Tuesday June 1 Trinity
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Psalm 45
A poem about King David, using the imagery of an ancient oriental king, describing his personal and public magnificence and the glory of his relationship with the queen. Note that his prime duty is to serve truth and justice.
We can read this poem as a description of our own fulfilled self and relationships which have been made possible for us in union with Christ’s resurrection.
Deuteronomy 12: 1-12 What’s Deuteronomy about?
Moses instructs the people that when they enter the new luscious land they must never succumb to greed and injustice—in the ancient Israelite understanding, idols and local gods were symbols of selfishness. In contrast to those destructive practices, the Israelites are to include everyone, even foreigners without any rights, into their community. This challenge applies to our time equally as to theirs.
The arrangers of these stories, writing soon after the Israelites had been released from Babylon, imagine Moses being aware that a temple would be erected in Jerusalem, long before there was any such city, and instructing the people to worship there. These instructions and admonitions to faithfulness to the God of justice, applied well to the time the people were returning from the polytheistic culture of Babylon. They needed this encouragement to re-commit to the central worship in Jerusalem and its temple of justice.
Luke 17:11-19 What’s Luke about?
Leprosy (what we would perhaps experience as psoriasis and caused by not observing religious rituals) was understood to be incurable and contagious. Someone suffering from it could never rejoin family life and would be permanently exiled to the outskirts of a community. Astonishingly Jesus cures ten people suffering from leprosy, including one who is a mortal enemy of Jews. But it is this foreigner enemy who was already excluded from the Jewish community, who is the only one to give thanks. Just as in Jesus’ story about the enemy Samaritan who was the only one to assist a wounded Jew, this story challenges the almost universal assumption that our enemies are selfish and that God will not be generous to our enemies. How deeply we need to learn that truth in our time.
This week’s collect:
Father, we praise you:
through your Word and Holy Spirit you created all things.
You reveal your salvation in all the world
by sending to us Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
Through your Holy Spirit
you give us a share in your life and love.
Fill us with the vision of your glory,
that we may always serve and praise you,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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