Proper 6A, June 14, 2026

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servants, the twelve disciples, who you called to preach the Gospel to all people. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, p. 257.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 9:35-10:8

"On one level...it is true that only the unqualified should present themselves for the church's ministry. No one can be qualified. Everyone who serves does so as the Twelve did, by Jesus' authorization given them by Jesus."

"The Unqualified Twelve," Beverly R. Gaventa, The Christian Century, 1993.


"Jesus then instructs his disciples on how to live as itinerants, what to expect, and how to handle difficulties. These teachings were important because his followers would only have known village life - relying on family and kin for sustenance - and would be totally unfamiliar with the social realities of being an outsider."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 9:35- 10:8, (9-23), David Ewart, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

We arrive at the scene of our gospel story in chapter 10 following Jesus' modelling of ministry. Jesus has looked out and seen the crowds, he has been moved in his belly towards them, he has been at work healing and freeing people from that which binds them.

The harvest is now made ready for harvesting, and Jesus is prepared to send out people to do the work of the mission. This work is work that immolates his own work. And, it works whereby those first followers are sent, no longer to be led this way and that but to lead and to do the work of ministry.

Before Jesus sends them out, he gives them his authority. Jesus lays upon them his spirit and gives them the same power to heal and cast out. To hold and to release. The word here literally is the word "sent", they are sent, they are apostles. They are no longer disciples. They are in this moment to go out to all those without a shepherd. This is not yet the gentile expansion of the mission, but it is an expansion of the mission nonetheless. 

The religion of the day was a religion that required the faithful, if they were faithful, to come to the centres of faith. God was in God's house, and the faithful came to make their offerings and to support the central religious faith over and against any local or dispersed religiosity. One could only be faithful in direct pilgrimage with the one shrine on the holy mount. So what Jesus does in sending out disciples is quite radical. It undermines a central religious system and takes faith, spirit, and the unbinding of burdens into the field where the people are. 

The image of a harvest is an image of a great dispersed faithful people being gathered. Lost because of the abandonment of their religious shepherds in favour of a "come and see", "come and get" religious system of exchange. Faithfulness bequeathed to the pilgrim, faithfulness given to the generous who gave of themselves to the house of God. Jesus and his apostles change this - the Gospel comes near to you...not you to the Gospel.

Furthermore, this radical movement that is to take place in and among the people is to be one that does not require great scholarship or participation in the schools of the wise. There is no need to go and study at the religious centres. In fact, a fisherman can do this work. Here again, Jesus undermines the religious systems of hierarchical reason and wisdom training in order to be a leader in the faith. Jesus sends them out as apostles with very little training...other than watching him. 

He sends them out without plans. Go and depend on the kindness of others. Go to people's homes. Sure, people will be uninterested in your work and good news. That is ok. Pass on by. Pass on by.  

This mission is so radical that Jesus prepares them by telling them that the religious leaders may even come down hard on the apostles. He charges them not to worry about what to say to the homeowner or to the religious who seek to undermine their ministry. God will give them good words at the best time. 

They will be accepted, and they will be reviled. They will be brought in under people's roofs, and they will be cast out. But this journey of Good News unleashed on the world and in the streets, and people's homes is one that, for the apostle, will teach them to depend on the grace of God. Their humility and mimicking of the ministry of Jesus and his compassion and love will reveal to the world exactly who they follow. Their actions, grace, mercy, healing and release will reveal God to the world. 

Some Thoughts on Romans 5:1-8

"As the prophetic tradition affirms, the Spirit is God's gift of the new creation making the people of God ready for the new age."

Commentary, Romans 5:1-5, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"The past and the future. Memory and expectation. Remember and hope. Remember and wait. Wait for him whose face we all of us know because somewhere in the past we have faintly seen it, whose life we all of us thirst for because somewhere in the past we have seen it lived, have maybe even had moments of living it ourselves. Remember him who himself remembers us as he promised to remember the thief who died beside him. To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping."

"Hope," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog. Justification, from Whistling in the Dark.

"So for Paul peace is about being in a right relationship with God, not as some distant judge nor as someone who is trying to draw us up into himself, but as one who is expansively living love out into the universe."

"First Thoughts on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Trinity, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.


Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Paul writes to the church in Rome that all that we are invited to do is to have faith. We are invited to have faith that God has intervened for us. We are to be at peace about what will happen, and even our own judgment, for God in Christ Jesus, has justified us by the work on the cross. Grace is not given to us by faith, but in faith, we have the grace given to us.

As Jonah speaks to God in chapter 4: "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing." While Jonah was bemoaning that we shouldn't even bother calling people to repentance, the fact is and shall always be that God is a God of grace, and it is upon that grace that we stand. We boast in our hope in this very real faith that is in us. 

In our need for endurance, in our suffering, in our lives, we come to understand that grace, the grace that enables us to take risks, is the grace that gives us hope. Our very character is formed by our dependence upon God's grace in sure and certain hope we will not be disappointed. Paul writes in Vs. 5: "And hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

We, as humans, are quick to change all of this, though. We love our religion. We love to turn our faith into religion. In this way, we begin to pretend that God is working on some kind of exchange system. We begin telling ourselves that we must act, do, and talk right. In this way, we can earn God's love. Sure, we tell ourselves God is grace-filled, but no slacker Christian will he tolerate. But this is to remake God into a lesser god, a demigod who likes to barter and exchange devotion and adoration for love and acceptance. Our god, this God of Paul and the scriptures, is no such God. This God does not need our love, devotion, and adoration to exist. 

No, this God does not wait for humans to get their act together. This god does not wait for me to get my act together. Paul writes, "For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person, someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners." What? That is right. God in Jesus Christ saves us while we were yet sinners. God saved us, all people, once and for all by God's mighty work of the cross. To deny this fact or make God into a god of exchange is to create a god in our own image - a god who is no god. To make God into a god of no sovereign power to save those God wishes to save. And, it turns out, God wishes to save not the righteous, clean, and faithful but the lost, the least, the unseen, and the sinner. 

That, my friends, is good news indeed.

