Author: Harold

Sunday September 29          Pentecost 19

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 19
The first half of this psalm imagines each day telling the next day and each night telling the next night about God’s glory, and of the sun rising out of the sea praising God and running around the sky like an athletic sprinter showing off. The second half of the psalm says that goodness and integrity are as sure and powerful as the sun.

Psalm 46
Neither storms of water or storms of war will shake me because I know that God is behind all the world. Like a river flowing through the city, God is always in our midst. The refrain, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” expresses this confidence over and over.

Hosea 2.2-14                            What’s Hosea about?
God speaks to the country as if the country were God’s wife who had committed adultery, and God describes the horrific consequences. Nevertheless God will take her into a private place and be tender to her—an act of unimaginable tenderness and generosity at that time.

Matthew 13.44-52                            What’s Matthew about?
Jesus, as often in Matthew, calls for absolute commitment to the gospel like that of a business person to making a profit. Those who are not deeply committed to Jesus’ way will not experience the life of Christ.

This week’s collect:

Grant, O merciful God,
that your Church,
being gathered by your Holy Spirit into one,
may show forth your power among all peoples,
to the glory of your name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Saturday September 28          Pentecost 18

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 136
God’s relentless love (‘mercy’ in the relentless refrain of this hymn) is seen first in creation, then in Israel’s rescue from Egypt as if that rescue was another part of creation, and finally for every creature.

Hosea 1.1-2.1                            What’s Hosea about?
We now begin reading the shorter prophetic books.

Hosea wrote about 700 BC. when the northern part of the county was enslaved. Hosea attributes this disaster to the people and their leaders having abandoned the God of justice. But he insists that God does not abandon them.

Hosea uses a variety of symbolic actions to make this point. The book begins with God telling Hosea to marry a prostitute. The image is that the Jewish people have prostituted themselves to gods of injustice, but the true God remains absolutely committed to them. The children of this marriage all have symbolic names—”God sows consequences”, “I don’t care”, “Not my people” to illustrate the consequences of the country’s unfaithful actions. Nevertheless God will remain faithful and the message to the faithless people is that they will be re-named “My people”, and “I care.”

Luke 4.38-44                            What’s Luke about?
Jesus continues to enact the kingdom by healing Peter’s mother-in-law and many other people. However he insists that he will travel to other villages—God’s desire for the new world extends beyond our immediate family. This is what enraged his fellow villagers when he read the scripture in the synagogue and said that God sometimes brings healing to others before them. The challenge to us is to be aware that in following Christ we aren’t to assume we come first.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and ourselves in your image.
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Friday September 27          Pentecost 18

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 91
Those who shelter under God like a chick beneath its mother’s wings will be safe from all danger and will see how disaster befalls those who put their trust in evil. In the final three verses God is speaking: we are safe because God has decided to be bound to us in love.

The verse about not hurting one’s foot on a stone was applied by the early Christians to Jesus’ temptation in the desert to throw himself off the top of the temple without being hurt.

Psalm 92
Those who trust in God will be upheld and will flourish like trees with lots of water. Evil will be utterly destroyed. The God who does this is as solid as a rock.

Esther 8.1-8, 15-17                           What’s Esther about?
The king raises Mordecai to high honour and gives Haman’s property to him and Esther. At Esther’s request, the king writes a formal decree that all Jews are allowed to be free in his empire. Everyone lives happily ever after.

This story, quite improbable in actual history, became an image of hope for Jewish people during persecution under the Greek and Roman empires and is still celebrated in the feast of Purim, usually in March. The final chapter of this book, omitted in the daily readings, describes how the feast of Purim arose from this story and how the Jews violently freed themselves from their oppression.

Interestingly, God never appears in this book, the only book in the Bible with no reference to God. The author was writing for Jewish people living within the very successful Greek culture which did not believe in God. Many Jews would have been wondering if God really does act or if God really is a myth, the way sophisticated Greeks believed. The writer may have written this story to demonstrate that God acts powerfully even when God never appears explicitly.

