Blue Cord

Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Proper 19 (series reading)

I wanted to start the commentary on this week’s lectionary reading by apologizing for last week’s post on the Revised Common Lectionary. My brain was apparently on vacation, and I posted on the reading for Year A. Currently, we are in Year C, so that post won’t be useful for preachers until September 2008.

This week, I am back in the correct year. The OT reading for this current Sunday is Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28, which is fourth reading in a six week series on Jeremiah. The lectionary reading here is divided, with vv.13-21 left out. I don’t like it when lectionary committees split up the readings like this. It breaks the canonical shape of the passage. Apparently they think the additional nine verses are either unimportant or too long for a congregation to endure.

The larger block of material to which this reading belongs is 4:5-31, an oracle in which Jeremiah prophesies the coming of Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem. Vv.11-12 announce that the coming destruction is not about cleansing the people from their sins. The time is past for that. The sin of Jerusalem is too severe. The punishment will be more severe as well.

The passage picks up again in v.22, which lays out the indictment against the people of Israel:

They are skilled at doing evil, but do not know how to do good.

The word skilled is a form of the word hokhmah, the word usually translated as wisdom. Wisdom, after all, is skill at living. Here, it is said that the people are skilled at doing evil, but do not even know how to do good.

This is followed by a description of the destruction in vv.23-28. The almost apocalyptic imagery in vv.23-26 pictures the earth a laid waste before the anger of the Lord. Yet even in the midst of the destruction, there is a small note of hope. God promises not to make a full end to the people (v.27b). What is a small glimmer of hope here in Jeremiah’s prophecies prior to 587 BCE will turn into a major theme of his message afterwards.

Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Proper 18 (series reading)

The Revised Common Lectionary appoints Exodus 12:1-14 as its OT series reading for this coming Sunday. It is part of a nine week series from the book of Exodus that began two weeks ago with the description of the Israelite’s slavery in Egypt and the birth of Moses. It continues through the deliverance at the Sea of Reeds, the journey to Sinai, the giving of the law, and the golden calf incident.

This passage, which comes from HS, is set as an interruption to the story of the final plague - the killing of the firstborn. It provides the law for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, placing the instructions for the feast in the middle of the story of Passover. It is immediately followed by the command to leave Egypt.

These instructions show the standard Priestly concern with the calendar. It sets up the month of Passover as the first month of the year. This places the beginning of the year in the Spring around the vernal equinox. This would later be changed in the Jewish calendar, which moved the beginning of the year to Rosh Hashannah in the Fall, near the autumnal equinox. ¹ The theology of connecting the new year with the Passover is clear: just as the final plague and deliverance from Egypt begin Israel’s new life with God, so does the remembrance of that event mark the beginning of the new year.

The Israelites are commanded to slaughter a lamb and place the blood on the lintel of the door. The requirement of the lamb and the command that it be entirely eaten before the morning suggests that the lamb is intended as a peace / fellowship offering offered for giving thanks (Leviticus 7:11-15).² In no way is it viewed as a sin offering. Although this passage does not describe the lamb as a sacrifice, the Priestly layers in the Pentateuch viewed all killing of animals as a sacrifice (a view which the Deuteronomists did not share). Of course, the picturing of the Passover according to the Priestly sacrificial scheme is a later interpretation of an earlier feast.

1. It should be noted that some scholars argue that originally the New Year was in the Fall and see the Priestly author’s concept of it falling in the Spring as an innovation. [back]
2. Please note that this is merely a suggestion and I have not researched it thoroughly. [back]

Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Proper 12 (series reading)

The OT reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for this Sunday is Hosea 1:2-10. This is the theme reading, although the connection between this passage and the NT readings is not immediately clear (assuming there is one).

The Hosea is passage is well-known to most preachers. It would be hard to imagine a seminary class on the OT that didn’t deal with this text when covering Hosea. The danger with such familiar passages, of course, is that we allow our prior understanding of the text to take the place of doing the exegesis again. Because of that, I wanted to point out something that seems to me to be a surprising element in the text that a preacher might not have noticed in previous readings.

The first of these is the fact that Hosea names his first child Jezreel, because God is going to punish the Jehu Dynasty for the coup in Jezreel that brought them to power. This is an interesting statement, because the coup in Jezreel was originally done at the command of God through the prophet Elisha. A common way of dealing with this is by saying that Jehu went overboard when he killed everyone in the Omrid Dynasty, but this is not supported by the texts we have. In 2 Kings 9:7, Jehu is told specifically that he is to destroy the house of Ahab. It is hard to go overboard when you are told to destroy something, as destruction involves wiping something out completely.

It seems to me that the direction of theological reflection on this text seems to me to be the multiple voices that the Bible is presenting concerning Jehu’s coup. Hosea views the coup negatively, at least in the way it was carried out. The DtrH, on the other hand, views it positively. The question for preachers is how to hear both voices and allow each to have its say without privileging one text over the other. The canon does not set the texts at odds with each other, but neither does it resolve the tension. Preachers can draw on that tension to provide energy to their sermons.

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.