The Second Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7 - 22 June 2014
Track 1:
Genesis 21:8-21
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Track 2:
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Psalm 69:8-20
Romans 6:1b-11
St. Matthew 10:24-39
Background: Track 1 and Track 2 and Ordinary Time
Once again we are confronted by the choices of
Ordinary Time. The question really
centers on how to effectively use this period of time and the choices offered
to make the Gospel real to those who are attending the liturgy. Is it more important to understand the scope
and arc of the Bible (Track 1) or to connect more deeply to the Gospel readings
(Track 2)? Arguments can be made for both.
Unless one is either willing to open up the context of the Track 1
Hebrew Scripture readings, those readings may be only an exercise in
futility. If a preacher is willing to
preach on those texts, or to open them up in the classroom, then this might be
a useful track. Unfortunately, the
culture of the season (vacations, no school, the allure of the countryside) may
tempt us to see this as too ambitious, or too difficult. It is, however, worthy of the time and
effort. The tendency of the festival
half of the year to look only at events
in the life of Jesus needs to be balanced by looking at his teaching and
action. This is the time for that – a
time of systematic learning and investigation.
Perhaps I am arguing for Track 1.
What ever your choices are, look at the long range of these readings and
lead your self or your parishioners from reading to reading, from concept to
concept, from point of mission to point of mission. Ordinary Time is a time for growth and
challenge.
Genesis 21:8-21
The child grew, and was
weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to
Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, "Cast
out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not
inherit along with my son Isaac." The matter was very distressing to
Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, "Do not be
distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah
says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall
be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation
of him also, because he is your offspring." So Abraham rose early in
the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting
it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed,
and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
When the water in the
skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went
and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for
she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she
sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the
voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to
her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the
voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast
with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him." Then God
opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with
water, and gave the boy a drink.
God was with the boy,
and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.
He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from
the land of Egypt.
We enter the Track 1 sequence of readings at Proper 7, so a bit in
“mid-stream”. The story of Hagar and
Ishmael may seem unintelligible without an understanding of the story that
precedes it. You may want to look at
Genesis 20 and 21 in order to understand or convey the context of this
reading. A great deal of the import of
the story depends on puns that revolve around the verb “to laugh” or “to play”
– all connected to Isaac’s name, and Sarah’s behavior in the preceding story. One might look at this reading as an etiology
that explains the origin of other Semitic peoples in the ancient near
east.
What, however, can we say about this text as a piece of or a contributor
to theology? What does this say about
God and about humankind? We meet actual
human beings here, or at least characters that are conversant with true human
emotions. Sarah’s jealously, Abraham’s
distance, Ishmael’s interaction with the infant Isaac, and Hagar’s distress all
reflects a real human situation, and in the midst of that is a God who advises
and intervenes. Thus God engenders two
great tribes (among all the other tribes and peoples of the earth) and the plan
God has in mind continues on. In the
midst of this plan however, is a scheming mother protecting the interest of her
son, and a literally suffering servant, who only wants her son to live.
A final note: In the Gospel, Jesus weighs the real importance of our
relationships in the reading from Matthew.
The emotions and relationships that surround Abraham and Sarah’s
household are the human context into which Jesus’ poses his questions, and
comments on the family.
Breaking open Genesis:
- How does God use our own human emotions for God’s own purpose?
- What other stories in the Bible have this same theme?
- What are your feelings about Sarah after reading this lesson?
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17 Inclina, Domine
Bow down your ear, O
LORD, and answer me, *
for I am poor and in
misery.
Keep watch over my
life, for I am faithful; *
save your servant who
puts his trust in you.
Be merciful to me, O
LORD, for you are my God; *
I call upon you all the
day long.
Gladden the soul of
your servant, *
for to you, O LORD, I
lift up my soul.
For you, O LORD, are
good and forgiving, *
and great is your love
toward all who call upon you.
Give ear, O LORD, to my
prayer, *
and attend to the voice
of my supplications.
In the time of my
trouble I will call upon you, *
for you will answer me.
Among the gods there is
none like you, O LORD, *
nor anything like your
works.
All nations you have
made will come and worship you, O LORD, *
and glorify your Name.
For you are great;
you do wondrous things;
*
and you alone are God.
Turn to me and have
mercy upon me; *
give your strength to
your servant;
and save the child of
your handmaid.
Show me a sign of your
favor,
so that those who hate
me may see it and be ashamed; *
because you, O LORD,
have helped me and comforted me.
Again, we encounter a psalm that is a quilt of lines and versets from
other psalms. Its presence here is most
easily seen in the final verses of the psalm where the line “and save the child of our handmaid” links
the psalm with the Track 1 reading. The
image that might serve as a point of reflection and devotion is that of the God
who asked by the petitioner to “bow down”
and to “listen.” The statements about the faith in not only
the ability of God to listen, but by implication God’s intention to not only
listen but to answer as well.
Breaking open Psalm 86:
- How do you know that God is listening to you?
- How do you know when God responds to you?
- How do you respond to others?
or
Jeremiah 20:7-13
O LORD, you have
enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered
me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a
laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I
must cry out,
I must shout,
"Violence and destruction!"
For the word of the
LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision
all day long.
If I say, "I will
not mention him,
or speak any more in
his name,"
then within me there is
something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding
it in,
and I cannot.
For I hear many
whispering:
"Terror is all
around!
Denounce him! Let us
denounce him!"
All my close friends
are watching for me to
stumble.
"Perhaps he can be
enticed,
and we can prevail
against him,
and take our revenge on
him."
But the LORD is with me
like a dread warrior;
therefore my
persecutors will stumble,
and they will not
prevail.
They will be greatly
shamed,
for they will not
succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be
forgotten.
O LORD of hosts, you
test the righteous,
you see the heart and
the mind;
let me see your
retribution upon them,
for to you I have
committed my cause.
Sing to the LORD;
praise the LORD!
For he has delivered
the life of the needy
from the hands of
evildoers.
Anyone wishing to understand this pericope
from Jeremiah should read the six verses that precede Jeremiah’s lament (Jeremiah 20:1-6). Indeed, Jeremiah’s words here
might be found on the lips of Job or those of his wife, “curse God and die.” What we
witness here is an internal struggle on the part of Jeremiah, who searches for
the God who has bidden him to his prophetic call, and now seems strangely
absent and silent. This theme of silence
might be well recognized in our time. I
have heard many complain that their relationship with God has been cloaked in
God’s silence and seeming absence. Jeremiah
does as he is commanded by God, but misses the support that he believes his
work and words deserve. Thus he is
caught in a bind, between the rock of the religious who oppose what he has to
say, and the hard place of an absent God.
How difficult it must be to speak against ones own religious
institutions, awaiting the support of a God who does not pat us on the
back. It is like cursing your own family
(hmmm, the Gospel reading).
Sailing almost out of nowhere, comes verse
13. Is this an interpolation by some
scribe, a scrap ripped out of its original context? Or, is this indeed Jeremiah’s final response
– a praise verse implicit with the trust that God will intervene, support, and
stand by?
Breaking open the
Jeremiah:
- Have you ever had a disagreement with God? What was it?
- What is Jeremiah’s disagreement with God?
- In what manner does he handle the situation?
- What might you learn from this?
Psalm 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20 Salvum me fac
Surely, for your sake
have I suffered reproach, *
and shame has covered
my face.
I have become a
stranger to my own kindred, *
an alien to my mother's
children.
Zeal for your house has
eaten me up; *
the scorn of those who
scorn you has fallen upon me.
I humbled myself with
fasting, *
but that was turned to
my reproach.
I put on sack-cloth
also, *
and became a byword
among them.
Those who sit at the
gate murmur against me, *
and the drunkards make
songs about me.
But as for me, this is
my prayer to you, *
at the time you have
set, O LORD:
"In your great
mercy, O God, *
answer me with your
unfailing help.
Save me from the mire;
do not let me sink; *
let me be rescued from
those who hate me
and out of the deep
waters.
Let not the torrent of
waters wash over me,
neither let the deep
swallow me up; *
do not let the Pit shut
its mouth upon me.]
Answer me, O LORD, for
your love is kind; *
in your great
compassion, turn to me."
"Hide not your
face from your servant; *
be swift and answer me,
for I am in distress.
Draw near to me and
redeem me; *
because of my enemies
deliver me."
This psalm of supplication seems to come from the period following the
exile, when a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety troubled those who desired
to rebuild Zion. These verses serve as
an excellent commentary and reflection on the words of Jeremiah in the first
reading. Like Jeremiah, the psalmist has
a love of his religious tradition, “Zeal
for your house has eaten me up,” and like Jeremiah he is reproached by some
in the community for some sin or mistake (Alter suggests theft). The language that is used to describe his
internal Angst reflects the language
about death, “let not the torrent of
water wash over me,” “do not let the Pit shut its mouth upon me.” These are strong emotions that give way
to an earnest request, “Answer me,” and
“Draw near to me and redeem me.” The
remaining verses are full of vitriol and enmity. It is probably good that the framers of the
Lectionary give a terminus here, rather than wandering into a rant against “the
enemy.” Would that we could pause our
own hatreds and distress.
Breaking open the Psalm
69:
- Who is your enemy?
- What do they have against you?
- How is God involved?
Romans 6:1b-11
Should we continue in
sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to
sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we
have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in
newness of life.
For if we have been
united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him
so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved
to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died
with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that
Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has
dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but
the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves
dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I always read the initial verse of this pericope with not a little
anxiousness. It was my father’s response
to me in a conversation with my mother and me as we discussed my homosexuality,
something that they both deeply feared and disliked. I had, in talking to them, described how my
faith had actually been deepened by my honesty with myself and others, and the “should we continue in sin,” was my
father’s response. It was a yet/not yet
kind of experience, and process that was completed by my mother but that was
impeded by father’s death in 1992. Paul,
the lover of opposing forces meeting in some kind of beneficial understanding,
juxtaposes Jesus’ death and our baptism into that death. What shall we become? Some in our times see an immediate
culmination of things, and yet these verses seem to indicate that there is yet
movement to something more. The question
that might engage us as we think about this text from Romans might be, “What is
newness of life?” The paragraph that
follows hopes to explore that question.
Somehow Luther’s phrase, “simil
Justus et Peccator” (at the same time both justified and sinner) seems to
come to mind. Paul will wrestle with
this himself, “the good that I would, I
cannot,” and so must we.
Breaking open Romans:
- How is baptism like death?
- How is it like life?
- Which of these have you experienced? How?
Jesus said to the
twelve disciples,
"A disciple is not
above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple
to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the
master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
"So have no fear
of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing
secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the
light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can
destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet
not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the
hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value
than many sparrows.
"Everyone
therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my
Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before
my Father in heaven.
"Do not think that
I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword.
"For I have come
to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one's foes will be members of
one's own household.
"Whoever
loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son
or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the
cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose
it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
The
Gospel reading crosses three separate pericopes[1]:
“The cost of discipleship: Mission” (St. Matthew 10:16-25), “The cost of
discipleship: Fear” (10:26-31, and “The cost of discipleship: Acknowledgment of
the Messiah” (10:32-11:1). All are part
of a discourse, a “missionary sermon” designed to instruct the disciples in
what must follow in their following of Jesus.
As we look back from the passion we can understand what Jesus is
attempting to teach them, and as we look at Matthew’s time, sometime
immediately preceding the fall of Jerusalem (70 CE) or immediately following,
we understand the difficulties of his own time are projected onto what Jesus
tells the disciples. The implicit
suffering of Jesus is seen as the destiny of the disciples, and is understood
by Matthew as his community’s own lot as well.
To get a glimpse of Matthew’s viewpoint you might want to look at Luke’s
version (6:39-42) where Luke
has a totally different take: Luke’s blindness
vs. Matthew’s the suffering of both
master and disciple.
This
instruction by Jesus, in Matthew, continues with a discourse of fear.
Identification with and following Jesus will have its consequences. Jesus wants them to look forward to their
ministry but without fear. What was
there to fear? For the disciples it was
not only the reaction of Jews but of the Gentiles as well, for both would have
negative reactions to the apostles’ teaching.
Jesus reminds them that God continues to watch over them.
The
final segment of the discourse talks about the actual cost of following Jesus,
and what the demands of such loyalty might be.
This is not the cost meted out by either Jew or Gentile, but rather the
intrinsic cost to self in giving one’s self to Jesus. Such costs are listed out: “acknowledgment and denial”, “not peace, but division”, “family or the kingdom,” and finally “grasping at self vs. loss of self.” These
are high prices indeed, but they would have been familiar to Matthew’s readers
in the early community that formed his testimony. Families and indeed society itself was riven
during this time of revolution, continued dispersion, loss of leadership, and
the Roman onslaught. It is not easy to
lay aside the traditions and beliefs of one’s family to follow the
messiah. The real lesson here is that
the cross is meant not only for Jesus, but for his followers as well.
Breaking open the Gospel:
- What does it cost you to have faith in Jesus?
- How do the people you know react to your Christianity?
- How do you react to the Christianity of others?
After breaking open the
Word, you might want to pray the Collect for Sunday:
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name,
for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure
foundation of your lovingkindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Questions and comments copyright © 2014, Michael
T. Hiller
[1] Albright, W. and Mann, C., (1971) The Anchor Bible Matthew, Introduction,
Translation and Notes, Doubleday and Company, Inc. Garden City, New York,
p. 121ff.
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