Proper 15 | Ordinary Time 20, Cycle A
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.
Proper 13 | Ordinary Time 18, Cycle A
The proclamation of God’s free, abundant, loving grace is the dominant theme in these texts. Without it, life for us cannot exist.
Proper 12 | Ordinary Time 17, Cycle A
“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.
Proper 11 | Ordinary Time 16
An important connecting link among most of these texts is the emphasis on the qualities or attributes of God as these are perceived by the People of God through their experiences. These texts, therefore, are among the most theological of all texts in our biblical canon. God is perceived, however, always in relation to people, to the People of God who are in covenant relationships with God.
Proper 10 | Ordinary Time 15 | Pentecost 6
These texts are dominated by the theme of the good news of God’s deliverance of those who are suffering. In some instances, the good news is given liberally, just as God gives the rain and the snow from the skies and as the one who sows spreads the seed over good soil, among thorns and thistles, on rocky ground, and along the path. The Matthew 13 text suggests that at times the suffering of the People of God is so severe the good news from God must be disguised in parables of the coming of the kingdom and rule of God so the oppressors, even though they hear the good news of the coming of deliverance for the people whom they are oppressing, will not understand it. The People of God, however, will understand it, and even though they are suffering so greatly now they will believe and heed the good news from God and will be strengthened by it. In other instances, however, the suffering and the deliverance seem to be repeated in recurring cycles.
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