Category: TODAY’S READING

Friday January 3          Christmas 1

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Psalm 68
A song of joy that God drives away evil and cares for the needy just as God rescued God’s people long ago from Egypt and drove out all the other kings so they could settle in the land God had promised. Can we cultivate the expectation that God will triumph over all the selfish international powers of our day?

The violent images part way through are a way of expressing how completely God’s goodness and justice will remove all evil and exploitative powers.

Genesis 28: 10-22                            What’s Genesis about?
Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, is seeking a wife from his own people, and not from the ungodly Canaanites. On his journey to find a wife, Jacob receives a repetition of God’s promise of eternal commitment to Abraham’s descendants. God will ensure that Jacob finds a wife and the line will be carried on. Can we cultivate the awareness that God is offering us a glorious future on this planet if we are committed to God’s character of justice?

John 10.7-17                            What’s John about?
In John’s account, Jesus now uses the images of a gate and a shepherd to present his relationship to us. He is the only gate, the only shepherd, through which full life is possible. Many other processes claim our loyalty, but all lead to dead ends. The only entrance to full life is through our loving—participating in God’s death and resurrection in loving us.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have shed upon us the new light
of your incarnate Word.
May this light, enkindled in our hearts,
shine forth in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Thursday January 2          Christmas 1

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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.

Genesis 12: 1-7                           What’s Genesis about?
Yesterday we read the story about God promising to care for Abraham’s descendants forever, the foundational story of the Hebrew Bible. Today God puts that promise into practical effect—God will give a permanent home and land to Abraham, who before this had been only nomadic. For nomads to own land was an unimaginable luxury. We hear the ancient explanation of how the people came to live in Canaan even though they had been nomads. Are we in equal amazement that God has given us this planet for our permanent home?

John 6: 35-42, 48-51                            What’s John about?
John continues his series of conversations with tightly-packed meanings in the days leading up to Jesus’ arrest and execution. In this conversation, Jesus claims that he has saved everyone, because he is the food which feeds humanity with heavenly nourishment. If heaven is the ability to die for someone—even our enemies—then that experience is to be in heaven. In face of opposition which claims he is nothing special, Jesus responds that his own death for his enemies—his “flesh”—is what will feed humanity and bring all people to heaven.
Subsequent Christians, perhaps beginning with John’s community, have interpreted these conversations about Jesus as our food as a way of experiencing the meaning of eucharist.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have shed upon us the new light
of your incarnate Word.
May this light, enkindled in our hearts,
shine forth in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Wednesday January 1          Naming of Jesus

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Psalm 103
God has been so generous to us! God has given us life when death was close, has been generous when we abandoned God’s justice, has cared for us as a doting parent does, and all in spite of our lives being so short. Even angels and creation bless God and we join with them!

Genesis 17: 1-16                            What’s Genesis about?
This is the foundational promise to Abraham in which God commits God’s self to eternal blessing of the Israelite people. In one sense, this is the central story of the entire “Old Testament”, the Hebrew Bible, in which the ancient Jews described their experience of being cared for by God. Their unlikely escape from Egypt, and later from Babylon, were seen as God acting to fulfil this original promise regardless of how the people had rejected God.

God changes Abraham’s name from “Exalted Ancestor” to “Ancestor of Multitudes” and Sarai’s name from “My Princess” to “Noble Princess of Many”. Name changes indicate changes in the person’s significance, not simply a different name.

Circumcision, a kind of ceremonial sacrifice, is the sign of the people’s response to God’s unilateral generosity. Appropriate for this new year starting today, in which God will continue to offer a great future to humanity. To receive that future, our culture will need to make some sacrifices in our way of life and our inclusion of those not yet living in dignity.

John 16: 23b-30                            What’s John about?
In this highly symbolic conversation, Jesus is speaking about his imminent return to the Father following his crucifixion.
He is not really talking about a journey back to heaven, but about the fact that he and the Father are already one, just as John said at the start of his gospel, “The Word was God.” So, when the disciples ask Jesus for fulfillment, they are really asking God for fulfillment. That’s why Jesus says he doesn’t need to ask God anything for them—because in asking him they are already asking God. The disciples affirm that they have begun to experience this.

As Jesus’ physical life receded further and further into the past, it was necessary for the early Christians to become less dependent upon a fading physical relationship with Jesus and to become aware that through Jesus they had been experiencing God. That’s what John is trying to say and is a major theme in John’s gospel. That transition from being loyal to an historical person long ago to experiencing God through Jesus continues to be an important step for us, too.

This week’s collect:

Eternal Father,
we give thanks for your incarnate Son,
whose name is our salvation.
Plant in every heart, we pray,
the love of him who is the Saviour of the world,
our Lord Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

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Tuesday December 31          Christmas 1

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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.

Psalm 48
A song of praise for how Jerusalem has been blessed by God— the forces which would destroy us are overcome.

We might understand this psalm as rejoicing in the beauty of creation, and of our own self as a glorious city, made possible by God’s commitment to justice.

Isaiah 62: 10-12                           What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah imagines proclaiming to the city of Jerusalem that her people are returning on a glorious highway from their distant exile.

We now leave Isaiah temporarily for a few days of readings from key Hebrew Bible passages describing God’s rescue of the people. Next week we will resume reading from Isaiah, and will encounter Isaiah’s radically new idea that God works through all human history regardless of whether God is known or not.

John 8: 12-19                            What’s John about?
Jesus claims to be the light of the world, but is accused of being untrustworthy because he has nobody to support his claim. Jesus responds that he is not the only one making this claim—God backs him up, and those who do not see light in him will also be unable to experience God. Experiencing Jesus as light depends on us already longing for the light—we already have to be deeply longing for what is good and just and loving. Without that, Jesus doesn’t make any sense, and we won’t have any experience of God.
These are a series of highly symbolic conversations in which John is describing the various ways in which Jesus’ meaning is received or rejected.

The question posed to us from this passage is whether our discipleship of Jesus arises because he fulfills the expectations of our society (in this passage because Jesus is from Bethlehem), or whether it is the new life we receive, through being included in his death and resurrection, that draws us to him (in this passage the anomaly that Jesus lived nowhere near Jerusalem and the centre of their faith).

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have shed upon us the new light
of your incarnate Word.
May this light, enkindled in our hearts,
shine forth in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Monday December 30          Christmas 1

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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.

Isaiah 60.19-22                            What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah imagines what it will be like when God returns the people to their land—their glory, from God, will be so great that other sources of light—the sun and moon— will no longer be needed! Even the least important person will be as significant as an entire nation!

John 7: 53—8: 11                            What’s John about?
Religious leaders dare Jesus to forgive a woman who is clearly guilty. With enormous courage, Jesus refuses to join in the condemnation of the woman, and instead challenges the men to confront their own responsibility for her shame. Alone with the woman (a very suggestive situation in that day) Jesus sends her back into life. We are being called to practice deep acceptance and also acknowledge our participation in excluding people from living full lives.

This week’s collect:

Almighty God,
you have shed upon us the new light
of your incarnate Word.
May this light, enkindled in our hearts,
shine forth in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Sunday December 29          Christmas 1

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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 62.6–7, 10–12                            What’s Isaiah about?
Early Christians interpreted this expectation of release from captivity and of great joy 600 years before Jesus, as if it had been a prophecy of the birth of Jesus.

Matthew 1.18–25                            What’s Matthew about?
Joseph has experienced a disaster in his relationship with Mary in that she is pregnant but not by him. In a dream he is told that this disaster in his most important relationship is about to be turned into an event of enormous importance. Dreams and references to the Old Testament guarantee the validity of this revelation.
Matthew quotes a passage from Isaiah in which, 700 years earlier, Isaiah had given a hopeful image to his besieged king: that his enemies would be defeated within nine months—the time in which it would take a young woman to give birth. Early Christians re-interpreted this verse, as was normal practice at that time, as a prediction of Jesus’ virgin birth.

