Sunday September 5 Pentecost 15
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Psalm 63
I delight in the certainty of God’s protection and victory over evil. The violence in verses 9 and 10 can be understood as an expression of our intense desire that all evil will come to an end.
Psalm 98
The people, the nations, and the whole of creation delight in God’s victory and rejoice when God comes to put all creation right. This psalm is used at Easter, and is often used on Sundays, mini-anniversaries of Easter. There is some lovely imagery of the sea deliberately making a noise with its waves and rivers doing the same by clapping their hands.
1 Kings 12: 21-33 What’s Kings about?
Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son ruling at Jerusalem in the south (often called “Judah”), intends to conquer the northern part of the country (often called “Israel”) to restore it to the rule of David’s descendants but is told by God not to do so. God has another plan that will turn out to be the destruction of the north by the Assyrians.
Jeroboam has built a temple and system of sacrifice in Samaria in deliberate opposition to the true temple in Jerusalem so that people of his northern kingdom would no longer have to go to Jerusalem to worship and so that he could retain the revenue and power. Jeroboam even provided two golden calves for worship—this was twice as bad as the sin when the people had worshipped a golden calf at Sinai. Their loyalty is no longer to justice but to the power of religion, and there will be consequences. The writers, following the destruction of the temple by Babylon five hundred years later, consider this to be the ultimate blasphemy which even the God of justice cannot overlook.
John 10: 31-43 What’s John about?
This is the last of our Sunday readings from John’s gospel.
The controversy about Jesus’ claiming to be God’s image continues—there are attempts to kill him. Jesus quotes from Psalm 82 which is about God’s priority of justice. He uses an argument which would be odd to us, to say that if God said to humanity in that psalm that despite the fact that we are virtually little gods (“I (God) said that you are gods…”), we will nevertheless die like mortals for abusing others, then what’s wrong with Jesus claiming to be the Son of God? Jesus says that the power he exercises in healings proves who he is.
In our day, insisting on the priority of healing care through justice and inclusion, can also bring violent reactions when people’s comfort and power are threatened. But those priorities of justice are proof that we are enacting God’s kingdom in this world.
This week’s collect:
Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people,
that richly bearing the fruit of good works,
we may by you be richly rewarded;
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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