Daily Devotional Tuesday 30 June 2020

Prayers at Mid-day for Tuesday, 30 June, 2020 (Proper 13, Trinity 3)

Invitatory

O God, make speed to save us.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.

Amen.

The Lord is our refuge and our strength:  O come, let us worship.

Hebrew Scriptures

Numbers Numbers 22:21-38

²¹So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the officials of Moab.

22 God’s anger was kindled because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the road as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. ²³The donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand; so the donkey turned off the road, and went into the field; and Balaam struck the donkey, to turn it back on to the road. ²⁴Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. ²⁵When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it scraped against the wall, and scraped Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck it again. ²⁶Then the angel of the Lord went ahead, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. ²⁷When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam; and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. ²⁸Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?’ ²⁹Balaam said to the donkey, ‘Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!’ ³⁰But the donkey said to Balaam, ‘Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you in this way?’ And he said, ‘No.’

31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed down, falling on his face. ³²The angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I have come out as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me. ³³The donkey saw me, and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away from me, surely I would by now have killed you and let it live.’ ³⁴Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, ‘I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now therefore, if it is displeasing to you, I will return home.’ ³⁵The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, ‘Go with the men; but speak only what I tell you to speak.’ So Balaam went on with the officials of Balak.

36 When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at Ir-moab, on the boundary formed by the Arnon, at the farthest point of the boundary. ³⁷Balak said to Balaam, ‘Did I not send to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honour you?’ ³⁸Balaam said to Balak, ‘I have come to you now, but do I have power to say just anything? The word God puts in my mouth, that is what I must say.’

Psalm

Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—

   from where will my help come? 

² My help comes from the Lord,

   who made heaven and earth. 

³ He will not let your foot be moved;

   he who keeps you will not slumber. 

⁴ He who keeps Israel

   will neither slumber nor sleep. 

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;

   the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 

⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,

   nor the moon by night. 

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all evil;

   he will keep your life. 

⁸ The Lord will keep

   your going out and your coming in

   from this time on and for evermore.

Epistles

Romans 7.1-12

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? ²Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. ³Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

4 In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

7 What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ⁸But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

Gospel

Matthew 21: 23-32

‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. ³⁴When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” ³⁹So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ ⁴¹They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

42 Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:

“The stone that the builders rejected

   has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

   and it is amazing in our eyes”? 

⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. ⁴⁴The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Commentary (Father Michael)

When I think of talking donkeys (which I confess is not often), I think either of the donkey from the Shrek films played by Eddie Murphy (a favourite of the grandkids) or the donkey in today’s reading from Numbers, unfortunately referred to sometimes as Balaam’s ass. This gentle and obedient creature, given a voice by God, reproves his master for his undeserved cruelty, but also saves Balaam from God’s judgement.

Balaam, considered one of the gentile prophets (the other most noteable example being Job), was a non-Jew who is summoned by Balak, king of Moab, to help him stop the oncoming people of Israel, on their march to the Promised Land. The threefold structure of today’s story (the donkey’s three refusals to go forward) mirrors the use of threes in the structure of the latter chapters of Numbers as Balaam thrice refuses Balak’s request to curse Israel, and instead blesses them. This repetitive use of scenes and images, a favourite device of the early Hebrew Scriptures, underscores the favour that God shows to Israel as God’s chosen people and says, in effect, “don’t mess with them”.

At the end of today’s reading, Balaam defends himself from King Balak by saying “the word God puts in my mouth, that is what I must say”. These words seem worth taking to heart. God gave us reason, and thus we can’t trust God to dictate our speech for us (for otherwise we would be automatons).   However, at key moments, especially stressful ones, it’s always worth asking, “will what I say next be pleasing to God? Does it come from God, or from some other place?”

Have you ever felt that God might be using ordinary things o moments to speak to you?   What can you do to try and speak words that come from God?

What other questions come to your mind about these passages?

Intercession

Lord, I pray that the people of God in all the world may worship in spirit and in truth.

Lord hear my prayer.

Lord, I pray that the Church may discover again that unity which is your will.

