Words 6.17

 Words Twice a Week          6.17

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.

Some thoughts (from camp) on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday – Proper 7

1 Samuel 17, and maybe 18!

+ anyway, its’ the story of David and Goliath.  And we note that this story is not exactly presented as history.  In 1 Samuel 16 David becomes part of Saul’s household to play the lyre and calm Saul’s fits, but here in 17, David seems to get introduced to Saul all over again.  And in 2 Samuel 21.19 (when David is finally king) it tells of the men telling David not to go into battle with the Philistines “lest you quench the lamp is Israel” and Elhanan “slew Goliath the Gittite”. 

+ and especially if you read into Ch 18, it gets into the rise of David and the decline of Saul.  Since last week’s lesson, David is anointed but Saul is still king – a difficult situation.

+ the story is really more about YHWH vs the Philistines, and how the Israelites will participate in that.  Will they trust that God will prevail and protect them or not.  Throughout, the contrast between David and Goliath is stressed, and also the contrast between David and the other soldiers and Saul.

+ Some nice lines – “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine”, and “You come to me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts…”.

+ when I was a kid I had a 45 record with some woman telling the story – I can still hear her saying “David took five smooth stones from the bed of the stream”.

+ and it’s a primer on authentic charismatic leadership -

  1) it is not inherited, but surfaces in individuals

  2) it is extraordinary – boy vs giant, armor vs none, weapons vs sling

  3) it is not self-interested, but religiously motivated – this can become a struggle for such leaders.  

  4) it is not seized or assumed, always clearly recognized by the community

  5) it is in service to the larger community.

On the one hand, church leadership can become inherited and predictable; on the other hand, Charismatic leadership can become self-interested. 

+ and again, if you read into Ch 18, you get David and Jonathan, and “Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands” and David marries Michal, (but not Merab) the story just gets deeper and deeper.

Psalm 9

+ Ps 9 and Ps 10 are one acrostic unit, and cover a variety of issues including trusting in God to overthrow the wicked, and praising/thanking God for doing that.

Psalm 133

+ “O look and wonder how good it is; look at how good it is when we are living all together…”  Not sure who the “we” is in any of the lessons.

Job 38.1-11

+ God finally answers Job, and the answer is basically that God doesn’t answer questions, except by encountering and being with the questioner.  It’s kind of like God as police or detective – “I’m the one asking questions here.”

+ so how does that play with our ideas about “God answering prayer”?

Mark 4.35-41

+ in Mark 4-8 Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee four times, back and forth from Jewish to Gentile territory

+ and in Mk 4-5 he does four extraordinary deeds – calming the storm, healing the Gerasene demoniac (I love that word, but it’s probably not very respectful!), healing the woman with the flow of blood, and the raising of Jairus’ daughter.  At the end of that, the people of his home town ask “Who is this?” just as the disciples do at the end of this story, and basically all the way through the gospel.  Even then they do not know who Jesus is – Peter tries once but not very successfully, finally it is the centurion at the cross who says “This was the son of God.”  In reality we cannot know who Jesus is until we get to the cross, I suppose.

+ Israel was not an ocean-going people.  They thought of the sea as the locus of resistance to God, possibly as the source of danger and evil.  The boat is an early Christian symbol for the church.

+ Jesus sleeps, not because he doesn’t see the storm or care about the disciples, but because he trusts in the presence of God, and the time of God’s peace growing unseen and secretly in the world – from last week’s parables!

Anyway, that’s what I got for now…..

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