Lesson Commentary 13-06-09

This passage, Luke 7:11- 17, was alluded to recently in a passage in Luke 4:25-26 and serves to re-enforce Paul's assertion that the Gospel is for all nations. Elijah could have gone anywhere but God sends him to a non-Jewish Widow in Sidon.

Today's Psalm contains many familiar phrases:

Psa 30:5 His anger lasts only a moment, his goodness for a lifetime. Tears may flow in the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Psa 30:4 Sing praise to the LORD, all his faithful people! Remember what the Holy One has done, and give him thanks!

Today's Epistle is a continuation of last week's. Paul continues to defend his ministry and message. Not certain that this relates in any way to the other 3 lessons.

Today's Gospel is a continuation of last week's as well. In parallel with Elijah in Kings he raises a widow's only son from the dead ensuring her future support for children were a parent's only means of aid in old age and in the case of a widow in the present as well. Documenting such healings is important as a means of legitimizing his messianic activity.


Working Preacher insists on discussing the Gospel first. I always start with the OT Lesson finding nothing in the New that isn't already accessible in the Old. I could have comfortably been Jewish, or at least Reformed Jew. I'll bow to WP.

Isa 35:5 The blind will be able to see, and the deaf will hear.
Isa 35:6 The lame will leap and dance, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy. Streams of water will flow through the desert;
Isa 35:7 the burning sand will become a lake, and dry land will be filled with springs. Where jackals used to live, marsh grass and reeds will grow

As compared with:

Luk 7:22 He answered John's messengers, "Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.

All these are signs that the messiah has come. The verses quoted, of course are all outside today's lessons.

Working Preacher fails to comment on the Epistle as it has no relevance to the other three lessons unless you wish to harp upon the legitimacy of Paul's ministry and Elijah's actions on behalf of the widow proving his veracity as a Man of God. If you wanted to pursue this vein then Christ's miracles underpin his messiahship.

I would prefer to point out that Elijah truly cares for the plight of the widow just as does Jesus. It is this caring that gains emphasis in both stories, the sons are secondary characters in both cases. The Psalm emphatically re-enforces this message. To quote a soppy old Gospel Hymn:

"His eye is on the Sparrow
And I know he cares for me!"

The OT Lesson sees Elijah going to stay during a famine with the widow of Zarephath. The alternative lesson 1 Kings 17:8-16 tells the story of the cruet of oil which lasted throughout the drought, 17-25 that of the healing of her only son. These events serve to confirm for the widow that this truly is a Man of God. And once more we are reminded that she is not Jewish.

Psalm 30 is a Psalm of Thanksgiving. It had never occurred to me before, there are 150 Psalms and 52 weeks in a year, how convenient for a three-year cycle of lessons.

June 2nd 2013

The festival season has come to an end and we enter ordinary time. Call it Sundays in Trinity or Pentecost given the early arrival of Easter this year we get a longer than usual such season and we will be getting around to lessons normally bypassed.

The Gospel reading begins by setting the scene, "He went to Capernaum". What is seen as remarkable in this story is the fact that this foreign instrument of Roman Opression showed more faith than the followers among Jesus own people. We see that faith can appear in the most unusual places, that God can use even our enemies to do good things, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." Luke 6:27

The OT Lesson from Kings re-enforces the theme that God's faithfulness to his people Israel is a message that penetrates to far-flung places. We are to welcome these strangers and our keeping of the covenant is to be a witness to all that God has meaning in our lives. God's Holy Temple is both a testament to God's importance in our lives and a symbol of God's presence with us. God is present with us, we have a duty to live in a way that witnesses to that presence. We have here but a snippet of the complete lesson.

Psa 96:2 Sing to the LORD, and praise him! Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.
Psa 96:3 Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples.

(Psa 96:9) Bow down before the Holy One when he appears; tremble before him, all the earth!

Verse 9 is from the Good News Bible. An interesting interpretation as contrasted with the following from RV:

(Psa 96:9) O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: tremble before him, all the earth.

I would ask, just how does God appear? Is God's presence made known by the witness of his followers? How great then is our responsibility to make His presence known through the way we live our lives. The wonders of God's creation bear witness to his presence. God created the world and every living thing in it and continues to support and sustain it, to make all things new.His act of creation continues to this very day.

In the Epistle Paul is writing to the Galatians in response to an attack made upon him. It would seem obvious that Paul's past as Saul the prosecutor of Christians has caught up with him and the legitimacy of his message is being challenged. In particular a new message was being spread that to be a Christian one must first be circumcised. Paul protests his calling as a witness to Christ. Paul's message is not one of exclusivity but one of inclusiveness. God's grace is for all people, Jew or Gentile, slave or free. Implicit in the Epistles of Paul is the message that if Christ can use even me to spread his message then this message must be for all peoples.

The unifying theme then? The message of God's Grace is for all people. God's people have a responsibility to live lives that reflect that this grace is active in our lives. We should not be surprised when belief in this grace shows up in unexpected places and be prepared to welcome the foreigner into our midst.