Lord hear my prayer.

Lord, I pray that the nations of the earth may seek after the ways that make for peace.

Lord hear my prayer.

Lord, I pray that the whole of creation, groaning in travail, may be set free to enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Lord hear my prayer.

I pray that all who with Christ have entered the shadow of death may rest in peace and rise in glory, and I pray especially this morning for the souls of the thousands that have succumbed to Covid 19.

Lord hear my prayer.

I pray that you will protect medical and essential workers, inspire the efforts of researchers and scientists seeking treatments and a vaccine for Covid 19, and that you will heal the world you graciously gave us.

Amen

Collects of the Day (Proper 13, Trinity 3):

Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love fulfils the law.   May we love you with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength, and may we love our neighbour as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.   Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Thanks be to God

On Being A Liberated People: A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, 28 June, 2020

 

 

A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, 28 June, 2020, preached (via Zoom) at All Saints Church, King City, Diocese of Toronto

 

Readings for this Sunday:   Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18; Romans 6: 12-23, Matthew 10:40-42.

 

 

“…  present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (Rom 6:13_

 

In these pandemic times, every one of us has experienced may disappointments - holidays cancelled, loved ones not seen, pleasures deferred.   Collectively these lost pleasures form much of the substrate of grief that forms the burden of this strange and unwelcome time.

 

In another, coronavirus-free universe, I would have been in Holland in early May, as part of the Canadian Armed Forces delegation marking the seventy fifth anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War Two.  It would have been a wonderful way to end my career in uniform, accompanying the last Canadian veterans who, like like my late father, had freed the Dutch people from Nazi occupation.  Military friends who have made similar trips always say that to wear the Canadian uniform in Holland is to be treated as a hero by people who understand what it means to be liberated.

 

Paul, in today’s reading from Romans, tells us that we as followers of Jesus are, like the Dutch, also a liberated people.  Specifically, Paul tells us that we “have been brought from death to life” (Rom 6:13), because we have been freed from our captivity to sin, which is death, because Jesus has liberated us.  Sin enslaved us, but now we are free, free “to become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted” (Rom 6:17).

 

So what does it mean to be “free from sin”?   This in itself is a huge question, but it’s worth wrestling with, because if we can answer it, then we can explain to others why Christianity matters.   The reason why we struggle to answer it, I think, is because the church hasn’t always done a good job in explaining sin.   

 

Historically we’ve either defined sin as the opposite of individual purity, which often makes Christians seem puritanical and judgey, or we’ve defined it in cosmic terms, as something profoundly wrong with the world, as in the doctrine of original sin.  The problem with these two views is that the first downplays sin as something that we can fix by amending our own behaviour, and the second renders us helpless victims waiting for God to rescue us.

 

Our lived experience tells us that sin exists, in small acts that sometimes trip us up, despite our good intentions, in the small stuff of our lives.  For this sort of sin, Christians have a pretty good tool kit.  We know what the Jesus-focused life should look like, we have a long tradition of Christian ethics, and we have hope that we can grow into the person that God wants us to be, a process called sanctification.

 

But then there is big sin, the objective reality that we confront in the news each day, the long, complex web of wrongdoing and injustice that seems woven into the fabric of history and society.  For example, take the broad debate that has been raging since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.   The Black Lives Matter movement has drawn attention to the widespread killing of African Americans by predominantly white law enforcement.   When protestors pull down statues commemorating the Confederacy, they are making a deliberate connection between racism today and systems of racial oppression, such as slavery, that go back to the very founding of the United States.  Segregation, voter suppression, and disparities of wealth all stem from this past.

 

Similarly, the opportunities for Canadians to learn about our indigenous brothers and sisters, such as last Sunday’s day of prayer, also point to patterns and structures that go back centuries.    As I noted last Sunday, Bishop Townshend of the Diocese of Huron noted that the Doctrine of Discovery, promulgated at the start of the west’s colonization of the Americas, argued that the indigenous inhabitants of those lands were non-persons, that, essentially, they were not created by God and did not really exist.   This doctrine, like a cancer, infected the government policy, laws, and even theology that Canada was built on.

