John Shearman's Lectionary

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 23 Ordinary 28
October 11, 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: Monday, October 12 is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Most Canadian churches celebrate the festival on this Sunday. The RCL lessons for Thanksgiving are posted separately under the title of “Canadian Thanksgiving.”

JOB 23:1-9, 16-17. This is an excerpt from a powerful lament in which Job complains that God has ignored his truly righteous behaviour and thwarted his every attempt to obtain any kind of encounter with God. The whole poem extends to 24:25 and ends, not with a vow as in the traditional style of a lament, but in a challenge to Job’s accusers.

PSALM 22:1-15. This psalm expresses intensely the longing for deliverance from suffering. It also became a model for the crucifixion story in Christian tradition. Many of the details of that narrative were taken directly from this psalm – e.g. vss. 1, 7 and 18.

AMOS 5:6-7, 10-15. (Alternate) Behind this passage from one of the earliest of the great prophets stands the tradition that there will come a day when God will judge Israel, especially for its idolatry of false gods and injustice to the oppressed of the land.

PSALM 90:12-17. (Alternate) This psalm is still used to celebrate the transitory nature of nature of human life and the eternal security we have in God. It may originally have existed in two different parts, verses 1-12 and 13-17. This excerpt emphasizes our human need to maintain a faithful relationship with God throughout our lives.

HEBREWS 4:12-16. This brief excerpt places utmost importance on our confession as believers and followers of Jesus Christ. It notes in particular the supremacy of Christ as our high priest who experienced all the temptations that we face, but did not sin. Because of this we may approach life and life beyond death in God’s eternal presence with boldness knowing that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has made faithful living possible.

MARK 10:17-31. This passage may be difficult for us to hear in our consumer age where wealth and possessions matter so much. The questioner who accosted Jesus as he set out on a journey had led an exemplary moral life and had an earnest desire for a more meaningful spiritual life. But he lacked one thing: the inability to separate himself from his great wealth. Jesus used the opportunity to explain to his disciples why wealth was such a stumbling block and promised that those who were faithful would be rewarded for whatever sacrifice they made.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.This is an excerpt from a powerful lament in which Job complains that God has ignored his truly righteous behaviour and thwarted his every attempt to obtain any kind of encounter with God. The whole poem extends to 24:25 and ends, not with a vow as in the traditional style of a lament, but in a challenge to Job’s accusers.

JOB 23:1-9, 16-17.

Throughout the passage, Job appears to be speaking to his friends, but also with full awareness that God is also hearing his complaint. It is as if he were addressing God even as he argues with his friends. He reaches the point of despairing that his sufferings have any meaning at all and that God is totally unconcerned and apathetic.

Job is very sincere in his outburst, expressing a serious desire to learn from God the reason for his suffering. He believes that God would not only hear him out, but would acquit him for his righteous behaviour. But God has hidden from him and although he fears God, he earnestly wants his suffering to end, even if it ends in death.

Vss. 3-7 present one of the clearest statements of our human search for God in the whole of the Bible. It envisions God as an imperial potentate before whom a petitioner may come seeking redress for some harm or injustice done to him. Job claims to terrified before God, yet there is still an arrogance in his demeanor, so convinced is he of his own righteousness. How human he is! By vs. 16-17, he has given way to doubt. He is no longer sure that an encounter with the almighty judge will be enough to establish his rights and win his acquittal. The inscrutable mystery of the divine is almost more terrifying than his suffering.

The vision of God in this passage, as in most of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, is that of traditional theism. God is perceived as a personal being external to the universe in which we and all generations before us have ever lived. We are all mortal and life itself ends in death. Our traditional Christian theistic faith declares that life eternal, life beyond death, is the gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ, Incarnate Son of God. In a newly published book, John Shelby Spong, Eternal Life: A New Vision – Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell, challenges this traditional way of dealing with death through faith in an external, invasive God.
Such a concept of deity and eternal life has become obsolete since the time of Galileo, Newton and Darwin.

This volume is a significant contribution to progressive theological thought as well as a meaningful antidote to the anxiety with which we all approach our own mortality. Spong does not deny eternal life; he rejoices in its reality and hopes to experience it himself as he approaches his own death. He is in his eightieth year. He also finds a new, if unorthodox, way for those who struggle with the concept to comes to terms with our doubts. He bases his long searched for faith on theological concepts of the nature of God and of human nature rooted in self-consciousness and in a mystical approach to John’s Gospel and the Letter to the Ephesians.

PSALM 22:1-15. This psalm expresses an intense longing for deliverance from suffering. It also became a model for the crucifixion story in Christian tradition and in that context is most commonly used as the psalm for Good Friday. Many of the details of the crucifixion narrative were taken directly from this psalm – e.g. vss. 1, 7 and 18.

On the other hand, we must accept the fact that the original author had no fore-knowledge of that event. It is a supreme example of an individual lament, although some scholars believe that this reading is only part of two psalms which may have been separate at one time. For example, vss. 1-21 and 22-31 appear to have quite different motifs – agony and thanksgiving.

It should be noted that following the initial cry of dereliction in this reading (vss. 1-2) the psalmist expresses a sincere trust (vss. 3-5) based on the ancient tradition of Israel’s faith relationship with Yahweh. He then turns to declare the cause of his misery: calumny and mocking by people who know him.

Once again he returns to trustfully plead his faithfulness (vss. 9-11), but sees around him only the persistent verbal assaults of his enemies (12-13) described metaphorically as wild bulls and ravenous lions. In the end he appears to accept his fate, although vividly expressed in strong metaphors drawn from painful experiences of someone who seems to have suffered from dehydration and heat prostration in a desert environment (vss. 14-15).

AMOS 5:6-7, 10-15. (Alternate) Behind this passage from one of the earliest of the great prophets stands the tradition that there will come a day when God will judge Israel, especially for its idolatry of false gods and injustice to the oppressed of the land.

This briefest of excerpts from Amos presents the core of his prophetic message. There will come a day of judgment when Israel will have to answer for the evils and injustices that have become so commonplace in the land.

It is important to understand the historical background of Amos’ harsh condemnations. With Assyria suffering a period of internal weakness and political upheaval during the late 8th century BCE, the small states of the Palestinian coastal region, and especially Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had been able to extend its borders and prosper considerably by controlling the trade routes passing through its territory between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. A rich merchant class developed in Israel with all the economic benefits and consumer extravagances that entailed.

The common people like Amos, the shepherd and fruit grower, did not share in this new wealth. The shrines of Bethel and Gilgal were crowded with wealthy worshipers who interpreted their prosperity as a sign of God’s favour. Because the priests and prophets at the sanctuaries also benefited from the lavish offerings they had no inclination to dampen the confident hypocrisy of their benefactors.

Amos represented the lower classes, particularly the farmers and labourers who had no share in the prosperity of the times. Not far away, however, a new Assyrian emperor, Tiglath-Pileser, had gained power and was moving his armies resolutely westward to subjugate the Syrian and Palestinian kingdoms once again. We cannot be sure that Amos was aware of this new threat. He certainly recognized that the blatant corruption and faithlessness of the Israelites could not last. The day of judgment, “the fearful Day of the Lord,” was at hand. His pleas that the Israelites return to their traditional life based on faith and justice went unheard.

Has he yet been heard by any nation or empire blessed with great wealth and power?

PSALM 90:12-17. (Alternate) This psalm is still used to celebrate the transitory nature of nature of human life and the eternal security we have in God. It may originally have existed in two different parts, vss. 1-12 and 13-17. This excerpt emphasizes our human need to maintain a faithful relationship with God throughout our lives. The most natural break would seem to come at the end of vs. 12, thus making this reading an excerpt from both parts. There seems to be no apparent reason for the RCL to truncate the whole psalm in this manner.

Its title in the Hebrew scriptures, “A prayer of Moses, the man of God,” gave it a supreme distinction rather than definitive authorship. Hence it was placed at the beginning of the fourth collection of the Psalter. Of all the psalms this one may have greater familiarity for most church people because of its frequent use in the service of Christian burial.

The theme of the poem is the eternity of God in contrast to the transitory nature of human life. This presentation of the theme appears “to skirt the very edge of pessimism, and might well lead the poet down into the abyss where men say, ‘All is vanity’…. But the native Hebrew is saved from the final descent by a deep understanding and a fierce moral earnestness…. The Psalmist … may have had his doubts at times, but in the light of his initial certainty, which he never lets go, all doubts are resolved. The Everlasting Nay is finally overcome by the Everlasting Yes.” (John Paterson. The Praises of Israel. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950. 126-7.)

One is reminded of similar beautiful passages of the unnamed prophet of the Babylonian exile (cf. Isa. 40; 55) which also expressed the same prophetic message. Can the similarity of Isa. 40:6-8 and Ps. 90:5-6 be accidental? Beginning with the affirmation of the permanence of God in vss. 1-2, the psalmist delved deeply into the fragile and ephemeral quality of human life. In vs. 12 he drew the natural conclusion that wisdom brings to every reflective person of faith. The shortness of life compels one to make wise use of our brief span of years. In the latter part of the poem, the psalmist returns to the original theme and acknowledges how dependent we are on the compassion and steadfast love of God (vss. 13-15).

Many senior women of The United Church of Canada may recall that the Women’s Association used vss. 16-17 as their motto in the years prior to 1960 when amalgamation with the Women’s Missionary Society took place to form the United Church Women. That part of the denomination has since evolved into a more amorphous Women of The United Church.

HEBREWS 4:12-16. This brief excerpt places utmost importance on our confession as believers and followers of Jesus Christ set forth in the common teaching of the New Testament. It does so in terms that would have been familiar to Jewish Christians of the latter part of the 1st century CE. In particular it describes the supremacy of Christ as our high priest who experienced all the temptations that we face, but did not sin. Because of this we may approach life and life beyond death in God’s eternal presence with boldness knowing that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has made faithful living possible.

The latter part of the reading compares the suffering and death of Jesus to the ritual performed by the Jewish high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It proclaims that Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplished once and for all as the final, necessary atonement for our sin. The emphasis is not placed on the ritual but on the sinless nature of the one performing it.

At first reading there may seem to be no direct connection between vss. 12-13 and 14-16, especially as printed separate paragraphs in the NSRV and discussed in numerous commentaries. On closer examination, however, the initial verses refer to the proclamation of the gospel of salvation through faith in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The use of the phrase “the word of God” as “living and active” recalls John 1:1-18 which introduced the central theme of the Gospel as it was preached toward the latter years of the 1st century. The idea of the word of God as a sword also has parallels, not only in Ephesians 6:17, but in the works of Philo, the Alexandrian Jewish contemporary of Jesus, who used an almost identical metaphor. In the next section beginning at 4:14, the writer goes on to elaborate his main theme of the work of Jesus Christ as the one and only Saviour. We must thus see this as a transitional passage linking two quite distinct sections of the Letter to the Hebrews.