Track I

Some Thoughts on Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

"Abraham has received a seemingly impossible promise, but his animated efforts on behalf of these strangers under adverse conditions suggest that he still trusts that God can and will do the impossible."

Commentary, Genesis 18:1-10a (Pentecost +8), Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"Grace always comes first. Because that grace is there, God's people can respond with their best."

Commentary, Genesis 18:1-10a (Pentecost +9), Sara Koenig, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Along the way, Abraham learns that no one person has a monopoly on God's covenant, and that great endeavors require great partners."

"A Great Partner for a Great Endeavor," Torah Commentary by Wendy Amsellem. BeliefNet.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

This is a chunk of scripture. But it is good stuff. God has called Abram out of the land of Uhr. Abram has followed God and set up altars along the way. God has given him and Sarai new names for his work and pilgrimage. Furthermore, God has continued to journey with him even into the land near the oaks of Mamre. 

We are told that God appears there in the person of three men. God is then received, the three men are received by Abraham and Sarah, and they are welcomed and fed. Before God leaves, God promises that they will have a son. This seems impossible, but God makes the promise that it will, in fact, happen before God is with them again. Indeed God keeps God's promise. 

This event is often depicted in the great masterpiece of the Trinity as written in the icon my Rublev. The icon is entitled "The Hospitality of Abraham."

Now the passage itself is important for many reasons. Certainly, it is important in the origin stories of the people of Israel, for it speaks to God's special relationship with Abraham. It is also important because it speaks to God's relationship with God's people and God's willingness for those people to prosper and to multiply.

The passage cannot be divorced from the Genesis desire on God's part that the people multiply themselves. Nor can it be separated from God's continued desire to walk with his creation on the eve of the day beneath the trees of his garden.

Mary translates her pregnancy from the story of God delivering God's people but also the story of God's promise to Abraham. This links the past to the present in the Gospel narrative, the old with the new. Jesus calls his followers to the work of the hospitality of Abraham. In fact that they are the inheritors, the very real progeny of the Gospel and covenant of Abraham, says Peter in Acts. Paul invites his hearers to understand they are inheritors of the relationship Abraham had with God.

Track II

Some Thoughts on Exodus 19:2-8a

"How do you keep God's promise? How can you pass that promise on to others?"

"A Kingdom of Priests," Larry Broding's Word-Sunday.Com: A Lectionary Resource for Catholics.

"But suppose today we ask ourselves the question, 'What would it mean for us to hear these Ten Sayings directed also to our community, our society, as a whole?'"

"If We Stood at Sinai Together/Yitro," Arthur Waskow & Phyllis Berman, The Shalom Center.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

We often read back into our Old Testament the poor theological ideas we have received both from our Christian texts, subtle antisemitic cultural heritage, or subtle xenophobic effects of the last century. In this way, we disjoin our understanding of holiness in baptism from the great tradition from which we came. We wrestle with a new Christian message rather than seeing that Christianity has flowed from the very beginning of people's experience with God, especially Judaism. Christ came as part of that tradition. So, with fresh eyes, let us examine this passage and its idea of the "kingdom of priests" from the vantage point of its own tradition and not one which sets its heritage aside.

In the book of Leviticus, we get an inkling of what God means here in Exodus. In Leviticus, God tells the people they are to be holy as God is holy.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, may his memory be a blessing, wrote this, 

"This is ... so inclusive an address is commanded. The Sages explained this to mean that the contents of the chapter were proclaimed by Moses to a formal gathering of the entire nation (hakhel). It is the people as a whole who are commanded to “be holy”, not just an elite group of priests. It is life itself that is to be sanctified, as the chapter goes on to make clear. Holiness is to be made manifest in the way the nation makes its clothes and plants its fields, in the way justice is administered, workers are paid, and business conducted. The vulnerable – the deaf, the blind, the elderly, and the stranger – are to be afforded special protection. The whole society is to be governed by love, without resentments or revenge."

We recognize this is both pre-temple and post-temple theology, and it is the theology of Jesus calling the people back to exactly this!

In our passage for Sunday from Exodus, we are receiving exactly this invitation. We are being told that "radical democratisation of holiness" and priesthood is our way of life. 

At that time, there were high priests everywhere: Egypt, Midian, and the surrounding countries. God is calling people to be holy people, priests in their own homes, lives, and families, and to share that priesthood liberally. (Ibid)

The problem was and has ever been that the people tend to shy away from their direct relationship with God, we will pray to saints and idols, we will pray to pictures, and we will put forward clergy and surround them with rails and make sure we have holy places and unholy places. Yet, this is not the message of God or of Jesus. Certainly, here we see this great invitation to living lives of holiness (not lives of the law but of love). Jesus says the very thing to the Samaritan woman, and we pray for the day of its coming. He says, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem." When we claim our priesthood and our holiness, we will pray wherever we are and with whomever we are with!

Proper 5A, June 7, 2026

 Prayer

O God, open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world and that it is from you that all good proceeds. Enliven us with the beauty of hard things that we might by your inspiration, see our actions in light of Jesus' own ministry among us. Send your Holy Spirit that we might have your grace when we fail and enough mercy to try again. Amen.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

"God's perfection is shown most fully not in flaws noted and shut out or scores kept and settled, but in extravagant embrace of flawed people and the end of all scorekeeping."                                                        

Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 5A. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.

"If you stop and really think about, the most difficult 'miracle' in today's text is not the raising of the girl from death, nor the healing of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. The most difficult healing was including the despised tax collector Matthew back into community. Don't believe it? Try thinking of a person your community despises and invite them to church with you. 

"Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 9:9-26, David Ewart, 2011

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

We have three healing narratives in this text with the addition of fasting. In 9:9-13, the author parallels Mark's gospel almost exactly with the addition of the inclusion of "I desire mercy." This is important given the additional texts we have appointed for this Sunday.

I hold it out as a sign of Matthew's assistance that Jesus was in line with the ancient prophetic tradition of Hosea, Micah, Amos and Isaiah. It also shows that Matthew is in line with the Pauline theology of grace found within Romans. 

This then leads into vs 14-17 regarding fasting. There is a celebration when one lamb is found, one sinner who becomes a follower, one who was left out who is now part of the whole. There may be times for fasting - to be sure. But the daily life of grace lived as mercy to others is a life of celebration. 

Some may interpret the new wineskins as the Gospel, but this is not the meaning IF we accept Jesus' continuation of the work God began in the beginning and intends to continue to the end. It also relieves us from having to deal with other questions brought up by a different interpretation and keeps us from the ease of not reading the Old Testament or, worse - an antisemitic reading of it. This then casts the reading differently: we are the wineskins. We cannot try to be followers of this God and Christ if we keep living in the old ways. The tax collector is changed by the grace of God, he is no longer the old wineskin but is made new. The same with clothes; we might hear remember the message of the kingdom and the wedding. We cannot hear the gospel and keep being the same ole person, same ole clothes, same ole wineskin. A person like Matthew is healed and made new by the invitation. He is set out to become his truer self, not in the person of a remade Matthew, but a Matthew who now finds his true identity in Christ.

Due to the layout of Mark's narrative, the stories of the healings are written into place to show a direct attack by Jesus upon old systems of state, society, and religion. (See Mark 5:21-43) Here then, we have a slightly different message if we read it through the eyes of Christ's intent to show that true humanity is found in our mercy and not in our sacrifices. 

What we see with the daughter who is sleeping (and will see with the haemorrhaging woman) is Jesus acting mercifully. He is actively showing his disciples what their ministry of mercy is to look like. Remember, in Matthew, we are heading towards the sending out of the disciples in this section. Jesus will tell them in 10:7, "As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons."

Some Thoughts on Romans 4:13-25

"The law has always been a means of pointing the way toward God, an instrument that helps us to know and do the divine will. As such it is meant to liberate. But when the means is mistaken for an end in itself, the consequence can be a state of spiritual confusion in which all hope is obscured."
Commentary, Romans 4:13-25, Daniel G. Deffenbaugh, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"To this day, any time we are tempted to limit God to the size of our purposes or to doubt the breadth of God's generosity or the surprising power of God's activity we can return to Romans 4 as an astonishing elaboration of the familiar but life-changing claim: God is great; God is good."

Commentary, Romans 4:13-25 (Pentecost 4), David Bartlett, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Similar struggles emerge today when people ponder whether there can be such faith in God without the culturally specific reference to Christianity."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Lent 2," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Abraham is, for Paul, an archetype of faithfulness. However, Paul does not believe that Abraham was blessed because of what he did - kept the law (even though it had not been given to Moses yet), was the father of Israel, and did all that God asked (left home, was willing to sacrifice his son). At the time that Paul wrote this, Abraham was seen as an example of a person who kept all the laws. He was considered God's greatest law keeper. Paul is crafty in turning this argument.

Paul believes that faith is something larger than keeping the law. Faith is attached to God's gift, God's promise. 

Paul understands full well the human condition to be unable to achieve perfection. If faith and God's promise are dependent upon some kind of contract - covenant - then we are all in big trouble. God loves us because God has created us worthy of God's love. God gives us grace because we are made worthy of forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ. Grace is given free to everyone everywhere and is not dependent upon keeping the Mosaic law. 

So, Abraham becomes the father of the Christian faith - not because he kept a law - but because he believed in God's promise; he hoped in God's promise. Here, Paul reorients faith not in keeping the law or doing good and right things but in believing in God's promise. So it is with us. We will never be perfect. We will never keep the law. We may respond to God's love and grace by choosing how to live differently - this is true. But we receive God's promise, God's love, and God's mercy freely. And our faith is our response to that promise.

We must preach and help people understand that faith is about believing in the promise and not achieving some unachievable standard of perfection.

Note: This is also a text used on Lent 2B.

Track I

Some Thoughts on Genesis 12:1-9

"'What really matters is not whether Abraham is good or bad or cowardly or heroic, but that God pursues His design for the welfare of the human family with people like that -- in other words, people like us.' - Lewis Smedes."
"Call and Promise," program highlights, discussion & reflection questions and more from the Bill Moyers PBS series Genesis: A Living Conversation.


"'Vocation' is distorted by two disastrous misunderstandings: a secularized idea of 'career' and a monastic concept of the religious life."
"The Meaning of Vocation," A.J. Conyers, (other resources at) "Vocation," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2004.


"God tells Abram to leave the comforts of home and go out to repair himself--and the entire world.""Birth of a Covenant," Torah Commentary by Rabbi Shai Held. BeliefNet.

Oremus Online NRSV Text


Whole books could be written that detail the various invitations God made to this or that person in the Old Testament. There are the creation stories and God's invitation to Adam and Eve to work in the Garden. There is the calling of Noah to restart creation. Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) are called to leave the land of Ur of the Chaldeans--the beginning of generations of God’s people. There are the judges and the prophets. Jacob is called and renamed. There are women: Miriam--a leader who brings Israel out of slavery in Egypt with Moses; Deborah--a judge of Israel; Huldah--a prophetess who helped Josiah; Ruth and Naomi; and Esther--the Queen of Persia, to name a few. The sheer number of called people is too many to number, but we will examine a few of these crucial stories.

This lesson is about Abraham and Sarah, originally called Abram and Sarai and renamed for their faithfulness. In many ways the story of their calling begins the narrative of God's people. Abraham and Sarah were frequently cited by the early Church as examples of God's expansive promise to all people. God said, "Go," and all of their worldly plans were set aside as they left their homeland for God's wilderness. Their lives were disrupted by God's invitation and their response. Theologian Walter Brueggemann says, Abraham

. . . is caught up in a world of discourse and possibility about which he knew nothing until addressed, a world of discourse and possibility totally saturated with God's good promises for him and for the world through him. (Genesis 12:1) God’s call propels Abraham into a reality that refigures his life and removes him from any purpose or agenda he may have entertained for himself before that moment.[i]

Abraham and Sarah offered themselves faithfully to the journey and became a blessing to the world.

God’s invitations are very persuasive. Through visions, voice, and the advice and counsel of friends, God invites God's people to go. The specific circumstances of this going vary across different contexts, but there is always a purpose behind God's invitation to go. People are always being sent. There is a hinge here in the language--a double meaning: going and being sent are about both the invitation and the purpose.

For instance, God called Abraham and Sarah to become a people that bless the world, which is a habit of God throughout all of scripture. Faithfulness is the act of accepting the invitation and opening oneself to becoming the blessing. Those whom God invites, God also blesses in order that they might bless others. God said to Abraham and Sarah, "By you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3). Their promised family would outnumber the stars of Abraham's counting and be a blessing to the world. Brueggemann ponders the meaning of this blessing and says, "'Blessing' is not a religious or moral phenomenon in the world" it is a "characteristic feature of creation that is fruitful and productive."[iv]

Creation was separated from God because its communal structures were organized around itself as opposed to God. These inwardly focused structures perpetuated mimesis, a repetition of the violence that created a dark shadow over the kingdom of God. Abraham and Sarah were called to show how the human community could be different. God made a point of rejecting religious violence by refusing Abraham's offer of Isaac as a sacrifice. God undid the human drive to sanctify murder. God was interested in a shalom that broke the repetitive, violent cycle of Cain and Abel. Abraham and Sarah's call was to heal the violence that separated humanity from God. Yet, the feud continues, and so does the division between God and humanity.

Even with all of religion’s great gifts to society, we must acknowledge that disunity and tribal grievances still exist. God continues to invite us to go as peace bearers and we continue, often, to reject the invitation. It is religion that calls for the sacrifice of Jesus. His is one name among the many who have been scapegoated for the sake of political and religious peace. Religions have a propensity to scapegoat others. 

God's invitation to Abraham and Sarah was an invitation beyond this history of sacrifice. God went further and sent the peace bearers to dwell in the midst of the other.

The relationship between Abraham and God is typological of God’s relationship with all whom God invites into mission. Abraham was invited to be in community with God and to take that community on the road. God’s call removes us from the realm of self-definition: we begin to define ourselves as creatures in relationship with our Creator. This movement dissolves the idea of the "other,” for the only true other is God. We no longer divide the human community into friends and others. Instead, there are only friends along the way. When we obey God’s call to go, there are no strangers or aliens. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that our invitation to journey with God means confessing and rejecting the notion that,

. . . for there to be an ‘us’ there must be a ‘them,’ the people not like us. Humanity is divided into friends and strangers, brothers and others. The people not like us become the screen onto which we project our fears. They are seen as threatening, hostile, demonic. Identity involves exclusion which leads to violence.[v]

To journey as Abraham and Sarah did is to reject our inclination to protect ourselves by force. In their going--in our going--we embrace our vulnerability and forsake our tribe in order to journey with God and God’s tribe, pronouncing God’s blessing upon the world. Brueggemann says, "Abraham is called to exist so that the general condition of curse in the world is turned to a general condition of blessing, life, and well-being. Israel's mission is to mend the world in all its parts." God's people are to be a blessing in the world. God intends the world to be "generous, abundant, and fruitful, effecting generative fertility, material abundance and worldly prosperity-- shalom in the broadest scope."[vi]

The importance of being a people bringing about peace and blessing in the world is affirmed in the teaching of the early Church. 

Paul used God's call to Abraham and Sarah and their blessing as a paradigm of the expanding mission of God. Paul read the blessing and invitation of God as being fulfilled in the great expansion of grace to all people regardless of ethnicity, gender, and social class. (Galatians 3:8) God will not be limited to a religious or ethnic "us vs. them" but instead imagines a kingdom where we are all beloved of God. This kingdom is founded upon the rejection of violence for the sake of nation and faith in favour of shalom for God. Our presence and participation in God’s creation is our invitation into the community of blessing – this community of shalom. We are rooted in it by our very nature. The mission is not about nation-states or making people members of religious institutions; the mission is a journey into a new community of being.

This is an excerpt from my book Vocãtiõ which is about our vocation as creatures of God.

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[i] Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, 122.

[ii] Brueggemann, 123.

[iii] The Roman Catholic document the Lineamenta, n15, defines vocation in this way: “Vocation is broader than mission because it is composed of both a call to communion and a call to mission. Communio is the fundamental aspect destined to endure forever. Mission, on the other hand, is a consequence of this call and is limited to an earthly existence.” Kenyan B. Osborne, Ministry: Lay Ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, Its History and Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2003) 597.

[iv] Brueggemann, 125.

[v] Jonathan Sacks, "Bereishit (5769) - Violence in the Name of G-d," Office of Rabbi Sacks, 04 Apr. 2016, Web. 19 July 2017. <http://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5769-bereishit-violence-in-the-name-of-g-d/>.

[vi] Brueggemann, 125. This is how Gideon experiences God, as pure peace, shalom. Gideon was one of Israel’s judges and built an altar and called it, “The Lord is Peace.” (Judges 6:24) God's work is this shalom, and God calls upon God's people to enact it by going. 

Track II

Some Thoughts on Hosea 5:15-6:6

"Following the devastation of the previous verses, 5:15 is a word from God that introduces the response from Israel in 6:1-3."

Commentary, Hosea 5:15-6:6, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"For Matthew the difference between Jesus and his adversaries is based on Hosea 6:6: Whose observance of the law is characterized by the steadfast love that God desires from Israel and whose not?"

"Learning What Righteousness Means: Hosea 6:6 and the Ethic of Mercy in Matthew's Gospel," Mary Hinkle, Word & World, 1998.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

A word to begin with from Jonathan Sacks as we take up the "prophet of doom" Hosea:

Judaism is not a recipe for blandness or bliss. It is not a guarantee that you will be spared heartache and pain. It is not what the Stoics sought, apatheia, a life undisturbed by passion. Nor is it a path to nirvana, stilling the fires of feeling by extinguishing the self. These things have a spiritual beauty of their own, and their counterparts can be found in the more mystical strands of Judaism. But they are not the world of the heroes and heroines of Tanach.

Why so? Because Judaism is a faith for those who seek to change the world. That is unusual in the history of faith. Most religions are about accepting the world the way it is. Judaism is a protest against the world that is in the name of the world that ought to be. To be a Jew is to seek to make a difference, to change lives for the better, to heal some of the scars of our fractured world. But people don’t like change. That’s why Moses, David, Elijah, and Jeremiah found life so hard.

Hosea may be considered the prophet of doom, but in the Talmud, he is the greatest of prophets of his generation, including Isaiah, Amos, and Micah! He was the oldest of them. The hard prophetic work is laid out in the previous verses. Here though, Hosea writes beautifully:

‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.’ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

He pronounces healing, and binding up, revival, rising to life again, mercy like showers and spring rains, and love. Then he is straightforward: the God we worship desires to love and not sacrifice, wisdom and not burnt offerings.

One of the things that I have found very hard to deal with is my inherited Christian understanding of the singular importance of sacrifice in Judaism as opposed to a Jewish understanding of its place in the ancient Torah, tradition, and post-second Temple.

The Torah presents issues regarding the interpretation of animal sacrifices in a tradition that has lasted over 2 thousand years without a Temple. The second issue presented in today's text, but in almost every prophetic text and securely rooted within the Sinai tradition, is the sceptical nature of such sacrifices.  (See my work on Sinai tradition in The Jesus Heist) The concern by the prophets is the abuse of such sacrifices to relieve the burden of sin while they continued to "oppress and exploit their fellow human beings," wrote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The Jewish tradition DOES NOT hold that a generous sacrifice to God will secure God's forgiveness of "crimes and misdemeanours". Sacks writes, "This is an idea radically incompatible with Judaism." (Ibid)

What is important is that we are inheritors as Christians of this Sinai and prophetic tradition because Jesus was in that same line. He, like Hosea, saw monarchy and sacrifices as the least characteristic act within Judaism. Remember, as Sacks says, "Every ancient religion in those days, every cult and sect, had its altars and sacrifices." (Ibid) In this way, Jesus and even the book of Acts or Hebrews may be seen as in line with Hosea and other prophets and the Sinai tradition. For here is the echo of ancient Judaism (picked up as part of the sacrificial understanding of faithfulness post the fall of the second Temple). This is prayer, study, and charity (charitable action: see tzedakah). Think of  Hosea here: God desires love, not sacrifice. Think of his peer Micah: What does God require of thee: "O mortal, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

In this text, we learn:

a) it is not out of line with Christian teachings

b) Jesus is continuing the tradition of this teaching

c) we as Christians, like our siblings in the Abrahamic traditions are invited to make our life a sacrifice to God by love of God, prayer, study, and by sharing what we have/doing good works. 

 

Proper 9, Year B, July 7, 2024

Prayer
Remove from before our eyes, O God, the veil that hides your splendor, and flood us with the light of your Holy Spirit, that we may recognize your glory shining in the humiliation of your Christ and experience even in our own human weakness the sufficiency of your grace and the surpassing power of Christ's resurrection.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Mark 6:1-13

"Would you agree that we are living in a world that is more and more characterized by unbelief? If so, doesn't it feel as if we are living in a Nazareth-world ? a culture that is, at best, disinterested in Jesus?"

Commentary, Mark 6:1-13, Mark G. Vitalis Hoffman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"Whether among the travellers or among those who stayed in their community, Jesus called people to be and bear good news for the poor. No wonder the established power structures of family and land and religion saw only madness and did their best to tame him and his followers. The judgement of history is probably that they have at least succeeded with most of his followers to this day."

"First Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 6, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"By attempting over and over to make him ‘the Messiah,’ people were missing the point of his message, which was that the Reign of God was present and that they all were invited to participate in it."

"Mission Grounded in Rejection," D Mark Davis, raw translation and exegesis/questions, Left Behind and Loving It, 2012.

"Is there some area – some regret we can't get over, some grudge we can't let go, some hurt that has come to define us, some addiction that imprisons us, some anger that has taken hold of us – that we are having difficulty entrusting to God?"

"Something to Do," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Last week the crowds loved this guy, this week they reject him in his home town.  Those who knew him the best, who saw him growing up, those who he perhaps counted as friends - they reject him. He is not able to do any work there in their midst. He is completely "dumbfounded." (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 1, 377).

There are several powerful themes. The first is that the gospel is not easily heard by the insiders. This is true in the religious authorities and in his closest relatives.  The second theme is that God is at work here, just like the prophets of old.  The third is Jesus' rejection. He is rejected by the demons. He is rejected by the religious authorities. He is rejected by gentiles. He is rejected now by his own people.

God is patient. God is at work. Even though he is rejected here he is not fully without power to do miraculous things.  God in Jesus continues to make his way to the ultimate rejection and crucifixion. But it will be at the cross that he is victorious. 

The message this week is clear to me. God is at work in the world around us. God is at work wether we see it or do not see it. God is at work outside the walls of our churches and outside of our communities. In point of fact some miraculous things are happening inside, but the great work is being done out in the world.  The whole of creation is marching steadily towards fruition of the kingdom of God and his reign.  It is at work and miracles and works of power are being done by God through the power of the Holy Spirit as we speak.

The question is not unlike the dumbfounded Jesus might have posed to his hometown family: cannot you see what I am doing here? Do you not know me?  Don't you want to come with me?

What would it be like this Sunday to preach the newspaper and illustrate where God is at work in the world? Or in music, art, or film?  Where is the language of grace breaking into the culture?  What would it be like to show and highlight those places where the church is following Jesus and is actually out there and working with his miraculous power to change creation?  Yes, that is the inspiration and call to see again for the first time that we need from the pulpit this week. Inspire us to get out there an stop looking for Jesus to be the tame Jesus of our sanctuary.  Inspire us good lord to follow you out into the world and help us to see you at work and to join your efforts there!

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

"And how long was the whole great circus to last? Paul said, why, until we all become human beings at last, until we all 'come to maturity,' as he put it; and then, since there had been only one really human being since the world began, until we all make it to where we're like him, he said - 'to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ' (Ephesians 4:13). Christ's to each other, Christs to God. All of us. Finally. It was just as easy, and just as hard, as that."

"Paul," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"It may be timely for the preacher to focus less on individual experience and more on a congregation's collective experience."

Commentary, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Sally A. Brown, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Gratitude and generosity - two virtues that acknowledge we are not all strength and independence, but also (and very basically) weakness and dependency - prepare us for better adjustment in situations of loss."

