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