Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, July 27, 2014

Parable of the mustard seed

This reading hits us with one eye-popping surprise after another. First, tricky Jacob gets tricked in his turn by Laban, who puts him to work for seven years to earn Laban’s daughter Rachel as his bride. But Laban switches in his older daughter, Leah, much to Jacob’s consternation. Then, not only does Jacob eventually marry Rachel, too, but Rachel’s and Leah’s maids! So much for “biblical marriage”! It’s difficult to understand Scripture’s seemingly casual acceptance of arranged, polygamous marriages, with the women given no opportunity to participate or object. Perhaps it’s best to view these “ancestral legends” as products of their time and culture, yet timeless metaphors that celebrate God’s faithfulness in ensuring that Abraham’s children will populate all nations.

First Reading (Track Two): 1 Kings 3:5-12

Most of us probably know King Solomon best through the ancient story telling how he quickly discerned the real mother in two women’s dispute over a baby by proposing to cut the infant in half. Here we meet Solomon as the youthful new king, still uncertain and uneasy. Offered in a dream whatever gift he desires God to give him, Solomon does not ask for long life, riches or power, but the wisdom to govern the people wisely. Pleased, God grants him a wise and discerning mind surpassing any king who came before or after him.

Psalm: Psalm 105:1-11, 45b

Indeed, today’s Psalm, a ringing hymn of praise to God and God’s works, offers thanksgiving for just the reward that the story of Laban’s daughters foretells: God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God promises that their children would inherit the Promised Land for a thousand generations, in return for their covenant to follow God’s teaching and obey God’s laws.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 119:129-136

With its 176 verses, this is the longest of all the Psalms. From end to end it tells the Psalmist’s love and praise for God’s Law, God’s covenant with the people. Note well that the word “Law” here is the Hebrew “Torah,” the first five books of the Bible. Torah is understood as God’s teaching, God’s expression of God’s desire for us to live in good relationship with God and each other. Try reading these verses with “God’s teaching” in place of “laws, commandments and decrees,” and feel the difference.

Second Reading: Romans 8:26-39

Our two-month journey through Paul’s extended theological exposition to the Romans continues today with a beautiful illustration of God’s love made manifest through God’s gift to us of God’s own son. God’s eternal faithfulness, held up for us in the Genesis reading and Psalm, is celebrated again in Paul’s assurance that, even in the face of persecution, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God through Jesus.

Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

What is the kingdom of heaven like? Jesus offers us quick, thought-provoking glimpses in a quick series of parables. The kingdom is like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a mighty tree! Or yeast that leavens bread! But wait, it’s like buried treasure? A merchant with an expensive pearl? Fishers with a full net? And there’s that scary threat of the fiery furnace again, with weeping and gnashing of teeth that awaits evildoers. When Jesus asked the apostles if they understood, they said yes. Do you think that they really did?

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, July 20, 2014

Jacob’s Ladder (Detail), Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696-1770

Jacob, a conniving trickster, got himself in trouble and now is on the run. He fears the murderous wrath of his angry older twin Esau, whom he has tricked out of his inheritance and their father’s blessing. Now he stops to rest, dreams an amazing dream of angels, and then hears God’s voice repeating the promise that God gave to his grandfather Abraham and to his father Isaac: God is with him, and his offspring will fill the Earth. Did God reward Jacob’s trickery? No. God knows that we aren’t perfect. God works with broken, troubled people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob … and us.

Psalm: Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23

When Jacob ran from angry Esau, he might have prayed something like this Psalm that tradition attributes to the hand of King David: God loves us and knows everything about us. We may run from God, but we can’t hide. No matter where we are, God will lead us, hold us and keep us.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-25

This Pentecost season, from mid-June through mid-August, we follow Paul through his letter to the Romans as he talks about what life in the Spirit of Christ looks like. Summing up his argument in today’s passage, he reiterates: If we live by our own selfish desires, we die. But if we live in the Spirit through Christ, loving God and our neighbor even as we suffer with Christ – as the Roman Christians had suffered through persecution – we are glorified with him and become children of God.

Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Jesus was a carpenter, not a farmer, but he sure did tell a lot of parables about farming, planting, growing things. Following immediately after last week’s parable about the sower, he moves on to a discussion of weeds in the wheat field. It would be all too easy to read threats of hellfire and damnation into Jesus’ interpretation of this parable, but we don’t have to go there. Read to the end and be reminded that God will reward the righteous, those who practice the love of neighbor that Jesus asks us to practice to help create God’s kingdom on earth. Will we be weeds, or will we be ripe, nourishing wheat?

