Author: appadmin

Stumbling blocks

30 September 2018
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 21B (RCL)
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
Psalm 124
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50

Let me start by saying that when I was doing my CPE on the rehab floor at Mass General Hospital in the mid-1980s, there was a young man on the floor who was having his hand reconstructed. On the basis of this passage, and feeling guilt about what teenage boys do, he laid his right hand on a railroad track. I’ll never hear this passage in Mark without remembering that young man and the horrible guilt and pain this caused him. We need to use care in reading. Continue reading “Stumbling blocks”

Childlike wisdom

23 September 2018
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20B (RCL)
Porverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37

Many will react to the reading from Proverbs this week. We will hear it as constraining women to a particular social place and role. I find it surprising, however, that she is clearly able to own and buy property, run a business and have servants, all apparently independently of her husband. Early in the book, a contrast was made between wisdom and folly portrayed as women. I think we could read this passage on two levels; one as an example of the gender expectations of the time, and also as an example of wisdom. Continue reading “Childlike wisdom”

Losing my religion

16 September 2018
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19B (RCL)
Proverbs 1:20-33
Psalm 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

I am writing this as Hurricane Florence is barrelling toward the Carolina coastlines. It is not particularly comforting to hear Wisdom say, “Because you ignored my reproof, I will laugh at your calamity.” As Wisdom literature, Proverbs is likely addressed to young men making their way in the court; but it like all biblical literature, it is probably also address to Israel as a collective. Certainly, if a young man ignores the advise of Wisdom, we expect calamity. But what does it mean for a nation to ignore the counsel of Wisdom? What is that counsel? Continue reading “Losing my religion”

A voice for the voiceless

9 September 2018
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18B (RCL)
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2:1-17
Mark 7:24-37

This passage in Mark makes us uncomfortable. Was Jesus really this rude to anyone? Matthew attempts to soften the passage by having the disciples complain to Jesus that she won’t leave them alone. But it stands starkly in Mark. Jesus calls her a dog. Continue reading “A voice for the voiceless”

The law of liberty

2 September 2018
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 17B (RCL)
Song of Solomon2:8-13
Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

We’ve now finished our course of historical reading in the semi-continuous OT track, having come as far as Solomon’s consecration of the Jerusalem Temple. For the rest of the year, we will read passages from wisdom literature. We start with a passage from the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon. I suppose we start there because of the connection with Solomon. But, if Solomon wrote this, he wrote most of it from the perspective of the woman. Continue reading “The law of liberty”

Gnawing flesh, drinking blood

26 August 2018
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 16B (RCL)
1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43
Psalm 84
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69

The way the Hebrew Bible comes to be arranged (as distinct from the Christian Old Testament), it serves as an etiology of the Second Temple, ending as it does with Darius’ decree at the end of the second book of Chronicles. Here, the story of David ends, and that of Solomon begins as an etiology for the First Temple. In the reading we had last week, all of David’s crimes are whitewashed, and he becomes the ideal king, and Solomon prayer for wisdom, and God granted it, despite the fact that he used to offer hecatombs at the high place at Gibeon, married foreign queens, set up an Asherah, and all the rest that subsequent kings would be accused of. I guess as long as you build a beautiful temple, you can be forgiven much. Continue reading “Gnawing flesh, drinking blood”

Who’s eating whom?

12 August 2018
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14B (RCL)
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

In our semi-continuous reading of 2 Samuel, we skip over all the lurid bits – the rape of Tamar, Absalom’s revolt, David’s flight, and return – the whole interesting history of the monarchy of David. Funny that one of the songs he should be remembered for reads, “The Lord repaid me as my righteousness deserved; because my conduct was spotless he rewarded me, for I have kept to the ways of the Lord and have not turned from my God to wickedness” (2 Samuel 22:21-22). Continue reading “Who’s eating whom?”

Come to Jesus

5 August 2018
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 13B (RCL)
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Psalm 51:1-13
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35

This week, we continue the story of David and Bathsheba with Nathan’s parable of judgment. Speaking judgment directly to the king could be a risky business, so Nathan has to find a way to get David to pronounce the judgment himself. The parable of the rich man and the poor man and their sheep is the perfect device. It subtly reminds the king that his vocation is to guard the poor, rather than side with the rich, and calls David out for his specific crime at the same time. Continue reading “Come to Jesus”

Kings behaving badly

15 July 2018
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 10B (RCL)
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
Psalm 24
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29

The story of the beheading of John the Baptist, in this form, is unique to Mark. Each of Matthew and Luke soften the story and move it to a different place in their narrative. It doesn’t ‘feel’ like a Marcan composition, but instead like a tradition he dropped into his own narrative. The first few verses very awkwardly introduce the flashback, which then reads like an integral narrative. That raises the question why Mark chooses to include it precisely here. Continue reading “Kings behaving badly”

Asleep in the boat

24 June 2018
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 7B (RCL)
1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49
Psalm 9:9-20
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41

The bulk of Mark’s Gospel (from 4:35 through 8:10) is organized around a repeated pair of miracles; a sea crossing and a feeding in the wilderness. This pattern should be familiar to readers of the Old Testament. Moses led the people across the Red Sea and fed them with manna in the wilderness. And just so we don’t miss the connection, Jesus’ first miracle after disembarking from the first miraculous crossing is the destruction of a demon named Legion (a unit of the Roman army) in a herd of 2000 pigs drowned in the sea, just as Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the sea. Continue reading “Asleep in the boat”