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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 19, 2021

First Reading: Micah 5:2-5a

God’s liberating preference for the poor and the oppressed is made manifest in Sunday’s readings. This may seem to be an unusual theme for the last week in Advent, with Christmas drawing near.

The Annunciation (c.1590-1603), oil painting on canvas by El Greco (1541-1614). Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan. (Click image to enlarge.)

In reality, though, it is a deeply significant message for the impending birth of Jesus: Jesus will go on to care for the poor, the hungry, the ill and imprisoned and oppressed as the central focus of his good news. Our readings begin with Micah, one of the earliest Old Testament prophets. In previous verses, Micah has warned the people of Jerusalem that their injustices against the weak and the poor will bring down God’s wrath. Now we hear the prophet foretell that a new ruler is to come from Bethlehem – the birthplace of King David – to reunite Israel’s remnant as a shepherd leads his flock, under God’s protection in peace.

Psalm: Canticle 15 (Luke 1:46b-55)

Mary’s song of praise, The Magnificat, may either be sung as a psalm this Sunday, or it may be read as the second portion of Sunday’s Gospel. In this beloved song as told by Luke, the pregnant Mary sings grateful praise for God. She rejoices in all that God has done for her. She celebrates the powerful yet merciful God who loves us and calls us to acts of mercy and justice. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly, she sings. God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. God’s justice is restorative – God will take from those who have much and give to those who have none.

Alternate Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7

We sing the first seven of Psalm 80’s nineteen verses on Sunday. The Psalm was probably either written during a time of exile and destruction or recalls that time. The place names invoked in the second verse suggest that this hymn recalls the loss of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, to the Assyrians in 722 BCE. In tones of sorrow, the Psalmist calls on Israel’s God to come and help, to restore the people who, in a memorable metaphor, have been fed with the bread of tears and given tears to drink. Although the people have suffered derision, laughter and scorn from their enemies, including their own neighbors, the Psalm expresses confidence that the light of God’s own countenance can save them.

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10

The Letter to the Hebrews, modern biblical scholars say, was probably written late in the first century, after the Temple was destroyed. At that time, early Christianity was separating from rabbinical Judaism amid anger and pain on both sides. Because Christianity was suffering persecution at the hands of Rome, many Jewish converts to Christianity were returning to the safer confines of Judaism. Much of Hebrews seems intended to reach backsliding Jewish Christians by comparing Judaism unfavorably to Christianity. Sunday’s reading declares that that God abolished the “empty” sacrifices of the Jewish Temple, replacing them and sanctifying us once and for all with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We would do well to discard this view of Judaism as “abolished,” hearing instead the hopeful message that God’s promise to Israel at Sinai continues for us too.

Gospel: Luke 1:39-45

This lovely short reading from Luke’s Gospel comes immediately before the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, which we heard earlier. Here we are told of Mary’s visit to her much older cousin Elizabeth. Both women are pregnant – Elizabeth with John, Mary with Jesus – and both conceived in miraculous ways, visited by angels with the news that they would give birth. When the women meet, Elizabeth feels her child leap in her womb with what she perceives as joy. Suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth declares Mary blessed among women. “Why has this happened to me,” Elizabeth wonders in amazement, “that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” Then, in the following verses, Mary responds with the Magnificat.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 17, 2021

First Reading (Track One): Job 38:1-7,34-41

If you want to be in charge of everything, be careful. This theme recurs in various forms in Sunday’s readings.

James and John stand on either side of Jesus in this Orthodox icon of Jesus and the apostles. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, Job has been loudly lamenting his condition and looking everywhere for God, angrily demanding that God come out of hiding and hear him. Now Job gets his wish. God speaks to him out of a whirlwind in power and might, and quickly sets Job in his place. God hurls poetic words at Job like thunderbolts: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.” There is no promise that chaos and disaster will not occur in wind and flood and starvation; but nothing in creation is greater than its Creator.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 53:4-12

Throughout Sunday’s readings we hear of servant leadership, sacrifice, and walking humbly with our God. Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant,” whom we meet often in our readings (most recently just one month ago), may make us think of Jesus in his willing sacrifice to bear the sins of many. In its original context, though, Isaiah writes of the servant’s suffering in the past tense, remembering Israel itself as the servant, the sacrificial pain of its sad exile now finally come to an end.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 104:1-9,35, 37c

Echoing God’s extended response to Job, this hymn of exaltation worships God as creator of the universe and as ruler of all creation, whose mighty works fill us with awe. The Psalmist portrays God clothed in majesty and splendor. God rides across the world on the wings of clouds, spreading out mountains and valleys, oceans and rivers; setting the earth immovably on its foundations and separating the land from the water.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 91:9-16

We hear only the second half of Psalm 91 today. Take a moment, though, to look up the preceding verses in the Psalter (Pages 719-20, BCP). There we learn of another servant who suffered, yet who received God’s protection against illness and enemies. In the verses we read on Sunday, the Psalmist assures us that we gain protection by seeking refuge in God. Then, in a form quite unusual for the Psalms, God speaks directly in the first person, assuring the servant of God’s protection, honor and salvation.

Second Reading: Hebrews 5:1-10

Hebrews, more akin to a published sermon than a traditional letter, is historically understood as an effort to persuade first century Jewish Christians who had returned to Judaism under persecution to come back to the way of Christ. To that end, it presents Jesus as the new high priest, one who brings a new covenant and new sacrifice in the aftermath of the destruction of the Temple. Jesus, fully human, suffered “with loud cries and tears,” it tells us. Learning obedience through suffering, Jesus became the greatest of the line of priests that began with King Melchizedek, the first high priest named in Genesis. As the perfect image of God, Christ earned salvation for us all.

Gospel: Mark 10:35-45

In the verses just before these, Jesus told the apostles for the third time, in more detail than ever, that when they reach Jerusalem he will be arrested, flogged, killed, and will rise again. And now, also for the third time, some of them respond with remarkable cluelessness. Showing how little they have learned, James and John (“the Sons of Thunder”) don’t ask but tell Jesus that they want to sit at his side in God’s kingdom. Jesus has news for them: To follow Jesus we must be servants, not those served; if we wish to be first, we must be the slave of all.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 3, 2021

First Reading (Track One): Job 1:1; 2:1-10

“Oh, no, a month of Job!” A lot of people find the story of Job and his troubles disheartening. A careless reading might leave the impression that God sent terrible suffering on Job because, well, Satan talked him into it.

Job on the Ash Heap (c.1630), oil painting on canvas by Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652).. Sotheby’s, New York. (Click image to enlarge.)

But let’s be positive: The Book of Job is a fascinating short story and an important part of the Bible’s “wisdom literature,” the books that teach us about life and God. Why do bad things happen to good people? Known as theodicy, this is one of theology’s most difficult question. Listen and ponder as we go through Job in our Track One first readings during the next four weeks. We hear the beginning of Job today, and it starts like an ancient folk tale. Bear in mind, though, that Satan here was not a red devil with horns, but a sort of prosecutor, an advisor to God within the heavenly order.

First Reading (Track Two): Genesis 2:18-24

Sunday’s Track Two readings aren’t easy. We begin in the first reading with a portion of the creation narrative that some have interpreted to diminish the status of women. Mark’s Gospel reflects those words in a rejection of divorce so strict that it has been invoked to hold people in abusive relationships. How can we hear these reading faithfully yet generously? Perhaps they speak more broadly of creation and the universal call to men and women to take responsibility for our relationships with plants, animals and each other. This is a good thought to hold as many congregations celebrate St. Francis’ feast day this week with a blessing of companion animals.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 26

Just as Job, we are told, was “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil,” Psalm 26 declares before God that the Psalmist has lived with integrity and trusted in God without faltering. Considering the trials of Job, we might wonder if the author of this psalm is tempting fate when he invites God to “test me … and try me.” We may also hear a hint of Pharisaical self-satisfaction in the writer’s desire not to be counted among the evildoers or to suffer their punishment. But in the end this plea is humble. It promises integrity and asks only for God’s pity and redemption.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 8

This beautiful psalm begins as a hymn of praise, then becomes a praiseful catalog of the glories of God’s creation. In lyrical poetry it celebrates the beauty of the universe and all that populates it as testimony to God’s majesty: The heavens, the moon, the stars, all the work of God’s hands, are so great that mere humanity seems small in comparison. Yet we are given charge of all the wild and domestic animals and creatures of the sea. Surely we are called to exercise the same careful and loving stewardship over creation as we count on God to provide for us.

Second Reading: Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Why does God care for mere mortals so much that he sent a son and savior, the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s being, to become “lower than the angels” to live and die among us? This letter is thought to have been written to coax back Jewish Christians who had returned to Judaism in the face of persecution late in the first century. While it is fervently pro-Christian, we should take care not to see it through modern eyes as anti-Jewish. In this passage we hear that Jesus tasted death for all humankind, raising us all up through his suffering as his brothers and sisters.

Gospel: Mark 10:2-16

This is one of those difficult gospels that makes it hard to find the love. In our modern society divorce has become acceptable, if unhappy; a difficult end to a relationship. In the patriarchal culture of Jesus’ time, though, it was even worse: A man could set aside his marriage for any reason, in a world where a woman alone had no option but to beg, risking homelessness and starvation. Of course Jesus came down hard on that. We find him arguing with the Pharisees again, outwitting their plan to trap him! He turns the argument back on them by pointing out that their “hardness of heart” should earn them a stricter rule. It’s no coincidence, then, that Jesus smiles and turns to the innocent children.