John Shearman's
 Liberal Lectionary Analysis

Rev. John Shearman

 INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

[A more complete analysis follows this brief summary for church bulletins.]

JOEL 2:21-27. In every culture the harvest season is a time of thanksgiving. Such celebrations occurred in ancient Israel as this excerpt from one of their minor prophets shows. The images of plenty pour out on the page, line after line. What is more, this abundant harvest came after years of privation. The significant element of this celebration comes to the fore in the phrase "rejoice in the Lord your God." Providential grace, not human effort alone, yields the abundant harvest.

PSALM 100. This psalm is most familiar to us in the Scottish paraphrase sung to the tune of Old 100th in the Geneva Psalter. Voices United, hymn book of The United Church of Canada, offers three new tunes, two of them from the 1990s. Though we do not know how it was sung in Israel's temple long ago, we can unite our voices with those of the saints in this glorious hymn of thanksgiving.

1 TIMOTHY 2:1-7. The two Letters to Timothy probably date from about 120-140 AD. A church leader, using Paul's name, wrote to guide a younger pastor (or several pastors) in his (their) ministry. Among other counsel, he warned about a serious heresy. Here he gave instructions about how and for whom to pray. Most surprising is the inclusion of the king (i.e. the Roman emperor) and government officials. The philosophy behind the Canadian Constitution reflects this very contemporary prayer in the words, "peace, order and good government."

MATTHEW 6:25-33. This well-known passage from the Sermon on the Mount declared that the secret to God's ample provision for human need are trust and obedience to God's righteous rule. Our response to God's plentiful grace, not anxious manipulation of economic and financial systems, will bring about the universal prosperity God wants all of us to enjoy.

JOEL 2:21-27. In every culture the harvest season is a time of thanksgiving. Such celebrations occurred in ancient Israel as this excerpt from one of their minor prophets shows. The images of plenty pour out on the page, line after line. What is more, this abundant harvest came after years of privation.

The passage does not stand alone, however, but is part of a carefully constructed prophecy balancing an oracle of doom with this celebratory promise of restoration and providence. Nor does the chapter stand in isolation from what goes before it in chapter 1. Together these three parts form a dramatic whole which can be quickly summarized in narrative form.

A plague of locusts and a drought has devastated the land. Despite performing all the appropriate rituals of fasting and repentance, nothing could stop the total destruction of the nation. To the prophet this could only mean that the Day of the Lord was near (1:15). Dire warnings (2:1-11) and pleas on Yahweh's behalf for a return to faithfulness end in the declaration of a fast and further rituals of repentance. Finally, the prophet is able to speak for Yahweh promising an end to the plague of locusts, the resurgence of growing things and the return of prosperity. All of this has but one intent: to show that Yahweh is in the midst of Israel and Yahweh's people will never again be put to shame. The tone changes quickly, however, to condemnation of other nations to avenge their oppression of Israel. The promised salvation is for Israel alone.

We are almost totally ignorant about who Joel was and when he prophesied. The emphasis on temple rituals and frequent reference to the priesthood suggest that he can best be placed in the post-exilic period circa 400 BCE. The events which inspired his prophesies, however, are quite clearly defined in the text. Christian use of Joel's oracles, however, are almost exclusively limited to 2:28 which formed the text for Peter's sermon on Pentecost in Acts 2. That isolated quotation gives a clue to the real significance of Joel. Here Jewish apocalypticism of the intertestamental period began to take shape.

The natural catastrophe of locusts and drought prefigured a theological interpretation that cast these events on a cosmic scale. Yahweh's purpose in covenanting with Israel held promise of both privation and privilege depending on how Yahweh's people responded. Yet this would not necessarily take place within a historical context. Yahweh's vision of a renewed creation could only reach fulfillment in the spiritual realm and be implemented in the natural world through the inspiration of the Spirit.

It was this element of redemptive apocalypticism which the Apostolic Church embraced as its mandate. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead marked the beginning of this new age of universal peace and plenty.

The significant aspect of this passage comes in vs. 23 "rejoice in the Lord your God." Providential grace, not human effort alone, yields the abundant harvest which we celebrate at Thanksgiving. But widespread hunger and homelessness - in this country and to a greater degree in other parts of the world - surely point to the stark reality that the God's vision of a time of peace and plenty for all people, not for one nation alone, is still far from fulfilled.