MARK 10:17-31. This passage may be difficult for us to hear in our consumer age where wealth and possessions matter so much. The questioner who accosted Jesus as he set out on a journey had led an exemplary moral life and had an earnest desire for a more meaningful spiritual life. But he lacked one thing: the inability to separate himself from his great wealth. Jesus used the opportunity to explain to his disciples why wealth was such a stumbling block and promised that those who were faithful would be rewarded for whatever sacrifice they made.

The reading falls naturally into several small, equally preachable segments, but probably not all at once. First is the way the man addressed Jesus and the response Jesus gave him. The term “Good Teacher” may have been no more than a polite exaggeration, a kind of solicitude that bespoke more of the man’s anxiety than his sincerity. To bring him back to reality, Jesus challenged this overreaching by making a self-effacing statement about himself. He did not claim moral perfection, only the humility of being human. Only God is perfect.

Then Jesus gave a thumbnail sketch of the latter half of the Decalogue, those commandments which deal with human relationships. After the man had protested his moral excellence in keeping all those commandments, Jesus struck home with his final challenge: the man’s covetousness. His wealth was so much a part of his self-esteem that he could not face the prospect of parting with it.

The final segment of the passage brought the disciples into the picture. An almost offhand remark that riches can be an impediment to spirituality, startled them to the point of disbelief. Which one among them did not have a longing for greater financial security? That surely must have been a cause for anxiety in their early discipleship which had taken them from their homes and businesses to follow Jesus. As usual Peter spoke for all of them, giving voice to their sacrificial choice. Jesus dealt with their fears by promising that their reward was assured – wide acceptance in the family of God and beyond death eternal life.

This passage must have been of great importance to the Roman community to which Mark’s Gospel was addressed. Those from the upper class who had heard and responded to the Gospel had much to lose – prestige, power, wealth. Those from the underclass had nothing to lose but their lives if their masters turned against them. If the former had been disturbed by the story of Jesus and the rich man, the latter had been reassured that they were now accepted as ordinary members of the new community of faith.

Christians still have difficulty dealing with their community as a truly classless fellowship. Various denominations, and even congregations, have been formed to isolate one group from another. In many urban settings, the churches of one group or another can be easily distinguished by their architecture and the size of their staff. There is really only one fellowship in the church – the koinonia of the Spirit in which there is only one Lord – Jesus Christ himself.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Canadian Thanksgiving Sunday
October 11, 2009

PLEASE NOTE: Monday, October 12 is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Most Canadian churches celebrate the festival on this Sunday. Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26, during the week between The Reign of Christ and Advent 1. The RCL lessons for Thanksgiving that are presented here.

JOEL 2:21-27. In every culture the harvest season is a time of thanksgiving. Such celebrations occurred in ancient Israel as this excerpt from one of their minor prophets shows. The images of plenty pour out on the page, line after line, like the fruits of harvest pouring from a cornucopia. What is more, this abundant harvest came after years of privation. The significant element of this celebration comes to the fore in the phrase “rejoice in the Lord your God.” Providential grace, not human effort alone, yields the abundant harvest.

PSALM 126. This was another of the songs that might have been sung by pilgrims making their way up to the temple in Jerusalem. It celebrated Israel’s deliverance from the Babylonian captivity. The concluding prayer asked for God’s help in renewing the nation as the dry watercourses of the Negev desert and the reaping of an abundant harvest restored prosperity.

1 TIMOTHY 2:1-7. The two Letters to Timothy probably date from about 120-140 AD. A church leader, perhaps a bishop using Paul’s name, wrote to guide a younger pastor (or several pastors) in his (their) ministry. Among other counsel, he warned about a serious heresy. Here he gave instructions about how and for whom to pray. Most surprising is the inclusion of the king (i.e. the Roman emperor) and government officials. The philosophy behind the Canadian Constitution reflects this very contemporary prayer in the words, “peace, order and good government.”

MATTHEW 6:25-33. This well-known passage from the Sermon on the Mount declared that the secret to God’s ample provision for human need are trust and obedience to God’s righteous rule. Our response to God’s plentiful grace, not anxious manipulation of economic and financial systems, will bring about the universal prosperity God wants all of us to enjoy.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

JOEL 2:21-27. In every culture the harvest season is a time of thanksgiving. Such celebrations occurred in ancient Israel as this excerpt from one of their minor prophets shows. The images of plenty pour out on the page, line after line, like the fruits of harvest pouring from a cornucopia. What is more, this abundant harvest came after years of privation.

The passage does not stand alone, however, but is part of a carefully constructed prophecy balancing an oracle of doom with this celebratory promise of restoration and providence. Nor does the chapter stand in isolation from what goes before it in chapter 1. Together these three parts form a dramatic whole which can be quickly summarized in narrative form as follows.

A plague of locusts and a drought has devastated the land. Despite performing all the appropriate rituals of fasting and repentance, nothing could stop the total destruction of the nation. To the prophet this could only mean that the Day of the Lord was near (1:15). Dire warnings (2:1-11) and pleas on behalf of Yahweh for a return to faithfulness end in the declaration of a fast and further rituals of repentance. Finally, the prophet is able to speak for Yahweh promising an end to the plague of locusts, the resurgence of growing things and the return of prosperity. All of this has but one intent: to show that Yahweh is in the midst of Israel and Yahweh’s people will never again be put to shame.

We are almost totally ignorant about who Joel was and when he prophesied. The emphasis on temple rituals and frequent reference to the priesthood suggest that he can best be placed in the post-exilic period circa 400 BCE. The events which inspired his prophesies, however, are quite clearly defined in the text. Christian use of Joel’s oracles, however, are almost exclusively limited to 2:28 which formed the text for Peter’s sermon on Pentecost in Acts 2. That isolated quotation gives a clue to the real significance of Joel. Here Jewish apocalypticism of the intertestamental period began to take shape.

The natural catastrophe of locusts and drought prefigured a theological interpretation that cast these events on a cosmic scale. Yahweh’s purpose in covenanting with Israel held promise of both privation and privilege depending on how Yahweh’s people responded. Yet this would not necessarily take place within a historical context. Yahweh’s vision of a renewed creation could only reach fulfillment in the spiritual realm and be implemented in the natural world through the inspiration of the Spirit.

It was this element of redemptive apocalypticism which the Apostolic Church embraced as its mandate. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead marked the beginning of this new age of universal peace and plenty.

The significant aspect of this passage comes in vs. 23 “rejoice in the Lord your God.” Providential grace, not human effort alone, yields the abundant harvest which we celebrate at Thanksgiving. But widespread hunger and homelessness – in this country and to a greater degree in other parts of the world – surely point to the stark reality that the God’s vision of a time of peace and plenty for all people, not for one nation alone, is still far from fulfilled.

PSALM 126. This was another of the songs that might have been sung by pilgrims making their way up to the temple in Jerusalem. It celebrated Israel’s deliverance from the Babylonian captivity. The concluding prayer asked for God’s help in renewing the nation as the dry watercourses of the Negev desert and the reaping of an abundant harvest restored prosperity.

The very first words of the psalm reveal the setting. An alternate reading actual clarifies this historical reference: “When the Lord brought back those who returned to Zion ….” This confidence in what Yahweh has done carries through vv. 1-3 with increasing expectation. In all probability the psalmist was recalling the hope and promise of the period immediately following the return of the Babylonians captives and the rebuilding of the temple in 538-520 BCE. But those hopes were now a fading memory as barren as the dry wadis of the Negeb before the autumnal rains.

Like every farmer at seeding time, hope for harvest rests in the often variable elements of rain and sunshine. With these in sufficient supply, a joyful harvest comes forth. Without these disaster occurs. Remembering what has happened in the past and what could happen now, the psalmist’s hopes are not without uncertainty. So as the prayer of vv. 4-6 points out, this is really a lament seeking consolation containing a new golden age as promised the post-exilic prophecies of Deutero-Isaiah 55:12-13, Zechariah 8:1-23 and Haggai 2:1-25. Psalm 85 also voices similar hopes that have been in vain.

Perhaps with too much subtlety, some scholars have suggested that this psalm had a liturgical purpose as part as preparation for the New Year festival with promise of the reviving of life and hope.

1 TIMOTHY 2:1-7. Although still subject to scholarly debate, the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus) probably date from about 120-140 CE. An anonymous church leader, using Paul’s name, wrote these episcopal letters to guide less experienced pastors in their ministry. It must be said, however, that other scholarly opinions propose different theories as to their date and origin. For example, William Barclay believed that the author had before him some clippings from personal communications from Paul around which he composed an amplified series of letters more suited to the church of his times. His special concern was to protect the church from a dangerous heresy, probably Gnosticism.

In this passage, we read the senior pastor’s instructions about how and for whom to pray. Most surprising is the inclusion of the king (i.e. the Roman emperor) and government officials “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” The philosophy behind the Canadian Constitution reflects this very contemporary prayer in its intent: to create a state where “peace, order and good government” exist.

The significant aspect of this call to prayer is that it exists at all. It represents an attitude toward the Roman imperial government which may have existed during a relatively peaceful time in early church history. Indeed, it conveys such a degree of respect as to include the government in God’s will and extends the promise of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ to those who rule. Could this have been Paul himself speaking? After all, according to Acts 25:11, he claimed his right of Roman citizenship to appeal to the emperor; and in Romans 13:1-7 counseled the Christians in Rome to be subject to governing authorities, to obey the laws of the state and to pay their taxes.

On the other hand, the theme of the passage in not civil governance, but the universality of the Christian faith. Having come into serious conflict with the imperial cult, Christians would not pray to the emperor, but by praying for the emperor. By doing so they removed any danger of being charged with disloyalty while at the same time placing all imperial authority under the sovereignty of God. This type of prayer made the civil government the subject of salvation and continued until the emperor became Christian.

This summons to prayer also reflects a view very distinct from that of the true Pauline letters. For Paul, there was a permanent tension between the political and spiritual realms. This tension would cease only when Christ returned to establish his reign. Paul expected that to occur in the very near future. Expectation of the Second Coming having faded, the author of the Pastorals was concerned with how Christians were to live in the world in practical ways that helped them to be good Roman citizens. Thus even the Roman government was of concern to God. Nonetheless, salvation did not depend on the political system or the favour of human authorities. It depended on the gospel of Jesus Christ to which the author of the letter and the Christian church as a whole gave witness as the truth given by God.

That this letter is not from Paul but from a much later apostolic representative is clearly shown in vs. 7. Having worked intimately with Paul for several years, Timothy would not have needed to be reassured of Paul’s apostleship or his mandate to preach to and teach Gentiles. Furthermore, the triad of preacher, apostle, teacher appears only in this passage and in 2 Timothy 1:11. Paul never designated his office in this manner. Rather, we see here the developing church order of the 2nd century as one of its key leaders sought to establish a pastoral institution which would both carry out the apostolic mission and protect its representatives from the threats of civic authorities.

