Category: TODAY&#8217;S READING

Psalm 63
I delight in the certainty of God’s protection and victory over evil. The violence in verses 9 and 10 can be understood as an expression of our intense desire that all evil will come to an end.

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.

Wisdom 1: 1-15 What’s Wisdom about?
For the next two weeks we read portions of the book of Wisdom. This book was written not long before the birth of Jesus, when Greece had conquered the Jews. The book is a series of wise sayings which encourage people to remain loyal to the God of Israel. The book uses the then popular figure of “Wisdom”, a semi-divine female person, who would be familiar to educated Greeks, and to Jews influenced by Greek religion and thought. The concept of “Wisdom” influenced early Christians in their ideas of the Holy Spirit. Thus we read the Hebrew background to the Holy Spirit as we prepare for the gift of Christ’s Spirit at Pentecost.

Today’s introduction assures people that moral behaviour is noticed and affirmed by God, and immoral behaviour will have consequences. God is affirmed as profoundly moral and therefore gives that quality to the cosmos and to everything in it. This is in sharp contrast to Greek religion which understood the various gods of Mount Olympus as each seeking their own selfish ends. Which one we assume to be true will have a profound effect on how we live.

Matthew 7: 15-29 What’s Matthew about?
For the next three months on Sundays we will read through the gospel of Matthew at the daily office.

Typically, as in this passage, Matthew is concerned with maintaining high moral standards in the Christian community, and remembers Jesus challenging the community not to follow false prophets, to enact loving deeds in everyday life, and to found their lives upon the solid rock of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

This week’s collect:

O God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
by the blood of the eternal covenant,
make us perfect in every good work to do your will,
and work in us that which is well-pleasing in your sight;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings for Saturday April 24

Saturday April 24 Easter 3

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.

“His 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 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 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 be part of that victory. Then we can also be in joy instead of living in guilt or denial. Then we will have the energy to act against those oppressions.

Daniel 6: 16-28 What’s Daniel about?
Daniel refuses to worship the king and, even though the king is reluctant to do so, he has Daniel thrown into a den of lions. But God keeps the lions from attacking him, and the king throws his ineffective advisers into the den instead and requires that all citizens respect the God of Israel.

There could hardly be a more wonderful affirmation for Jews living under Greek domination. This concludes our readings in the book. We too can live in expectation of the ultimate victory of justice which we are celebrating in this Easter season

Tomorrow we begin reading through the book of Wisdom, a very different kind of book.

Luke 5: 27-39 What’s Luke about?
Jesus eats with someone collaborating with the hated Roman oppressors. Jesus receives more criticism, and confronts the authorities with the claim that everything is changing—the time for rejoicing is now, not the future—the newly arriving kingdom is already breaking the old ways just as new fermenting wine breaks old brittle wine skins.

This week’s collect:

O God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread.
Open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in his redeeming work,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday April 23

Friday April 23 Easter 3

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.

Daniel 6: 1-15 What’s Daniel about?
Daniel is on track to become the second in command to the king. Notice the similarity to Joseph’s story, who became the second in command to Pharaoh in the Israelites’ ancient past and who also interpreted the king’s dreams. Babylonian rivals who know Daniel’s faithfulness to the God of justice, persuade Darius to issue an irreversible edict that any person who worships anyone other than the king must be eaten by lions. When Daniel continues to worship the Israelite God, he is denounced to Darius who attempts to find a way to avoid killing Daniel.

This kind of pressure would have been experienced first hand by those living under Greek and Roman rule not long before the birth of Jesus.

Luke 5: 12-26 What’s Luke about?
Jesus does the unthinkable—he touches a leper, and the leper is cured. The touch of love so often cures us. Jesus become famous, but avoids popularity.

Next, some people express enormous trust and determination by carrying a paralyzed friend up onto the roof of a house so as to lower him down near Jesus who was inaccessible from the ground because of the crowds. In response to the friends, Jesus forgives the man for his sins (it was commonly believed that sin caused disease). Jesus critiques the religious leaders who want to deny this new freedom from sin and guilt in order to keep their own power over curing disease. Jesus completes the man’s freedom by sending him away in full health.

This week’s collect:

Ray Spreier. Jared Talbot, Ann Trost, Lou Joyce Wilding,

Readings for Thursday April 22

Thursday April 22 Easter 3

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.

Daniel 5: 13-30 What’s Daniel about?
Daniel interprets the new king’s dream to mean that God will punish the king for sacrilege. The king greatly honours Daniel, but that night is killed—thus confirming Daniel’s interpretation, and Darius becomes king.

This series of stories arising from the unique insights of Judaism about the priority of justice in government, and demonstrating the fragility of pagan military cultures would have been of great encouragement to the Jews living just before the time of Jesus under the domination of the Greek and later Roman empires.

Luke 5: 1-11 What’s Luke about?
Fisher people on the lake of Galilee had been pushed into destitution by Roman taxation in order to build from scratch the enormous city and port of Tiberius glorifying the puppet king Herod. For Jesus to enable a huge catch of fish in such a context is a subversive act, and is experienced by the peasant people as God’s liberation actually arriving. No wonder they follow him. When we have experienced liberation in Christ we also respond with energy.

This week’s collect:

Barbara Smith-Moran, Alan Snyder, Gregory Alistair So,

Readings for Wednesday April 21

Wednesday April 21 Easter 3

Psalm 38
I have caused my own downfall, people take advantage of me, and even friends have abandoned me. I remain silent because I hope in God. Help me, God!

