PROPER 9
Worship
Scripture Notes
For use with Common, Lutheran and Roman Catholic Lectionaries
In each of these seven texts, the Lord is said to relieve the burden of those who are bowed down with the weight of sin, suffering, or loss of some kind. We can say, therefore, that there is gospel in every text. The burden is different in each text, of course, and the Lord is perceived in different ways. Nevertheless, in each instance the Lord lifts the burden.
Common:
Psalm 124
In this psalm the entire nation of Israel is reminded that if the Lord had not been on the side of the people of Israel they would have been utterly destroyed by their enemies. This civil religion perception is excellent so long as the nation is protected and victorious. It helps to make people appreciative and receptive to God. It is appropriate for us also to give thanks to God when we as a nation are protected from natural and from political disasters. We must be aware, of course, that the Lord has not always protected Israel and has not always protected our country from disaster, and not always will. We must be prepared to believe in the Lord even when our nation suffers great losses, even if our nation should be destroyed. In other words, our religion must be more than a civil religion only. If the religion of the ancient Israelites had been only a civil religion, it would have come to an end in 586 B.C.E. and in 72 C.E. The religion of ancient Israel was largely a civil religion, but it was also a personal religion, a family and tribal religion, an ecclesial religion, and it was a universal religion related to the religious experiences of all other people of the world. For these reasons it survived, and the Lord lifted the burdens of its people. There is a message in this also for us who are Christians, and perhaps that message should be proclaimed in some way where we are.
Lutheran: Psalm 145:1-2, (3-13), 14-22
Roman Catholic: Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, 13-14
In this beautiful individual hymn of praise, a favorite of Jewish and of Christian people from generation to generation, the Lord is said to uphold all who are falling, and to raise up all who are bowed down. The Lord gives food in its season to all who look to the Lord, and satisfies the desire of every living thing. As is typical of psalms such as this, the exact nature of the burden is not specified. The psalm is appropriate, therefore, in any situation of suffering and burden-bearing.
Common:
Exodus 1:6-14, 22--2:10
The burdens of the early Israelites in bondage in Egypt were great. The oppression that they suffered was increased because the oppressors were afraid of them. The increases in work loads and the severity of their tasks were burdensome enough. The situation became intolerable, however, when the Pharaoh commanded that every male child born to the Israelites should be thrown into the Nile.
It is at the point in which the burdens of the Israelites became intolerable that the Lord began a process that would lead to salvation. The mother of Moses used her ingenuity in saving the life of her little child, and the Lord used the ingenuity of this mother in beginning a process of salvation for the oppressed.
Just as with so many other biblical accounts, this text is best understood by those who are themselves oppressed. They can best relate to the oppressed mother of Moses and understand the way in which the Lord used her bold actions in resisting the oppressors in accomplishing salvation for the oppressed Israelites. There is a message in this text also for those of us who are not oppressed. The message is that the Lord is on the side of the oppressed. Therefore, we should identify with the oppressed and work to remove their oppression.
Lutheran: Zechariah 9:9-12
Roman Catholic: Zechariah 9:9-10
This prophetic word is a call for rejoicing, a prophecy of peace to those who for so long have been burdened by war and by oppression. Early Christian gospel traditions applied these verses to Jesus and to his entry into Jerusalem. The original context of these verses may have been the period soon after the amazing conquests of Alexander the Great. We can easily apply this prophecy of peace to our situation of war, loss, suffering, and sin, with adjustments mutatis mutandis. The text speaks clearly against the use of the military and against attempts to find military solutions to our problems.
Common:
Romans 7:14-25a
Lutheran: Romans 7:15-25a
We have within these few verses a segment of one of Paul's many reflections over his own personal struggle with sin. The problem was not the Torah (the written Word of God at that time). The problem was with Paul's own evil inclination, which Paul freely admitted in this text that he by himself could not handle. Time after time, Paul did the evil that he knew was evil. Yet he did it anyway. Deliverance for Paul and in our Christian experience comes from God through Jesus Christ our Lord, as expressed in the final words of this text. This good news is applicable in any situation and in any period of time. Paul's stark contrast between his own evil inclination and the grace of God in this text has become a classic in our Christian theology.
Roman Catholic: Romans 8:9, 11-13
In this text, Paul states that for those in whom the Spirit of God dwells God will give life both here and in the life to come. Death loses its importance. Death loses its hold over us. The flesh and the limitations of the flesh are left behind. God lifts the burdens of the flesh from us.
