Author: Harold

Psalm 119 Part 4
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 178 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 groups of eight verses. 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 expressions of order in the human world. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters Y, K and L (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “Y” and so on.

Nehemiah 13: 4-22 What’s Nehemiah about?
While Nehemiah is away on a trip, part of the temple is used as living quarters and the priests are not being supported. On his return, Nehemiah restores proper use to the temple. Nehemiah finds that people are doing work on the Sabbath and he commands it to stop and shuts the doors of the city gates so nobody can come in and out to work on the Sabbath. The point is that the city and the temple are being returned to the pure worship of the God of justice.

Matthew 13: 53-58 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus is doubted among his own people. Their lack of trust foreshadows the growing plot to arrest and kill him. Similar rejection was happening around this time to the early Christians as they were under suspicion by the Roman occupiers and perhaps by some of their own families, and it would have been of great support to have known the same things had happened to Jesus.

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 Tuesday November 2

Tuesday November 2 Pentecost 23

Psalm 68
A song of joy that God drives away evil and cares for the needy just as God rescued God’s people long ago from Egypt and drove out all the other kings so they could settle in the land God had promised. Can we cultivate the expectation that God will triumph over all the selfish international powers of our day?

The violent images part way through are a way of expressing how completely God’s goodness and justice will remove all evil and exploitative powers.

Nehemiah 12: 27-47 What’s Nehemiah about?
The wall is dedicated with great ceremony, and the people and the city are purified. The priests can again perform their ancient duties. The many details about the parts of the walls and all the officials and their duties is to emphasize how completely and amazingly the city and the temple have been restored after the devastating destruction done by the Babylonians.

Matthew 13: 44-52 What’s Matthew about?
The experience of God’s kingdom is like stumbling upon an unexpected treasure—it is worth more than everything we already own. At the end of the age all will be put right and there will no longer be any confusion about good being called evil. We may feel like scribes and not great leaders, but each time we find another example of how all will be put right we are like wealthy owners displaying objects of immense value.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday November 1

Monday November 1 Pentecost 23

Psalm 64
The wicked are very clever, but God will defeat them, and everyone will be in awe at God’s power to restore goodness.

Psalm 65
God, you blot out our sins even though they are stronger than we, and just as generously you clothe creation with plenty, and with great goodness. God’s generosity extends to the furthermost ocean and to the gentle rain—water is a recurring image in this psalm. It ends with some other lovely images of hills, meadows, and valleys wearing clothes of joy and plenty.

Nehemiah 6: 1-19 What’s Nehemiah about?
Nehemiah is pressured by neighbouring countries to stop building the city, but he refuses to be intimidated. Finally the wall is finished. Finishing the wall means that the city can defend itself and be self-sufficient and that the temple is safe from attack. God has relented from the punishment for their former abandoning of justice, and now blesses the people with a safe city.

Matthew 13: 36-43 What’s Matthew about?
In the reading yesterday Jesus had told a story about someone who deliberately planted weeds in his neighbour’s crop. Rather than pulling out the weeds and inevitably pulling out the crop as well the owner waits until the crop is mature and then pulls out the weeds. Jesus’ intention, in Matthew’s understanding, was to assure the early Christians that even though evil continued in the world, God’s victory was certain. An early Christian probably added the interpretations in this reading, thinking that Jesus must have meant the parable as an analogy with secret meanings embedded in each detail of the parable.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday October 31

Sunday October 31 Pentecost 23

Psalm 8
God is amazing in what God has created. It is astonishing that God cares for humans who are so small in comparison, because God has even given humans care for God’s amazing earth.

Psalm 84
I love to be with God. In verse 2 it may be that a bird built a nest near the actual altar in the temple, and the poet, seeing that, is thinking that if a tiny bird can be accepted by God and have a home in the temple, so God completely accepts me when I am at home in God’s presence. God cares for us more than we can imagine!

Some of the imagery is of people climbing the hill up to the temple in Jerusalem. Appropriate for a Sunday as we come to the presence of God at worship.

