Author: Harold

Psalm 93
A psalm of praise to God who is forever and who makes the world secure. “The waters lifted up their voice” means that although the raging sea (the original chaos) is threatening to drown everything, God’s voice is stronger. Appropriate for a Sunday when we celebrate God’s victory in the resurrection.

The raging sea can be circumstances in our lives, in our inner life, or in the life of the world.

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.

Jonah 2: 1-9
During Easter week each day we read a passage from the Hebrew Bible which celebrate God’s victory over destruction.

In this passage, Jonah is drowning, and God rescues him by a whale or a great fish. This story was interpreted by early Christians as a foretelling of God rescuing Jesus, and us, out of the grave and the early Christians could imagine these words expressing Jesus’ experience in death, as well as our own experience.

In Greek, the word “fish” is also the first letters of the phrase “Jesus Christ, son of God” and so the image of a fish rescuing Jonah was adopted by early Christians as an image of Jesus rescuing us.

John 14: 1-14
As typical in John, Jesus uses a series of poetic images and extended conversations to respond to the needs of subsequent generations of followers. These later followers, in John’s time as in ours, have several concerns arising from the fact that we no longer have direct physical contact with Jesus.

We are not to be concerned that Jesus is no longer physically present because Jesus will be with us in the form of Holy Spirit. We are not to feel second-rate Christians because we don’t get to speak to Jesus—the experience of death and resurrection in Jesus is the experience of God. If we think we are uninspired without the direct connection with Jesus, Jesus can still act through us with power—that’s the experience of Holy Spirit.

This week’s collect:

Lord of life and power,
through the mighty resurrection of your Son,
you have overcome the old order of sin and death
and have made all things new in him.
May we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
reign with him in glory,
who with you and the Holy Spirit is alive,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Sunday April 4

Sunday April 4 Easter Day

Psalm 148
These three psalms are especially appropriate on Easter, the 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.

Exodus 12: 1-14
God describes how God will utterly defeat the evil powers that have enslaved the Israelites in Egypt. The annual celebration of this escape became the festival of Passover, and the ceremonial eating of lambs amidst preparation for immediate departure remains the foundational Jewish experience to this day.

The Jews who followed Jesus identified his death as a re-enactment of of the lamb, and so called him the “Lamb of God.” The implication was obvious to them—Jesus was the sacrifice, like the ancient lambs, that signalled their escape from slavery, and the eating of the lambs was experienced in the food of the communion service. They were interpreting Jesus’ death and resurrection to be a new form of the Passover now applicable not just to Jews but to the entire world.

John 1: 1-8
John’s gospel is more interested in the meanings behind Jesus than in the details of his life. On Easter Day, we read John’s interpretation that Jesus was central to the creation of the universe, and thus imprinted the process of death and resurrection upon all things. John presents Jesus as the creator of the cosmos which then rejects him. But that rejection, seen in Jesus’ execution, demonstrates God’s sacrificial love for us in Jesus, and God’s ultimate victory over all evil and rejection seen in his resurrection.

For the next ten days we will continue to read about the deep meanings of Easter in John’s gospel.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday April 3

Saturday April 3 Holy Saturday

Psalm 88
A lament that I have been crushed and am beyond hope. When I am dead, there is nothing left, there is no life beyond the grave.

Astonishingly, to be fully with us, Jesus enters completely into such a death. This psalm is appropriately read on Good Friday as Jesus is placed in the grave. Only God’s act, on Saturday night—the eve of the resurrection—can reverse death—even Jesus’ death. That’s the only hope there is.

Job 19: 21-27a
Job, abandoned by God, continues to trust that God’s justice will prevail.

A fitting image for Jesus, in the grave, about to be raised by God.

Hebrews 4: 1-16
The author, an early Christian, is interpreting a verse “They shall not enter into my rest,” from Psalm 95 (used daily in the Daily Office). This part of the psalm describes how dire consequences followed when the Israelites, travelling through the wilderness after escaping from Egypt, abandoned God’s justice. The result was many died in the wilderness and never got to “rest” in the promised land. The author uses the word “rest,” from that psalm and other passages, to suggest how Jesus’ death and resurrection relate to us now.

