Category: Lectionary

21 October 2012
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

Throughout the book of Job, Job has been asking for an audience with God. He intends to prove his righteousness before God and especially to his friends. Well, here at last, God shows up and gives Job his audience. Poets, commentators, theologians and ordinary people have always felt God’s response to Job somehow inadequate. Job suffers. God blusters. And significantly, the book does not answer the question, “Why do good people suffer?” I would argue Continue reading “Out of center”

14 October 2012
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 23B (RCL)
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Psalm 22:1-15
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

The passage from Job assigned for this week occurs near the middle of the book. All three of Job’s friends have spoken, and said essentially the same thing — they assume Job has sinned that he is suffering so much, and accuse him of either forgetting the sin or covering it up. They urge him to acknowledge his sinfulness, which comes just with being human, and ask for God’s good favor. Job insists on his own righteousness, and then admits that he cannot find God. All of us have been in Job’s shoes here (if I turn to the left, I do not see God, to the right and God is not there). Of course Continue reading “. . . with persecutions.”

7 October 2012
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 22B (RCL)
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

We have several troubling readings this week. Right of the bat, Job presents us with the problem of God “allowing” Satan to harass Job. Much ink has been spilled over the problem presented by this book. Archibald McLeish wrote the play J.B. Robert Frost explored the story in his “A Masque of Reason.” Rabbi Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People as a commentary on the book of Job. So, why does God allow these things? I think the prefatory story is meant as something of a joke. Job had 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she-asses before Satan got a hold of him. Really? At the end of the story, God restores to Job 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 she-asses. Really? So Continue reading “Widening the circle”

Lessons for Sunday 16 September 2012
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19B (RCL)
Proverbs 1:20-33
Psalm 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

Too bad we get this part of Lady Wisdom’s speech in our lectionary, rather than her invitation to the meal. People are only too ready to (mis-)use this piece of her discourse when tragedy happens. In 1993, when the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flooded in the midwest, people were happy to say it was because various governments had allowed riverboat gambling (I guess God doesn’t like gambling). When Hurricane Katrina damaged New Orleans, it was because our culture had gone soft on gays and lesbians. The difficulty is that Lady Wisdom doesn’t tell us what her reproof looks like. John Prine sings a song written by R. B. Morris, called, “That’s how every empire falls.” The last verse includes the lyrics, “If terror strikes without a warning, there must be something we don’t see.” So, how do we learn to look?

James seems to me like wisdom literature Continue reading “A profitable life?”

9 September 2012
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

It will be very hard to refrain from preaching a political sermon this week! “Do not afflict the poor because they are poor.” “Don’t show favoritism.” It shouldn’t be hard to guess my political proclivities. But, we are called to preach the gospel, and all need to hear it.

I suppose the most troubling aspect of the scriptures this week is Jesus’ classification of the Syrophoenecian woman as a dog. There Continue reading “Dogs?”

26 August 2012
Thirteenth 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

Our last week of bread for a while! In this Gospel passage, it seems like John takes back everything he has said for the last few weeks: The Spirit gives life, the flesh is useless (or in Greek, owes nothing). Wait, what? Whoever does not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood has no life — but now the flesh is useless?

If this chapter is a midrash on Continue reading “Flesh and Spirit”

19 August 2012
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 15B (RCL)
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

I’m always suspicious when one of our readings leaves out verses. The conclusion of chapter 2 in 1 Kings provides a list of all David’s enemies whom Solomon had killed. Joab, Shemei, Adonijah (Solomon’s own brother). Joab he had killed, even as Joab clutched the horns of the altar. He sent the priest Abiathar into exile. All of them had backed Adonijah as the heir to the throne. Only after all these things is Solomon’s sovereignty firmly established. Kings (and the rest of us?) only feel comfortable when our enemies have been destroyed. There is no thought of living in community with them. And this is the king who prays for wisdom and understanding. He didn’t have to pray for the life of his enemies — he’d already taken care of that!

