Tuesday October 22 Pentecost 22
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Psalm 26
“I do not sit down with the wicked”: this gives us words to say how we wish to live, that deep in our heart we really are such people as keep God’s commands to love and do justice. “My foot stands on level ground” because we ground our lives on the solid base of justice.
Psalm 28
Like many psalms, this asks that the wicked be punished: “give them their just deserts.” (“Deserts” is “What is deserved,” not miles of sand or misspelled sweets!) This desire for evil people to be destroyed seems very unlike Jesus’ request that we forgive our enemies and love them, but it is really giving us words to express our own intense desire that oppressive and violent policies should come to an end. We might pray, “May any international trade agreements that make the poor even poorer, be utterly done away with.”
The violent images in many psalms are not to ask God to be violent, but to ask that all evil actions and policies be completely defeated so people around the world can live in peace and fulfilment. The second half of the psalm gives thanks that God has indeed been victorious over oppression.
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 6.5-17 What’s Ecclesiasticus about?
How to choose reliable friends.
Luke 10.1-16 What’s Luke about?
Jesus sends seventy followers to bring in the kingdom. They are to deepen their own trust in the kingdom-there will be dangers and they are to take no supplies with them. They are to enact the kingdom by their own behaviour and are to challenge people to join the kingdom. They are also to warn that joining the kingdom is not a casual decision-rejecting the kingdom will have worse consequences for local villages than were faced by the most wicked cities in the ancient world.
This week’s collect:
Almighty and everliving God,
increase in us your gift of faith,
that forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to what is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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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