INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Year B - Proper 8
2 SAMUEL 1:1, 17-27. David's lament at the death of his king, Saul, and his close friend, Jonathan, has the majesty of beautiful poetry. Many scholars have attributed it to David himself. If so, it may be one of the earliest pieces of Hebrew literature dating from before 1000 BC. While it mourns the king and his son who were killed in battle, it lacks all religious feeling. It is more of a dirge similar to what one hears when a British monarch or American president dies.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON: 1:13-15, 2:23-24. (Alternate) Most Protestant Christians are unfamiliar with the Wisdom of Solomon. Although attributed to King Solomon it was the work of a well-educated Hellenized Jew written scarcely a century before the birth of Christ. The first segment appeals to the faithful person to live a godly life while the second points to belief in life beyond death despite satanic influences in life now.
PSALM 130: This lovely lament also has a permanent place in world literature. It is one series of psalms identified with the approach of pilgrims to Jerusalem for one of the great religious festivals, possibly the Day of Atonement for the sins of the nation. It ends with a deep expression of hope in God's steadfast love.
PSALM 30. (Alternate) The psalmist praises God for saving him from death in a critical illness. After at first expressing a certain overconfidence about God’s favor, he realizes how much he owes to God for answering his prayer of distress. In the 2nd century BC, the psalm came into liturgical use for the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus now celebrated at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
2 CORINTHIANS 8:7-15. Paul delicately proposes that the Corinthians complete their collection for the famine-stricken Christians in Jerusalem. He has as much concern that the Corinthians learn how to be generous as he is that they make a large contribution. Gracious giving to help those in need is based on Christ's own sacrifice for them - and for us.
MARK 5:21-43. Another crossing of Lake Galilee brought Jesus to another opportunity for healing. Supposedly the daughter of Jairus, the head of a synagogue was dying. While on his way to heal her, Jesus was pressed by the crowd, but still felt another woman in need seek healing by touching the hem of his robe. The two miracles provide a sharp contrast between the healing of someone who exhibited faith and another who did not. To Jesus human need and God's willingness and power, not the demonstration of good faith, makes the difference.
This could have a singularly important application for our time. Many political and economic leaders want our national social security and health systems to be transformed from a basis of need in which all share through public taxation to expensive insurance schemes that place limits on many pre-existing illnesses.
A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.
2 SAMUEL 1:1, 17-27. David's lament at the death of his king, Saul, and his close friend, Jonathan, has the majesty of beautiful poetry. Many scholars have attributed it to David himself. If so it may be one of the earliest pieces of Hebrew literature dating from before 1000 BC. While it mourns the king and his son who were killed in battle, it lacks all religious feeling. It is more of a dirge similar to what one hears when a British monarch or American president dies. It might well be read against the background of The Dead March from 'Saul' or a highland lament played on bagpipes so often heard at military funerals.
The site where this battle was fought has become a famous Israeli tourist attraction. Mount Gilboa is a limestone ridge thrusting some 1700 feet above the Plain of Jezreel. The more enterprising may climb the ridge by means of a footpath, but from the valley below even the naked eye can see a bare tree marking the place where, as 1 Samuel 31:8-10 has it, the Philistines hung the beheaded bodies of Saul and Jonathan on the walls of the fortress of Beth-shan. Today, at the base of the mountain in Bet-She'an National Park, one can tour the splendid ruins of a Roman and Byzantine city destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 749 CE. It gives the visitor a vivid impression of what a death-place this was from ancient times.
Vs. 21 of this passage is a curse on the place where Saul fell. The previous two verses recall the celebration in the Philistine cities along the Mediterranean coast cited in 1 Sam 31:9.
Those who remember as I do the celebrations of V-E and V-J Days in 1945, understand how poignant is David's horror at the thought of the Philistines rejoicing. Several years later I heard a Japanese woman who lost all her family in the bombing of Hiroshima utter a similar curse and lament for her people at a church conference on group dynamics at Green Lake, WI. Are not the scenes we see televised from the Viet Nam Memorial on Memorial Day or the Canadian War Memorial on Remembrance Day reminiscent of David's lament? Will we recall the more recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same way? Surely it is from whatever perspective we experience such moments that we can share the deep sense of catastrophic grief this lament expresses.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON: 1:13-15, 2:23-24. (Alternate) Most Protestant Christians are unfamiliar with the Wisdom of Solomon. Although attributed to King Solomon it was the work of a well-educated Hellenized Jew written scarcely a century before the birth of Christ. The first segment appeals to the faithful person to live a godly life while the second scoffs points to belief in life beyond death despite satanic influences in life now.
Coming late in the history of Hebrew literature, Wisdom of Solomon was not included in the Hebrew Bible, but was part of Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translation. So the Roman Catholic tradition considers it Holy Scripture whereas Protestants generally defer it to the apocryphal writings. It is generally thought to have originated in Alexandria where Jewish and Greek thought were considered compatible.
In the Jerusalem Bible, a Roman Catholic translation originating in France and first published in English in 1966, chapter 1 has the headline, “On seeking God and rejecting evil.” Chapter 2 is headed, “Life as the godless sees it.” These two excerpts elaborate these headings very well.
PSALM 130: Some regard this loveliest of psalms as a penitential prayer rather than a true lament. Yet it has a permanent place in the religious literature of the world. It is one series of psalms (Pss. 120-134) identified with either the New Year's festival or the approach of pilgrims to Jerusalem for one of the great religious festivals. This one may well have been used on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The fact that it omits any reference to atoning sacrifices suggests that it may be a late composition when such rituals had already lost their significance for the most devout.
Although the context reveals nothing about its actual circumstances, it does express a sense of deep devotion as well as a forthright confession of the sin. One might speculate whether it was a prayer of a pious individual or for use by the assembled representatives of the whole nation. It could also have been used antiphonally quite effectively.
In vs. 1, the reference to the depths brings forth the image of the engulfing waters of Sheol into which the dead sink (cf. Isa. 51:10; Jonah 2:3). It also reflects the poet's deep sense of alienation from Yahweh. So he throws himself on Yahweh's mercy and forgiveness (vss. 3-4) and realizes that on this alone rests his ultimate security (vss. 5-6).
Even if this prayer originated from the heart of a singularly pious soul, it ends with a plea for all Israel to put its hope in Yahweh's steadfast love, trusting in Yahweh's power to redeem the sinful nation from all its iniquities. Many generations in both the Jewish and Christian traditions have found in it solace for the sin-sick soul. John Wesley's Journal records one of its more significant uses. In Wesley's time, this prayer entitled De Profundis was sung at evensong on the 27th day of each month. The paragraph in his journal began: "In the afternoon I was asked to go to St. Paul's." The psalm in the version from the Book of Common Order follows. He would have known it by heart. This record is found in the paragraph immediately previous to the one in which he tells of his Aldersgate experience when his heart was "strangely warmed."
PSALM 30. (Alternate) The psalmist praises God for saving him from death in a critical illness. After at first expressing a certain overconfidence about God’s favor (vss. 6-7), he realizes how much he owes to God for answering his prayer of distress.
It is natural for a person to be exuberant about being restored suddenly to good health. Even with modern medicine capable of curing or alleviating many of the most severe illnesses once regarded as fatal less than a century ago, the fear of death persists. The psalmist’s fear of death was expressed in vs. 2. The Pit was another common Old Testament term, among several others, for the abode of the dead. But Sheol was by far the most common, occurring sixty six times. Unlike the others, however, it was unique to the Hebrew language, and does not occur in any other Semitic language. Generally, the various terms for the abode of the dead conveyed the idea of a permanent, shadowy, chaotic but silent place. No Old Testament reference contains any concept of punishment or torment. The concept of an infernal hell came into existence only during the Hellenistic period probably influenced by Persian (i.e. Zoroastrian) ideas.
The traditional concept of illness resulting from divine anger still lingers as the philosophical matrix of the poem (vs.5). Despite the shadowed background to the psalm and the loss of prosperity, the poet had unmitigated praise for God’s beneficence. His pride had been restored to the extent that he could question divine justice in the death he had so recently escaped (vs. 9). His mourning had been transformed into joy (vs. 11).
In the 2nd century BC, the psalm came into liturgical use for the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus now celebrated at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
2 CORINTHIANS 8:7-15. Toward the end of his letter seeking reconciliation with the Corinthians (2 Cor. 1-9), Paul delicately proposes that they complete their collection for the famine-stricken Christians in Jerusalem. This project had been very close to Paul's heart. He sincerely believed that as the offspring of the original congregation of believers, the Gentile congregations had a duty to help the Mother of all Churches in its time of need. Titus had made this appeal first to the Corinthians (vs. 6). For some reason they had withheld their contribution, probably due to their disagreement with Paul which caused the earlier, painful correspondence.
