Friday May 14 Ascension
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Psalm 85
Trust that God will save us, despite what we have done, and will fill us with plenty and fill the land with justice.
Psalm 86
O God, you have been so generous to me, I trust you, and ask you to uphold me when I am attacked.
Ezekiel 1.28—3.3 What’s Ezekiel about?
Six hundred years before Jesus, the Israelites have been captured and taken away from the land God promised them. Immediately after the astonishing and overwhelming experience of God’s glory in the land where they are exiled, Ezekiel hears a call to announce to the Israelites that they are not being faithful to God’s justice, which is why they have been conquered. He is to call the people to repent and change, and knows that won’t be popular. So he is invited to eat a scroll describing lamentation. He eats the scroll and finds it sweet in his mouth—which means he is happy to speak the words which will not be well received when he confronts the people.
Luke 9.28–36 What’s Luke about?
We now return to the sequential reading of Luke’s gospel.
Jesus’ disciples experience Jesus in cosmic glory at his transfiguration—another way of experiencing that Jesus’ life of death and resurrection is the foundation of the universe. The story may be an anticipation of a resurrection experience, but coming (in this gospel) immediately after Jesus announces for the first time that he must die, the transfiguration assures us that the kingdom will indeed be ultimately victorious.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord.
Keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of his peace,
and bring the whole of creation
to worship at his feet,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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