Author: Harold

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.

1 Maccabees 2: 1-28 What’s Maccabees about?
Mattathias, a priest in the temple, refuses to obey the command of the Greek king to abandon his faith, and kills one of the king’s officers as well as a Jew who supported the king. He and his sons flee. His sons will organize a revolt against the godless and oppressive Greek empire but will be killed and will be known as the “Maccabean martyrs.”

Matthew 16: 21-28 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus announces that his life is to be given away in confrontation with the greed and oppression of the religious leadership. Peter refuses to support Jesus’ apparently suicidal intention.But Jesus calls all his disciples to accept death to their own self-centredness as the price of being truly alive. He holds out hope that some will indeed follow him in that call and will experience the depth of eternal life.

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday November 12

Friday November 12 Pentecost 24

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.

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 Maccabees 1: 41-63 What’s Maccabees about?
King Antiochus, the Greek ruler about 200 years before Jesus, was the first Greek king to officially refer to himself as God. Antiochus had a policy of enforced assimilation—Judaism is to be wiped out, and on pain of death all Jews are to become followers of Greek religion with himself as its God. Nevertheless some Jews remain faithful. We sense where the story is heading—some Jews will organize a revolt.

Matthew 16: 13-20 What’s Matthew about?
For the first time, Peter grasps that Jesus is the image of God. In Mark’s gospel, from which Matthew took this story, Peter immediately argues with Jesus that he is not to go to the cross, but Matthew is concerned about how Christians are going to live together in the church, and so he remembers Jesus as first telling Peter that he will be the foundation of the church. So, in Matthew’s account, only after Jesus has ensured leadership for the church does he begin to talk about the necessity of his death.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday November 11

Thursday November 11 Pentecost 24

Psalm 85
Trust that God will save us, despite what we have done, and will fill us with plenty and fill the land with justice.

Psalm 86
O God, you have been so generous to me, I trust you, and ask you to uphold me when I am attacked.

1 Maccabees 1: 1-28 What’s Maccabees about?
Books such as Maccabees (named for two brothers who organized a revolt against Greek rule and were executed by the Greeks) weren’t considered central scripture but illustrate faithful lives dedicated to God. Fifteen such books, including the two books of the Maccabees, are collected in a section of many Bibles called “The Apocrypha”.

The book opens by describing how, two hundred years before Jesus, Alexander the Great had made Greece a world power and one of his successors, Antiochus, has expanded the Greek empire, has stripped the temple of its sacred vessels and is imposing Greek religion and culture on the Jews. Under this immense cultural pressure many Jewish people have decided to join Greek culture and abandon their distinctive faith. This sets the scene for the two Maccabee brothers to initiate their revolt which the rest of the book describes.

Matthew 16: 1-12 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus is challenged by the religious leaders who refuse to see the real meaning of his miracles—that the kingdom is coming. They ask for proof in the form of a demonstration miracle, but Jesus replies that the only miracle that matters is that like Jonah who symbolically died in the great whale and was rescued—the only miracle that matters, Jesus means, is that he will die and rise. The desire to seek power, in the form of a demonstration miracle and their refusal to see God’s inclusive love breaking into the world through death is something that the disciples must be wary of doing themselves—”beware the yeast of the pharisees.”

Perhaps this is an admonition directed to us to be aware that we live in a world where power to control others, and not self-sacrificing love, is the dominant loyalty. But Jesus leads us in a different, and profoundly life-giving direction from that which the world trusts.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday November 10

Wednesday November 10 Pentecost 24

Psalm 81
Praise to God because this is what we heard God saying: God longs that the people would respond so that God could give them everything they need.

Psalm 82
God is accusing all the other gods who do not care for the poor. Hurry up, God, and take your place as the just ruler of the whole world.

There are many gods today who care nothing for the poor. We, too, are to cultivate longing for the God of justice to rule.

Nehemiah 7: 73- 8: 18 What’s Nehemiah about?
Nehemiah reads the first 5 books of the Bible, the Torah. This story provides instructions (“be sure people understand the meaning”) and a rationale for how the Torah is still to be read aloud. The people hear again how they are to live. They are at first sad to learn how faithless they have been, but are instructed to rejoice because now they know what God wants. They re-start the feast of booths which had long been neglected—they build booths in which to live for a week as a way of remembering how they were a pilgrim people in the wilderness.

This concludes our readings about how the temple was rebuilt and the worship of God was re-established 500 years before Jesus. For the next week we will be reading about the revolt against Greek rule led by the Maccabean brothers.