"Declining with Grace," Robert C. and Elizabeth V. Roberts, (other resources at)"Aging," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2003.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Buried in the reading for this week is a real gem. Paul writes, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.' So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong."

As an Episcopalian this passage from Corinthians reminds us that we are broken and fallen creatures. Our reason is deficient to understand the divine intent its fullness and that we are always powerfully controlled by our ego and selfish desires. In this I know I am weak. I do things I do not wish to do - Paul claims. So my weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions (done to me and inflicted by me) and calamities are so very real. So very real are my weakness that I am saved solely by the grace of God. God's grace is sufficient.

We has Christians struggle though because while we understand that God's grace is sufficient for me - it is rarely sufficient for you.

Today, as we think and ponder the culture all around us we might be challenged to truly accept God's sufficient grace for ourselves and for others.

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10


"With all the difficulties of this text, it is important that the juxtaposition that the text itself gives us of David's coronation, his conquering of Jerusalem and this oddly prominent prohibition of the blind and the lame from the house (of the LORD) be held together."
Commentary, 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Samuel Giere, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"How do we know that God is with us? It all starts with our naming at our baptism."

"David Becomes King," Faith Element Discipleship System, "Setting the Bible Free," 2012.
Commentary, 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Ralph W. Klein, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"...the lectionary choices this week, following on from last week, result in a picture of the kingdom moving from Saul's death to David's crowning as a relatively smooth transition. The David who graciously laments the deaths of Saul and Jonathan appears this week as the natural heir. The intervening chapters present a much more complicated, interesting, if sanguinary, tale."

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Pentecost 5, 2009, The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Howard Wallace Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson, Lorraine Parkinson, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.

Oremus NRSV Text

David is now in Hebron. He is recognized as the leader and publicly anointed by the heads of the tribes of the tribes of Judah. This is important as it reveals the unification of the people...a unity that will not last long as a split will occur after David's reign. Saul tries to mess this up by having Abner create a kind of figurehead leader in Ishbaal. Too bad for him, for as they fighting breaks out it will be Ishbaal who will be one of the casualties. In the end, seeing the future potential, he is murdered by a few of his own folks. David though is quick to act and has the assassins killed for having murdered a "righteous man." David is eventually made king and he sets up a new city as a unifying capital for the province. There is a lot of trash talk and David's army prevails. As the narrative of the king goes this is a key chapter in the building of a unified kingdom and the wooing of powers and supporters.

Then David does a weird thing and prohibits the blind and the lame from worshiping with everyone else. Now we well remember this passage:

For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose … –Leviticus 21:17

Now, we know that when David came to take Jerusalem from the Jebusites they taunted him saying that the lame and blind could beat this guy! It is possible that the text is a play on words where by David is mocking the Jebusites themselves, but the Leviticus quote makes this unlikely. The truth is that such people were seen as unclean and so in context his pronouncement is not particularly odd - though it is odd to our modern hearing. But that is because living in the West does weird things to you and we think everyone should be able to go everywhere as free individuals and have largely cast off any sense of holiness codes like this one.

Also, as Christians we remember that Jesus goes to the Temple and undoes this prohibition.  After throwing out those who have made a living on religion we are told:  “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.” –Matthew 21:14

Ezekiel 2:1-7

"Preachers may "understand" this text too quickly -- as in, Yes, I get it: The preacher is called, like Ezekiel, to proclaim a hard word of God to a recalcitrant people..."
Commentary, Ezekiel 2:1-5, Fred Gaiser, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Passages like this one can lead in two very different directions."
Commentary, Ezekiel 2:1-5, John C. Holbert, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus NRSV Text

The prophet says that he has received a word from God, to stand up and listen. God has sent the prophet to the people with a message. And, well, it isn't good. The people are rebellious and in need of a prophet. They, like their parents, have transgressed. "When you are done, Ezekiel," God says, "They will know a prophet has been in the midst of them."

God invites Ezekiel to fear not. He isn't very hopeful as he says to Ezekiel, "though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions!" God promises Ezekiel that God will be with him all along the way.

I wonder sometimes if after preaching to our people if they think that a prophet has been among them? Who are the rebellious in our own midst? 

Now, I am not talking about fussing at your people. I have in mind here something more akin to what Walter Brueggeman offers in his book, The Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).

When I ponder what the ancient prophets in Israel are doing as we have them in the text, I arrive at this judgment that will serve as my guiding thesis: prophetic proclamation is an attempt to imagine the world as though YHWH—the creator of the world, the deliverer of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we Christians come to name as Father, Son, and Spirit—were a real character and an effective agent in the world. I use the subjunctive “were” because such a claim is not self-evident and remains to be established again and again in every such utterance. 

The key term in my thesis is “imagine,” that is, to utter, entertain, describe, and construe a world other than the one that is manifest in front to us, for that present world is readily and commonly taken without such agency or character for YHWH. Thus the offer of prophetic imagination is one that contradicts the taken-for-granted world around us.

So, to answer what rebellion looks like, is to see clearly what in the world around us is acceptable/unacceptable within our society but is wholly unworthy the kingdom of God. I am thinking here of the separation of families at the boarder of the US. It can be all kind of legal to do so but, does this action represent the kingdom of God - the rule or riegn of God? And, if it doesn't how will you, like Ezekiel approach this.

Again, Brueggeman:

At the outset, it is clear that this way of putting the matter refuses two common assumptions. On the one hand, it rejects the more conservative assumption that the prophets were predictors, those who tell the future, with particular reference to predictions of the coming Christ. On the other hand, this thesis refuses the common liberal assumption that the prophets were social activists who worked to establish social justice. It strikes me that the ancient prophets only rarely took up any concrete social issue. 

More important to them than concrete social issues is the fact that they characteristically spoke in poetic idiom with rich metaphors, so that their language is recurringly teasing, elusive, and evocative, with lesser accent on instruction or didacticism.

This Sunday may not be a Sunday to preach prophecy but to actually preach about what it means to be a prophetic preacher, prophetic listener vs a rebellious one, and the meaning of being a prophetic witnessing church.

Proper 7, Year B, June 23, 2024

William Turner, The Storm
The artist once lashed himself to a mast in order to see for himself the storm at sea.

