Proper 24 | Ordinary Time 29, Cycle B

Psalm 91:9-16

It is obvious that the people in ancient Israel among whom this psalm was developed and sung lived in situations in which life was a struggle for survival. They lived with “scourge near their tents,” “lions,” “adders,” “serpents,” “sharp stones,” and other constant threats to their existence. The inspired psalmist spoke and sang to assure them that because they have faith in the Lord God they will be delivered from the perils cited, protected from all manner of evil, and assured of long life. This was the hope provided for them in this psalm.

Within the daily struggles of our lives there are moments and sometimes days and months and years in which we suffer from illness and injury. Disease and death threaten us also at all times. Even though we believe in God and believe that God has been active in Jesus our Risen Lord and Savior, we are not shielded from all evil in this life. Nevertheless, it is our hope that ultimately God will rescue us and give us life eternally.

For us it is Jesus who is Lord, even as for the Israelites among whom this psalm was first sung it was the Lord God of Israel who was Lord for them. For the ancient Israelites, for Jews, for us, for Muslims, Hindus, and many other people, it is God who is beyond us and beyond our limitations to whom we turn for help, to God best known by us through Jesus the Risen Christ and in other ways by them.

In the explanatory stories (midrashim) in Matthew 4:6 and Luke 4:10-11 about how Jesus was tempted by “Satan” to try to help his fellow oppressed Jews in Galilee and in Judea by cooperating fully with the Romans who occupied the land and thereby perhaps reduce the Roman oppression, portions of Psalm 91 are said to have been quoted by “Satan. This should be a reminder to us that it was not Jesus to whom originally this psalm was spoken and that texts from our Scriptures can be and often are manipulated for nefarious purposes. Like every other text, Psalm 91:9-16 should be studied first in its own setting for its own sake. Then, after we have seen how the text has been used by people who believe in God in the past, we listen to and apply its message of hope for us. And that message of hope comes to us even though at the moment and for days and months and years we too may still suffer from pain and disease and will eventually experience death.

Isaiah 53:4-12

In this poetic climax and conclusion to the fourth “Servant Song” of the Isaiah tradition we see features that can be applied to various persons and groups. These features can be applied in part to the great Israelite prophets within a “larger than life composite figure” that was most likely the original intent, in part to the nation and people of Israel to which these features were later applied, and still later by followers of Jesus who perceived Jesus after his death as the one who suffered and died for us and for all people and who lives again. Perhaps we shall be true to this text and to God best if we see all of these features, all of these interpretations and applications, in it and do not try to limit its applications to any one of these three. It is said in the text that it was the will of the Lord that the “Servant” should suffer, but that it is through the suffering of the “Servant” that we have hope.

Hebrews 5:1-10

A priest who is selected to serve as the high priest can try to be non-judgmental while serving people who are sinful, since the high priest is also a sinner. Such a high priest must offer sacrifices, however, for the priest’s own sins in addition to offering sacrifices for the sins of other human beings. Jesus as the Risen Christ has been tested and tempted in every respect as we have been but, unlike other priests, without ever succumbing to sin (Hebrews 4:15). During the suffering that Jesus experienced in human form on the earth (Hebrews 5:8-10), Jesus became perfectly submissive to God’s will and, as the Christ, the source of eternal salvation to all who accept him as their ruler-priest, a ruler-priest similar to, but obviously greater than Melchizedek was said in Genesis 14:17-20 to have been. This is a portion of the argument made by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews to try to persuade Jewish background followers of Jesus to remain among followers of Jesus as the Christ and not return to their previous Jewish beliefs and practices.

Mark 10:35-45

The suffering to be endured is described in this text as “a cup to drink” and as “a baptism with which to be baptized.” This is to be experienced by James and John as well as by Jesus; each of them shall suffer and each of them shall die. The difference, however, is that Jesus’ suffering and death shall have redemptive significance in a way that the suffering and death of James and of John will not. Because of Jesus’ suffering and death, many will have hope. If Jesus as “the Son of man” came not to be served but to serve, how much more should Jesus’ followers serve if they wish to be great!

