Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts.
Proper 27A / Ordinary 32A / Pentecost +21
November 6, 2011
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
- Brueggemann, Walter, "The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity," The Christian Century, 2008.
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“Consumerism has become a demonic spiritual force. Does the gospel have the power to help us withstand it?”
- Bugg, Charles B., "Joshua 24:14-18 - The Choice," Review and Expositor, 1988.
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“We feel the compelling power of the words. ‘Choose this day whom you will serve,’ Joshua says, and we can almost hear his tone of voice. This is important to Joshua; this is vital; this is urgent; this is spoken in the imperative mood. A choice has to be made, and not just any choice at that. On this choice depends the future of the nation.”
Amos 5:18-24
- Ackerman, Susan, "Between Text and Sermon: Amos 5:18-24," Interpretation, 2003.
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“More interesting still is the fact that Amos, like King, was not afraid to rework the standard idiom of his tradition in order to adapt it to his own purposes.”
- Simundson, Daniel J., "Reading Amos: Is It an Advantage to Be God's Special People?" Word & World, 2008.
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“Amos speaks a difficult word to those who believe they have a special claim on God because God has a unique, covenantal relationship with them. To be chosen by God is no reason for self-satisfaction or self-righteousness. God has called us for mission, not privilege.”
- Westermeyer, Paul, "A Church Musician's Journey with Amos," Word & World, 2008.
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“Amos's famous diatribes against music and ritual make no sense as denunciations of worship itself But they should continue to worry us profoundly as warnings against music and worship that anesthetize us against the justice that Amos calls for and that God requires.”
Matthew 25:1-13
- Neville, David J., "Toward a Theology of Peace: Contesting Matthew's Violent Eschatology," Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 2007.
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Abstract: “The reality of violence and the question of how best to respond to it are crucial dimensions of biblical interpretation. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus teaches nonviolence and conducts his mission nonviolently, yet Matthew envisages that as the returning Son of humanity he will indulge in violent retribution at the parousia. This article probes the discrepancy between Matthew's ethical portrait of Jesus as a teacher of nonretaliation and his (own) violent eschatology. Following a survey of select studies of Matthew's retributive eschatology, the moral problem of eschatological violence is considered. The article concludes with some hermeneutical reflections on potential responses to eschatological vengeance in Matthew.”
- Wimberly, John W, Jr., "Sharing Versus Hoarding," The Living Pulpit, 2003.
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“Jesus warns us that we cannot prepare for the future by making safe little warrens for ourselves and our loved ones. It does not work. The fate of those without resources is inherently and intrinsically bound up with the fate of those of us who have resources.”
- Young, Robert D., "Between Text and Sermon: Matthew 25:1-13," Interpretation, 2000.
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The Gospel writers were theologians and not just reporters. They collected and revised earlier material, then aimed it at specific situations in their own era. It is hard to evaluate how much the average congregation knows of Bible stories, let alone biblical criticism. Preachers and teachers of the Word have a responsibility, however, to make such knowledge available and practical. We may even find that the homiletical loaves have miraculously multiplied.
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