The author highlights other meanings of “rest” such as the “rest” that God took when the world was finished and perfect (the first Sabbath), Jesus “resting” in the grave today, and the “rest” that Christians experience right now knowing that God is triumphant over death.

The author encourages us not to be like the Israelites in the wilderness and abandon loyalty to Christ’s death and resurrection. By remaining faithful, and knowing that Jesus’ death and resurrection are the central reality of all life, we will enter into God’s “rest”—the promised land of living full lives—right now.

This week’s collect:

Eternal Giver of life and light,
this holy night shines with the radiance of the risen Christ.
Renew your Church with the Spirit given to us in baptism,
that we may worship you in sincerity and truth,
and shine as a light in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday April 2

Friday April 2 Good Friday

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?”) and early Christians applied some details in the psalm in their description of the crucifixion. It is appropriately read on Good Friday, the anniversary of Jesus’ execution.

Genesis 22: 1-14
In Judaism, Abraham’s willingness to give his son to God as a sign of acknowledging that everything comes from God, was a central experience of their faith. God’s request that Abraham sacrifice a bullock was the origin of the temple sacrifices which continued through the time of Jesus. The temple was built over the actual rock on which the original sacrifice had taken place. Although the story may have originated as an ancient Jewish decision to end the practice of child sacrifice, its meaning deepened. Abraham was prepared, if necessary to follow God, not only to sacrifice his son, but because Isaac was his only son it meant he was prepared to abandon the entire future of becoming the great nation that God had promised. When Abraham is prepared to give up everything, God renews the covenant that Abraham will indeed be the ancestor of enormous nations.

Early Christians interpreted Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son, to be a foreshadowing of God’s only Son, Jesus, being sacrificed for us. Many early Christians, who were all Jews, interpreted Jesus’ death in relation to that profound experience.

John 13: 36-38
Peter insists that he will follow Jesus anywhere but Jesus confronts Peter with his imminent betrayal. Jesus is not condemning Peter, but asking him to be honest about his self-centredness. On this day, Jesus asks of us the same honesty. After dying to the illusion of how loving we are, only then can we rise to new life.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
look graciously, we pray, on this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ
was willing to be betrayed
and given into the hands of sinners,
and to suffer death upon the cross;
who now lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Readings for Thursday April 1

Thursday April 1 Maundy Thursday

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 Holy Week—tomorrow Jesus will be betrayed, abandoned, and in hours will be dead. Yet God will remain faithful.

Jeremiah 20: 7-11
Jeremiah continues to suffer rejection and abandonment even from his friends because of his urgent need to name the abuses going on in the land. Some of these images may have influenced early Christians in describing Jesus’ torture and death using similar details.

This concludes our readings from Jeremiah, who challenged oppressive authority and so suggests some ways of understanding the reasons for Jesus’ persecution and death.

John 17: 1-26
As typical in John’s gospel, Jesus speaks about the meaning of his death in semi-poetic terms with many allusions. Before going into the Garden of Gethsemane where he will be betrayed and arrested that night, Jesus asks God to glorify him so he can glorify God. The glory to which he refers is his own execution the next day, because it will enact the depth of love that God, in Jesus, has for the world. God’s intention to love at that depth was there when the universe was created.

He goes on to speak of having given the disciples God’s “word.” The word “word” is “logos” in Greek, and also means something like “deep reality” or “underlying principle.” Jesus has helped the disciples to understand that his’ execution is not an historical accident, nor the act of a very committed person, but is our experience of the deepest processes of God’s love which lies behind everything.

Just as Jesus himself faces opposition, so, he says, will his disciples because the world rejects the call to love at such depth. Jesus asks that his disciples will be protected from their inevitable persecution and that their lives will be characterized by the same degree of love as his own, which is actually God’s. Finally, Jesus asks that those who follow the disciples, which is us, will be united in the self-offering love which is the ultimate character of God and that we will be upheld by that love and so will ourselves be in glory.

