PROPER 13
Worship
Scripture Notes
For use with Common, Lutheran and Roman Catholic Lectionaries
The proclamation of God's free, abundant, loving grace is the dominant theme of all of these texts. It is proclaimed most clearly in the Lutheran and Roman Catholic selections because of the dominance of this theme in the Isaiah 55:1ff. reading. For this reason, we shall begin our consideration of these texts with Isaiah 55 and turn from consideration of the First Lesson texts to the appointed psalms.
Lutheran: Isaiah 55:1-5
Roman Catholic: Isaiah 55:1-3
The gospel of God's free, abundant, loving grace is clearly expressed here in this climactic portion of the Isaiah traditions. Water, grain, wine, milk, life itself - all are freely, graciously given by the Lord! The good news for the poor is that there is absolutely no cost, either for those who have no money or for those who have resources of their own. Not only that, but this text also promises a lasting covenant of blessings, acclamations by people from foreign nations, honor and glory.
Hopes were high and perceptions of God's grace were clear when this good news was proclaimed at the time of the end of the exile of the Israelite leaders in Babylon. Through times of high hopes and times of little or no hope this message continues to be proclaimed within the Israelite and within the Christ1an traditions. It will continue to be proclaimed through us next Sunday.
We can hardly read this message or hear it read without comment. We must ask the question: Is God's loving grace still free and abundant today? Does it still include clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself? Or is nothing, including God's loving grace, free anymore? Perhaps we can hold these questions until we look more closely at the other three texts in the Lutheran and Roman Catholic series for this occasion and merely note at this point how utterly free and abundant God's loving grace is said to be in this Isaiah text. There is no human sacrifice of God's Son as a necessary atonement for sins mentioned in this text, no ransom, no payment at all! There is only the invitation from God, the invitation to come.
Possibly a most effective way in which we could relate to the Isaiah 55 text in our present context would be for us to involve the congregation in which we serve in our joyful struggle with this text during the first portion of the sermon and then hold the questions of the previous paragraph openended for participation by the members of the worshiping congregation silently or vocally. We could ask them to respond during the sermon, and wait for their reactions. We could also respond to these questions ourselves later during the sermon, or we could leave them open-ended and unanswered at the conclusion of the sermon and of the service, in order to see what the people will do with them.
Common:
Exodus 12:1-14
There is the free and loving grace of God for the Israelites who were delivered from bondage in Egypt and spared the smiting of the first-born in this text. Even today, however, the joy of the Seder meal is restrained for Jewish people by the realization that the redemption of their ancestors from bondage in Egypt was accomplished at tremendous cost to the Egyptian oppressors, the death of their first-born. The grief of the Egyptians on the night of the Passover is remembered and shared within the Seder observance. It is shared in sadness, not in joy or vengeance.
Lutheran: Psalm 104:25-31
What assistance does this psalm selection provide for us as we struggle with the questions raised by the Isaiah 55 text? We read here that God, through the actions of God's creative and renewing Spirit, continues to create and to renew the earth. God opens God's hands and all of God's creatures are filled with good things. We note, however, that the psalmist reminds us that God sometimes seems to hide God's face, and God's creatures are then terrified. God sometimes takes away their breath, and they die and return to the clay from which they were taken. The good news of Isaiah 55 is still proclaimed with broad strokes in this psalm, but with a sobering touch of realism, a recognition that God's face is sometimes hidden, that God does also take away the breath of God's creatures and they then die and decay.
Common:
Psalm 143:1-10
In this psalm there is no direct proclamation of the grace of God. There is only a strong and persistent request for God's grace. The psalmist recognizes that in the presence of God no human being is righteous; everyone is in need of God's grace. The psalmist appeals to Yahweh's faithfulness to Yahweh's covenant with Israel, to Yahweh's inestimable righteousness. The grace of God is assumed in this text. It is hoped for on the basis of what the psalmist believes about Yahweh's actions in the past. It is a dark hour for the psalmist. The loving grace of God is not seen in this text.
Roman Catholic: Psalm 145:8-9, 15-18
Here the proclamation of God's grace is loud and clear. In the beautiful confessional statement repeated with variations many places in the Israelite Scriptures, it is said that the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and filled with kindness. The hand of the Lord is open in providing for what is needed by every living thing. The emphasis on the compassion of the Lord makes this an excellent psalm selection to be used with Isaiah
55:1-3.
