Monday 3rd June

Reflecting on the ninth Sunday in ordinary time.

Where we have come from (readings for Sunday Jun 2):

1 Kings 8:22-23, 41-43

Psalm 96:1-9

Galatians 1:1-12

Luke 7:1-10

Readings for today:

Psalm 5

Jonah 4:1-11

Acts 8.26-40

Brief thoughts for today:

“Lead me Lord, Lead me in thy righteousness, make thy way plain before my face.” So goes SS Wesley’s well known arrangement of part of Psalm 5. The anthem, as I remember, doesn’t pick up many of the references about the ‘arrogant’ and the ‘wicked’ that are causing the psalmist so much distress. There is of course a place for appealing to God for protection in the midst of antagonistic forces, but this can easily drift into the idea that those who are different from us are not just evil, but irredeemable: Jonah was heading in this direction. The inclusion of those who are ‘other’ was a big theme in Sunday’s readings (the references to the ‘nations’ in Solomon’s prayer and Psalm 96, Jesus dealings with the centurion and even Paul’s raging against those seeking to divide the church in  Galatia) and today we have two more examples in God’s forgiveness of Ninevah despite Jonah’s prejudice and Phillip’s encounter with the eunuch from Ethiopia.

Revised Common Lectionary copyright © 1992 Consultation on Common Texts. Used by permission.