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2 Samuel 6:1-19
Proper 10B
Comments, Observations and Questions: There is a lot going on in these not-quite-20 verses of King David’s story. The pieces feel disparate but if you sting them together in the right way, you may actually find a somewhat convincing tale of failure —> redemption or sin —> salvation. Why Now? In at least one commentary,…
Psalm 85:8-13
Proper 10B
It could be pretty easy, one supposes, to glide over the concluding verses of Psalm 85 and not take much notice of what they are actually conveying. This is just how the psalms go, we might think. The kind of language being employed at the end is nothing terribly unusual. This is poetry and poetry…
2 Samuel 5:1-10
Proper 9B
Whose Idea? Something that ties together the two mini-texts within our larger lectionary reading for this week is the idea of Divine-human cooperation. In the first case, we knew long ago (all the way back in 1 Samuel 16) that God had chosen David to serve as the next king of Israel. But Saul (the…
Psalm 123
Proper 9B
Recently I did a study tour through the American South with a focus on reckoning with the legacy of slavery in the U.S. Before the trip I had known, of course, about the reality and the tragedy of the slave culture of the South (and a few places more north too). But after eight full…
Psalm 30
Proper 8B
The superscriptions over various psalms are not considered canonical and may represent someone’s guess at some point as to when a certain psalm may have been composed by David (or someone else). Psalm 51 sounds like something David would have been thinking after being confronted by the prophet Nathan over his affair with Bathsheba and…
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Proper 8B
Renewed for a New Season In his commentary on 1 and 2 Samuel, John Goldingay observes the way that 1 Samuel ends with Saul’s death, as though the series has ended. However, it is renewed for a new season and so 2 Samuel picks up the story in the Fall. You can practically hear the…
Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32
Proper 7B
Ancient Israel was never know to be a seafaring people. By Jesus’s day being a fisherman was clearly a common occupation on the Sea of Galilee but Israel did not have much experience with sailing forth on mighty sea vessels out into the Mediterranean or some such. Yet the section of Psalm 107 that the…
1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49
Proper 7B
What’s not to like about this story? It has everything a good story needs: a scrappy young up-start, in intimidating and arrogant bully and a dramatic reversal of fortune with national consequences. For all that we say the Bible isn’t a book of heroes, this story — and it’s popularity in Sunday school classrooms around…
Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15
Proper 6B
It gets repetitive to point out the RCL’s tendency to avert the reader’s eyes from anything smacking of judgment or the destruction of the wicked and of those who pose themselves as enemies of God. But here it is again as we scoop out seven verses from the middle of what is already a somewhat…
1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:13
Proper 6B
Comments, Observations and Questions: God’s Regret? This week’s reading begins in an uncomfortable place: with the failure of King Saul — a King appointed by God. And so we are told that God regrets (in some translations, repents from) making Saul king. What are we to make of a God who regrets and/or repents? Folks…
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