Wednesday June 2 Trinity
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Psalm 119 Part 3
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Every verse contains some synonym for “justice”, such as “word”, “statute”, “commandment” or the like. The psalm is arranged in groups of eight verses. Each verse in the group starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet – the first group of eight verses all start with A, the second group all start with B and so on. The first seven verses mirror the seven days of creation, with the eighth sometimes pointing to the next group. This very careful construction mirrors God’s creating the universe by overcoming chaos with order. In the human world, justice, dignity and fulfilment – the outcomes of justice – are the expressions of order in the human world. The human world and the rest of creation are thus united. Today’s three sections begin with the letters Z, H, and Th (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “Z” and so on.
Deuteronomy 13: 1-11 What’s Deuteronomy about?
Moses tells the people that if anyone tempts them to follow the other religions (which the ancient Jews understood to be expressions of exploitation) then they must absolutely refuse. They must only follow the God of justice. In our day the gods calling us to oppression and injustice to the poor are powerful and must also be consciously resisted.
Luke 17:20-37 What’s Luke about?
Jesus responds to an ironic question about when God’s world of justice will happen. The question suggests that the world of inclusive justice will never happen—”When will it come?” i.e. “Never, its an illusion.” But Jesus’ response is that God’s justice won’t arrive from external processes but suggests a radical re-understanding: God’s justice is already happening between us.
He then clarifies that the consequences of our not embracing God’s justice will be horrific—many of the illustrations fit our time. Unless we die to wanting our self, or our species, to be the centre of everything, we cannot rise to full life on this planet. We may have the brief illusion that all is well, but the injustice will catch up to us and take us suddenly by surprise. It seems very contemporary. When he is asked why this destruction is going to happen, he replies that it’s obvious—when there is a dead body (which is us dying as a result of our self-centredness) there is inevitably going to be destruction as surely as vultures circle a corpse. These are very disturbing images. As Jesus intended.
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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