Friday June 25 Pentecost 4
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Psalm 102
A lament at the destruction of Jerusalem 600 years before Jesus. It ends with hope of God’s faithfulness. The imagery of desolation is appropriate for Fridays, the mini-anniversary of Jesus being betrayed, abandoned, and in hours will be dead. Yet God will remain faithful.
1 Samuel 9: 1-14 What’s Samuel about?
Here is how, the story-teller says, we got our first king. It started out with good intentions, but as God warned, it soon went very bad. The good-looking Saul is searching unsuccessfully for his father’s lost donkeys and consults the prophet Samuel to find out where the donkeys are. Notice that David (who will later replace Saul as king), will also be called while he is out looking for sheep.
We see the pattern—God calls people in difficulty to become leaders. The reason is that they are the ones who should most clearly understand God’s call to justice and dignity for the most vulnerable and least powerful people. Which of course is what God did for the Israelites when God rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and from slavery in Babylon which became the basis of these books.
Luke 22: 31-38 What’s Luke about?
At the Last Supper, Peter is not yet aware of the depth of his immanent betrayal of Jesus. Jesus understands this and prays that after Peter grasps what has happened, he will lead the others into understanding what God is doing through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus goes on to say that when they understand and start to proclaim God’s message that self-sacrificing love is the only way to full life, they will need all the strength they can get, because most people will reject this style of life. In recommending that his disciples go out an buy swords Jesus is likely describing how they are feeling at that moment—they can only imagine the looming confrontation in terms of a violent response to violence and so they offer Jesus swords so he doesn’t have to die. Jesus rejects their reliance on oppressive power and violence to bring fulfillment to the world. The only other option is self-offering love.
Most of our world believes that in the last resort violence is the only thing we can really rely on to ensure safety and justice. But thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ we know a better Way.
This week’s collect:
O God our defender,
storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid.
Rescue your people from despair,
deliver your sons and daughters from fear,
and preserve us all from unbelief;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and ever. Amen.
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