Saturday August 7 Pentecost 10
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Psalm 136
God’s relentless love (‘mercy’ in the relentless refrain of this hymn) is seen first in creation, then in Israel’s rescue from Egypt as if that rescue was another part of creation, and finally for every creature.
2 Samuel 12: 15-31 What’s Samuel about?
David pleads for his child, but to no avail. When the child dies, David knows that he has suffered the consequences of his adultery, murder, and sacrilege. One of the most moving descriptions of grief and acceptance is in this passage, as David says of the dead baby, “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” The grief over, David returns to normal life and Bathsheba bears him another boy, Solomon, and David leads his forces into more victories. David has accepted the consequences of his abuse, God has forgiven, and now blesses David.
All these stories are about how kings can be faithless as well as agents of God. But as the history of Israelite kings unfolds in the next five hundred years, the kings consistently become more and more abusive and less and less agents of the God of justice. This is the Israelites’ central insight from the time of their enslavement by Babylon —that national politics and leadership are governed by justice—inclusion and dignity for every person—and that there are consequences for not doing so. The implications for our own times are obvious.
Mark 9: 30-41 What’s Mark about?
For the second time, the disciples resist God’s call to sacrificial love. Jesus uses a child, the most insignificant person in their society, to demonstrate his own acceptance of equality with the powerless, in contrast to the disciples’ desire for power over people. But they continue their lust for power over others by attempting to control an outsider who is healing in Jesus’ name.
The disciples provide a good mirror for us to look at: we are also tempted to use faith as a way of becoming important, or to imagine that God loves us more than people outside our faith.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom.
Renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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