Proper 16 | Ordinary Time 21, Cycle A

Sunday between August 21 and August 27 inclusive

Perhaps the factor that is most prominent in most of the six texts appointed for our consideration this coming weekend is the self-revelation of God and our human response to that self-revelation. It is in the Matthew 16:13-20 account that God is seen most clearly as revealing God’s self so that followers of Jesus may make the transition from their perception of Jesus as an amazing Jewish prophet and religious reformer to their perception of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God who lives eternally, and they respond to this self-revelation of God with their confession of faith and their praise to God.

Exodus 1:8–2:10
God is revealed in this text when the brave Israelite midwives are portrayed as risking their own lives by refusing to obey the command of the cruel Pharaoh to kill all of the baby boys who are born to Israelite women. God is revealed in this text when, by means of the ingenuity of the mother and sister of the baby Moses, God makes it possible for the baby Moses not only to survive but to be given the quality of education that only the most wealthy and most powerful Egyptians in that culture would receive. The human response to the self-revelation of God in this text is seen entirely in the bold initiatives of four women in this text: the two midwives, the mother of Moses, and the sister of Moses.

Psalm 124
It is said by the psalmist that had the Lord not revealed the Lord’s self when Israel was severely attacked by Israel’s enemies, Israel would have been swept away and would have ceased to exist. Israel’s response, as expressed by the psalmist, is to bless the Lord and acknowledge fully that the help for Israel comes only from the Lord.

Isaiah 51:1-6
As the Lord was revealed in bringing forth countless descendants of Abraham and of Sarah, the Lord will be revealed in bringing comfort, salvation, and prosperity to the renewed Israel after the exile. The response that is expected of Israel is to look up to accept and by faith to receive the salvation that the Lord provides.

Psalm 138
The glory of the Lord is revealed to all of the kings of the earth. It is to the lowly, however, to needy persons such as the psalmist that the Lord has the greatest regard! The only response that is adequate in view of the steadfast love and covenant faithfulness of the Lord is unconditional love and thanksgiving. The psalmist is grateful for the swiftness with which the Lord acts. “On the day that I called, you answered me!” No one can ask for more than that from God.

Romans 12:1-8
In response to God whom the Apostle Paul had depicted so eloquently in the Romans 11:33-36 text, Paul urged his readers to offer their total being as a living, consecrated, pleasing sacrifice to God. Each should respond with the unique, special gifts that God had given to that person. Each person should be transformed to discover that person’s gifts from God and respond by conforming to whatever is the will of God for that person, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Matthew 16:13-20
Within the most significant portion of the Matthean additions to the Mark 8:27-33 account, we see the Matthean redactors were making a strong claim for Peter. In their “You are Peter,” or, partly in Greek, “You are Petros, and upon this petra I shall build my Church… and I shall give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” we see that at the time of the Matthean redaction of the Markan material, for some of the “mainline” followers of Jesus within the Synoptic traditions Peter had become a primary symbol of their own authority in what they now chose to call in the singular “the Church.” They were making authority claims, in effect, for themselves, using the gospel genre vehicle the Markan writer had developed. In this way, they were able to put their own authority claims into the context of Jesus’ public and private ministry with “the Twelve.”

Careful analysis of the Four Gospel traditions indicates that the Jesus of history probably had far more than twelve close followers during his lifetime, and there were many women who were as close to him as followers as any of the men were. The concept of “the Twelve” with Peter as their principal spokesperson was largely developed later within the Synoptic communities, in part because Peter was remembered as being quick to speak and quick to act and in part out of a desire to have a group of twelve male leaders to be comparable to the twelve sons of Jacob for the “new Israel” they were formulating.

Because of our growing awareness of the ways in which the communities of early followers of Jesus who developed and used the Synoptic Gospels and those who developed and used the Fourth Gospel established their own authority claims by lifting Peter and the “Beloved Disciple” respectively to the highest authority positions, perhaps it would be helpful for us to acknowledge this coming weekend that it is not Peter with his “keys to the kingdom of heaven,” but it is Jesus Christ who is “The Church’s One Foundation.” Perhaps with these texts we shall use this weekend, we should sing with the hymn writer Samuel Wesley that “The Church’s One Foundation Is Jesus Christ Her Lord,” with the Welsh folk song “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise,” and with the Swede Carl Boberg “How Great Thou Art!” and put less emphasis on Peter and “the Keys.” Jesus as the Christ and not Peter is the Church’s One Foundation, and it is the Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise to whom we sing How Great Thou Art! It would be appropriate this weekend to share some awareness with the members of the congregations in which we serve of the process by which the biblical accounts were formulated; that it was a process not unlike our own teaching and preaching preparation process, and then boldly proclaim Jesus Christ as the Church’s One Foundation and acclaim the greatness of God.

Sunday between August 14 and August 20 inclusive

The emphasis in these texts is on reconciliation of those who had been estranged in the Genesis 45:1-15 and Psalm 133 texts and on openness to people of other groups outside one’s own in the other texts. In these texts there is no missionary command to go out and bring outsiders into one’s community of faith. Instead, these texts urge us to be open to outsiders, to receive and to welcome them into our fellowship of faith. We are told they will come and we are expected to accept them into the religious community that we ourselves by the grace of God enjoy. That is all that is asked in these texts, and it is asked of us.

Genesis 45:1-15
This is perhaps the greatest text of reconciliation that we have in our biblical accounts. After a series of tests of his brothers to determine whether his brothers had changed and improved their moral character since the day in which they had sold him into slavery, Joseph within this highly charged emotional scene, the climax of the Joseph story, reveals his identity as the brother whom they had assumed they would never see again. As developed and presented in this Joseph story, with the power Joseph had gained in Egypt, Joseph could easily have enslaved, tortured, and executed his brothers who had sold him into slavery. Instead, he forgives them and is gracious and kind to them. We are amazed at his total lack of vengeance and intrigued that the storyteller presents Joseph as risking the possibility during the series of tests imposed by Joseph on his brothers’ character, Joseph’s father would die and Joseph would not be able to be reunited with his father. As the story is presented, Joseph himself receives great benefits of joy and satisfaction by revealing his identity to his brothers and forgiving them. There is a message in the story that demonstrates when we are gracious enough to forgive and be reconciled, we ourselves receive wondrous benefits we would never have if we had instead acted vengefully.

Psalm 133
When used with Genesis 45:1-15, as it is here in this lectionary, Psalm 133 is a celebration of the happiness that results when brothers within a family or in a community live together amicably. Instances of sibling rivalry and dissension in our society most often involve, as in the Joseph story, jealousy as result of favoritism, real or imagined, shown by parents of one child over that of their other children, or dissatisfaction over the distribution of the parents’ assets after the death of the parents.

Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
According to this text, it is the Lord who does the gathering of outsiders into the community of the Lord. It is said that people who have not previously participated in the Israelite community of faith will come to it. Their offerings and their sacrifices are to be accepted. The house of the Lord is to become and be called a house of prayer for people of all nations. All that is asked of those who are among the People of God is that they be just and righteous in their relationships with each other and with the new people who come into the community of faith.

Is the situation any different for us today? Does not God still do the gathering? Do not the new people still continue to come? Is anything more asked of us than we be just and righteous in our relationships with each other and with the new people who come to us? We and the other People of God in the Church would certainly grow in faith and in grace if we would only consistently be just and righteous in our relationships with each other and with the new people who come to join with us. Why should God bring new people to be joined with us if we are not just and righteous in our relationships with each other and with them?

Psalm 67
As in the Isaiah 56 text, the dispersion of the Israelites and of the religion of the Israelites is highlighted in Psalm 67. In both texts, the perceptions of God by the Israelites are expanded from the earlier tribal and national forms of the God of the family of Abraham and the God of Israel to perceptions of the Lord God as the God of all nations, the “King of the Universe.” Throughout the transition to expanded perceptions of God, the belief was retained that God continues to provide material and spiritual blessings for the Israelite people.

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
One of Paul’s primary concerns in his letter to the Romans was the bringing together of followers of Jesus who were of Jewish background with followers of Jesus who were of other than Jewish background into common, shared fellowship in the house church situation there. In the first section of his letter to the Romans, Paul asserted forcefully that all people in both groups are guilty of sin and deserve God’s wrath. All deserve death. Paul made it clear to those to whom he wrote this letter that it is only by the undeserved grace of God that anyone is rescued from sin, condemnation, and eternal death. According to Paul, however, anyone who accepts the grace of God through faith in what God does, particularly through what God does in Christ Jesus, can be saved from sin and death and receive the freely given blessing of eternal life with God.

