John Shearman's Lectionary

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

 Proper 19   Ordinary 24

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

September 12, 2010

JEREMIAH 4:11-12, 22-28. The threat of invasion by both Egypt and Babylon continued throughout the last 40 years of the nation’s independence until Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians first in 598 BCE and then was destroyed in 587 BCE. Few of the prophet’s many oracles express this threat more vividly than this one. His metaphors describing the defeat and desolation in this passage would strike with brutal force at the false security of the people in their sacred fortress city. Jeremiah saw all this as God’s doing, not the happenstance of history.

 PSALM 14. The psalmist who composed this poem at a time of atheism and depravity sought to draw the people back to their religious roots in the midst of accentuated foreign influences. This also followed the prophetic tradition of condemning the ungodly and defending the righteous and the poor.

EXODUS 32:7-14. (Alternate) In fury at the apostasy of the Israelites for worshipping a golden calf, God sends Moses down from Mount Sinai vowing to punish them for their sin. Moses pleads for the people asking God to remember the promises made to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And God changed his mind.

PSALM 51:1-10. (Alternate) The superscript to this classic psalm of penitence is misleading. It really was not from King David, but was added much later to the original text. Nor does it have anything to do with original sin. Yet it remains one of the most sincere prayers of repentance seeking God’s forgiveness.

1 TIMOTHY 1:12-17. While this letter as a whole or in part may not be from the apostle Paul, this passage speaks of Paul’s persecution of the early church and his supreme gratitude for the grace of forgiveness and new life extended to him through Jesus Christ. It certainly reads like a very personal confession. It also expressed the deep experiential and theological truth that God’s grace, repentantly received, motivates the believer to thank and praise God.

 LUKE 15:1-10. These two vignettes from the daily life of a Palestinian peasant are often overlooked. They tell the story of God’s love for the lost and the wholly undeserved grace that offers full and free forgiveness to all who seek it. Both parables emphasize the joyful celebration when the lost is found. To God, everyone is important and graciously loved. No one is excluded, not even those who do not want to be found.

  A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

JEREMIAH 4:11-12, 22-28. By Jeremiah’s time in the last quarter of 7^th century BCE, only the Southern Kingdom – Judah – remained of the once great kingdom of David. The threat of invasion from Babylon to the east and Egypt to the west was real and almost constant during Jeremiah’s ministry. This threat continued over the last 40 years of the nation’s independence until the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians first in 598 BCE and finally with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 587 BCE. Few of the prophet’s many oracles express this threat more vividly. His metaphors of destruction and desolation in this passage would have struck with brutal force at the false security of the people in their sacred fortress city. In the intervening verses excluded from the reading, anyone could easily identify from whence the threat came.

In vss. 11-12, the sirocco or khasmin, a blistering east wind from the Arabian desert, symbolizes the ominous threat. This suffocating, dry wind still frequently sweeps in across the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea carrying clouds of stinging sand with it. When it comes, everyone must retreat into whatever shelter to be found. Hence the reference that no winnowing of grain or cleansing of garments hung out to dry. The reference to the “bare heights” calls to mind the high cliffs on either side of the Jordan valley which cuts a deep trench between Israel and its eastern neighbours.

Vs. 22 explains the meaning of the metaphor: Yahweh’s judgment upon Israel for its lack of faithfulness to Yahweh’s covenant with them. Given the opportunity for spiritual growth, they had acted like children being silly at play as children so frequently do. Morally underdeveloped because of their apostasy, they were far more skilled at doing evil than good.

Vss. 23-26 may be from a different oracle. Some scholars doubt that it was from Jeremiah at all because it contains eschatological references which are rare in the prophet’s other oracles. In vs. 23, the vision of the earth “waste and void” recalls Genesis 1:2 and, in fact, the Hebrew words are the same in that context. This whole segment elicits the chaotic pre-creation scene.

Vs. 27 is similarly controversial to many scholars who follow Peake’s Commentary in calling it “an unmitigated gloss” influenced by 5:10 and 18, which also promise that “a full end” is not Yahweh’s intention. This is immediately contradicted by vs. 28 promising a desolation imposed unsparingly by Yahweh’s command. However this segment may have been included, it gives the passage a vision of the desolation of the land resulting from the apostasy of the people. There is also the possibility that this segment of the passage could have been written after the destruction of Jerusalem when the disaster was still fresh in memory.

PSALM 14. This same psalm reappears slightly modified as Psalm 53, probably owing to its inclusion in two originally independent collections. Comparing the two psalms, especially 14:5-6 and 53:5 reveals something of the difficulties in the transmission of a particular text. Using the Greek Septuagint and other translations, scholars debate what the original behind both versions might have been.

But does this really affect the interpretation of the psalm, as some have suggested? Is there not some reference to the Wisdom period in such contrasts as “the fool” in vs.1 and “the wise” in vs.2? That the psalmist composed the poem at a time of atheism and depravity suggests the Greek period when the authors of Israel’s Wisdom literature sought to draw the people back to their religious roots in the midst of extreme foreign influences. This also followed the prophetic tradition evidenced in the vehemence of the psalmist’s condemnation of the ungodly and the defense of the righteous and the poor (vss.5-6).

The condemnation in vss. 3-4 includes the whole of society, presumably the priesthood too. An alternate reading of vs. 4b might be: “who eat up my people; they eat the bread of Yahweh, but call not on him.” Provision of food for the priesthood actually was one of the functions of the sacrificial system in the temple. A portion of every sacrifice was reserved for the use of the priests. Indeed, the poem has elements of biting sarcasm against the priests as conveyed in vs. 7.

While emphasizing the doom that awaits the faithless when Yahweh intervenes on behalf of the faithful, the psalm ends with a hopeful prayer. This points toward an eschatological conclusion, further indicating that the psalm comes from the transitional Greek period of Israel’s religious history after Alexander the Great captured Jerusalem in 333 BCE. With spiritual leadership at low ebb and deliverance not imminent, hope of salvation had been pushed into the far future.

 EXODUS 32:7-14. (Alternate) It is a pity that this brief excerpt from a great story of the Israelites worshipping a golden calf is all that we are given here. The whole story is worth setting aside all else in the Revised Common Lectionary for this week and giving it sound interpretation.

The golden calf, of course, was the kind of totem found in many early Middle Eastern and numerous other religious traditions.  It symbolized the fertility of nature and the flocks of pastoral peoples. Cecil B. DeMilles’ movie Exodus graphically displayed the sexual promiscuity associated with these religious rites.  In effect, the Israelites were returning to a familiar, but more primitive religious system than the moral monotheism to which Moses was leading them under Yahweh’s direction.

In this excerpt Yahweh shows a fury reminiscent of any human potentate frustrated by the misbehaviour of wayward subjects. In response to the apostasy of the Israelites for worshiping a golden calf instead of their deity revealed in the Decalogue, Yahweh sent Moses down from Mount Sinai vowing to avenge his injured pride. Moses pleads for the people asking Yahweh to remember the promises made long before to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Indeed, Moses’ plea sounds more like a rebuke. Convinced by Moses’ argument Yahweh changed his mind.

That in itself is a revelatory moment. Yahweh does indeed change, becoming one who forgives, if only relenting from punishing the Israelites for a time and giving them an opportunity to repent.

 PSALM 51:1-10. (Alternate) The superscript to this classic psalm of penitence is misleading. It was added much later to the original text. It really was not from King David, nor had it anything to do with his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. Contrary to later Christian interpretation of vs. 5, it does it have anything to do with original sin. Yet it remains one of the most sincere prayers of repentance seeking God’s forgiveness.

Very much aware of his sinful nature, however, (vs. 3) the psalmist accepts God’s judgment as completely justified (vs. 4). He pleads for cleansing, especially from those hidden iniquities of which a sensitive conscience is all to aware. In the depths of contrition, he acknowledges his true character.

He also acknowledges the kind of person whom the Lord desires him to be – truthful, wise in the ways of God and purged of all his self-deceiving tendencies. He longs to rejoice in righteous living springing from a clean heart and a renewed spiritual integrity (vss. 8-10).

How many conscience stricken souls have turned to this psalm as the antidote to a burden of guilt of which we long to be relieved? Despite unfortunate misinterpretations, it still rings true as the faithful expression of the penitent soul.

 1 TIMOTHY 1:12-17. Bible scholars still debate whether the Letters to Timothy and Titus were from the apostle Paul or from another Christian leader of a later generation who knew the apostle’s earlier correspondence very well. Since the middle of the 18^th century they have been generally referred to as the Pastoral Letters. They were certainly composed as pastoral letters to churches at a time of transition when faithful discipleship is called for – just like today!

Arguments against original Pauline authorship include a distinctive vocabulary and style, theological concepts, church order, credal tradition, and the problem of fitting their composition into a chronology of Paul’s ministry. Another theory argues for Pauline authorship on hypotheses that elicit even more difficulties such as the presumed release of the apostle from prison in Rome and a journey to Spain prior to a second imprisonment and execution. Or, as yet another theory contends, the letters are the work of a secretary to whom Paul gave almost total freedom of composition.

One popular theory proposes that the unknown author had before him fragments of authentic letters from Paul which he used to deal with issues in a different context at a later period. Yet a fifth hypothesis points to a composition as a literary artefact similar to others known from the late 1st century Roman literature to which personal references were added to create verisimilitude and to present Paul as an apostolic example to be followed. As yet, there is no final proof for any of these theories, and perhaps there never will be. Consensus appears to have settled on a non-Pauline author who had access to some original letters by Paul, but the date of their composition varies from 85 to 120 CE or even later.

This passage speaks of Paul’s persecution of the early church and his supreme gratitude for the grace of forgiveness and change extended to him by Jesus Christ. It certainly reads like a personal confession. Yet it also expressed a deep experiential and theological truth: the efficacy of grace repentantly received for which the believer can only thank and praise God.

As William Barclay stated in his extended analysis of the passage, Paul gave thanks that he had been saved in order that he might serve Christ. His conversion came about because of the sheer mercy of Christ, not through any initiative of his own. Remembering his former life was at once a source of great shame and also of great inspiration. He did not brood over his sin in an unhealthily depression. Rather, he remembered it as the means God had used to awaken him to rejoice in the greatness of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Hence the doxology with which the passage ends. (See Barclay, William. Daily Bible Readings: The Epistles to Timothy and Titus. Edinburgh: Church of Scotland, 1956.)

Trust and acceptance play a considerable role in “Paul’s” thinking at this point. He had been trusted with the task of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. Accepted by God for the man he was, he had accepted this heavy responsibility in the face of strong opposition by the Jerusalem apostles as well as his fellow Jews. Now he wanted nothing more than to have his hearers accept his message: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” In vs. 18, he urges Timothy to make this his mandate too.

LUKE 15:1-10. These two vignettes from the daily life of a Palestinian peasant are often overlooked because of their proximity to the much more familiar parable that follows. They tell the story of God’s love for the lost and God’s wholly undeserved grace that offers full and free forgiveness. Note that both parables emphasize the joyful celebration when the lost article is found. The allusion is to God’s joy over a sinner who repents. To God, everyone is important – and loved with an indiscriminate love. No one is excluded. This crucially significant truth speaks to our time when doubt and disbelief often overwhelm faith and guilt causes some to separate from the Christian community. In each of these two parables, we have profound theology spoken with great simplicity.

But think of how these stories may have occurred to Jesus? His home in Nazareth was on the northern slope of a low range of rugged hills overlooking the rich agricultural region, the Plain of Esraeldon. The hills were too rocky only for anything but herding sheep. How many times has he seen or had helped his shepherd neighbours searching those hills long hours into the night for a single lost sheep. Then, having found it, celebrating with them when they had brought the wandering beast safely home to the sheepfold where the rest of the flock were securely enclosed. Perhaps he had often been included in just such a celebration in a neighbour’s home in Nazareth.

Was one sheep so valuable? To a poor shepherd, a single lamb would have been precious. His whole livelihood depended on maximizing the number of lambs his herd produced and brought to marketable size. Is it any wonder that the incident sprang into Jesus’ mind as he sought to show how much God loves even the most foolish and undeserving of sinners?

As for the woman who had lost a coin, could she not be Jesus’ own mother, Mary, whose anxiety and joy he recalled so vividly? How often had he come into their humble home from his carpenter shop to find Mary happily celebrating with her closest friends over a refreshing cup of diluted vinegar-wine, a popular beverage among the poor. They made it by pouring water over the skins and stalks left over from the crushing of grapes for wine, then allowing it to ferment.

A single coin among ten would have been of great value to the struggling family, perhaps now left fatherless by the death of Joseph as legend tells it. In his Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography, Bruce Chilton infers that Jesus did not have very happy relationships with his family after Joseph died. Even a mamzer (an outcast because his birth had been suspicious), would have retained such memories of home as he wandered far and wide during his “hidden” years. As a wandering rabbi, however, he knew that memories such as these would connect directly with his audience who presumably were peasant folk too for the most part.

SOME ADDITIONAL PREACHING NOTES.

 JEREMIAH 4:11-12, 22-28. A quick scanning of Middle Eastern history will reveal that this part of the globe has been a cockpit of violent history since time immemorial. In many ways it still is. Archaeologists believe that human civilization began here when wandering hunter-gathering tribes turned to agriculture as they learned to plant wild grains and domesticated wild animals for staple foods. The rich lands of the Fertile Crescent that sweeps westward from the Persian Gulf up the Tigris-Euphrates River valleys across to the Mediterranean Sea and south to the Nile River valley were the basic land resource for growing populations searching for more dependable food supplies. For millennia the city states and great empires of this region sought security through armed conflicts and invasions that crossed and re-crossed this rich territory.

The region was also the birthplace of the three living monotheist religious traditions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. From the anthropological point of view, all of these traditions have been rooted in the human desire and search for peace and security. On the other hand, their religious and political institutions have also had serious problems with violent conflict as the means of self-defense or aggressive hostility toward perceived enemies that were often each other. This tragedy still defeats their highest aims that there may true peace, freedom, security and plentiful resources for abundant life. In a global society such as we now have, this is a grave danger for all humanity.

Jeremiah’s insight that this is fundamentally a religious and moral problem is succinctly expressed in vs. 22 of this passage. The inevitable end of these brutal conflicts is devastatingly portrayed in the concluding vss. 23-28 unless we change our ways.

 1 TIMOTHY 1:12-17. How important is it to encumber a sermon, as some preachers protest, with details about varying exegetical? One of the failures of the mainline churches has been to keep such complexities from congregations except in intimate bible study groups with few members. The result has been the proliferation of biblical literalism so common in the many highly publicized radio and television preachers to say nothing of journalists who often misquote scripture. Even a brief sentence or paragraph saying that there have been serious debates about the origins of several letters attributed to Paul, chief among them the Pastoral Letters, in surely enough to raise the level of understanding in a congregation.

LUKE 15:1-10. Is it ever wise to use one’s imagination in portraying the homely situation that may well have been the background for some of Jesus’ parables and teaching? At times such background narrative may well create helpful connections in the minds of those who hear. Dramatic presentations and dialogues of such passages can be very useful if well done. People remember stories much better than sound counsel delivered in carefully constructed paragraphs. Such narratives or dramas help people relate the gospel message to their own lives.

A former colleague of mine, now deceased, grew up and was a candidate for ordered ministry from St. James United Church, Montreal, Canada in the late 1930s. He told of listening with rapt attention to the preaching of Rev. Dr. Lloyd C. Douglas, noted fiction writer of Magnificent Obsession, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, and The Big Fisherman. It was Douglas’ flair for imaginative narrative preaching that drew large congregations to that great downtown church even on Sunday evenings. His ability to create imaginative scenarios for the scripture lessons was the gift that many so greatly admired. Like his preaching, his novels often sprang from questions members of his congregation asked him about the background of a single biblical incident or story. The story may be apocryphal true that a woman once approached him after a service and asked, “Whatever became of the robe that the soldiers gambled for when Jesus’ was crucified?” The result of his imaginative ruminating on that question produced what may have been Douglas’ greatest work, The Robe.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Proper 17  Ordinary 22

August 29, 2010

JEREMIAH 2:4-13. Jeremiah addressed a spiritual crisis in Israel in the late 7th century BC.  After a long period of apostasy, the covenanted people had had very little contact with God.  Successful living in a productive new homeland had corrupted them. Worship of false gods had alienated them. Even the priests and the interpreters of the law had little knowledge of how to relate to God. Prophets were more familiar with Baal, the Canaanite fertility god. The rulers had done nothing but transgress. The nation had lost its moral compass and sense of commitment because it had exchanged its covenant relationship with God for a deity symbolized by idols.

PSALM 81:1, 10-16. This psalm begins in a joyful celebration which may have belonged in a festival liturgy celebrating the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt. It may also have been used at the thanksgiving Feast of Tabernacles. The latter part, however, sounds more like a prophetic oracle similar to Jeremiah’s complaint that Israel had forsaken its religious roots in the worship of God.

SIRACH 10:12-18. (Alternate OT reading.) Also known as Ecclesiasticus, Sirach is in the Apocrypha of most Protestant Bibles because it was not included in the Jewish canon. Although originally written in Hebrew, Jerome did include it in his Latin Vulgate translated from the Greek version; hence its appearance in the Roman Catholic canon. This excerpt contains a strong critique of human pride and how God deals with those who are proud.

PSALM 112. (Alternate.) This didactic psalm resonates with both the Deuteronomist tradition with emphasis on the just rewards of the righteous combined with the prophetic tradition of social justice.

HEBREWS 13:1-8, 15-16. For Christians, ethical behavior is always rooted in faith. The dietary rules omitted from this reading make obvious reference to the strict Levitical Code, ostensibly given to Moses during the Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness. The community to which this “Letter” was written may well have been predominantly Jewish struggling with the freedom of their new faith is Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah.

LUKE 14:1, 7-14. Jesus had been invited to the home of a leading Pharisee for the sabbath meal. He turned out to be an unwelcome guest. First, he nearly broke up the party by healing a man afflicted with dropsy (edema, excessive retention of fluids). To add to that offence, he gave the other guests a scolding that certainly must have shamed some if not all of them. Then he turned on his host to give him a further lecture about whom he ought to have invited to dinner.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

 JEREMIAH 2:4-13. Jeremiah addressed a spiritual crisis in Israel in the late 7^th century BCE.  After a long period of apostasy, many of the covenanted people had very little contact with Yahweh. The intimacy of their religious experience in the wilderness had vanished amid successful living in a plentiful, productive new homeland (vss. 6-7). Even the priests and the interpreters of the law had no longer an adequate knowledge of how to relate to Yahweh. The false prophets were more familiar with Baal, the ancient Canaanite fertility god, and the rulers had done nothing but transgress (vs. 8). In short, the nation had lost its moral compass and sense of commitment because it had changed its faith tradition for vapid fantasies without power to save or provide for the needs of Yahweh’s chosen people (vss. 9-11).

Against this calamitous situation Jeremiah cried out on Yahweh’s behalf (vs. 12). He charged the people with two great evils which he summed up in a striking metaphor. They have forsaken the fountain of living water for cracked and leaking cisterns of their own invention.

In Jeremiah’s time (ca. 600 BCE) cisterns meant the difference between life and death if the springs went dry. This is the image that Jeremiah used to portray his people’s spiritual crisis. It would have been difficult for us in a land of such plentiful water to imagine just how challenging this metaphor would have been. Yet within the past few years, Canadians have been made aware of how valuable our water resources by two serious development. In 2007 scientists, UN agency representatives and professionals from more than 130 countries met in Sweden to discuss the world’s water needs and resources. More than 2,000 participants from 150 different business, government, water management and intergovernmental organizations gathered as the annual World Water Week launched in Stockholm. The purpose of the meeting is to create strategies and partnerships to help combat water shortages around the world.

A second issue has arisen as a result of excessive use and abuse of water in parts of the United States, and the prolonged heat wave and drought there. Canada’s abundant water resources are suddenly in demand as a commercially profitable bulk commodity rather than a public resource for the use of all at reasonable cost. At present the export of water in bulk is still illegal.

Other countries also view Canada’s fresh water with similar envy. It has been estimated that 15-20% of all the fresh water resources in the world lie within Canadian boundaries. To whom do these resources belong? What does God require of us in the near future regarding their use? How are they to be made available to those in need?

Is this not a moral and spiritual crisis for us? Are there not remarkable similarities between the spiritual crises in Jeremiah’s time and now?

PSALM 81:1, 10-16. It is thought that this psalm may have belonged in a festival liturgy celebrating the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt. The rabbinical Mishnah  of the 2^nd century CE cited it as the psalm for the fifth day of the week. It may also have been used at the feast of Tabernacles, one of the three major “pilgrim festivals” (vs. 3).

There is no obvious reason to omit vss. 2-9.  Certainly it begins in a joyful celebration (vss.1-5) followed by a recitation of Yahweh’s past blessings to Israel especially during the Exodus, the journey through the wilderness and settlement in Canaan (vss. 6-9). The latter part (vss. 11-16), however, sounds more like a prophetic oracle similar to Jeremiah’s complaint.  Yahweh longs for the people’s faithfulness, but they follow their own devices. Vs. 10 could be associated with either the preceding or following segment.

The moon figured largely in the religious traditions of most Semitic peoples and was the basis for their calendars. The Jews were no exception. The reference to blowing the trumpet to signal the new moon may reflect an ancient superstition that evil spirits were rampant during the dark of the moon. The sounding of the ram’s horn announced the autumn festival of in-gathering which was later celebrated by the building of booths recalling the tabernacle of the Israelites’ wilderness years. In later Judaism, the new moon of the seventh month, Tishri, became Ro’sh ha-Shanah, the beginning of a new year.

Vs. 6 actually belongs with the second segment of the psalm rather than the opening praise. The “load” (“burden” – NRSV) and the “basket” refer to the tools used by the Israelites spent during their later years in Egypt as slaves conscripted to build the temple of Pharaoh Ramses II. The NEB transposes vs. 16 to follow vs. 7 on the premise that it fits the context better. It makes yet another reference to divine providence that supplied the Israelites with sustenance during their trek to the Promised Land.

The psalm contains distinct undertones of the challenge of the two ways of life and death, the blessing and the curse, Yahweh set before Israel according to the farewell address of Moses in Deut. 29-30. This was the Deuteronomic tradition that so influenced the reconstruction period of post-exilic times.

SIRACH 10:12-18. (Alternate OT reading.) Also known as Ecclesiasticus, Sirach is in the Apocrypha of most Protestant Bibles. Nor was it included in the Jewish canon. It was originally composed from notes in Hebrew by a famed teacher of Wisdom in the years just prior to the Maccabean Revolt in 168 BCE. A Greek translation appeared in 132 BCE by the grandson of Jesus ben Sirach. Jerome included it in his Latin Vulgate translated from the Greek. Hence its appearance in the Roman Catholic canon following another apocryphal Book of Wisdom and placed between the Song of Songs and Isaiah.

Maintaining a traditional Deuternomic attitude toward covenant theology and retributional morality, Sirach has many of the characteristics of Proverbs with aphorisms and acrostic poetry teaching practical wisdom to students of Sirach’s ‘academy.’

This excerpt contains a strong critique of human pride and how God deals with those who are proud. Sirach’s traditional style and ethics find full expression in these few verses. The vivid images of vss. 10-11 reveal a bold realism about death. This moves quickly to an exhortation about the source and folly of human pride. Alienation from God inevitably results in the pain and sorrow of human afflictions.

The fall of rulers from their prestigious thrones may well reflect the disturbed era in which Sirach lived. In 171 BCE, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Seleucid inheritor of Alexander the Great’s empire, deposed the last legitimate high priest of Zadokite decent, and appointed a Benjaminite in his stead. Since the Maccabean Revolt occurred shortly after this act of treachery, the poem has a prophetic note to it. One also hears the cry for social justice in Mary’s song, the Magnificat, in the words of Sirach.

PSALM 112. (Alternate.) This didactic psalm resonates with both the Deuteronomist tradition with emphasis on the just rewards of the righteous and the prophetic tradition of social justice. Due to their acrostic style and several common terms, scholars hypothesize that it comes from the same hand as Psalm 111. It also resembles some aspects of Psalm 1, especially in vs. 1.

The generosity of the rich toward the more vulnerable of society reiterates the righteousness and reward motif that has motivated much Jewish and Christian philanthropy through the ages. All too easily, one can slip into the reverse attitude that because one is rich, one may consider oneself righteous.

HEBREWS 13:1-8, 15-16. As in so many other NT letters, this concluding chapter of this letter contains a number of admonitions to the assembly to whom it was written. These words of advice set before this congregation the high moral standards expected of them in their particular setting. The most singular preaching text of the passage is surely vs. 8.      However, can it be interpreted in today’s environment as it was intended at that time?

The dietary rules of vss. 9-14 make obvious reference to the strict Levitical code ostensibly given by Yahweh to Moses in the tent of meeting during the Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness. The community to which the letter was written may well have been predominantly Jewish struggling with the freedom of their new faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah. Certainly an extended struggle between the Jerusalem apostolate led by James, the brother of Jesus, and the Pauline Gentile apostolate occurred within many nascent Christian communities of the lst century CE.

A contrarian view of this struggle has been extensively discussed in relation to the Qumran Community and James, in Robert Eisenman’s The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians. (Castle Books, 1996). Eisenman believes that some of the Scrolls, especially the Community Rule, the Damscus Document and the Habakkuk Pesher,  were products, not of the Essenes, but of “Zaddokite” successors to the Macabbees within the Christian fellowship. They espoused a traditional messianic and apocalyptic view of Hebrew scripture during the under the leadership of James. Prior to the Jewish War (68-70 CE), these traditionalists were driven out of Jerusalem by establishment Sadducees and Pharisees and the Pauline faction of the early Christian community who favoured Paul’s Gentile mission while also supporting the Herodian monarchy and the Romans.

It is clear that for Christians then and now ethical behavior is rooted in faith. Our relationship with Christ helps us to behave as we should toward one another. The moral counsel of vss. 1-5 springs from the faith summed up in vss. 6-8. Because we believe in the unchangeable Christ, we behave in certain disciplined ways that others may not share. We do so confidently with the help of God and following the example of those who shared this faith with us. Such a life may involve sacrifice, but we may think of such sacrifice as an act of worship offered to God.

As is so often the case in Hebrews, the whole passage expressed the prophetic spirit that continually recalled Israel to its covenantal relationship as the true form of liturgy. Yet it does justice also to the liturgical traditions which shaped the Jewish identity and culture in the post-exilic period when the reconstructed Second Temple became the focal point of national life and historical events. The Letter to the Hebrews tried to identify for Hebrew Christians the moral and spiritual reality they had both continuity and discontinuity with their ancient traditions.

LUKE 14:1, 7-14. Party time! Jesus had been invited to the home of a leading Pharisee for the sabbath meal. Then he nearly broke up the party by healing a man afflicted with dropsy (edema or excessive retention of fluids). To add to that offence, he put the other guests on the spot and gave them a scolding that certainly must have shamed some if not all of them. After all, it was their silence which provoked his rebuke. Then he recalled how they had been vying for the places of honor, presumably closest to the host or guest of honor. Luke does not tell us if Jesus was that honored guest. One can imagine some of the guests trying to win his favor by sitting close to him so they could engage him in a more intimate conversation. As the parable he told them indicates, his scorned their obsequious behavior (vss. 8-11).

Then he turned on his host and gave him a further lecture about whom he ought to have invited to dinner. Some party! Some guest! How embarrassed – or how angry – everyone must have felt when that dinner ended. Think of the many disgruntled conversations as they made their way home.

Did it really happen that way? Or is Luke just putting these teachings about honor, pride, prestige and caring for people who are marginalized in a dramatic context which still strikes home in our own hypocritical society? Isn’t Jesus portrayed here as being someone a little beyond an annoying radical who liked to ridicule the Pharisees at every turn? Isn’t this revolutionary talk?

SOME ADDITIONAL PREACHING POINTS

JEREMIAH 2:4-13. In Israel to this day, water is the most precious resource. Water from the Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan is pumped throughout the country as far south as Beersheba in the Negev desert so that adequate food can be grown. Even in the Palestinian communities of the Gaza Strip, the Israelis dominate the water supply to provide fertile fields and water for few thousand Israelis settlers who lived there until recently under the guardianship of the Israelis military.

It has been said, perhaps too simplistically, that Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians could be resolved if the water supply could be fairly shared. In Israel itself, it is against the law to use electricity generated by imported oil to heat water for bathing. Every home and apartment has a black tank on its roof to supply water heated by the sun for this purpose. Cisterns still preserve the often sparse winter rainfall for use during the long dry summers. Yet Israeli consumption of the limited water supply is several times that of the Palestinians.

PSALM 81:1, 10-16. In his excellent paraphrase of the Psalms in the language and images of today, Jim Taylor sets this one as a parent celebrating a child’s graduation day, then asking some difficult questions: “In your celebration, where is there room for me? In your joy, what credit do you give to me? I am the one who sustained you through the tough times.” The modern metaphor transforms the psalm into a spiritual challenge as powerful as Jeremiah’s in the previous reading. Taylor’s small but helpful book gives a refreshing new slant to these old hymns.  (Taylor, James. Everyday Psalms. Wood Lake Press, 1994)

HEBREWS 13:1-8, 15-16. A brief summary of this lesson in Gathering published on the United Church of Canada’s website, said with tongue in cheek perhaps, “the lectionary has edited out the admonitions about avoiding dietary dogma. (These could be useful for those who are less than politically correct on diet.)” That appears to be a misreading of the omitted segment (vss. 9-14) of the concluding chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. Rather, the dietary constraints seem more like the author’s warning against an ascetic heresy or the efforts of the Judaizers which was confusing the community to which he/she is writing. More details of this heresy, which some scholars believe to have been an early form of Gnosticism and others regard as more Jewish in origin, can be found in commentaries on the Letter to the Colossians.

In her book, The Case for God, (A. A . Knopf, 2009; 102) Karen Armstrong  states that  in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions faith is not belief in a creed or set of doctrinal propositions, but “a matter of practical insight and active commitment; it has little to do with abstract belief or theological conjectures.” This remains so, she strongly asserts, in Judaism and Islam, but has not existed in the Christian tradition since the 4th century CE. That was when Christians ” developed a preoccupation with doctrinal correctness that would  become its Achilles heel.”

LUKE 14:1, 7-14. At the present time in the Province of Ontario, Canada, we are just beginning to get used to what has been euphemistically called “a harmonized sales tax” (HST). It was designed to bring into a single tax that our federal and provincial governments collect on most consumer goods. Prior to July 1, 2010 separate provincial and federal sales taxes were charged on different consumer items. Businesses have generally approved the HST because it reduces the amount of bookkeeping and forwarding of the tax revenues involved to the respective governments. However, many consumers and consumer advocates have protested vociferously as a way to increase consumer taxes surreptitiously. To deal the anticipated protests, the provincial government will issue cheques in varying amounts up to $1,000 to each household depending on their reported taxable income. A portion of these payments went out before the new tax was imposed. The publicity by the government stated that the HST will save everyone money, especially lower income families, despite there being some consumer items which will now be taxed which were previously tax free.

This is the way we package public policy so as to deceive ourselves and everyone else that we do indeed care for “the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.” We mask our demands for extensive tax reductions as necessary for the good of the new global economy and the future of our grandchildren, but also mandate the reduction of the social safety net so necessary for the less advantaged.

Do we really have the kind of free, just and caring society won by bloody sacrifice which the war memorials in every church, city, town and village are intended to honor? How much are we willing to do to lift the barriers that prohibit the poor of our communities and of the world from sharing all the benefits we want for ourselves? How will our congregations go home from this sabbath’s banquet if such words were to be uttered from our pulpits?

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Proper 16 – Ordinary 21

August 22, 2010

JEREMIAH 1:4-10. Like many who experience such a meeting with God, Jeremiah at first demurred because of his youth. That brought forth both reaffirmation and reassurances from God. Such confirmation comes as an intense inner confidence of being chosen. Like so many similar calls to Israel’s great prophets, Jeremiah’s prophecies reveal a firm grasp of the election motif founded on the Mosaic covenant.

PSALM 71:1-6. This psalm appears as a traditional lament, but does not repeat parts of the classical lament form of an appeal, a complaint, a petition and a vow of thanksgiving in regular sequence. It connection with the previous lesson about Jeremiah’s call is in vs. 3.

ISAIAH 58:9b-14. (Alternate) This is one of four strophes of a poem that extends through the whole of ch. 58 dealing with the kind service that pleases Yahweh. The prophet seeks to inspire the exiles returning from Babylon to a deeper faithfulness to the covenant tradition.

PSALM 103:1-8. (Alternate)   This psalm, or at least this selection of it, has been committed to memory by and brought comfort to countless generations. It captures the breadth and depth of human experience, but places utter dependence of the believer on the grace and mercy of God.

 HEBREWS 12:18-29. By alluding to well-known parts of the Torah, the Jewish scriptures, this passage stresses the distinction between the covenant of God with Israel at Mount Sinai and that of Calvary, where  Jesus Christ was crucified. While Sinai stressed the majesty, unapproachability and sheer terror of God, Calvary stressed the glory that awaits the Christian believer in the assembly of the saints in the heavenly Jerusalem. This festive gathering is not only with the angels and the martyred saints, but brings the believer into the very presence of God and Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

LUKE 13:10-17. As he often did, Luke placed a woman at the centre of the story. The lay leader of a synagogue challenged Jesus indignantly. Was he more concerned about protecting his turf and buffering against anticipated criticism from more orthodox fellow Jews? Jesus condemned his hypocrisy while the audience rejoiced at what they saw Jesus doing.

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 A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

 JEREMIAH1:4-10. We know who Jeremiah was and approximately when he lived from the brief introductory note which precedes this passage. As a member of a priestly family, possibly a descendant of Abiathar whom Solomon had exiled to Anathoth. (1 Kings 2:26-27), he had a cause to defend. The exact date of his call as a prophet is still disputed among scholars, but certainly it was during the last quarter of the 7^th century BCE. According to narrative details later in the book, he was still alive in Egypt after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BCE (40:1- 44:30).

Vss. 4-5 suggest that the traditions of his ancestors had a great influence on him. This prepared him to be open to such a life-changing spiritual experience as a call to be a prophet, i.e. a spokesperson for Yahweh, rather than a predictor of events to come.

Like many who experience such a meeting with Yahweh, Jeremiah at first demurred because of his youth (vs.6). That brought forth both a reaffirmation and reassurances from Yahweh (vss.7-8). Such confirmation comes as an intense inner confidence of being chosen. Like Hosea a century earlier, Jeremiah’s prophecies reveal a firm grasp of the election motif founded on the Mosaic covenant.

Jeremiah’s experience of election included a vision similar to that of Isaiah. In this instance, however, the hand of Yahweh, not a live coal carried by a seraph, touched Jeremiah’s mouth giving him the power to speak in Yahweh’s name (vss. 9-10). Visual or auditory spiritual experiences may be interpreted by some as hallucinations of an overly imaginative religious mind. Yet a vast company of deeply committed persons have testified that their vocational experiences come from a deepening faith, not infrequently after a very traumatic experience in everyday life.

Julian of Norwich, a female mystic of the 14^th century, had mystical visions which are just one example of such “holy hallucinations.” Her “Showings” or “Revelations” have attracted a good deal of attention in recent years because of their unusually graphic descriptions of Jesus’ sufferings on the cross and the assurance she received from these that “all will be well.” These experiences came to her as she recovered from a nearly fatal illness, possibly a physical or mental illness related to the Black Death in which she appears to have lost most of her family.

This story of Jeremiah’s call tells us that faith interprets whatever happens as having spiritual significance. Are there prophets like Jeremiah or Julian of Norwich who will help us to interpret the signs of our traumatic times with equal assurance that the Lord of History has not abandoned the universe to a destructive fate?

PSALM 71:1-6. W. Stewart McCullough, the exegete in The Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1955, vol. 4, 372) assigns this psalm a unique title, “The tired refuge of an aged saint.” There are references to old age in vss. 9 and 18. Though the psalm appears to be a lament, it does not adopt the typical classical form of such a psalm with an appeal, a complaint, a petition and a vow of thanksgiving in regular sequence. Instead, it repeats some aspects of this formula more than once.

In this introductory excerpt vss. 1-3 almost exactly repeat the words of Psalm 31:1-3 with a second appeal immediately following (vss. 4-6). One can speculate that a copyist added the opening lines to the original beginning. If vs.4 is the opening line, it throws us right into the psalmist’s reason for calling out for divine intervention. He is beset by enemies, a theme continued throughout the rest of the lament. Lifelong experience drives the petitioner to seek refuge from God while at the same time offering God due praise (vss. 5-6). Seeking closer contact with God in troubled times is the natural response for anyone who lives a life of faith.

ISAIAH 58:9b-14. (Alternate) Scholars tell us that not all the poetry of Isaiah 40-66 can be attributed to the unnamed prophet of the Exile. Those poems in chs. 56-66 may actually be from a later school, sometimes called Third Isaiah. They modelled their poems after his style. This is one of four strophes of a poem that extends through the whole of ch. 58 dealing with the kind service that pleased Yahweh. The prophet sought to inspire the exiles returning from Babylon to a deeper faithfulness to the covenant tradition.

While dating the poem may have its difficulties, at least one commentator believes that it stands somewhere between the prophecies of Deutero-Isaiah and Zechariah. Vss. 11-12 give fairly clear clues that reflect the actual circumstances in Jerusalem and Judah when the exiles returned home. No prophet stands alone and this is particularly noticeable in this poem. Vss. 9-10 show the definitive influence of the earlier prophets of social justice. Echoes of the Deuteronomic Code in admonitions about keeping the Sabbath also resound through vs. 13.

Vs. 14 wraps the whole poem in the traditional promise made long before to Jacob that the land of Palestine would belong his descendants. However mythical and unhistorical that event may have been, it inspired the national dream of the Zionist movement in the late 19^th century. It also motivated the Balfour Declaration of 1917 adopted by the British government in 1917: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” In 1948, the United Nations created the modern state of Israel base on this declaration. In the more than half century since, the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians has had its roots in this biblical promise and its political implications.

PSALM 103:1-8. (Alternate)   This psalm, or at least this selection of it, has been committed to memory and by and brought comfort to countless generations. It captures the breadth and depth of human experience, but places utter dependence of the believer on the grace and mercy of God.

As one commentator put it, “Scarcely any other part of the OT lets us perceive the truth that God is love so intimately.” One wonders if Paul had this psalm in mind as he wrote to the Ephesians: “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3: 18-19.)

“The Pit” referred to in vs. 3 stood as a synonym for Sheol, the shadowy existence beyond death from which there could be no hope for return. The vivid image in vs. 4 of “youth being renewed like the eagle’s” brings to mind the longevity, strength and size of that majestic bird, but it may also refer to either the annual molting of every bird during which they cannot fly well. Or it may recall the legend of the phoenix rising out of the ashes. The poet of Job also spoke of that legend (Job 29:18). Deutero-Isaiah also used a similar image (Isa. 40:31).

The prophetic tradition of justice and Yahweh’s covenant with Moses  also stood out in the poet’s mind. Rooted in grace and mercy these remained the hallmarks of Israelite theology and could never be hidden in the liturgical hymnody of Israel. While no date can ever be proved and there is no sign of an acrostic, the existence of 22 verses in the psalm corresponds to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This may point to a relatively late origin when liturgists and the teachers of Wisdom sought to bring the ancient traditions to view for fresh consideration by each new generation.

HEBREWS 12:18-29. The author of the so-called “Letter to the Hebrews” knew the Torah thoroughly and may have had a copy of the Greek Septuagint (LXX) close at hand while composing this extended theological essay. In this passage there are several references to the covenanting of Israel at Mount Sinai. We can detect allusions to Exodus 19:12-13, Deuteronomy 4:11, 5:23-27 and 9:19. The real focus of these allusions, however, is the contrast between the covenant of Sinai and that of Calvary, between Moses and Jesus Christ.

The very first words of this passage tell us where the author comes down. Here too Mount Zion and Jerusalem stand as symbols for the heavenly city and the presence of God. (Note: Our English word “Calvary” derives from the Latin word calvaria meaning “skull” translated from the Aramaic Golgotha.)

While Sinai stressed the majesty, unapproachability and sheer terror of being confronted by Yahweh (vss.18-21), Calvary stressed the glory that awaits the Christian believer in the assembly of the saints in the heavenly Jerusalem (vss. 21-24). This festive gathering is not only with the angels and the martyred saints, but brings believers into the very presence of God and Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

These contrasting scenes lead to a warning which is in itself a further contrast (vss. 25-29). The voices of Moses and of Jesus uttered distinctive messages, but they spoke with totally different authority. According to the author of this letter, Jesus delivered the perfect message of the Gospel, not the imperfect message of the Torah. By recalling several references to various psalms (Pss. 114:7; 68:8; 77:18), the writer drives home his point that we are obligated to worship and serve God with due reverence so that we may indeed find ourselves embraced by the sovereignty of divine love which shall not pass away.

While the multiple references to Israel’s history and the covenant of Sinai may be entirely scriptural, it is also probable that the author intended them to be read against the background of the actual events of the last two or three decades of the first century of the Christian era. Jerusalem and its temple had been destroyed by the Romans in 69-70 CE. The surviving Jews and Jewish Christians alike had been widely dispersed throughout the empire. Both struggled to survive and maintain their traditions in a social and political environment increasingly inhospitable to moral monotheism, let alone a new eschatological messianism. The final shaping of the Hebrew canon progressed rapidly at this time, reaching its culmination at the rabbinical Synod of Jamnia ca. 85-90 CE. It is generally agreed that this distinctive Christian apologia was composed about this same time. It would be accepted as part of the uniquely Christian canon in the next century.

Is it not entirely feasible that the whole motive behind the composition of The Letter to the Hebrews was the appearance of the Hebrew canon as the authoritative scriptures of the Jewish people? Would not this hypothesis be strongly reinforced by the extensive quotations from the Hebrew canon, especially if the purpose of the document was, as the classical view of the book held, to prevent Jewish Christians from turning back to Judaism?

LUKE 13:10-17. The old issue of how to mark the sabbath surfaces once again in this pericope. And again as he often does, Luke places a woman at the centre of the story. One has to wonder if “Luke” was, in fact, a well-educated woman like Lydia or Priscilla who concealed her identity behind an obviously male name and that of an obscure fellow traveler of Paul.

The healing of the woman crippled for eighteen years caused yet another confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities. In this case the leader of the synagogue, a layman, challenged Jesus indignantly. Was his a genuine religious concern rooted in the Torah or was he just protecting his turf and attempting to buffer anticipated criticism he would face from his more orthodox fellow Jews?

Jesus lashed out in condemnation of such hypocrisy. He drew a parallel between the compassion he had just shown for the woman and the perfectly normal care the man would give his beasts of burden, sabbath day or not. One senses the bitter sarcasm in Jesus’ voice, designed to silence the man’s protest and show him up as a fool in front of the assembled community, his dominant male peers in particular. The cutting edge of Jesus’ rebuke put him to shame. Gathered around the three, the whole crowd rejoiced. One can almost hear them clapping with glee, especially the women.

Point, set and match to Jesus of Nazareth. The woman left triumphantly to celebrate her new freedom from pain and disability with a coterie of her friends. Jesus smiled with pleasure as he watched them go.

How do we decide what to do on our sabbath day? Isn’t the best way to determine whether our plans are caring and compassionate; or selfishly focused?

SOME ADDITIONAL PREACHING NOTES.

JEREMIAH 1:4-10. That Jeremiah was a priest as well as a prophet should not be surprising. Watching his forebears trying to remain faithful to Israel’s covenant with Yahweh as they conducted the liturgies and sing the praises of Israel could well have inspired a religious experience in the young boy. That commitment to ministry runs in families is still a common phenomenon.

In my own ancestry, we can identify almost every generation from the beginning of the 17^th century with one or more members of the ordained clergy or prominent lay leaders of the church. I recall vividly standing beside my parents, singing hymns in a congregation where 20 worshipers was a crowd. Both parents were active lay leaders in the congregation and the children of lay leaders in other congregations. Several of my siblings also took leadership roles in their congregations. The family often sang similar hymns at home on Sunday evenings as my mother played an old pump organ. At any point on the branches of the genealogical tree, the commitment could cease. Only God knows where or when.

The message Jeremiah received had historical characteristics, indicative of the turbulent times in which he lived. Like ourselves, Jeremiah ministered during a period often described as “fin de siècle” (in English: “end of the century”). That French phrase describes the two decades spanning the turn of a century or a millennium. During this period some have seen contemporary events taking on a more intense and critical significance as society moves toward unknown and uncharted changes resulting from technological, social and political upheavals.

We have just lived through two decades that could well be seen from that perspective. This “fin de siècle” anxiety may be more of a psychological phenomenon than a historical fact. Human relationships, even on a personal level quite apart from national and international events, always have causative antecedents which bring about subsequent results. Events occur in every period to create the impression of trauma and disaster with resulting angst.

PSALM 71:1-6. Vs. 6 presents an excellent opportunity to address one of the critical moral issues of our time, the debate on scientific research into and cloning of embyronic cells. Of course, the psalmist was totally ignorant of such sophisticated scientific issues that confront us today. Life in his mother’s womb was about as much as the psalmist knew. How he got there had some relation to sexuality and human reproduction, but apart from that, the process of conception and embryonic development was a mystery. It is most likely that the Hebrews shared the general view of most ancient cultures that the male sperm was the vessel, frequently called “the seed” as in plants, in which life was transmitted from generation to generation. The female womb, though important, was no more than the receptacle in which life of the child grew before birth.

On the other hand, the life of a child in the womb, whether the child was male or female, was also considered as a sacred gift of Yahweh to the Israelites. Israel’s covenant with Yahweh as a specially chosen people added a further element of holiness to sexuality, conception and childbirth. Religious controls over sexual practices and marriage also sprang from this sense that human sexuality is holy. It is this element of holiness which religious traditions have added to the debate about embryonic research and cloning.

This is an issue with which all religious people must struggle: When does “human” life begin in the spiritual as well as the physical sense? A further issue is whether a clump of cells less than a week old with the potential for growing into a child in a mother’s womb has eternal as well as temporal value. To some extent the debate can be avoided by the harvesting of stem cells from the umbilical blood of a newborn infant. This issue has to be set over against the value of the medical benefits scientific research may derive for other living humans with a deficient genetic structure or diseases which may be healed through the introduction of new embryonic or umbilical stem cells.

We may well have something to contribute to the debate among puzzled members of our congregations. After all, we proclaim the gospel of eternal divine love incarnate in a child born in a mother’s womb. Put it this way: When did Jesus become a living, human being?

LUKE 13:10-17. While Israel generally is regarded as a modern secular state, it still must give appropriate recognition to the more fundamentalist religious elements of its Jewish population. In the past weeks an open debate between ultra-orthodox rabbis who control the powerful rabbinical council have been in open conflict with Reformed and Conservative rabbis, many from the USA, who want the rules for who is an acceptable Jew in modern Israel relaxed so that their liturgies, marriages and other practices will be treated as valid.

Debates about the traditional Law of Moses still disturb the body politic to a considerable extent. Such arguments have serious political implications for the current government. The Likud party depends on the ultra-orthodox parties for sustaining a majority in the Knesset.

In recent years on any Sabbath day in Jerusalem, cars driven through parts of the city inhabited by ultra-orthodox Jews have been pelted with rocks and other debris for doing what is forbidden by the local residents.

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”  Did Jesus turn this fourth commandment on its head? Well, he went to the synagogue, didn’t he? Didn’t that give him the freedom to spend the rest of the day freely, doing whatever he liked? Or did he just give us permission to do only what was good and loving and helpful for others?

That was a common view when I was a child in a small community in Quebec, Canada, that was 95% French Roman Catholic. The general rule in our town was that if you attended mass on Sunday morning, it was quite acceptable to go visiting, attend baseball or ice hockey games, the horse races or a political meeting in the afternoon. This was also the general practice for the few Protestant village and farm families when the morning chores were done. Was this local culture the reason why many of my generation in the Protestant families married Roman Catholics and raised their children in that religious tradition? Was it the family culture of two of the families most regularly at worship subsequently there were two members of the order of ministry and several lay leaders in that and later in other congregations?

Many years later I read a book, “The Revenge of the Methodist Bicycle Company,” describing the struggle for a more open Sunday in Toronto in the 1890s. For several years the city council had struggled to keep the street railway system out of bankruptcy. Finally, it was decided against the stern opposition of some of the leading Protestant churches, the council voted to let the street railway operate on Sundays.

The argument mounted against it was that the labouring folk who were the greater users of the system would go off to the beaches or skating rinks on Sundays. They would then be too late or tired to attend the Sunday evening services. In those days, those were always the best attended services. There was no better form of Sunday evening entertainment than the lively singing and a rousing sermon. That was the time and place when young people did their courting in an acceptable milieu.

However, a group of Methodist businessmen organized a new company that manufactured the newly invented bicycle. All summer long, the folk who wanted to go to Toronto’s famous lakefront beaches could do as they pleased by getting themselves bicycles and riding away while the street cars passed by empty and losing even more money by operating on Sundays.

It was another 40 years before professional baseball or hockey games were allowed in Toronto. And another 30 years before stores and shopping centres were permitted to open for business.

So how do we spend our Sundays in 2010 when only a small minority of the people anywhere ever go near a church to worship? Does it matter any more in this secular age? How is faith expressed most effectively on the Sabbath day?

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PROPER 15 – ORDINARY 20

AUGUST 15, 2010

ISAIAH 5:1-7. Israel and Judah, the northern and southern kingdoms resulting from the breakup of the united kingdom of David and Solomon, were being threatened by advancing Assyrian armies circa 722 BC. Isaiah saw this threat as God’s judgment for the injustice and apostasy of God’s people. This lyrical poem described them as a vineyard that failed to produce good fruit and so had to be destroyed.

PSALM 80:1-2, 8-19. This prayer pleads for God to save Israel from destruction as a shepherd protects his sheep. Then Israel is likened to a vine that had been brought from Egypt, prospered in a new land, but now was about to be destroyed.

JEREMIAH 23:23-29. (Alternate) It would have been better to end this reading at the natural end of the oracle and chapter (vs. 40) or at the end of a paragraph (vs. 32) in the NRSV. The whole passage conveys Jeremiah’s fierce tone of divine condemnation against the many false prophets of his time.

The burden of Jeremiah’s message is that these false prophets have completely misunderstood who God really is, and not some neighbourhood deity who reigns over a small hilltop sanctuary or one sends propitious dreams promising good favour. Instead, the word of God to the true prophet is as different as wheat from straw (vs. 28c). The dreams of the false prophets lead people astray, providing no moral or spiritual benefit at all.

PSALM 82. (Alternate) The emphasis on social justice rooted in the prophetic awareness of a just and righteous God manifests itself in this short poem. The psalm ends with a prophetic call for God to judge the earth over which God alone reigns.

HEBREWS 11:29-12:2. This passage recalls more of Israel’s religious heroes and describes how they suffered because of their faith. Then it gives the reason for this recital of their heroic endurance. We too may join them in following the example of the greatest of all, Jesus, who suffered death on the cross and now reigns with God.

LUKE 12:49-56. This apocalyptic vision of conflict about what Jesus means presents us with a picture of what may have actually happened in the community for which Luke was writing his gospel in the second last decade of the 1^st century. Confronted by Jews who had expelled all Christians from their synagogues and threatened with persecution by the Romans, it would have been natural for them to seek a deeper understanding of what was happening to them in the Jewish traditions about the end of time and the teachings of Jesus himself. No one can tell how much of these words were actually spoken by Jesus or created by Luke for his audience.

