Wednesday July 24 Pentecost 9
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Psalm 119 Part 3
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 176 verses is a variation on the theme of what it means to follow God’s call to justice, using terms such as “command”,”law”, “word”, “statute”, and the like. The psalm is arranged in 22 groups of eight verses—one group for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Within a group, each of the eight verses starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the groups are in Hebrew alphabetical order. So 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 human expressions of order. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters Z, H, and Th (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “Z” and so on.
Joshua 8.30-35 What’s Joshua about?
Joshua reads the entire law to the Israelites at the first altar they build in the promised land. The people are to live in the land in accordance with God’s justice for all—even including non-Israelites.
This altar was associated with Mount Gerizim in Samaria north of Jerusalem. The Samaritans built a temple around the location of that first altar, and to this day they consider it to be the real temple and the one in Jerusalem to be an imposter. This is the origin of the hatred which Israelites and Samaritans had for each other in Jesus’ time.
Matthew 26.57-68 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus is arrested and taken to the High Priest, the person ultimately responsible for ensuring God’s justice and inclusion is enacted in the temple, dedicated to that justice, and in the entire society. But at the time of Jesus the religious leaders had aligned themselves with the Roman invasion and supported Rome’s rule using oppression and violence. Jesus’ popularity in championing an alternative society of justice has come to their attention and was seen as a potential threat to the religious leadership and to the Roman military. That’s why Jesus is arrested and convicted of a trumped-up charge and beaten and likely abused in worse ways.
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.