Matthew 15: 29-39 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus is in non-Jewish territory and is healing people who were the descendants of the people the Jews were commanded to wipe out when they entered the land after escaping from Egypt. After healing everyone, Jesus feeds an enormous crowd of these unclean people using seven loaves. When they have all eaten seven baskets are left over. The repetition of the number “seven” refers to the seven nations that were to have been annihilated by the ancient Israelites and who were considered in Jesus’ time to be abominations. For traditional Jewish leaders these were acts of radical defiance of the Bible and God’s demands for purity. Jesus has already just healed a child of a woman descended from those nations.

God’s priorities are breaking through into the world in ways that had been unimaginable. Are we anticipating the same thing happening in our time?

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday November 9

Tuesday November 9 Pentecost 24

Psalm 78 Part 2
When they were in the desert escaping from Egypt, the people ignored God in spite of God’s immense commitment to them in utterly defeating the Egyptians with plagues. When they finally arrived in the land God had promised, they did the same thing, ignoring God again. That’s why God allowed the foreigners to capture the ark which contained the original stone ten commandments and to kill the priests. But in spite of that, like a warrior waking up refreshed, God completely defeated their enemies and established a temple in Jerusalem and gathered the people together like a skillful shepherd under the leadership of King David.

The poet expresses his interpretation that behind the chaos of victories and defeats lies God whose commitment to the people is permanent despite their lack of commitment to God and the overwhelming military power of their enemies. A good challenge to us as we wonder about the chaos of our time and in what way God is being faithful to humanity now.

Nehemiah 9: 26-38 What’s Nehemiah about?
Nehemiah re-tells the story of how the people kept abandoning God’s call to justice yet God kept rescuing them from the consequences of their unfaithfulness, the latest consequence being the destruction of Jerusalem. In order that the leaders and the people remain faithful in the future and receive the wonderful life God had intended, Nehemiah arranges for the leaders to sign a legally binding document affirming their faithfulness.

Matthew 15: 21-28 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus is in non-Jewish territory where the people are considered unclean and not quite human because these are the people whom the ancient Israelites were commanded to exterminate when they entered the land. Jesus is challenged by a local woman, who for both those reasons would be considered contaminated. This is why Jesus calls her sick child a dog. But she insists on her value and wins the argument, an unthinkable insult to a man in those times, and a dangerous response to insult a man who has just insulted her child. Jesus then breaks the biblical rules about contamination by unclean races, commends her for her insistence upon her own value and her child is healed.

The story is about God’s love and affirmation in Jesus overcoming ancient prejudices and overcoming even the way those prejudices are internalized by people who are oppressed.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday November 8

Monday November 8 Pentecost 24

Psalm 77
God is not responding when I call in trouble. But I will not forget the amazing things God did in the past.

Psalm 79
Evil people have destroyed your temple. Come and help because we are your sheep.

Nehemiah 9: 1-15 What’s Nehemiah about?
The Israelites confess their sin, and recount how God has always been faithful to them—in Abraham’s time, at the Red Sea, at the giving of the 10 commandments, and fed them with manna.

Matthew 15: 1-20 What’s Matthew about?
Washing hands before eating was not about hygiene as it would be for us, but was a religious ceremony, required by scripture, designed to demonstrate one’s commitment to not being contaminated by injustice. Jesus and his followers are accused of abandoning God’s commitment to justice by not following this law. Jesus points out how real injustice even to one’s own family is allowed by other scriptures, and continues by insisting that injustice comes from a person’s inner motivations. We may be overhearing the response to a critique in Matthew’s time that the early Christians were beginning to separate themselves from observant Judaism.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday November 7

Sunday November 7 Pentecost 24

Psalm 34
I will praise God because God rescued me when I was in trouble. God will always support those who live with integrity and the evil people will not get away with it forever.

The verse about no bones being broken was interpreted by John in writing his gospel to mean that none of Jesus’ bones were broken as was the normal Roman practice when death by crucifixion was to be hastened. In Jesus’ case, John explains, his legs were not broken because he had already died.

Ezra 10: 1-17 What’s Ezra about?
Ezra calls a meeting of the whole country to promise not to marry foreign women, and so to stay pure. Leaders are appointed to examine all the families. This all seems strange to us, today, but was their way of trying to be faithful to their God of justice.

Luke 14: 12-24 What’s Luke about?
Luke now tells a series of stories about banquets—in the ancient world giving a banquet was the way you acquired status and advertised your wealth. Jesus turns this expectation upside down—what if banquets became a celebration of caring for people without status and you didn’t get any status yourself? A guest affirms that that would be heaven, implicitly criticizing the host.

Jesus then tells a story, possibly based on an actual incident, in which someone desperate to impress their wealthy neighbours and to increase their fame, throws such a banquet. The neighbours however are tired of his desperate desire to impress and collude together to refuse to attend, sending deliberately flimsy excuses at the last minute when the food is prepared and will now rot. But here’s how the kingdom breaks in anyway, Jesus says: even this self-centred social climber unknowingly enacts God’s kingdom of love. In his rage at having been shamed he tries to embarrass his neighbours by throwing an elaborate banquet for street people! Jesus challenges his host and the clever guest to really care about the true purpose of banquets—to enact the kingdom of radical inclusion for even the poorest people.

Is Jesus challenging our society to do the same?

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday November 6

Saturday November 6 Pentecost 23

Psalm 23
I am like a sheep being looked after by God. Even when death comes close, you look after me and feed me and I will live always in your presence.

Psalm 27
Even though there is trouble all around, I am glad that God is with me. Even if my parents were to disown me, you, God, will stay faithful to me.

These two psalms are often used on Saturdays when Jesus lies dead in the grave. God is now the only hope.

Ezra 9: 1-5 What’s Ezra about?
Ezra is appalled that his people have intermarried with the local people, and thus have become impure (as the ancient Jews understood them, sadly) and have abandoned the God of justice. He confesses to God that the people have abandoned God just when God had forgiven them. This is the same idea that became the standard explanation about why the Jews were conquered by the Babylonians. But the idea that God forgave them anyway, even when they didn’t deserve it, became foundational to the Jewish, and later the Christian, faiths.

Matthew 14: 22-36 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus calmly walks through a storm. Peter tries to follow Jesus’ invitation but is frightened and cannot do the same. No doubt Matthew understood this as a foreshadowing of Peter being afraid at the arrest of Jesus, where he cannot calmly follow Jesus and walk with Jesus through the storm of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. It’s notable that few, if any, leaders of a great religion are described by that religion as having betrayed their leader. This suggests credibility for the story of Peter’s betrayal.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
whose chosen servant Abraham obeyed your call,
rejoicing in your promise
that in him the family of the earth is blessed,
give us faith like his,
that in us your promises may be fulfilled;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday November 5

Friday November 5 Pentecost 23

Psalm 73
I almost joined the proud and evil people, who get away with anything. But I continue to suffer in spite of being faithful to God. I could not understand this, until in your temple I realised that you are in charge in the end.

Ezra 7: 27-28, 8: 21-36 What’s Ezra about?
Ezra sets out to travel to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and distributes the gold and silver vessels that the temple will need. They arrive at Jerusalem and offer sacrifices.

Matthew 14:13-21 What’s Matthew about?
Immediately after Jesus’ cousin is executed, Jesus hides in the desert. There he feeds more than 5,000 people. Does this foreshadow Jesus’ death and resurrection which feeds the whole world in spite of the apparent reign of violence? Twelve baskets are left over, a sign that God will include all God’s people in the banquet. Modern Christians are called to proclaim that victory in the face of the international threats of violence which claim to be the ultimate authority. We are called to find ways to say, “That’s not true!” and to enable the whole world to be fed full when food passes through the hands of Jesus’ justice.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday November 4

Thursday November 4 Pentecost 23

Psalm 74
About 600 years before Jesus, the Babylonians invaded Israel and the Jerusalem temple was completely destroyed. This was a time of deep despair, and many thought Judaism would disappear forever. The psalm asks God to remember what great things God did in controlling the forces of nature when God made the world, and how God rescued the people from Egypt, and to do great things again to rescue the people. They trust this is possible because God is in charge of the whole earth. We face similar issues in terms of the entire planet in our time.

Ezra 7: 1-26 What’s Ezra about?
This is a different account of how Jerusalem was rebuilt. Artaxerxes, a successor of Cyrus who had conquered the Babylonians, instructs Ezra to return and rebuild Jerusalem and provides money and material to help. This is a sign that the God of Israel is influencing the king of one of the largest empires in history, an amazing development in their concept of God.

Matthew 14: 1-12 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist is executed. To have a relative executed in the ancient world was to be in mortal danger yourself and prepares us for the ultimate attack on Jesus that is gathering strength.

This week’s collect: