Author: Harold

Saturday July 20          Pentecost 8

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Psalm 30
Because of its references to being in the grave, followed by joy, this psalm is often used on Saturdays, the weekly mini-anniversary of Jesus’ being in the grave.

“God’s wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye”—it’s not that God is losing God’s temper, but that God made the world so that actions have predictable consequences—anything else would produce chaos. It’s inevitable that evil selfish actions on our part have consequences but the psalm proclaims that God’s goodness acts to overcome the evils that we have caused. Christians interpret Jesus’ dying and rising as the process by which God accomplishes fulfilment and joy for us despite our evil.

Psalm 32
When I acknowledged my sin, I received immense joy. When we acknowledge our participation in oppressive policies, we know God will overcome those, and we can also be in joy instead of living in denial or guilt. Then we will have the energy to act against those oppressions.

Joshua 6.1-14                           What’s Joshua about?
The people place the first city they encounter, the walled city of Jericho, under siege.

The six days of circling the city parallels the six days of creation. The seventh day on which the city falls parallels the seventh day in which creation was complete. The seven priests carrying seven trumpets proclaim that the world is about to be completed—the seventh day of fulfilled creation is about to happen.

The writers understand that this conquering of the promised land is God’s new act of creating the perfect world. This creation of a good world from the chaos of floods happened first in Genesis at the creation, then with Noah’s ark at the great flood, then at the Red Sea and now yet again as the people enter the new land. The stories are making  clear God’s determination that in every age humanity will live fulfilled lives in a complete world safe from chaos.

Matthew 26.26-35                           What’s Matthew about?
Jesus turns the Passover meal into a participation in his death and resurrection, which we now call communion. Jesus and the disciples go from communion to Gethsemane where they will all participate in Jesus’ death. Peter and the others insist they will never abandon Jesus, but they will shortly experience the death of their illusions about themselves.

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.

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Friday July 19          Pentecost 8

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Psalm 31
I am being attacked from all sides but trust that God will rescue me. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus quotes from this psalm as he is dying. Appropriate for Friday as the weekly mini-anniversary of the crucifixion.

Joshua 4.19-5.1, 10-15                           What’s Joshua about?
The people cross over into the land they were promised, and the Jordan resumes flowing. Again, God is seen as the ruler of the entire world, not just the local god of the Israelites, an insight that had become clear to the compilers of these stories a thousand years later.

The people eat the Passover, which repeats the Passover they ate just before escaping from Egypt. The manna, the magical food God provided in the wilderness, comes to an end and the people from now on eat the food of the land God has given them.

Finally, an angel, representing God, appears to Joshua and repeats the command given to Moses at the burning bush, to remove his sandals because the land is holy. God is making Joshua become a new Moses.

Matthew 26.17-25                           What’s Matthew about?
Jesus has the Passover supper with his disciples, and the disciples begin to wonder who is going to betray him. Matthew, as always, is concerned about behaviour and loyalty within the Christian community and makes it clear that the consequences of betrayal are dire.

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.

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Thursday July 18          Pentecost 8

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Psalm 37 Part 1
It’s tempting to want to be as successful as evil people, but seeking God’s justice will fulfill us, and God will defeat evil completely.

Joshua 3.14-4.7                           What’s Joshua about?
As soon as the feet of the priests carrying the ark touch the edge of the Jordan, the water piles up upstream and the river stops flowing, even though it is in flood.  The same miracle as happened at the Red Sea is being repeated. Twelve stones are taken from the middle of the now dry river and are set up on the far bank which is the edge of the land God promised.

Matthew 26.1-16                           What’s Matthew about?
Matthew has concluded the stories of the great crisis at the end of time, and now recounts the great crisis of Jesus’ death in the present. An unknown woman pours out all her love for Jesus in the form of expensive perfume, symbolically preparing his body for death. None of the men understand, or are prepared to recognize what is about to happen, and they complain about the financial implications of the waste of the perfume. Jesus’ comment that “the poor you have always with you” has been misinterpreted to mean we can look after the poor some other time, whereas Jesus meant the opposite—”if you are so concerned about wasting money, then do something useful with it—give it to the poor who are all around you.” Judas sells his inside knowledge of Jesus’ movements to the religious authorities.

 

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.

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Wednesday July 17          Pentecost 8

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Psalm 38
I have caused my own downfall, people take advantage of me, and even friends have abandoned me. I remain silent because there is nothing left to do but to hope in God. Help me, God!

Joshua 3.1-13                           What’s Joshua about?
Joshua prepares for the ark to cross the Jordan river into the promised land. The ark contains the original 10 commandments in stone as well as Moses’ written law—to take these God-given sacred objects into a new land is to claim the land for God and themselves. God will repeat what happened at the Red Sea—the Jordan River will stop flowing to allow the Israelites to pass through.

Notice that God is described as “Lord of all the earth”—a global concept of God that probably arose a thousand years later when the Israelites were being released from captivity by the foreign king Cyrus. Those who compiled the stories at that time probably brought their own understanding of God as the sole global power to these ancient stories which had originally thought of there being a separate god for each nation.

Matthew 25.31-46                           What’s Matthew about?
This vision of the ultimate moral reckoning concludes Matthew’s series of images about the end of the world. The story of the sheep and the goats says that to have cared for unimportant people is to have fulfilled our humanity, and not to have done so is to have destroyed our humanity.

But since we would like to think we have a relationship with Jesus, the story suggests that caring for the poorest is the equivalent to knowing Jesus. Why? Because Jesus embodied God’s love for all, and became poor himself, so not to care for the poorest implies we aren’t interested in Jesus’s priority of care for all, and that is to exclude ourselves from full life. In the story that is described as “eternal punishment,” but we understand that not as God being angry at us, but as our bringing loneliness and meaningless upon ourselves. We see that today in the endless pursuit of more wealth and power by those who are already extremely wealthy—ironically they are experiencing loneliness and powerlessness which they have brought upon themselves by not caring.

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.

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Tuesday July 16          Pentecost 8

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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.

Joshua 2.15-24                           What’s Joshua about?
In response to her hiding them, the two spies commit to protect Rahab and her family as long as she is loyal to them and uses the secret identification signal they arrange with her. With her help they evade capture and report to Joshua that the local people in the promised land are terrified of them.

Matthew 25.14-30                           What’s Matthew about?
In Matthew’s time, like ours, it’s not at all clear that God’s kingdom of inclusion and fulfillment is about to happen. Jesus tells this story to encourage us.

This would assure disciples living decades after Jesus and becoming discouraged, that Jesus had already known how bad things could become, and how cruel emperors would attempt to crush them. But because Jesus foretold this, they could trust that they were not abandoned despite being treated as badly as the third servant. We can receive the same assurance in our time, that we are not abandoned either.

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.

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Monday July 15          Pentecost 8

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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.

Joshua 2.1-14                           What’s Joshua about?
Joshua sends two spies to prepare for their invasion. The local king is disturbed by the stories of how God has acted for the Israelites against the Egyptians and so the spies are in danger. They are assisted by a prostitute who hides them and trades their safety for assurances of safety for her and her family.

As so often in these stories, the poor and despised, here a prostitute of non-Jewish religion, play central roles in God’s plan. Perhaps this deep acceptance of the outcast arose because the Israelites remembered they were poor and despised in Egypt and came to believe that God has special concern to ensure that such people are fully included and have dignity in God’s world, even if they aren’t Jews.

Matthew 25.1-13                           What’s Matthew about?
Matthew continues Jesus’ series of warnings about remaining alert when it may seem that God’s kingdom is not about to happen.

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.

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Sunday July 14          Pentecost 8

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Psalm 148
These three psalms are especially appropriate on Sundays, the mini-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 light, then 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 ended all injustice.

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

Joshua 1.1-18                           What’s Joshua about?
The book of Joshua is the first of eight historical books that recount how the Israelites experienced God in the land where they settled. The first half of the book of Joshua describes their invasion of the land and the intended destruction of those who already lived there, and the second part describes how the land was divided up among the twelve tribes.