Within the segments of Paul’s letter that have been selected for reading on this coming weekend, Paul is addressing non-Jewish background followers of Jesus and talking about Jews. In a portion of chapter 11 that is not included in this reading (verses 17-28), Paul used his olive tree analogy to show that Jews as God’s Chosen People have precedence over non-Jewish background followers of Jesus and Jews continue to have life and vitality even after the beginnings of what is becoming the Christian faith. Paul clearly stated his opinion in Romans 11 that Jews continue to have life and vitality even when they do not accept the message Paul proclaimed. In Romans 11 Paul wrote with conviction that ultimately God would show mercy to the Jews who rejected Paul’s message as well as to the followers of Jesus with either Jewish or non-Jewish backgrounds who accepted Paul’s message of the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ. For the pioneering exposition of this, see Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), pp. 3-5, 78-96.

It is obvious that Paul did not refrain from being negatively critical of his own Jewish people or of anyone else, but Paul was not viciously anti-Jewish when he wrote the documents that are included in our Newer Testament. (The viciously anti-Jewish condemnation in 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 is an interpolation by a latter editor of Paul’s letters. It is comparable to the condemnation of all Jews in Acts of Apostles in the speeches written for the characters Peter, Stephen, and Paul in that vivid literary drama composed by the Lukan playwright more than thirty years after Paul’s death.)

Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Careful attention to the context of this account in Mark and in Matthew indicates this is one within a series of texts in which there are eating and drinking, table fellowship of Jesus with “sinners,” and Eucharistic considerations. This text reveals something very significant, therefore, about the difficulties with which many early Jewish background followers of Jesus accepted non-Jewish background followers of Jesus into their table fellowship. The account is much more than merely the report of an incident that occurred one day during the public ministry of the Jesus of history. The account tells us much about the experiences of early followers of Jesus as they moved from Galilee and Judea into the southern Syrian regions of Tyre and Sidon. It tells us that they found people there who had faith, strong faith, who received the message about Jesus and were receptive to it. It tells us about how followers of Jesus reluctantly at first and then fully accepted people such as the Syrophoenician woman of this text into their table fellowship in Jesus’ name. It tells us something about how rude these followers of Jesus were at first to non-Jews. Instead of speaking directly about their feelings and experiences as Paul did in his letters, they told this story within their ministry of Jesus Gospels.

Of course the Jesus of history may have done everything included in this text. The Jesus of history may have been rude to a Syrophoenician woman in her hour of great need, but would not the Jesus of history have been quite inconsistent had he actually treated a greatly distressed woman in that manner? We can, of course, come up with some kind of reason or rationalization in an attempt to explain or to excuse Jesus’ rude behavior here because we cannot believe Jesus would ever have been so rude. More likely, however, this account does not have its origin and life setting in the life of the Jesus of history. Along with a significant number of other texts that we read in the Four Gospels, this text probably has its origin and life setting in the experiences of followers of Jesus during the first few decades after the Romans had crucified the Jesus of history. It probably had its origin and life setting within the experiences of pre-Markan followers of Jesus as they encountered new situations outside of Jewish areas.

For us as we prepare to proclaim the message of this text this coming weekend, this Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28 account offers valuable insight into some of the adaptation struggles of the early developing Church. It also provides guidance for us as non-Christian background people come to us and to the congregations in which we serve.

Sunday between August 7 and August 13 inclusive

It is difficult to identify a unifying factor within the six texts selected for this week. Perhaps the best we can do will be to note that in several of these texts the human condition is characterized by anxiety and fear. In these situations of human anxiety and fear God asserts God’s self in a variety of ways, most notably in a still, small voice commanding Elijah to become even more involved than before in the political situation of his time and in God’s marvelous power and peace revealed through Jesus.

