INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Year B - Proper 6

I SAMUEL 15:34-16:13. The story of how Samuel was led by God to anoint David as king of Israel instead of Saul may sound strange to our modern ears. Yet it fits well with the theological viewpoint found throughout the Old Testament that God is very much involved in the working out of human history.

EZEKIEL 17:22-24. (Alternate) In a metaphor of God planting a tree on a high mountain this poetic prophecy again expresses the view of God as Lord of Israel’s history. The metaphor refers to Israel’s return from exile in Babylon to rebuild their capital city, Jerusalem.

PSALM 20. Like a number of psalms, this one offers prayers for an anointed king. It pleads for God’s help at a time when the monarch is menaced by foes from within and without his country.

PSALM 92:1-4, 12-15. (Alternate) The psalmist has occasion to offer thanks to God. His gratitude arises out of long experience of God’s goodness during a long life.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-17. Paul confidently celebrates faith in the love of Christ that has motivated and sustained him through years of difficult ministry to the Gentiles. He fervently proclaimed that anyone who believed and followed Christ had become a new creation and could see the whole of life in this world from a spiritual point of view.

MARK 4:26-34. Because we do not think in spiritual terms, Jesus’ parables of the kingdom of heaven often seem to defy interpretation for modern readers. In these two brief vignettes drawn from the rural life of Galilee, Jesus spoke about the way faith can provide those who believed in and followed him with a full and abundant life.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

I SAMUEL 15:34-16:13. In these times when governments are change by democratic vote or by violent revolution, this passage may seem to have no message for us. The story of how Samuel was led by God to anoint David as king of Israel instead of Saul may sound particularly strange to our modern ears. Yet it fits well with the view found throughout the Old Testament that God is very much involved in the working out of human history, especially that of God’s chosen people, Israel.

The concept of God as Lord of history is not easy to understand in today’s global political situation. We tend to think either in terms of God being on our side or favouring the most militarily powerful empire, especially in times of war. The story of Samuel anointing David reveals that God is not interested in either prestige or power. As 16:7 declares, “the Lord does not see as mortals see.” It was the youngest of Jesse’s son, the shepherd boy, David, whom God chose to succeed Israel’s first king Saul after he had departed from God’s purpose.

Another aspect of this story is the reality of Samuel’s fear. At first he was loath to do as God had directed him. The aging prophet knew that Saul would kill him if he found out that God had rejected him as Israel’s leader. God saw things differently and gave Samuel an alternative way to do God’s bidding. When Samuel arrived in Bethlehem, the elders of that city were similarly fearful of Saul until the prophet advised them of the ruse to conceal his real intention.

More often than not fear is a significant factor in human relations, be it among individuals or nations. Fear of hostile neighbours led Israel to aggressive wars on many occasions. Fear of losing the competition for imperial power led to the two costly global wars of the 20^th century. As the 21^st century began, a pre-emptive war against terror became a further reason for more futile bloodshed to the Middle East.

Surely God has another purpose and plan for the nations and the religious traditions that motivate them to take up arms against one another. The working out of God’s purpose to create a universal reign of love in this world is the task to which all peoples of faith must now turn. But will we ever find the courage to do so?

EZEKIEL 17:22-24. (Alternate) In a metaphor of God planting a tree on a high mountain this poetic prophecy again expressed the view of God as Lord of Israel’s history. The metaphor referred to Israel’s return from exile in Babylon to rebuild their capital city, Jerusalem, in the latter part of the 6^th century BCE.

The poet Ogden Nash once wrote, “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” Yet the biblical narrative assures us that God chose Israel to be a light among the nations that the whole world might learn God’s way to live in neighbourly peace. This divine purpose lies behind Ezekiel’s metaphor of a small sprig of a lofty cedar tree planted on a high mountain to grow and give shade for the birds to nest in.

In vs. 24, speaking for God, the prophet depicted as trees that either flourish or fail to declare how God uses the rise and fall of nations and empires to bring about the end to which history moves.

PSALM 20. Like a number of psalms, this one offers prayers for an anointed king. It pleads for God’s help at a time when the monarch is menaced by foes from within and without his country.

It is never wrong to pray for our government and our country. On the other hand, we should beware the blatant nationalism of the false patriot who declares, “My country right or wrong; but right our wrong, my country.” In fact, that bit of bravado is a misquotation of statements with quite different meaning made by several British and American authors including Charles Churchill (1731-1764); Stephen Decatur (1779-1820); John Quincy Adams (1767-1848); Carl Schurz (1829-1906); and G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936).

This prayer for a king probably dates from the period prior to the Babylonian exile (586-539 BCE) when Judea, the southern part of the original kingdom, still had a ruling monarch. The performance of religious rites seeking God’s favour comes through the early verses. A sense of trepidation lies behind the latter verses. As God’s anointed, the monarch’s safety and victory were of paramount importance to the nation and its security. Whoever the enemy was, they were presumed to have more powerful armaments (vss. 7-8). Therefore the appeal for God’s help in gaining victory was far from assured.

Offering prayers for victory in battle may be as old as human religious traditions. How God is to deal with the fervent prayers for victory offered by both combatants is a theological puzzle that no one can satisfactorily solve.

PSALM 92:1-4, 12-15. (Alternate) The psalmist has occasion to offer thanks to God. His gratitude arises out of long experience of God’s goodness during a long life. His joy in praising God comes through vividly in the opening verses.

