Pentecost 17B

Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
The Lord has delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
Psalm 116:7-8

Isaiah 50:4-10

4 The Lord God has given me a trained tongue,
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens, wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I did not turn backward.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.

7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?

Let us stand in court together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.

10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the voice of his servant,
who walks in darkness
and has no light,
yet trusts in the name of the Lord
and relies upon his God?

Today's Gospel

• Mark 8:27-38

In Mark's gospel, Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and to the cross is particularly incessant and relentless. Today's gospel reading in heavily Roman-dominated Caesarea Philippi includes Jesus' "But who do you say that I am?" challenge, followed by Petter identifying Jesus as the Christ (27-29); Jesus' first of three passion predictions in Mark's gospel (8:31); Jesus' charge to his followers to take up the cross in order to lose their life and to save it (34-35).


The Suffering Servant

The Church long has identified the four Suffering Servant passages in Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55) with Jesus of Nazareth:

• Isaiah 42:1-4
• Isaiah 49:1-6
• Isaiah 50:4-10
• Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12

Isaiah 53:8 records the servant's death in evocatively poetic words the librettist to Handel's Messiah used: "He was cut off out of the land of the living."


Today's First Reading

As we continue in Ordinary Time and Sundays after Pentecost, the first reading for today is the third servant song. It also is one of the scriptures for Sunday of the Passion (the Sixth Sunday in Lent), and for Wednesday in Holy Week during all three lectionary years.

Third Isaiah most likely was recorded toward the end of the exile in Babylon. The iconic Cyrus of Persia had overpowered Babylonian domination and begun to established his own long-lasting empire. Although the church identifies Jesus of Nazareth as this suffering servant, for Second Isaiah, God's servant is God's people Israel—some times a collective servant; at other times an individual.

Scholars have noticed striking consonance of today's scripture with Lamentations, particularly 3:21-24, which well may have influenced Isaiah's poetry.

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
God's mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,
"therefore I will hope in him."

This no longer is the endless recycling of the same thing; this is resurrection hope!


Where We Live

The Lord God has given me a trained tongue, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Isaiah 50:4

The ability to provide words of comfort is a gift of God, not something we generate on our own. Whether we speak more formally in a sermon or leading a class, if we write poetry or sit at the kitchen table with a friend, God will give us what we need to say. Different translations say tongue of a disciple, tongue of a teacher, instructed to know, the right words, tongue of the wise, words of wisdom. For myself, I worry a lot more about what to say in a one-on-one situation than if I'm preaching or teaching, but sit back; breathe. Wait! Don't be in a hurry. God will provide for the moment.

The gospel writers saw Jesus of Nazareth in the suffering servant. Jesus calls us to the kind of servant leadership he shows us. But how – or does? – this scripture connect with today's gospel with Jesus' charge to deny ourselves (what does that mean?) take up a cross, and follow him?

Pentecost 16B

Waters shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert
the burning sand shall become a pool
and the thirsty ground
springs of water
Isaiah 35:6-7

Isaiah 35:4-7a

⁴ Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. God will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. God will come and save you."

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; ⁶ then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
⁷ the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

Isaiah

In a formal sense, the long book of Isaiah divides into three main sections:
• chapters 1-39, 1st Isaiah, before the Babylonian exile;
• chapters 40-55, 2nd Isaiah, during the exile;
• chapters 56-66, 3rd Isaiah, after the exile.

But that's not quite the way it really is. First Isaiah essentially is over when chapter 34 ends. After a series of judgments in previous chapters that lead up to the tempered news in Isaiah 36–38 of no more Assyrians, but then bad news of impending exile to Babylon in Isaiah 39, today's chapter 35 brings the spirit of hope, renewal, and resurrection we find in Second Isaiah (40 through 55) that likely was written mostly during the exile, and then edited or redacted after homecoming to Jerusalem. In addition, the fabulous Messianic banquet with its feast of fat things in Isaiah 25:6-9 almost definitely is not from Isaiah of Jerusalem.


Today's First Reading

Vengeance in 35:4 can refer to vindication, benefit, a payment that restores justice, or simply God's response or answer, as in "God`will come and save you" suggests.

When John the Baptist was in prison, John told his followers to go and ask his cousin Jesus if he [Jesus] was the promised one "who is to come," or if they needed to keep looking and searching for someone else. Jesus told John's followers, "Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, dead are raised, good news proclaimed to the poor…" [and blessed are those who take no offense, do not consider me a stumbling block/scandal."] Jesus assured John he was the promised one who'd change the course of history. Matthew 11:4,5,6 Luke 7:22,23

This Isaiah vision is even more dramatic than Jesus' message to John. Springs and streams, maybe actual rivers, glorify the desert wilderness. Water is life! People who used to be-lame walk, and they leap like gazelles. Formerly speechless people talk—and sing!

Isaiah 35 comes shortly before bad news of deportation and exile to Babylon.


Practicing Resurrection

Like all of scripture, First Isaiah, or Isaiah of Jerusalem celebrates the effects of God's presence. Throughout scripture, death isn't only when you stop breathing and your body shuts down. Death is everything that limits a full life. Death is whatever interferes with our common life. Death is there when creation doesn't flourish. Resurrection sometimes restores spiritual life, sometimes physical or emotional or communal health.

