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Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, November 8, 2009 |
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Twenty-second digests for the congregation: Arrange with your liturgy committee to have these brief historical introductions read to the assembly before you do each reading.
Who should announce these before the first and second readings, and before the gospel acclamation? They're not Scripture, nor homiletic, so they shouldn't be delivered from the ambo. They're a modest teaching. So let the presider say them from the chair. Let the lector turn toward the presider and listen.
Print this page, cut it at the blue lines, and give the introduction paragraphs to the person who will speak them. | ||
| Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, November 8, 2009 | ||
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Before the first reading:
The Books of Kings tell of some faithful people, often prophets, and some unfaithful ones, often kings of Israel, and of the consequences of fidelity and of infidelity. This is one of the stories about the prophet Elijah and what his faithfulness let God accomplish through him.
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After the psalm, before the second reading:
The Hebrews were Jewish converts to Christ who missed some of the features of their old religion, including a sanctuary and sacrifices as ways to fend off God's judgment against them. Today the writer explains how Jesus has made a better once-for-all sacrifice, how he advocates for them in a better sanctuary, and how he replaces judgment with salvation.
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Before the gospel acclamation:
Jesus' disputes with the religious authorities of his day continue to heat up. Today he condemns their consumption of the resources of the poor.
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The Historical Situation and Theological Background: The Books of Kings were written well after the events they describe by an author who had this intent: His main interest is in keeping his audience faithful to the Lord. So he tells the story of each of Israel's kings, with emphasis on how the king was or was not faithful. "The faithful prosper; the unfaithful pay for their defections," as the Introduction to 1 Kings in The New American Bible explains. And when the author compares prophets to kings, the prophets are always the more faithful. Our particular passage today is from a collection of stories of miracles wrought by the prophet Elijah, who famously went up against King Ahab and his Queen Jezebel over the issue of worship of the false god Baal.
Your Proclamation: The passage is more than a story, of course; it's a lesson about taking confidence from God's promise announced by the prophet. But you have to tell it like a story if the lesson is to come across. Some pointers:In today's passage, the institutions in question are sanctuary, sacrifice, and judgment. In the old covenant, a priest conducted an annual ritual sacrifice in the sanctuary of the Temple, slaughtering a lamb. In the readings lector notes from two weeks ago and from three weeks ago, we saw that Jesus himself replaces the whole class of ancient priests. In today's selection, the earthly sanctuary is made obsolete by the sanctuary that is heaven, where Jesus the priest intercedes for us directly before God. And the repetitive annual sacrifices are likewise replaced by Jesus' once-for-all sacrifice at this, "the end of the ages." The old sacrifices were meant to forestall an unfavorable judgment by God. The new expectation is brighter: "salvation to those who eagerly await him."
Proclaiming It: So the reading is a series of contrasts between what the people have lost and what they now have in Jesus. Now practice making these contrasts audible in your proclamation.
| 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." | |
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Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's posts on the Web notes for a study group.
Click here for his treatment of all the readings | Father Roger Karban's year-2000 column on these readings, his 2006 column. Read all of Father Karban's recent columns here. |
| The Text This Week; links to homilies, art works, movies and other resources on the week's scripture themes | Saint Louis University's excellent site for Sunday liturgy Most welcome here are Reginald Fuller's commentaries. (Caveat lector. As of October 17, 2009, Lector's Notes' author is speculating about the exact URL of SLU's offering, since it's not yet posted. If you get a 404 Not Found, try here). |
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.