{"id":154,"date":"2015-07-05T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T18:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lectio\/?p=154"},"modified":"2015-07-04T13:59:06","modified_gmt":"2015-07-04T20:59:06","slug":"dances-and-grudges-the-lectionary-for-the-seventh-sunday-after-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lectio\/2015\/07\/dances-and-grudges-the-lectionary-for-the-seventh-sunday-after-pentecost\/","title":{"rendered":"Dances and Grudges: The Lectionary for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Image is in the public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19<\/a> and\/or Amos 7:7-17<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What It\u2019s About:\u00a0<\/strong>These are two very different texts. The first, from 2 Samuel, is an amazing look into the life of David and the world of ancient Israel. Here we see David dancing, frolicking almost, among the people and before the Lord. It\u2019s a beautiful moment of seemingly unabashed joy. The Amos text, on the other hand, bears witness to clashing agendas, with Jereboam and his loyalists on one side and Amos (and possibly God) on the other. It\u2019s a dramatic moment, captured in a text, that communicates a contest for the nation\u2019s loyalties and its soul.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Really About:\u00a0<\/strong>Both of these texts are political texts, in a way, and both attempt to speak to what\u2019s most true about Israel. It\u2019s not accidental that those two things go together. In the 2 Samuel text, Saul\u2019s daughter (understandably) despises David, laying bare a division in the elite of the nation that had not yet healed. And the Amos text is explicit about the presence of a fault line in the society, between moneyed royalty with lots of power on the one hand and the righteousness of God on the other. Both texts point to the fractured nature of politics, orthodoxy, and society in ancient Israel\u2013and that\u2019s remarkable.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Not About:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s not about carpentry, but the plumb line sure does make for a compelling image. Here\u2019s one of the places where you can see how close the parables of Jesus are to the prophetic tradition; Jesus is speaking right within the tradition when he talks about the kingdom of God. Can\u2019t you just hear him starting out, \u201cthe kingdom of God is like a plumb line set above a house\u2026?\u201d I can. Also: Can\u2019t you just see Jesus dancing? I can.<\/p>\n

Maybe You Should Think About:\u00a0<\/strong>Dance is one of those worship tools\u00a0that should be deployed carefully. But maybe this is a Sunday to think about adding dance to the service. This will be easier for some than for others, but it might be worth it. David danced before the Lord! What a beautiful image.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 24<\/a> and\/or Psalm 85:8-13<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What It\u2019s About:\u00a0<\/strong>The earth! The universe! The cosmos! This is another one of those creation-centered psalms.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Really About:<\/strong>\u00a0These psalms are all about recognizing the greatness of God in creation. As such, they make great companions when you are preaching about environmental or ecological concerns, or when you simply want to draw attention to the many ways God is present around us in the created world.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Not About:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s not about the king! Notice the last couple of verses of Psalm 24: the king of glory is explicitly not<\/em> the king of Israel, it is God. I\u2019d love to have been a fly on the wall the first time they debuted that one in front of the king!<\/p>\n

Maybe You Should Think About:\u00a0<\/strong>Thinking of an outdoor worship service, as many churches do in the summertime? This would be a great choice. But you already knew that!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ephesians 1:3-14<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What It\u2019s About:\u00a0<\/strong>These are some of the opening words of the letter to the Ephesians. However, there are some issues with that. Most scholars (but not all) think that Paul was not the author of Ephesians, and there is good manuscript evidence that the letter once circulated without the name of Ephesus in its \u201cTo\u201d line. So the theological debates encapsulated in these verses (see below) should be tempered by the very real possibility that Paul didn\u2019t write this book. Whether that changes what it means as scripture<\/em> is up to the interpreter.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Really About:\u00a0<\/strong>If these are Paul\u2019s words, then we can read some things into them. Paul was very formulaic in his letter-writing, and this is the part of a typical Pauline letter where he would kind of give away the ending\u2013where he would say what he thought the letter would be about. So if Paul wrote this, then we can read into it that he thought he was writing to Ephesus (a vibrant center for Christianity and a site Paul is associated with in Acts) about theological matters. But if he didn\u2019t write these words or this letter, then we should be careful (depending on our views of scripture) making too much theology out of this passage.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Not About:\u00a0<\/strong>For me, it\u2019s not about predestination, which for my money is one of the least interesting debates in Christian theology (and that is saying something). It\u2019s a debate that is nearly unintelligible for non-reform folks. Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2013I love a good theological debate. But this one just isn\u2019t one I\u2019m interested in.<\/p>\n

Maybe You Should Think About:\u00a0<\/strong>Give Ephesians a re-read and decide what you think about its authorship before you preach it. That might go a long way toward helping you decide what you want to do with this text. If it\u2019s Paul, it\u2019s one thing; if it\u2019s not, then it turns into a very different text.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark 6:14-29<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What It\u2019s About:\u00a0<\/strong>This is the story of the death of John the Baptist (or John the Baptizer<\/em>, as my Methodist congregants used to tell me, to avoid giving satisfaction to the Baptists). For such a charismatic and dynamic figure John dies in a strange way\u2013as fodder in a strangely-sexual, strangely-political power play among the provincial rulers. It\u2019s not quite a martyr\u2019s death, and it\u2019s not quite a straightforward murder. It\u2019s a strange tale, almost out of some some of macabre book of horror stories.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Really About:\u00a0<\/strong>This story serves to lay the groundwork for how horrible the Herodian family is, which will pay dividends later in the gospel. But it also serves to remind us of John\u2019s existence, which in turn helps to remind us of Jesus\u2019 purpose and destiny. It\u2019s almost a kind of narrative foreshadowing, this death: if John, who came before Jesus and was lesser than him, should fall to the Herodians, then of course Jesus would too, right?<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Not About:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s not about John\u2013or at least the gospel writers don\u2019t want it to be. The John the Baptist material is so delightfully awkward in the gospels, because the evangelists don\u2019t know what to do with it. They need John to introduce and legitimate Jesus, but then he needs to fade away quickly. They can\u2019t leave his storyline hanging, but they also don\u2019t want to glorify his death and risk putting him above Jesus. (Followers of John the Baptist seem to have persisted at least into the fifth century). So I wonder if that\u2019s why this story reads like a morality tale\u2013it can\u2019t take on the full flavor of martyrdom, because it would overshadow Jesus, but neither can John simply wander around Judea while Jesus is doing the same. This story ties up that storyline nicely<\/p>\n

Maybe You Should Think About:\u00a0<\/strong>What would John think about his role in this gospel and the others? Would he approve? Why or why not?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 and\/or Amos 7:7-17 What It\u2019s About:\u00a0These are two very different texts. The first, from 2 Samuel, is an amazing look into the life of David and the world of ancient Israel. Here we see David dancing, frolicking almost, among the people and before the Lord. It\u2019s a beautiful moment of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2196,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDances and Grudges: The Lectionary for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 and\/or Amos 7:7-17 What It\u2019s About:\u00a0These are two very different texts. 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