30th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time

Exodus 22:20-26

The book of Exodus is not an independent book but is an integral part of the Torah, which narrates the story of Israel from creation to the death of Moses. The Torah is divided into 5 separate books because the length of a single scroll could not contain it all. Each book is the length of an ancient scroll.

Many fundamental beliefs and practices of Judaism are rooted in Exodus. An interesting feature: the book does not mention any names of Pharaohs but does mention the names of the midwives who saved babies from those Pharaohs (1:15).

Chapters 1-18 recount leaving Egypt and the journey to Mt. Sinai. The rest of the book takes place at Mt. Sinai. In chapter 20 Moses is given the ten commandments. The next eleven chapters are the covenant code – all the things they had to do to maintain the covenant. Today’s reading is from that section.

Verse 20 references resident aliens: people living more or less permanently in a community other than their own. The rationale for treating them well, the driving force, is Jewish memory of being resident aliens themselves. Resident aliens, the poor, widows and orphans are often mentioned together because they lacked social and family protection, making them vulnerable to exploitation.

Verse 22-23 call to mind Exodus 3:7. It’s a reminder that, just like God rendered judgment on their oppressors in Egypt, the same will happen to them if they oppress others.

We may find these verses difficult and rightly so. What kind of God is this, waiting to crush someone who makes a mistake. What kind of God wants to make people widows and orphans? I think we should take time to ponder these questions and not shy away from them. For some people, this seems to be the only image of God they’ve ever known. It’s important to sit with this image to see and understand where it leads if this is the only image you have. It’s equally important keep it in balance it with the many other images of God given us in Scripture.

Verse 24 makes a distinction in lending money to “my people” (fellow Jews) vs anyone else. The presumption is that a fellow Jew would be borrowing to eat because they have no family to feed them and anyone else would be borrowing for trade and profit. Coming in the context of this passage about not afflicting resident aliens, the assumption could be made that “my people” would include them as well.

Verses 25-26 reference what could be taken as collateral for a loan. Creditors had a right to seize property as collateral. A poor person might have only their coat. The Jewish Study Bible points out “[this] law subordinates the creditor’s right to repayment to the welfare of the debtor.” There’s a hierarchy of rights and, in this case at least, the poor person is supposed to be at the top of that hierarchy.

In the culture of the original audience, there were distinct groups of people known to be on the margins which God commanded be protected. A fundamentalist approach to scripture says that these and only these named groups were intended by God to be protected. A fuller, richer approach to interpretation says that there are always groups of people on the margins of society who need protection. The groups and the people in them change over time but protection for those who cannot protect themselves (for whatever reasons) is always commanded by God.

Who are the people and groups on the margins of society today? What groups need protection? How are faith communities living out this command to protect these groups and people?

Matthew‌ ‌22:34-40‌

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.

Chps 19-22 is “Authority and Invitation.” It’s an important section of this gospel and we spend seven Sundays reading in it. Today is the last Sunday in the section.

All three synoptic gospels have today’s story in varying forms.

Last week we had the story about the Pharisees and the Herodians trying to entrap Jesus by asking him about the Roman poll tax.

The lectionary skips over v 23-33. This is an encounter with another religious group – the Sadducees – about the resurrection. Today’s reading opens with the Pharisees hearing about Jesus’ answer to their religious rivals. So in verse 35 they try to “test” him.

To our ears this sounds perhaps like an open opinion question – what do you think? But in their culture this was something hotly debated and you had to choose a camp to be in. The question is challenging Jesus to speak a summary of the law by naming the center of it.

Rabbis listed 613 commandments in the Torah. 365 of these were prohibitions (perhaps one for each day of the year?!). The remaining 248 were positives. It’s worth remembering that, even though the Pharisees are looked down upon in our day, in their own culture they were respected teachers of the law. One of the reasons they were respected is because of their ability to summarize the vast codes of law and educate the people on the essentials. Like the question last week about the poll tax, Jesus seemingly couldn’t not offend one of the religious groups or respected rabbis with his answer in verse 37.

