John Shearman's
 Liberal Lectionary Analysis

Rev. John Shearman

 INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

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

NOTE: During the Season of Pentecost, some traditions follow a different set of readings from the Old Testament and Psalms. These alternate readings will be included in both the brief introductions and the more complete analyses.

I KINGS 17:8-16 (Alternate 17:17-24) This passage introduces of a series of stories in which Elijah the prophet appears as God's spokesperson in very difficult times during the 9^th century BCE. After the reigns of David and Solomon a civil war had divided their kingdom in two. The northern ten tribes continued the name of Israel but were ruled by kings not descended from David with Samaria as their capital city. Judah, formed by the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, was smaller and weaker, but maintained the Davidic dynasty and its capital in Jerusalem.

Both passages reveal Elijah as a man of God who obeyed divine instructions to go where he was sent. In doing so, he provided sustenance for a widow whose jars of meal and oil miraculously never failed and subsequently raised the widow's son from the dead.

PSALM 146 This brief psalm of praise, one of the five exultant hymns that end the Psalter, celebrates the hopes of Israel in God's desire for freedom and justice.

PSALM 30 (Alternate) The psalmist praises God for saving him from death in a critical illness. After at first expressing overconfidence about God's favor, he realizes how much he owes to God for answering his prayer of distress.

GALATIANS 1:11-24. To convince the Galatians of his trustworthiness, Paul reviews his past as a faithful Jew who first persecuted the Christians in Jerusalem, then received his own call to be an apostle to the Gentiles in a direct revelation from Jesus himself.

LUKE 7:11-17. This passage tells of Jesus raising a widow's only son is reminiscent of a similar miracle performed by Elijah. Undoubtedly that Old Testament story influenced Luke's narrative, as the people's astonished reaction shows.

I KINGS 17:8-16 (Alternate 17:17-24). This passage introduces of a series of stories in which Elijah the prophet appears as God's spokesperson in very difficult times during the 9^th century BCE. Frequent references to Elijah in the New Testament Gospels indicate how important this cycle of stories was in the Hebrew scriptures.

After the reigns of David and Solomon, a civil war had divided their kingdom in two. The northern ten tribes continued the name of Israel but were ruled by kings not descended from David with Samaria as their capital city. Judah, formed by the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, was smaller and weaker, but maintained the Davidic dynasty and its capital in Jerusalem.

No clear information has ever been found as to the location of Tishbe in Gilead, the name of the town from which Elijah supposedly came. Some maps do show the site of Tishbe near the Wadi Cherith in Gilead, an eastern tributary of the Jordan River. The name may have been related to an occupational name for a tribe of non-native settlers, ("one of the toshab class") the Kenites, renamed the Rechabites, whom Solomon engaged in the importation of horses and chariots (1 Kings 10:26-29).

After following instructions from Yahweh to go to the Wadi Cherith, Elijah was sustained during a severe drought and famine by ravens that brought him food morning and evening (vss. 2-7). A subsequent message from Yahweh sent the prophet to Zarephath, a town near Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. There he asked a widow for food and drink, but she pleaded that she had only enough for herself and her son before suffering from starvation. Elijah promised in Yahweh's name that her meal and oil would never run out (vss. 8-16) Later, according to the alternate reading (vss. 17-24), the widow's son became ill and died, but Elijah revived him in a vividly described demonstration of the power of prayer.

Both passages reveal Elijah as a man of God who obeyed divine commands to go wherever he was sent. In doing so, he provided sustenance for a widow whose jars of meal and oil miraculously never failed and subsequently raised the widow's son from the dead.

PSALM 146. This brief psalm of praise, one of the five exultant hymns that end the Psalter, celebrates the hopes of Israel in God's desire for freedom and justice. The prophetic theme of hope of restoration sounds through the latter part of the song. It sings the praise of Yahweh as creator and redeemer, especially of those who are powerless and marginalized.

Vs. 3 points out the sharp contrast between the trustworthiness of Yahweh and the inconsistency of mortal sovereigns. The psalmist knew this from Israel longs history of monarchs who failed to provide security for their people in violent times much like those of our time in the Middle East.

