Break Open the Word

  The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 16, 23 August 2020   Track 1 Or Track 2 Exodus 1:8-2:10 Psalm 124 Romans 12:1-8 Matthew 16:13-20   Isaiah 51:1-6 Psalm 138 Romans 12:1-8 Matthew 16:13-20   The Collect G rant, 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.     Background: The Hyksos and Israel The Hyksos, a foreign people (to Egypt) that moved down from the northern Levant and established a culture in the Nile River Delta (1650 BCE), with a capital at Avaris, have been associated by some as the Egyptian rulers “who knew not Joseph”. Their expulsion under Ahmose I (1570-1546 BCE) has been seen by many as linked to Israel’s sojourn in Egypt. That now has been largely rejected. They were a Semitic people who practiced ...

  The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 15, 16 August 2020   Track 1 Or Track 2 Genesis 45:1-15 Psalm 133 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28   Isaiah 56:1,6-8 Psalm 67 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28   The Collect   A lmighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.     Background:  Tyre and Sidon   It is often in the genealogies of the Pentateuch that we can get a feel for the movements of peoples and cultures in the ancient near east.  Genesis 10:15, 19 , gives us a clue about why Matthew calls the woman from the district of Tyre and Sidon a “Canaanite woman.”  “Canaan became...