Blue Cord

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am now working as a cashier at The Home Depot.  Last week I went through the twenty hours of computer training necessary for this position.  You know how on Star Trek and other sci-fi programs they do really neat computer simulations of space battles and holographic simulations of exotic places?  Well, I am here to tell you that spending three days on a computer simulation of a cash register is not nearly as much fun.

Because I am from the South but now live in New England, I am often encountering new lexical items.  For instance, if you want a soft drink in Eastern Massachusetts, you ask for a tonic.  And I was unsure what the BAG boy was offering me at the supermarket when he asked if I wanted a carriage.  It turns out that is the local term for a shopping cart.

By far the most bizarre word usage I have encountered happened during my first day working the register.  A customer came in and asked if we sold bulkheads.  Now, I know exactly what a bulkhead is.  It is a wall that divides the interior of a ship into compartments.  I didn’t think we sold nautical equipment at The Home Depot, but being new I decided to ask another associate.  She directed him to the millwork department, where we sell doors.  I would have expected them to be in the building materials department, where we sell walls.

It turns out, however, that there is a New England usage of bulkhead that differs from the nautical usage.   Up here, a bulkhead is the slanted door that covers the entrance to a basement or cellar.  Even dictionary.com lists it as being a meaning that is largely limited to this region.  Of the six cashiers I asked, only three of them knew this usage.

I enjoy this kind of lexical geography.  I still remember a friend in seminary who needed to mail a box to a friend.  We were in Connecticut.  She looked up ‘package store’ in the Yellow Pages, since that is where you go to mail a package in her native Illinois.  She took her box to the store, but was surprised to see all the alcohol that was advertised in the windows of the store.

Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Proper 10 (theme reading)

The thematic OT reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for this coming Sunday is Deuteronomy 30:9-14. The series OT reading switches from 1 & 2 Kings, which it has been covering since Pentecost, to Amos. The readings from Amos only last this week and next. This post will focus on the reading from Deuteronomy.

The first thing to notice about the Deuteronomy reading is that it starts in the middle of the passage. Verse 9 is neither the beginning of a paragraph nor even the beginning of a sentence. If we read it as it stands, then it merely sounds like a promise that God will make the people of Israel prosper. The full message is actually much more involved than that.

To fully understand the passage, we need to go back to Deuteronomy 29, where this discourse begins. In that chapter, Moses is delivering a sermon to the people of Israel, who are gathered in Moab before entering the Promised Land. He lays out clearly that if the people of Israel do not follow the law, they will be sent into exile in a foreign land. Only when the people repent and return to the Lord will he forgive them and cause them to prosper. The reading for this Sunday picks up at this point. When the people are in a foreign land, realize that they have sinned, and return to obedience, then and only then will God do all of the things promised in Deuteronomy 30:9-14.

The placement of this sermon on the plains of Moab is not accidental, as it seems to indeed be intended as a sermon for Israelites who are about to enter the land. It is likely that this section of Deuteronomy was written towards the end of the Babylonian exile, when the people had repented and returned to God. The sermon is directed to them as they prepare to return to Judah. Notice the statement in 29:14-15, which extended the covenant beyond just those who were present in Moab. The sense that the people returning from exile were re-entering the covenant seems strong in this passage. Just as their ancestors had stood on the banks of the Jordan and made a covenant with God before entering the land, so do the Israelites returning from Babylon. It is now up to them to be obedient in the land, so the fate of their ancestors does not befall them as well.

As I mentioned before, many parishes in the Episcopal Church are switching to the Revised Common Lectionary.  This is due to the General Convention, which voted to use the RCL in the next version of the Book of Common Prayer.  Of course, most other mainline denominations already follow the RCL.

Because of this, I thought I would begin posting on the OT readings for the RCL.  Each week I will write at least one post on one of the two OT reading options for the coming Sunday.  I hope to have it up by the middle of the week, in case some pastors begin using my posts for a resource in sermon preparation.  I make no promises, however.  It may not make it up until Friday or Saturday.  Some pastors wait until then to begin writing their sermons anyway, so it won’t be a problem for them.

The RCL provides two OT readings for each week.  One is a thematic reading that fits with the epistle and gospel readings.  The other is a reading that allows pastors to preach from one book in order for several weeks.  I probably will not be posting on both, although that may happen sometimes.  And I won’t consistently focus on the thematic or the series readings.  I will simply pick which reading looks more interesting to me and go with that one.  I won’t be providing a complete workup of the passage, but merely some exegetical notes and suggestions for how the passage might be preached.

If anyone would like to propose improvements for the series once it gets going, I hope you will feel free to make suggestions.  Because this is intended as a resource for preachers and congregants, I want to make it as useful as possible.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I preached today on 2 Kings 5.  Because I had not decided on which element I would focus for the sermon when I made the original post, I thought I would follow up here.

I choose to focus on the fact that in this passage God continually speaks through people far down the social ladder.  Elisha’s message is not delivered by Elisha, but by his servant.  When Naaman balks at following Elisha’s instructions, it is Naaman’s servant who points out that Naaman would have done something difficult if Elisha had asked, so he shouldn’t hesitate to do something easy.  And the most powerless figure, the Israelite slave girl, is the one who has the solution to Naaman’s problem in the first place.

This last figure is particularly interesting.  She has three strikes against her as far as people in the ancient Near East were concerned.  She is a woman, she iss a foreigner, and she iss a slave.  Yet she is the one through whom God speaks to Naaman initially.  Without her, we would have had no story to put in 2 Kings 5.

One additional element caught my eye in the passage.  This is the notice in v.1 that Yahweh had given Syria military victories.  I found that to me a remarkable comment for two reasons.  From the historical side, it represents a break from the standard Iron Age understanding that Yahweh was limited to Israel.  And from the theological side, this had to be a bit of a jab at Israel, since a large number of Syria’s victories had come against Israel.  The idea that Yahweh is fighting against Israel is very muted here, but it is certainly present.  It will come out later in full force, especially in the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah.

Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Proper 9 (series reading)

I am scheduled to preach this Sunday at my home parish, All Saints’ Episcopal church in Stoneham, MA. Like many Episcopal churches, we are now using the Revised Common Lectionary. The RCL provides two Old Testament readings each week. One is a thematic reading that fits in with the epistle and gospel readings. The other is a reading that provides sequential readings in a particular book.

I am going to using the sequential reading for my preaching this week. It is taken from 2 Kings 5:1-14 (thanks to Duane for pointing out the typo). Having begun the exegesis for writing the sermon, I thought I would share some of my thoughts here. The passage in 2 Kings 5 is the story of Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army who comes to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy.

This passage contains some rather interesting features. First, it focuses on a foreigner and his act of faith in Yahweh. It is set in the middle of a number of stories focusing on Elisha, but Elisha is a secondary character in this story. Other than two short conversations with Naaman, he is a background character, though essential to the story.

Second, the story turns questions of power on their heads. The mighty leader of the army is striken with leprosy. The king of Israel is portrayed as fearing the king of Syria, who he thinks will attack if Naaman’s leprosy is not cured. He appears to forget that he has a prophet in his kingdom who can perform such wonders. The weak, on the other hand, are shown to be wise. The captive Israelite girl — a slave in a foreign land — is the one who has knowledge that can help Naaman. And when Naaman balks at washing in the Jordan, one of his servants has to point out his error.

There are several elements that I think provide rich possibilities for preaching:

• The faith of the foreigner contrasted with the lack of faith of those on the inside.
• The faith of the powerless contrasted with the lack of faith of the powerful.
• The simplicity of the act Naaman must do to be cured.
• The hospitality of Elisha, who cures the foreigner. In doing so, he provides comfort to the enemy.

Although it is not a part of the reading for this Sunday, the continuation of the story also has some interesting details. After being cured, Naaman says he will worship only Yahweh. In order to do so, he asks to be allowed to take two donkey-loads of Israelite soil back to Syria. Yahweh is the God of the land of Israel, so if you are going to worship Yahweh, you have to take some of that land with you.

I found it interesting that pered in v.17 is translated as ‘mule’ in every translation I could check. While it is clear that there were mules in the ancient world, it is not entirely certain that pered indicates a mule. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and female horse, but interbreeding of animals was forbidden in Israel (Leviticus 19:19), although this does not mean it was not practiced. I wish I had my Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon out of storage right now to see what they have to say about pered.

On the other hand, it is clear why translators would want to avoid talking about Naaman taking an ass-load of dirt back to Syria. A mule-load definitely sounds better.