Proper 7 | Ordinary Time 12, Cycle B

Our understanding of the Mark 4:35-41 Gospel account about Jesus stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee is enhanced by the use in this lectionary of Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32 with it. Therefore, let us begin our consideration of the multiple texts offered for next Sunday in The Revised Common Lectionary with Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32.

Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32

After the introductory verses 1-3, the main body of this psalm is comprised of four self-contained strophes, each with its own refrain. Within each of these four sections, a different situation of peril is described. In each, those whose lives had been endangered call upon the Lord to save their lives. In every instance, the Lord delivers them from distress, and the people are urged to thank the Lord for the mercy that the Lord has had for them.

The first section (107:4-9) describes wanderers in the wilderness, the second (107:10-16) those who had been in prison, the third (107:17-22) the ill, and the fourth (107:23-32) those caught in a storm at sea. It is this fourth section, the longest and most fully developed, that has been chosen to be used with the account of Jesus stilling the storm in Mark 4:35-41, for obvious reasons.

The principal theme of this psalm is belief in intervention by the Lord to rescue those who believe in the Lord from the four basic perils that, prior to old age and increasing senility, threaten our lives. It is the Lord alone, we believe, who ultimately has the power to deliver us from all of these situations of peril, and for that we are to give thanks and praise to God. Actually, of course, we are to give thanks and praise to God our Lord even when the Lord does not deliver us from these perils.

Mark 4:35-41

As in so many other instances in the Gospel accounts, Jesus as our Lord is said in Mark 4:35-41 to have done what in the Hebrew Bible (our Older Testament) is ascribed to the Lord God as the ancient Israelites perceived God and as Jews, with some modifications, continue to perceive God. Just as the Lord God is said in Psalm 107:28-29 to have stilled the storm after those in the ships had cried out to the Lord God in their distress, so also in Mark 4:38-39 Jesus as our Lord is said to have stilled the storm on the Sea of Galilee after his followers in the boat had cried out to him. Clearly Jesus as the Christ is portrayed as having the power, that is ascribed to the Lord God also in Job 38:10-11, to stop the proud waves and to say, “This far you have come, and no farther!”

Regardless of whether the Mark 4:35-41 text depicts an event as it occurred on a particular evening during Jesus’ activities in the region of the Sea of Galilee, or whether the Mark 4:35-41 account preserves a story formulated within early Christian circles to proclaim that Jesus as the Risen Christ is Lord for his followers just as the Lord God as perceived by Jews is for them, there can be no doubt that this Mark 4:35-41 account is a proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus, of the divine power of Jesus as the Risen Christ over all of the elements of nature.

Therefore, for our proclamation next Sunday certainly the emphasis should be on the proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus as the Risen Christ, the Risen Christ of faith who for us as Christians is one with God the Father as God for us. We should not put our primary emphasis on the reactions of the disciples, the turbulent nature of the Sea of Galilee, or on other unnecessary attempts to “shore up” the historicity of the account. The account is not primarily history. Instead, the account is primarily proclamation. Since the account is primarily proclamation, we should proclaim it. We should proclaim its message in terms that are meaningful and understandable in our own historical situation. Whether the Jesus of history actually caused a storm to cease on the Sea of Galilee nearly two thousand years ago is not the primary issue. At least, it is not the primary issue for us. It may be the primary issue for an historian, one who is interested in historicity. But since we are pastors proclaiming the Word of God and not historians who are trying to determine historicity, our proclamation should be that we believe that Jesus as the Risen Christ, who we believe is one with God the Father as God for us, rescues us from the perils of our lives both now and forever. Even when everything seems to be out of control for us, we believe that nothing is not out of control for God. This is what we believe and this is what we should proclaim, even when our current situation in our individual, family, congregational, corporate, national and international existence seems to indicate otherwise.

