Category: TODAY&#8217;S READING

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.

Jeremiah 5: 20-31
Even the ocean obeys the boundaries that God has made for it, but God’s people accept no moral boundaries and exploit the poor, and are encouraged by priests and prophets. Danger is imminent as a result.

Christians might interpret that this infidelity reaches its culmination in the execution of Jesus.

John 7: 1-13
It may be that sixty years after Jesus’ earthly life, when this gospel was being written, accusations were being made that Jesus had been deliberately whipping up crowds and orchestrating his own death to make himself famous. Today’s passage is an attempt to refute that accusation.

Jesus is remembered as having refused to attend an important festival, even when being urged by his brothers. Jesus repeatedly refuses to attend because he says “his time” has not yet come.

“His time” not having come is intended to suggest two things. First, that Jesus doesn’t plan opportunities to become famous but responds to what serves God, and second that “his time” refers to his execution. Even though the circumstances for his execution would have been right because he is not supported by his own brothers nor by the religious leaders (which is what “the Jews” means) he won’t take advantage of that to get himself executed. That’s why he goes secretly to Jerusalem.

For us the question might be whether we think of Jesus as someone whose life and death and resurrection made him famous, or whether those events are windows through which Jesus enables us to see the character of God.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God, whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross,
give us faith to perceive his glory,
that being strengthened by his grace
we may be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday March 5

Friday March 5 Lent 2

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.

Jeremiah 5: 1-9
Jeremiah describes how deeply the rot has set in—he can find not a single person who still cares about God’s call to justice, and predicts that the consequences will be dire. The common people could be excused from their error due to ignorance, but the leaders have no such excuse. The consequences are inevitable and for them took the form of capture and enslavement by the Babylonians.

The disturbing implication is, that describes our world exactly. In Lent we are called to face those disturbing truths.

John 5: 30-47
John the gospel writer continues the complex conversation by which he explores the significance of Jesus. It may be that, sixty years after Jesus’ earthly life, Christians were having to respond to some difficult criticisms of Jesus, and this is what they understood Jesus would have said.

The criticism being levelled at Jesus’ followers likely was that Jesus was a self-promoting fraud because there was no objective third person to guarantee what he was claiming—you can’t rely on Jesus and some of his loyal followers because they are prejudiced. The response from the early Christians, which they remember Jesus explaining, is that Jesus’ isn’t promoting himself—God is the objective third person who guarantees that he’s telling the truth.

First, Jesus says, he’s not doing things to make himself look amazing, he’s doing things that God wants. Second, John the Baptist said he was from God, but even if you don’t trust John the Baptist, God guarantees that Jesus is who he says he is because the actions Jesus is taking could only originate in God. Finally, the scriptures and Moses predict him. But if the critics don’t take Moses seriously and if the critics believe imposters rather than seeking God’s purposes, then they won’t take him seriously anyway.

The challenge in our time is whether Jesus’ death and resurrection are likely to reflect the character of God. Could it really be that God loves us so much as to undergo execution for us? To take that claim seriously is as difficult now as ever, and as wonderful!

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday March 4

Thursday March 4 Lent 2

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.

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.

Jeremiah 4: 9-28
Jeremiah describes the utter desolation that will be the result of the people’s abandoning God’s call to generosity and justice. God is imaged as being angry, but the meaning is that the people will bring disaster on themselves because God cannot stop being our source, and cannot stop being just, so there are inescapable consequences for abandoning our source. Near the end of the passage there is a hint that God’s generosity will ensure the disaster is not absolute.

John 5: 19-29
In response to the criticism that Jesus is claiming to be God, Jesus explains that what he does is actually God acting. Jesus’ generosity is the way in which we see God’s generosity. If we respond with generosity of our own, that will be to live fully, and if we reject acting in generosity and justice, there will be dire consequences. We all know this to be true.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Wednesday March 3

Wednesday March 3 Lent 2

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.

Jeremiah 3: 6-18
The northern part of the country (the Kingdom of Israel) and the southern part (the Kingdom of Judah) have both abandoned God’s justice and are thus bringing on themselves the disaster of their enslavement by Babylon. Jeremiah imagines them as two sisters who are prostituting themselves. But God continues to call them back to justice for all. Jeremiah makes the extraordinary claim that God will totally transform their life by coming to live in Jerusalem. So the ark (the portable box containing the 10 commandments and a jar of manna—the central sacred objects in the temple) will be useless and not even be remembered, because with God living in Jerusalem there will be no need for commandments. This is God’s extraordinary generosity promised to a country which has committed adultery with gods that stand for injustice.

Could we imagine such generosity being expressed for our world that is consumed by the desire for power and greed?

John 5: 1-18
Jesus heals a paralyzed man on the Sabbath—the day that was set aside to each week to re-experience creation the way it had originally been intended to be. But the religious leaders, perhaps worried about the challenge to their authority, accuse the healed man, and subsequently Jesus, of desecrating this holy day. Jesus insists on the priority of returning to God’s original beautiful creation by healing on Sabbaths and for that and claiming to be doing the direct work of God, the authorities begin plotting to kill him.

We may be overhearing criticism of Christians from the time this gospel was written, that Christians were making Sunday, the anniversary of the resurrection, a more important day than Saturday, the anniversary of creation. Are there times when we must challenge what is normal in our society in order to make God’s triumph known?

This week’s collect:

Readings for Tuesday March 2

Tuesday March 2 Lent 2

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.

Jeremiah 2: 1-13
Jeremiah is told to challenge the nation: they were founded in the generosity of God who led them out of Egypt, but in the wilderness and after entering the land they abandoned the God of justice. God appeals to the stars as witnesses: nobody has ever heard of such a disaster, that a nation abandoned its gods, even if they were just dumb idols, yet Israel has abandoned the glory of the God of justice—this appalls the sky and stars.

This challenge applies no less to us in our day. This is the Lenten journey—to give up our national illusions about ourselves so we can be returned to our country’s identity as people of God’s justice.

John 4: 43-54
Immediately after spending two days with the hated Samaritans and with the woman at the well, Jesus returns to Cana of Galilee where he had provided 180 gallons of the best wine after everyone had already had too much. The royal official will have been one of those colluding with the Roman oppression, yet he, a traitor, also drinks of the abundant wine when his child is cured just as the traitorous Samaritan woman also drank deeply of acceptance by Jesus. In this town of the unending wedding reception, Jesus has become the well and the wine.

John the gospel writer calls this miracle of healing Jesus’ second “sign”—another pointer (there are seven in this gospel) to Jesus’ significance.

In Lent we are to fix our eyes on God’s overwhelming gifts to those who don’t deserve it, of which we are one. We rejoice and anticipate the final infinite wedding reception in which we are included in Jesus’ resurrection at Easter.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Monday March 1

Monday March 1 Lent 2

Psalm 56
In the face of intense attack by evil, we trust that God will act for what is right.

Psalm 57
Another psalm expressing our trust that God will act for what is right in the face of intense attack by evil.

Psalm 58
An impassioned plea for evil to be overcome. We should read the violence not literally but as an expression of our determination that good will prevail.

Jeremiah 1: 11-19
God shows Jeremiah that disaster will befall the northern part of the country (as it did) because of their having abandoned the God of justice. Jeremiah is to warn them of these consequences, but knowing that the leaders will reject the warnings, God promises that Jeremiah will be as strong as a fortified city.

John 4: 27-42
The woman whose life was in a shambles now has new hope and dignity because Jesus knew her so deeply and treated her with such respect.

As he does so often, John the gospel writer uses extensive conversation to unfold layers of meaning about what has just happened. The disciples urge Jesus to eat. Jesus had asked the woman for water and now says he has secret food. This image may anticipate another conversation coming shortly in which Jesus calls himself the bread of life. Here the secret food is doing God’s inclusive justice.

The conversation then moves to planting seeds—perhaps the woman’s response to Jesus—and to harvest—Jesus’ anticipation that the joy of the wedding reception is about to envelope everyone—even those who didn’t expect such joy. The woman’s transformation from grief to joy will become that of everyone. Finally, the hated Samaritans become generous welcomers and host Jesus, and presumably his disciples, for two days thus providing food for Jesus which the disciples didn’t have when they returned.

Even hated traitors are to be included in the banquet and themselves are generous hosts. Are we ready to discover that those most opposed to faith may be the very people who experience Jesus most clearly?

This week’s collect:

Readings for Sunday February 28

Sunday February 28, Lent 2

Psalm 24
While entering through the doors of the temple the poet sings a hymn of praise to God who brought order out of the dangerous primordial ocean. Appropriate for a Sunday as we enter into our worship.

Psalm 29
Astonishment at the overwhelming presence of God in nature who rules the untameable ocean and even makes mountains cavort like calves and oak trees “writhe” in a gale! We worship such a God, who makes such strength and peace available to us.

Jeremiah 1: 1-10
In Deuteronomy, Moses was exhorting the people to follow God’s call to inclusive fairness after they had entered the land God gave them and had become wealthy. Today and through the rest of Lent we read through the book of Jeremiah written many centuries later when many Israelites had become urban and were ruled by royal families. Accumulation of wealth had become the royal priority.

Jeremiah will confront the final three kings of Israel for abandoning God’s priority of justice, and foresees that there will be terrible consequences—the land God had promised will be conquered by foreigners from Babylon, and the people will be deported there and made to be slaves again. Their history of being enslaved in Egypt is repeating itself, but this time it is the fault of the greed of their kings.

Today we begin Jeremiah’s story with the account of his being known before he was formed in the womb. This may have suggested to early Christians something of Jesus’ birth—Jesus also challenged the Jewish king of his time and was known before he was conceived. Just as Jeremiah is hunted by the king who wishes to kill him for challenging his abuse of royal power, so Jesus will be hunted by Herod for challenging his power. Jeremiah objects to his call because he cannot speak effectively—this is a deliberate reference to Jeremiah being asked to take the role of a new Moses and lead the people back to their land.

Violent repression by the powerful is not limited to the ancient world. The book of Jeremiah will explore how we find hope in similar circumstances in our day.

Mark 3: 31 – 4:9
On Sundays during Lent we interrupt John’s gospel to read from Mark’s.

Jesus’ own family have just tried to restrain him because he has been accused of being the devil. We may be hearing an early Christian memory that Jesus’ own family did not support him, and his response is to say that he has a far larger family composed of all who trust him.

Jesus then recounts how harvests are enormous despite the fact that most seeds never grow into mature plants—he is assuring us that the kingdom of God’s inclusive justice will triumph regardless of appearances. As one translation puts it, “If you have two good ears in your head, you better listen!” This expectation of God’s triumph is a good expectation to cultivate during Lent, and is appropriate for a Sunday, the mini-anniversary of the resurrection.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Saturday February 27

Saturday February 27 Lent 1

Psalm 55
I am terrified at what is happening. The city is full of corruption and my dear familiar friend has betrayed me. I will not cease imploring God to intervene and put things right.

Appropriate for a Saturday, when Jesus, betrayed by friends, waits in silence in the grave.

Deuteronomy 11: 18-28
As the Israelites are about to enter the land God promised them, Moses says that God’s laws, which amount to doing justice to all, must not be simply rules to follow, but must be the guiding principles of their whole life. If they do that, they will live more fully than they can imagine. Some Jews still wear the laws on their foreheads and inscribe them on their doorposts as Moses commands.

In Lent we are in the same position—preparing to leave the wilderness world dominated by fear and greed, and enter into God’s promised kingdom of generosity and security and full life.

This concludes our reading of Moses’ exhortations before he dies: that when the people receive God’s promises of a settled life full of abundance they must not risk it by abandoning God’s priority of justice for all. We read this because it is equally true in our time.

John 4: 1-26
Jesus travels through the Samaritan territory, north of Jerusalem, where the Jewish people were despised by other Jews as traitors for believing that their temple on Mount Gerizim was the location of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son and not the temple in Jerusalem, as they still do today.

As is typical in John’s gospel, Jesus’ significance is explored through extensive conversations about some incident, using multiple levels of meaning. We will explore this story over the next three days.

With unbelievable generosity and at risk of being suspected of impure motives, Jesus meets privately with a woman of those despised tribes—an unheard-of and risky act. His respect for her as a woman, his intimacy in asking for water, his compassion about her chaotic personal life, and his acceptance of her faith astound her. This meeting will change her life. Jesus presents himself as running water—”living water” in the translation.

