Proper 24
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle A
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Exodus 33:12-23 (C)
Moses is still discussing with God the future of the Israelites. God is pleased with Moses -- probably one significant passage is that in which God supposedly tells Moses that he knew God by name, which implies closeness in the ancient world -- but God is not so pleased with the rest of the people. Their rebellious attitudes, their making of the golden calf, all have irritated God. However, Moses' intercession is successful. "The Lord" will go with the people as they continue their journey, but Moses will not be allowed to see the face of God. To do so would be fatal. This reflects another ancient superstition that to see even the Ark of the Covenant under certain conditions could be disastrous, and to touch it has caused at least one recorded death. Thus, the people had a profound sense of awe in the presence of God. For all their rebelliousness, the Israelites were empowered throughout their remarkable history because of this sense of awe at the thought of God's presence. It may be that many of us miss the power of the divine presence precisely because we do not have that sense of awe. Furthermore, Moses made it clear that they still felt themselves called to a unique destiny, and through God's actions in their lives, their destiny would be fulfilled.
Lesson 1: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6 (RC); Isaiah 45:1-7 (E)
Isaiah quotes God as coming on very strong in reminding the people that he is a God of power, a fulfiller of destinies. "I am the Lord and there is no other," he reminded them. "I form light and create darkness," he warned. "I make weal and create woe." Anyone with any sense will do what God requires, so Isaiah seems to be saying. One predominant theme, the one which above all others characterizes the entire Old Testament, is that affirmation: "I am the Lord and there is no other." Monotheism, taken for granted by us today, was a new idea to most people of the age. Many a man thought that by changing geographical location, he could escape God's wrath. Not so.
Lesson 2: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 (C, E); 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 (RC)
These seem to be favorite people to Paul. Writing in mid-century from Corinth, Paul commends his friends of the Thessalonian church thankful that they have become avid hearers and exemplars of the word, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Since we know that the people of Corinth were something of a problem to Paul, he may very well have been homesick for these friends. (I wonder if Paul might have left a copy of this letter lying around for the Corinthians to see.) Significant is Paul's observation that God has chosen these people, a fact which in current times allows those of us in the church to believe the same about ourselves. Paul also refers to their "labor of love," leaving the impression that it is to a labor of love that we too are called.
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22 (C, E); Matthew 22:15-21 (RC)
These Pharisees, at it again. You almost have to feel sorry for them the way they continually put their collective feet in their mouths. They repeatedly try all these tactics to make Jesus look bad to the gathered listeners. Inevitably, he outsmarts them. (I hope it doesn't offend anyone if I remark that sometimes it brings to my mind the Road Runner cartoons.) Anyway, in this case, they thought Jesus would either speak against payment of taxes, which would have gotten him in serious trouble with the Roman authorities, or he would defend taxation, in which case everyone would be mad at him since the Romans were an occupation force and everyone bitterly resented taxation. Jesus used a bit of Socratic logic to disarm the question. He also obliquely did agree that taxation is permissible. Truthfully, a people without taxation would have little or no social services, even then.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "I Just Wouldn't Preach On This"
Text: Exodus 33:12-23
Theme: I'm sorry, folks. This is a passage I would never preach on and doubt that very many other preachers would either. With all respect for the Old Testament, and meaning no disrespect to my Jewish friends at all, I can't find much here that squares with my theology. I'm a New Testament preacher anyway, and I realize this is a folk tale designed to explain the Jewish heritage. Still, I can't imagine God having such a conversation with Moses or anyone else. Give me Job, who God put in his place in short order. The God I think I know would have said, "Moses, I love you, and I love all those other folks. Now get yourself down there and do what you can to straighten things out." Anyway, there are probably some of you scholars out there who see something profound here and I'd be delighted to know what it is. As for me, the other passages are profound enough and without further ado, I turn to them.
Title: "Labor Of Love"
Text: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Theme: Paul, in addition to commending his old friends for their fidelity, refers to their "labors of love," and that's what caught my attention. The word "love" is used a lot these days. People love hot dogs, they love Pacer basketball, they love their children, they love "hip-hop," they love to dance -- on it goes. The Greeks knew how to use that word with their five variations. That's very much at the heart of the gospel, so let's think about "love" for awhile.
