PROPER 17
Worship
Scripture Notes
For use with Common, Lutheran and Roman Catholic Lectionaries
In most of these texts, persons who are trying to serve God are depicted as engaged in intense struggles with the world. Within the Jeremiah 15:15-21 and the Psalm 26 texts, the prophet and the psalmist speak boldly to the Lord, asking for additional support in their struggles. Within the New Testament texts, the emphasis is on offering one's life to God as a living sacrifice. As Jesus did, so also his followers are exhorted to do. We see similarities and we see differences, therefore, between the Old Testament texts and the New Testament texts for next Sunday. This provides excellent, challenging material for us. What shall we do with it?
If we and the people within the congregations around us are trying to serve God, we should not be surprised when we - like the persons depicted in these texts - are involved in struggles with the world. Should we, together with the prophet and the psalmist, speak boldly to the Lord, asking for additional support, or should we, with the New Testament Lesson and with the Gospel text, offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God? It might be stimulating and challenging, after we have introduced the texts and pointed out these striking contrasts between the Old Testament and the New Testament texts, to ask the people within the worshiping congregations which of these two different responses they think that we today should make. Both responses are biblical. Is the Old Testament response the standard for Jews and the New Testament response the standard for Christians? Or are there elements in each response that are appropriate for Jews and for Christians also? Are there times when one response is needed and other times when the other response is called for? What do you think? Let us look more closely at these texts.
Common:
Exodus 19:1-9
In this text the Israelites were struggling for survival in the wilderness of Sinai. Moses "went up to God" on the mountain and God called to him, offering to make the Israelites God's own chosen, special people. They are offered a covenant with God in which they will be God's people and keep the terms of the covenant that God offers to them. Under the circumstances of survival needs in the desert, the people are in great need of support from God, the Maker and Owner of all the earth. Therefore, they respond with the words, "We will indeed do everything that the Lord has said!"
We all know that it is much easier to make promises than it is to keep them. That is our problem today in our relationship with God just as it was for the ancient Israelites. We have a baptismal covenant with God. We renew that covenant with God each day. The benefits to us from our covenant with God in Christian Baptism are great for our survival here and in the life to come. The covenant that God made with the Israelites at Sinai was a covenant of grace. Our covenant with God as individuals within congregations is also a covenant of grace. It is by the grace of God that we are People of God.
Lutheran: Jeremiah 15:15-21
This segment of the personal prayers of Jeremiah and of Yahweh's response is probably the best biblical example of the difficulties faced by the prophetic figure, the truly inspired individual of any time and place. The inspired individual is frequently alone, alone with God and rejected by the world, rejected even by most of the people of the community of faith. The inspired individual is driven by God to say and to do what the inspired individual must do. The inspired individual is controlled by God, but the inspired individual cannot control God. Nevertheless, we see that in this text Yahweh is basically supportive of Jeremiah. We, too, believe that when we are driven by God to become inspired individuals, God is basically supportive of us. Like Jeremiah, however, we sometimes must wait a long time for evidence of God's support.
Roman Catholic: Jeremiah 20:7-9
This personal prayer of Jeremiah is similar to the one just commented upon above. Unlike Jeremiah 15:15-21, however, this text and the verses that follow it do not include a response of Yahweh providing support for Jeremiah. Without support from Yahweh, Jeremiah is driven to the point of despair. He curses the day of his birth. He wishes that he had died before he was born. Jeremiah's task was particularly difficult because he was called to speak against his own country, to call upon its leadership to surrender to another nation. Those of us who remember the opposition by segments of our religious community to the continued involvement of our nation in the war in Southeast Asia, or participated in that opposition, have some understanding of how much greater the hatred would have been against those who called for an end to the conflict if they had said in the name of God that our entire nation must surrender. It is difficult for us to appreciate fully Jeremiah's position, since our nation is not being threatened with total annihilation in the way that Jeremiah's country was.
Common:
Psalm 114
This text is linked to the First Lesson texts from Exodus in the Common Lectionary rather than to the theme of persons trying to serve God being depicted as engaging in intense struggles with the world that is present in most of the other texts selected for this occasion. Therefore, this text, with its poetic description of the sea, the mountains, and the earth itself trembling at the presence of Yahweh, provides a humorous, reassuring reiteration of the Exodus account. In this way, it also provides support for persons who are engaged in intense struggles with the world.
Lutheran: Psalm 26
This individual lament is very similar to the lament in 15:15-18 of the Jeremiah traditions, except that the psalmist is much more closely associated with the cult (6b-8, 12) than Jeremiah and his disciples were. Unlike the Jeremiah 15:15-21 tradition, this psalm provides no response of Yahweh. Perhaps it was assumed that no response was needed, since the psalmist was surrounded by the supportive congregation. The psalmist was basically a righteous individual; the prophet Jeremiah was an inspired individual. We believe that God uses both in this world.
Roman Catholic: Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9
The psalmist here is basically a righteous individual, a righteous individual who is devout and worships God faithfully. The only evidence of the suffering of the psalmist is in the vivid illustrations used. Perhaps the psalmist is a most perceptive person and is not necessarily suffering greatly at the time of the composition of the psalm. All of these factors make this an especially attractive and popular psalm for use in our worship settings next Sunday. Most of the people in the worshiping congregations in which we serve will relate to this psalm much more readily than they will to the Jeremiah 20:7-9 reading.
Common:
Romans 12:1-13
Lutheran: Romans 12:1-8
Roman Catholic: Romans 12:1-2
What did Paul mean by asking the members of the house-church groups in Rome to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice pleasing to God? Within the context of Paul's letters, and in this chapter of Romans 12:14, we could say that Paul meant that their lives should be totally dedicated to God, even to the point of martyrdom if necessary. The parenesis that Paul provided in 12:3-13 indicates clearly what Paul had in mind. Whatever may be the charismata that God has given to us, Paul directs us to use them fully and enthusiastically. We are to lose our lives as we use our lives. Our lives are to be totally consumed. Perhaps our realization of this brings the New Testament texts and the Old Testament texts selected for this occasion closer together.
Common:
Matthew 16:21-28
Lutheran: Matthew 16:21-26
Roman Catholic: Matthew 16:21-27
The additions in Matthew to the Mark 8:31--9:1 text, especially the words to explain the way in which Peter was reported in Mark to have started to reprove Jesus for talking about being crucified ("May God be merciful to you, Lord! This shall never happen to you!"), are a reminder to us that these passion prediction accounts in the Gospels are almost entirely ex eventu. They are told from the vantagepoint of belief that God had raised Jesus from the dead, that Jesus as the Risen Christ was now with God, and that Jesus' death, as well as his resurrection, had been necessary in order that his followers would have salvation. Our own natural inclinations may be
to say that if we had been with Jesus before Jesus went up to Jerusalem to be crucified and if Jesus had told us what is reported in this text, we would probably have said the same thing that Peter is reported in Matthew 16:22 to have said. Why, then, is Jesus reported to have rebuked Peter when Peter only wanted to spare Jesus terrible suffering and death? When we recognize that this is an ex eventu account, we can begin to realize that from the perspective of followers of Jesus late during the first century, if Jesus had not been crucified they would not have been saved from their sins. Satan (evil personified, perhaps in the person of Caesar, under whose jurisdiction Jesus had been crucified) would have been victorious if Jesus had not been crucified and had not been raised by God from the dead. To oppose the idea of Jesus' death and resurrection is to be opposed to God and to God's plan of redemption and therefore to be on the side of Satan.
The message of the Jesus of history that God (Yahweh) rather than Caesar is Lord led to the sacrifice of Jesus' life. For followers of Jesus later during the first century to proclaim that Jesus the Christ raised by God from the dead, rather than Caesar who ruled over them on earth, is Lord was for them to be willing to "take up their cross to follow Jesus" to an end by torture and crucifixion just like that of Jesus. They were exhorted to be willing to do that in Matthew 16:24-26.
If we and the people within the congregations around us are trying to serve God, we should not be surprised when we - like the persons depicted in these texts - are involved in struggles with the world. Should we, together with the prophet and the psalmist, speak boldly to the Lord, asking for additional support, or should we, with the New Testament Lesson and with the Gospel text, offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God? It might be stimulating and challenging, after we have introduced the texts and pointed out these striking contrasts between the Old Testament and the New Testament texts, to ask the people within the worshiping congregations which of these two different responses they think that we today should make. Both responses are biblical. Is the Old Testament response the standard for Jews and the New Testament response the standard for Christians? Or are there elements in each response that are appropriate for Jews and for Christians also? Are there times when one response is needed and other times when the other response is called for? What do you think? Let us look more closely at these texts.
Common:
Exodus 19:1-9
In this text the Israelites were struggling for survival in the wilderness of Sinai. Moses "went up to God" on the mountain and God called to him, offering to make the Israelites God's own chosen, special people. They are offered a covenant with God in which they will be God's people and keep the terms of the covenant that God offers to them. Under the circumstances of survival needs in the desert, the people are in great need of support from God, the Maker and Owner of all the earth. Therefore, they respond with the words, "We will indeed do everything that the Lord has said!"
We all know that it is much easier to make promises than it is to keep them. That is our problem today in our relationship with God just as it was for the ancient Israelites. We have a baptismal covenant with God. We renew that covenant with God each day. The benefits to us from our covenant with God in Christian Baptism are great for our survival here and in the life to come. The covenant that God made with the Israelites at Sinai was a covenant of grace. Our covenant with God as individuals within congregations is also a covenant of grace. It is by the grace of God that we are People of God.
Lutheran: Jeremiah 15:15-21
This segment of the personal prayers of Jeremiah and of Yahweh's response is probably the best biblical example of the difficulties faced by the prophetic figure, the truly inspired individual of any time and place. The inspired individual is frequently alone, alone with God and rejected by the world, rejected even by most of the people of the community of faith. The inspired individual is driven by God to say and to do what the inspired individual must do. The inspired individual is controlled by God, but the inspired individual cannot control God. Nevertheless, we see that in this text Yahweh is basically supportive of Jeremiah. We, too, believe that when we are driven by God to become inspired individuals, God is basically supportive of us. Like Jeremiah, however, we sometimes must wait a long time for evidence of God's support.
