Author: Harold

Psalm 72
A prayer that the king will rule with justice for the poor, and that as a result all will have more than enough to live fully. This can easily applied as a prayer for our political leaders today.

Wisdom 13: 1-9 What’s Wisdom about?
The poet says that many people, meaning Greek intellectuals, are fascinated by the beauty and ingenuity of the world and how it works, and while we Jews cannot blame them for being so deeply attracted, they should have come to an awareness of the One from whom all things come.

Living in Greek culture, which was highly educated and sophisticated about the world, would have been threatening to the ancient Jews and their traditional faith. So in this book they are re-interpreting their faith so that they see God, in the form of Wisdom, lying behind the impressive Greek knowledge of the world. It was an approach which would fit well in our time.

Luke 8: 16-25 What’s Luke about?
Jesus encourages us to be like light in the world so others can see clearly what is going on beneath the surface; we are to listen carefully to what God is doing, otherwise we will have nothing to contribute to the world because those who don’t listen will have nothing to contribute; finally, Jesus’ true relatives are not those related by genetics but those who live in his family of love. All these challenges are summed up in Jesus overcoming a storm which had threatened to drown the disciples.

When Luke was writing, the storm of opposition to followers of Jesus was growing, so understanding Christians to be light for the world, to have insights to contribute to society, and to hold our primary loyalty to be with other Jesus-followers was how early Christians experienced Jesus continuing to be among them giving them peace in the storm of opposition. We could do with experiencing the same reassurance in our day.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
Give us grace to love one another
and walk in the way of his commandments,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Tuesday May 4

Tuesday May 4 Easter 5

Psalm 61
I was burdened and God became my strength—be with me always.

Psalm 62
In face of evil, we trust in God to be our solid foundation.

Wisdom 10: 1-21 What’s Wisdom about?
Wisdom was the source of all the amazing things in the Old Testament: gave wisdom to Adam, saved Noah, guided Joseph so he became the ruler of Egypt, rescued Israel from Egypt, and so on. We praise Wisdom, who is God’s presence for us and has been from the beginning and always will be.

Luke 8: 1-15 What’s Luke about?
Jesus is accompanied by a large group of women who support him. He tells the first of a series of stories about seeds—the harvest of randomly sown seeds always far exceeds what was planted. The subsequent interpretation of the seeds as standing for various responses to Jesus was probably an invented by a later disciple who thought Jesus was concerned with why people didn’t follow him rather than proclaiming that God’s inclusive kingdom will come despite its small beginnings. The involvement of women as leaders along with the twelve disciples is a sign that the kingdom is indeed happening and that people without power, often women then as now, may be the foundation of the coming kingdom.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday May 3

Monday May 3 Easter 5

Psalm 56
In the face of intense attack by evil, we trust that God will act for what is right.

Psalm 57
Another psalm expressing our trust that God will act for what is right in the face of intense attack by evil.

Psalm 58
An impassioned plea for evil to be overcome. We should read the violence not literally but as an expression of our determination that good will prevail.

Wisdom 9: 1-18 What’s Wisdom about?
King Solomon is only an ordinary mortal, but with Wisdom at his side, he does wonderful things such as building the temple in Jerusalem. Humanity knows next to nothing about the earth and cannot fathom what God has in mind, but with Wisdom, we can know the way to go.

The author is taking the Greek ideas of goddesses, a very credible concept at the time for Jews dominated by Greek culture, and explaining how Jews could understand God being present to them in a Jewish form of a feminine divine being called Wisdom. The writer imagines Solomon, who lived a thousand years in the past, inventing this idea, and thus giving credibility to this way of experiencing God.

