Proper 11 | Ordinary Time 16, Cycle B

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

These verses have preserved in summary fashion typical events and occurrences during the time when the Jesus of history was serving so well in meeting the needs of large numbers of his own Jewish people. In many ways he was like a shepherd for them, and that shepherd was later killed by the enemy (the Roman governor Pontius Pilate and the Roman occupational forces in Jerusalem). For us as Christians, that shepherd Jesus perceived as the Risen Christ lives as our Lord and Savior, one with God forever. When we gladly share Jesus the Risen Christ with persons and groups of people who are not with us and when we offer the joys and gifts of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” with them, many of them join with us in the Church, the “Body of Christ.”

Ephesians 2:11-22

In this text the writer was commenting on and celebrating the coming together during the previous decades of Jewish background followers of Jesus with the growing and by that time far larger number of non-Jewish background followers of Jesus. That trend and those demographics accelerated and continued after that time. After Jesus had been crucified by the Romans, when many followers of Jesus moved from their admiration of the Jesus of history to adulation, veneration, and deification of Jesus as the Risen Christ, very few Jews identified with the groups of followers of Jesus who proclaimed him as the Son of God, and even as God the Son.

Increasing numbers of people who were not of Jewish background, however, were attracted to and identified with various groups of followers of Jesus who perceived him as their Risen Christ and Lord, groups that offered a religion with an impressive Savior figure, hope for the physical resurrection and a glorious eternal life for each person, good ethical teachings, and no requirements of men having to be circumcised and of families having to follow Jewish dietary restrictions. New people continue to be added to the Church today when we offer these same benefits.

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

This text in which the promise of God to build a house, a dynasty of descendants of King David who will reign forever, was a source of reassurance for Israelites until the day when the city of Jerusalem and the temple in it were destroyed by the Babylonians. After that, this promise became problematic for Israelites and remained problematic for Jews for whom, obviously, there was no kingdom, no independent nation, and no throne with a descendant of David sitting on it.

Although there is no evidence that the Jesus of history had aspirations or ambitions or any desires of becoming a political ruler over a revived political nation Israel, some of the followers of Jesus, after they came to believe that Jesus who had been crucified by the Romans had become the Risen Christ their Lord, developed the idea that Jesus’ ancestry could be traced back to King David and that, as the Risen Christ, Jesus was now their king, the king over a “New Israel,” one of their favorite names for the Church. Even today, we as Christians, especially during our Advent and Christmas seasons, proclaim Jesus as the Son of David, our King, and we invite others to join with us in accepting and in proclaiming Jesus the Risen Christ as King.

Psalm 89:20-37

The psalmist poetically depicts in Psalm 89 the everlasting covenant that is presented in 2 Samuel 7:1-14a as having been made by God with David. The intention in this psalm is to remind God of that covenant and to urge God to deliver the king from his powerful enemies in accordance with that covenant.

How do we perceive the “New Covenant” that we believe that God through Jesus the Risen Christ has made with us? Do we think that because we have entered into the “New Covenant” with God as Christians we will always be successful in everything that we do? What promises with regard to this “New Covenant” to we make to potential new members of this “New Covenant”?

Jeremiah 23:1-6

The Jeremiah tradition in Jeremiah 23:1-6 expresses total dissatisfaction with the leadership of the Israelite kingdoms during the final years of Israel’s existence as a nation (just prior to 721 BCE) and the last few years of Judah’s national life (just prior to 586 BCE). The political and religious leaders of Israel and of Judah are blamed for the destruction of Samaria and of Jerusalem and for the scattering of the Israelite people.

The historical Jeremiah, whose life influenced the Jeremiah traditions, functioned as a “peripheral” prophet outside the royal court circles, but still within Jerusalem. Jeremiah was highly critical of the political and religious leadership in Jerusalem. Aware of the virtually complete annihilation of the people of the Northern Kingdom Israel who had fought against the mighty armies of the great world power Assyria, Jeremiah used every means at his disposal to try to prevent the Southern Kingdom Judah from forming an alliance with Egypt and rebelling against the military power of the Mesopotamian Babylonian Empire, the great world power of the time of Jeremiah. Apparently Jeremiah thought that if the Southern Kingdom would rely upon Egypt for military support and revolt against Babylonia, the Southern Kingdom would suffer the same fate that the Northern Kingdom had experienced a century and a half earlier, and the remaining inhabitants of Jerusalem would perish from the earth.

When the political leaders in Jerusalem did rebel against Babylonia, and when the city was destroyed and much of its population had been deported to Babylonia, and only a small remnant remained with an Israelite consciousness, partly in Babylonia, partly in decimated Judah, and partly in Egypt, Jeremiah and his disciples in Egypt and in Judah longed for the time to come when the Lord God would gather remnants of the people from these various places and bring them back to Jerusalem. They longed for the time when the Lord God would again cause them to be fruitful and to multiply under new political and religious leadership that would care for them so well that none of them would be missing. In Jeremiah 23:5-6 the tradition becomes even more specific, looking forward to the time when a descendant within the lineage of David would be raised up by the Lord God as a new shoot from the Davidic stump, a new branch on the Davidic family tree, one who would rule wisely and cause justice and righteousness to flourish within the land. This new king who was anticipated is even given a symbolic name, “The Lord is our righteousness,” in order to do everything that a prophetic tradition could do to cause this to occur.

What we see in this text is, of course, one of the many Messianic expectations through which the Israelites would express their hopes that the Lord God would act decisively to restore their nation to independence, peace, and prosperity. These texts do not refer specifically to Jesus, the Jewish religious and political figure of the 1st century of the common era who had no intention of encouraging military means to remove the Roman occupation forces from Galilee and Judea, even though he was crucified by order of the Roman governor in Jerusalem as a person who was giving hope for freedom from Roman rule to his fellow oppressed Jews.

Our Christian tradition as it developed claimed that Jesus was and is the Christ (Messiah) through whom God acted and acts to bring peace, justice, and righteousness not to the Jews as such but to the world. Our Christian tradition has every right to make this claim. With all due respect, however, we must observe that for us as Christian people, just as for the Jews who have survived with us to our time, the establishment of peace, justice, and righteousness is still a future hope. It is a future hope for which Jews, Christians, Muslims, in fact, for which all people of the world still wait. There are moments when we realize that we should work together and wait together, rising above our selfish interests and our cherished differences. For more on this subject, with special reference to the Middle East, see my book, Blessed to Be a Blessing to Each Other: Jews, Muslims, and Christians as Children of Abraham in the Middle East (Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, 2008).

Psalm 23

Within the context of this particular series of texts, we should probably understand Psalm 23 corporately rather than individually and read it together in our congregation next Sunday changing the singular pronouns “I,” “my,” and “me” to “we,” “our,” and “us.” Psalm 23 is a beautiful expression of our hope that someday the Lord God will provide for all of us (especially for all Jews, Christians, and Muslims, but not in any way limited to these three groups) perfect peace and security, that the Lord God will protect and feed all of us forever. The shepherd analogy continues to be unsurpassed even during this age of high technology.