John Shearman's Lectionary

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROPER 14 ORDINARY 19
AUGUST 9, 2009.

2 SAMUEL 18:5-9, 15, 31-33. Without doubt this is one of the most moving stories from the whole of David’s reign. Essentially, it told about God’s love for Israel in a very personal parable. A palace revolution set Absolam, one of David’s sons, against his father ending in David’s flight and a bloody battle for power. Absolam suffered an accident and was slain by David’s ambitious general, Joab. When told the tragic news, David wept bitterly for his rebellious son, as God weeps for all whom God loves.

PSALM 130. As a prayer of penitence this psalm has few equals. It reflects of an actual situation evoking a desperate cry for God’s forgiveness. The need to be reconciled to God has universal application in the patient hope with which the psalm ends.

I KINGS 19:4-8. (Alternate) This is only a brief incident in a life-changing experience of the prophet Elijah. Threatened by Jezebel, he ran for his life. He headed out into the wilderness, a dry and barren place where he fell asleep under a broom tree, one of the few that will grow in such arid conditions. Strengthened for a longer journey by food miraculously provided, he trekked all the way to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain where Yahweh and Israel, led by Moses, had made covenant.

PSALM 34:1-8. (Alternate) This psalm presents one of the clearest statements of God’s redemptive purpose to be found in the Old Testament.

EPHESIANS 4:25-5:2. Either Paul himself, or one of his disciples who wrote this letter, exhorted his audience to live in a gentle and kindly way rather than angrily venting their frustrations and injustices. Their model was to be God’s loving forgiveness for them so fully expressed in Jesus Christ who died for them.

JOHN 6:35, 41-51. So different from the other gospels, John adds this discourse to the story of Jesus feeding of the five thousand. It is filled with John’s reflections on who Jesus really is and the meaning of his being the bread of life.

Jesus’ claim to be the complete revelation of God puzzled his Jewish contemporaries. They protested that they knew full well who he was because they knew his parents. Jesus went on to explain that he was not only the successor to the prophets, but the one who makes perfectly plain all that can be known about God and gives eternal, spiritual life to all who believed.

John’s Gospel was written possibly as long as sixty years after the resurrection for the third generation of Christians. He gave the early church’s most profound understanding of what Jesus really means to every generation.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

2 SAMUEL 18:5-9, 15, 31-33. The story of Absolam, David’s third son, forms a subplot to the life of David, in particular as a consequence of his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. An earlier part of the narrative gave some justification for Absolam’s rebellion. Believing that his father had lost his ability to provide adequate justice, Absolam took matters into his own hands. He arranged the death of Ammon, David’s oldest son, for raping his sister, Tamar (1 Sam. 13:1-29). A palace revolution set Absolam against his father won a considerable following in Israel. No longer sure of the loyalty of his troops, David fled from Jerusalem, raised three battalions, returned to guerilla warfare and engaged Absolam’s forces in a bloody battle for power.

David’s forces won the battle, causing Absolam to flee. But Absolam suffered a silly accident by being caught by the forked branch of a tree as his mule ran through a forest. David’s ambitious general, Joab, found and slew Absolam as he hung there totally vulnerable. When told the tragic news, David wept bitterly for his rebellious son, as God weeps for all whom God loves.

Without doubt this is one of the most moving stories from the whole cycle of narratives about David’s reign. It expresses profoundly human sentiments and contains genuine theological relevance. In a very personal parable it told of David’s love and grief for his both his sons, Ammon and Absolam, both of whom had repulsed him. The story may also be seen as a metaphor of God’s love for recalcitrant Israel. Because of this double intent, it became sacred scripture. Read in an extremely dramatic way, it can bring a deep sense of its pathos to an attentive audience.

PSALM 130. As a prayer of penitence this psalm has few equals. It reflects of an actual situation evoking a desperate cry for God’s forgiveness. The need to be reconciled to God has universal application in the patient hope with which the psalm ends.
Yet at the same time this deep sense of trust in God’s mercy and forgiveness rested on the assurance of Yahweh’s steadfast love. After all, the whole of Israel faith-history of Yahweh’s redemptive love lay behind this fervent prayer.

The psalm was included in a collection known as the “Songs of Ascent,” believed to have been sung by pilgrims as they approached Jerusalem for one of the great festivals. This one appears to fit the mood of those coming for Yom Kippur, the Feast of Atonement. On that holiest of occasions, all individual and national sins were repented and received merciful forgiveness. All the people and the nation received atonement with Yahweh through the designated sacrifices and the entrance of the high priest into the Holy of Holies. The fact that no mention is made of atoning sacrifices in this psalm has caused some scholars to assign it to a late, post-exilic date when Israel’s religious tradition had become more dependent on a spiritual relationship with Yahweh much more like that of the New Testament.

Vs. 6 contains a vivid image of watchmen on the eastern walls of Jerusalem watching for dawn to break over the Mount of Olives. From this, one can surmise that the poem may well have been composed by an individual engaged in a long night vigil contemplating two spiritual realities. Or, if he was a pilgrim, he may even have been close to the city itself as he spent the night too moved by his deep feelings to get any rest. In his wakefulness, he longed for morning to come when he could enter the city for the great festival. At the same time he was deeply conscious of his personal sin and had great hopes for the peace of repentance and forgiveness. Repentant Christians as well as Jews have turned to this psalm for the reassuring hope that it brings tot the troubled conscience.

I KINGS 19:4-8. (Alternate) This is only a brief episode in a life-changing experience of the prophet Elijah. Having won a decisive victory, Elijah had been threatened by Jezebel. So he ran for his life. He headed out into the wilderness, a dry and barren place where he fell asleep under a broom tree, one of the few that will grow in such arid conditions. Hunger and fatigue by an angel’s intervention in his plight he received food miraculously provided for a longer journey. So strengthened he trekked all the way to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain where Yahweh and Israel, led by Moses, had made covenant.

Angels as intermediaries between God and the prophets did not appear in Hebrew religious thought until after the Babylonian exile (639 BCE). The Septuagint (LXX, in Greek from 4th century BCE) translated this phenomenon as “someone,” likely interpreting the incident as a theophany and the “angel” as a manifestation of God in human form.

The passage depicts the prophet as humanly at the end of his own strength but miraculously receiving divine strength to return to the mount of God where Israel’s religious history began. In the northern tradition known as E (for Elohim) and in later Deuteronomic narrative (D), Horeb was the name given to the sacred mountain, the dwelling place of the God of Israel where the covenant was established. The alternative J tradition from the Southern Kingdom of Judea used the name Sinai for the holy mountain.

In the mid-20th century, British historian Arnold J. Toynbee described twenty-one different civilizations which had risen and fallen during the sweep of human history. One of his significant insights was to posit a time of retreat for renewal as a necessary step in the life cycle of any civilization or culture, then to return as a creative minority to establish a whole new approach to challenges to be faced. Out of the ruins of the old, the new was created. One finds a similar experience in the return of Elijah to Horeb. This becomes clear in the subsequent verses (19:9-18) where the prophet’s epiphany is described in detail.

PSALM 34:1-8. (Alternate) This psalm presents one of the clearest statements of God’s redemptive purpose to be found in the Old Testament. In the Hebrew text it has an acrostic form, each line beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The psalm also is in the wisdom style and so dates from the late Persian or early Greek period. Some scholars believe it may also have been associated with the lament of Ps. 25 as a hymn of thanksgiving.

The main purpose of the psalm is to celebrate with gratitude the saving power of Yahweh. It expresses great confidence and trust in Yahweh’s special care for the righteous.

While the superscription mistakenly attributes the psalm to an incident in David’s flight from his rebellious son Abimilech, no direct reference to that or any other event in David’s reign can be found. Such Davidic references were given to about half of the psalms, probably related to a special collection attributed to David. These titles were added during the compilation process somewhere between the fourth and second centuries BCE.

Viewed from a wider perspective, the psalm points to the constant mercy and love with which Yahweh watched over and delivered Israel from innumerable disasters. At the same time it draws more attention to the individual believer who trusts in Yahweh than to the nation as a whole. This too has been the attitude of devout Christians through many generations.

EPHESIANS 4:25-5:2. As this continuing analysis of Ephesians has been saying, either Paul himself, wrote this letter, or more probably one of his disciples composed it from his knowledge of Paul’s teaching, possibly after using it as a baptismal sermon. In this brief excerpt he exhorted his audience to live in a gentle and kindly way rather than angrily venting their frustrations and complaining about injustices they may have suffered. Their model was to be God’s loving forgiveness for them so fully expressed in Jesus Christ who died for them.

We need to keep at the forefront of our minds that the NT, and especially the letters, were written for congregations scattered far and wide across the eastern Roman empire. However obliquely, they referred to real situations within those faith communities. We have few resources to decipher exactly what those circumstances may have been when these letters were composed. It would appear from the context of this passage that there was a considerable amount of bickering and quarreling going on in this congregation. Either that, or the letter was addressed to faith communities in general who were in great conflict over the issue of whether Jews and Gentile could fellowship together. As someone put it in a comment on last week’s lesson, the issue was peace, not unity, although the unity of Christ’s body, the church, is named as one of the main themes of this letter.

Apparently anger and deceit within the fellowship had become serious concerns for “Paul” (vss. 25-27). People also seem to have been taking advantage of one another. Some may have been only partially reformed thieves (vs. 28). When people are riled up about issues, they often criticize and condemn one another mercilessly. That may be what Paul had in mind about “evil talk” in vs. 29. His antidote to that kind of talk is worth noting. An elderly concert musician and teacher once said, “Like good music, life needs to have plenty of grace notes. That’s what gives it colour and flavour.”

Did the anonymous author also have in mind Paul’s “fruits of the Spirit” in vs. 30? He certainly made direct reference to the Spirit as the seal of our future redemption, a phrase that occurs in the Pauline corpus many times. Then he returned to his earlier concern about serious communication issues that had arisen within the church for which there was only one solution: to speak in kindly, gentle words with gracious forgiveness modeled on God’s forgiving grace in Jesus Christ.

That, of course, would require considerable change of heart and perhaps some personal sacrifice of pride, especially for those who had been hurt by harshly spoken words. Could the Corinthians with whom Paul had such difficulty have been in the author’s mind here? As Frederick B. Craddock said in a sermon to one of Canada’s most prestigious congregations and a large radio audience, “Only those who have been hurt can be forgiving because they have been wounded and violated.” That is exactly what God did – and does – continually and consistently.

JOHN 6:35, 41-51. So different from the other gospels, John added this discourse to the story of Jesus feeding of the five thousand as an interpretation of something much more relevant to his own time and audience. The discourse consists of John’s reflections on who Jesus really is and the meaning of his being “the bread of life.”

If as many scholars have concluded, John was writing for the church in Ephesus in the last decade of the 1st century, what was he saying to them in this metaphor and its elaboration in the discourse? Within the decade before John wrote, the final distinction between the Jewish and the Christian faith traditions had become clear. Having been expelled from all Jewish synagogues, Christians no longer could be considered as a sect of Judaism. This expulsion meant that Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah were alienated from Israel and even their own families. At the same time, Christian communities now had a majority of Gentiles in their ranks. The teaching of the apostles defined more and more the limits of this tradition.

This prompted Christian communities to create radically transformed liturgies from their Jewish antecedents to express their peculiar Christian beliefs. Gospels recording Jesus’ sayings and deeds, the story of his passion, death and resurrection, and especially letters attributed to the apostle Paul, circulated more and more widely among churches. Into this milieu John’s Gospel introduced these reflections about the eucharistic celebration which marked every Christian gathering for worship.

In this passage, Jesus’ claim to be the complete revelation of God greatly puzzled his Jewish contemporaries. They protested that they knew full well who he was because they knew his parents. Mistakenly, they had understood him in an entirely literal way. Jesus had spoken in characteristic metaphors.

Bread had been particularly important in the Jewish religious tradition. Not only was it the staff of life, it held the promise of life itself. The Deuteronomists regarded the gift of eating bread without scarcity in the Promised Land as the promise of life in freedom and prosperity (Deut. 8:9). The sacrificial system included an offering of cereal used in the making of bread. Tabernacle and temple both required a permanent display of bread representing the presence of Yahweh (Exod. 25:30; 1 Chron. 28:16). The Passover festival of unleavened bread formed the central religious rite in remembrance of the Exodus.