It is frequently said that the Constaninian Age of the church has now ended. Church and state no longer engage one another for mutual benefit. The church today lives in a similar space to that reflected in this letter. As William Hazlitt (1778-1830) said in a very different context, we have to live “in the world, as in it, not of it.” The celebration of the Thanksgiving, no longer a religious festival, but a holiday mandated by the civil authorities, is a case in point. Our worship will make it more than the last long weekend of the season.

MATTHEW 6:25-33. This well-known passage from the Sermon on the Mount declared the secret to God’s ample provision for human need: trust and obedience to God’s righteous rule. Our grateful response to God’s plentiful grace, not anxious manipulation of economic and financial systems, will bring about the universal prosperity God wants all of us to enjoy.

Would that these values could be translated into action by the economic and political decision makers of the global institutions we are in the process of creating. We tend to forget how much change has occurred in the past few decades. One recent estimate held that just a century ago the vast majority of the world’s population had no more annual income than the poorest people of the world today. Was it Gandhi who said, “If everyone cares enough and everyone shares enough, there will always be enough”?

In 1971, just prior to the first oil crisis and as the computer revolution was just beginning , the noted economist, Robert Heilbronner (1919-2005), predicted that no one would ever again be as rich as North Americans had become and the global economy would never be as fully developed as it was at that time. How wrong he was! Yet the boom and bust of the first decade of the 21st century causes even the most optimistic to question what lies ahead.

In1995, Heilbronner summarized 188 reports of economic development he had received from international observers on three continents in these prophetic words: “Their common insight is that the global free-market paradigm is neither viable ecologically in the long term, nor adequate, in the short term, to meet the basic needs of all peoples for human development. Those interviewed were not ideologues and had no ready-made alternative to offer, but they are searching for broader alternative approaches to development, ones that include a critical handling of cultural and spiritual values. I say a critical handling because most of those interviewed have no illusions about how easily cultural and religious values can be frozen into external forms and institutions that betray their original meaning. They would agree with Mohamad Sahnoun: manifestations of cultural and religious values, like values found in the dominant economic paradigm, secularism, individualism, materialism, paternalism, and marketism can become modern ‘golden calves.’”
(The Crisis of Vision in Modern Economic Thought. (with William S. Milberg), 1995.)

We do need a new vision of how to work out on a global scale what this gospel reading anticipated. Theologian Gabriel Fackre called it “God’s Vision” for the world. The Commission on Global Governance, in its 1995 report, Our Global Neighbourhood, affirmed the need for “neighbourhood ethics” and “neighbourhood values” as the cornerstone of future global governance. The report quoted Barbara Ward as suggesting that “people have to see with new eyes and understand with new minds before they can truly turn to new ways of living.” The quotation continued:

“The most important change that people can make is to change their way of looking at the world. We can change studies, jobs, neighbourhoods, even countries and continents and still remain much as we always were. But change our fundamental angle of vision and everything changes our priorities, our values, our judgments, our pursuits. Again and again, in the history of religion, this total upheaval in the imagination has marked the beginning of a new life… a turning of the heart, a “metanoia,” by which men [sic] see with new eyes and understand with new minds and turn their energies to new ways of living.”

In 2000, Paul Martin, then Canada’s minister of finance, made an earnest plea to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to extend a moratorium on burdensome debt repayments that cause developing nations to restrict their spending on health and education, and so worsens the cycle of ever increasing poverty and disease. Commitments of this kind can only help those in greatest need in those parts of the world that made the developed countries wealthy in the colonial period of past centuries. This is carrying into the global economy the justice and righteousness of God which Jesus set before us in the gospel for today.

Six years later, at the 16th World Conference on HIV/AIDS, held in Toronto, Canada, similar appeals were made. In many African nations, one of the main inhibitors to fighting this global epidemic is the almost total absence of health systems to provide the help needed by millions of impoverished victims of all ages. This has been due in large part to the drastic reduction in the systems to support health services mandated by those very same funding agencies.

With a new influenza pandemic at hand caused by the H1N1 virus, we can be thankful that so many individuals, governmental and non-governmental agencies are making valiant efforts to stem the destructive tide of destructive illness and disease. But we need to do so much more in restructuring the political and economic means of making health services and global economic health available to everyone, especially the poor of the world who are most in need.

As this commentary is being written, the United States, the wealthiest country in the world, is in the throes of a double crisis: an unstable economy and a failing health care system based on the profit motive. Other rich, developed nations are struggling with the problem of finding adequate ways to pay for ever-increasing health care costs, let alone all other services, even when paid for through general taxation. The needs of less wealthy and poverty stricken nations is a great burden and cause for deep anxiety to our Christian consciousness. How are we to love our neighbours is such critical situations? Thanks be to God that Jesus has shown us the way: Abundant life is the promise to those who sacrifice in love for others. (John 10:10; 15:12-13)

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 22 Ordinary 27
October 4, 2009


JOB 1:1; 2:1-10. The Book of Job is a long poetic work from a large body of “wisdom literature.” Only some of that collection was included in the Hebrew scriptures. Job is unusual in that it deals with a single theological issue: the problem of suffering.

In this excerpt in story form, the stage is set for the testing of Job’s faith. Satan (a Hebrew word meaning “the Accuser”) acts like a prosecutor at a trial in God’s heavenly court to see whether or not Job will deny his trust in God as a result of continual suffering.

PSALM 26. This psalm is a fitting accompaniment to the lesson from Job. It protests the innocence of faithfulness of an individual worshiper. Integrity is the operative word throughout as a devoted Jew pleads for God’s vindication.

GENESIS 2:18-24. (Alternate) No end of confusion comes from attempting to correlate the two descriptions of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. This is the earlier of the two, dating from the 8th century BCE whereas the first comes from the 6th century BCE.

The interpretation of the creation of woman from a rib of man, distinct from all other creatures, signals what became a rigid tradition for many: the subjugation of women. Another possible translation if the Hebrew word for “rib” is “side.” This gives much wider meaning to the rest of the passage of the woman as an equal helper, partner and “one flesh.”

PSALM 8. (Alternate) The psalmist first contemplates the glory of God manifested in the wonders of the heavens. And yet the psalmist reflects on the minute place of humanity in such a vast universe. The environmental issues for us are vastly different than they were when this psalm was composed. Sadly, by taking the text literally, we have excessively exploited our role as God’s vice-regents with “dominion” over nature.

HEBREWS 1:1-4; 2:5-12. Few passages in the New Testament contains a higher expression of Christology defining the true role of Jesus Christ in the Christian tradition. Ch. 1:1-4 summarizes the basic message of the gospels. Ch. 2:5-12 gives us a clear definition of God’s plan in coming among us in Jesus: to bring us into the glorious presence of God.

MARK 10:2-16. Jesus voiced his profound concern for stable family life and for children. In Roman society, marriage had one purpose – to provide a legal heir who would inherit a man’s property. In Jewish society, men could divorce their wives for any reason, or even at a whim. Wives had no such right without their husband’s consent. In vv.10-12, Jesus put women on an equal footing.

The setting of the two subjects in sequence is surely not by chance. It is fully evident in our day as in Jesus’ time that women and children suffer most when love dies and marriages are dissolved by divorce. Modern society is moving inexorably to separate what is meant by civil and religious marriage. A clear distinction can be drawn between a civil contract and a sacred covenant made as an act of worship in which God participates.

A MORE COMPLETE ANLAYSIS.

JOB 1:1; 2:1-10. The Book of Job is one of the treasures of the Hebrew Scriptures. This long poetic work comes from a large body of “wisdom literature” only some of which was included in our Bible. It is probable that the present literary work is dependent a much older story. This present version has been interpreted by some scholars as analogous to the suffering of Israel during the Babylonian exile. Others have seen the prologue and epilogue as an independent story for which the poetic dialogue (3:1- 42:16) was separately composed.

Job is unusual from most Hebrew scriptures in that it deals with a single theological issue: the problem of suffering. It was designed as a drama in which the prelude is contained in chs. 1 & 2 and epilogue in ch. 42:7-17. Between these we have a series of dialogues in which Job argues with three friends with great intensity, and a fourth who seems somewhat out of place. He contends that he is suffering unjustly while they insist that his suffering is caused by sin, known or unknown. Then, in chs. 32-37, a younger accuser enters the debate berating Job for his intransigence. Finally, God answers Job’s complaint with a series of rhetorical questions to which there can be no response. Job admits his ignorance, but the issue remains an unresolved mystery.

The discussion deals with three aspects of the problem of suffering: Why do people suffer and what are its origins? Is there such a thing as innocent suffering? What am I to do when I am suffering? The first two questions do not have a satisfactory answer. The last may involve an encounter with God, which only provides an indirect, existential answer, but also tests one’s faith to the limit.

This excerpt in story form, sets the stage for the testing of Job’s faith. Satan (a Hebrew word meaning “the Accuser”) acts like a prosecutor at a trial in God’s heavenly court to see whether or not Job will deny his trust in God as a result of continual suffering.

However we may wish to deal with the problem of suffering, perhaps the more poignant issue is the theology of the anthropocentric universe that lies behind the problem as the Book of Job portrays it. This theology follows the Priestly Document of the late 6th century BCE separating creation from deity. One finds it first in Genesis 1, followed by many psalms and much of the Wisdom literature. Koheleth or Ecclesiastes may be the exception in our scriptures. A comment by a radical thinker on this issue, Bishop John Selby Spong, challenges this theology as recently expressed in his weekly e-mail newsletter available through Agora Media or Beliefnet.com .

Spong’s view is that theism is only one theology – and a late one at that – to be found in scriptures. By buying into theism, that we are “a little lower than the angels,” we have turned the universe into our playground, free as God’s surrogates to be the most aggressive bullies and always available to exercise our domination. So we can do as we will with the natural resources, all non-human species and God’s gifts of air, climate and every ecosystem from the most minute to the greatest. We are now beginning to see the consequences of such misconceptions as environmental disaster awaits all who pursue such practices.

To restore the balance in creation, we must redefine our theology, its definition of God and our relationship to God. We have misread our scriptures, Spong claims, and should now begin to search the Bible anew for a different, more appropriate and yet valid definition of God.

Could the source of human suffering be in ourselves? As the cartoon character Pogo once said, “We have seen the enemy and it is us.”

PSALM 26. This psalm is a fitting accompaniment to the lesson from Job. It protests the innocence of faithfulness of an individual worshiper. Integrity is the operative word throughout as he or she pleads for God’s vindication.

The word t’m pronounced “tome” and translated integrity is used relatively little and usually late in the Hebrew scriptures, most often in the Psalms and Proverbs. It speaks of innocence, completeness or perfection. The psalm itself is similar in tone to Pss. 3-5, 7 and 17. All are laments of individuals, but also closely associated with the post-exilic temple liturgy (vss. 6-8,12).

