Lectionary for July 05, 2009
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - view calendar
1 He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. 2 And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. 3 He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, "Thus says the Lord God."
Passages like this one can lead in two very different directions.
On the one hand, the certainty of a call from God can offer strength and conviction in the face of adversaries. It can buck up a failing will to speak the truth in a community that finds truth-telling threatening. This reading of a prophetic call has been the stuff of preaching for centuries, and more than a few preachers have heard this call as a model for their own ministries.
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John C. Holbert
Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics
Perkins School of Theology
Dallas, TX
1 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, 'Look, we are your bone and flesh. 2 For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.' 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years.
David was anointed to be king three times.
The first time, he was anointed by the prophet Samuel, secretly, and at God's direction (1 Samuel 16:1 – 13). That divine designation and election was prior and most important, but David was also anointed king by a decision of the people. First it was Judah where David served as a kind of mini-king for seven and a half years (2 Samuel 2:1-4). It was only one tribe, but it was a beginning.
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Ralph W. Klein
Christ Seminary-Seminex professor of Old Testament, emeritus
Lutheran School of Theology
Chicago, IL
1 To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 2 As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us. 3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.
One of the more helpful approaches to the Psalms is considering these poems as pilgrimage songs of faith.
The people of ancient Israel went on pilgrimage to the temple to worship, and these are the songs they sang as they traveled to express their faith. As the community sings its faith, it also comes to embrace that faith at a deeper level.
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W. H. Bellinger, Jr.
W. Marshall and Lulie Craig Chairholder in Bible
Baylor University
Waco, TX
2 I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. 3 And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— 4 was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. 5 On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses.
He was a spellbinding preacher addressing the ecumenical Thanksgiving gathering in the little gymnasium of my hometown.
"I wear a white suit, white shoes, and a red tie for the blood of Jesus!" he declared. The message was all about him, full of his exploits, and calling for "powerful faith" like his to make all things possible.
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David Tiede
Bernhard M. Christensen Professor
Augsburg College
Minneapolis, MN
1 He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
This is one of those instances where the lectionary disturbs the narrative flow of Mark's gospel.
Verses 1-6 of chapter 6 are really a self-contained unit, but who wants to end on that challenging verse 6? So we get verses 7-13 added on, and the preacher can choose to move to these more positive admonitions related to the sending of the disciples. We don't hear the rest of this story, however, until two weeks later in the lectionary when the return of the disciples is narrated in Mark 6:30.
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Mark G. Vitalis Hoffman
Associate Professor of Biblical Studies
Lutheran Theological Seminary
Gettysburg, PA