Like the manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness, Jesus identified himself with this ancient tradition as the “bread from heaven.” In doing so, he at once acknowledged the significance of this divine gift of bread and reinterpreted its meaning. He explained that he was not only the successor to the prophets, of whom Moses was foremost, but actually represented God in every way. He was the one who makes perfectly plain all that can be known of God and gives God’s eternal, spiritual life to all who believe.

Thus John gave the early church its most profound understanding of what Jesus really meant to his own and still means to every generation. Whenever we participate in the breaking of bread, in the sacred eucharist or in the humblest of meals, we have fellowship with him and with God whom he reveals to us through the working of the Spirit. As the traditional grace at table prays: “Be present at our table, Lord, be here and everywhere adored. These mercies bless and grant that we may feast in Paradise with thee.”

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROPER 13 ORDINARY 18
AUGUST 2, 2009.

2 SAMUEL 11:26-12:13a. The confrontation between David and Nathan, the prophet, brings to the fore the magnitude of David’s adultery with Bathsheba, another man’s wife. The story is one of the most powerful in the whole sequence of hero-legends about Israel’s greatest king. The story makes the point, however, that even the greatest cannot misuse God-given authority and power for selfish ends.

PSALM 51:1-12. Because of the superscription many assume that this psalm refers directly to David’s sin, but that is highly unlikely. Psalm titles were added much later by scribes seeking to relate as many of them to David’s life on the mistaken assumption that he was author of the psalms. Nonetheless this one is a very beautiful prayer of repentance.

EXODUS 16:2-4, 9-15. (Alternate) After their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt by crossing of the Red Sea, the Israelites pressed on into the wilderness. When they complained to Moses that they would starve, further evidence of God’s guidance and providence was given in flocks of quails and a flaky substance they called manna (Hebrew for “what is it?”) in plentiful supply for their daily needs.

PSALM 78:23-29. (Alternate) The whole psalm celebrates God’s mighty acts on behalf of the Israelites during their migration toward the promised land. In this segment the psalmist recalls the instance of them being fed with manna and quail at a time of threatened famine.

EPHESIANS 4:1-16. This exhortation to live the Christian life in all its fullness emphasizes the gift of the Spirit to bring unity to the church and the power to equip all members for their common ministry. It presents a clear mandate for the mission of every congregation.

JOHN 6:24-35. This reading shows a special way in which John handled the miracle of feeding of the five thousand. For John, miracles had much more to them than seeing them happen and benefitting from them. This one led to a discourse by Jesus about being the bread of life. Many scholars believe that John used this discourse in place of the narrative of the Last Supper in the other three Gospels. The story also recalls the feeding of the Israelites during their wandering in the wilderness.

The passage makes three significant points: The miracle was another of the signs identifying Jesus as the Messiah/Christ, the Son of God. Somewhat ambiguously, however, it pointed beyond Jesus to God who is the source of all life. Finally, by placing particular emphasis on his statement, “I am the bread of life,” it identifies Jesus completely with God. This is a more spiritual and theological reflection than one finds in the other Gospels.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

2 SAMUEL 11:26-12:13a. The confrontation between David and Nathan, the prophet, brings to the fore the magnitude of David’s sin with Bathsheba, then arranging for her husband’s death in battle to cover up what he had done. The story is one of the most powerful in the whole sequence of hero-legends about Israel’s greatest king. On the surface it makes the point, however, that even the greatest cannot misuse God-given authority and power for selfish ends.

There is some artificiality about the story, however, probably for dramatic effect. David should have seen through Nathan’s device without difficulty. As king he was also the chief judge of the nations, so the incident that Nathan related was a case that might have come before him. Whether it actually happened in David’s reign (circa 1000 BCE) or is a parable with a deeper purpose is moot. The situation was not uncommon when viewed in light of the social justice messages of Amos and Isaiah in the 8th century BCE . As a parable, it ranks with those of Jesus in the NT gospels for its power “to disturb the conscience and produce repentance.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, 2, 1102). That is its primary purpose in the David cycle as redacted by the Deuteronomists of the late 7th century BCE.

The intent of the redactor was not to denigrate or diminish David in the eyes of a later generation. Rather he intended it to show how David’s transgression fitted the overall tendency of Israel to depart from the covenant of Yahweh in much the same way as had Saul and all succeeding monarchs from the founding of the institution to its end in the Babylonian exile (596 BCE). In every instance, as in this case, a continuing moral and spiritual crisis beset the nation and led to its ultimate destruction. Although this is a serious crisis for David and the beginning of his decline, he is to be seen not so much as an individual, but as the representative of the nation. Thus the story has to be read from the perspective of the prophetic mandate to call Israel to repentance so that it may survive the crisis into which the sins of its whole populace were leading, as had the sins of their greatest king.

PSALM 51:1-12. Because of the superscription many assume that this psalm refers directly to David’s sin, but that is highly unlikely. Psalm titles were added much later by scribes seeking to relate as many of them to David’s life on the mistaken assumption that he was author of the psalms. Seventy-three psalms bear titles referring David in one way or another. Some of them related top specific incidents in his life, as does this one. The existence of these titles in the Greek version indicate that they date from pre-Christian times as Jewish traditions derived from the late compilation of the Psalter.

Nonetheless this one is a very beautiful prayer of repentance by an individual who is both deathly ill and very conscious of his personal transgressions. More significant, perhaps, is the fact that there are no attempts to blame anyone but himself for the fate that has befallen him. The whole psalm presents a personal confession as poignant as any in all of scripture.

The psalm begins with a plea for mercy and an expression of faith in Yahweh’s forgiveness. The double parallel of vs.1 emphasizes the way in which the psalmist has cast himself wholly on divine mercy. The phrase “blot out my transgressions” conveys an image of a record from which the sin be completely obliterated. The image of washing in vs. 2 recalls the liturgical ablutions of Leviticus 14:11-20 as an act of atonement. The Seer of Revelation (7:14) adapted the image to refer to the baptismal garments of lst century Christians. Similarly evangelical Christians envisage being “washed in the blood of the Lamb” as a metaphor of their salvation and atonement through the death of Jesus Christ.

The confessor makes no effort to conceal his sin and deny his guilt. Vs. 4 readily acknowledges the justice of whatever penalty is laid to his charge. Various translations of vs. 5, however, have led many to assume that this is a statement of original sin. Rather than placing blame on his parents, it affirms of what Ecclesiasticus 15:11-15 described as an evil inclination resulting from the freedom of our human wills. We are not born sinful, but do sin because of self-motivated willfulness resulting in sinful choices. (Ecclesiasticus is also known as the apocryophal book of Sirach and dates from the 2nd century BCE.)

Vs. 6 posits Yahweh’s choice for humanity: freedom from sin expressed as “truth in the inward being.” (NSRV) The Hebrew text is difficult to translate. The New English Bible has a better translation: “Though thou hast hidden the truth in darkness, through this mystery thou dost teach me wisdom.” This brings forth a further petition for cleansing and a desire to rejoice in the resulting freedom of spirit (vss.7-9).

The final verses of this reading have a depth of spirituality and moral responsibility reminiscent of the great prophets of the exilic period, Jeremiah (31:33-34) and Ezekiel (37:26-27). It is not improbable that the psalmist either knew these scriptures or belonged to the same prophetic company from which those texts came. The psalmist draws upon a concept of spiritual regeneration through the activity of the Spirit close to that expressed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Romans 8.

EXODUS 16:2-15. (Alternate) After their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt by crossing of the Red Sea, the Israelites pressed on into the wilderness. When they complained to Moses that they would starve, further evidence of God’s guidance and providence was given in flocks of quails and a flaky substance they called manna (Hebrew for “what is it?”) in plentiful supply for their daily needs.

In this ancient story we have an important part of the Passover and Exodus saga told from the point of view of the highly developed faith of later generations. Modern scholars know, as the priests or scribes who committed this story to writing may also have known, that the manna and quails on which the Israelites fed were natural phenomena to be found in the wilderness of Sinai. Recent investigations suggest that manna is produced not by secretion of sap from the tamarisk bush as previously thought, but by insects which ingest the sap and excrete a honeydew rich in sugars and pectin thus creating a scale on the branches of the shrub. Quail are still found migrating along their natural flight path through the Sinai wilderness to and from their nesting grounds in Europe and wintering grounds in Africa.

Natural explanations do not deny what the Israelites saw as miraculous. Not what fed them, but that they were fed by the providence of Yahweh remained the great blessing which generations praised as in the following psalm.

This faith remained strong even in Jesus’ time, as it still may be for our time. Jesus identified himself as “the true bread from heaven” come down to give life to the world. (John 6:30-35) So also now, faith in Jesus means faith in the providence of God, a tradition as old as Abraham and Moses. (Cf. Genesis 22:8) If Israel’s faith extended nearly two millennia into the past through an oral tradition recounting the saga of their ancestors trek though the wilderness, does it not also extend two millennia forward to our time and a place in history when the global economy is suffering such vast imbalances of riches and poverty? It has been estimated that there are at least one billion poverty-stricken people living in urban slums around the world. Each year their number is swelling by many millions more.

But what does that faith mean in an age when the technologically developed nations have the means of producing far more food than needed but have problems marketing their surplus at prices which pay the producers a fair return for the costs of production? What does it mean for the current controversies about government subsidies to agriculture, transportation and genetically altered foods? How do issues such as the migration of unemployed refugees from Asia, Africa, South and Central America fit into this paradigm of divine providence for the needs of God’s people? Are these not the struggles of our generation which must we must think through and share openly with the politically powerful who have responsibility for making decisions that will determine the fate of millions?

PSALM 78:23-29. (Alternate) This whole psalm celebrates God’s mighty acts on behalf of the Israelites despite their obstinate disbelief during their migration toward the Promised Land. In this segment the psalmist recalls the instance of them being fed with manna and quail at a time of threatened famine.

The recitation of such mighty acts as this psalm celebrates always described Yahweh’s goodness and loving kindness toward Israel. Throughout the psalmist defines a stark contrast in the Deuteronomic mould between Yahweh’s faithfulness and Israel’s unfaithfulness. In all likelihood this psalm had a significant place in the liturgy of the Second Temple after the return from the Babylonian exile. The celebration of Passover would have been a suitable festival for this liturgical recitation of the nation’s religious history. However, due to several references to the Davidic dynasty still reigning, it may well date from before the exile when the tradition of the Exodus was taking shape.

This passage omits the concluding two verses (vss. 30-31) which state the basic issue repeated throughout the psalm: Yahweh’s anger at their unfaithfulness.

As noted above the phenomenon interpreted as an act of Yahweh had a very natural origin. Manna is the digestive by-product of an insect which appears as a whitish scale on the branches of the tamarisk tree. Quail still migrate through the Egyptian and Jordanian wilderness from their nesting grounds in Europe to their winter feeding grounds in Africa. But who does not interpret the most ordinary things around us, even a brilliant sunrise or sunset, as gifts of God’s infinite grace?

EPHESIANS 4:1-16. At this point in the letter, the mood changes from one of exultation in the blessings of salvation to exhortation about living the Christian life in all its fullness. The author places emphasis on the gift of the Spirit to bring unity to the church and the power to equip all members for their common ministry.

Memories of Paul’s troubles in Ephesus and in Corinth may well lie behind this passage. The early church did not have an easy transition from being a Jewish sectarian movement to a Gentile community of faith distinct from and yet continuous with its predecessor. Factionalism was its greatest problem. Dependence on the Spirit with the particular gifts of humility, patience and love had to be its primary resource for creating a sense of unity and motivating its evangelical mission. The symbol of this spiritual competence which all could share came from their common baptism, “the outward sign of inward, spiritual grace.”

