Category: Lectionary

9 October 2011
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 23A (RCL)
Exodus 32:1-14
Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

Last week, in my sermon, I said I wish I could use a razor blade to remove the parable of the vineyard and the tenants, with its idea of Christianity superceding Judaism, from the Bible. The same goes for Matthew’s telling of the parable of the wedding feast. I like the impulse to invite people off the street to fill the banquet hall, but the retribution in the story just seems un-divine. And, it breaks the original story — how long would it take to besiege and conquer the city? How long is that food sitting around before the feast? Matthew allegorizes Mark’s parable and turns it into an accusation against Israel, blaming them for the destruction of their own city.

The Exodus story tells a very different story Continue reading “Give and Take”

25 September 2011
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 21A (RCL)
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32

The exchange between Jesus and the officials in this passage of Matthew is almost worthy of John’s Gospel. Jesus answers a different question from the one they asked. They ask him on what authority he is doing “these things.” Since this is located in Matthew’s Gospel almost immediately after the cleansing of the Temple, we can assume that is what they mean by “these things.” The question of authority would be very important in this case. And probably also not historical. If Jesus really did cleanse the Temple during the festival, I have a hard time imagining that the Roman authorities would have waited around for him to spend another week teaching in the Temple.

But, in the discourse between the Jewish synagogue Continue reading “On whose authority?”

September 18, 2011
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20A (RCL)
Exodus 16:2-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16

Both Old Testament and Gospel stories are characterized by grumbling, but with very different results. In the Exodus story, Moses has led God’s people out into the wilderness across the Red Sea, and they begin to worry about their future. God hears their grumbling, and provides for their needs. In the parable in Matthew, the land-owner rebukes one of the workers for grumbling about his generosity.

Continue reading “Grumble, grumble”

11 September 2011
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19A (RCL)
Exodus 14:19-31
Psalm 114
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35

Preaching on this Sunday is complicated by the fact that it is the tenth anniversary of 9/11. What do we make of all that has transpired since that date?

It is surprising how many times I have read the story of the crossing of the Red Sea, and never really paid attention to the fate of the Egyptians in the story. They have always served as sort of cardboard figures — the faceless enemies of God’s people, who have to be gotten out of the way for the fulfillment of God’s plan. When Mark narrates the story of the man with the Legion of demons, he uses the story of Pharaoh’s army in a humorous way. The Legion of demons (a Legion, of course, was a unit of the Roman Army) plunged into the sea (just like Pharaoh’s army) as a herd of pigs! The reader gets the joke.

I suppose the story works fine when God’s people are an enslaved people, who dream of overthrowing the Empire that enslaves them. But what do we do with this, when we see ourselves as God’s people, and we are the Empire? We are only too eager to see our enemies destroyed, but where would we find God in this? Marianne Faithfull has a new album out called, “Horses and High Heels.” She sings “That’s how every empire falls” by R. B. Morris. The last half of the last verse runs, “If terror comes without warning, There must be something we don’t see. What fire begets this fire? Like torches thrown into the straw. If no one asks, then no one answers. That’s how every empire falls.”

I think the parable in Matthew can help us out of our dilemma. Remember, Continue reading “What do we owe?”

4 September 2011
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18A (RCL)
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

Paul continues his discussion of the ethic of the new community. Here, he turns the prohibitions of the law into a positive statement. Instead of telling us what not to do, Paul tells us what to do. I have often said that Paul was really an anthropologist, Continue reading “Love the law”

28 August 2011
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 17A (RCL)
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

We have two very startling passages this Sunday: Exodus and Matthew. In the Exodus passage, God says “I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard their cry of distress.” In the whole pantheon of Egypt, was there any god who paid any attention to the goings on of the people? especially enslaved people? Here is the great theological insight of Israel, which we simply take for granted. God notices. And God says, “I have come down,” to do something about the situation. Israel’s faith, or trust, in that attribute of God would be tested again and again: really? God has come down? So is our faith tested again and again. We see plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Second startling passage. Just after Peter has given Jesus his identity as the Christ, Continue reading “I have come down”

21 August 2011
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 16A (RCL)
Exodus 1:8-2:10
Psalm 124
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20

The story of the little baby Moses in the Nile River is actually a very humorous story, even though it is set in the midst of political oppression that amounts to genocide. Any number of cultures have a myth of the divine birth of the King. The child destined to become king comes from unknown circumstances, and so his birth is assumed to be divine. In the Mesopotamian cultures, some of those stories involve the king, as an infant, floating down the river. The writer of the story of Moses steals that story and changes it so that the reader of the story knows where the child comes from, even though Pharaoh’s daughter does not. And his birth is divine in the sense that he comes from God’s chosen people, but those despised by the Egyptians. Remembering that this story was put into the Bible while the Jews were in Exile in Babylon (Mesopotamia), the Jews would have smiled knowingly when they heard it.

It has always amazed me that we have the full collection of Hebrew people. Usually the winners write history, Continue reading “Keys to the Kingdom”

24 July 2011
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 12A (RCL)
Genesis 29:15-28
Psalm 105:1-11
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

We get to chuckle a little bit at Jacob today. The trickster gets tricked. After cheating his brother, tricking his father, and running for his life, Laban gives him a little of his own treatment. I find the story of Jacob, at least as told in Genesis, very ironic. God must keep God’s promises to Abraham, and Jacob wants to make sure the promises apply to him. He schemes and plots, and sure enough, God honors the divine promise, and Jacob becomes the father of a great nation. But at what cost? He and his brother Esau (Edom) become implacable enemies. Even though Jacob later buys his brother off, and secures a temporary peace, throughout their history, Israel and Edom remain enemies. I wonder if the narrator is suggesting that despite their enmity, if they would remember their history, they are really twins. Israel’s effort to see itself as God’s chosen people costs them the amity of their brothers. Continue reading “In all we do”

17 July 2011
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 11A (RCL)
Genesis 28:10-19a
Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

This is one of my favorite parables, but on of my least favorite interpretations. Matthew assigns each element of the parable an interpretation; in other words turns it into an allegory. Matthew’s interpretation of the parable of the weeds and wheat sees the weeds as “bad seed” people (perhaps in the Church) whom God will separate out at the end of the age. So, of course, we should try to be good seed. Perhaps, as Matthew sought to accommodate a growing church, he needed to explain how not everyone could count on being among the children of the kingdom.

But try reading the parable without the interpretation. Continue reading “Weeds?”

10 July 2011

Pentecost IV
Proper 10A (RCL)

Genesis 25:19-14
Psalm 119:105-112
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Matthew has a tendency to interpret the parables he receives into allegories.  If you read on to the next parable (the weeds among the wheat), you see that he gives each element of the parable an interpretation, turning it into an allegory.  He almost does the same here (of course, in keeping with Mark).  The bits we leave out are not at all nice — the purpose of speaking in parables is precisely to prevent people from understanding the message of the Kingdom.  That sounds to me like the sour grapes of Mark’s community, at the failure of their evangelism.

So, what if we read the parable without Matthew’s (or Mark’s) interpretation.  A sower went out to sow.  Clearly, this man is not a farmer.   Continue reading “Sowing wild oats”