12th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 20:10-13

I like the prophet Jeremiah. All the prophets wrote about the despair they sometimes felt in living out their mission but Jeremiah takes it to a whole new level! His despair is liberally sprinkled throughout this book. He also wrote the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah doesn’t shrink away from confronting the bad in life and letting God know he’s not happy about it. One commentator says “Jeremiah laments longer and better than anyone in the Bible!” I think he gives us a model of being honest in prayer.

Looking back at the history…. The kingdom of Israel fell to Babylon in the early 700s BC. For about a 100 years Babylon makes forays further and further south to threaten the kingdom of Judah. Finally Judah fell to Babylon in 587BC and almost all the Israelites were deported throughout the Babylonian empire.

Jeremiah’s career begins in the late 500s and spans the fall and deportation. His job was primarily to tell the Jewish people of the kingdom of Judah that being conquered by Babylon was inevitable and, in fact, was God’s judgment and they should just accept it and go meekly. Obviously this was considered a bit treasonous and so Jeremiah did not have an easy life.

Chapters 18-20 are a reflection on the symbolic meaning of the prophet’s life. This last section ends in the prophet’s despair. He despairs of being able to live out the call or even being heard by the people he’s been sent to.

Take a few moments to read part of Jeremiah’s call story in 1:17-10 where Jeremiah is being addressed by God.

Now read 20:7-9 which picks up a little before today’s lectionary reading. Everything Jeremiah was supposed to preach was about how God was going to let a foreign invader conquer the land – that was definitely going to bring violence. There was nothing good really that Jeremiah could say. So he tries to suppress his prophetic voice but that doesn’t work; he has to preach, he simply has to say these things.

In verse 10 Jeremiah endures name-calling: “There goes old ‘Danger-Everywhere’, ‘Chicken-little’ – the sky is falling.” He’s being mocked for his predictions. Even his friends are hoping for his downfall.

This is the context of verses 11-13: despair, hopelessness, rejection. I’m reminded of how many Psalms start off this way – in a dark place that ultimately looks to God.

The rest of this chapter will shift back into despair. I think the lectionary does us a disservice with this reading because it plucks out only the encouraging words (you can read verses 7-18 to get a sense of this). But we know the Christian life is not all good times and parties. We regularly go through times of clarity followed by doubt, back into recognition of who God is and what God is doing in and through us and then back into despair. It’s incredibly helpful to know this pattern exists and It’s important to remember the good times to see us through the times of apparent hopelessness.

How has the pattern of despair -> hope -> despair -> hope been true in your own life?

What lessons from times of hope can you carry forward into times of despair? How can you prepare for those times that inevitably come?

Matthew 10:26-33

During Ordinary Time, I’ll cover the Old Testament and then the Gospel readings as a pair so that we can better see the connections.

Chapter 10 is the mission discourse and it functions on two levels: Jesus is sending the disciples and Jesus is sending us as well.

The reading opens with Jesus saying not to be afraid of them which refers back to verses 16-25 talking about those who will persecute his followers.

Verse 27 talks about proclaiming a secret message from the rooftops. In the Middle East, roofs are flat and if you really want to spread news, you go up on the rooftop. You’d be surprised how fast news travels in a society where women are confined to the house! This is a reminder that Jesus’ teaching is not some esoteric stuff designed only for the elite or the “professionals.” Rather it was intended from the start to be public domain.

Verse 29 tells us how much God cares for us. Sparrows were the cheapest form of meat that could be bought – the cheapest life on the market. And yet God feels each time a sparrow dies. Verse 30 extends this, talking about the hairs on our head being counted. This was a typical Semitic way of saying that the whole person is honored and protected.

Verses 32-39 speak to how we confess or proclaim Jesus. There is a direct correlation to how we profess Jesus and how Jesus then represents us before God.

Imagine a small bird dying and God grieving, perhaps even crying over it. How does this image help you imagine God’s love for you?

In what ways do you acknowledge Christ to others? Are there ways in which you deny Christ?

Old Testament / Gospel Connection

How are the Old Testament and Gospel readings connected? Each week I will offer my views on this but I encourage you to first read the passages and look for your own connections!

Both passages speak of people sent out on mission – seemingly impossible missions at that. Jeremiah’s message never gained acceptance and he was persecuted his entire life. Jesus tells us it will be the same for us but don’t fear! We are of infinite value to the God who loves us and God will protect us in the carrying out of our mission.

Romans 5:12-15

See detailed background on Romans here.

This passage is important enough to make it three times into the Sunday lectionary readings.

This reading is a contrast and compare of Adam and Christ. Paul is not necessarily interested in Adam for Adam’s sake. Paul wants to say something about Christ and he wants to say it strongly. So he says it against a negative backdrop of Adam.

Paul presupposes an accepted belief that the first human – Adam – was responsible for the introduction of death to the human race. This is found in a wide variety of Jewish literature of the time. What is not in that literature is a belief that Adam was also responsible for the prevalence of sin. What we now call original sin is very much a later Christian development. True to his Jewish roots, Paul is less concerned with the onset of sin and more concerned with its result: death.

Adam began a history of a fallen humanity characterized by sin and death. Christ began a history of a redemption characterized by life and freedom. This shows us the incomparable nature of God’s salvific grace.

Chapters 5-8 tell us that the love of God assures salvation to those justified by faith. It was written to a primarily Gentile audience.

Notice there is no mention of the concept of “original sin” in verse 12. That term was coined by St. Augustine 400 years later. The Council of Carthage in 418 said that this passage forms the basis of the dogma of original sin.

Verse 12 says that Adam left us a legacy of sin and death. Sin and death are personifications. Sin is an active force at work in the world as is death; sin is the twin of death. Adam landed us in this dilemma where our lives are controlled by these Malevolent powers.

Verses 13 and 14 are a clarification on the role of the Law. At this point Paul’s opponents might could say that you can’t go back to Adam because there was no law until Moses. But Paul says that even without the law, there were still these malevolent powers influencing human life, even if we couldn’t name it “sin.” And Death comes to all on the basis of the legacy of sin. Why does he belabor this point? Because he’s talking primarily to Gentiles – people who might think that they don’t have to worry about these malevolent powers because they’re not subject to the Law of Moses. Paul wants to make sure they understand that they are, in fact, governed by these same forces.

Verses 15-17 say that Adam and Christ are both alike and unalike in many ways. Of course, even in the likeness, Christ is superior to Adam. Adam’s sin brought death to all just as Christ’s death brings life to all.

Verses 17, 18 and 19 all say basically the same thing in different ways: Adam brought these powers into the world upon everyone. That’s pretty powerful. But Christ’s gift is way more powerful. It brings abundance and life to all.

How have you experienced the malevolent powers of sin and death influencing your own life? How have you experienced the power of Christ’s gift?

Questions to ponder