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Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

15  See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.  16  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God  that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.  17  But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 

Commentary on First Reading by Carolyn J. Sharp

The majestic speech of Deuteronomy nears its conclusion in this stirring exhortation.

In the wilderness beyond the Jordan, the Israelites listen as their prophetic leader, Moses, describes the kind of people they have become: a people formed in the crucible of covenant, a people who are made and unmade by the grace and ferocity of their God. Under the banner of YHWH, Moses had brought them out of slavery in Egypt and guided them through the perils of the wilderness. They had been brought to the towering possibility of Sinai, and they had assented. Theirs would be a life lived in obedience, a faith practiced and witnessed through their devout adherence to the Law.

Jeremiah 18:1-11

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 "Come, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me:

Commentary on Alternate First Reading by Henry Langknecht

The story of Jeremiah's visit to the potter's house and God's use of the potter's process as a metaphor for God's own work is wonderfully and frustratingly straightforward. We get it. But it immediately raises questions.

The hermeneutical question is, "what relationship or analogy shall we suppose between Jeremiah's audience and our own communities?" In the text, the "clay" represents a "nation" or a "kingdom," and at his call in chapter 1, Jeremiah was indeed "appointed a prophet to the nations"—a broader scope than that claimed by most parish preachers. So is this text of mere historical interest—"look how God used to be involved in the affairs of nations?"

Psalm 1

1  Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;  2  but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.  3  They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.  4  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 

Commentary on Psalm by James Howell

How fascinating: the book of Psalms, the prayer book of the Bible, the hymnal of ancient Israel, opens with a poem about ethics, lifestyle, and decisions.

It is as if the secret tip is being shared before we bother praying or worshipping. The goal is a changed life. God requires a decision, it's black and white, and God wants to pervade the part of you that chooses. A thousand little decisions and the occasional Big Decision: do you "walk in the counsel of the wicked or delight in the law of the Lord?"

Philemon 1:1-21

1  Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,  To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker,  2  to Apphia our sister,  to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:  3  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  4  When I remember you  in my prayers, I always thank my God  5  because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. 

Commentary on Second Reading by Holly Hearon

Philemon can be a challenge from the perspective of preaching.

It has no central Christological themes and its primary issue—the status of a slave—can seem out of tune with contemporary concerns. What I find fascinating about the letter, however, is the messiness of the situation it describes. It looks a lot like life as I know it. I approach the letter, then, as a kind of case study on moving towards change.

Luke 14:25-33

25  Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them,  26  "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.  27  Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  28  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 

Commentary on Gospel by Jeannine K. Brown

We live in a market driven society, so it is not surprising that we feel the urge to "sell" Christianity in the marketplace of competing ideas and ways of life.

Yet, when Christian mission is shaped toward the "sell" mentality, it more often than not becomes a "low-cost" and "low-risk" commodity.1  How else will we persuade others to receive the faith, if not by coming in with a lower or better offer?

San Lucas 14:25-33

Lo que cuesta seguir a Cristo

    25 Grandes multitudes iban con él; y volviéndose, les decía:

    26 «Si alguno viene a mí y no aborrece a su padre, madre, mujer, hijos, hermanos, hermanas y hasta su propia vida, no puede ser mi discípulo.

    27 El que no lleva su cruz y viene en pos de mí, no puede ser mi discípulo.

   

Comentario del Evangelio por Guillermo Hansen

Nuestro texto consta de dos perícopas bien definidas y distintas en su naturaleza.

La primera (vv. 26-27) contiene dichos de Jesús que según muchos investigadores se remontarían a palabras originales del nazareno (especialmente v. 26). La segunda (vv. 28-32) consta de dos ejemplos ilustrativos indirectamente relacionados con lo anterior, posiblemente derivados de la rica tradición judía y helenística de sabiduría proverbial, con un añadido redaccional referido a los bienes (v. 33; típico de Lucas). Si bien las dos perícopas se iluminan mutuamente y realzan el tema del seguimiento de Jesús, es aconsejable que el predicador se concentre en la primera parte dado su tono polémico y su transparencia respecto al costo del discipulado –tema central de estos pasajes.