Daniel 5: 1-12 What’s Daniel about?
King Nebuchadnezzar has died, and his son who has now become king, commits blasphemy by using the sacred vessels from the Jewish temple as ordinary cups at a party. God writes on the wall and Daniel is again called to interpret.

Luke 4: 38-44 What’s Luke about?
Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law and many other people. The kingdom is indeed arriving! But Jesus chooses not to stay in order not to be made the centre of a new religion. He moves on to other villages to ensure the kingdom breaks in everywhere.

This week’s collect:

Michelle Samuels, Matthew Seddon, Deb Shepherd,

Readings for Tuesday April 20

Tuesday April 20 Easter 3

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.

Daniel 4: 28-37 What’s Daniel about?
The king is punished with insanity for abandoning justice as his dream predicted, and when he repents and gives loyalty to the God of justice, God restores him and he praises the one true God.

Jews living under Greek oppression would have understood this story to mean that their God of justice was powerful even over the immensely powerful Greek and Roman empires. We are being challenged to trust in that God in overcoming the unjust empires of our day.

Luke 4: 31-37 What’s Luke about?
Jesus enacts the coming of the kingdom of justice by throwing out a demon—the first miracle in this gospel is evil being thrown out—it is clear that God is acting through Jesus to bring the world back to its original goodness.

This week’s collect:

Callista Roy, Bob Russell, James Salmon,

Readings for Monday April 19

Monday April 19 Easter 3

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.

Daniel 4: 19-27 What’s Daniel about?
Daniel’s interpretation is that the king has been unfaithful to the true God of justice, and the consequence will be that the king, represented by a great tree, will be cut down and become demented and live like an animal. Nevertheless, if the king repents and returns to justice, God will use the stump of that tree to restore the king to greatness.

The message to the king, and to us, is that the true God, the God of justice, is stronger than the mightiest leader of the greatest super-power, and that the God of justice controls all of history. Are we learning from Daniel how that could be true in our day?

Luke 4: 14-30 What’s Luke about?
Immediately after Jesus refuses the temptations to use oppression to control the world, Jesus 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, but he is led by the Holy Spirit to stand for the truth and after Jesus’ earthly life the Spirit will lead Christians all the way to the empire’s capital in Rome.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday April 18

Sunday April 18 Easter 3

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 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.

Daniel 4: 1-18 What’s Daniel about?
The king has another dream, this time of a great world-tree being cut down and of someone becoming like an animal. The king demands that Daniel interpret the dream.

John 21: 15-25 What’s John about?
We are now reading the very end of John’s gospel. Probably in deep discouragement following Jesus’ execution, the disciples had returned to their former life of fishing on Lake Galilee but then experienced Jesus providing a huge catch of fish and then preparing breakfast for them. Today’s passage describes what happened following the breakfast: Peter re-commits himself to Jesus in light of his previous denials of even knowing him. Jesus dispels a rumour that he would return before the disciple John died—perhaps a rumour that had become believed when the gospel was written. The implication is that Jesus is saying that he won’t return but that Holy Spirit, as he promised, will guide them. The resurrection is happening to the disciples.

The writer, John, is suggesting this can happen to all of us. Appropriate on the second Sunday after Easter.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday April 17

Saturday April 17 Easter 2

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.

Daniel 3: 19-30 What’s Daniel about?
In this imaginary story set in the long-ago time of the Babylonian exile, God miraculously protects Daniel and his friends from the king’s punishment of being incinerated for not worshipping the statue the king had made. Even more amazingly God guides the king to enact legal protection for Judaism.

This would be an encouraging story for Jews suffering under the Greek and Roman empires shortly before Jesus’ birth. The story can be encouraging for us when there is strong opposition to justice in the highest places of our countries.

Luke 4: 1-13 What’s Luke about?
Immediately after he makes his commitment in baptism to God’s society of justice, Jesus is tempted to use power to avoid suffering for himself, and to control the world with naked power—which is exactly what the Roman empire does. His refusal means that he will not compromise with oppression, but will enact God’s love without limit, even to the point of crucifixion.

This week’s collect:

Almighty and eternal God,
the strength of those who believe
and the hope of those who doubt,
may we, who have not seen, have faith
and receive the fullness of Christ’s blessing,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday April 16

Friday April 16 Easter 2

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.

Daniel 3: 1-18 What’s Daniel about?
The Babylonian king makes a statue and forces everyone to worship it. The multiply-repeated details of the orders are to emphasize the seriousness of the command. Three Jews, friends of Daniel, have been appointed to high office in the Babylonian empire but refuse to worship the statute. They state that they will not worship it, even if their God does not protect them from being incinerated. Similar demands would have been a real experience for Jews under Greek rule who would have been given courage by this imaginary story set in a time of oppression centuries earlier.

We also are to serve only the God of justice and none other no matter what threats are made to force us to approve of policies that lead to injustice and exploitation of powerless people.

Luke 3: 15-22 What’s Luke about?
John has led the people across the Jordan as a way of repeating Joshua’s claiming of the land. The Romans understand this is a political act challenging their rule and calling for revolution, and Luke briefly looks ahead to John’s execution. The people hope that John will lead them to freedom, but as Luke tells it, John insists that not he but Jesus will lead the people to the fulfilment God promised. Jesus also follows in Joshua’s footsteps and is affirmed by God as he crosses the Jordan.

This is Jesus’ public commitment to the reign of God founded in justice and to oppose the policies of oppression, violence and exploitation which are the foundation of the Roman empire. No wonder the Romans will execute him.

This week’s collect: