Author: Harold

Psalm 37 Part 2
God always rescues and protects those who are just, and the powerful evil people will soon be brought to nothing. There is some daring imagery – evil people are imaged as a field in full harvest and as healthy trees – evil does seem to flourish sometimes.

1 Samuel 20: 24-42 What’s Samuel about?
David absents himself from Saul’s banquet and Saul is enraged at this insult and at his son Jonathan for supporting David, who Saul knows will wrest the kingdom from him and his son. Saul attempts to maim or kill his son. Using the pretense of target practice to cover their communication, Jonathan warns David to flee, and the two weep together and Jonathan confirms their vow that David will protect Jonathan when he becomes king. The writer is preparing us for the final outcome—that Jonathan will die in spite of David’s attempts to protect him, so that Saul’s disobedience will have the full consequence of extinguishing his family line.

Mark 2.23-3.6 What’s Mark about?
Jesus is criticized for allowing his disciples to pick heads of grain on the Sabbath—which was technically “work.” The Sabbath was originally intended as a weekly re-enactment of the joy of the completed creation. Jesus responds with a (strange to us) use of an Old Testament text in which David’s followers ate forbidden holy bread. (By a lucky coincidence we read this story tomorrow.) Jesus then deliberately heals a man on the Sabbath and claims that the Sabbath was intended as an experience of the fulfillment of the original creation. Religious leaders, who want to retain the power to control who is forgiven and who is acceptable by God accuse Jesus of desecrating the Sabbath and making God’s acceptance free to everyone and they begin the quest to execute him.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
until they find their rest in you.
May we find peace in your service,
and in the world to come, see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Wednesday July 14

Wednesday July 14 Pentecost 7

Psalm 119 Part 2
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 D, H and W (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “D” and so on.

1 Samuel 20: 1-23 What’s Samuel about?
David makes a solemn oath with Jonathan that Jonathan will tell him when King Saul is planning to kill him. In return, David swears to always protect Jonathan’s family. Jonathan arranges to communicate with David through a coded message disguised as archery practice.

While these stories were intended to illustrate the fate that would befall kings such as Jonathan’s father who were not committed to justice for the common people, we can also see the literary skill of the ancient authors who knew their readers would be fascinated with stories of intricate palace intrigue just as journalists today are fascinated by the inner workings of staff at, for example, the White House.

Mark 2: 13-22 What’s Mark about?
Jesus calls a traitor who is extracting cash at sword-point to enrich himself and the hated Romans who protect him. This hated traitor is to be a disciple! The kingdom even includes people who are hated, for good reason. No wonder Jesus is criticized for socializing with such people and for not requiring his disciples to fast. Jesus responds to the criticism by saying that his disciples can’t fast because they are so overjoyed at being accepted. Jesus challenges his critics to change their attitude and to become part of the new kingdom rather than having half their loyalty linked to the old ways of oppressive power that are incompatible with God’s new life.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday July 13

Tuesday July 13 Pentecost 7

Psalm 36
People who pursue evil are strong and clever. But God’s love and generosity are much greater than they are.

Psalm 39
Our lives are very short, care for us, loving God, in the short time we have.

1 Samuel 19: 1-18 What’s Samuel about?
King Saul’s hatred for David deepens and he swears he will kill David, but Jonathan persuades him to change his mind, and Saul allows David to return to his house. Saul again tries to kill David, but David’s wife enables him to escape. The story teller is cleverly extending the saga of David’s conflict with Saul while exonerating David from responsibility. The message is that justice is working behind the scenes to ensure that the people receive good leadership from a new king.

Mark 2: 1-12 What’s Mark about?
A group of friends overcome impossible obstacles to allow Jesus to heal one of them who is paralyzed—paralyzed by disease and by sin. For the first time there is opposition to this kingdom of fulfillment in which physical and moral disabilities are so easily healed. Jesus is criticized by those in authority who have had the right to regulate how physical and moral healings happen.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday July 12

Monday July 12 Pentecost 7

Psalm 9
O God, you have always taken the side of the oppressed and abused to defend them against the powerful. May the oppressors be caught in their own schemes. Don’t forget us now, and don’t let the oppressors succeed and think they have the power.

Psalm 15
We are strong when we act in justice.

1 Samuel 18: 5-16, 27b-30 What’s Samuel about?
Because of his success in killing Goliath, Saul appoints David as head of the army. But because he is more successful in battle and becomes more popular than Saul, Saul is jealous and attempts to kill David. David marries Saul’s daughter, thus establishing his claim to the royal household. God has abandoned Saul, and the final conflict between Saul and David is set in motion.

