Category: Lectionary

15 November 2015
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 28B (RCL)
1 Samuel 1:4-20
1 Samuel 2:1-10 (The Song of Hannah)
Hebrews 10:11-25
Mark 13:1-8

Hannah’s predicament is not an uncommon one in biblical story. Probably official YHWHism’s suppression of the fertility cults left many women without choice but to resort to “magic.” The glee of the rival wife at her rival’s infertility would be a continuing reminder of one’s shame. The biblical story gives us several examples of the official cult resulting in a pregnancy. YHWH is not just a war god, but also handles cases of infertility. The births that come about through YHWH’s intervention always have a high significance for the ongoing story of G-d’s people (Isaac, Samuel). Continue reading “Birth pangs”

8 November 2015
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 27B (RCL)
Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

The story of Ruth seems to me to be a response to the edict of Ezra after the return from Exile that those who had remained behind and married foreign women must send them home. The author of Ruth seems to be saying, “Not so fast: the great grandmother of David was a Moabite.” It’s a charming and humorous story. Naomi tells her daughter-in-law to wash herself and perfume herself and then go out to the threshing floor, where the men will have been eating and drinking and notice where Boaz lies down. She tells him to uncover the man’s feed (a nice euphemism), “and he will tell you what to do.” Indeed, he will. As the story ends, and Boaz goes down to the gate to work out a deal with the nearer kinsman, who chooses not to buy Elimelech’s land, since Ruth comes with the deal, the elders at the gate wish that with the children Ruth will bear him, Boaz’s house may become like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. Tamar, of course, played the harlot with Judah to force him to exercise his redemption of her. Matthew includes both Tamar and Ruth in his genealogy of Jesus. Continue reading “Offering our lives”

25 October 2015
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 25B (RCL)
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34:1-8, 19-22
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52

I find the prose conclusion to the Book of Job very unsatisfying. It’s not as if all those new children could make up for the children he lost at the beginning of the book, and the restoration of Job’s fortune’s answers none of the questions about God’s justice raised in the long, painful, poetic discourse that makes up the bulk of the book. But, I think this conclusion provides a hidden clue for understanding the context of the questions raised. The prose conclusion begins with the phrase, “Then the Lord restored the fortunes of Job.” Continue reading “What do you want me to do for you?”

18 October 2015
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 24B (RCL)
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

There are a lot of people who don’t like God’s response to Job from the whirlwind. Robert Frost in A Masque of Reason mocks the God portrayed in the book of Job. Archibald McLeish is no happier with Job’s God in J.B. The list could go on. Personally, I find God’s answer comforting in a weird sort of way. Whenever I think my problems are bad (granted not nearly as calamitous as Job’s), if I look up at the night sky, or stand in the mountains in Colorado, I am reminded that the world doesn’t revolve around me. Thinking that God has singled me out for whatever reason to visit these troubles on me is just pretty arrogant. Always good to be reminded of that now and then. I think all of the lessons for this Sunday in one way or another are about us moving ourselves out of the center of the picture. Continue reading “Right or left”

4 October 2015
St. Francis’ Day
Pet Blessing and Harvest Home
Genesis 2:18-24
Psalm 126
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
John 4:31-38

We go off script on this Sunday, using lessons appropriate for pet blessing and the idea of bringing home the fruits of the harvest. So, there is no link to the lessons on line. You’ll just have to dig out a Bible and look them up.

I must confess, I am not a pet person. We have two dogs currently, but I think of them as Shelley’s dogs. Most of the time, I see them as a nuisance. I know I am in the minority here, and do understand the attraction of animals as pets. Continue reading “Pet Blessing”

27 September 2015
Eighteenth 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

I worry that on this particular Sunday, all people will hear is “If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.” When I was doing my Clinical Pastoral Education unit, I was at the Massachusetts General Hospital, on the rehabilitation floor. That meant I dealt with a lot of people who had had joint replacements, or bone reconstructions (think motorcycle accidents). There was one young man on the floor, maybe 17 years old. He was having his right hand reconstructed. The process was at the point of the skin graft, and so his right hand was sewn under a skin flap on his thigh. Being pretty young myself, I sat down at the bedside and asked him what had happened. Being a teenager, his right hand (as he saw it) had caused him to sin, and taking this passage literally, he had laid his hand on a railroad track as a train was passing by. Continue reading “Be salty”

20 September 2015
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20B (RCL)
Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
James 3:13 – 4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37

The English language has no pure future tense; we have to resort to auxiliary verbs. “I will read a book,” which implies volition; “I shall read a book,” which implies obligation; “I am going to read a book,” which implies motion. That makes translating the future tense in other languages always a question of interpretation. In our Gospel reading today, the translators of the NRSV have chosen to interpret Jesus’ saying in what I believe is an unacceptable way. The NRSV reads, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” The Greek for the second occurrence of the verb “to be” is in the future. The NRSV chose to interpret with the metaphor of obligation and rendered it in the subjunctive. The Greek says, “Whoever wants to be first will be last of all and servant of all, as a matter of fact.” That changes the tone entirely. Continue reading “Children at the center”

13 September 2015
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19B (RCL)
Proverbs 1:20-33
Psalm 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

After the feeding of the four thousand, Jesus and his disciples get into a boat to head to the other shore. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and Jesus warns them to guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. The disciples can’t figure out what he means, because they have not bread. Jesus replies, “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear? And do you not remember?” He then asks them how many baskets of left overs there were after the feeding of the 5000 and they answer “Twelve.” He then asks how many baskets of leftovers after the feeding of the 4000 and they answer “Seven.” Jesus then responds, “Do you still not understand?” Continue reading “Divine things”

6 September 2015
Fifteenth 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 Sunday’s readings all seem to center on the theme of openness to those who make us uncomfortable. The RCL is taking random bits of Wisdom literature for the OT readings, and we are reading the Epistle of James in course, so any commonality is accidental. And again, any overlap with the Gospel is unintentional, since we are reading Mark in course.

There is always a tension in any pattern of social ordering. Power must be modulated and deployed, and at the same time, the health of the whole must be guarded. Continue reading “Be opened”