Author: Harold

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.

Deuteronomy 4: 15-24 What’s Deuteronomy about?
Moses reminds the people that when they encountered God on Mount Sinai they did not see any shape of God. So they are never to make any carved images because they might start to think that the carvings of wealth and greed are a real god.

It may be that because the sacred ark was destroyed in the Babylonian invasion, there was no central object to place in the temple when it was rebuilt. This disastrous loss became a profound insight—using any image for God demeans God. In contrast, all the other ancient religions had statues of their gods, but the Israelite religion had none. That is why the Jews even today have no pictures of God, and do not even pronounce or write the name of “God” in the Hebrew language.

Moses says that the people must never abandon the justice which God requires. Moses knows he will die before he arrives in the promised land, and he points that out as a warning—the people had abandoned God’s justice even in the wilderness and there will be consequences, one of which is him dying before they get to the promised land.

Luke 15: 1-10 What’s Luke about?
Jesus is being criticized for treating evil people as equals. Jesus turns our ideas about God upside down by telling three stories about how God is happier when even one evil person returns than about hundreds of good people who were never bad! The first story is about a sheep that got lost, the second is about a lost engagement ring, and the third story, which we will read tomorrow, is about a young man lost to reckless living.

This week’s collect:

Almighty and everliving God,
who fulfilled the promises of Easter
by sending us your Holy Spirit
and opening to every race and nation
the way of life eternal,
keep us in the unity of your Spirit,
that every tongue may tell of your glory;
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 May 25

Wednesday May 26 Pentecost

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!

Deuteronomy 4: 25-31 What’s Deuteronomy about?
Moses predicts that the people will abandon God’s justice after they enter the promised land, but if they repent and return to justice, God will not abandon them because God will never abandon the people.

This is exactly what the prophets had written about following the Babylonians having captured Israel five hundred years before Jesus, and as the religious leaders of that time arranged the stories from the ancient past into the first five books of the Bible they understood that Moses had anticipated the same thing happening when the people first entered the land. To learn about an identical abandoning of God’s call to justice and of God’s rescue of them would have been profoundly encouraging for people returning from Babylon and rebuilding the temple.

Luke 15: 11-32 What’s Luke about?
This is Jesus’ third story about how God is happier about one person returning from self-destruction than about many good people who never did anything wrong. Jesus isn’t saying God doesn’t care about people who never did anything wrong, but is challenging good people to be filled with joy when even the worst person changes. Jesus deliberately undermines everything that is usually thought about God rewarding good and punishing evil. The son takes his whole inheritance—half of his father’s wealth and blows it on irresponsible living and then has to feed pigs which was the most disgusting thing that a Jew could ever do. When he returns to his father the father embraces him and celebrates more than he ever did about his law-abiding older son who refuses to join the celebrations.

As in Jesus’ story about the infidel, but loving, Samaritan, Jesus is challenging us to embrace, as God does, those who have betrayed us. This prevents good people from thinking that they are better than evil people, because in that certainty, good people may find it hard to love, and therefore wouldn’t be be special at all.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday May 24

Monday May 24 Pentecost

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.

Deuteronomy 4: 1-9 What’s Deuteronomy about?
For the next three weeks we read from the book of Deuteronomy. This book contains the many commandments that Moses was said to have given to the Israelites in the wilderness. In today’s passage, Moses says that God reminds the people of the expectation to live in justice with each other, and that things will not go well if they abandon that justice.

In the same way, Christians, who have just entered the new life in Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit, need also to remain faithful to the way of life through sacrificial death that they learned from Jesus.

Luke 14: 25-35 What’s Luke about?
Jesus says that it is not going to be easy to be his follower and if you naively imagine you won’t have to give up your life, then you won’t enter into the fulness of life—it is costly to live in his death and resurrection. But if we don’t do that, then we have no value, just as salt is useless if it has no taste.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday May 23

Sunday May 23 Pentecost

Psalm 118
An enthusiastic song of thanksgiving for everything God has done for us—God has protected us from evil forces, and we give praise in the temple and in processions. Appropriate for a Sunday as an anniversary of the triumph of Easter Day.

Portions of this psalm are traditionally sung on Easter Day.

Isaiah 11: 1-9 What’s Isaiah about?
This is a poem describing how God will bring peace and justice to the people. It was written around the same time as Ezekiel and gives hope to the people living in exile that creation will again be beautiful. The shoot coming out of the stump of Jesse, is an image based on the common sight of a new shoot growing out of an old stump. Jesse was the alternate name for King David, so the image means that David’s city—Jerusalem—which has become a stump because it was destroyed by the Babylonian invasion, will have a new leader and new life and peace arise in it. The new leader will bring peace and justice imagined here as miraculous peace extending even to wild animals.