These four texts (Psalm 91:9-16, Isaiah 53:4-12, Hebrews 5:1-10, and Mark 10:35-45) provide a biblical basis for a most serious consideration of the subject of suffering, of what makes suffering redemptive, and of how God is perceived as providing hope through suffering and in spite of the suffering and death of people throughout history and in our own time. Although the suffering and death of Jesus provides the basic Christian model of redemptive suffering, perhaps we as Christians should also perceive that God has been and continues to be active and alive to provide hope through the suffering and death of other people as well. Our study of Psalm 91:9-16, Isaiah 53:10-12, and other texts should keep us open to that possibility.

Job 38:1-7 (34-41)

The long anticipated and long awaited response and answer of God to Job in this protracted Job drama finally comes for us in the voice of God speaking from the whirlwind in Job 38:1–42:6. Instead of expressing sympathy and empathy with Job whom God has made to suffer so greatly in order to prove to Satan, the adversary of God, that Job is a blameless and upright man, God points out in great detail how great God is and how inconsequential Job is in comparison to God. Therefore, we have in this Job drama the most profound and extensive theodicy that we see in our entire biblical tradition. How does this help us as Christians to appreciate and to praise God?

Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c

We have in these verses in Psalm 104 expressions of the greatness of God as the Creator of the heavens and of the earth that we see more extensively in Job 38:1–42:6, but with humans urged to bless God, to say good things about God, rather than with God stating as in the Job drama how inconsequential even the most blameless and upright humans are. Does this help us as Christians to appreciate and to praise God more than the Job text does, or less?

Following the emphasis this past Sunday on struggling and suffering, we have in the first three texts to consider for next Sunday the cry to God, “Have mercy on me!” expressed or implied directly to God or to God through Jesus. The prayers for mercy are prayers of communities of faith in the two Older Testament texts and is a prayer of an individual in Mark 10:46-52.

Psalm 126

Severe economic depression and drought appear to be the reason for the prayers for mercy in this psalm. The situation depicted is primarily agricultural. The Lord, who has restored the fortunes of Zion in the past, is urged to act now to deliver the people from sadness and starvation.

Those of us who live close to the soil, who have sowed and waited for the needed rains and have hoped for the harvest that is always uncertain, have the greatest understanding of the plea for mercy in this psalm. Lack of moisture, disease in the crop, destruction by insects, and hail from the skies constantly threaten the livelihood and survival of the grain farmer. No rain means no grass for the cattle. There is no regular paycheck here, only a heavy investment of time and resources and a plea for mercy to God.

Jeremiah 31:7-9

The prayer “Have mercy on us” is declared to have been answered in this text. The return of the exiles in large numbers of all ages and physical conditions is said to be accomplished even though it has not yet occurred. The blind and the lame come, assisted by those who can see and who can walk, in this prophetic declaration. We should not be surprised if there is some exaggeration here, with Jacob described as the chief of the nations and the parade depicted as a great multitude. The theological point to be made is that the Lord has shown mercy abundantly. After many years of waiting and of suffering, the Lord has saved the people who belong to the Lord.

Mark 10:46-52

“Have mercy on me!” the blind beggar Bartimaeus cries out repeatedly when he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Bartimaeus refuses to be silent even when many people rebuke him. He states his request and he receives his sight. Instead of going away, he follows Jesus in the way.

Comparison of this account with the redacted texts in Matthew 20:29-34 and in Luke 18:35-43 indicates how freely the Matthean and Lukan writers changed this story. The sequence of events is basically the same in all three accounts, but in Matthew instead of one beggar named Bartimaeus there are two blind men sitting along the path where Jesus was walking and in Luke the blind man was encountered as Jesus was entering the city of Jericho rather than as he was leaving it. This is consistent with the other redactions of Markan material by the Matthean and Lukan writers. The Matthean redactors often magnified the Markan stories, doubling the number of blind men given sight here, doubling the number of animals on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and increasing the speed and magnitude of the miraculous. The Lukan writer often “pruned” some of the details from the Markan accounts and added other details. Our analysis of the changes made in the redactions from Mark to Matthew and from Mark to Luke indicate that it is very likely that even greater changes would become apparent if we would be able to reach back beyond Mark to the pre-Markan level of oral and written development of this and of other accounts.

