Proper 20A
Notes
Transcript
LCMS Lectionary Summary:
OT R reads Jonah 3 while L has Isa 55.6-9 and we read Isa 55.1-5 Proper 13A and 1-9 Lent 3C, so don’t follow L but RCL.
Epistle: L contains R but reads more. It isn’t repeated (the longer L part) and so better to go longer on Sundays when the epistle is in view. I can’t see doing that for the first two cycles, generally speaking, we want to impress and re-impress the connection between the OT passage and the Gospel, and so the epistle will be secondary, except when it follows the theme closely as do some in the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany-Lent-Easter times. In fact, less is more so I don’t even seeing us reading the epistles except when they follow the theme.
Gospel 256: same, the parable of the vineyard workers (those who started late in the day got paid the same as those who started at the beginning of the work day, last shall be first).
Disciples Live in Their Vocations by Grace through Faith in Christ
Those who are sent as “laborers for his vineyard” (Matt. 20:1) depict the wide diversity of vocations to which the disciples of Christ Jesus are called. Whatever our particular stations in life may be, we are called to live and serve by faith in His promises. Our labors do not merit anything before Him, for He is already generous to one and all without partiality. In mercy, He has chosen to bear “the burden of the day and the scorching heat” on our behalf, to make us equal to Himself and to give us what belongs to Him, that is, the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 20:12–15). This way of the Lord is foolishness to the world and foreign to our thoughts, but He draws near, so that “he may be found” (Is. 55:6), “have compassion” and “abundantly pardon” (Is. 55:7). So it is that we are found in Christ Jesus, and He is honored in our bodies, “whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20), by “fruitful labor” (Phil. 1:22) or by suffering. It is by faith in His forgiveness that our works are “worthy of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).
Summary: God's thoughts and value judgments
Hymn of the Day: 555 Salvation unto us has come
Liturgy:
Summary: NBC says that the late 760's B.C. was most likely the setting for the repentance and that Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C. fulfillment of the preaching of Habakkuk (we just read Nah 1 then 2 on Th-Fr and Zep 2 on Sa.
Jon 3.10-4.11
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “I pray thee, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, I beseech thee, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. And the Lord God appointed a plant, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm which attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he was faint; and he asked that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
The place where the pericope begins is important, 3.10, "When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened." Also 2b is key, "I knew that you are a /el chanun w'racham, erek ap, w'rab chesed/." Jonah knew the passage well (Exo 34.6-7) but in his weakness wasn't able to apply it to these unclean Gentile outsiders.
Psa 145.1-8
I will extol thee, my God and King, and bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day I will bless thee, and praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall laud thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of thy majesty, and on thy wondrous works, I will meditate. Men shall proclaim the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of thy abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Verse 8 is a refrain again from Exo 34.6-7. Go back a verse and get a little more context. In the largest sense (the whole psalm) it is in essence "Praise the Lord...because of xyz." And so that has to do with God's mighty works but mostly His goodness. The verse before speaks of /rab tav/ and /tsedeq/.
Php 1.21-30
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear omen to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict which you saw and now hear to be mine.
Starts off with a bang, the first verse, 21, is "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," CEV has "if I live, it will be for Christ." That tension of will I die or will I live (both are good) take up most of the rest of this passage. And if a person lives, that is good, but it doesn't mean it will be easy, there will be suffering /pasxo/ and struggling /hoios/.
Mat 20.1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
FT (feasting theological) says that some have interpreted the passage allegorically, with Adam, Moses, Abraham and at the last hour Gentiles, or else, the first group is the twelve original disciples and each other group as more and more "recent converts to Matthew's congregation."
VH notes that this parable comes before Jesus' triumphal entry which has the start of praise but ends with death, and who died and the way he dies turns the religious world upside down (their expectations of the Messiah?) and is preceded by the teaching in the previous chapter on money and rewards (how difficult it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven) and then the mother of James and John lobbies Jesus that her sons should sit right and left of him when in heaven. So this parable is about 1) reversals 2) true fairness (we all "get" to heaven on grace) 3) not grumbling, we have to end comparing ourselves to others. Since the wage was a days' wages to be hired late by other employers would mean not having enough for your family so this could be interpreted as right generosity. The other thought is precisely because it seems outwardly unfair that drives home the point of grace. Grace is something we don't deserve but God gives anyway because of his character, his love. It is the same to the repentant sinner than to the one who patiently and faithfully serves the Lord the majority of his or her life. That is, we have no claim to make. Don't go there, talking about fairness because we all deserve punishment. It is meant, then, to shake those who are sliding towards merit and works righteousness to remember even they are only accepted by God's grace. To want more, when you agreed to one denarius *shows* "the depth of our sin" the warpness of our value system. If one sees work as not a bad thing, then it is better to be at it than spending the majority of one's life wandering and being fruitless. Those who worked from an early age (ie were saved) have all that joy that the latecomers missed.