At first, the psalm appears to be a private appeal to Yahweh by a worshiper pleading innocence and faithfulness, not once but again and again. The specific situation is so general that it could be used by anyone seeking acquittal from guilt of a very personal nature or consorting with evildoers, especially those who make a business of crime. One thinks of the exorbitant funerals celebrated for senior members of the Mafia or Hell’s Angels. As such the psalm could be used by any individual or a group come to declare their innocence in a liturgical setting. It has been suggested that vss.6-7 should be relocated after vs.12 because they appear to refer to processions that circle an altar, as described in 1 Kings 18:26 and Ps. 118:27.

GENESIS 2:18-24. (Alternate) No end of confusion comes from attempting to correlate the two descriptions of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. This is the earlier of the two, dating from the 8th century BCE whereas the first comes from the 6th century BCE.

The interpretation of the creation of woman from a rib of man, distinct from all other creatures, has long been claimed as evidence for a rigid tradition: the subjugation of women as inferior to man. Another possible translation of the Hebrew word for “rib” (tsala) is “side.” This gives much wider meaning to the rest of the passage of the woman as an equal helper or partner and of the couple as having “one flesh.”

It would appear that Philo, the Alexandrian Jewish scholar of the 1st century CE adopted this interpretation: “The letter of this statement is plain enough; for it is expressed according to the symbol of the part, a half of the whole, each party, the man and the woman, being as sections of nature co-equal for the production of that genus which is called man.” (The Works Of Philo, 796. Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts.)
This approach is featured in a copyright article by Wayne Simpson, distributed by the Biblical Research Foundation, of Sapulpa, OK. He concluded that a woman created from a rib was once a simple if dramatic metaphor. It can now be reinterpreted as a beautiful symbol for the most profound relationship between men and women. He felt that God gave woman an absolutely equal status with man. (http://www.jasher.com/Adamsrib.htm)

PSALM 8. (Alternate) Without any knowledge of modern astronomy or space research, the psalmist first contemplated the glory of God manifested in the wonders of the heavens. One can imagine a devout courtier like Isaiah standing on the flat rooftop of his Jerusalem home or a herdsman like Amos watching over his resting flock on a Judean hillside. As either of them gazed into the heavens they saw the panoply of stars spread out above them and a full moon rising over Jordan. We who have spent summer nights at Canadian camps and cottages or watched the northern lights illuminate a winter sky know well how such a scene gives one an overwhelming sense of how infinitely small and insignificant we are.

And yet, the psalmist reflects not only on the minute place of humanity in such a vast universe. He also brings his faith to bear on his sense of smallness. He knows that we have a special relationship with the Creator of this universe and hence a special relationship with the created world in which we presently live. (vv.5-8).

The environmental issues for us are vastly different than they were when this psalm was composed. Sadly, by taking the text literally, we have excessively exploited our role as God’s vice-regents with “dominion” over nature. That calls for repentance and radical change in our attitudes and our actions, individually, communally, globally. We must think of ourselves as stewards rather than masters of creation. We can only continue to praise our Sovereign Lord’s majestic name if we accept total responsibility for restoring our right relationship with God’s creation. As The New Creed of The United Church of Canada states, we must learn that we are “called to be the Church … to live with respect in creation.” The latter phrase was added under the leadership of our Moderator, Very Rev. Stan Mackay, who was a member of the Cree Nation.

HEBREWS 1:1-4; 2:5-12. Few passages in the New Testament contains a higher expression of Christology defining the role of Jesus Christ in the Christian tradition. Ch. 1:1-4 summarizes the basic message of the gospels: the incarnation, life on earth, death, resurrection and ascension of the Son of God. Ch. 2:5-12 gives us a clear definition of God’s plan in coming among us in Jesus: to bring us to the glorious presence of God.

There is an intentionality about the Letter to the Hebrews which sets it apart from other so-called epistles. The author and the exact date of its composition remain unknown although there are illusions to it in Clement of Rome’s letter to the Corinthians written before the end of the 1st century CE. Presumably Clement knew but did not say who the author was. Authorship did not become an important issue until Jerome assigned it to Paul and the Latin Vulgate in the 5th century CE and so identified it for next 1000 years.

Two significant factors cancel that possibility: the style is totally different from Paul’s and the writer refers to having received the gospel directly from those who heard Jesus (2:3). It is not really a letter at all, but much more like an essay designed to convince Jewish Christians, probably those in the Diaspora, of the supremacy of Christ over the Levitical priesthood associated with the temple and to encourage them to remain faithful during a time of crisis when many were tempted to withdraw from the Christian fellowship.

This could be a clue that the date of its composition was just before or just after the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 CE. In her helpful study of Hebrews, Frances Taylor Gench posits a much broader range of dates from the time of the expulsion of Jews from Rome by Emperor Claudius in the early 60s to the threat of persecution of Christians by Emperor Domitian ca. 95. Jewish Christians were also denied participation in synagogues after the Synod of Jamnia toward the end of the 1st century CE. (Hebrews and James. Westminster Companion to the Bible. Westminster JohnKnox Press 1996.)

The issue of the supremacy of Christ stated in these passages also forms the general theme of the whole essay. Neither angels, the law of Moses, or Aaron and the old order of the priesthood could match or surpass what God has done for those who believe in Jesus Christ. The elements of temple worship are very much in the author’s mind as are contemporary concepts of angels, those heavenly agents of God’s will and purpose on earth and courtiers in heaven. It is not necessary for modern humans to worship as did the Jews of that time or accept the traditional concepts of angels in order to understand the message: Nothing supercedes Jesus Christ in bringing God’s purpose to fulfillment. On the other hand, the figure of Christ suffering as a pioneer of faith or exemplar of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah comes to the fore (2:10-12). This same image reappears most vividly in chs. 11:1-12:11.

MARK 10:2-16. Jesus here voiced his profound concern for stable family life and for children. In Roman society, marriage had one purpose – to provide a legal heir who would inherit a man’s property. In Jewish society, men could divorce their wives for any reason, but wives had no such right without their husband’s consent. In vv.10-12, Jesus put women on an equal footing.

The setting of the vulnerability of women and children in sequence is surely not by chance. It is fully evident in our day as in Jesus’ time that women and children suffer most when love dies and marriage is dissolved by divorce. Modern society is moving inexorably to separate what the difference between civil and religious marriage. The distinction lies in the fact that a civil contract can be negotiated away but a sacred tripartite spiritual covenant is made as an act of worship in which God participates along with a man and a woman.

But how does one deal with this passage at a time when the ratio of divorce to marriage is 1:2? Many people in every congregation and many in the order of ministry have been through the painful experience of grieving for a broken marriage. Many of the more traditional church folk are irate that in many legal jurisdictions marriage is no longer considered an exclusively heterosexual relationship.

These anomalies appear to deny the very words of Jesus himself in vss.6-9. As one who has experienced a frequently stressed but deepening relationship with my spouse of more than 55 years, I personally would have difficulty preaching on this passage.

The Complete Gospels: Scholars Annotated Version (Robert J. Miller, ed., Polebridge Press, 1992) has a helpful comment. The Pharisees had malice in their hearts as they put their question to Jesus. He responded by jousting with them, using his own scriptural quotations to counter theirs. He gave precedence to the opening chapters of Genesis over the Mosaic tradition from Deuteronomy 24:1-4. In a subsequent and private conversation with the disciples, he did not forbid divorce so much as remarriage.

That may not be a very satisfactory solution for the modern age. Perhaps it would be best for us to acknowledge our sinfulness and failure in creating lasting relationships for whatever reason. There are many different reasons why divorce may be the best of bad options. Roman Catholicism adopts another attitude that tends toward casuistry. Absolute divorce is forbidden but a marriage may be annulled when it can be shown
that a true marriage did not exist according to the appropriate doctrine of the church. A marriage deemed to be non-Christian in the eyes of the church, however, may be granted an absolute divorce. For most mainline Protestant churches, divorce can still present tricky questions which does not have an easy or logical religious solution.

As the influence of churches in society declines, marriage and divorce may best be left to the civil authorities to deal with while the churches concentrate on the spiritual and covenantal aspects in both premarital and post-marital counseling.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 21 Ordinary 26
September 27, 2009

ESTHER 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22. The Book of Esther tells the heroic story of a Jewish woman married the king of Persia, Xerxes (in the Bible, Ahasuerus), who saved her people in the 5th century BC. It is a well-told tale still read in its entirety in synagogues on the Jewish Feast of Purim, said to have originated in this event. It also has relevance for the 20th century history of the Holocaust.

PSALM 124. Yet another of the so-called “Songs of Ascent” believed to have been sung by pilgrims approaching Jerusalem. It thanks God for deliverance from the assaults of some unknown enemy, possibly during a period of political instability and civil strife.

NUMBERS 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29. (Alternate) This confrontation between God, Moses and the Israelites arose because the people hungered for better food than the manna they had been given. Moses complained that he had too much responsibility, so God had him gather seventy elders who were also to share the prophetic spirit Moses had been given. Two others, not among the seventy, also received the same spirit, but Moses rebuked those who would limit the gift to the chosen seventy.

PSALM 19:7-14. (Alternate) This portion of a well-loved psalm rejoices in the sanctity of God’s moral law and asks for divine help in obeying it. The closing verse is often used as a prayer offered before a sermon.

JAMES 5:13-20. In an age when scientific medicine was still very primitive, healing the sick had spiritual as well as physical significance, as it still has for many. Anointing the sick with oil and prayer were seen as valid treatment. Repentance, confession and seeking forgiveness were also a very important part of the healing process. Note that the treatment James prescribed was perceived as God’s action, not that of the church elders.

MARK 9:38-50. The issue in this passage still troubles many: Who really is a follower of Jesus? In response to this dilemma posed by John, the son of Zebedee, Jesus appears to broaden the scope of discipleship: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” At the same time, there is a severity in Jesus’ words spoken in crisp metaphors. Preventing others from following Jesus in even the simplest of ways can be virtually unpardonable sin.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS. The Book of Esther tells the heroic story of a Jewish woman married the king of Persia, Xerxes (in the Bible, Ahasuerus), who saved her people in the 5th century BC. It is a well-told tale still read in its entirety in synagogues on the Jewish Feast of Purim, which is said to have originated in this event. This passage not only gives us the climax to the story of a courageous woman, but of a people’s freedom from fear and from annihilation its enemies.

ESTHER 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22.

Scholars believe that the Book of Esther is one of the latest in the OT to have been written. Dates as far apart as the 5th century BCE soon after the reign of Xerxes (486-465 BCE) and the Maccabean period (c. 165 BCE) have been proposed. No certain historical clues are evident in the text. Its provenance, however, is thought to have been the eastern Diaspora in Persia (modern Iraq and Iran). More than likely it came into the oral tradition through repeated telling from generation to generation. A Greek manuscript in the possession of the Vatican Library (Codex Vaticanus) contains no less than six additions not in the best Hebrew manuscripts. These are all thought to have been created by authors not happy with the original. The name of Yahweh appears nowhere in the Hebrew text, whereas the deity and sacred rites of Judaism appear everywhere in the additions.