As the book opens, God transfers Moses’ leadership to Joshua and repeatedly commands the people to be “strong and courageous” and they will be given the land. We may be hearing a much later exhortation to the people to retain hope while they were in exile away from the land a thousand years later when the book was written.

In our world we might understand that we are in exile from a world of justice and dignity for all and that we must remain as strong and courageous in claiming the world of global community and respect as the ancient Israelites were to claiming the land God promised.

Mark 1.21-27                           What’s Mark about?
For the next six weeks we read Mark’s gospel on Sundays.

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.

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Saturday July 13          Pentecost 7

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Psalm 20
We delight that God upholds us with strength far greater than military technology.

Psalm 21
Joy at how with great power God has blessed the king and removed the threats against him. This psalm would originally have been sung to the king, as God’s blessed one, but it is equally applicable to us and can be read with ourselves as the subject of the psalm.

These psalms are often used on Saturdays to suggest the power God is about to use to raise Jesus and us from death.

Deuteronomy 34.1-12                           What’s Deuteronomy about?
The book of Deuteronomy concludes as God shows Moses the land that God had originally promised long ago to Abraham. Moses dies within sight of the land, and the leadership passes to Joshua. The final verses summarize Moses’ importance.

Today we are disturbed by the interpretation that the people were instructed by God to slaughter the aboriginal people who already lived on the land. But that assumption about the right of conquerors has continued to the present day, and has resulted in ongoing social chaos and destruction for original peoples around our world. Before we judge the ancient Israelites we must first accept our responsibility for doing the same thing.

Matthew 24.32-51                           What’s Matthew about?
Matthew continues his account of Jesus’ concern about how disciples will behave when the going gets tough—as was happening when Matthew was writing. The suddenness of the end of the world is an encouragement to the future disciples—the worse things get, the more likely it is that God will act, so disciples should never give up hope because God is closer than they think. Not staying alert for the arrival of God will have terrible consequences—we won’t experience the kingdom, but rather its opposite.

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.

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Friday July 12          Pentecost 7

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Psalm 16
I have been loyal to the God of justice, save me from the grave and I will have joy.

Psalm 17
I am innocent, but the evil people surround me—save me and I will be fulfilled.

Both these psalms are appropriate for Fridays, the weekly mini-anniversary of the crucifixion and both conclude with hope for new life.

Deuteronomy 31.7-13, 24-32.4                           What’s Deuteronomy about?
Moses writes down the whole law and places it in the ark of the covenant with the original 10 commandments. He commands that the whole law be read every seven years not only to Israelites but to foreigners in the land because all will need to be reminded of it. Moses then sings a song of praise about God’s care for the people.

Tomorrow we begin reading the account of how the people entered the land.

Matthew 24.15-31                           What’s Matthew about?
At the time Matthew was writing his gospel the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman army and the holy places deliberately desecrated. Matthew understands that Jesus had foreseen this and would have encouraged his disciples to remain strong under the disaster, to resist the temptation to find easy solutions, and would have assured them that God would come with great strength to rescue them. The idea is that if Jesus foresaw the disaster and how bad it would be, then there is hope that in the end all is in God’s hands and we can trust ourselves to that fact.

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.

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Thursday July 11          Pentecost 7

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Psalm 18 Part 1
A meditation on God’s immense power to save:—a poetic imaginative recounting of the crossing of the Red Sea and God’s rescue of the people from their slave masters. The psalm can be read as if it were the experience of one person being rescued or as if the nation is speaking with a single voice.

Deuteronomy 3.18-28                           What’s Deuteronomy about?
Moses says that even though God has given them the land, they must still conquer it with their armed men. Because the people were disobedient, God has decided that Moses will not enter the land. The traditional belief was that, strangely, Moses did mot make it to the land to which he had led the people, and this provides an explanation why.

Matthew 24.1-14                           What’s Matthew about?
Matthew, who has seen the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, describes Jesus speaking forty years earlier about that looming disaster. Matthew understands Jesus to have continued to describe the difficulties of being a disciple in Matthew’s time, and encouraging the disciples to remain faithful because in that way God’s emerging kingdom will become clear.

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.

Please unsubscribe me.