The point of this Mark 10:46-52 text, of course, is not in the number of blind men who were given sight or in whether they called upon Jesus as he was entering the city of Jericho or as he was leaving it. The point of these accounts is that those who are blind called upon Jesus to have mercy on them and that Jesus, with the power of God, had mercy on them. That is the message of this Mark 10:46-52 account for us also.

Hebrews 7:23-28

Continuing the persuasive argument used throughout most of the document, the writer of Hebrews states in 7:23-28 that unlike all other priests who are mortal, Jesus as the Christ remains the ruler-priest forever, able for all time to save those who come to God through him, since as the Christ he lives forever to appeal to God in their behalf. Christ is the wonderful high priest who is holy, entirely good, morally pure, differentiated from those who are sinful, and raised to heights greater than the heavens.

Job 42:1-6, 10-17

After God has spoken to Job, clearly separating God’s almighty and everlasting self from Job’s human weakness and limitations, Job repents “in dust and ashes.” Then, after Job intercedes with God in behalf of Job’s friends, God restores to Job his family and flocks, twice as much as he had before. Job dies in peace as an old man, and the prolonged literary drama is ended.

Psalm 34:1-8 (19-22)

The psalmist testifies that he had cried out to the Lord, and the Lord has delivered him from all of his afflictions. He blesses the Lord with praise and thanksgiving and invites the young men to listen to him, “to taste and see that the Lord is good!”

John 11:32-44

The message of this text is that the Johannine Jesus has the power of God to raise from the dead a beloved friend who had been dead for four days and already was decomposing! This is a very powerful message that we treasure, since we fully realize that we too will die and decompose as Lazarus was said to have been decomposing in this account. What is proclaimed here in John 11:32-44 is not merely a resuscitation; it is fully a resurrection of the body. This proclamation is reassuring for us, as we receive it by faith, so that we do not think that only Jesus (who was and is obviously far superior to us) was or will be raised from the dead. This account is an indication that other people, ordinary people like ourselves, who love Jesus and are loved by him will be raised from the dead.

Since the account is a theological message, a message that is an expression of faith, to be received by faith, we should not ask of it questions about Lazarus’ experiences during the four day interval, what he did with his life after Jesus had raised him back to life, or whether he died at a later date like everyone else. Neither should we speculate about these things, nor should we try to provide answers to such questions within our proclamation of this text. It is enough (and best) for us to proclaim the message of this text and to state that we believe the message that God will raise us also from the dead, for that is the message that we believe and that is the message that has made Christianity what it is.

Revelation 21:1-6a

In the highly symbolic language of apocalyptic eschatology, this text is a beautiful proclamation of our Christian hope. As we, like the writer of Revelation 21:1-6a and the people for whom this text was written, grow weary, suffer great pain and loss, we, like them, long for a time and a place where there will be no more pain and grief, where there will be no more death. This is what we hope for the “saints” who have died, and this is what we hope for ourselves. Every day, but most of all on All Saints’ Day, we must proclaim this message of Christian hope. It is for this that we are called.

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9

This text is an expression of faith that those who have died are in the hands of God and at peace. God watches over them with grace and mercy. Although this expression of faith is made within the context of the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul, it can be brought together, as it has often been done, with our Christian concept of the resurrection of the body and of life everlasting within the “Body of Christ” that has no limits.

Isaiah 25:6-9

Although there is nothing specifically about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ in this text from the Isaiah traditions, the belief expressed here that God will “swallow up death forever,” that the Lord our God will “wipe away tears from all faces,” and that we should “be glad and rejoice in the salvation that God provides” can not only be shared with our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’I friends, and with other theists; it can and also should be brought into our Christian expressions of faith, especially during our All Saints’ Day celebrations.

Psalm 24

Within the context of our Christian observance of All Saints’ Day, the saints redeemed by God in Christ are, in the words of this Israelite psalm, those who with “clean hands and a pure heart” are receiving the blessing of the Lord. What the Israelite psalmist required for satisfactory worship of God in this world is basically what we as Christians anticipate will be the condition of those who in the presence of God worship God in the world that is to come.

