I have two months "in the can", from June 12 to August 21. I'm not stopping to put them all up just yet, just offering these teasers for now. I do take requests.
Luke 13:10-17
The symbols in the
Luke verses have a little more meaning than many of the verses in
recent readings. Jesus calls this woman to him. But he's teaching in
a synagogue, that's male territory. The inclusion of women in the
early movement may be a significant factor in why Christianity has
survived. When men began fighting the Romans in the uprising of 70
AD, an exclusively male movement would have suffered. No doubt the
women also contributed to the more compassionate nature of the
movement. (See Richard Carrier's chapter in John Loftus' collection, "The Christian Delusion")
He also challenges
the law. The details of exactly which laws were the right ones (the
ones Jesus came to fulfill Matt 5:17) and which were wrong is not
laid out in any detail. You only get clues like this, that healing
someone is more important than watering your donkey. It doesn't seem
that difficult of a choice. This story carries more weight if we
understand how these additional laws, supported by the elites played
a role in maintaining their status (as we saw in Luke 11 back in week
12).
You also might want
to compare this to the similar story in Mark 2 and 3. Mark is the earliest
written gospel that we have, and this similar story comes earlier in that
gospel. It sets the tone in Mark. It's important to Luke, but Luke is
addressing the growth of the movement into the upper classes.
Today, we are
dealing with questions of moral law like family values. Some
Christians say things like; staying in a marriage is the only right thing to do.
This is sometimes followed so strictly that a single mother is shunned and her
children are not given the support they need. This is done regardless
of the circumstances of how she came to be a single mother.
Hopefully, a thousand years from now, everyone will have difficulty
understanding why someone would say that, just like we have trouble
understanding why the Pharisees acted as they did.
Jeremiah 1:4-10
The book of Jeremiah
may have actually been written by Jeremiah, a prophet in the time of
King Josiah. As we get further along in the Bible we know more about
the people discussed. Jeremiah probably also wrote Deuteronomy. This
"second law" of Deuteronomy was intended to fix the
problems of Israel being exiled by the Babylonians. Here he's
proclaiming his authority by saying God literally put words in his
mouth. And he gets to destroy and overthrow. This is why we have
secular governments and democracy now.
As an aside, I live
where there are lot of billboards about abortion. One of them uses
this “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” partial verse.
I'm pretty sure this is Jeremiah making this claim about himself and
what God said to him, not every egg that has ever been fertilized or
in this case, every soul that existed before it was even conceived.
If I were to say that God speaks to me because he spoke to Saul, I'm
pretty sure the people who made that billboard would have a problem
with that. It's convenient to say that God can know us individually
in that way, but inconvenient when someone says they have a
relationship to God that doesn't fit their narrative.
Isaiah
58:9b-14
Often, an easy way
to increase your understanding of the lectionary passage is to simply
read the whole chapter that contains it. Verse 6 tells says the yoke
is the yoke of the oppressed. In the included verse 9, it is also
about not arguing with one another about what to do next. The other
verses expand on the ideas of sharing bread with the hungry and
bringing homeless into your home. Acts like performing a fast are
said to be meaningless if these actions are not also taken.
However there is
also mention of honoring the Sabbath, so ritual acts are not to be
eliminated. This author, as many in the Bible do, sees the two
things, ritual and working for the community as integrated, almost
one and the same. As we've been seeing lately in Luke and some of the
Old Testament passages, this theme of doing more than merely
appearing to be godly is repeated throughout the Bible. The reminders
to actually do some kind of work usually are often mixed with
reminders to pray or to remember God. Here, the Sabbath is not just
the day to stop working, it's the day to refrain from pursuing your
own interests. It is not some arbitrary rule designed to oppress you,
or to focus on something imaginary, it's a reminder of how to build a
community, through peace, with justice.
I think the 21st
century speaker can repeat these themes of community building without
the language of worship or “delighting in the Lord” or stopping
to explain who the ancestor Jacob is. Our rituals can involve more
direct symbolism of where our attentions should turn. Whether those
attentions turn on a certain day at a certain time, is not always
that important. And there doesn't need to be lot of promises about
springs of water or our needs being satisfied. It doesn't hurt to
talk about how investing in your community has a tangible return, but
the work itself should be its own reward. You may not see a direct
payoff to serving up a free meal, but someone in that line will
undoubtedly go on to contribute in a way that benefits others. That's
how it's supposed to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment