16th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19

This book was written in the last half of the first century BC – about 50 years before Christ. The audience was Alexandrian Jews; they had been part of the Babylonian exile and ended up in Alexandria, Egypt, and never returned to the Jewish homeland. Alexandria was the largest concentration of Jews outside Palestine in Jesus’ time.

This book is written in Greek and is very Greek in thought. The overall message is to stay firm and not leave the faith. It exhorts the diaspora Jews to stay firm in their faith as they live in a culture not their own. The ironic thing is it does this in the language and form of the surrounding culture because that is all the audience understood. It is a practical appeal that one’s learning should have an impact on one’s moral life. It’s a reminder that we can’t just keep all this stuff as head knowledge – we are called to live it out.

The second half of the book (chapters 11-19) explores the theme of God’s fidelity to God’s people in the Exodus. This part of the book is a retelling of the nation’s history in an attempt to explore who God is. Remember – the people are in exile, the Temple is long gone. All the stories they have are connected to the land and to the temple – that’s how they knew God. Who is God now? And is any of that old history still relevant?

11:17 through 12:27 is a digression on the mercy of God.

Verse 13 begins by saying “for neither…” The previous verses were about God’s power and ability to deliver justice. But it’s not like God is accountable to anyone for anything God does. And then the author begins a list of divine characteristics, the first of which is God’s care. This is about the total and exclusive providence of God: God has all care of all. God has no peer or rival so God is accountable to no one, but God’s power is tempered by the fact that God cares anyway.

Verses 14-16 are the next characteristic: that of leniency or mercy. Again, God is accountable to no one, but God’s might is tempered by his leniency.

I think verse 17 is saying that God adapts God’s revelation to individuals. To those who are inclined to not believe in God, God reveals God’s self as powerful and mighty to provoke a response. To those who do believe, God reveals God’s self in the places that need it – the places in us that still resist God’s might, mercy, and loving care of us.

Verse 19 is the reminder that we do this kind of study not for head knowledge but to change our way of living. God’s acts and deeds teach us an important facet of God’s nature: kindness. The dictionary definition of kindness is “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.” It is Jesus’ message of love of neighbor.

In what ways do you exhibit the divine characteristic of kindness: being friendly, generous and considerate?

Matthew 13:24-43

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.

This is the second of three weeks in this chapter. For an overview of the chapter see the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Jesus continues the use of parables and in this chapter we have entered a world where things are not always as they seem.

The first parable last week was about seeds/soil/sower. This week, all three are “the kingdom of heaven is like.” It is like weeds among the wheat (parable and interpretation unique to Matthew). It is like a mustard seed (common to all the gospels). And it is like yeast (a parable also found in Luke). Next week we’ll read the last two, also about “the kingdom of heaven is like.”

Like last week, most likely the interpretation section today is Matthew’s doing. We also see the same pattern as last week: some parables, Jesus’ reason for speaking in parables, and then an interpretation.

Parable of the wheat
Verse 24 tells us that Jesus “proposes” another parable to them. The Greek word here means “to place or set before.” It’s most often used in reference to a meal – to serve a meal. Matthew uses it only here and in verse 31. Mark and Luke use the word in reference to the feeding of the 5,000. Luke uses it for Jesus’ words “into your hands I commit my spirit.” This is a word that means more than just telling someone something.

When Jesus says “such and such is like….” the comparison is to the entirety of the parable that follows, not just the first thing he mentions. So we don’t have to narrow the interpretation to the kingdom of heaven is like a man or seeds or weeds. It’s all of these things together.

Like the parable of the sower, the root problem seems to be: why do some Jews reject the good news of the kingdom? But a parallel question (more relevant for us today perhaps): why does God intervene so little to bring order to the world? This goes back to the character of God which I think is the thin connection to the Old Testament reading. Parables are intended to raise more than one question. Another question raised by this parable is who is responsible for evil and what is to be done about it?