As we near the conclusion of another Church Year, we see that the texts selected for us for next Sunday emphasize priorities for our lives. The major texts, Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and Mark 12:28-34, boldly proclaim that God is and must be Number One in our lives and that we must remember this at all times. These two texts, in which the most important of the 613 commandments of God in the Torah for Israelites and all Jews and for the Jesus of history as a Jew are highlighted, are used only this one Sunday in our three-year series in The Revised Common Lectionary.

It is unfortunate that in many congregations, other than Roman Catholic congregations and perhaps Episcopalian congregations, All Saints Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in November rather than on November 1 and the texts selected for All Saints Day are used instead of Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and Mark 12:28-34. Also, some Lutheran congregations still celebrate Reformation Sunday on the last Sunday in October and use “Reformation” texts rather than the texts of Proper 26. If we cannot succeed in bringing our congregations together on a weekday on November 1 this year, or on a weekday on October 31 for those of us who are Lutheran Christians, I strongly urge that we use the powerful texts Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and Mark 12:28-34 on the Sunday between October 30 and November 5 this year and call the day “All Saints” Day and, if Lutheran, “All Saints” Day and “Reformation Sunday” as well if we wish. These Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and Mark 12:28-34 texts are strong enough to carry double or even triple emphases! If we must have All Saints Day and Reformation Day as primary emphases, let us schedule worship services this year on November 1 and, if Lutheran, also on October 31, if these are weekdays, and hold meaningful worship services with the people, even if they are few in number, who come on these weekdays to worship God with us.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

This powerful text speaks specifically to the ancient Israelites, and to all Jews since antiquity, to urge them to remember that God, the Lord God of Israel, the God of their Fathers, is and must always be Number One in their lives. In addition, since the Hebrew word echad that is used in Deuteronomy 6:4 is both a cardinal and an ordinal number, God is and has been proclaimed joyously by all Jews every day to be both “One” and “Number One.” All Jews, as well as all of us as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Baha’is, and others, are urged in Deuteronomy 6:5-9 to respond with complete and unconditional love to God, to teach our children these things about God, and to teach them to love God with no reservations, with their total being. Deuteronomy 6:4 is the great confessional statement, “Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is Number One!” that in terms of priorities — if not in every respect in terms of terminology — remains the primary statement of faith for all of the religious groups mentioned above, well over half of the people who are living on this planet earth. If we use this text next Sunday, it will be a day in which we can joyously invite our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i, and other monotheistic friends to worship God in our congregations with us.

Psalm 119:1-8

The theme of this entire extensive hymn is that those who conduct their lives in accordance with the Torah, the “Word of God,” will be blessed. The Torah as “Word of God,” therefore, is to have priority in their lives. And it is through the Torah that that the Lord God is known. For us as Christians, God is known through the scriptures that reveal God’s love and grace, especially in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ.

Hebrews 9:11-14

For the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and for us, Jesus as the Christ, by entering once and for all into the Holiest Place of all and offering his very own blood accomplished an eternal redemption for all of us who draw near to God through him. Consequently, it should obviously be the top priority for us as Christians to draw near to God through Jesus as the Christ.

Ruth 1:1-18

The obvious connection to the other texts selected for next Sunday of this text in the story of Ruth is the statement to her mother-in-law Naomi by Ruth in 1:16 that “Your God, Naomi, will be my God.” If God is indeed perceived as the one and only God, as we see in Deuteronomy 6:4 in our Bibles, the change in the faith and in the religion of Ruth was perhaps not as major as we may have thought. If there is indeed only one God, Ruth was changing her name for the one God, but not her basic faith in God. What implications does this have for us today in terms of “conversion” terminology, especially within Christianity?

Psalm 146

This beautiful “Halleluia!” psalm is an expression of praise to God as the Creator of the heavens and of the earth and as the One who is Active in Our Lives, doing in us and with us what we ought to do, establishing justice for the oppressed, providing food for the hungry, and lifting up those who are bowed down. The psalmist urges all who will listen to trust in the Lord and not to put their trust entirely on human rulers who all too often support the wicked rather than the oppressed and who themselves soon die.

