SATURDAY, May 30

All of today's lessons will seem archaic, arcane, or bizarre to many modern readers. The first tells of the glory of the Lord arriving in Babylon like the sound of the ocean and of the prophet Ezekiel being lifted up by the Spirit, carried hundreds of miles away, and plopped down in the Jerusalem temple. The second speaks of a later temple on the same site, its ritual and ablutions, and the blood of goats. The third tells of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.

Is it really necessary to speak of such things? Maybe not, and surely not in detail. But woe to us  if we shy away from everything unfamiliar and challenging merely because to understand it might tax our minds. Each of today's lessons will lead us into a world far removed from our own, with values and assumptions that question what we take for granted. That's not a bad thing. It's only by entering such a world and learning to be at home in it that we begin to see our own world as others would see it and perhaps as God sees it. It is perhaps our view of things that  is archaic, arcane, or bizarre.

PRAY for the Diocese of Guinea (West Africa)

Ps 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); Ezekiel 43:1-12; Luke 11:14-23

View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.