1 Corinthians 3:10-11;16-23

This passage occurs in the RCL during the Year A Epiphany Cycle, most recently February 2017.

Some brief commentary:
All of the "You"s in this section (You are God's building, you are God's temple, God's spirit live in you) are you plurals.  Paul argues that God's Spirit dwells in the collective, not the individual.  Interestingly, there is individual judgment, but there is collective blessing!  Furthermore, Paul reserves his judgment it seems, for church leaders.

σοφος αρχιτεκτων ("wise architect" or "master builder", 3:10)   Hebrews will call God the master builder and Jesus; Paul does not declare himself to be a master builder, but says he was like/as a master builder.  Important distinction!  We fill roles within the church, but God is the builder and ultimately, owner.

πυρ ("fire", 3:13;14)  Paul offers that we will be cleansed as if by fire.  For Paul judgment does not preclude salvation, but may in fact, be part of salvation!  This is a massive point that I will need, someday, to expand upon!

υμεις ("you"; 3:17)  To remind us all -- "you" in English can be translated a number of ways in Greek -- you individual (συ), you plural (υμεις), you in all sorts of cases  (υμιν e.g.)  In this case, the English translation: "You are God's temple" will almost certainly be heard by English ears as meaning "You individually are God's temple" rather than what the Greek suggests "You all are God's temple." 

Paul will pick up on the idea that our individual bodies are temples (νοας) of God (1 Cor 6:19) but in this section (3:10-23), Paul addresses our unity within the body of Christ.  Paul is able to tie together our individual responsibility with our collective unity.  I would offer that most of us as Americans need far more discussion and contemplation of our collective unity.

Grammar tid-bit
παρα (3:11)  This preposition can mean many things; in this case it means "outside of" more than "alongside of." 

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

This passage occurs in the RCL Year A Epiphany Season, most recently February 2017.

Summary:  This passage is paired with Jesus teaching on adultery and divorce.  Therefore, this passage is unlikely to be preached on.   However, I find myself drawn this year (2017) to Paul's letter to the Corinthians because they struggled with division; likewise, our culture, if not our congregations, are struggling with divisions, over politics, but more deeply over a host of underlying issues.

Paul reminds us that our purpose is to be servants of Christ; to spread his Word; to build up the body of Christ.  In this purpose I believe that Christians of different political backgrounds can find common ground.

Key Words

ερις ("heris", meaning "factions" or "disputes", 1 Cor 3:3)  This is not essential for the meaning of the passage, but I wanted to point it out.  The word "heresy" comes from the Greek for faction.  It did not originally mean dogmatically false.  It simply meant different.  Overtime, the factions within the church were used by God to formulate the key doctrines of the Christian faith:  That Jesus died and rose from the dead; that Jesus is fully God and fully man; that the Holy Spirit is coequal to the Father and Son.  Disagreement can be worked for God's greater purposes!

ανθροποι ("anthropoi" meaning "humanly", 3:4)  The cognate here should be clear; I highlight this word because it raises a question -- is Paul criticizing disagreement in general or disagreement in the church?  My sense is that neither Paul nor Jesus questions the necessity of disagreement or even courts of law.  This in turn raises my question:  What is the spiritual way to deal with conflict?   Matthew 18 addresses this practically: address the person directly, etc.  1 Corinthians 3 addresses this theoretically:  Remember your works are nothing before the cross (1:18) and that everything good comes from God.

διακονοι ("diakonia", meaning "servant", 3:5)  The term "deacon" in the church often is seen as meaning servant.  In this case Paul means servant, but he also means servant of the Word.  Deacons in the Bible and in the church have a call to ministry that includes both hands-on service but also proclamation.

ηυξανεν (from auxanoo, meaning "cause to grow", 3:6,7)  This verb comes into English in words like "augment"  A couple of things about its use grammatically"

- Paul indicates that he planted and Apollos watered.  Both of these verbs are aorist tense, suggesting a one time event.  When Paul writes that God causes to grow, Paul uses the imperfect tense, suggesting an on-going action.  This means that God's work continues long after, if not long before, the work that we do. 

- Paul even gives God a title in vs 3:7 when he employs a participle form of this verb:  God, the one who causes to grow.

εν ("hen" meaning "one", 3:8)  The NRSV and NIV say that Paul and Apollos have one common purpose.  The Greek is stronger than this:  Paul and Apollos are ONE.  Not have a common purpose, they are one.  In the next verse Paul will describe them as συνεργοι, or co-workers.

οικοδομη ("building up", 3:9)  This word can mean building.  I do not think this is the best translation.  Throughout 1 and 2 Corinthians, as well as Ephesians, Paul uses this word frequently.  He almost exclusively uses it to refer not to the building, but the act of building up.

- On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.  1 Corinthians 14:3
- So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.  1 Corinthians 14:12
- Now, even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.  2 Corinthians 10:8
- So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.  2 Corinthians 13:10
- to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  Ephesians 4:12

(2 Cor 5:1 and Eph 2:21 are exceptions but I feel they prove the point in that the buildings they refer to are not earthly, but the heavenly home of Christians or the eternal body of Christ.  Paul never uses this word to refer to the earthly Kingdom.)

This is not to say that the idea of a building is a bad one; Paul continues with this metaphor the rest of chapter 3.  My point is that Paul has in mind, I believe, a more dynamic metaphor here, not a static one.  We are not the finished building of God, but the always-being-grown (see discussion on imperfect tense earlier) body of Christ.

