Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 22, 2024 (Pentecost 18B/Proper 20)

Season of Creation: Advocate Sunday

Christ Blessing the Children (1535-1540). Painting on beech wood by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553). Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): Proverbs 31:10-31

Creation Focus: Celebrate women in labor and leadership
This reading seems to express an ancient, patriarchal view of woman’s subsidiary role in the household, an attitude that we hope the 21st century is leaving behind. Of course we should read the patriarchal language in both testaments as a signal of its own time and culture, not as guidance for the modern world. But this capable wife is no shrinking, helpless figure. She has her husband’s trust; she supervises the household servants as she buys goods and food for the family and even purchases farm and vineyard fields. She is strong, brave, wise and kind. Her husband and her children praise her. She is indeed a woman in labor and leadership!

First Reading (Track Two): Wisdom of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22

Creation Focus: Wisdom cares beyond a single lifespan
Both good behavior and bad behavior have consequences. Righteousness is pleasing to God; evil deeds lead to death. We hear this theme in Sunday’s readings first in a reading from the book of Wisdom, which is traditionally attributed to King Solomon but was actually written in Greek in the last centuries before Christ. Most of Sunday’s reading, save for the opening and closing verses, presents the ungodly, arguing why they choose to persecute the righteous people who look down on them. They are wrong, of course, as the bracketing verses make clear: They considered death a friend and pined away, but wisdom lives on.

Alternate First Reading (Track Two): Jeremiah 11:18-20

Creation Focus: Prophetic work will last despite tree-felling
Jeremiah is often called “the Weeping Prophet” for the loud lamentations that he shouts out to warn the leaders of Jerusalem and Judah that their failure of righteousness and justice is going to bring down God’s wrath in the form of defeat, destruction and exile. In these short verses, though, his weeping is more personally felt: He has learned that those leaders, angered by his prophecies, are scheming to kill him. He feels like a gentle lamb led to slaughter, he laments. But even in the face of enemies he remains committed to God, and his prophecy will last.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 1

Creation Focus: Wisdom grows out of dedication; be rooted in Creation
In Psalm 1, the first of all the 150 psalms, we celebrate those who follow in the way of God, who delight in meditating on God’s teaching. These faithful souls will be happy, the Psalmist tells us. Through wisdom they will become as firmly rooted in faith as trees are deeply rooted by running water: gaining strength and bearing fruit in God’s creation. The wicked, however, can expect no such happy end. Those who do not follow in God’s way will be blown away like chaff in the wind.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 54

Creation Focus: The violent receive violence; pray to replace with peace
Psalm 54 is annotated with the curiously specific advice that it be accompanied by stringed instruments! Speaking in the imagined voice of young David, it recalls the time when he fled in terror from an angry Saul who sought to kill him. This narrative resonates with the first reading from Wisdom: When insolent and ruthless enemies seek our lives, God’s laws will not hold them back. This is a time to pray for peace and protection, to call on God who delivers us from trouble and upholds our lives.

Second Reading: James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

Creation Focus: Envy and greed for pleasure at heart of evil
Continuing the theme from last Sunday’s selection from James, the author expands on the idea of using our tongues – tiny yet powerful instruments that they are – to praise and bless, not to poison. If we have wisdom and understanding, these verses assure us, our lives will reflect that wisdom in our good and gentle works. Bitter envy and selfish ambition do not come from God. Greed and craving get us in trouble. Greed for what others have leads us into evil: conflicts, disputes, even murder. Rather, sow peace in order to grow peace. Draw near to God, and God will draw near to us.

Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

Creation Focus: Seek to be a servant of Creation, not to be great
Jesus and the apostles have returned to Galilee after their foray into the Gentile country of Tyre and Sidon and Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus tells them for a second time that he must suffer, be killed and then rise again, they still don’t get it. Mark tells us that they’re afraid even to ask, perhaps remembering Peter’s embarrassment when Jesus angrily called him “Satan.” Now, when Jesus leaves them by themselves, they start arguing about which of them is the greatest. Jesus, who must have been thoroughly exasperated, shows them a small child. Following Jesus is not about greatness and power, he says. It is about serving others; it is about welcoming the smallest and weakest among us.