Monday July 29 Pentecost 10
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Psalm 56
In the face of intense attack by evil, we trust that God will act for what is right.
Psalm 57
Another psalm expressing our trust that God will act for what is right in the face of intense attack by evil.
Psalm 58
An impassioned plea for evil to be overcome. We should read the violence not literally but as an expression of our determination that good will prevail.
Joshua 24.16-33 What’s Joshua about?
In response to Joshua’s exhortation to follow the God of justice and dignity for all, the people commit themselves to the God of Israel, the God of justice who made the freedom of slaves God’s priority. They commit themselves to do the same for others.
We have come to the end of Joshua’s life and to the end of the book. In the final verses all the great leaders from the past have died and a new life is beginning. Tomorrow we begin to read about the leadership of the people after they had settled into the land and how they did or did not follow the God of justice.
Matthew 27.24-31 What’s Matthew about?
In Matthew’s understanding Pilate formally transfers responsibility for Jesus’ execution to the religious leaders, perhaps reflecting, in Matthew’s time, the growing resistance by Jewish leaders to proclamations about Jesus.
This week’s collect:
O God,
the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy,
increase and multiply upon us your mercy,
that with you as our ruler and guide,
we may so pass through things temporal,
that we lose not the things eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.