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, July 13, 2014

The Sower. Ancient stained-glass window at Canterbury Cathedral.

From now through the end of Pentecost, our First Readings will take us through the Bible’s story of God’s chosen people, from Abraham to Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Joshua. Today’s reading offers two themes: First, God acts to continue the ancestral line, even though Isaac and Rebekah, like Isaac’s parents Abraham and Sarah, thought they were unable to have children. Then, Jacob’s tricks reveal once more that God does not choose unbelievably perfect people, but works through flawed and sinful humans, not unlike us.

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

In this reading we hear the concluding verses of the second Isaiah, one of three ancient prophets who theologians believe wrote of the people’s exile to Babylon and eventual return home to Jerusalem, where they would build a restored temple. Having assured the people that God has forgiven their failures of justice, Isaiah now paints a beautiful image of God as the giver of life and sustenance and all that is good. His image of seeds and the sower and Earth’s bounty sets the stage for Jesus’ parable of the Sower that we hear in today’s Gospel.

Psalm: Psalm 119:105-112

One might expect the longest Psalm in the Bible either to celebrate God’s love for us, or to offer joyous thanksgiving for the gifts of life, or to express awe at God’s power to move the world. Psalm 119, however, is quite different. Perhaps originally a temple hymn, this psalm offers praise and thanksgiving for God’s laws. Following God’s decrees brings joy, the psalmist sings, promising to obey them faithfully.

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

Today’s Psalm doubles down on Isaiah’s celebration of God the bountiful creator. Perhaps originally sung as a hymn of thanksgiving for the harvest, it rings the praises of God’s bounty for its overflowing richness, and perhaps just as important, for the joy it provides to those who receive it. Surely this seed has been sown on rich, loamy soil and yielded a hundredfold.

Second Reading: Romans 8:1-11

Paul, a proud Pharisee who counted himself as righteous and blameless under the law, the teaching of Torah that the Psalmist celebrated, now tells the Romans that Christ’s resurrection has freed us from the law of sin and death. If we follow the ways of the world, we are subject to sin and death; but when we accept God’s Spirit through Jesus, we gain life and peace. Our mortal bodies gain life because the Spirit dwells in us.

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

From today through the rest of Pentecost, our Sunday Gospels will take us through Matthew’s account of Jesus’ teaching through parables. We begin with the parable of the sower, the first told in Matthew and the only parable that Jesus explains. It is tempting to look for specific instruction in the fates of the seeds that fall on the beaten path, on rocks, among thorns, and on fertile ground. Perhaps the message is this simple: Sow God’s word extravagantly, everywhere, and rejoice when it falls on good soil and the harvest is rich. Or perhaps we are told to decide what kind of soil we will be when we hear God’s word. Parables don’t come straight at us. They make us think.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, July 6, 2014

Rebecca at the Well, 12th century mosaic at the Cappella Palatina di Palermo.

Rebekah’s response to Abraham’s servant reminds us of Abraham’s response to God’s call: Hearing God’s voice, both respond with faithful trust. Abraham uproots his family and moves to a new land. Rebekah leaves home and family to marry Abraham’s son, Isaac, a man she has not yet met, but who will come to love her. Abraham heard God’s promise that his offspring would become “a great and mighty nation”; Rebekah hears that her children will become “thousands of myriads.” Is this woman’s faith any less than that of Abraham?

First Reading (Track Two): Zechariah 9:9-12

The prophet Zechariah, celebrating the people’s return from exile and their hope of restoring the Temple, envisions a humble yet powerful king who will come to reign in peace and restore the nation’s prosperity. Matthew later will find Jesus so clearly foretold in these verses that he adopts the repetition of Hebrew poetry word for word in depicting Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem: “Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Psalm: Psalm 45:11-18

Today’s psalm is a wedding blessing addressed to a princess bride of Tyre, an ancient island kingdom and sometimes rival to Israel. These verses celebrate the pomp and joy in her impending wedding and its hope of lasting remembrance in future generations, a prayer for future blessing that might remind us God’s promise to Isaac and Rebekah.

Second Reading: Romans 7:15-25a

In recent readings, Paul has assured the Romans that as we “die” to our old lives enslaved to sin through baptism, we are “born” to a new life freed from sin through God’s grace. But now Paul admits that it’s not so easy to leave sin behind. Even when his mind wants to do what’s right, Paul confesses, he can’t get rid of the sin that lives within him. He can’t fight sin on his own – and neither can we – without God’s help through Jesus.

Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Jesus seems frustrated. Preaching to crowds around Capernaum in Galilee, he calls them “children.” He may be irritable because some people who considered ascetic John’s call for repentance crazy and judgmental are now criticizing Jesus’ joyous embrace of life as evidence that he is a glutton and a drunk. But then he pauses and thanks God. Suddenly his hope for Israel’s children and infants turns gentle. Can we sense a little foretaste of the Beatitudes in this, the promise of God’s Kingdom coming to the poor, the meek, the hungry and thirsty, and all who bear burdens and labor under a heavy yoke?

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 29, 2014

Juan de Valdés Leal, “Ecce Homo.”

Last week we heard God order Abraham to send his slave, Hagar, and their son, Ishmael, into the desert where they would surely die. Now the story gets even more shocking, as God commands Abraham to slay his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice. What in Heaven’s name is going on here? Perhaps the easy answer is to recognize that these are these are ancient legends, difficult for us to understand in our own context. For the ancients, perhaps the outcome of this story showed that our God does not desire human sacrifice. As Christians, we may also see a God who loves us enough to sacrifice God’s own son … but then to say “no” to death.

Psalm: Psalm 13

At first glance, this Psalm might not seem the best choice to read to someone who is grieving or afraid. The Psalmist speaks from the depths of fear and loss, suffering deep pain. Has God’s face turned away, leaving him alone and defenseless? But even in this dark place, hope remains; for God’s love is steadfast and abiding. God has been just and fair, and the Psalmist trusts that God will remain so.

Second Reading: Romans 6:12-23

Paul takes the idea of slavery and turns it inside out to make his point today. Through Christian baptism we have been spared from the slavery of sin, freeing us to joyously embrace a better kind of slavery, the “enslavement” of willing submission to God through Christ. In this way, Paul writes to the people of Rome, we receive the free gift of grace that brings eternal life.

Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42

As we enter into the long Pentecost season this summer and fall, we will follow Jesus’s footsteps as they are described in the Gospel of Matthew. Today we hear Jesus telling his recently commissioned Apostles about the rewards of following his way. Immediately after his troubling warning that those who follow him must leave friends and family behind, Jesus now echoes the Psalmist’s promise that God will be just and fair. Jesus promises that those who practice justice in his name – even in such small ways as offering water to a child – will receive God’s justice.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 22, 2014

Christ enthroned as an earthly monarch, from the Book of Kells, Ireland, around 800 CE.

Even the greatest Bible heroes are hardly plaster saints. From Adam and Eve’s taste for forbidden fruit down through Joseph, Jacob, Moses and King David to doubting Thomas and denying Peter, the great figures in Scripture are just about all flawed and broken; yet God loves them just the same, as God loves us. Today we hear a particularly troubling story about Abraham. Yes, even the patriarch of the Judeo-Christian family was capable of such disturbing behavior as sending his slave, Hagar, and their son, Ishmael, into the desert to die. But God intervened, and promised them a future as bountiful as that of Abraham and Sarah’s own son, Isaac.

Psalm: Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

As our Genesis reading reminds us that God loves us even when we aren’t very nice, the Psalmist sings out the prayerful assurance that God loves us even when we aren’t very happy. Poor and needy, fearing death, the Psalmist cries out, trusting in a good and forgiving God to answer our prayers and make our hearts glad.

Second Reading: Romans 6:1b-11

If this short reading from Paul’s letter to the early church in Rome seems like heavy going, that may be because Paul so intensely wants us to hear his message: In baptism, everything changes, and that’s important! Baptism unites us with Christ so that we share in his death and resurrection. In baptism we symbolically “die” to our old life enslaved by sin. In baptism we are born to a new life, freed from sin through God’s abounding grace, dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus.

Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39

It’s not easy to follow Jesus. The Prince of Peace is bringing a sword? We have to leave our families behind? Well, context is important here. Remember that Matthew is writing in a time of Roman persecution, the destruction of the Temple, and angry rivalry as Jewish Christians and rabbinic Jews wrangled over Jesus’ status as Messiah. In those days, it could be not merely hard but dangerous to follow Jesus. But even in our times, Jesus calls us to give, not to take. That’s a challenge with great rewards.