Verse 25 says the neighbor crept in and sowed weeds. There is abundant evidence in ancient legal sources that this happened regularly between rival farmers. Again, this would have been something common and relatable to the audience. They also would have been familiar with a weed called darnel, which looks exactly like wheat in its early stages and it takes a while to become obvious that it’s not wheat.

In verse 27, the servants try to get ahead of things by deflecting blame: we just sowed what you gave us. Didn’t you give us good seed?!

The way wheat and darnel grow, if you catch it early enough you can pull up the weeds without causing too much harm. But if you wait, the weed would have wrapped its roots around the wheat so you couldn’t pull the weed without pulling the wheat. Pulling up the weeds as soon as possible is the usual course of action. The other thing is that darnel is poisonous so letting it grow and trying to separate it later is a huge risk because it’s not easy to do properly. It also risks the weed depriving the wheat crop of nutrients and sun.

Remember that a parable always has a twist and many times it’s not obvious unless you’re familiar with the cultural context. This is a culture that puts a huge value on shame and the avoidance of shame. This is a situation where an enemy has shamed the man and society expects that the man would uproot the visible shame. This is the twist: this refusal to retaliate to an insult; the man’s assumption of all the risk. This response probably caused the servants to think the master was a bit off his rocker. The audience, too, would think Jesus strange indeed for telling a story in this way. It just doesn’t fit the world as it’s supposed to be.

If we stopped right here, we might conclude that this parable is teaching us both about tolerance and also patient waiting. But it’s worth noting that this interpretation depends on how you think the parable ends. Mostly we jump to the conclusion that everything turns out as the farmer intends – he has a good crop of wheat, he successfully separates it from the weeds, and everyone is happy. We assume it all turns out okay, that good triumphs over evil. In reality, the parable as it stands here is ambiguous as to the ending, another little twist.

Parable of the mustard seed
Jesus proposes to them another parable in verse 32. Scholars debate exactly what plant Jesus was talking about. It’s not that a mustard seed is quantitatively the smallest seed or that the tree it produces is quantitatively the largest tree. The point here is that what is produced is infinitely disproportional to what was started with, just like last week’s parable of the harvest of seed.

Parable of the yeast
Verse 33 begins another parable about yeast. Sometimes in Scripture, yeast is bad (and Jesus does warn them later in chapter 16 to “beware the yeast of the Pharisees”). Here, though, this is a housekeeper making bread and the yeast is vital for that. This yeast is good.

The woman of the house would have the honor in that culture of kneading the dough because it was such a core element of survival. The men would have known this but this metaphor would have been particularly vibrant for any women listeners.

What’s odd is that the measure is about 50 pounds of flour and would produce a huge amount – enough for over a 100 loaves. It calls to mind some Old Testament stories where large measures of dough are used: Sarah when she bakes for the heavenly visitors Genesis 18:6; Gideon when he bakes for an angel of God Judges 6:19; Hannah when she presents Samuel at the temple 1 Samuel 1:24. All are associated with preparing to be in God’s presence.

Verse 33 says she mixes it all up. The Greek word for “mixed” is actually “to conceal” and the root word is krypto. Usage of this Greek word in documents of the time outside of the Bible does not suggest that this word was typically used in reference to yeast and dough. Matthew uses this word krypto in other places in the gospel to talk about the paradox of the hiddenness of the gospel and its revelation.

Interpretations
Verse 35 quotes Psalm 78:2. Matthew is saying that the teaching of Jesus fulfills the promises of Israel’s prophets – this is a point he makes again and again. “Lain hidden” uses the word krypto again.

The Jews believed that at the beginning of time, the ultimate purpose of creation was written on a scroll which was then sealed. At the end of time this seal would be broken and the secrets revealed (common theme in the book of Revelation). Jesus is declaring here that he is inaugurating this end time. He is breaking the seal and showing what has been hidden. And going back to the stories where large quantities of flour were prepared in advance of an epiphany, a revealing of God, this is connected too because Jesus himself is what is revealed – or who is revealed.

The mustard seed and the yeast both talk about a sudden shift from the near invisibility of the kingdom to its full flowering, almost beyond belief.