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A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

ISAIAH 5:1-7. Not long ago I drove through the rich vineyard countryside below the Niagara escarpment on the south side of Lake Ontario. The vineyards were in beautiful condition. The weather has been good. The farmers are expecting a bumper crop to deliver to the wineries. Every mile along the road has its wineries, some large, some small. Many of the larger ones draw bus loads of visitors in season to tour their facilities, taste their products and purchase their winter supply. Niagara ice wine, made from grapes allowed to freeze hard on the vines, is becoming famous around the world for its special flavor.

In The Interpreter’s Bible (vol. 5, 196) the late Professor R.  B. Y.  Scott called this “Song of the Vineyard” unique among prophetic canon. His exegetical comments give rise to an imaginative scene as one might have witnessed in Jerusalem circa 725 BCE:

A huge multitude had gathered in the temple precincts to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. This vintage festival of thanksgiving was a time of song when small groups and solo voices filled the air with impromptu singing in the informal environment as people waited for the temple sacrifices to begin. Some may even have been a little inebriated from sampling too much of the early vintage. Tolerance for such frivolity did not dull the expectation of the crowd for a great celebration. This year’s crop from Israel’s vineyards had indeed been good.

The prophet Isaiah seized the opportunity to imitate one of the popular vintage songs with a different message. Perhaps because he was a priest and distinctively dressed, he caused something of a stir as people rushed to hear this new voice. His presence as well as the timbre of his voice beguiled many to listen carefully.

The opening lines of his song (vss.1-2) described the typical undertakings of the vine grower, the preparations he made and the failure he encountered. Many in the audience would have been familiar such an experience. As they listened to his next lines, (vss. 3-4) they empathized with the depth of his tragedy. In a year when so many had reaped an abundant harvest, the vine stock he had planted had yielded only wild grapes.

Suddenly the meter of the song changed. In short abrupt words the vintner’s anger burst forth. His disappointment had turned to fury. He will devastate the vineyard that failed so miserably (vss. 5-6.) Knowingly, many agreed with his decision. It was the only thing to do.

Then suddenly, the prophet uttered the real meaning of his song (vs. 7). The vineyard was a metaphor for Yahweh’s covenant people; and the devastation to come Yahweh’s was judgment against them for their rebellion against the sacred covenant.

One can imagine the shock that swept through the crowd as the prophet stared at them, meeting eye after eye until heads turned away in dismay and shame as he pressed home his powerful condemnation.

PSALM 80:1-2, 8-19. This lament offers a prayer for deliverance using similar imagery from Israel’s vineyards. The metaphor occurs in prophetic oracles other than that of Isaiah and in the Gospels as well. (See Jeremiah 2:21; Ezekiel 17:1-10; Hosea 10:1; Matthew 21:33-42; John 15:1-8) Here it is used as a synonym for the Israelites in general. Or, if the tribal names of vss.1-2 are considered in addition to such geographical features as the cedars and “the River,” probably the Euphrates (vss.10-11), the Northern Kingdom in particular is intended.

These geographical references represent the imagined boundaries of the Davidic kingdom to an extent which the great king never achieved. Vs. 8 refers to the vine being brought out of Egypt, an obvious reference to the Exodus. Thus the poet uses imagery to express the intended glory of Yahweh’s people in the Promised Land.

Vss.12-13 constitute a reality check. The walls have been broken down and wild animals now feed in the vineyard. The threat of invaders was by no means imagined. After Solomon’s death, the Northern Kingdom never enjoyed much security. The specific period referred to from the 10^th to the 8^th centuries BCE cannot be identified, but could well be close to the Assyrian invasion and destruction of Samaria in 721 BCE.

Vs. 17 personifies the nation as a human being. Some older versions, including the KJV and the RSV, retain the phrase “the son of man” which some regard as a messianic interpretation not intended by the psalmist.

The lament ends as usual with a vow in vs.18-19. “Never again!” is a phrase often used by religious devotees when repenting their transgressions. Its sincerity has to be measured by the behavioral change that follows, not the beauty or sanctity of the prayer.

JEREMIAH 23:23-29. (Alternate) It is a mystery why the reading has been terminated at vs. 29 rather than at the natural end of the oracle and chapter (vs. 40) or at the end of a paragraph (vs. 32) in the NRSV. The whole passage conveys Jeremiah’s to fierce condemnation on behalf of Yahweh against the many false prophets of his time.

The burden of Jeremiah’s message is that these false prophets have completely misunderstood who Yahweh really is. Yahweh is not some neighbourhood deity who reigns over a small hilltop sanctuary or sends propitious dreams promising good favour. Instead, the word of Yahweh to the true prophet is as different as wheat from straw (vs. 28c). The dreams of the false prophets lead people astray, providing no benefit for them.

Reading this passage recalls the plethora of television and radio evangelists and prophets one can tune in to almost any day of the week. Their broadcasts outnumber those of more careful and helpful analysts and religious commentators many times over. Their message has more to do with a political agenda or making a profit from their audience than proclaiming the good news of God’s love in Christ.
PSALM 82. (Alternate) The emphasis on social justice rooted in the prophetic awareness of a just and righteous God manifests itself in this short poem. Yet these few verses depict an unusual scene.

Like the introduction to the Book of Job (Job 1:6), vs. 1 portrays a heavenly council over which Yahweh presides. Yahweh addresses the assembled “gods” or “children of the Most High.” This phrase appears only in Job and Genesis 6:2, 4. They seem to be heavenly beings exercising some authority on earth. Yahweh excoriates them for aiding and abetting injustice among the people by favouring the wicked. They have failed to do due diligence in helping the poor and weak who have no knowledge or understanding. Failure to do what is required will bring death to these “children of the Most High.”

The psalm ends with a prophetic call for Yahweh to judge the earth over which Yahweh alone reigns.

HEBREWS 11:29-12:2. Like a prosecutor in a law court, the author presents the case for faith with a powerful list of witnesses in this second half of the Hebrews 11. The roll call of heroes and heroines of faith cover the history of Israel from the Exodus to the tribulations and civil conflicts of the Hasmonean period from circa 142-63 BCE. It points to the historical reality that faith alone enabled Israel to survive through those violent centuries. Surely this is not surprising to us who have experienced similar “end of the century of holocausts.”

The implications of this long citation of faithfulness in the face of unparalleled oppression come to the fore in the conclusion of the passage in 12:1-2, which William Barclay describes as “a well-nigh perfect summary of the Christian life.” He elaborates by showing that this life has a goal, an inspiration, a handicap, a means, an example and a presence. (See Daily Bible Readings: The Letter to the Hebrews. Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press;194-197) The metaphor of a long-distance race carries the message to its conclusion. The goal which brings joy in its achievement, however, is not to win a race, but to have direct access to God through Christ.

An interesting feature of this conclusion is that the author uses only the simple human name of Jesus, not the theological names of Christ or Son of God, or his designation as “the great high priest.” It is the human experience of Jesus, and in particular his endurance of the cross, which fits our need for an example to follow as “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” The Christian life is not a 100-metre dash, but an exhausting marathon. Paul used a similar metaphor in writing to the Philippians from prison in Rome (Phil. 3:12-14).

If, as many commentators believe, The Letter to the Hebrews was addressed to a church facing imminent persecution and possible martyrdom, we need nothing less than faithfulness that endures unto death. This spiritual insight may mean nothing now to Christians in the so-called “First World.” African and Asian Christians have a different story to tell. We may yet need their testimony as militarism, tribalism and terrorism in the aftermath of racist colonialism of earlier times, take their toll in the 21^st century.

LUKE 12:49-56. The question arises immediately as to whether or not Jesus actually spoke in these terms. The ideas resemble much Jewish eschatology of the time.  Luke’s eschatology tended to emphasize a delay in the Parousia, but this passage has a much greater sense of immediacy about it. Is Luke here thinking ahead to Jesus’ Gethsemane experience (22:39-46) and thereby presenting his readers fifty years later with a similar warning of severe trials to come? Furthermore, is it not also true that Christian faith and behavior do at times create conflict such as this passage describes?

Luke has drawn together several sayings from Q which Matthew distributes elsewhere. (Cf. Matthew 10:34-36; 16:1-2) So there must have been a certain collective memory of Jesus’ teaching that the end of the age would involve harsh judgment and division. Were Jesus and Luke not being as realistic as any observant person should have been, given the tenuous state of affairs at the time when they lived?

John Dominic Crossan presents a novel approach in limiting the actual words of Jesus to the aphorism about a divided household. He notes that the division is not dependent on faith in the reign of God or on Jesus himself. He also points to the emphasis on generations rather than gender. He suggests that the reign of God’s love tears families apart along the axis of power, particularly power that is abused as parental power has often done.

Another progressive scholar, Bruce Chilton, frequently presents Jesus as very abrasive in his teaching style. If this is what the anticipated messianic kingdom would be like, this teaching would inevitably raise considerable controversy in his audience. Ever ready for an argument on some fine point of the Torah or its implications for daily life, the Jews were notorious for the fervor with which they debated and re-debated each issue a new rabbi defined.

On the other hand, we have to deal with the incredulity of the modern western mind. Eschatology is as far from our concerns during our August vacation as Middle Eastern terrorism and African tribal conflicts . How do we interpret these strange words for those who meet us in the comfortable pews week by week? Underneath their facade of sophistication do we not all have real anxieties about the future? Perhaps the answer lies in the phrase that ends this passage, “to interpret the present time,” (cf. NEB “this fateful hour”) as Jesus and Luke did in their time. Is God not saying something to us in the events of our own time?

SOME ADDITIONAL PREACHING POINTS.

HEBREWS 11:29-12:2. We do not need to look far from our own time for heroes who pursued the goal of faith to which the author of this letter/essay referred. We have witnessed similar commitment in leaders such Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. By their words and actions these men eloquently put forth a vision of racial harmony as the only possible perception of God’s intention for our time and paid dearly for their vision. Desmond Tutu caught the vision and led his nation to a deeper commitment to truth and reconciliation in the midst of strong opposition from some of those whose domination had ended. What they saw was “a foretaste of the future in the present,” as Frances Taylor Gench put it. “God’s design for our humanity becomes visible in lives of radical trust and costly obedience.”

Gench continued: “Hebrews maintains that the saints of every generation empowered by faith to endure suffering and even death if need be, because they know that their ultimate destiny is in the hands of the unseen God whose promises are sure. And because they know that he purposes of God will not fail to be achieved despite all appearances to the contrary…. We are one with them waiting for the final realization of God’s saving purposes. And because Jesus Christ and the new covenant established in his death represent the fulfillment of God’s promises, Hebrews maintains that he saints of preceding generations will ‘not, apart from us’ who believe in Christ, ‘be made perfect.’” (Hebrews and James. Westminster Bible Companion Series. Westminster John Knox Press, 1996; 64-66.)

Nearly fifty years ago at a conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin, I met several people who left an indelible mark on me. One was a military chaplain who had landed with the Marines on Iwo Jima for the battle that may well have turned the struggle of the Pacific theatre of World War II in the direction of victory. He had subsequently trained as a psychiatrist and, at the time I met him, filled a unique role in leading a specialized course in group dynamics for clergy. Although it was long after meeting him, I came to realize how much he helped me see how one person can effect change by faithful living in community.

The other person was a young Japanese missionary on the island of Okinawa. She was the only member of her immediate family to have survived the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945. She had been out of town visiting an aunt on the day of that holocaust. Her experience convinced her to become a minister and offer her services to the Japanese people of Okinawa where the vast American military base was located and seriously affected the lives of the permanent residents there.

Like myself, this young Japanese woman was greatly intrigued by the conflict we witnessed between a brash young Methodist minister and a quiet but strong Mennonite minister. These two men became close friends over the two week course when the Mennonite realized and shared openly that it was the brassy buttons on the Methodist’s jacket that so disturbed him. They reminded him of the way the Prussians had persecuted him Mennonite ancestors in Germany a century or more ago.

LUKE 12:49-56. In 1949 when Mao Ze-Dong had led the Communists in triumph into Beijing, the late Professor J. S. Thomson said to a class discussing what the meaning of that event might be, “Who knows what will happen if the Chinese people decide to move?” More than fifty years later, one in every five persons on this planet is Chinese. Is this what President George W. Bush had in mind when he uses the phrase “some rogue nation” and described the threat for which he wanted the American military to be armed with dazzling new weapons in space? The booming Chinese economy may soon overtake that of the United States. Is divine sovereignty in geopolitical and economic affairs not the essential point of this passage in Luke’s gospel?  “We are not alone. We live in God’s world.” (The New Creed. The United Church of Canada.)

Do any of the so-called experts, analysts and commentators we follow so carefully for their views really know what lies ahead? The best strategic minds of our day can only guess, but cannot penetrate the mists of the future. History holds its secrets until they happen. Did Jesus really know what lay ahead of him as he “set his face toward Jerusalem?” Did he fully realize what the cost would be when he overthrew the tables of the priests’ moneychangers in the temple courts?

In the summary chapter in his 1993 work, This Hebrew Lord, entitled “The Non-Religious Christ,” John Spong stated that the possibility of death was always in Jesus’ mind from the time of his baptism and temptation. As time passed, he also became aware that neither his teaching nor his healing acts had convinced even his closest disciples that he possessed the power of divine love to bring peace, healing and liberty to life in all would accept it. Only at the Last Supper did the full price of his mission finally come to him – and, as he prayed in Gethsemane, he wanted to avoid it. “He would live love out in the face of every human distortion of love.” He died on the cross leaving all in the hands of God, not knowing for sure what God had in mind for himself or for his followers. It was only after his death in the loneliness of a criminal’s crucifixion that those who had known him most intimately came to realize who he was and what he had been trying to say and to do all along.

In his ultimate sacrifice in love he communicated the full, the abundant, the inescapable grace of God’s love and became for all humanity “the author and perfecter of our faith.” (Heb. 12:2) The New Testament is the record of his closest followers themselves and others they convinced coming to believe that he was indeed the Saviour and Messiah/Christ. They rallied to carry on his ministry of sharing God’s love. The history of the Church is the record of those innumerable saints who have stumbled, failed, fallen and risen once more to struggle on in their footsteps. Are we ready to follow?

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Year C
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 31, 2010

JEREMIAH 1:4-10. This is a classic example of the call to a prophet for his special mission. The young Jeremiah is summoned by the direct intervention of God in his life. The divine message revealed that God had intended this role for Jeremiah from before his birth. God not only called, but also equipped the prophet for his vocation by reassuring him and by “touching his mouth” to give him effective powers of speech. The prophet would need all of these gifts because his task was to pronounce God’s judgment in a difficult religious and political situation in Israel at the end of the 7th century BC.

PSALM 71:1-6. The psalmist makes several urgent appeals to God for deliverance from unnamed enemies. Throughout his prayer, he prefaces his appeals by confessing his trust in God as his only refuge and hope.

1 CORINTHIANS 13: 1-13. Paul’s hymn to love remains one of the great pieces of poetry in any language. It has universal application – from marriage and family life to all forms of human relationships. Yet there is a firmness about it that denies all sentimentality. It goes straight to the heart of the problems of human communication and issues that drive us apart.

For those who doubt that this approach to life can be effective, Paul has a special word of counsel. This is how mature people relate to each other. There is no other way to settle disputes such as those he had encountered among the disciples in Corinth.

LUKE 4:21-30. By telling the audience in his home town that they are witnessing the inauguration of the new age of God’s rule in all of life, Jesus challenged his hearers to believe in him. They ran him out of town. Wouldn’t we still do so? Don’t we, though perhaps in more subtle ways?

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

JEREMIAH 1:4-10. How does God call someone to be God’s spokesperson? Is it always a direct vocal summons such that heard by as Moses, or Samuel, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah – a mystical experience which comes to very few? Or is there sometimes a less dramatic way: a still, small voice within; or a gentle suggestion from a friend; or an inner desire expressed in a wordless prayer of commitment and a deep, reassuring confirmation that this is what God also desires? God has as many ways of calling as there are those whom God has chosen to lead.

This passage tells of a classic example of the direct call to a prophet for his special mission. As the prophet himself reported the experience, Yahweh intervened in the life of the young Jeremiah with a summons. “The word of the Lord came to me saying, ….” (vs.4) The divine message revealed that Yahweh had intended this role for Jeremiah from before his birth. Although Jeremiah felt predestined, he also felt unsuited for the vocation to which Yahweh had called him. That too is a common reaction to what must have been a very intense experience.

For anyone who has had a similar experience, Jeremiah’s protests have a familiar ring to them. We all can think of every conceivable reason not to accept such a call. He didn’t know how to speak. He was too young. These days, we might say, “I am too old.” Or “I am too busy raising my family.” Or “I am too busy saving for my retirement. Actually, he was afraid. And so are we. That was what Yahweh reassured him about most (vs. 8).

Yahweh not only called, but also equipped Jeremiah for his vocation. He received promises that Yahweh would give him the words to utter and to be with him whenever he was commanded to speak (vss.7-8). He would become “the mouthpiece of the Almighty,” as William Sanday described the prophet’s vocation. Then Yahweh acted to ordain him by “touching his mouth,” thus giving him effective powers of speech. Isaiah had a similar experience (Isa. 6:5-6) Be warned, however, vocation and ordination today do not guarantee effectiveness in preaching.