The triumph of good over evil, the courage of the heroine and fortuitous circumstances still have relevance for the 20th century history of the Holocaust. Generally speaking, an optimistic view of history permeates the narrative. It is a secular and humanist story rather than a religious one. As Gene M. Tucker, of Emory University, Atlanta, GA, described it in his article in The Oxford Companion to the Bible, the Jews took care of themselves, but they were also very fortunate in making use of their opportunities. In so doing, they controlled their own destiny. This gave them a sense of identity which enabled them to survive in the face of impending catastrophe. This is certainly the way the people of Israel lived through the several conflicts of the 20th century and now are involved in a similar struggle in the 21st century. That is the primary significance of the story of Esther.

PSALM 124. This psalm purports to be yet another of the so-called “Songs of Ascent” possibly sung by pilgrims approaching Jerusalem. It thanks God for deliverance from the assaults of some unknown enemy during a period of political instability and civil strife. Extended periods of Persian and Greek domination in post-exilic times provided many opportunities for conspiracies against overlords. Threats of retaliatory reactions might well have been the occasion for this strife. Or the ever present perils of travel in ancient times may have been the real threats behind this song of deliverance. The psalmist makes the point that without Yahweh’s help, there would have been no escape from destruction.

Several powerful images intensify the message of the psalm. Every line manifests fear. These could well be vignettes from the pilgrims’ journey to Jerusalem. They also render vividness to the poem suggesting that the pilgrims had experienced some very traumatic threats in the recent past. In vs. 3, we catch sight of a fierce attack by angry wild beasts bent on devouring weaker members of the group. In vss. 4-5, a raging flood plunges down a dry wadi through which their path to the holy city lies. The road up from Jericho to Jerusalem has many such dangerous places. The wild beasts again threaten in vs. 6. A bird escaping from a fowlers’ snare in vs. 7 reiterates the peril from which the pilgrims have been delivered.

Nonetheless, there is a larger vision in the mind of the psalmist. The theological concept of God as Lord of History, prevalent throughout the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, has all but vanished from our modern, secular frame of mind. Yet the fear associated with civil strife or international conflicts is ever present. Authorities warn us of the dangers of criminal elements to even the most stable societies. Despite the steadily decreasing incidence of violent crime, political opportunists never cease to cry out hysterically for more severe penalties and longer incarceration for the convicted. More and more armaments flood into every possible war zone to kill and maim the most vulnerable. Diplomats struggle with the difficulties inherent in any intervention in the apparently incessant, vest-pocket wars which have followed the end of colonial exploitation and the ideological confrontations of the Cold War.

In 1945, the noted historian of Christian missions, Kenneth Scott Latourette, published a penchant seventh volume to his History of the Expansion of Christianity. He reviewed the global tragedies of World Wars I and II and the Great Depression when the tide of 19th century liberalism and missionary enthusiasm came to an abrupt end on the battlefields of Europe and Asia. He came to the conclusion that although the Christian church had failed miserably and had been forced to retrench in many parts of the world, it may well have been more potent at mid-century than at the beginning of the period with which he was dealing.

In1992, British mystery writer, P.D. James, set her futurist novel Children of Men in Oxford, England, in 2021. Her parable described how a declining birthrate, tribal, racial and civil conflicts, socially sanctioned violence by security forces, extended imprisonment and capital punishment for criminals brought England to the point of total social, economic and political collapse. Hope lay in the love of God for this confused, conflicted, terrified world, manifested in a baby born to powerless parents in a rude shelter amid the degradation and despair of all but a small, humble, faithful minority committed to reconciliation, freedom and peace. The parallel with the story of the first Christmas is obvious.

This is the same Spirit that motivated the psalmist to proclaim trust in Yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth. However imperfect our witness to faith and obedience to Jesus Christ, we still stumble forward into the 21st century, for God is with us.

NUMBERS 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29. (Alternate) This confrontation between God, Moses and the Israelites arose because the people hungered for better food than the manna they had been given. Moses complained that he had too much responsibility, so God had him gather seventy elders who were also to share the prophetic spirit Moses had been given. Two others, not among the seventy gathered at the tabernacle, also received the same spirit, but Moses rebuked those who would limit the gift to the chosen seventy.

This story has all the signs of being a composite of at least two or more traditions. The complaints about manna has many similarities with the Exodus narrative in which the Israelites wished they had not left the flesh pots of Egypt. They had strong memories of plentiful and delicious food. The people weeping at the doors of their tents (vs. 10a & b) and Yahweh’s angry response mark a transition to another story. The remainder of the selected readings (vss.10c-29) form a coherent narrative of the institution of the seventy elders. There is some debate about the exact way in which the stories have been conflated.

Moses’ lament about having too much responsibility (vss. 11-15) sounds petulant but also realistic. He may have been the first spiritual leader, but certainly not the last, to complain about the burden laid on him by his call to service. Is there a good preaching text in that excerpt, especially for the installation of a new pastor?

The final segment of the reading raises an interesting question: How is spiritual leadership to be shared? Various traditions arrange this in different ways. In the lifetime of this writer, my own denomination has moved from a very exclusive concept of ministry to one that is now the most open of any. The male ordained minister with strict character qualifications was regarded as the special leader of the congregation without equal, despite the existence of lay elders ordained to assist. Spiritual leadership now extends to all members of the church regardless of order, gender and sexual orientation. The only requisites are faith in Jesus Christ and commonly discerned spiritual gifts. As vs. 29 implies prophecy is the gift of God.

PSALM 19:7-14. (Alternate) This portion of a well-loved psalm rejoices in the sanctity of God’s moral law and asks for divine help in obeying it. The closing verse is often used as a prayer offered before a sermon.

This second part of the much moved psalm reflects the Persian period (6th-4th centuries BCE) when the tradition of a renewed commitment to Mosaic law dominated every aspect of life in Israel. The numerous synonyms for the law, five in all, also recall the Wisdom literature such as Psalm 119 and Proverbs. So too do the phrases “making wise the simple” (vs. 7) and “the fear of the Lord” (vs. 9). The poem places great emphasis on separation of the faithful Israelite from his pagan neighbors by maintaining rigid adherence to the law and its provision for ritual purity and personal innocence. He prays to be guarded from even the most inadvertent sin (vs. 13) that might corrupt him. The poet is imbued with the spirit if not the actual influence of the 5th century prophet Ezra.

Meditating on such things played a large part in the religious tradition of Israel in late pre-Christian times. The Pharisees of New Testament, and in particular Saul of Tarsus, represented prime expressions of this legalist tradition. The closing verse is often used as a prayer offered before a sermon, but it has more to do with making a spiritual gift acceptable to God equal to a sacrifice on the altar.

JAMES 5:13-20. In an age when medicine was still very primitive, healing the sick had spiritual as well as physical significance. Prayer and anointing the sick with oil were seen as not only valid treatment, but at times the only treatment available. Note that the treatment James prescribed was perceived as God’s action, not that of the church elders (vss. 14-15). Repentance, confession and forgiveness of sin also played a part in dealing with illness. Furthermore, prayer and helping the wandering disciple return to God’s ways had effective moral and spiritual results.

The sky-rocketing costs of modern medical technology, pharmacology, public and private medical insurance plus the reduction in tax-funded medical services has increased public anxiety about health care to unprecedented levels. Infectious diseases once thought to have been conquered by antibiotics drugs have returned with renewed vigour. Greatly increased international travel has exposed every corner of the globe to diseases once confined to isolated regions. Scientific research has only begun to unravel the mysteries of the human genome or immune systems. Every political party has proclaimed its favoured solutions to the growing global problems of ill health due to overpopulation, environmental degradation and hopeless poverty. Television has brought scenes of unbelievable human suffering into every living room. In such circumstances, what good ever will come from prayer, praise, confession and anointing?

Although now practised only in limited ways, such disciplines as personal prayer, public healing services, anointing with oil and private confessions have never completely disappeared from the church. Nor should they, if we take this passage seriously. James advocated the spiritual approach to ill health in a world that knew little else. Of course this cannot be the only means we take today to respond to a global pandemic. Nor can medical science and technology be isolated from the spiritual foundations on which they were built. Many pioneers of modern medicine were devoted church members first and foremost. Motivated by faith, they began their research careers within the fellowship of the Christian church. They recognized that they were discovering the handiwork of God as they solved some of the riddles of healing, health and wellness.

A nurse with nearly 40 years of experience was stricken with breast cancer and forced into early retirement. Nearly thirty years later, she had lived through three traumatic courses of chemotherapy. Despite poverty and the physical limitations of advancing years, she still maintained active participation with other seniors in her local congregation. Although reluctant to share her deepest feelings or personal faith even with her closest relatives, her attitude received praise from her doctors and inquiries from a scholar researching the relationship between attitude, emotions and wellness in cancer patients. She died just short of her eightieth birthday still contributing to medical science’s search for experimental medications that would help find relief for her particular recurrent form of the disease that took her life.

Our language expresses the spiritual basis of all healing, health and wholeness. These ordinary English words – healing, health, wholeness and holy – have their derivation in their ancient Germanic root word hale.

MARK 9:38-50. The issue in this passage still troubles many: Who really is a follower of Jesus? In response to this dilemma posed by John, the son of Zebedee, Jesus appears to broaden the scope of discipleship: “Whoever is not against us is for us.”

How wide should we open this door? Some Christians would prefer that is be kept firmly guarded against all who do not confess Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord, or express a firm conviction by repetition of the creedal formula of the Holy Trinity. Others would regard all people of good will open to the inspiration of the Spirit and able to participate actively in the mission and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth to the contemporary world. Ambiguity remains.

Dialogue among different religious traditions, said a recent authoritative declaration of the Roman Catholic Church, begins with defining where we stand in relation to others who do not share the same doctrinal position. Yes, replied representatives of other Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions, but let us charitably work together for the common good of the whole community. A radical and rigid orthodoxy may speak the truth from the perspective of one tradition and may well be necessary for theological debate. However, such a declaration may actually impede ecumenical and interfaith dialogue in the short term. The spiritual reality to be hoped for is that we have not yet heard the last word.

A Buddhist writer quoted a frequently recited approach to living in the modern, pluralistic world: think globally and act locally. We need to contemplate the interdependence of all people and all things. Nothing exists except in relationship with all other things. Even our smallest actions have vastly greater consequences. Is this not what Mark quotes Jesus as saying in this passage?

At the same time, there was a severity in Jesus’ crisp metaphors in this passage. None of these exaggerated metaphors should be taken literally. Acting on any one of them would be disastrous to ourselves and to those with whom we are associated. The warning remains clear nonetheless. Preventing others from following Jesus in even the simplest of ways can be virtually an unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Proper 20 Ordinary 25
Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
September 20, 2009 This is one of the few Old Testament passages which gives prominence to the role of women in ancient Israel. As pictured here, the supremely efficient homemaker receives the praise of her husband and children. It is definitely not in keeping with contemporary views emphasizing equality and the sharing of home and family responsibilities. Yet there is something very relevant to our time in the last two verses.

PROVERBS 31:10-31.

PSALM 1. This psalm is actually the introduction to the whole Psalter. It sets forth the theme of the whole collection of Israel’s religious poetry and hymnody as “a book for the pious.” As one commentator put it, this psalm speaks to all ages too in saying that we all “must reckon with the Lord, who is ever mindful of our ways and our deserts.”

JEREMIAH 11:18-20. (Alternate) This poetic excerpt appears to come from a longer passage ending at 12:6 and dealing with the plot against Jeremiah’s life by some of his own kinsmen from Anathoth. This brief confessional poem reveals something of Jeremiah’s nature. In vs. 20 he prays for the destruction of his personal enemies believing that his own enemies were God’s enemies too.

PSALM 54 (Alternate) This brief prayer for God’s help has the normal features of a lament: appeal (vss. 1-2); complaint (vs. 3); petition (vss. 4-5); and vow (vss. 6-7). There is no evidence of any particular date, although the late compilers of the Psalter found a fancied connection with David’s life to attribute it to him.

JAMES 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. This little collection of sayings springs straight from Israel’s tradition of moral wisdom. They may also be a list of virtues and contrasting vices similar to those found in Greek moral philosophy of the late centuries BC. True to Israel’s religious heritage, however, their real source was a spiritual relationship with God, as we learn in 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

MARK 9:30-37. Bound for Jerusalem, Jesus continued teaching his disciples that the cross would be his inevitable end. Now that they knew he was the Messiah, however, they had another agenda. Which of them were to have prominence in the Messiah’s kingdom? It took a child set in their midst to show them what serving with really meant. To be with him in his divinely appointed glory involved humiliation like his. Naturally they didn’t get it.

Do we even now? If that is what is involved, who really wants the cross of discipleship? The principle of it all seems so out of touch with our age with its motifs of selfishness and success.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS. This is one of the few Old Testament passages which gives prominence to the role of women in ancient Israel. As pictured here, the supremely efficient homemaker receives the praise of her husband and children. This view tends to counteract some of the more negative attitudes found in other passages about women in Proverbs, particularly those which describe women as luring young men to sexual misadventures.

PROVERBS 31:10-31.

The poem was written in acrostic form in which the first letter of each verse follows the order of the Hebrew alphabet. Although not evident in the English translation, this had two advantages for Hebrew students: the style indicated that the teacher was dealing seriously with the subject; and it aided memorization.

The description of this woman’s activities outside her home is not in keeping with ancient tradition. A literal reading of vss. 16, 18 and 24 depict her as one who plays a significant role in the economic world. Her tasks, however, seem related to normal household duties such as weaving (vs. 19) and the making of fine clothes for her family and for sale (vss. 19, 21, 22 and 24). There is one exception: vs. 16 shows her engaged in a real estate transaction in order to plant a vineyard. This would have been her husband’s responsibility, not hers.

The passage is definitely not in keeping with contemporary views emphasizing gender equality and the sharing of home and family responsibilities. Yet there is something very relevant for our time in the last two verses. It can be used for a sermon bringing out the essential necessity of improving the role of women in the social, political and economic life of every community. Asked why so many radical feminists arose within the Jewish community, a Jewish colleague replied enigmatically, “A woman rules supreme in every Jewish home.” When pressed to explain, he would not elaborate any further.

This reading has been used as part of a eulogy at a devout Christian woman’s funeral service. It is questionable whether that is a legitimate use of scripture for such an occasion. It ranks with the passage from Ecclesiasticus 44: “Let us now praise famous men and our father who begat them.”

PSALM 1. This psalm forms the introduction to the whole Psalter. Although some scholars prefer to limit it as the introduction to the first collection (Pss. 1-41), it sets forth the theme of the several collections as “a book for the pious.” Its Hebrew vocabulary as well as its theme come from a time when zeal for the study of the law was paramount in Israel. This would indicate the period of Ezra, (5th – 4th centuries BCE) to whose influence it shows some indebtedness. However, it could be as late as the time when wisdom and the law were equated in the late Greek period about the end of the 3rd century BCE.

The “blessed” (Heb. = ‘esher) of the opening line conveys more than happiness, but a sense of being right with God and with the world. It may also give rise to a certain condescension toward others who do not meditate constantly on the law. The image of a tree by a stream and thus well watered would have been a powerful one in the dry climate of Israel. The contrasting image of the wicked who is “like chaff which the wind drives away” only reinforces its effectiveness.

In vs. 5 yet another image depicts the eschatological day of judgment when Yahweh will separate the righteous from the wicked. A similar image occurs frequently in the OT prophets and in NT parables of judgment (cf. Matthew 25). While having a negative connotation, this still must be considered a significant element of the Christian as well as the Jewish tradition. As one commentator put it, the psalm speaks to all ages in saying that we all “must reckon with the Lord, who is ever mindful of our ways and our deserts.”

In different times and for different traditions, such issues assume greater importance than at other times and for other traditions. The final image in vs. 5 is more comforting for the religiously devout. It could have been drawn from the exclusive temple Court of Israel where only circumcised males, b’nai b’rith (“sons of the covenant”), were admitted after having purified themselves according to the prescribed holiness code. Extensive water works in Jerusalem such as the pools of Bethesda and Siloam made provision for this ritual necessity.

The debate about the appropriate trinitarian formula to be used in baptism could well be regarded as a counterpart to this judgmental process. Is the correct formula to recite the names “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” or the functions of the Trinity, “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer?”As vs. 6 of the psalm indicates from a Christian perspective, how a believer relates to God and neighbour, and shows this in his/her behaviour may be of greater importance to God than whatever rituals he/she may perform.

JEREMIAH 11:18-20. (Alternate) This poetic excerpt appears to come from a longer passage ending at 12:6 and dealing with the plot against Jeremiah’s life by some of his own kinsmen from Anathoth. This brief confessional poem reveals something of Jeremiah’s nature. In vs. 20 he prays for the destruction of his personal enemies believing that his own enemies were God’s enemies too. Jeremiah revealed this attitude in several other instances (17:18; 18:23; 20:11). Of course, he and the religious practices of his time fell short of the NT approach of forgiveness for one’s enemies. His attitude is still very common in the world of power politics and terrorism.

The hostility of Jeremiah’s kinsmen may have arisen from Jeremiah’s support for Josiah’s reformation and advocacy of the Deuteronomic centralizing of worship in the temple in Jerusalem. He came from a family of priests who served one of the local sanctuaries which this reform abolished. However, some scholars have seriously questioned this assumption because as a young man he would not have had the authority to take such a strong position. Other scholars believe that the Jerusalem priesthood was behind the plot against Jeremiah, to the point of making an attempt on his life (7:1-15; 26).

Some scholars have tried to rearrange the text by placing 12:6 between 11:18 and 19 to make of the whole passage about the prophet’s persecution read more cogently. These alterations are clearly seen in The Jerusalem Bible: Reader’s Edition (Doubleday 1968). They place emphasis on the persecution Jeremiah suffered from both his own relatives and his community. In 12:1-5 another question comes to the fore: why the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper.

PSALM 54. (Alternate) This brief prayer for God’s help has the normal features of a lament: appeal (vss. 1-2); complaint (vs. 3); petition (vss. 4-5); and vow (vss. 6-7). There is no evidence of any particular date, although the late compilers of the Psalter found a fancied connection with David’s life to attribute it to him.

Vs. 1 contains a reference to God’s name which stands for a virtual second self, agent of God’s working in the world. According to a Jewish source, nothing in the Torah prohibits a person from pronouncing the name of God. Following the destruction of the temple destroyed and the prohibition on pronouncing The Name outside of the temple, pronunciation of the name fell into disuse. Today, it is represented by the Hebrew letters corresponding to the English Y-H-V-H. The use of these letters remind people not to pronounce YHVH as written. By inserting vowels, German scholars gave this tetragrammaton the pronunciation of “Yahweh.”

Vs. 3 states that the cause of the psalmist’s appeal: an unexpected attack by some unknown enemy. This opponent in characterized with considerable feeling as insolent, ruthless and atheist. The psalmist’s faith brings solace, but with a measure of vengeance (vs. 5).

The poet’s trouble appears to have been in the recent past for a sacrifice of thanksgiving has yet to be made (vs. 6). This will not be done as a mere obligation, but as a free-will offering, and not without a sense of satisfaction that he has triumphed over his enemies. The whole prayer shows how human these ancient psalmists were in expressing their feelings so frankly.

JAMES 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. In his excellent study, The Way of Wisdom, the late Professor R.B.Y. Scott described the international context of wisdom literature found in many ancient Middle Eastern cultures. He noted that OT Wisdom bore little that was distinctively drawn from the background of the Law and the Prophets. This little collection of sayings springs straight from Israel’s tradition of moral wisdom within the broad spectrum of humanistic insights. Behind these lay a long history of lay folk wisdom about human experience and relationships. Others have seen in this passage a list of virtues and contrasting vices similar to those found in Greek moral philosophy of the late centuries BCE. Whatever their source and true to Israel’s religious heritage, they had been filtered through an abiding, spiritual relationship with God, as we learn in 4:8a “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

The closest parallel to James’ moral guidance for everyday living may be found in the ethical teachings of the apocryphal book Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. As H.C. Key proposed in his introduction to this document (The Old Testament Pseudepigraphia, Vol. 1: Apocalytpic Literature and Testaments. James H. Charlesworth, editor. London: Dartman, Longman & Todd, 1983), it was probably written in Greek from Syria during the Ptolemaic period in the early 2nd century BCE. Rather than stress obedience to the Law as did the Essenes and the Pharisees, it presented a more universal humanist ethic similar to that of the Stoics. One of the highest virtues of this book is brotherly love which emphasized the negative and harmful consequences of hatred to one’s brother. Key also shows how The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs regarded the Law as “a virtual synonym for wisdom.”

Wisdom, not the Law, receives primacy of place in this passage. Human motivation and relationships receive similar emphasis. Moral conflict exists, James scolds, between the ways of the world and the way of God (4:4). He reaffirmed this distinction with an appeal to scripture (vs. 5), but the text has yet to be found in either the OT, the Apocrypha or any other known Jewish writing. He follows this with another quotation from Proverbs 3:34 as found in the LXX. Vs. 7 is very close to three different quotations from The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. (Cf. Naphtali 8:4; Simeon 3:5; Benjamin 5:2.

Nonetheless, this least Christological of NT passages does recognize that God’s grace is the source of moral victory in the struggles of every day life. It summarizes this truth in what may be the one preachable text of the whole passage in vs. 8. It also expresses the same deep piety characteristic of earlier Wisdom literature. The devotions of Christians and Jews alike would be the poorer if this text and counterparts in the Psalms did not exist.