Paul says all of this without moving as the gnosticizing Christians moved beyond interest in this world. Later in this same chapter, Paul expresses his concern for the world, for the whole of God's creation waiting for redemption, for people who long for release from oppression. Paul firmly expresses his conviction that no powers (including those of the Roman Civil Religion powers that would soon take Paul's life) would be able to separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Matthew 11:25-30
It is likely that the Matthean tradition brought three originally separate sayings together in this text. The first two sayings (Matthew 11:25-27 and Luke 10:21-22) are probably from "Q" materials. The third saying (Matthew 11:28-30) regarding rest for those who are weary and heavy laden - the point of contact with the other texts selected for this occasion - is not present elsewhere in the New Testament, but is used in a different context in the Gospel of Thomas 90.
In the first saying (Matthew 11:25-26), Jesus addresses God directly as Father in a prayer of thanks. In the second saying (Matthew 11:27), God is spoken about in the third person, and the surprising "No one understands the Son except the Father" sounds like an observation that would have been made within the early Church. The second saying may have been an elaboration of the first, or an interpretation of it, or the two sayings may have been associated with each other because the catchwords "Father" and "reveal" occur in both.
The situation is further complicated by our realization that there are close parallels to Matthew 11:25 and 11:28-30 in Ecclesiasticus 51, and the verses of Ecclesiasticus 51 are paralleled by the thoughts of Matthew 11:25-30 in the same sequence, namely, thanksgiving to the Father, 51:1-12; revelation of wisdom, 51:13-22; and a call to accept the use of a helpful yoke, 51:25-30. As in Ecclesiasticus 51, those who receive revelation in Matthew 11:25-30 are the "unlearned" and the "burdened." For further discussion of this, see Ecclesiasticus 51 in the Old Testament Apocrypha and the evaluation of these similarities in Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew (Atlanta: John Knox, 1975), pp. 268-274.
In Matthew 11:25 it is said that God will reveal the hidden wisdom, and in 11:27 it is said that the Son will reveal it. Then in 11:28-30 the saying of Jesus calls everyone to the Matthean Jesus, that is, everyone who is laboring and heavy laden, and the Matthean Jesus will give to all who are in that condition temporal, or perhaps eternal, rest. Therefore, in 11:28-30 the Matthean Jesus (and the Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas in that document) is more than merely the one who brings the wisdom of God to the unlearned and the weary; the Matthean Jesus is that wisdom personified.
The comforting words of Matthew 11:28-30 are as needed by those who are suffering the burdens of political and personal oppression today as they were during the first century. We are grateful to God that we can be bearers of these comforting words to the oppressed of our time and place. They are comforting words also for us.
Common:
Psalm 124
In this psalm the entire nation of Israel is reminded that if the Lord had not been on the side of the people of Israel they would have been utterly destroyed by their enemies. This civil religion perception is excellent so long as the nation is protected and victorious. It helps to make people appreciative and receptive to God. It is appropriate for us also to give thanks to God when we as a nation are protected from natural and from political disasters. We must be aware, of course, that the Lord has not always protected Israel and has not always protected our country from disaster, and not always will. We must be prepared to believe in the Lord even when our nation suffers great losses, even if our nation should be destroyed. In other words, our religion must be more than a civil religion only. If the religion of the ancient Israelites had been only a civil religion, it would have come to an end in 586 B.C.E. and in 72 C.E. The religion of ancient Israel was largely a civil religion, but it was also a personal religion, a family and tribal religion, an ecclesial religion, and it was a universal religion related to the religious experiences of all other people of the world. For these reasons it survived, and the Lord lifted the burdens of its people. There is a message in this also for us who are Christians, and perhaps that message should be proclaimed in some way where we are.
Lutheran: Psalm 145:1-2, (3-13), 14-22
Roman Catholic: Psalm 145:1-2, 8-11, 13-14
In this beautiful individual hymn of praise, a favorite of Jewish and of Christian people from generation to generation, the Lord is said to uphold all who are falling, and to raise up all who are bowed down. The Lord gives food in its season to all who look to the Lord, and satisfies the desire of every living thing. As is typical of psalms such as this, the exact nature of the burden is not specified. The psalm is appropriate, therefore, in any situation of suffering and burden-bearing.
Common:
Exodus 1:6-14, 22--2:10
The burdens of the early Israelites in bondage in Egypt were great. The oppression that they suffered was increased because the oppressors were afraid of them. The increases in work loads and the severity of their tasks were burdensome enough. The situation became intolerable, however, when the Pharaoh commanded that every male child born to the Israelites should be thrown into the Nile.
It is at the point in which the burdens of the Israelites became intolerable that the Lord began a process that would lead to salvation. The mother of Moses used her ingenuity in saving the life of her little child, and the Lord used the ingenuity of this mother in beginning a process of salvation for the oppressed.
Just as with so many other biblical accounts, this text is best understood by those who are themselves oppressed. They can best relate to the oppressed mother of Moses and understand the way in which the Lord used her bold actions in resisting the oppressors in accomplishing salvation for the oppressed Israelites. There is a message in this text also for those of us who are not oppressed. The message is that the Lord is on the side of the oppressed. Therefore, we should identify with the oppressed and work to remove their oppression.
Lutheran: Zechariah 9:9-12
Roman Catholic: Zechariah 9:9-10
This prophetic word is a call for rejoicing, a prophecy of peace to those who for so long have been burdened by war and by oppression. Early Christian gospel traditions applied these verses to Jesus and to his entry into Jerusalem. The original context of these verses may have been the period soon after the amazing conquests of Alexander the Great. We can easily apply this prophecy of peace to our situation of war, loss, suffering, and sin, with adjustments mutatis mutandis. The text speaks clearly against the use of the military and against attempts to find military solutions to our problems.
Common:
Romans 7:14-25a
Lutheran: Romans 7:15-25a
We have within these few verses a segment of one of Paul's many reflections over his own personal struggle with sin. The problem was not the Torah (the written Word of God at that time). The problem was with Paul's own evil inclination, which Paul freely admitted in this text that he by himself could not handle. Time after time, Paul did the evil that he knew was evil. Yet he did it anyway. Deliverance for Paul and in our Christian experience comes from God through Jesus Christ our Lord, as expressed in the final words of this text. This good news is applicable in any situation and in any period of time. Paul's stark contrast between his own evil inclination and the grace of God in this text has become a classic in our Christian theology.
Roman Catholic: Romans 8:9, 11-13
In this text, Paul states that for those in whom the Spirit of God dwells God will give life both here and in the life to come. Death loses its importance. Death loses its hold over us. The flesh and the limitations of the flesh are left behind. God lifts the burdens of the flesh from us.
Paul says all of this without moving as the gnosticizing Christians moved beyond interest in this world. Later in this same chapter, Paul expresses his concern for the world, for the whole of God's creation waiting for redemption, for people who long for release from oppression. Paul firmly expresses his conviction that no powers (including those of the Roman Civil Religion powers that would soon take Paul's life) would be able to separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Matthew 11:25-30
It is likely that the Matthean tradition brought three originally separate sayings together in this text. The first two sayings (Matthew 11:25-27 and Luke 10:21-22) are probably from "Q" materials. The third saying (Matthew 11:28-30) regarding rest for those who are weary and heavy laden - the point of contact with the other texts selected for this occasion - is not present elsewhere in the New Testament, but is used in a different context in the Gospel of Thomas 90.
In the first saying (Matthew 11:25-26), Jesus addresses God directly as Father in a prayer of thanks. In the second saying (Matthew 11:27), God is spoken about in the third person, and the surprising "No one understands the Son except the Father" sounds like an observation that would have been made within the early Church. The second saying may have been an elaboration of the first, or an interpretation of it, or the two sayings may have been associated with each other because the catchwords "Father" and "reveal" occur in both.
The situation is further complicated by our realization that there are close parallels to Matthew 11:25 and 11:28-30 in Ecclesiasticus 51, and the verses of Ecclesiasticus 51 are paralleled by the thoughts of Matthew 11:25-30 in the same sequence, namely, thanksgiving to the Father, 51:1-12; revelation of wisdom, 51:13-22; and a call to accept the use of a helpful yoke, 51:25-30. As in Ecclesiasticus 51, those who receive revelation in Matthew 11:25-30 are the "unlearned" and the "burdened." For further discussion of this, see Ecclesiasticus 51 in the Old Testament Apocrypha and the evaluation of these similarities in Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew (Atlanta: John Knox, 1975), pp. 268-274.
In Matthew 11:25 it is said that God will reveal the hidden wisdom, and in 11:27 it is said that the Son will reveal it. Then in 11:28-30 the saying of Jesus calls everyone to the Matthean Jesus, that is, everyone who is laboring and heavy laden, and the Matthean Jesus will give to all who are in that condition temporal, or perhaps eternal, rest. Therefore, in 11:28-30 the Matthean Jesus (and the Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas in that document) is more than merely the one who brings the wisdom of God to the unlearned and the weary; the Matthean Jesus is that wisdom personified.
The comforting words of Matthew 11:28-30 are as needed by those who are suffering the burdens of political and personal oppression today as they were during the first century. We are grateful to God that we can be bearers of these comforting words to the oppressed of our time and place. They are comforting words also for us.
