Category: TODAY’S READING

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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Tuesday December 24          Christmas Eve

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Psalm 45
A poem about King David, using the imagery of an ancient oriental king, describing his personal and public magnificence and the glory of his relationship with the queen. Note that his prime duty is to serve truth and justice.

We can read this poem as a description of our own fulfilled self and relationships which have been made possible for us in union with Christ’s resurrection.

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.

Isaiah 35: 1-10                            What’s Isaiah about?
The people are enslaved across the impassible Syrian desert a thousand kilometres from Jerusalem. Isaiah asks the people to imagine that God will make that desert like a fruitful field with a highway running straight to Jerusalem on which they can return in safety, health and fulfilment.

Early Christians used this image of a great highway across the desert to explain John the Baptist’s role in preparing for the arrival of Christ.

Luke 1: 67-80                            What’s Luke about?
Like Mary, John the Baptist’s father sings a song of praise to God who had not forgotten the covenant made with Abraham to rescue the people. What would a discovery that God still acts to rescue us mean in our time?

This week’s collect:

Eternal God,
this holy night is radiant
with the brilliance of your one true light.
As we have known
the revelation of that light on earth,
bring us to see the splendour of your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Monday December 23          Advent 4

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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 33: 17-22                            What’s Isaiah about?
God promises the time will come when Jerusalem will be a place of peace and prosperity and nobody will remember the oppressive Assyrians or their incomprehensible language or their luxurious yachts and war galleys. God will ensure the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem.

Luke 1: 57-66                            What’s Luke about?
John is born, his mother having miraculously conceived in her old age, as did so many barren mothers in the Hebrew tradition. He is given a new name, unrelated to his family, and miraculously affirmed by his father, “God is gracious” or perhaps “Gift of God.” It is clear that John, who will become “the baptist” will be someone of immense importance.

This week’s collect:

Heavenly Father,
who chose the Virgin Mary, full of grace,
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour,
now fill us with your grace,
that we in all things may embrace your will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
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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Sunday December 22          Advent 4

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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.

Isaiah 29: 13-24                            What’s Isaiah about?
The people respond to God only superficially. So God will do something amazing—God will remove all who exploit the powerless and the nation will have joy, and those who oppress will learn how they should live.

Luke 1: 39-56                           What’s Luke about?
Like Samuel’s mother, Mary sings a song of praise to God who cares for the powerless and brings to nothing those who had oppressed them. In their culture for a woman not to have children was a shame and disgrace—her pregnancy, and that of her elderly relative, bring both women into full stature as mature members of their community. In what ways is God bringing maturity to birth in our lives?

This week’s collect:

Heavenly Father,
who chose the Virgin Mary, full of grace,
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour,
now fill us with your grace,
that we in all things may embrace your will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
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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Saturday December 21          Advent 3

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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.

Early Christians saw in this psalm, perhaps originally intended as a prayer that king David would rule with justice, an affirmation of the new world order being instituted by the birth of Christ.

Isaiah 28: 9-22                            What’s Isaiah about?
The leaders of Jerusalem need to be treated as babies, so they can learn the basics. They have made a contract with death to keep themselves safe, but God is stronger and God’s acts will seem incomprehensible to such people. Our world has also made a contract with death, by relying on military terror to bring peace. In the same way, God’s offer of peace won’t seem to fit well into our world. We are about to see that new kind of peace arrive in Bethlehem.

Luke 1: 26-38                            What’s Luke about?
Like her relative, Mary is also unable to have a child. But notice the contrasts: Elizabeth is too old, and Mary is too young and has no man, yet both become pregnant. Elizabeth’s husband has had a vision which he rejects and is stuck dumb. Mary accepts her vision and bursts into song about how the poor (herself but also the class of poor people) will be rescued into safety and dignity while those who profited from their poverty will loose their power to do so.

This week’s collect:

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Friday December 20          Advent 3

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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.

Isaiah 11: 10-16                            What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah invents a whole new image, never previously imagined, that God will carry out the Red Sea rescue a second time. Like the ancient crossing of the Red Sea and finding paths in the wilderness, God will do the same to rescue the people from Assyria in Isaiah’s modern world. Are there ways in which we are called to be modern Isaiahs, anticipating a way in which Christ’s birth rescues humanity in our time?

Luke 1: 5-25                            What’s Luke about?
We now begin Luke’s interpretation of Jesus’ birth. Elizabeth, a relative of Mary and married to a temple priest, has been barren and is getting elderly. Nevertheless, God intervenes and she conceives. We are reminded of the long tradition in Jewish scripture of miraculous conceptions—Sarai, Abraham’s wife, Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, Hannah, Samuel’s mother, among many others. John’s father, the priest, is struck dumb for doubting God’s power to bring the kingdom into their lives. Mary is also be part of this tradition—she cannot have a child because she does not have a man, yet God will initiate new life in spite of this impossibility.
Luke is challenging us to anticipate the arrival of God’s kingdom even when that would appear physically impossible.

This week’s collect:

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Thursday December 19          Advent 3

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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.

Isaiah 11: 1-9                            What’s Isaiah about?
When the Assyrians deported and enslaved the Israelites the royal family was executed, and thus God’s promise seemed to have failed—God had promised David that there would always be a descendent to reign. But Isaiah has seen branches growing out of stumps and he imagines King David’s father, Jesse, being a cut-down stump from which a new king will arise. Isaiah imagines that new king will bring full justice to the people and fulfillment to nature, thus restoring God’s original creation. God will return all the Israelites from wherever they have been scattered.

Seven hundred years later, early Christians, such as Paul, applied this passage to Jesus. As we approach Christmas, we are also to grow in expectation of that the restoration of all things to their original fulfillment will be happening in our time.

John 5: 30-47                            What’s John about?
Jesus has been attacked for healing a blind man on the Sabbath, thus doing work on the day of rest. Jesus claims that he is only doing God’s will, i.e. that God desires the work of healing to happen even on the day of rest, and that it is God’s power, not his own, doing these healings. Since his critics were impressed by the light they saw in John the Baptist, who claimed God’s coming victory over the oppressive Roman empire, they ought to see even greater light in Jesus. But they don’t, because they don’t know God’s character. Even Moses understood him, Jesus claims, but if his critics don’t believe Moses, they won’t believe Jesus.
Jesus’ birth challenges us all to live in the light of God’s self-offering love instead of avoiding it, as did Jesus’ critics.

This week’s collect:

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Wednesday December 18          Advent 3

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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.

Isaiah 42: 1-12                            What’s Isaiah about?
Today we read a passage from the middle section of Isaiah. This section of the book was written a hundred years later than the passages we’ve read these last weeks. The people have been captured by the Babylonians and are now in exile in Babylon 1000 kilometres across the Syrian desert. The author, called “Second Isaiah,” describes how God will rescue the people.

God speaks of being in charge of global history (a revolutionary new idea) and sending a leader who will enact justice throughout the land. The early Christians understood this to refer to Jesus, and thus the choice of this passage a week before Christmas.

In Luke’s gospel, written 500 years later, Jesus applies the verses about healing the blind and releasing prisoners to himself when he returns from the temptations following his commitment in John’s baptism to enacting God’s kingdom. We will return to this part of Isaiah, after Christmas, in Epiphany.

John 3: 16-21                            What’s John about?
John’s gospel makes clear that Jesus’ arrival is for the healing of the world and that we are to respond to the light, not to the darkness that keeps the world in death. Jesus warns that it is possible to reject this light, and therefore to live in darkness. This theme of confronting us with the choice of responding to the light is present throughout John’s gospel.
The theme of “believing” in Jesus is better understood as a call to “trusting” and enacting Jesus’ call to self-offering love. When we don’t do that our humanity dies. John wasn’t saying that not “believing” in Jesus will cause God to condemn us.

This week’s collect:

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Tuesday December 17          Advent 3

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Psalm 45
A poem about King David, using the imagery of an ancient oriental king, describing his personal and public magnificence and the glory of his relationship with the queen. Note that his prime duty is to serve truth and justice.

We can read this poem as a description of our own fulfilled self and relationships which have been made possible for us in union with Christ’s resurrection.

Isaiah 9: 1-7                           What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah writes that God is determined to restore the people of Israel to the greatness for which God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and that a descendant of King David will rule them with complete justice. Early Christians interpreted this passage as a prediction of Jesus’ birth.

Luke 22: 54-69                            What’s Luke about?
Peter totally rejects Jesus, and Jesus is abused by soldiers and condemned by the leaders. It is for this act of love that he was born.
This concludes our readings from Jesus’ arrest and betrayal, which will culminate in fulfilling the purpose of his incarnation in his death and resurrection to heal the entire cosmos. The gospel readings until Christmas will now recount the stories of his birth.

This week’s collect:

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Monday December 16          Advent 3

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Psalm 41
Just as we care for the poor and needy, so God cares for us. I am needy in that I have sinned and my enemies and even my friends are all conspiring against me and hoping that I will die. All I can do is trust that God will protect me.

When we, or our world, seem to have little hope, we ground ourselves in knowing God holds us fast.

Psalm 52
Cruel powerful people seem to run the world, but we trust that God will enable the world to be as fertile as a green olive tree and evil will be ended.

Isaiah 8: 16-9: 1                           What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah is determined to trust only in the God of Israel, the God of justice. The people may trust in magic and divination, but that leads only to ignorance and darkness. But we wait for God to transform the land and make it glorious again.

Luke 22: 39-53                            What’s Luke about?
Jesus is abandoned even by his disciples who cannot stay awake with him in Gethsemane. Jesus heals the wound a disciple inflicts on a servant of those coming to kill him. The darkness seems to engulf Jesus as he is arrested.
This seems at first a strange series of passages to read as we approach Christmas, but the point of Jesus’ life is that through him God gives up everything for us. His birth, in Luke’s gospel, happens amidst the looming oppression of the Roman empire, and something similar happens in in Matthew’s gospel with Herod’s murder of hundreds of baby boys in an attempt to kill Jesus. Jesus’ whole point is to give himself for us and so it makes sense to read about that total self-offering by God which begins in Jesus’ birth.

This week’s collect:

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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