Proper 28 | Ordinary Time 33, Cycle B

Daniel 12:1-3

The composer of this apocalyptic text that we call Daniel wrote in this portion that “At that time, there will be great trouble and anxiety!” As we read this, it is important that we realize that the writer was describing events of the writer’s own time, not of our time nearly 2,200 years later. Whether we are reading apocalyptic texts such as Daniel, or the Apocalypse (the book of Revelation) in the Newer Testament, or any other text in our Bibles, we are reading about events that were occurring during the time in which the biblical texts were written. They were not written specifically about anything that is happening now. Do we, no matter how inspired we may be, speak, teach, and preach about events that will occur 2,200 years into the future? We speak, teach, and preach about events within our time, just as they spoke, taught, and preached about events within their time.

Therefore, we should be reluctant to accept unquestioningly what people say when they try to tell us that something written in the Bible was written with specific reference to someone or to something in our time and place. In our study and use of biblical texts we must always begin with learning as much as we can about the setting in which the texts were formulated. When we have done that, then it is necessary to bring what we have learned over into our time and place and make the appropriate applications. That is what we are called to do.

The Daniel traditions were formed by devout Jews who were living during the oppressive rule of the Seleucid dictator Antiochus Epiphanes within the years 167-164 BCE. That Syrian ruler apparently thought that the Hellenistic culture that he had embraced was far superior to any other culture and that the culture and lifestyle of the small minority of people called Jews was so hopelessly inferior that for the good of his realm and even for the good of the Jews Hellenistic culture should be accepted by everyone. Therefore, it was a period of great trouble and anxiety for Jews who wanted to remain Jews within that situation.

What do we have in our situations that is comparable to what is depicted in the Daniel traditions? What is there in our situations of economic, political, social, and religious catastrophes that can be compared to what is depicted in Daniel? What people and groups today are in situations that are somewhat similar to the situation of the Jews whose survival as a people was uncertain at the time Daniel 12:1-3 was written?

It is the hope and prediction of the writer of Daniel 12:1-3 that soon the Jews, the people of God, will be delivered from this threat to their lives and culture. This is expressed in terms of a return to life even of some who “sleep in their graves.” They will awake, some to a condition of eternal life and some to one of eternal contempt. It is not clear whether this expectation was intended to apply to the return to life of the Jewish people as a whole, in groups, or as individual Jews. Perhaps at first it was intended to apply to the Jewish people as a whole, then later to groups of Jews (the easier concepts), and finally to individual Jews, (the most difficult). At any rate, there is evidence that the hope of the return to life of individual Jews became the hope of some Jews, but not of all Jews, during what we as Christians call the intertestamental period.

This is the milieu in which the Jesus of history lived. It is the milieu in which Christianity was developed and formed. It is the hope for the return to life of individuals that has made Christianity and later Islam attractive to so many people. Certainly we are called to proclaim with personal conviction this hope in the resurrection to life of individuals. We are called to proclaim this hope with our lives and in the message that we share next Sunday and every day.

Psalm 16

The psalmist remains faithful to the Lord and the Lord provides guidance, security, and a meaningful life for the psalmist. In the presence of the Lord the psalmist has complete satisfaction and joy.

This was a good arrangement for the psalmist and it is a good arrangement for us. For us, of course, the Lord is God as we perceive God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of us perceives God in a special, unique way, as special and as unique as we ourselves are as individuals within the diversity of the Church, the “Body of Christ” in the world.

Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25

Our emphasis in our application of Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25 should be on Jesus as the Risen Christ sitting at the “right hand” of God and waiting until his enemies will be placed as a footstool under his feet. Part of our job will be to explain, if necessary, that the language of Hebrews 10:12-13 is taken from what was known at the time of the composition of this text about how ancient monarchs ruled from their thrones above the people with their closest subordinates seated on either side of the monarchs to give the orders and to do the “dirty work” that was necessary so that the monarchs could retain their power and authority. Then, perhaps we should use some other descriptive language more appropriate for our time to depict and to proclaim what is proclaimed in this text. It is important that we emphasize that the descriptive language used by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews is descriptive, vivid language. It is, in a sense, “art” work. We should not necessarily expect in the life to come to see God the Father seated on a throne and Jesus as God the Son seated on a lesser but still ornate chair with his feet on a footstool comprised of his enemies and mimicking the practice of ancient potentates and their closest subordinates.

