17th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12

Under King David, the Israelite kingdom was at its height of peace and prosperity. Under his son Solomon it flourished but towards the end of Solomon’s reign it began a decline which would result in a divided kingdom at his death. Chapters 1-2 narrate the death of David and the securing of the kingdom under Solomon. We could title chapter 3 “A promising beginning” but by chapter 11 we’ll see a tragic ending.

“The wisdom of Solomon” is a phrase even people not familiar with the Bible will often know.

Verses 1-4 are not in the lectionary but they talk about how Solomon cements his authority over the united kingdom and then he begins to establish strategic political alliances with neighboring kingdoms through diplomatic marriages. This was a very common strategy in the ancient world.

It says he marries the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The Pharaoh of the Exodus was Ramses II and that was around 1300 BC. David was somewhere around 1000 BC and Solomon in the 900s BC. In about 400 years, the Israelites go from being slaves to being allied in marriage with their former masters. Chapter 11 will talk about all of Solomon’s woes because of his many foreign wives (700 plus 300 concubines to be exact).

Verse 2 references sacrificing on the high places. This was Baal worship – the religion of the Canaanites from whom the Jews originally took the land.

These verses talk about how Solomon “loved the LORD” and he goes to this place Gibeon to offer sacrifices. In verse 15 we see that the ark of the covenant is residing there. It was a holy place for the Jews – as close as they could get to a temple until Solomon builds the Temple.

In verse 6 Solomon reminds God how great his father David was. And then verse 7, Solomon praises God for bringing him to the throne to succeed David even though Solomon is a “mere youth” “not knowing at all how to act.” Verse 8 talks about how God has set Solomon to rule over a huge kingdom.

In verse 9 Solomon gets to his request. We always think about how selfless this sounds. In verse 11 God is going to complement Solomon for all the things he didn’t ask for. Here’s the thing though: in the wisdom thinking of that time, there was a very direct connection between having the type of wisdom that Solomon does ask for and peace and prosperity. So it’s true, Solomon doesn’t outright ask for “a long life, riches or the life of his enemies.” But there was expected to be a direct connection between those things and “a listening heart and the ability to distinguish between good and evil.” So this request is perhaps not as selfless as we may initially judge it to be!

God ultimately gives Solomon four divine grants: wisdom, riches, glory, and a long life. 1 Kings 3:16-10:29 will demonstrate how all these were fulfilled

In verse 15 Solomon awakes from the dream and worships God for what God has promised. This passage is followed by Solomon’s judging the famous case of the two women both claiming a baby.

In this passage we see a man who seeks after wisdom and God grants that desire.

How would you respond if God came to you and said “Whatever you ask I will give you”?

Matthew 13:44-52

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

In this chapter we have entered a world where things are not always as they seem. Everything is just a little bit off kilter. All of the material today is unique to Matthew.

Verse 44 tells us there is a buried treasure. This uses the Greek word krypto meaning hidden; this same word has been used throughout this chapter. In the age before banks, burying a treasure was the common way of protecting it. Ancient deeds specified ownership of the property and everything on it.

The most likely way for a person to find a buried treasure is for the person to be working the land. So this makes us think that this person is a tenant farmer, maybe even living hand to mouth. He sells what he does have to buy this field – maybe not very smart. On the other hand, he knows what’s in the field!

The emphasis here is not on their resulting wealth but on the price required to obtain it.

Uhhh… isn’t it morally and ethically wrong to find something that doesn’t belong to you and not return it??? Who has the right to the found object? Why does he go out of joy? That seems strange. This is also a culture where, if someone gains something, someone else must lose something. So you can’t buy the field and then suddenly have this treasure – people would know, people would judge. It wouldn’t be good, it would bring shame.

Verses 45-46 seem to be the same message with a different metaphor.

In both these parables, the people are acting almost irrationally. They seem so intent on possessing this one particular thing that they give up everything else. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like: it makes us act irrationally in order to possess it, because we must possess it.

The next parable parallels the wheat and the weeds from last week.

Verse 47 is a picture of a net thrown into the sea and collecting God knows what. Jewish law prohibited consumption of many different types of fish. The net would have collected both the good and the bad, both the permitted and the prohibited.