The mood changes in vss. 5-8 to a traditional contrast of those who are faithful and those who are not. The right to make such judgments still belongs to God. Victory over enemies is also seen as the victory of God (vss. 9-11). Finally, vss. 12-15 lift up the benefits of living righteously. Such benefits rest on God’s righteousness and justice, not on human behaviour.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-17. In this excerpt Paul confidently celebrated faith in the love of Christ that had motivated and sustained him through years of difficult ministry to the Gentiles. He fervently proclaimed that anyone who believed and followed Christ had become a new creation. This gave him a whole new perspective on life in this world and life eternal from a spiritual point of view.

Paul had a very troubled relationship with the Corinthians, but he constantly strove to bring them to a new life of faith. The early part of this passage (vss. 6-10) deals with the subject of our unavoidable mortality which he had begun to discuss in the previous chapter, 4:7 - 5:5. Facing death was nothing new for him. Many times he had been threatened with imminent demise, yet he had never been afraid of it. Early in his life as a Pharisee and much more so after his conversion, he had devoutly believed in resurrection and life beyond death. This faith gave him the confidence to say what for any other person might be regarded as death wish (vs.8). His one desire was to serve Christ as long as he had breath, knowing full well that judgment awaited him as it did for every other human being. Beyond that too lay the glorious experience of the eternal presence of God and Jesus Christ.

The expression “the fear of the Lord” occurs many times in the Old Testament. In many respects it was the familiar way of describing the religious tradition of post-exilic Judaism. Its central meaning can be understood best as “mysterium tremendum.” Much more than reverent piety, it meant a sense of supreme awe in the presence of Yawheh. It was the essence of wisdom in approaching everyday life and the ethical motivation for an absolute moral monotheism determining the behaviour of every believer. Even the Messiah would sense the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2).

Paul shared this classical theological and psychological point of view. At the same time, his approach to life and to his mission had been filtered through his conversion experience. He had come to see that above all else the life, death and resurrection of Jesus conveyed the love of God for sinful, selfish humanity. “He died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” Nothing else mattered. This became the fundamental motivation for his ministry to the Gentiles and his continual conflict with both Peter and James about that mission.

Verse 16 contains a profound retrospective of his conversion experience. He certainly had seen Jesus “from a human point of view.” The apostolic claim that Jesus was the Messiah/Christ had so threatened Paul’s rabbinical ambitions that he had become a violent persecutor of the Christian community in Jerusalem. He had obtained permission from the high priest to extend his campaign against those messianic heretics to Damascus. Whatever that experience may have been in modern psychological terms, his meeting with the risen Christ on the Damascus Road had totally transformed his life. He became, as vs. 17 avers, “a new creation.”

Perhaps the most significant element of this compact passage is the simple word “anyone” in vs. 17. Paul did not regard the conversion experience as exclusive to himself. It was for everyone who believed that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. It was the power of the Spirit of God available to Jew and Gentile alike.

In his Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography (Image Books, 2004), Bruce Chilton has described Paul in this passage as “thinking on so cosmic a scale, linking God’s Spirit to humanity’s and both to the transformation of the world.” Chilton elaborates: “The same Spirit that made the world, hovering over the face of the primeval waters and descending upon each believer at baptism, infused the meetings of every congregation, joining Paul’s spirit and Jesus’ power in the judgment that would free the world of its old shape and give it new form. That transformation was doubly powerful because at the same time it occurred at the intimate level of each believer’s own body. The transformation of body, self and world were all happening at once, ‘in Christ.’”

Is it too much to believe that even the least noticed transformation of any person that leads to deeper and more faithful discipleship is a step toward remaking this sin-sick old world?

As a young carpenter of Nazareth Jesus would have met and chatted with innumerable peasant farmers of Galilee. Seedtime and harvest would have been natural topics of conversation then as they are today among farm folk. In that region, especially in the Plain of Esdraelon nearby, there was abundant good soil for raising abundant grain crops. Because of the mountains of Lebanon to the north, rainfall was plentiful. He might well have turned his own hand to the sickle to aid his neighbours at harvest time. This set of parables reflects that rural scene with sharp realism.

The time between seedtime and harvest also come through almost as clearly in the words of vs. 27. It takes approximately ninety days for the farmer to sleep and rise before a field crop can ripen to maturity. Much can happen in the interim to prevent a fruitful harvest. That requires both faith and patience from the farmer.

The second parable is less illustrative of rural Galilee. Once cultivated for the oil of its very small seeds, the mustard plant (brassica nigra) is now a common weed. It does exceed most other weeds in height, projecting above the level of the grain fields it contaminates. With large leaves, bright yellow flowers and small seeds in pods, it can be easily distinguished from crop surrounding it. However, it is not as large as a small tree or shrub and certainly could not hold up even a small bird’s nest. At most, a tiny bird might settle on its branches for a few seconds rest. It is even possible that the parable drew on a well-known image found in Daniel 4:10-12 and 20-22.

So Jesus must have been exaggerating to make his point. But why the hyperbole? To emphasize the significance of faith. “The kingdom of heaven” is no earthly nation with exact geographic location on this planet or elsewhere in the vast universe. It is spiritual in nature and can only be accessed by those who are spiritual. It is located wherever God’s love reigns. In these parables Jesus was saying that only those with a deep, abiding and patient faith in him and his way will find themselves citizens of that sacred, spiritual realm.

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