Mark 13:1-8

This introductory portion of the Mark 13 “Little Apocalypse” is most likely a mixture of statements that the Jesus of history had made on various occasions about catastrophes that would occur soon, both those that would involve phenomena in nature such as earthquakes and famine and those that would be political disasters such as wars and the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple within it, and experiences of Jesus’ followers after he had been crucified. The experiences of Jesus’ followers, including events that were occurring during the revolt against the Roman occupation by Jewish nationalists in 66 CE and the suppression of that revolt during the seven years that followed it, were incorporated into what Jesus himself had said. If the Gospel According to Mark was initially written among followers of Jesus who had fled among other refugees from Galilee and Judea as Roman armies were converging upon those areas to suppress that revolt, they could easily have added vivid historical details from reports that they received about the Roman siege of Jerusalem and of the destruction of the city and of its temple. We cannot, therefore, use the details about the destruction of Jerusalem in Mark 13 to determine the precise dating of the composition of Mark’s Gospel.

What is obvious from our study of these texts is that the Markan writer and community considered the tumultuous times in which they were living to be analogous to the times described in the Daniel traditions, and, like those who had compiled the Daniel traditions two and a half centuries earlier, they hoped for relief from the horrible afflictions imposed upon them by the world power of their time. Like those who had compiled the Daniel traditions, these followers of Jesus could not safely write directly against their oppressors nor identify them by name. They could not safely mention the name of the currently reigning Roman Caesar any more than the writers of the Daniel tradition could mention the name of Antiochus Epiphanes during their time.

1 Samuel 1:4-20

This portion of the 1 Samuel document provides the backdrop for the reading of the Song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 that is used with it. The oppression here is caused by the situation of barrenness of Hannah and by the initial inability of her husband Elkanah and of the priest Eli to help her to deal with her affliction. When Eli finally understood the reason for her weeping and blessed her, her affliction ended as she conceived and bore a son, who would become the great religious leader in Israelite life and politics, Samuel.

1 Samuel 2:1-10

The Song of Hannah, along with the Song of Mary (the Magnificat) in Luke 1:46-55 that is modeled upon it, is essentially a thanksgiving to the Lord God for the reversal of fortune as God breaks into pieces the military power of the oppressors and raises up from the dust the poor and oppressed. Such exaltation is understandable, given the conditions of oppression experienced. From the perspective of many of us for whom oppression is much less severe, we may hope that conditions of oppression could change without a complete reversal of fortunes. We are aware that oppressed people who come into power sometimes become oppressors themselves when they possess power.

Our seminary experiences and our work as pastors may have provided for us relatively few resources for use as leaders in the celebration of national holidays such as Memorial Days, Independence Days, Veterans’ Days, and National Days of Thanksgiving. We may be urged by members of the congregations in which we serve to combine national holidays with Sunday Worship Services or even at times to replace Christian Worship Services with the celebration of national holidays within our congregations. Many of us respond to these requests by attempting, therefore, to include the celebration of national holidays within our Christian Worship Services several times each year, often with mixed results that for the people whom we serve confuse rather than clarify the distinction between civil religion and ecclesial religion and between church and state.

We are qualified leaders in ecclesial religion, but not in civil (state) religion. The national level of religion is prominent and is mingled with ecclesial religion with less than desirable results in much of the Older Testament. The national level of religion became prominent and was mingled with Christianity also in the Church after Christianity became essentially the state religion of the Roman Empire and of many of the nation states that evolved out of remnants of it, but within the Newer Testament the national religion of the Roman Empire was the principal oppressor of the developing Church, torturing and killing many of its most prominent leaders.

Even the most appropriate of biblical texts, therefore, such as the four selected for our use on Thanksgiving Day in Series B, do not address our situations of religious pluralism within constitutional democracies such as we have in the United States and Canada. As a result, we most often observe national days of thanksgiving only minimally within our separate ecclesial structures. Our most significant celebrations are usually only in our individual homes enjoying expansive family dinners and watching football games on large TV screens. Rarely do we come together as a total community to express our thanks to God within a civil religion setting.

Thanksgiving to God for life, sustenance, health, and other blessings should be for us a constant activity every day of our lives. If as the people of a particular nation we wish to specify a particular day near the conclusion of an ecclesial year or of a secular year, or during a season of fresh fruits, vegetables, and grain harvests as a day of thanksgiving as the people of a nation, perhaps we should be led in such thanksgiving events not by religious leaders of particular ecclesial religions but by the elected or appointed leaders of the state and nation, from executive, legislative, and judicial levels of government. Then there would be the possibility that all of the people of our communities and nations might participate fully and freely in thanksgiving to God. In such a situation, leaders at the various levels of government should not function as members of a particular ecclesial religion, but should address God in the name of all of the people of the community, state, or nation. There are resources for doing this within the literature and national patriotic hymns of each nation, state, and community. With proper preparation national, state, and community leaders can do this well. They, rather than ecclesial ministers, pastors, priests, rabbis, imams, etc., should provide the leadership on such occasions, not only on national days of thanksgiving but also on other public occasions such as meetings of units of government, dedications, public athletic events, graduation ceremonies in public schools, etc. This would eliminate or at least alleviate many of the problems that we have over the issue of ecclesial prayers and of ecclesial worship activities within the public schools.