Mark 1: 29-45 What’s Mark about?
A woman, Peter’s mother-in-law, is the first person to experience the kingdom breaking in and her dignity restored. Demons are thrown out, and someone with leprosy, the permanently incurable disease, is made clean and restored, like Peter’s mother-in-law, to social inclusion. Jesus refuses to stay in one place and allow the healings to set him up as the centre of a new cult—his priority is to ensure the kingdom breaks in everywhere.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday July 11

Sunday July 11 Pentecost 7

Psalm 114
Praise that God frightened the sea so the people could escape from Egypt and frightened the Jordan river so they could enter the land. Even mountains danced at these wondrous acts! God still does wondrous things.

Psalm 115
God, you are strong, we aren’t. The idols that other people worship are not real, but you are real—so, everyone, worship the real God.

The false idols such as power and wealth are still very much alive today, but only the true God of justice can give us full life.

1 Samuel 17: 50—18: 4 What’s Samuel about?
After his great victory over Goliath, David is summoned to Saul’s court, and becomes close friends with Jonathan, Saul’s son. Jonathan gives David his own royal clothes —symbolic of David, rather than Jonathan the king’s son, being called to be the next king. David now lives in the house of the person he will replace as king. We can see the ironies deepening as Saul’s rejection of God results in the inevitable consequence of his being rejected as king.

Matthew 23: 29-39 What’s Matthew about?
On Sundays we read from Matthew’s gospel. Jesus almost violently critiques the religious leaders who have abandoned the God of justice in order to persecute those who keep God’s justice—the holy and just. Matthew understands Jesus to have been aware of the destruction of Jerusalem that will happen at Roman hands forty years later when this gospel was being written. This disaster is being interpreted as the consequence of the leaders aligning themselves with Roman oppression and violence. “Your house is left to you desolate” refers to the temple as the “house” of God which was destroyed by the Romans.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday July 10

Saturday July 10 Pentecost 6

Psalm 110
This psalm is written as if God is speaking to King David, the first great king of Israel, assuring David of God’s absolute support in battle.

The violence in the final two verses can be understood as expressing God’s absolute commitment to removing oppression and injustice from the world.

Psalm 116
God rescued me when I was at the point of death, and I give thanks!

Psalm 117
A delightful short two-verse psalm of praise.

1 Samuel 17: 31-49 What’s Samuel about?
King Saul hears that David has said he can kill the giant, so Saul commands David to come to him. Saul sees he is only a boy, and doesn’t think David can help, thus not trusting in the God who raises up the weak and powerless. But David insists that he can kill the Philistine, but first takes off the armour that Saul had given him. That act is highly significant—the king trusts in military power, David trusts in God’s power.

We, too, can feel powerless in face of international or personal conflicts which threaten to destroy our world. If like David we cultivate trust in God’s strength to work through us, we can accomplish more than anyone would have thought possible.

Mark 1: 14-28 What’s Mark about?
John is arrested and about to be executed for his defiance of the Roman empire. Jesus takes up his proclamation, but changes it from the future (God is about to destroy Rome), to the present (God’s kingdom is emerging right now). He calls his first four disciples who will remain central in the gospels, and then heals unclean spirits. People are amazed. God’s kingdom is already breaking in!

This is Mark’s central interpretation of Jesus: God is victoriously breaking into life in the present, not waiting for the future. What a difference this would make if we believed that!

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ has taught us
that what we do for the least of your children
we do also for him.
Give us the will to serve others
as he was the servant of all,
who gave up his life and died for us,
but lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday July 9

Friday July 9 Pentecost 6

Psalm 22
This psalm is one of the most dramatic expressions of extreme fear, moving into trust in God. God acted in the past, but is doing so no longer. Jesus quotes from this psalm while he is on the cross, (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). It is appropriately read on Fridays, mini-anniversaries of the day Jesus was crucified.

Several elements in this psalm may have influenced the early Christians’ understanding of Jesus: the taunt that Jesus should save himself, Jesus being God’s in Mary’s womb, Jesus’ thirst on the cross, his garments divided, and packs of dogs which likely gathered at crucifixions.

The second half of the psalm proclaims God’s faithfulness to the oppressed and to the dead.

1 Samuel 17: 17-30 What’s Samuel about?
David’s father sends him to carry food for his brothers who are part of the army terrified by Goliath. David, still a boy, asks pointed questions about killing the giant and the reward of marrying the king’s daughter. David’s older brother is insulted at the implication of this young boy imagining he can kill the giant. We can see God calling this youngster to become more important than his older brothers—a frequent theme in the Hebrew Bible (remember Joseph becoming more important than his brothers) demonstrating God’s freedom to upend oppressive social norms.

Mark 1: 1-13 What’s Mark about?
Today we start reading through Mark’s gospel.

