Daily Office Readings for Friday of Proper 10: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 31; Evening, Psalm 35;
1st Samuel 21:1 to 15, Acts 13:13 to 25; Mark 3:7 to19a
“When he had removed him [Saul], he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, “I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.” Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised;” (Acts 13:22 and 23).
In Acts, Paul sums up all that we have been reading, and continue to read in 1st Samuel. The Hebrew people demanded to be like the other nations even after God warned them not to be like them. But God was patient with them and allowed Saul to be their king. This worked until Saul became self-absorbed and God then moved the kingship to David, son of Jesse.
From the house of David God brought forth from Mary a Son, whose name was Jesus, the Savior of our souls from the temporal world. It is this Jew named Jesus who I believe was God Incarnate then, and maintains His Spiritual presence for the continual enhancement of human life on earth now, and more importantly, for all eternity.
The Israelites were called to spread the word that there is only one God. We, humanity, are to love God with all our being and also to love our fellow human beings as God loves each one of us. This was the message of God to all humanity that was to be carried out into the world by the descendants of Abraham. This was the message of love and inclusion that was supposed to be passed on to us by the Israelites to all nations, but the effort failed, until God gave us our Lord Jesus.
It is by the teachings and love of our Lord Jesus that we still live and move and have our being. There is but one faith regardless of how it is understood. There is an almighty God. God is good. God is love. God desires peace to prevail among us. Let us not let the effort to get the word out about God’s desire for us to love one another fail again. God’s introduction, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus and the coming among us of the Holy Spirit is God’s final plan for us and our deliverance. We must not only receive this word, but pass it along as well.
For this evening and tomorrow day my friends; Shabbat Shalom.
Let us live to love, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying to, and through the saints of God, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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