In baptism we received God's Spirit of Resurrection from the dead. Like God's promise through whichever Isaiah recorded today's scripture passage, like Jesus' reply to his cousin John the Baptist, God often calls us to be the reversal, the newness, the resurrection to new life God promises and people need. Jesus was the promised one who'd change the course of history; now we are Jesus' presence in the world. As we practice resurrection!

Do you know Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by farmer-poet-theologian Wendell Berry? Among other things he advises us:

Every day do something that won't compute.
Love the Lord.
Love the world.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
…
Practice resurrection.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people
from this time on and forevermore.
Psalm 125:2

Pentecost 15B

A God so near!
Ordinances as righteous!
Deuteronomy 4:7-8

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

¹ So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

² You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.

⁶ You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!"

⁷ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? ⁸ And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

⁹ But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Pentateuch, Ha Torah. They've been called Books of Moses, not because Moses could have written them, but because Moses is the central human character. In Greek Deutero means "second" and nomen means "law;" in a limited sense Deuteronomy refers to a second giving of the law.

Our English word "law" too easily can lead to a caricature of Torah. God's covenantal way of Torah is fluid, dynamic, stretchy, and flexible, always on the side of grace, mercy, love, justice, and life.

Deuteronomy 4:1 "Give heed to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live…" Choose life by considering the needs of the other at least as important as our own. That's the neighborology we especially discussed during Luke's lectionary year.

The compilation of Deuteronomy was a long time coming over about five centuries:

• from the United Monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon
• to events and written sources prior to the Babylonian exile
• to events and sources afterwards

• during rebuilding of Jerusalem's infrastructure, social, political, and economic institutions
• restoration of worship
• "rediscovery" and canonization of Torah
• into the post-exilic period of (almost endless) Persian imperialism

Wide, expansive, and inclusive, Deuteronomy demonstrates Torah neighborology to stranger and native-born actively lived out on turf and in time.


Today's Reading

Immediately before the actual Ten Words or Commandments, scribes who assembled Deuteronomy placed today's passage that asks:

• what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?

• what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just, as righteous, as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

What country, gathered people, community, assembly, has such a wonderful way of being, style of living, of guidelines:

• for living together
• for loving the neighbor
• for maintaining the common-wealth
• for staying free?

Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 refer to the ten commandments of the Sinai Covenant not as statues, ordinances, or commandants, but as words. The Hebrew dabar denotes speech and action as one.

At least twice in Exodus, the account of the formation of Israel as a people, God's people / Moses' people (who are one and the same), announce

"we will do all the words the Lord has spoken."
Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7

Reformer John Calvin insisted "there is no pre-obedience knowledge of God." Reformer Martin Luther began his Small Catechism – traditional preparation for First Communion – with the Commandments. Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann reminds us, "It is the God of the Commandments with whom we commune."


God in Our Midst

"…a god so near to it as the Lord our God"–the commandments carry the same attributes or characteristics as God; this God whose people, "do all the words" have the same qualities as the God who gifted them. When they practice Torah/observe the Ten Words, the people assume God's justice, love, righteousness, and mercy. When God's obedient, observant people are nearby, God is there.

In our recent five weeks of John 6, we heard about manna and quail from heaven, water from the rock, feeding a whole lot of people with very few fish and five loaves of bread. Like people in the scriptures, we daily encounter evidence of God's presence. Those signs or symbols include waters of baptism, bread and wine of holy communion. Signs and symbols of God's nearness include the commandments that share God's characteristics of holiness, righteousness, justice for the neighbor and the stranger. Signs of God's presence include us, the church, the contemporary people of God, wherever we go…

The people all answered together,
"All the words the Lord has spoken
we will do!"
Exodus 19:8

Pentecost 14B

The Lord is near to the broken-hearted,
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18

Kiev, Ukraine skyline photo by Sergiy Galyonkin

John 6:56-69

⁵⁶ "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." ⁵⁹ Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" ⁶¹ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

⁶⁴ But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. ⁶⁵ And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." ⁶⁶ Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

⁶⁷ So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?' ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

Bread of Life, Week 5

We've reached the last of five weeks of John chapter 6 presented alongside Old Testament scriptures related to food and bodily nourishment, with Psalms that remind us of God's physical provision. A Twitter user serendipitously refers to this long stretch as Breadtide!

Today we move from Jesus' "I am" declarations (that equate him with Yahweh's "I am" revelation to Moses) to the disciples "You are / Thou art" the Holy One of God.


Interpreting Scripture

The historical question of the original setting in time and place (and purpose, to the extent we can figure it out) of a passage always is our first question when we read scripture, before we apply or discern the passage as God's word to us and for us. As historians we need to read the present through the past (presentism) and not interpret the past through events we now know about and attitudes that have changed (historicism).

However, we often do theology backwards, but theology is a different endeavor from history. Though we can't erase the Sacrament of Bread and Cup from our awareness, it's still important to remember feeding 5,000+ people and Jesus' Bread of Life declarations happened before Maundy Thursday, before Resurrection Sunday.

When Jesus announced he was the Bread of Life, no one would have heard those words in terms of the Last Supper/Lord's Supper or related to a post-resurrection Eucharist/Holy Communion with the risen Christ.

Jesus' disciples later would be with him in the upper room on the Thursday he broke bread and told them it was his body, when he poured wine and declared it the cup of the new covenant, but that hadn't happened yet. Jesus' followers also had not experienced the risen Christ hosting a post-resurrection Eucharist/Holy Communion.

We sometimes do theology backwards, and during distribution of the sacrament, the contemporary church often sings Sister Suzanne Toolan's "I am the Bread of Life" that's based on John 6.


Words in the Greek

A translation of any text in any language always is also an interpretation.

In 6:60 "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 'This teaching [logos] is difficult; who can accept it?'" The word translated "teaching" is logos in Greek. You probably remember John's gospel brings us a new creation and opens with, "In the beginning was the Word [logos], and the Word [logos] was with God, and the Word [logos} was God." John 1:1 "And the Word [logos] became flesh and tabernacled among us." John 1:14a

"Difficult" is the root of our word sclerosis for physical hardening of body parts and organs, so it would be a hard to wrap our heads around concept, and not necessarily something intellectually or academically tough.

John 6:68 "Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words [declaration, statement] of eternal life.'" I find it surprising this "word of eternal life" isn't logos again—but it's rhema, the other Greek term that translates into English as "word." You may have sung this as the gospel acclamation in some settings of the liturgy.

We call Jesus "Lord." In Saxon England, the Lord provided the loaf, the bread, to help sustain the community.

Pentecost 13B

God is ever mindful of the covenant.
Psalm 111:5

Proverbs 9:1-6

¹ Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. ² She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. ³ She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, ⁴ "You that are simple, turn in here!"

To those without sense Wisdom says, ⁵ "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. ⁶ Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight."

• This is the fourth of five weeks of Jesus' Bread of Life discourse in John's gospel. For this Breadtide episode, Jesus proclaims himself as the living bread: John 6:51-58


Hebrew Bible Overview

As this blog mentioned last week, the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible has three main sections:

1. Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books, sometimes called Books of Moses, not because Moses could have written them, but because parts of them focus on Moses as liberator of God's people.

2. Prophets or Nabi include Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings—the former prophets; and the writing prophets or latter prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel plus the Book of the Twelve or the Minor Prophets that are minor in length but not minor in content.

3. Writings or Ketuvim are a miscellaneous collection that includes Psalms, Proverbs, Chronicles, Job, Ecclesiastes, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Song of Solomon...

1, 2. Pentateuch and Prophets both carry a sense of an authoritative, revelatory Word of the Lord.

Pentateuch brings us creation accounts, stories of patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God's people Israel in imperial Egyptian slavery, their exodus or departure from Egypt, Ten Commandments twice, journey to the edge of the Promised Land.

Prophets bring us disruptive words from heaven, promises of a future, of death and resurrection. Pentateuch and Prophets emphasize God's covenanting with humanity and with all creation.

3. Writings are not a coherent body of literature; the official canonical content even varied some over the years. Among other angles, they bring us human words to God and human speech about God. They have a sense of discerning God's work in the world from observing creation and social structures, a sense of what we learn from living daily life. Some books report narrative events (Chronicles, Nehemiah, Ezra, Esther for example) or address God in temple or another worship context as the Psalms do.


Proverbs

Although the Proverbs belong to Israel's religious literature, they're not about creation, covenant, or temple; for the most part they're practical advice for living with integrity or wholeness in community. The Proverbs reveal structure, order, continuity of creation and of all life. The book's 31 chapters contain short essays like the one we'll read and hear today, metaphors, similes, memes/ cultural pieces of different types; poems.

Some bibles say King Solomon wrote the Proverbs; most likely they're from many different authors over a span of 400 years. In a similar way to Moses' connection with liberation, Israel correlated Solomon with wisdom, and some of the content of Proverbs probably is from the united kingdom monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon.

Wisdom in Proverbs and in the other scriptural wisdom books of Job and Ecclesiastes isn't so much head knowledge as it is heart- and foot knowledge—the sense of how life comes together people often gain after they've journeyed for a while.

During this year of grace, we'll read several selections from Proverbs.


Proverbs 9:1-6

Today's reading from Proverbs aligns with Jesus' declaration that he is the Bread of Life. The woman in this story is not vegetarian.... but just as Jesus does, she offers radical, fully inclusive hospitality and welcome to everyone without exception. In both Hebrew and in Greek, the noun for wisdom is feminine. We find the biblical number 7 in this reading.

Pentecost 12B

Get up and eat; otherwise the journey will be too much for you.
1 Kings 19:5

1 Kings 19:4-8

⁴ But Elijah himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." ⁵ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." ⁶ Elijah looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."

⁸ Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

• To follow the Bread of Life discourse, here's the reading for Breadtide week 3: John 6:35-51

More About Sources

When we discussed the Manna from Heaven narrative from Exodus last week, I used the technical German theological word Heilsgeschichte that combines Heil=salvation and Geschichte=history and means God's action in the lives of the people, in creation, in all the world. These stories are about some of the historical (measurable in time and space) experiences of the people. Even more, they're about emotional, psychological, and spiritual human experience and have a high degree of multi-layered density.

Hebrew Bible Sections

The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible is in three major sections:

• Torah or the five books of the Pentateuch
• Prophets
• Writings

Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings come from the same group or committee of authors we often refer to as the Deuteronomic Historian.

Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings belong to the Former Prophets. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the book of the twelve (Minor Prophets in the Christian bible) belong to the Writing Prophets.

Writings include Job, Psalms, Proverbs. Ecclesiastes, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Song of Solomon… I may have left out a few.

Bread for the Journey

In each of the five Bread of Life Sundays, the Old Testament reading is about hunger and sustenance. Today we hear one of the famous Elijah stories from 1 Kings. If you'd asked me about Elijah, I'd have remembered
• water and fire in the moat and the prophets of Ba'al;
• God in the still small voice; and today's account of • bread and water for the journey.

But I couldn't have told you what kind of bush or tree or shrub it was, so I researched Broom Tree. Turns out it's more of shrub than a tree; people made coals from its roots, trunks, and branches. Broom embers retain heat a long time; Elijah's bread probably baked on a fire left from an earlier traveler. I discovered broom trees symbolize renewal and resurrection; a hot fire can sear open the seeds so they germinate and begin to grow. Thats familiar information to us in southern California where fires are a major hazard.

"Angel" means "messenger." Elijah was in a deep blue funk (it's a long complicated story—read what comes before this); God sent the angel who pointed out the ready to eat food because without physical sustenance the journey would be too difficult. Then there's the basic human need for community. Eating alone can be too lonely… but this short reading focuses on physical feeding. As it is throughout scripture, 40 days and 40 nights is approximately one month. Horeb and Sinai are the same place—which word depends upon the source.

Pentecost 11B

Can God prepare a banquet in the wilderness? Psalm 78:19

Exodus 16:1-15

¹ The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. ² The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³ The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.

⁵ "On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days." ⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, ⁷ and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?"

⁸ And Moses said, "When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord."

⁹ Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, 'Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.'" ¹⁰ And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

¹¹ The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ¹² "I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.'" ¹³ In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴ When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground.

¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat."

Can God really set a table in the wilderness? Can God really provide a feast in the desert? Psalm 78:19b

Where We Are

We've journeyed two-thirds of the way through this Year of Grace with our local assembly and together with the the worldwide church catholic.

If you're following the five week long Breadtide segment that covers most of the Bread of Life discourse in John 6, today's reading is John 6:24-34.

This reflection opened with a verse from earlier in Psalm 78 than the portion appointed today as our responsive psalm. It's a long psalm, but how sad the lectionary peeps didn't include verse 19.

Exodus means leaving or departure. You probably know most of the Exodus account about God's people Israel escaping slave labor in Egypt, how they wandered through a series of deserts in total trust of God's provision on their way to the Promised Land; during their trek they received the Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant.


Salvation History

Let's talk about Heilsgeschichte! It's a technical German theological term that means salvation history: Heil=salvation, redemption; Geschichte=history. Heilsgeschichte brings together fairly objective, empirical facts with the lived experiences of the people, often with a sense of saga or myth; Heilsgeschichte has a far greater degree of density than the evidence, cause, and effect history we study in school.

Regarding the Exodus narrative, it's very unlikely a huge group of thousands of people left Egypt together in one fell swoop for the promised land under a leader named Moses. However, almost definitely quite a few smaller groups or bands of people escaped harsh conditions of barely surviving under empire and spent quite a lot of time wandering through the desert in trust, relying on God's provision.

The book of Exodus formally got compiled from different written and oral sources after the Babylonian captivity, as a committee put together several discrete narratives. Again, the salvation history of God, people, and creation is far denser than conventional history. It includes saga, myth, meaning, emotion.


Bread from Heaven

At the start of today's reading:

• God's people have left Egypt
• they've passed through the Red Sea-Sea of Reeds
• Moses and Miriam have sung jubilant freedom songs
• Moses has thrown a healthy tree branch into bitter water to sweeten the waters at Marah

In Genesis we mostly encounter the people of God as a family that in our terminology grows from nuclear to extended; you remember the stories of patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph in Genesis. Exodus is about identity-formation as God's people become a nation, a constituted people. The Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant become the touchstone of their identity.

Today's text includes bread of Egypt that was counted, stockpiled, all administrated up. In our world, bread/food of empire even contains preservatives, it will last almost forever, and in general it isn't particularly healthy or life-giving. This Exodus passage contrasts breads and foods of Egypt/empires with the freedom bread and other types of sustenance God provides as gifts of grace.

Whether four thousand years ago or right here and now in 2024, freedom bread is healthy and life-giving; it doesn't stay fresh very long, so there's no point in stockpiling or hoarding it. A friend mentioned a grocery store employee told him they got a whole lot more bugs when they began bringing in and selling more organic food; read the rest of Exodus16 and find out what happened when the people tried to save some manna for later!

Manna is a semitic word asking "what is it?" The manna itself might have been cilantro/coriander; it could have been tamarisk. Scripture and church talk about the Kingdom of God, Reign of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven, Reign of God. Here we read about the Rain of God, as God rains nutritious food from the sky!

