Biblical
Words [591]
Genesis 45:3-11, 15; Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40; I Corinthians
15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:27-38.
God will
provide: food in famine, justice for the
righteous, a resurrection body, what we need to love our enemies.
It is rare to have a seventh Sunday after Epiphany. It can only happen when Easter comes very late
in the calendar year (so Lent begins long after Epiphany). Thus, in the sixteen years I have been doing
these lectionary studies I have never written one for the Seventh Sunday after
Epiphany. So, this is a brand new
study.
Genesis 45:3-11, 15.
This reading is the climactic moment of revelation in the story of
Joseph and his brothers. The scene
is described as one of great emotion for Joseph. He shares with his brothers the great secret
of his identity – that he is the younger brother they sold into slavery years
ago.
As the news sinks in, Joseph goes
into the theology of what has happened.
“God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to
keep alive for you many survivors. So it
was not you who sent me here, but God” (verses 7-8, NRSV ). Among these gathered brothers there is only
reason to rejoice in the outcome of things that began in malice and
treachery.
Joseph’s
speech emphasizes that Israel
should migrate down to Egypt . The brothers should return to Canaan
and arrange to bring Jacob (Israel )
and all his remaining household down into Egypt
to live through the famine in comfort and plenty. There are still five years of famine to
endure, and Joseph recognizes, and tells his brothers, that God sent him to
Egypt, raised him to power in that land, all in order to provide for the
survival of Jacob’s extended family through the hard times ahead.
Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40.
This psalm treats
a theme often found in the Hebrew scriptures.
“The
prosperity of the wicked was one of the enigmas of life which most sorely tried
the faith of the godly Israelite. No
light had as yet been cast upon the problem by the revelation of a future state
of rewards and punishments.” (A.F.
Kirkpatrick, The Book of Psalms, “The Cambridge Bible”; Cambridge ,
1902, p. 187.)
There are three
psalms, regarded by scholars as “wisdom” psalms, that labor hard over the
observed fact that the wicked are not immediately punished for their
ungodliness. Arranged in decreasing
order of their confidence in God’s providence,
they are Psalms 37, 73, and 49.
(I remember fondly a paper I wrote on these psalms for Professor Sheldon
Blank of Hebrew Union College in 1960.)
Psalm 37 has
little doubt that, sooner or later, the wicked will be punished and the
righteous will be vindicated for their faith in God’s justice. (This is, of course, the doctrine of Job’s
“friends” who insist that he must be a sinner since God has punished him so
severely. The book of Job does not
resolve the issue.)
Besides having a
somewhat doctrinaire teaching, Psalm 37 has a somewhat pedantic (scribal)
form: it is an alphabetical acrostic
psalm. Most of the psalm consists of
four-line units, relatively independent of each other. Each unit begins with a successive letter of
the Hebrew alphabet. Our reading includes
the first six letters of the alphabet plus the last letter.
The theme is
clear: “Don’t get upset over evildoers…”
(verse 1, CEB), repeated in verses 7 and 8.
You see the bad guys getting ahead – but be patient. “Yet a little while, and the wicked will be
no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there”
(verse 10, NRSV). In the long run, “the
meek will inherit the land” (verse 11).
So hang in
there! Eventually, God will
provide.
I Corinthians 15:35-38, [42-44,] 47-50.
The sage who
worried over the problem of the prosperous wicked did not know of the coming
resurrection – when all accounts would be paid in full by the judgment of
God. The wicked would finally get their
deserts – as would, of course, the righteous with blessings and honors.
(The earliest
clear statement of this belief is Daniel 12:1-3. Among later Judeans, the Pharisees came to
believe, a century or so before Jesus, in God’s justice through the
resurrection of the individual. The
Sadducees continued the older belief and denied an individual
resurrection. See Luke 20:27-38.)
I Corinthians
15 – the longest chapter in Paul’s letters – is an elaboration of the
Christian view of resurrection. In
the last two weeks we have head about the first witnesses of the risen Christ
and of the argument that Christ’s resurrection guarantees the resurrection of
his followers.
In today’s
reading Paul turns to a major question people ask about this great mystery that
looms ahead for them. What kind of body
will we have after resurrection?
At first Paul
addresses this in rather simple terms.
The dead (buried) body is a seed, and like a seed planted in the field
the seed itself is very different from the grown plant. A grain of wheat has no resemblance to the
grown wheat plant. Just so, the decayed
human body will be replaced by a body that does not decay, that has a vivid
life of its own.
I strongly
suggest you include verses 42-44 in your reading; it powerfully reinforces the
point!
Beyond your
possible comprehension, God will provide a glorious body that retains your
identity but is incorruptible, is imperishable!
Don’t ask; God will provide. “Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God , nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable” (verse 50).
“God gives
[us] a body as he has chosen” (verse 38).
Luke 6:27-38.
Early Christians believed that
Jesus’ message had been delivered in a major sermon he had preached (often) in Galilee . They repeated variations of the sermon,
probably many times. We have received
different versions of it as Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7) and
as Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke 6:20 -49).
As observed in last week’s
reading, the Sermon began with the “Beatitudes,” as Moses had begun the Law
with the Ten Commandments.
Probably the most distinctive
feature of Jesus’ Galilee Sermon – as contrasted with Judean tradition – was
its emphasis on “Love your enemies” (verse 27 here; in Matthew at 5:44 ). Most
of our reading is the statement and elaboration of this most challenging
requirement of Jesus followers.
The basic requirement is stated in
6:27 and 6:35 – the opening and closing brackets. Between, we hear details of how that
“loving” will be done:
- Do good to those who hate you.
- Bless those who curse you.
- Pray for those who abuse you.
- Turn the other cheek.
- If they steal your overcoat, offer your jacket as well.
- Give to all who beg.
Then there is an argument that
“you” should be distinctive among the population because you do not act as
everyone else – selfishly. You do
not do good only to those who will do good to you; you do not lend only expecting
to get full return. You stand out among
people at large because you act positively toward those who despise you: you love your “enemies.”
And in all this, you but imitate
what God has already done: “for he is
kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (verse 35). God had provided the model for your truly
godly way of life!
So they said Jesus taught, in Galilee .
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