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Tag: Lectionary

The Politics of the Blessing of Abram—Genesis 12:1-4a (Alastair Roberts)

The call and blessing of Abram in Genesis 12 is the beginning of a thematic thread that is developed over the rest of the scriptural witness. As the heirs of Abram, we are both the recipients and the bearers of his promised blessing to the nations.

The Politics of Premature Rule—Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 (Alastair Roberts)

In taking of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve attempt to gain rule before they are ready to exercise it. Their example may be a cautionary one for a church that too precipitously throws itself into the political arena.

The Politics of Transfiguration—Matthew 17:1-9 (Fritz Wendt)

There is such a thing as a ‘near-life experience,’ a transforming encounter with the light of life. The Transfiguration describes a remarkable encounter of such a kind, an encounter that may find pale reflections in our own lives, much needed at the current time.

The Politics of Property—Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 (J. Leavitt Pearl)

The practice of gleaning, commanded in Leviticus and illustrated in the narrative of Ruth, disrupts the sort of connection we may suppose exists between the ownership and the use of property. The principles of economic justice it implies can guide us in our contemporary politics.

The Politics of Scripturing—Matthew 5:21-37 (D. Mark Davis)

Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount unsettles many biblicist ways of understanding Scripture. It may even be better to move from speaking of ‘the Scriptures’ as a noun, to speaking of ‘Scripturing’ as a verb.

The Politics of Saltiness—Matthew 5:13-20 (Amy Allen)

Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What would these metaphors have meant to his first hearers?

The Politics of Confrontation and Promise—Micah 6:1-8 (Benjamin Kautzer)

True worship has little to do with the ‘commodification’ of liturgy; it has everything to do with the performative embodiment of God’s redemptive narrative through justice, mercy and fidelity.

The Politics of Inauguration and Surrender—Matthew 4:12-23 (Fritz Wendt)

The call of Jesus to his disciples required a surrender of all they had previously understood their identities to be.

The Politics of the Lamb of God—John 1:29-42 (Amy Allen)

John the Baptist presents Jesus as the Lamb of God, an identification continued in the book of Revelation. Looking to the Lamb, rather than to the great and powerful Beasts, should inform our politics as Christians.

The Politics of Baptism Stories—Matthew 3:13-17 (D. Mark Davis)

Biblical stories about baptism are connected to, but also at odds with, historical theology about baptism as well as the current liturgical practices of baptism. Matthew’s account of Jesus’s baptism gives us a helpful window into the reality.

The Politics of Sentinels—Isaiah 52:7-10 (Alastair Roberts)

A competent sentinel must be vigilant, alert to and able to read the faintest signs upon a distant horizon, perceiving the most miniscule of details and discerning their greater import when they finally appear. In the opening chapters of both Matthew and Luke, we encounter a series of watchers and signs, presented in part as examples to the readers of the gospels in their own watching.