Job 38:1-11

In this magnificent section, the climax of the Job drama, in which the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind, the Lord reveals that it was the Lord and not Job nor anyone else who “shut in the sea with doors,” “prescribed bounds for it,” and “set limits for its proud waves.” This text is appropriate with Psalm 107:23-32 and with Mark 4:35-41.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

There is a linkage between this segment of 2 Corinthians and the Mark 4:35-41 account of Jesus as the Risen Christ stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee. We see this in the paraphrase of a portion of Isaiah 49:8 by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “At a favorable time I have heard your call and on the day of salvation I have come to rescue you.” What Paul used from Isaiah 49:8 may be said to have been used in a different way by followers of Jesus who developed and told their story about Jesus in the boat. Jesus as their Lord heard their call and rescued them. So also it is for us, by faith.

Paul wrote tenderly in this segment to the Corinthians revealing some of his deepest feelings to them about his experiences of suffering and of rejoicing. Then, in 2 Corinthians 6:13 he urged them to respond in a similar way, as follows: “I speak to you tenderly — reveal your deepest feelings in response to us.” Here in this text we are in the presence of deep feelings of intimacy within the Church, which for Paul was depicted as the “Body of Christ.”

It should be noted that this segment of 2 Corinthians comes near the end of the portions of the composite letter that are sometimes called the “fragrant” or “sweet smelling” portions of the document. These are the portions 2 Corinthians 2:14–6:13 and 7:2-4, which should be read in preparation for our message next Sunday, since they provide the context for our selection, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13. This “sweet-smelling” portion seems to have been inserted at some point from a different letter by Paul to the Corinthians, interrupting Paul’s reference to his travels to Macedonia that is continued at what we know as 2 Corinthians 7:5, where Paul continues to write about his travels to Macedonia. (There appears to have been an insertion within this “sweet-smelling” portion of another insertion, an insertion within an insertion, specifically 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:12, Paul’s comments about not recommending that followers of Christ marry non-believers.) Our text for next Sunday lies within the most precious, “sweet-smelling” section of the document.

1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49

We have here the basic portions of the story of the young man David with his slingshot stunning the giant Philistine warrior Goliath, who had been taunting the army of King Saul and of Israel, by hitting Goliath on his forehead with a stone. The most important part of this account, an account that is always a favorite of young boys, especially of young boys who are threatened and beaten by older and larger “bullies,” and by others who are underdogs and/or who favor the underdogs in any contest, is the response of David within 1 Samuel 17:45, “You come to try to kill me with your sword, your spear, and your javelin, but I come to meet you in the name of the Lord of hosts.” If and when we use this text, we must be aware of and sensitive to the reality that in our culture there have been young men, who, after being repeatedly bullied and ridiculed by others in their schools, have come to school with a pistol or a rifle and have shot and killed students in that school.

Psalm 9:9-20

The Lord is praised here as the avenger of blood, as the one who snares the wicked and sends them to their death. That is the point of contact with the 1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-48 David and Goliath story considered above. This psalm also has positive assurances for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed, and these are the portions that we should proclaim.

1 Samuel 17:57–18:5, 10-16

This text continues the story of David’s rapidly growing popularity among the people of Israel, of the deep friendship of Saul’s son Jonathan with David, of King Saul’s envy, fear, and hatred of David, and of the initial attempts of Saul to kill David. This is a profound commentary upon human nature; it is not a very edifying story, however, for us as we seek to fulfill our call to proclaim the good news of the grace of God revealed in our lives.

Psalm 133

The point of contact between this psalm and the 1 Samuel 17:57–18:5, 10-16 text with which it is connected in our lectionary is obviously the acclamation in Psalm 133 of the joys that come when people live together as brothers peacefully and the deep friendship between Jonathan and David in the 1 Samuel text.

Mark 5:21-43

The introductory note in Mark 5:21 regarding Jesus crossing again in the boat to the other side of the lake should alert us to the interest in and the importance of “theological geography” in this section of the Gospel According to Mark. In Mark 5:20 Jesus was on the “Gentile” side of the Sea of Galilee. He was with the Gerasenes. He cast out the unclean spirit whose name was “Legion,” and he permitted the thousands of demons to enter into the herd of swine, which then rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they were all drowned. What possible purposes could this rather bizarre miracle story have served for the Markan community?

If this constructive/destructive miracle story was put into written form during the war in Galilee and Judea between the Jewish patriots and the Roman legions during the years 66-72 C.E., could the Markan writer and community by any chance have balanced the somewhat subtle polemic in the Mark 5:21-43 text we will be using next Sunday with the even more subtle polemic against the Romans in Mark 5:1-20? We know that direct, open polemic against the Roman oppressors within lands occupied by the Roman military was much too risky for the early followers of Jesus throughout the period in which the documents that would eventually become the New Testament were being formulated. But perhaps Mark 5:1-20 is, among other things, a subtle anti-Roman cryptogram, a communication in the coded language of a strange constructive/destructive miracle of Jesus story that the members of the Markan community could use, particularly in this story within the ministry of Jesus “gospel” form, without the Roman oppressors suspecting anything, even if they would seize and read a copy of the Markan Gospel.

Why was the name of the unclean spirit said to have been “Legion”? A legion was the name used for a major unit of troops in the Roman army, a unit of several thousands of armed men who would sweep through an area. Could the approximately two thousand swine in this story have been a cryptic representation of the hated Roman military presence in Galilee and Judea during the period when Jesus was a significant Jewish religious and political figure? Could the members of the Markan community have desired to depict several thousands of Roman military forces as rushing demonically within swine bodies down a cliff to be drowned in the sea, depicting them doing this in a way that the members of the Markan community would understand, but which the Roman military leaders would suspect nothing? Even if Romans or the few of Jesus’ fellow Jews who cooperated fully with the Romans might accuse the leaders of the Markan community of directing this story against them, the Markan followers of Jesus could say that they were not talking and writing about the Romans; they were writing about pigs! There were, after all, herds of swine in the area mentioned in this text, swine grubbing in the soil, growing to the size at which they could be herded into Roman ships and sent to Roman markets. Although the interpretation and explanation of Mark 5:1-20 in the Church over the centuries has been that this text describes something that Jesus actually did and that it was a demonstration that the life of one man is far more valuable than is the commercial worth of two thousand hogs, possibly the original purpose of the Mark 5:1-20 account when it was developed was somewhat along the lines described above.

As we turn from the possibly very subtle anti-Roman polemic in Mark 5:1-20 to what may have been somewhat subtle anti-Jewish polemic in the Mark 5:21-43 text appointed for us for next Sunday, we see that, among other purposes, this account was clearly demonstrating the superiority of the wonder-working Jesus the Risen Christ, the Lord of the Markan community, over the Jewish religious leadership of that time. According to this miracle story, the “daughter” of one of the “rulers of the synagogue” was at the point of death. This miracle story indicates that a ruler of a synagogue who is wise will come to Jesus with such a critical problem as the mortal illness of his daughter, a problem that presumably could not be handled by the religious leaders within the Jewish synagogue. The inserted account of the woman who had the uncontrollable flow of blood to form a typical Markan “sandwich” account (Mark 5:21-24a / 24b-34 / 35-43) is an additional indication of the great healing potency ascribed to the Lord Jesus by his followers. It may also have been originally an indication of the way in which the members of the Markan community believed that there would continue to be a hemorrhaging of Jewish blood until each Jewish person would turn to Jesus the Risen Christ and touch his garment. We note the possible symbolism in the flow of the woman’s blood for twelve years — a Jewish number symbol. In Mark 5:36 the ruler of the synagogue was told not to continue to be afraid, but to believe constantly. The message intended is that if the elders of the synagogue would only be wise enough to do as this ruler of the synagogue had done, if only they would accept the superiority of Jesus the Risen Christ and come to him for help, setting aside their fears and believing in him, their “daughter,” their offspring, would live again and be fed.

When we turn from this to our use of these texts within our life situation, we see that our proclamation should be that God, whom we believe raised Jesus from the dead, works through Jesus the Risen Christ to restore life and to provide salvation also to us and to all who believe in Jesus our Lord, who restores to life Jairus’ daughter in Mark, Matthew, and Luke, the widow’s son at Nain in Luke, and Lazarus in John. We note the progression to greater miracles of restoration to life in the later Gospels Luke and John, for in them the man had been dead for a day at Nain and for several days at Bethany. We have been called to study the Scriptures within their life situation contexts and then to proclaim them and their messages from God in our life situation contexts. Let us do this boldly!