Particular functions, divisions of labour and specific responsibilities in the evangelical mission may have been under development but had not yet become fixed when this letter was composed. Apostles and prophets are named together with evangelists, pastors and teachers without any recognizable difference in their functions within the community. The offices identified in vs. 11 cannot be regarded as literally applicable to any later period. Rather these are functions of service common to all members of the community. Every member had a responsibility “for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” However, this should still be interpreted as a clear mandate for the mission of every member in every congregation today.

In his Church Order in the New Testament (SCM Press, 1961) Eduard Schweizer makes a strong point that in the Pauline epistles, notably Colossians and Ephesians, the church has the attributes of the kingdom of God. The image of the body serves to describe “not so much the Church’s state as its growth; this is true both for 4:12-16, where the head is both the source and the object of growth, and also for the image of the temple or God’s dwelling, where everything grows from Christ the cornerstone, and from the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets (2:20-22).”

Schweizer also notes that in ancient times, buildings such as temples were regarded as living organisms much like a living body in contrast to our modern view of buildings as manufactured infrastructure. This view finds expression clearly in the metaphor of maturity measured by the “full stature of Christ” (vs. 13) contrasted with the vacillations of immaturity (vs. 14) and the emphasis on love as the crucial element of nurture which “promotes the body’s growth” (vs. 16).

In Schweizer’s analysis, under the influence of the Spirit the church has become both a world wide unity and a cosmic reality. “Its mission is indeed of cosmic range.” As a result, the members of the church as well as the apostle function in a common ministry on a global and even cosmic scale, not merely as part of a particular local congregation. This passage thus forms the scriptural basis for the outreach ministry of every local congregation where, as individual members and as a gathered community, we must think globally and act locally.

JOHN 6:24-35. This reading shows a special way in which John handled the miracle of feeding of the five thousand. For John, miracles had much more to them than seeing unnatural events occur and benefiting personally from them. This one led to a discourse by Jesus about being the bread of life. Many scholars believe that John used this discourse in place of the narrative of the Last Supper in the other three Gospels. John completely omitted that pericope from his version of the Passion. This discourse is a homily on the meaning of the sacrament.

The passage makes three significant points: The miracle was another of the signs identifying Jesus as the Messiah/Christ, the Son of God. In vs. 27, Jesus claims to be the Son of Man, which by this time had acquired a christological connotation which it did not have in the Hebrew scriptures of Ezekiel and Daniel. He also bears the “seal” which the Father has set on him. The Greek verb spragizein used in this instance occurs also in 3:33. In both cases the verb refers to the well-known custom of stamping one’s personal signet on wax sealing a document, product or vessel to validate its ownership and authenticity in much the same way that modern silver is hallmarked. Ephesus, a noted commercial centre and the probable place from which the Fourth Gospel came, the custom would have been well known. Here it symbolized trustworthiness, i.e. Jesus is the one person who can give eternal, spiritual life because God has set his seal upon him.

Somewhat ambiguously, however, the passage points beyond Jesus to God who is the source of all life. The miracles Jesus performs are “the works of God” recalling the “mighty acts” of the Old Testament. Believing in Jesus, the Christ, is the only essential divine work because God alone is the source of all life and power including Jesus’ power to perform the miracle of feeding the multitude. The manna the Israelites ate in the desert came not from Moses but from God. Then John has Jesus’ interlocutors ask reverently for this “bread from heaven” which opens the way for Jesus to launch into his discourse, “I am the bread of life.”

Finally, by placing particular emphasis on this statement, John identifies Jesus completely with God. This is a more spiritual and theological reflection on the both the miracle and the person of Christ than one finds in the other Gospels. It comes close to defining the Trinitarian view of the person and work Christ. Writing from the viewpoint of a Jew in a thoroughly Hellenistic cultural milieu, John had not yet gone as far as his successors the Greek Fathers would go in defining the abstract Trinitarian hypostasis of Christ. He still maintains the Hebrew sense of spiritual life in the context of daily existence in the world where bread is eaten for physical sustenance.

Yet, it also looks beyond the materialistic element of a few loaves and fish to the divine, spiritual source of life itself. The purpose of eating the bread of life (i.e. believing in Jesus Christ) is to live spiritually in the world here and now while waiting for the eschaton yet to come. But that carries us beyond the immediate passage to the remainder of the discourse (vss.35-58).
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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 8 Ordinary 13
June 28, 2009


2 SAMUEL 1:1, 17-27. David’s lament at the death of his king, Saul, and his close friend, Jonathan, has the majesty of beautiful poetry. Many scholars have attributed it to David himself. If so, it may be one of the earliest pieces of Hebrew literature dating from before 1000 BC. While it mourns the king and his son who were killed in battle, it lacks all religious feeling. It is more of a dirge similar to what one hears when a British monarch or American president dies.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON: 1:13-15, 2:23-24. (Alternate) Most Protestant Christians are unfamiliar with the Wisdom of Solomon. Although attributed to King Solomon it was the work of a well-educated Hellenized Jew written scarcely a century before the birth of Christ. The first segment appeals to the faithful person to live a godly life while the second points to belief in life beyond death despite satanic influences in life now.

PSALM 130: This lovely lament also has a permanent place in world literature. It is one series of psalms identified with the approach of pilgrims to Jerusalem for one of the great religious festivals, possibly the Day of Atonement for the sins of the nation. It ends with a deep expression of hope in God’s steadfast love.

PSALM 30. (Alternate) The psalmist praises God for saving him from death in a critical illness. After at first expressing a certain overconfidence about God’s favor, he realizes how much he owes to God for answering his prayer of distress. In the 2nd century BC, the psalm came into liturgical use for the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus now celebrated at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

2 CORINTHIANS 8:7-15. Paul delicately proposes that the Corinthians complete their collection for the famine-stricken Christians in Jerusalem. He has as much concern that the Corinthians learn how to be generous as he is that they make a large contribution. Gracious giving to help those in need is based on Christ’s own sacrifice for them – and for us.

MARK 5:21-43. Another crossing of Lake Galilee brought Jesus another opportunity for healing. Supposedly the daughter of Jairus, the head of a synagogue was dying. While on his way to heal her, Jesus was pressed by the crowd, but still felt another woman in need seek healing by touching the hem of his robe. The two miracles provide a sharp contrast between the healing of someone who exhibited faith and another who did not. To Jesus human need and God’s willingness and power, not the demonstration of good faith, makes the difference.

This could have a singularly important application for our time. Many political and economic leaders want our national social security and health systems to be transformed from a basis of need in which all share through public taxation to expensive insurance schemes that place limits on many pre-existing illnesses.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

2 SAMUEL 1:1, 17-27. David’s lament at the death of his king, Saul, and his close friend, Jonathan, has the majesty of beautiful poetry. Many scholars have attributed it to David himself. If so it may be one of the earliest pieces of Hebrew literature dating from before 1000 BC. While it mourns the king and his son who were killed in battle, it lacks all religious feeling. It is more of a dirge similar to what one hears when a British monarch or American president dies. It might well be read against the background of The Dead March from ‘Saul’ or a highland lament played on bagpipes so often heard at military funerals.

The site where this battle was fought has become a famous Israeli tourist attraction. Mount Gilboa is a limestone ridge thrusting some 1700 feet above the Plain of Jezreel. The more enterprising may climb the ridge by means of a footpath, but from the valley below even the naked eye can see a bare tree marking the place where, as 1 Samuel 31:8-10 has it, the Philistines hung the beheaded bodies of Saul and Jonathan on the walls of the fortress of Beth-shan. Today, at the base of the mountain in Bet-She’an National Park, one can tour the splendid ruins of a Roman and Byzantine city destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 749 CE. It gives the visitor a vivid impression of what a death-place this was from ancient times.

Vs. 21 of this passage is a curse on the place where Saul fell. The previous two verses recall the celebration in the Philistine cities along the Mediterranean coast cited in 1 Sam 31:9.

Those who remember as I do the celebrations of V-E and V-J Days in 1945, understand how poignant is David’s horror at the thought of the Philistines rejoicing. Several years later I heard a Japanese woman who lost all her family in the bombing of Hiroshima utter a similar curse and lament for her people at a church conference on group dynamics at Green Lake, WI. Are not the scenes we see televised from the Viet Nam Memorial on Memorial Day or the Canadian War Memorial on Remembrance Day reminiscent of David’s lament? Will we recall the more recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same way? Surely it is from whatever perspective we experience such moments that we can share the deep sense of catastrophic grief this lament expresses.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON: 1:13-15, 2:23-24. (Alternate) Most Protestant Christians are unfamiliar with the Wisdom of Solomon. Although attributed to King Solomon it was the work of a well-educated Hellenized Jew written scarcely a century before the birth of Christ. The first segment appeals to the faithful person to live a godly life while the second scoffs points to belief in life beyond death despite satanic influences in life now.

Coming late in the history of Hebrew literature, Wisdom of Solomon was not included in the Hebrew Bible, but was part of Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translation. So the Roman Catholic tradition considers it Holy Scripture whereas Protestants generally defer it to the apocryphal writings. It is generally thought to have originated in Alexandria where Jewish and Greek thought were considered compatible.

In the Jerusalem Bible, a Roman Catholic translation originating in France and first published in English in 1966, chapter 1 has the headline, “On seeking God and rejecting evil.” Chapter 2 is headed, “Life as the godless sees it.” These two excerpts elaborate these headings very well.

PSALM 130: Some regard this loveliest of psalms as a penitential prayer rather than a true lament. Yet it has a permanent place in the religious literature of the world. It is one series of psalms (Pss. 120-134) identified with either the New Year’s festival or the approach of pilgrims to Jerusalem for one of the great religious festivals. This one may well have been used on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The fact that it omits any reference to atoning sacrifices suggests that it may be a late composition when such rituals had already lost their significance for the most devout.

Although the context reveals nothing about its actual circumstances, it does express a sense of deep devotion as well as a forthright confession of the sin. One might speculate whether it was a prayer of a pious individual or for use by the assembled representatives of the whole nation. It could also have been used antiphonally quite effectively.

In vs. 1, the reference to the depths brings forth the image of the engulfing waters of Sheol into which the dead sink (cf. Isa. 51:10; Jonah 2:3). It also reflects the poet’s deep sense of alienation from Yahweh. So he throws himself on Yahweh’s mercy and forgiveness (vss. 3-4) and realizes that on this alone rests his ultimate security (vss. 5-6).

Even if this prayer originated from the heart of a singularly pious soul, it ends with a plea for all Israel to put its hope in Yahweh’s steadfast love, trusting in Yahweh’s power to redeem the sinful nation from all its iniquities. Many generations in both the Jewish and Christian traditions have found in it solace for the sin-sick soul. John Wesley’s Journal records one of its more significant uses. In Wesley’s time, this prayer entitled De Profundis was sung at evensong on the 27th day of each month. The paragraph in his journal began: “In the afternoon I was asked to go to St. Paul’s.” The psalm in the version from the Book of Common Order follows. He would have known it by heart. This record is found in the paragraph immediately previous to the one in which he tells of his Aldersgate experience when his heart was “strangely warmed.”

PSALM 30. (Alternate) The psalmist praises God for saving him from death in a critical illness. After at first expressing a certain overconfidence about God’s favor (vss. 6-7), he realizes how much he owes to God for answering his prayer of distress.

It is natural for a person to be exuberant about being restored suddenly to good health. Even with modern medicine capable of curing or alleviating many of the most severe illnesses once regarded as fatal less than a century ago, the fear of death persists. The psalmist’s fear of death was expressed in vs. 2. The Pit was another common Old Testament term, among several others, for the abode of the dead. But Sheol was by far the most common, occurring sixty six times. Unlike the others, however, it was unique to the Hebrew language, and does not occur in any other Semitic language. Generally, the various terms for the abode of the dead conveyed the idea of a permanent, shadowy, chaotic but silent place. No Old Testament reference contains any concept of punishment or torment. The concept of an infernal hell came into existence only during the Hellenistic period probably influenced by Persian (i.e. Zoroastrian) ideas.

The traditional concept of illness resulting from divine anger still lingers as the philosophical matrix of the poem (vs.5). Despite the shadowed background to the psalm and the loss of prosperity, the poet had unmitigated praise for God’s beneficence. His pride had been restored to the extent that he could question divine justice in the death he had so recently escaped (vs. 9). His mourning had been transformed into joy (vs. 11).

