Proper 8 | Ordinary Time 13, Cycle A
We are called in these texts to lives of commitment to God and to service as People of God, to live and to serve in the world as members of a community of faith. There are no unrealistic promises in these texts that life within the community of faith will be easy. Instead, there is the expectation that there will be struggles and strife. The security for the People of God will be in their covenant relationship with God.
Genesis 22:1-14
The primary purpose of this troubling text is to depict in story form the transition for the earliest Israelites from a situation in which in some tragic instances of human sacrifices were made to a much better situation in which animal sacrifices were the norm. The primary purpose was not to indicate that God expected Abraham to be so obedient that he would kill his own, only, and most precious son Isaac in order to please God and to prove his obedience to God. The development of this text may have included factors such as the suggestion that Abraham had been elevating his son Isaac to a position higher than Abraham placed God and when we are totally obedient to the will of God, as Abraham was in this story, “God will provide.”
Although this story and the transition from human sacrifices to animal sacrifices may have been very reassuring to children who were told this story in ancient Israel, unless this story is carefully explained to young children in our culture, it is not appropriate for use today, especially for use as a reading within a public worship service. Children who may not appear to be listening may actually be listening to the story and may have horrible but unexpressible anxieties and even nightmares because of it. The more devout and seemingly obedient to the will of God the father of a child today in our culture may be, the more frightful this story will be to that child. Such a child will not be able to ask the child’s father, “If God tells you to kill me, are you going to kill me?”
Psalm 13
The struggles of the psalmist are intense. It is only within the covenantal relationship the psalmist has with God that the psalmist has hope for deliverance. On the basis of that covenantal relationship the psalmist can argue that the Lord should rescue the psalmist so the enemy of the psalmist may not rejoice.
Jeremiah 28:5-9
This portion of the section of the Jeremiah traditions describes the tension between the prophet Hananiah who predicted peace and restoration of the Southern Kingdom within two years after the surrender of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 597 BCE, and the prophet Jeremiah who could not predict peace and restoration but had to speak about war, famine, and pestilence takes us into a realistic appraisal of the situation in Jerusalem at that time. It takes us into a realistic appraisal of our own time and situation as well. Like the prophet Jeremiah, we cannot predict peace in our time. At the same time, we should work for peace and live in peace, insofar as peace may be possible within our present limitations.
Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18
These selections emphasize the hesed, pronounced as if it were spelled chesed (the steadfast love, mercy, grace, and loving kindness) of the Lord and the everlasting covenant of God with David and with the Davidic line. The intended interpretation for Christian usage is that the Lord, “the Holy One of Israel,” has renewed the Davidic covenant in a new way through Jesus and the Church.
Romans 6:12-23
Paul wanted the followers of Jesus to whom he wrote this document to consider themselves to be dead to sin through their association with Jesus and with Jesus’ death on the cross. Because of their baptism in the name of Jesus, they are in a relationship with their Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and alive to God. In this way Paul was urging them to avoid sin and to be fully committed to God in Christ and influenced in a most positive way by their new relationship with God and with each other in Jesus the Christ. This text, therefore, is a vital reminder to us of the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us and of the meaning of our own baptism and of the baptism of other people.
Matthew 10:40-42
This text expresses a mystical relationship between God, who has sent Jesus, Jesus as the Christ, followers of Jesus the Risen Christ, and those who will accept the message shared by followers of the Risen Christ. Followers of Jesus are urged to be merciful and helpful to everyone who is in need. Even the giving of a cup of cold water to those who are thirsty will be seen by the Lord and will be given approval by God.
