Lectionary Notes

Some Comments on the Readings for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Proper 4, Year B
1 February, AD 2009

The Sentence for today, like the Gospel passage, is a summary of the Lord’s ministry in Galilee. This doesn't give us such an easily caught theme as we have had in past weeks. In the Gospel reading itself we are prompted to consider the authority of Jesus.
Today and for the next two Sundays the Gospel readings are taken from the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, verses 21-45. The events described in these verses all take place in a single day in Capernaum, a town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee which is the centre of activity in Jesus’ Galilean ministry. It is not necessary to imagine that these events all happened on the same day in history: the passage is probably best seen as an ideal day in the ministry of Jesus, which contains examples of his activities: teaching, healing, praying, and the like (D. E. Nineham, St Mark, The Pelican New Testament Commentaries).
No connection with the immediately preceding passage (the call of the first disciples) is noted in the text, but at least one night must have intervened, since it is now a Sabbath, and when Jesus called them the disciples were fishing and mending nets, which they would not have been doing on the Sabbath.
Twice in the passage the crowd marvel at Jesus because of his authority. We catch what it means to say that he taught with authority in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), where he contrasts “you have heard it said” with “but I say to you”. In this passage it has been explained that, unlike the scribes, Jesus spoke without citing various spiritual authorities in support of his teaching. Later the same crowd marvels because Jesus casts out a demon with a word, appparently without the solemn palaver usually associated with professional exorcists.
The question of how we are to understand the affliction which St Mark describes as being with “an unclean spirit” is one we cannot deal with here, but must refer to commentaries and studies of the Gospels. Of more immediate importance is to ask ourselves how we experience Jesus’ authority in our own lives, and what we do about it.
It is noteable that the demon names Jesus and cries “I know who you are, the Holy One of God!’ This reflects the belief that knowing someone’s name gave power over that person. “Jesus needs no counter-magic; it is nothing less than the power of God which works in him and a mere word from him will suffice” [Nineham, 75].

The First Reading
One of the reactions to Jesus' authority was to say “he is the prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14). This idea was based on this morning’s first reading, Deuteronomy 18:15-20. In vv 9-14 the Israelites had been forbidden to look for the aid of foreign gods, or resort to pagan divination, for the Lord will raise up a prophetic spokesman to reveal his will. This prophet will be like Moses, who was regarded as the fount of prophecy and the type of a true prophet (see Exodus 34:10-11). Although the text speaks of ‘a prophet ‘ the traditional nderstanding is that this means a line of prophets. So in the mediaeval commentary of Rashi we read “This means: Just as I am among you, from your brothers, so will He set up for you [another prophet] in my stead, and so on, from prophet to prophet.” However there is also a tradition that God would raise up a prophet in the future to herald the Day of the Lord. This tradition is found in the scriptures of the New Testament, particularly in John 1. 21 and 6:14, and Acts 3:22-23 (Peter’s sermon in the Temple) and 7:37 (Stephen’s defence).

