Joshua 5: 9, 10-12; Psalm 26(27); 2 Cor 5: 17-21; Luke 15:1-3,11-32
In the book of Joshua Israel’s conquest of Canaan, the promised land, starts with the miraculous crossing of the Jordan. The river waters were held back until all the people had crossed on dry ground. Then, before celebrating the Passover, all the men who had been born during the Exodus were circumcised to mark them now as Israelites, so removing the “shame of Egypt”. The place where they crossed was named Gilgal, a pun on the word meaning “remove”.
The psalm offers grateful praise to God for rescuing us from danger, and encourages fear of the Lord, keeping our tongues from evil.
Paul insists to the Corinthians that as new creations in Christ they must forget their old ways of seeing the world. We have been given work to do, that of showing visibly in our lives that God has reconciled us to himself, just as Christ did by dying on the Cross.
Although Luke’s unique parable in today’s gospel is usually called “The Prodigal Son”, the behaviour of the other two people in the story is important. The father rushes out to meet his returning son – a marvellous image of God the Father. But are we sometimes tempted to imitate the other son’s reactions to his father’s reconciliation with “this son of yours”?
Psalm Response: Taste and see that the Lord is good.
(Joshua 5: 9, 10-12; Psalm 26(27); 2 Cor 5: 17-21; Luke 15:1-3,11-32)