PSALM 100. This brief psalm has had a remarkable history. To us it may be most familiar in the Scottish paraphrase sung to the tune of Old 100th. Generations in the Reformed tradition have sung it to that tune since it first appeared in the Geneva Psalter of 1551. *Visions United,* hymn book of The United Church of Canada, offers three new tunes, two of them from the 1990s. Though we do not know how it was sung in Israel's temple long ago, we can unite our voices with those of the saints in this glorious hymn of thanksgiving.

Because it divides neatly into two distinct parts, traditional Hebrew liturgy may have made use of the psalm as an antiphonal gathering hymn. Vss. 1-3 would have been sung by a chorus or group of pilgrims approaching the temple. As they came, they declared their intent: to worship Yahweh. They did so with gusto befitting their enthusiasm. Then they proclaimed the sovereignty of Yahweh, their Creator and Provider who had covenanted with them, Yahweh's people. Arriving at the temple courts with anticipation, they would have been greeted by a second chorus greeting them and summoning them to offer yet more thanksgiving and praise (vs. 4).

Faith's reason for this further outburst rested on the nature and character of the One whom they have come to worship. In these few verses, we find not only a joyful gathering hymn, but a complete statement of Israel's fundamental creed in six brief clauses: Yahweh is God; Yahweh is creator; Israel is Yahweh's covenanted people; Yahweh is good; Yahweh's kindness is everlasting; Yahweh's faithfulness endures.

The significance of this creed cannot be underestimated. The post-exilic period of Persian and Greek domination (6th to 2nd century BCE) were dangerous times. Israel's faith tradition suffered greatly from assaults of foreign culture and considerable syncretism from other religious traditions. This was true especially during the Greek period after the death of Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. Hellenistic Judaism developed a remarkably different strain of the Hebrew tradition among the Diaspora in Persia, Syria and Egypt. It even produced a translation of the Hebrew scriptures in Greek, known as the Septuagint. A simply stated creed as expressed in this psalm greatly assisted the Jews to survive every attempt to change or stamp out their faith. It also encouraged them to take up the cause of religious freedom under the leadership of the Maccabees (170-164 BCE.).

In an age when our faith tradition has already been weakened and drastically transformed by the invasion of ideas and practices drawn from our secular cultural environment, should we not reconsider the importance of a simple, strongly stated creed which declares who is our God, what God is like, and what it means to believe in and be covenanted with such as God?

1 TIMOTHY 2:1-7. The Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus) probably date from about 120-140 CE. An anonymous church leader, using Paul's name, wrote these episcopal letters to guide less experienced pastors in their ministry. It must be said, however, that other scholarly opinions propose different theories as to their date and origin. For example, William Barclay believed that the author had before him some clippings from personal communications from Paul around which he composed an amplified series of letters more suited to the church of his times. His special concern was to protect the church from a dangerous heresy, probably Gnosticism.

In this passage, we read the senior pastor's instructions about how and for whom to pray. Most surprising is the inclusion of the king (i.e. the Roman emperor) and government officials "so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity." The philosophy behind the Canadian Constitution reflects this very contemporary prayer in its intent: to create a state where "peace, order and good government" exist.

The significant aspect of this call to prayer is that it exists at all. It represents an attitude toward the Roman imperial government which may have existed during a relatively peaceful time in early church history. Indeed, it conveys such a degree of respect as to include the government in God's will and extends the promise of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ to those who rule. Could this have been Paul himself speaking? After all, according to Acts 25:11, he claimed his right of Roman citizenship to appeal to the emperor; and in Romans 13:1-7 counseled the Christians in Rome to be subject to governing authorities, to obey the laws of the state and to pay their taxes.

On the other hand, the theme of this passage in not government, but the universality of the Christian faith. Having come into serious conflict with the imperial cult, Christians would not pray to the emperor, but by praying for the emperor they removed any danger of disloyalty while at the same time placing all imperial authority under the sovereignty of God. This type of prayer made the imperial government the subject of salvation and continued until the emperor became Christian.

