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Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, July 6, 2008

First reading, Zechariah 9:9-10

The Historical Situation: The book known as Zechariah comes from two different sources. Scholars call chapters 9-14 Second Zechariah. It's later than most of what we read from the Hebrew Scriptures, from the period after Alexander the Great conquered Judah in 333 B.C.E. By this time, Judah had been a subject state for a very long time. From generation to generation, only the names of its overlords had changed. The prophet begins (Zechariah 9:1-8) by announcing that the Lord will invade the lands of Judah's foes (some near and some far) and liberate Judah. Then, in the sentences we proclaim, he describes Judah's new king.

To understand this image of the Messiah, remember two things. Christianity did not yet exist and had not appropriated the title "Messiah." The word means "anointed person" and applied to Judah's kings because anointing (not coronation) was the kernel of the royal enthronement ceremony. Secondly, a king is still a king, even if he rides on an ass. Ancient Middle Eastern potentates who paraded in horse-drawn chariots were stating that the raison d'être of their kingships and their tribes was conquest. Judah had a different royal imagery. The purposes of its kings (and of the tribe itself) was not imperialism but justice and fidelity to a higher, invisible king. Thus Judah's Messiah, when receiving the accolades of his people, rides a low-slung pack animal. (In our time, contrast the May Day parades of missiles and tanks in the old Soviet Union with the inauguration of a President of the United States, when the latter still had the security and temperament to walk to the ceremony.) (And click here for a humorous look at the subject, from The New Yorker of July 1, 2002.)

Proclaiming It: This passage is in the Lectionary today because its portrait of the Messiah superficially resonates with Jesus' portrait of his disciples in today's gospel, Matthew11:25-30. That's a remarkable, beautiful and moving passage, and you might try meditating on it as part of your preparation to proclaim the Zechariah. However, you'll be more faithful to the prophet's text if you steep yourself in his vision, which is more corporate. Zechariah sees not a lone humble subject, not even just a nation, but a world (sea to sea, from the [Euphrates] River to the ends of the earth) at peace, where there's no need for chariots or the warrior's bow.

Second Reading, Romans 8:9, 11-13

The Theological Background: You may remember this passage, perhaps even this commentary, from the Fifth Sunday of Lent earlier this year. Scholars have filled shelves with books about the meaning of "in the flesh" versus "in the spirit." In my opinion, the simplest and best explanation, and one consistent with the rest of Saint Paul's teaching, is that we're in the flesh to the extent that we try to save ourselves, earning salvation by our own works, by how well we keep rules, etc. That's proud and futile. Rather we're called to be in the spirit, to let the Spirit dwell in us, sanctifying us not by our works but by the undeserved grace of God, the only power capable of bringing life from death.

[Good folks at religion-online.org have done the world a favor by posting a 20th-Century theological classic, Paul Tillich's The Shaking of the Foundations. In Chapter 16: The Witness of the Spirit to the Spirit he takes up the question of flesh and spirit most eloquently and convincingly.]

Proclaiming It: Reading this to a congregation is challenging, especially where the sentences are long. Try to break up the long sentences into sense lines, pausing briefly where that will help the listeners follow. Vary your tone of voice to bring out the contrasts between life and death, spirit and flesh, righteousness and sin.

Extra! Each Sunday passage from Romans in context: Click here to see a table summarizing the readings from Romans from the 9th to the 24th Sundays of Ordinary Time, this year.

Several other commentaries on these passages. All are thoughtful, all quite readable, from the scholarly to the popular.
Links may be incomplete more than a few weeks before the "due date."
Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's notes for a study group.
Dan cites a 1973 article from the Journal of Biblical Literature by Paul D. Hanson, explaining the meaning of the donkey imagery in Second Zechariah. Dan covers a different second reading, Romans 7:15-25. 		From the heartland of the U.S.A., two priest-columnists, both learned and wise, with a great common touch:
Father Roger Karban's syndicated column about these readings, from 2005,

his column from 2002,

and and from 1999.

The 2002 column of Jesuit Father Francis X. Cleary, From the site of the Saint Louis Review.

The Text This Week; links to homilies, art works, movies and other resources on the week's scripture themes Saint Louis University's excellent new liturgy site

Most welcome here are Reginald Fuller's commentaries.

The Lectionary selections in the frame at the left, if any, are there for your convenience. The publishers of the page in that frame have no connection, except for membership in the one Body of Christ, with the publisher of this page. Likewise the publishers of the pages on the links above.

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Last modified: June 21, 2008