Category: TODAY’S READING

Sunday November 17          Pentecost 26

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Psalm 66
God, everyone praises you because you have rescued us from disaster so I will delight in praising you.

Psalm 67
Because of God’s blessings to all the nations we will all sing God’s praises.

Habakkuk 1.1-2.1                            What’s Habakkuk about?
This short book was written around the time of the first invasion of the land about 700 years before Christ. The theme of the book is that God would only allow such a thing because of of the injustice practised by the Jewish leaders and people.

The book begins with Habakkuk complaining that God has not acted to restore the country to peace and justice. God responds that God is calling these invincible foreign powers to punish Israel for not upholding justice among themselves. Habbakuk responds that God is allowing the people to be treated like fish caught in a net and challenges God to explain.

Matthew 23.13-24                            What’s Matthew about?
Jesus is merciless in his criticism of those who use religion for their own benefit. The purpose of religion, he insists, is to do justice—that is, to ensure dignity for every person, especially for the poor.
Matthew is describing the escalating conflict between Jesus and the religious leadership which will shortly result in his execution.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you sent your Son Jesus Christ
to be the light of the world.
Free us from all that darkens and ensnares us,
and bring us to eternal light and joy;
through the power of him
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Saturday November 16          Pentecost 25

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Psalm 87
A vision of Jerusalem as the source of life for all the world, as if every nation and every beautiful thing originated there. Christians might interpret this as Jesus’ death and resurrection in Jerusalem being the source of life and beauty for the whole world.

Psalm 90
Our lives are very short, like a breath we are gone, we are so insignificant. Bless us, God.

Joel 3.9-17                            What’s Joel about?
God challenges all the surrounding armies to send their best soldiers—God is about to act with justice and safety for Israel and utterly destroy their oppressors. This concludes the book of Joel.

Luke 16.10-17                           What’s Luke about?
Jesus demands that commitment to the kingdom is essential—otherwise we will not have life.

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Friday November 15          Pentecost 25

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Psalm 88
A lament that I have been crushed and am beyond hope. When I am dead, there is nothing left, there is no life beyond the grave. Astonishingly, to be fully with us, Jesus enters completely into such a death.

This psalm is appropriately read on a Friday as Jesus is placed in the grave. Only God’s act, on Saturday night—the eve of the resurrection—can reverse death—even Jesus’ death. That’s the only hope there is.

Joel 2.28-3.8                            What’s Joel about?
God is incensed that other more powerful countries have abused God’s people, and God describes how God, with great power, will put things right again—those countries that caused evil will have to face the consequences. The poet is saying that despite what goes wrong in life, in the end there is a fairness and goodness that is in charge. From our modern view-point God seems vindictive against other cultures, but from the view-point of those who were enslaved and abused by them this would have been experienced as the action of a just and good and fair God, especially when things had seemed so unfair.

Luke 16.1-9                            What’s Luke about?
Jesus tells a story about an administrator who is about to be fired for misappropriating funds. The administrator then shows his friends how to falsify their purchase contracts so they will be obligated to assist him after he is fired. The owner then praises the administrator for his cleverness. Jesus may then be suggesting that his followers should be equally determined to act in just ways. Or it may be that Jesus is ironically recommending that we should make money dishonestly so that when our money is gone we will at least have friends who will welcome us into even greater dishonesty! Jesus is satirically condemning the widespread affirmation of dishonest cleverness over honest care, a mistaken priority that is just as widespread in our day. 

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Thursday November 14          Pentecost 25

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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!

Joel 2.21-27                            What’s Joel about?
Even the animals are to rejoice along with the people that God will protect everyone.

Luke 15.1-2, 11-32                            What’s Luke about?
Jesus tells the story of a father rejoicing when his morally lost son who had shamed him returns home. Yet the good brother will not rejoice. Do we rejoice when those who were never part of the church are welcomed and are we OK with not being the centre of attention in that case? If so, then we are truly in the kingdom.

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Wednesday November 13          Pentecost 25

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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.

Joel 2: 12-19                           What’s Joel about?
The prophet imagines the nation responding to God’s call to change priorities, and God then gifting the nation with abundance. The political philosophy is clear: loyalty to justice is the only foundation for security and fulfillment.

Luke 15: 1-10                           What’s Luke about?
Jesus is popular among outcasts, traitors and the despised. But the leaders criticize him for encouraging bad behaviour. So Jesus challenges them with three perspective-changing stories of things lost and then found. First, the shepherd who leaves an entire flock to find one sheep, then a woman who is overwhelmed with joy on finding her lost wedding ring, and, tomorrow, the father who delights in the return of his of the son who had betrayed him. The well-behaved critics are being challenged to celebrate and be delighted when outcasts, traitors and the despised are embraced.

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Tuesday November 12          Pentecost 25

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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.

