INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Year B - Proper 23

JOB 23:1-9, 16-17. This is an excerpt from a powerful lament in which Job complains that God has ignored his truly righteous behaviour and thwarted his every attempt to obtain any kind of encounter with God. The whole poem extends to 24:25 and ends, not with a vow as in the traditional style of a lament, but in a challenge to Job’s accusers.

PSALM 22:1-15. This psalm expresses intensely the longing for deliverance from suffering. It also became a model for the crucifixion story in Christian tradition. Many of the details of that narrative were taken directly from this psalm - e.g. vss. 1, 7 and 18.

AMOS 5:6-7, 10-15. (Alternate) Behind this passage from one of the earliest of the great prophets stands the tradition that there will come a day when God will judge Israel, especially for its idolatry of false gods and injustice to the oppressed of the land.

HEBREWS 4:12-16. This brief excerpt places utmost importance on our confession as believers and followers of Jesus Christ. It notes in particular the supremacy of Christ as our high priest who experienced all the temptations that we face, but did not sin. Because of this we may approach life and life beyond death in God’s eternal presence with boldness knowing that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has made faithful living possible.

MARK 10:17-31. This passage may be difficult for us to hear in our consumer age where wealth and possessions matter so much. The questioner who accosted Jesus as he set out on a journey had led an exemplary moral life and had an earnest desire for a more meaningful spiritual life. But he lacked one thing: the inability to separate himself from his great wealth. Jesus used the opportunity to explain to his disciples why wealth was such a stumbling block and promised that those who were faithful would be rewarded for whatever sacrifice they made.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

Throughout the passage, Job appears to be speaking to his friends, but also with full awareness that God is also hearing his complaint. It is as if he were addressing God even as he argues with his friends. He reaches the point of despairing that his sufferings have any meaning at all and that God is totally unconcerned and apathetic.

Job is very sincere in his outburst, expressing a serious desire to learn from God the reason for his suffering. He believes that God would not only hear him out, but would acquit him for his righteous behaviour. But God has hidden from him and although he fears God, he earnestly wants his suffering to end, even if it ends in death.

Vss. 3-7 present one of the clearest statements of our human search for God in the whole of the Bible. It envisions God as an imperial potentate before whom a petitioner may come seeking redress for some harm or injustice done to him. Job claims to terrified before God, yet there is still an arrogance in his demeanor, so convinced is he of his own righteousness. How human he is! By vs. 16-17, he has given way to doubt. He is no longer sure that an encounter with the almighty judge will be enough to establish his rights and win his acquittal. The inscrutable mystery of the divine is almost more terrifying than his suffering.

The vision of God in this passage, as in most of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, is that of traditional theism. God is perceived as a personal being external to the universe in which we and all generations before us have ever lived. We are all mortal and all life ends in death. Our traditional Christian theistic faith declares that life eternal, life beyond death, is the gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ, Incarnate Son of God. In a newly published book, John Shelby Spong, Eternal Life: A New Vision ‑ Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell, challenges this traditional way of dealing with death through faith in an external, invasive God. Such a concept of deity and eternal life has become obsolete since the time of Galileo, Newton and Darwin.

This volume is a significant contribution to progressive theological thought as well as a meaningful antidote to the anxiety with which we all approach our own mortality. Spong does not deny eternal life; he rejoices in its reality and hopes to experience it himself as he approaches his own death. He is in his eighttieth year. He also finds a new, if unorthodox, way for those who struggle with the concept to comes to terms with our doubts. He bases his long searched for faith on theological concepts of the nature of God and of human nature rooted in self‑consciousness and in a mystical approach to John's Gospel and the Letter to the Ephesians.

PSALM 22:1-15. This psalm expresses an intense longing for deliverance from suffering. It also became a model for the crucifixion story in Christian tradition and in that context is most commonly used as the psalm for Good Friday. Many of the details of the crucifixion narrative were taken directly from this psalm - e.g. vss. 1, 7 and 18.