If, however, we do come together ecclesially within our various individual Christian communities or as groups of congregations planning ecclesial worship together on national days of thanksgiving, the texts selected here for us can be used, with some adaptations to our particular situations.

Joel 2:21-27

This text from the Joel traditions is very relevant in agricultural and ranching areas in which, after one or more “lean” years of drought and famine, during the current year the amounts of rainfall have been adequate and have come at the times when they were most needed. It is not an appropriate text to use during a year in which the grass is brown or the land has been flooded. It is also not directly relevant in situations in which the people are affluent and urban and buy most of their food and eat in restaurants supplied with fresh food purchased from world markets.

This text is a prime example of the limitations of using lectionaries prepared in advance to be used in specific occasions where it cannot be known years earlier what conditions will prevail when a text will be used. It would be helpful for those of us who use lectionaries if in situations such as this in which the purpose is to give thanks to God for a bountiful harvest this text could be one option among others so that we could choose the one that is most appropriate. During years of drought and economic recession, for example, we need to use texts in which we are encouraged to believe in God no matter how adverse the economy and how barren the crops may be. An alternate text from the same Joel tradition for use during “bad” years could be Joel 1:10-14; 2:12-17. If our texts and our worship of God based on our texts are relevant, people will be helped and will come. If our texts and our worship of God based on our texts are not relevant, people will not be helped and they will leave.

Psalm 126

The range of situations in which use of Psalm 126 is relevant is much broader than is the Joel 2:21-27 text considered above. Conditions described here are less specific than in the Joel texts. The people are reminded of what the Lord God has done for them in the past and they call upon God to bring joyful conditions to them again now.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

This text, while not entirely appropriate for use in a civil religion celebration of thanksgiving, is a good choice for use among Christians. Requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings to God should certainly be made on a national day of thanksgiving and on every other day as well. We should ask God to guide “kings” and others who are in prominent positions over us so that “we may live an undisturbed and quiet life in all godliness and holiness.” What the writer of 1 Timothy 2:1-7 urged followers of Jesus to do within the oppressive conditions imposed by the leaders in the Roman Empire can and should be done today. It should be supplemented for us who live within constitutional democracies with responsibilities to use our resources in Church and State to provide assistance in health care, education, and lifestyle for all who need such assistance in our land and throughout the world.

Matthew 6:25-33

After followers of Jesus are urged not to be unduly concerned about securing lavish food and clothing for themselves, the key verse is the “bottom line” in Matthew 6:33, “First, strive for letting God rule your lives and for doing what is the right thing in all of the relationships of your lives. Then all of these other things will be provided for you.” This verse sums it all up very well, on Thanksgiving Day and on every day!

John 18:33-37

We have in John 18:33-37 a combination of historical recollection that the Jesus of history had been tortured and crucified by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as a political leader, a potential “King of the Jews,” and consequently a potential threat to the Roman occupation of Galilee and Judea, and of theological reflection of the role of the Johannine Jesus within the Johannine community. In this text the Roman governor is depicted as confused and frustrated, but trying to be just and fair. The “Jews” are portrayed as the evil people and nation to whom Jesus was handed over and who in turn handed Jesus over to Pilate for condemnation and crucifixion. The Johannine writers and community have their Jesus admit finally that he had been born to be a king and that he had come as a king to testify to the truth, but that his kingdom was not derived from this world. The kingship and the kingdom of the Johannine Jesus are given to him by God, not through human earthly authority. The theological reflection and claims of the Johannine community take us far from the life of the Jesus of history.

As we celebrate Christ as the King next Sunday, it will be essential that we emphasize that having Jesus the Risen Christ as our king is as much or more our future hope than it is our present reality. We should also be aware that the Jesus of history would probably be uncomfortable with our Christ the King emphasis. The Jesus of history would most likely identify with the oppressed people of our time and die with them rather than identify with our Christ the King emphasis.

In the English language there are a variety of single syllable words such as “sing,” “cling,” “ring,” and “wing” that rhyme with “king.” This has made the use of the designation of Jesus Christ as king a favorite for writers of English language hymns, especially during the Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter seasons. It has often been observed that the hymns that we sing have as much or more impact on the thinking of many Christians than the actual biblical texts have. As a result of the rhyming of these word endings and our heavy use of these hymns, our Lord Jesus Christ is designated as king in our thinking within the English language far more frequently than Jesus is designated as “the King” in the Greek New Testament.

Revelation 1:4b-8

According to this text, oppressive people in all of the tribes of the earth (in the New Testament and especially in the book of Revelation this means within the Roman Empire) will wail and beat their breasts in grief because of the coming of Jesus the Christ in the clouds. However, by contrast, those who have remained faithful within the Johannine community are said to be loved by Jesus Christ, the Ruler over the kings of this world, i.e., over Caesar and his subordinates who rule in the provinces that Rome governs and from which it draws its economic resources. The Johannine Jesus with his divine power has freed those who have been cleansed of their sins by the blood of this Lamb of God and has provided for them a kingdom in which they will serve as priests of God, Christ’s Father. Here, as elsewhere in the Apocalypse, Jesus the Christ is said to be powerful but subordinate in power to the Lord God, the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty.

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

The attempts to interpret the symbolism inherent in the words “one like a son of man” in Daniel 7:13 are innumerable, but within the context of Daniel 7 it is most likely that the person who wrote this verse intended the words “son of man” to be a personification of the righteous people of Israel, the perfect image of the righteous people within Israel, Israel at its best, and hope for a fulfillment that will be experienced by Israel at some time in the future. All peoples, nations, and languages will some day serve this “son of man,” this righteous people so long oppressed, and by their service to this “son of man” they ultimately will serve the Lord God.

The interpretations given above, along with the concept of the “son of man” as the ideal messianic king, have remained for the most part the principal interpretations of the “son of man” symbol within Jewish use of this text. Christians, until recently becoming interested in a rediscovery of the original significance of the son of man image, have generally considered Daniel 7:13-14 to be a prediction of the visible return of Jesus to the earth as Christ the Triumphant King at the end of time. As we who are Christians serve Jesus as the Triumphant King, we also ultimately serve God. Jesus as the Christ, in this instance as Christ the King, has become for many Christians much of what Israel at its best has been for Jews. It is important for us to recognize this and to share these interpretations in the congregations within which we serve. If we do this, we can use Daniel 7:13-14 on Christ the King Sunday with an adequate awareness of what we are doing.

Psalm 93

The terminology of this psalm is obviously political, drawn from human experiences with kings, royal courts, and the exercise of political power. Many anthropomorphic terms are utilized in an effort to demonstrate that although from all appearances the world is ruled by the leaders of the great world powers who controlled the Ancient Near East, actually only the Lord God who transcends time and space in power and majesty is the King of the Universe who increasingly came to be addressed as such in Jewish prayers. We as Christians continue that practice, with some modifications caused by specifically Christian theological developments regarding Jesus as the Christ, as Christ the King, one with God perceived as Father and God perceived as Holy Spirit.

2 Samuel 23:1-7

This hymn of praise, presented in 2 Samuel 23:1 as the last words of David the king, represents poetically what David as king could and should have been and done.

Psalm 132:1-12 (13-18)

This psalm also depicts what David as king could and should have been and done rather than what David as king actually was and did. What we have here that is not in 2 Samuel 23:1-7 are the references to David as king desiring to build a house for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.

John 12:1-11

Monday of Holy Week is introduced with this account that is only in the Fourth Gospel, about an anointing of the feet of Jesus by Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus, whom Jesus, according to John 11:1-44, had resurrected from the dead. The account makes a major contribution to the plot of the Fourth Gospel, with Jesus speaking in support of what Mary was doing and in opposition to Judas Iscariot, who was complaining about the pouring of the expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus when the perfume could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. The statement of the Johannine Jesus that “you are always going to have poor people with you whom you can help, but you are not always going to have me” presents the greatest challenge for us even today. It raises fundamental questions about how the financial resources of a congregation should be allocated.

Hebrews 9:11-15

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews presents Jesus in a way that is very different from the ways in which Jesus is depicted elsewhere in our New Testament documents. Within each of the Four Gospels Jesus is opposed by the priests who manage the Temple under contracts purchased from the Romans; he is certainly not presented as the honored priest entering into the Holiest Place in the Temple to offer his own blood to God. This very different way in which Jesus was portrayed by the writer of this document was a major reason that the Epistle to the Hebrews was one of the last documents to be accepted into the New Testament canon.