 

If you’re a gardener, you’ve probably fought bindweed, a vicious persistent plant that spreads its tendrils everywhere, choking out the plants you love.   Sin can be like that, pervasive, deep rooted, structural.  The theologian Oliver O’Donovan defines sin as “a universal truth about mankind, a generic disunity with creation and a solidarity in refusal of the good” (Ethics as Theology 1, 82).  God created all of us to be in unity, but sin creates multiple layers of oppression - racial, economic, sexual - because it draws humans away from the good.  If we think of God’s creation as a flower bed, sin spreads through it, choking the beauty that was in the mind of the gardener.  Like bindweed, it has to be carefully and methodically pulled up.

 

So where is the good news in all of this?  Well, we heard it in Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul tells us that we’re liberated, we’ve “set free from sin” (and  we are no longer forced to live within old, sinful structures of oppression because God in Jesus has set us free.   “Sanctifcation” in Paul’s language means that we are made holy, we are restored to the way that God wanted us to be, fee to flourish in God's garden, which is creation.

 

Being set free means that we are called to care about those who are not yet free, which is why we are called to preach and live out the gospel.   The gospel is a message of freedom that allows us to escape systems of oppression that we have been caught up in.   For example, take today’s simple reading from Matthew.  Jesus says:

 

“Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

 

The word “welcome”  here means much more than just “hi, come on in”.   It implies respect, a recognition of the other as being worthy of our respect and generosity.   The phrase “in the name of” is from an ancient semitic idiom meaning “because they are”, so when we someone “in the name of a disciple” it means that we recognize that someone else “is also a disciple”, is also a follower of Jesus, regardless of their race, gender, or class.  The act of giving someone water is thus not a trivial act, but stands for a recognition of another’s need, and another’s status as a deeply loved child of God, regardless of who they are.  Discipleship crosses every boundary that humans can think of, and we see others as fellow disciples, as fellow children of God, then we all find our freedom.

 

The action of welcoming is part of our role as apostles, it means that we as the church have to out there in the world, where we are able to recognize and respond to the need of others.   Otherwise, if we are confined to our churches and our holy bubbles, we can’t see other people or see their needs.  I think this recognition that we can act locally as individuals and as a local parish is important, because it’s how we start restoring creation, how we start getting rid of this systems of oppression, like a determined gardener, pulling up those strands of bindweed, one by one.  

In the months ahead, I look forward to thinking with you about what our vocation as church in King township looks like, and how we are called to this work in this part of God’s garden.   I am confident that if we as a parish see our mission as sharing God’s liberation with those who yearn for freedom, then we sill have an exciting future ahead of us.

Daily Devotional for Friday, 26 June

Prayers at Mid-day for Friday, 26 June, 2020 (Proper 12, Trinity 2)

 

 

Invitatory

 

O God, make speed to save us.

 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.

Amen.

 

The Lord is our refuge and our strength:  O come, let us worship.

 

Hebrew Scriptures

Numbers 17: 1-11

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff, and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you. And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you. Moses spoke to the Israelites; and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs. So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.

When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites; and they looked, and each man took his staff. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.’ Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

 

Psalm

Psalm 105: 1-22

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,

   make known his deeds among the peoples. 

² Sing to him, sing praises to him;

   tell of all his wonderful works. 

³ Glory in his holy name;

   let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 

⁴ Seek the Lord and his strength;

   seek his presence continually. 

⁵ Remember the wonderful works he has done,

   his miracles, and the judgements he has uttered, 

⁶ O offspring of his servant Abraham,

   children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 

 

⁷ He is the Lord our God;

   his judgements are in all the earth. 

⁸ He is mindful of his covenant for ever,

   of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, 

⁹ the covenant that he made with Abraham,

   his sworn promise to Isaac, 

¹⁰ which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,

   to Israel as an everlasting covenant, 

¹¹ saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan

   as your portion for an inheritance.’ 