Prayer

Make firm, Lord God, the faith of your Christian people, that success may not fill us with worldly pride nor the storms of life lay us low.  Rather, whatever may befall, teach us to recognize your quiet but calming presence and to count on you as the unseen companion who faithfully accompanies us throughout life's journey.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Mark 4:35-41

"What are you afraid of? I ask that because I have a hunch that we're rarely aware of just how significant a role fear plays in many of our decisions, actions, and conversations."

"Faith and Fear," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2012.

"Crossing to the other side with Jesus may be a risky, unpredictable proposition, and in this passage, the wind and the sea create a visual manifestation of the dangers of being in the boat with him."

Commentary, Mark 4:35-41, Meda Stamper, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Even when the seas threaten to engulf us and human imperial posturing threatens our home and the heart of our identity, the Risen One is always in the boat with us. Christ's words, 'Peace! Be still!' still promise to carry us safely through the night."

Commentary, Mark 4:35-41, Sharon H. Ringe, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"People know what it is like to be buffeted. People know what it is like to have no control. People know situations where only the divine can intervene."

"First Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 4. William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

In this passage from Mark we have the stilling of the storm.  Jesus has been teaching and teaching in parables.  The theme has clearly been the power of God and the coming reign of God. He then sets out with his followers in a boat.

In this passage we see the stories of God's power located in the person of Jesus. What seems important in the themes that have come before this event is the nature of God's power "hidden under an appearance of weakness." (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 1, 335)  It is in Jesus that the power of God has entered the world and through him that the reign of God is taking shape.  His power, though in the weak shell of a man, is evident in his teaching, in his healing work, and in the miraculous work that bubbles up around him. 

Key to this understanding is the fact that Jesus not only stills the storm, but that he does so by commanding it.  In this story we see the image of God in Christ Jesus through whom all things were made. On behalf of his friends he commands and frees them from certain death at the hands of winds and a sea that is rising up against them.

The story is in some very real way an offering of revelation that God's mission is at work in the world.  God's power is at work in the world.  God's grace and mercy and strength are in the midst of the world around us.  Even though we see chaos God is present.

In the midst of our own lives we may even echo the words of the disciples: "don't you care that we are about to die!"  

We wonder about the meaning of our lives, and the day in and day out nature of life which is seemingly so meaningless.  We wonder about lives that are thrown back and forth in the midst of raging seas of politics, economy, and society.  Is fate and chance at work in this world?  Why do we even do this.  In a world driven by ego and my misplaced longing and love which is always perversed into some kind of consumation I find my life is in fact out of order. And, like so many of you and so many of my friends, I say in the dark hours when I lie awake and live with my fears and anxieties: don't you even care that I am dying?

That is the world. It was the world for the first followers of Jesus and it has been and continues to be the world today.  But Jesus says and questions us back: why are you so cowardly? why are you so fearful? Where is your faith?  I imagine he said even more:  have you not been listening? Do you think this is all about you? Do you think God is not at work?

We might remember God's words to Job from chapter 38ff:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
2 ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

4 ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

8 ‘Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb?—
9 when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
11 and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?

12 ‘Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed like a garment.
15 Light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.

16 ‘Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
ETC...

And, I must answer: "uhhhhh, nope."  You and I claim a faith, an ancestral faith, that proclaims that God is at work in the world.  We claim that from the age of Abram when he set out from the land of the Chaldeans (Gen 12) that God has been at work and that as Paul tells us all creation is groaning towards its completion (Rom 8).

It is only when our human soul becomes miopic and focused upon our own ego needs that we close off the vision of the world of God's power and reign.  Jesus in this passage raises our eyes heavenward.  And, like the disciples we answer: who is this?

Jesus is our salvation, he is our grace, he is the one from whom all things were made but he is also the one in whom all things are being remade. 

What a different world  of possibility seems to be about me when my eyes are cleared from the storm of self-preservation and I can see the opportunities to participate in God's kingdom. 

It is our journey, our pilgrimage, that is frought with restless seas.  Mark's gospel is always pointing to the cross.  The demons on land and the demons in the sea are always defeated by Jesus, but the point of the narrative always raises our eyes to the defeat of these powers at the foot of the cross.  (Marcus, 340)  As Christians we proclaim the world renewed in the wake of the final Easter defeat. 

Yet, in the midst of life and restless travels we have difficulty in reminding ourselves of God's kingdom in our midst, of God's power at work in the world about us.  So as we come to this passage let us claim our place on the journey. Let us be honest about our faithlessness.  Let us groan and bewail our situations.  Let us wonder where God's power is.  And let us remember that it is in the weak, in our own weakness, that we discover God's power working in us.  Then let us also see that what is old is being made new, and what as died is being raised up.

This passage is an opportunity in the midst of a world in chaos to point out that God is at work. And, it is an opportunity to preach grace and mercy. And, it is a moment when the church might look outside itself into the world and see and name places where God is at work in stilling the storm.  Now is not the time for a cowardly church but a proclaiming missionary church which is at work offering a vision of a kingdom that is being built and a reign of God underway. Now is the time for bravery and commissioned missionary work where our hands join the hands of God to still the storm of the world and to heal the sick, help the blind to see, and the poor to have good things.  Now is the time for our voices to join the voice of God and still the storm around us.  It is our opportunity as missionaries to name God in the world putting down the forces which seek to destroy God's creation and the creatures of God. 

What would the world be like if our churches, upside down ships that they are, were to sail out and offer a quiet powerful voice to the fearful and hopeless people of God.  How better to be reminded as disciples of God's reign and power than out of our weakness to be his voice and hands in the world?

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

"For Paul, failing to love one another is a sign of accepting the grace of God 'in vain.'"

Commentary, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Carla Works, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"In the ancient world, responsibility for initiating the mending of a ruptured relationship was understood to rest with the injuring party. In political contexts, this work was normally entrusted to an ambassador. Paul sees that in Christ, God completely overturns conventional expectations."

Commentary, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

We come back to Corinthians this week. Paul and others are eager for their friends to receive the grace of God and to do so for the sake of the work that is before them. This work is the sharing of God's love and the Good News of Salvation. No matter what comes: 

"through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love,7truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true..."

Of course this letter is about the battle between false teachers and Paul. The letter is about supporting the Corinthians in their work to endure the bombardment of powerful preaching coming from the others. He urges unity. He calls for them to stay together. And, he invites all of us to be mindful that our dependence is not upon the best, brightest, or seemingly powerful. Instead we are always and everywhere to rely on Christ.

William Loader writes, "Much passes for religion. Much passes for Christianity. Much passes for spiritual success. Paul inspires us to keep returning to the way of compassion and vulnerability: Christ's - and also his own. The rest is idolatry."


1 Samuel 17:1-49

"The stone from David's slingshot caught him between the eyes, and when he hit the dirt, windows rattled in their frames as far away as Ashkelon."

"David and Goliath," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"And then when we face that enormous giant, whether sickness, family breakups, financial disaster, addictions, shame, the same God who protected and provided will do the same thing for you again."

Commentary, 1 Samuel 17:[1a, 4-11, 19-23] 32-49, Roger Nam, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"When it comes to our faith, I think we like David have the choice of whether we will live in fear or in trust. That applies to all aspect of our lives, but especially to what we do at Church. Seeking new vitality requires new directions; that's just as true for church as it is for life in general. And stepping out in new directions takes courage and faith."

"In the Name of the Lord," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2009.

"Sometimes the connection between religion and violence is tenuous, sometimes it is explicit. Sacred terror is almost always complex and bound up with other causes (social, historical, economic, cultural, political, etc). But at the end of the day we must admit that there is far too much violence in the world that is fomented with a specifically religious rationale, motivation, or justification. Christians should commit ourselves to do whatever we can to stop it."

"'After He Killed Him, He Cut Off His Head': David, Goliath, and Sacred Violence,"The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Daniel B. Clendenin, Journey with Jesus Foundation, 2009.

"...we should not remain silent when we see attempts to legitimize sacred violence, but instead name it for what it is. We should learn the warning signs that religion has become evil and evil has become religious..."

"Texts of Terror and the Enemies of God: What Should We Do When Religion Becomes Evil?" The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Daniel B. Clendenin, Journey with Jesus Foundation.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

When I grew up there was a bible story Sunday morning TV show called Davey and Goliath. I loved the show. It shared bible stories, there was lots of learning, and Davey and his dog Goliath belonged to a happy family. As I think about the naming of the dog and the actual story it is very odd. That is for another day.

The enemies of Israel are eager to split the kingdom of Israel in two. The want to come up through the valley of Elam, the Shephela, through which armies have always fought and conquered Israel. Saul comes to meet them. The armies are on either side of the valley upon the ridges. Each army has calvary, heavy infantry, and artillery.

They were in a deadlock and in order to break the deadlock David and Goliath are sent down to fight. This is single combat. Big giant Goliath comes down and challenges them. Goliath is described this way:

And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him.

Nobody wants to fight him. But David comes forward to Saul and volunteers. He is met there by David.

David wins. We know the story. This is a great story of the underdog!

I love the retelling of the story by Malcolm Gladwell in his very popular TED talk. In it Gladwell tells us that everything that he knew about the story was wrong. David is supposed to be the underdog. David and Goliath is part of our cultural language as a story about an underdog.

David is the underdog. He is little compared to Goliath, has no army, and only has the sling. What David has is not a toy. It is a very deadly weapon. The army has artillery which is either bow and arrow and/or slingers. The rocks in the valley are super strong. They are barium sulphate, they are twice the density. The stopping power of the sling is similar to a 45 caliber weapon. The velocity of the sling the rock are paramount. We know that slingers were able to hit birds in flight, and 200 yards away. When David lets the rock go, he expects to hit his enemy. Slingers were the decisive weapon against heavy infantry. Goliath's expectation is that he will fight to as infantry do. Goliath expects hand to hand combat. David isn't going to fight this way...even though Saul and Goliath expect him to do so. David is not an underdog, the outcome is not unlikely.

Gladwell in an interview says:

David had superior technology. I mean, once he decided to break the rules, he's the guy in charge. And then there's Goliath. There's all of these hints in the biblical story in Samuel that Goliath is not what he appears to be.

We don't only misunderstand David and his sling. We miss who Goliath is too. Gladwell in the same interview says:

In fact, this is where the rabbis come in – the rabbis have been pointing this out for years. He didn't sound like a big terrifying warrior. He is led down onto the valley floor by an attendant. He moves really slowly. It takes him forever to figure out that David is not intending to fight him in a sword fight. And he says these strange things, as if he's not perceiving the situation properly.

Goliath is led onto the floor by an attendant. Why is he being led by the hand? The bible tells us that he moves slowly.  Goliath is oblivious to what is going on. Goliath says you come to me with sticks? But David only has one stick. The medical community has tried to come to terms about this...Gladwell says that Goliath has a disease - acromegaly. It has side affects like poor vision because of compression of vision with double vision and farsightedness. He can't make his way on his own. He can't see David. He sees incorrectly. He needs him to come close to find. He sees double vision of two sticks. The Israelites thought he was a foe, what they saw as strength was actually his weakness.

Gladwell ends by saying: Giants are not always as strong as they seem and sometimes shepherds' boys have a sling in their pockets.

Sermons Preached On These Texts

Riders on the Storm, Jun 25, 2018, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7b, St. Luke's, Lindale 

Stilling the Storm: A Father's Day Sermon, Jun 23, 2009, Sermon preached on Mark's Gospel 35.34-41, Good Shepherd, Tomball, 2009 Father's Day. 

 Come With Me To The Other Side Jun 21, 2015, This is a sermon preached at Good Shepherd, Kingwood, Tx, following the Mother Emmanuel AME church shootings by Dylan Roof (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/dylann-storm-roof-photos-website-charleston-church-shooting.html?_r=0). It is based upon Mark 4 beginning at the 35 verse. And, in some way tries to make sense about why we have a difficult time seeing this as an act of racism (despite Dylan's own clarity that it was an attempt to begin a "race war"). Why we want to make this about Christians. And, what we Christians might be able to do to open our eyes to the work that is before us.