The prophet would need all of these gifts because his task was to pronounce God’s judgment, not only on Israel but on other nations too. His mission had much wider implications, both negative and positive. It reached beyond Israel to the nations (vs.10). This happened in a time of great disruption when the power of the great Assyrian empire had declined to the point where it was in its death throes. The kingdom of Judah had been ruled by Manasseh (697 ? or 687-642), a vassal of Assyria. He had been the longest reigning and the most reviled monarch, according to the Deuteronomists, because of his love for syncretist religious practices. Idols and worship of foreign gods had been introduced into Judea and Jerusalem rivaling and corrupting the worship of Yahweh. Vassal states like Babylon and Media quickly filled the political vacuum left by the decline of the Assyrian empire.

It is thought that Jeremiah’s ministry began the very year in which Assurbanipal, the last of the Assyrian emperors (669-627 BCE) died. That could well have been the incident which occasioned his call. From this brief discussion of historical events, we may conclude that the details of vs.10 were written after the fact, reflecting what had already taken place.

Jeremiah’s active ministry is thought to have extended over the next 40 years to 586 BCE. In that year Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and a great many of the leaders of Israel were marched away to exile. Jeremiah was not among them, but was carried away to Egypt by a group of refugees. However, some scholars doubt that his ministry began before 612 or 609 BCE because there is a gap of some 20 years in biographical information. This is so despite the fact that no other prophetic book includes so much biographical data. Some regard the date of 627 BCE as the time of his birth, which gives poignancy to his protest about his youth in vs.6.

PSALM 71:1-6. In some respects, this psalm does not conform to the traditional style of a lament with its sequence of appeal, complaint, petition and vow of thanksgiving, such as we find in Ps. 56. Here we have a sick, fearful and depressed old man (vss. 9, 18) who appears to have reached the end of his resources. He feels that God has all but deserted him. He makes several urgent appeals to God for deliverance from unnamed enemies. Yet, throughout his prayer, he prefaces his appeals by confessing his trust in God as his only refuge and hope (vs. 3).

We must conclude that the psalm was composed at relatively late date. It draws on material found in other parts of the Psalter: vss. 1-3 = 31:1-3a; vs. 6 = 22:10, etc. Be that as it may, the psalm still expresses the intensive search of the lonely and distressed soul for the assurance and hope of a living relationship with God in the utmost extremities of life.

Could this not also be the prayer of those who even now endure unexpected natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis? And what of those many millions who flee for their lives in terror caused by war only to face starvation and death in refugee camps? Are there not also many single parent families or elderly people, ill, alone and threatened with being forced out of their homes because no one cares about them and governments have withdrawn support for the most vulnerable of this richest society ever in human history? The profound sense of justice implicit is so much of Hebrew prophetic literature comes to the fore in this psalmist’s lament.

1 CORINTHIANS 13: 1-13. Paul’s hymn to love remains one of the great pieces of poetry in any language. It has universal application – from marriage and family life to all forms of human relationships, individual and corporate. Yet there is a firmness about it that denies all sentimentality.

This love is more than words or even noble, sacrificial actions (vss.1-3). It goes straight to the heart of the problems of human communication and the fractious habits that drive us apart: impatience, unkindness, envy, boasting, arrogance, rudeness, selfishness, irritability, resentment, deliberate wrongdoing, deceit and dishonesty (vss. 4-7). Paul declares his unequivocal conviction that love can overcome all of these human failings common to us all. This should surely still form an important element of every marriage ceremony and the heart of every pre-marital interview for couples asking the church to bless their union. Conflict resolution programs never had a better means of achieving success than following these few verses.

For those who doubt that this approach to life can be effective, Paul has a special word of counsel: this is how mature people relate to each other. (vss. 8-12) There is no other way to settle disputes such as those he had encountered among the disciples in Corinth. Why not in our homes, our towns, our country and our world too?

Enthralling as this poem may be, Paul wrote explicitly to the Corinthian disciple community – and to us in our context right now. Some may feel that while this may be the ideal formula for life in the Shalom of God, it is not very practical for life in the real world. If we are disciples of Jesus Christ, if we are indeed “his body,” then this is the way we are to live here and now. This is the way he lived in the real world, costly though it was. This is what the cross means: Love that lays down its life for the world through every-day human relationships.

The Greek word translated “love” throughout this passage is agapé. Many treatises have been written comparing this word to other Greek words all translated into English as “love.” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible has a nine page article on this word entitled “Love in the NT.” It was written by a man I knew well and who more than once tested my love for him as a teacher and colleague in ministry, the late Professor George Johnston, one-time professor of NT at Emmanuel College, Toronto, then later at United Theological College and McGill University, Montreal. He concluded his exhaustive study by saying that this love had taken a human face in Jesus of Nazareth and had spoken by a human voice to and for all the scattered children of God. “Love had reached down from God to man, that man might rise up to enjoy life in God forever.” Acerbic though he was in his criticism of less than adequate scholarship, Prof. Johnson has a genuine pastoral care for his students which exemplified the word love.

LUKE 4:21-30. So what does one say after one has told the audience in one’s home town that they are witnessing the inauguration of the new age of God’s rule in all of life through all the world? The message Deutero-Isaiah had delivered was simple, “Your God reigns.” Jesus had come to implement that reign of God in his home town, among his own people.

The initial reaction to Jesus in Nazareth was quite favourable. Patronizing too. “Fine fellow, that boy. Joseph the carpenter’s son, isn’t he? His widowed mother must be proud of him. He’ll go far.”

That wasn’t good enough for Jesus. He knew they hadn’t really heard him at all. He would have none of it. So he made them listen by challenging his hometown audience to believe in him and his mission to the world. He had not come home to do miracles like they had heard of him performing in Capernaum a few kilometres down the road by the Sea of Galilee. And he wasn’t there to make them think well of him; or to make them feel good as the preferred and privileged people, good Israelites all. Like Elijah and Elisha, he had come to minister to outsiders too.

Here Luke, ever mindful of his Gentile audience, lets his universalism stand out clearly. G.B. Caird wrote in his study of Luke’s Gospel: “The stories of Elijah and Elisha should, indeed, have taught them that with God charity begins wherever there is found human need to call it forth and faith to receive it, irrespective of class or race.” (Caird, G.B. Saint Luke. The Pelican New Testament Commentaries, 1963.) As Luke presents him, Jesus had a much wider vision than the Jewish community in the small mountain village in Galilee from which he had come.

George Santayana once said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. After a century of the most destructive conflicts ever based on ideological rivalries between competing empires, we have entered a new century with the prospect of ethnic and religious conflicts within many smaller nations. Our 24-hour television news broadcasts feature violence and death occurring wherever the far-ranging eye of a television camera will reach. The problem is that when we see these tragic events, we fail to recognize that our own attitudes toward those who are “not like us” are being deeply challenged. For example, whenever we ask someone who has a skin colour different from ours, “Where do you come from?” we expose our own racial prejudices. Or when we tell a joke that pigeon-holes people because of their particular accent or country of origin, we express the narrowness of our own minds.

That is exactly what happened when Jesus recalled the stories about the widow of Sidon and Naaman the Syrian. Both of them weren’t even Israelites, but had been ministered to by two of Israel’s great prophets. “Open your eyes!” Jesus was saying to his neighbours in Nazareth. “The world is bigger than you imagine. The God you claim to believe in is far too small. God doesn’t just favour Israelites like you and me. God’s love extends to those who are most vulnerable, the most oppressed, the outsiders, the most in need.”

My friend, Jim Taylor, wrote in his Soft Edges column on the Internet: “Canadians have been more subtle about our prejudices. We’re only now coming to realize the second class status accorded to our aboriginal peoples. And our immigrants. Our women. Our elderly…. Racism’s roots lie in one group’s conviction of God-given superiority over another group, simply by belonging to that group. By extension, any member of the dominant group can feel superior to any member of the victim group.”

Whether it was the way he said it or the unspoken implications of what Jesus said, the good citizens of Nazareth were enraged. They ran him out of town. Wouldn’t we still do so? Don’t we, though perhaps in more subtle ways?

INTRODUCTION OF THE SCRIPTURE
SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY
JANUARY 17, 2010

ISAIAH 62:1-5. The return of the exiles and the rebuilding of Jerusalem is the constant theme of Second-Isaiah, as scholars have named the unknown poet-prophet of Israel’s exile in Babylon. He either composed or inspired his disciples to write the poetry now contained in Isaiah 40-66.

This is part of the last of a trilogy of poems in Isaiah 60-62 emphasizing the promised return and reconstruction resulting from Israel’s special relationship with God. Vss. 4-5 of this passage likens this relationship to a renewed marriage covenant. This special, intimate relationship with God motivates much of the tenacity of many Jews have for the modern state of Israel today.

PSALM 36:5-10. The steadfast love of God for Israel and for the whole of creation brings praise to the lips of the faithful and a prayer that this love with continue for “the upright of heart.”

1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11. Paul had many difficulties teaching the new converts in Corinth just what it meant to believe in Jesus as Lord and follow his way of life. A major disagreement had arisen as to which of the gifts of the Spirit were the more important. Here Paul points out that all gifts come from the same Spirit of God, serve different purposes in the Christian community, and yet contribute to the common good. The issue still has relevance for our modern congregations. Each member may have a different role to play depending on his or her particular talents.

JOHN 2:1-11. John’s Gospel took its shape from a series of signs revealing Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God, and Saviour of the world. This miracle story described the first of these signs. Some regard it as the moment of Jesus’ revelation of himself to his own family and to those who knew him.

The marriage feast at Cana symbolized that the messianic age had begun. The changing of water for ritual purification to wine for the marriage feast indicated that Jesus would reinterpret Jewish religious tradition for the new age he inaugurated.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS

ISAIAH 62:1-5. The themes of return of the exiles from Babylon and the rebuilding of Jerusalem resound through all the writings of Second-Isaiah, as scholars have named the unknown poet-prophet of Israel’s exile in Babylon. Much of the latter part of the Book of Isaiah (chs. 40-66) are believed to have come either from him or from a coterie of his disciples, sometimes called Third-Isaiah in scholarly circles. This brief passage joyfully reiterates this promise of return and reconstruction.

 The trilogy of poems in Isaiah 60-62, of which this excerpt formed the last part, emphasized the promised return and reconstruction resulting from Israel’s special relationship with God. This stands out in vs. 1 where the prophet, speaking for Yahweh, declares Yahweh’s passion as the initiator of this historic event. This further divine action in Israel’s faith-history occurred so that Israel might fulfill its divinely appointed mission. Vs. 2 clarifies this special role among the nations as ordained by Yahweh. The returning exiles will receive a new name indicative of a renewed relationship with Yahweh in accord with Yahweh’s eternal purpose. Since names in the prophetic tradition had special significance and tended to define the nominee’s character and purpose, the giving of a new name was, in effect, a confirmation of this purpose. (Cf. Gen. 32:28; Is. 7:3; 9:6, etc.)

The mission was to be messianic in the monarchical rather than a salvatory sense, as “the crown of beauty … a royal diadem” in vs. 3 states. The image is that of Israel as the crown in the hand of Yahweh, sovereign of the nation, in much the same way that the image of a protective patron deity of ancient cities crowned the city walls.

Vss. 4-5 introduce a different image, likening the relationship of Yahweh and Israel to a renewed marriage covenant. (cf. Hosea 2 and similar metaphors in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.) Though all the names in Hebrew in this passage ended in ‘AH,’ (or YAH) representing Yahweh, the new relationship was represented by the new names Hephzibah, “My delight is in her,” and Beulah, “Married.” These names revealed Yahweh’s love for Israel above all other nations. There may even have been undertones of the pagan sexual relationship with deity found in other traditions of this period.

The passage has relevance for the current crisis in the Middle East. The special, intimate relationship with God motivates much of the tenacity many Jews have for the modern state of Israel today. Yet it has to be admitted that most people, even in Israel itself where a majority are non-religious Jews, do not share a similar view. History is rarely kind to religious ideologies. Is democratic idealism always the will of God for every nation?

The issue in the Holy Land today has become one of a geopolitical conflict between a strong religious nationalism and the rights of Palestinian Arabs. The Arabs moved aggressively into a vacuum left by the decline of Roman and Byzantine empires. But most Jews had been driven out of the land to become a global diaspora long before that. Twentieth century geopolitics recreated and has sustained Israel as a viable state. Both Arabs and Jews now claim the right to live where their ancestors settled long ago. After more than six decades this conflict still festers as both parties often function as pawns in much larger geopolitical struggles.

Christian churches have not helped by taking one side or the other in this conflict. Most have been motivated by differing theological stances. Even when one believes fervently in God as Lord of history, events in the world are always the result of human interaction, rarely motivated by profound discernment of God’s will and purpose. On the other hand, it is never easy to discern where justice lies or how one position or the other relates to the divine will. The debate regarding the involvement of Christians in political issues between Karl Barth and Reinhold Niebuhr has never been satisfactorily settled. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one who struggled with this issue in a very personal and sacrificial way.

PSALM 36: 5-10. The steadfast love of Yahweh for Israel and for the whole of creation brings praise for the goodness of Yahweh to the lips of the faithful. The psalm concludes with a prayer that this love with continue for “the upright of heart.”

This abbreviated reading provides a fascinating counterpoint to the first four verses of the psalm which have been excluded from the lectionary. Most commentators agree that the two parts probably represent two originally separate compositions which a later editor brought together. Yet they complement each other in such a way that two conflicting ways of life are cast in bold relief. The first (vss. 1-4) is said to belong to the category of Israel’s Wisdom literature, with special affinity with Proverbs. It emphasizes the way in which people of lesser moral character flatter and deceive themselves, and secretly plot mischievous misbehavior. This theme appears to have been picked up in the concluding verses (vss. 11-12). The part included in this reading (vss. 5-10), reflects the sovereignty and universalism of divine providence characteristic of the later prophet-poets like Second Isaiah and Job.

Vss. 10-12 raise a question that still troubles many modern Christians. Does God love only the faithful and morally upright? Is divine love exclusive? The covenant motif of the OT did have a strong ethical component which finds wide expression in the psalms. The opening verses of this psalm exhibit this aspect of the Hebrew tradition. The second part of the psalm reveals a more tolerant view found in the prophecy of Second Isaiah. Vs. 6, for instance, extends Yahweh’s steadfast love to animals as well as humans. Vs. 7 includes all people, not just Israel, within the purview of divine protection and providence.

The New Testament goes much farther. The Gospels in particular show unequivocally that God’s love extends even to those most alienated from God and immoral in their behavior. Is it not possible that the Islamic prayer Sadam Hussein offered on the gallows which seconds later ended his life were sincerely offered? However, God loves sinners like us so that we may respond to that love by changing our ways and seeking to follow Jesus in all we say and do. Jesus came to reconcile us all to God by revealing just how much God does love us and wants us to learn from Jesus how to live in a loving relationship with God, with all other people, and with the planet Earth on which we pass our years.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11. The New Testament has a great many references to the body of Christ and many different meanings to that phrase. In general the phrase connotes the many-faceted relationships between Christ and those who believe in and belong to him, their relations with him as members, and with one another in the wide fellowship that bears his name. It is, perhaps, the most prevalent metaphor in the NT, in the Pauline corpus especially, for what was to become within a few decades of his death and resurrection the institution which has endured for the past two millennia. An examination of the many texts, however, would show how the understanding of the various authors changed from decade to decade. The unique aspect of its usage, however, is that the NT Greek word soma which normally translated the Hebrew basar had no counterpart in classical Hellenistic Greek. Furthermore, contrary to Hellenistic and most modern thinking, in OT and NT usage, there was no distinction between the true self or soul and the flesh or body.

While the word soma does not appear in this passage, that is certainly the metaphor toward which this passage points. It also speaks to our time as forcefully as to the middle of the 1st century AD when it was written. Today, secular paganism challenges us as it did the apostle Paul and his Corinthian converts. Here the apostle almost seems to wring his hands at their obstinacy and obtuseness. He had a great many difficulties teaching them just what it meant to believe in Jesus as Lord and follow his way of life. The chief problem cited in this passage was a disagreement as to which of the gifts of the Spirit were the more important. Paul points out as plainly as possible that all gifts come from the same source, the Spirit of God. They may serve different functions in the Christian fellowship, yet all contribute to the common good.

The issue still has relevance to our modern congregations. Each member may have a different role to play depending on his or her particular talents. It needs to be noted, however, that the use of these gifts in not to be exercised exclusively within the institution. The mission of the church is to the world, not to itself. Perhaps that was the main reason why the Corinthians had so much trouble with the great variety of gifts they brought to the apostolic church. Like so much of our contemporary gifting, it concentrated on themselves and their own fellowship rather than equipping them for the ministry of love for the world. They were in it for themselves and for their own little community, not for what Christ could do for the world through them as part of the wider Christian fellowship.

Another important feature of this lesson is the role the Spirit plays within the community. The word Spirit occurs no less than ten times in these few sentences. This tells us most poignantly that nothing beneficial can happen within the community or in carrying out its mission to the world except by the activation of the Spirit (vs. 11). That was the fundamental issue with which Paul had to deal so forcefully.

What really did control the witness of Christians in Corinth, or, for that matter, in any of our cities, towns and villages today? At the heart of the matter was the lordship of Jesus without whose Spirit none of the gifts of individual believers were of any value. As Paul states so clearly in vs. 3, even confessing that Jesus is Lord is the work of the Spirit. The contemporary leader of the World Community for Christian Meditation, Laurence Freeman OSB, reaffirmed this simple truth in saying that the Holy Spirit runs though every instant of time and every cell of life.

