Numbers about?
In several ancient oracles Balaam pronounces his final blessing on Israel and predicts the fall of the nations around. He proclaims that the God of Israel will act among the nations to ensure victory for the people to whom he is faithful. This concludes the story of Balaam the foreign wizard who is totally faithful to the God of Israel.
Matthew 22.23-40 What’s Matthew about?
Other religious leaders try to make Jesus’ assumption about life after death look foolish by pointing out the bizarre implication that if people are resurrected, someone who had been widowed multiple times would have to be a polygamist in heaven! Jesus responds that God is God of the living—in other words that in God’s new life all are alive in a new way that transcends how we live in this life, and that the leaders do not really believe in the new life. Another trick is tried—to get Jesus to take one side or another about the most important scripture—he responds with a well-known choice that the most important scripture is to love God and neighbour.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love fulfills the law.
May we love you with all our heart,
all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength,
and may we love our neighbour as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.