 

¹² When they were few in number,

   of little account, and strangers in it, 

¹³ wandering from nation to nation,

   from one kingdom to another people, 

¹⁴ he allowed no one to oppress them;

   he rebuked kings on their account, 

¹⁵ saying, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones;

   do my prophets no harm.’ 

 

¹⁶ When he summoned famine against the land,

   and broke every staff of bread, 

¹⁷ he had sent a man ahead of them,

   Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 

¹⁸ His feet were hurt with fetters,

   his neck was put in a collar of iron; 

¹⁹ until what he had said came to pass,

   the word of the Lord kept testing him. 

²⁰ The king sent and released him;

   the ruler of the peoples set him free. 

²¹ He made him lord of his house,

   and ruler of all his possessions, 

²² to instruct his officials at his pleasure,

   and to teach his elders wisdom. 

 

Epistles

Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. ⁹Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. ¹¹But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

 

Gospel

Matthew 20: 17-28

 

17 While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, ¹⁸‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; ¹⁹then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. ²¹And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ ²²But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ ²³He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’

24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ²⁶It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; ²⁸just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

 

Commentary (Father Michael)

 

By this point, late in Jesus’ ministry, his reputation must have spread widely, because here are two blind men who seem to have positioned themselves in his path, knowing exactly who he is and what they want:  “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

 

It’s interesting that the way the blind men address Jesus, as “Lord” and “Son of David”, contrasts with Jesus having just told his followers that he was not interested in grand titles and ceremony, for “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mt 20:25-28).  

 

Jesus comes as a servant, and yet the blind men, like others before them who have sought healing (Mt 7.21, 9.27) recognize who Jesus really is.   They address him as “Lord”, a title of great respect, and as the “Son of David”, the heir of King David who has come to restore God’s people.   Their persistence in addressing Jesus, despite the crowd shushing them, shows their faith, or perhaps just their desperation, and they get what they seek because of Jesus’ “compassion”.

 

I love this story because it shows us that Jesus has the authority of God, the mission of restoring God’s people, and a heart of compassion to fulfil this mission.   Today’s reading encourages us to bring our cares and concerns to Jesus, trusting that he has the power of a king, a heart of mercy, and the willingness to help us.

 

Do you trust that Jesus has the authority and the compassion to hear your troubles?

What questions come to your mind about these passages?

 

Intercession

 

Lord, I pray that the people of God in all the world may worship in spirit and in truth.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

Lord, I pray that the Church may discover again that unity which is your will.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

Lord, I pray that the nations of the earth may seek after the ways that make for peace.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

Lord, I pray that the whole of creation, groaning in travail, may be set free to enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

I pray that all who with Christ have entered the shadow of death may rest in peace and rise in glory, and I pray especially this morning for the souls of the thousands that have succumbed to Covid 19.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

I pray that you will protect medical and essential workers, inspire the efforts of researchers and scientists seeking treatments and a vaccine for Covid 19, and that you will heal the world you graciously gave us.

 

Amen

 

Collects of the Day (Proper 12, Trinity 2):

 

O God our defender, storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid.  Rescue your people from despair, deliver your sons and daughters from fear, and preserve us all from unbelief; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

 

 

The Lord’s Prayer

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Thanks be to God

 

Daily Devotional for Thursday, 25 June

Prayers at Mid-day for Thursday, 25 June, 2020 (Proper 12, Trinity 2)

 

 

Invitatory

 

O God, make speed to save us.

 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.

Amen.

 

The Lord is our refuge and our strength:  O come, let us worship.

 

Hebrew Scriptures

Numbers 17: 1-11

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff, and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you. And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you. Moses spoke to the Israelites; and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs. So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.

When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites; and they looked, and each man took his staff. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.’ Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

 

Psalm

Psalm 105: 1-22

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,

   make known his deeds among the peoples. 

² Sing to him, sing praises to him;

   tell of all his wonderful works. 

³ Glory in his holy name;

   let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 

⁴ Seek the Lord and his strength;

   seek his presence continually. 

