John Shearman's
 Liberal Lectionary Analysis

Rev. John Shearman

 INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

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

JEREMIAH 31:27-34. Jeremiah utters God's promise that the Israel and Judah (the northern and southern kingdoms separated following Solomon's reign) will be restored. This restoration will come about through individuals taking responsibility for their own sins and the making of a new covenant relationship with God set in each person's heart.

PSALM 119:97-104. This longest of the psalms is an acrostic with each section beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. While artificial in its construction, the whole psalm celebrates the value system of the divine covenant and law on which Israel's existence as a special nation depended. This section, perhaps a little sentimentally, speaks of the sweetness of the law to the Israelite and its power to provide wisdom.

GENESIS 32:22-31. (Alternate) The story of Jacob's struggle with a man he could not overcome, but who also wounded him, symbolizes his inner spiritual struggle. In the end, Jacob realized that his opponent had been none other than God.

PSALM 121. (Alternate) This psalm is better known to us in the hymn, *Unto the hills around do I lift up my longing eyes,* by John Campbell, Marquis of Lorne and later Duke of Argyll (1845-1914), then Governor General of Canada. It expresses a most profound trust in God on whose protection and providence we can depend eternally.

2 TIMOTHY 3:14-4:5. Debate continues whether or not the letters to Timothy were written by Paul or by an early 2^nd century church leader using his name and familiar with his teaching and correspondence. In this passage an elder churchman urges a second or third generation Christian evangelist to maintain his enthusiasm and commitment when many opponents are preaching false doctrines. He also warns that the challenge will be difficult and costly as many turn away from the true faith.

LUKE 18:1-8. The perversion of justice was a common theme in the Hebrew scriptures. The parable contrasts the judge who gave in to the widow's pleading (vss.2-5) with God's sense of justice (vss.6-8). The passage makes the point that if persistence brings results in human relationships, how much more so will God respond to persistent prayer.

The issue of God's election of some but not others may puzzle us today. "How odd of God to choose the Jews," poet Ogden Nash caustically commented. God's bias always favours those who suffer innocently under persecution, a common experience of many people of faith then and now.

JEREMIAH 31:27-34 Three different prophetic oracles make up this brief passage separated as follows: vss. 27-28; 29-30; 31-34. These are part of the longer "book of comfort" contained in chapters 30-31 featuring the future restoration of Israel and Judah. Scholarly debate questions the authenticity of this whole segment of the Book of Jeremiah because of the apparent influence of other prophetic works such as Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-66). One hypothesis considers it the work of an editor who lived at the same time as that prophet, a generation or two after Jeremiah toward the end of the Babylonian exile. Another suggests that it may have been even later, during the era of Ezra and Nehemiah (mid-5th century BCE).

Whatever its origin, these two chapters promise a dramatic reversal of Israel's fortunes. The author lived in tragic and desperate times. The nation had suffered grievously after the destruction of the city and its temple by the Babylonians and the loss of the greater part of its leadership taken in chains to exile in Babylon. The prophet had a very different vision of what was happening. Like all prophets of Israel, he saw the hand of Yahweh in the events of his time. The first oracle (vss.27-28) predicted that the land would be repopulated and again become productive. This intensely hopeful vision vividly contrasted with the devastation and privation caused by the Babylonian invasion. Only recently have archaeologists discovered a tunnel through which at least some of Jerusalem's people could have escaped from the besieged city.

The second oracle (vss. 29-30) expresses a popular proverb also quoted in Ezekiel 18:2. It reveals the ancient tradition of collective responsibility and retribution which may have been widely accepted as the explanation for the Babylonian invasion. Ezekiel sought to dispel this belief by setting forth a new doctrine of individual responsibility. Generally speaking, Jeremiah believed in the older view. Hence, scholars doubt that this is one of his oracles. Furthermore, it conflicts with the hope expressed in the remainder of this selection.