When we look objectively at the human condition today, we see that the human condition is characterized by anxiety and fear and in these situations we believe God continues to assert God’s self in a variety of ways. Perhaps when we have described the situations of anxiety and fear within the Genesis 37, 1 Kings 19, and Matthew 14 accounts, we could enter more fully into the situations depicted in these texts by sharing a few illustrations of how we personally and we as a community of faith have been and are anxious and fearful within our own situations. This should be followed by our proclamation of how we believe God asserts God’s self in our situations. Members of the congregation should be given the opportunity during the “shared” portion of the sermon or homily to participate more fully by describing how they are anxious and fearful and how they believe God asserts God’s self in their lives. No one should be pressured to share openly in this way, but in every congregation, especially in relatively small congregations, there are a few persons who are willing, perhaps even eager, to share their experiences, their perceptions, and their faith.

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
In these selections from the introductory portions of the Joseph story, we see the situations of anxiety and fear in this thoroughly dysfunctional megafamily were caused by jealousy and hatred among the brothers that were results of the favoritism openly shown to Joseph by the father they all shared and by the repeated displays of the arrogance of the young lad Joseph. The crude treatment of Joseph by the brothers as they threatened to kill Joseph and then settled for the lesser crime of selling Joseph into slavery certainly resulted in anxiety and fear in Joseph, and beyond these segments of the story, in anxiety and grave distress in the life of Jacob, the father of all of these brothers. (Since only these brief selections of the introductory portions of the Joseph story and on the following week only a few verses of the dramatic climax of the Joseph story will be read within the worship services, it would be appropriate to urge the members of the worshiping congregation to read the entire Joseph story in their homes and within their families during the time between this coming weekend and the next in order to familiarize or refamiliarize themselves with the Joseph story.)

Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b
The anxiety and fear the people to whom this psalm is addressed once had as wandering sheep and goat herders without a nation and subjected to drought and famine are remembered as they are called upon to worship the Lord God of Israel. They are reminded of the intense anxiety and fear Joseph suffered when he had been sold into slavery and had been restrained by iron shackles on his feet and neck. Now, however, these thoughts of anxiety and fear no longer restrain them as they praise and acclaim the Lord God for the mighty acts of deliverance of Joseph and of their people that have resulted in the formation of their nation Israel.

1 Kings 19:9-18
Since this text is only a small segment of the extensive Elijah and Elisha traditions, it would be helpful to us in our preparation for this weekend to read again the entire collection of Elijah and Elisha traditions in 1 Kings 17–2 Kings 10, or at least 1 Kings 17:1–19:8 that precedes this text and to supply for the congregation a brief summary of 1 Kings 17:1–19:8 before this text is read within our worship service. In this summary there should be an explanation that it was because of the tyrannical power of the Sidonian Baal-worshiping Queen Jezebel and her secret police that the people of the Northern Kingdom had forsaken their covenant with the Lord God of Israel, had broken down the altars dedicated to the Lord, had killed many of the prophets of the Lord, and for self-preservation had become devotees of the Baal of Jezebel. The problem was political. Very few of the Israelite people at that time had been willing to risk their lives and the lives of their children by opposing Queen Jezebel. Even Elijah had become very anxious and fearful and had fled from the wrath of the queen. This should be explained to our people, because in several of our Newer Testament accounts, especially in Acts (as in the speech of Stephen in Acts 7:52) the Jews are viciously accused of killing their own prophets and no recognition is given of the political factors involved in the situations depicted in the Older Testament texts. Blaming all Jews for what some of them had done when forced to do so by the wicked Queen Jezebel is comparable to condemning all German people of all times for the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by the Nazis in 1945. This 1 Kings 19 text emphasizes that a small group had remained, the 7,000 Israelites who had continued to be faithful to the Lord God of Israel in spite of the severe oppression. It is stated in 1 Kings 19 that Elijah should be assured that the Lord God would continue to work among the oppressed. This message should be applied also today. We believe that God continues to work among the oppressed in our time and not all people whom we may consider to be evil actually are evil.

Psalm 85:8-13
The entire psalm and not merely these final six verses should be read. When only these final six verses are read, it is as if we would skip the first two of four stanzas of a well-constructed Christian hymn. The message of this psalm is future-directed. It is a message of hope for the future, for the immediate future. Its message of hope can of course be directed into the distant future also, into our time and beyond our time.

Romans 10:5-15
Here as elsewhere in his seven basic letters, the Apostle Paul urges his readers not to be anxious and fearful but to believe that Jesus as the Risen Christ is Lord. Paul shares in this text his confidence that whoever believes this about Jesus as the Risen Christ and believes what God does in Jesus as the Risen Christ will be saved from the wrath and condemnation of God for that person’s sins.

Matthew 14:22-33
This highly symbolical account has parallels in Mark 6:45-52 and in John 6:16-21, but not in Luke. This account and its parallel accounts demonstrate the power of God in portraying Jesus walking on the sea. Since the sea is a biblical symbol of anxiety and fear, when it is proclaimed in these accounts that Jesus can walk safely and easily over the surface of the sea, they are proclaiming that Jesus can overcome all of the anxiety and fear in us. When Jesus enters the boat of his disciples (the boat being a symbol for the place that is safe for the followers of Jesus whenever Jesus is with them in it), all is calm and well.

We should, of course, put our emphasis on the symbolism and on the symbolic meaning of the account of this miracle, not on the mechanics of the event. It is better for us to visualize this miracle story for ourselves than to rely on TV and movie representations of some actor portraying Jesus and walking on a plank that has been placed just under the surface of the water, with the plank barely visible because of the angles of placement of the film maker’s cameras. Only Matthew within the three accounts of this miracle story has Peter also walking on the water, with the symbolism associated with Peter that is peculiar to Matthew. We should also note the Matthean redactors changed the reaction of the disciples from Markan bewilderment to Matthean worship.

The proclamation of God’s free, abundant, loving grace is the dominant theme in these texts. Without it, life for us cannot exist.

Genesis 32:22-31
Jacob, afraid to see his brother Esau who was coming to meet him with 400 men and vulnerable because of Jacob’s unprotected family and large herds of cattle, instead during the night sees God face-to-face and “wrestles” with God. By the free, abundant, loving grace of God, instead of being killed Jacob’s life is spared from the wrath of God and of his brother, his name is changed to Israel, and he is blessed by God. For Israelites and Jews, Jacob represents them and the free, abundant, and loving grace of God bestowed upon them. The free, abundant, and loving grace of God we as Christians receive is not a replacement for the grace of God bestowed upon the Jews, but a continuation of it.

Psalm 17:1-7, 15
Along with the psalmist and the Israelites and Jews represented by this psalmist, we as Christians also call upon God to hear our prayer during the night, to show for us also, along with the Israelites, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and all others who ask for it, the free, abundant, loving grace that comes from God alone. Along with them, in the morning we behold the face of God and live.

Isaiah 55:1-5
The gospel of God’s free, abundant, loving grace is clearly expressed in this climactic portion of the Isaiah traditions. Water, grain, wine, milk, life itself — all are freely, graciously supplied by the Lord! The good news for the poor and oppressed is there is absolutely no cost, either for those who have no money or for those who have resources of their own. Not only this, but in this text we are promised an everlasting covenant of blessings, acclamation by people from foreign nations, honor, and glory.

Hopes were high and perceptions of God’s grace were clear when this good news was proclaimed at the time of the end of the exile of the Israelite leaders in Babylon. Throughout the ensuing ages, during times of high hopes and times of little or no hope, this message has been proclaimed within the Israelite, Jewish, and Christian traditions. It will continue to be proclaimed by us this coming weekend.

We can hardly read this message or hear it without comment. We must ask the question: Is God’s loving grace still free and abundant today? Does it still include clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself? Or is nothing, including God’s loving grace, free any longer?

We note that within this text there is no human sacrifice of God’s Son as atonement for sins, no ransom, no payment at all! There is only the invitation from God, the invitation to come and to receive.

Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Here also the proclamation of God’s free, abundant, and loving grace is loud and clear. In this beautiful confessional statement repeated with variations many places in the Israelite Scriptures it is said that the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and filled with kindness. The hand of the Lord is open in providing what is needed for every living thing. This emphasis on the compassion of the Lord makes this an excellent psalm selection to be used with Isaiah 55:1-5.