In the 2nd century BC, the psalm came into liturgical use for the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus now celebrated at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

2 CORINTHIANS 8:7-15. Toward the end of his letter seeking reconciliation with the Corinthians (2 Cor. 1-9), Paul delicately proposes that they complete their collection for the famine-stricken Christians in Jerusalem. This project had been very close to Paul’s heart. He sincerely believed that as the offspring of the original congregation of believers, the Gentile congregations had a duty to help the Mother of all Churches in its time of need. Titus had made this appeal first to the Corinthians (vs. 6). For some reason they had withheld their contribution, probably due to their disagreement with Paul which caused the earlier, painful correspondence.

A personal aside: O my! How we Christians still try to control each other by withholding our stewardship gifts! The very day I first wrote this, I received a series of e-mail messages expressing the fear that if the issue of the blessing of gay and lesbian marriages is raised at the General Council of The United Church of Canada, many more will withhold their gifts to the Mission and Service Fund of our church or withdraw from our fellowship. Possibly 10,000 of more than 700,000 members and ordered ministers withdrew in the 1990s after the General Council adopted a policy accepting gay and lesbian persons who believe in Jesus Christ as full members and eligible for consideration as candidates for ordered ministry.

After first challenging the Corinthians to follow the example of the Macedonian churches in Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea, Paul sets before them the example of Jesus Christ himself. For Paul, the sacrifice of Jesus did not begin on the cross, nor at this birth. It began when he set aside his godhead and became incarnate as a humble servant of God in the human context of a 1st century Jewish carpenter. (cf. Phil 2:6-8). Gracious giving to help those in need is based on Christ’s own sacrifice for them – and for us.

Paul has as much concern that the Corinthians learn how to be generous as he is that they make a large contribution. He cites their previous eagerness to contribute and asks them to finish what they had begun so well (vss. 10-11). Many a stewardship sermon has been preached on the text of vs. 12-14: One’s readiness to give has to be matched by one’s ability to give. What one has, not what one lacks, is the only balanced measure of our stewardship.

The quotation from Exodus 16:18 in vs. 15 emphasizes Paul’s vision of equality among Christians which requires those who have to share with those who have not. Such an economic policy is anathema in our crazed profit-oriented society, yet it also motivates many to contribute generously to food banks and to send relief to famine- or flood-stricken countries.

In Canada, a modest undertaking by Rt. Rev. Bill Phipps, former Moderator of The United Church of Canada, attracted considerable attention to his Consultation on Faith and the Economy from those outside the church fellowship. For instance, he was invited to be the theme speaker at the annual general meeting of the Halton Social Planning Council, on Oakville, Ontario, on June 26th, 2000. He spoke on A Moral Crisis: God and the Marketplace.

Nearly a decade later, with the whole world in the grips of a devastating recession, there is even greater need for a deep sense of caring and sharing to bridge the gap between those who have something to spare and those who have little or nothing.

MARK 5:21-43. Mark must have had some special purpose for saying many times that Jesus and his disciples crossed and recrossed Lake Galilee. Considering the local geography, these crossings provided no more than easy shortcuts from one town to another along the western and northwestern coast of the lake. Only in the instance of the previous pericope about driving the demon from the man living among the tombs (5:1-20) did he actually cross into foreign territory. Going by boat also provided the means of avoiding crowds.

In this passage, yet another crossing brought Jesus two other opportunities for healing. Supposedly the daughter of Jairus, the head of a synagogue was dying. While on his way to heal her, Jesus was pressed by the crowd, but still felt another woman in need seek healing by touching the hem of his robe.

Jairus was not a rabbi, but the lay president of the synagogue in his community. Mark does not identify exactly in which town or village it was located. The man was desperate about his daughter and pleaded that Jesus come to his house and lay hands on her. In response to this plea Jesus went with him and the crowd followed, probably more curious to see another miracle than to hear what Jesus might say. In small communities, anything unusual draws a crowd.

One of the people in the crowd was a woman who had suffered from a menstrual malady for twelve years. Every attempt she had made to get help from other healers had failed. She was now both desperate and destitute. Hearing about Jesus, she sought to get close enough to touch his garment hoping that it might have the magic that would heal her. When she did touch him, she was instantly healed. Jesus realized that something unusual had happened to him too. Looking around at the crowd, he asked who had touched him, the woman identified herself, but did so in great fear. Jesus had only compassion for her and sent her on her way with the assurance that her faith had been rewarded.

Meanwhile, Jairus’ daughter had already died, or so her caregivers thought. Jesus had to reassure Jairus that this was not so and urge him to let faith deal with his fear. Arriving at the house, he rebuked the mourners who had already begun their funereal wailing. They derided him, so he sent them all out of the house, took the parents into the room where the girl lay, and raised her with a tender word.

The two miracles provide a sharp contrast between the healing of someone who exhibited faith and another who did not. To Jesus, human need and God’s willingness and power, not the demonstration of good faith, makes the difference. The details of these two pericopes should not distract us from the essential point Mark is making: through Jesus the shalom of God has arrived revitalizing the lives of old and young. Wherever and whenever that happens, divine compassion for those in need overcomes fear and restores wholeness to the humblest of human lives.

This could have a singularly important application for our time. Many political and economic leaders want our social security and health systems to be transformed from a basis of need in which all share through public taxation to expensive insurance schemes that place limits on many pre-existing illnesses, thereby leaving many without needed medical care.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Third Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 7 Ordinary 12
June 21, 2009

1 SAMUEL 17:32-49. The story of David and Goliath reads as one of the great feats of Israel’s legendary hero-king. It comes from a cycle of early narratives about Israel’s first king, Saul, and his more famous successor, David. Where Saul failed David succeeded in a continuing conflict with invading Philistines, a sea-going people who had settled along the Mediterranean coast.

As it presently exists, the story has been combined with a later source and still later edited into a long narrative that is at times inconsistent. The point of this passage, however, is to show that David triumphed because of his trust in God.

JOB 38:1-11. (Alternate) The great drama dealing with the problem of innocent suffering comes to a crashing climax with God speaking directly to Job in a long series of unanswerable questions. God challenges Job to accept the reality that as Creator, God is more powerful than mere humans like himself. However, the fundamental question of why people suffer is never answered.

PSALM 9:9-20. This is an excerpt from a longer psalm originally consisting of Psalms 9 and 10. It is both a hymn of thanksgiving for God’s help (vss. 9-12), and an appeal for God’s favour (vss. 13-14) and for judgment against wicked enemies (vss. 15-20).

PSALM 107:1-3, 23-32. (Alternate) This psalm celebrates the steadfast love of God toward the redeemed of Israel showing how God brought them through great trials.

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-13. This passage should be read in connection with the preceding passage beginning at 5:11. Paul had a continuing conflict with the Corinthians Christians. They did not always accept him and his preaching as he would have preferred. Despite extreme difficulties he reiterates his appeal that the Corinthians respond to the message of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

MARK 4:35-41. The question about who Jesus really is comes to the fore in this brief story. He calms a storm which had arisen suddenly as the disciples were taking him across the Sea of Galilee in a boat. Not only did he rebuke the waves, he also rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. That is the whole point of the story: nothing could harm the disciples while he was with them.

Many people have found great comfort in sensing Jesus’ constant presence in the most difficult and dangerous crises. Mark’s audience in Rome in the 60s AD surely felt that way as they faced persecution by Emperor Nero. It is probable that both Peter and Paul were martyred during this period.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

1 SAMUEL 17:32-49. This is surely one of the best loved children’s stories in the Old Testament. It tells one of the great feats of Israel’s legendary hero-king. It comes from a cycle of early narratives about Israel’s first king, Saul, and his more famous successor, David. Where Saul failed, David succeeded in a continuing conflict with invading Philistines, a sea-going people who had settled along the Mediterranean coast. But it is something far more than a simple children’s story.

As it presently exists, the story has been combined with a later source and still later was edited into a long narrative that is at times inconsistent. The point of this passage, however, is to show that David triumphed over Goliath only because of his trust in God.

Archeologists and historians have all but failed to find any significant evidence that David actually existed. The best estimate of the Saul and David cycle of stories likens them to the English legends of King Arthur. Like those traditional patriotic romances, story-tellers used literary imagination to enhance the achievements of their hero for other purposes. Yet there may well have been real tribal chieftans, Saul and David, who like Arthur in times of transition or crisis achieved much on behalf of their people.

Later generations embellished the legendary sagas of these heroes into meaningful and inspirational stories with a religious motif. In the case of Arthur, the stories amounted to a literary enrichment of genteel Victorian morality based on male dominant chivalry. In the case of David, the stories became part of Israel’s faith history based on the covenant relationship of Yahweh to Israel. A good historical-critical exegesis of the stories is found in Professor George Caird’s study in The Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 2. Of particular value is the introductory article, Section VII, on the historical value of the sources from which the present canonical text developed.

Recently an archeological dig discovered a small fortified city, Qeiyafa, strategically located on a hilltop on the northern side of the Elah Valley, on the main highway going east from Philistia and the coastal plain to Jerusalem. It was in the Elah Valley that David fought Goliath. The archeologist who made this discovery called it “a fortified checkpoint on the road to Jerusalem. … It was probably intended to defend Judah against the much larger Philistine city of Gath. Qeiyafa is less than 6 acres in area. The hostile Philistine city of Gath, just 6.5 miles away in the Elah Valley, is about 75 acres. In this sense the Biblical story of David and Goliath, even if legendary, may be understood as a kind of Biblical metaphor, the little David of Qeiyafa versus the Philistine giant of Goliath/Gath.” (Biblical Archaeology Review. 35:1. January-February 2009. 38-43)

All that aside, this story of David slaying Goliath still can be used as lighter sermon fare for topical preaching in summertime. Here are some possible themes: “Little stones make holy weapons;” “How God can multiply the power of the weakest;” “The biggest isn’t always the most powerful;” “Trust in God but load your slingshot!” Note too that Jesus often used rebukes and confronts to get the point of his ministry across, especially in dealing with recalcitrant unbelievers and dangerous opponents. The parable of the wicked tenants in Mark 12:1-12 comes immediately to mind.

JOB 38:1-11. (Alternate) The great drama dealing with the problem of innocent suffering comes to a crashing climax with God speaking directly to Job in a long series of unanswerable questions. God challenges Job to accept the reality that as Creator, God is more powerful than mere humans like himself. The fundamental question, however, is never answered.

Scholars debate whether to regard the Book of Job as a drama or a poem. In dealing with the problem of suffering, Job’s three friends and a fourth, younger participant, Elihu, have all said their set pieces. None have satisfactorily answered the eternal question: Why do the innocent suffer? Job has responded, angrily at times, to each of the first three. Elihu gave a long speech proclaiming God’s justice, condemning Job’s self-righteousness and exalting God’s goodness and majesty. Now God enters the dialogue in response to Job’s hostility.

The soaring rhetoric majestically declares the works of divine creativity and providence. Yet it never answers the fundamental question. It merely humbles Job and illustrates the vast gulf between human and divine understanding. The problem remains a mystery.

PSALM 9:9-20. This is an excerpt from a longer psalm originally consisting of Psalms 9 and 10. It is both a hymn of thanksgiving for God’s help (vss. 9-12); and an appeal for God’s favour (vss. 13-14) and for judgment against wicked enemies (vss. 15-20).

We often forget that the praises of Israel arose out of life situations, most of which are now completely unknowable. The context of this excerpt appears to reflect a time of great national distress, perhaps of imminent danger from foreign invasion. The image of Yahweh as a stronghold in vs. 9 suggests the need for something more than military defenses. In biblical times all cities and even small towns had a fortress into which the people retreated when invasions occurred. The preceding verses reflect a temporary victory of Israel over an unnamed enemy (vss. 3, 5- 6, 13-14). The victory was attributed to Yahweh who sits enthroned as an imperial potentate exercising judgment over the nations (vss. 4, 7, 8, 16).