⁵ Remember the wonderful works he has done,

   his miracles, and the judgements he has uttered, 

⁶ O offspring of his servant Abraham,

   children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 

 

⁷ He is the Lord our God;

   his judgements are in all the earth. 

⁸ He is mindful of his covenant for ever,

   of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, 

⁹ the covenant that he made with Abraham,

   his sworn promise to Isaac, 

¹⁰ which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,

   to Israel as an everlasting covenant, 

¹¹ saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan

   as your portion for an inheritance.’ 

 

¹² When they were few in number,

   of little account, and strangers in it, 

¹³ wandering from nation to nation,

   from one kingdom to another people, 

¹⁴ he allowed no one to oppress them;

   he rebuked kings on their account, 

¹⁵ saying, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones;

   do my prophets no harm.’ 

 

¹⁶ When he summoned famine against the land,

   and broke every staff of bread, 

¹⁷ he had sent a man ahead of them,

   Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 

¹⁸ His feet were hurt with fetters,

   his neck was put in a collar of iron; 

¹⁹ until what he had said came to pass,

   the word of the Lord kept testing him. 

²⁰ The king sent and released him;

   the ruler of the peoples set him free. 

²¹ He made him lord of his house,

   and ruler of all his possessions, 

²² to instruct his officials at his pleasure,

   and to teach his elders wisdom. 

 

Epistles

Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. ⁹Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. ¹¹But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

 

Gospel

Matthew 20: 17-28

 

17 While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, ¹⁸‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; ¹⁹then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. ²¹And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ ²²But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ ²³He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’

24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ²⁶It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; ²⁸just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

 

Commentary (Father Michael)

 

Once again we see a noticeable contrast between today’s readings from Numbers and from Matthew’s gospel.  In today’s reading from Numbers, in the wake of a rebellion among the Israelites, God intervenes to send a clear sign that Moses and his ally, Aaron, the head of the Levites, are divinely appointed as leaders of the people.   Given the fractious nature of the Israelites, and the challenges facing them in winning a homeland, such clear authority is no doubt necessary.

 

The mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, no doubt hoped that her boys would gain similar authority in Jesus’ new kingdom, though she doesn’t seem to have been paying much attention to how Jesus says this kingdom will come about by suffering and humiliation (vv 17-19).  In Matthew, parallels between Moses and Jesus are deliberately drawn, and the fact that there are twelve disciples, just as there are twelve ancestral houses in Numbers, is important.  The difference, Jesus explains (vv 20-28), is that in this new kingdom, authority will flow from love, service, and sacrifice, rather than power.

 

For the rest of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ authority will be seen in acts of healing (e.g. the blind men at the end of Matthew 20) and self-giving, culminating in his death on the cross.  This power will contrast with the pagan rulers of Jesus’ time, who “lord it over” their subjects, and with the empty pageants and displays of demagogues who shout and posture in stadiums today.  Whereas such earthly power and authority is usually fleeting, based as it is on threats or appeals to hatred and division, Jesus authority is based on the authenticity of love and is confirmed by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  Our freedom as Christians comes from submitting ourselves to Jesus’ gentle rule.

 

What authority are you prepared to grant Jesus over your life?

What questions come to your mind about these passages?

 

Intercession

 

Lord, I pray that the people of God in all the world may worship in spirit and in truth.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

Lord, I pray that the Church may discover again that unity which is your will.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

Lord, I pray that the nations of the earth may seek after the ways that make for peace.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

Lord, I pray that the whole of creation, groaning in travail, may be set free to enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

I pray that all who with Christ have entered the shadow of death may rest in peace and rise in glory, and I pray especially this morning for the souls of the thousands that have succumbed to Covid 19.

Lord hear my prayer.

 

I pray that you will protect medical and essential workers, inspire the efforts of researchers and scientists seeking treatments and a vaccine for Covid 19, and that you will heal the world you graciously gave us.

 

Amen

 

Collects of the Day (Proper 12, Trinity 2):

 

O God our defender, storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid.  Rescue your people from despair, deliver your sons and daughters from fear, and preserve us all from unbelief; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

 

 

The Lord’s Prayer

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Thanks be to God