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  • Epiphany 4A (2 February 2014)

    Contents

    Lectionary

    • Micah 6:1-8 and Psalm 15
    • 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
    • Matthew 5:1-12

    Introduction

    This week the lectionary serves up a rich feast of readings, with several classic texts all being read in the liturgical community on the one day:

    • Micah 6, with its call to get the basics right
    • 1 Corinthians 1, with its celebration of the centrality of the cross to Christian identity and practice
    • Matthew 5:1-12, the beatitudes

    First Reading: What does the Lord require?

    With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6–8 NRSV)

    The prophetic focus on the few things that really matter is part of a trajectory in Jewish religious thought, found also in the Jesus tradition and its rabbinic parallels:

    This tradition has its parallels in rabbinic traditions about Hillel:

    A proselyte approached Hillel with the request Hillel teach him the whole of the Torah while the student stood on one foot. Hillel responded, “What you find hateful do not do to another. This is the whole of the Law. Everything else is commentary. Now go learn that!” (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b-24a)

    Second Reading: The foolishness of God

    In a kind of ironic reversal of the Wisdom tradition, a trajectory especially at home among the elite scribal classes of ancient Judaism, Paul celebrates the “foolishness of God:”

    For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
    Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:18–31 NRSV)

    Not only does Paul reverse the typical religious valuation of “wisdom” over “folly”—he identifies the counter-cultural wisdom of God with the cross.

    This is one of the earliest Christian texts to assign such religious significance to the crucifixion of Jesus. Coming as it does from the mid-50s of the first century, this passage provides an insight into the ways that the death of Jesus, including specifically the dishonorable circumstances of his death as a victim of imperial violence, was being transformed from a point of shame to a distinctive element of Christian self-understanding. Much later the cross would become the public symbol for Christanity, but here already it is becoming the point of differentiation from Jews and “Greeks.”

    We can see another early expression of this focus on the cross in the Christ Hymn from Philippians 2:

    Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who,
    though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
    but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
    And being found in human form,
    he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death
    —even death on a cross.
    Therefore God also highly exalted him
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
    so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:5–11 NRSV)

    Gospel: Beatitudes

    The Jesus Seminar and the Beatitudes

    None of the beatitudes in Matthew score a red result, unlike the version found in Luke 6. The Seminar considered the sayings addressed to the gentle, the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers to be inauthentic. While Samuel Lachs offers some textual emendations that provide for a better fit of these sayings with the core beatitudes, it still seems unlikely that these sayings can be attributed to Jesus.

    For ease of reference, the Seminar’s voting decisions are shown in the color-coded text that follows:

    3 Congratulations to the poor in spirit!
    Heaven’s domain belongs to them.
    4 Congratulations to those who grieve!
    They will be consoled.
    5 Congratulations to the gentle!
    They will inherit the earth.
    6 Congratulations to those who hunger and thirst for justice!
    They will have a feast.
    7 Congratulations to the merciful!
    They will receive mercy.
    8 Congratulations to those with undefiled hearts!
    They will see God.
    9 Congratulations to those who work for peace!
    They will be known as God’s children.
    10 Congratulations to those who have suffered
    persecution for the sake of justice!
    Heaven’s domain belongs to them.
    11 “Congratulations to you when they denounce you
    and persecute you and spread malicious gossip about you
    because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad! In heaven you
    will be more than compensated. Remember, this is how they persecuted
    the prophets who preceded you.
    [Scholars Version]

    For a wider list of beatitudes in ancient Jewish and Christian texts, see the Beatitudes page.