Nehemiah 5:1-19 What’s Nehemiah about?
While the temple and the city walls are being rebuilt, senior officials are oppressing the people and extorting money and slaves. Nehemiah insists that this exploitation stop, and he himself declares he will not receive money normally due to himself as the governor. The officials agree to his demand. This is a sign that the people will not again abandon their God of justice, which was the cause of the temple and the city being destroyed.

Luke 12: 22-31 What’s Luke about?
Jesus illustrates how generous God is to birds and flowers and encourages us to be confident in God’s care for us and not to be consumed by desire for external supports.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday October 30

Saturday October 30 Pentecost 22

Psalm 138
I praise God because God helped me, even though I am one of the lowly.

Psalm 139
God, you know everything about me, even when I was still in my mother’s womb, and I am amazed at your knowledge. Help me to remove all evil from the world.

Nehemiah 4: 1-23 What’s Nehemiah about?
The inhabitants of the land plan to invade Jerusalem while it is being rebuilt to prevent it from regaining its role as a major city, but Nehemiah organizes resistance and all the workers arm themselves while rebuilding.

Matthew 13: 31-35 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus continues a series of parables about how things like seeds which begin tiny grow far beyond their original size—he is assuring us that God’s justice, which seems so insignificant, will become the foundation of the world.

This week’s collect:

Lord God our redeemer,
who heard the cry of your people
and sent your servant Moses
to lead them out of slavery,
free us from the tyranny of sin and death,
and by the leading of your Spirit
bring us to our promised land;
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 October 29

Friday October 29 Pentecost 22

Psalm 51
I have committed evil acts and I long that God will wash me clean. If I am forgiven, I will tell everyone of God’s goodness. I would have given expensive sacrifices, but what you want, O God, is that I change my priorities. Then God will be pleased with us and our religious practices.

This psalm is often used on Fridays, the anniversary of the death of Christ through which forgiveness is possible. Our world would receive new life if we were as committed to changing direction in matters which are bringing death to the planet.

Nehemiah 2: 1-20 What’s Nehemiah about?
With God’s help Nehemiah receives king Artaxerxes’ support to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. When he arrives at Jerusalem he secretly inspects what is left of the walls and meets secretly with Jewish leaders to begin the restoration. But local officials, who are not Jews, oppose the re-building. In fact, the re-building of Jerusalem did not go smoothly, and the writer attributes this to opposition from foreigners.

Matthew 13: 24-30 What’s Matthew about?
Matthew continues the second in a series of parables about seeds. Faced with an infestation of deliberately planted weeds in his wheat field, the owner instructs the workers to allow the weeds to grow so as not to tear out the wheat, but at harvest to separate the wheat from the weeds. This story would have been of support to the early Christians of Matthew’s time who were becoming aware that the kingdom of justice and fulfillment that Jesus had promised wasn’t happening. Matthew recalls Jesus predicting this and saying that at the end of time God will put everything right at the end, even though there is opposition to the kingdom at the present.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday October 28

Thursday October 28 Pentecost 22

Psalm 59
People all around hunt me down, like dogs attacking, but I insist that God is on the side of the innocent.

We can apply the dramatic imagery not only to people, but to the policies and global forces that are destructive to societies and to the planet, and yet we insist that God’s goodness and justice is always present.

Psalm 60
God seems to have abandoned us, and we are being defeated even though God claimed for us the territory of all our tribes. We pray that God will turn things around and do great deeds through us.

This psalm can easily be applied to the threat of destruction of the planet in our day, but we will continue to insist that God’s goodness and care is supreme over all the forces of evil.

Nehemiah 1: 1-11 What’s Nehemiah about?
For the next two weeks we read about the restoration of Jerusalem as recounted by Nehemiah and and Ezra.