The Epistle
In 1 Corinthians chapter 8. St Paul addresses a question from the Corintian congregation about eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. The religions of the Greek and Roman world involved the regular sacrifice of animals. Only a portion of the meat was burnt; the rest was divided between the priests and the worshipper who had offered the victim. Often there was a feast in the temple, and often the priests’ portion was offered for sale. The problem for the new Christians at Corinth was whether eating in the feast or buying the sacrificial meat involved one in the worship of pagan gods. Opinion seems to have differed: some of the community felt that it was wrong to take part, while others argued that they were prefectly free to eat, since the idols were not real gods.
It is hard for us in Canada to understand the pressures that this question placed on Christians in the pagan world but Christians in other countries face serious questions about living in a culture based on different religious principles. An example is the question of the custom in many east Asian cultures referred to as “Ancestor worship”. [The word ‘worship’ seems problematic: In principle “worship” may be offered only to God. This is why some Christian traditions make clear distinctions between “worship,” “veneration,” and “reverence”. I have no idea what distinctions exist in other languages!] There is a large literature on this subject. Just a sample of what turns up in a web search is
http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/china/addison_ancestor1925/04.html;
http://exposingchineseancestorworship.blogspot.com/ ;
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Ancestor-worship ;
http://www.eupjournals.com/doi/abs/10.3366/swc.2003.9.1.60 .
In reading this passage, we should ask ourselves: Is anything in our society like this question of taking part in pagan worship in our society?
St Paul’s answer to the Corinthians is that what is important is not the individual’s knowledge that the idols are not real, but their concern for their fellow Christians. The basic principle is like that found in the question of sexual morality in the epistle a couple of weeks ago: the boundary of a Christian’s freedom is set by personal relationships with Christ as Lord and our fellow Christians as fellow members in him. It is here that Paul gives the rule of concern for “the weaker brother” (see also Romans 14.13—15:6).
The only comment I will offer on this principle here is the response King James I made when one of the puritan ministers at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604 argued that the newly baptized should not be signed with the sign of the Cross, holding that it was an offence against the conscience of the weak Brethren. The King replied first with a tag (apparently from St Augustine) Distingue tempora, & concordabunt Scripturae, distinguish the times and the Scriptures will agree, pointing out the difference between between the Apostle’s time and ours: then the Church was “newly called from paganism and not thoroughly grounded”; this is not the case now “seeing that Heathenish doctrine, for many years, hath been hence abandoned.” His second point was to ask, “how long they would be weak? whether 45 years were not sufficient for them to grow strong?” [William Barlow, The Summe and Substance of the Conference (1604), pp. 65-66]. But again, one should refer to the commentaries.

Lectionary Notes

Some Thoughts on the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
24 August 2008
Proper 21, Year A

The Sentence, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, chosen from the Gospel, gives the theme for the day.

The Collect is an adaptation of the collect in the Book of Common Prayer for Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday:

O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: send thy Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee, Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake.

This Collect was originally composed for the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549 in place of the ancient Collect, which had a special reference to the practice of confession on Shrove Tuesday. It is based on the Epistle reading for that Sunday in the BCP, 1 Corinthians 13.1-13.
The changes in the new collect prompt a few questions for which there are no definite answers. What is the difference between saying that “God has taught us“ and that “we are taught by God’s word”? Is the omission of the final clause of the original prayer (“without which ….”) a substantial change? If so, does it strenghten or weaken the prayer. Note the changes meant to use contemporary idiom: the change of ‘very’ to “true” makes sense, since the origin of “very” is largely forgotten. The change of “nothing worth” to “worth nothing” strikes me as less happy. because it affects the rhythm of the words.

The First Reading: Exodus 1.8-2-10. Here we have the beginning of the story of the Exodus; which we wil be following in highlights in the first readings for the next few weeks. In the first part we hear of the oppression of the Israelites under a new Pharaoh, who from fear attempts to crush them by forced labour. Despite this, they multiply and grow, and Pharaoh turns to a truly wicked scheme, the annihilation of all male children of the Hebrews. Through the honesty and virtue of the two widwives, this plan is foiled. (Pharaoh is foolish as well as wicked: by killing the male children, he is destroying his slave labour.) The Lord God is planning not just to save the children, but to bring a greater good out of Pharoah’s evil. In the second part we read of the birth of Moses, who will lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.
An historical aside might be of interest here. The sixteenth-century translation known as the Geneva Bible noted that the midwives’ “diobedience herein was lawful”. At the Hampton Court Conference of 1604 King James I mentioned to show that that translation had “some notes very partial, untrue, seditious, and savouring too much, of dangerous, and traitorous conceits”. This is why the new translation he authorized was to have no notes.
The stage having been set, Chapter 2 opens with the story of Moses’ birth. Although we are later told that his parents were Amram and Jochebed (6.20) and his sister Miriam (Num 26.59), none of the characters in the story are named (Pharaoh is a title). This keeps the focus on Moses himself.
The story of an infant saved from danger by being put in a box or basket in the water is found in legends of many heroes, such as Sargon of Akkad, Kama in the Mahābhārata, and Romulus and Remus. The story of Moses turns this motif upside down. Instead of a royal infant found and fostered by commoners before discovering his true heritage, Moses the child of slaves is born an oppressed slave but adopted by the king’s daughter. Furthermore, it is known from the outset that he is a Hebrew, a fact which is apparently not hid from him. It is presumably because he is to be raised by the princess and apart from his people that he is permitted to live.
The “basket” itself has symbolic value: the original apparently means “little ark” and connects this story to that of Noah: it foresdhadows that God will save his people as he saved Noah. Indeed the theme of saving through water foreshadows the might deed of the Exodus.
By puttting the infant into the river in a basket, his mother and sister obeyed quite literally Pharoah’s command that all male children of the Hebrews be thrown into the Nile.
The text explains the name “Moses” as being from the Hebrew mashah, to draw out, but it is more likely to be an Egyptian name, the same as the element –mose in such names as Thut-mose.

