Proper 15 | OT 20 | Pentecost 11, Cycle A (Ellingsen)

THEME OF THE DAY
God will never abandon us. The texts testify to God's forgiving love, which never forsakes us and its implications for how we live (Justification by Grace, Providence, and Sanctification).


Psalm 133
This is a Song of Ascent, extolling the joys of harmony in the family. The songs of ascent are a series of Psalms that may be songs of pilgrims returning from exile to Jerusalem. They are so named because to get to the temple in Jerusalem one needed to climb a hill. This particular one is a Wisdom Psalm (offering maxims for everyday life) comparing good relations among brothers [achim] to oil [shemen] on Aaron's beard, which comes to saturate his beard and then his whole gown (v. 2). (As the ancestor of all priests, anointing oil was frequently handled by him and his fellow priests.) It is like the dew of Hermon (Syria's chief mountain) falling on all the mountains of Zion (the highest and oldest part of Jerusalem) (v. 3). The Psalm may presuppose the ancient custom of clan and extended family groups living together in close proximity. But given the Psalm's likely origin in the exiles' return from Babylon, the harmony may have to do with the restored Israel or the people of God.

Application: Sermons either on family harmony or the relationships among people in any community (including the church) are suggested by the text. In both cases, the sacredness of the oil that saturates the whole community reminds us that good relations are sacred. They all begin with God's grace and presence among us (Justification by Grace, Sanctification, and Social Ethics)....click here for the full installment

Proper 15 | OT 20 | Pentecost 11, Cycle A (Beck)

Sunday between August 14 and August 20 inclusive

The emphasis in these texts is on reconciliation of those who had been estranged in the Genesis 45:1-15 and Psalm 133 texts and on openness to people of other groups outside one's own in the other texts. In these texts there is no missionary command to go out and bring outsiders into one's community of faith. Instead, these texts urge us to be open to outsiders, to receive and to welcome them into our fellowship of faith. We are told they will come and we are expected to accept them into the religious community that we ourselves by the grace of God enjoy. That is all that is asked in these texts, and it is asked of us.

Genesis 45:1-15
This is perhaps the greatest text of reconciliation that we have in our biblical accounts. After a series of tests of his brothers to determine whether his brothers had changed and improved their moral character since the day in which they had sold him into slavery, Joseph within this highly charged emotional scene, the climax of the Joseph story, reveals his identity as the brother whom they had assumed they would never see again. As developed and presented in this Joseph story, with the power Joseph had gained in Egypt, Joseph could easily have enslaved, tortured, and executed his brothers who had sold him into slavery. Instead, he forgives them and is gracious and kind to them. We are amazed at his total lack of vengeance and intrigued that the storyteller presents Joseph as risking the possibility during the series of tests imposed by Joseph on his brothers' character, Joseph's father would die and Joseph would not be able to be reunited with his father. As the story is presented, Joseph himself receives great benefits of joy and satisfaction by revealing his identity to his brothers and forgiving them. There is a message in the story that demonstrates when we are gracious enough to forgive and be reconciled, we ourselves receive wondrous benefits we would never have if we had instead acted vengefully....click here for the full installment