Author: Harold

Psalm 148
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 – especially appropriate on Sundays, the mini-anniversary of the resurrection. The joy of military victories toward the end of the psalm was their way of knowing that God has conquered injustice.

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

Isaiah 62: 6-12
The reason Cyrus, the Persian emperor, is allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem is that he wants them to grow food so that Cyrus’ armies will have provisions when they march through Jewish territory. But God swears that the food the people grow will be eaten by them instead of by invading armies. The people will return to Jerusalem not afraid of what comes next, but in joy because God has declared to the whole world that they are rescued.

John 8: 12-19
Jesus says he is light for the whole world—self-offering love is the only life-style which can show us how to live in dark and self-centred times. His critics challenge him to prove this—they demand he show them others who support this radical claim. Jesus responds that God supports the claim, and if they don’t see that it’s because they don’t know God. If they had known the character of God they’d know how true his claim is.

The fact that Jesus’ self-offering love isn’t taken seriously in our time either, doesn’t prove it isn’t true—we know in our deepest awareness that it’s the only way for us, and for the world, to live fully.

This week’s collect:

Almighty and everliving God,
whose Son Jesus Christ healed the sick
and restored them to wholeness of life,
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your power make whole all peoples and nations;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Saturday February 13

Saturday February 13 Epiphany 5

Psalm 87
A vision of Jerusalem as the source of life for all the world, as if every nation and every beautiful thing originated there. Christians might interpret this as Jesus’ death and resurrection in Jerusalem being the source of life and beauty for the whole world.

Psalm 90
Our lives are very short, like a breath we are gone, we are so insignificant. Bless us, God.

Isaiah 61: 10 – 62: 2
Jerusalem is portrayed as God’s bride, an image that conveys extraordinary commitment on God’s part and which would challenge people to a whole new understanding of God’s attitude to them. It would be as shocking, and as challenging, as if we were to suggest that God is marrying Canada.

Mark 10.46-52
Mark has recounted three stories of the disciples’ rejection of Jesus’ call to give themselves away in love. In Jericho, the city that was first to come under the rule of the God of justice when Joshua crossed the Jordan in ancient times, Jesus now heals a blind man, but this time the man sees accurately. Mark’s imagery is that up to now the disciples have not fully seen what Jesus, or discipleship, involves, but their blindness is about to be completely cured.

The blind man “followed Jesus on the way” is a pun: “The Way” is what Christianity was originally called and immediately after being cured he follows Jesus on “the way” to Jerusalem, where five days from now Jesus will be executed. Jesus’ disciples will finally see that dying to a life of injustice and exploitation is the only way to be fully alive and for the kingdom to arrive among us. Jesus’ own death and resurrection will become the template for the entire world.

This week’s collect:

Merciful Lord,
grant to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that we may be cleansed from all our sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
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 February 12

Friday February 12 Epiphany 5

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 a 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.

Isaiah 61: 1-9
Isaiah continues the image of unimaginable prosperity for Jerusalem where all is just. God ensures this prosperity will happen because God loves justice.

Jesus quotes this passage as applying to himself when he comes out of the wilderness temptations after his baptism. Early Christians understood that Jesus was the renewed Jerusalem for the whole world.

Mark 10.32-45
Jesus is deliberately walking towards confrontation with the oppressive authorities in Jerusalem. This is the third time in a row that Jesus insists that God’s love involves God sacrificing God’s self for us, God’s beloved. The disciples, for the third time, want nothing to do with this—this time they want to make a secret deal to sit at the head table in heaven with Jesus. They do not want to die for God’s kingdom, they only want safety and success.

Of course, the disciples are us. Our world is in such difficulty because safety and success are the priorities of human cultures. Even today it is almost unimaginable that a culture would make significant sacrifices for the well-being of others. But there is hope—God is acting, in Jesus, to reverse what is “normal”.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday February 11

Thursday February 11 Epiphany 5

Psalm 83
We are under terrible attack. God, act quickly and utterly defeat them. We can say the same: that our world is under attack from forces of greed and exploitation, and we desperately need to be rescued. We can interpret the almost violent images in this psalm, as an expression of our deep determination that nothing will overcome the work of justice, inclusion and dignity for all. If our culture felt that strongly about dignity of all, what a wonderful world we would live in!

Isaiah 60.1-17
God is speaking to Jerusalem as if the city were a person. God promises light in its darkness, and overwhelming prosperity as her children return and surrounding nations respond with tribute. The reference to camels and gold and frankincense being given as tribute likely was in the minds of early Christians when they told the story of the wise ones coming from the east to worship the new-born Jesus. The following images are of prosperity beyond anything imaginable for the people of a devastated city—it would have taken courage to insist on such a vision when all the evidence pointed otherwise.

Isaiah challenges us to have an equal confidence in God’s intent for the planet in our day.

Mark 10.17-31
A wealthy young man is determined to follow Jesus, but when Jesus says he must personally treat the poor as equal in importance to himself, the young man is shocked and leaves. Counter-intuitively, the more wealth one has the more difficult it is to be deeply generous. So the disciples are astounded when Jesus says rich people will have a hard time entering the kingdom. Jesus’ point is that it is almost impossible to make dignity and justice for others our priority, but nevertheless God is able to change our priorities if we assent. When we give ourselves away in love, then everything turns up-side down in most people’s eyes, but is actually right-way up—the least important and the most important change roles!

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday February 10

Wednesday February 10 Epiphany 5

Psalm 119 Part 5
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 M, N, and S which are in the Hebrew alphabetical order. As you read them, imagine the effect of each line beginning with “M” and so on.

Isaiah 59: 15b-21
God was appalled that there was no justice was being carried out among the people, so God used his strength to put it right. God came like an enormous flood to bring justice back to the land, and that justice will remain in the nation permanently, in the speech of their children and grandchildren.

Mark 10.1-16
Jesus is challenged, first by religious leaders and then by his own disciples, for valuing those who were without status or influence. The religious leaders challenge Jesus about divorce. Men were allowed to divorce their wives arbitrarily. Jesus insists that women are equal and this has consequences for marriage—a highly controversial position. Children had no rights but Jesus insists they are to be treated as valuable adults. The kingdom is based upon treating everyone with dignity.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday February 9

Tuesday February 9 Epiphany 5

Psalm 78 Part 1
This poem speaks of how God showered the people with constant protection and generosity as God held the sea back so they could escape from their slavery in Egypt, and continued to protect them and miraculously feed them in the desert. But the people continued to distrust this God of justice and inclusion for all. There are consequences, as always, for unjust exploitative behaviour, but God does not abandon the people, even though they have abandoned God’s call to justice. So God continues to care because God makes care of the weakest a priority.

In effect, this is the basic creed of the ancient Israelites. If it were our basic belief today, what a difference that would make to our personal and international life.

Isaiah 59: 1-15a
Isaiah tells the people that their defeat wasn’t because God was weak, but because they were committed to greed and injustice: “no one goes to law honestly.” That’s why they are like blind people feeling their way along a wall, and sound like animals groaning, and why everything is falling apart. “Justice and righteousness” are synonyms for “fairness, inclusion and dignity” and when those priorities are abandoned and the poor are made poorer, the nation is in danger.

It’s no different in our time.

Mark 9: 42-50
Jesus uses deliberately exaggerated images of self-denial to capture the disciples’ attention (and ours) to the absolute importance of our living out the kingdom of justice. Because without being that kind of salt, we are worthless.

Mark is continuing his theme that without being prepared to give up something important, we cannot love. And then the kingdom will not arrive for us—better to make a sacrifice for love than to end up miserable for the rest of your life.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday February 8

Monday February 8 Epiphany 5

Psalm 80
After rescuing us from slavery in Egypt, God had planted us in new ground like a well-watered vine, and we grew and filled the whole land. But now we are being attacked by a foreign power and God’s vine is being uprooted. God, rescue us so that we may be a healthy vine again.

Isaiah 58: 1-12
Third Isaiah, the author of the last third of the book, continues to critique the people after their return to Jerusalem. In this passage, God critiques the people for being religiously loyal, but continuing to use violence. God insists that what God wants is justice and care for those who are oppressed and without food. Without that, their religious loyalty is worth nothing. But by doing justice, their light will shine around the world and they will be filled with good things and God will be with them.

This is an equal challenge for the national priorities in our day.

Mark 9: 30-41
Jesus teaches a second time about the need to die in order for love, and the kingdom, to come. The disciples do the opposite – they quarrel about which of them is most important. Jesus uses a child, the most insignificant person, to demonstrate the value of someone even though they don’t have power over others. But the disciples continue to resist paying the cost of love—they try to stop someone from healing people because the person isn’t one of them—they want to control who gets healed and retain that power for themselves and thus get all the glory. Jesus insists that love delights in people being healed, no matter by whom or by how small an act—even giving a cup of water can be an act of love. But the disciples still don’t see.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday February 7

Sunday February 7 Epiphany 5

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 96
Praise to God who really will bring equity (equality) and righteousness (which is the old English translation of dignity and justice) to the whole of humanity.

