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Showing posts from July, 2013

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 13, 4 August 2013

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The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 13, 4 August 2013 Hosea 11:1-11 Psalm 107:1-9, 43    Or Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:1-23 Psalm 49:1-11 Colossians 3:1-11 St. Luke 12:13-21 William Blake - "Job"                                                                                     Background:  Wisdom Literature Gerhard von Rad, a biblical scholar with a special interest in the Hebrew Scriptures, along with others is skeptical about this genre of literature in the Bible.  None-the-less, there are enough unique aspects of this literature for us to take time and see the manner of its use in the Old Testament.  The most expansive definition of Wisdom Literature is that it is not something that is uniquely of Israel, indeed where it is included in the canon (Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) it is not uniquely Yahwistic.  This kind of writing could be found in all of the nations that surrounded Israel, including those from wh

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 12, 28 July 2013

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The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 12, 28 July 2013 Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm 85    Or Genesis 18:20-32 Psalm 138 Colossians 2:6-19 St. Luke 11:1-13                                                                                     Background:  Sodom This city, along with its sister community, Gomorrah, really serves as a fulcrum that stands between the texts regarding the Visitation at Mamre, and the Bargaining over Sodom, and its eventual Destruction.  There is no clear evidence that these cities even existed, although several candidates have been proposed, even in recent history.  One of the most engaging was Walter Rast and Thomas Schaub’s dig in 1973 at several sites along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.  Some evidence was located under the surface of the sea, and there has been an on-going debate as to the possibility of seismic activity in the region.  Other proposals have been judged too distant from the Jordan/Dead Sea region