1. What is "love"? Agape. Sacrificial love. But eros is important, too. I wouldn't want to be married to someone in a relationship which lacked eros or erotic love. However, the gospel prefers agape because it refers to love that is totally unselfish, a love which sacrifices without thought of return. I suppose that was what Paul had in mind here. Still, the other forms of love are essential to a meaningful existence. But first of all, as a Christian, I am to practice agape love. This means there will be people I don't particularly like, for whom I feel no affection at all, yet whom I can love. I can do that by willing the best for them.
2. What does God expect of us in regard to love? That we treat other people with respect. That we be willing to conduct our own lives with regard to its effect on those around us. It means little things, like never mowing your lawn when the neighbors have guests. Paul Tournier suggests that it even means writing legibly so others don't have trouble reading your writing. Don't let your dog bark. Let the other guy into the line of traffic. It also means more important things, like voting intelligently, paying your bills on time, visiting a shut-in. Jesus said that whoever is faithful in little is faithful in much.
3. Why does love sometimes hurt? For several reasons. We won't always receive the response we could wish. Not everyone will appreciate being treated with kindness. There will be rejections, misunderstandings. If we let these anger us, or prevent us, our love is a failure. There is also a deeper sadness in the fact that the more you love someone, the more easily hurt you will be. The neighbor's child has very little capacity to hurt me. My child could do great injury, because I love her (she wouldn't, actually). And of course, there is death of a loved one.
4. So why should we love? Three reasons (at least). One, it is God's will and therefore may have something to do with God's action in our lives. Two, something good happens to us when we act in loving ways. Three, we were created to love, and without love, there can be no fulfillment. Someone has said that lovers never say "goodbye" for the last time. God has promised that people who persevere in loving will never, finally, be disappointed.
Title: "God And The City"
Text: Matthew 22:15-22
Theme: Jesus has outsmarted the Pharisees again. The point here seems to me to be recognition that civic government is necessary for an orderly society in this world. Jesus obviously was not pleased with the Roman occupation administration, nor with the emperor of Rome. He seems, however, to have been equally displeased with all the other current forms of government, including the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was not interested in rebellion against the authorities, as were many of his countrymen. He was interested in a higher revolution, that of love against human nature unredeemed. Meanwhile, then as now, with all its faults and corruption, a community of any size must have some form of orderly management.
1. The secular world is important. The people to whom we preach are, for the most part, deeply involved in that. Insurance providers attorneys, teachers, office workers, physicians, truck drivers -- people must work hard and make a living. We are to respect this and seek to empower it.
2. We each have civic responsibilities. Moral responsibility, for one thing. And my first contribution to a moral society is to be a moral person. Reinhold Niebuhr's famous observation is true, that as individuals we act in moral ways, but as members of any majority group, we tend to take whatever our power can command. So we are to seek to influence those who have power to use it in moral ways. We also expect our society to provide protection from natural disaster as much as possible, and from the few predators of society.
3. We also owe God. Here is where the church comes in. As leaders of that institution, we must somehow honor and respect the labors of those people who make our government, our economy, our systems such as medicine and law work. At the same time, many a person is in danger of gaining the world and losing his or her life. There's where we come in, to remind people that what we have is a stewardship from God, that God is the king of creation, and that all of this can only bless us and those around us if we, above all else, praise and serve him. When we do, society works.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
BROKEN LOVE
"I heard her.
She called to me, her voice clear on the night breeze.
My love. My heart awoke, alive again. Joy.
No!
It was a dream and she is gone.
Why, O Lord, is sadness the cost of love?
Her touch. Hand in hand we walked, stopping often to stare in sparkling eyes. Happy together.
Is the preacher right, Lord? Is the body lost, then, forever?
Will we never walk together again?
Tell me: why, if you're a God of love, and understand its pain, and if you ordered things, why did you ordain that at the very heart of existence is a broken heart?"
-- Harry Collins
____________
W. H. Auden, in his Christmas Oratorio, wrote this: "O God, put away justice and truth for we cannot understand them. Eternity would bore us dreadfully. Leave thy heavens and come down to our earth of flowers and hedges. Become our uncle. Look after baby. Amuse grandfather. Help Willie with his homework. Introduce Muriel to a handsome naval officer. Be weak and interesting like us, and we will love you as we love ourselves."
____________
A young mother expressed how she first realized how God might feel toward her with these words: "Why should God love the person behind this mask I wear? What is there about me that could call forth his great affection? My glance falls on the tousled head at my knee, smelling of sun, sand, and soap. Is it possible that God could love me for the same reasons I love my children? My child wears no mask. He is secure in the love of his parents who see in him an extension of themselves; a promise of life's continuity. We love him for his potential to grow in wisdom and stature and loving fellowship with God and man. And our hearts burst with joy as those grubby little hands wind around our necks, and we hear 'I love you, Daddy; I love you, Mommy!' How God must long for that moment when each of his children can say from a heart free of fear or threat, 'Father, I love you.' "
____________
THE SUMMER OF MY LOVE
"I think I fell in love when first I saw her -- summer sun glinting off golden hair, slim figure, tiny feet flashing through grass still damp with morning dew. Effortlessly, it seemed, she ran to the end of the meadow then back, head high like a champion runner, leading. She didn't notice me, her distant new admirer, as she disappeared inside the white cottage summer-rented from the Onslows. Nineteen or twenty, I would guess.
"Same thing next day. How could I meet her, the newfound love of my life? June would soon melt into July's hot sun. But still, plenty of time Today she wore a white dress, her slender body outlined by the low morning sun, a smile on what, even from here, I could see to be a beautiful face. Then a car, friends, boys, her day would be away, somewhere.
"Bright mornings followed, like train cars all alike for me, save that gentle moment as she appeared for her morning run. As those days ran into weeks, my love deepened, but my resolve to know her remained unsure. If she ever noticed me, watching, admiring, loving, she never acknowledged me. I gave her a name, my own name for her: Deborah. It's a biblical name for one I dreamed of but had never known. I would call her Deborah.
"One morning Deborah didn't run. Several mornings followed, empty days. Then one early August day, she sat on the porch, talking to an older woman -- her mother I assumed. Tears. I could hear the sobs across the meadow. I closed my eyes and wished her comfort.
"One hot morning, steam rising off the lake, Deborah walked toward the end of the meadow. Thinner than I remembered. I ached with love wanting to call out to her. Time grew short now. She turned, only halfway there, and started back. Dressed in white, leaning against a tree, a dream fulfilled, her beauty all my world. Then she saw me, saw my wheelchair, I suppose. Glorious smile, waved a white hand, and waved again as I waved back. Then with unaccustomed weariness, she walked to the cottage paused at the steps to rest.
"A black limousine pulled up to the cottage, several people dressed in black, solemn, grieving, entered, drove away. Deborah was not with them. For all the summer sun, my days had grown as dark as the fearsome car. Deborah had not run for six days, nor walked, nor smiled, nor waved at me.
"My housekeeper came on Friday, said, 'Good morning. Wasn't it sad about the Claymore girl? They are the folks renting the Onslow house. Just nineteen. How sad. Leukemia, they said in town.'
"The grass in the meadow has grown dry and brown, now. A dim path runs to the end, trod there by gentle feet. I stared at its deathly dryness for a long time. The sun, suddenly too hot, I went inside. It was in the paper the next day. 'News was received of the death of Miss Cynthia D. Claymore, aged nineteen, summer visitor from Darien.' Was her name really Deborah?
"Summer was over, its song now silenced. It was a summer which could never come again. But it was the summer of my love." -- Charles Harrison Garrison (1938-1962)
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 99 (C) -- "The Lord is king, let the peoples tremble."
Psalm 96 (RC, E) -- "O sing to the Lord a new song."
Prayer Of The Day
So much we do not understand, O Lord. There is much beauty, much to bring joy into our lives in this life. But there is sadness, loneliness, rejection too. Why, O God, must we endure so much suffering in order to grow into the beings we were created to be? Help us to trust you, O God, for those things which we do not understand, to trust them to your love which, despite everything, we know to surround us and promise that in the end, we will find the healing joy which will make all things good. Amen.
Lesson 1: Exodus 33:12-23 (C)
Moses is still discussing with God the future of the Israelites. God is pleased with Moses -- probably one significant passage is that in which God supposedly tells Moses that he knew God by name, which implies closeness in the ancient world -- but God is not so pleased with the rest of the people. Their rebellious attitudes, their making of the golden calf, all have irritated God. However, Moses' intercession is successful. "The Lord" will go with the people as they continue their journey, but Moses will not be allowed to see the face of God. To do so would be fatal. This reflects another ancient superstition that to see even the Ark of the Covenant under certain conditions could be disastrous, and to touch it has caused at least one recorded death. Thus, the people had a profound sense of awe in the presence of God. For all their rebelliousness, the Israelites were empowered throughout their remarkable history because of this sense of awe at the thought of God's presence. It may be that many of us miss the power of the divine presence precisely because we do not have that sense of awe. Furthermore, Moses made it clear that they still felt themselves called to a unique destiny, and through God's actions in their lives, their destiny would be fulfilled.
Lesson 1: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6 (RC); Isaiah 45:1-7 (E)
Isaiah quotes God as coming on very strong in reminding the people that he is a God of power, a fulfiller of destinies. "I am the Lord and there is no other," he reminded them. "I form light and create darkness," he warned. "I make weal and create woe." Anyone with any sense will do what God requires, so Isaiah seems to be saying. One predominant theme, the one which above all others characterizes the entire Old Testament, is that affirmation: "I am the Lord and there is no other." Monotheism, taken for granted by us today, was a new idea to most people of the age. Many a man thought that by changing geographical location, he could escape God's wrath. Not so.
Lesson 2: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 (C, E); 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 (RC)
These seem to be favorite people to Paul. Writing in mid-century from Corinth, Paul commends his friends of the Thessalonian church thankful that they have become avid hearers and exemplars of the word, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Since we know that the people of Corinth were something of a problem to Paul, he may very well have been homesick for these friends. (I wonder if Paul might have left a copy of this letter lying around for the Corinthians to see.) Significant is Paul's observation that God has chosen these people, a fact which in current times allows those of us in the church to believe the same about ourselves. Paul also refers to their "labor of love," leaving the impression that it is to a labor of love that we too are called.
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22 (C, E); Matthew 22:15-21 (RC)
These Pharisees, at it again. You almost have to feel sorry for them the way they continually put their collective feet in their mouths. They repeatedly try all these tactics to make Jesus look bad to the gathered listeners. Inevitably, he outsmarts them. (I hope it doesn't offend anyone if I remark that sometimes it brings to my mind the Road Runner cartoons.) Anyway, in this case, they thought Jesus would either speak against payment of taxes, which would have gotten him in serious trouble with the Roman authorities, or he would defend taxation, in which case everyone would be mad at him since the Romans were an occupation force and everyone bitterly resented taxation. Jesus used a bit of Socratic logic to disarm the question. He also obliquely did agree that taxation is permissible. Truthfully, a people without taxation would have little or no social services, even then.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "I Just Wouldn't Preach On This"
Text: Exodus 33:12-23
Theme: I'm sorry, folks. This is a passage I would never preach on and doubt that very many other preachers would either. With all respect for the Old Testament, and meaning no disrespect to my Jewish friends at all, I can't find much here that squares with my theology. I'm a New Testament preacher anyway, and I realize this is a folk tale designed to explain the Jewish heritage. Still, I can't imagine God having such a conversation with Moses or anyone else. Give me Job, who God put in his place in short order. The God I think I know would have said, "Moses, I love you, and I love all those other folks. Now get yourself down there and do what you can to straighten things out." Anyway, there are probably some of you scholars out there who see something profound here and I'd be delighted to know what it is. As for me, the other passages are profound enough and without further ado, I turn to them.
Title: "Labor Of Love"
Text: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Theme: Paul, in addition to commending his old friends for their fidelity, refers to their "labors of love," and that's what caught my attention. The word "love" is used a lot these days. People love hot dogs, they love Pacer basketball, they love their children, they love "hip-hop," they love to dance -- on it goes. The Greeks knew how to use that word with their five variations. That's very much at the heart of the gospel, so let's think about "love" for awhile.
1. What is "love"? Agape. Sacrificial love. But eros is important, too. I wouldn't want to be married to someone in a relationship which lacked eros or erotic love. However, the gospel prefers agape because it refers to love that is totally unselfish, a love which sacrifices without thought of return. I suppose that was what Paul had in mind here. Still, the other forms of love are essential to a meaningful existence. But first of all, as a Christian, I am to practice agape love. This means there will be people I don't particularly like, for whom I feel no affection at all, yet whom I can love. I can do that by willing the best for them.
2. What does God expect of us in regard to love? That we treat other people with respect. That we be willing to conduct our own lives with regard to its effect on those around us. It means little things, like never mowing your lawn when the neighbors have guests. Paul Tournier suggests that it even means writing legibly so others don't have trouble reading your writing. Don't let your dog bark. Let the other guy into the line of traffic. It also means more important things, like voting intelligently, paying your bills on time, visiting a shut-in. Jesus said that whoever is faithful in little is faithful in much.
3. Why does love sometimes hurt? For several reasons. We won't always receive the response we could wish. Not everyone will appreciate being treated with kindness. There will be rejections, misunderstandings. If we let these anger us, or prevent us, our love is a failure. There is also a deeper sadness in the fact that the more you love someone, the more easily hurt you will be. The neighbor's child has very little capacity to hurt me. My child could do great injury, because I love her (she wouldn't, actually). And of course, there is death of a loved one.
4. So why should we love? Three reasons (at least). One, it is God's will and therefore may have something to do with God's action in our lives. Two, something good happens to us when we act in loving ways. Three, we were created to love, and without love, there can be no fulfillment. Someone has said that lovers never say "goodbye" for the last time. God has promised that people who persevere in loving will never, finally, be disappointed.
Title: "God And The City"
Text: Matthew 22:15-22
Theme: Jesus has outsmarted the Pharisees again. The point here seems to me to be recognition that civic government is necessary for an orderly society in this world. Jesus obviously was not pleased with the Roman occupation administration, nor with the emperor of Rome. He seems, however, to have been equally displeased with all the other current forms of government, including the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was not interested in rebellion against the authorities, as were many of his countrymen. He was interested in a higher revolution, that of love against human nature unredeemed. Meanwhile, then as now, with all its faults and corruption, a community of any size must have some form of orderly management.
1. The secular world is important. The people to whom we preach are, for the most part, deeply involved in that. Insurance providers attorneys, teachers, office workers, physicians, truck drivers -- people must work hard and make a living. We are to respect this and seek to empower it.
2. We each have civic responsibilities. Moral responsibility, for one thing. And my first contribution to a moral society is to be a moral person. Reinhold Niebuhr's famous observation is true, that as individuals we act in moral ways, but as members of any majority group, we tend to take whatever our power can command. So we are to seek to influence those who have power to use it in moral ways. We also expect our society to provide protection from natural disaster as much as possible, and from the few predators of society.
3. We also owe God. Here is where the church comes in. As leaders of that institution, we must somehow honor and respect the labors of those people who make our government, our economy, our systems such as medicine and law work. At the same time, many a person is in danger of gaining the world and losing his or her life. There's where we come in, to remind people that what we have is a stewardship from God, that God is the king of creation, and that all of this can only bless us and those around us if we, above all else, praise and serve him. When we do, society works.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
BROKEN LOVE
"I heard her.
She called to me, her voice clear on the night breeze.
My love. My heart awoke, alive again. Joy.
No!
It was a dream and she is gone.
Why, O Lord, is sadness the cost of love?
Her touch. Hand in hand we walked, stopping often to stare in sparkling eyes. Happy together.
Is the preacher right, Lord? Is the body lost, then, forever?
Will we never walk together again?
Tell me: why, if you're a God of love, and understand its pain, and if you ordered things, why did you ordain that at the very heart of existence is a broken heart?"
-- Harry Collins
____________
W. H. Auden, in his Christmas Oratorio, wrote this: "O God, put away justice and truth for we cannot understand them. Eternity would bore us dreadfully. Leave thy heavens and come down to our earth of flowers and hedges. Become our uncle. Look after baby. Amuse grandfather. Help Willie with his homework. Introduce Muriel to a handsome naval officer. Be weak and interesting like us, and we will love you as we love ourselves."
____________
A young mother expressed how she first realized how God might feel toward her with these words: "Why should God love the person behind this mask I wear? What is there about me that could call forth his great affection? My glance falls on the tousled head at my knee, smelling of sun, sand, and soap. Is it possible that God could love me for the same reasons I love my children? My child wears no mask. He is secure in the love of his parents who see in him an extension of themselves; a promise of life's continuity. We love him for his potential to grow in wisdom and stature and loving fellowship with God and man. And our hearts burst with joy as those grubby little hands wind around our necks, and we hear 'I love you, Daddy; I love you, Mommy!' How God must long for that moment when each of his children can say from a heart free of fear or threat, 'Father, I love you.' "
____________
THE SUMMER OF MY LOVE
"I think I fell in love when first I saw her -- summer sun glinting off golden hair, slim figure, tiny feet flashing through grass still damp with morning dew. Effortlessly, it seemed, she ran to the end of the meadow then back, head high like a champion runner, leading. She didn't notice me, her distant new admirer, as she disappeared inside the white cottage summer-rented from the Onslows. Nineteen or twenty, I would guess.
"Same thing next day. How could I meet her, the newfound love of my life? June would soon melt into July's hot sun. But still, plenty of time Today she wore a white dress, her slender body outlined by the low morning sun, a smile on what, even from here, I could see to be a beautiful face. Then a car, friends, boys, her day would be away, somewhere.
"Bright mornings followed, like train cars all alike for me, save that gentle moment as she appeared for her morning run. As those days ran into weeks, my love deepened, but my resolve to know her remained unsure. If she ever noticed me, watching, admiring, loving, she never acknowledged me. I gave her a name, my own name for her: Deborah. It's a biblical name for one I dreamed of but had never known. I would call her Deborah.
"One morning Deborah didn't run. Several mornings followed, empty days. Then one early August day, she sat on the porch, talking to an older woman -- her mother I assumed. Tears. I could hear the sobs across the meadow. I closed my eyes and wished her comfort.
"One hot morning, steam rising off the lake, Deborah walked toward the end of the meadow. Thinner than I remembered. I ached with love wanting to call out to her. Time grew short now. She turned, only halfway there, and started back. Dressed in white, leaning against a tree, a dream fulfilled, her beauty all my world. Then she saw me, saw my wheelchair, I suppose. Glorious smile, waved a white hand, and waved again as I waved back. Then with unaccustomed weariness, she walked to the cottage paused at the steps to rest.
"A black limousine pulled up to the cottage, several people dressed in black, solemn, grieving, entered, drove away. Deborah was not with them. For all the summer sun, my days had grown as dark as the fearsome car. Deborah had not run for six days, nor walked, nor smiled, nor waved at me.
"My housekeeper came on Friday, said, 'Good morning. Wasn't it sad about the Claymore girl? They are the folks renting the Onslow house. Just nineteen. How sad. Leukemia, they said in town.'
"The grass in the meadow has grown dry and brown, now. A dim path runs to the end, trod there by gentle feet. I stared at its deathly dryness for a long time. The sun, suddenly too hot, I went inside. It was in the paper the next day. 'News was received of the death of Miss Cynthia D. Claymore, aged nineteen, summer visitor from Darien.' Was her name really Deborah?
"Summer was over, its song now silenced. It was a summer which could never come again. But it was the summer of my love." -- Charles Harrison Garrison (1938-1962)
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 99 (C) -- "The Lord is king, let the peoples tremble."
Psalm 96 (RC, E) -- "O sing to the Lord a new song."
Prayer Of The Day
So much we do not understand, O Lord. There is much beauty, much to bring joy into our lives in this life. But there is sadness, loneliness, rejection too. Why, O God, must we endure so much suffering in order to grow into the beings we were created to be? Help us to trust you, O God, for those things which we do not understand, to trust them to your love which, despite everything, we know to surround us and promise that in the end, we will find the healing joy which will make all things good. Amen.
