Category: Lectionary

Repentance

4 December 2016
Second Sunday of Advent
Advent 2A (RCL)
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12

The collect for this day calls out the them of repentance in the Gospel reading. The matter is a bit more complicated than just a focus on repentance. Matthew tells us that the people were baptized, “confessing their sins.” When the Scribes and Pharisees come for baptism, he warns them that they must bear fruit worthy of repentance. And when he announces the coming of the mightier one, he says, “I baptize you in water into repentance.” The more powerful one will baptize in Holy Spirit and fire.

What does it mean to be baptized into repentance? Continue reading “Repentance”

Can I get a witness?

6 November 2016
All Saints’ Day (observed)
All Saint’s Day C (RCL)
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
Psalm 149
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31

Psalm 149 used to come up for All Saints’ Day in each year. The Revised Common Lectionary has given us a broader set of readings. Psalm 149 starts out well, but ends up with the idea of the holy people of God wreaking vengeance on the nations, with a two edged sword in their hands. Not my favorite image. I suppose it would be a welcome vision for an oppressed people, to think that they would get their turn rendering justice to their oppressors. Daniel has a similar vision. The four beasts are the Babylonian, the Medean, the Persian and the Alexandrian Empires. The last of these was the worst, and Daniel holds out the hope that the holy ones of God will receive the kingdom. The apocalyptic imagination is always a way of critiquing the current state of affairs. Continue reading “Can I get a witness?”

Living by faith

30 October 2016
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 26C (RCL)
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4
Psalm 119:137-144
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 1112
Luke 19:1-10

In the lectionary we skip over some material in order to have the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector immediately follow the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. We leave out the encounter of Jesus and some children, and the saying that we must enter the kingdom as children, the rich ruler asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, sayings about wealth, a passion prediction and the story of the healing of the blind beggar (in Mark’s Gospel named Bartimaeus). In Mark’s Gospel, Bartimaeus is the only person who follows Jesus on the way, and Mark uses the restoration of his sight as a counterpoint to the blindness of the disciples. Continue reading “Living by faith”

Other people

23 October 2016
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 25C (RCL)
Joel 2:23-32
Psalm 65
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14

Luke’s parable against those who have confidence in themselves and regard others with contempt may indeed be timeless, but it may never have been more timely. Our national political discourse has become ever more divisive, and characterized by contempt. Continue reading “Other people”

Give God a black eye?

16 October 2016
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 23C (RCL)
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5
Luke 18:1-8

To begin reading this parable, we must first correct a mistranslation. The NRSV has the unjust judge say to himself, “because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” The Greek has, “lest she give me a black eye by continually coming.” The word literally means to strike the face below the eye. It comes to mean “brow beat,” but it also carries connotation of shame, just as our expression does. The judge will grant her justice lest he be shamed in the community. Continue reading “Give God a black eye?”

This foreigner

9 October 2016
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 23C (RCL)
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Psalm 66:1-11
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

This story in Luke stands out of its context and calls attention to itself in several ways. In the sayings immediately preceding this story, Jesus addresses his disciples about occasions of sin, correcting a community member who sins against one, and forgiveness. The “apostles” ask Jesus to increase their faith, and Jesus replies with the figure of the mulberry bush. Faithfulness this size of a mustard seed could uproot the complex root system of a mulberry tree — perhaps standing in for the systems of sin and injustice within a community. Then, the disciples are instructed not to expect thanks for doing the hard work of addressing community systems.

This story returns to the travel theme: Continue reading “This foreigner”

Uprooting sin

2 October 2016
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 22C (RCL)
Lamentations 1:1-6
Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

We do not like the ninth verse of Psalm 137, “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” In the LXX the word for “happy” is makarios, which means something like “how honorable.” I suppose this might make more sense if we had ever been in the position of a vanquished people. Even so, we think, surely God does not desire that kind of vengeance, right? That’s why the psalmist can express it to God and then just leave it there. Reading the Lamentations and singing the psalm puts the word of the oppressed on our lips, and forces us to begin to see things from another perspective. Continue reading “Uprooting sin”

Say their names

25 September 2016
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 21C (RCL)
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31

This week, Luke and Jeremiah switch personalities. Jeremiah holds out hope, while Luke speaks a word of condemnation. Zedekiah has asked Jeremiah why he is prophesying destruction against Jerusalem, and not any hope. In the verses we leave out, Jeremiah reminds Zedekiah that there is not point fighting against the Chaldeans, because he won’t win, but then goes on to give assurance that land will again be bought and sold in Judea. Continue reading “Say their names”

True riches

18 September 2016
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20C (RCL)
Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

This is one of the most ambiguous parables in the New Testament — nearly maddeningly so. But I think that is the point of the parable; it allows a number of possible ‘points’ to be drawn from it. No one likes the fact that the master commends the unjust steward for lying (or at least scheming), and, by implication, Luke makes it seems as if Jesus commends him as well. How could Jesus commend dishonesty? Continue reading “True riches”

Repentance

11 September 2016
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19C (RCL)
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

Jeremiah paints and unrelentingly grim picture of Judah’s future. In fact, his picture simple undoes creation. The wind is hot and destructive, not the spirit of God blowing over the chaos. The earth has become waste and void, the heavens are dark, their lights are gone out. The birds of the air have flown away. Jeremiah seeks to remind the people that the land is God’s, and the people have extorted wealth from the land and poor of the land. Jeremiah sees the impending exile as a way of the land achieving its sabbaths. Continue reading “Repentance”