    Jesus Database

    Liturgies and Prayers

    For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

    Other recommended sites include:

     

    Music Suggestions

    See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

  • Epiphany 3A (26 January 2014)

    Contents

    Lectionary

    • Isaiah 9:1-4 & Psalm 27:1, 4-9
    • 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
    • Matthew 4:12-23

    First Reading: Galilee of the nations

    The brief oracle from Isaiah 9:1-4 is chosen for this week because of its intertextual link with the passage from Matthew 4. That link is, of course, retrospective with Matthew finding in its ancient words a highly valued biblical “prophecy” that Galilee would be the location for a remarkable messianic event. This positive valuation of Galilee in Matthew stands in contrast with the southern antipathy to Galilee that we find expressed in the Gospel of John:

    When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.” Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some asked, “Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So there was a division in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.” (John 7:40–52 NRSV)

    Second Reading: Unity that transcends factions

    Last week the lectionary commenced a series of selections from 1 Corinthians, not necessarily Paul’s first letter to the community but perhaps simply the longer of the two collections of correspondence to Corinth.

    Despite the prominence of the Corinthian congregation in subsequent Christian imagination (due in no small degree to the influence of Paul’s surviving correspondence with this church), surprisingly little is known of the ancient city from archaeology. For a glimpse of what we do have by way of physical remains from this important city of ancient Greece, see the following selected links:

    In this week’s passage Paul is berating the Corinthians for their factionalism (what would he make of 21C Christianity with our entrenched factions and parties?) and appealing for them to appreciate their fundamental unity as devotees of Jesus Christ. The foolishness of a crucified god—the scandal (shock value) of that statement has been blunted for us by the passage of time—is held up as superior to their partisan claims to status relative to one another.

    Gospel: Jesus calls the fishers of Capernaum

    Fishing for Humans

    Meier has an extended discussion of the disciples in the third volume of A Marginal Jew [III,19-285]. One of the elements of discipleship that he considers is the initiative taken by Jesus in calling particular persons to be his followers:

    One striking trait, found in a number of different Gospel sources, is that Jesus seizes the initiative in calling people to follow him. Three clear examples are given in the Marcan tradition: the call of the first four disciples (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) in Mark 1:16-20; the call of Levi the toll collector in 2:14; and the (unsuccessful) call of the rich man in Mark 10:17-22. In each case, Jesus issues a peremptory call to follow him, a call addressed to people who have not taken the initiative of asking to follow him. (p. 50)

    Meier also notes that the promise to become fishers of humans is only made to Andrew and Peter; and is not extended to James and John.

    When he does turn to the question of historicity, Meier asserts that the term “to fish humans” [halieis anthropon] is sufficiently distinctive to be identified as a phrase deriving from Jesus:

    The exact phrase never occurs in the OT, and the metaphor of fishing for human beings (or using a hook to catch them) is relatively rare. When it occurs, it always has a hostile sense of capturing or killing human beings [n. 122 refers to Jer 16:16; Ezek 29:4-5; Amos 4:2; Hab 1:14-17]. The metaphor occurs at times in the Qumran literature, likewise in a negative context of destruction or judgment [n. 123 refers to 1QH 3:26; 5:7-8]. The metaphor of “catching men” is also found with a negative sense in later rabbinic literature. Thus, there is no real parallel to Jesus’ positive, salvific use of the metaphor in the Jewish tradition before or after him. (p. 160)

     

    Capernaum

    The small fishing village of Capernaum seems to have been the center of Jesus’ activity in Galilee.

    John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts (HarperSanFranccisco, 2001) devote several pages to a discussion of Capernaum in the First Century (pp. 81-97).

    The most salient features to note are as follows:

    • POPULATION: around 1,000 persons on 25 acres of land
    • BUILDINGS: none of the Greco-Roman architecture of a significant urban center: no gates, no defensive fortifications, no civic structures (theater, amphitheater, hippodrome), no public bathhouse, no public latrine, no basilica for civic gatherings or commerical activities, no constructed agora (market) with shops and storage facilities
    • STREETS: no sign of planning in layout of streets, no streets appear to have been paved, no channels for running water, sewage disposed on the site, no plaster surfaces, no decorative fresco, no marble of any kind, no ceramic roofs tiles (contra Luke 5:19)
    • INSCRIPTIONS: none from 1C or earlier have been found
    • HOUSES: used local dark basalt, crooked wooden beams, straw, reeds, mud. Poor quality of construction. No evidence of skilled craftsmen. Mostly single storeys and with thatched roofs (as implied in Mark’s version of Jesus healing a paralysed man). Several abutting rooms centered around a courtyard. usually just a single entrance.
    • BOATS: lakeside location supported a fishing industry, but town shows no evidence of wealth. The discovery of a 1C fishing boat in 1986 (during a drought that lowered the water level) confirms the impression of a community struggling to survive but with considerable ingenuity in making the most of limited resources.

    In one of his classic turns of phrase, Crossan describes Capernaum as “not a sought-after spot, but a good place to get away from, with easy access across the Sea of Galilee to any side.” (p. 81)

    The following poem by Gene Stecher reflects on the significance of this site as the center of Jesus’ activity:

    Capernaum, 1000 persons on 25 acres,
    Egypt/India trade route a couple miles off,
    Honorable locals do commerical fishing,
    Dishonorable locals do toll collecting,
    Didn’t take well to Jesus missionaries,
    same as Chorazin and Bethsaida.

    Impressive at assemblies, no scribal mush.
    Words grounded in personal authority,
    Formal teaching,
    Commanded action.
    A rise to fame [a price to pay]!

    Some guy with demons is making a commotion,
    Calling Jesus God’s Holy One.
    He wasn’t disappointed,
    But a huge struggle for the genuine self!

    Dare we be called Holy One,
    confronting both inner and outer demons,
    Rooted in the Ground of personal authority,
    how untried and unknown is this power?
    “Why are you so cowardly?
    You still don’t trust do you?” (Mk 4:40)

    The following articles may be of interest:

    • BiblePlaces – photographs and brief notes on the Capernaum ruins[1]
    • See Capernaum for brief notes on the ancient site of Capernaum.
    • Jesus Seminar – the Seminar voted Red to the proposition that Capernaum was a key center for Jesus’ activities in the Galilee, but the tradition has been developed and preserved in very different ways by each of the evangelists:

    – MARK constructs an artificial “day in the ministry of Jesus” stretching from 1:21 to 1:39
    – MATTHEW simply notes that Capernaum was the main location for Jesus, and then connects that with his theme of fulfilled prophecies.
    – LUKE develops a visit to the Nazareth synagogue in 4:16-30 as the opening scene of Jesus’ public ministry, with Capernaum simply the next stop on his travels.
    – JOHN also records a tradition that has Jesus and his followers staying for a period at Capernaum.

    Jesus Database

    Liturgies and Prayers

    Australia Day

    As January 26 is also Australia Day, some communities may wish to use a Great Thanksgiving Prayer that reflects Australian themes:

     

    Progressive Liturgies

    For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

    Other recommended sites include:

     

    Music Suggestions

    See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

  • Epiphany 2A (19 January 2014)

    Contents

    Lectionary

    • Isaiah 49:1-7 & Psalm 40:1-11
    • 1Corinthians 1:1-9
    • John 1:29-42

    The Epiphany Cycle

    Over the next few weeks we will complete a longer than usual Epiphany cycle due to the relatively late date for Easter this year. As usual, the readings will mostly come from Isaiah, 1 Corinthians and the gospel of the year (in this case, Matthew).

    During the course of Epiphany each year the lectionary invites us to reflect on a selection of Gospel “snapshots” of Jesus as the revelation of God.

