Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of Proper 9: Year 2
Psalm 119:1-24; Psalm 12, 13, 14; Deut. 1:1-18; Rom. 9:1-18; Matt. 23:27-39
“Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery,” I will rise up,” says the Lord, “and give them the help they long for.” (Psalm 12: 5)
It seems that most of our readings for today talk about the cruelty of human kind. Perhaps even the Psalms do as well. But this verse of Psalm 12, verse 5 caused me to stand back and try to take a look at us from God’s point of view. God sees the oppressed, the poor, and the disenfranchised.
How do you think God does the heavenly work of restoration? My beloved of the Lord, God helps the oppressed and the poor who cry out in misery through us who believe in God. God works through us, for us.
God works through people who sometimes don’t even know that they believe in God. I have met them. They have good hearts and are full of loving kindness. These people give children from broken homes hope. They are friends to those who are alienated from so called “normal” people. Yet, they are open to the movement of God and provide apostolic success for God by providing “them the help they longed for.”
In part, because of some bad preaching and dogmatic church doctrine, many have been turned away from what God wants them to do – to make a positive and loving difference in the world. The same sadness is revealed in the readings we have for today. Moses tells the Israelites to brace themselves for what lies ahead in the reading from Deuteronomy; Paul reminds his listeners about their ancestry and that the blessings they have comes from the mercy of God; and our Lord Jesus continually rebukes with the words, “woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.”
Few are doing the loving will of God. Beyond all this, our Church History is filled with wars and murders as it proclaims a loving leader who even forgave the man who nailed him to the cross; hypocrites. What happened? Where is God in all this? God is watching the poor and oppressed, and God is watching you and me. Are we going to rise up with God and give them the help they long for?
Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to and through the saints of God and then ponder anew what the Almighty can do. John
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