Thursday October 7 Pentecost 19
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Psalm 131
God is like a mother on whom I rest in complete confidence.
Psalm 132
The psalm reminds God that David was committed to finding a permanent place for the ark to stay in Jerusalem and that God swore an oath that God would never abandon David or Jerusalem.
In our time we can understand this oath to be God’s absolute commitment to creation and to our rescue which is accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Psalm 133
Another short psalm expressing joy in the abundance we experience when humanity lives in unity—that is, in justice and inclusion of all.
2 Kings 23: 4-26 What’s Kings about?
King Josiah continues to remove all the symbols of evil from the land which had been placed there by previous kings and he re-institutes the festival of the Passover which had been neglected. But in the next verse, the consequences of those centuries of evil cannot be magically removed. The country will still be enslaved.
Matthew 9: 18-26 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus heals a woman whose ongoing menstrual bleeding had made her a social outcast and a failure as a woman. By touching Jesus in her desperate search for healing she risks contaminating him and perhaps even being stoned to death for that outrageous insult. Jesus responds by calling her his daughter and she is healed. He then raises a small girl to life. In both cases Jesus is acting far beyond what anybody had thought God would care about. He challenges us to do the same.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
you have built your Church
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
Join us together in unity of spirit by their teaching,
that we may become a holy temple, acceptable to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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