At the same time, it is wise to remember this prayer posted on the Internet on January 1,2010 by Quinn G. Caldwell, Associate Minister of Old South Church, Boston, MA: “Lord, I thank you that you are God and I am not. Help me to trust that you are saving the world even as we speak, and give me the grace and the resolve to play my small part in it. Amen.” (Stillspeaking Daily Devotional.)

JOHN 2:1-11. John’s Gospel takes its shape from a series of signs revealing Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God, and Saviour of the world. This miracle story is the first of these signs. Some regard it as the moment of Jesus’ revelation of himself to his own family and to those who knew him.

In the NT, a sign designated an outward manifestation of a hidden and usually divine purpose. Jesus himself was a sign that, as in the past, Yahweh had again taken redemptive initiative in the Israel’s history. In his prologue in chapter 1, John had made this revelatory statement that would infuse the whole of his narrative.

We meet this concept first in the birth narratives of Luke 2:12, 34. So also the miracles of Jesus were themselves signs that the dynamic reign of divine love was in process of being fulfilled in human affairs. Not only the person of Jesus and all his works, but also his death and resurrection were signs that the prophesied Day of the Lord when all history would be consummated was at hand.

The marriage feast at Cana symbolized that the messianic age had begun. Behind it lay the whole panoply of purification rites so prominently described in the Torah. Wine too had liturgical significance included in the daily sacrifices offered as victuals for the deity, although never offered alone. This custom had undoubtedly been adopted from earlier Canaanite and other non-Israelite traditions. In the Hebrew tradition, it may have substituted for blood sacrifice. Wine had a major place in religious feasts celebrated in every home as well as in the temple cult as a libation. However, it was not used in the Passover feast until Hellenistic times.

The changing of water for ritual purification to wine indicated that Jesus would reinterpret Jewish religious tradition for this new age he had inaugurated. For John, the miracle was nothing less than an open declaration that Jesus is the Messiah. Hence his curious reluctance to follow his mother’s anxiously informing him that the ordinary wine for the wedding feast had run out. She believed in him, so she told the servants standing-by to do whatever he told them. Was she also concerned that she about to lose her control of her son?

This seemingly insignificant aside can be seen as the way for Jesus to differentiate himself from his closest human relationships, even his mother. He appeared to reject his mother’s counsel and yet also as indicated that she did believe in him. The steward supervising the serving of the feast and the bridegroom were quite ignorant of what had happened. This served to establish the pattern so obvious throughout of John’s narrative that there would always be some who believed and would follow Jesus and some who would not.

Our post-Enlightenment Age minds have yet to grasp that biblical miracles cannot be explained in terms that exclude the supernatural. As Tom Harpur pointed out in a column in The Sunday Star (Toronto, January 4, 2004) symbols and metaphors have power. It is what they stand for and the power they represent that is important. John and his contemporaries had no difficulty combining such spiritual and material realities as metaphors of divine initiatives in ordinary human affairs.

This was especially true of the Hebrew minds who authored the Old and New Testaments. Spiritual realities were as obvious to them as the water with which they washed and the wine they drank at their festivals or ordinary meals. The transformation Jesus effected appeared as a perfectly natural, though surprising and pleasing event.

Behind the miracle, however, was the messianic message John sought to convey to a later generation of Jews and Gentiles at the end of the 1st century. This was the spiritual truth that lay beyond the materialism of the event. The Messiah/Christ had come to change everything, to reinterpret for them in their particular time and place, the great traditions which God had initially revealed through the chosen people Israel. For Jewish Christians recently thrust out of their synagogues and for Gentiles eager to find a new, fulfilling life of faith, this was indeed Good News.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE:  We have the unusual opportunity of choosing between several lessons celebrating distinctive aspects of the liturgical and secular calendars: The Second Sunday after Christmas; The Holy Name of Jesus; and The New Year. All three sets of lessons are set out below.]

JEREMIAH 31:7-14. Scholars tell us that this passage contains ideas not found in Jeremiah’s prophecies, but which are very prominent in Isaiah 40-66, the work of an unknown prophet or his followers during the exile in Babylon. It promises Israel’s return from exile in many foreign lands and the re-establishment of the nation to everyone’s joy and prosperity. This redemptive action will result from nothing other than God’s gracious goodness.

PSALM 147:12-20. The second of five Hallelujah psalms which close the Psalter celebrates the special relationship Israel had with God. Its message is summed up in the words of vs. 20: “He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances.”

SIRACH 24:1-12. (Alternate)   The book known as “the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach” (aka Ecclesiasticus from the Latin name given to it by St. Jerome) was not included in the Hebrew Scriptures nor in Protestant Bibles. It was among the several books known as Wisdom literature included in the Scriptures of Roman Catholicism. Dating from the 2nd century BCE, it consists of maxims and aphorism of worldly wisdom and social prudence.

This passage presents Wisdom personified as a woman speaking before the assembly of heaven. She describes herself as participating in creation even though she herself was created by God. She also claims a God-given special role in Israel’s destiny as the chosen people.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON 10:15-21. (Alternate) Like Sirach, Proverbs, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, the Wisdom of Solomon, was included in the Wisdom literature of Roman Catholicism, but not in the Hebrew Scriptures or Protestant Bibles. Although attributed to King Solomon, it was composed in Greek in the last century BCE by a Greek speaking Jew. This passage describes how Wisdom, again personified as a woman played a role in Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.

EPHESIANS 1:3-14. In writing to the Colossian congregation threatened by a destructive heresy, Paul opened his letter with some very kind and generous words. He praised them for remaining faithful to the gospel and the Christian way of love that Epaphras had taught them. He prayed that they would continue to grow in their knowledge of God’s will and strong in their witness to the faith as they had first received it. This is still an appropriate message for us who are so easily persuaded by the attitudes and practices of our own culture to adopt some other alternative than the Christian way.

JOHN 1:10-18. Looking at Jesus from the perspective of perhaps sixty years after his death on the cross, John assessed what the coming of Jesus into the world really meant. For those who believed in him and accepted the grace and truth now available through him, it meant a new life of spiritual power as the children of God. So also it may be for us as we complete one year and are about to begin a new year of living in God’s grace.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

JEREMIAH 31:7-14. One of the most obvious revelations of the current Christological debate is the strength of the literalist approach to scripture, even in the mainline churches. Here is a passage which offers an excellent opportunity to discuss in a sensible way, the composite nature of the scriptures as we presently have them and the still valuable spirituality of the message conveyed in the words. God as the gracious providential Protector and Redeemer of Israel IS the story of the Old Testament to which all the priestly, prophetic and poetic voices contributed, no matter when or where they appeared throughout Israel’s history. Thus the editors who put together the Book of Jeremiah could include a poem from the later, but unknown, prophet of the Exile among the oracles of the prophet whose ministry may have ended soon after  Jerusalem was devastated by the Babylonians in 586 BC and most of the leading citizenry, the prophet among them, were led away into exile.

PSALM 147:12-20. From the temple liturgy for the New Year or the Feast of Tabernacles comes this Hallelujah Chorus celebrating God as the Creator of the universe and Sustainer of Israel. It is believed to have been composed as a liturgical psalm in the early 4th century BC. The influence of the prophetic oracles of the unknown prophet of the Exile (Isaiah 40-66) can be detected in several places.

EPHESIANS 1:3-14. John C. Kirby, formerly of McGill University, Montreal, made a strong case that this prayer at the beginning of Ephesians, “both in language and in form, is patterned after the Jewish berakah, a prayer of praise and blessing of which there are numerous examples in the Old Testament. He points out that some scholars divide these poetic verses into stanzas having separate themes.

OTOH, Kirby suggests that the ideas so tumble over one another as to defy such analysis. He accepts the view of another scholar, Masson, that “the tone of wonder and awe which runs through the whole passage, the slow mediatative style, the solmenity of the language, the repetition of the phrase ‘to the praise of his glory,’ which is the main purpose of all berakoth, show us the origin of this way of approaching God. Thoroughly Christian in content – though many of the ideas have been taken over from Judaism they have been baptized into Christ – it is yet thoroughly Jewish in attitude.”

JOHN 1:10-18. What the gospel meant to John’s audience certainly would not be what it may mean to us 1900 years later. He was writing for a Hellenistic culture from a Hebraic perspective. He chose the word Logos to describe Jesus which he may well have drawn from Philo, the Alexandrian Jew steeped in Greek thought who was a contemporary of both Jesus and Paul. His emphasis in this passage is to focus attention on both the continuity and the discontinuity between Israel’s tradition and that which the Christian gospel was bringing to the Greek-speaking world.

In his New Testament Words, (Westminster Press, 1974) William Barclay has a helpful comment on the way John used this word as a bridge between the two cultures:
“In Jewish thought we have two great conceptions at the back of the idea of Jesus as the Word, the Logos of God. First, God’s word is not only speech; it is power. Second, it is impossible to separate the ideas of Word and Wisdom; and it was God’s Wisdom which created and permeated the world which God made….
“The idea of a mind, a Logos ruling the world fascinated the Greeks…It was the  Logos which put sense into the world. Further, the mind of man himself was a little portion of this Logos….This conception was brought to its highest peak by Philo, who was an Alexandrian Jew, and who had the aim of joining together in one synthesis the highest thought of Jew and Greek….
“Now we can see what John was doing when he uttered his tremendous statement, ‘The Word was made flesh.’  (i) He was clothing Christianity in a dress that a Greek could understand…. (ii) He was giving us a new Christology…. (a) Jesus is the creating power of God come to men. He does not only speak the word of knowledge; he is the word of power. He did not come so much to say things to us, as to do things for us. (b) John is the incarnate mind of God. We might well translate John’s words, ‘The mind of God became a man.’”

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
The Holy Name Of Jesus – January 1, 2010

NUMBERS 6:22-27. This passage may be more familiar to congregations as a benediction at the close of worship or in a traditional baptismal liturgy. In the thought of its own time God’s blessing consisted of material things as well as spiritual benefits.

PSALM 8. The psalmist first contemplates the glory of God manifested in the wonders of the heavens. And yet, the psalmist also reflects on the minute place of humanity in such a vast universe.

GALATIANS 4:4-7. Unfamiliar with the later tradition of the virgin conception of Jesus, Paul gave a theological and scriptural interpretation to the birth of Jesus. He focused on the redemption of all humanity effected through Jesus, the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. Stating that God’s Son was “born of a woman, born under the law,” he places Jesus in continuity with Jewish tradition.

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11. (Alternate)  This early Christian hymn may well have been composed by Paul himself. Nowhere else in all his letters does he rise to such eloquence of speech or give such a clear definition of how the apostolic church understood the Jesus story.

LUKE 2:15-21. This passage with its more homely happiness and wonder is frequently hidden behind the angelic announcement and glorious rejoicing in the previous verses. It is best read slowly and with emphasis on each scene: the shepherds’ surprise at the angels’ message; their hasty decision to go to Bethlehem to find the child; the discovery of the manger where the baby lay as they had been told. (If vs. 16 is read in haste we can even get all three of the Holy Family into the manger at same time!) The mention of Mary’s meditation as the shepherds departed to spread the good news left a quieter mood in the stable. Finally, the naming of Jesus at the time of his circumcision according to the Jewish custom is the one link Luke’s nativity story has with Matthew’s.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

NUMBERS 6:22-27. This passage may be more familiar to congregations as a benediction at the close of worship or in a traditional baptismal liturgy.  It may have existed from earlier times and have been incorporated into the priestly document (P) now forming part of the Pentateuch.  Its words are similar to those found in Pss. 67:1 and 4:6b. The basic concept is that of divine grace. The Mishnah, a rabbinical interpretation of the Torah dating about 200 CE, held that it was used daily in the temple.

As it stood in the thought of its time Yahweh’s blessing consisted in material things as well as spiritual benefits. Plentiful crops, productive herds, seasonable weather, even military victory would be sincerely hoped for. These were seen as acts of divine providence for Yahweh’s people. A shining face would have been interpreted as a sign of pleasure. When shown to other people, it indicated a strong personal relationship (cf. Pss. 31:16; 80:3, 7, 19) or a bond of friendship (2 Sam. 2:22; Job 22:26). That, of course, was the permanent relationship of Yahweh to Israel.

Peace – Shalom – is still the standard blessing of the Middle East. Shalom is more than an absence of discord. It represents a state of well-being and security, something sadly lacking in the interpersonal and communal relationships of the modern Middle East. While visiting there, I approached and made eye-contact with a man of Arabic descent.  I spoke the traditional greeting in Hebrew- Shalom. Then I repeated it in Arabic version – Salaam. He responded in exactly the same way. I wondered if both of us felt safer because of that momentary eye-contact and greeting.

PSALM 8. The psalmist first contemplates 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 he would have sen the panoply of stars spread out above him or possibly 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. (vss. 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.

GALATIANS 4:4-7. Unfamiliar with the later tradition of the virgin conception, Paul gave a theological and scriptural interpretation to the birth of Jesus.  Stating that God’s Son was “born of a woman, born under the law,” he places Jesus in continuity with Jewish tradition. In some respects, this could be interpreted as a rebuttal of the doctrine of the virgin conception, although Paul probably did not intend it to be so. He may not even have known about the somewhat later tradition cited only in Matthew and Luke.

If Jesus was born “under the law,” then his birth must have been regarded as the natural result of human sexual activity rather than the asexual descriptions of later Gospels. For Mary to have given birth before marriage would have been a serious transgression of the law as defined by Deut. 22:13-28 and as alluded to in Matthew’s narrative. As a child bride prior to pubescence, common in those days, she could have conceived before her menstrual cycles began. Geza Vermes argues this position in his The Nativity: History and Legend (Penguin 2006). Paul, however, wrote to the Galatians circa 50 CE, possibly 25-30 years before the birth narratives were written. If there was an earlier tradition of the virgin conception, Paul did not share it.

Instead he focused on the redemption of all humanity effected through Jesus, the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. The phrase “the fullness of time” expresses the prophetic view that God is sovereign over all history.  So God’s plan will be fulfilled according to God’s timing when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, reigns as the divinely appointed sovereign of the world. The redemption of which Paul spoke (vs. 5) began with coming of Jesus, the Messiah. This “already but not yet” eschatological process will be completed only at the Parousia.

Paul conceived the idea of believers being adopted as children of God and heirs with Christ (vs. 5b-7) as the fulfillment of both his Jewish heritage and his Christian faith. This was also the new status of the Galatians. God’s promise to Abraham, including freedom and election as God’s chosen people, had been made good through Jesus. But the Christian communities in Galatia included Gentiles as well as Jews. The main theme of the letter declared that Gentiles and Jews alike were now freed from slavery to “the elemental spirits of the world” (vs. 3) and to the law of Moses. In Greek mythical thought, present also in late Jewish apocalypticism, the elemental spirits were believed to rule human lives as well as the natural world. Paul was contemptuous of this polytheistic idolatry.

The new relationship with God through Christ made everything different in their relationships with each other and with the particular cultural milieu in which they lived. Paul would spell out just what that meant in the latter segment of the letter (especially 5:13-6:10). So as well as fulfilling their heritage, the relationships born of their new-found faith in Jesus Christ, rather than any previously held convictions, would also give rise to a definite discontinuity with that same heritage. Their new spiritual inheritance as a result of receiving the gift of the Spirit made all this possible.

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11. (Alternate)  This early Christian hymn may well have been composed by Paul himself. Nowhere else in all his letters does he rise to such eloquence of speech or give such a clear definition of how the apostolic church understood the Jesus story.

As a rabbinical student in Jerusalem before his conversion Paul would have heard of three significant elements of this song: Its lyrical form was similar to the great Levitical hymns of the temple. The apostolic story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was a personal concern of his teacher, Rabbi Gamaliel.  The humble poverty of the Christian community was well known too, made up as it was predominately of Galileans and the lower classes with few men and women of prominence among them.

In carefully constructed Greek words and phrases, Christ is seen as the key figure in a divine drama in which he yields up his co-existence with God, assumes human form and suffers the humiliation of death by crucifixion. Those who have difficulty understanding whether or not Jesus was divine has only to consider Paul’s statement about his true nature. The word huparchein (translated as “being”) described the very inner nature or essence of a person. As William Barclay said: “It describes the innate, unchangeable, unalterable characteristics and abilities of a man which, in spite of all the chances and the changes, and in any circumstances, remains the same.” (The Letter to the Corinthians: Daily Bible Readings. 1957, 43.) Coupled with that was the Greek word for “form.” In this case, morph‚ was used rather than schema. Morph  referred to the essential form as opposed to the outward form, schema, that continually changed. So Jesus’ unchangeable nature was divine.

At the same time, Paul said, Jesus did not think that his divinity “was something to be exploited” as the NSRV puts it. Again the Greek word is beautifully descriptive. Harpagmos comes from the verb which means “to snatch” or “to clutch.” Either English word would fit the situation. As Barclay points out, either he had no need to snatch at equality with God; or he did not need to clutch it, “as if to hug it jealously to himself. And to refuse to let it go.” On the contrary, Paul says in amazement, Jesus gave it all up, humiliating himself as a slave obedient to the point of suffering the utmost shame of crucifixion in total contrast to the glory and honour of divinity. Barclay again: “There is no passage in the whole New Testament which so movingly sets out the utter reality of the godhead and the manhood of Jesus Christ, and which makes so vivid the inconceivable sacrifice that Christ made when he laid aside his godhead and took manhood upon him. How it happened we cannot tell. The end is mystery, but it is the mystery of a love so great that we can never fully understand it, although we can blessedly experience it and adore it.”