MARK 9:30-37. Bound for Jerusalem, Jesus continued teaching his disciples that his death would be his inevitable end of his ministry. If vs. 32 is taken at face value, this would seem to have only confused the disciples. How could this happen to a teacher and healer as appealing as he? On the other hand, if vs. 33 is an accurate description of what happened, one could develop a sinister conspiracy theory about one of the disciples having started the argument. Was it Judas Iscariot whose doubts were already laying the groundwork for his betrayal, perhaps inadvertently? Or could it have been John, the young fisherman who always seemed to stand second in line to Peter, yet wanted to be loved more than the rest?

Whoever it was, they all had missed the point of Jesus’ teaching that he would become a suffering and dying Messiah. Now that they believed he really was the Messiah, they had another agenda. Who among them would have prominence in the Messiah’s kingdom? It took a child set in their midst to show them what serving with him really meant. To be with him in his divinely appointed glory involved humiliation like his. Naturally they didn’t get it.

Do we get it even now? If suffering and dying in loving service to and for others is what is involved, who really wants the cross of discipleship? The principle of it all seems so out of touch with our age with its motifs of selfishness and success.

A few years ago, a lively discussion was carried on in the public media and on the Internet. One of the communications I received came from the moderator of a contemplative faith-sharing forum who had been a teacher in Roman Catholic schools and colleges. He began a discussion on the recent Declaration by the Congregation For The Doctrine of The Faith of the Roman Catholic Church, Dominus Iesus on the Unicity and Salvific Universality Of Jesus Christ and the Church. He said this:

“By now, I’m sure most of you have heard that the Vatican has come out with a statement to the effect that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church established by Christ, and the only one capable of guaranteeing the fullness of salvation. This is not a new teaching. The Vatican II documents said the same, as did the new Catechism, only Vatican II was much more affirming of the work of the Spirit in other Christian and non-Christian traditions. The Council also had a gentler, more inviting and dialogical tone to it.

“One reason for the document was that Catholic leadership was upset with some bishops referring to Protestant Churches as Sister Churches, and wanted to make it clear that the Catholic Church was the Mother Church and they the Daughters. Ugghh! (His exclamation.)

“I deeply regret this move by my Church! I’m not sure what good will come from it except to give the Catholic “Right” more fuel for their arrogance and triumphalism. It will also create hardships in ecumenical dialogue, and that is lamentable.”

Anyone who would counter the Roman Catholic Church’s statement by making a similar claim for one’s own faith tradition would do well to read again the words Mark attributed to Jesus in this passage. Faith is not about doctrine or power or privilege in God’s sight. It is about service to the point of sacrifice following Jesus’ example. This can be equally effectively expressed in individual experience and action as in denominational attitudes, actions and public declarations. Most of us will never have the opportunity to formulate our denomination’s stance on any given issue. Each one of us every day will have the chance to show our neighbours how the sacrificial love of God in Christ can bring reconciliation to this strife-torn world. We can do this clearly only with the greatest of humility, as Jesus did with the little child he set among the disciples.

A new book by Bishop J.S. Spong just off the presses presents another view of how Christians can still approach traditional views of the cross with a much expanded understanding. Here is an excerpt from Spong’s own preview of what he is trying to say:

“The cross was not a sacrifice to placate an angry God, but a living portrait of a human life that was no longer controlled by the innate drive to survive. Here was a life free to give itself away, a life with no need to build itself up at another’s expense. This was a new dimension of what it means to be human, what it means to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that life was meant to be. When I got beneath the level of later explanation, which dominates the gospel narratives, and began to ask what was the Jesus experience that compelled his followers to stretch the words available to them to an infinite degree to enable those words to be big enough to capture their Jesus experience, I heard them saying we have met and encountered in the life of this Jesus everything that we mean by the word “God.”
(September 3, 2009. The Study of Life, Part 6.
Rethinking Basic Christian Concepts in the Light of Charles Darwin. http://secure.agoramedia.com/spong/week364story1_prev.asp)

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Proper 19 Ordinary 24
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
September 13, 2009The general theme of the Book of Proverbs is outlined in this passage. Divine Wisdom personified as a woman tells of the discipline she has to offer to willing listener and the calamity which will befall the one who refuses to heed her counsel.
The phrase “the fear of the Lord” occurs in v. 29 and frequently throughout the whole book. Reverence for God and God’s will would be a modern way of saying the same thing.

PSALM 19. No greater evidence of the glory of God exists, says this psalmist, than the majestic order of creation and the orderliness of God’s law. It is also possible that we have here two psalms woven together in vv. 1-6 and 7-14. The first part shows some similarity to an Egyptian poem honouring a sun god. The latter part expresses purely Hebrew religious ideas.

ISAIAH 50:4-9a. (Alternate) This brief selection from the third of four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah 40-55 declares a firm of confidence in God in the face of great suffering. It may be difficult for us to understand how one person can suffer vicariously on behalf of many. Here the Servant represents the whole nation of Israel, a sole individual representing his community. The early church regarded this as a prophecy about the Messiah fulfilled by Jesus on the cross and subsequently based a significant theology of the cross on it.

PROVERBS 1:20-33.

PSALM 116:1-9. (Alternate) This song of thanksgiving praises God for an apparent recovery from critical illness. It may have been sung by an individual worshiper making a thank-offering in the presence of a congregation gathered in the temple court.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON 7:25 – 8:1. (Alternate) Although attributed to King Solomon this book was actually written by a Hellenized Jew in the 1st century BCE. Not included in the Hebrew Scriptures, it was part of the Greek translation of the Old Testament which St. Jerome used as the basic text for his Latin Bible in the 5th century CE. The passage is part of a poem praising Wisdom as a beneficial spirit, “the breath of the power of God,” (vs. 25) and the greatest companion a human being may have because she is constantly “ordering all things for good.”

JAMES 3:1-12. This little sermonette stands alone unconnected to what goes before or what follows. But it undoubtedly bears a direct relation to the unstated background out of which it arose. Were some of the teachers in the Christian community letting their tongues lash their listeners? James addresses that problem in vv. 1-2. The rest of the passage consists of a series of four metaphors for a careless tongue and how it may be controlled to everyone’s benefit.

MARK 8:27-38. Jesus revealed his messiahship to his disciples on foreign territory. Caesarea Philippi, at one of three sources of the Jordan River, was a vacation spa built by Philip, son of Herod the Great. Also somewhat foreign to Jewish religious thought was the idea of a crucified Messiah. Jesus rebuked Peter when he tried to dissuade Jesus from such a course.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.The general theme of the Book of Proverbs is outlined in this passage. Yet one can find many other references to Wisdom throughout the OT. In his classic study, The Way of Wisdom (Macmillan, 1970) the late Profesor R.B.Y.Scott, renowned OT scholar of McGill and Princeton Universities, made an important point in his introduction to the subject. His view is worth serious consideration as follows.

PROVERBS 1:20-33.

While Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes form the main canonical wisdom literature, Hebrew literature contained many such documents not in our Bibles. Wisdom is the fruit of cultural tradition rooted in family, tribe and local community as old as the culture itself. Further, it would be a mistake to suggest that a “wisdom movement” existed as a self-conscious group seeking to bring about social change in the whole nation. On the other hand, several redactors had to have made a conscious collection of this traditional wisdom and shaped it into the present document.

Scott identifies four key words in 1:6 which tells much about the whole book: proverb (mashal), figure of speech or parable (melisah), words of the wise, and their riddles (hidoth). The personification of Wisdom in this reading falls into the second category. The rare word melisah occurs in only two other OT passages, Habakkuak. 2:6; Isaiah14:4, and in the apocryphal book Sirach 47:17. Its meaning may be taken as a criticism or warning speech. Scott adds that the term could well be applied to the several discourses of chapters 1-7 as well as the personifications of Chs. 8, 9 and 31:1-9.

Without any tradition of philosophical discourse similar to Greek culture, the Hebrew mind turned to story. Rather than describe it as an abstract attribute of Yahweh, the Hebrews personified divine Wisdom as a woman who speaks to humans as a kindly counselor. On the one hand, she is a quality of life to be attained through training and the gift of Yahweh. On the other, she appears as a virtual goddess or emanation from Yahweh offering herself to anyone who will hear her. She tells of the discipline she has to offer to the willing listener and the calamity which will befall the one who refuses to heed her counsel.

The personification of wisdom as a woman can be seen as a distinct departure from Hebrew literary form. In some respects, she takes her place in the canon with Spirit and Logos as an intermediary between God and human beings. In Paul, of course, she is identified with Christ (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). In this reading in 1:20-21, she makes her presence known in the midst of the hustle and bustle of daily life. Like a matriarchal grandmother, she has some sharp words to say to the observant and dire warnings to those who will not heed what she says.

The phrase “the fear of the Lord” occurs in v. 29 and frequently throughout the whole book. Reverence for God and God’s will may be a preferred modern way of saying the same thing. In later OT thought the phrase was equivalent to the law of the priest and the word of the prophet. However we may wish to soften its impact, fear in the sense of a mysterious motivating moral force cannot be discounted. As Samuel Therrien put it in his article in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (2.259), true love for God “creates a sense of anguish at the very thought of evil, revolt, rebellion or compromise. (Ps. 51:6-15).” In other words, disregarding the counsel of wisdom brings inevitable judgment. Even the messianic figure of Isaiah 11:2 receives the fear of the Lord.

PSALM 19. No greater evidence of the glory of God exists, says this psalmist, than the majestic order of creation and the orderliness of God’s law. It is also possible that we have here two psalms woven together in vv. 1-6 and 7-14. The first part shows some similarity to an Egyptian poem honouring a sun god. The Egyptian Pharoah Akhenaton (aka Amenhotep IV, d. ca. 1334 BCE) introduced belief in such a superior sun god above all other gods during his 17 year reign. The latter part expresses traditional Hebrew ideas. It is possible that the psalmist knew of or had access the Egyptian poem and adapted it to his own purpose to show that moral law no less than the celestial system reveals the majestic order of the divinely created universe. It is not beyond reason that the psalmist also knew of the doctrine of the harmony of the spheres advocated by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras in the 6th century BCE.

The cosmology of the poem represents the observations of all ancient people which remain obvious still to the uninformed. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Those ancients who studied the stars had not yet understood that the earth that revolves on its axis, turning the planet away from the sun thus creating the illusion of the sun rising and setting. This perception still has romantic and poetic value in the literature and folk wisdom of many cultures. The images of the sun as a bridegroom or a runner fit well into the literary category (vs. 5). By contrast, references to the law in the latter part of the psalm appear much more mundane and moralistic. The only metaphorical images about the law express a desire like that which the sight gold inspired and a taste like that of honey (vs. 10).

The Hebrew vocabulary of the poem is distinctively postexilic. The multiple synonyms for the law – testimony, precepts, commandments, ordinances – together with the phrase “the fear of the Lord” reflect the wisdom tradition. A moral earnestness commands the attention as the devout Israelite seeks to live a blameless life in much the same way that personified Wisdom urged upon her audience.

Vs. 14 frequently has been used as an introductory prayer before a sermon. Others feel that it is a perfunctory search for personal praise rather than a summons to devout listening for the word of God in the words of the preacher. Perhaps more than anything else, it defines the attitude of the preacher as well as the listeners to the message that is being proclaimed and heard in the name of God on the basis of canonical scripture texts.

