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24 March 2019
Third Sunday in Lent
Lent 3C (RCL)
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
We have an odd collection of readings this Sunday. In the Revised Common Lectionary, the Old Testament lessons are not chosen specifically to complement the Gospel: instead, we read “in course” through some of the great moments in salvation history. The revelation of the divine name is one of those moments. Continue reading “Unless you repent”
17 March 2019
Second Sunday in Lent
Lent 2C (RCL)
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians3:17 – 41
Luke 13:31-35
The passage from Genesis records an unusual covenantal ritual – nothing of the kind is recorded elsewhere in scripture (except an allusion in Jeremiah 34:18-20). This is clearly not a sacrifice — some of the animals are female, and three years old, and they are not eaten or burned. The allusion in Jeremiah suggests that the point of the ritual was to call God to witness an agreement and render anyone who broke the agreement like the cut animals. Continue reading “Tell that fox”
10 March 2019
First Sunday in Lent
Lent 1C (RCL)
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
I have read a number of commentaries in which the temptations of Jesus are compared to the temptations of Israel in the wilderness, implying that where Israel failed, Jesus resisted the temptation. Jesus recapitulates Israel’s history. Early christian authors (like Paul, for instance) certainly used the device of recapitulation to tell the story of Jesus (sea crossings and wilderness feedings recapitulate the Moses story). Forty days in the wilderness recapitulates forty years of wilderness wandering. Continue reading “Save us from trial”
7 October 2018
Twentieth Sunday after Epiphany
Proper 22B (RCL)
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16
This will be a short entry, much going on this week.
The passage from Mark’s Gospel follows on from the reading about setting stumbling blocks before these little ones. Our reading today ends with Jesus embracing another child, which bookends the previous episode, in which the disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest, and Jesus took a child in his arms. Continue reading “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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”