He begins with Deuteronomy 6:5:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

This verse is taken from the giving of the law. The context is the covenant and in that context, to love is to remain faithful, to uphold the demands of the covenant. It has nothing to do with feelings.

Incidentally, he does not quote the first part of the verse, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This is known as the shema, the prayer that all faithful Jews prayed and still pray multiple times a day. There were lots of religious groups and different rabbis teaching different views, but the shema was probably the one thing that they could all agree on – it was a point of unity.

Jesus says this is the first and greatest commandment. But then he equates with another.

Leviticus 19:18:

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”

In context, neighbor in this verse refers to a fellow Israelite.

Both of these were part of the 613 commandment list. The rabbis generally taught that the world hangs on three things: the Torah, Temple service, and deeds of loving-kindness. Jesus makes the Torah itself hang (depend in the NAB translation) upon love.

In Luke 10:25, there’s a version of this encounter in which the questioner wants to “justify himself” so he asks “who is my neighbor” and Jesus responds with the parable of the good Samaritan. In Matthew’s gospel we don’t get that expansion of “who is my neighbor.” But I think the lectionary creators wanted to maintain that connection here in Matthew even though it’s not explicit in this reading and they did so by pairing it with an Old Testament passage that speaks directly about the most vulnerable in society.

In your own life, what does love of God and love of neighbor look like? How you do you love God by loving neighbor? How do you love neighbor by loving God?

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!

Jesus reminds us that love is action just as the Old Testament specifies one way for love to be put into action: care of the marginalized.

1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10

See background on this letter here.

Paul starts this passage talking about the idea of imitation. The notion of being an imitator is countercultural to us. Our culture prizes the novel and different. Companies today are rewards for being “innovators.” No one wants to imitate.

In Paul’s culture, imitation was the path to greatness. Think of an established artisan taking on an apprentice. The only way to learn a trade even well into the 20th century was to become an apprentice and imitate a master.

Paul doesn’t want them doing anything novel – Paul wants them to imitate him and his fellow preachers so that the Thessalonians can become well established in what it means to live in Christ.

At the end of verse 6 Paul says they’ve received his teaching “in great affliction.” This is translated elsewhere as tribulation. Jesus in the gospels always uses the word to refer to the end times. Use of this word here shows that Paul believed they were already in those end times and Christ’s return was imminent, so tribulation was to be expected.

Also in verse 6 Paul links that tribulation or affliction with Joy. Joy in the midst of suffering is a key theme throughout the letters of Paul. For Paul, the ability to rejoice in the midst of suffering is a clear sign that God is at work.

For Paul, the reason to imitate was to spread the Gospel. It’s a chain reaction: the Thessalonians would imitate Paul and then, through their living out that life, others would imitate them. This is the whole idea behind evangelism – not that we stand on a street corner and force a message on people, but that we live a life rooted in Christ which invites others to live the same kind of life.

Paul says in verse 8 that this spread is already happening – they are an evangelizing church!

In verse 9 he says that the people in Macedonia and Achaia have reported to him the witness of the Thessalonians: they’ve turned from idols to serve the living and true God. “Living God” is an Old Testament description of God as creator and active in human history. This is in direct contrast to the pagan gods which were dead and false.

In v10 Paul once again evidences that he believes the return of Christ is imminent. But it’s also something that is already happening. “Delivers” is present participle, meaning that deliverance has already begun.

The word “wrath” in v10 might call up the Exodus reading and the image of a God just waiting to punish us. A more helpful way to understand Paul’s use of this word is that wrath is God’s reaction to evil and sin, and God’s actions in destroying the forces of evil. God’s wrath is directed not at us, his beloved creation, but at all the forces that bind us and keep us from fully living into who God made us to be.

Who are some people you imitate or would like to imitate?

In what ways does your life invite imitation?

Questions to ponder

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