Sunday September 1 Pentecost 15
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Psalm 114
Praise that God frightened the sea so the people could escape from Egypt and frightened the Jordan river so they could enter the land. Even mountains danced at these wondrous acts by which God cares for the people! God still does wondrous things.
Psalm 115
God, you are strong, we aren’t. The idols that other people worship are not real, but you are real—so, everyone, worship the real God.
The false idols such as power and wealth are still very much alive today, but only the true God of justice can give us full life.
Job 11.1-9, 13-20 What’s Job about?
The third friend, Zophar, points out that God’s ways cannot be understood by humans, but if Job would trust God and put away any evil thoughts, God will welcome him back and make all things well. Zophar insists that Job’s disaster is caused by his own evil.
We, the readers, know that Job will reject this argument, as he rejected the others, because he cannot stop telling the truth—that he has done nothing to deserve what God has done to him. Job is not deluded about himself or conceited, he is simply stating the truth. He is not guilty and insists that God must own up to being responsible for treating him cruelly.
Matthew 5.1-12 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus’ second important action, after proclaiming the kingdom is coming, is to state a new version of the 10 commandments. He goes up a mountain, like Moses, and says that poor people are to be congratulated, that people in mourning are to be congratulated, that gentle people are to be congratulated. Why? Because they will experience God’s kingdom. Because it is precisely such people who know how much they need God’s kingdom—they long for it, so it arrives. But those who already have everything are not to be congratulated, because they become isolated, thinking they have everything, and have a false sense of their security.
This week’s collect:
Author and Giver of all good things,
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us in all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
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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