Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 29, 2017

Testament and Death of Moses (1482), fresco by Luca Signorelli (1450-1523) and Bartolomeo della Gatta (1448-1502). Sistine Chapel, Rome.
(Click image to enlarge.)

Moses dies, and Joshua takes command. Jesus tells the Pharisees about the greatest commandment. There is plenty to inspire our imagination in this week’s readings. In our first reading, God tells Moses that he won’t cross over to the land that he has come close enough to see. If this feels sad, consider that after 40 years in the wilderness, Moses dies knowing that the goal of his long journey is achieved, and his descendants will populate the land. (Did you notice the reading says that God knew Moses face-to-face? What about last week’s reading, then, in which Moses face could safely see God only from behind? Perhaps God saw Moses’ face but Moses couldn’t see God’s … or perhaps Scripture makes us think with different images.)

First Reading (Track Two): Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

Leviticus, the book of the Levites, the hereditary Temple priests, is full of rules, regulations and teachings that govern behavior and Temple liturgy. Here God tells Moses the ways in which we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. God’s teaching or Torah leads directly to Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel. In a series of instructions that restate the moral code of the commandments, God’s words to Moses in this reading tell us how to be in good relationship with our neighbors. They culminate with the summary conclusion – the first place in the bible where this is explicitly stated as a rule – that we shall love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

Tradition attributes this ancient hymn to Moses himself; and while that is surely legendary, its verses of praise for God’s creation are certainly consistent with Torah, the books of teaching that believers once thought were actually written by Moses. A thousand years pass like a day in God’s continuing creation, we sing, while our short lives are as brief as the grass that turns from green to brown overnight. Then the Psalm moves from praise to petition as we ask God to hear our prayers, to turn toward us with loving-kindness and make us glad.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 1

The book of Psalms begins with this short hymn in which we sing of two paths between which we may choose as we journey through life. In poetic verses that might remind us of Jesus’ parables about seeds – those that fall on variously nourishing ground, and tiny seeds that grow into towering trees – the Psalmist likens the righteous who follow God’s way to lush, fruitful and well-watered trees, while the way of the wicked is like weak, airy chaff or weak trees that can’t stand straight. Which way shall we choose?

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

It is fascinating to listen in as Paul tells the people of Thessalonika, one of his churches in Greece, about his problems with the Philippians, a neighboring community! In this letter we get a glimpse of serious problems; someone in Philippi apparently was strongly opposed to Paul and disagreed with his teaching. He is grateful to the Thessalonians, though, for treating him kindly. They have built a dear friendship that Paul likens to a nurse caring for her children. Fortunately, by the time Paul wrote his later letter to the Philippians around 55 CE, maybe five years after 1 Thessalonians, all apparently had been forgiven, as he then addresses the people of Philippi with loving friendship, too.

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46

Jesus’ teaching about the greatest commandment may sound like a central tenet of Christianity, pouring directly from the heart of Jesus, and this is certainly true. But it is just as important to know that all this teaching is profoundly Jewish, too. The commandment that Jesus declares the “greatest and first” portion, to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, precisely quotes the Shema, the most important of all Jewish prayers. The Pharisees with whom he was arguing certainly understood this. The second portion, to love our neighbors as ourselves, comes directly from the priestly codes in Leviticus. Our spiritual heritage goes back a long way, and as we hear from Jesus earlier in Matthew, he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets (that is, the first testament) but to fulfill it.

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.