Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for July 16, 2017

Esau and Jacob (1695-96), Painting by Luca Giordano, Prado Museum, Madrid.

God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. But the ancestral legends of the chosen people show us that this may not come easily. Abraham and Sarah had to wait until she was 90 years old before the miracle of Isaac’s birth. Today we learn that Isaac and Rebekah, too, prayed for 20 barren years before their twins, Esau and Jacob, were born. Jacob, who grabs his older brother’s heel at the moment of birth, grows up to be a trickster, as we see when he talks his moments-older sibling, in a moment of hunger, into giving up his rights as firstborn in trade for a bit of bread and a pot of lentil stew.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 55:10-13

The people’s exile in Babylon is coming to its end, but the long journey back to Jerusalem and the arduous work of restoring the city and rebuilding the Temple lies ahead. Having assured the people that God has forgiven the failure of justice and righteousness that earned them exile, the prophet now shows God as the giver of life and sustenance and all that is good. In these brief verses, the images of God giving seed to the sower and bread for the hungry rings in our ears as we hear Jesus’ parable of the Sower in today’s Gospel.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 119:105-112

We hear parts of Psalm 119 a dozen times during the three-year cycle of Lectionary readings, so you have probably noticed that it is the longest psalm – 176 verses – and that all those verses are devoted to a long, loving celebration of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. “Torah,” usually translated as “law,” “ordnance” or “decree” throughout this and all the psalms, may be better expressed as “teaching,” which reveals God’s loving desire for us to live in good relationship with God and each other. Even in darkness and time of trouble, the Psalmist sings, following God’s decrees brings joy.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14

This psalm of praise and thanksgiving beautifully reflects the Prophet Isaiah’s portrayal of God as the generous creator who made the world and all that is in it, and who provides bountiful water and grain, pastures and flocks. Perhaps originally sung as a harvest thanksgiving, it chants praise for the overflowing richness of God’s abundance and for the joy it provides to those who receive it. This abundant seed has surely fallen entirely on good soil and yielded a hundredfold.

Second Reading: Romans 8:1-11

Psalm 119’s love of God’s law would have had deep meaning for Paul, a devout Pharisee and Torah scholar who counted himself as righteous and blameless under the law. But as a Jewish Christian evangelist, he developed a new understanding that we see him working out in Romans: Christ’s resurrection has freed us from the law of sin and death, not of Torah but of the world. In the world and living in the way of sinful flesh, Paul reasoned, we remain subject to sin and death. But when we turn and accept God’s Spirit through Jesus, when the Spirit dwells in us because Christ is in us, we gain life and peace.

Gospel: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

For the rest of the Pentecost season we will follow Matthew’s account of Jesus’ journey with the apostles from Galilee to Jerusalem. Many of those Gospels will take the form of parables, Jesus teaching in colorful stories that teach through metaphor. Today’s parable of the sower is the first parable in Matthew and the only one for which Jesus offers an explanation. But what does that explanation call us to do? Are we the soil, seeking to be good and receptive when we hear God’s word? Or are we to join the apostles in sowing the word of the Kingdom of God extravagantly, rejoicing when the harvest is bountiful?

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.