Break Open the Word

The Second Sunday in Lent, 21 February 2016 Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Psalm 27 Philippians 3:17-4:1 St. Luke 13:31-35 Background: Cutting a Covenant There were many ways that covenants were affected in the Ancient Near East, and there were several agencies that would obligate themselves under them. Some of the form of covenant come from political agreements made between nations, mot especially the forms used by the Hittites and the Egyptians. We have several examples of such covenants or treaties from the library at Tell el Amarna. These forms are used in both the Old and New Testament, especially the notions of “Blessings and Curses” which Luke appropriates for his telling of the Sermon on the Mount. The first reading for this morning, however, gives us a sharp image of the word itself in Hebrew, for “Covenant” means “to cut”. If one were making a covenant one “cut the covenant”. We see this in Abraham’s cutting the animals in half, and God (in the burning torch) a...

The First Sunday in Lent, 14 February 2016 Deuteronomy 261:11 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Romans 10:8b-13 St. Luke 4:1-13 Background: Temptation      Looking at a series of articles on “temptation”, it was interesting to see that the word “trial” was used a great deal in attempting an understanding of the notion of temptation. In Greek, the noun, peirasmos, is masculine, while in Hebrew, the noun, maccah , is feminine – a reflection perhaps of how women were thought of in the biblical record. The idea of trial, actions being observed by an external entity, lends itself to a God who looks upon as we act in life. But there are other understandings of temptation, and indeed there is an understanding of temptation as a purely internal force as well. It is there that we find other means that seem appropriate: failing, rebellion, proving, and enticement. Indeed we can see all these forces at work in our understandings of what temptation is and means. If indee...