The hymn does not end there however. It goes on to sing of the exaltation of Jesus to the place of glorious sovereignty with God where heavenly and earthly worship is offered to him as to God.

The confession ‘Jesus is Lord” is at once the earliest Christian creed and an acknowledgment of Jesus’ divinity. Paul used that designation only three times in his letters and each time with worshipful sincerity and awe. The other two are found in Romans 10:9 and 1 Corinthians 12:3. This was said to be the essential confession each convert repeated at baptism. All the Philippians had made this same confession. All later creeds of the Christian church derived from it. There was – and is – nothing more that needs to be said as a statement of faith. For all time, this confession commits the one who says it sincerely to a life in which Jesus reigns supreme and so fulfills the will and purpose of God.

LUKE 2:15-21. This passage with its more homely happiness and wonder is frequently hidden behind the angelic announcement and glorious rejoicing in the previous verses. It is best read slowly and with emphasis on each scene: the shepherds’ surprise at the angels’ message; their hasty decision to go to Bethlehem to find the child; the discovery of the manger where the baby lay as they had been told. (If vs. 16 is read in haste we can even get all three of the Holy Family into the manger at same time!) The mention of Mary’s meditation as the shepherds departed to spread the good news left a quieter mood in the stable. Finally, the naming of Jesus at the time of his circumcision according to the Jewish custom is the one link Luke’s nativity story has with Matthew’s.

The name Jesus, however significant to us, was not unique in any way. It was common enough in earlier Hebrew literature. Its original form was Joshua, or more fully Yehoshuah, and meant as Matthew pointed out, “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.” In his various histories of the Jews, Josephus named nineteen persons with that same name all from the 1st century CE. It has been hinted that the name increased in popularity reflecting a growing nationalism after the Maccabean War (165 BCE) and even more so during Roman times after 65 BCE. Some manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew named Barabbas, Jesus Barabbas to distinguish him from Jesus of Nazareth who died in his stead (Matt. 27:16-17). A novel, Barabbas, by the late Swedish Nobel laureate for 1941, Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974), gave considerable emphasis to the way the coincidence of names affected the robber in the years after the crucifixion.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
New Year’s Day – January 1, 2010

ECCLESIASTES 3:1-13. The reading of this passage is customary at the beginning of a New Year. It emphasizes the significance of passing time and change. But it also reflects the deep sense of changelessness that Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, (Heb. Qoheleth) expressed with a remarkable frankness.

PSALM 8. [See above re The Holy Name of Jesus.)

REVELATION 21:1-6A. John has a vision of the whole of creation redeemed and renewed at the end of history. This is what awaits the faithful and thus makes endurable those bitter experiences of persecution experienced by the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia.

MATTHEW 25:31-46. This parable tells us that the reign of Christ will begin with a final judgment. But it is a parable, a metaphorical story told to persuade people on how to live as they prepare for that inevitable experience, not a description of what the event will be like whenever it occurs. The story also has an eschatological and a messianic emphasis set in place by its very first clause, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels with him ….” That is a typical description from the apocalyptic tradition derived from Jewish literature of the late centuries BCE greatly influenced by forerunners in both the prophetic and possibly the wisdom traditions. (See Ezekiel 38-39; Isaiah 24-27; Zechariah 12-14.) Its stock-in-trade was revelation through visionary experience. This parable contains some very vivid images of that kind.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

ECCLESIASTES 3:1-13. The reading of this passage is customary at the beginning of a New Year. It emphasizes the significance of passing time and change. But it also reflects the deep sense of changelessness that Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, (Heb. Qoheleth) expressed with a remarkable frankness.

He is not an atheist, but neither did he share the traditional Jewish theology of Yahweh’s choice of Israel as a special people. He even counseled against unquestioniedparticipation in the traditional religious rites of Israel. In the end, he is both an agnostic – one cannot know God, but only acknowledge God’s existence and power – and a fatalist – nothing can be done to change the way things are.

How then did it become a part of the Hebrew Scriptures? We simply do not know for sure, but it must have won approval of the religious authorities and the worshiping community as the canon was being finalized during the 1st century CE. So it must have been in common use during that time and finally was authorized on the grounds that it was genuine religious teaching.

The book is thought to have originated during the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors. That was time of great upheaval, uncertainty and insecurity for Israel and its religious institutions. The sentiments of this passage that everything must happen in its own time according to God’s timing and not our own were probably very helpful to some who struggled to believe in a divine purpose for human life and history.

PSALM 8. [See above re The Holy Name of Jesus.)

REVELATION 21:1-6A. John has a vision of the whole of creation redeemed and renewed at the end of history. This is what awaits the faithful and thus makes endurable those bitter experiences of persecution experienced by the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia.

Many Old Testament references colour this vision – the creation, the city, the bride. Perhaps the most important insight of the passage is that “now God’s dwelling is among mortals.” (vs. 3) This reaffirms God’s coming into the world in Jesus Christ for the single purpose of redeeming the world and reconciling humanity and all creation to God’s original purpose.

The late Principal George B. Caird, of Mansfield College, Oxford, wrote in his magisterial commentary on this passage, “In some ways this is the most important part of the book, as it is certainly the most familiar and beloved.” It is the promised answer to the plea of every martyr, “If only we knew where it is all going to end! Much of John’s vision, and much of the human history it depicts and interprets, becomes intelligible, credible, tolerable, when we know the answer. Here is the real source of John’s prophetic certainty.” (The Revelation of St. John the Divine. Black’s New Testament Commentary, 1968.)

The image of the vanishing sea has great significance. It represents the ending of history in the same way that creation out of chaos began history when “the earth was a formless void and darkness was over the face of the deep.” (Gen. 1:1-2) The descent of the holy city, New Jerusalem, and the voice from heaven announcing its meaning, also represents a whole new order that is taking place. The distinction between heaven and earth disappears. No longer is heaven the dwelling of God and earth the dwelling of humans. Now God’s dwelling is with us. The Incarnation has reached its true end: Immanuel, God with us. (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23) As we have seen above, the bride from heaven are also a quotation from Isaiah 25:6-8.

The voice from the throne is, of course, the voice of God first heard at the very opening of John’s visions (Rev.1:8).  All things are being made new; a complete transformation is taking place, not just in the seven churches to which John was commanded to write, but in all places of God’s dominion, God is forever making all things new. Paul had the same vision as voiced in 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:16-18; 5:16-17; Col.3:1-4. But John sees it on a cosmic scale whereas Paul saw it in the individual believer. As Caird put it: “Blind unbelief may see only the outer world, growing old in its depravity and doomed to vanish before the presence of holiness; but faith can see the hand of God in the shadows, refashioning the whole. The agonies of earth are but the birth-pangs of a new creation.”

God’s naming of the Alpha and the Omega do not mean that God is just at the beginning and the end, as the deist philosophy would have it, creating then allowing creation to run without intervention. God is the living God who confronts humanity at every step of the way. All that we have and are as humans within God’s creation, and above all our salvation, is the work of God from start to finish. God requires nothing of us but the openness of faith, a thirst for God to be satisfied with nothing less that the water of life.

MATTHEW 25:31-46. This parable tells us that the reign of Christ will begin with a final judgment. But it is a parable, a metaphorical story told to persuade people on how to live as they prepare for that inevitable experience, not a description of what the event will be like whenever it occurs. The story also has an eschatological and a messianic emphasis set in place by its very first clause, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels with him ….” That is a typical description from the apocalyptic tradition derived from Jewish literature of the late centuries BCE greatly influenced by forerunners in both the prophetic and possibly the wisdom traditions. (See Ezekiel 38-39; Isaiah 24-27; Zechariah 12-14.) Its stock-in-trade was revelation through visionary experience; and this parable contains some very vivid images of that kind.

In vss. 31 and 32 there are two images of the judgment which may seem to be unusually juxtaposed. The first envisages a typical a royal court where the monarch is surrounded by courtiers and the whole populace is gathered before the throne waiting for a critical decision. The second describes the much humbler scene of a shepherd at the end if a day separating sheep from goats as they enter the fold for the night. The task was an easy one, for in the Middle East sheep are generally white and goats black. The monarch’s task might not be so easy, for the character of human beings is much more complex.

The story does simplify the basis on which the judgment is made. It has to do with how each person responds to everyday opportunities to help others in need. The length and detail with which this poignant emphasis is described assures even the hasty reader that this is what the story means.  The reign of Christ and God’s eternal judgment are going on right now with each decision and action we take. How we live today has eternal consequences. We are to witness to the reign of Christ in the way we serve him in faithfulness, kindness and love to our neighbors in need.

Yet this parable is not a simple story offering polite moral counsel for those seeking for ethical behavior to create a kinder, gentler, self-satisfied society. Coming as it does immediately before the Passion story, this parable connects our time in history and the time of Jesus as an historical person with the reality of eschatological judgment at the  end of time. The way this parable describes how the faithful are to live is the way Jesus lived “as one that served.” His actions constantly affirmed his messianic character.

Matthew constantly reminded his audience of this in his choice of names by which he referred to Jesus of Nazareth, in this instance the OT messianic figure of the Son of Man. As he turned to the all important concluding section of his gospel, Matthew was saying that in Jesus the Messiah the divine judgment which Israel has anticipated for so long had arrived. The gospel speaks across the millennia with the same clarion call of judgment: the crucified and risen Jesus, the ever present ‘God with us,’ is now deciding who will have a part in the eternal reign of love fulfilled in God’s creation. One could not find a better lesson for the beginning of a New Year.

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A new year begins on the liturgical calendar of Christian worship. This will be the third year, Year C, in the cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Advent is the time when we make our spiritual preparations for the coming of Christ by thinking first about his return in glory as promised throughout the New Testament.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
1st Sunday of Advent – November 29, 2009

JEREMIAH 33:14-16. Jeremiah lived seven centuries before Christ was born. Yet he spoke with intense hope of a time when an anointed king of David’s line would come to bring righteousness and justice to Israel and so give the nation the security it so desperately needed and earnestly desired.

PSALM 25:1-10. The personal faith of the individual Israelite expressed in a prayer forms the central theme of this instructional psalm. In Hebrew, each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew language. This was done for easier memorization. The special covenant relationship between God and Israel also lies behind the prayer as a secondary theme.

1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13. The two letters of Paul to the Thessalonians were probably the first part of the whole New Testament to have been written, possibly no more that twenty years after the death and resurrection of Christ. Prominent throughout these two short letters is the expectation that Christ would soon return to establish his eternal reign of justice, peace and love. Here Paul urges that continued spiritual growth and warm personal relationships be maintained by these early Christians until that glorious day.

LUKE 21:25-36. The expectation of Christ’s return dominated early Christian thought. Bible scholars debate whether these teachings came from Jesus himself or the early apostolic church. Many of the concepts and images are drawn from typical Jewish apocalyptic writing found in the Hebrew scriptures and similar writings of the period between the two parts of our Bible.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

JEREMIAH 33:14-16. Jeremiah lived seven centuries before Christ was born. His ministry spanned four decades from about 627 to 586 BCE. Two great crises occurred during this time. The break-up of the Assyrian empire and the rise of the Babylonian empire changed the economic and political environment for the kingdom of Judah. The resurgence of religious nationalism during the reign of King Josiah (ca. 640-609 BCE) created a new social, moral and spiritual environment. Jeremiah may well have been greatly involved in that revival as the narrative parts of the book describe.

As the Book of Jeremiah comes to us now, it is a composite work of several different types of literature drawn from several sources and dealing with several themes. But like most pre-exilic prophets, Jeremiah was primarily a preacher, not an author. So the book that bears his name must be regarded as only partially his. The lectionary passage comes from a so-called “Book of Consolation” (chs. 30, 31 and 33) into which is inserted an incident from Jeremiah’s life illustrating this hopeful theme (32). These oracles are probably of varied origin that offer hope beyond national disaster. They also show the influence of the earlier prophet Hosea and close links with Deutero-Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55). Some of the material is undoubtedly that of Jeremiah himself as well as from Baruch, the scribe. (See Robert Davidson’s article “The Book of Jeremiah,” in The Oxford Companion to the Bible, 343ff) Baruch may have been responsible for writing down some of the prophecies attributed to Jeremiah.

This passage speaks with intense hope of a time when an anointed king (Hebrew = masiah) of David’s line would come to bring righteousness and justice to Israel and so give the nation the security it so desperately needed and earnestly desired. It emphasizes the prophetic faith that the nation’s fate will not be not decided by the Babylonians, but by Yahweh. This faith in Yahweh as Lord of history is found throughout the Old Testament, but especially in the oracles of the great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It presents a hopeful faith for difficult times such as our own.

Our problem today is to recognize and accept this biblical faith that God does indeed have a providential purpose to be fulfilled through the actual events of human history. This faith implies an interventionist God who cares what happens to creation, but this is also open to wide misinterpretation found so often in some narrow theological views that claims God is really on our side and against our enemies. Such views have frequently led to civil, international and interfaith warfare. The mediaeval Crusades and the Irish Troubles of the past several decades occurred because of such disastrous religious prejudices. The great danger of the present moment is to see the extremist Islamists’ jihad, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in a similar light.

It also has to be recognized that such a narrow view is evident in the scriptures themselves. After the global wars of the 20th century, one is tempted to reject all theological interpretations of history. How could we ever conceive of a God in control of such tragic events when millions of innocent civilians died because they belonged to an “enemy” nation or a particular race or ethnic group? It is at this point that the vision of Jeremiah of the Messiah “executing righteousness and justice” becomes relevant to our own time. Without these qualities dominant in human character and practiced in personal, national and international relations, history will continue to be a record of human failure to do as God wills.

PSALM 25:1-10. The special relationship between Yahweh and Israel as well as the personal faith of the individual Israelite form the central theme of this psalm which is both liturgical and instructional. It is a prayer of supplication for Yahweh’s intervention in some unstated personal problem and as such was useful to anyone seeking divine help in distress.

The psalm has the form of an acrostic, however. In Hebrew, each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew language. This was done for easier memorization. It also contains similarities to Wisdom literature, e.g. vss. 4-5; 12-14. As such, its superscription “Of David” is an anachronism attached to the psalm to give it liturgical authority. This type of psalm appeared only in the late post-exilic period when the worship of temple was highly structured by the Levitical priesthood. It may have come from a collection of psalms of varying age and authorship attributed to but certainly not composed by David.

While the implications of vss. 1-2 indicate an external human enemy whose treachery the psalmist feared, there is no reason why this could not also refer to an inner, spiritual enemy. The habit of personifying the impersonal can be found quite commonly in Hebrew literature. Mediaeval art and some modern literary images depicting various forms of temptation as evil angels (e.g. C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters) followed the same pattern.

The psalmist had found that obedience to the way of Yahweh led to moral uprightness and spiritual strength when confronted by life’s vicissitudes. Dependence on the mercy and steadfast love of Yahweh yielded the power to overcome (vss. 6-10). A note of sincere humility crept into the prayer as the psalmist openly confessed his youthful transgressions and personal guilt (vss. 7 & 11). He also had concern for others, that they would reverently seek to be taught by Yahweh and reap the reward of prosperity through keeping the covenant (vss. 12-15).

Vss. 16-21 return to the original petition. The psalm ends with a brief reference to the need for Israel’s redemption from troubles which are never disclosed. The personal and national distress to which the psalm gave expression can best be understood in the light of the covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel. Each Israelite, as a “son of the covenant,” (b’nai b’rith) felt a deep sense of personal identification with what happened to the whole community. Today, we can see this in the way our Jewish neighbors feel about and defend Israel whenever they perceive some incident as threatening to that modern state.

1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13. The two letters of Paul to the Thessalonians were probably the first part of the whole New Testament to have been written, possibly no more that twenty years after the resurrection of Christ and relatively early in Paul’s ministry. Prominent throughout these two short letters is the expectation that Christ would soon return to establish his eternal reign of justice, love and peace. Paul shared this viewpoint with the whole church of the Apostolic Age. It greatly influenced the oral transmission of Jesus’ teachings and the writing of the earlier Gospels.

Paul’s intimate relationship with some of his early European converts comes to the fore in this passage. The immediately preceding verses (3:1-5) describe his considerable anxiety for them as they struggled to live their recently acquired faith in very difficult circumstances. They were probably mainly Gentiles experiencing strong persecution from non-believers of their own community not unlike the opposition confronting Jewish Christians in Judea (2:14). Accordingly, Paul had sent his colleague Timothy to encourage them (3:2). Timothy had returned with good news (3: 6). So Paul was writing this first letter in response to what Timothy had told him.

Thanksgiving and intercessory prayer for the Thessalonians highlight Paul’s very personal concern. He earnestly wanted to return to see them and strengthen their faith. In the meantime, he urged that they continue to grow and maintain warm personal relationships within their fellowship until that glorious day when Christ returns. He did not elaborate on the details of the apostolic expectation of Christ’s second coming.

