Monuments to Ourselves--Aug. 20, 2019

O God, we raise monuments to ourselves,

concerned we will not be remembered;

we bind ourselves into hateful causes

and challenge whatever authority

threatens our quest for power—

even in the name of religion.

Forgive our foolish ways.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 123; 146; 30; 86

2 Sam. 18:9-18

Acts 23:12-24

Mark 11:27-12:12

Selected Verses

Ps. 30:6

As for me, I said in my prosperity,
          “I shall never be moved.” 

2 Sam. 18:18

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a pillar that is in the King’s Valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance”; he called the pillar by his own name.  It is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.

Acts 23:12

In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. 

Mark 11:27-28

Again [Jesus and his disciples] came to Jerusalem.  As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, “By what authority are you doing these things?  Who gave you this authority to do them?”