Words 3.17

 Words Twice a Week       3.17

Wait a minute – what happened to 3.13?  Well, it didn’t happen, that’s what!  Sorry.

Here’s some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday – Third in Lent

Isaiah 55. 1-9

+ and just because today is St Patrick’s Day, years ago I rewrote this passage into “Old Irish Priest-speak”!  I’ll try to get it inserted.

+ + +

+ "Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” What do you spend your money on that doesn’t satisfy?  What do you labor for that really isn’t worth it?  Some of this is pocketbook issues, some is lifestyle?

+ context – note that this is the epilogue of Is 40-55 (often referred to as “Second Isaiah”, which started with “Comfort, comfort my people...”).  The people are in exile in Babylon, “far away” from home, “promised land”, and temple, and God?  The prophet announces the Good News that their separation, suffering, is coming to an end, new life is just over the horizon. Do we feel like COVID is coming to an end?  That “normality” might be just over the horizon? Of course God is not calling the people to just go back to the way things were before – that was what got them into this mess in the first place.  (vs 7 – let the wicked forsake their way…)  We long to get back to the way things were, but then again, there are some things that were not so good about the way things were and need to be changed.  What can you think of that needs to be changed?

+ one writer notes that the lesson should really be extended to vs 11 or even 13, so that it ends with images of God’s closeness, not God’s distance!  Makes sense – when we’ve been doing the canticle in Morning Prayer, it continues to vs 11.  

+ and why don’t we flock to God’s offer of new life?  It calls to my mind the invitation to the Wedding Feast/Great Banquet and the RSVP “Pray hold me excused, I cannot come.”

+ God will make (another?) covenant – touching on the image of David.  One writer finds this kind of interesting because the Davidic dynasty had kind of disintegrated.  I guess the thought is more theological than political.  Don’t you wish we could focus more on the theological than the political these days!

+ just a note that the images shifts from eating to hearing in vs 3.

+ the rain and snow have come down from heaven – now it’s time for sunshine and warmth! Where do you hear God’s word in life today?  What effect does it have?   Is it accomplishing God’s purpose?

+ “We shall go out in joy” – is that how we leave home?  Church?  The table?  The mountain and the hills are singing, along with Julie Andrews!

+ Cypress instead of thorns, myrtle instead of brier – veggies instead of crabgrass or goutweed?

Luke 13:1-9

+ context: “at that very time” – Jesus has just talked about casting fire on the earth, about setting father against son, daughter against mother, about settling with your accuser on the way to the magistrate.

+ the Galileans who suffered (well, died) because of human cruelty; the 18 Jerusalem dwellers on whom the tower fell died from natural causes – Jesus says don’t focus on the why or on the who (us or them) – the fact is “you will all likewise perish”.

+ note both groups died suddenly – they didn’t have time to repent.

+ English author Graham Greene wrote a book about whether there was time to repent “between the saddle and the ground” – or something like that.  I read it for a class in college.  Don’t really remember the book, just the phrase.  

+ “Unless you repent” – even if you repent, you are going to die, but maybe not perish?  Is there a difference?

+ if you link this with the parable that follows, the issue is not so much the living or dying, but the reality that judgment, the end, comes and the time to repent/change is limited.

+ both of the “killings” of verses 1-4 happened in Jerusalem, where Jesus is headed, and the time is running out.

+ “Jesus does not dispute or affirm the connection between sin and suffering.  He simply says “We will all perish likewise, unless we repent.”

+ Fred Craddock summarizes – “God’s mercy is still talking to God’s judgment.”

That’s what I got for now…..

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