Author: Harold

Psalm 31
I am being attacked from all sides but trust that God will rescue me. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus quotes from this psalm as he is dying. Appropriate for Friday as the weekly mini-anniversary of the crucifixion.

1 Kings 11: 26-43 What’s Kings about?
Solomon promotes Jeroboam, a capable servant, to responsibility for forced labour in Jerusalem. A prophet believes that God is abandoning Solomon because of his infidelity to the God of justice, and encourages Jeroboam to think that God will displace Solomon and make him, Jeroboam, king. The prophet predicts that God will take the northern tribes away from Solomon, but will retain one tribe in Jerusalem to remain loyal to Solomon. When his plans are discovered by Solomon, Jeroboam flees to Egypt.

The compilers of these stories, writing after the return from slavery in Babylon five hundred years later, are putting into the prophet’s mouth their belief that the Babylon disaster and the permanent destruction of the northern tribes is God’s punishment, delayed by a generation, upon Solomon’s infidelity. The punishment is that ten tribes will be absorbed into the Assyrian kingdom but God will have mercy and ensure that one tribe will be left to provide descendants for Solomon and David as God had promised.

Solomon dies in old age, and we anticipate how the injustice caused by the kings will continue to grow with the subsequent kings. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam (“the nation grows”) who rules the south of the country (called “Judah”) from Jerusalem will treat the people selfishly when Jeroboam (“the nation struggles”) makes himself an alternate king in the northern part of the country (called “Israel”) and governs from Samaria. We see the country beginning to fall apart.

Mark 15: 22-32 What’s Mark about?
Jesus is crucified and abused during the crucifixion. He is abandoned by everyone. There are no limits to which God won’t go in loyalty to humanity.

This week’s collect:

Author and Giver of all good things,
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us in all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Thursday September 2

Thursday September 2 Pentecost 14

Psalm 37 Part 1
It’s tempting to want to be as successful as evil people, but seeking God’s justice will fulfill us, and God will defeat evil completely.

1 Kings 11: 1-13 What’s Kings about?
Royal injustice deepens—King Solomon marries women from unjust religions and worships their disgusting gods. God will punish Solomon but faithful to God’s covenant, God will wait until after Solomon’s death and will punish subsequent kings. However, God will keep one tribe of Israel faithful and give that tribe to Solomon’s son. This likely reflects the perspective of the writers in whose time the southern tribes were the only ones left after the northern part of the country was captured by Assyrians three hundred years after Solomon.

Mark 15: 12-21 What’s Mark about?
The Roman authority continues the fruitless interrogation but is persuaded to execute Jesus. Early Christians would have been struck by the irony that a violent revolutionary named “Son of the Father” (the meaning of Bar-Abbas) is released, but the true “Son of the Father” who had done no violence is executed. Again there is irony in that the soldiers dress Jesus as their ruler and then humiliate him. A stranger is selected at random to carry the cross-piece of the torture apparatus (The upright parts of crosses were kept standing permanently at the city entrances to remind people of what would happen if they challenged Roman authority.) This man and his family seem to have become well known to the early Christians and may have become early followers even though we hear nothing further of them.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday September 1

Wednesday September 1 Pentecost 14

Psalm 38
I have caused my own downfall, people take advantage of me, and even friends have abandoned me. I remain silent because I hope in God. Help me, God!

1 Kings 9: 24—10:13 What’s Kings about?
Enormous wealth is given to King Solomon from around the world, giving praise to the God who has been faithful to the people

Mark 15: 1-11 What’s Mark about?
Jesus is interrogated by the Roman authority. The early Christians, moving into Roman society, had reason to portray the Roman governor in the best light. So Mark portrays Pilate is presented as being reluctant to execute Jesus, and does so only under pressure from the religious leaders.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday August 31

Tuesday August 31 Pentecost 14

Psalm 26
I do not sit down with the wicked: this gives us words to say how we wish to live, that deep in our heart we really are such people as keep God’s commands to love and do justice. “My foot stands on level ground” because we ground our lives on the solid base of justice.

Psalm 28
Like many psalms, this asks that the wicked be punished: “give them their just deserts.” (“Deserts” is “What is deserved,” not miles of sand or misspelled sweets!) This desire for evil people to be destroyed seems very unlike Jesus’ request that we forgive our enemies and love them, but it is really giving us words to express our own intense desire that oppressive and violent policies should come to an end. We might pray, “May any international trade agreements that make the poor even poorer, be utterly done away with.” The violent images in many psalms are not to ask God to be violent, but to ask that all evil actions and policies be completely defeated so people around the world can live in peace and fulfilment. The second half of the psalm gives thanks that God has indeed been victorious over oppression.