Last week we saw the pattern of parable, an aside on why Jesus spoke in parables and then the explanation of the parable. We have this same pattern here, with verses 36-43 as an explanation.

It’s interesting that these farming parables (last week’s seeds and this week’s wheat) both have an allegorical explanation attached to them in Matthew’s gospel that most likely were not part of Jesus’ original teaching. The farming metaphors would have been grasped by Jesus’ original audience. Matthew’s community were mostly likely city dwellers who no longer had the context to fully appreciate the farming story. So Matthew has to give them something to work with! This is what happens all the time when someone preaches: making Scripture relevant to the moment.

So what we do with all this? What does it mean to our ordinary, daily existence?

One aspect of this is our very well-developed tendency to judge. After reading this parable, though, we might ask are we more pro-wheat or anti-weed? Do we allow people the time to grow by way of God’s grace into goodness? Can we trust that the future belongs to God? All very piercing questions.

St. Augustine used this parable to argue that heretics or the lapsed should not be cut off from the church. This is reinforced, I think, by the interpretation in verse 39 of the harvest being “the end of the age”: there shouldn’t be any premature attempts to sort out the wheat from the weeds, no matter how apparent the distinction. I am also reminded of Pope Francis’ famous quip “who am I to judge?!”

I think this also connects us to today’s Romans reading and the spirit joining to help us pray. Sometimes we’d like to pray down judgment and I know I’ve done my fair share of it. But this parable reminds us that judgment is not our business. And this also connects to the Old Testament passage – judgment is God’s business and God does it with infinite care and concern, in ways that are far better than we could ever hope to achieve.

Another way to look at this is that we should not neglect any opportunity to sow, in any field, even a tiny single seed. What you should look at is not the smallness of the seed or the quality of the soil or what might prevent it growing but rather the plant which might grow from it. In verse 38 it says that “the field is the world.” We’re not called to just sow in the confines of the church community. We get sent out every week – Ite, missa est – go, you have been sent!

Are you more pro-wheat or anti-weed?

In what ways do you allow people the time to grow by way of God’s grace into goodness?

Can you trust that the future belongs to God?

Romans 8:26-27

See detailed background on Romans here.

This is the third of five weeks in this chapter. For background on this chapter, see this post.

In this passage Paul addresses the discipline of our prayer life. He says we don’t know how to pray and this encompasses that we don’t know what to pray for and we also don’t always know how to engage in the disciplines that get us to pray. So we’re in need of help all the way around!

Verse 26 says the Spirit comes to our aid. In the Greek, this is literally “the spirit joins to help the weakness of us.” The Greek is the wonderfully complex word sunantilambanomai; supplying help that exactly corresponds to the need. The image could be this: a young child is trying to fit pieces of something together. You could take it from the child and do it yourself. Or you could put your hands on top of the child’s hands and join to help them do it. The latter is the image in this verse. We pray and seek to do God’s will but our human limitations often cloud our thinking and obstruct us. So the Spirit takes hold of us and enables us to act and pray as we should.

In verses 24-25 Paul had this little digression on hope, or the lack of it. When he talks about “our weakness” here in verse 26, he is most likely referring back to that tendency within us to lose hope. We can’t see the goal towards which we progress; hence, we don’t know how to pray for it. Paul perceives this as a weakness within us, but one that can be helped.

These verses tell us that our human weakness is not an obstacle to our call to holiness – God will work not despite our weakness but through them.

“I have the conviction that my inadequate attempt to understand is supported by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, that my acts of worship, petition and thanksgiving are borne along and remodeled by the Spirit’s infinite and eternal acts. … The Spirit breaks forth out of the very core of the believer’s spiritual life, showing them the way, stirring them to action, thinking, willing and praying with them.” from Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar

Can you think of something you’ve prayed for in the past that God turned out very differently?

What are things you are praying for right now and how can you invite the spirit to join your weakness and supply the help that exactly corresponds to the need?

Questions to ponder

What do these readings say about how to live day in and day out as Christians?