The issue of individual or collective moral responsibility has a contemporary relevance. In the intense shock of witnessing the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., immediate blame was assigned to one person as the mastermind behind this terrible assault on these symbols of America's economic and military power. Gradually, the attribution of responsibility shifted away from that person to a widespread collective of terrorists trained and harboured in one country, but also present in several others. As the weeks passed and retaliation by intense bombing of Afghanistan began, analysis of this globally significant disaster focused not only on the perpetrators, but on the root causes of their criminal behaviour. What were the varied aspects of civilized culture against which they were protesting by their unconscionable actions? In the media and other forums, discussion began to consider whether each of us bears some personal responsibility for allowing the unequal distribution of food and the world's resources to continue unchecked while millions suffer.

Who really is responsible for the dysfunctional economic and political systems which foster injustice, religious intolerance, terrorism and global conflict? Is individual responsibility as absolute as this biblical oracle seems to suggest? Or is there also a collective responsibility which all of us must confront to reconstruct a disordered world in which all may share peace and prosperity? Six years and another fateful war in Iraq later, with an international military force of many thousands still trying to free Afghanistan from the clutches of a brutal insurgency, the issue remains as relevant as ever.

Contrast between the old covenant and a new covenant in vss. 31-34 represents the most distinctive teaching of the Book of Jeremiah. The passage had special significance for the Christian tradition which still regards them "one of the mountain peaks of the O.T." It has been dubbed "the gospel before the Gospel." These four verses provided an important theological rationale for the Letter to the Hebrews, which quotes it in full in 8:8-12 and in part in 10:16-17. It also informed part the Pauline and Lukan versions of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as well as giving a name to the collection of Christian scripture made in the 2nd century - "the New Covenant."

Divine forgiveness rather than human sinlessness underlies this oracle. The initiative comes from Yahweh, not from Israel. Yahweh offers a new relationship to replace the one that had been broken by transgressions committed under the old covenant law. It also predicts that all believers will experience the same direct consciousness of Yahweh that the prophets themselves had experienced.

This constant awareness of the divine presence reached its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and was given to the Christian fellowship after his resurrection. To quote Fr. John Main, founder of the World Community for Christian Meditation: There are "entirely realistic possibilities for each of us if only we are open to the experience of Jesus. If only we are open to the ontological change that took place in Jesus when he rose from the dead and burst the bonds of mankind's slavery, making it possible for each of us to participate in that bursting of bonds. This is the place and purpose of our prayer, to be fully open to the consciousness of Jesus, his freedom, his liberty, his love for the Father." (Community of Love, 42) Herein lies the true nature of spiritual contemplation, a quality of religious life much needed in this frenetic age in which we live.

PSALM 119:97-104 This particular psalm has some very special characteristics. It is not only the longest in the Psalter, but its divisions are based on an acrostic scheme. In Hebrew, each strophe or section consists of eight lines each and each line begins with the same letter of the alphabet. In this thirteenth strophe the lines begin with the letter Mem. The whole psalm consists of an extended litany to the covenant law of Israel. Yahweh is addressed in every one of the one hundred and seventy-six verses. As in no other psalm, love for Yahweh's law forms the single, central theme.

Worth noting, too, are the different synonyms for the law repeated again and again throughout this strophe: commandments, testimonies, precepts, word, judgments, ordinances. The most common of these synonyms is precepts. The Hebrew word piqqûd (pronounced "pik-kood") occurs twenty-one times in Psalm 119 but in very few other OT passages, including the rest of the Psalms. It was defined as a mandate from Yahweh and was closely related to a primary verb which meant "to visit." The elements of relationship and communication appear to be its significant aspects.

In this strophe the psalmist contemplates the wisdom that comes from study of the law. Consequently, it is safe to conclude that the psalm probably dates from after the reconstruction of the temple in the 5^th century BCE when litanies had taken an important place in worship once more and wisdom was becoming an important theme in post-exilic spirituality. A liturgy on the law had an important role to play in the moral instruction of the people long isolated from their traditional religious practices as to the appropriate ways to maintain their relationship with Yahweh who had brought them home from exile in Babylon.

GENESIS 32:22-31 (Alternate) We have here an ancient tribal legend with a deeply theological meaning. The story of Jacob's struggle with a man he could not overcome, but who also wounded him, symbolizes his inner spiritual struggle. It also relates the tradition of how the nation of Israel got its name and how one of the peculiar dietary customs of the Jewish people came about.