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

It would be much more effective to read with the other texts appointed for next Sunday a different text from Paul rather than this one about the gathering of the offerings in Corinth to be taken to the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. A much better choice for next Sunday would be 2 Corinthians 6:1b-2, a portion of our reading from the previous Sunday, in which Paul wrote, “We urge you not to receive this grace of God in vain. For it says (in Isaiah 49:8), ‘At a favorable time I have heard your call and on the day of salvation I have come to rescue you.’ ” This choice would provide a text from Paul that is much more in accord with the theme of the other texts chosen for next Sunday.

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

We have here a high quality elegy expressing grief by David over the death of Saul, and especially of Jonathan, in battle against the Philistines. In it, David is said to have experienced love from Jonathan that was wondrous, greater than the love that David had received from women!

Psalm 130

This psalm can be considered here to be an expression of grief over the death of loved ones, such as the grief expressed by David in his elegy over Saul and of Jonathan in the 2 Samuel text with which it is intended to be read in our lectionary. It is also a cry for help from God, for redemption for the individual, as well as for the nation, in situations of great distress.

Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24

It is interesting to note that, in the opinion of the writer of the Wisdom of Solomon document, God had created all things to be immortal. It was ungodly men who had invited death and the devil as friends, to relieve them of their agony. This provides for us another perspective of sin and death, the general topics for consideration next Sunday.

Lamentations 3:22-33

In dire distress the writer proclaims the steadfast love that the Lord God has for the person who is in need and waits for God to come, for God’s mercies, God’s faithfulness that will never end, and God’s loving compassion. Certainly this is always appropriate for us to hear and to embrace.

Psalm 30

The faith in God expressed in this psalm is similar to what we read in Lamentations 3:22-33. It is a comfort to us at all times. It is good that his Psalm was selected for use four times within our three-year cycle of texts in The Revised Common Lectionary.

Mark 6:1-13

Within the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark) this text is one of several in which the Jesus of history is close enough to the surface that some of his human limitations and frustrations are depicted. “He was not able to do any mighty deed there, except for placing his hands on a few people who were sick and healing them,” we read in Mark 6:5. Here as elsewhere the Matthean and Lukan redactors removed the human limitations and frustrations of the Jesus of history from their editions of this account, in Matthew by changing Mark’s “He was not able” to He did not do” and Luke by omitting this portion of Mark’s account entirely.

We have, therefore, an opportunity next Sunday to emphasize the human limitations and the frustrations of the Jesus of history as depicted in this Markan text, and by doing this to make the distinction for the congregation between the Jesus of history who had human limitations and frustrations and our Christ of faith whom we believe that God has raised from the dead and is one with God the Father and one with God as Holy Spirit within our Christian theology. This distinction makes it possible for us to identify closely with the human Jesus of history and at the same time to pray to and to worship the divine Christ of faith. Jesus as the Christ is for us, as Martin Luther wrote in his explanation of the second article of the Apostles’ Creed, “true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and true man, born of the Virgin Mary — our Lord.” He is a carpenter given wisdom, a prophet rejected in his own land. It is such that we shall be able to proclaim him next Sunday, as depicted in this text.

Since our American Civil Religion Fourth of July celebration of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will occur during this week, it might be helpful to suggest that when our Declaration of Independence was declared the people in the thirteen colonies had many limitations of power and frustrations. Later, especially within our American public school system, many of these limitations and frustrations were edited out and largely removed much as the Matthean and Lukan redactors edited out most of the limitations and frustrations of the Jesus of history. We need, however, to be aware of the human limitations of each, since we ourselves have human limitations and since we are becoming aware that our nation has some serious limitations and frustrations as well.

