Wednesday September 11 Pentecost 16
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Psalm 49
Why should I worry about the rich who oppress me? Even the wealthiest person could never pay for their life so that they could live forever. Everyone dies and the rich oppressors are led like sheep to the grave. Why should I be afraid of the wicked when I know they will all die!
Psalm 53
Everyone has abandoned God, and God’s justice. We long for God to restore justice to the world.
Job 29.1, 30.1-2, 16-31 What’s Job about?
As Job concludes his accusations against God, he describes how he suffers under endless ostracism, and that nobody will help him. Job insists that God does not respond to his cry for help but just looks at him and leads him to the grave. Job helped others when they were in distress, but God does nothing to rescue Job—God, being so cruel, has less integrity than Job.
The author writes the whole book to press the question, “What sort of God is God, when good people suffer and die pointlessly?” The author refuses all the obvious explanations, which are presented by Job’s friends, and offers no explanation other than affirming Job’s insistence on accusing God of being unjust. However, Job will shortly have a vision of the immense power and reality of God. In our time we are still called to place our trust in such a God even as we face the many forms of death threatening us.
John 11.1-16 What’s John about?
Having dealt with the various objections about Jesus’ claim to be the way we see God, John now turns to the story of Jesus raising Lazarus as further example of Jesus’ power and a sign of God’s victorious kingdom breaking in.
Jesus deliberately delays going to see Lazarus so that it is clear that Lazarus has actually died. As Jesus returns to Jerusalem the disciples anticipate that the inevitable confrontation with the authorities will end with their death. Two kinds of death are to be overcome—the death of Lazarus, and the disciples’ fear.
This week’s collect:
Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people,
that richly bearing the fruit of good works,
we may by you be richly rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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