Can God really set a table in the wilderness? Can God really provide a feast in the desert? Psalm 78:19b

Pentecost 10B

They ate and had some left over,
according to the word of the Lord.
2 Kings 4:44

2 Kings 4:42-44

⁴² A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, "Give it to the people and let them eat." ⁴³ But his servant said, "How can I set this before a hundred people?" So Elisha repeated, "Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, 'They shall eat and have some left.'" ⁴⁴ He set it before them, they ate, and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.


John 6:1-15

¹ After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. ² A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³ Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

⁵ When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷ Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." ⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, ⁹ "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" ¹⁰ Jesus said, "Make the people sit down."

Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹² When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost."

¹³ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. ¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

¹⁵ When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

2 Kings 4:42-44

The lectionary pairs this story with Jesus' feeding a huge mob of…5,000 men plus women and children. Do the math!

For an undisclosed reason someone from a land of the Baals, the Canaanite fertility gods, a person almost definitely not an Israelite, brought bounty from the first fruits of Shavuot, the Jewish Pentecost or festival of weeks we talked about on the Christian Day of Pentecost. The first fruits marked the harvest end; Leviticus 23:20 states, "The bread of the first fruits … shall be holy to the Lord."

At first it looked like a lot of food, but when they discovered the crowd was 100 people (was that only men, as was typical then?) they knew it couldn't be enough.

The servant (whose servant? it doesn't say) from afar had anxiety about the amount of food, but Elisha assured him it would be more than enough according to God's promise—as in having leftovers. The hungry people, the human gathering, shared God's holy food of the first fruits.


Bread-Tide

Because Mark is the shortest gospel, this year we hear more from John's gospel than we do during Matthew's or Luke's year. For five weeks beginning today through Pentecost 14, we'll read John 6:1-69—most of the chapter. On twitter, Dr Jo Kershaw from Wakefield, UK, called these five Sundays Bread-Tide.

All four gospels include today's loaves and fishes story:

• Matthew 14:13-21

• Mark 6:32-44

• Luke 9:10-17


Interpreting Scripture

To the extent we can figure it out, the historical setting and original meaning of a passage always is our first question. Every mention of water doesn't refer to baptism; every mention of bread and/or fruit of the vine doesn't correlate to the Lord's Supper, yet they still remind us water is life and food is essential.

At this opening section, try to go back to before Maundy Thursday, before Resurrection evening.

Jesus' disciples would not have heard or seen Jesus in terms of the Last Supper/Lord's Supper; they could not have related this event to a post-resurrection Eucharistic meal with the risen Christ. Although Jesus' original long discourse would have been more scattered and piecemeal than what John gives us, John was very theologically intentional about the order of Jesus' words, and today's reading doesn't yet have Jesus' proclaim I Am the Bread of Life where Jesus not only gives the food, Jesus is the food, so let's also wait on that.

Some scholars believe this is John's stand-in for the Maundy Thursday Lord's Supper founding meal. That's only speculation, even though Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks, and Jesus himself – not the disciples – feeds the people. Did you notice there's no mention of fruit of the vine, or wine…?


Bread and Fish notes

This chapter happens during Passover. Just as at the first Passover, there's been a sea crossing, followed by bread in the wilderness. John 6:9 "Five barley loaves and two fish." Barley was one of the seven agricultural gifts of the promised land; barley was the coarser, less expensive poorer person's grain; the barley harvest had the advantage of being ready before the wheat! Some people in that culture considered fish a food of the gods.

Just as in the OT reading, there were bountiful leftovers. In Greek, leftovers and baskets full are the same word. But what happened to those leftovers? Maybe they fed people who weren't there for whatever reason; possibly the extras fed birds or wild animals?

We only can guess and hope what happened to the leftovers, but we know God's abundance, generosity, grace, supply—you can't out-give God!

I love how the first reading ends with Elisha repeating, "Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, 'They shall eat and have some left.' He set it before them, they ate, and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord."

You've probably heard, There's enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed?

Five Loaves and Two Fish
John 6:9

Pentecost 9B

In Christ ye also are builded together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:22

2 Samuel 7:6-8

⁶ I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. ⁷ Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ ⁸ Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel.


Ephesians 2:13-22

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For Christ is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
¹⁵ He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

¹⁷ So Christ came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸ for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, ²⁰ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²² in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Background

The letter to the church at Ephesus brings us language of the household, the more private, intimate sphere that traditionally included biological family and servants, and that's still mostly about biological family and others we interact with daily outside of school or workplace. Social scientists sometimes refer to these are first spaces or places.

The broad sweep of Ephesians includes third spaces and places—the more commercial, more political public areas where we venture as citizens. Work and school typically are considered second spaces or places.
.
The author of Ephesians says "law" in the same way the Apostle Paul does. Here, law (ordinances, etc.) isn't the Ten Words or Commandments. As it is for Paul most of the time, this is ceremonial law, sacrificial law, circumcision, keeping kosher—ritual practices that divided Jews from gentiles or non-Jews.


Vocabulary

This passage is full of gloriously evocative and reassuring language, particularly related to the Holy Spirit. Baptism changes us from being isolated, solitary, atomized individuals as it (literally) incorporates us into the organic, interconnected, interrelated One Body of Christ—not as an undifferentiated blob, but with unique gifts, talents, perspectives, experiences, and contributions. Although the Holy Spirit always has had free reign, we now possess the indwelling Spirit that enables us to live and act as the presence of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ as we restore the fullness of heaven on earth.

The Message riffs to make this wonderfully clear:

Ephesians 2

¹⁶ Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. ¹⁷ Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. ¹⁸ Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

¹⁹ That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone.

God is building a home. God's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. ²⁰ God used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now God's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. ²¹ We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, ²² all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

For the Day of Pentecost I quoted the first stanza of a hymn by Paul Gerhardt:

O enter, Lord, thy temple,
Be Thou my spirit's guest,
Who gavest me, the earth-born,
A second birth more blest.
Thou in the Godhead, Lord,
Though here to dwell Thou deignest,
For ever equal reignest,
Art equally adored.

Paul Gerhardt, 1653; translated by Catherine Winkworth
Tune: Zeuch ein zu deinen Toren
Scripture: Acts 2:17

I have not dwelt in any house
since the time I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt,
but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
In all the places wherein I have walked,
spake I a word saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?
2 Samuel 7:6-7

Pentecost 8B

Faithfulness will spring up
from the ground,
And righteousness look down
from the sky.
Psalm 85:11

Psalm 85:8-13

⁸ Let me hear what God the Lord will say;
For God will speak peace to his people, to the godly ones;
To those who turn heavenward in their hearts.
⁹ Surely salvation is near to those who reverence God,
That glory may dwell in our land.
¹⁰ Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
¹¹ Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
And righteousness look down from the sky.
¹² Indeed, the Lord will give what is good,
And our land will yield its increase.
¹³ Righteousness will go before him
And will make a path for his steps.

Psalm 85

Psalm 85 comes along in the lectionary during Advent and at other times. Besides, I fitfully use the PCUSA Daily Prayer App that features Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer, it cycles through the psalter every few weeks. Every time I hear verses 10 and 11, I vividly remember singing Ralph Vaughan Williams' cantata, Dona Nobis Pacem when I was an undergrad.

In 1936, three years before the outbreak of World War II as fascism threatened Europe, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote Dona Nobis Pacem–Give Us Peace.

The first reading for this Sunday is Amos' oracle of a plumbline in the midst of the city: Amos 7:7-15

Are the leaders, the institutions, the "regular people," and the outcomes of their words and actions, straight, just, and true? If they are, mercy and truth, justice and shalom will become the reality of our lives together. Glory will dwell in our land!

• Thanks to Naxos recordings, here's the complete text: Dona Nobis Pacem

• Recordings on Amazon

Pentecost 7B

My grace is sufficient for you
for my power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9

Mark 6:1-13

¹ Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ² On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

⁴ Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." ⁵ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶ And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. ⁷ He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸ He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; ⁹ but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. ¹⁰ He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. ¹¹ If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."

¹² So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. ¹³ They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

So far in Mark

We've heard the opening announcement of Good News – "Gospel" – followed by Jesus' preparation for public ministry by receiving John's baptism of repentance, his retreat into deeper wilderness for a time of solitary prayer and temptation, then ministries of healing, exorcism (casting out demons, evil spirits, and what we might consider mental or psychological illnesses), calling followers or disciples, demonstrating the inclusive reign of God by eating with all comers, teaching theology with parables or comparisons, demonstrating his authority over the created order by taming a storm, *even* restoring life to a young girl who was "at the point of death."


Today's Gospel Reading

Jesus returns to his hometown and his disciples follow him. He's on his own turf, with his own people—both family and friends. His teaching on the Sabbath in his home synagogue causes friends and family (not religious experts this time) to wonder about the source of his authority; after all, this Jesus is a regular person like everyone else.

To paraphrase Pastor Eugene Peterson's version, "All of us know who Jesus is, but who on earth does Jesus think he is?"

Jesus and his siblings would have grown up learning scripture, probably memorizing long passages. Any Jew in that time and place would have been scripturally and theologically literate. In addition, it wasn't unusual for a regular person like Jesus to read and teach in the Sabbath assembly; as in synagogues today, they had a custom of inviting congregants to read Torah on Sabbath.


Models for Ministry

Jesus' friends and relatives didn't get who he was; we can commiserate from knowing about how it feels when people don't understand us, the pain of being rejected or not welcome. Those can be important discussions in light of scripture. But for today, we hear about Jesus sending disciples to do the same ministry he has done. Jesus doesn't wait until their understanding and actions all are perfect; Jesus trusts and sends them as they are. They go out as sent people (apostles) because Jesus has authorized them.

At this particular time, Jesus sends his disciples out in pairs of two. He tells them to go with only bare basics: sandals to protect their feet, a walking stick to help trudging over rough terrain—maybe to chase away snakes and vermin. He tells them not to take food or money! This is far from the only biblical model for reaching-out, invitational evangelism, yet many still follow the two by two, minimal supplies, relying on people we encounter example.


Guests and Hosts: Where We Live

6:10: Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place (locale).