The interpretation tells us that the kingdom is a mixed bag of saints and sinners and the final sorting must be left to God. In the meantime, patient tolerance must guide the practice of those living in the kingdom.

From these parables we get the message that the kingdom is full of good and bad people but it’s something that we should want to possess so badly that we would give up everything in order to obtain it.

Jesus then asks the disciples in verse 51 if they understand. “All these things” refers to Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom: its presence, small beginnings, varied responses to it, extraordinary fullness in the future, and the final judgment – all the parables he’s used in this chapter. And they blithely answer of course we understand!

Verse 52 uses the word “Instructed into.” The Greek is a version of “disciple”; “discipled into.” Scribes of that day were more than copyists; they were the interpreters of the law. This is an important verse. It is a kind of parable about the making of parables – a metaparable. It invites the reader/hearer to enter the parabolic process through creating new parables to add to the ones just given.

Many scholars see this as a somewhat autobiographical note from the author of the gospel. A number of times now he’s taken Jesus’ original parables and put explanations to them. So the old could be both the Old Testament and Jesus’ original teaching. The new, in that case, would be the new interpretations we get from that. Paul did much the same. The new does not make the old useless; both are necessary to understanding. And there’s a subtle implication that this is something which continues even now. Every time a homily is given or a sermon preached, treasures both new and old are brought from the storeroom.

How much are you willing to “pay” for the kingdom?

What are some images or metaphors from your own experience that you might use to describe God’s kingdom to others?

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!

The first reading speaks of the value of obtaining wisdom. The Gospel speaks to the necessity of pursing wisdom and also the price that is often paid to do so.

Romans 8:28-30

See detailed background on Romans here.

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

Verse 28 is often quoted in response to encountering trials and suffering. It speaks to “those who love God” and uses the Greek word agape for that love. The purpose to which we are called will be detailed in the following two verses. Paul seems to jump back here to verse 18 where he talks about the sufferings of the present time.

This verse is translated in several different ways:

The NAB seems to say that our circumstances work towards the state of goodness. The NIV seems to say that God is working in our circumstances to bring about some good. And the RSV seems to say that we have some agency in what God is doing to bring about some good. Why the different translations and even different meanings?

The Greek in this verse is difficult to translate and on top of that, manuscript variations crept in with copyists trying to figure out what the Greek was actually saying and what it should say and it’s not at all clear what the authority manuscript should be. It all depends on what the subject of the sentence is.

It’s a troublesome verse and some people would like to translate and interpret it to say that everything is all going to work out just fine. Which is ultimately true but I think it’s far more nuanced that most people would like.

In verses 29-30 Paul picks up another thorny issue – predestination. We as Catholics don’t talk a whole lot about it but Presbyterians hold this as a core doctrine. Augustine would pick up this text and talk about predestination in terms of one’s final destiny – whether one is ultimately in or out of heaven.

“Predestined” is used six times by Paul in various letters to mean “to determine beforehand; a plan.” We could go back to the Old Testament and find a lot of passages talking about God’s determining beforehand, such as Jeremiah 1:5. So this idea that God could choose someone for something before they were even born was there in the Old Testament.

But what are we predestined to? According to Paul it’s “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” The divine plan is that Christians will reproduce an image of Christ by a progressive share in Christ’s risen life. Paul talks about this over and over in his letters.

The word conformed means “a participation in a way of being.” Not just starting to look like something else but to be transformed into something else.

The word image is the Greek word eikon: a likeness revealing and making present an inner reality. This word is very sacramental.

We were chosen by God to be transformed inwardly, to participate in Christ’s way of being, to live the paschal mystery. Did God look down and say I’m going to choose this one but not that one? No! I think you could express it like this: God knew beforehand who would accept and who would reject and he formed a plan around those who would accept. But we always have free will which God respects. How that works is a great mystery.

Verse 30 says we are called, justified and glorified. This is one of the pivotal verses that Luther would look to when he talked about justification by faith and not works. This verse ties to verse 18: we suffer with Christ and we will be glorified with him as well. This has always been God’s plan – it is our destiny. But remember that we can choose to reject that destiny and walk a different path.

We are all predestined to be conformed to Christ’s image and we are all called to that.

What difficult situations in your life has God worked out for your good?

Questions to ponder

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