The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), September 6, 2020—Exodus 12:1–14; Matthew 18:15–20

Kirshenblatt, Mayer (1916–2009)

Passover Seder at My Paternal Grandfather's, 1992

 

Exodus 12:1–14

 

Know How to Party!

 

This text, combining liturgy

And narrative in one,

Things like, "You shall" plus "I'll pass over"

Say that we're not done

With any biblical "account"

Until we realize,

What makes it sacred is when we,

Somehow, internalize

The things that happened way back when.

Thus, in our time and place,

The story's meant to give to us

A measure of the grace

That we still need, that is, the news

That God's the one who saves

From slavery, disaster; and,

From cradle to the grave

Will not abandon you, so thus,

Don’t fail or hesitate,

Within your households everywhere,

Such love to celebrate.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

 

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Matthew 18:15–20

 

Ouch!

 

In case you think that Jesus gave us rules

That we can use to run the church, some tools

For how to deal with disagreement;

Or how, in anyone's community,

The way to solve all that disunity

Is give the worst the kicked-out treatment—

Remember how he treated tax collectors,

Or people over in the gentile sector,

And love them even more than it's convenient!

 

Scott L. Barton

 

“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), August 30, 2020—Exodus 3:1–15; Matthew 16:21–28

Moses and the Burning Bush, part of a fresco in the Dura-Europas synagogue, in present-day Syria, discovered in 1932,  the last phase of construction dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 C.E. Photo courtesy of Art in the Christian Tradition, Vanderbilt Divinity Library

Exodus 3:1–15

 

When God Notices

 

So Moses, just a shepherd in the wilderness,

Whose job, to watch for sheep that might be in distress,

Observes an unconsumed, yet burning bush one day,

And does not think it better that he stay away!

Instead, he turns aside to see this bush in flames,

And from the bush, the LORD twice calls out Moses' name

Upon the LORD's observing that this Moses looked!

How strange that Moses does not think his goose is cooked,

But like his forebears, Abraham and Isaac, too,

And Jacob (even Esau!) says words like, "I do."

 

This Here I am's a sign of danger up ahead,

As if, through thick and thin, the speaker then is wed

To One whose promise not a bed of roses gives,

But rather, presence, if the speaker dares to live

As if this LORD rests not, until oppression ends;

Perhaps, this means, you'll be the one this see-er sends;

He calls himself, to Moses, I AM WHO I AM,

And adds the name, the LORD, the God of Abraham,

The God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, too.

And holiness is more than taking off your shoes.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of 'the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

 

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

 

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“ God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

 

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Matthew 16:21–28

 

Special Agents

 

Sometimes it almost seems as if 

Another person pushes him

To go where he has not yet gone,

Such as the Canaanite, who showed

That she was not some dog, when with

Her grace and wit she took him on;

And now, with Peter's push against 

His telling them about his fate,

He pushes harder back to say

Not only he, but even those

Who follow him should be prepared

Their cross to take—it's now their way. 

 

The heroes of this holy book

Are never fixed, are never still;

They bend, they move, and even Jesus

Bends to do his Father's will.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

 

 

The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), August 23, 2020—Matthew 16:13–20 and Exodus 1:8—2:10

Exodus 1:8—2:10

Shiphrah, Puah, Jocheved, Miriam, Pharaoh's Daughter, and the infant Moses. 

Painting in Dura-Europas synagogue, in present-day Syria, discovered in 1932, the last phase of construction dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 CE. Photo courtesy of Art in the Christian Tradition, Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

 

 

Five Women's Disobedience

 

The civil disobedience

Of women isn't new,

Nor did it stop with just one case

Where midwives helped push through

The life that Yahweh had in mind;

Oh, no! This kind of birth,

Meant not for just a few back then

Is all about the worth

Of all—despite some despot's claim

That he could cleanse a race

Right off the map! His daughter even

Risks her own disgrace,

While Shiphrah and Puah, and Moses'

Mother and sister, too,

By their outwitting, show this LORD

Will never be subdued.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

 

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

 

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

 

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

 

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Matthew 16:13–20

 

"Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah."

 

Perhaps he thought a movement, underground,

Would be more fitting for his church

Than something popular, and much renowned;

Who knows? The Lord, I guess. But search

The scriptures and you'll see it's hard to find

Cathedrals, or a meetinghouse,

Or power, or wealth; for what this Peter binds,

Is us to Christ, despite our doubts,

Faced every day, that he alone can save;

We're free to follow him—we’re loosed!—

In church or out; but in, are people brave,

Because from love they're ne'er seduced.

 

Scott L. Barton

(It may well be that the terms "bind" and "loose" are rabbinic for forbidding and permitting. But here I see the former as forbidding our separation from God, and the latter as permitting us to follow in the footsteps of the Lord of all.)

 

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

 

 

The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time/Eleventh after Pentecost (A), August 16, 2020—Genesis 45:1–15; Matthew 15:(10–20), 21–28

Rembrandt: Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers (c. 1640–1642), Musée du Louvre

 

"And after this his brothers talked with him."

 

I wonder what it was they talked about

When Joseph finally told them who he was?

Perhaps, "How's Dinah? How's she holding up?"

Or, "How's your mother? ...Yours? ...And yours?" because

We're led to think he cared about such things;

We can guess, "Don't be angry with yourselves"

Reveals he knew his family well enough

To see that deep within these brothers twelve

Was worry over whom Dad loved the best!

He later* tells them not to quarrel on the way. 

They talked. They left. The promise did not die;

And talk is not as cheap as people say.

                                                                        *(vs. 24)

Scott L. Barton

 

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

 

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Matthew 15:(10–20), 21–28

 

Jean Colombe: The Canaanite Woman, in the French Gothic manuscript,  

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, completed 1485–1489; Musée Condé, Chantilly, France.

 

It's the Canaanite Woman Who Gives Me Delight

 

Oh, to think that he learned it from some Canaanite,

When he knew it quite well, but he wasn't quite right;

When he argued how food couldn't make you defiled,

Which in hearing reports, made the Pharisees riled,

Since to toss out religion, tradition and rules

Can produce people fearful and fretful and fools!

But the prophets have always decried when a rite 

Has, in hurting the poor, turned creative thought, trite;

Jesus, too, observed how the establishment fails

To point out where a lot of, quote, "goodness" oft ails;

But he found himself mouthing some "tried and true" aims

That did nothing the love of his God to proclaim:

Thus, the Canaanite mom played her prophetic role,

Reaching back to Hosea and Amos and Joel;

But the thing about Jesus is, he paid her heed—

Helping those who now follow him, follow her lead!

 

Scott L. Barton

 

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

 

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.