Tag: compassion
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Reflecting on Deuteronomy 24 10-21
Do people who have no fields or olive groves or vineyards – which probably includes most of us – need to pay any attention to the instructions for leaving some of their produce for the stranger and the orphan and the widow? And if so, why? We might ask similar questions about lending money and…
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Studying Deuteronomy 24 10-21
One element of Biblical justice is compassion for the poor and vulnerable, and we will be focusing on that element as we study Deuteronomy 24:10-21, our text for Sunday, January 30. [Some questions on this text are here.] Here are a few notes on that text: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: This is our third text from…
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Studying Genesis 21 8-20
We are studying Genesis 21:8-20 for Sunday, January 9. This text narrates the final episode in the Biblical account of Hagar and Ishmael. Final, that is, unless you count the note in Genesis 25:9 that Isaac and Ishmael together bury their father in the cave of Machpelah. And unless we suppress all our human emotions,…
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Studying Lamentations 5
We are studying Lamentations 5 – the whole poem – for Sunday, April 25. This is the concluding poem of the cycle that forms the book of Lamentations, which is a lament for the suffering of the people of Jerusalem and Judah after the destruction by the Babylonians. [Some questions on the text are here.]…
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Reflecting on Leviticus 19 18, Luke 10 25-37
We are studying Leviticus 19:18 and Luke 10:25-37 for Sunday, October 18. This is the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, and Jesus’s commentary on the commandment, in the form of the parable of the Good Samaritan. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might want to consider as…
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Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Although I have picked up the task of typing the order of service for our Sunday morning worship, that doesn’t mean I read the bulletin ahead of time, especially if whoever is planning the service has copied-and-pasted in various blocks of text representing parts of the service. This explains how today’s prayer of confession hit…
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Notes on Matthew 12 1-14
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, June 3 is Matthew 12:1-14. It relates two “controversy” stories, in which Jesus comes into conflict with “the Pharisees” over what is or isn’t permissible on the Sabbath. Here are my notes on the text:
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“Listened to”
“But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe …” Genesis 19:29 (NLT) – suggesting that God knows the entire conversation in Genesis 18:23-33 (“would you really destroy the righteous along with the wicked??”) is all the time about Abraham’s nephew. NRSV & the MT don’t refer back to the conversation as directly;…
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Philosophy as Mosquito Net
I ran across a long-lost philosophy the other day. “How can I keep from hating people?” asked a friend of mine. She was talking about people who have lots of power and who use it to hurt people. On purpose. So after running through what I think of as the “rage Psalms” (10, 35, 73…
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On Being One of Them
Late last night, I sent the email to the student who had hoped to change the grade in the class that was over in June. No, there is no good way to do this, I finally said. No, I can’t. Which is true. But not simply true. “The faculty member always has some discretion.” That…
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Exegetical Exercise – Jonah 3
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, May 21 is Jonah 3 – the aftermath of Jonah’s escapade with the big fish. This is the text: (1) The word of YHWH came to Jonah a second time, saying: (2) “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell…
Matters of Interpretation 