Psalm 124
Fifteen of the Psalms (120-134) bear the inscription variously translated as Song of Ascents, Song of Degrees, or suchlike. This inscription likely reflects the use of these psalms by those going up to Jerusalem for the three Pilgrim festivals (see Deuteronomy 16:16). Psalm 124, is characterized as a thanksgiving for a national deliverance [NOAB] and is thus an apt reflection as we begin to read the account of the greatest deliverance, the Exodus.

The Epistle: Romans 12. 1-8. After a long meditation on the place of Israel in God’s plan comes the last major part of the letter to the Romans, an instruction on the Christian life. St Paul has described God’s mercy and his saving acts; Therefore, he now writes, present yourselves as a offering (sacrifice) to him, but a living one. To do this. your lives must not be based on the ways of this world but on the ways of Christ: Be not conformed but transformed.
Whe we hear this we are called to consider how we often unthinkingly take the ways of the community around us as a standard, rather than judging it against the standard of the Gospel of Christ.
There is a useful comment on how we go about doing this at the Commentary on the RCL http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/apr21m.shtml, and I will not steal it.

The Holy Gospel: Matthew 16.13-20. I sometimes feel that this passage comes up so regularly in the lectionary that I am always commenting on some aspect of it! However, one point should be mentioned that links this reading with the passage from Romans.
The regions of Caesarea Philippi were in the very far north of Israel. at the southern slopes of Mount Hermon and the sources of the Jordan. It had anciently been a centre of the worship of Ba’al, taken as Pan by the Greeks. Hence the name of the place was Panyas or Paneas, modern Banyas. The region had been given by Augustus to Herod the Great, after whose death it passed into the tetrarchy of his son Philip, and who expanded the city and named it Caesarea, to honour the emperor, and Philippi, to honour himself and distinguish it from Caesarea Maritima over on the coast. It has been noted that “Formerly it was known as Paneas, where Baal, the Syrian Pan, was worshipped. The sinister shadow of Herodian Romanism was over the place. The signs of the great world-powers were all aout them, and it was time that the disciples had faith in the Messiah who had come” You can find pictures of the area, and in particular the great Grotto of Pan at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banias. This is not simply an historical aside; by putting the Lord’s question, Who do you say that I am? against the background of the civil and military power of the Roman world —church and state, as it were—it links to St Paul’s challenge to be transformed and not conformed to the world.We will not comment now on the Petrine Text (Thou art Peter, &c.,) which opens up too many important and difficult questions. For one take on this verse, you might refer to the RCL Commentary for this Sunday.

Some Notes for the Third Sunday of Easter Year A: Mostly for St Matthias'

The Third Sunday of Easter does not seem to have as many names and nicknames as we saw that the Second Sunday has. I mention this again because just the other day Pope Benedict noted that “during the Jubilee Year 2000 ‘Servant of God John Paul II ordained that throughout the Church the Sunday after Easter, apart from being 'in Albis' Sunday, should also be called Divine Mercy Sunday.’” (It was on the Eve of Easter II, 2005, that John Paul II died.) Strangely enough, in mediaeval documents this Third Sunday was known as Misericordia Domini, "The Mercy of the Lord," from the first words of the Introit. Does this mean there are two Divine Mercy Sundays?

The Readings
A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2:14a, 36-41). Last Sunday we heard part of Peter’s speech on Pentecost, in which he interpreted the events of the day of Pentecost for the crowd that had gathered in response to the loud noise. Starting from the Prophet Joel he declared that the mighty wind and fire, and the apostles’ preaching were signs of the end time, when all who call on the Lord will be saved. Today we hear his concluding words and the effect his speech had. He tells the people of Jerusalem, God has made Jesus, whom they had crucified, both Lord and Christ [v. 36]. At this bold declaration of their responsibility “they were cut to the heart.” At their reply, “What shall we do?” Peter called on them to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins. Three thousand people were “added” (that is, by God’s grace and action) to the 120 believers (Acts 1:15) that day.
People of different ages have used the Bible in different ways, often by asking different questions of it. This passage gives us a good example of how the Bible used to be used to support points of doctrine. At the Hampton Court Conference in January 1604, King James I noted that the English Prayer Book seemed to give permission for lay people to administer baptism in an emergency. This had not been allowed in his native Scotland, and the King didn’t like it. He was especially put off by the idea that women might be baptizing (as in fact many midwives did). Many in the English church disapproved of this practise as well. James discussed the matter with the bishops, and they agreed to change the service to remove the apparent permission (the effect of this was limited, since they did not declare lay-baptism invalid). During the discussion, the Bishop of London Richard Bancroft, used this passage from Acts to support Baptism by lay persons, since to baptize 3000 in one day, “for the Apostles alone to do, was impossible, at least improbable; and, besides the Apostles, there were then no Bishops or Priests”. Therefore, he concluded, lay people must have administered the sacrament [William Barlow, The Summe and Substance of the Conference, London: 1604, p. 15]. Today we might consider it anachronistic thus to distinguish between clergy and laity in the very early Church. We would probably just assume that all the disciples took part and not give it any more thought. Far more likely, we will ask about the idea of numbers being "added", of God's work, and perhaps link it to the idea that Christ and his passion were "destined before the foundation of the world" (1 Peter). However, even if we don’t use the passage in the way Bishop Bancroft did, reading about this controversy over Baptismal Ministry and how the Bible was applied to it can spark our minds to think about how we understand the place of the ordained ministry in the Church and how it derives from the ministry of the Apostles in the early Church.

Psalm 16.1-3, 10-17. This Psalm [vv 1, 10-17] was also used on Maundy Thursday. The psalmist tells of his love for God, for “hehas heard my voice”. Since God helped him in his time of “distress and anguish” (v. 3, serious illness), he will “call on him” (v. 2) for the rest of his life. He was near death; as life slipped away he felt as if death and the grave (literally Sheol, the place of the dead) were grabbing hold of him. He called on the name of the Lord and was rescued from death. What is his response to the Lord’s goodness? To pay his vows, to raise the cup of salvation. The meaning of verse 13 , Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his servants is that the Psalmist believes that such a death is rarely allowed to happen. Another translation is Difficult in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his pious ones. This verse should be kept in mind while listening to the words of the epistle that speak of our being ransomed not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ.
The psalm prayer given in the BAS [p. 865] declares that the experience of the Psalmist is Christian experience: Gad has “given us hope for life here and hereafter through the victory of his only Son” and prays that when we share in Christ’s cup of salvation, the joy of this everlasting gift might be revived in us. With this linking of ideas, and remembering that this psalm was also sung on Maundy Thursday, we would do well to meditate on the cup of the blessing of the Last Supper, the cup Christ asked to have pass from him in Gesthemane, and the cup of salvation. The cup of the passion was necessary for the cup of salvation and blessing.

The Epistle: First Peter 1.17-23. This short passage describes the death of Christ and the salvation it has worked for us in terms of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, a strange land, and their Passover deliverance by the bood of a spotless lamb. Though we are still in exile, we have been delivered by Christ, the true lamb without blemish. Through him, that is throug Baptism into him, we may address God as Father; but this means that in all our life we must hold God in reverent respect [v. 17], and set our faith and trust on him [v. 18]; we can live in genuine mutual love because our souls have been purified by obedience to the truth [v. 22], and reborn by the living word of God [v. 23].

The Holy Gospel: St Luke 24.13-35. St Luke’s account of how the the Risen Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, is a well-loved story. The story itself is clearly told, and we do not need many comments here. Stress is usually (and rightly) put on the fact that he was known to them in the breaking of the bread, which is obviously a eucharistic reference. However we must note that when Jesus came up to them, “their eyes were kept (or even held back) from recognizing him”. The text does not tell us who held there eyes, though it is natural to assume that it was God. However it has always struck me as odd that when Jesus upbraided them as “foolish and slow of heart to believe” the disciples didn’t start to twig to who it was; it sounds so like him! However some interpreters seem to take their lack of recognition as being of his divinity. So Chris Haslam wrote in his notes that “from Jesus’ interpretation and their hospitality to this “stranger” (v. 18) “their eyes were opened” (v. 31), i.e. they develop a deeper understanding of who Jesus is, that he is divine.” If this is true the recognition must be double: that it is Jesus and who Jesus is.

The Week of Easter III
Remember: all weekdays of Eastertide count as part of the festival of the Resurrection.
In the Daily Office Lectionary the Old Testament readings are from Exodus, Chapters 18 to 25, while the Gospel readings are taken from St Matthew, Chapters 1 to 4. The psalms and readings for each day may be found in the BAS on pages 464-5,
Wednesday, 9 April: Commemoration of William Law, Priest and Spiritual Leader, 1761. (William Law was the Author of A Serious Call to a Holy and Devout Life, a classic of Anglican Spirituality.)
Friday, 11 April: George Augustus Selwyn, First Missionary Bishop of New Zealand, 1878.

Some of my Publications and Addresses

Readers of this Blog who might like to know more of the range of my interests than the space in the profile allows me to provide mght find the following lists of interest. Others will naturally wish to ignore this bit of self-promotion.

Publications

“Hampton Court Again: The Millenary Petition and the Calling of the Conference,” Anglican and Episcopal History 77:1 (March 2008), 46-70

The king's own conference : a reassessment of Hampton Court 1604 (ThD Thesis, Trinity College Library, c2006); National Library of Canada, 2007. 4 microfiches. ISBN: 9780494264331 .
“When is a Lady Chapel not a Lady Chapel” TriAngle: Newsletter of Trinity College Chapel, Fall 2005
"Smoke Signals in the Election of a Pope", TriAngle: Newsletter of Trinity College Chapel, Easter 2005
"Review of Edward Herbert and Emanuel Tov, eds., The Bible as Book and the Judean Desert Experience," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 42/1 (Spring 2004) pp 110-112
"Becoming a Saint", TriAngle: Newsletter of Trinity College Chapel, All Saints', 2004
“SARS and the Common Cup”, TriAngle: Newsletter of Trinity College Chapel, Fall Term 2003
“Ash Wednesday”, TriAngle: Newsletter of Trinity College Chapel, Lent, 2003
"Review of David N. Griffith, A Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer 1549-1999," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 41/1 (Spring 2003), pp. 100-104

“Richard Corbet: Bishop and Poet”, TriAngle: Newsletter of Trinity College Chapel, Easter Term 2001
"'Twas God the Word that Spake It: An Elizabethan Pseudepigraphon", Anglican Theological Review, LXXXII, no 3 (Summer, 2000).
"Sorry, Folks, the Millenium is Over", Triangle: Newsletter of Trinity College Chapel, February, 1999
"Gowns, Towns and Frowns", Trinity Magazine, Trinity College, Toronto, 1999
"Does Omitting the Filioque Clause Betray Traditional Anglican Thought?" Anglican Theological Review LXXVIII, no 3 (Summer, 1996).

Selected Addresses, &c.
2004, 1 November: Paper: "Holy Smoke: the History of the Liturgical use of Incense" deliverd at St Thomas's Church, Huron Street, Toronto [http://www.stthomas.on.ca/bfiles/asmoke.pdf]
2002, 9 April. Address "The Smith of Smiths: The Wit and Wisdom of The Rev’d Sydney Smith", deliverd to Toronto Arts and Letters Club Literary Luncheon.
2002. Delivered a paper on the history of Papal Conclaves to the Senior Common Room, Trinity College
1999, 22 December. Address, The ‘pagan’ origins of Christmas and its customs, delivered to the North Toronto Rotary Club.
1999, 23 March. Paper: Gowns, Towns and Frowns, delivered to a joint Senior Common Room-Junior Common Room Fireside Chat, Trinity College.

Voicework

Episodes of the series "Pure Pwnage" may be found at www.purepwnage.com. I say the name of the programme at the beginning of every episode, and voice "The Masterer" in many of the episodes. I appear at the beginning of Episode 5 in "Kyle's Film, Strong Man, Angry Man.

I may also be heard at the end of the satirical trailer Indiana James and the Campus of Doom which may be found at http://www.theyellowninja.com/extras.html.