INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE                

Year A - Proper 5

 

GENESIS 12:1-9.   The call of Abram described in this passage stands one of the most significant events in ancient Israel’s religious history and the history of the modern Middle East. Now known as the first of Israel’s patriarchs, Abram is also recognized as the founder of the Islamic tradition through his son Ishmael who was born to the slave woman, Hagar.

     The trek of the tribe of Abram first from Ur of the Chaldeans to and then to Canaan and Egypt is probably an authentic tradition about the Semitic incursions from the Arabian desert into more fertile lands seeking pasture for their flocks. This narrative tells of a divinely initiated purpose as its impetus.

 

PSALM 33:1-12.    This psalm begins with praise for God’s love and faithfulness expressed in creation and goes on to emphasize the purpose of God as Lord of history in covenanting a special relationship with Israel.

 

HOSEA 5:15-6:6.    [Alternate]   Unique among OT prophets, Hosea was the only one who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the crucial years prior to its destruction by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. He struggled mainly with the rampant apostasy when the ancient covenant with God was seriously undermined by political opportunism of the day expressed in conflicts with the Southern Kingdom of Judah and rebellion against Assyrian overlords. This brief excerpt describes Israel’s shallow repentance after great suffering in contrast to God’s desire for a living faith reflected in changed behaviour.

 

PSALM 50:7-15. [Alternate]     The prophetic rejection of worthless sacrifices and insincere worship echo loudly through this selection from the psalm.


ROMANS 4:13-25.    Like all Jewish rabbis, Paul looked back to the faith of Abraham in fulfilling God’s promise as a signal event. He took special note that Abraham “believed that he would become the father of many nations” (vs. 18) even though he and his wife Sarah were too old to bear children. This is the basis for his argument that it is by faith alone that we are saved.

     Paul then linked this instance of trust in God to the death and resurrection of Christ as the means by which our relationship with God has been set right despite our sinfulness.

 

MATTHEW 9:9-13, 18-26.  These three incidents raised  opposition to Jesus’ ministry yet widely extended his fame. All of them signaled his sole desire to help people as the way to reveal God’s love and inspire them to believe in him. He also knew that not every one would respond. So he sternly rebuked the super-religious Pharisees for their opposition. He was interested in people who sensed their need, not in those who had it all.

 

 

 

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

 

 

GENESIS 12:1-9.   Stretching from the mouth of the Tigris-Euphrates River to the Persian Gulf to the Nile Valley in Egypt lies a rich fertile crescent which has beckoned migratory tribes from the Arabian desert for thousands of years. Interdisciplinary research indicates that behind the trek of the tribe of Abram first from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran and then to Canaan and Egypt lies an authentic tradition about the Semitic incursions into more fertile lands seeking pasture for their flocks. Economic pressures provided the impetus for this migration.

 

The movement of Abram’s tribe has been dated approximately in the 18th century BCE. A millennium later, in the 9th century and again after the return of the Israelites from exile in Babylon in the 6th century, theological reflection recast the tribal legends of these people into the patriarchal stories of the Book of Genesis. This narrative tells of a divinely initiated purpose for this migration.

The call of Abram stands one of the most significant events in ancient Israel’s religious history and the history of the modern Middle East. Known to this day as the first of Israel’s patriarchs, Abram is also recognized as the founder of the Islamic tradition through his son Ishmael who was born to the slave woman, Hagar. The racial, religious and ideological hostility still torturing the peoples crammed together in this cockpit of world history stems from the rivalry of the sons of Abraham. Because Paul used Abram as the model for his definition of faith, as noted below in the passage from Romans, he represents to Christians one of the most significant examples of the truly spiritual person.

 

Are all mass migrations ultimately caused by changing economic conditions? That certainly is true of the migration of most of our European ancestors to North America during the 19th century. It is also true of migration of so many people from other parts of the world in the latter years of this century. Does God, the Lord of History, use such economic factors too bring about the spiritual goal of Pentecost reversing the curse of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9) by creating a new humanity drawn from all parts of the globe?  If so, what are the implications of the crisis during the late 1990s in southeastern Europe which drove the rapidly increasing Albanian population of Cosovo into exile?

