Break Open the Word

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 8, 30 June 2013 II Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20    Or I Kings 19:15-16, 19-21 Psalm 16 Galatians 5:1, 13-25 St. Luke 9:51-62                                                                                     Background: Elijah, and Elisha In today’s first readings in both tracks we meet the disciple of Elijah, Elisha.  Although stories of wonderful deeds accrue to both men, it is Elijah that will survive as an epic character, influencing the aspect of Jesus as well.  What of these men, however, who appear in what is ostensibly a royal chronicle.  It is at this point that we need to remember that the writers and compilers of these stories were not historians, at least not in the sense that we understand this term.  Along with the events that are chronicled, there are also numerous stories that are told.  These are stories that have a folksy nature to them, with the characters, here Elijah

The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 7, 23 June 2013 I Kings 19:1-15a Psalm 42 and 43    Or Isaiah 65:1-9 Psalm 22:18-27 Galatians 3:23-29 St. Luke 8:26-39                                                                                     Background:  Elijah and Ahab In the Track 1 readings from the Hebrew Scriptures we have been reading the Ahab stories that form a section of the Elijah cycle in the Book of Kings.  The prophet Elijah and King Ahab interacted during Ahab’s reign (874 – 853 BCE).  The name Elijah means “My God is YHWH”, and may be an indication of his fervent defense of Yahwism in the face of a resurgent worship of Canaanite and Phoenician gods, the Ba’alim.  This turn to the Ba’alim is blamed on Jezebel, daughter of the King of Tyre and Ahab’s consort.  This may be, however, a kind of scapegoating.  There was a constant attraction of the fertility religions of the Levant and Mesopotamia to the Hebrew peoples livin