Romans 9:1-5
These few verses introduce the very significant Romans 9-11 section of Paul’s letter to followers of Jesus in Rome in which Paul most fully writes about his feelings regarding his own people, the Jews who remain Jews. It is unfortunate that only a few bits and pieces of Romans 9-11 are read during this Series A sequence. These few verses in no way do justice to Paul’s expression of his feelings about his own people, the Jews, in Romans 9-11. We should share with our congregations the fact that Paul was a follower of Jesus of Jewish background and that Paul continued throughout the time that Paul wrote the letters later accepted into the Newer Testament canon to have strong positive feelings about the Jews. Our analysis of Paul’s letters indicates most of Paul’s problems were not with Jews who remained Jews but with legalistically minded followers of Jesus who opposed him and with “spirit-filled” followers of Jesus who claimed superiority over all other followers of Jesus, some of whom were of Jewish background just as Paul was. A different scenario is presented in Acts of Apostles, but Paul did not write Acts of Apostles.

Although the Apostle Paul was deeply concerned when he wrote this portion of his letter to the followers of Jesus in Rome that most of his own people, the Jews, had not accepted the message that God acts to provide salvation for followers of Jesus by means of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the Risen Christ, the Son of God, Paul was thankful to God for the Israelites and for the Jews. They remain, in Paul’s understanding, God’s special children, to whom, he wrote, the glory of God has been given, the covenants with God made, the Torah and the worship of God and the promises had been given, and from whom had come Jesus the Christ. For all of this, Paul wrote, God who is God over all is to be praised and blessed forever!

Matthew 14:13-21
This account about the amazing feeding of the 5,000 men, plus their families, included with relatively minor variations in all Four Gospels, indicates that within both the Synoptic and Johannine traditions it was proclaimed that in what Jesus had done God’s power to heal and to provide food was fully operative. Jesus is said to have provided the multiplication of the loaves and of the fish and to have provided food for the hungry abundantly. Twelve baskets full of fragments remained in “take home” containers after all had been filled. This is a miracle story, and it certainly should be proclaimed as a miracle story by us. As with Isaiah 55, God’s loving grace, free and abundant, including loaves and fish, healing and life, should be proclaimed as free and abundant here.

Perhaps we should ask once more: Is God’s loving grace still free and abundant today? Does it still include clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself? Or is nothing, including God’s grace, free any longer?

The biblical accounts, our own experiences, and God’s continuing revelations to us all indicate that the loving grace of God is still free and abundant and always will be. The problem, of course, is that the product (God’s loving grace) is indeed freely supplied by God for us, but our delivery of the product is not without some expense. (We recall that the Apostle Paul tried to deliver it at no cost to the Corinthians.) We must face the problems caused by the increasing costs of delivery of the gospel openly and honestly within our congregations, and we should exercise careful control over these delivery costs. Much more important, however, we should remember and boldly proclaim that God’s loving grace is free. Then we should work to provide the clear water, grain, wine, and milk as well in God’s name, as Paul did and as Jesus had done.

“Wisdom from God” is a significant motif in many of the texts selected for this coming weekend. As a result of scholarly biblical studies during the past few decades, the importance of the wisdom from God concept in the biblical texts is increasingly being recognized.

Genesis 29:15-28
Jacob is frequently portrayed within the patriarchal traditions as a sly, tricky man, but somewhat surprisingly perhaps to many of us Jacob’s cleverness seems often to be used by God to accomplish God’s purposes. In this particular text, Laban, the uncle of Jacob, is as tricky as Jacob, and possibly even more, since Laban maneuvered Jacob into working for Laban for fourteen years with neither wages nor salary, and also managed to obtain twelve grandsons through Jacob and Laban’s two daughters and their two maid servants. God’s purposes were accomplished even through the duplicity of Jacob and Laban, and that duplicity continues as the story progresses beyond this text. The wisdom of God and the wisdom from God fascinates and amazes us.

Psalm 105:1-11, 45b
In this impressive community hymn of praise, the worshiping congregation is called upon to give thanks to “the Lord our God” for the covenant relationship the people have with the Lord and for all of the wonderful acts of God in behalf of the Israelite people. The mighty acts of the Lord God and the wise judgments of the Lord God are singled out for special attention. Even though the Israelites have been the prime beneficiaries of the Lord’s wisdom, according to this psalm all of the people within the entire inhabited world have become aware of the wisdom of the Lord. What do we have within our specifically Christian Scriptures that is comparable to this?

Psalm 128
The person who fears the Lord and lives in accordance with the will of the Lord is wise and blessed. Such a person will be prosperous and surrounded by a happy spouse and children. Responding to the wisdom of God, this person will see the prosperity of the holy city Jerusalem.

