Break Open the Word

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 9, 5 July 2015 II Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 Psalm 48 Or Ezekiel 2:1-5 Psalm 123 II Corinthians 12:2-10 St. Mark 6:1-13 Background: The Great Schism The schism between the Eastern Church and the Western Church took many centuries to develop but came to a head in 1054 CE. The issues largely centered on the liturgical/theological issues of the filioque in the Creed (the question as to whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son), the use of unleavened bread in the west, the papal claim to universal jurisdiction, and the role of Constantinople as a patriarchal see. Such issues were not absent political considerations as well such as the presence of the Normans in southern Italy, and their subsequent conquest of that territory. The loss of the loss of the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem to Muslim forces in 661 CE, and the increase of Constantinopolitan power also added to the political d...

The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8, 28 June 2015 II Samuel 1:1, 17-27 Psalm 130 Or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24 or Lamentations 3:21-33 or Psalm 30 II Corinthians 8:7-15 St. Mark 5:21-43 Background: Laments and Dirges Reading the Track 1 reading from the Hebrew Scriptures my interest in forms were piqued. What is a lament? How is it different from a dirge? Does it even matter? I do think that it matters that we not only explore the context of a writing, but that we know in some way its form as well. What was it that David sang at the death of Saul? Each of these related forms have been used across a wide cultural swath from the Ancient Near East and the Indian subcontinent to the Christian West and beyond. The author of Second Samuel assigns the lament or dirge at the death of Saul to Daveid, yet dirges were usually performed by women. One scholar suggests that the laments of women form the base for what would later become the Illiad . The L...