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dailybiblelessons · 6 years

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Tuesday: Reflection on the Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Revised Common Lectionary Proper 29 Roman Catholic Proper 34

Complementary Hebrew Scripture: Esther 8:3-17

Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet, weeping and pleading with him to avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. The king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king. She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have won his favor, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I have his approval, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote giving orders to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming on my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to the Jew Mordecai, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he plotted to lay hands on the Jews. You may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked.”

The king's secretaries were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language. He wrote letters in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed them with the king's ring, and sent them by mounted couriers riding on fast steeds bred from the royal herd. By these letters the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, with their children and women, and to plunder their goods on a single day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. A copy of the writ was to be issued as a decree in every province and published to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take revenge on their enemies. So the couriers, mounted on their swift royal steeds, hurried out, urged by the king's command. The decree was issued in the citadel of Susa.

Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king, wearing royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a mantle of fine linen and purple, while the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor. In every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a festival and a holiday. Furthermore, many of the peoples of the country professed to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

Semi-continuous Hebrew Scripture: Zechariah 11:4-17

Thus said the Lord my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.

Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, “Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich”; and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. I will cause them, every one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbor, and each into the hand of the king; and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their hand.

So, on behalf of the sheep merchants, I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named Favor, the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep. In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!” I took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. I then said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it into the treasury”—this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury in the house of the Lord. Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.

Then the Lord said to me: Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

Oh, my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be completely withered, his right eye utterly blinded!

Complementary Psalm 7

<A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjaminite.> O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me, or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.

O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause, then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah

Rise up, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high. The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.

O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God. God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.

If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow; he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies. They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made. Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

Semi-continuous Psalm 28

<Of David.> To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the Pit. Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.

Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who are workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors, while mischief is in their hearts. Repay them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds; repay them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, or the work of his hands, he will break them down and build them up no more.

Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings. The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them forever.

New Testament Lesson: Revelation 19:1-9

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power to our God, for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great whore who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Once more they said,

“Hallelujah! The smoke goes up from her forever and ever.”

And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying,

“Amen. Hallelujah!”

And from the throne came a voice saying,

“Praise our God, all you his servants, and all who fear him, small and great.”

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”

Year A Ordinary 34, RCL Proper 29, Catholic Proper 34 Tuesday

Bible verses from The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All right reserved. Selections from Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright 1985 by the Consultation on Common Texts. Image Credit: The Marriage Supper of the Lamb, detail from an altar in the Dominican convent of Stone, Staffordshire, England, image by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P., via Flickr. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution, No Derivatives, No Commercial Use license.

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irescot · 7 years

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Edinburgh - Thursday

Today's title is a bit of a misnomer because we spent most of our time either in Glasgow or getting there or getting back. If you remember, we were meeting with Fr. Eamon.

Carol had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 8:45 because the taxi dispatcher wanted to make sure she took into account rush hour. When we got there we had to print out our tickets, and had a bit of a problem until Carol realized that she hadn't paid for the tickets, Sharon had provided her credit card. Once that was sorted, everything went very smoothly and the machine printed out the tickets.

We had bought return (we say round-trip) tickets and also "any time" tickets, meaning we could take any train to get there and any train to return. We did that because we were not sure what time we would be finished with our visit with Fr. Eamon. But we had agreed to take the 10:15 train from Waverley Station to Glasgow Queen's Street Station. Glasgow also has a Central Station.

An interesting thing is that they didn't post the platform until 7 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. Most of the platforms are in one area, but there are several platforms that require a bit of walking; I don't know what those people would do.

The station is named after one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, and throughout the station they have posted quotes from Scott's work.

We noticed a pigeon boldly walking about, not afraid of people. Is someone came close, it just calmly moved away. When I took his picture, he seemed to stop and pose.

Carol and I had to use the facilities, and much to our surprise, we had to have 30p in exact change. A woman saw us looking at our change and took pity on me and gave me the extra 10p I needed. I was so flabbergasted at having to pay for the loo, that I didn't even thank the woman, nor did I ask her if she had another 10p for Carol. Carol graciously said she'd would use the train's facilities. By the time I was on my way out, I had recovered use of my meager faculties and so I went to a Burger King and asked for change; I must have looked so pitiful that the manager, after telling me that he wasn't supposed to do this, did give me change. I was then able to give the needed change to Carol. Phew!

Finally the platform was announced and off we went to go through the turnstiles. What you do is insert your ticket in a slot in the front of the machine; the machine reads it and authenticates it, and then spits it back out the top. You grab it and the little gates open up and let you pass. I had no problem getting through, but Carol and Sharon had to have help, we don't know why.

The train arrived and we got in, found a seat for four and we were off. The ride takes about 50 minutes, and sure enough, we got there in just that time. The way to exit from the platform to the main part of the station is the same way we entered. That is, you put your ticket into the front slot, but this time it keeps it and you can go through. It's an interesting system.

Out on the main foyer we stood around for a little while; it was where we had agreed to meet with Fr. Eamon and after a couple of minutes there he was. Carol and I didn't know him, but Sharon did so she spotted him right away. Introductions were made all around, and we left the station and went around the corner, where he queued up to get on a Glasgow Hop-On Hop-Off bus. We were doing the full circuit for a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes. So the four us got on the second bus because it had live commentary rather than just an audio guide, and from experience in Edinburgh, we felt the live commentary was much more interesting and timely.