In general, all NT writers concentrated on the purpose rather than the manner of this anticipated event. It was as if they felt that Jesus’ work of establishing God’s kingdom had been left unfinished by the crucifixion and resurrection. In all honesty, the world still seemed – then and now – as if the reign of God had not yet come. The promise of Christ’s coming again offered hope that what had gone before had not been in vain. The love of God in Christ would triumph in the end and those who refused to believe and follow his way would be rejected
in the final judgment.

The phrase “strengthen your hearts in holiness” in 3:13 offers a very appropriate Advent text. Instead of rushing around in consumer panic, we need these four weeks before Christmas to prepare spiritually for Christ’s coming. Holiness in daily life is best expressed in love for God and neighbour. It is not just happenstance that charities make their strongest appeal for public support during the last few weeks before Christmas. The problem most of us face is how to share our resources, material and well as spiritual, in this particular season when so many demands are placed upon us. Childhood Christmases during the Great Depression of the 1930s showed me personally how it is that while material resources may be limited, spiritual resources for this season can be truly unlimited.

LUKE 21:25-36. The expectation of Christ’s return dominated early Christian thought. Bible scholars debate whether Jesus himself or the early apostolic church taught in such terms. Uniformly, the gospels and Acts attribute this teaching to Jesus, although in John’s Gospel there is some ambiguity whether certain sayings of Jesus referred to his resurrection rather than an eschatological Parousia at the end of historical time. Many of the concepts and images were drawn from standard Jewish apocalyptic writing found in the Hebrew scriptures and similar eschatalogical literature of the intertestamental period.

The prophets much earlier had declared their faith in a future historical event, the Day of the Lord, when God’s rule of righteousness, peace, justice and prosperity would become permanent for Israel. The earliest gospel statement in Mark 1:15 set the ministry of Jesus as the dawning of this new age. Matthew and Luke shared this belief. But the moment had not yet come by the eighth or ninth decade of lst century CE when Luke’s Gospel was composed. Later New Testament writers, notably the author of the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, dealt with the delayed expectation of the church.

There may well be actual historical events behind this apocalyptic passage in all three Synoptic Gospels. As can be seen by comparing Matthew 24:4-36 Luke 21 5-38 to Mark 13:5-37, Matthew and Luke were dependent on Mark’s original statement of the early oral tradition. The differences in the three accounts may have been due to an earlier version of Mark which the two other authors had before them, but were altered in what is now a much debated “Secret Gospel of Mark.” (Biblical Archeological Review, , “Secret Mark: A Modern Forgery?” November-December 2009. Vol.35, No. 6. 43ff.)

All four Gospels were written after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 CE and reflect that momentous event. Written about 70 CE, Mark’s Gospel was closest to the catastrophe . There is a strong tradition that shortly before that fateful event in Jewish history, the Christian community in Jerusalem fled from the city and settled in Pella, an established flourishing Roman and Greek town on the eastern side of the Jordan River about 16 km (10 mi) south of the Sea of Galilee. Hence the reference in Luke 21:21 “Then those is Judea must flee to the mountains ….” (Cf. Mark 13:14; Matt. 24:15-16). The tradition came from that fact that the Christian community there existed there until the Moslem period in the 7th century CE. Thus, in this passage we may well be reading the leaders of the Christian community cast their counsel and hope for Christ’s return to their endangered community in the eschatological words of Jewish apocalypse taken from the Hebrew scriptures they knew so well.

Nor has that hope in the future return of Christ yet been fulfilled twenty-one centuries later in the traditional manner in which it has been declared. In the meantime, the church’s faith in the Second Coming has been variously interpreted, depending on the approach to scripture taken by the interpreter. Is it specific prediction? Or more general prophecy of God’s intention? Or is the descriptive Second Coming more of a symbol of God’s ultimate triumph? Or are we merely discussing the personal identification of the individual with Christ? Or has it already taken place – at Pentecost? Stephen H. Travis, of St. John’s College, Nottingham, England, writes: “In any case, it is possible to affirm the basic structure of Christian hope, with its emphasis on the second coming as the goal and fulfillment of God’s past work in Christ, without committing oneself to any precise view about its nature or when it will be.” (The Oxford Companion to the Bible, p. 686.)

That may not be a satisfactory approach for some, but it does give us a continuing hope and a commission to carry on the ministry of God’s love for the world so fully expressed in Jesus Christ. How each person fulfills that commission is to be realized in the choices and priorities one makes in the myriad human relationships which engage one’s energies day by day. For some it may mean quiet prayer and contemplation. For others it may mean active participation in ministries that seek justice for all. For still others it may have extensive economic and/or political ramifications. One form or expression of hope does not fit all situations.

To some extent, there was truth in what former US President George H. W. Bush (1988-92) advocated when he said that we all have a responsibility to create “a thousands points of light”. It would be a grave mistake, however, to regard any specific political or military events occurring at this or any other moment in history, no matter who may perpetrate them, as signs that the end times have begun. The Day of the Lord envisioned by the prophets of Israel and the eschatological passages of the NT is always here and now.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Twenty First Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 25 Ordinary 30
October 25, 2009.
Job’s story ends with the old man acknowledging his humble status before God and repenting his hostility toward God for not giving him all the answers he sought to the problem of suffering. His fortunes are restored twofold when he prays for his friends.

PSALM 34:1-8. With an assurance that counters the angry doubt of Job, this psalm declares an almost absolute trust in God to provide all the answers to life’s great questions. The caveat remains, however, that only the righteous can have such a relationship with God. This was the message of all of Job’s friends too; and it brought him no comfort in his suffering.

JEREMIAH 31:7-9. (Alternate) This passage predicts the return of the exiles from Babylon, but that very promise raises the question as to its authenticity as a prophecy of Jeremiah. He lived during the beginning of the exile (586 BCE) but nowhere else promised a safe and joyful return.

JOB 42:1-6, 10-17.

PSALM 126. (Alternate) This psalm also celebrates the return of the exiles from Babylon as one of the great acts of God to Israel.

HEBREWS 7:23-28. Behind this passage stands the custom of the high priest of the Jews entering the holy of holies once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) to offer an unblemished lamb to atone for the nation’s sins. The sacrifice offered by Jesus on the cross, once for all, removes the necessity of repeated sacrifices required under the older system. Jesus thus becomes both the eternal high priest and the perfect sacrifice.

MARK 10:46-52. The healing of the blind man in Jericho emphasizes the point that Mark has made throughout his gospel. Faith in Jesus not only gives the man back his sight, but a spiritual healing enabling him to follow him “on the way.” This could mean the way to Jerusalem and the cross; or it could also be interpreted as in later years and today as “the way of discipleship.” In Acts, the early church was described as “the followers of the way.” Since this was the last episode in Mark’s narrative before he began telling of the death of Jesus, we can presume that both meanings were fully intended. The discipleship of true faith is costly. That remains as much so today as it ever was.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS. This reading includes both the poetic and the narrative conclusions to the composite book. The omitted verses 7-9 provide a transition from one form to the other and show how different the two styles were.

JOB 42:1-6, 10-17.

In the poetic segment (vss. 1-6) Job acknowledges his humble status before Yahweh, but first confesses that Yahweh’s purpose cannot be thwarted. By repeating a slight variation of the opening words of Yahweh’s address (cf. 38:1-2), he repents his hostility toward Yahweh for not giving him all the answers he sought.

Vs.5 may well contain the supreme lesson of the whole book. Although its questions have never been answered by any of his friends nor by Yahweh, Job has nonetheless received spiritual insight. His friends, stand-ins for the Wisdom schools, had all touted the traditional wisdom and the ancient beliefs of their ancestors. Confronted by Yahweh in the magnificent theophany from the midst of the whirlwind (chs. 38-40), Job has perceived a new reality which he can only express in the metaphorical statement, “My eyes see you.” Faith is like that. It happens within each person as a whole new set of thoughts are shaped into an abiding conviction.

Recognizing that he has been in the presence of Yahweh, Job finally confesses his sinfulness. None of the polemic accusations of his friends could have brought him to this point. This says something significant to us about the way we preach. Is it ever right to accuse others of sinful behaviour in hopes of convicting them? Is it not the Holy Spirit alone who can convict us of sin? (cf. John 16:7-11) Without naming the Spirit, Job’s metaphor of seeing Yahweh makes this point.

Yahweh restores Job’s fortunes twofold when he prayed for his friends (vs. 10). Here again the concern for the other person rather than oneself clearly expressed in the prophetic literature comes to the fore. If Job’s friends represent the classical attitude of retributive justice, Job represents a radical revolt against such a harsh theological stance. So also concern for justice for the individual person plays a significant part in the theology of the book. As Professor R.B.Y. Scott so ably put it in his study of Wisdom literature, The Way of Wisdom (Macmillan, 1971. 164) , “The Book of Job tells us that the keystone of genuine morality and all true religion is personal integrity, not proud but humble, committed ultimately to truth and love and goodness in the faith that these are what sustain the universe.”

PSALM 34:1-8. With an assurance that counters the angry doubt of Job, this psalm declares an almost absolute trust in God to provide all the answers to life’s great questions. Emphasis placed on humility, however, (vs. 2) almost gets lost amid repeated summonses to praise (vss. 1, 3, 8) and reassurances that God does respond to prayer (vss. 4-6). Nonetheless, the caveat remains that only the righteous can have such a relationship with Yahweh. This was the message of all of Job’s friends too; and it brought him no comfort in his suffering.

Much could be made of the metaphors in vs. 6 and their representation of traditional OT views of how God intervenes within history. An angel encamped around those who fear Yahweh recalls the frequently used military name for Yahweh, “the Lord of hosts.” The epithet occurs no less than 267 times and was originally associated with the tribal confederacy at Shiloh (1 Sam. 3:1, 11). It variously referred to angelic bodies gathered in Yahweh’s name to defend Israel or to the army of Israel itself. “Fear of Yahweh” is often interpreted as reverence, but this is not credible in this instance. Coincidence with the militaristic terminology recalls the ancient narratives about Israel’s struggle to survive throughout the patriarchal period and the millennium before this psalm came into existence.

Although the superscript suggests that it was of Davidic origin, this is not so. The psalm belongs to a limited set using the acrostic format where each line begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This artificial form, described by one commentator as a fad, came into use late in the literary history of Israel. It was designed as a pedagogic tool to aid memorization or to give complete expression to an idea or emotion. No question can be raised about the religious fervor of the psalmist in using this poetic style. The superscript itself exemplifies an even later type of Hebrew interpretation. Christians have frequently made use of vs. 3 as a call to worship.

JEREMIAH 31:7-9. (Alternate) This passage predicts the return of the exiles from Babylon, and the wider Diaspora. That very promise raises the question as to its authenticity as a prophecy of Jeremiah. He lived during the beginning of the exile (586 BCE) but nowhere else promised a safe and joyful return of the Diaspora.

The similarity of this passage to the sayings of Deutero-Isaiah, the prophet of the exile, tends to confirm doubt that it is one of Jeremiah’s oracles. There are words and phrases found also in Isa. 40-66 which were not common to Jeremiah. (Cf. vss. 8-9 with Isa. 35:5-6; 40:11; 42:16; 43:6). One brief section of vs. 9c may be from Jeremiah, but not much else. (Cf. vs. 9c with 31:20; 3:19) One scholar has suggested that vs. 9c actually belongs with vs. 20, and probably part of a true Jeremiah poem (vss. 15-22).

In and of itself, however, the passage has a profound beauty to it that cannot be denied. It attributes the homecoming of the remnant of Israel to the mystery of divine salvation (vs. 8) and Yahweh’s unsurpassed kindness for the weak and marginalized.

PSALM 126. (Alternate) This psalm also celebrates the return of the exiles from Babylon as one of the great acts of God to Israel. It belongs to that special set known as “Songs of Ascent,” (Pss. 120-134) which may have been sung by pilgrims approaching the temple at various festivals.

It also shows some of the characteristics of a lament. Scholars suggest that it dates from a time late in the post-exilic period when the fortunes of Israel had been reversed from the golden expectations of return from Babylon (539 BCE). This fits the more difficult times when the Persian empire was breaking down and the Greek empire was on the rise, circa 5th 50 4th centuries BCE. The psalmist is consoled in such desperate times by memories of the joyful return and hopes that the tears of the present troubled times will water the seed of a future glad harvest. Indeed the psalm may have been adapted for liturgical use in a memorial pilgrimage that took place at one of the great festivals when members of Diaspora gathered to celebrate in the temple. John 7 tells of Jesus and his brothers observing such a festival in Jerusalem.

HEBREWS 7:23-28. This brief excerpt continues the author’s discourse about the supremacy of Christ as priestly mediator of a better covenant than that of the Levitical priesthood. Behind this passage stands the custom of the high priest of the Jews entering the holy of holies once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) to offer the blood of an unblemished lamb to atone for the nation’s sins. The argument may seem distressingly complex for a modern audience, but presumably would have seemed quite cogent to those Jewish Christians familiar with their Jewish religious tradition and anxious about its relationship to their new faith.

Several points of reference to both the Jewish tradition and the passion of Christ begin in vss. 23 -24 by noting the temporary character of the Jewish priesthood in contrast to the permanence of the priesthood of Christ. The key to this discontinuity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, although this is only indirectly stated in the final clause of vs. 24, “because he continues forever.” This immediately relates to Christ’s role as saviour and advocate with God as a result of his ascension (vs. 25).

The next phase of the argument develops around Christ’s suitability for the priestly office. He is unique in holiness, innocence and purity, all of which resulted in his having an exalted position in heaven due to his death, resurrection and ascension (vs. 26). Furthermore, the author’s exposition clarifies another crucial distinction between the Jewish tradition and the Christian faith. Whereas on the Day of Atonement the high priest of Judaism offered an annual sacrifice for his own and the sins of all Jews, Jesus offered himself on the cross, once for all, and thereby removed the necessity of repeated sacrifices required under the older system. Jesus thus became both the eternal high priest and the perfect sacrifice (vs. 27).

Finally in vs. 28, we have an even more obscure reference to “the word of oath (which) appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” Oaths had an important place in the life of the Jewish community. They invoked the deity to validate the reliability and permanence of particular relationships, be it a legal, economic or personal relationship. The most common form of oaths in the OT can be found in several passages in 1 Samuel, “As the Lord lives ….” In other words, Yahweh was called to witness that the relationship being sealed by the oath was valid. In NT times, the Qumran Community made prevalent use of oaths; but Jesus urged that they be completely omitted (Matt. 5:34; cf. Jas. 5:12). Paul, however, did use oaths in Gal. 1:20, 2 Cor. 1:23 and Phil. 1:8. It is probable that this statement in Heb. 7:28 refers to God’s validation of the Sonship of Jesus Christ. It was, after all, the story narrated in four gospels and the NT letters which reveal and attest who Jesus is and what God did through him. This is the central message of the Letter to the Hebrews too.

MARK 10:46-52. Mark’s Gospel consists not only of “the Jesus Story,” but also a narrative which described the essence of faithful discipleship for his audience, whoever they may have been. The healing of the blind man in Jericho emphasizes this point which Mark had been making throughout his gospel and will bring to its fulfilment in the Passion narrative he is about to begin.

Bartimaeus of Jericho stands as the last person to respond to Jesus before he began his final approach to Jerusalem and the cross. Since the declaration of his messiahship at Caesarea Philippi (8:29ff), Jesus had been making his way slowly south from Galilee toward the holy city. As he went, he consistently taught his disciples about his pending death and resurrection (8:31). They neither understood him nor recognized the cost of following him. Indeed, the final mistake they made was to fight among themselves who among them would have precedence in the messianic kingdom they believed he was about to establish (10:32-45). How could they have been so blind?

That, of course, was exactly what Mark had been saying. The disciples had been both blind and deaf. Yet many of the miracles of healing Mark reported had been to give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf (7: 31-37; 8:22-26). Jesus had also reiterated several times the cost of being his disciple (8:34-38; 9:30-32; 10:17-22; 42-45). They just did not get it.

The story of Bartimaeus appears in Matthew and Luke with slightly different details. Matthew has two blind men in his version of the incident. Luke has the same essential information as Mark with some elaboration, but omits the man’s name. He also includes an added note about the praise by both the blind man and the crowd inspired by his regaining his sight. Like Mark, Luke also laid emphasis on the man’s faith as the key to being healed.

Faith in Jesus not only gave Bartimaeus back his sight, but a spiritual healing enabling him to follow him “on the way.” This contrasts dramatically with the spiritual blindness and disbelief of the disciples even though they had been with him all the way from Galilee. In this instance following Jesus “on the way” could mean going with him up to Jerusalem and to the cross. Or it could also be interpreted by Mark’s audience in later years as “the way of discipleship.” In Acts, the early church is described as “the followers of the way.” Since this was the last episode in Mark’s narrative before he began telling of the death of Jesus, we can presume that he fully intended both meanings.

The discipleship of true faith is costly. That remains as much so today as it ever was. During the first decade of the 21st century many hypotheses have been proposed to account for the decline in church membership and participation. This decline has occurred especially in the mainline denominations in North America since the heyday of the post-war boom in church building in the 1950s and 60s. Each person may have his or her own favourite reason. Could the underlying factor be the one which Mark highlights in this final segment of his narrative before beginning the climax to the story (8:22-10:52)? The cost of discipleship is still as great as ever, but fewer people are willing to undertake the self-sacrifice involved. Could it be that they have heard that message, but realize full well how much it will cost to follow Jesus in the way?

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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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