Proper 18, Year B

Above:  The Logo of Lehman Brothers, a Firm Defunct Since 2008

God, Avenger and Hope of the Poor

The Sunday Closest to September 7

The Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

SEPTEMBER 8, 2024

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FIRST READING AND PSALM:  OPTION #1

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 (New Revised Standard Version):

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,

and favor is better than silver or gold.

The rich and the poor have this in common:

the LORD is the maker of them all….

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,

and the rod of anger will fail.

Those who are generous are blessed,

for they share their bread with the poor….

Do not rob the poor because they are poor,

or crush the afflicted at the gate;

for the LORD pleads their cause

and despoils of life those who despoil them.

Psalm 125 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1  Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,

which cannot be moved, but stands fast for ever.

2  The hills stand about Jerusalem;

so does the LORD stand round about his people,

from this time forth for evermore.

3  The scepter of the wicked shall not hold sway over the land allotted to the just,

so that the just shall not put their hands to evil.

4  Show your goodness, O LORD, to those who are good

and to those who are true of heart.

5  As for those who turn aside to crooked ways,

the LORD will lead them away with the evildoers;

but peace be upon Israel.

FIRST READING AND PSALM:  OPTION #2

Isaiah 35:4-7a (New Revised Standard Version):

Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

Be strong, do not fear!

Here is your God.

He will come with vengeance,

with terrible recompense.

He will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped:

then the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

the burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water….

Psalm 146 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 Hallelujah!

Praise the LORD, O my soul!

I will praise the LORD as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

2 Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth,

for there is not help in them.

3 When they breathe their last, they return to earth,

and in that day their thoughts perish.

4 Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!

whose hope is in the LORD their God;

5 Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;

who keeps his promise for ever.

6 Who gives justice to those who are oppressed,

and food to those who hunger.

7 The LORD sets the prisoner free;

the LORD opens the eyes of the blind;

the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down.

8 The LORD loves the righteous;

the LORD cares for the stranger;

he sustains the orphan and the widow,

but frustrates the way of the wicked!

9 The LORD shall reign for ever,

your God, O Zion, throughout all generations.

Hallelujah!

SECOND READING

James 2:1-17 (Revised English Bible):

My friends, you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ who reigns in glory and you must always be impartial.  For instance, two visitors may enter your meeting, one a well-dressed man with gold rings, and the other a poor man in grimy clothes.  Suppose you pay special attention to the well-dressed man and say to him,

Please take this seat,

while to the poor man you say,

You stand over there, or sit here on the floor by my footstool,

do you not see that you are discriminating among your members and judging by wrong standards?  Listen, my dear friends:  has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to possess the kingdom he has promised to those who love him?  And yet you have humiliated the poor man.  Moreover, are not the rich your oppressors?  Is it not they who drag you into court and pour contempt on the honoured name by which God has claimed you?

If, however, you are observing the sovereign law laid down in scripture,

Love your neighbor as you love yourself,

that is excellent.  But if you show partiality, you are committing a sin and you stand convicted by the law as offenders.   For if a man breaks just one commandment and keeps all the others, he is guilty of breaking all of them.  For he who said,

You shall not commit adultery,

said also,

You shall not commit murder.

If you commit murder you are a breaker of the law, even if you do not commit adultery as well.  Always speak and act as men who are to be judged under a law which makes them free.  In that judgement there will be no mercy  for the man who has shown none.  Mercy triumphs over judgement.

What good is it, my friends, for someone to say he has faith when his actions do nothing to show it?  Suppose a fellow-Christian, whether man or woman, is in rags with not enough food for the day, and one of you says,

Goodbye, keep warm, and have a good meal,

but does nothing to supply their bodily needs, what good is that?  So with faith; if it does not lead by action, it is by itself a lifeless thing.

GOSPEL READING

Mark 7:24-37 (J. B. Phillips, 1972):

Then he got up and left that place and went off to the neighbourhood of Tyre.  There we went into a house and wanted no one  to know where he was.  But it proved impossible to remain hidden.  For no sooner had he got there, than a woman who had heard about him, and who had a daughter possessed by an evil spirit, arrived and prostrated herself before him.  She was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she asked him to drive the evil spirit out of her daughter.  Jesus said to her,

You must let the children have all they want first.  It is not right, you know, to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.

But she replied,

Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs under the table eat the scraps that the children leave.

Jesus said to her,

If you can answer like that, you can go home!  The evil spirit has left your daughter.

And she went back to her home and found the child lying quietly on her bed, and the evil spirit gone.