This summons to prayer also reflects a view very distinct from that of the true Pauline letters. For Paul, there was a permanent tension between the political and spiritual realms. This tension would cease only when Christ returned to establish his reign. Paul expected that to occur in the very near future. Expectation of the Second Coming having faded, the author of the Pastorals was concerned with how Christians were to live in the world in practical ways that helped them to be good Roman citizens. Thus even the Roman government was of concern to God. Nonetheless, salvation did not depend on the political system or the favour of human authorities. It depended on the gospel of Jesus Christ to which the author of the letter and the Christian church as a whole gave witness as the truth given by God.

That this letter is not from Paul but from a much later apostolic representative is clearly shown in vs. 7. Having worked intimately with Paul for several years, Timothy would not have needed to be reassured of Paul's apostleship or his mandate to preach to and teach Gentiles. Furthermore, the triad of preacher, apostle, teacher appears only in this passage and in 2 Timothy 1:11. Paul never designated his office in this manner. Rather, we see here the developing church order of the 2^nd century as one of its key leaders sought to establish a pastoral institution which would both carry out the apostolic mission and protect its representatives from the threats of civic authorities.

It is frequently said that the Constaninian Age of the church has now ended. Church and state no longer engage one another for mutual benefit. The church today lives in a similar space to that reflected in this letter. As William Hazlitt (1778-1830) said in a very different context, we have to live "in the world, as in it, not of it." The celebration of the Thanksgiving, no longer a religious festival, but a holiday mandated by the civil authorities, is a case in point. Our worship will make it more than the last long weekend of the season.

MATTHEW 6:25-33. This well-known passage from the Sermon on the Mount declared the secret to God's ample provision for human need: trust and obedience to God's righteous rule. Our grateful response to God's plentiful grace, not anxious manipulation of economic and financial systems, will bring about the universal prosperity God wants all of us to enjoy.

Would that these values could be translated into action by the economic and political decision makers of the global institutions we are in the process of creating. We tend to forget how much change has occurred in the past few decades. One recent estimate held that just a century ago the vast majority of the world's population had no more annual income than the poorest people of the world today. Was it Gandhi who said, "If everyone cares enough and everyone shares enough, there will always be enough"?

In 1971, just prior to the first oil crisis and as the computer revolution was just beginning , the noted economist, Robert Heilbronner, predicted that no one would ever again be as rich as North Americans had become and the global economy would never be as fully developed as it was at that time. How wrong he was! In1995, Heilbronner summarized 188 reports of economic development he had received from international observers on three continents in these words: "Their common insight is that the global free-market paradigm is neither viable ecologically in the long term, nor adequate, in the short term, to meet the basic needs of all peoples for human development. Those interviewed are not ideologues and have no ready-made alternative to offer, but they are searching for broader alternative approaches to development, ones that include a critical handling of cultural and spiritual values. I say a critical handling because most of those interviewed have no illusions about how easily cultural and religious values can be frozen into external forms and institutions that betray their original meaning. They would agree with Mohamad Sahnoun: manifestations of cultural and religious values, like values found in the dominant economic paradigm, secularism, individualism, materialism, paternalism, and marketism can become modern 'golden calves.'"

We do need a new vision of how to work out on a global scale what this gospel reading anticipated. Theologian Gabriel Fackre called it "God's Vision" for the world. The Commission on Global Governance, in its 1995 report, Our Global Neighbourhood, affirmed the need for "neighbourhood ethics" and "neighbourhood values" as the cornerstone of future global governance. The report quoted Barbara Ward as suggesting that "people have to see with new eyes and understand with new minds before they can truly turn to new ways of living." The quotation continued:

"The most important change that people can make is to change their way of looking at the world. We can change studies, jobs, neighbourhoods, even countries and continents and still remain much as we always were. But change our fundamental angle of vision and everything changes our priorities, our values, our judgments, our pursuits. Again and again, in the history of religion, this total upheaval in the imagination has marked the beginning of a new life... a turning of the heart, a "metanoia," by which men [sic] see with new eyes and understand with new minds and turn their energies to new ways of living."

In 2000, Paul Martin, then Canada's minister of finance, made an earnest plea to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to extend a moratorium on burdensome debt repayments that cause developing nations to restrict their spending on health and education, and so worsens the cycle of ever increasing poverty and disease. Commitments of this kind can only help those in greatest need in those parts of the world that made the developed countries wealthy in the colonial period of past centuries. This is carrying into the global economy the justice and righteousness of God which Jesus set before us in the gospel for today.