On the other hand, we must accept the fact that the original author had no fore-knowledge of that event. It is a supreme example of an individual lament, although some scholars believe that this reading is only part of two psalms which may have been separate at one time. For example, vss. 1-21 and 22-31 appear to have quite different motifs – agony and thanksgiving.

It should be noted that following the initial cry of dereliction in this reading (vss. 1-2) the psalmist expresses a sincere trust (vss. 3-5) based on the ancient tradition of Israel’s faith relationship with Yahweh. He then turns to declare the cause of his misery: calumny and mocking by people who know him.

Once again he returns to trustfully plead his faithfulness (vss. 9-11), but sees around him only the persistent verbal assaults of his enemies (12-13) described metaphorically as wild bulls and ravenous lions. In the end he appears to accept his fate, although vividly expressed in strong metaphors drawn from painful experiences of someone who seems to have suffered from dehydration and heat prostration in a desert environment (vss. 14-15).

AMOS 5:6-7, 10-15. (Alternate) Behind this passage from one of the earliest of the great prophets stands the tradition that there will come a day when God will judge Israel, especially for its idolatry of false gods and injustice to the oppressed of the land.

This briefest of excerpts from Amos presents the core of his prophetic message. There will come a day of judgment when Israel will have to answer for the evils and injustices that have become so commonplace in the land.

It is important to understand the historical background of Amos’ harsh condemnations. With Assyria suffering a period of internal weakness and political upheaval during the late 8^th century BCE, the small states of the Palestinian coastal region, and especially Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had been able to extend its borders and prosper considerably by controlling the trade routes passing through its territory between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. A rich merchant class developed in Israel with all the economic benefits and consumer extravagances that entailed.

The common people like Amos, the shepherd and fruit grower, did not share in this new wealth. The shrines of Bethel and Gilgal were crowded with wealthy worshipers who interpreted their prosperity as a sign of God’s favour. Because the priests and prophets at the sanctuaries also benefited from the lavish offerings they had no inclination to dampen the confident hypocrisy of their benefactors.

Amos represented the lower classes, particularly the farmers and labourers who had no share in the prosperity of the times. Not far away, however, a new Assyrian emperor, Tiglath-Pileser, had gained power and was moving his armies resolutely westward to subjugate the Syrian and Palestinian kingdoms once again. We cannot be sure that Amos was aware of this new threat. He certainly recognized that the blatant corruption and faithlessness of the Israelites could not last. The day of judgment, “the fearful Day of the Lord,” was at hand. His pleas that the Israelites return to their traditional life based on faith and justice went unheard.

Has he yet been heard by any nation or empire blessed with great wealth and power?

PSALM 90:12-17. (Alternate) This psalm is still used to celebrate the transitory nature of nature of human life and the eternal security we have in God. It may originally have existed in two different parts, vss. 1-12 and 13-17. This excerpt emphasizes our human need to maintain a faithful relationship with God throughout our lives. The most natural break would seem to come at the end of vs. 12, thus making this reading an excerpt from both parts. There seems to be no apparent reason for the RCL to truncate the whole psalm in this manner.

Its title in the Hebrew scriptures, "A prayer of Moses, the man of God," gave it a supreme distinction rather than definitive authorship. Hence it was placed at the beginning of the fourth collection of the Psalter. Of all the psalms this one may have greater familiarity for most church people because of its frequent use in the service of Christian burial.

The theme of the poem is the eternity of God in contrast to the transitory nature of human life. This presentation of the theme appears "to skirt the very edge of pessimism, and might well lead the poet down into the abyss where men say, 'All is vanity'.... But the native Hebrew is saved from the final descent by a deep understanding and a fierce moral earnestness.... The Psalmist ... may have had his doubts at times, but in the light of his initial certainty, which he never lets go, all doubts are resolved. The Everlasting Nay is finally overcome by the Everlasting Yes." (John Paterson. The Praises of Israel. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950. 126-7.)

One is reminded of similar beautiful passages of the unnamed prophet of the Babylonian exile (cf. Isa. 40; 55) which also expressed the same prophetic message. Can the similarity of Isa. 40:6-8 and Ps. 90:5-6 be accidental? Beginning with the affirmation of the permanence of God in vss. 1-2, the psalmist delved deeply into the fragile and ephemeral quality of human life. In vs. 12 he drew the natural conclusion that wisdom brings to every reflective person of faith. The shortness of life compels one to make wise use of our brief span of years. In the latter part of the poem, the psalmist returns to the original theme and acknowledges how dependent we are on the compassion and steadfast love of God (vss. 13-15).

Many senior women of The United Church of Canada may recall that the Women's Association used vss. 16-17 as their motto in the years prior to 1960 when amalgamation with the Women's Missionary Society took place to form the United Church Women. That part of the denomination has since evolved into a more amorphous Women of The United Church.

HEBREWS 4:12-16. This brief excerpt places utmost importance on our confession as believers and followers of Jesus Christ set forth in the common teaching of the New Testament. It does so in terms that would have been familiar to Jewish Christians of the latter part of the 1^st century CE. In particular it describes the supremacy of Christ as our high priest who experienced all the temptations that we face, but did not sin. Because of this we may approach life and life beyond death in God’s eternal presence with boldness knowing that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has made faithful living possible.

The latter part of the reading compares the suffering and death of Jesus to the ritual performed by the Jewish high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It proclaims that Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplished once and for all as the final, necessary atonement for our sin. The emphasis is not placed on the ritual but on the sinless nature of the one performing it.

At first reading there may seem to be no direct connection between vss. 12-13 and 14-16, especially as printed separate paragraphs in the NSRV and discussed in numerous commentaries. On closer examination, however, the initial verses refer to the proclamation of the gospel of salvation through faith in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The use of the phrase “the word of God” as “living and active” recalls John 1:1-18 which introduced the central theme of the Gospel as it was preached toward the latter years of the 1^st century. The idea of the word of God as a sword also has parallels, not only in Ephesians 6:17, but in the works of Philo, the Alexandrian Jewish contemporary of Jesus, who used an almost identical metaphor. In the next section beginning at 4:14, the writer goes on to elaborate his main theme of the work of Jesus Christ as the one and only Saviour. We must thus see this as a transitional passage linking two quite distinct sections of the Letter to the Hebrews.

The reading falls naturally into several small, equally preachable segments, but probably not all at once. First is the way the man addressed Jesus and the response Jesus gave him. The term “Good Teacher” may have been no more than a polite exaggeration, a kind of solicitude that bespoke more of the man’s anxiety than his sincerity. To bring him back to reality, Jesus challenged this overreaching by making a self-effacing statement about himself. He did not claim moral perfection, only the humility of being human. Only God is perfect.

Then Jesus gave a thumbnail sketch of the latter half of the Decalogue, those commandments which deal with human relationships. After the man had protested his moral excellence in keeping all those commandments, Jesus struck home with his final challenge: the man’s covetousness. His wealth was so much a part of his self-esteem that he could not face the prospect of parting with it.

The final segment of the passage brought the disciples into the picture. An almost offhand remark that riches can be an impediment to spirituality, startled them to the point of disbelief. Which one among them did not have a longing for greater financial security? That surely must have been a cause for anxiety in their early discipleship which had taken them from their homes and businesses to follow Jesus. As usual Peter spoke for all of them, giving voice to their sacrificial choice. Jesus dealt with their fears by promising that their reward was assured – wide acceptance in the family of God and beyond death eternal life.

This passage must have been of great importance to the Roman community to which Mark’s Gospel was addressed. Those from the upper class who had heard and responded to the Gospel had much to lose - prestige, power, wealth. Those from the underclass had nothing to lose but their lives if their masters turned against them. If the former had been disturbed by the story of Jesus and the rich man, the latter had been reassured that they were now accepted as ordinary members of the new community of faith.

Christians still have difficulty dealing with their community as a truly classless fellowship. Various denominations, and even congregations, have been formed to isolate one group from another. In many urban settings, the churches of one group or another can be easily distinguished by their architecture and the size of their staff. There is really only one fellowship in the church – the koinonia of the Spirit in which there is only one Lord – Jesus Christ himself.

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