BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Nov. 6, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 75, 76 [Presbyterian: 104:1-35]
Evening Psalm(s) PM Psalm 23, 27 [Presbyterian: 138:1-8]
Old Testament: Ecclus. 51:1-12 [Zephaniah 3:14-20]
Epistle: Rev. 18:1-14
Gospel Luke 14:1-11
Presbyterian Readings for the current day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
In the final chapter, Ben Sira begins with a prayer. "I give you thanks, O Lord and king,/and praise you, O God my Savior./I give thanks to your name,/for you have been my protector and helper/and have delivered me from destruction/and from the trap laid by a slanderous tongue,/from lips that fabricate lies" (Ecclus. 51:1-2). The prayer continues with various troubles from which he has been delivered. "I will praise your name continually,/and will sing hymns of thanksgiving" (v. 11)
Revelation, chapter eighteen, has been called a "dirge over the fallen city (Rome), with echoes from the taunt songs in Is. chs. 23-24; ch. 47; Jer., chs. 50-51; Ezek. chs. 26-27" (Bruce M. Metzger, NOAB). "Fallen, fallen is Babylon [i.e. Rome] the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons" (Rev. 18:2). "Since in her heart she says,/'I arule as a queen;/I am no widow,/and I will never see grief,'/therefore her plagues will come in a single day–pestilence and mourning and famine–and she will be burned with fire;/for mighty is the Lord God who judges her" (vv. 7-8).
Luke tells how Jesus healed the man with dropsy (Lk. 14:1-6), and goes on to talk about humility and hospitality (vv. 7-11). "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor" (v. 8) "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who hunmble themselves will be exalted" (v. 11). Jesus advises taking the long-term view (cf. v. 14). In the nature of the case, honor seized by oneself is not true honor, which has to be given by others.
Ronald D. Worden