Nehemiah is a senior official to the king of Babylon. When he hears how the people of Jerusalem are suffering he is devastated and asks God for forgiveness for all he and the people have done to abandon the God of justice. He goes to the king who appoints him as governor of Jerusalem. Nehemiah understands this to be God’s generous faithfulness in making the rebuilding of the temple possible.

Matthew 13: 18-23 What’s Matthew about?
This is an interpretation of the parable about the sower and the seeds. Originally Jesus probably meant to use an obvious common experience (wonderful harvests happen even though most of the seeds which were planted never grow) to say that no matter how much opposition his followers, or the kingdom, encounters, God’s generous plenty always wins in the end. It is a very effective image. The explanation that each example has a special meaning was probably added later by an early Christian who thought Jesus had been explaining why some people followed him, and others didn’t. Matthew’s concern is that Christians be aware of the ways in which they may not be faithful.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday October 27

Wednesday October 27 Pentecost 22

Psalm 49
Why should I worry about the rich who oppress me? Even the wealthiest person could never pay for their life so that they could live forever. Everyone dies and the rich oppressors are led like sheep to the grave. Why should I be afraid of the wicked when I know they will all die!

Psalm 53
Everyone has abandoned God, and God’s justice. We long for God to restore justice to the world.

Ezra 6: 1-22 What’s Ezra about?
Ezra continues the story of how the oppressors have become the chief supporters of re-building the temple. In a somewhat idealized account, Ezra tells how King Darius confirmed the decision by his predecessor Cyrus to allow the temple to be re-built, the sacred vessels to be returned, and immense support to be provided. The temple is then completed and all Israel rejoices.

Matthew 13: 10-17 What’s Matthew about?
Matthew tries to explain why people didn’t take Jesus seriously—Jesus says that fundamentally people have a choice to shut their eyes to truth, or to listen eagerly, so many people will find his parables incomprehensible, but it is their lack of commitment to knowing the truth that makes that happen. But those who understand should be happy indeed because so many people have wanted to understand God, and now in Jesus, the disciples do.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday October 26

Tuesday October 26 Pentecost 22

Psalm 47
God reigns over history and over the nations and has protected us. Praise to God!

Psalm 48
A song of praise for how Jerusalem has been blessed by God— the forces which would destroy us are overcome.

We might understand this psalm as rejoicing in the beauty of creation, and of our own self as a glorious city, made possible by God’s commitment to justice.

Ezra 5: 1-17 What’s Ezra about?
The story continues about how God has decided that the temple will be rebuilt. During the re-building, local Babylonian officials, disturbed by the military implications of a new capital city arising, ask what authority has been given. The Jews quote the letter from King Darius giving them permission, and inquiries are made in the Babylonian capital to see if this is true. If true, it demonstrates that God is in charge of all nations, not just the Jews.

Matthew 13: 1-9 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus uses the common agricultural experience of great harvests being reaped despite the majority of the seeds having died as an illustration of how God’s will for justice will prevail despite immense setbacks.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday October 25

Monday October 25 Pentecost 22

Psalm 44
This is a psalm for times when bad things happen to us when it’s not our fault. The psalm starts off by recounting how God did amazing things for us in the past—God rescued us out of Egypt through the Red Sea. But now God no longer cares for us and terrible things are happening to us, even though we have done nothing wrong. At the end the psalm says there is nothing to do but call on God to put things right.

Zechariah 1: 7-17 What’s Zechariah about?
This is another prophecy that in spite of having allowed terrible things to happen, God promises that the temple will be rebuilt and that Jerusalem will prosper again. The prophet is proclaiming that the rebuilding of Jerusalem is caused by God’s care, and isn’t simply an accident of international politics.

Matthew 12: 43-50 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus challenges those who claim to be converted from abuse to truth but who use their new reputation as upright people to cover their new commitment to evil. This continues Matthew’s theme that naming what is good as if it were evil is profoundly violating to God. He then says that our commitment to truth and justice may require us to make difficult decisions about where our loyalties lie—our loyalty to what is true and just is deeper even than family.

This week’s collect: