Author: Harold

Thursday February 13          Epiphany 5

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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                           What’s Isaiah about?
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 shower them 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.

These 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                            What’s Mark about?
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 great difficulty entering the kingdom.
Jesus’ point is that it is almost impossible to make dignity and justice for others our priority when we have power and wealth, 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:

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.

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Wednesday February 12          Epiphany 5

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Psalm 119 Part 5
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 176 verses is a variation on the theme of what it means to follow God’s call to justice, using terms such as “command”,”law”, “word”, “statute”, and the like. The psalm is arranged in 22 groups of eight verses—one group for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Within a group, each of the eight verses starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the groups are in Hebrew alphabetical order. So 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 human expressions of order. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters M, N, and S (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “M” and so on.

Isaiah 59: 15b-21                            What’s Isaiah about?
God was appalled that no justice was being carried out as the people were enslaved in Babylon, 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                            What’s Mark about?
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 but 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:

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.

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Tuesday February 11          Epiphany 5

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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                            What’s Isaiah about?
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                            What’s Mark about?
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:

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.

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Monday February 10          Epiphany 5

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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                            What’s Isaiah about?
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                            What’s Mark about?
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:

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.

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Sunday February 9          Epiphany 5

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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 of Christ.

The raging sea can be circumstances in our lives, in our inner life, or in the life of the world and we rejoice in the victory of God’s goodness over all the rages of our times.

Psalm 96
Praise to God who really will bring equity (equality) and righteousness (which really means ‘dignity’ and ‘justice’) to the whole of humanity. Every part of the world rejoices at God’s car

Isaiah 57: 14-21                            What’s Isaiah about?
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                            What’s John about?
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:

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.

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Saturday February 8          Epiphany 4

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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                            What’s Isaiah about?
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.

Are we cultivating these kinds of expectations in opposition to the expectation of doom so prevalent in our world?

Mark 9: 14-29                            What’s Mark about?
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.

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Friday February 7          Epiphany 4

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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 all evil be removed from 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 for us.

Isaiah 56: 1-8                            What’s Isaiah about?
We now begin the third section of the book of Isaiah, written by someone we call Third Isaiah who is writing about the issues that arose after the people had returned 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 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. His vision is that the Hebrew God embraces the entire world and calls everyone to justice and inclusion.

Mark 9: 2-13                            What’s Mark about?
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 they 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.

Like us, the disciples find it hard to grasp the unimaginable commitment of God to us.

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.

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Thursday February 6          Presentation

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Psalm 70
God can be trusted to deliver the poor from evil.

These two psalms are often used on Thursdays, the mini-anniversaries of the approach of Jesus’ death in the Garden of Gethsemane. Much of the imagery in these two psalms can be applied to Jesus being hunted, attacked, and seized, and to Jesus’ passionate prayers to be rescued by God.

Psalm 71
In old age I am filled with praise for the God who has rescued me in so many ways throughout my long life. People are attacking me now, but I trust in your salvation as you have acted for me all my life.

Isaiah 55: 1-13                            What’s Isaiah about?
When the people return to Jerusalem there will be food without limit and absolutely free! This is what God had always promised, as far back as David, and even more, foreign nations will long to be part of Jerusalem’s delight. If you doubt this, know that what God intends is far beyond your understanding—the mountains will sing, the trees will clap, even weeds will become fruitful, and all this will certify God’s eternal covenant to protect you is still in effect and is about to be accomplished.

Images like these were used by early Christians in visions of the new Jerusalem made possible through Christ’s resurrection.

Are we cultivating these kinds of expectations in opposition to the expectation of doom so prevalent in our world?

Mark 8: 27-9: 1                           What’s Mark about?
This is the turning-point, half-way through Mark’s gospel, in which Jesus calls the disciples to move beyond being astonished that the kingdom is breaking in, to being active themselves in bringing in the kingdom. But to do so means having to give up their old priorities of making themselves the centre of life.
Jesus will lead them in this journey into self-offering, and insists that even he will need to die to bring in God’s society. Peter refuses to be part of that. Peter doesn’t see clearly what it means to really love. Like the partial healing of the blind man yesterday, Peter sees in part, but not clearly, what it means to follow Jesus.

This is the first of three occasions in a row in which Jesus’ senior disciples will refuse to make the loving sacrifices that are necessary for the kingdom to happen.

Perhaps the same is true for us. Nevertheless, we are invited into the kingdom when it fully arrives. Then we will see fully and be able to undertake joyfully the implications of such love.

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.

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Wednesday February 5          Epiphany 4

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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.

Early Christians saw in this psalm, perhaps originally intended as a prayer that king David would rule with justice, an affirmation of the new world order being instituted by the birth of Christ.

Isaiah 54: 1-17                           What’s Isaiah about?
God tells the people (symbolized by the barren city of Jerusalem) to rejoice if they had no children (which was a personal and social disaster then) because now they will have so many they will have to enlarge their homes and the city! This will happen because God will become the husband of their city and land. This is a very startling image Isaiah is using. God will adorn God’s wife—the city of Jerusalem—with abundant jewels. As God swore to Noah not to flood the world again, so God will never abandon the people and they will be safe forever.

Mark 8: 11-26                            What’s Mark about?
The religious leaders want Jesus to prove he is God because then they can accuse him of blasphemy. Jesus refuses because his role is not to prove who belongs and who doesn’t, but to usher in God’s society in which all are included. He then makes clear to his disciples that everyone, regardless of background, belongs in God’s society—that was the point of the two overwhelmingly generous feedings—for both Jews and non-Jews.
That was an unimaginable leap into equality that the disciples cannot comprehend. Because the disciples don’t see what the implications are, Mark recounts Jesus healing someone who can’t see. However, this healing is only partial at first. In the same way the disciples’ eyes are about to be opened but even so they will see only partially at first.

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.

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Tuesday February 4          Epiphany 4

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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.

Isaiah 52: 1-12                            What’s Isaiah about?
God is encouraging the far away ruined city of Jerusalem to rejoice as her people return to her, bringing with them the sacred vessels so the temple can again be in use. God’s victory over their oppressors will be so complete that they won’t need to hurry back!

We are called to cultivate that counter-cultural expectation of joy and calmness in our modern circumstances when we are oppressed by seemingly irresistible forces of destruction.

Mark 8: 1-10                            What’s Mark about?
Jesus feeds four thousand of the outcast aboriginal people from seven loaves and then has seven baskets left over. Why seven? The Israelites had been told to exterminate the aboriginal nations when they entered the land and there were seven tribes. It is clear that Jesus is treating the original peoples as worthy of full respect and dignity and feasting in God’s world—God’s care and respect and generosity overflows for the despised. It’s not hard to imagine the implications for our time.

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.

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