Wednesday June 30 Pentecost 5
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Psalm 119 Part 7
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 Q, R, S, and T, the final letters of the Hebrew alphabet. As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “Q” and so on.
1 Samuel 12: 1-25 What’s Samuel about?
The writers, in exile five hundred years later, saw kings as the cause of Israel’s destruction by the Babylonians. They interpreted that Samuel, a highly respected prophet, had been opposed to anointing the first king. In this speech, Samuel reminds the people how God had rescued them from Egypt without a king, and again from the nations in the promised land, all of whom had kings, because God was their king and stronger than any human king. By choosing a king, Samuel says, they had abandoned God. But if they and their king practice justice, God will not abandon them and all will be well.
This desire to have a king has a modern version in our time—it is the desire to have so much power that our country will be invulnerable. That desire for ultimate power leads to oppression by rulers and acquiescence by the people. Less and less do we trust in God’s ability to bring justice. As with ancient Israel, there are inevitable consequences.
Luke 23: 1-12 What’s Luke about?
On trial by the Roman governor, Jesus is accused of subverting Roman rule by opposing taxes which were actually forced extortion, not taxes in the modern sense, and by challenging the violent leadership of the emperor. Jesus doesn’t deny either charge although both are cause for execution. Nor will he perform a miracle on demand to gain release from the puppet-king of northern Israel where Jesus is from. However, Luke understands that Jesus’ vision of God’s desire for total inclusivity is so powerful that it even reconciles the traitor puppet and the Roman governor.
Making a priority of reconciling your enemies who will execute you is an extraordinary claim by Luke. Luke is pointing to the extraordinary power of God’s desire for inclusivity and the radical change it requires in ourselves.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love fulfils the law.
May we love you with all our heart,
all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength,
and may we love our neighbour as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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