1 Kings 8: 65—9:9 What’s Kings about?
God accepts the temple and promises to uphold the people unless they follow unjust foreign gods. Solomon is warned that the temple will be destroyed if the people follow gods of greed instead of the God of inclusive justice. We are hearing the writers, working four hundred years later, saying that the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians was caused by the kings and the people abandoning justice.

Mark 14: 66-72 What’s Mark about?
Peter betrays Jesus as deliberately as Judas did—to save his life, Peter takes a solemn oath that he never heard of Jesus.

This passage provides credibility to the account—the early Christians who wrote the gospel would not have told stories that made their leaders look so completely like failures unless people knew it had happened. We are as reluctant as Peter to take Jesus’ total commitment seriously, yet through the power of Jesus’ resurrection Peter and the others became loyal and effective beyond their wildest imaginings. The same can happen to us.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday August 30

Monday August 30 Pentecost 14

Psalm 25
I desperately need God’s support both from those who attack me, and from actions that are my own fault, and I know God is always generous to those in such a situation.

2 Chronicles 6: 32- 7:7 What’s Chronicles about?
The book of Chronicles, written five hundred years after Solomon, describes Solomon asking God to accept people of other religions and to forgive the Israelites when they had been faithless to the God of justice and have been captured by foreigners. We are hearing the writers offering hope to the people of their time in exile with Solomon’s temple destroyed.

The temple worship and the sacrifices described at the end of the passage will continue for a thousand years—for five hundred in this temple until it was destroyed by the Babylonians, and then for another five hundred in the rebuilt temple until it was destroyed by the Romans forty years after the earthly life of Jesus.

Mark 14: 53-65 What’s Mark about?
Jesus is interrogated by the Jewish leaders and condemned for identifying with God. Perhaps the most offensive part of Jesus’ claim to identify with God is that it is in the character of God to undergo suffering and death. Such commitment to justice and inclusive love is still suspect in modern society.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday August 29

Sunday August 29 Pentecost 14

Psalm 148
These three psalms are especially appropriate on Sundays, the mini-anniversary of the resurrection. All creation praises God—the heavens, the earth—including fog, sea monsters, and “creeping things” (perhaps even insects or worms)—and humanity—rulers, young people and old people—all things without exception praise God together. Notice that the sequence is taken from the first creation story in Genesis: first the heavens, then creatures of the water, then creatures of the land, and finally people.

Psalm 149
Songs of joy at God’s victory. The joy of military victories toward the end of the psalm was their way of saying that God has conquered all injustice.

Psalm 150
A scene of riotous joy as every conceivable instrument and every creature praises God.

1 Kings 8: 22-40 What’s Kings about?
Solomon prays at the altar in the temple he has just built that God forgive repentant individuals and the entire people as a whole when they repent. We may be hearing the concerns of the writers five hundred years later who were desperate that God forgive the people for being led astray by their kings and so be released from slavery under the Babylons and be allowed to return to rebuild Solomon’s temple.

John 8: 47-59 What’s John about?
We read from John’s gospel on one more Sunday after today. These critiques of Jesus continue in our own day. Is he a Samaritan, i.e. a foreigner from another time, irrelevant to us? Is he evil, seducing us into passive powerlessness? Has he really been alive as he claims, and will continue to be alive for the whole of history?—that’s impossible, we think. But by deliberately saying “I am” (the name God revealed to Moses) at the end of this passage, Jesus claims his identity is that of God, and therefore in him we see God and if we knew God we would affirm this. When people don’t see God in him, Jesus says, that’s because they have a deficient understanding of God. So, not knowing God, and so not seeing God in Jesus, those who think they know God will try to kill him.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday August 28

Saturday August 28 Pentecost 13

Psalm 20
We delight that God upholds us with strength far greater than military technology.

Psalm 21
Joy at how with great power God has blessed the king and removed the threats against him. This psalm would originally have been sung to the king, as God’s blessed one, but it is equally applicable to us and can be read with ourselves as the subject of the psalm.

These psalms are often used on Saturdays to suggest the power God is about to use to raise Jesus and us from death.

1 Kings 7:51—8: 21 What’s Kings about?
Solomon places the ark, with the two stones of the 10 commandments inside it, in the centre of the temple. These stones codified their understanding of justice which became their central experience of God. This is an immensely important event in Israelite religion because it is the foundation of the entire temple experience focused on the ark with the ten commandments and on sacrifices, which continued, with the interruption of the Babylonian invasion, until forty years after Jesus—when the temple was permanently destroyed by the Romans and never rebuilt.