The reading from John for this week is (or should be) a real shocker. The language is very graphic. The Continue reading “Eating flesh, drinking blood”

12 August 2012
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14B (RCL)
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25 — 5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

In the reading from 2 Samuel, David gets just exactly what Nathan said at the end of last week’s reading. Of course, we leave out all the naughty bits: Amnon’s rape of Tamar, Absolom’s murder of Amnon, Absolom’s revolt against David (and sleeping with his concubines on the roof of the palace). So, while Joab’s actions may seem precipitous besides being contrary to the royal will, Joab knew full well that if Absolom lived, the kingdom would be ungovernable. So, the moral of the story is, if you want to be king, expect opposition and violence. I suspect the deuteronomistic editors intended exactly that moral.

And in John, we get more bread (and more and more in the weeks to come). In this week’s reading, we move from misunderstanding Continue reading “Whoever believes”

5 August 2012
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 13B (RCL)
2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a
Psalm 51:1-13
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35

We get more of the story of David this week. Nathan tells a wonderfully ironic story, in which David at last recognizes his sin. Don’t we always see others’ sins more quickly than our own? The punishment Nathan announces fits the sin. David took what wasn’t his — others will take what he took.

The narrative in the passage from John’s Gospel is carried forward by John’s favorite device of misunderstanding and misdirection. The crowd ask Jesus, “When did you come here?” They are puzzled of the when and how of his presence. Jesus replies, “You followed me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Not Continue reading “Food that lasts”

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
22 July 2012
Proper 11B (RCL)
2 Samuel 7:1-14a
Psalm 89:20-37
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-36

One of these days, I’m going to write my own lectionary. Why would the editors of the RCL leave out Mark 6:35-52? The omitted verses included the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus’ walking on the water. Two weeks from now, we will read the parallel passage in John’s Gospel, but John is not Mark, and uses those stories for different purposes.

In the Marcan account, Jesus has just sent out the twelve, who cast out demons and heal the sick. Herod hears of it, and is distressed, because the implication is that the Kingdom is out there with the followers of Jesus, rather than with him in the palace. The twelve return to Jesus and are surrounded by a multitude on whom Jesus has compassion “because they are like sheep without a shepherd.” He then commands his disciples to give them something to eat.

The “sheep without a shepherd” remark is a reference to Numbers 27:17, in which Moses pleads with God to set over the people a leader, so they will not be like sheep without a shepherd — here Mark makes it refer to the kingship of Jesus versus Herod. And the very next thing Jesus does is feed the crowd in the wilderness, just like Moses! Important claims are being made here, and we leave them out, because we’re going to read John next time. Oh, well.

In the reading from 2 Samuel, David promises to build God a house (temple), but God refuses and promises instead to build David a house (dynasty). Here we see the substitution of a royal theology for the older tribal theology. In the tribal confederacy, God promises to be with the group if they keep God’s word. Here, there is no such “if.” But still, the passage warns, don’t get too smug. God doesn’t need any house you could build (even though Solomon will be allowed to build a house). We can’t domesticate (literally) God, enclose God in our house. We have to be ready to strike camp at any moment, and go where God is going.

In Mark, Jesus doesn’t sit around after feeding the 5000. He has his disciples climb in the boat and sends them on ahead of him. Just because important things happened here, doesn’t mean we’re staying here. This time, he comes to them walking on the water, implying that he wasn’t with the church when it moved this time, and they lost their nerve. Between this passage, and the next feeding of the 4000, Jesus will find himself in the decapolis (Gentile territory), and reluctantly heal the Syro-phoenician woman’s daughter. God is out there ahead, even of Jesus.

Ephesisans is saying the same thing. God is bringing Jew and Gentile together: you who were once far off have now been brought near.

God does eventually allow Solomon to build a temple, but with the reminder that God never asked for such a thing. Church buildings are important to us, but maybe not so important to God. How can we remember that? Where is God off to next? What stormy sea should we be crossing?