Holy Textures

John 6:24-35

Short, easy to use, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 13, Ordinary Time 18
Sunday Between July 31 and August 6 Inclusive 
9th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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As always with John, it is important to remember that John is not writing a daily diary - "What I did with Jesus today" - nor a historical biography - "Jesus: The Man, His Times, His Achievements."

John is writing at the end of his life, at the end of the first century (nearly 70 years after Jesus' execution and resurrection), at a time when the early Christian communities are under severe persecution from the Romans, and have lost all connections with their original Jewish roots. He is NOT writing to "the general public." He is writing to a threatened, small, inner group, who have no first-hand memory or experience of Jesus or of being Jewish. Their physical - and more importantly - their eternal lives are at stake. They need to "see" Jesus. They need to be embedded in Jesus, abiding in Jesus, so that they can withstand the fear and pain of Roman arrest, torture, and bloody executions.

John 6:1-21

Short, easy to use, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 12, Ordinary Time 17
Sunday Between July 24 and July 30 Inclusive 
8th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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Continuing my vow not to rant about the illogical choices the designers of the Lectionary made that present such challenges for preachers, I'll not comment on the sudden switch from Mark to John for 5 Sundays, as though the two were inter-changeable, which they're not; nor will I comment on trying to preach on a single lesson that contains two stories, each of which deserves its own reflection.

As always, Malina and Rohrbaugh (see link at bottom) come to our rescue with useful background.

Even if we hadn't been told already, by Verse 2 our ears should suddenly start tingling with alarms that we have switched from Mark to John. The trigger for this is the word "signs."

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Short, easy to use, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 11, Ordinary Time 16
Sunday Between July 17 and July 23 Inclusive
7th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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I'm tempted to rant once again about the unhelpful choices - from a preracher's point of view - of the Revised Common Lectionary. Why are the verses 6:30-34 not part of the reading two weeks ago as they are the conclusion of that story? And why are we skipping over the wonderful stories of the feeding of the 5,000 (Verses 35-44), and of Jesus walking on water (Verses 45-52)? Sigh.

Verses 30-32 are a wonderful lesson for the start of the summer season here in the Northern Hemisphere. Especially Jesus' invitation in Verse 31:
          Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.

Thank you Jesus.

Mark 6:14-29

Short, easy to use, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 10, Ordinary Time 15
Sunday Between July 10 and July 16 Inclusive
6th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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Of all the sections of the Bible that the creators of the Lectionary choose to leave out, it is a puzzle to me then why they included this. Where is the Good News? How does our hearing of it edify us? Deepen our being the church?

As usual, Malina and Rohrbaugh (see link in left-hand sidebar) provide helpful historical background.

Mark 6:1-13

Short, easy to use, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 9, Ordinary Time 14 
Sunday Between July 3 and July 9 Inclusive
5th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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Once again the Lectionary gives us two stories in one lesson.

Jesus leaves "that place" where two members of the Judean elite had received healing and new life because of their faith - because of their trust / loyalty / bonding with God in spite of their hopeless circumstances - and returns to his hometown. What sort of faith / trust will he find there?

Simply stepping forward to teach in his hometown synagogue would literally be stepping out of his - and his families - assigned place in the village pecking order. Doing so would immediately demand public, critical evaluation by those in charge of keeping people in their place.

Mark 5:21-43

Short, easy to use, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 8, Ordinary Time 13
Sunday Between June 26 and July 2
4th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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This text is a "Mark sandwich," a story-within-a-story, that is meant to be digested as a whole.

Jesus has just returned from foreign territory on the other side of Lake Galilee, and once again a large crowd gathers - the gossip network is successfully spreading news of Jesus; successfully increasing his public status and honour; and thereby also increasing his potential threat to the established authorities.

Indeed, his reputation has increased to the point that two members of the elite take the risk of crossing strict social boundaries to seek Jesus' aid: Jairus, an official of the synagogue, and an unnamed women who had spent all her money being treated by many doctors - to no avail. We know that Jairus belongs to the elite by virtue of his office. We infer the unnamed woman is also among the elite by virtue of her having money to spend on doctors. She is also probably a widow, since otherwise the money would not be hers to spend. We can also assume that Jairus has also had doctors treat his daughter - also to no avail.

Thus, in a nut shell, the context of this lesson is two elite members, who have used their socially accepted resources to no avail, step out of their gated communities and join the crowd of low-class people on the street to seek help from the rising folk hero - Jesus of Nazareth. A daring come down for them.

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

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The text gives us 5 ways to imagine the Kingdom of Heaven (more specifically: God's will being done on earth as it is in Heaven):

• like a mustard seed;
• like yeast (leaven) in flour;
• like treasure hidden in a field;
• like a priceless pearl;
• like a net that catches all kinds of fish.

That is probably 4 images too many for one sermon.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

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Matthew 13 is what might be called, "The Sermon on the Lake," a series of parables (short teaching stories) intended to help us learn about God's character / what is pleasing to God / what the Kingdom of Heaven (i.e. God's rule) is like / how to behave now in order to practice how to behave in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Just as the preceding parable of the Sower had an extravagantly generous (or wasteful?) God giving the Good News even to the hardened, the shallow, and the trapped; this parable now talks about the other reality: it is not just the soils that vary, there are also different kinds of "seeds."

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

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Matthew 13 is what might be called, "The Sermon on the Lake."

It begins with what is commonly called, "The Parable of the Sower," though I think it might more properly be called, "The Parable of the Soils."

But let's begin by focusing on the Sower.

For those listening to Jesus, the behaviour of the Sower is either extremely reckless or extremely generous. They would certainly not be so careless as to waste so much good seed.