Break Open the Word

The Readings for Pentecost XXII Contemporary Reading: “An Ancient Catholic”, Richard Rodriguez Sirach 35:12-17 Psalm 84:1-6 II Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Saint Luke 18:9-14        BACKGROUND If you have gone to Sunday School, or even if you’ve just gone to church sporadically over time, you will likely recognize these two groups: the Sadducees and the Pharisees.   From the context of the gospels, both groups represent an opposition to the teachings of Jesus, and most Christians have never explored the differences between the two groups.   That there were two such distinct groups, both political and cultural, was a result of the history of Israel from the time of the Babylonian Captivity, when a significant number of Jews came under the influences of what would be Persian thought, and the later struggles against the forces of Hellenism following the conquests of Alexander the Great, and finally the cultural push of the Romans.   Sad...

The Readings for St. Luke’s Day Contemporary Reading: “The Impossible Possibility”, Letty Russell Ecclesiasticus 38:1-4, 6-10, 12-14 Psalm 147:1-7 II Timothy 4:5-13 Saint Luke 4:14-21        BACKGROUND The custom of honoring the saints dates back to the earliest days of the church.   Following the reformation, however, the honoring of post-biblical saints was sharply curtailed.   The Book of Common Prayer (1549), honored the holy days from the Sarum Missal.   The 1662 version of the BCP, the version used in the American colonies, listed seventy-two saints, but provided no liturgical materials for their commemoration.   The first American book (1789) listed no minor holy days in it calendar, as was the case in 1892 and in 1928.   In 1964, however, the church saw the addition of a calendar of more than a hundred commemorations along with appropriate propers. In 2010, with the publication of Holy Women, Holy Men...