Words 6.10

 Words Twice a Week          6.10

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

A day late – sorry.  We are on Camp Standard Time!

Some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday – Proper 6

1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:13

+ So God rejected Saul and was sorry he had made Saul king.  Why?  I always feel a little sorry for Saul – he got chosen to be king and then ended up in difficult situations.  He had to deal with Samuel, whose sons he was in some sense replacing.  I don’t know – just seems like he got a raw deal.

+ “Samuel grieved over Saul”.  Again, why?

+ And just a note that in vs 33, “Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord.”  Nice.

+ It’s clear that God is doing the choosing here, not the elders.

+ So then we get the story of the anointing of David.  It’s a really neat story the first 10 times you hear it, then it gets a bit stale.  I wonder if that’s in part because it is written down and read.  15-20 years ago “Biblical storytelling” was a big thing, and that helped because storytellers would always add little nuances.  We’re going to notice a similar thing about parables – one writer says a parable has a certain teasing quality that fires the imagination. Works better if it is a story being told than a passage being read – at least in my humble opinion!

+ I do like this story – after rejecting all seven of Jesse’s sons, Samuel asks – Are there any more?  Fortunately, there was. (“were”?)

+ and I love vs 7 – “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Of course when David finally comes on stage, he is ruddy, has beautiful eyes (!?), and is handsome!  So….

+ what are some of the ways we “look on the outward appearance”?  

+ David is the youngest son, sort of the opposite from the way monarchies are suppose to work.  I think I heard that Megan and Harry’s daughter is 8th in line…

+ How often does our political system choose for the younger and less experienced?  How about our church administration?  David comes to power not because of his ambition or anything he has done – how do our leaders come to power?

+ the Spirit descends on David in vs 13 and retreats from Saul in vs 14.  But Saul is still king, David is anointed but not crowned.  It makes for an interesting intervening time.

+ David was a youngest sib.  Do you have younger sibs?  Are you a youngest sib? How does that all work?

Psalm 20

+ Perhaps a liturgy for sending the king off to battle.  How would/do we send the President off to a conference or a summit?  Vs 9 is a prayer for victory.  What prayer would we say for the President?  Or the Bishop?

+ Vs 7 is a personal favorite -

  Some trust/boast in chariots,

  Others trust/boast in horses,

  But we trust/boast in the name of the Lord our God.

You could almost make it into a haiku -

  Some trust in ____________  (2 syllables)

  Others in _____________  (4 syllables)

  We – the Lord our God.

  Some trust in money

  Others in friendly allies,

  We – the Lord our God.

You could probably do better!

Psalm 92

+ this was a Sabbath psalm.  Like in the daily lectionary, there was a psalm for each day. Sunday, ps 24; Monday, psalm 48; Tuesday, ps 82; Wed, ps 94; Thurs, ps 81; Fri, ps 93; and Saturday (the Jewish sabbath), ps 92.  I never knew that.  Would be interesting to look at each one day by day.

+ “give thanks and praise morning and night” – Could be for a morning service and an evening service, or could mean “all the time”.  Evening services used to  be a big thing for Methodists in England.  One pastor lamented their demise, saying people were more likely to get saved during an evening service.

2 Cor 5.6-10, 14-17

+ actually vs 4 is nice – “what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”

+ the judgment – how does that work for you?

+ if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation.  Again, how is that working out for you?

Mark 4.26-34

+ my kind of gardening!

+ The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Time of God’s Peace, The Fulfillment of Time, The Reign of God/Christ – which one works for you?  I am partial to The Time of God’s Peace.

+ Mark 4 is a cluster of parables and explanations (which may or may not have been original), ending with the disciples failing to see/find the “secretly growing, mustard seed sized peace” in the middle of the storm!

+ “a parable often demonstrates a certain teasing quality that spurs the imagination and evokes varying responses dependent on what the particular readers (or listeners!!) bring to the text.”

+ the seed/kingdom grows by itself.  We do not create it, we simply harvest.  Again, “one is sorely tempted to turn this intriguing parable into an allegory by identifying each of the story elements with someone or something, but as scholars who work regularly with parables point out, such reduction of dynamics forces singularity of meaning from a story form that moves creatively beyond narrow communication.  This parable confronts us with the story of mysterious events that elude banal comprehension.”  So there!

+ a mustard seed is no cedar of Lebanon – “What God is doing is not according to human standards and expectations, but it is still what God is doing.”  Can we see God’s hand where we might not be used to, or expect to, see it?

+ The Time of God’s Peace is like if a boy or a girl planted tiny carrot seeds

   and the gentle rains did not wash them away 

   and the sun did not shine so brightly that it dried them out, 

   and the squirrels did not dig them up, 

   and the drought did not come, 

   and the carrots grew into a delicious, nutritious, crunchy snack to be shared with friends.

Anyway, that’s what I got for now…..

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