Are economic factors also motivating the brutal conflicts and ethnic cleansing in recent years in southern Sudan, Darfur and the Republic of Congo? Does not the scattering of hundreds of thousands of these people across the globe represent to us as a new opportunity for faithful participation in the redemptive acts of our God as we pray for them, help them to make peace and share our plentiful resources with them?

 

         

PSALM 33:1-12.    This liturgical psalm begins with praise for God’s love and faithfulness. It seems obvious from vss. 2-3 that it was meant to be sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments such as the lyre and harp. It then celebrates the word of Yahweh expressed in creation (vss. 4-9) recalling the priestly hymn of creation in Genesis 1. The opening verses of this same segment (vss.4-5) also emphasize the righteous and loving purpose of God in creating the world. Next the psalmist turns to rejoice in the purpose of God as Lord of history, not only in frustrating the plans of nations, (vs. 10) but in covenanting a special relationship with Israel (vs. 12).

 

The psalm dates from the postexilic period when the rituals of the temple were being restored. The influence of the prophetic school of Second Isaiah also stand out in such references as in vs. 8 where all peoples are summoned to stand in awe of Israel’s God. This theme is further elaborated in vss. 13-17 excluded from this reading. Those verses depict the sovereign of all humankind governing even the vagaries of human warfare. Again one’s mind is drawn to the events and crises of our own time in such places as southeastern Europe and central Africa.

 

 

HOSEA 5:15-6:6.    [Alternate]   Unique among OT prophets, Hosea was the only one who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the crucial years prior to its destruction by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. He struggled mainly with the rampant apostasy when the ancient covenant with God was seriously undermined by political opportunism of the day expressed in conflicts with the Southern Kingdom of Judah and rebellion against Assyrian overlords. Best known for comparing Israel’s infidelity with the distressed relationship with his wife, a former temple prostitute (chs. 1-3), Hosea is one of the more difficult prophetic books to understand because of a much corrupted text.

 

This brief excerpt describes Israel’s shallow repentance after great suffering in contrast to God’s desire for a living faith reflected in changed behaviour. In 5:15, Yahweh tells of  waiting for both Israel (also called Ephraim after one of the sons of Joseph] and Judah to repent when their suffering makes the nation aware of how far away they have departed from Yahweh’s way. In 6:1-3, Yahweh mimics their insincere repentance, then in vss. 4-6 wrestles with the reality of their separation from the desired way of obedience to their covenant.  Even the prophets’ warnings of judgment like those of Hosea have not been heeded. Instead they offered worthless sacrifices when only steadfast love would suffice.

 

 

PSALM 50:7-15. [Alternate]     The prophetic rejection of worthless sacrifices and insincere worship echo loudly through this selection from the psalm. The emphasis is placed on the spirit rather than ritualistic forms of worship. This may seem unusual in the post-exilic period when the temple with its many sacrificial offerings were being restored. This passage in particular appears to reject categorically the efficacy and importance of sacrifices.

 

If there is any significance for Christian worship and homiletics in this emphasis, it may lie in the way the psalmist make quite clear how God has no needs that humans can provide. Rather, God is God and requires only a prayer of thanksgiving and a cry for mercy from these who have wandered away from God’s covenant.

 

 

ROMANS 4:13-25.    Like all Jewish rabbis, Paul looked back to the faith of Abraham in fulfilling God’s promise as a signal event in human history. This excerpt forms the conclusion of an excursus (3:31-4:25) from his original sequence of thought. It serves to illustrate what he meant by justification by faith, by his exposition throughout the letter of the close relationship of the old covenant to the new, and the special relationship of Jews to Christ.

 

The point Paul made is that even the promise to Abraham did not rest on obedience to the law, but on the patriarch’s faith. Abraham’s righteousness derived from this faith. Hence all who have faith are Abraham’s heirs. Proof of this claim is found in Abraham’s belief that he would become the father of many nations (vs. 18) even though he and his wife Sarah were too old to bear children (vs. 19). Paul used this as the basis for his argument that it is by faith alone that we are saved.

