PROPER 7 June 24, 2012 FIRST READING First Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49 Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, stood ten feet high, wore armour weighing a hundred pounds, and carried a spear weighing twenty pounds. Today we have the story (highly cut) of his being knocked out by a naked boy with a sling shot. The point of the story is that he was able to do this because he was God’s chosen. David’s weapon was not made of a Y stick and a rubber band. It was a weapon of war, a six foot rope with a pocket …
Scripture Commentary for June 17, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 6 June 17, 2012 FIRST READING First Samuel 15:34 – 16:13 This is the story of God’s sending the great prophet, Samuel, to find the next king, and Samuel’s surprising discovery that God has chosen a mere shepherd boy of no reputation—though of great beauty. God has a record of choosing as leaders people who do not measure up to common moral standards. Abraham was not above selling his wife to Pharaoh, and Jacob was a scamp. David was to live into old age and die of natural causes, but his parting words were his instructions to his son …
Scripture Commentary for June 10, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 5 June 10, 2012 FIRST READING First Samuel 8:4-20, 11:14-15 Our Old Testament readings for today and the next two months will be bits and pieces of the fascinating story of the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. I would suggest you do not settle for what amounts to an outline of the best story in the bible (except, of course, that of the crucifixion and resurrection). Read it yourself in First and Second Samuel and two chapters of First Kings. If however, we grant that our bishops had to choose between a curtailed story or none …
Scripture Commentary for June 3, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
Trinity Sunday June 3, 2012 FIRST READING Isaiah 6:1-8 Today we hear of the call to prophecy of First Isaiah, who was to become a brilliant court prophet and advisor to kings. The call came to him, he tells us, in a vision. He saw God on his throne, not in heaven, but in the Jerusalem Temple, in the sanctum sanctorum which, of course, Isaiah had never entered. No one was allowed into this inner sanctum but the high priest. He would have known, however, that the sacred chest, the Arc, stood there, and on its top was a throne …
Scripture Commentary for May 27, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
Day of Pentecost May 27, 2012 FIRST LESSON Acts 2:1-21 We celebrate the Pentecostal experience as the event that led to the formation of the Church. The Apostles are gathered in Jerusalem to observe the Jewish feast of the Pentecost. It is about a month since the risen Christ appeared to them. They are seized by a mystical experience: tongues of fire convey to them the Holy Spirit and lead them to speak in various languages. This is not “speaking in tongues,” but speaking in established national languages recognized by the crowd. The curse of the Tower of Bable is …
Scripture Commentary for May 20, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
Seventh Sunday of Easter May 20, 2012 FIRST READING Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 Today our reading in Acts returns to the opening chapter. We hear about the election of Matthias to fill the vacany in the apostles left by the exclusion of Judas. There were to be twelve members. Because there had been twelve tribes of Israel, twelve had become a sacred number. I would guess that our bishops thought the story they cut from the middle of our reading was too unpleasant for such nice folks as we. Judas takes his ill-gotten gains and buys a field. As soon as …
Scripture Commentary for May 13, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
Sixth Sunday of Easter May 13, 2012 FIRST READING Acts 10:44-48 Our readings for this and next Sunday are chosen to prepare us for the reading of the great Pentecost miracle. Today, we jump byond that scene to hear more about the spreading of Christianity to gentiles. (Bear in mind, “gentile” means any non-Jew, be he or she Roman or Greek or German or what-have-you.) A few pages before our passage can be found the story of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch (our lesson of last week). Today we have the conclusion to the story of the conversion of …
Scripture Commentary for May 6, 2012 by Arthur H. Cash
Fifth Sunday of Easter May 6, 2012 FIRST READING Acts 8:26-40 Tradition holds that the Ethiopian eunuch was the first gentile to be baptized. The tradition is true only if one does not consider the Samaritans to be gentiles, for numerous Samaritans were already baptized because of Philip’s teaching (8:12). The Samaritans were a splinter Judaism, and the Torah (Pentateuch) was their holy book. At that time, main-line Jews welcomed to their synagogues gentiles who came to worship Yahweh but would not convert because circumcision was dangerous and painful. When these “God-fearers” learned that Christians worshiped the same God, but …