Roman Catholic: Jeremiah 20:7-9
This personal prayer of Jeremiah is similar to the one just commented upon above. Unlike Jeremiah 15:15-21, however, this text and the verses that follow it do not include a response of Yahweh providing support for Jeremiah. Without support from Yahweh, Jeremiah is driven to the point of despair. He curses the day of his birth. He wishes that he had died before he was born. Jeremiah's task was particularly difficult because he was called to speak against his own country, to call upon its leadership to surrender to another nation. Those of us who remember the opposition by segments of our religious community to the continued involvement of our nation in the war in Southeast Asia, or participated in that opposition, have some understanding of how much greater the hatred would have been against those who called for an end to the conflict if they had said in the name of God that our entire nation must surrender. It is difficult for us to appreciate fully Jeremiah's position, since our nation is not being threatened with total annihilation in the way that Jeremiah's country was.
Common:
Psalm 114
This text is linked to the First Lesson texts from Exodus in the Common Lectionary rather than to the theme of persons trying to serve God being depicted as engaging in intense struggles with the world that is present in most of the other texts selected for this occasion. Therefore, this text, with its poetic description of the sea, the mountains, and the earth itself trembling at the presence of Yahweh, provides a humorous, reassuring reiteration of the Exodus account. In this way, it also provides support for persons who are engaged in intense struggles with the world.
Lutheran: Psalm 26
This individual lament is very similar to the lament in 15:15-18 of the Jeremiah traditions, except that the psalmist is much more closely associated with the cult (6b-8, 12) than Jeremiah and his disciples were. Unlike the Jeremiah 15:15-21 tradition, this psalm provides no response of Yahweh. Perhaps it was assumed that no response was needed, since the psalmist was surrounded by the supportive congregation. The psalmist was basically a righteous individual; the prophet Jeremiah was an inspired individual. We believe that God uses both in this world.
Roman Catholic: Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9
The psalmist here is basically a righteous individual, a righteous individual who is devout and worships God faithfully. The only evidence of the suffering of the psalmist is in the vivid illustrations used. Perhaps the psalmist is a most perceptive person and is not necessarily suffering greatly at the time of the composition of the psalm. All of these factors make this an especially attractive and popular psalm for use in our worship settings next Sunday. Most of the people in the worshiping congregations in which we serve will relate to this psalm much more readily than they will to the Jeremiah 20:7-9 reading.
Common:
Romans 12:1-13
Lutheran: Romans 12:1-8
Roman Catholic: Romans 12:1-2
What did Paul mean by asking the members of the house-church groups in Rome to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice pleasing to God? Within the context of Paul's letters, and in this chapter of Romans 12:14, we could say that Paul meant that their lives should be totally dedicated to God, even to the point of martyrdom if necessary. The parenesis that Paul provided in 12:3-13 indicates clearly what Paul had in mind. Whatever may be the charismata that God has given to us, Paul directs us to use them fully and enthusiastically. We are to lose our lives as we use our lives. Our lives are to be totally consumed. Perhaps our realization of this brings the New Testament texts and the Old Testament texts selected for this occasion closer together.
Common:
Matthew 16:21-28
Lutheran: Matthew 16:21-26
Roman Catholic: Matthew 16:21-27
The additions in Matthew to the Mark 8:31--9:1 text, especially the words to explain the way in which Peter was reported in Mark to have started to reprove Jesus for talking about being crucified ("May God be merciful to you, Lord! This shall never happen to you!"), are a reminder to us that these passion prediction accounts in the Gospels are almost entirely ex eventu. They are told from the vantagepoint of belief that God had raised Jesus from the dead, that Jesus as the Risen Christ was now with God, and that Jesus' death, as well as his resurrection, had been necessary in order that his followers would have salvation. Our own natural inclinations may be
to say that if we had been with Jesus before Jesus went up to Jerusalem to be crucified and if Jesus had told us what is reported in this text, we would probably have said the same thing that Peter is reported in Matthew 16:22 to have said. Why, then, is Jesus reported to have rebuked Peter when Peter only wanted to spare Jesus terrible suffering and death? When we recognize that this is an ex eventu account, we can begin to realize that from the perspective of followers of Jesus late during the first century, if Jesus had not been crucified they would not have been saved from their sins. Satan (evil personified, perhaps in the person of Caesar, under whose jurisdiction Jesus had been crucified) would have been victorious if Jesus had not been crucified and had not been raised by God from the dead. To oppose the idea of Jesus' death and resurrection is to be opposed to God and to God's plan of redemption and therefore to be on the side of Satan.
The message of the Jesus of history that God (Yahweh) rather than Caesar is Lord led to the sacrifice of Jesus' life. For followers of Jesus later during the first century to proclaim that Jesus the Christ raised by God from the dead, rather than Caesar who ruled over them on earth, is Lord was for them to be willing to "take up their cross to follow Jesus" to an end by torture and crucifixion just like that of Jesus. They were exhorted to be willing to do that in Matthew 16:24-26.
