Lectionary – Page 6 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Jesus as food

Christmas Eve; 24 December 2022; Christmas I (RCL); Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 26; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20.

The passage we hear from Isaiah is one of the most familiar to Christians in what we call the Old Testament, thanks in no small measure to G. F. Handel. All those royal titles have been applied to Jesus through the long history of Christian biblical interpretation. Isaiah certainly had something else in mind.

Immanuel

Fourth Sunday of Advent; 18 December 2022; Advent 4A (RCL); Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25.

So much hinges on a dubious (ancient) translation, and some verb tenses. In the reading from Isaiah, the prophet is giving Ahaz a sign that Israel and Syria will be desolate before they can carry out their plot to overthrow Judah (Judah refused to enter their alliance against Assyria). Isaiah notices a young, pregnant woman (his wife? Ahaz’s wife?) and says that by the time the child is old enough to know right from wrong (3yrs? 5 yrs?), Assyria will have conquered Israel and Syria.

A royal highway

Third Sunday of Advent; 11 December 2022; Advent 3A (RCL); Isaiah 35:1-10; Canticle 15; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11.

Matthew sets up the exchange between John’s disciples and Jesus with a fair amount of irony. John hears in prison what the Messiah is doing, telegraphing Matthew’s understanding of who Jesus is. John’s disciples ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Remember, John had preached that a more powerful one was coming who would baptize with Holy Spirit and fire, and begin the judgment between wheat and chaff. Apparently, in Matthew’s telling, John is beginning to have his doubts.

Royal power?

The Last Sunday after Pentecost; The Reign of Christ; 20 November 2022; Proper 29C (RCL); Jeremiah 23:1-6; Canticle 16: Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43.

Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King in 1925 in response to the growing secularism and ultranationalism in Europe at the time, and also as a response to the unification of Italy and the looming loss of his hegemony over the Papal States. The Feast was to serve as a reminder that all Christians acknowledge Christ as their monarch. We can also perhaps see in it a cynical claim against the Kingdom of Italy for the pope’s rule over the Papal States. In subsequent years, though, we can read it as a check against totalitarianism, as it relativizes (at least for Christians) all human claims of power.

The end is not yet

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost; 13 November 2022; Proper 28C (RCL); Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19.

We are clearly winding down the liturgical year — we’ve arrived at the apocalyptic material in Luke’s Gospel. Luke tones down significantly what he borrows from Mark’s Gospel, pushing the impending end even farther into the future. Even the arrest of the disciples will not signal the end. Luke has change Mark’s material neatly to give us a hint of what’s in store for Peter, and especially for Paul in the second volume of Luke/Acts. Paul will make his defense before kings and governors, but clearly not ad lib, but in carefully crafted speeches.

Saints rule

All Saints’ Day (observed); 6 November 2022; All Saints’ Day C (RCL); Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31.

We tend to think of saints as persons of exemplary holiness who have lived (and died) in previous times. These readings seem odd choices for a commemoration of saints gone by. The readings rather focus on the here and now, and seem to implicate us (or at least some portion of us). And the implications are a bit startling.

Salvation has come to this house

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost; 30 October 2022; Proper 26C (RCL); Habakkuk 1:14-, 2:1-4; Psalm 119:137-144; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12; Luke 19:1-10.

The story of Zaccheus is a story I remember from Sunday School (I suppose we sang the song about him), but it is a much more complicated story than I remember. It’s the last encounter with someone outside the circle of disciples before Jesus enters Jerusalem. It stands in the same place as the story of Blind Bartimaeus stands in Mark’s Gospel. In that Gospel, Bartimaeus is the only person who follows Jesus “on the way.” In Luke’s Gospel, Zaccheus is the one person who “gets it.”

The days are coming

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 16 October 2022; Proper 24C (RCL); Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5; Luke 18:1-8.

I’ve always thought this parable presented an odd comparison (or contrast) between the unjust judge and God. It is a form of the argument from lesser to greater. If it’s true in this case, imagine how much more true in that case. But the judge’s motivation seems pretty suspect. And our English translation misses the point: the judge says “otherwise, she will wear me out by her continual coming.” In the Greek it says something closer to “lest she give me a black eye by her continual coming.” The issue is honor and shame.

The welfare of the city

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 9 October 2022; Proper 23C (RCL); Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Psalm 66:1-11; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19.

The story of the healing of the ten lepers stands out for several reasons. To get from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jesus would have had to pass right through Samaria (or skirt it to the west) – there is not region between Samaria and Galilee. So, is Luke just bad a geography, or is he calling our attention to something. Perhaps he is preparing us to encounter the healed Samaritan leper.

Mustard seeds, again

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost; 2 October 2022; Proper 22C (RCL); Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10.

The “parable” of the mulberry tree is confusing. Why would anyone want to plant a mulberry tree in the middle of the sea, anyway? I think Luke may be mixing sayings here; both Mark and Matthew have Jesus make a statement about having faith and saying to this mountain be cast into the sea and it would obey. That at least makes a little sense — but planting trees in the sea?