Reflecting on the Second
Sunday after Pentecost
Year C

Daily Readings for Tuesday
June 21, 2022

Prayer

God our refuge and hope, 

when race, status, or gender divide us, 

when despondency and despair haunt and afflict us, 

when community lies shattered: 

comfort and convict us with the stillness of your presence, 

that we may confess all you have done, 

through Christ to whom we belong 

and in whom we are one. Amen.

 

Psalm 59

Deliver me from my enemies

 

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;

protect me from those who rise up against me.

Deliver me from those who work evil;

from the bloodthirsty save me.

Even now they lie in wait for my life;

the mighty stir up strife against me.

For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord,

for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.

Rouse yourself, come to my help and see!

You, Lord God of hosts, are God of Israel.

Awake to punish all the nations;

spare none of those who treacherously plot evil.    Selah

Each evening they come back,

howling like dogs

and prowling about the city.

There they are, bellowing with their mouths,

with sharp words on their lips—

for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?”

But you laugh at them, O Lord;

you hold all the nations in derision.

O my strength, I will watch for you;

for you, O God, are my fortress.

My God in his steadfast love will meet me;

my God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

Do not kill them, or my people may forget;

make them totter by your power, and bring them down,

Lord, our shield.

For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,

let them be trapped in their pride.

For the cursing and lies that they utter,

consume them in wrath;

consume them until they are no more.

Then it will be known to the ends of the earth

that God rules over Jacob.    Selah

Each evening they come back,

howling like dogs

and prowling about the city.

They roam about for food,

and growl if they do not get their fill.

But I will sing of your might;

I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.

For you have been a fortress for me

and a refuge in the day of my distress.

O my strength, I will sing praises to you,

for you, O God, are my fortress,

the God who shows me steadfast love.

 

2 Kings 9:14-26

Injustice to Naboth avenged

 

Thus Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against King Hazael of Aram; but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him, when he fought against King Hazael of Aram. So Jehu said, “If this is your wish, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, where Joram was lying ill. King Ahaziah of Judah had come down to visit Joram.

 

In Jezreel, the sentinel standing on the tower spied the company of Jehu arriving, and said, “I see a company.” Joram said, “Take a horseman; send him to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’” So the horseman went to meet him; he said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu responded, “What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.” The sentinel reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.” Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu answered, “What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.” Again the sentinel reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. It looks like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi; for he drives like a maniac.”

 

Joram said, “Get ready.” And they got his chariot ready. Then King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu; they met him at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the many whoredoms and sorceries of your mother Jezebel continue?” Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, “Treason, Ahaziah!” Jehu drew his bow with all his strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart; and he sank in his chariot. Jehu said to his aide Bidkar, “Lift him out, and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I rode side by side behind his father Ahab how the Lord uttered this oracle against him: ‘For the blood of Naboth and for the blood of his children that I saw yesterday, says the Lord, I swear I will repay you on this very plot of ground.’ Now therefore lift him out and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”

 

Ephesians 2:11-22

One new humanity in Christ

 

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

 

 

Prayer

Most holy and eternal God, 

you dwell in the heights of heaven, 

yet you walk among those who refuse to see you. 

Hold out your hand to those who rebel against you, 

and free us from the chains that bind us, 

that we may be healed by Christ 

and proclaim his saving deeds to all the world. Amen.

 

Psalm 64

Prayer for protection

 

Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;

preserve my life from the dread enemy.

Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,

from the scheming of evildoers,

who whet their tongues like swords,

who aim bitter words like arrows,

shooting from ambush at the blameless;

they shoot suddenly and without fear.

They hold fast to their evil purpose;

they talk of laying snares secretly,

thinking, “Who can see us?

Who can search out our crimes?

We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.”

For the human heart and mind are deep.

But God will shoot his arrow at them;

they will be wounded suddenly.

Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin;

all who see them will shake with horror.

Then everyone will fear;

they will tell what God has brought about,

and ponder what he has done.

Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord

and take refuge in him.

Let all the upright in heart glory.

 

Job 19:1-22

Job questions God’s ways

 

Then Job answered:

 

“How long will you torment me,

and break me in pieces with words?

These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;

are you not ashamed to wrong me?

And even if it is true that I have erred,

my error remains with me.

If indeed you magnify yourselves against me,

and make my humiliation an argument against me,

know then that God has put me in the wrong,

and closed his net around me.

Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;

I call aloud, but there is no justice.

He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

He has stripped my glory from me,

and taken the crown from my head.

He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,

he has uprooted my hope like a tree.

He has kindled his wrath against me,

and counts me as his adversary.

His troops come on together;

they have thrown up siegeworks against me,

and encamp around my tent.

“He has put my family far from me,

and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

My relatives and my close friends have failed me;

the guests in my house have forgotten me;

my serving girls count me as a stranger;

I have become an alien in their eyes.

I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;

I must myself plead with him.

My breath is repulsive to my wife;

I am loathsome to my own family.

Even young children despise me;

when I rise, they talk against me.

All my intimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has touched me!

Why do you, like God, pursue me,

never satisfied with my flesh?”

 

Ephesians 2:11-22

One new humanity in Christ

 

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

 

 

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Prayer reprinted from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers, © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts. Reproduced by permission.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress. Reproduced by permission. No further reproduction allowed without the written permission of Augsburg Fortress.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


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