BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Monday, Nov. 29, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 1, 2, 3 [PCUSA: 122:1-9]
Evening Psalm(s): PM Psalm 4, 7 [PCUSA: 40:1-17]
Old Testament: Isa. 1:10-20
Epistle: 1 Thess. 1:1-10
Gospel: Luke 20:1-8
Presbyterian Readings with Biblical Text for the Current Day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
The LORD continues his indictment of his people, deploring their superficial religious practices: What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs or of goats. (Isa. 1:11; cf. Amos 5:21-24; Jer. 6:20)
The people are compared to Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 10). Their religious processionals “trample my courts” (v. 12). God has become weary of their “new moon” and “sabbath” assemblies and festivals (vv. 13-14), and he will not hear their prayers because “your hands are full of blood” (v. 15). The remedy is repentance and cleansing:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good. (vv. 16-17a)
They need to turn away from injustice: “seek justice” (v. 17b), from oppression (v. 17c) and “defend the orphan” (v. 17d) and “plead for the widow” (v. 17e). If they repent, their sins “shall be like snow . . . like wool” (v. 18).
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword. (v. 20)
After his customary Salutation (1 Thess. 1:1), Paul expresses his thanks for the Thessalonian believers’ “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 3). He elaborates by reference to God’s choice of them (v. 4), the coming of the gospel to them “not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (v. 5). He notes their exemplary faith in spite of persecution (vv. 6-7). He praises them because “the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you . . . in every place your faith in God has become known” (v. 8). They have “turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming” (vv. 9-10).
One day as Jesus “was teaching the people in the temple,” he was challenged by the chief priests and the scribes with the elders (Lk. 20:1): “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?” A sort of battle of wits follows. Jesus responds to their question with one of his own. “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” (v. 4). Jesus’ question confronted them with a dilemma: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us: for they are convinced that John was a prophet” (vv. 5-6). They decline to give an answer, and so does the Lord. Their question challenged Jesus’ authority for the Cleansing of the Temple (19:45-46), but Jesus question dares them to admit that “through John’s baptism Jesus was marked out as the Messianic Son of God” (G. W. H. Lampe, Peake’s Commentary), which they were not prepared to do.
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.