Sunday July 18 Pentecost 8
Click here for simplified daily office prayers
Psalm 103
God has been so generous to us! God has given us life when death was close, has been generous when we abandoned God’s justice, has cared for us as a doting parent does, and all in spite of our lives being so short. Even angels and creation bless God and we join with them!
1 Samuel 23: 7-18 What’s Samuel about?
Saul continues to try to kill David, but David escapes. David and Jonathan make a solemn agreement that David will become king and Jonathan will be his senior officer. It is clear that behind the scenes God is protecting David and that Saul’s end is approaching.
Matthew 25: 14-30 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus tells a story about a king who gave his servants various amounts of money to invest. The poorest, who was faithful to the ancient prohibition against investing for profit, is severely punished and exiled into permanent darkness for keeping the money safe and refusing to invest it. Jesus’ purpose in telling this story may have nothing to do with wise investing, but may be a devastating critique of how wealthy people force poor people into even greater poverty and even condemn them to death for not increasing the wealth of the wealthy. There are clear implications for the way our own society is structured.
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.
Click here to share a comment on the web site.