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Paul was well aware of his own human limitations and frustrations, as he indicated many times in his letters that we have in the New Testament. It is not surprising, therefore, that when he was somewhat “carried away” in his claims of spiritual experiences in his attempts to counteract the boastings of the “spirit-filled” Christian enthusiasts of Corinth, he was reminded of his human limitations, of his “thorn in the flesh” as he called it. All of us also have our human limitations, of which each of us is painfully aware. But God’s word — especially God’s word of forgiveness, of resurrection, and of salvation — is proclaimed nevertheless, for as Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 12:9), “The Lord has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in your weakness,’ ” For us also, in spite of everything that may happen to us, God’s grace is perfected in our weakness. God’s grace is sufficient for us. Shall this not be the message that we must proclaim next Sunday? Shall not our message next Sunday reach its climax with this expression of the “Gospel According to Paul”?

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

In this text the young man David was anointed to be the king of Israel, to reign over all of Israel and Judah for thirty-three years. It is said that David increased more and more in strength, because the Lord, the God of power and might, was with him.

There are plenty of other texts, however, that are indications of the sins, weaknesses, and human limitations of David as king, texts that depict David as not being with the Lord, as a failure as a husband and as a father. These texts are reminders to us that all of us sin, in spite of the grace of God and the blessings of God. Together with the need that David had for the grace of God, our need for the grace of God continues and is multiplied by our sins.

Psalm 48

This psalm of celebration of the magnificence of Jerusalem and of its temple expresses the positive outlook of 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 at the beginning of the reign of David as king. We know, however, that just as David later failed and fell as a husband and as a father, so also the city of Jerusalem and its temple later would fall. The theme of human limitations stands, therefore, like a shadow over this text.

Ezekiel 2:1-5

In this segment of the fascinating “call” of Ezekiel accounts, the human limitations of the people of Israel are described in great detail. They are said to be a rebellious people, stubborn and impudent, refusing to hear the commandments of the Lord. Even the prophet Ezekiel, receiving and transmitting the Word of God, is portrayed as limited, as being a person whom most of the people will neither hear nor heed.

Psalm 123

In this brief lament, the psalmist is depicted as extremely limited in comparison to God. The psalmist is said to be like a humble male servant who is totally dependent upon the male servant’s master and like a female servant who is in every way inferior to the woman who has complete control over her. The only thing that the palmist can do is to beg for mercy from the Lord God. So also is it for us in our human condition today. We believe that our “salvation” is dependent upon the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the human who became divine for us.

THEME OF THE DAY: The awesome ways of God.

These Lessons clearly have The Ascension in view, Christ’s ongoing Presence among the faithful and God’s benevolent Power over them and us.  Providence, the Holy Spirit, Justification By Grace, and Sanctification receive attention.   

Psalm 1
This is a Wisdom Psalm contrasting the fate of the righteous and the wicked.  Those who delight (take pleasure) [chephets] in the Law [torah], it is said, are happy/blessed [ashere] (v.1).  The Law is indirectly praised (like Psalm 119), as righteousness [tsedeq] is associated with obedience to the Law (v.2).  We should be reminded that in ancient Hebraic thinking the Law is not merely a set of rules.  It is regarded as the complete revelation of what God instructs us to do, the complete guide to life (Leo Trepp, Judaism: Development and Life, p.2).  And likewise the stress on righteousness might here as it can elsewhere be understood not just in legalistic terms, but in relation to God’s Work (v.6) in accord with the Easter Word (see Gospel, vv.17,19; Romans 3:21-26).  The righteousness planted in God spontaneously bears good fruit (v.3).  It is good to remind ourselves again that the concept of “righteousness” even in an Old Testament context is not to imply that the believer lives in faultless conformity to some moral norm.  It has to do with living in right relationship with God (Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, Vol.1, pp.370-371).  By contrast the wicked are said to be like chaff that the wind drives away, cannot stand in the judgment [mishpat] (vv.4-6).  Keep in mind that the Hebrew term for judgment can refer to a sense of comfort, not just to punishment (Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, Vol.1, p.358).

Application: Several sermon options emerge from this text.  It opens the way to possibilities of relating the references to our righteousness and good works that follow from it to the Easter-Event, as the result of God’s Work (in Christ) (Justification By Grace and the spontaneity of good works or Sanctification).  Other options would be to preach on the pleasure and joy that comes from living the Christian life and being instructed by God (Sanctification) or to appreciate the Jewish concept of Law [torah] as a guide to life (the essence of Wisdom) and judgment [mishpat] as comfort.  

Acts 1:15-17,21-26
This Book is the second half of the two-part early history of the Church attributed to Paul’s Gentile associate, Luke (Colossians 4:14; II Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24).  It is concerned to affirm the universal mission of the Church (1:8).  This Lesson is comprised of two of Peter’s sermons.

The account begins soon after Ascension, with Peter addressing a crowd of 120.  He claims that Scripture [graphe] has been fulfilled as testified by the Holy Spirit [pneuma hagion] through King David concerning Judas Iscariot (1:15-17).  (It is not clear whether Luke is referring here to the Old Testament in a general sense or specifically to the relationship between Psalm 69:25 and 109:8 which are subsequently cited [v.20] and the death of Judas Iscariot and the field bought with his money to bury foreigners [Matthew 27:3-10].)  After an account of Judas’ death, the selection by lot [kleros] of Mattheus as his successor is described (vv.21-26).

Application: This text assures us that Christ is Present in all dimensions of our lives through the Holy Spirit, that even decisions about leaders of the Church and the nature of their leadership are in God’s hands (Holy Spirit, Ministry, Sanctification).

1 John 5:9–13
Like the previous week, this Lesson emerges in a treatise or sermon by an unknown teacher of the Johannine tradition, probably aiming to clarify the proper interpretation of the Gospel of John.  Since the end of the 2nd century the Epistle has been recognized as written by the author of the fourth Gospel or by another member of his circle.  The Book addresses disputes over Gnostic or Docetic doubts about whether Jesus was truly a human being and whether His death on the Cross was a sacrifice for sin (1:1-3,7; 2:2; 3:16; 3:2,10; 5:6).

In this Lesson we read a concluding discussion of victorious faith.  After referring to the testimony/witness [marturia] of the Spirit [pneuma] (vv.6-8), it is noted that human testimony is not as great as the testimony of God (v.9).  Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts.  Those who do not believe have made Him a liar [pseustes] (v.10).  The testimony is that God gave us eternal life [zoe aionios], a life in His Son [living in union with  Him] (v.11).  Whoever has the Son has life; without the Son there is no life (v.12; cf. 2:23; John 3:36).  The author claims to be writing to those who believe in the Name of the Son of God so they know they have eternal life (v.13).

Application: A sermon on this text should call us away from other brands of spirituality (human testimony) to focus instead on the testimony of the Spirit.  In so doing it is also possible to proclaim Christ’s Presence in our lives, how He binds Himself to us and in so doing gives us eternal life (Justification By Grace As Union With Christ and Eschatology)  

John 17:6–19
We have previously noted that this Book is the last of the four Gospels to be written, probably not composed until the last two decades of the first century.  It is very different in style in comparison to the other three (so-called Synoptic) Gospels.  In fact it is probably based on these earlier Gospels.  The Book has been identified with John the Son of Zebedee, the Disciple whom Jesus loved, and this claim was made as long ago as late in the first century by the famed theologian of the early Church Irenaeus (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.1, p.414).  It is likely that it was written by a disciple of John.  Hints of that possibility are offered by the first post-Biblical Church Historian Eusebius of Caesarea who claimed that the Book was written on the basis of the external facts made plain in the Gospel and so John is a “spiritual Gospel” (presumably one not based on eye-witness accounts of the author) (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol.1, p.261).  Its main agenda was probably to encourage Jewish Christians in conflict with the synagogue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God (20:31).

Recently some scholars have suggested an alternative account of the origins of John’s Gospel.  Appealing to the writings of a late first-early second century Bishop Papias, who may have implied that John’s Gospel was the result of eyewitness origins, such scholars have argued that the Book is in fact an authentic historical testimony to Jesus (Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, esp. pp.423ff;; cf. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol.1, pp.154-155).         

This Lesson is the Conclusion of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse with part of His High-Priestly Prayer.  Jesus prays, reminding His Father that He has made the Father’s Name [onoma] known to all those He has been given, the followers of Jesus are the Father’s (vv.6,10).  They have been taught that all Jesus has comes from the Father, that He came from the Father, and this they have believed (vv.7-8).  Jesus claims that His petitions are on behalf of His followers, not on behalf of the world (v.9).  He urges that the Father protect His followers in the Father’s Name, since all that He has is the Father’s and vice versa.  Jesus would have His followers be One [heis], as He and the Father are One (vv.10-11). 

Jesus next notes how He had protected His followers whom the Father had given to Him in the Father’s Name, while He was with them, losing only one [Judas Iscariot] in order to fulfill Scripture (v.12).  Jesus then says that since He is coming to the Father He speaks these things in the world so His followers may have His joy and become complete in themselves (v.13).  He adds that He has given His followers the Father’s Word [Logos], and the world hates them and Him because they do not belong to the world (vv.14,16).  The Greek world translated “world” is kosmos, literally referring to present human reality.  Jesus does not petition that His followers   be removed from the world, but that they be protected from evil [ponerou] (v.15).  He asks that they be sanctified [hagiazo] in truth [alethia]; the Father’s Word is said to be truth (v.17).  Jesus notes that He was sent into the world by the Father, so He has sent them into the world (v.18).  For their sake Jesus sanctifies Himself so His followers may be sanctified in truth (v.19).

Application: Sermons on this text might explore how the Christian life (Sanctification) is a world-denying (set-apart) mode of being, not dependent on ourselves, but on God’s Word and grace.  Sermons on Christology (on Christ as divine and so having power over evil to protect the faithful [Atonement]) are also appropriate.  

John 17:6-17

For the members of the Johannine community while this text was being developed, Jesus was “no longer in the world.” But the members of the Johannine community were “still in the world.” Our own situation is somewhat similar to this on the Sunday after the Ascension. We too are “in the world” without having Jesus physically present among us. To us also Jesus’ word has been given (and in a more “seasoned” form than it had been given to the members of the Johannine community). We may not be experiencing the hatred of the world as much as the members of the Johannine community apparently were experiencing it, but that may not be merely because we are so much more “worldly” than were the members of the Johannine community. It may be because we do not function as a sectarian group as the members of the Johannine community functioned.

Nevertheless, according to John 17:14 the members of the Johannine community realized that they were, even in their situation, not “out of the world,” nor did they want to think that Jesus was actually “out of the world” either. Neither do they have their Johannine Jesus ask God that Jesus’ followers be taken “out of the world.” He asks only that the Father would keep them from “the evil one” (John 17:15).

Incidentally, “of the world” is an inadequate translation of ek tou kosmou in John 17:14b, 16. The translation “of the world” is a translation that is not warranted by the context. It is to the credit of the leaders of the Johannine community that they felt that they had been sent “into the world” (John 17:18) and that they were not living “out of the world.” We today also need to feel that we are being sent “into the world” rather than that we are not “of the world.” We are physically and biblically “of the world,” and it is not helpful to encourage us to think that we are not “of the world” by providing for popular use translations that are interpretations not warranted by the context of a text. If those who shaped the Johannine traditions had wanted to say that they were not “of the world” rather than that they were not “out of the world,” they could easily have avoided the use of the word ek in John 17:14b, 16. An adequate translation into English of the Greek word ek in its context in John 17:14-16 would be “I have given them your word, and the rulers of the world have hated them, because they are not derived from the world, just as I am not derived from the world. I am not requesting that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They are not derived from the world, just as I am not derived from the world.”

