Lectionary Wednesday 3-8-23

 

Psalm 72

Jeremiah 3:6-18

¹⁶ “‘“And,” says Adonai, “in those days, when your numbers have increased in the land, people will no longer talk about the ark for the covenant of Adonai — they won’t think about it, they won’t miss it, and they won’t make another one. ..”

Romans 1:28-2:11

² Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, passing judgment; for when you judge someone else, you are passing judgment against yourself; since you who are judging do the same things they do.

John 5:1-18

¹⁷ But he answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I too am working.”

 

It’s been a morning of skeptical haiku and snide Facebooking, and investigating the mysterious fact that the Lectionary Page doesn’t link to Bible Gateway for the psalms, as it does for all the other readings. Instead, they are using the translation of the psalms found in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. These are the Coverdale Psalms from the Great Bible, a translation that predates the King James Bible. Much historical controversy surrounded the switch from the Great Bible to the King James Bible after the Savoy Conference of 1661. In the end, the populace rebelled at the unfamiliar wording, and the psalms were returned to their accustomed arrangements. Psalm 72 is all about what a good king is like, who preserves the lives of those in distress and rescues them from their oppressors.

I dragged out my Jewish Study Bible to try and make sense of the Jeremiah passage, but it was not all that helpful regarding the missing Ark.

So, I’ll let that emergent phrase stand all on its own, because it shook me to the core:

“—they won’t think about it, they won’t miss it, and they won’t make another one. ..”

From Romans:

“…whoever you are…”

From John:

“working until now” might translate as “working all along” which makes more sense to me.

 

 

I think I’m beginning to see a pattern in the readings that I suspect is someone’s idea of appropriate passages for Lent. The pattern is along these lines:

Old Testament — God’s Judgment.

New Testament — Human Judgment.

Gospel — Forget judgment and get to work!

 

I’m not feeling particularly poetical, but I wanted to continue the theme of ending with a poem, so I offer this from Mary Oliver:

 

 

THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER

 

As long as you’re dancing, you can

         break the rules.

Sometimes breaking the rules is just

         extending the rules.

Sometimes there are no rules.