         

Paul then linked this exceptional instance of trust in God to the death and resurrection of Christ as the means by which our relationship with God has been set right (i.e. our justification) despite of our sinfulness. Professors  John Knox and Gerald Cragg, the exegete and expositor of this passage in *The Interpreter’s Bible* (Vol. 9, 448-9), noted the artificiality of this argument. It appears to rest of a free association of Abraham’s and Sarah’s age and barrenness which made them “as good as dead” (vs. 19) with the death and resurrection of Christ. However improbable, Paul’s thought depends not on two examples of apparent death, but on the power of God to bring life out of death. Cragg wrote: “Abraham trusted in a God who showed his power; so do Christians, but that power is now seen directed toward a particular purpose .... the redemption of man. Because of what Christ’s death and resurrection declare, we believe that there is a new means of deliverance from the sin which has held us bound, and a firm assurance of a new relationship with God.”

 

 

MATTHEW 9:9-13, 18-26.    These three incidents - Jesus calling Matthew and subsequently dining in the tax-collector’s house, curing the woman of her long hemorrhage and raising the daughter of the leader of the synagogue - had ambiguous results. They created significant opposition to Jesus’ ministry yet widely extended his fame. All of them signaled his sole desire to help people as the way to reveal God’s love and inspire them to believe in him. He also knew that not every one would respond. Thus he sternly rebuked the super-religious Pharisees for their opposition (vss. 11-13). He was interested in people who sensed their need, not in those who thought they had no need for his salvation.

 

Each incident has its own particular relevance to Jesus’ whole ministry of reversing Jewish ritual traditions. Tax collectors were among the most despised of all people in the social milieu of the times. Only slaves and Gentiles were below them on the social scale. In befriending Matthew and dining with him, Jesus violated one of the most stringent ritual taboos. No priest, Levite or Pharisee could have any association with them and maintain ritual purity. Hence the alarm of the Pharisees and Jesus’ cutting retort. That their protest was directed at the disciples and not to Jesus suggests that the Pharisees were reluctant to confront Jesus himself at this point. The disciples deferred to Jesus, probably needing an explanation themselves as well as seeking to allay their fears. In effect, Jesus told them, “If you feel right with God, okay; but these folk I came to help need something more than all your self-righteous ritual performances.”

 

Similarly, in the cases of the woman who suffered from a twelve year hemorrhage and the girl who was presumed to have died, Jesus again broke ancient religious taboos. The Levitical tradition regarded all discharges of human body fluids including blood, semen, menstrual flow and excretions as unclean. So also contact with a dead body caused a person to be ritually unclean. In the first instance, contact with the fringe of Jesus’ garment healed the woman in response to her act of faith. Jesus’ initiative was limited to speaking words assuring her of that fact. Raising the daughter of the leader of the synagogue revealed both Jesus’ insight into the reality of the situation in contrast to the derision of the mourners and his willingness to challenge all the restrictions of tradition.

 

It should be further noted that Matthew’s Gospel was written in the ninth decade of the 1st century to a mixed audience of Jews and Gentiles probably in Antioch in Syria. They had long since dealt with the end of the temple, its priesthood and ancient rituals nearly two decades earlier. Despite the dominance of the Pharisees in continuing Judaism, the church at this stage exhibited almost complete autonomy from its Jewish origins. In many respects, these stories from the earliest Christian tradition were for Matthew’s community a counterpart to the revocation of the Jewish ritualism and purification of the Gentiles as part of the atoning work of Christ. Luke also expressed this revolutionary attitude in Peter’s vision in Acts 10:1-16, the apostolic council in Acts 15:1-21, as did the Letter to Ephesians 2:11-27.

 

These same miracle stories demonstrated for Matthew’s community that faith in Jesus, the Messiah/Christ, was the only requirement for salvation as much as had the theological reflections of Paul on the Abraham tradition in Romans 4. Can this not be a refreshing insight for modern Christians who would return to a perverse fundamentalism rooted in ancient traditions of word and creed, but lacking spiritual power?

 

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