1 Kings 3:5-12
The “Wisdom from God” theme comes to us most strikingly in this story about Solomon’s dream. Not only does this story demonstrate that wisdom originates with God; it also provides a theological reason for the identification of the name of Solomon with wise judgments and with wisdom literature. We are told by means of this dream story that wisdom is a gift from God and that wisdom is an attribute of God.

Since it is stated in 1 Kings 3:12 that the Lord will give to Solomon a heart so wise and understanding that there will never again be anyone to equal him, it was necessary for followers of Jesus to proclaim that Jesus as the Risen Christ is greater than Solomon. Therefore, they claimed as we see in Matthew 12:42 and in Luke 11:31 that where Jesus is “something greater than Solomon” is present. Early leaders within our developing Christian tradition in this way precluded any possibility of having Jesus subordinate to Solomon in wisdom through their deification of Jesus as the Risen Christ as our Lord and Savior, God the Son. For us as Christians, therefore, the wisdom of God has been manifested most fully in Jesus the Risen Christ, superseding for us the wisdom granted to Solomon in this 1 Kings 3:5-12 dream of Solomon story.

Psalm 119:129-136
Verses 129-130 of this entire extensive Psalm 119 provide for us an epitome of the “Wisdom from God” motif for this weekend. Certainly the decrees of the Lord are wonderful. The revelation of the words of the Lord sheds light, “giving understanding to the simple,” as this is expressed in The New American Bible.

Romans 8:26-39
According to the Apostle Paul in this text, God “has known” and “knows more” than any of us the elements of God’s gracious plan of salvation. Whatever we can know is revealed by God. God is the source of our knowledge. God knows what is in our minds. It is enough for us to recognize and to believe that in every way God works things out for the good of those who love God. More than that we do not need, since whatever wisdom we have is from God, and we are called by God, we are known by God, we are set apart by God, we are declared to be righteous by God, and we are glorified by God.

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
The emphasis in the two parables in verses 31-33 is on how the almost invisible beginnings of the rule by only the Lord God in Galilee and Judea is similar to the tiny, almost unseen mustard seed in the soil of a garden that grows into a huge bush and to the invisible yeast in the bread dough that multiplies and spreads throughout the large quantity of the bread dough.

The language of the first two of the three parables in verses 44-50 (the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great value) is characteristic of wisdom literature, where wisdom from God is described as a hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:4, 8:18-21; Isaiah 33:6) and as a pearl, jewels, rubies, precious stones, and so on. (Proverbs 3:14-15, 8:11; Job 28:17-18). In addition, the Matthean Jesus asks his disciples, “Have you understood all of this?” and they answer, “Yes.” A few verses earlier, in Matthew 13:18, it is stated that it is imperative the wisdom from God be received and understood by Jesus’ disciples. According to the parables in Matthew 13:44-50, therefore, it is essential that those who would follow Jesus receive and understand this wisdom from God that God’s kingdom, God’s rule, and letting God direct our lives will bring to us great joy, this is the most valuable treasure that we may have, and there will be a separation between the good and the worthless on the day of judgment.

All three of these parables in verses 44-50 are present only within Matthew in the Newer Testament. All three of them, however, occur in slightly different forms in the Gospel of Thomas, not as a group, as in Matthew, but in three separate places in a sequence that is inverse to that in Matthew (Gospel of Thomas 109, 76, and 8 respectively). In the Gospel of Thomas 109 a son sells a field that he has inherited without realizing his father had hidden a great treasure in it for him. This form of the parable is consistent with gnostic thought. The father (God) provides the treasure, but only the son who has knowledge (gnosis) can be aware of the treasure. In the Gospel of Thomas 76 a merchant sells his entire wagonload of goods in order to be able to acquire the precious pearl. In gnostic terms, he is wise, for he divests himself of all material things in order to be able to acquire the spiritual gem. In the Gospel of Thomas 8 the fisherman throws away all of the small fish and keeps only a single large fish. If we use these parables as the primary biblical basis for our message this coming weekend, we should emphasize that letting God (rather than Caesar or other material things) motivate us and direct our lives will bring us great joy. We should not engage in gnostic-type speculation that the hidden spiritual spark (treasure) is available only to those who are spiritual and possess spiritual gifts.