Mark 12:28-34

Because the careful study of this text and of its parallels in Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28 provide for us some of the best access we have to the Jesus of history, let us analyze them exegetically. Comparison of these accounts within the Synoptic Gospels indicates that quotations by Jesus of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and of a portion of Leviticus 19:18 are the central core of these texts. Each of the three Synoptic Gospels’ traditions has a different introduction (Mark 12:28, Matthew 22:34-35, and Luke 10:25) to the central core saying of Jesus (Mark 12:29). Neither the Matthean nor the Lukan redactors use Jesus’ quotation of Deuteronomy 6:4, “Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is Number One!” most likely because this statement was considered to be too Jewish to be used in the extended Markan communities in Antioch and Ephesus when the Matthean and Lukan redactions were made. It is important to note also that the Matthean and Lukan redactors did not use the pleasant exchange of theological insights between the Jewish scribe and Jesus that we have in Mark 12:32-34ab, probably because these redactor-writers and their communities were no longer themselves having pleasant theological conversations with Pharisees and other Jews who were continuing to be thoroughly Jewish and not joining these developing Christian communities. Therefore, they did not wish to portray Jesus as they understood Jesus as having the pleasant theological conversations with another interested and intelligent Jew as Jesus had been portrayed in Mark 12:32-34ab. We see also that the Lukan writer reshaped the materials from the Markan account to make them serve a different purpose, as the Lukan writer’s introduction to the Lukan parable of the Good Samaritan.

With regard to genre, Rudolf Bultmann in his The History of the Synoptic Tradition, trans. by J. Marsh (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 51, called Mark 12:28-34 a “pure scholastic dialogue” (Schulgesprach) and noted that Matthew and Luke transformed the genre of the account into a “controversy dialogue” or “conflict story” (Streitgesprach). Actually, with additional study, we today can say that already in the Markan account when the Markan writer added the adversarial introduction (Mark 12:28) and the very adversarial conclusion, “After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions” (Mark 12:34c), which is certainly a very strange conclusion to provide after a very pleasant conversation between Jesus and another interested and intelligent Jew, the Markan account is in a transition from a pleasant Schulgesprach to an adversarial Streitgesprach. At the pre-Markan level of development, basically the central body of the text in Mark 12:29-34ab, the material was still a pleasant Schulgesprach. Earlier in the development of the tradition, the material had been an important reminiscence by followers of Jesus in Galilee of what Jesus had said many times about the most important commandments in the Torah during pleasant and respectful conversations with a variety of other interested and intelligent Jews. Still earlier, during the lifetime of the Jesus of history as we can reconstruct it from this and from similar texts, the genre of the material was “a discussion about the most important and basic commandments in the Torah.”

Parenthetically, we may postulate that it is likely that many of Mark’s other controversy dialogues, especially in the series of such conflict stories that we have in Mark 2:1–3:6 and in Mark 11:27–12:37 and parallels in Matthew and in Luke, originated in discussions that the Jesus of history had with other intelligent and interested Jews about the commandments in the Torah. Many of these were repeated as followers of Jesus after his death reminisced about what Jesus had said. Increasingly, these followers of Jesus came to see Jesus as their teacher and they as students (disciples) of Jesus. If we are interested in the reminiscences of followers of Jesus after his death and in what the Jesus of history said, we will focus our attention on the “pure scholastic dialogue, the Schulgesprach preserved and accessible to us in the main body of the text in Mark 12:29-34ab.

When we focus our study on the main body of this text, Mark 12:29-34ab, we can identify three interrelated themes.
1) God is Number One (verses 29-30). Every other person and one’s self are number two (verse 31), and by implication, all other things, even our most important religious rituals and practices, are number three.
2) Good theology (that God is Number One) and good ethics (loving one’s neighbor as one’s self) are more important than religious rituals (verses 32-33).
3) When themes 1 and 2 (i.e., that God is Number One and that good theology and good ethics are more important than religious rituals) are affirmed, a person is “not far from the kingdom of God” (verse 34ab). In other words, then a person is not far from being ready to let God rule that person’s life. These themes provide the basic materials from this text that we can use for personal, pastoral counseling, didactic, and homiletical applications, on applications that are firmly grounded in this text.

1 Kings 17:8-16 and Psalm 146 both, though in different ways, describe how the Lord God provides what is needed by the poor and oppressed, and most of all for the widow and the fatherless. Mark 12:39-40 is a warning against the scribes who are said to act as if they are very religious, while secretly they are taking possession of the houses of poor widows whom they evict. Mark 12:41-44 has Jesus acclaim a poor widow who puts her last two small copper coins into the temple treasury, trusting that God will provide for her, that God will give everything that she needs to her just as she has given everything to God. In Hebrews 9:24-28 the argument of this document continues that Jesus as the Christ has made the once-for-all sacrifice of himself to overcome sin and announces that Jesus as the Risen Christ will appear again in order to save those who are waiting for him. These texts bring us one more step closer, therefore, to the end of the Church Year.

1 Kings 17:8-16

This story is most of all an expression of faith that the Lord God provides what is necessary, even for the most needy person that one can imagine, a poor widow with a dependent child during an extended famine. Elijah, the “man of God,” is a rather passive figure in the story. The widow is a hero of faith, because she believes the “man of God” when he tells her that the Lord, the God of Israel, will continue to supply grain and oil until the famine is ended.

We, who live in a much less precarious situation than that of the poor widow, should certainly believe, as she did, that God will provide also for us. Therefore, we should share our resources with others who are in need and trust in God, just as the widows do in both the 1 Kings 17:8-17 and in the Mark 12:41-44 accounts.

Psalm 146

This joyful “Halleluia” psalm considered also last week amply illustrates that praise of God is our most appropriate response to God. The psalmist praises the Lord God as the faithful in Israel perceive God, as the Creator of heaven and earth and the Provider of everything that is needed by those who remain faithful to their covenant with the Lord.

With the wisdom gained from experiences during a lifetime of faith in the Lord, the psalmist urges all who will listen not to trust human rulers, who all too often support their friends who are greedy and oppressive rather than provide help for the oppressed. Such rulers soon die. The psalmist calls upon all people to praise the Lord who will live forever. The older we become the more we appreciate the wisdom expressed in this psalm.

Hebrews 9:24-28

This text is packed full of Christian faith in the significance of Jesus’ life and death. The writer summarizes a vast amount of theological reflection by followers of Jesus over the value to be found in Jesus’ painful crucifixion by the oppressive Roman occupational forces. Then the writer gives this theological reflection a new twist in this document by depicting Jesus as the great high priest entering the holy place once and for all to offer his own blood as the totally efficacious sacrifice for sin. In this depiction of the death of Jesus we see Jesus totally in control of the situation, even more than in the depiction of Jesus as in control of the situation within the Fourth Gospel. The text of Hebrews 9:24-28 concludes with the statement that Jesus as the Risen Christ will appear again, not to die this time but to provide salvation for those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Mark 12:38-44

If one of the primary criteria for an event to be newsworthy is that it be unusual, the event here of the poor widow giving her last two small copper coins to the Lord in this Mark 12:41-44 account certainly qualifies. Total commitment to God is unusual and newsworthy. The issue here is not how much could be accomplished for herself or for others with her small offering or whether her decision was a rational or an irrational act. The issue here is the significance of her trust in God. Her offering of everything that she had to God is comparable to the total commitment of the poor widow in the 1 Kings 17:8-16 account and even in some respects to the total commitment of Jesus as the Christ in the Hebrews 9:24-28 account used with this text.

Can such a commitment be expected also of us? Can we ourselves model such a commitment to God, and can we then urge others to make such a commitment to God?

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17

In these two excerpts from the story of Ruth we see the “hidden hand” of God at work in the success of the bold actions of Ruth as directed and guided by her mother-in-law Naomi. Whatever the methods, the result was good. Naomi has a son “born” to her!

Psalm 127

The son “born” to Naomi through her daughter-in-law Ruth and the good man Boaz became the foundation of the “house” of David. It was to be a house built by the Lord God of Israel. According to Psalm 127, unless the Lord God builds a house, it cannot be constructed; if we try to build it ourselves, it will crumble.