Monday May 17 Easter 7
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Psalm 89 Part 1
God’s faithfulness in creation is the basis for our trust in God’s justice and care for us. Just as God created order from chaos in creation, so we can rely upon God to create order out of chaos in human society. God’s original goodness intended for humanity and the world, is that everyone have a place and dignity and worth. Accomplishing that is the work of justice, often translated into traditional English as “righteousness.”
Ezekiel 4: 1-17 What’s Ezekiel about?
God asks Ezekiel to perform a play of warning about what is going to happen to the people and to Jerusalem as a result of their abandoning justice. In the play Ezekiel is to use a brick to represent Jerusalem and he is to lie down for a long time to represent how long the northern part of the country will be under siege. Another long period, lying on his other side, represents how long the southern part of the country around Jerusalem will be enslaved. God asks him to eat disgusting food to represent how disgusting the food will be inside the city when it is being surrounded by foreign armies as the consequence for their abandoning God’s justice. Ezekiel objects that he has never broken the commandments to eat kosher food, and God relents and allows the food in Ezekiel’s play to be a bit less disgusting as a sign that God looks forward to rescuing the people. Finally, to drive home the warning, in the play the people will have to buy bread not by the loaf but by the ounce, and water likewise—there will be extreme distress unless the people change.
Luke 9: 51-62 What’s Luke about?
On his way to Jerusalem to face death Jesus is rejected by a Samaritan town who believe their own temple is God’s choice, and not the one in Jerusalem. The disciples want to destroy them, but Jesus refuses—he insists on the kingdom of justice. Just as he will when he is rejected at his execution. Then there are a series of short stories illustrating how people avoid commitment to justice. Perhaps it is the disciples who are are not yet committed.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven.
Mercifully give us faith to know
that, as he promised,
he abides with us on earth to the end of time;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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