    The Year A lectionary texts for Epiphany are as follows:

    • First Sunday after Epiphany (Baptism of Jesus): Matt 3:13-17
    • Second Sunday after Epiphany (John’s disciples find Jesus): John 1:29-42
    • Third Sunday after Epiphany (Jesus in Galilee): Matt 4:12-23
    • Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (The Beatitudes): Matt 5:1-12
    • Fifth Sunday after Epiphany (Light, Salt and Torah): Matt 5:13-20
    • Sixth Sunday after Epiphany (The New Torah): Matt 5:21-37
    • Seventh Sunday after Epiphany (Love of Enemies): Matt 5:38-48
    • Last Sunday after Epiphany (Transfiguration): Matt 17:1-9

    John’s disciples find Jesus

    The way that the GJohn introduces the disciples into the narrative is quite unlike the more familiar accounts in the Synoptic Gospels.

    Mark 1:16-20 sets the call in Galilee, and makes no mention of any previous affiliation of these persons with John the Baptist:

    As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

    Matthew simply makes minor adjustments to the details when taking over this tradition from Mark:

    As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. [Matt 4:18-22]

    While Luke tells the story very differently, it remains a lakeside encounter in the Galilee:

    Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. [Luke 5:1-11]

    Presumably GJohn has connected the first of Jesus’ disciples with John the Baptist because that reflected something of the spiritual history of those who shaped the Johannine community, or perhaps because John had been posthumously pressed into service as something of a symbol within their tradition. There is no reason to think that GJohn has any access to reliable historical information, since the portrait of JBap in GJohn is entirely subsumed to the figure of Christ.

    John the Baptist in the Gospel of John

    It is interesting to note the way that GJohn represents John the Baptist.

    Barnes Tatum [John the Baptist and Jesus. 1994:75-81] provides a helpful guide to the ten passages in GJohn that refer to John the Baptist.

    He begins, however, by noting that GJohn never uses “the Baptizer” when referring to John. Immediately that alerts us to a different view of John within the Johannine community.

    JBap appears twice in the poetic prologue to the Gospel:

    1. John 1:6-8

    There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
    He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
    He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

    2. John 1:15

    (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said,
    ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)

    A further four references to JBap occur in the first chapter of GJohn:

    3. John 1:19-24

    This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said,
    “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
    “Make straight the way of the Lord,’”
    as the prophet Isaiah said.
    Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.

    4. John 1:25-28

    They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

    5. John 1:29-34

    The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

    6. John 1:35-42

    The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

    The remaining references to JBap are as follows:

    7. John 3:22-30

    After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized — John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison. Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

    8. John 4:1-4

    Now when Jesus1 learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” — although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized — he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria.

    9. John 5:30-38

    “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

    10. John 10:40-42

    He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.

    When considering GJohn’s treatment of JBap in the light of these ten passages, Tatum notes that GJohn (unlike the Synoptics) has chosen not to interpret JBap as the fulfillment of Malachi 3:1 –

    See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me,
    and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
    The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight —
    indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

    Barnes Tatum continues:

    Therefore, how has John presented JB? With singular focus, John presents JB as a witness testifying to Jesus’ identity as the One from God. Here JB appears quite differently than in Q. JB in Q asks whether or not Jesus is the coming one; and Jesus subsequently praises JB, but declares the least in God’s domain to be greater than he. JB in John has become the first Christian. Only on the basis of the portrayal of JB in John could the later church have made JB into a Christian saint, as the church did. (p. 79, emphasis original)

    Because of this deliberate focus on JBap as a witness to Jesus, all other aspects of the historical activity of JBap are omitted or left understated:

    • JBap does not proclaim a baptism of repentance and the significance of John’s baptism is left unexplained;
    • There is no mention of John’s ascetic lifestyle;
    • John’s arrest is mentioned in passing, but no details of his fate are provided

    Jesus Database

    Liturgies and Prayers

    For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

    Other recommended sites include:

    Music Suggestions

    See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

  • Epiphany of the Lord Jesus (6 January 2014)

    Contents

    Lectionary

    Year A

    • Isaiah 60:1-6 and Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
    • Ephesians 3:1-12
    • Matthew 2:1-12

    Year B

    • Isaiah 60:1-6 and Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
    • Ephesians 3:1-12
    • Matthew 2:1-12