Five hundred years later the early Christians applied this idea to Jesus. Because today is Pentecost, and the giving of the Holy Spirit, this poem was sometimes interpreted as describing how the new city—Jesus and the Christian community—is a new shoot growing out of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem embodying God’s peace and justice.

John 14: 21-29 What’s John about?
At the time John was writing his gospel, an entire generation had passed since Jesus’ earthly life and the early Christians were afraid they had permanently lost contact with Jesus. John remembers Jesus saying that he is present when Christians love each other and that he will be with us in the form of the Holy Spirit. Today is the anniversary of the dramatic gift of Jesus’ Spirit as recounted by Luke.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday May 22

Saturday May 22 Easter 7

Psalm 107 Part 2
When the Israelites completed their journey through the wilderness God brought disaster on the evil people who lived there (as the Israelites understood them) to make a fertile place for God’s own people. When God’s people were oppressed, God rescued them. Wise people, the poem says, will take this to heart and will trust in God’s care and justice to prevail.

One of our tasks today is to cultivate that trust in God’s care for humanity so that when disaster happens in our world we will have something solid to offer.

Exodus 19: 3-20 What’s Exodus about?
God has rescued the people from slavery in Egypt and will shortly give them new life in the form of the Ten Commandments which describe how to live in peace and justice. But first they will experience the absolute power of God appearing in thunder and lightning. Early Christians may have associated this experience with the gift of the Holy Spirit given in fire and wind which transformed them from a terrified community to one through which the Good News was taken around the Roman empire. Tomorrow is the anniversary of God giving the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, through whom we live in new life today.

Luke 11: 14-23 What’s Luke about?
Some people say that the reason Jesus can overcome evil forces is because he himself must be evil. He laughs at this because if evil forces are throwing out evil forces, then evil will soon collapse! Instead, Jesus insists that he is a force for good and that good is already triumphing over evil—the kingdom is already arriving in his own presence.

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.

Readings for Friday May 21

Friday May 21 Easter 7

Psalm 102
A lament at the destruction of Jerusalem 600 years before Jesus. It ends with hope of God’s faithfulness. The imagery of desolation is appropriate for Fridays, the mini-anniversary of Jesus being betrayed, abandoned, and in hours will be dead. Yet God will remain faithful.

Ezekiel 34: 17-31 What’s Ezekiel about?
God intends to stop the exploitation going on between rich and poor Israelites—the strong sheep who push the weak sheep away—and will remove the fear of wild animals and slavery by foreign nations. God will make sure that everyone lives in peace and safety and that there will be sufficient food for everyone. This is the peace and security that God intended for everyone at the beginning of creation. Ezekiel is saying that God will begin the beautiful creation again—wonderful good news for a people enslaved in exile!

Ezekiel’s book continues with promises of fulfillment—God gaining victory over the the Babylonians, then the famous image of a valley of dry bones (the dispirited Israelites) being filled with life by the spirit, and then the final eight chapters describing the new temple in enormous detail.

This concludes our readings from Ezekiel in which God promises a fulfilled future for the people. Tomorrow we begin readings of how that new future comes in the form of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Luke 10: 38-42 What’s Luke about?
Jesus stays with two women and enables each to be fulfilled—Mary claims equality with Jesus by sitting next to him and learning, and Jesus affirms Martha’s role as the senior hostess. The kingdom arrives differently for each of us and heals our jealousies and deeply fulfills us.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday May 20

Thursday May 20 Easter 7

Psalm 105 Part 1
Praise to God for caring for and protecting the people—God looked after them before they were enslaved in Egypt, and prepared them for rescue from famine by arranging for Joseph to become the Pharaoh’s senior officer. God is committed through a covenant to do this forever. The second half of the poem will continue the story with God’s rescue of them from Egypt, God’s care for them in the wilderness, and God’s gift of a promised land.

Ezekiel 18: 1-32 What’s Ezekiel about?
The adult children of the original exiles have been arguing with Ezekiel that God is not fair, because it was their parents who abandoned God, but they themselves are in exile—it’s not their fault! God replies that every person is responsible for their own behaviour. If the present exiles, the adult children of those who had been taken to Babylon, behave well, then God will ensure that they will return to Jerusalem and to the promised land. There are consequences for abandoning justice, God is saying through Ezekiel, but God will offer an escape from the consequences if the people pursue justice, no matter what their parents had done.

The prophet is interpreting the people’s return to Jerusalem seventy years after the original enslavement, as God’s generous forgiveness of their parents’ injustice.

