Harold – Daily Office

Readings for Saturday May 18

Saturday May 18 Easter 7

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Psalm 33
A psalm of praise for God creating the earth, for being in charge of the nations and for rescuing us. We rejoice in this God!

Ezekiel 36.22-27 What’s Ezekiel about?
Writing in the time when the Israelites had been captured, around 500 years before Jesus, Ezekiel imagines God promising that their uncleanness—their injustice—will be removed. The whole world will be astonished at how God can restore people to full life despite the fact that they had abandoned God’s justice. God’s spirit will fill them and they will have a new will and purpose. Early Christians may have seen in passages like this an anticipation of the giving of the Spirit of Jesus tomorrow at Pentecost.

Matthew 9.18-26 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus heals a woman whose ongoing menstrual bleeding had made her a social outcast. By touching Jesus in her desperate search for healing she risks contaminating him and perhaps even being stoned to death for her outrageous act. 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 on behalf of women—one a failed adult and one likely never to become an adult. This was care far beyond whom people of the time thought God would care about. Jesus challenges us to do the same.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven.
Mercifully give us faith to know
that, as he promised,
he abides with us on earth to the end of time;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Readings for Friday May 17

Friday May 17 Easter 7

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Psalm 107 Part 1
The first part of this psalm sings about how faithfully God has rescued people on many occasions: from slavery, from their own foolishness and rebellion against God, and from the dangers of travelling on the ocean. The ocean was a terrifying place for the Israelites, and the reference to God calming the storm and bringing them to harbour may have influenced the stories of Jesus calming storms.

Jeremiah 31.27-34 What’s Jeremiah about?
Six hundred years before Jesus, the Jews had been conquered by the Babylonians and enslaved in Babylon. Jeremiah uses three images to provide hope to the exiled people. First, God will put people and animals back into the abandoned city of Jerusalem as if God were planting seeds. Second, people may suffer consequences for their lack of justice, but won’t suffer for their ancestors’ infidelity. Finally, God will—astonishingly—enter into a new covenant with the people.

It was unimaginable that God would undertake a new covenant. In the first covenant, God promised a permanent home, rescued the people from Egypt and provided the ten commandments, but in this new covenant God will write justice on people’s hearts and minds (not on stone tablets as God did at Sinai) so nobody has to teach anybody anything about God—everyone will already know that God is the God of justice and fairness.

This description was understood by the early Christians to be fulfilled in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Matthew 9.9-17 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus asks a tax collector to join him and then has supper with him. Tax collectors were hated because they bid for the right to use Roman soldiers to protect them as they collected tax and then extorted as much additional money as they could for themselves. No wonder Jesus is despised for welcoming an extortioner as a disciple.
Jesus’ is then criticized for taking part in feasts instead of fasting and being solemn to ask for sins to be forgiven. His response is that the new wine of a new society is breaking in and giving joy to extortioners—the old assumptions about judging sin are no longer needed in God’s new society.

This description was understood by the early Christians to be fulfilled in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

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Readings for Thursday May 16

Thursday May 16 Easter 7

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Psalm 105 Part 2
The first half of this psalm sang about how God cared for the people up to the time of their becoming slaves in Egypt. This second half sings about how God forced the Egyptians to release the Israelites so God could bring them to their own land. God is being praised for consistently enacting justice in history.

Zechariah 4.1-14 What’s Zechariah about?
Zechariah writes about five hundred years before Jesus as the Israelites are returning to Jerusalem after their exile and are rebuilding the temple. The various mysterious references to trees, the lampstand and the oil refer to details of the gloriously rebuilt temple and were intended to raise the expectation of the people that they really could successfully rebuild their ruined temple. This highly poetic passage anticipates God’s eventual glorious re-establishment of the temple through the power of God’s spirit. In our day we could cultivate the expectation of God’s ultimate power and goodness returning glory to our lives in spite of the devastation of the world.

Matthew 9: 1-8 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus cures someone of an incurable disease and people are amazed. In those times such diseases were believed to be punishment for some evil the person had done. By forgiving the man, Jesus is addressing what was believed to be the underlying cause of his paralysis. By doing so Jesus is claiming not only to have healing power when he has no religious role but also claims the role of God in arbitrarily removing someone’s sin in order to cure him. By doing so Jesus threatens the power of the religious leaders but gives immense hope to ordinary people.

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Readings for Wednesday May 15

Wednesday May 15 Easter 7

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Psalm 119 Part 6
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 176 verses is a variation on the theme of what it means to follow God’s call to justice, using terms such as “command”,”law”, “word”, “statute”, and the like. The psalm is arranged in 22 groups of eight verses—one group for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Within a group, each of the eight verses starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the groups are in Hebrew alphabetical order. So 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 human expressions of order. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters Ayin (which is not pronounced but which looks like o, or an eye), P, and Z (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with an eye and so on.

