Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Oct. 30, 2016

First Reading: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Does Habakkuk’s name sound familiar? If not, that may be because this year marks its only appearance in the three-year Lectionary cycle of Sunday readings. Only three chapters long, this book is both unusual and fascinating. Unlike most of the prophets who hear God’s word and pass it on to humanity, Habakkuk shouts out his own warnings, then turns to God with frustration because he feels that God doesn’t seem to be listening, leaving Habakkuk alone to make prophetic warning to the people without God’s assistance. God then responds, directing Habakkuk to write his vision down so clearly that a runner can read it while racing past.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 1:1, 10-18

Isaiah’s great book of prophecy gets off to a fiery start, beginning with five chapters filled with God’s angry wrath before we even get to God’s call to the prophet. First we must clearly hear God’s anger over the people’s failure to keep the covenant that their ancestors made through Moses at Mount Sinai. We hear that wrath in today’s reading, as God likens Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah, a people so vile that God hates them and their works. But, as always, there is a way to restore God’s love: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow.”

Psalm 119:137-144

Psalm 119 turns up fairly often in the weekly Lectionary. The longest of all the Psalms, fully 176 verses long, we hear portions of it a dozen times through the three-year lectionary cycle. While it offers different poetry in every section, it remains true to its course as a long, loving celebration of God’s law. Today’s verses may have come as good advice to the people who heard Habakkuk’s prophecy: When trouble and distress come on God’s people, God’s law and teaching are our delight.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 32:1-8

Rebounding from the horrific notion of a God too angry to hear the people’s prayers or sacrifices, too outdone to give them even the least attention, our Psalm sings the joy that comes when the separation from God that results from sin is ended, replaced with the utter joy of knowing God’s forgiveness. No longer groaning with pain that feels like withered bones, the repentant sinner is now guarded against trouble and surrounded with shouts of deliverance.

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Today we begin a short visit with the second letter to the church of Thessalonika in Northern Greece. This letter probably came a generation after the first letter to the Thessalonians, perhaps around 100 CE, and it was probably written in Paul’s name by a follower long after his death. These early Christians were facing severe Roman persecution, and the letter opens with hearty thanks and gratitude for their steadfast faith despite all that they have had to endure.

Gospel: Luke 19:1-10

What’s this? Another tax collector? Last week we saw Jesus praising a tax collector for his humble prayer; and Jesus even called a tax collector, Matthew, as one of his apostles. The Pharisees often criticized Jesus for hanging around with prostitutes and tax-collectors – the most insulting occupations they could think of – because they traitorously sold their services to the hated Roman occupiers, and often used this position to enrich themselves. and now today we find Jesus shouting out to another tax collector, the diminutive Zacchaeus, who had climbed a tree the better to see him. Then Jesus invites himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ house! Like the praying tax collector in last week’s Gospel, Zacchaeus earns salvation by following Jesus. The message, perhaps, is that if the worst person we can think of can earn redemption by walking in Jesus’ way, surely we all can.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013. 

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:27-34
Jeremiah pauses in his nearly relentless lamentation over the sins of Israel and Judah to offer words of hope and the certainty of God’s ultimate love. In the metaphor of sour grapes he reassures us that children will not be punished for the sins of their parents. Then, in words that Jeremiah understood as the restoration of the temple and Israel’s kingdom but that Christians may also interpret as foreshadowing Jesus, he prophesies a new covenant in which everyone will know God and all our sins will be forgiven.

Psalm: Psalm 119:97-104
The Psalmist exults in the study and understanding of God’s law, declaring the joy of unity with God through studious meditation and prayer. Let’s think of this song of praise in the context of today’s First Reading, in which Jeremiah understands God’s law as central to God’s new covenant: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Surely these words were sweeter than honey to a people in exile, longing for their home.

First Reading: (Track Two) Genesis 32:22-31
Jacob wrestles all night with an angel who turns out to be God! Jacob, remember, the grandson of Abraham, son of Isaac, and father to Joseph, is a key figure in the first testament’s Ancestral Legends. Perhaps the lesson in this strange story is about persistence, as Jacob won’t surrender to this powerful stranger who injures his hip but can’t take him down: Stay the course, even when it’s hard, and you may earn God’s blessing.

Psalm: (Track Two) Psalm 121
One of the traditional “songs of ascents” thought to have been sung by worshippers as they processed toward the Temple in Jerusalem, this “Assurance of God’s Protection” is one of the Psalms’ most comforting hymns of hope and trust. Always awake, always watchful, God protects us by day and night, watching us come and go, keeping us safe today and forever.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5
Does this lesson call us to be bible-thumpers, lecturing unbelievers and rebuking them if they won’t listen? Probably not. This late New Testament document was written when the young church was fighting persecution. Know your scriptures, the writer advises the troubled flock. Even if it’s hard, even if you have to suffer, spread the good news. This message, written for a particular time and place, sounds different in modern America, when Christians hold the majority and wield power. Of course we are still called to spread the good news! But let it be the Gospel that Jesus taught us: Love God. Love our neighbors. Let the oppressed go free, and bring good news to the poor.

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
In the patriarchal world of the ancient Near East, widows were helpless, vulnerable and weak. This widow in Jesus’s parable, though, is tough. She won’t quit pounding the corrupt and shiftless judge with her demands until he finally gives her the justice that she seeks. At first glance, we might wonder why Jesus is comparing God to a sleazy judge who won’t do his job. But Jesus makes a better point: Pray day and night, and God will listen and quickly respond.