The Bible deliberately contains a variety of interpretations about how God can be experienced. Job, for example, which we read before Esther, has a very different approach—God is very present but simultaneously very absent from Job’s experience. In Esther, by contrast, God never appears or is even mentioned. This variety of understandings about God ensures we don’t have a naive or simplistic view of God who, after all, is beyond all understanding.

Luke 4.31-37                            What’s Luke about?
Jesus brings the kingdom into real life by his first miracle of throwing out an unclean spirit. The common people, who were oppressed by the oppressive spirit of the empire, rejoice.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and ourselves in your image.
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Thursday September 26          Pentecost 18

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 85
Trust that God will save us, despite what we have done, and will fill us with plenty and fill the land with justice.

Psalm 86
O God, you have been so generous to me, I trust you, and ask you to uphold me when I am attacked.

Esther 7.1-10                           What’s Esther about?
At the banquet Esther asks the pagan king, her husband, for freedom for her people, and reveals that Haman has plotted their genocide. The king has Haman hung on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.

This affirmation of Jews by a pagan ruler would have been immensely encouraging for the Jews who read these tales and suffered under Greek and Roman oppression. In those kinds of oppression they were in danger of both annihilation and of assimilation. The story of Queen Esther provided hope for surviving both those threats.

Luke 4.14-30                            What’s Luke about?
Immediately after Jesus refuses the temptations to use oppression to control the world, he returns to his home and claims to be the prophet of justice named by Isaiah. At first he is applauded but when Jesus says that God’s justice implies that the people of Israel have no special status above other cultures because that would be unjust, his own people turn against him and attempt to kill him.
In Luke’s understanding, the Romans are potential allies for the early Christians and he uses this introductory story to foreshadow the whole of Jesus’ life—his commitment to God’s justice will bring him into ultimate conflict with his own people.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and ourselves in your image.
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Wednesday September 25          Pentecost 18

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 81
Praise to God because this is what we heard God saying: God longs that the people would respond so that God could give them everything they need.

Psalm 82
God is accusing all the other gods who do not care for the poor. Hurry up, God, and take your place as the just ruler of the whole world.

There are many gods today who care nothing for the poor. We, too, are to cultivate longing for the God of justice to rule.

Esther 6.1-14                           What’s Esther about?
On the night before the banquet at which Haman plans to ask the king to hang Mordecai, the king discovers that Mordecai never received any recognition for his role in preventing the assassination. The king asks Haman for recommendations for honouring someone. Mordecai, imagining the king intends to honour him, recommends extraordinary gifts with which he is then required to invest Mordecai.  Haman is then escorted to the dinner at which Mordecai’s gallows have been erected.

Even though the story is implausible on the surface, we can see the story-teller cleverly using irony and dramatic unfolding to encourage the people of his own time under Greek rule, that God will act on their behalf and that they will be protected and honoured.

Luke 4.1-13                            What’s Luke about?
As soon as Jesus has made his commitment to cross the Jordan and challenge the Roman empire he struggles with how to fulfil that commitment. If John has just been beheaded as the courageous leader faithful to God’s all to justice, how will Jesus fulfill his commitment? Luke understand the temptations to be Jesus’ exploration of how violence and oppression can be overcome and the kingdom initiated. He wonders about bringing the kingdom by manipulating public opinion (miraculously producing food), by psychological power (jumping unharmed from the temple), or by the military strength. He rejects all these and in tomorrow’s reading we will hear his radical new understanding about the arrival of God’s kingdom of justice and inclusion.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and ourselves in your image.
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Tuesday September 24          Pentecost 18

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 78 Part 2
When they were in the desert escaping from Egypt, the people ignored God in spite of God’s immense commitment to them in utterly defeating the Egyptians with plagues. When they finally arrived in the land God had promised, they did the same thing, ignoring God again. That’s why God allowed the foreigners to capture the ark which contained the original stone ten commandments and to kill the priests. But in spite of that, like a warrior waking up refreshed, God routed their enemies and established a temple in Jerusalem and gathered the people together like a skillful shepherd under the leadership of King David.