Luke 10: 25-37 What’s Luke about?
A biblical scholar attempts to engage Jesus in a contest of wits about scripture interpretation. But Jesus takes his technical question seriously and challenges him to live with the love the scholar’s quote describes. The scholar presses the technical issues of who he should love and who he shouldn’t in order to get out of Jesus’ challenge. Jesus responds with a story about how religious leaders ignored a victim of violence, but a Samaritan, a hated and despised enemy of Jews, acted with a generosity beyond that of the scholar’s own community. When Jesus asks him to draw the obvious conclusion, the scholar cannot bring himself to admit his enemy neighbour was more loving than he. Jesus tells him to emulate his enemy’s level of caring. The kingdom challenges us in our day to determine what is our deepest level of loyalty—to our own community, or to the community of justice.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday May 19

Wednesday May 19 Easter 7

Psalm 101
I am determined to live a life of justice and not to support exploitation.

Psalm 109
A desperate plea for God’s assistance, and rejoicing that God is faithful to the poor. The middle section, which uses violent images against those who oppress the powerless, expresses a profound desire that oppression be removed from the world. At the conclusion the writer rejoices that God is committed to the needy and to protecting those who are unjustly accused.

Ezekiel 11: 14-25 What’s Ezekiel about?
The people who had been left in Jerusalem are thinking that the exiles in Babylon will never return and the land will become theirs. But God reminds Ezekiel that God has cared for them in exile and will rescue them by putting a new spirit of justice in their hearts. Ezekiel is taken by the fiery chariots back to the exiles to tell them this good news.

Luke 10: 17-24 What’s Luke about?
The seventy disciples return having seen the kingdom arriving. Jesus rejoices that the disciples have experienced God’s power to bring life to all—nothing can hurt them. Those who are of little influence understand this sooner than powerful people who will never understand the nature of inclusive love because they imagine their own power can save them.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday May 18

Tuesday May 18 Easter 7

Psalm 97
God’s power in creation is an expression of God’s commitment to justice—righteousness and justice are the foundations of God’s throne and therefore of all creation. We can count on God to uphold those who are without power as surely as we experience enormous power in creation. A wonderful image for our age when science shows us so much power in creation – dignity and justice are equally embedded.

Psalm 99
God’s justice was shown in the way God rescued the people from slavery and cared for them throughout history. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 100
A short hymn of praise that God has remained faithful forever.

Ezekiel 7: 10-27 What’s Ezekiel about?
The people have abandoned the God of justice and refuse to change their ways and so the horrific consequences are inevitable. Their endless greed will come to suffocate them.

At the end of this horrific passage, God intends to use these consequences to ensure that the people come to know the God of justice. It is always possible for them to return to security and safety when they do so.

We are experiencing the beginning of such consequences in our day of having been heedless of the needs of the poorest in the world and of the needs of other life. However those consequences are themselves illustrations of how fundamental it is that we make justice and inclusion the priorities for humanity, the only path to a fulfilled life for all in the future.

Luke 10: 1-17 What’s Luke about?
Jesus sends 70 followers out to various towns. They are to rely on other people’s generosity as a way of being humble and learning to accept love from others. They are not to go from house to house, meaning they are not to seek out the wealthiest hosts so they get the most comfortable accommodations. They have to practice what they preach. But communities that do not accept them, i.e. which do not accept God’s proclamation of inclusive justice, will suffer consequences. The seventy return amazed at the power of proclaiming justice.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday May 17

Monday May 17 Easter 7

Psalm 89 Part 1
God’s faithfulness in creation is the basis for our trust in God’s justice and care for us. Just as God created order from chaos in creation, so we can rely upon God to create order out of chaos in human society. God’s original goodness intended for humanity and the world, is that everyone have a place and dignity and worth. Accomplishing that is the work of justice, often translated into traditional English as “righteousness.”

Ezekiel 4: 1-17 What’s Ezekiel about?
God asks Ezekiel to perform a play of warning about what is going to happen to the people and to Jerusalem as a result of their abandoning justice. In the play Ezekiel is to use a brick to represent Jerusalem and he is to lie down for a long time to represent how long the northern part of the country will be under siege. Another long period, lying on his other side, represents how long the southern part of the country around Jerusalem will be enslaved. God asks him to eat disgusting food to represent how disgusting the food will be inside the city when it is being surrounded by foreign armies as the consequence for their abandoning God’s justice. Ezekiel objects that he has never broken the commandments to eat kosher food, and God relents and allows the food in Ezekiel’s play to be a bit less disgusting as a sign that God looks forward to rescuing the people. Finally, to drive home the warning, in the play the people will have to buy bread not by the loaf but by the ounce, and water likewise—there will be extreme distress unless the people change.

Luke 9: 51-62 What’s Luke about?
On his way to Jerusalem to face death Jesus is rejected by a Samaritan town who believe their own temple is God’s choice, and not the one in Jerusalem. The disciples want to destroy them, but Jesus refuses—he insists on the kingdom of justice. Just as he will when he is rejected at his execution. Then there are a series of short stories illustrating how people avoid commitment to justice. Perhaps it is the disciples who are are not yet committed.

This week’s collect: