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:
Epiphany 7A
February 19, 2017
- Carter, Warren, "Love Your Enemies," Word & World, 2008.
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“A group of colleagues has spread a rumor about you. The rumor is totally false. Yet if it is believed, it is the end of your career. "They" have performed a hateful and violent act. You feel sabotaged and betrayed. What to do? Retaliate with rumors about them? Damage them professionally and/or personally? Confront? Seek reconciliation? Seek disciplinary action and their dismissal? Seek legal action? Absorb the attack? Or your country is attacked and thousands die. How does your country, which has deep roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition, respond? Absorb the attack? Retaliate? Seek dialogue with the attackers? Address underlying issues contributing to the hostility? What would Jesus say?”
- Haggmark, Steven A., "Islam as an Enemy? A Study in the Social Construction of 'Realities,'" Word & World, 2008.
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“Too often in our reflections about Muslims, we create an "enemy" that is based on our own cultural biases and generalizations. Genuine human encounter can undermine this process.”
- Powery, Emerson, "Under the Gaze of the Empire: Who Is My Neighbor?" Interpretation, 19:18.
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“The New Testament appropriates Leviticus 19:18 in a variety of contexts. ‘Love your neighbor’ is a central injunction for all followers of Jesus. The task is to determine who is the ‘neighbor.’”
- Taylor, Barbara Brown, "The Dominion of Love,"Journal for Preachers, 2008. (Sermon - Genesis 1:24-31; Matthew 5:43-48)
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“In this economy, there is one sun in heaven that shines on everyone and everything—no matter what genus or species they are, no matter how much saliva they produce, no matter what they have done or left undone. They all get sun. In the same way, when the rain comes down, everyone and everything gets refreshed—those who deserve it right along with those who do not. That is just the way God is with God's creatures. We are here because God made us, and if God made us, we live by love.”
- Willimon, William H., "Between Text and Sermon: Matthew 5:43-48," Interpretation, 2003.
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“So, unlike some of the other passages discussed in this issue of Interpretation·, our challenge with Matt 5:43-48 is not to find the exegetical skills to interpret it, but rather to summon forth the homiletical courage to proclaim it and the ecclesiastical support to perform it. Do we really believe that we have a God who not only makes "the sun to rise on the evil and on the good," but also enables the good to love and to pray for the evil?”
- Horsley, Richard A., "Ethics and Exegesis: 'Love Your Enemies' and the Doctrine of Non-Violence,," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 1986.
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“Christians who took the ideal seriously would likely find serious implications for their own involvement in the structural exploitation inherent in many social-economic institutions. It may be worth noting, finally, that although this investigation has been critical of the presuppositions and exegesis of studies (such as Yoder, 1972) that articulate an absolute pacifist position, it reaches fundamentally similar conclusions about the serious implications of these sayings of Jesus for ethical judgments regarding political-economic structures.”
- Rausch, Jerome William., "The Principal of Nonresistance and Love of Enemy in Matthew 5:38-48," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 1966.
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“Let us make a fresh start. Let us presuppose as we ought in light of the fulfillment theme that dominates the remote and immediate context of the passage that Jesus did not wish to deny justice, but wished to point out the direction that justice must take if this ancient law, incorporated into the Torah, is to find its perfection.”
- Allbee, Richard A., "Asymmetrical Continuity of Love and Law between the Old and New Testaments: Explicating the Implicit Side of a Hermeneutical Bridge, Leviticus 19:11-18," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2006.
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Abstract: “This study contends that there is a considerable, albeit asymmetrical, continuity between the Old and New Testaments with respect to love and law. The Old Testament's emphasis and contribution to this continuity is that by placing the love of neighbor in a legal context it demonstrates that love should extend to the type of societal relations that are commonly regulated by law. Leviticus 19.11 -18 contains an impressive array of social commandments prohibiting all manner of theft, oppression, injustice and hatred. Conversely it commands the love of neighbor, which is the positive counterpart to the pericope's prohibitions, as well as their unifying principle. The New Testament's contribution highlights the interpersonal nature of love.”
- Kaminsky, Joel S., "Loving One's (Israelite) Neighbor: Election and Commandment in Leviticus 19,"Interpretation, 2008.
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“This essay illuminates a number of nuances implicit in the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" by exploring its connection to Israeli election theology as well as to the larger Priestly theology that forms much of the framework of the Torah.”
- Mwombeki, Fidon R., "Between Text and Sermon, Leviticus 19:1-37," Interpretation, 1999.
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“Preaching this text is challenging but worthwhile. The text is rich with issues that resonate with our current situation. We should receive the text as the word of God, which we need even when it judges our failings. We see in these commands and prohibitions the God who is holy, and the God who calls us to holiness. That holiness is not simply ritual and spiritual, but tangibly related to the way we choose to live together as members of local communities, specific and connected congregations, and the one global village.”
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