The poet expresses his interpretation that behind the chaos of history in victories and defeats lies God whose commitment to the people is permanent despite their lack of commitment to God. Nor does the overwhelming military power of their enemies count for anything. This is a good challenge to us as we wonder about the chaos of our time and in what way God is being faithful to humanity now.

Esther 5.1-14                           What’s Esther about?
At great personal risk, Esther approaches the king and is accepted. The king promises half his empire and she invites him and Haman to a banquet. Haman goes home and complains to his wife that Mordecai still will not bow to him. His wife proposes that he construct a gallows and on the morning of the banquet tell the king to hang Mordecai for refusing to bow to him.

Luke 3.15-22                           What’s Luke about?
Luke looks ahead briefly to tell the story of John’s execution. John was executed because he had been leading people to symbolically cross the Jordan river to claim the land for God. This was subsequently interpreted as ‘baptism’, but was originally an enactment of Moses’ and Joshua’s claiming the land for God. Encouraging revolt was was a threat to the Roman empire and so John is executed. Luke describes John’s cousin (Jesus) also crossing the Jordan as a symbol of commitment to God’s empire and that action being affirmed by God. This act by Jesus, following John’s leadership, associates him with the same opposition to Rome as his cousin, and puts Jesus in the same danger.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and ourselves in your image.
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Monday September 23          Pentecost 18

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 77
God is not responding when I call in trouble. But I will not forget the amazing things God did in the past.

Psalm 79
Evil people have destroyed your temple. Come and help because we are your sheep.

Esther 4.4-17                           What’s Esther about?
Esther plans to go un-summoned to the King, to plead for mercy for her people. This is the opposite of the former queen who refused to come when summoned. Either offence is punishable by death. She is offering her life for her people.

Luke 3.1-14                            What’s Luke about?
We now begin reading through Luke’s gospel with Luke’s account of John the Baptist. John is re-enacting Joshua’s entrance into God’s promised land, through the Jordan river, a thousand years earlier. John expects that just as in the original entrance into their land the city of Jericho was destroyed, so now in his own time the Roman empire will also fall. John invites everyone who longs for the overthrow of Rome to join him and to adopt God’s life-style of justice to all.
Notice how Luke, who believes that Christianity can partner with Rome, places this event with careful reference to the Roman governing structure and portrays even the Roman soldiers as being supportive.

Each of the gospel writers brings a unique perspective to their understanding of Jesus. That fact gives us permission in our time for us to apply our own perspectives from our historical context. Luke finds hope for God’s victory over oppression from a global perspective. Is there a way for us to see a global perspective on oppression in our time?

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and ourselves in your image.
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Sunday September 22          Pentecost 18

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 34
I will praise God because God rescued me when I was in trouble. God will always support those who live with integrity and the evil people will not get away with it forever.

The verse about no bones being broken became significant for the early Christians. Breaking legs was the Roman technique when they wanted to hasten the death of a crucified person. John, the gospel writer, says that Jesus’ legs didn’t need to be broken (and uses this verse to prove that) because Jesus was already dead. In John’s understanding Jesus wasn’t a victim, but was in charge of the entire process—his death was pure gift carried out entirely by his own will.

Esther 3.1-4.3                           What’s Esther about?
As in many empires, the ruler claims to represent, or even to be, God, and we can see that claim starting to happen in our world just as it did in the ancient world. This was a major problem for Jews living in the Greek empire, because the Greek emperors required everyone to acknowledge they were gods, or becoming gods. But for Jews such a belief was absolutely unacceptable. The story of Esther deals with how to live under those circumstances and remain a faithful Jew.

In the story, Esther’s father, Mordecai, refuses to bow before the king’s representative, Haman, which would have signalled acceptance of the king’s claim to be God.  Haman reports this disloyalty to the king, and the king gives him authority to kill all Jews in his empire.