We might have expected the reading today to include the Last Supper. But John does not record that event, but at the place of the last supper presents today’s meditation on the glory of Jesus’ self-offering and that of his disciples and ourselves. Perhaps that’s what John understood the Last Supper and communion were about.

This week’s collect:

O God,
your Son Jesus Christ
has left to us this meal of bread and wine
in which we share his body and his blood.
May we who celebrate this sign of his great love
show in our lives the fruits of his redemption;
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 March 31

Wednesday March 31 Wednesday in Holy Week

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 Holy Week when Jesus is about to be betrayed by his closest friends.

Jeremiah 17: 5-17
In this more poetic and reflective section of the text, Jeremiah explores images of those who do or do not trust in God’s justice and commits himself to remaining faithful to God’s faithfulness.

John 12: 27-36
Having just spoken to the Greeks about the necessity of his sacrificial suffering, Jesus now speaks of his reluctance to be crucified, but insists that is the entire purpose of his life, as such love is to be the entire purpose of ours. The voice which affirms Jesus’ commitment is saying that such love comes from the mystery underlying all creation. Many do still not understand how it can be that the one who is the image of God must die in order to love. This remains a difficult thing for us to understand and practice until we are enabled to see clearly on Easter morning.

This week’s collect:

Lord God,
your Son our Saviour gave his body to be whipped
and turned his face for men to spit upon.
Give your servants grace to accept suffering for his sake,
confident of the glory that will be revealed,
through Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Tuesday March 30

Tuesday March 30 Tuesday in Holy Week

Psalm 6
I have been hounded almost to death, help me, God. Thanks be to God that God heard me.

All the psalms this week reflect the approaching killing of Jesus and can express our own confrontations with betrayal and abuse.

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.

Jeremiah 15: 10-21
Jeremiah complains to God that he is being persecuted for telling the truth and that God has abandoned him for no reason—he accuses God of being unfaithful like a stream that dries up in summer when you really need it. God responds by promising to make Jeremiah the one who tells the truth to the people and to protect him from those who would destroy him for telling the truth about their having abandoned justice and brought on themselves the disaster of being enslaved in Babylon.

John 12: 20-26
During the Passover (the festival of liberation from slavery) Jesus explains to Greek worshippers that his purpose is to be a grain of wheat being planted and so by dying to become an immense harvest. He means that losing one’s life for love is the only way to experience deep life. He describes his coming death as his glory—the fulfilment of his purpose which is to love the world without any limit to his self-offering.

The idea of such love accepting a horrific death as the way to life would have been particularly strange to the Greeks who believed that people are essentially souls for whom physical life is less important and that human ingenuity and military power could ensure a fulfilled future. The same unfortunate illusions that sacrificial love can be avoided (by being religious like Greek philosophy or by trusting in the power of violence like all empires) remain widespread today. But we can have real life (“eternal life” as the Bible puts it) only through deeply loving which always involves joyful sacrifice.

This week’s collect:

O God,
by the passion of your blessed Son,
you made an instrument of shameful death
to be for us the means of life.
May our lives be so transformed by his passion
that we may witness to his grace;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Monday March 29

Monday March 29 Monday in Holy Week

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 used at the beginning of Holy Week as we approach Christ’s execution through which forgiveness and new life 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.

Jeremiah 12: 1-6
Jeremiah accuses God of not acting against evil. In the same way, evil seems to be victorious this week and especially on Good Friday. It’s appropriate to call out to God in the face of evil, as Jeremiah does, and demand that things change.

John 12: 9-19
John’s gospel continues to explore the meanings behind Jesus raising Lazarus—life has been restored—but the world’s response is to kill Lazarus so as to maintain the power to control and oppress. In the same way and for the same reason Jesus will be executed in a couple of days. The next day, on what we call Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem in a practical demonstration of how public life can be raised from the death of Roman violence into a fully inclusive way of living. Jesus will be rejected and executed, and after his death, like Lazarus, Jesus will also be raised to new life, and we with him.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son was crucified yet entered into glory,
may we, walking in the way of the cross,
find it is for us the way of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Sunday March 28

Sunday March 28 Palm Sunday

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 and appropriate for the start of Holy Week—next Sunday God will have brought glory out of the ultimate violence of the killing of Christ.

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.

Zechariah 9: 9-12
A set of images about the gentle peace that will happen after the people have been released from exile 500 years before Jesus. Today Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a defenceless donkey to confront the military might and violence of the Roman empire with an alternative society of justice and equality. Early Christians saw in this passage from Zechariah a foretelling of Jesus’ entry today into Jerusalem and wove some of those details into that story of Jesus’ confrontation with Rome.

Mark 11: 1-11
It is a week before the Passover, the annual commemoration of God rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Jews in Jesus’ time felt equally enslaved by the Roman empire and many hoped that God would act at a Passover to overthrow Roman rule just as God had overthrown the Egyptians. To prevent a rebellion, every year the Romans sent an entire legion to Jerusalem which was welcomed by the leaders of the city and religious authorities, all of whom held their positions at the pleasure of the Roman governor. By riding into the city on a young colt, at the same moment as the legion entered the city, Jesus deliberately mocks the grand entry of the Roman general who at that moment was entering the city on a great stallion at the head of an enormous military operation. Jesus’ enacting of a peaceful society was immensely popular and the Roman authorities saw in it the beginning of a revolt against them. No wonder Jesus is executed five days later.

This week’s collect:

Almighty and everliving God,
in tender love for all our human race
you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take our flesh
and suffer death upon a cruel cross.
May we follow the example of his great humility,
and share in the glory of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Saturday March 27

Saturday March 27 Lent 5

Psalm 137
Another psalm expressing terrible grief that the nation had been abandoned. When the people were captured and taken to Babylon about 700 years before Jesus, they were asked to amuse their captors with funny songs, and were horrified to have to entertain those who had destroyed their land and the glorious temple dedicated to justice. The concluding couple of verses of this psalm are disturbingly violent. We sometimes also feel violent when we are abused, so there is an honest recognition of that truth here. Or we can think of this part as a commitment to ensuring that all evil should be completely removed from the world.

Psalm 144
This psalm expresses the feeling that we are not very strong in face of terrible forces, but that God can act to save us, and the end result will be unimaginable prosperity and happiness.

Jeremiah 31: 27-34
Six hundred years before Jesus, Jeremiah uses several images to provide hope to the exiled people: God will put people and animals back in to the abandoned city of Jerusalem as if God were planting seeds; people may suffer consequences for their lack of justice, but won’t suffer for their ancestors’ infidelity; and there will—astonishingly—be a new covenant with the people. It was unimaginable that God would undertake a new covenant. In the first covenant, God promised a permanent home, rescued the people from Egypt and provided the ten commandments, as if God had married the Israelites. But in this new covenant God will write justice on people’s hearts and minds (not on stone tablets) so nobody has to teach anybody anything about God—everyone will already know that God is the God of justice and fairness. All their injustice will be completely forgiven and they will be returned to the home their husband-God had promised.

John 11: 28-44
This story of Jesus raising Lazarus from death comes just as Jesus is himself coming closer to being executed. It may be that John is using the story as a way of understanding the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection—there are many details in this story that are similar to those of Jesus’ death.

Mary believes that Jesus could have prevented her brother from dying by curing him as he cured many others, but she doesn’t believe that Jesus can raise him from death. Jesus is “greatly disturbed” perhaps meaning he is greatly frustrated that they still don’t understand that he is the resurrection from death. Jesus raises Lazarus and calls him from the tomb. A week today Jesus will be laying dead in his tomb, awaiting the unexpected call from God to rise again. So will we.

John, the gospel writer, is dealing with doubts about Christ that are often still ours. He presents Mary as having the same struggles we do. Is Jesus someone who is an example of good and helps us, or is he, as John believes, somehow the one who destroys death? There are all kinds of deaths that we have been called out of into new life. That’s how Jesus’ resurrection happens in us.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
your Son came into the world
to free us all from sin and death.
Breathe upon us with the power of your Spirit,
that we may be raised to new life in Christ,
and serve you in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.