In our time, just as with the king Isaiah was advising, nations put their trust in their own strength, not the generous self-giving available from God. The result is the desperation we see all around. But, like Joseph, in the midst of that desperation we find God transforming everything.

This week’s collect:

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Saturday December 28          Christmas

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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.

Isaiah 26: 1-9                            What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah speaks with confidence that God will ensure a safe return to Jerusalem for those who follow the way of justice and care for the poor, and will ensure that those who were oppressors will have no place to live.

Matthew 2: 13-18                            What’s Matthew about?
Luke had seen Jesus’ significance in repeating the events of Samuel’s birth, but Matthew interprets Jesus as a repetition of Moses’ birth. To escape Herod’s murderous rage Joseph takes Jesus to Egypt thus setting the scene so that Jesus can return from Egypt to the land God promised, just as Moses did when he led the people from Egypt to the promised land.
This horrific act of genocide is consistent with what is known about the character of Herod, and would have taken place shortly after Jesus’ birth, so that today is the rough anniversary of that horror. Matthew is making it clear that God’s act of love is rejected by his attempted murder at birth and that his murder will be successfully accomplished under Herod’s successor when Jesus is in his early thirties.

Can Jesus be for us the route of escape from our slavery to the assumptions that oppression and national violence are inevitable, into the promised land where the world is the way God intended?

This week’s collect:

O God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem,
may the light of faith
illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is 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 December 27          Christmas

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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 light, then 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 ended all injustice.

Psalm 150
A scene of riotous joy as every conceivable instrument and every creature praises God.

Isaiah 25: 1-9                            What’s Isaiah about?
God will overturn the oppressors, care for the needy, and provide an immense feast in Jerusalem for the whole world—even violent death will be no more.

Luke 2: 41-52                            What’s Luke about?
At twelve years old, Jesus remains in the temple, like Samuel, and astonishes the senior religious leaders with his wisdom. Having declared he has a calling beyond his parents’ understanding, he returns home obediently, foreshadowing his later obedience to the gift that God will make through his suffering and death. Are there parallels in our lives in which we may know wisdom beyond others, or in which we wait quietly for the right time to come?

This week’s collect:

O God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem,
may the light of faith
illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Thursday December 26          Christmas

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Psalm 145
Praise to God because God cares for the oppressed and feeds all creation—God is praised everywhere.

Isaiah 12: 1-6                            What’s Isaiah about?
Praise and thanks to God for restoring Jerusalem to greatness. Christians understand this is what God has done for all humanity in God’s arrival in the form of a human in Jesus.

Luke 2: 22-40                            What’s Luke about?
Although this is boxing day, we skip forward a week to Jesus’ circumcision and to the ritual cleansing of Mary. A holy man and a holy woman affirm Jesus’ significance and Jesus is taken home to grow into adulthood in the normal way.

This week’s collect:

O God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem,
may the light of faith
illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Wednesday December 25          Christmas Day

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Psalm 2
Other nations scorn God and God’s people, but God has chosen this people and their king, and God will have the final word.

Christians may understand this to be a way of saying that God has made self-offering love and justice in the death and resurrection of Christ to be the ultimate reality. All other attempts at finding full life through pursuing self-interest are laughable and doomed to fail.

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.

Zechariah 2: 10-13                            What’s Zechariah about?
God is about to come and live in Jerusalem—so all will be well and all will rejoice.

John 3: 31-36                            What’s John about?
John’s gospel claims that Jesus is the way we experience God. To refuse that experience is to refuse to live. If Jesus’ death and resurrection is the ultimate reality, then choosing to be part of that is the way to ultimate life. The point of Christmas, for John, is not the birth of a baby, but our response to God’s offer of new life.

This week’s collect:

O God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem,
may the light of faith
illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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