Tuesday August 10 Pentecost 11
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Psalm 94
Those who oppress and abuse think that God does not care. How wrong they are! God created us, do they think God doesn’t know what is going on? God will act to remove the evil and support us. Some of the feelings in this psalm sound vindictive, but the underlying intention is that God should restore order in the world of human relationships. If oppression has full reign, there will be chaos.
Note that “just deserts” means “just deservings”, not sweet things at the end of a meal!
Psalm 95
The daily office uses the first half of this psalm every morning. We praise God for God’s creation of the world and for our safety in God. Notice that the psalm assumes there are many gods, but that our God (of justice) is in charge of all of them. The second half is a warning that abandoning God by following evil ways, as the people did in the wilderness, will have consequences.
2 Samuel 14: 1-20 What’s Samuel about?
Joab, David’s senior military commander who had colluded with David in the murder of Uriah so David could marry Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, is worried that Absolom will himself be murdered in revenge for his killing his cousin who had raped Tamar. Joab arranges for a wise woman to confront David with his lack of action in protecting his son. She tells David a story about herself in which she is about to become destitute due to the immanent death of both her sons in revenge killings. Her challenge repeats Nathan’s challenge to David’s murder of Uriah when Nathan told the story of the poor man whose lamb had been stolen by a wealthy man. But this time the king is confronted with his selfishness by a woman, an unthinkable insult at the time. The king requires justice for the woman in her imaginary situation and she completes the confrontation by naming him as the one who is making possible the extinction of the “line of David” if Absolom is killed.
The writers are raising the stakes about women being treated with justice by having a woman confront David. The God of justice demands both personal and social justice.
Mark 10: 1-16 What’s Mark about?
The religious leaders challenge Jesus about divorce. Men were allowed to divorce their wives without cause, but Jesus insists that from the beginning of creation women had equal rights. He says male-only divorce arose as a concession to male stubbornness. This critique of Moses was a highly controversial proposal. Then Jesus makes a second proposal. Jesus treats children as valued adults—he is indicating that full equality for all—such as women, and the very immature—is fundamental to the kingdom. He is challenging all the assumptions about who is important.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church.
Open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love, joy, and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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