Jesus’ cousin John is proclaiming a revolution, under God’s leadership, against the pagan Romans, by inviting people to symbolically repeat Joshua’s ancient crossing of the Jordan and thereby invite the fall of Jericho—code for the Roman empire. Jesus—whose name was actually “Joshua”—joins this movement and is immediately driven (notice the tense of the verb) back into the wilderness from which Joshua had emerged. There Jesus will undergo a transformation in how he understands God’s victory over the Roman empire’s oppression and exploitation. Jesus will then emerge from the wilderness to lead another kind of revolution.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday July 8

Thursday July 8 Pentecost 6

Psalm 18 Part 2
The first half of this long psalm used images from the escape through the Red Sea to celebrate God’s rescue of us. This second half speaks of our faithfulness (understood to be a way of doing justice) which has been made possible because of our being rescued. The psalm goes on to use the imagery of total military victory as a symbol of the victory that God’s justice will have and how deeply we rejoice in that victory.

1 Samuel 16: 14—17: 11 What’s Samuel about?
Saul suffers from a mental illness which was understood in that time to be judgment by God for Saul not having obeyed God’s command to removal evil from the land. Unaware that he will be usurped by David, Saul invites David to live with him and minister to him in his illness.

A Philistine giant called Goliath challenges the Israelites—Saul and the entire country are terrified. And again, it will be David who relieves Saul of his terror. Clearly God’s plan for a new and faithful king is unfolding before our eyes.

Luke 24: 36-53 What’s Luke about?
The two disciples who encountered Jesus on their dark journey on Easter evening return to Jerusalem in joy. Now they all encounter Jesus who assures them of the reality of the resurrection by inviting them to touch him and to watch him eat. He shows how his death and resurrection have been God’s plan from the ancient past, assigns them to proclaim this, and leaves them that evening as he returns to heaven.

As with much of scripture, stories are equally valid at face value and as embodying multiple levels of meaning. Resurrection is not primarily a biological repair—it is a real event that happens to us at many levels including the physical. Luke is assuring us in this story of how real resurrection is and how central it is to God’s character and to creation. When we know that, we discover that resurrection is never just about us, but includes everyone. Luke makes it clear in his second book (the Acts of the Apostles) that while Jesus may no longer be present in his earthly body, the Spirit of Jesus will be present to make resurrection available to us and to all.

This concludes our reading of Luke’s gospel. Tomorrow we begin reading through Mark’s gospel.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday July 7

Wednesday July 7 Pentecost 6

Psalm 12
Everyone has abandoned truth and justice. I stand alone against this injustice. It is when God sees injustice that God acts. Save us, God, evil is prevailing.

Psalm 13
God seems to be absent, and not helping, but I long that God will. Then I will rejoice!

Psalm 14
Everybody has abandoned the God of justice. When God acts there will be great rejoicing.

1 Samuel 16: 1-13 What’s Samuel about?
God decides to choose another king, and sends Samuel to select another young boy. God protects Samuel from Saul who will certainly kill anyone plotting treason. Samuel travels to Bethlehem where, against all expectation, he anoints the youngest and least experienced boy, named David, to be king.

God continues to choose those who will best understand why we must uphold those with least power, and the story-tellers continue the long tradition of God choosing the least likely person (remember Joseph the youngest brother, and Moses who was to be killed as an infant). Indeed, the Israelites themselves were the poorest and least likely community to be called by God.

Luke 24: 13-35 What’s Luke about?
In the late afternoon of Easter Day, two disciples, who are in grief about Jesus having been executed, are joined by Jesus on their walk back from Jerusalem. They only recognize who it is when he breaks the bread in their house. Early Christians understood this to be a communion service which is one of the forms in which we experience Jesus’ resurrection. The two disciples return to Jerusalem in joy to tell the others.

While the Eucharist is usually associated with the last supper, it is also a re-enactment of this event—when our journey is very dark, we may find ourselves surprised by joy and the presence of the risen Christ who has been next to us all along. Eucharists encourage us in that expectation.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday July 6

Tuesday July 6 Pentecost 6

Psalm 10
A plea to God to act to help the poor and a complaint that God is not acting. Trust that God will act.

Psalm 11
People tell me to run away, but I trust in God and I am sure that God will act to save me.

1 Samuel 15: 24-35 What’s Samuel about?
Saul repents but blames the people for his not having carried out God’s command to rid the country of evil (as they understood it) by removing evil from the land by slaughtering the remaining foreign animals. In pleading to be forgiven, Saul accidentally tears Samuel’s robe, and Samuel declares that God will tear the kingship from Saul—this isn’t retribution for his robe being torn, but Samuel using an incident as a parable for what he sees will soon happen. Samuel then completes the cleansing of the land by ritually killing the foreign king. Samuel refuses to see Saul again, and God regrets having made Saul king. His days as king are clearly numbered.

Choosing power by following a king rather than choosing justice by following God will ultimately result in the people being taken into slavery in Babylon—this is the entire message of these books.

Luke 23: 56b—24: 11 What’s Luke about?
The women, preparing to complete Jesus’ burial rituals, are surprised at the grave by two angels who announce his resurrection. When the women tell the men, they are not believed.

God’s victory happens when we are most defeated, and comes utterly unexpectedly. It can be hard to believe.

This week’s collect: