Category Archive

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT FIRST LESSON Joshua 5: 9-12 The Israelites are drawing close to the goal of their long trek from Egypt. They have passed the Dead Sea to the south and come northward along its eastern bank. They have now turned to the west, crossed over the Jordan River (with some divine help), and entered the Promised Land, a territory occupied by a variety of ethnic peoples. They are approaching a Canaanite city that stands in their way. They cleans themselves by circumcising all the men; they sit tight until the men are healed. Then keep the first …

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT FIRST LESSON Exodus 3: 1-15 Moses, the youthful outlaw from Egypt, found shelter and employment at Midian, and married one of the daughters of the mysterious priest of Midian, Jethro. The Midianites worshiped a single universal God who, I believe, was Yahweh. God’s commissioning of Moses takes place in the area of a Indianite altar. I am among those who hold that Moses learned the worship of Yahweh from Jethro. Our translation along with many others may not get right the name God announces is his. In the original Hebrew text, it is spelled without vowels, …

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT FIRST LESSON Genesis 15: 1-2, 17-18 Today we hear how God established a covenant with Abram. The Israelites borrowed from ancient Mesopotamia a law permitting a childless man to make his slave his heir. Abram and his wife being elderly, Abram has done that. But God tells him that his heir will be his own son, and he will have descendants as numerous as the stars in the night sky. Against all reason Abram believes him, and God takes that belief as justification. (‘Justification’ is getting right with God.) God now makes a covenant with Abram. …

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT FIRST LESSON Deuteronomy 26: 1-11 When we think of the ancient Jewish cult worship in the Temple, we think first of animal sacrifice, ignoring the numerous rites in which grain or fruit are offered. It seems to me that the animal sacrifices were the more important to the believers. As you may remember, Cain killed Abel because God was more pleased with Abel’s animal offering than Cain’s offering of grain. Nevertheless, in the passage we here today, Moses instructs the Israelites how to celebrate the harvest in a new day, the festival of Weeks. And of …

SUNDAY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS FIRST LESSON Exodus 34: 29-35 The transfiguration of Moses’s face is the antitype of the Transfiguration of the person of Jesus in Matthew 17. Matthew tells us that in that miraculous event, Jesus’s face shone. To me, it is puzzling idea, for it seems to attribute some sort of physicality to God the Father, his glory being a mist-like substance transferable to all-too-human Moses. Paul dis not much like the idea of the veil. And in our second reading today we find out why. . SECOND LESSON 2 Corinthians 3: 12- 4:2 Paul explained …

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME FIRST LESSON Jeremiah 1: 4-10 Jeremiah, in the fortieth year of his ministry, tells his young assistant, Baruch, about his commissioning by the Lord. Earlier prophets, Samuel, Nathan, were political figures, not preachers and poets. But Jeremiah is commissioned to use words. True, a political function is not left out, for he is also told to rule nations; but the political is secondary. The commissioning reflects a profound change brought about by the Babylonian captivity and exile. Before the captivity, the center of the religion was the sacrificing cult. But the Jews returned from Babylon …

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME FIRST LESSON Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10 The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book, probably intended to be a sequel to Chronicles. Chronicles tells of the Babylonian exile and the destruction of Jerusalem. Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the return from the exile and the re-establishment of a Jewish society in and around Jerusalem. Under Nehemiah’s supervision, they have rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, including a gate on the east side on the city called the Water Gate. Now the people have gathered before the Water Gate to hear Ezra …

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME FIRST LESSON Isaiah 62: 1-5 Third Isaiah here sings the praises of the Jews returning from the Babylonian exile, asking that their greatness be recognized, not only by the world, but also by the Jews themselves. When you get home and rebuild your nation, Isaiah tells them you will emerge “a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord.” You yourselves will become a new people, and to symbolize that, God is going to change your names. Here I think translators and editors of the New Revised Standard Version (from which these lessons are …

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY:  THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD FIRST LESSON Isaiah 43: 1-7 To understand this prophetic verse by Second Isaiah, one must look at the previous chapter. God had allowed Babylon to conquer and enslave Israel as punishment for their failures to obey his laws. Now he is calling them home, promising safe passage through waters and fire. He has redeemed them. In this metaphor, God is spoken of as a man redeeming his kinsman from slavery by paying a price. The image includes the price paid, which is the vast areas of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sheba …

THE EPIPHANY FIRST LESSON Isaiah 60: 1-6 The Jews have returned from the Exile. This beautiful poem by “Third Isaiah” represents God as speaking to his people about their emergence from slavery to become a people living in His glory. He calls Jews of the “diaspora,” the spread of Jews throughout the world. He calls the “nations,” that is, the tribes of Jews. All will gather at Jerusalem to celebrate and praise God. And not only Jews, but Arab tribes of the east and south will bring riches loaded on camels and dromedaries. Today, most Jews and Christians take these …