Joel 1.15-2.11                           What’s Joel about?
Joel continues his description of the oppression of the people and the arrival of an enemy army with overwhelming military technology, as overwhelming as a plague of locusts. God leads this army, bringing disaster. But, as we will read tomorrow, God’s intention is that the people should return to the God of justice, and if God can summon a foreign army, God can also dismiss it.

Luke 14.25-35                            What’s Luke about?
Following Jesus is not a way to look good. Like a warrior going into battle or a developer planning a building, we are to be aware of the cost of following Jesus. If we don’t plan well, and are not prepared to take the cost of following Jesus’ into account, we are as useless as tasteless salt.
“Normal” society always wants everything at the least possible cost, but Jesus insists that only love gives rise to a truly normal society and love always delights in paying the cost. The community of Christ’s followers are like salt—we give the taste of love to the rest of society. But if we are just like our society, and aren’t longing to make the sacrifices of love, we’ve got nothing to contribute.

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Monday November 11          Pentecost 25

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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.

Joel 1.1-13                            What’s Joel about?
We do not know when this book was written, but likely after the people had returned from exile 500 years before Christ. It emphasizes the consequences of the people not being faithful to God as the explanation for why they were captured and enslaved by the Babylonians.

In this opening section the country has been overrun by grasshoppers as well as by the enemy. Their country is in ruins and their crops, and therefore their lives and their worship and their future are all in tatters. 

Notice that the details of the various grasshoppers is an accurate description of the process by which grasshoppers mutate into deadly swarms of locusts.

In our day, it remains true that there are disastrous long-term consequences when countries are unfaithful by not ensuring those with little power are fully included and have dignity in society.

Luke 14.12-24                            What’s Luke about?
Jesus says that in being generous we must give to people who cannot return the favour—otherwise it is not actually generosity. He tells the story of a community who gang up to deliberately shame a host by all not turning up at the last minute. The intention was to leaves the host’s immense feast to rot and thus to humiliate him. But in response the host invites the homeless to his feast thus ensuring the feast happens and thus shaming those who had tried to shame him. This reversal of usual social customs is what the kingdom is like—God will ensure that the poor, who deserve feasts more than anyone, will be banqueted and those who refused to be generous will find themselves not enjoying life.

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Sunday November 10          Pentecost 25

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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

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 51.13-22                            What’s Ecclesiasticus about?
Since youth, the writer has always sought to know Wisdom and God has blessed him for that. This sums up the entire book-the writer encourages us also to seek Wisdom and receive God’s blessings.

Matthew 20.1-16                            What’s Matthew about?
There is a double-edged sword in this parable, as in so many others. God, and by implication ourselves, has the character of extraordinary generosity, treating people who don’t deserve much as if they deserved a lot. So the last workers, who worked a single hour in the easiest conditions get paid twenty-five times what they were due (they were paid for twelve hours’ work, some of which were high stress, for working one low-stress hour).
But then comes the challenge. People don’t like others being treated with generosity. Those who worked all day could have rejoiced that their friends received such generosity, but no, their agenda is to be more important.

As always, Matthew is concerned about the quality of the early Christian community. Matthew may be pointing out that Christians are not to assume we are closer to God because of our faithfulness. Rather, to be true followers of Christ we are to rejoice when those who have not followed Christ are treated with extreme generosity.

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Saturday November 9          Pentecost 24

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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.

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 51.1-12                            What’s Ecclesiasticus about?
Praise to God who has rescued us so many times!

Luke 14.1-11                            What’s Luke about?
At a meal Jesus insists on curing on the Sabbath and repeats his statement that the religious leaders have made rules that a child or ox can be rescued on the Sabbath, but not an adult. Just as sitting below your rank at a banquet will result in your being honoured when you are called up, so taking those with little respect seriously will ensure you are really alive.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
whose chosen servant Abraham obeyed your call,
rejoicing in your promise
that in him the family of the earth is blessed,
give us faith like his,
that in us your promises may be fulfilled;
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 November 8          Pentecost 24

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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.

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 50.1, 11-24                            What’s Ecclesiasticus about?
The writer re-tells the story of the restored temple and the glorious worship that happens there, and trusts that God will again bless the people, giving hope for the future during their oppression under Greek rule.

Luke 13.31-35                            What’s Luke about?
Jesus names the resistance to God’s new world that is emerging, and how strong that resistance is-that he will be executed. Nevertheless, the kingdom will arrive and all will rejoice. Notice the extraordinary image of Jesus calling himself a mother chicken longing to protect the city.
The “house left to you” may refer to the destruction of the temple by the Romans, meaning that the result of the leaders rejecting God’s kingdom of peace means that war will destroy even the house of God, i.e. the temple.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
whose chosen servant Abraham obeyed your call,
rejoicing in your promise
that in him the family of the earth is blessed,
give us faith like his,
that in us your promises may be fulfilled;
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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