Preaching, teaching, and healing are important aspects of twenty-first century Christian ministry for individuals and for entities like congregations, schools, and hospitals. Besides, we love to host people. Every city has dozens of church-related food ministries of different types and several housing/shelter services for various populations.

Related to hosting, typically we think of food and shelter, but why not count ministries of music, visual arts, and dance in the ways we host others, whether they're in the audience or we're instructing them? We're still the hosts-givers; they're our guests-recipients.

But here Jesus tells us let other people host you! Enjoy their hospitality; let them give to you. Make yourselves at home among strangers.

We need to contextualize what we do in order to relate well to others' cultures and experience. We want them to feel welcomed and definitely puzzled or offended. How can we learn to host in ways they relate to… maybe by letting them host us?!

We can learn about our neighbors' food by eating it, watching or helping them prepare it, along with table manners that may be different from ours. After all, western European food etiquette departs from our usual North American habits. Engage newcomers to learn about their music, traditions, geography, and other features in their countries of origin. Countries of origin? How about families and individuals from other sections of the USA? We can learn basic words and phrases in others' languages. If they're native speakers of English, pick up some of their colloquial phrases and use them properly.

If because of space, too remote a location, or other concerns activities can't happen in someone's home, we can invite them to a meal or other activity in a park, rec or community center, maybe in our church building. I'll add in here it's absolutely okay to offer financial support to help offset the cost of food or other supplies. Ministries and outreach can't occur without bodies, minds, and spirits, but don't underestimate how essential funding is.

6:11 "If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." Move right on! What about that advice? How long do we wait? I always say, "people are going to say and do whatever they're doing to say and do. Don't let them wag you." My own advice often has worked well for me, but how do we discern it's time to move on?

Pentecost 6B

Though hast turned for me
my mourning into dancing.
Psalm 30:11

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

⁷ Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. ⁸ I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. ⁹ For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

¹⁰ And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— ¹¹ now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.

¹² For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. ¹³ I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between ¹⁴ your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. ¹⁵ As it is written, "The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little."

Epistles

An epistle is written communication – basically a letter – addressed to a person or group, although these days some blogs qualify as epistolary. Examples? Lead article in the church or organization newsletter. You may get some substack letters; I get a bunch (too much), but Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson's daily Letters from an American is the must-read.

In addition to seven letters the Apostle Paul wrote to various churches, the New Testament contains other epistles attributed to him, as well as letters that cite Peter, John, and James as author. Back then when they didn't have necessary copyright laws, attributing your writing to a well-known person was commonplace and not considered dishonest.

New Testament epistles received edits and annotations as they circulated to different churches, so every word and phrase might not be from the original writer. Paul's letters were earlier than any of the gospels—predating even Mark's Gospel.


Corinth

Today's second reading from 2 Corinthians addresses the Church at Corinth that famously was full of vanity, competition, and divisions that reflected the opulent, cosmopolitan style of the city. Particularly as it relates to money and finances, this passage is a default for stewardship campaigns. However, Paul doesn't focus on balancing the budget of the Corinthian Church; instead, he's concerned about connections and relationships between local churches.

In this section of the letter he wants the mostly gentile Corinthian congregation to provide financial assistance to the mostly Jewish Jerusalem church. Twenty-plus centuries later, different denominations have different polities or governance structures, but whether highly centralized like today's Church at Rome or almost autonomous local churches like free-standing Baptists, we're all interrelated and interdependent in Jesus Christ.


Grace and Economics

All of 2 Corinthians 8 says a great deal about grace; Greek for "generous undertaking" in verse 7 is gracious endeavor and charges the Corinthians to excel or abound in grace because of Jesus Christ's "generous act" that's simply grace in verse 9 – "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor" – and echoes Paul's earlier Philippians 2:6-7.

In Greek, economics literally is the household law. Although verse 14 reads, "…so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance…" Christian economics is both material and spiritual and it's never zero-sum with one party depleted if they give to another. Not surprisingly Paul relates the meaning and impact of gifts of cash in the light (and in the shadow) of Jesus' death and resurrection.

This reading easily expands to spiritual and material gifts of service, prayer, compassion, food, presence, clothing, facilities maintenance, knowledge, and other specialties. Stewardship and giving need to encompass (1) cash ("legal tender") to exchange for stuff we need but can't produce ourselves; (2) time we need to get things done; (3) talents we apply (spend – you may remember a talent was a chunk of money in Jesus' day) toward ongoing or one-time only ministries. And, of course, stewardship of God's gracious gifts incorporates intelligence, prayer, scripture study, and – to all outward appearances – doing nothing as we wait to discern and learn what's next for us.


Where We Live

You probably remember reading about the nascent church in Acts 2:

⁴³ Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵ they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Many many groups since then have tried living communally; monasteries usually function in ways to be sure everything has enough. Some monasteries and other religious groups freely provide for the surrounding community; others sell their produce, handicrafts, and other specialties to support themselves and those they reach out to.

In the world of Western liberal democracies, governments on all levels attempt a type of "fair balance" distributive justice. You probably can share your own experiences of sometimes giving, at other times receiving, of studying the issues and possibly acting by signing petitions or serving on advisory boards.

Darkness may endure for a night
Joy cometh in the morning.
Psalm 30:5

Pentecost 5B

O give thanks to the Lord!
Psalm 107:1

Mark 4:35-41

³⁵ On that same day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." ³⁶ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.

³⁷ A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸ But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

³⁹ Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" ⁴¹ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Where We Are

Mark's gospel was written down around the time of the destruction of the second Jerusalem Temple, which served as a cultural, social, economic, and religious landmark for everyone; the J-Temple was THE reference point for every Jew. No more temple meant the end of the world as they'd known it.

This account approaches a cosmic scope that encompasses memories and hopes of the Temple and other establishments. We can parallel environmental devastation, cyberhacking, racism, democracies struggling against totalitarian governments, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a once in a century worldwide pandemic, a foreign entity invading the USA on 9112001 (you can add to this list) as the end of worlds we had known and expected to continue.


Today's Good News

This event happens "on the same day" as last week's agricultural scattered seeds and mustard seed parables. Today's gospel reading brings us water and the word. And yes, that provides more than a hint of baptism's power to drown old established systems and summon the new creation. This same story's also in Matthew 8:23-27 and Luke 8:22-25; Mark, Matthew, and John include a related narrative of Jesus walking on water.

The body of water here is freshwater Lake of Galilee, but Mark always refers to it as the Sea of Galilee. In the Old Testament a sea or ocean often is a symbol or sign of chaos and disorder. Untamed waters in Genesis 1 and in Psalm 104 are the womb of creation. You remember the sea of the Exodus. Noah's flood. Jonah's ocean, and quite a few rivers besides the iconic Jordan. Check out today's reading from Job 38:1-11.

Jesus tells everyone they're going "across to the other side." That other side was where non-Jews lived. Genesis tells us Abraham was an ivri – Hebrew – one from "the other side." Including everyone by bringing outsiders into the inside is a particular hallmark of Mark's Jesus. To what extent can we do the same?

This meteorological event is a great storm surrounded by great (mega in Greek) fear, with Jesus' word leading to great – mega – calm. "Fear" here really is frightened, terrified, scared, and not "awe" fear of Luther's Small Catechism and some Psalms. In today's gospel reading, Jesus' word that subdues the water is the same word he used to exorcise the demon.

• Mark 1:25 Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit
• Mark 4:39 Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind


• A related reflection for Storm Sunday 2010

Pentecost 2B

We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord
and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake.
2 Corinthians 4:5

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

¹² Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work — you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.

¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Mark 2:23—3:6

²³ One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. ²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?" ²⁵ And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? ²⁶ He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions." ²⁷ Then he said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; ²⁸ so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

¹ Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come forward."

⁴ Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Ordinary Time

Last week we celebrated the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity; now the church's year of grace moves into six months of Ordinary Time, the Green and Growing Time Season of the Spirit, Time of the Church, when the church comes into her own as we continue following the Crucified and Risen Jesus Christ as his presence in the world, everywhere we go. We'll be counting or numbering Sundays after the Day of Pentecost. Today is Pentecost 2.

Ordinary time refers to structure and organization, not to common and mundane, though it does have a sense of "commonality" because everyone shares in it.


Shabbat

The first reading from the Hebrew scriptures and the gospel account relate to the commandment to observe Sabbath rest. We find the The Words or Commandments in both Exodus and Deuteronomy. Today we read from Deuteronomy, when through Moses God says everyone needs Sabbath or intentional rest (not laziness!) because God freed us, liberated us, from the burden of working under the usually unreasonable demands of empires and bosses of all kinds.

With a different focus, the Sabbath commandment in Exodus explains we need Sabbath rest in imitation of God because as we labor faithfully to claim that imago dei [divine image], some of our work imitates divine creativity; almost all of everyone's work contributes to the realization of God's new creation. Sometimes sabbath/rest needs to be at times other than the historical biblical Sabbath day of Saturday or the Lord's Day Sunday many Christians set apart as a day of worship and rest.

In this passage, Jesus heals on the Sabbath in order to free the man with the withered hand to do the work he needed to do to be a contributing member of society and probably provide for his family.


Deuteronomy and Mark

In the sparse environment of the exodus desert, Israel had to trust life and sustenance as a gift. They'd left slavery in Egypt, where everything was about production quotas, counting, keeping up. To what avail? To keep their jobs so they and their families could get by.

Out from Egypt, with water from the rock, manna from the sky, a cloud to lead them during the day and fire at night, Israel experienced God's supply and trustworthiness before God asked for their trust. They knew life as gift before entering the land of promise where they'd again need to work to produce agricultural and practical goods essential for everyday survival and for a more abundant life. But there would be a difference. It wouldn't be non-stop, and everyone would have a measured time of rest, of grace. Everyone: animals; servants; guests; non-Israelite strangers; the land.

The actual Sabbath never changed from Saturday, though Sunday, day of resurrection became the day of worship and rest for most Christians. People in some occupations must work on the Sabbath; for overall health, they're wise to take a dedicated day or two of rest and re-creation each week. As Jesus reminds us, The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath/ Shabbos is for all creation, not the other way around.