19th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ August 12, 2012 ~ 1 Kings 19:4-8; Eph 4:25-5:2; Jn 6:35, 41-51 We are what we eat. The more like God we want to be, the more we need to nourish ourselves with God, any way that we can. That’s why we’re here this morning. What do we feed on the rest of the week? Too often, we indulge in spiritual junk food: sensationalist media, gossip, judgmental conversations (which are no less judgmental if our judgments happen to be true…… if, indeed, any thought that judges a created being can be true in the …
Scripture Commentary for August 5, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 13 August 5, 2012 FIRST READING Second Samuel 11:26-12:13a Today we have the conclusion to the dreadful story of David’s sinful pursuit of Uriah’s wife, even to having Uriah killed on the battlefield. We hear a parable being told by the prophet Nathan and his stunning words of accusation. They need no explanation. The punishments from God that Nathan pronounces upon David are never carried out. In the verses following our reading, David simply admits that he has sinned, and God says OK, but you cannot have the child. Bathsheba gives birth to a son, and God takes him …
Scripture Commentary for July 29, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 12 July 29, 2012 FIRST READING Second Samuel 11:1-15 Today we have one of the most famous and most vicious courtships in the western world. It is a dreadful story David seduces Bathsheba, a married woman he had not laid eyes on until that day. By the taboos of his society, the sexual congress leaves him unclean, for she has not completed the process of purifying herself after menstruation (see Lev 15:19-24). Basheba seems to have missed her next period, for she tells David she is pregnant. The only way he can cover his misbehavior is for Bathsheba to …
Scripture Commentary for July 22, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 11 July 22, 2012 FIRST READING Second Samuel 7:1-14a In his battles and politics David has been guided by God, who speaks to him directly. But now there appears a prophet named Nathan, who sometimes brings God’s messages to David. Through Nathan’s intersession, God makes a covenant with David, another of those lop-sided covenants in which God promises all and asks nothing in return. God will bring David peace, and he will establish a son on the throne after David dies. This son will build the Jerusalem Temple. The son who survived the family quarrels and became king and …
Libby Caes' Homily from July 15, 2012
Holy Wisdom Monastery, July 15, 2012 Amos 7.7-15; Psalm 85: 8 ff.; Eph. 1:3-14; Mark 6: 14-29 Since Easter one of my challenges has been balance. If you were to hold a plumb line (open the straight line) next to me when I am standing with my eyes closed and feet close together, you would notice that I sway a bit. A plumb line is a string with a weight at the bottom of it. Similar to this straight line which my husband Dave uses to mark a straight line before cutting drywall. But plumb lines are not used on …
Scripture Commentary for July 15, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 10 July 15, 2012 FIRST READING Second Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 Our bishops have cut an interesting piece from the middle of the story of how David brought the Arc from the house of Abinadab to the City of David. Uzzah, one of the men carrying the Arc on poles, put his hand on the Arc to steady it, a well-intentioned move which angered God, who struck him dead on the spot. That made David afraid to bring the Arc to the City; so he had it taken to the house of Obededom. When nothing but good things happened to …
Jim Penczykowski's Homily from July 8, 2012
Jesus’ identity as Messiah is misunderstood by the religious leaders, by the crowds, and by his own family of origin and hometown neighbors. Our passage concludes one portion of Mark’s Gospel and begins another portion. At the beginning of the portion devoted to the twelve we see them cast in a fairly positive light, Jesus sending them out to proclaim that all should repent. In the chapters to follow, the twelve are just as clueless as the Pharisees and the citizens of Nazareth. They do not understand Jesus as the messiah sent by God. Much of what we hear proclaimed …
Scripture Commentary for July 8, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 9 July 8, 2012 FIRST READING Second Samuel 5: 1-5, 9-10 David, ruling the southern Jewish state, Judah, is approached by all Jewish leaders and made king over all Israel. He then captures Jerusalem, the last stronghold of the Canaanites (the Jebusites who occupied Jerusalem were Canaanites). Though fortified, Jerusalem could hardly have been any larger than a village. David built a fort on the promontory south of the village, three sides of which are cliffs falling into deep ravines. The Jebusites had called it Zion. The soldiers renamed it the City of David (the word “city” originally meant …
Scripture Commentary for July 1, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 8 July 1, 2012 FIRST READING Second Samuel 1:1, 7-27 First Samuel, which is about the rise of the Jewish kingdom, is appropriately named, for Samuel is the great kingmaker prophet. Second Samuel ought to be called “David,” for it is the story of the kingship of David. Although it is largely a family saga about who would succeed to the throne, the political kingdom established by David and ruled by his son Solomon, was the most successful, expansive, prosperous period in the history of the ancient Jews. Today we hear how David received the news of the death …
Colleen Hartung's Homily from June 24, 2012
Practical Faith in the Face of the Storm Mark 4: 35-41 June 24, 2012 In today’s readings, a fierce gale and punishing waves, a voice from a terrifying whirlwind and a frustrated evangelist cause us to ponder some hard questions about faith and discipleship. In the Gospel of Mark, the disciples cower before raging winds causing Jesus to ask them, “Have you no faith?” In the reading from the Book of Job, Job dares the question of justice and fairness in the face of incomprehensible loss causing God to issue a demand from the heart of a whirlwind, “hitch up …