Break Open the Word

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 13, 2 August 2020   Track 1 or Track 2 Genesis 32:22-31 Psalm 17:1-7,16 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14:13-21   Isaiah 55:1-5 Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14:13-21   The Collect   Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.     Background: Jacob wrestles – interpretations from  Etz Hayim   First of all, let me share the translation of Genesis 32:22-31 from  Etz Hayim , and then notes of interpretation.   “That same night he arose, and talking his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children, he crossed the ford of the Jabbok, after taking them across the stream, he sent across all his possessions. Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with until the break of dawn. When he saw that h

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 12, 26 July 2020   Track 1 or Track 2 Genesis 29:15-28 Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or  Psalm 128 Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33,44-52   1 Kings 3:5-12 Psalm 119:129-136 Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33,44-52   The Collect   O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.     Background: Bread and leavening agents   In biblical times it was grains that constituted the bulk of the food eaten by the peoples of that time. Chief amongst those foods was bread,  Lehem.  Hebrew has twelve different words for bread. It was eaten at every meal and accounted for 50 to 70 percent of the daily caloric intake. Originally, barley flour was the main in