Mark 14: 43-52 What’s Mark about?
Jesus is arrested and all the disciples desert him. They all betray him—one with a kiss, and the others by running away. No matter in what way our modern world betrays God, God remains loyal to us. Even at great cost to God.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
we are taught by your word
that all our doings without love are worth nothing.
Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts
that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtue;
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 August 27

Friday August 27 Pentecost 13

Psalm 16
I have been loyal to the God of justice, save me from the grave and I will have joy.

Psalm 17
I am innocent, but the evil people surround me—save me and I will be fulfilled.

Both these psalms are appropriate for Fridays, the weekly mini-anniversary of the crucifixion and both conclude with hope for new life.

1 Kings 5: 1—6:7 What’s Kings about?
Solomon begins to sacrifice only at Jerusalem and will build the temple which lasts until the country is conquered four hundred years later. The temple was built to house the ark with the original ten commandments and the most holy altar where the most important sacrifices were to happen.

With the help of a foreign king, Solomon begins to build the temple. It is of enormous proportions and of enormous cost. As so often, foreigners are involved in supporting Israel—the writers are saying that the God of Israel, the God of justice, commands loyalty everywhere. Note, however, that Solomon must use conscripted forced labour—royal oppression is always in the background.

Chapters 6 and 7 are a detailed account of the building of the temple and are worth reading to appreciate the intricate plans used by the writers five hundred years later for rebuilding Solomon’s temple.

Mark 14: 27-42 What’s Mark about?
Jesus takes the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane and knows that they will all desert him. They all insist they well be loyal. Jesus prays desperately that he not be executed. In order for the kingdom to come, Jesus must give up everything, his friends’ loyalty, and his life. We are disciples learning to do the same thing.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday August 26

Thursday August 26 Pentecost 13

Psalm 18 Part 1
A meditation on God’s immense power to save:—a poetic imaginative recounting of the crossing of the Red Sea. It can be read as if it were the experience of one person being rescued or as if the nation is speaking with a single voice.

1 Kings 3: 16-28 What’s Kings about?
This is Solomon’s first demonstration of his wisdom — using psychology to discover who is the real mother of a child in dispute. It is no accident that the mothers in the story are both prostitutes—this most wise and wealthy of all Israelite kings is committed to justice even for a prostitute, and for her bastard child, the most despised of all people. Notice how the writer also affirms the deep love of the prostitute for her child —this care for the poor is central to the Jewish understanding of God’s call. The story is an example of sophisticated psychological insight in the ancient world, as well as a statement about God’s determination to use kings to root out injustice even for the poorest.

Mark 14: 12-26 What’s Mark about?
Jesus eats the Passover meal which is a re-enactment of the hurried meal eaten the night that God slew the Egyptians’ first-born children so that the Israelites could escape from slavery in Egypt. Mark is interpreting that Jesus, as a first-born, is about to be executed so that the human race can escape into new life. This is now our communion service.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday August 25

Wednesday August 25 Pentecost 13

Psalm 119 Part 1
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Every verse contains some synonym for “justice”, such as “word”, “statute”, “commandment” or the like. The psalm is arranged in groups of eight verses. Each verse in the group starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet – 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. The human world and the rest of creation are thus united. Today’s three sections begin with the letters A, B and G (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with A” and so on.

1 Kings 3: 1-15 What’s Kings about?
Solomon takes a wife from Egypt, a foreign religion, and still sacrifices to foreign gods—this is a sign that like subsequent kings, Solomon does not trust in the God of justice. But God calls him back. In a dream he asks God not for wealth or military power, but for wisdom to govern well, which means with justice. God grants him that wish, and he becomes famous for his wise decisions.

Mark 14: 1-11 What’s Mark about?
The plot to execute Jesus is getting organized. Jesus remains steadfast as the noose around him begins to tighten as Judas initiates the final steps of Jesus’ execution. An unnamed woman is the only person who understands what is going to happen and she gives everything she has to honour his approaching death.

This is an extraordinary statement from the early Christians: that Jesus’ own male disciples refuse to follow him on his path, yet an unnamed woman does. The kingdom of full equality and inclusion is already breaking in even as Jesus’ execution approaches and despite the disloyalty of his own disciples.

This gives us hope in our time if we feel our own loyalty may be in question—those of little status will provide the leadership to follow Christ.

This week’s collect: