Break Open the Word

The Third Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 5 - 9 June 2013 I Kings 17:8-24 Psalm 146    Or I Kings 17:17-24 Psalm 30 Galatians 1:11-24 Saint Luke 7:11-17        Background: Kings Like its Biblical neighbor, I and II Kings was originally one book, not two.  Its first and second chapters take the task of completing the Davidic saga, and then the book moves on with the rule of Solomon and the rulers who follow him.  The contents seem to have been put together by the Deuteronomist, who in assessing the reign of each of the kings, reports opinions about their lives visa a vie cultic law.  Some are lauded many are not.  The example of the decimation of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians along with their ruthless policy of deportation and repopulation seems to amplify the prophetic comments about loosing sight of the God of Israel.  Bad times are coming, report these ...

The Second Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 4 - 2 June 2013 I Kings 18:20-39 Psalm 96    Or I Kings 8:22-23, 41-43 Psalm 96:1-9 Galatians 1:1-12 Saint Luke 7:1-10        Background:  The Revised Common Lectionary The Revised Common Lectionary became the official lectionary of the Episcopal Church on The First Sunday in Advent in 2010.  Prior to that time it had been authorized for trial use beginning in Advent of 2007.  The Lectionary is a further revision of the Ordo Lectionum Missae, the three-year lectionary that was a result of the revisions of Vatican II in the Roman Catholic Church.  The Roman lectionary was promulgated in 1969, and was quickly adopted and adapted by the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, and the Presbyterians.  The Revised Common Lectionary was a further revision and was introduced in 1994.  It operates on a three-year cycle (Years A, B, and C) wit...