    Year C

    • Isaiah 60:1-6 and Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
    • Ephesians 3:1-12
    • Matthew 2:1-12

     

    Introduction

    The Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord concludes the traditional twelve days of Christmas in the West with a celebration of the universal significance of the Christ Child. In recent lectionaries this festival also introduces a season of varying length between Christmas and Lent. During this season the readings provide an opportunity to explore some of the different ways in which an epiphany (a Greek word for an event or action that reveals the otherwise hidden presence of a god) form part of the Christian faith tradition. Epiphany celebrates the possibility of an encounter with the Sacred beginning with a celebration of the life of Jesus as a divine disclosure.

    Commentary and Critical Notes

    In my forthcoming new book, Jesus Then and Jesus Now: Looking for Jesus, Finding Ourselves (Mosaic Publications, early 2014) I comment as follows on this week’s Gospel episode:

    … the visit of the magi in Matthew’s infancy story … is hardly an event that reveals anything about the attitude shown by the adult Jesus towards people of different faiths. Yet the story cannot be dismissed so readily. It is most likely a legend created by Matthew in light of a visit to Rome by King Tridates of Armenia a few decades before the Gospel was composed. Even so, this story affirms that people far beyond the boundaries of the Jewish community were not only the recipients and beneficiaries of divine revelation, but eagerly responded at no small expense to themselves. Intended to glorify the Christ Child as someone whose life would be a blessing to those who are far off, the tale also opens the windows of the house of faith for fresh breezes to blow from the East. Given the placement of Matthew as the first of the four gospels, this story of a rich interfaith moment at the birth of Jesus provides a canonical framing of the Jesus story that should not be overlooked.

    The following links provide more detailed information on various aspects of this story, including extended citations of the ancient sources:

     

    Jesus Database

    Liturgies and Prayers

    For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

    Other recommended sites include:

     

    Music Suggestions

    See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

  • Second Sunday after Christmas (5 January 2014)

    Contents

    Lectionary

    • Jeremiah 31:7-14 & Psalm 147:12-20 (or Sirach 24:1-12 & or WisSol 10:15-21)
    • Ephesians 1:3-14
    • John 1:(1-9), 10-18

    Introduction

    A Second Sunday of Christmas only occurs when Christmas occurs late enough in the week for a two Sundays to occur between then and Epiphany on January 6. The focus on this day falls on the theological significance of the Incarnation, and this is especially well brought out by the alternative reading from the Old Testament, together with its canticle in lieu of a Psalm.

    Since Sunday, 12 January 2014 is Epiphany 1A (also observed as the Festival of the Baptism of Jesus), many communities will observe Epiphany this coming Sunday, rather than the propers for Christmas 2A.

    Alternative First Reading: Sirach 24:1-12

    This reading, together with its alternative canticle from Wisdom of Solomon, draws on the ancient Jewish traditions about divine Wisdom.

    In several of the writings from the Ketubim and the deuterocanonical books, we can trace a developing interest in a mysterious figure, Lady Wisdom. Wisdom is a feminine noun in both Hebrew (hokmah) and Greek (sophia). This may have prompted the earnest but chaste scribes of Jerusalem to project their interest in women upon a more worthy and yet entirely unattainable woman, Lady Wisdom.

    Lady Wisdom stands in the street calling for wise men (sic) who will respond to her call and make the pursuit of her pleasures the center of their life. By contrast to Lady Wisdom, the forbidden woman is a dangerous option.

    In words that will later be echoed by the depiction of Jesus as “Child of Sophia,” we find Wisdom building a house and laying a feast for those who will come when invited.

