Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Gospel text commentary by John Rasmussen

Sunday – Read the Text

First Reading/Old Testament:                                 Deuteronomy 30:15-20

The First Reading of Scripture in the book of Deuteronomy,Chapter—30

Thanks be to God!

25 Now great crowds accompanied Jesus, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with casino online ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has Find your State”s Official Health affordablehealth.info Marketplace. cannot be my disciple.

34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Gospel of the Lord—

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

 

Initial Reflections—

1)      My eye is immediately drawn to the phrase, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father,” etc., “he cannot be my disciple.”

2)      If the theologian of the cross is one who knows that the Word of God is a “two-edged sword” that “kills so that it might make alive again,” then he or she will dwell on the “hard saying”—the portion of the text that “brings one up short,” so to speak. Clearly, the phrase about “hating” fits this bill on all counts.

3)      Pastorally and homiletically also, one might expect the hearer’s focus to be fixed on this aspect of the text as well. “Pastor, what does Jesus really mean when he says that we must learn to hate in order to be his disciple.  Aren’t Jesus’ disciples supposed to love?”

4)      How will this focus drive my work with the text throughout the week?—or should I say rather—how might this focus uncover how the text/the spirit works on me?

 

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