Matthew 6.1-6, 16-18                            What’s Matthew about?
Jesus continues his requirement for a level of integrity that does not have self-interest at the centre of religious practices—providing assistance to the poor, prayer, and fasting are never to be done to acquire a good reputation for the worshipper.
People who do that do indeed get the reward they wanted (a good reputation), but that sort of reputation is worthless! Be sure, Jesus says, that you are loving the poor and loving God for their own sake, not as a way of getting status for yourself. You should do these caring acts, Jesus says, in such a way that nobody knows. That will guarantee that your love is genuine and not for your own benefit.

This is one of Matthew’s themes—integrity in our worship and service to others is essential.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth,
and ourselves in your image.
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Saturday September 21          Pentecost 17

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 23
I am like a sheep being looked after by God. Even when death comes close, you look after me and feed me and I will live always in your presence.

Psalm 27
Even though there is trouble all around, I am glad that God is with me. Even if my parents were to disown me, you, God, will stay faithful to me.

These two psalms are often used on Saturdays when Jesus lies dead in the grave. God is now the only hope.

Esther 2.5-8, 15-23                           What’s Esther about?
The pagan king chooses another queen, a Jewish woman, Esther, but she does not reveal that she is Jewish. Her adoptive cousin, Mordecai, acting in the role of father, overhears a conspiracy to assassinate the king, and Esther saves the king from the assassination.

For Israelites under occupation by the pagan empire of Greece, this imaginary story of involvement by a Jew in the high affairs of state hundreds of years earlier during the occupation and forced exile by Babylon was a model of how to interact with an occupying culture. The story would have provided encouragement and hope during their oppression under the Greek empire in which Jews were outwardly accepted but by which they were gradually being assimilated. By being loyal citizens their central Jewish identity was under threat. This story provided a way of dealing with that quandary of how to retain one’s religious belief while being actively involved in an unbelieving culture.

This is a challenge we face in our time.

John 12.44-50                           What’s John about?
Jesus insists that his life is a revelation of God’s reality and not simply the example of a good person. Accepting that fact provides infinitely deep (eternal) life. Jesus says he isn’t judgmental of people who don’t see that, but that by refusing to see, they miss out on infinitely deep life.
This concludes our readings from John’s gospel because from this point on John’s gospel recounts Jesus’ betrayal and execution, and that section is saved for Good Friday next year.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you call your Church to witness
that in Christ we are reconciled to you.
Help us so to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may turn to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.

 

Friday September 20          Pentecost 17

Click here for simplified daily office prayers

Psalm 73
I almost joined the proud and evil people, who get away with anything. But I continue to suffer in spite of being faithful to God. I could not understand this, until in your temple I realised that you are in charge in the end.

Esther 1.1-4, 10-19                            What’s Esther about?
The book of Esther, written about three hundred years before Jesus, is a fictional story that was set in the ancient oppressive Persian empire in a time already in their ancient past, about how the Jewish people were once unexpectedly saved by a woman and subsequently given empire-wide respect. This story was told to provide encouragement during their time of oppression under Greece and Rome when the story was written.

As the story opens the emperor has been insulted at his queen’s refusal to obey him. The officials all agree that such behaviour by wives to their husbands must be stopped and that the emperor must appoint a new queen. As the story continues, this will be Esther, a Jew.

The detailed lists of the names of the various officials and the legal procedures are probably imaginary, as is the entire story, but the inclusion of these details in what was then a very ancient story are there to give it credibility.

John 12.36b-43                           What’s John about?
John presents Jesus as explaining that those who do not trust him do so because fundamentally they decide to be blind to the truth which is available to all people because the are afraid of criticism.
Our trust in Jesus is not based on having good arguments but on whether it rings true that death and resurrection are the character of God who willingly goes through death out of love for the cosmos. God’s character of self-offering love can be seen in Jesus by those who are open to seeing it.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you call your Church to witness
that in Christ we are reconciled to you.
Help us so to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may turn to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Click here to share your thoughts on the web site.

Please unsubscribe me.