Vss. 7b-9 repeats the name of Yahweh five times, as always translated "the Lord." One can imagine those familiar with the words joining their voices to the cantor in a jubilant crescendo as the divine tetragrammaton YHWH is recited in whatever way this sacred name was used. Then in the closing benediction proclaiming the eternal sovereignty of Yahweh, the congregation responds with a final outburst of praise.

PSALM 30. (Alternate) The psalmist praises God for saving him from death in a critical illness. After at first expressing a certain overconfidence about God's favor (vss. 6-7), he realizes how much he owes to God for answering his prayer of distress.

It is natural for a person to be exuberant about being restored suddenly to good health. Even with modern medicine capable of curing or alleviating many of the most severe illnesses once regarded as fatal less than a century ago, the fear of death persists. The Psalmist's fear of death was expressed in vs. 2. The Pit was another common Old Testament term, among several others, for the abode of the dead. But Sheol was by far the most common, occurring sixty six times. Unlike the others, however, it was unique to the Hebrew language, and does not occur in any other Semitic language. Generally, the various terms for the abode of the dead conveyed the idea of a permanent, shadowy, chaotic but silent place. No Old Testament reference contains any concept of punishment or torment. The concept of an infernal hell came into existence only during the Hellenistic period probably influenced by Persian ideas.

The traditional concept of illness resulting from divine anger still lingers as the philosophical matrix of the poem (vs.5). Despite the shadowed background to the psalm and the loss of prosperity, the poet had unmitigated praise for God's beneficence. His pride had been restored to the extent that he could question divine justice in the death he had so recently escaped (vs. 9). His mourning had been transformed into joy (vs. 11).

In the 2^nd century BC, the psalm came into liturgical use for the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus now celebrated at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

GALATIANS 1:11-24. To convince the Galatians of his trustworthiness, Paul reviews his past as a faithful Jew who first persecuted the Christians in Jerusalem, then received his own call to be an apostle to the Gentiles in a direct revelation from Jesus himself.

Paul often appears as a person uncertain of his acceptance in the early Christian Church. In several of his letters, notably Corinthians and Galatians, he tries to reinforce his apostleship by frankly acknowledging how he had persecuted the church. At times he seems to have a very low self-image, to use a modern psychological term for this personality trait. (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:9; Eph. 3:8)

On the other hand, Paul did not leave the matter there. He quickly asserted that his call to be the apostle to the Gentiles came directly from Jesus whose risen presence he had experienced in a dramatic epiphany on the Damascus Road. Because he was so deeply conscious of and perhaps felt guilty about his previous life, he put that experience in the context of grace. In vs. 15 of this passage, he also described his vocation as preordained.

Paul's further elaboration of what he did after his conversion does not correlate with other summaries we have of that period. (Cf. Acts 9:26-30; 26:12-20.) None of these sources should be treated as biography. Thus we are left with somewhat incoherent details that must remain forever so, despite the adamant claim in Gal. 1:20, "In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!" Even the apostle must be seen as one who looked back on his life, in this passage at least, with some ambivalence.

LUKE 7:11-17. This passage tells of Jesus raising a widow's only son is reminiscent of a similar miracle performed by Elijah. Undoubtedly that Old Testament story influenced Luke's narrative, as the people's astonished reaction shows (vs. 16).

The emphasis in the story is on Jesus' compassion for the widow, not on his power to raise the dead. It exhibits Jesus' gracious concern for the most vulnerable and helpless. By touching the bier, he exposed himself to contamination according to Holiness Code. At the same time, he demonstrated that liturgical purity yields to the higher law of mercy (cf. Numbers 19:11). It is noteworthy that Jesus' final action of giving the resuscitated man to his mother repeats the exact words of 1 Kings 17:23.

As Prof. George Caird asserted, there is no doubt the early church did have strong convictions that Jesus did reclaim to life those whom others had declared dead. (Caird, George B. St. Luke. Pelican New Testament Commentaries, 1963, 110) While the story may cause some skepticism to modern minds, there are significant values for our time to be found in Luke's brief narrative of the miracle. To see how relevant this pericope, we need only think of the contrast between governmental spending on weapons of war and that spent on education, health and alleviation of poverty in many nations including our own. Jesus is the source of life, Luke forcefully asserts in this pericope.

So also should we be.