Thursday November 25 Reign of Christ
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Psalm 134
A very brief two-verse psalm of praise for God, and of blessing from God.
Psalm 135
Praise to God who brings fertility and defeats foreign kings, and who defeated the Egyptians so Israel could go free, and who upholds justice. This God is so much greater than the pointless non-gods that other nations worship.
Thank goodness we know the God of justice is real, and the competing destructive public policies in our day are ultimately powerless.
Zephaniah 3: 1-13 What’s Zephaniah about?
There are still people in Jerusalem who are not following justice, and who are self-centred and God will not overlook that. But God will ensure that the nations who have oppressed God’s people will be defeated and that Jerusalem will be a place where justice reigns because a remnant of faithful people will remain loyal to justice.
As we approach Advent, our longing for justice grows despite the continuing injustice in our world.
Matthew 20: 1-16 What’s Matthew about?
In God’s society, generosity is radical—those who worked a single cool hour at the end of the day get a full day’s wage even though they didn’t deserve it. Those who worked hard all day long are jealous. That’s not the way of God’s society—in God’s society all would rejoice at the good fortune of those who got far more than they deserved.
Jesus is challenging our normal expectations—those who deserve most will be the least important and those who deserve least will be the most honoured. Are we tempted to support the world’s norms that those who get ahead deserve more and those who don’t get ahead deserve less? Or do we long for God’s society in which we rejoice at the inclusion of the undeserving?
It’s possible that Matthew understands this story was intended to point out a selfishness within the early Christian community in which those who had suffered through long persecutions were jealous of Christians who had just recently joined but who were promised the same honoured place in God’s eternal banquet. They should have been delighted that some Christians.
Does that attitude continue in our attitudes toward new members in congregations today?
This week’s collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
whose will it is to restore all things
in your well-beloved Son, our Lord and King,
grant that the peoples of the earth,
now divided and enslaved by sin,
may be freed and brought together
under his gentle and loving rule;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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