Luke 7: 36-50 What’s Luke about?
Jesus is invited to dinner with a Pharisee, a person with deep commitment to living in accordance with God’s expectations. At dinner a prostitute arrives and Jesus allows her to kiss him repeatedly. To accept her intimacy was as inconceivable then as it would be now. When the religious leader objects, Jesus explains that we love the person who forgives us if we have much to be forgiven for, but love little if we have little to be forgiven for. Since the host hasn’t cared for Jesus’ needs the way the prostitute has, he must not have needed much forgiveness! Only then does Jesus speak of forgiveness to the woman, meaning that she had experienced his love for her even before he spoke of fully accepting her. When there is more complaint about Jesus’ behaviour, he tells the woman that she was responsible for her forgiveness “your faith has saved you” rather than attributing her acceptance to himself, and tells her to go in peace, a deep acceptance which is breaking in through Jesus, but which the wider society refuses to give her.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday May 2

Sunday May 2 Easter 5

Psalm 24
While entering through the doors of the temple the poet sings a hymn of praise to God who brought order out of the dangerous primordial ocean. Appropriate for a Sunday as we enter into our worship.

Psalm 29
Astonishment at the overwhelming presence of God in nature who rules the untameable ocean and even makes mountains cavort like calves and oak trees “writhe” in a gale! We worship such a God, who makes such strength and peace available to us.

Wisdom 7: 22-8:1 What’s Wisdom about?
Solomon describes Wisdom with a whole range of poetic qualities, almost like a hymn of praise or a love-song to this aspect of God which makes herself at home with humanity.

Matthew 7: 7-14 What’s Matthew about?
We can trust God to be generous, and so that gives us the foundation for treating others generously. Nevertheless, this path isn’t easy—it will take determination to walk in that way.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday May 1

Saturday May 1 Easter 4

Psalm 55
I am terrified at what is happening. The city is full of corruption and my dear familiar friend has betrayed me. I will not cease imploring God to intervene and put things right.

Appropriate for a Saturday, when Jesus, betrayed by friends, waits in silence in the grave.

Wisdom 7: 1-14 What’s Wisdom about?
The idea is that King Solomon is speaking and saying that he was born in the way that any ordinary person is conceived and born. But what made him special is that he valued Wisdom above everything else, including above riches and jewels and power. This is an image about the presence of God that would appeal to Greeks and Jews living in Greek culture 200 years before Jesus.

Luke 7: 18-35 What’s Luke about?
John the Baptist’s disciples ask if Jesus is the image of God who has come to bring in God’s kingdom. Jesus doesn’t answer directly but points to all the events which are qualities of the kingdom. He then praises John but says that following his own path of death and resurrection is the way into the kingdom. John’s path was through discipline and opposition to Rome, and Jesus’ path is through joy and acceptance, but both paths are being refused by the religious leaders.

This week’s collect:

O God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
by the blood of the eternal covenant,
make us perfect in every good work to do your will,
and work in us that which is well-pleasing in your sight;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings for Friday April 30

Friday April 30 Easter 4

Psalm 40
All my life God lifted me up and I rejoiced in God’s care. But now my own sin, and my enemies, have nearly destroyed me. Do not wait any longer, God!

Psalm 54
I am in dire straights. Put everything back to right, God. I praise you, because you have done that.

Wisdom 6: 12-23 What’s Wisdom about?
Wisdom is being imaged as a divine being who seeks relationship with humanity, and two hundred years after this was written the concept was picked up by early Christians who developed the idea as Holy Spirit who remains with us after the physical life of Jesus is over. We are to think about how we would cultivate a relationship with holy Wisdom.

Luke 7: 1-17 What’s Luke about?
Jesus is amazed that a non-Jewish Roman general understands his authority over disease better than the Jewish people themselves. Luke often speaks of Romans who are sympathetic to the early Christians. Jesus then exercises authority over a death which would have left a mother destitute without male support of either a husband or a son. Two unlikely people, one with power and one without any, both experience God’s rule breaking in on them. God’s kingdom really is arriving!

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday April 29

Thursday April 29 Easter 4

Psalm 50
This psalm imagines God’s response to the people doing evil and abandoning justice. Rather than simply reacting or punishing, God lays out the case as if God were taking them to court—the idea is that God is being completely fair and getting an unbiased opinion about what the people have done. They have substituted religion for being just and if this continues there will be consequences, but if they return to justice all will be well.

Psalm 98
The people, the nations, and the whole of creation delight in God’s victory and rejoice when God comes to put all creation right. This psalm is used at Easter, and is often used on Sundays, mini-anniversaries of Easter. There is some lovely imagery of the sea deliberately making a noise with its waves and rivers doing the same by clapping their hands.