The struggle between Jacob and the man he met at the Jabbok emphasizes two important points: Jacob's persistence and his ultimate blessing by Yahweh. As the story was told up to this point in his life, Jacob had been anything but a spiritually minded man. Indeed, he had been a trickster and a deceiver many times. He himself had been deceived twice by his uncle and father-in-law into working for fourteen years before obtaining the wife he desired.

While his story is told without censure and reflects the tribal customs of ancient times, Jacob was still regarded as one of the patriarchs of Israel through whom Yahweh had brought the nation into being. This extended narrative implies that the struggle at the Jabbok, which he renamed Peniel, represents a change in the character of the man. Further, the story reinforces the tradition that it was Yahweh's choice and grace that brought Israel to its special status and developed its subsequent spiritual heritage. In other words, the story becomes a parable of how Jacob (and Israel) had to reckon with God in order to be spiritually regenerated and reconciled with his brother, Esau, whom he had so grievously deceived.

The restriction against eating the thigh muscle (vs.32) appears nowhere else in the OT, but may have been a taboo in more ancient Semitic tribal life. Its mention may be a gratuitous addition to the original text. It has also been suggested that the thigh muscle represents the seat of life, not unimaginable considering its proximity to the male sexual organs.

PSALM 121 (Alternate) This psalm has become known as the most beautiful in the pilgrim collection or Songs of Ascent (Pss. 120-134). Written with an antiphonal structure, it had a place in the temple liturgy as pilgrims approached the sacred precincts at the end of a perilous journey.

The psalm may be better known to us in the hymn, *Unto the hill around do I lift up my longing eyes,* by John Campbell, Marquis of Lorne, later Duke of Argyll, (1845-1914) then Governor General of Canada (1878-83). It is said that he was inspired to write this poem standing in Rideau Hall, the Governor General's residence in Ottawa, looking across the Ottawa River to the Gatineau Hills to the north. Another story insists that the Rocky Mountains were its inspirational provenance.

The psalmist may have been seeing the hills surrounding Jerusalem when he composed the psalm. The metaphor of the unchanging hills is well placed. Compared to the brief span of human life, the stability and permanence of Earth's geography does seem eternal. This comparison certainly expresses what the psalmist tried to convey, a most profound trust in God on whose protection and providence we can depend eternally.

2 TIMOTHY 3:14-4:5 In studying the Pastoral Epistles, we have contended that these are early 2^nd century documents addressing the needs of that era when heterodox beliefs challenged the apostolic tradition. Apologists of the period and later church historians universally branded these challenges as heresies. Many of them still exist in different forms, if also without recognition or admission even in the mainline denominations

In this selection we have a specific example of how this senior church leader, using the names of Paul and his co-worker, Timothy, endeavoured to maintain the orthodox tradition as he had received it. He knew intimately of Paul's missionary career and the opposition he had confronted at every turn. He would also seem to have had before him some fragments of Paul's own communications and possibly also other "scriptures" such as Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.

Of course, he probably also had the Hebrew scriptures, most likely in their Greek translation, the Septuagint. It is unlikely, however, that these would have been so highly regarded at a time when the church faced imminent threats from heretical aberrations. William Barclay, on the other hand, contends that it was exclusively the Hebrew scriptures referred to in this instance. However, he translates the crucial phrase in vs. 16 as "all God-inspired scripture." This leaves room for qualification as to which scriptures the author had in mind. Barclay notes that even the Gnostics had their scriptures, as fantastic and esoteric as they may have been.

It seems more helpful to treat this passage as referring to the apostolic tradition which was becoming the hallmark to guide the church into the unknown future. By the middle of the 2^nd century, this tradition was placed under great stress by Marcion, an ardent Pauline Christian too easily dismissed as "another Gnostic and arch-heretic." A brilliant scholar who adopted critical methods similar to those of modern scholarship, Marcion identified only seven of the epistles attributed to Paul as genuinely Pauline. He also accepted only part of Luke's Gospel and Acts. His main difference with the apostolic tradition lay in his total rejection of the Old Testament and its representation of God as cruel, violent and evil-creating. He favoured a total breach with Judaism and the purging of all Judaizing tendencies and compromises. It is not impossible that the Pastoral Letters to Timothy and Titus were part of the church's response to the Marcionite controversy.

Whatever documents this author may have been referring to in vss. 15-16, he regarded them as authentic, inspired and definitive of the true faith. The appeal to orthodox authority comes through in almost every phrase. Literalists have appealed to this passage as their authority for plenary inspiration of the whole biblical text. The author appeals beyond the written texts, however, to the anticipated return of Christ in judgment (4:1). As he urges his fellow ministers to maintain the orthodox tradition, he expects them to face uncompromising opposition and unsound doctrine (vss.3-4). Their role is to be unfailingly persistent in their preaching, patient in their approach, and consistent in their teaching.

Gregory J. Riley, of the Claremont School of Theology, in California, has recently published a study of the development of orthodoxy during the first few centuries of the Christian era. (One Jesus, Many Christs: How Jesus Inspired Not One True Christianity, But Many. HarperSanFranciso, 1997) He drew on many contemporary Jewish, Christian and Greco-Romano texts which he believes influenced the writers of the NT and the early interpreters of the faith and theologians of the church in their perceptions of who Jesus was and of his significance for believers and unbelievers alike. The struggle to define a limited canon of scripture as well as an orthodox tradition went on relentlessly for several centuries. In this selection, we have a specific example of how this conflict occurred long before the proponents of the trinitarian creeds declared victory in the 4^th and 5^th centuries and had the political power to enforce their views on the western church, but not the fragmented eastern church.

LUKE 18:1-8. This story of the persistent woman seeking justice reflects a much more primitive legal system than the one to which we are accustomed. Because she appears to have had direct access to the judge on several occasions, one presumes that the circumstances were quite unlike those with which Jesus himself had to deal. More likely we have here a situation where village elders met in some public place such as the market square or the village gate to hear and judge the complaints of neighbour against neighbour. The woman, too poor to afford a bribe and without influential friends, had only her indomitable persistence to gain a satisfactory decision. Such perversions of the law would appear to have been common.

Those details are not as important as the reason why Jesus told the story and why Luke included it in his narrative at this point. The story contrasts God's merciful and speedy judgment with that of the weary judge who just wanted to get the woman out of his hair. Professor George Caird pointed out that this and the subsequent parable both deal with prayer, a favourite topic of Luke. They also relate directly back to the preceding passage of eschatological predictions. Caird comments: "If persistence prevails with one who cares only for his own peace and comfort, how much more will it prevail with One who has compassion on his elect." (The Pelican New Testament Commentaries: St. Luke. London: Penguin Books, 1963.)

But who may be regarded as the elect? This is a significant question for every Christian. In our global village today, are Christians today more elect than Moslems or Hindus or Buddhists; or even Jews? According to Caird the elect are called to serve God through suffering for their faith at the hands of an ungodly world. Loyalty to God causes them to pray persistently for the deliverance only God can give. Then, does election mean that God favours the innocent victims of persecution? Caird would agree that this is so.

Some Americans feel victimized by the attacks on their commercial and political heartland. But their assailants also feel victimized by the irresistible advance of a materialist, alien culture which threatens to destroy every aspect of their religious heritage. Who then are the persecutors? Who are the elect of God in the many violent instances of injustice which the news media brings within our purview as daily fare? When teaching at Harvard University, Canadian philosopher and politician, Michael Ignatieff, wrote about the Islamic terrorists in the London newspaper, The Guardian: "What we are up against is apocalyptic nihilism .... It is absurd to believe they [the terrorists] are making political demands at all. They are seeking the violent transformation of an irremediably sinful and unjust world." In such a crisis, is it surprising that some are willing to commit suicidal murder for their cause while some Christians cling to a hope of an eschatological redemption and see these terrifying events as evidence of the imminent return of Christ? Is there no middle ground between these two extremes where true justice and peace may be found?