Isaiah 4.2-6 What’s Isaiah about?
The prophet sets out the hope that Jerusalem, which has been defiled by its abandoning justice, will again become a place of glory through God repeating the fire and cloud which protected them when they were rescued from Egypt.

We are to have the same expectation of God making our defiled world glorious again—the coming of the Holy Spirit next Sunday is the image of that.

Matthew 8.28-34 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus is now victorious over inner storms—two deranged people are healed from their inner chaos. But the local people are enraged that their pigs (which are forbidden animals for Jews) have been drowned. The opposition to Jesus begins because justice and healing may require us to change our society’s priority of profit.

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Readings for Tuesday May 14

Tuesday May 14 Easter 7

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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 “what is deserved,” not miles of sand or miss-spelled sweet food 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.

1 Samuel 16.1-13a What’s Samuel aabout?
Samuel is instructed by God to select a new king to replace Saul because Saul had not been just. Samuel is sent to Bethlehem the home town of David’s family, and against all expectation chooses the youngest son, David, to be king. David is filled with the spirit and the early Christians would have understood this coming of the Spirit to David in Bethlehem to be a foretaste of Jesus, who was also born in Bethlehem, giving us, the least powerful people, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Matthew 8.18-27 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus’ challenges his followers to make a priority of God’s reign of justice even over their own comfort and social obligations. Just as God’s justice reigns over all human concerns, so Jesus’ stilling of the storm shows that God’s justice reigns over the entire creation. Our inner storms of worry about physical and social security are calmed, just as the external storm is calmed.
God’s kingdom is breaking in in the most unlikely places—the occupying army, and a woman.

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Readings for Monday May 13

Monday May 13 Easter 7

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Psalm 89 Part 2
This poem was written following the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. In the first half of this psalm the poet had said, ‘God, you chose David as king and promised to protect him forever with the same amazing power with which you created the universe.’

But in this second half of the psalm the poet accuses God of being faithless, ‘God, you said you would be David’s father and he would be your son. Even if his children do not maintain justice for the poor, you said you would punish them but wouldn’t abandon your commitment to David that his royal line will never cease.’ The poet is referring to the disaster of Babylon as God’s punishment for the evil committed by kings who were all descended from David. The poet goes on, ‘But now you have broken your promise and have allowed him to be humiliated and his enemies rejoice in his defeat. God, you are faithless.’

But in face of disaster there is only one thing to do, the poet says. ‘In the end we can only trust in you.’ There is nothing more to say.

Joshua 1.1-9 What’s Joshua about?
God promises to continue to be with the people as they enter the land God promised. The early Christians understood that the Holy Spirit was God’s promise to be with them as they entered God’s kingdom on earth.

Matthew 8.5-17 What’s Matthew about?
These are the first specific healings that Jesus does in Matthew’s gospel. A member of the occupying army trusts that Jesus has as much authority to heal his servant as he has to issue military orders. Jesus is amazed at this trust from someone who is not Jewish and says that God’s healing will be available to people like the centurion who are outside the religious community and conversely that God’s healing is not automatically available to religious people.
Then Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law. As often in his gospel, Matthew includes a quote from the Hebrew Bible to illustrate how Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s plan.

God’s power is more far-reaching than anyone had imagined. This is the work of the Spirit we celebrate coming this next Sunday.

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Readings for Sunday May 12

Sunday May 12 Easter 7

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Psalm 19
The first half of this psalm imagines each day telling the next day and each night telling the next night about God’s glory, and of the sun rising out of the sea praising God and running around the sky like an athletic sprinter showing off. The second half of the psalm says that goodness and integrity are as sure and powerful as the sun.

Psalm 46
Neither storms of water or storms of war will shake me because I know that God is behind all the world. Like a river flowing through the city, God is always in our midst. The refrain, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” expresses this confidence over and over.

Exodus 3.1-12 What’s Exodus about?
God appears suddenly and unexpectedly to Moses to announce that God will act to right the injustice of God’s people being made slaves. Early Christians understood this promise to give the people their own place was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit was sent to all.

Luke 10.17-24 What’s Luke about?
The first community of followers are astounded at the way in which God’s new world appears through them. The disciples experience the kingdom breaking in through their actions, but Jesus warns them against being impressed—what is important is that they are entering the kingdom, not the power that works through them. They, in their poverty, have seen things that the powerful can never see.
We might understand that our world suffers as we threaten and reject one another with violence on the largest scales. Can we live in the expectation that our world is on the verge of being made new? Our growing trust in God’s victorious power is what enables us to ask for change and to be open when it arrives.