A personal aside: O my! How we Christians still try to control each other by withholding our stewardship gifts! The very day I first wrote this, I received a series of e-mail messages expressing the fear that if the issue of the blessing of gay and lesbian marriages is raised at the General Council of The United Church of Canada, many more will withhold their gifts to the Mission and Service Fund of our church or withdraw from our fellowship. Possibly 10,000 of more than 700,000 members and ordered ministers withdrew in the 1990s after the General Council adopted a policy accepting gay and lesbian persons who believe in Jesus Christ as full members and eligible for consideration as candidates for ordered ministry.
After first challenging the Corinthians to follow the example of the Macedonian churches in Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea, Paul sets before them the example of Jesus Christ himself. For Paul, the sacrifice of Jesus did not begin on the cross, nor at this birth. It began when he set aside his godhead and became incarnate as a humble servant of God in the human context of a 1st century Jewish carpenter. (cf. Phil 2:6-8). Gracious giving to help those in need is based on Christ's own sacrifice for them - and for us.
Paul has as much concern that the Corinthians learn how to be generous as he is that they make a large contribution. He cites their previous eagerness to contribute and asks them to finish what they had begun so well (vss. 10-11). Many a stewardship sermon has been preached on the text of vs. 12-14: One's readiness to give has to be matched by one's ability to give. What one has, not what one lacks, is the only balanced measure of our stewardship.
The quotation from Exodus 16:18 in vs. 15 emphasizes Paul's vision of equality among Christians which requires those who have to share with those who have not. Such an economic policy is anathema in our crazed profit-oriented society, yet it also motivates many to contribute generously to food banks and to send relief to famine- or flood-stricken countries.
In Canada, a modest undertaking by Rt. Rev. Bill Phipps, former Moderator of The United Church of Canada, attracted considerable attention to his Consultation on Faith and the Economy from those outside the church fellowship. For instance, he was invited to be the theme speaker at the annual general meeting of the Halton Social Planning Council, on Oakville, Ontario, on June 26th, 2000. He spoke on A Moral Crisis: God and the Marketplace.
Nearly a decade later, with the whole world in the grips of a devastating recession, there is even greater need for a deep sense of caring and sharing to bridge the gap between those who have something to spare and those who have little or nothing.
MARK 5:21-43. Mark must have had some special purpose for saying many times that Jesus and his disciples crossed and recrossed Lake Galilee. Considering the local geography, these crossings provided no more than easy shortcuts from one town to another along the western and northwestern coast of the lake. Only in the instance of the previous pericope about driving the demon from the man living among the tombs (5:1-20) did he actually cross into foreign territory. Going by boat also provided the means of avoiding crowds.
In this passage, yet another crossing brought Jesus two other opportunities for healing. Supposedly the daughter of Jairus, the head of a synagogue was dying. While on his way to heal her, Jesus was pressed by the crowd, but still felt another woman in need seek healing by touching the hem of his robe.
Jairus was not a rabbi, but the lay president of the synagogue in his community. Mark does not identify exactly in which town or village it was located. The man was desperate about his daughter and pleaded that Jesus come to his house and lay hands on her. In response to this plea Jesus went with him and the crowd followed, probably more curious to see another miracle than to hear what Jesus might say. In small communities, anything unusual draws a crowd.
One of the people in the crowd was a woman who had suffered from a menstrual malady for twelve years. Every attempt she had made to get help from other healers had failed. She was now both desperate and destitute. Hearing about Jesus, she sought to get close enough to touch his garment hoping that it might have the magic that would heal her. When she did touch him, she was instantly healed. Jesus realized that something unusual had happened to him too. Looking around at the crowd, he asked who had touched him, the woman identified herself, but did so in great fear. Jesus had only compassion for her and sent her on her way with the assurance that her faith had been rewarded.
Meanwhile, Jairus' daughter had already died, or so her caregivers thought. Jesus had to reassure Jairus that this was not so and urge him to let faith deal with his fear. Arriving at the house, he rebuked the mourners who had already begun their funereal wailing. They derided him, so he sent them all out of the house, took the parents into the room where the girl lay, and raised her with a tender word.
The two miracles provide a sharp contrast between the healing of someone who exhibited faith and another who did not. To Jesus, human need and God's willingness and power, not the demonstration of good faith, makes the difference. The details of these two pericopes should not distract us from the essential point Mark is making: through Jesus the shalom of God has arrived revitalizing the lives of old and young. Wherever and whenever that happens, divine compassion for those in need overcomes fear and restores wholeness to the humblest of human lives.
This could have a singularly important application for our time. Many political and economic leaders want our social security and health systems to be transformed from a basis of need in which all share through public taxation to expensive insurance schemes that place limits on many pre-existing illnesses, thereby leaving many without needed medical care.
-30-