Thursday July 22 Pentecost 8
Click here for simplified daily office prayers
Psalm 59
People all around hunt me down, like dogs attacking, but I insist that God is on the side of the innocent.
We can apply the dramatic imagery not only to people, but to the policies and global forces that are destructive to societies and to the planet, and yet we insist that God’s goodness and justice is always present.
Psalm 60
God seems to have abandoned us, and we are being defeated even though God claimed for us the territory of all our tribes. We pray that God will turn things around and do great deeds through us.
This psalm can easily be applied to the threat of destruction of the planet in our day, but we will continue to insist that God’s goodness and care is supreme over all the forces of evil.
1 Samuel 28: 3-20 What’s Samuel about?
Saul is fighting the Philistines, but God does not give Saul guidance in the usual ways. So Saul seeks someone to communicate with the dead Samuel, an act that was absolutely forbidden and which Saul himself had forbidden because the person inquiring was putting their trust in dead people rather than God. Samuel appears and tells Saul that because he has tried to force God to obey him through the use of magic, God will remove his kingdom and that the next day he will die in battle with the Philistines.
We still experience some leaders attempting to force God to do their will by manipulating religious faith. But as surely as with Saul, this is a profound violation of our relationship with our source and will have consequences.
Mark 5: 1-20 What’s Mark about?
Jesus calms another kind of storm—inside someone who has been overcome with evil. Notice that the demons are called “Legion”—it is no coincidence that that is the name of the military force oppressing the country. The Roman empire is being experienced as a herd of demons. Notice that the Jews who are raising the pigs—which are disgusting—want Jesus to go away so they can continue with their disgusting business. Not hard to realise what this meant at a deeper level in Jesus’ time when many Jews cooperated with the Romans. Today our society’s priorities are often driven by the gods of profit regardless of how damaging the outcomes are.
Like Jesus, we also may be asked to leave when we challenge our society’s selfish priorities, but the good news is that God’s justice will prevail regardless. Trust in that enables us to be active disciples.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence.
Give us pure hearts and constant wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Click here to share a comment on the web site.