Isaiah 57: 14-21
The consequences of oppressive living come ultimately from God, but God will accept the people back unless they insist on continuing their oppression. In the renewed Jerusalem life must be based on the God of justice.

John 7: 37-46
On Sundays we are back in John’s highly symbolic gospel. Jesus says he is refreshing water for everyone and John notes that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit which will be given at his resurrection. Arguments continue about whether he is genuine, because of his unlikely origin – in John’s gospel there is a theme that people reject Jesus because they won’t trust that he is from God, and this is presented as disagreements about his place of origin. But even the temple police say they have never heard anything as persuasive.

We experience God’s refreshing new life through Jesus regardless of our uncertainties.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday February 6

Saturday February 6 Epiphany 4

Psalm 75
God assures us that justice will prevail.

Psalm 76
Praise to God who stands with overwhelming power for the poor and for the oppressed.

Isaiah 57: 3-13
God warns those who have returned to Jerusalem but who continue to trust in mysterious rituals, child sacrifice and sexualized worship (a way of trying to manipulate God’s fertile creativity). There will be unhappy consequences for those who try to force God to help them, but those who remain loyal to the God of justice will prosper.

Mark 9: 14-29
The disciples have been unable to trust Jesus’ insisting that he (and they) must die (become vulnerable) for the kingdom to break in. Now they encounter a distraught father of an epileptic boy who knows he does not trust very much (the meaning of “believe”) and he asks Jesus to help him trust more. In contrast, the disciples do not ask Jesus to help them trust.

The disciples ask why they could not cast out the demon – Jesus’ answer that only prayer can do this may be a way of Jesus saying they don’t trust yet in the power of God to carry them through death into resurrection. Up to this point in Mark’s gospel the disciples think that bringing healing to the world can be done by the exercise of sheer power, which is what they think Jesus is dong. But from this point on, Jesus is clear that only giving up self-centred power will allow God’s loving power to break in.

Trusting in sheer power, instead of trusting in vulnerable love, has always been an issue in our personal lives and relationships. We are seeing more clearly in our time how seductive and destructive that assumption is in the governance of countries and of the world.

This week’s collect:

Living God,
in Christ you make all things new.
Transform the poverty of our nature
by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your glory;
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 February 5

Friday February 5 Epiphany 4

Psalm 69
A desperate plea for help in the midst of betrayal, disaster and defeat. Some imagery is violent, which we can interpret as expressing a deep desire that there be no evil in the world. The references to gall and vinegar may have influenced the early Christians’ description of Jesus’ crucifixion. Often used on Fridays, the weekly anniversary of the crucifixion.

Friday is a day to ask what it means that God is willing to go through such an experience.

Isaiah 56: 1-8
We now begin the third section of the book of Isaiah, written by someone call Third Isaiah who is exploring the implications of the Israelites’ return to Jerusalem. There are no more references to God controlling Cyrus or spreading out the stars, this writer’s focus is on life in the restored city and what it means that God has restored the people to their home and place where they can worship the God of justice.

In this opening passage there is an extraordinary expectation: that if foreigners and even maimed eunuchs (both of whom were unclean and despised) honour the Sabbath—the day when everyone is equal and fulfilled—then God will accept them equally as Israelites and will shower blessings and fulfillment on them. This was unimaginable for a people who felt they had been chosen to be separate because of their purity through circumcision signifying their unique covenant with God. Perhaps this third writer had met a variety of Babylonians who were people of integrity, and realised that God would embrace them if they embraced justice in the form of Sabbath. The vision is that the Hebrew God embraces the entire world and calls everyone to justice and inclusion.

Mark 9: 2-13
Jesus has just spoken about the necessity of dying to our self-centredness and has assured his reluctant disciples that some will see the resurrection before the end of their life. Then three disciples are allowed to see Jesus in his resurrected glory (before they have died). Even having seen that glory, they do not yet understand when Jesus speaks again about his suffering. They have not yet put their trust in dying with Christ. They hope for escape from this need to die and quote the religious experts who say that the end won’t come until Elijah does. Jesus responds that Elijah has already come, so the end must be coming and that it is predicted that the messiah, himself, must suffer.

This week’s collect: