The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 16 - 22 August 2010

The Readings for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Isaiah 58:9b-14

Psalm 103:1-8

Hebrews 12:18-29

Saint Luke 13:10-17

      

BACKGROUND

What is it necessary for us to do?  Two of the lessons for today wrestle with that issue.  Indeed, I think, our time is continuing to wrestle with that issue.  Isaiah sees a people who do all the right things, but still miss the point of faithfulness to God.  Jesus sees the same problem in the Gospel as well.  Both conservatives and liberals see essentials that they feel are demanded by God, and they judge others by such standards.  The real question that we ought to be asking ourselves is “How does God see justice in this situation?”  That question ought to keep us from condemning too quickly those whom we find insensitive, intolerant, or ignorant of how we think things ought to be done.  The psalmist has it right when he/she understands that in spite of everything, God continues to forgive.  What would our political life be like if we really understood that one thing?

 

Isaiah 61:10-11

If you remove the yoke from among you,

the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

if you offer your food to the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

then your light shall rise in the darkness

and your gloom be like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places,

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to live in.

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,

from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;

if you call the sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the LORD honorable;

if you honor it, not going your own ways,

serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;

then you shall take delight in the LORD,

and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;

I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This Isaiah is deeply rooted in the reality of his time.  The realities are a partially (if not completely) ruined Jerusalem, and a continuing harassment and political interference on the part of the Babylonians who were asserting their influence in Palestine, at the time, thwarting Egyptian ambitions there.  Unlike Jeremiah, Isaiah is not concerned with the geo-politics of this situation, but rather the people and their spiritual and physical health.  Even in these difficulties and sufferings, the people still show a propensity for evil  – an influence that Isaiah warns about in the initial verses.  He offers other alternatives: helping the poor and the needy.  The focus then turns to the God of Israel – a God who raises up the ruined city and renews it, and strengthens its inhabitants.  The reading closes with a spiritualized theme of hunger, in which God promises to feed the people with the heritage of their ancestors.  Isaiah’s comments on the Sabbath, and attitudes about it, will be the grist for Luke’s mill in the Gospel.

Breaking open Genesis:

1.     When there are troubles in your life, are you a kinder or a meaner person?

2.     Isaiah calls the people to honor the Sabbath day – how do you do that?  What does it mean to honor the Sabbath day?

3.     In what ways are you selfish?  In what ways are you selfless?

Psalm 103:1-8 Benedic, anima mea

Bless the LORD, O my soul, *

and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, *

and forget not all his benefits.

He forgives all your sins *

and heals all your infirmities;

He redeems your life from the grave *

and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness;

He satisfies you with good things, *

and your youth is renewed like an eagle's.

The LORD executes righteousness *

and judgment for all who are oppressed.

He made his ways known to Moses *

and his works to the children of Israel.

The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, *

slow to anger and of great kindness.

The themes of the psalm bear a striking resemblance to the themes in Isaiah.  The notions of hunger and forgiveness, righteousness and mercy, and satisfaction and renewal are seen as the context of the benefits from a God who is full of compassion and mercy.  Although the privations of a ruined city seemingly do not obtain at the time of the psalm, the pain of daily life and its demands serve as a background of the graces of the God of Israel.  The translation of the first verse, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” misses some of the emphasis in the Hebrew, where the word translated as “soul” might better be seen as “my being”, or “my inner essence.”  That the psalm is so personal is further borne out in the third and fourth verses, which suggest a bout with a grave illness.

Breaking open Psalm 103

1.       The psalmist wants to bless or praise the Lord with his most “basic essence.”  What does that mean to you?

2.       Do you pray when you are ill?  What are your prayers like when there is trouble like illness or difficulty?

3.       What are your prayers like when you are healed?

Hebrews 12:18-29

You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death." Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.") But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken-- that is, created things-- so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

In this rather obtuse reading, the author of the Hebrews continues to use the contrast of heavenly and earthly things to make his points about what is of real value, namely Christ.  The allusions to the Hebrew Scriptures are many, the chief of which is the situation at Sinai, when the Law was given.  There were preparations then (not to touch the mountain, ritual bathing, etc.) that the people were asked to observe.  What they could observe in the situation was the trembling of the earth, smoke, and fire.  This is all rehearsed to make the reader realize that the mountain (Sinai) represents both the earthly (its physical presence) and its spiritual aspect (the tremblings, smoke, and fire).  The other reference is to the “blood of Abel”, the son of Adam and Eve who was killed by his brother, Cain.  The real message is to get rid of all that is earthly and to embrace all that is heavenly.  God is the refining fire that refines the heavenly from the earthly.

Breaking open Hebrews:

1. Are there moments in your life that have made you a better person?
2. In what way were you “purified” by them?
3. How much of your life is ruled by things and money?

Saint Luke 13:10-17

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

In the first reading, Isaiah sets up a scene in which the people are “ill”, weakened from life and forgetting God.  In the Gospel, Luke has us look with his unique eye for the poor and disadvantaged (which Isaiah saw as the goal of the good works demanded by the need to grow closer God of Israel who saw this as justice and righteousness.)  and focuses on the crippled woman.  It is on her that Jesus pours out all the messianic expectations and fullness by announcing to her that she is “set free.” Her response is like that of the author of the psalm – she praises God.  It is here that a second theme is introduced, and it is not altogether different than Isaiah’s theme.  A religious leader objects to the healing conducted on the Sabbath.  Both Luke and Isaiah would remark on the leader having missed the point of God’s law.  Jesus argues for a more common sense and down-to-earth understanding of the Law’s requirements (“which of you does not untie his ox, etc.).  Luke sees Jesus’ logic as irrefutable, as do “the opponents” who are shamed, and the people find the whole situation an occasion for rejoicing.

Breaking open the Gospel:

1. In what ways have you been “set free” like the woman in the Gospel?
2. When this happened, how did you respond in your life?
3. Jesus rebukes those who have miss-understood the point of the Sabbath.  Have you miss-understood the point of public worship?

After breaking open the Word, you might want to pray the Collect for Sunday:

Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.