Sunday Homily, March 8, 2020, 2nd Lent
Sez Betsy, "Hi, Everybody. Welcome in!"
Readings
Genesis 12, 1-4, I will make of you a great nation.
Psalm 33, Lord, let your mercy be upon us, as we put our trust in you.
2 Timothy 1-10, Bear your hardship.
Matthew 17, 1-9, The transfiguration.
Fist bumps for a healthy welcome.
Homily by John Cade The Gospel of Matthew and the Jewish Synagogue—Talk Two
Last week we talked about how, as Jewish, the disciples and followers of Jesus continued as members and participants in the life of the synagogue and the Sabbath liturgy. Also, how these followers of Jesus remembered him in the synagogue, and preserved the stories of his life, teachings and deeds. An example of the general pattern of worship on the Sabbath is in Acts 13.
What a team!
It says, “On the Sabbath Paul went to the synagogue. After the reading of the Scriptures—God’s Law and the Prophets—the head of the meeting asked Paul, Friend, do you have anything you want to say? Paul stood up and said, Fellow Israelites and friends of God, listen.” Then he told how God led their ancestors out of Egypt and gave them their own land. He traced their history through King David, and how, from David’s descendants, God sent a Savior for Israel. And that this was the gospel, the good news, they were bringing: that what God promised their fathers has come true for their children—for them.
Our Super, All Girls, Sisters Candle Lighting Team.
This passage in Acts provides the basic pattern of synagogue worship on the Sabbath: mainly lots of long scripture readings.
First, a reading from the Law of Moses (the Torah, first 5 books of Jewish Scripture) in 1-yr cycle. Then readings from the Prophets, in three parts: The “former prophets” (stories of Israel before and after the death of Moses, their greatest prophet—7 books of Joshua thru II Kings) in 1-yr cycle. Then more reading from what they called the “latter prophets” (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel—what we call the major prophets) in 1-yr cycle. Then more reading from the ‘Book of the Twelve’—the last 12 books of Hebrew Scripture, that we call the minor prophets (Hosea to Malachi) in 4-yr cycle. [We use abbreviated 3-yr cycle]
Buddy, our special reader of the Candle Blessing
The psalms were read or chanted between the readings, sometimes for specific feasts of the liturgical year, but also to break things up with so many long readings, (and maybe to wake people up).
I counted, and the weekly Sabbath readings averaged over 16 pages every week, using this type print. After all the readings, the leader of the synagogue would preach on those scriptures or he might ask a visiting preacher to do so, as in the example of Paul. This is how the story of Jesus was passed on and preserved in the synagogue, for 55 years after Jesus’ death.
John reading his homily explaining the milieu of Matthew's Gospel.
So the written gospels are deeply Jewish books, capable of being understood only by those who lived and shared the Jewish mindset. If Jesus’ followers ever moved out of the Jewish world in which they was born, and if their gospels ever came to be read entirely or primarily by those who didn’t understand the Jewish authors’ meaning, they would be misread or misunderstood. That is exactly what seems to have happened. Step out of the Jewish world into the Greek and Roman world around the Mediterranean; the gospels would most likely be assumed by non-Jewish readers to be a literal account of what Jesus said and did.
Presenting the Gifts, Hue, Patricia, and Linda.
A growing number of Jesus’ followers were beginning to be from urban centers around the Mediterranean—like Corinth, Thessalonica, Galatia, Rome—where they interacted with non-Jewish people and culture. As the Jewish followers of Jesus became more cosmopolitan, they began to attract the non-Jewish Gentiles, and early Christianity became more and more a Gentile movement. Near the end of the 1st century CE, in the year 88CE, a split occurred between the synagogue and the followers of Jesus. Orthodox Jews came to think of Jesus’ followers as “revisionists” and excommunicated them from the synagogue. So, by the middle of the second century (about 150 CE), there were practically no Jews left in the Christian movement. Missing that Jewish context, Gentile Christians began to literalize the words and miracle stories, a practice the original Jewish gospel writers could never have imagined. For 55 years the Jewish people had been relating Jesus to the Hebrew Scriptures and incorporating his memory into Jewish liturgical practices.
Minor Elevation time.
The followers of Jesus, including the authors of the gospels, had been speaking, then writing down, Jewish interpretations of the ‘Jesus experience’, not biographical accounts or historical stories. As Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire gradually became a Christian majority, Christian literalism or fundamentalism was born. This way of reading the gospels is the result of misunderstanding their Jewish context and meaning. E.g., we read Jesus being referred to as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” First-century Jews would have known this was a reference straight out of the Yom Kippur liturgy, not a literal reality. They would never have imagined that these very familiar Jewish liturgical words could ever be so distorted.
Next Sunday we dive into Spong’s basic thesis: the Gospels, Matthew in particular, were written explicitly for the Sabbath liturgy, and followed the synagogue’s annual liturgical calendar.
Amen.
Who dat peeking in the door?