Common:
Romans 8:31-39
Lutheran: Romans 8:35-39
Roman Catholic: Romans 8:35, 37-39
The sobering touch of realism of Psalm 104:25-31 is expanded greatly in this text from Paul. Paul was well aware of continuing trouble, hardship, suffering, hunger, poverty, oppression by the advocates of Roman Civil Religion, danger, and death. For Paul, however, none of these shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our victory is assured because of the victory of Jesus Christ our Lord over death and the grave.
We may ask at this point: What does the Apostle Paul say about the clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself of the Isaiah 55 text? We are reminded that Paul arranged an extensive series of offerings from the new Gentile-background house churches of Macedonia and Achaia in order ao provide grain, wine, and milk for the poor Jewish-background communities of followers of Jesus in Judea, and Paul promised eternal life by the grace of God through faith in what God had done in Christ. Does Paul, however, answer our questions completely?
Matthew 14:13-21
This account about an amazing feeding of five thousand men, plus their families, included with relatively minor variations in all four Gospels, indicates that both the Synoptic and the Johannine traditions proclaimed that in what Jesus had done God's power to heal and to provide food was fully operative. Jesus provided the loaves and the fish and provided them abundantly, even without any requests for them. Twelve baskets full of fragments remained, we are told, after all had been filled. This is a miracle story, and it certainly should be proclaimed as a miracle story by us. As with Isaiah 55, God's loving grace, including loaves and fish, healing and life, should be proclaimed as free and abundant here.
Perhaps we are ready, then, for our practical questions. Is God's loving grace still free and abundant today? Does it still include clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself? Or is nothing, including God's grace, free anymore?
The biblical accounts, our own experiences, and God's continuing revelations to us all indicate that God's loving grace is still free and abundant and always will be. The problem, of course, is that the product (God's loving grace) is indeed freely supplied by God for us, but our delivery of the product is not without some expense. (We recall that the Apostle Paul tried to deliver it at no cost to the Corinthians.) We must face the problems caused by the increasing costs of delivery of the gospel openly and honestly within our congregations, and we should exercise control over these delivery costs. Much more important, however, is that we should remember and boldly proclaim that God's loving grace is free. Then we should work to provide the clear water, grain, wine, and milk as well in God's name, as Paul did and as Jesus did.
Lutheran: Isaiah 55:1-5
Roman Catholic: Isaiah 55:1-3
The gospel of God's free, abundant, loving grace is clearly expressed here in this climactic portion of the Isaiah traditions. Water, grain, wine, milk, life itself - all are freely, graciously given by the Lord! The good news for the poor is that there is absolutely no cost, either for those who have no money or for those who have resources of their own. Not only that, but this text also promises a lasting covenant of blessings, acclamations by people from foreign nations, honor and glory.
Hopes were high and perceptions of God's grace were clear when this good news was proclaimed at the time of the end of the exile of the Israelite leaders in Babylon. Through times of high hopes and times of little or no hope this message continues to be proclaimed within the Israelite and within the Christ1an traditions. It will continue to be proclaimed through us next Sunday.
We can hardly read this message or hear it read without comment. We must ask the question: Is God's loving grace still free and abundant today? Does it still include clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself? Or is nothing, including God's loving grace, free anymore? Perhaps we can hold these questions until we look more closely at the other three texts in the Lutheran and Roman Catholic series for this occasion and merely note at this point how utterly free and abundant God's loving grace is said to be in this Isaiah text. There is no human sacrifice of God's Son as a necessary atonement for sins mentioned in this text, no ransom, no payment at all! There is only the invitation from God, the invitation to come.
Possibly a most effective way in which we could relate to the Isaiah 55 text in our present context would be for us to involve the congregation in which we serve in our joyful struggle with this text during the first portion of the sermon and then hold the questions of the previous paragraph openended for participation by the members of the worshiping congregation silently or vocally. We could ask them to respond during the sermon, and wait for their reactions. We could also respond to these questions ourselves later during the sermon, or we could leave them open-ended and unanswered at the conclusion of the sermon and of the service, in order to see what the people will do with them.
Common:
Exodus 12:1-14
There is the free and loving grace of God for the Israelites who were delivered from bondage in Egypt and spared the smiting of the first-born in this text. Even today, however, the joy of the Seder meal is restrained for Jewish people by the realization that the redemption of their ancestors from bondage in Egypt was accomplished at tremendous cost to the Egyptian oppressors, the death of their first-born. The grief of the Egyptians on the night of the Passover is remembered and shared within the Seder observance. It is shared in sadness, not in joy or vengeance.
Lutheran: Psalm 104:25-31
What assistance does this psalm selection provide for us as we struggle with the questions raised by the Isaiah 55 text? We read here that God, through the actions of God's creative and renewing Spirit, continues to create and to renew the earth. God opens God's hands and all of God's creatures are filled with good things. We note, however, that the psalmist reminds us that God sometimes seems to hide God's face, and God's creatures are then terrified. God sometimes takes away their breath, and they die and return to the clay from which they were taken. The good news of Isaiah 55 is still proclaimed with broad strokes in this psalm, but with a sobering touch of realism, a recognition that God's face is sometimes hidden, that God does also take away the breath of God's creatures and they then die and decay.
Common:
Psalm 143:1-10
In this psalm there is no direct proclamation of the grace of God. There is only a strong and persistent request for God's grace. The psalmist recognizes that in the presence of God no human being is righteous; everyone is in need of God's grace. The psalmist appeals to Yahweh's faithfulness to Yahweh's covenant with Israel, to Yahweh's inestimable righteousness. The grace of God is assumed in this text. It is hoped for on the basis of what the psalmist believes about Yahweh's actions in the past. It is a dark hour for the psalmist. The loving grace of God is not seen in this text.
Roman Catholic: Psalm 145:8-9, 15-18
Here the proclamation of God's grace is loud and clear. In the beautiful confessional statement repeated with variations many places in the Israelite Scriptures, it is said that the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and filled with kindness. The hand of the Lord is open in providing for what is needed by every living thing. The emphasis on the compassion of the Lord makes this an excellent psalm selection to be used with Isaiah
55:1-3.
Common:
Romans 8:31-39
Lutheran: Romans 8:35-39
Roman Catholic: Romans 8:35, 37-39
The sobering touch of realism of Psalm 104:25-31 is expanded greatly in this text from Paul. Paul was well aware of continuing trouble, hardship, suffering, hunger, poverty, oppression by the advocates of Roman Civil Religion, danger, and death. For Paul, however, none of these shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our victory is assured because of the victory of Jesus Christ our Lord over death and the grave.
We may ask at this point: What does the Apostle Paul say about the clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself of the Isaiah 55 text? We are reminded that Paul arranged an extensive series of offerings from the new Gentile-background house churches of Macedonia and Achaia in order ao provide grain, wine, and milk for the poor Jewish-background communities of followers of Jesus in Judea, and Paul promised eternal life by the grace of God through faith in what God had done in Christ. Does Paul, however, answer our questions completely?
Matthew 14:13-21
This account about an amazing feeding of five thousand men, plus their families, included with relatively minor variations in all four Gospels, indicates that both the Synoptic and the Johannine traditions proclaimed that in what Jesus had done God's power to heal and to provide food was fully operative. Jesus provided the loaves and the fish and provided them abundantly, even without any requests for them. Twelve baskets full of fragments remained, we are told, after all had been filled. This is a miracle story, and it certainly should be proclaimed as a miracle story by us. As with Isaiah 55, God's loving grace, including loaves and fish, healing and life, should be proclaimed as free and abundant here.
Perhaps we are ready, then, for our practical questions. Is God's loving grace still free and abundant today? Does it still include clear water, grain, wine, milk, and life itself? Or is nothing, including God's grace, free anymore?
The biblical accounts, our own experiences, and God's continuing revelations to us all indicate that God's loving grace is still free and abundant and always will be. The problem, of course, is that the product (God's loving grace) is indeed freely supplied by God for us, but our delivery of the product is not without some expense. (We recall that the Apostle Paul tried to deliver it at no cost to the Corinthians.) We must face the problems caused by the increasing costs of delivery of the gospel openly and honestly within our congregations, and we should exercise control over these delivery costs. Much more important, however, is that we should remember and boldly proclaim that God's loving grace is free. Then we should work to provide the clear water, grain, wine, and milk as well in God's name, as Paul did and as Jesus did.
