Lector's Notes		To the home page of Lector's Notes
Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, October 23, 2005

First reading, Exodus 22:20-26

The Historical Situation: This passage is part of a long narrative, Exodus, chapters 19-24, in which the Hebrews, liberated from Egypt, have wandered into the desert of Sinai. At the risk of oversimplifying things, let us summarize: God announces his desire to enter a covenant with the people. Moses is the mediator. God manifests himself in terrifying thunder, lightning and clouds. God gives the terms of the covenant in various paragraphs, on several occasions. The people assent to the terms. These include the familiar Ten Commandments, and paragraphs that elaborate the commandments in great detail, ritual prescriptions and much more. This is the context of today's first reading.

The Law which God gave through Moses was, in its time, revolutionary in a way that modern people usually underestimate. To put it simply, the Law civilized these people. In few ancient societies did anyone have the courage to say it was wrong to oppress an alien or take advantage of the poor. Nor did other ancient people fancy that their gods cared for widows and orphans. The behaviors codified in this law really liberated these people, and allowed them to begin to build an excellent, humane society. We should not overlook this when we find reading the code so tedious. Humans and their societies will never be without sin, but the Law lifted this society out of barbarism. And so it was a great gift.

Proclaiming It: So when Moses spoke these words the first time, he really got people's attention. When you proclaim them again, speak as if you expect the same, because you appreciate the stature of the Law you are announcing.

You might do this if you want to emphasize the revolutionary character of the Law, as described above: Emphasize the word you every time it occurs. Think of how you would address a child who wants to do something foolish because "all the other kids are doing it." "And if they all jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?" When God spoke the Law, Israel should have heard implied "I expect more of you than, sadly, I can yet expect of other peoples." (There would come a time, of course, when God's favor, and high expectations, would be shown to extend to all peoples, but we're not there yet. We're only in the Sinai a few weeks out of slavery.)

Second Reading, 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10

A Little More History Evident in the Passage: First Thessalonians is the earliest letter we have from Saint Paul. As we'll see in the weeks ahead, Paul and these earliest Christians believed that Jesus would come again very soon. This is what Paul means when he congratulates them because they "turned to God from idols ... to await his Son from heaven," the Son who "delivers us from the coming wrath." That "wrath" means the judgment they expected God soon to visit upon the earth, much to the detriment of the non-believers. Their conviction was that God was soon to bring history to its end with the return of Jesus in glory. This expectation fades over the years during which the New Testament scriptures were composed. Some gospel passages, for example, show evidence of original composition by believers who expected Jesus to return very soon, then later editing by believers who realized that Jesus' return was indefinitely delayed. How the early church switched gradually from that short-term readiness to a long-term vision is a noble part of our heritage.

Proclaiming It: Achaia, what is modern Greece, is pronounced a KI yuh, with a long I sound in the second syllable. To decide what inflections to give the pronouns, notice this: the Thessalonians imitated Paul and the Lord, then the Macedonians and Achaians imitated the Thessalonians. That there are three parties ("us," "you," and "them, the Macedonians and Achaians," should be clear to those listening to your proclamation. It might help you capture the spirit of Paul's letter if you imagined yourself introducing the guest of honor at a testimonial dinner. How positive and enthusiastic would you want to sound?

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 explains the texts verse-by-verse, and sometimes word-by-word, with cross-references to other Bible passages. Especially useful if you're puzzled about the meaning of a word or phrase in the readings. At the link above, Dan writes about our gospel of today and a first reading from Leviticus. To read Dan's notes on our second reading of today, click here.	Father Roger Karban's 1999 syndicated column about these readings, and his 2002 column
The Text This Week; links to Lectionaries of many churches, homilies, art works, movies touching scriptural themes, and other resources on the week's scripture	Saint Louis University's excellent new liturgy site Most welcome here are Reginald Fuller's commentaries. This site posts its pages only a week before the given Sunday, and keeps its back issues posted for only about eight weeks.

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.

Send email to the author.

Last modified: Mon Oct 10 19:56:14 CDT 2005