Category Archive

SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY FIRST READING Deuteronomy 30:15–20 Today we are flashing back to a much earlier part of the Bible, to the story of Moses and how he obtained the release of the Jews from enslavement to the Egyptians, how he had led them across the Red Sea when God opened the waters for them, how he had travelled with them for many years through the deserts, and how at Mount Sinai he had received the Commandments from God. Now they are camped in the east side of the River Jordan, looking across to the land which God had …

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY FIRST READING Isaiah 58:1-9 Our reading is a short sermon on what one can give God.  God is not interested in strict rituals like fasting.  Narrow obedience to ritual laws only cause us to fight among ourselves and to be cruel to those under our command when they don’t agree without us.  What God wants from us is compassion for the suffering, mercy for the oppressed, sharing with the poor, and shelter for the homeless. There will follow rewards that I will not try to summarize because I would muddy the beautiful words of Isaiah. SECOND …

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany   FIRST READING Micah 6:1-8 The prophet Micah was active about 700 BC at the time the Assyrians were threatening Judah. Prophesying doom for his people unless they change their practices, he here visualizes God as bringing charges against the Jews in a law court. God begins by speaking of what he has done for the Jews, but the scene breaks off, no doubt because some careless scribe lost the manuscript. The next scene reveals the penitent asking God how to approach him. Shall he make animal sacrifices or bring farm products to the altar? Shall …

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY FIRST READING Isaiah 9:1-4 This was written when the Assyrians were threatening to take over Judah.  The prophet sees that God, who once saved his people from the Midianites, is now going to save them again.  He sees  God’s saving hand in the birth of a prince in the line of David who like his ancestor will make war to establish peace.  The prince will rescue Galilee (he speaks here of Zebulon and Naphtali, areas of Galilee, and a few lines further mentions specifically the Galileans).  So Christians take the prophecy to mean the rise of Christ, …

SECOND SUNDAY AFER EPIPHANY FIRST READING Isaiah 49:1-7 This is the second of the series of “Servant Songs.” Here the Servant of God (an image for the faithful Jews who survived the exile) speaks of how God formed him for his work. The Servant’s task is to bring back to God the Jews who have wandered from the faith and to take God’s word to “earth’s furthest bounds.” The force of the reading lies in its bold images. The Servant is a sword, an arrow, and then a light. He will rise from despised slave to the ruler of nations. …

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY: THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD FIRST READING Isaiah 42:1-9 Another reading from “Second Isaiah,” who wrote in Babylon celebrating the news that the Jews will be sent home. This is the first of a series of poems called the “Servant Songs.” The servant is a personification of those Jews who, while suffering cruel slavery, remained faithful to their God. In the songs, the servant will eventually be subject to every insult and abuse, as were the enslaved Jews. In our passage from the poem, we are told of God’s choosing this servant and commissioning him …

THE EPIPHANY FIRST READING 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 words …

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY FIRST READING Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3 Here we have a poem from “Third Isaiah” prophesying the rise of Jerusalem after the Exile. In a bold metaphor, the City itself speaks, comparing itself first to a bride of God, and then to God’s garden. Then the voice of the prophet takes over to sing his vision of rebuilt Jerusalem as a splendid testimony of God’s glory.  The name Zion was originally that of the spike of mountain jutting out above the Kidron Valley where David built his fort.  It is often called the City of David. …

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT FIRST READING Isaiah 7:10-16 Jerusalem is being besieged by the allied forces of Israel and Aram. Ahaz, king of Judah and Jerusalem is about to surrender when God speaks to him, bolstering his courage. God tells him to ask for a sign of his coming victory “as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” Sheol is under the earth, the abode of the dead where souls live on without power or even memory. Ahaz declines to ask for the sign because he will not test the Lord. So God says, OK, I’ll send signs anyway. He …

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT FIRST READING Isaiah 35:1-10 There seems little doubt that this chapter is misplaced in “First Isaiah”; it belongs to “Second Isaiah’s” joyful songs about the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Exile. Since Lebanon (a mountain range), Carmel (an isolated mountain) and Sharon (a fertile plain) were all on the Mediterranean coast, I imagine the returning Jews skirted the deserts of Kedar by going west along the Euphrates valley, and then south along the coast before turning east toward Jerusalem.   SECOND READING James 5:7-10 In this sermon-like letter, the author counsels patience in waiting …