John is inviting us to have the same experiences of Jesus. Lent is the time to allow that to happen.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are but did not sin, give us grace to discipline ourselves
in submission to your Spirit,
that as you know our weakness,
so we may know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Friday February 26

Friday February 26 Lent 1

Psalm 40
When I was in great trouble, God lifted me up and I rejoiced in God’s care. But now my own sin, and my enemies, have nearly destroyed me. Do not wait any longer, God!

Christians often use this and Psalm 54 on Fridays to mark the mini-anniversary of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Psalm 54
I am in dire straights. Put everything back to right, God. I praise you, because you have done that.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Moses continues to describe God’s generosity as the people prepare to enter the land God promised them. Because God was so generous to you, when you were a people worth nothing (they had no power and no moral qualities) they must now act with generosity to everyone (especially those of no power – the orphans and widows), and even to non-Jews (the “strangers” who were thought to have no moral standards). Such attitudes of generous inclusion of those without power or reputation were unheard-of at the time, as they still are today.

The commandment to circumcise, as a way of personally experiencing the sacrifice that Abraham was prepared to offer in Isaac, arises from God’s care for them when they were of no value. They are to make circumcision not a physical surgery, but a “circumcision of the heart” – their loyalty to God is to be shown in their attitude to the poor and the stranger, not just in physical circumcision. Paul will later expand this idea by arguing that physical circumcision is of no value if it does not result in Christ-like sacrificial love.

This idea that Moses speaks of underlies the entire Old Testament: that God chose to rescue a tiny culture that wouldn’t make God look impressive. The only reason God rescued them is that God’s central character is generous inclusive justice to the oppressed. The implication is that the Israelites are therefore required to treat other poor people with equal care. Not to do so is to court disaster. The same applies no less to us today.

John 3: 22-36
For the early Christians there was an ongoing controversy about whether John the Baptist was more important than Jesus. After all, John the Baptist had initiated a revolt against the Roman occupation by leading people across the Jordan river and thus symbolically re-taking the land. Today’s conversation is about why Jesus is the more important.

Firstly, Jesus is also baptizing and more people are following him. Second, John the Baptist suggests that Jesus is the bridegroom at a wedding (notice how John the writer is still using the image of a wedding), and that John the Baptist, like the best man at a wedding, is delighted when the groom gets all the attention. John, was suggesting that allowing Jesus to have the attention, and not ourselves, is the best evangelism.

Finally, this conversation concludes with the idea that Jesus comes from heaven, in contrast to John the Baptist who came from the earth, and that people who trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection live life fully and those who don’t, but trust in their own self-centredness, will have miserable lives. John the Baptist is doing exactly that by insisting that he become less important and that Jesus take centre stage.

This week’s collect:

Readings for Thursday February 25

Thursday February 25 Lent 1

Psalm 50
This psalm imagines God’s response to the people doing evil and abandoning justice. Rather than simply reacting or punishing, God lays out the case as if God were going to court – the idea is that God is being completely fair and getting an unbiased opinion about what the people have done. They have substituted religion for being just and if this continues there will be consequences.

Deuteronomy 9:23 – 10:5
Moses continues to describe God’s deep goodness in the face of Israel’s sin, showing that he persuaded God not to destroy the people and that God even gave him another set of the 10 commandments to guide the people. It was understood that these stone carvings were carried in the ark through the wilderness and eventually placed in the temple in Jerusalem. The meaning of God’s desire to destroy the people is not that God gets angry, but that, amazingly, God continues to be generous in the face of betraying God, which would normally have dreadful consequences. We see the culmination of God’s generosity in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

John 3: 16-21
Jesus speaks of how God’s intention is to fulfill all life. However not everyone responds to this invitation, and some people actively reject it. This was a problem for the early Christians—how could people reject God’s offer of full life? How could they reject the whole point of Jesus? John’s explanation is that people sometimes deliberately choose darkness. John continues this theme throughout his gospel—that we have a choice between choosing full life and choosing disaster. Some choose disaster, but the offer of full life never ceases and when we choose that, we are fulfilled.

This week’s collect: