Break Open the Word

Pentecost XVII, Proper 21, 17 September 2017 Track One: Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16 Track Two: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 Psalm 25:1-8 Philippians 2:1-13 St. Matthew 21:23-32 Background: Authority If there is one issue that troubled Israel from its release from servitude in Egypt to the first century CE (although it surely extends beyond that time), it is the issue of authority. The initial story of Moses at the burning bush wrestles with this issue. Who is it that sends Moses to Pharaoh? What is the name of the authority that sends him? In the stories that follow, Moses has his own troubles with authority. The Hebrew Scriptures see authority certainly in the David kingship, but also with judges, prophets, and foreign kings and suzerains. It is the issue that bedevils the Palestine at the time of Jesus’ ministry, as people wrestle with Roman collaboration, and with the authority of the Jewish elders. Indeed, in our own time religious authority ...

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Pentecost XIV, Proper 19, 17 September 2017 Track One: Exodus 14:19-31 Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21 Track Two: Genesis 50:15-21 Psalm 103: (1-7) 8-13 Romans 14:1-12 St. Matthew 18:21-35 Background: Absolution The history of absolution, pronouncing the forgiveness of sins, is one of movement from a public event to one that included private expressions of confession and forgiveness. At Salisbury on Maundy Thursday, penitents who had admitted grievous sins on Ash Wednesday, and who were expelled from the Church because of them, we readmitted to the Church immediately preceding the principal mass of the day. A video depicting this ceremony is available here . This is an example of the public expression of absolution, which up until the sixth century, was the only expression. The Celtic monasteries began combining the two expressions (public confession and absolution, and private confession without absolution), which is the mode we see today. Arou...