Wednesday April 14 Easter 2
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Psalm 119 Part 1
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Every verse contains some synonym for “justice”, such as “word”, “statute”, “commandment” or the like. The psalm is arranged in groups of eight verses. Each verse in the group starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet – 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 expressions of order in the human world. The human world and the rest of creation are thus united. Today’s three sections begin with the letters A, B and G (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with A” and so on.
Daniel 2: 17-30 What’s Daniel about?
Daniel prays and is shown the dream and its meaning. He tells the king that it is the God of Israel, the God of justice, who can reveal dreams, and not any power on Daniel’s part.
John 17: 20-26 What’s John about?
Jesus is saying that we, and he, and God, are all united. That means that God, as the source of sacrificial love, Jesus as the enactment of that love, and we as the ongoing enactors of that love, are all united in the same character. In that way, we are not to see ourselves as lone, struggling, failures at loving, but as those who live constantly in the glory of participating in the love which upholds the universe.
This concludes our reading in John’s gospel of Jesus’ great prayer, just before he is arrested, in which he focuses on how people who did not live in his historical time will participate in his life.
This week’s collect:
Almighty and eternal God,
the strength of those who believe
and the hope of those who doubt,
may we, who have not seen, have faith
and receive the fullness of Christ’s blessing,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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