Category: Lectionary

19 October 2014
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 24A (RCL)
Exodus 33:12-23
Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 25:12-22

The reading from Exodus seems, on the face of it, very confusing. Three or four times, Moses asks God if he (Moses) has found favor in God’s sight. Unfortunately, we have a truncated version of this episode in our reading, because it would be too long if we included all that was needed. After the episode of the golden calf, God has withdrawn God’s presence from Israel. God has told Moses to take this people up to the promised land, but only and angel of God will accompany them, not the divine self. The narrative is then interrupted to relate how Moses used to go out to the tent and talk to God face to face.

Now, God has withdrawn God’s presence, and Moses refuses to take the people up unless God go with them. Continue reading “What is God’s?”

12 October 2014
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 23A (RCL)
Exodus 32:1-14
Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

I don’t like Matthew’s telling of this story. Luke has the same story of a man who gave a wedding banquet, which means the original was likely in the Q source. Luke’s telling of the story makes much more sense. It was expected that the host would send a servant around on the day of the feast to let the guests know that the feast was ready. It also wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for a guest to have had something come up, and need to be excused. What makes the story (in Luke’s telling) surprising is that all the guests have to be excused. The host is angry and tells the servant to go invite anyone who will come. In this telling, it would be easy for the hearers to see the great stroke of luck for those thus invited.

Matthew makes it into a story of revenge and separation. Continue reading “Conflict”

5 October 2014
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 22A (RCL)
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46

In Track 2 of the the Revised Common Lectionary, the Old Testament reading assigned is Isaiah 5:1-7. Although we are using Track 1, I think Isaiah 5 is essential background for the parable Matthew tells in this passage. The Wisdom myth of Second Temple Judaism told the story of how God had sent the prophets again and again to the people to correct the people’s way of life, and how the people had killed the prophets and ignored their message, until at last, Wisdom departed the Temple and it was destroyed the first time. Matthew takes this myth and revises it to show that the vineyard will be given over to a new people who will bring forth justice. The Isaiah 5 passage is made to do its work again, equating God’s removal of the wall from the vineyard with the second destruction of Jerusalem. This time, we have the added element of the vineyard being given to new tenants, that is, to the new Christian community. Continue reading “Fruitful vineyards”

21 September 2014
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20A (RCL)
Exodus 16:2-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16

There’s a lot of grumbling in our readings this Sunday. The Israelites grumble about being in the desert, and the workers in the vineyard grumble about others receiving the same wage. There is a lot of grumbling in congregational life as well. I wonder what we can learn about our grumbling. Continue reading “Grumbling”

Sunday 14 September 2014
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19A (RCL)
Exodus 14:19-31
Psalm 114
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35

Our readings present us with two very different reactions to power. In the Old Testament reading, Israel passes through the Red Sea on dry ground, and rejoices to see the corpses of their oppressors washing up on the shore. In the Gospel, the master is at first merciful, and then extracts vengeance on the servant who did not pay his mercy forward.

I’ve always been troubled by the arrogance of that can creep in to a concept of election as God’s special people. Continue reading “Privilege or grace?”

7 September 2014
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18A (RCL)
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

The NRSV does a bad bit of translation with this passage in Matthew. The opening sentence is “If another member of the church sins against you.” The Greek has adelphos, brother. If we’re going to try to be inclusive and accurate, a better translation would be, “If a brother or sister sins against you.” The word “church” is jarring on the lips of Jesus. There was no church at the time of Jesus. A couple of chapters ago, Jesus tells Peter, after his confession of the Jesus as the Christ, “on this rock I will build my church” — future tense.

However, Jesus does speak this word in this passage: first go to your brother the two of you alone; then take one or two others; and then take the matter to the church. Matthew Continue reading “Community rule”

10 August 2014
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14A (RCL)
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-23

Unfortunately, we leave out the verses which contain Joseph’s dreams in the OT reading. Joseph’s brothers could be excused for not liking the lad. This story bears some resemblance to Greek tragedies: the gods have decreed a fate, and try as they might, the humans in the story cannot avoid that fate. In this instance, however, things turn out well for the protagonist. Scholars consider the Joseph “novel” on of the finest examples of the Wisdom tale, or the story of the suffering righteous one. Joseph is persecuted at every turn, but vindicated in the end. As such, he serves as a good stand in for the nation upon its return from Babylon (although of course, things weren’t quite as grand as hoped for). The story gives the hearers reason to hope — God’s decree will come true in the end. Just hang in there.

The story of Jesus walking on the water is another kind of familiar tale. Continue reading “Sinking”

27 July 2014
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 12A (RCL)
Genesis 29:15-28
Psalm 105:1-11, 45b
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

We have more parables of the kingdom in the Gospel reading for this Sunday. We’ve been reading a chopped up discourse of Jesus, delivered while sitting in a boat at the lake shore. Into this discourse, Matthew has inserted a number of asides, questions asked by the disciples back in the house. The interpretations of the parables have been separated from the parables themselves by this narrative device, but in our liturgical reading, the parables and interpretations seem to by side by side. In this reading again, we chop out bits in between. The overall effect (if one reads all of chapter 13 in course) is to paint a picture of the kingdom as a final event in history when the righteous and unrighteous will be separated. Matthew will return to this theme again in chapter 25 (the separation of sheep from goats). Continue reading “Start small”

13 July 2014
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 10A (RCL)
Genesis 25:19-34
Psalm 119:105-112
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

If the writers of the gospels lived close to an agrarian culture, the parables of Jesus either don’t show familiarity with that culture, or challenge the assumptions of that culture. Any decent farmer hearing this story would immediately think “What an idiot!” Cultivation was a common metaphor for education in the ancient world. But the metaphor usually focused in the preparation of the soil and then the tending of the plant as images of preparing the student to receive the teaching and then guarding the neophyte in the early stages of adopting the taught philosophy. This teacher simply squanders a good deal of the seed. The parable leaves us asking why. Continue reading “Squandering seed”

6 July 2014
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 9A (RCL)
Genesis 24:34-38; 42-49; 58-67
Psalm 45:11-18
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on this Sunday. In our Old Testament reading, we have a story of one of the patriarchs (or his stand-in) meeting his wife at a well. Jacob meets Rachel at a well. Moses meets Miriam at a well. When John tells the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, he has these episodes in mind. It’s also fascinating that each of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob marry cousins (Rebekah’s grandfather is Abraham’s brother; Rachel’s is Laban’s daughter, Laban is Rebekah’s brother). This tangles the lines of inheritance: it seems that the Canaanites were matrilinial — that is that property was passed from uncle to nephew through sister/aunt. Sacrifice disentangles these lines and makes sure that inheritance passes from father to son — that is an important point in this story. Isaac has inherited all of the wealth of his father Abraham. This is one of the reasons Rebekah consents to go, and one of the reasons it is important that Laban agree, because her son would ordinarily be his heir. One wonders of the dedication of the first born male to God has anything to do with this shift in modes of inheritance. Continue reading “Yoked to Jesus”