Category Archive

PROPER 17 September 2, 2012 FIRST READING Song of Solomon 2:8-13 Today we hear a beautiful passage from the most famous love poem of the western world. There are all kinds of love. This poem celebrates erotic love. No one knows when it was written or by whom (certainly not Solomon). It’s nature imagery and its romantic joy in nature are unique in the Bible. It consists of a series of songs sung by a young lover and his beloved young woman. From time to time their interplay is interrupted by a sort of Greek chorus of women friends. The …

PROPER 16 August 26, 2012 FIRST READING First Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43 Chapters 4-7 describe Solomon’s building of the first Temple. The principal altar of worship to this point had been the mountain shrine at Gibeon. At Jerusalem there had been only a Tent of the Lord. The finished Temple was reputed to be a building of great beauty. It took sever years to build, using a conscription into forced labor of thirty thousand Jewish men, most from the northern area, called Israel. The temple was regarded as the most beautiful building of the Near East. The passages …

PROPER 15 August 19, 2012 FIRST READING First Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 Our reading jumps from the account of David’s death to Solomon’s killing his older half-brother, Adonijah, and David’s old general, Joab, because he suspected them of planning a coup. But there ends the violence. Solomon’s prayer is a sort of hinge in the saga of the family, closing a story of family murder and warfare bred of ambition, and opening a story of sane rule and religious tolerance. Solomon does not ask for power or riches or honor, but with a humility uncharacteristic of his family, he asks for …

PROPER 14 August 12, 2012 FIRST READING Second Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 David loved his son Absalom, who was beautiful, charismatic and shrewd. Absolom killed David’s oldest son, his half brother, for raping Tamar, Absalom’s full sister. Revenge it might be, but the killing put Absalom next in line for the throne. David had grown old and feeble, but he didn’t die. Absalom couldn’t wait. He fomented a rebellion, raised an army and attacked Jerusalem. But David, the wiley old fox, outwitted him in warfare. The events in our reading take place during the final battle, clearly being won by …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …