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Epiphany 4 / Ordinary 4
February 2, 2014
du Preeze, J., "Social Justice: Motive for the Mission of the Church," Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 1985.
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“The expression tsedäqahumiehpät (= justice and right; what is good and right) is a hendiadys: the two words together express a specific idea which, to a large extent, amounts to what may be called social justice. It is just about a technical term for doing what is right towards the poor and needy, the stranger, the widow and the orphan - the so-called personaemiserae in the community.”
Kim, Jin S., "Walking Humbly," Journal for Preachers, 2009. (Sermon text, Micah 6:8)
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“It's not that there is a deliberate attempt to distort history. It's that there is such a powerful need in America to maintain a parallel myth of the white man as the hero that it overwhelms actual history and prevents white people from speaking honestly about the past, and therefore taking responsibility for the present. Most damning of all is that white Christians are just as prone to drinking this imperial Kool-Aid as anyone else, and so become incapable of offering genuine confession and repentance.”
- Maloney, Les, "A Portrait of the Righteous Person," Restoration Quarterly, 2003.
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“The modern community of those who would seek to sojourn in Yahweh's holy presence, to live in fellowship with him must remember this and proclaim it at all times. Unfortunately, there is too often a ‘gap’ (if not in knowledge, at least in practice) between the worship of God and the fear of God and practical, everyday godly treatment of one's neighbor! Psalm 15 reminds us that we ‘shall not be moved’ only if we I treat fellow human beings in an honest and godly way.”
Brueggemann, Walter, "Bragging about the Right Stuff,"Journal for Preachers, 2003.
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“The city, every great city, that ancient one and this contemporary one, wants to brag about its successes and turn out to brag about the very matters that lead to death: wisdom, might, wealth. Imagine that this great church, and dozens like it, exist in the city to witness loud and endlessly to the city that our true ground for bragging is elsewhere: not the fashionable, urban agenda of wisdom, might, wealth—but the stuff that delights God: steadfast love, justice, righteousness. The gospel to which the church testifies in the city may be put this way: brag! But get it right! Delight in the delights of the God of neighborly fidelity. And then brag...endlessly !”
- Green, Donald E., "The Folly of the Cross,"Master's Seminary Journal, 2004.
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“First Cor 1:23 indicates that both Jews and Gentiles refused to believe Paul's preaching of Christ crucified. They rejected the message in part because of the cultural connotations of crucifixion in the first century. Crucifixion was a vulgar, common execution that the Romans imposed on notorious criminals, prisoners of war, and rebellious slaves. Its harsh brutality symbolized the supremacy of the Roman government over the victim. Gentiles thus viewed crucifixion as a sure sign of the victim's defeat. Jews, on the other hand, held crucified men in even greater contempt because to them crucifixion was a sign of God's curse on the victim. Paul's preaching of Christ crucified thus cut deeply against the grain of his culture. Jews rejected the idea that the Messiah could be crucified (and thus cursed) and looked for signs instead. Gentiles rejected as foolishness the notion that a crucified man could be the only Savior of mankind and sought eloquent rhetoric in its place. Paul's example challenges today's Christian leader to confront the culture with the same message of Christ crucified and not to cater to the latest fads in marketing the gospel to the passing whims of unbelievers.”
- Tucker, J. Brian, "The Role of Civic Identity on the Pauline Mission in Corinth," Didaskalia, 2008.
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“This article seeks to recreate a coherent picture of religious life in Roman Corinth in the first century of our era and then support the thesis that the civic identity of the Christ-followers in Corinth was in transition and because of this Paul's approach to mission was one of social integration. This will allow the development of a framework from which to organize research into the formation of identity in these Christ-followers under the Roman Empire and the ensuing mission that developed.”
- Allison, Dale C., Jr., "The Structure of the Sermon on the Mount," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1987.
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“The seeming "architectonic grandeur" of Matthew's twenty-eight chapters may simply be an erroneous impression produced by the carefully constructed individual building blocks. In other words, the parts may exhibit something the whole does not. On this view, Matthew would simply follow a rough chronological sequence—birth, baptism, ministry in Galilee, journey to Jerusalem, passion, resurrection—a sequence into which the five long and meticulously crafted sections of teaching material have been regularly inserted. Yet whether or not this supposition can be persuasively defended need not be established for the purposes of this essay. Herein I should like instead to undertake a more modest, manageable task: What is the structure of one particular portion of Matthew, namely, chaps. 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount?”
Carter, Warren, "Love Your Enemies," Word & World, 2008.
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“Jesus' command to "love your enemies" is recognized as an authentic saying of Jesus, one that calls disciples in every age to imitate both God's merciful love for enemies (Luke 6:36) and God's own perfection (Matt 5:48).”
Carter, Warren, "Matthew's Gospel: An Anti-Imperial/Imperial Reading," Currents in Theology and Mission, 2007. See entire issue of Currents in Theology and Mission 34, image focus on Matthew's gospel.
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“The beatitudes identify God's agenda of eschato-logical transformation or justice (5:6) for the literal poor (97 percent of the population in varying degrees) including those whose very beings or spirits are destroyed by poverty (5:3). Land, the basis of life in an agrarian empire, will be returned to the powerless (5:5, citing Psalm 37). Practices of mercy, worship, and making peace (wholeness not submission under Pax Romana) embody this agenda (5:7-9).”
Harrington, Daniel J., S.J., "Problems and Opportunities in Matthew's Gospel," Currents in Theology and Mission, 2007. (See especially section on Sermon on the Mount beginning on page 418.) See entire issue of Currents in Theology and Mission 34, image focus on Matthew's gospel.
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“The three great questions of Christian virtue ethics are Who am I? What is my goal in life? and How do I get there? In this context I am an aspirant to God's kingdom, my goal is eternal life with God, and "ethical" teachings are helps along the way. There are no sharp tensions between law and love or between individual and community. While entering God's kingdom is the primary motivation, other motives for good actions include going to the root of biblical commands, mutual self-interest, avoiding punishment, doing the right thing, and imitating God's example. Instead of providing laws to be observed literally and rigidly, Jesus the wise teacher offers principles, analogies, extreme examples, challenges, and other staples of Jewish wisdom instructions to help aspirants to God ' s kingdom reach their goal.”
Metzger, Paul Louis, "Christ, Culture, and the Sermon on the Mount Community," Ex Auditu, 2008.
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Pak, G. Sujin, "Response to Metzger," Ex Auditu, 2008.
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“There can be no monolithic view of the relation of Christ to culture, for there is no ideal culture. God's kingdom culture embodied in the church always takes particular form in concrete contexts. This essay on the intersection and concrete engagement of Christ's church as a culture (which itself varies in diverse locations and over time) with other cultures involves the claim that the church's relation to other cultures is to be multifaceted and dynamic, in no way static, always particular, never abstract, ever contemporary, never remote. A quote attributed to Martin Luther states it well: ‘If you preach the gospel in all its aspects with the exception of the issues that deal specifically with your time, you are not preaching the gospel at all.’”
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