Unless it is perceived that the reference to the loss of the “son of destruction” as being necessary for the Scripture to be fulfilled is a vaticinium ex eventu (prediction made after the event has occurred), we give the impression that John 17:12 teaches that Judas was predestined by God for destruction and that Judas had no free will to make his own decisions. When we see that there is a “prediction after the event has occurred” in John 17:12, we shall not declare that God predestined Judas for destruction. It is appropriate to declare that Judas did whatever Judas did because Judas wanted to do that, just as we do what we do – whether good or evil – because we want to do that also. Whatever we say next Sunday, may it be spoken as John 17:12 puts it, in order that the worshiping congregation where we are and the world may have the joy of Jesus fulfilled among them and that, in accordance with John 17:17, 19, the people and the world may be made holy.

1 John 5:9-13

It was the intention of the writers of this text to assure the people who remained within the community of faith in which they were leaders that God had given to them eternal life in the person of Jesus the Risen Christ, the Son of God. In order to give the people of the community greater confidence and to encourage them to remain within the community even though there were some teachings within the community that they found to be difficult to accept, the writers claimed in 1 John 5:12 that “the person who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” We today and next Sunday would fail in our responsibility if we would not believe and proclaim that those who believe in the name of Jesus the Risen Christ as the Son of God have life now and eternally. It is not necessary for us to make the negative judgment that those who do not have Jesus as the Risen Christ, the Son of God, do not have life. God is to be the judge of that.

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

The link that is most apparent between this text and John 17:6-19 is the reference to Judas, whose manner of death as described here differs considerably from the account in Matthew 27, and Papias’ second century account about Judas’ death differs from both New Testament presentations. The Lukan playwright apparently chose to develop an account that would present the death of Judas in the most vivid and horrible way possible, writing with regard to Judas in Acts 1:18 words for Peter expressed in my English translation as follows: “As you know, Judas purchased a parcel of land with the coins that he had received for his dastardly act. And having fallen headlong, his body burst apart in the middle and all of his internal organs poured out their contents!” This cannot be harmonized with the Matthean account in which Judas is described as repenting, throwing the coins that he has received into the Temple treasury and then going out and hanging himself (Matthew 27:3-5). It was not the primary purpose of these accounts to provide historical information about the death of Judas. The primary purpose was to portray Judas’ death in a way that would be appropriate in view of what Judas is presented as having done as one of Jesus’ own chosen disciples, helping Caiaphas to obey the command of Pilate by guiding the contingent of bodyguards sent by Caiaphas to locate Jesus in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane.

What is written in the Four Gospel accounts about the actions of Judas Iscariot and concerning his motives in guiding the contingent sent by Caiaphas is based on assumptions of the disciples of Jesus who were with Jesus in Gethsemane and of later followers of Jesus, not upon explanations given by Judas himself. One of these assumptions is almost entirely theological, the interpretation that God had predestined Judas to betray Jesus in order that God would be able to carry out God’s plans for our salvation. Personally, I have never been attracted to that interpretation, because of the inconsistency of that interpretation with the biblical portrayal of human free will and accountability. Other assumptions are that Judas chose to hand Jesus over to the Romans in order that Jesus would be “forced” to exhibit his divine power and subdue his enemies, or that Jesus knew when Jesus chose Judas as one of the twelve that Judas would betray him, but chose him in spite of this for a variety of possible reasons. I prefer the assumption that Judas was a “loner” who had been duped by the leader of the bodyguards into helping them find a suitable place to camp that night, that he thought that he was helping his new friends and did not intend to do anything that would be harmful to Jesus, and that he was aghast when he saw what was being done to Jesus. That is the assumption that I use in my portrayal of Judas in my “Jesus, the Man” movie script that is available at the Texas Lutheran University Bookstore (www.tlu.edu).

Psalm 1

According to this well-known psalm that was placed at this most prominent position in the Psalter by the editors of this collection, there are two ways in which to live. There is the way of the one who rightly chooses to meditate on and live by the commandments presented in the Torah, “Word of God,” and there is the way of the one who wrongly chooses to follow the way of the wicked, the scoffers, the sinners. Those who are wise will choose the right way.

This psalm, therefore, previews the non-festival half of the Church Year in which the importance of our choosing the right way is emphasized on the Sundays after the Day of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.