The Preacher’s Study
2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 2016
John
W.B. Hill
1 Kings 18.20-21, (22-29), 30-39;
Psalm 96;
Galatians 1.1-12;
Luke 7.1-10
This Sunday we enter ‘ordinary time,’ and the Revised
Common Lectionary offers a unique opportunity, from now until late November, to
attend to three different voices of scripture, each in sustained discourse
(that is, if we are using the semicontinuous readings for the Old Testament).
This is the moment, therefore, to take stock of such
opportunities and choose homiletic strategies that can make the most of them.
This being the ‘Year of Luke’ (the version of the
Gospel known especially for its compassion for those who are in trouble, and
its attention to what God is doing in history), the Old Testament readings
chosen to accompany this gospel are from the prophets, from Elijah to Haggai,
with Jeremiah as the dominant voice.
Prophets are people who see what the rest of us miss, who speak truth to
power, who summon us to return to the ways of God.
How then shall we honour the unique character of the
lectionary during this stretch of the year?
How shall we help God’s people to weigh the cumulative force of three
persistent voices, from Sunday to Sunday?
First, we can stay alert to the recurring resonances,
and draw attention to them. This Sunday,
for example, we encounter contrasts between a true prophet and false prophets,
between a genuine apostle and self-serving apostles, between a teacher who
speaks with authority and the scribes and teachers of the law.
Second, we can look ahead to discover how to seize the
best moment for gathering up the elements (extended over a number of Sunday’s)
of one particular scriptural voice, inviting people to integrate what they are
hearing from week to week. It is not
necessary to preach on the Gospel text every Sunday — so long as we make clear
that it is a gospel lens through which we look to discover the deepest meaning
of a text.
This Sunday’s readings call us to courageous
faith. Elijah’s challenge to the
prophets of Baal is a high-risk public drama designed to puncture the
undiscriminating assumption that all forms of piety are equally valid. But the preacher may wish to wait before
commenting at any length until the second half of this story is told (on June
12).
Paul’s challenge to the disciples in Galatia is no
less heated than Elijah’s challenge to his fellow Israelites. His appeal to them will be spelled out in
readings from this letter over six Sundays, so this may be the moment to
introduce the letter and help people to hear the extreme tone of Paul’s
concern. Does it really make a
difference what you believe about the ways of God?
Sometimes it takes a stranger in our midst to awaken
us to the unique revelation with which we have been entrusted, to break through
our dazed familiarity with the gospel.
So it was in the episode recounted in today’s Gospel reading: a Gentile,
a hard-bitten centurion no less, has recognized something in Jesus to which his
fellow Israelites are still blind.
John W. B. Hill
is an Anglican presbyter living in Toronto, Canada. He is a Council member of
APLM, chair of Liturgy Canada, and author of one of the first Anglican sources
for catechumenal practice.
The above depictions of Elijah’s challenge of “the 450 prophets of Baal
and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table” (1 Kings 18:19) were
found on the walls of the third-century C.E. synagogue at Dura-Europos in
modern Syria.
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