Monday February 24 Epiphany 7
Click here for simplified daily office prayers
Psalm 106 Part 1
God, you are wonderful, but we have done wicked things. God, you acted with immense generosity when you rescued the people from Egypt, but the people stopped trusting in you, and there were terrible consequences, yet you continued rescuing them. The second half of this psalm has a long list of such examples and concludes with a plea for God to continue rescuing us despite our wickedness.
Ruth 1: 1-14 What’s Ruth about?
The book of Ruth was likely written while the people were in exile in Babylon and deals with issues of how to live within that overwhelming pagan culture. The book of Ruth tells an imaginary story set in ancient times, but which deals with the challenges the people were facing in Babylon. Long, long, ago, the story says, a Jewish man and his wife Naomi had two sons. Because of a famine, the family moved to the pagan country of Moab and both sons married non-Jewish wives, something that was happening, but was highly disapproved of, in Babylon. As the story opens, Naomi’s husband and both her sons have died. In the ancient world this leaves the wife and daughters-in-law destitute. Naomi decides to return to Israel, and gives her two widowed daughters-in-law permission to return to their pagan families. One daughter-in-law does return, but the other, Ruth, insists on moving to Israel with her mother-in-law. The book of Ruth is the story of how Ruth, a pagan woman, married a Jewish man and how they become ancestors to the great King David.
Such a story would have been of great encouragement to Jews living in Babylon, who hoped that something good would come out of their disaster, and out of the sacrilege their sons were committing by marrying into pagan culture. The story suggests that in some mysterious way, God may be behind such formerly sacrilegious relationships.
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 lucky, that bereaved people are lucky, that gentle people are lucky because they will experience God’s kingdom. Why? Because those people know how much they need God’s kingdom—they long for it, so it arrives. Those who have everything are not lucky, because they become isolated and have a false sense of their security and so they do not long for the kingdom and so do not experience it.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving love.
Renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.