The religious response to these events requires that the faithful put greater trust in Yahweh. The suffering poor, possibly those widows and orphans who lost husbands and fathers in battle, or those wounded and no longer able to provide for themselves, have special need for this assistance (vs. 12). Yet they are often forgotten and rejected (vs. 13, 18). Anyone who has visited a hospital where dismembered, disfigured or demented veterans of war must live out their days knows how these pitiful human sacrifices have been isolated from public view. For selfish political reasons, governments often try to hide these terrible costs of war from their public.

Ultimately, of course, the psalmist’s hope rests on his trust in Yahweh (vs. 20). At the same time, his narrow ethical viewpoint prevents him from recognizing “the nations” (i.e. other nations which are Israel’s enemies and lack Israel’s covenant faith) as being of any value to Yahweh. He also sees Israel as righteous people who draw superhuman strength from Yahweh. This attitude is reminiscent of the “evil empire” attitudes of many toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War of the late 20th century and of the earlier republican vs. loyalist conflicts of the American War of Independence.

PSALM 107:1-3, 23-32. (Alternate) This psalm celebrates the steadfast love of God toward the redeemed of Israel showing how God brought them through great trials. The whole of this beautiful litany of thanksgiving celebrates several instances when faith was tested and God’s redemptive grace relieved distressed souls. After the opening summons to praise (vss. 1-3), the psalm is divided into a number of discreet segments with almost no relation.

There are several references to Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness. The one exception appears to be in this reading (vss. 23-32) referring to a sea voyage on stormy waters. Generally speaking, the Jews were not a sea-going people. Was this passage linked in some way to the parable of Jonah? But that story was only superficially about a sea voyage as an allegory of the exile. Some scholars regard it as an addition from the Hellenistic period (after 330 BCE) when sea-borne commerce had become common. Vs. 3 refers directly to the widespread Diaspora of Israel which also indicates a relatively late date for the composition of the psalm.

Structurally, the psalm may or may not have been a unity. The antiphonal responses of vss. 8, 15, 21 and 31 give evidence of it having been composed for congregational worship, possibly at the time when sacrifices were offered in the temple. Of particular significance is the prophetic sense of social justice that permeates the psalm recalling Isaiah 61:1-4.

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-13. This passage should be read in connection with the preceding part of the letter beginning at 5:11. Paul had a continuing conflict with the Corinthians Christians. They did not always accept him and his preaching as he would have preferred. Despite extreme difficulties he reiterates his appeal that they respond to the message of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

Faced with their determined opposition to his ministry, Paul sought a cooperative rather than a confrontational relationship with the Corinthian community (vs. 1). He saw them “working together” in a common mission, to make God’s reconciling love in Christ known everywhere and to everyone. To him that was the only possible human response to what God had done in Christ. Any other response to this grace would be utterly in vain.

To emphasize his point that the time to respond is now, as they heard the gospel preached, Paul quoted from the Greek version of Isaiah 49:8. His urgency reflected his view that the end was near, i.e. Christ would soon return to judge the living and the dead. Then it would be too late for the recalcitrant to repent and turn to God.

At this point Paul launched into a defense of his ministry with particular emphasis on his diligence and how much it has cost him in personal suffering. He set this in the context of the general apostolic mission, as if his experiences had not been particularly unique. Hence the use of the phrase “as servants of God” and the first person plural in vs. 4. It makes quite a list of what the sincere evangelist in those times might well expect. Was he just boasting as he denied he was doing in 3:1 and 5:12? Is it still possible in our own time to face similar privations? Some newly ordained pastors and their spouses appointed to hinterland parishes far away from their urban roots might well wonder, as many can attest from their own experience.

Commentators have noted that this is the one place where Paul addressed the Corinthians by name (vs. 11). Thus the citation of general apostolic sufferings had a particular reference to this community. It was for them that he endured so much. Paul’s main purpose in listing these ordeals was to reassure the Corinthians that he truly did love them for Christ’s sake and to remind them that their problem was with their own attitudes (vs. 12). In other words, “It’s your problem, not mine!” The text conveys a not so gentle sense of rebuke.

William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible commentary on the Corinthians letters (p. 9) cites this passage as part of a reconciling letter Paul wrote after having written a much more severe letter now contained in (2 Cor. 10-13). While other scholars differ as to the exact divisions of Paul’s correspondence, the general consensus is that we now have a “scribal compilation” of at least three letters woven into a well-constructed whole. This would have been done as part of a general incorporation of the Corinthian correspondence into a Pauline corpus prepared for a wider circulation.

We, of course, have only the canonical version of this complex collection. Brevard Childs discusses the significance of the canonical text as it now stands in his The New Testament as Canon: An Introduction (Fortress Press, 1984). “The ministry about which the apostle is talking is not just a defense of his actions before the Corinthians, but relates to the gospel in the eternal purpose of God…. Far from being an idealization of the apostle, it explains why his suffering was not simply an unfortunate accident, but offered as the true evidence of his divinely commissioned apostolic office.”

In an age when secular culture concentrates on entirely different and selfish values, the spiritual insight of this passage may bring certain inspirational comfort (i.e. strength as well as compassion) to Christians striving to live by the sacrificial values God set before us in Christ Jesus.

MARK 4:35-41. The question about who Jesus really is comes to the fore in this brief story. He calms a storm which had suddenly arisen as the disciples were taking him across the Sea of Galilee in a boat. Not only did he rebuke the waves, he also rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith.

That is the whole point of the story: nothing could harm the disciples while he was with them because he exercised divine control over the forces of nature. Many people have found great comfort in sensing Jesus’ constant presence in the most difficult and dangerous crises. Mark’s audience in Rome in the 60s CE surely felt that way as they had faced persecution by Emperor Nero. It is probable that both Peter and Paul were martyred during this period.

Two other aspects of this pericope bring to the fore different and perhaps more primitive interpretations about Jesus. He was at once a miracle worker and had dominion over both natural and demonic forces. Yet there is also a remarkable depth to the story offering many homiletic opportunities.

In The Complete Gospels (Robert J. Miller, ed.. Polebridge Press, 1992.) A note on this passage makes several significant points: This is one of several lake crossings in Mark’s Gospel, which he calls a sea (thalassa – a term usually referring to the Mediterranean Sea). The term may be an exaggeration for emphasis. It “resonates powerfully” with “God’s creative and redemptive control of the waters (Gen. 1; Ex. 14; Pss. 69, 89, 93, 104-107; Isa. 43; 51:9-10).” It develops Mark’s theme of “faltering trust and faulty comprehension of Jesus’ band of followers.” The words the disciples used to waken Jesus were usually addressed to God (Ps. 44:23). Jesus stilled the storm as if exorcising a demon in much the same way as he did in many of Mark’s miracle stories.

Donald Spotto has an important comment on Jesus as a miracle worker in his The Hidden Jesus: A New Life (St. Martin’s Press, 1998). He notes that our understanding of the word “miracle” contains a notion that would be incomprehensible to the world of the Bible. “For the Jewish and Christian people of biblical times, God was trusted as the Lord of everything created; nothing was outside the range of his power.” In this instance, Mark was saying this about Jesus. The pericope is a metaphor for the early Christian confession, “Jesus is Lord.” If John had used this story in his gospel, he would have included it as one of the signs Jesus gave to declare openly who he is. Mark, on the other hand, keeps that truth hidden even from the disciples (vs. 41). Experienced boatmen though they may have been and knowing full well the dangers of a sudden squall sweeping down from the Golan Heights, they were simply awed and confused by what had happened to them.

Tourists who have taken the boat ride to Capernaum on Lake Galilee and have been caught in one of these squalls can attest to the sense of terror that the disciples must have felt. It takes a very few minutes for a storm to develop from dead calm to a raging torrent of rain, mighty waves and contrary winds. Galilean fishing boats of that era with oars and flimsy sails were much smaller vessels than the diesel-driven tourist boats now plying these waters. One tourist who had such an experience said that it was a moment of revelation for her despite her reassuring trust in the skill of the helmsman and the size of the vessel. As the psalmist sang in Ps. 46:7 “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Second Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 6 Ordinary 11
June 14, 2009

1 SAMUEL 15:34-16:13. The story of how Samuel was led by God to anoint David as king of Israel instead of Saul may sound strange to our modern ears. Yet it fits well with the theological viewpoint found throughout the Old Testament that God is very much involved in the working out of human history.

EZEKIEL 17:22-24. (Alternate) In a metaphor of God planting a tree on a high mountain this poetic prophecy again expresses the view of God as Lord of Israel’s history. The metaphor refers to Israel’s return from exile in Babylon to rebuild their capital city, Jerusalem.

PSALM 20. Like a number of psalms, this one offers prayers for an anointed king. It pleads for God’s help at a time when the monarch is menaced by foes from within and without his country.

PSALM 92:1-4, 12-15. (Alternate) The psalmist has occasion to offer thanks to God. His gratitude arises out of long experience of God’s goodness during a long life.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-17. Paul confidently celebrates faith in the love of Christ that has motivated and sustained him through years of difficult ministry to the Gentiles. He fervently proclaimed that anyone who believed and followed Christ had become a new creation and could see the whole of life in this world from a spiritual point of view.

MARK 4:26-34. Because we do not think in spiritual terms, Jesus’ parables of the kingdom of heaven often seem to defy interpretation for modern readers. In these two brief vignettes drawn from the rural life of Galilee, Jesus spoke about the way faith can provide those who believed in and followed him with a full and abundant life.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

1 SAMUEL 15:34-16:13. In these times when governments are change by democratic vote or by violent revolution, this passage may seem to have no message for us. The story of how Samuel was led by God to anoint David as king of Israel instead of Saul may sound particularly strange to our modern ears. Yet it fits well with the view found throughout the Old Testament that God is very much involved in the working out of human history, especially that of God’s chosen people, Israel.

The concept of God as Lord of history is not easy to understand in today’s global political situation. We tend to think either in terms of God being on our side or favouring the most militarily powerful empire, especially in times of war. The story of Samuel anointing David reveals that God is not interested in either prestige or power. As 16:7 declares, “the Lord does not see as mortals see.” It was the youngest of Jesse’s son, the shepherd boy, David, whom God chose to succeed Israel’s first king Saul after he had departed from God’s purpose.

Another aspect of this story is the reality of Samuel’s fear. At first he was loath to do as God had directed him. The aging prophet knew that Saul would kill him if he found out that God had rejected him as Israel’s leader. God saw things differently and gave Samuel an alternative way to do God’s bidding. When Samuel arrived in Bethlehem, the elders of that city were similarly fearful of Saul until the prophet advised them of the ruse to conceal his real intention.

More often than not fear is a significant factor in human relations, be it among individuals or nations. Fear of hostile neighbours led Israel to aggressive wars on many occasions. Fear of losing the competition for imperial power led to the two costly global wars of the 20th century. As the 21st century began, a pre-emptive war against terror became a further reason for more futile bloodshed to the Middle East.

Surely God has another purpose and plan for the nations and the religious traditions that motivate them to take up arms against one another. The working out of God’s purpose to create a universal reign of love in this world is the task to which all peoples of faith must now turn. But will we ever find the courage to do so?

EZEKIEL 17:22-24. (Alternate) In a metaphor of God planting a tree on a high mountain this poetic prophecy again expressed the view of God as Lord of Israel’s history. The metaphor referred to Israel’s return from exile in Babylon to rebuild their capital city, Jerusalem, in the latter part of the 6th century BCE.

The poet Ogden Nash once wrote, “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” Yet the biblical narrative assures us that God chose Israel to be a light among the nations that the whole world might learn God’s way to live in neighbourly peace. This divine purpose lies behind Ezekiel’s metaphor of a small sprig of a lofty cedar tree planted on a high mountain to grow and give shade for the birds to nest in.

In vs. 24, speaking for God, the prophet depicted as trees that either flourish or fail to declare how God uses the rise and fall of nations and empires to bring about the end to which history moves.

PSALM 20. Like a number of psalms, this one offers prayers for an anointed king. It pleads for God’s help at a time when the monarch is menaced by foes from within and without his country.