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Readings for Saturday May 11

Saturday May 11 Ascension

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Psalm 136
God’s relentless love (‘mercy’ in the relentless refrain of this hymn) is seen first in creation, then in Israel’s rescue from Egypt as if that rescue was another part of creation, and finally for every creature.

Numbers 11.16-17, 24-29 What’s Numbers about?
A week from tomorrow we will be celebrating the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. This passage is chosen to be read now because the early Christians understood that God had acted in a similar way in the ancient past and was doing the same thing at Pentecost. In this story the spirit that had inspired Moses is given to seventy other leaders and even to leaders who hadn’t been present.

The early Christians referred occasionally to Jesus having seventy disciples and of course the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost was experienced as touching people of the entire planet, even ones who hadn’t known Jesus personally.

Matthew 7.28-8.4 What’s Matthew about?
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has been teaching about the new depth of care and justice and inclusion which is the character of God’s new kingdom. Immediately Jesus is confronted with someone who is abhorred by society because of his leprosy and who pleads for restoration. The kingdom arrives instantly for the outcast person as he is restored to full social health.
This is the conclusion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount—Matthew’s deliberate parallel to the story of the ten commandments being given on Mount Sinai which is surpassed by Jesus’ giving the new commandments of inclusive care and justice on a mountain in their own land.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven.
Mercifully give us faith to know
that, as he promised,
he abides with us on earth to the end of time;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Readings for Friday May 10

Friday May 10 Ascension

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Psalm 91
Those who shelter under God like a chick beneath its mother’s wings will be safe from all danger and will see how disaster befalls those who put their trust in evil. In the final three verses God is speaking: we are safe because God has decided to be bound to us in love.

The verse about not hurting one’s foot on a stone was applied by the early Christians to Jesus’ temptation in the desert to throw himself off the top of the temple without being hurt.

Psalm 92
Those who trust in God will be upheld and will flourish like trees with lots of water. Evil will be utterly destroyed. The God who does this is as solid as a rock.

1 Samuel 2.1-10 What’s Samuel about?
A thousand years before Jesus, Hannah had been barren, a personal and social disaster in ancient Israel. Her fervent prayer for a child had been dismissed by a priest as drunkenness. But her prayer is answered and she becomes pregnant and gives birth and in thanksgiving gives up her son to be a temple servant. Her son, Samuel, became the prophet who chose the first Jewish king. This passage is Hannah’s thanksgiving song to God for having rescued the poor and oppressed from failure and disaster. Early Christians made a connection between that story and Mary, Jesus’ mother, who was also unable to have a child (but due to not being married), who therefore sings a similar song, now called the Magnificat, modelled on this song, when she becomes pregnant.

Matthew 7.22-27 What’s Matthew about?
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is very concerned that his followers do practical acts of justice and not just be religious. Jesus is clear that being religious is of no importance in itself. What matters is that we are putting God’s inclusion and justice into action. Doing so is to have a solid foundation under one’s life. Not doing so risks one’s life falling apart. We easily see how true this is both in personal and in international life.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord.
Keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of his peace,
and bring the whole of creation
to worship at his feet,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Readings for Thursday May 9

Thursday May 9 Ascension

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Psalm 24
While entering through the doors of the temple the poet sings a hymn of praise to God who brought order out of the dangerous primordial ocean. Appropriate for a Sunday as we enter into our worship.

Psalm 96
Praise to God who really will bring equity (equality) and righteousness (which really means ‘dignity’ and ‘justice’) to the whole of humanity. Every part of the world rejoices at God’s car

Daniel 7.9-14 What’s Daniel about?
In John’s gospel Jesus had referred to his ascension, celebrated today, as the start of a time of mourning for his absence, which would become joy at the gift of his Spirit. The readings during the next ten days explore that theme through stories from the Hebrew scriptures.

The prophet has a vision of God conquering all evil. This story originated several hundred years before Jesus when the Jewish people were under harsh rule by Greece, and was their way of having confidence that there would be a final triumphant outcome from their misery. For the early Christians, this imagery would have expressed the God’s triumph, in Jesus, over all evil made clear in Jesus’ triumphant entry into heaven following his resurrection.

Matthew 28.16-20 What’s Matthew about?
On a mountain in Galilee from which he presumably ascends, Jesus gives final instructions to his disciples, to share around the world the hope of being part of God’s renewed kingdom, and Jesus’ promise to never leave which will come true in the Pentecost event of the Holy Spirit arriving.

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