Posts

Showing posts from August, 2013

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 17, 1 September 2013

Image
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 17, 1 September 2013 Jeremiah 2:4-13 Psalm 81:1, 10-16    Or Sirach 10:12-18 or Proverbs 25:6-7 Psalm 112 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 St. Luke 14:1, 7-14                                                                                     Background:  Sirach One of the advantages of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) is its increased inclusion of texts from the Apocrypha.  Although accepted as proper for reading and devotion by both Anglicans and Lutherans, the lectionary itself was devoid of such readings until the revisions of the RCL.  This morning’s optional Track 2 reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is from Sirach, also known as “The Wisdom of Sirach”, or more commonly as “Ecclesiasticus.”  It dates from around 190 BCE and was the work of Shimon ben Yeshua den Eliezer ben Sira, a Jewish scribe who lived and worked in Jerusalem.  It was originally written in Hebrew and was translated into Gree

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 16, 25 August 2013

Image
The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 16, 25 August 2013 Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71: 1-6    Or Isaiah 58:9b-14 Psalm 103:1-8 Hebrews 12:18-29 St. Luke 13:10-17                                                                                     Background:  The Theology of Jeremiah When we begin to talk about the theology of a prophet, we are constrained to speak about it as the product and thought of an individual.  The Prophet Jeremiah presents us with some problems in that regard.  Here is a prophet who took pains to preserve his work through the editing and recording of his amanuensis Baruch.  In the very process of recording his oracles and utterances, Jeremiah often comments on his own work, interpreting it in relationship to the realities of the time in which it was being written down.  The materials of the book represent sayings that precede the exile and others that follow it.  The kernel of truth that represented his wor