October 2023 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Summary of the Law

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost; 29 October 2023; Proper 25A (RCL); Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22:34-46.

Remembering that 1 Thessalonians is the first literary evidence we have of the Christian movement, I am struck how carefully Paul distinguishes his teaching from that of other philosophical schools (or at least their parodies). Cynics in particular poked fun at teachers in the other schools as seeking glory, or teaching for tuition, for flattering their students (to get more tuition), and the list of things Paul lays out in these verses.

Whose image?

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost; 22 October 2023; Proper 24A (RCL); Exodus 33:12-23; Psalm 99; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22.

Since 1 Thessalonians is chronologically the first piece of Christian literature of which we have evidence, it is an interesting exercise to try to forget everything we know about Jesus and infer only what we can from Paul’s letter. What strikes me immediately is Paul’s use of phrases like “God the Father,” and “the Lord Jesus Christ.” As familiar as those phrases are to us, they would have sounded a new note to the readers of this letter.

The vineyard and its tenants

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 8 October 2023; Proper 22A (RCL); Exodus20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46.

I dread this parable. If there were any passage I could excise from scripture, it would be the parable of the vineyard and its tenants. All three synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) include a version of it. It happens in the narrative context of Jesus teaching in the Temple after he has expelled the sellers of animals and overturned the tables of the money changers, so the Temple cult is in view. And any parable about vineyards or vines occurs against the background of Old Testament passages like Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 80:8-19, in which Israel is compared to a vineyard or a vine.