The buses leave from and return to George Square, a very lovely plaza. Hanging from poles around the square were advertisings for The World Badminton Championship, taking place from August 21-27. Wonder who will win.

The tour guide was a lively, artsy guy who obviously loved to sing as we were serenaded several times throghout the tour, and it was clear he had a lot of knowledge about the various sites, and also about the night life and entertainment available in the city. He was also not afraid to give his opinion about various issues.

I was seated by the left windows of the bus, so there were several locations I couldn't take pictures of because they were on the right side, and the bus itself got in the way of the picture. But I did manage to capture most locations. Okay, here we go.

Saint Mungo lived from 528 to 614 and he is the patron saint and founder of Glasgow. There are a lot of murals in Glasgow and Sam Bates (called Smug) is one of the best know ones. He painted a portrait of Saint Mungo as a contemporary person that is very beautiful.

Glasgow Cathedral is the oldest building in Glasgow, having been built in 1197, which makes it a medieval structure.

There is a Royal Doulton fountain at the People's Palace in Glasgow Green that has a life size sculpture of Queen Victoria, but she was so petite (in her youth) that it hardly seems to be life size. It was unveiled in 1888 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

The People's Palace contains historical artifacts and various media to tell the story of Glasgow and its people from 1750 to the end of the 20th C.

There is an obelisk that is a tribute to Lord Nelson.

Stan Laurel started a career at age 16 doing a performance at the Britannia Panopticon Theatre and everything he did went wrong, but he had the audience rolling on the aisles, so he decided to do it intentionally, and went to America where he met a partner to do it with.

We passed The Scotia, the oldest bar in Scotland, and reputed to be haunted by a multitude of ghosts, some of which appear to applaud some performers.

The Style Mile is the high-end shopping area in Glasgow, with all the exclusive (read expensive) stores being represented.

We passed a statue of the Duke of Wellington in front of GAMO, the Gallery of Modern Art. If you look closely you'll see that both the Duke and the horse he rode in on both have a traffic cone on their heads. Apparently some university types did this and the council took them off, then the uni guys did it again, and the council...etc. After a while the council saw the error of its ways and let it stand.

This was not on the tour but we passed a building I really loved, the Union Stree Co-op, so here it is.

The tour guide told us that while Gaelic is spelled the same by the Irish and the Scots, the Irish pronounce it GAY-lic, whereas the Scots pronounce it GAL-ic. The Irish also refer to Gaelic as just Irish, whereas the Scots do not call it Scottish.

The river Clyde runs through Glasgow; it's a tidal estuary, which means that the water reverses direction with the tide. There is an 11 ft difference between the level at high and low tides. There used to be 50 steam ferries that plied the Clyde (I'm a poet and didn't know it). There used to be no bridges because there were 17 shipbuilders on the Clyde, who employed around 17,000 people, and the ships that were built could not have been sailed to their destination if there were bridges to impede passage. Now there is only one shipbuilder left.

Now there is one very modern bridge over the Clyde (I believe there may be other bridges), that is officially called the Clyde Arc, but is called by locals by the name "squinty bridge," referring apparently to the fact that the bridge is at an angle.

The Glasgow Tower is a free-standing tower on the south bank of the River Clyde, and it holds a Guinness World Record for the tallest tower in the world which can rotate 360 degrees. It has been closed for more than 80% of its life. It reopened in 2014. It is part of the Glasgow Science Center.

A quote from our guide, Peter: "the only difference between summer and winter in Glasgow is the temperature of the rain."

The Hydro is a concert venue. The Armadillo (formerly called the Clyde Auditorium) is also a concert venue and vaguely looks like the Sydney Opera House. There's a third one called the SEC Centre.

Not on the tour was a multicolored building that looked interesting. However, they were just renovating the building, but I still liked the look.

Also on the Clyde was the Glen Lee, the last sailing ship built in the Clyde shipyards, in 1895. Glasgow rescued it from its being used as a training ship by Spain's navy, and refurbished it and brought it to this location as an attraction that showed what was being done in the old Clyde shipyards.

There is a spot where to rivers meet, it's easy to see in my photos because I have a pole that bisects the picture. They are the Clyde and the Kelvin.

Again, not on the tour, I saw the façade of a building that just looked so interesting. I had to shoot it through the right window, so I only got a piece of it.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was made to look like the church of Santiago de Compostela, the end of the old Pilgrimage Trail in Spain. It's absolutely beautiful, like so many of the buildings on this tour, and one of the more surprising things about Glasgow.

We passed a bridge over a stream that had nice sculptures on each end and I couldn't resist.

Another amazing building the University of Glasgow that looks gorgeous from all sides.

The Kelvingrove Museum again, and a strange green mascot or something. Followed by another view of Glasgow Uni.

Not on the tour a lovely clock tower in the middle of nothing.

The word Sauchy (pronounced "sucky") is in this bar's name and is also part of the street name.

The Royal Conservatory of Scotland. A poster for A Streetcar Named Desire. Pretty flowers.

Pictures of Fr. Eamon and us. Oh, I forgot to mention that Fr. Eamon took us all out to lunch after the tour bus, to this place, which had great food. And he insisted on treating us, even though we had wanted to pay for it. He'll get copies of these pictures.

And finally, back to St George Square, the Glasgow Train Station, and the mural of Saint Munro.

That's it. I'm sorry you can't see the pictures yet, but I promise I'm working on them.

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