Isaiah 42:1-9

By using this “Servant of the Lord” text, as it is designated by Christians, on the Monday of Holy Week, we are identifying the Servant of the Isaiah traditions with Jesus as we as Christians perceive him. That identification, of course, does not give ownership of the Servant concept to us as Christians. The Servant of the Lord still primarily belongs to the Jews, not to us as Christians. The statements in this text about God putting the Spirit of God upon the Servant in order that the Servant may establish justice on the earth in a sense unites Christians with Jews, since, when we are at our best, we as Christians, together with Jews, long for justice and work together to “repair” the world and to be righteous and just in all that we and Jews do.

Psalm 36:5-11

Here also, when we as Christians use this psalm, or any of the psalms, or any portion of the Older Testament for that matter, ideally we use these materials together with Jews, as devotional guides along with Jews, even during our so-called Holy Week. Although our experiences and our understandings of the intended meanings of the texts in the Older Testament are different from those of Jews, we must remember that these were Israelite and Jewish documents before we began to use them and that they remain basically Jewish documents today.

John 12:20-36

All except the final verses 34-36 of this text are used also on the Fifth Sunday in Lent and were commented upon above at that place. There we considered the two symbols that are used in this text to signify the death of the Johannine Jesus. His death is compared to the “death” of a kernel of grain, a change and germination that is necessary in order that new life will result. His death is also depicted in this text as a situation in which the Johannine Jesus is lifted up between the earth and the sky on a Roman cross.

On this occasion, let us look more closely at verse 25, a Johannine explication of the “death” and germination of a kernel of grain as a symbol of Jesus’ death on the cross. Most translations of verse 25 into English indicate that the Johannine Jesus here said that the person who loves the person’s own life loses it, but that the person who hates the person’s life here in this world will retain it eternally, expressing the form of the Greek verb miseo here with the word hates. In most instances of the use of forms of the Greek verb miseo in our literature, the English word hate is appropriate. Here and in Luke 14:26, however, there are better and more nuanced ways in which this Greek form should be expressed in the English language. It is not a good translation here in John 12:25 to say that a person should hate the person’s own life here. In the context of this verb in John 12:25, I suggest that the verse should be translated as I express it in my The New Testament: A New Translation and Redaction (Lima, OH: Fairway Press, 2001) as follows: “The person who selfishly wants to retain that person’s life is going to lose it, and the person who selflessly gives that person’s life to others in this world will actually retain it into life eternally.”

In the three verses (John 12:34-36) that are used here but not on the Fifth Sunday in Lent the Johannine depiction of Jesus as “the light” is used. The idea that the Johannine Jesus will not be physically present within the Johannine community much longer, as expressed more extensively in the “farewell discourses” in John 14-16, is included.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

In this text the Apostle Paul proclaims Christ crucified as the one whom God, through the resurrection of Jesus as the Christ, made the primary manifestation of the power of God and of the wisdom of God. The word of the cross (Christ crucified) makes us wise, makes us righteous, makes us holy, and redeems us from the power of sin. This is what God does, not what we do. Therefore, we should not boast about what we have done. We should boast about what God in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ does.

Isaiah 49:1-7

In verse 3 of this second of what we as Christians call the Servant Songs of the Isaiah tradition the Servant is identified as “Israel.” This identification was probably added to the text at some point after the initial composition and use of this text. It is difficult to see, however, how the Servant could be Israel when it is written in verse 5 that the Servant is commissioned by God to bring Jacob back to God, to gather Israel back to God and in verse 6 to bring back to life the tribes of Jacob, to restore those who will be preserved in Israel. Our Christian identification of the Servant with Jesus as the Christ does not work perfectly either, unless we make the followers of Jesus as the Christ to be the “New Israel.” When we do this, we should call ourselves at most “a new people of God,” rather than “the New Israel.” When we call ourselves “the New Israel,” we are being arrogantly supersessionistic.

Within the context of the Isaiah traditions, the Servant, and, farther along in the traditions as we have them, the Suffering Servant, should probably best be understood as a composition of poetic expressions by a variety of inspired Israelites of the ideal prophet, the ideal inspired person in that tradition. In that sense, the Servant or Suffering Servant concept can be used both by Jews and by us as Christians today, with neither group preempting the concept.

Psalm 71:1-14

The psalmist, during the “senior years” of the psalmist’s life, calls upon God to rescue the psalmist from those who are cruel and oppressive, from those who are showing no respect. The psalmist affirms that the psalmist has depended upon the Lord God ever since the Lord gave life to the psalmist when the psalmist was born.