It is never wrong to pray for our government and our country. On the other hand, we should beware the blatant nationalism of the false patriot who declares, “My country right or wrong; but right our wrong, my country.” In fact, that bit of bravado is a misquotation of statements with quite different meaning made by several British and American authors including Charles Churchill (1731-1764); Stephen Decatur (1779-1820); John Quincy Adams (1767-1848); Carl Schurz (1829-1906); and G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936).

This prayer for a king probably dates from the period prior to the Babylonian exile (586-539 BCE) when Judea, the southern part of the original kingdom, still had a ruling monarch. The performance of religious rites seeking God’s favour comes through the early verses. A sense of trepidation lies behind the latter verses. As God’s anointed, the monarch’s safety and victory were of paramount importance to the nation and its security. Whoever the enemy was, they were presumed to have more powerful armaments (vss. 7-8). Therefore the appeal for God’s help in gaining victory was far from assured.

Offering prayers for victory in battle may be as old as human religious traditions. How God is to deal with the fervent prayers for victory offered by both combatants is a theological puzzle that no one can satisfactorily solve.

PSALM 92:1-4, 12-15. (Alternate) The psalmist has occasion to offer thanks to God. His gratitude arises out of long experience of God’s goodness during a long life. His joy in praising God comes through vividly in the opening verses.

The mood changes in vss. 5-8 to a traditional contrast of those who are faithful and those who are not. The right to make such judgments still belongs to God. Victory over enemies is also seen as the victory of God (vss. 9-11). Finally, vss. 12-15 lift up the benefits of living righteously. Such benefits rest on God’s righteousness and justice, not on human behaviour.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-17. In this excerpt Paul confidently celebrated faith in the love of Christ that had motivated and sustained him through years of difficult ministry to the Gentiles. He fervently proclaimed that anyone who believed and followed Christ had become a new creation. This gave him a whole new perspective on life in this world and life eternal from a spiritual point of view.

Paul had a very troubled relationship with the Corinthians, but he constantly strove to bring them to a new life of faith. The early part of this passage (vss. 6-10) deals with the subject of our unavoidable mortality which he had begun to discuss in the previous chapter, 4:7 – 5:5. Facing death was nothing new for him. Many times he had been threatened with imminent demise, yet he had never been afraid of it. Early in his life as a Pharisee and much more so after his conversion, he had devoutly believed in resurrection and life beyond death. This faith gave him the confidence to say what for any other person might be regarded as death wish (vs.8). His one desire was to serve Christ as long as he had breath, knowing full well that judgment awaited him as it did for every other human being. Beyond that too lay the glorious experience of the eternal presence of God and Jesus Christ.

The expression “the fear of the Lord” occurs many times in the Old Testament. In many respects it was the familiar way of describing the religious tradition of post-exilic Judaism. Its central meaning can be understood best as mysterium tremendum. Much more than reverent piety, it meant a sense of supreme awe in the presence of Yawheh. It was the essence of wisdom in approaching everyday life and the ethical motivation for an absolute moral monotheism determining the behaviour of every believer. Even the Messiah would sense the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2).

Paul shared this classical theological and psychological point of view. At the same time, his approach to life and to his mission had been filtered through his conversion experience. He had come to see that above all else the life, death and resurrection of Jesus conveyed the love of God for sinful, selfish humanity. “He died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” Nothing else mattered. This became the fundamental motivation for his ministry to the Gentiles and his continual conflict with both Peter and James about that mission.

Verse 16 contains a profound retrospective of his conversion experience. He certainly had seen Jesus “from a human point of view.” The apostolic claim that Jesus was the Messiah/Christ had so threatened Paul’s rabbinical ambitions that he had become a violent persecutor of the Christian community in Jerusalem. He had obtained permission from the high priest to extend his campaign against those messianic heretics to Damascus. Whatever that experience may have been in modern psychological terms, his meeting with the risen Christ on the Damascus Road had totally transformed his life. He became, as vs. 17 avers, “a new creation.”

Perhaps the most significant element of this compact passage is the simple word “anyone” in vs. 17. Paul did not regard the conversion experience as exclusive to himself. It was for everyone who believed that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. It was the power of the Spirit of God available to Jew and Gentile alike.

In his Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography (Image Books, 2004), Bruce Chilton has described Paul in this passage as “thinking on so cosmic a scale, linking God’s Spirit to humanity’s and both to the transformation of the world.” Chilton elaborates: “The same Spirit that made the world, hovering over the face of the primeval waters and descending upon each believer at baptism, infused the meetings of every congregation, joining Paul’s spirit and Jesus’ power in the judgment that would free the world of its old shape and give it new form. That transformation was doubly powerful because at the same time it occurred at the intimate level of each believer’s own body. The transformation of body, self and world were all happening at once, ‘in Christ.’”

Is it too much to believe that even the least noticed transformation of any person that leads to deeper and more faithful discipleship is a step toward remaking this sin-sick old world?

MARK 4:26-34. Because we do not think in spiritual terms, Jesus’ parables of the kingdom of heaven often seem to defy interpretation for modern readers. In these two brief vignettes drawn from the rural life of Galilee, Jesus spoke about the way faith can provide those who believed in and followed him a full and abundant life.

As a young carpenter of Nazareth Jesus would have met and chatted with innumerable peasant farmers of Galilee. Seedtime and harvest would have been natural topics of conversation then as they are today among farm folk. In that region, especially in the Plain of Esdraelon nearby, there was abundant good soil for raising abundant grain crops. Because of the mountains of Lebanon to the north, rainfall was plentiful. He might well have turned his own hand to the sickle to aid his neighbours at harvest time. This set of parables reflects that rural scene with sharp realism.

The time between seedtime and harvest also come through almost as clearly in the words of vs. 27. It takes approximately ninety days for the farmer to sleep and rise before a field crop can ripen to maturity. Much can happen in the interim to prevent a fruitful harvest. That requires both faith and patience from the farmer.

The second parable is less illustrative of rural Galilee. Once cultivated for the oil of its very small seeds, the mustard plant (brassica nigra) is now a common weed. It does exceed most other weeds in height, projecting above the level of the grain it contaminates. With large leaves, bright yellow flowers and small seeds in pods, it can be easily distinguished from crop surrounding it. However, it is not as large as a small tree or shrub and certainly could not hold up even a small bird’s nest. At most, a tiny bird might settle on its branches for a few seconds rest. It is even possible that the parable drew on a well-known image found in Daniel 4:10-12 and 20-22.

So Jesus must have been exaggerating to make his point. But why the hyperbole? To emphasize the significance of faith. “The kingdom of heaven” is no earthly nation with exact geographic location on this planet or elsewhere in the vast universe. It is spiritual in nature and can only be accessed by those who are spiritual. It is located wherever God’s love reigns. In these parables Jesus was saying that only those with a deep, abiding and patient faith in him and his way will find themselves citizens of that sacred, spiritual realm.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
First Sunday After Pentecost – June 7, 2009
[Also known as Trinity Sunday]

ISAIAH 6:1-8. These few verses describe the call of Isaiah to his ministry of speaking for God to Israel during a critical period of its history in the late 8th century BC. Amid the smoke from the sacrifice on the altar in the temple, Isaiah had a vision of God attended by heavenly creatures. One of the heavenly beings touched his lips with a live coal symbolizing his freedom from sin and worthiness to proclaim God’s message to Israel. Then Isaiah heard the voice of God calling for someone to speak for God to God’s sinful people; and he responds.

PSALM 29. Although beginning with praise to God, the emphasis in this psalm is on the voice of God as if heard in the violence of a thunderstorm.

ROMANS 8:12-17. Paul claims that having the Spirit of the risen Christ is the key to Christian discipleship. The Spirit dwelling within us enables us to live as the people of God rather than as slaves to the value system of the world around us.

JOHN 3:1-17. Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, learns from Jesus how the Spirit makes us new spiritual persons through faith in the crucified and risen Christ. This comes about because God loves the world so much that God sent Jesus into the world to save us with this faith.

This majestic passage is one of many in the New Testament witnessing to what subsequently became the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It describes the ministry Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit as God at work in the world.

Some people look at verse 16 as the secret for obtaining eternal life beyond death. In this passage, however, John makes the point that God is as much concerned about how we live in this life now as with what happens to us afterward. As the subsequent verses 18 to 21 explain, God’s judgment occurs and eternal life begins when we believe who Jesus is and what his coming into the world really means.

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A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS

ISAIAH 6:1-8. These few verses describe the call of Isaiah to his ministry of speaking for God to Israel during a critical period of its history in the late 8th century BC. The late Dr. R.B.Y. Scott, my professor of Old Testament at McGill University, Montreal, later of Princeton University, wrote an exceptional exegesis of this passage in The Interpreter’s Bible (6: 204ff) which is well worth reading in full. Scott described this as an ecstatic vision, “one of the outstanding passages of the Bible which justify a doctrine of revelation in and through recorded spiritual experience…. We can participate imaginatively in Isaiah’s vision and feel the same pang of conscience in the presence of the unutterable and sovereign glory of the goodness of God.”

Amid the smoke from the sacrifice on the altar in the temple, Isaiah had a vision of God attended by heavenly creatures. One of the heavenly beings touched his lips with a live coal symbolizing his freedom from sin and worthiness to proclaim God’s message to Israel. Then Isaiah heard the voice of God calling for someone to speak for God to God’s sinful people; and he responds.

The event has a specific historical context: “the year that King Uzziah died.” The year 742 BCE was the approximate date, although biblical historians cannot be altogether sure. II Kings 15:1ff gave the king another name, Azariah (cf.14:21; 15:13). Isaiah may have been one of the courtiers or a member of the priesthood. He had contact with several kings of Judah, the southern kingdom, through perilous times until at least 701 BCE. His oracles often met with royal displeasure because they counseled actions which, however spiritually motivated, were politically unpalatable (chs. 36-39).

The passage emphasizes the holiness of Yahweh in that in the intensity of his vision when Isaiah “sees” Yahweh and hears the divine summons, Yahweh’s face and feet are hidden from him. It is the six winged seraphim, the heavenly attendants of Yahweh, of which Isaiah catches sight. In other words, spiritual being can only be spiritually encountered. The experience can only be expressed in humanly relevant terms. As Scott said, “Holiness is the essential quality of deity, glory is the manifestation of deity in the natural world.”

Isaiah’s familiarity with the cult of Yahweh underlies the ritual act of mouth-purification (vss. 6-7) symbolizing divine forgiveness enabling the prophet to speak in Yahweh’s name, “Thus saith the Lord ….” Contact with the holiness of Yahweh sanctified Isaiah for his prophetic mission. His humble response, “Here am I! Send me,” represents total commitment that countless others have made in similar circumstances. Vocation remains our best human response to a divine summons.

Not all prophets or pastors, from ancient times to the present day, have been called in such dramatic fashion. This brief narrative gives scriptural credibility to the ecstatic nature of some calls to ministry. It may be easy for modern secular minds the cast doubt on the validity of such calls. For those to whom it has happened, it has been a life-changing experience, not the hallucinations of religious fanatics. For me, the compelling power of the experience has lasted for sixty-five years.

PSALM 29. Praise for the glory of God in a thunderstorm? That is an imaginative interpretation of a very natural occurrence in almost any part of the world. Yet that is the chief emphasis in this psalm.

The power of a storm attracted the poet’s attention. In ancient times, nature’s mighty elements had the status of demi-gods. It was they who are addressed in vss. 1-2 as “heavenly beings” and summoned to ascribe glory to Yahweh, their “holy array” in the heavens worshiping as if in the temple.

Storms of great violence still occur in Palestine. Sweeping down from the heights of Mount Lebanon, strong cold fronts collide with warm air from the deserts of the Arabian and Sinai peninsulas. This results in furious storms which can do great damage to the unwary, especially those poor enough or foolish enough to build their fragile shelters in the wadis of the wilderness or the valleys of spring-fed mountain streams. Such disasters still happen in even the most modern urban communities of California and in the barrios of Central and South America. Those who live in “Tornado Alley” on the plains of the American midwest can also attest to the violence of such storms. Insurance policies still include a clause defining some destructive events as “acts of God.”

The psalmist heard the majestic voice of God in the sound of thunder as the storm rolls closer (vs. 3-4). The cedars of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon (Sirion) bent before the wind, skipping like a calf or a young wild ox. The psalmist may have referred to wild aurochs, from which cattle were domesticated, that may not have been entirely extinct in the more remote foothills of the Bekah Valley in Lebanon (vss. 5-6). Lightning appeared as flames from the same mouth from which the voice of Yahweh thunders (vs. 7). The references to Lebanon in the north and the wilderness of Kadesh in the southern desert on the borders of Sinai (vs. 8) represent the expanse of the whole nation over which the storm spreads its fury.

Due to the absence of vowels in Hebrew, some versions translate vs. 9 differently. The KJV has it, “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” The Hebrew word chuwl or chiyl has many meanings, but essentially means “to twist or whirl.” Another meaning is “to writhe in pain as in giving birth.” The KJV sense might be possible in a heavy storm if the deer were as terrified as some humans were at such times. The more exact translation in the NRSV and several other modern versions better serve the intended poetic parallelism. A tornado whistling through a forest has the power to strip leaves from trees or uproot great oaks and whirl them to the ground. That would appear to be the image the poet has in mind.

As the storm passed, reflection on its meaning calmed the poet. The One who is sovereign over all the most powerful forces of nature was also able to give strength and peace to Israel, Yahweh’s chosen people.

ROMANS 8:12-17. Here Paul claims that having the Spirit of the risen Christ is the key to Christian discipleship. The Spirit enables us to live as the people of God rather than as slaves to the value system of the world around us.

A good deal of scholarly effort has concentrated on what Paul meant by “the flesh.” Most probably, his concept of the term arose from his early life in Tarsus famous for its Stoic philosophers as well as his long, intense association and training with the Pharisees. In contrast to the Hebrew concept of a unified human nature, the Greeks believed that the spiritual and the physical aspects of human beings were totally separate and impossible to unite in the same person.

In a word, “the flesh” (Gk. = sarx) meant sin, anything that separates us from God and spiritual life. To quote William Barclay in his The Mind of Paul (Harper, 1958. 190): “Sin is not simply an influence or a force; it is a kind of personal demonic power which invades a man and takes up residence in him. It is in fact there that Paul’s whole conception of the body and the flesh comes in. Any invading enemy requires a bridgehead; it is the flesh which gives sin a bridgehead. The flesh is not simply the body; and the sins of the flesh are not simply fleshly sins. Idolatry, hatred, strife, wrath, heresy are all sins of the flesh (Gal. 5:20). The flesh is the human nature apart from God. And it is just there that sin obtains the bridgehead for the invasion whose end is the occupation of the human personality.”

Putting that in terms of contemporary thought, “the flesh” represents the value system of the dominate culture to which everyone is attracted and subjected, consciously or unconsciously. The moral and spiritual power that enables us to live free of the dominating influence of the culture in which we live is the Holy Spirit (vss. 12-13). But as the whole body of his correspondence with the apostolic churches makes abundantly clear, Paul had no illusions about the challenge of living by the Spirit and not the flesh in that era and in this.

E.P Sanders carried Paul’s understanding of “the flesh” even farther: “His penetrating observations have to do with how it is that the man who does not have faith in Christ is not only lost in a formal and external sense – handed over to destruction – but even lost to himself, being unable to achieve the goal which he so ardently desires. For that which is desired – life – can only be received as a gift, so that the effort to attain it is self-defeating.” (Paul and Palestinian Judaism. SCM Press, 1977. 509)

The antidote to this universal human predicament is found in vs. 14 of this passage. Those who through faith in Christ receive the gift of the Holy Spirit “are the children of God.” In vs. 15, Paul uses the metaphor of adoption into the family of God in contrast to slavery as the means by which the gift is given to us. Anyone, parent or child, who has experienced adoption senses immediately the difference. The adopted child in regarded as a member of the family as much as if born into the family naturally. However intimately a slave or servant may be regarded, or how long he or she may serve in a household, that person never becomes a member of the family with all the incumbent rights and privileges of an adopted child. The adopted child can never be removed from the family circle. As Paul described this intimately spiritual experience in vs. 17: “if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”

Paul ends this segment of his message with the startling affirmation of the implications of being a member of the family of God with Christ: “If, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” We receive everything that accrues to the family, whether great riches and honour, or as the Romans may well have been about to experience when Paul wrote to them, persecution, privation and unjust punishment for crimes they did not commit. Tradition holds that not long after Paul wrote this letter, he arrived in Rome and suffered martyrdom there during Nero’s persecution of the Christian community for the great fire instigated by the mad emperor himself.

There is one more brief reference in vs. 15b-16 which bears investigation. At one time or another, every Christian feels frustrated by his or her feeble efforts to pray. When crises come upon on us, many feel especially bereft of the spiritual connections that make prayer meaningful and helpful. Like terrified children we can only cry out, “Daddy, help me!” It is then, in our moments of terror, we most need the Spirit to interpret our cries for help and to reassure us that we are indeed the children of the living, loving God who knows our plight and will not desert us in our need.

Had Paul heard what was happening to the Christian community in Rome under the mad emperor Nero? Had he determined to appeal to the emperor himself so that he might join them in their time of danger? Nero was fiercely anti-Semitic as had been his adoptive father, Claudius, whom he succeeded as emperor. Paul met two of his closest co-workers in Corinth, Priscilla and Aquila, after Claudius had banished them from Rome with other Jews in 49/50 CE. The postscript to the Letter to the Romans (16:3) includes a warm greeting to Priscilla and Aquila which indicates that there were once again back in the capital of the empire. We can only speculate how Paul may have intended his reference to Spirit-assisted prayer to be understood by his audience. Our own interpretation of it, however, may yield a fruitful homily for the early summer.

JOHN 3:1-17. Reading this fourth and last gospel in New Testament nearly two millennia after it was composed, we need to remember that those who wrote the gospels knew about, believed in and assumed they were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God as they created these texts from the oral traditions to which they had access. And who is to say that they were not? This majestic passage is one of many in the New Testament witnessing to what subsequently became the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It describes the ministry Jesus and the activity of the Holy Spirit as God engaged in God’s redeeming work in and for the world.

The story is a simple one: Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, learns from Jesus how the Spirit makes us new spiritual persons through faith in the crucified and risen Christ. This comes about because God loves the world so much that God sent Jesus into the world to save us humans and this planet through this faith.

Some people look at John 3:16 as the secret for obtaining eternal life beyond death. In this passage, however, John makes the point that God is as much concerned about how we live in this life now as with what happens to us afterward. As the subsequent verses 18 to 21 explain, God’s judgment occurs and eternal life begins when we believe who Jesus is and what his coming into the world really means.

In the theological struggles of the 20th and 21st centuries, “born again” has become the rallying cry of conservatively minded Christians, the magical open sesame to salvation. In many respects it has the same force as the synoptic gospel proclamation, “repent and believe the gospel.” The phrase is not a magic ticket to enter “that better life in the great beyond.” It is a metaphor for a new moral and spiritual beginning which comes about for those who have faith that Jesus is the one to whom the early Christian community witnessed: the Messiah/Christ, Son of God. As Messiah, Jesus came to show us the way of life God requires of us all. Was it not out of such a context that Jesus chided the doubting Nicodemus, “Are you a teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things? (vs. 10)

In all of the discourses of Jesus which John includes in his gospel, it is difficult to distinguish how much are remembrances of what Jesus may have actually said or the commentary of John himself. Obviously is vss. 11-17, Jesus, or more probably John, was thinking about the whole story of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of God’s sovereign love made manifest in Jesus. Another metaphor of universal salvation comes in the comparison of the crucifixion to Moses’ elevation of the serpent which prevented the Israelites from dying of a plague of poisonous snakes (vss. 14-15 cf. Numbers 21:4-9). John reiterates that this is God’s intention in the classic statement about salvation in vs. 16.

If that were not enough to convince the unbelieving, and especially the Jewish element of his audience, John drives his point home in vs. 17-21 by introducing the constant Old Testament theme of divine judgment on sin. Yet here John differentiates Christian from Jewish theology. God’s judgment does not come for the purpose of condemning the wicked who transgress a moral law or ritual code, as so often stated in the Old Testament. The purpose of divine judgment is to bring the whole world to faith and spiritual fellowship with God. This reaffirms in a remarkable way that Jesus is the full expression of divine love in human form as stated so exquisitely in vs. 16.

What, then, is the Holy Trinity but God who is love coming to us in whatever way we humans can receive the gift of God’s own spiritual life and thereby be recreated as new persons who express love in all our relationships?

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURES
PENTECOST SUNDAY – MAY 31, 2009.

ACTS 2:1-21. Pentecost celebrates the climax of the Good News. On this day all the benefits of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ rush into our lives and into the church through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Spirit makes this Good News available to the whole world.
Note how this turbulent account differs from the quiet breathing of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in John 20:22. The early church also experienced many other ways in which the Holy Spirit came to the gathered community. Yet all descriptions of the coming of the Spirit tell us of the special relationship God establishes through Jesus Christ with all of humanity. This is the true definition of the third person of the Trinity: God with us and at work in the world right now.

EZEKIEL 37:1-14. (Alternate) The Book of Ezekiel was so compellingly imaginative that in strict Jewish circles young people were not permitted to read it alone.
The haunting passage comes from a long section expressing hope for a new age initiated by God. It was probably written soon after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 586 BC. The prophet urged his devastated nation to look beyond that catastrophe to a future that vindicated God’s justice and promised the restoration of the nation by the action of Gods spirit.

PSALM 104:24-34. This psalm celebrated the work of Spirit of God in creation and providence through the Spirit. It is possible that this hymn had a parallel in an ancient Egyptian hymn to the sun.

ROMANS 8:22-27. Paul clarifies some of the distinctive work of the Spirit in us. By entering into our deepest longings, the Spirit serves as intercessor for us and the whole creation.
Note the emphasis on the Spirit as “helper,” the same function brought out in our Gospel lesson. Paul’s understanding of the work of the Spirit arose out of his own personal experience, not theoretical analysis.

JOHN 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. In his table talk at the last supper, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The Spirit would carry on Jesus’ work and constitute his continuing presence in the world.
Many different names have been given to the Spirit, each one defining a different role. In each case, the work of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus, i.e. to make him known as the Son of God, the One who reveals God completely and so shares God’s glory.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

ACTS 2:1-21. For Christians, Pentecost celebrates the climax of the Good News. On this day all the benefits of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ rush into our lives and into the church through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Spirit makes this Good News available to the whole world.

This was not what Pentecost meant to Jews before and after the time of Jesus. Originally, it was a harvest festival (Exod. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:17; Jer. 5:24) recognizing Yahweh as the source of rain and agricultural fertility. Greek-speaking Jews gave it the name of Pentecost referring to the seven week period of the harvest. It was also known as the Feast of First Fruits (Num. 28:26) and the Feast of Weeks. J.D. Rylaarsdam, in his article in The Interpreter’s Bible (4:828) comments: “The day of the feast was one of solemn joy and thanksgiving that God’s protection had watched over and brought to a successful completion the activities of the cereal harvest season begun seven weeks before. It was a day of ‘holy convocation’ (Lev. 23:21). Work was to cease; through its male representatives, and, especially in later periods, through the temple priesthood, the whole community of Israel presented itself before the Lord.”

Following the destruction of the temple in 586 BCE, a gradual transformation took place into a feast commemorating the gift of the law. But it was not until after 200 CE that this became fixed in the Jewish religious tradition. Rylaarsdam regards it as “historically incorrect to describe Weeks as a ‘feast of revelation’ at the time of Jesus … and consequently misleading to attempt an interpretation of Acts 2 and the meaning of Pentecost in the Christian church on the assumption that it constitutes a literal displacement of, or substitution for, a feast of the law.” He claims that there is no evidence of this in the NT.

This view, however, does not take into account the possibility that Acts 2 is an interpretative midrash on the celebration of the Jewish festival of the first fruits. There are compelling elements of the Pentecost narrative in Acts 2 as such a midrash: The assembled pilgrims from many lands in Jerusalem (vs. 5); the assembled twelve representative of the New Israel (vs. 1); the witnessing to “God’s deeds of power;” the festive atmosphere in which some were thought to be inebriated (vs. 13).

Note how this turbulent account differs from the quiet breathing of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in John 20:22. Paul also wrote of what many assume was the Pentecost experience in 1 Cor. 15:6 when Jesus appeared “to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive.” Although not present in Jerusalem at the time, Paul would have known those living witnesses and undoubtedly have heard the story directly from them, including Peter himself. Paul’s account may be from the earliest tradition and the Lukan version a more formal reflection on its meaning.

The early church experienced many other ways in which the Holy Spirit came to the gathered community. All descriptions of the coming of the Spirit tell us of the special relationship God establishes with all of humanity through faith in Jesus Christ, not one exclusive group of believers. This is the true definition of the third person of the Trinity: God with us and at work in the world right now. None of us can claim to have exclusive control of the countless ways the Spirit of God works to bring the whole world to faith.

EZEKIEL 37:1-14. (Alternate) The Book of Ezekiel was so compellingly imaginative that in strict Jewish circles young people were not permitted to read it alone. This passage contains one of the best known of the prophet’s visions. It comes from a long section (33:1-39:29) expressing hope for the restoration of Israel initiated by Yahweh. Probably experienced soon after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 586 BC, it urges the devastated nation to look beyond that catastrophe to a future that vindicates God’s justice and promises redemption.

The image of the valley of dry bones may well have come from an actual battle site. The location of this site cannot be determined and may well be imaginary. Some scholars relate it to the plain in 3:22-23. Although Ezekiel is thought to have spent most of his ministry in Babylon, the vision could also have been a memory from the destruction of Jerusalem. This vision is also thought to have influenced a similar experience in Revelation 11:7-10 although a scene of a massacre such as this was not unfamiliar in ancient times. Or, tragically, even now.

Bones had a special meaning in ancient Hebrew thought. The Hebrew word hetsem, repeated eight times in this passage, derived from a root meaning to be powerful and hence indicated stability and firmness. If the bones were strong and firm, then the soul was also strong. Because of this relationship, careful attention was given to the burial of bones. That these bones lay exposed long after death accentuated the spiritual tragedy which had befallen Israel.

The promised resurrection was more than the enfleshing of skeletons and resuscitation of the dead. It included the restoration of the whole community. The prophet’s conversation with Yahweh (vss. 3-10) emphasizes that it is the Lord who takes the initiative to restore life to the skeletons. Whereas the people had lost all hope of restoration (vs. 11), Yahweh insists that not only will they be raised from death and given a new life, but also will return to their homeland (vss.12-14).

The effective agent of this resurrection is the Spirit of Yahweh (vs. 14). Remembering that the Hebrew word ruach means breath, wind and spirit, we can see the play on the word throughout the passage in vss. 4, 6, 9, 10 and 14. This recalls the creation stories of Genesis 1:2ff and 2:7ff. The same vibrant Spirit infused the apostles on Pentecost, equipped them for their mission, led to the creative assembling of the NT, and still inspires and empowers the Christian community so created.

PSALM 104:24-34. For many Christians it is anathema to suggest that any part of the Bible could have been influenced by literature from another culture. This attitude ignores the obvious historical fact that Israel lay on the main route along which nearly all commerce and military action of the ancient Middle East occurred. Theologically, the Israelites may have been a special people, but racially and culturally they were part of the same milieu as their neighbours around the Fertile Crescent from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates valleys. Like all ancient and modern peoples, they were also wholly dependent on the fruitfulness of nature. This psalm reflects the careful observations of nature’s wonders. Unlike other observers of the same natural environment, as a devout Yahwist the psalmist celebrates these as the creativity and providence of Yahweh.

The viewpoint of the psalmist is similar to that of the Priestly document’s hymn of creation in Genesis 1. There is a strong possibility that it also had a parallel in an earlier Egyptian hymn to the sun described more fully below. Keen observer that he was, the psalmist knew that everything that grew depended on the sun. Unlike the Egyptians millennia earlier, however, he did not worship the sun. It too he saw as part of creation obedient to the divine will (vs. 19).

The psalm’s many similarities to the Hymn to the Aton date from the time of Akhenaton in the 14th century BCE. That pharaoh was unique among Egyptian monarchs in that he disavowed ancient traditions and adopted a new religious system based on the worship the sun as the sole deity. Preoccupation with building a new capital, the arts, literature and his new religious system proved disastrous to Akhenaton’s Asian empire which included Palestine. Hittites from Asia Minor seized most of those territories. During the reign of his son-in-law, the famous Tutankhamon, the movement was branded as heresy, but it left lasting results. However tempting it may be to speculate, no literary evidence has ever been found to show that the monotheism of Moses or later Israelites was influenced by this Egyptian heresy. On the other hand, it would not have been impossible for oral legends of Akhenaton’s revisionist views to have circulated widely for centuries afterward.

References to Leviathan, a sea monster, (vs. 26) may seem unusual for a Hebrew. They were not known as a sea-going people. There is ample evidence also that the Israelites were not as ethnically or culturally distinct from their Canaanite neighbours as previously assumed from the biblical record. This was likely an accretion from Canaanite traditions in which the myth of Baal defeating Lothan (a variation of Leviathan) had a significant role in creation. The mythical creature was described as a seven-headed serpent. Others have proposed that the crocodile is intended. It also appeared in Ps. 74:14, Job 3:8, 41:1, and in later apocalyptic literature.

However, the point of the psalm cannot be mistaken. Everything that lives is dependent on Yahweh whom the psalmist vows to praise “as long as I live” (vs. 33).

ROMANS 8:22-27. “The Holy Spirit is what the Holy Spirit does,” a senior seminarian wrote in an essay on the work of the Spirit. “God the Spirit,” Trinitarian theologians of the 4th century named what they understood this spiritual phenomenon to be. Language fails us when we try to describe more specifically the experience to which countless Christians have witnessed in their lives since the day of Pentecost. In this brief excerpt from one of his most significant passages about the Spirit, Paul clarifies some of the distinctive work of the Spirit in us. Note the emphasis on the Spirit as “helper,” the same function brought out in our Gospel lesson. Paul’s understanding of the work of the Spirit arose out of his own personal experience, not theoretical analysis.

By entering into our deepest longings, the Spirit serves as intercessor for us and the whole of creation. As often in his letters, Paul’s metaphors are vivid, if somewhat contorted. The whole creation groans as a woman in labor (vs. 23). Then focusing on Christians ourselves, he identified us as those “who have the first fruits of the Spirit.” The phrase was one he had written in Galatians 5:22-23, one of his earliest letters. One can assume that this must represent a favorite way he lifted up the ethical aspects of Christian spirituality.

Suddenly the metaphor changes; the groaning has a new cause, not the pains of childbirth, but waiting for adoption. That referred to the anticipated physical resurrection at the Messiah’s coming. As a Pharisee, Paul had believed in resurrection long before he became a believer in the risen Christ. Now, after he had come face to face with Christ himself, he had all the more reason to believe in it; but the general resurrection would now occur at the return of Christ. That miracle must wait for some future time, so it becomes the object of hope. If it had already been realized, it would not still be anticipated. Waiting in hope engenders patience, one of the fruits of the Spirit he had named in Galatians 5:22-23.

Paul knew that from long experience that patience is a gift, not something achieved or developed. The vigorous drive with which he pursued in his apostolic mission stands out in his letters. They consistently voice impatience, a failing he may well have regarded as his “thorn in the flesh.” He proclaimed his message so persistently and argued his interpretations of the gospel so vehemently that he may well have driven some people away. Was this the “weakness” of vs. 26? Yet when his most fervent prayers went unanswered how did he react? When he could no longer rattle the gates of heaven with his prayers, he found an alternative for the silence in the intercession of the Spirit.

In vs. 27, we find an interesting identification of both God and the Spirit as distinct personalities. No easy, mysterious monism here. God and the Spirit are two very unique realities, each with a mind of its own. Nonetheless, there also is a commonality of purpose and will. “The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” This is not a case of either/or, but of both/and. The Spirit, however distinct it may be in some respects, is still the Spirit of the living God.

Bruce Chilton in his Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography, (Image Books, Doubleday, Random House, 2004) presents a relatively new study of the apostle. Many aspects of this reading illustrate the special contribution Chilton believes that Paul contributed the Christian proclamation of the Gospel. For Paul, faith in Jesus Christ and baptism in that faith brought an infusion of the Holy Spirit result in a transformation “whose meaning was infinite, beyond the capacity of the human mind to grasp…. Paul’s Christianity was a religion of the Spirit and of the Spirit’s power in the community of believers.” (Chilton, 180). In his correspondence with the faith communities he founded Paul articulated his belief that the indwelling Christ by the Spirit enabled all who had been baptized to live in fellowship with God here and hereafter.

JOHN 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. As John related Jesus’ table talk at the last supper, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The Spirit would carry on Jesus’ work and constitute his continuing presence in the world. Again in this passage, the distinctiveness of the personalities stands out; but the persons are not the same as in the Romans passage. Here it is Jesus and the Spirit who are distinguished one from the other. One can quickly see how the eminent bishops of the 4th and 5th centuries felt it absolutely essential to express this spiritual reality in the Trinitarian formulae. In particular, the Chalcedonian phrases of homousios, “of the same substance,” and “proceeding from the Father and the Son” became the sine quae non of the doctrine of the Spirit.

Many different names have been given to the Spirit, each one defining a different function. In each case, the work of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus by what the Spirit does, i.e. to make Jesus known as Christ, the Son of God, the one who reveals God completely and so shares God’s glory. Here the name given to the Spirit is Advocate or Helper (vs. 26) “who comes from the Father” and “will testify on my behalf.” The name in Greek (parakleptos) has quasi-legal meaning, as in “one who is called to the side of,” denoting one who pleads for another. 1 John 2:1 applies the term to Christ himself. Hebrews 7:25-27 also regards Christ’s high priestly role in the same way. William Barclay has an enlightening comment on the word in his Daily Bible Readings: The Gospel of John (vol.2, 219):

“When the story of Jesus is told to us, when the picture of Jesus is set before us, when the teaching of Jesus is unfolded to us, what makes us feel that this picture is none other than the picture of the Son of God, what makes us feel – as we say, instinctively, – that here is wisdom that is divine? That reaction of the human mind, that answer of the human heart is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit within us that moves us to respond to Jesus Christ.”

It should be noted, however, that for John the Spirit could not come to the disciples while Jesus was still with them (16:4b-7). The Spirit could come to reveal Christ to them only after the resurrection. Then, as vss. 12-13 emphasizes, the Spirit will also have a teaching and interpretative role. But it will be the things of Christ which he will teach and interpret (vss. 15-16). As G.W.H. Lampe wrote in The Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary, (3: 655) “It is the Paraclete who will inspire the preaching of Christ’s disciples and enable them to testify to him; and their testimony, which is that of the Paraclete himself, is directly related to martyrdom and the confession of Christ under persecution.”

Vss. 8-10 contains a somewhat complex description of yet another function of the Spirit: convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. The sin was the lack of faith that Jesus is the Messiah, a challenge to the Jews that John had Jesus utter throughout the gospel. The righteousness of which John spoke referred the total reversal of the shame and curse of the crucifixion. As Paul noted in Galatians 3:13, quoting Deuteronomy 21:23, the law of Moses regarded anyone hung on a tree as especially cursed by God. According to this law, the crucifixion placed Jesus under just such a curse. The judgment came about through the resurrection which revealed that the powers of evil in the world had done their worst in crucifying the Lord of glory; but the resurrection had totally defeated them.

This theological reflection attributed to Jesus may say more about the Christian confession of John’s era at the end of the 1st century than on the night before the crucifixion, sixty or more years earlier. It may have been directed in particular at the Jewish element in John’s community. By the last decade of the century, Christian Jews had been banished from their synagogues for their confession that Jesus, crucified and risen, is the Messiah/Christ. Jewish families no longer acknowledged their members who had accepted the new messianic tradition. In essence, therefore, this somewhat cryptic statement is an almost complete confession of faith designed to encourage those who had already sacrificed so much for their convictions.

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