Once more Jesus left the neighbourhood of Tyre and passed through Sidon towards the Lake of Galilee, and crossed the Ten Towns territory.  They brought to him a man who was deaf and unable to speak intelligibly, and they implored him to put his hand upon him.  Jesus took him away from the crowd by himself. He put his fingers in the man’s ears and touched his tongue with his saliva.  Then, looking up to Heaven, he gave a deep  sigh and said to him in Aramaic,

Open!

And his ears were opened and immediately whatever had tied his tongue came loose and he spoke quite plainly.  Jesus gave instructions that they should tell no one about this happening, but the more he told them, the more they broadcast the news.  People were absolutely amazed, and kept saying,

How wonderfully he has done everything!  He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.

The Collect:

Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Proper 18, Year A:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/proper-18-year-a/

Isaiah 35:

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/ninth-day-of-advent/

James 2:

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/week-of-6-epiphany-thursday-year-2/

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/week-of-6-epiphany-friday-year-2/

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/week-of-proper-1-thursday-year-2/

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/week-of-proper-1-friday-year-2/

Mark 7:

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/week-of-5-epiphany-thursday-year-1/

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/week-of-5-epiphany-friday-year-1/

Matthew 15 (Parallel to Mark 7):

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/week-of-proper-13-wednesday-year-1/

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/proper-15-year-a/

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/week-of-proper-13-wednesday-year-2-and-week-of-proper-13-thursday-year-2/

Arise, O King of Grace:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/arise-o-king-of-grace/

For the Right Use of Possessions:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/for-the-right-use-of-possessions-i/

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/for-the-right-use-of-possessions-ii/

In Remembrance of Me:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/in-remembrance-of-me/

Yom Kippur Litany of Confession:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/yom-kippur-litany-of-confession/

The Greater Our Greed Becomes:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/the-greater-our-greed-becomes/

O Lord, You Gave Your Servant John:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/o-lord-you-gave-your-servant-john/

Prayers for Inclusion:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/prayers-for-inclusion/

For Social Righteousness:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/for-social-righteousness/

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As I type these words, the first draft of which I wrote in pencil a few days ago, I am in the third year of following various lectionaries and blogging about daily readings.  I started doing this at SUNDRY THOUGHTS, from which I spun off the three devotional blogs.  Some of the content at ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS and LENTEN AND EASTER DEVOTIONS in particular was originally at SUNDRY THOUGHTS.  I have covered much content so far, and even repeated myself more times than I have kept count.  I do endeavor not to be overly redundant, so I will be concise in this post and refer you, O reader, to the “Some Related Posts” section, where I have provided links.  If you want to know more about part of a reading I have not discussed here, check those links.  I might have covered that material at one of those posts.

Now I need to get down to some class warfare.  Many people (often among the wealthy and apologists for corporate excesses) condemn class warfare as something bad.  It is bad when they engage in it, but they damn those who resist their exploitative practices.  In the Bible we read that excessive interest is sinful.  And Jesus was certainly a class warrior in part.  If it was good enough for Jesus….  If I am to treat the Bible as having any authority, I must acknowledge this aspect of that sacred anthology.

The rich and the poor have this in common:

the LORD is the maker of them all.

–Proverbs 22:2, New Revised Standard Version

The rich foul up, and the poor pay the greatest price.  Greek pensioners lose most–up to 2/3–of their money.  In Spain, some towns have not paid their entire police force for months.  In many nations, many job seekers cannot find employment and real wages have been stagnant for years at best and are falling at worst.  Government austerity measures hurt the economy because less government spending means fewer government jobs and lower government wages.  Unemployment increases, taxable income decreases, and many people have less money to buy goods, thus affecting the private sector.  Demand at soup kitchens and food pantries increases, and the hope of the long-term unemployed and underemployed fades.  These circumstances lead to increased rates of psychological depression and corresponding public health problems.

Yet

Whoever sows calamity will reap calamity….–Proverbs 22:8

and

…the LORD pleads [the cause of the poor]

and despoils of life those who despoil them.  (Proverbs 22:23)

How should we understand the Biblical depiction of God as the avenger of the poor and the mistreated?  Some claim that such violent imagery is unseemly, yet I have no problem with the “God as avenger” metaphor.  Often the oppressors will not stop unless a stronger power forces them to do so.  And there is a difference between a rescue operation and a negotiation.  So God coming in vengeance, as in Isaiah 34:4, comforts me.  And I read in James 2:13 and in the Gospels that God will judge us according to the standards we apply to others.  So, if we have acted mercifully, that bodes well for us.  But if we have not….

There must be justice in this life or the next one.

KRT

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/god-avenger-and-hope-of-the-poor/

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