Category: Lectionary

16 March 2014
The Second Sunday in Lent
Lent 2A (RCL)
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17

One has to feel a little sorry for Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus (at night), presumably to discuss Jesus’ teaching. He starts out by acknowledging that the Jews recognize Jesus is a teacher come from God. Of course, all the commentators point out that Nicodemus bases his assessment on Jesus’ signs, which leads to an incorrect understanding of Jesus. But, to be fair, Jesus’ response would have confused anyone. “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born again/from above.” Nicodemus focuses immediately on the phrase born again/from above (the Greek word anothen has both meanings). Nicodemus hears “again” and not the other meaning.

Equally startling, however, is the mention of the Kingdom of God. Continue reading “The Kingdom?”

9 March 2014
First Sunday in Lent
Lent 1A (RCL)
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Psalm 32
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

In ancient orthodox theology, sin was defined as the misuse of creation. Our journey through Lent in this year, begins with one of the creation stories in Genesis; however, we leave out a big chunk of it. After God settles the human being in the Garden, God notices that it is not good for the human to be alone, and creates all the animals of creation to find a companion. None of them is satisfactory, so God creates the woman, who at last is a fit companion. God had already given the human being all the plants of the field and the trees of the garden for food, except for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The tempter tempts the human beings to misuse creation, Continue reading “The quick fix”

2 March 2014
Last Sunday after Epiphany
Last Epiphany A (RCL)
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9

Dating the Second Letter of Peter is no easy task, but most scholars agree in placing the earliest possible date for the letter around the year 90. That’s around the time Matthew’s Gospel was written. I would be inclined to place its composition sometime after Matthew’s Gospel, since the author seems to cite the Gospel as authoritative. In any event, the author could not have been an eyewitness to the transfiguration.

In fact, it seems that the crisis precipitating the composition of the epistle is the death of the “first generation” Christians (among whom would have been any eyewitnesses), and the delay of the parousia. Continue reading “The light of life”

23 February 2014
Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 7A (RCL)
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119:33-40
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48

It’s been a busy week, so this will be a short post.

When we think of holiness (at least when I do) we tend to think of a religious and personal quality. Someone who prays all the time is holy. The passage from Leviticus challenges that conception of holiness. We are challenged to be holy as YHWH is holy, but then given instructions about not gleaning our field to the edge, but leaving gleanings for the poor, and not picking all our grapes, and leaving the windfall to the poor. We are instructed not to keep the wages of a laborer overnight, because otherwise, he might be able to feed his family this evening. We are not to be partial to the poor or the great. Holiness is not so much a quality of piety, but of our way of living in the world. And it is apparently a quality of the community: it is as much about justice and keeping the marginal from falling off the edge as anything.

Matthew seems to be familiar with Leviticus as he organizes his sermon on the mount Continue reading “Be holy as I AM holy”

9 February 2014
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 5A (RCL)
Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 112
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
Matthew 5:13-20

I’m not a fan of dramatic liturgical reading. I prefer a moderate intonation; enough to keep my interest, but not to interpret the passage for me. However, at the Church I attended in Boston, there was an African-American woman, a school teacher, who served as a lector. Whenever she was given a reading from the prophets, she would read dramatically, voice rising and falling in beautiful cadence. One could just imagine the prophet’s thundering speech as she read. This passage from Isaiah begs for such a reading.

The situation is the return from Exile. The people Continue reading “A city on a hill”

2 February 2014
The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 84
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40

Luke is very concerned to show that Jesus has fulfilled all the obligations of the law. His tripartite division of history makes this necessary. Before Jesus’ Baptism, the Spirit rests on the prophets of Israel. Between the Baptism and Pentecost, the Spirit rests on Jesus. After Pentecost, the Spirit rests on the Church. By fulfilling all the law, Jesus supersedes the Mosaic covenant, and the Church then supersedes Jesus. The Wisdom myth during the Second Temple period suggested that Wisdom dwelt in the Temple. Here, Jesus enters the Temple, and Wisdom, speaking through Simeon and Anna, announces that henceforward, she will dwell with Jesus. Continue reading “Hope for the future”

26 January 2014
Third Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany3A (RCL)
Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27:1, 5-13
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

The passage from Isaiah for this Sunday is the first half of the usual Isaiah reading for Christmas (9:2-7). The poem goes on to proclaim “A child has been born to us” who will ascend the throne. Zebulun and Naphtali were regions annexed by Tiglath-Pileser III in 732 BCE, and their further history was lost, placing them among the lost tribes of Israel. The poem speaks of the time of their restoration to the kingdom, which will be during the reign of the child celebrated in the rest of the poem.

Matthew has Jesus begin his public ministry in this region Continue reading “Something fishy”

Sunday 19 January 2014
2nd after Epiphany
Epiphany 2A (RCL)
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 40:1-12
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42

The reading from Isaiah continues the theme of God’s servant, who bring justice to the coastlands. Again, the prophet emphasizes that the servant carries out his vocation without violence or triumphalism; in fact the opposite. The servant is the slave of rulers. We can see the shift in Israel’s theology in this short passage. Initially, Israel thought of itself as a weapon in God’s hand, a polished arrow or a sharp sword. But this work has come to nothing. Now, in Exile, deeply despised, the slave of nations, God will use Israel not just to restore Israel, but to bring justice to the nations. Kings will stand up when they see Israel in its current condition, and change their way of operating. Of course, we are still waiting.

The passage from John also represents a real shift in theology, a dramatic re-imagination of the old categories. John the Baptist Continue reading “What do you seek?”

12 January 2014
First Sunday after Epiphany
“The Baptism of Christ”
Epiphany 1A (RCL)
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17

The season of Sundays after Epiphany continue the theme of the manifestation of the Christ to the world (and specifically to the ‘nations’). In all of the accounts of Jesus’ baptism, we are told that the spirit descends in the form of a dove, and voice is heard from heaven declaring Jesus as God’s Son. The voice from heaven echoes Isaiah’s first Servant Song, which is the first reading for this Sunday. This reference to Isaiah makes it clear that the manifestation of the Christ to the world happens not only one time at the Jordan River, but is ongoing through the Church’s baptism.

Isaiah’s first Servant Song is set with the context of the heavenly court. The gods of the nations Continue reading “A light to the nations”

5 January 2014
The Epiphany (observed)
Epiphany A (RCL)
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

In one of those on-line sermon services (they just show up in my inbox — I don’t subscribe) I read that the passage from Isaiah bore remarkable similarities to Matthew’s story of the visit of the magi. I almost choked on my coffee — could it be that Matthew had read this passage from Isaiah, and intended those similarities? The thought seemed never to have occurred to the author of the sermon help.

Matthew’s infancy narrative recapitulate the history of Israel: Joseph the dreamer, the flight to Egypt, the call out of Egypt. This is no literary accident. If that is so, then the visit of the magi from the east corresponds to the return from Exile Continue reading “Showing forth glory”