Wisdom 5: 9-23 What’s Wisdom about?
Just as a ship, or bird, or arrow, leaves no mark in the air after they pass, so evil people will disappear without a trace when they die. But righteous people (who insist on inclusive justice) will be defended by God who will ensure those opposed to justice will be completely defeated.

Luke 6: 39-49 What’s Luke about?
Jesus speaks about the solid foundation for our lives which is trust in God’s justice. Otherwise we may be as ridiculous as blind people showing blind people where to go, or people with terrible eyesight thinking they have perfect vision. When you see clearly you see that just people act justly.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday April 28

Wednesday April 28 Easter 4

Psalm 119 Part 3
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 Z, H, and Th (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “Z” and so on.

Wisdom 4: 16—5:8 What’s Wisdom about?
This passage affirms the reason for living a life of integrity: although evil people seem to prosper, those with integrity will be vindicated in the end, and the evil will be punished. This was intended to encourage Jews to retain their high moral lives in opposition to some Greek practices of dissolute living.
Those who were not faithful to justice will ultimately acknowledge they were wrong.

Luke 6: 27-38 What’s Luke about?
Jesus challenges us to love more deeply than society thinks is normal—we are to love our enemies! It sounds bizarre, and undermines the most cherished principles of society, but is the only way for the kingdom to come and for us to be really alive. It is as challenging and as dangerous and arouses opposition now as much as it did then.

This week’s collect:

Roger Brown, Gail Bucher,

Readings for Tuesday April 27

Tuesday April 27 Easter 4

Psalm 45
A poem about King David, using the imagery of an ancient oriental king, describing his personal and public magnificence and the glory of his relationship with the queen. Note that his prime duty is to serve truth and justice.

We can read this poem as a description of our own fulfilled self and relationships which have been made possible for us in union with Christ’s resurrection.

Wisdom 3: 1-9 What’s Wisdom about?
In the face of defeat by the Greek army, and subsequent execution of their young men by the conquerors, the writer promises that in some way God will rectify this abuse. The author is encouraging the people not to lose hope when disaster overwhelms them.

Luke 6: 12-26 What’s Luke about?
Jesus chooses the twelve disciples, symbolically re-constructing the ideal Jewish community with twelve tribes. He then describes how life is experienced in God’s community which consists of Jews and non-Jews (from Tyre and Sidon). Jesus congratulates the poor, the hungry and the the despised because they know their desperate need for God and will experience God’s care. But he warns those who are comfortable because they live in the illusion that they are already fulfilled, and so they will not experience God’s love and will find themselves empty. Knowing one’s need and weakness is, counter-intuitively, the route to fulfillment in the new community Jesus is initiating.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday April 26

Monday April 26 Easter 4

Psalm 41
Just as we care for the poor and needy, so God cares for us. I am needy in that I have sinned and my enemies and even my friends are all conspiring against me and hoping that I will die. All I can do is trust that God will protect me.

When we, or our world, seem to have little hope, we ground ourselves in knowing God holds us fast.

Psalm 52
Cruel powerful people seem to run the world, but we trust that God will enable the world to be as fertile as a green olive tree and evil will be ended.

Wisdom 1: 16- 2:11, 21-24 What’s Wisdom about?
This passage critiques a common Greek approach to life: everything is chance and meaningless, so we should get as much pleasure as we can no matter what the cost to others. The writer insists that in contrast, God calls us to a higher style of life.

Luke 6: 1-11 What’s Luke about?
Luke had experienced horrific acts of violence by the occupying Romans when they destroyed the temple. He remembers the Pharisees as courageously holding to God’s ancient command to do no work on the Sabbath as a way of retaining their loyalty to God against immense pressure to conform to Caesar who believed he was God and violence was his ultimate character. In contrast, Jesus has begun living in a different power—the power of trust in God’s deep care and generosity, so Jesus works on the Sabbath both to eat and to heal—signs of God’s imminent presence. The authorities start to plot his death because they are afraid that God will abandon them to the Romans if they don’t uphold the ancient Sabbath law.

This week’s collect: