THE BIBLE – LISTENING TO MATTHEW
COMMENT FOR PENTECOST 8 – 6.07.08
Genesis 24: 34-38,42-49,58-67
At last a woman features strongly in this important three faith story – Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Rebekah still conforms to the submissive role for women in her times, but is shown to be generous, alert and quick to sense the possible part for her in this God-directed story. At the conclusion there is a romantic touch in the picture of Isaac, who let a servant go looking for his wife, wandering lonely in the field waiting for the one he will love.
Psalm 45: 10-17
This exuberant, court-style song for a royal wedding is part of Hebrew literature. It is more like the Song of Solomon than the covenant people’s book of Psalms. Verse 12 suggests the occasion is a wedding between a princess of Tyre and a young King of the Northern Kingdom. She is to forget her previous loyalties of country and ways of worship and adopt a new country and people as hers. Did the example of Queen Jezebel, also a daughter of Tyre, give strength to this exhortation? However, the whole Psalm recognizes the majesty of God behind all human status and we bring our prayer to him for the future.
Romans 7: 15-25a
Paul’s own personal experience seems to be driving his thinking here. He reflects on how the ordered religion of his earlier life experience could not satisfy the moral dilemmas his real life created. Yes it did give him a “delight in the Law of God”, but the frailty of his human nature kept letting him down. So he relives his experience of his Damascus- Road experience with Christ. It was so invigorating and life changing that he now wants his readers in Rome to share that same liberating experience. This for Paul is the Resurrection faith.
Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30
Matthew tells us (9.36) that Jesus’ compassion for people led him to send out his disciples on a mission to only Jewish areas. Then in this chapter he goes out. This is a wider encounter than his previous one-to-one meetings. The results are not encouraging. Certainly the clever, slick response was just a way of not really facing the question. But he could still make his final appeal to those who would make the journey with him. In the long run they would understand the wisdom and the loving power of God.
THE BIBLE – LISTENING TO MATTHEW
COMMENT FOR PENTECOST 9 – 13.07.08
Genesis 25: 19-34
This is a watershed story of the Israelite people when the time of the hunter was giving way to the settled life of the farmer. Poor Rebekah has such a difficult pregnancy it indicates the conflict of her twin sons and their descendants. Older Esau, the hunter despises the bread and lentil stew of the younger Jacob, the farmer. But he trades his right as the older son because he is hungry – and so do the hunters of this world after him. Rebekah also decides for the future with Jacob, which is where our God-directed story will take us.
Psalm 119: 105-112
The whole Psalm is in the form of an acrostic, where the initial letter of each of the 22 sections is the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter then remains the same for the ensuing eight lines of the section. So it is a bit artificial for religious poetry. In our section there is this wonderful idea of God’s word being a lamp for everyday use, warm and encouraging us to take the next step. It is still the Word of God to be found also in the ordinances of the law, testimonies and statutes.
Romans 8: 1-11
Paul has been describing what it was like as a Hebrew growing up under the Law of Moses. He argues that because he was human the Law simply passed judgment on the best he could do. However, Jesus took on the RomanState; met the fate of being human; was himself a sacrifice and triumphed over all that separates us from God. He argues that it is the same for non-Jews, for our ordinary human nature is going nowhere. But we are rescued by the Spirit of Christ and so live day by day in the power of his life giving Spirit.
Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23
Like the prophets of the past, Jesus gets his hearers thinking how their daily lives work producing the food they need, and he is making the connection that the loving Spirit of God is behind it all. The disciples are curious, is he really talking about their expectations as bearers of the Gospel? Matthew would also be thinking of those reading his Gospel story for the first time. So it is for people now. What are our realistic expectations for the good news of the loving action of God when the media loves bad news? The cheering part of this story is that a faithfully given message with a well prepared strategy is never lost.
THE BIBLE – LISTENING TO MATTHEW
COMMENT FOR PENTECOST 10 20.7.08
Genesis 28 10-19a
The younger Jacob is now the family heir, but is so afraid of Esau that he leaves Beer-sheba and travels north retracing the steps of Abraham. He must be thinking over the land of promise as he travels and the covenant with his grandfather. Then at night he has this dream which restates the Abraham promise to him. But with a difference – there is a ladder to climb to realize the dream, it will not just fall in his lap. So he begins by building an altar and placing himself at the heart of the covenant.
Psalm 139: 1-12, 23-24
The first 12 verses give the classic statement of God’s omniscience (vv 1-6) and God’s omnipresence (vv 7-12). The words convey something deeply felt, because the writer completely trusts the amazing greatness of God and can only respond in awe and wonder. The Psalm ends with the recognition that he/she is just a vulnerable human being. So the final possible attitude can only be a total trust and confidence in Divine Power.
Romans 8: 12-25
Two magnificent ideas dominate this passage. The first is that Christians are adopted into the family of God. Hence this new society of Jew and Gentile, men and women, slaves and masters are a family facing the world as the family of God. And the second is that this family forms the basis of a new society where race, class, gender, sexual orientation and anything else which sets people into antagonistic groups is disregarded. Paul says the world is longing for the human race to stop discriminating and grow up.
Matthew 13: 24-30,36-43
This parable warns against making rash, immature judgements about other people’s behaviour or values. It is an appeal for tolerance and inclusiveness. The slaves wanted something done quickly because what was happening was different and upsetting. The final view seems to be saying that we should not rush to judgement but work together. Then if at last there is to be a judgement it will be God-directed and passed into the dustbin of history.
THE BIBLE – LISTENING TO MATTHEW
COMMENT FOR PENTECOST 11 27.7.08
Genesis 29 15-28
The story tellers of the ancient world would have had wonderful fun with the episode of Jacob’s marriage. The practices of the older son (even with twins) receiving the father’s blessing and bride-price are the basis of Jacob’s deception and the seven year service for Rachel. But life moved on, and the deceitful Jacob is deceived by the substitute bride Leah, who becomes the matriarch of the twelve tribes of Israel, ancestor of Moses and David. So the Abraham dream gathered strength and purpose over time.
Psalm 105: 1-11, 45b
This section of the Psalm repeats the Psalm of Thanksgiving (1 Chron. 16:8-22) when the ark of God was set up inside the tent by King David as worship was established in Jerusalem. The Psalm recites the central place which the initiative of their God had played in the journey to the present time. There was an unbroken spiritual power in the promise, but how the people were to use and care for the land which was the inheritance, would be for the future.
Romans 8: 26-39
The basis of Paul’s thinking here is that the Spirit of God is living and active in his world. But in a special sense it can be living and active in every person made in his image, i.e. in every person who discovers for themselves the richness and power of the spiritual life. For them the initiative of the loving power of God is everywhere and in everything working for a good purpose. And that is something which will never be defeated because it lasts beyond every horizon or limit we presently know.
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
Jesus of Nazareth would have been a great companion. He was a close observer of the natural world and its people with endless curiosity. He saw the invigorating, loving power of God giving meaning to life which was alert to his influence. So there was the possibility of treasure where people lived and worked, if only the pulse of life allowed for the spiritual power of the creative God to work with patience. Again Matthew records Jesus’ disappointment that there are some who miss out on life’s discovery.
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