This psalm could well be sung rather than read as scripture, for above all else, it is a hymn or anthem. Hymns based on this psalm include a Scottish paraphrase in common metre from the Psalter of 1650, Isaac Watts’ early 18th century version, “The Heavens declare thy glory, Lord”,sung to a tune from Handel’s Samson or the 19th century tune, Walton. The popular 20th century hymn “How great thou art” also recites the some theme. Several well known choral anthems celebrate the majesty of this remarkable poem too.

ISAIAH 50:4-9A. (Alternate) Being Jews primarily and having only the Hebrew Scriptures to read, it was inevitable that the earliest Christians would search for references with messianic implications. The many visions of a savior figure and other oracles of the book of Isaiah immediately met this need. Especially appropriate were the four Servant Songs in the poetry of the unknown prophet of the Babylonian Exile scholars have named Second Isaiah (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; and 52:13-53:12). These four songs tell the story of an individual who heals and redeems through vicarious suffering. This brief selection from the third of the four songs declares the Servant’s firm confidence in Yahweh in the face of great abuse by his adversaries.

The exact length of the poem is a matter for scholarly debate. It is likely that it extends for the whole 11 verses as a poem of four strophes in a series of questions and answers (vss.1-2; 8; 9; 10). This segment contains the two middle strophes dealing with the suffering and vindication of the Servant.

It may be difficult for us to understand how one person can suffer vicariously on behalf of many. It may be more helpful to regard him as the representative of the whole nation. Here the Servant is described as a teacher who listens to Yahweh every morning. Then as one who is himself a learner (vs. 4), he receives the strength to bear the insults and injuries heaped upon him. This suffering equips him with the moral authority to challenge his adversaries and ultimately to be found innocent.

The poem conveys the image of a devout Israelite who spends much time in reflective contemplation and prayer. Unlike other prophets, however, his communication with Yahweh results not so much in divinely inspired oracles as in personal fellowship bringing an inner conviction that Yahweh will not only protect him but defend and vindicate his cause.

The setting for this contemplative experience is found in vss. 1-2a where Yahweh accuses the whole nation of impenitence in two sharply stated metaphors followed by series of questions about divorce and a person sold into slavery to pay a debt. In Jewish law a woman had no right to separate from her husband. She could be divorced only if her husband gave her a writ to that effect. A husband could even sell her as a slave to pay off a debt. No more had Israel the right to separate itself from its covenant relationship with Yahweh. A stern rebuke follows in vss. 2b-3 where violent upheavals in nature demonstrate the power of Yahweh to punish in judgment.

In some interpretations the Servant represents the whole nation of Israel. In so doing he fulfills the role of a representative of the whole nation in a way similar to a modern head of state. Here the emphasis appears to be upon the individual prophet. On the other hand, there is the concept of a corporate personality where the Servant represents the faithful covenant people suffering the hostility of an unbelieving world and thus vindicates the purposes of Yahweh to redeem that world.

More than half a century after the Holocaust, the creation of the nation state of Israel, and several wars between Arabs and Jews, is it still possible to view the suffering of Israel in the same light? Historic explosions of anti-Semitism and other violent forms of racism, often initiated by the Christian church, do seem to point to our need to learn more about God’s ways of achieving God’s redemptive purpose. Can the suffering of millions caused by climate change, famine and natural disasters also be seen from this same redemptive viewpoint? Does such really motivate changes in our behaviour as global citizens?

PSALM 116:1-9. (Alternate) This song of thanksgiving praises God for an apparent recovery from critical illness that brought the psalmist near death. It may have been intended to be sung by an individual worshiper making a thank-offering in the presence of a congregation gathered in the temple court. Across the centuries, its sense of devotion has provided many human hearts with solace in great crises and given voice to their thanksgiving when their trials are over.

The first four verses set the scene vividly. Now recovered from a critical illness, the psalmist voices the most sincere praise for God’s mercy. In so doing he makes a vow to be as responsive to God as God has been to him (v. 2). The threat of death and being abandoned in Sheol (v. 3) had been the cause of intense anxiety; but he prayed fervently for help and his prayer was heard (vv. 5-6). A vividly expressed sense of relief and commitment to the ways of Yahweh as long as he lives are found in vv. 7-9 .

While not part of this reading, the poet’s gratitude for saving health finds memorable expression in vss. 12-18. A lovely Scottish Psalter rendition of this segment sung to the tune Tallis’ Ordinal, “I’ll of salvation take the cup, on God’s name will I call.” (#676 in The United Church Hymnary, UCPH 1930) has been used as a eucharistic hymn in traditional celebrations of the Lord’s Supper. In the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, a portion of the psalm was included in the traditional service entitled “Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth commonly called The Churching of Women.”

WISDOM OF SOLOMON 7:22 – 8:1. (Alternate) The Jerusalem Bible: Reader’s Edition (Doubleday, 1968) has an excellent translation of this book from the Roman Catholic tradition. Although attributed to King Solomon this book was actually written by a Hellenized Jew in the 1st century BCE. Not included in the Hebrew Scriptures, it was part of the Greek translation of the Old Testament which St. Jerome used as the basic text for his Latin Bible (Vulgate) in the 5th century CE.

The selected passage is part of a poem praising Wisdom as a beneficent spirit, “the breath of the power of God,” (vs. 25) and the greatest companion a human being may have because she is constantly “ordering all things for good.” Vv. 22-23 consist of a long serious of adjectives describing the absolute perfection of Wisdom personalized as a woman. This concept represents significant prelude to the NT view of the Holy Spirit.

JAMES 3:1-12. This little sermonette stands alone unconnected to what goes before and to some extent to what follows. But it undoubtedly bears some direct relation to the unstated background out of which it arose. Were some of the teachers in the Christian community letting their tongues lash their listeners or each other in a somewhat similar way to the Corinthians to whom Paul wrote so severely (1 Cor. 1:10-17)? James addressed the problem in vv. 1-2. He returned to the theme of conflict within the community in 4:1.

The rest of the passage consists of a series of lively metaphors for a careless tongue and how it may be controlled to everyone’s benefit. The metaphors are quite obvious and still familiar to modern readers: a bit in a horse’s mouth, a ship’s rudder, a forest fire, the taming of wild animals and birds, a spring of water, olive trees and grapevines. There can be no doubt about what James meant in castigating those to whom he spoke directly or indirectly. His purpose was to create disciples who lived what they professed to believe.

Some commentators have said that the passage exhibits a dependence on the Hebrew wisdom tradition or that of John the Baptist. Indeed, it could be said that the letter is a Christian contribution to that tradition. Others have seen in it the influence of Hellenistic rhetoricians. Still others have proposed that the hand of a Christian editor is evident in vv. 1-2a which carries through the whole chapter. According to this view, the passage represents a stage in the development of Christian teaching prior to its final definition in the official apostolic form.

The first verse admonishes teachers to live by ethical standards to which others are exempt. The second admonishes the morally arrogant who will not admit their mistakes. This juxtaposition could lead to a sermon on whether or not all who teach (or preach or all professionals) should be regarded as ethical models for others to follow. This is a lively matter today with sports figures having displaced teachers, religious and political leaders as the popular heroes cast in this role. The truth is that none of these present or traditional heroes can be considered morally perfect. The fundamental issue surely is whether there can ever be a different moral standard for all persons representing themselves as Christian. Or would it not be more creative to say that everyone has a contribution to make to the ethical validity of any society?

MARK 8:27-38. Jesus revealed his messiahship to his disciples on foreign territory. Caesarea Philippi, at one of three sources of the Jordan River, was a vacation spa built by Philip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great, and dedicated to Tiberius Caesar and himself. It was situated on a beautiful terrace about 1150 feet above sea level on the southwest slope of Mount Hermon overlooking the Jordan valley. From this site the Sea of Galilee can be seen in the distance nearly 700 feet below sea level. In Jesus’ time oppressive summer heat drove any Galilean who could afford it to such retreats as this royal spa. It must have been of considerable significance to the apostolic tradition, to Mark and to his audience that this should be the place where Jesus revealed his full identity to the disciples. One does not have to wonder why.

The fundamental apostolic creed proclaimed, “Jesus is Lord,” not Caesar or his puppet king, Philip, the remaining inheritor of the Herod dynasty. This was the fundamental issue for the Christians in Rome in the years following Nero’s burning of the city, his persecution of the Christians as the perpetrator of the crime, and the triumphal return of Titus from the sacking of Jerusalem bearing the golden candelabra and other booty from the ruin Second Temple.

The villages of the neighbourhood had a much older religious heritage. At the source of the Jordan near the village still known by its ancient name, Banias (Panias), one can see the remnants of a shrine dedicated to Pan and the Nymphs, the Greek deities favoured by shepherds. It is probable that early Semitic tribes also worshipped at this same site. OT passages in Joshua 11:17, Judges 3:3 and I Chronicles 5:23 may refer to this same location as Baal-gad or Baal-Hermon where the Canaanite fertility god Baal had been worshiped.

Also somewhat foreign to Jewish religious thought was the idea of a crucified Messiah central to this passage The popular Jewish image of the Messiah was that of a conquering warrior monarch who would drive away Israel’s oppressors and free them forever. That image still has a political expression in certain ultra-fundamentalist sects of Israeli Judaism. On the other hand, Jewish religious tradition did include a certain amount of suffering and rejection on the part of its religious leaders. One finds this in several references to Moses and the prophets (Exod. 16:2; 17:2-4; Jer. 11:18-19; 20:7-10; Matt, 23:37).

The concept of suffering or self-sacrifice as having a saving effect was also present in the Jewish tradition (Exod. 32:32; Isa. 53:5, 10, 12). This approach received explicit expression in Christian messianism not only in the gospels, but in the epistles (Rom. 5:6-8; Gal. 3:13; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 2:24-25).

Jesus rebuked Peter when he tried to dissuade him from such a course. For Jesus, this was yet another temptation in the guise of a close friend’s counsel. It tested his commitment to the mission he had chosen as a result of his earlier temptations. To counter this opposition, Jesus turned to the wider audience of the crowd gathered with his disciples. (Were they still in Caesarea Philippi or was this Mark’s imaginative presentation of the issue?) This had the effect of ending the so-called “messianic secret.”

The late Dr. Robert McClure, the first lay Moderator of The United Church of Canada, was a missionary surgeon whose professional career stretched across the globe from pre-1948 China and a Communist prison to a leprosy hospital in post-independence India, the Gaza Strip and the Indonesian jungle. His favourite summary of his faith in action was “adventure with a purpose.” He had little patience with those who refused a similar commitment for the safety and comfort of a successful career at home. He exemplified what Mark quoted Jesus as saying about losing one’s life to save it. The challenge as Mark presented it and McClure lived it parallels John’s more theological statement of what judgment really is and when it takes place (John 3:17-21).

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