    Wisdom has built her house,
    she has hewn her seven pillars.
    She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,
    she has also set her table.
    She has sent out her servant girls, she calls
    from the highest places in the town,
    “You that are simple, turn in here!”
    To those without sense she says,
    “Come, eat of my bread
    and drink of the wine I have mixed.
    Lay aside immaturity, and live,
    and walk in the way of insight.” (Prov 9:1–6)

    For further details of this significant theological trajectory in ancient Judaism and earliest Christianity, see:

    The alternative canticle listed for this week represents one of the highpoints of the Lady Wisdom trajectory. It comes from the Wisdom of Solomon, a text believed to be more or less contemporary with Jesus. In the Wisdom of Solomon we find ourselves in a universe of ideas not very far from the prologue to John’s Gospel, the passage set for today’s Gospel.

    Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14

    The early Christian hymn quoted at the beginning of this deutero-Pauline letter provides a glimpse into the earliest stages of Christian devotion to Jesus as a divine figure.

    The hymn has echoes of the wisdom mythology, including the idea that God’s secret and eternal purposes are known to the Christ and revealed to his followers. In traditional Jewish wisdom theology, the one who is with God at creation and knows all his plans is none other than Lady Wisdom herself. Here those attributes seem to be reassigned to Jesus.

    According to this hymn, all God’s cosmic purposes are known to and embodied in “the Beloved.” However, there is also a collective dimesion to this Christ myth, since all who are one with the Beloved will share in his destiny and be drawn into the fulfillment of God’s purposes.

    It is interesting to observe how quickly early Christian devotion to Jesus developed such cosmic imagery, as we are still at a period when the Synoptic traditions are taking written form and they seem to present Jesus in a much more terrestrial mode. The advanced Christological speculation of Ephesians does not seem to have gained a hearing in the circles from which we received Matthew, Mark and Luke.

    Gospel: John 1:1-18

    The prologue to the Gospel according to John is designated as the Gospel for this Sunday.

    This ancient hymn represents the high water mark for NT claims of divinity for Jesus. In this poetic text Jesus is identified as the incarnate Logos, the supreme expression of God’s own being in human experience. While most attention has tended to fall on the opening verses with their echoes of Genesis 1 and their high Christology, the literary structure of the poem suggests that the intended message is more about the special status of Christ’s followers.

    In his influential article, “The Pivot of John’s Prologue” (New Testament Studies 27 [1980]: 1-31). R. A. Culpepper has suggested the following chiastic structure for the prologue:

    vv 1–2 are balanced by v 18
    vv 3 is balanced by v 17
    vv4–5 are balanced by vv 16
    vv 6–8 are balanced by vv 15
    vv 9–10 are balanced by v 14
    v 11 is balanced by v 13,
    v 12a is balanced by v 12c

    v12b is the pivot of the chiasmus: “He gave them authority to become the children of God.”

    If this is a valid reading of the prologue, then it its primary purpose is to encourage the reader to embrace his/her own calling as a child of God, rather than to promote a particular Christology. It assumes a very high view of Jesus, perhaps by drawing on the familiar Wisdom/Logos traditions. But its point in doing that was to promote an understanding of the Christian life as a call to be(come) the children of God.

    By analogy, we might suggest that the point of Christmas is not so much to celebrate the birth of Jesus as to proclaim an even more radical religious claim:

    That everyday people are children of God,
    if only we would accept the truth revealed by the child whose birth we celebrate,
    and choose to live into that mysterious new reality.

    Jesus Database

    Liturgies and Prayers

    For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

    Other recommended sites include:

     

    Music Suggestions

    See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

  • Sunday after Christmas (29 December 2013)

    Contents

    Lectionary

    • Isaiah 63:7-9 and Psalm 148
    • Hebrews 2:10-18
    • Matthew 2:13-23

     

    Herod threatens the Christ Child

    Many churches this Sunday will recount the sequel to the visit of the Magi from Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus.

    Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth can be outlined as follows:

    • 1:1–17 Jesus’ family tree
    • 1:18–25 Conception and birth
    • 2:1–12 Threat to the Christ child
    • 2:13–15 Escape
    • 2:16–18 Massacre of the Innocents
    • 2:19–23 Moving to Nazareth

    This story has been crafted by Matthew somewhere during the last quarter of the first century. Its original intention was not to chronicle the events of Jesus’ conception and childhood, but to celebrate the prophetic significance of Jesus and to place him securely within the Jewish tradition. Affirmation of the biblical and providential character of Jesus would have been especially significant to Jewish Christians such as Matthew’s community as they found themselves increasingly excluded from the synagogue communities in the aftermath of the Jewish war.

    Matthew’s infancy story leaves the reader in no doubt that Jesus was deeply Jewish. In the story of his childhood, Matthew has Jesus re-live in his own experience some of the most central themes of Jewish identity. This match is especially close in the episodes that describe the flight to Egypt and the eventual return of the Christ child to Palestine.

    In his recent study of the birth stories of Jesus and “other sons of God,” Robert Miller comments on the close literary relationship between the story of Moses in Exodus and Matthew’s story of Jesus:

    (Matt) 2:19-21 is closely modeled in Ex 4:19-20 and is also nearly identical to Matt 2:13-14. Matthew’s formulaic wording creates an almost exact symmetry between Jesus’ two journeys to Egypt and back to Israel. It looks like Matthew wrote 2:19-21 in careful imitation of Ex 4:19-20 and then used it to clone 2:13-14, making the necessary adjustment in the reference to Herod in v. 13b. [Born Divine, 111]

    Miller provides the following table that shows the close relationship between these texts:

     

    Exodus 4:19-20
    Matt 2:19-21
    Matt 2:13-14
    After these many days the king of Egypt died. After Herod’s death After they had departed,
    The Lord said a messenger of the Lord appeared in a dream a messenger of the Lord appeared in a dream
    to Moses in Midian, to Joseph in Egypt and said to him, to Joseph and said to him,
      “Get up, take the child and his mother, “Get up, take the child and his mother,
    “Go back to Egypt, and return to the land of Israel, and flee to Egypt,
    for all those who were seeking your life are dead.” for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” for Herod is determined to seek out the child and destroy him.”
    Moses took his wife and children and put them on donkeys and returned to Egypt. So he got up, took the child and his mother and returned to the land of Israel. So he got up, took the child and his mother, and left for Egypt.

    In addition to the Moses traditions, even as developed in the widespread Moses Haggadah, the idea that a newborn hero might be in some danger from a hostile tyrant was a familiar element in Greek and oriental mythology.

    Danger for baby Sargon

    From ancient Sumer (c. 2,300 BCE) we have the story of Sargon II, future ruler of the Akkdian empire, cast adrift after birth by his (unmarried?) young mother:

    1. Sargon, the mighty king, king of Akkadê am I,
    2. My mother was lowly; my father I did not know;
    3. The brother of my father dwelt in the mountain.
    4. My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the bank of the Purattu [Euphrates],
    5. My lowly mother conceived me, in secret she brought me forth.
    6. She placed me in a basket of reeds, she closed my entrance with bitumen,
    7. She cast me upon the rivers which did not overflow me.
    8. The river carried me, it brought me to Akki, the irrigator.
    9. Akki, the irrigator, in the goodness of his heart lifted me out,
    10. Akki, the irrigator, as his own son brought me up;
    11. Akki, the irrigator, as his gardener appointed me.
    SOURCE

     

    Romulus and Remus

    The Roman historian, Tacitus, tells the story of Romulus and Remus being at risk due to the evil intentions of Tarchetius, king of Alba:

    For to Tarchetius, they say, king of Alba, who was a most wicked and cruel man, there appeared in his own house a strange vision, a male figure that rose out of a hearth, and stayed there for many days. There was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany which Tarchetius consulted, and received an answer that a virgin should give herself to the apparition, and that a son should be born of her, highly renowned, eminent for valour, good fortune, and strength of body. Tarchetius told the prophecy to one of his own daughters, and commanded her to do this thing; which she avoiding as an indignity, sent her handmaid. Tarchetius, hearing this, in great anger imprisoned them both, purposing to put them to death, but being deterred from murder by the goddess Vesta in a dream, enjoined them for their punishment the working a web of cloth, in their chains as they were, which when they finished, they should be suffered to marry; but whatever they worked by day, Tarchetius commanded others to unravel in the night. In the meantime, the waiting-woman was delivered of two boys, whom Tarchetius gave into the hands of one Teratius, with command to destroy them; he, however, carried and laid them by the river side, where a wolf came and continued to suckle them, while birds of various sorts brought little morsels of food, which they put into their mouths; till a cowherd, spying them, was first strangely surprised, but, venturing to draw nearer, took the children up in his arms. Thus they were saved, and when they grew up, set upon Tarchetius and overcame him. This one Promathion says, who compiled a history of Italy.

     

    The dragon and the Christ Child

    While the same motif is known from fairy tales and popular traditions around the world, we find another significant example within the NT itself. In Rev 12:1-12 we have another story of the messianic child being at risk as the Dragon attacks immediately after the infant’s birth:

    A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.
    And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world–he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
    Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming,

    “Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God
    and the authority of his Messiah,
    for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down,
    who accuses them day and night before our God.
    But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony,
    for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.
    Rejoice then, you heavens
    and those who dwell in them!
    But woe to the earth and the sea,
    for the devil has come down to you
    with great wrath,
    because he knows that his time is short!”

    This appears to be a Jewish messianic text rather than a Christian composition. Although its present form betrays some Christian influences, it is hard to imagine a Christian writer composing a text in which the savior role is attributed to Michael the Archangel. In any case, what we have is clearly a mythic tale of the Christ child being in peril as the powers of Satan attack soon after his birth.

    Matthew’s story is no less mythic even though his characters are historical figures and the location is the eastern Mediterranean. Herod is every inch the great red dragon, and the holy family flee to Egypt so that the great mythic themes of exodus are re-enacted in the experience of this new “Joshua” (as Jesus would have been called in Hebrew).

     

    The spider and the cave

    Such stories celebrate the providential involvement of God in human affairs, an insight that lies very close to the heart of the Incarnation. A much later story that elaborates on the theme of the flight to Egypt is the legend of the spider and the cave:

    The Holy Family stumbled wearily into a dark, damp cave on their way to Egypt. It was a cold, freezing night – so cold that the ground was carpeted with a white hoar-frost. Tired as they were, Mary and Joseph busied themselves trying to make the cave as warm as they could for their new-born child. But it was all to no avail. It was impossible to light a fire as the wind blew mercilessly into the cave. Soon the baby began to cry and awoke a sleeping spider. The spider was moved when he saw Jesus and decided that somehow he must do something to help Mary and Joseph. So, patiently, he began to spin a web across the entrance of the cave to make a kind of curtain which would shield them from the searing wind. It was hard work and the spider was near to exhaustion when it was finished. He had only just completed his work however, when a detachment of Herod’s soldiers approached the cave. Blood was on their swords and hate in their hearts. Their mission was to kill the infant Jesus. The spider trembled with fear as he heard them stop outside the cave and prepare to burst in and search it. He looked at the now sleeping Jesus and prayed with all his might for a miracle. He was not disappointed. The soldiers were just about to enter the cave when the captain noticed the slender web, covered with white hoar-frost, stretched across the entrance. He laughed hideously and cursed his men for their ignorance. “Can’t you see the spider’s web, you idiots?” he cried. “It’s completely unbroken. There can’t possibly be anyone in the cave, otherwise they would have certainly torn the web.” And so the soldiers went on their way and the infant Jesus slept peacefully that night because the little spider had given up his night’s sleep to spin his web.

    Jesus Database

     

    Liturgies and Prayers

    For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

    Other recommended sites include:

     

    Music Suggestions

    See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.