Wednesday October 16 Pentecost 21
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Psalm 119 Part 1
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 176 verses is a variation on the theme of what it means to follow God’s call to justice, using terms such as “command”,”law”, “word”, “statute”, and the like. The psalm is arranged in twenty-two groups of eight verses. Within a group, each of the eight verses starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the groups are in Hebrew alphabetical order. So the first group of eight verses all start with A, the second group all start with B and so on. The first seven verses mirror the seven days of creation, with the eighth sometimes pointing to the next group.
This very careful construction mirrors God’s creating the universe by overcoming chaos with order. In the human world, justice, dignity and fulfilment – the outcomes of justice—are the expressions of this order. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters A, B and G (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with A” and so on.
Jonah 1.17-2.10 What’s Jonah about?
Jonah, swallowed by the fish at God’s command, prays an ancient poem not unlike one of the psalms in which the worshipper calls on God when all is lost.
The image of Jonah being entombed for three days and then being returned to the world became an image for the early Christians of Christ’s death and resurrection, and of their own.
Luke 9.1-17 What’s Luke about?
Jesus sends the twelve out to enact the kingdom—decisions will have to be made by those they encounter about embracing the kingdom. Not everyone will respond. Herod, the great traitor who has betrayed the faith in exchange for power in the Roman empire and executed Jesus’ cousin, is an example of one who rejects the kingdom. But the kingdom will be triumphant—from almost nothing, Jesus feeds five thousand people with plenty left over. Despite Herod and more opposition to come, the kingdom has indeed arrived.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
in our baptism you adopted us for your own.
Quicken, we pray, your Spirit within us,
that we, being renewed both in body and mind,
may worship you in sincerity and truth;
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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