Luke 7:1-17

The narrative lectionary offers Luke 7:1-17 as one of its readings during the Epiphany season (most recently, February 5, 2017).  In the RCL, this passage is two separate passages, both of which I have written about.  Here are the links to those passages

Luke 7:1-10:  http://lectionarygreek.blogspot.com/2013/05/luke-71-10.html  I offer some thoughts on faith and healing.

Luke 7:11-17:  http://lectionarygreek.blogspot.com/2013/06/luke-711-17.html    I offer some possibilities of what Jesus means by prophet.

Isaiah 2:1-5

This passage occurs in the Advent season of the Revised Common Lectionary (Year A), most recently November 2016.
 
Big Picture:  This is an awesome passage to reflect on the mission and purpose of the church.  God is on a mission to heal and save the world.  He gathers a group of people to study his word.  As they gather more people, they are all transformed as agents of his love in this world.

*Note.  While this blog overwhelmingly looks at the New Testament passages from the weekly lectionary, this week the Hebrew Bible text is so compelling, that it deserves some closer examination.  For those of you that like Greek better (like me!), don't worry, there will also be some tie-ins to Greek, LXX style!  (no, not XXX style.  LXX style).

There are only five verses, so I want to add a few comments on each verse:

2:1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

"son of Amoz"  Isaiah is identified here by his father (and ultimately city and tribe).  Why?  Because identity in this culture is bound up with family and tribe.

"The Word..."  The word for "word" here is דבר, davar.  Translated as "logos" in the New Testament, this word appears time and time again in the Bible.  The Word of The Lord speaks to and through the Prophets.  The Word of the Lord is said to be rare in the childhood days of Samuel (1 Sam 3:1) a sign of bad times.  Also, the construction of the sentence in Hebrew draws attention to the word, "The Word."  Typically a verb starts a sentence, but in this case, it is the noun, the Word.

"saw concerning"  This word, חזה , (khazah), means behold or see.  Normally the Word of the Lord comes to people, but in Isaiah's case, he beholds the Word.  The word becomes visible!

2:2  In days to come the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

"In the days to come...":  This specific phrase in the Bible, "In the after/end of the days" is often used in the prophets to connote the end times.  In this light, the NIV "In the last days" may be closer.  On other hand, the phrase may also simply mean the future.  I think the best word that provides this ambiguity is: "ultimate."  In the ultimate days; ultimately we hope, pray and strive that we can experience such days in our lifetime.  Linguistically, it is worth noting that the verb here (to become/to come to pass/to be) is in the imperfect tense, connoting that it is on-going and incomplete.

"The Lord's House":  The specific phrase used by Isaiah, "Bet-YHWH" does mean House of the Lord literally, however, it refers to the temple in Jerusalem. Tricky to translate.  Do you take the historically and linguistically accurate translation of "The temple" or do you leave it as "House of the Lord."  I like the idea of House of the Lord because it gives the sense that the temple is not a place of human hands or even of human worship, but the place of God's dwelling. 

LXX (Greek) Note:  The LXX translates the word as οικος του θεου (house of God).  Interestingly, YHWH is almost always translated as κυριος (kyrios), however, not in this case.  This anomaly is perhaps explained by the insertion that it is the mountain of the "kyrios," leaving the sentence with at least one incidence of "kyrios."

Technical grammar note:  The preposition in the phrase, "as the highest of the mountains" is one of those strange ב or "bet"s that would have certainly found its way onto a Hebrew exam...let's not get bogged down there, but if you have a bunch of spare time, have fun categorizing that particular preposition.

"All nations" (goyim) Once, while working at my firm in New York, I was called a goyim.  This is, in modern Jewish slang, often a derogatory term for non-Jews.  However, in the Bible, it simply refers to the nations -- the εθνε (ethne) in Greek.

"Shall stream to it"  Interestingly, another translation is "it shall shine forth to the nations."  The Tanakh translation picks up this possible meaning of the word "stream."  This would be interesting to insert the idea of God's people serving as example to the rest of the world.
 
2:3  Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

"For out of Zion shall go forth instruction"  The word for instruction here is "Torah" which can mean many things, including Law.  The LXX will actually translate this as νομος (nomos).  More broadly, Torah can also include, not simply the laws, but also the story that involves the instruction.  This is probably too technical a point for a sermon, but the point that people could understand is that in the Bible, instruction never drops from the sky, but always comes to the people in a relationship and for their good.

What is also interesting is that the word for "Torah" is a cognate of "Y-R-H."  This word (according to BDB) means 1) to cast; 2) to lay a foundation 3) to shoot an arrow 4) to teach (in the hiphil).  There is a huge debate about how the words "teach" and "cast" became related, with theories that speculate this relates to the priestly function of "casting" omens.  Another common theory is that when one casts, one points.  Teaching is often a matter of pointing.  I prefer the idea of teaching as laying a foundation for someone.

"the word of the LORD"  Here again we have the word "Devar" (translated as logos by LXX). 

"Walk in his paths".  The word for walk, (הלכ) halak, (apologies on not being able to get an ending Kapf there) is used four times in this section.  People walk to the mounting, the walk in his paths and twice they walk in the light.  This transformation of the people is not simply about intellectual insight, it is about embodied living.

"from Jerusalem."  Before, people were streaming to (אל) the city ..but now the word is going out from מן) Jerusalem.  This is a reminder that God's vision is greater than the ancient people of Israel.  Likewise, the vision of God is bigger than the church.

2:4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

No language comment, but a point:  Good laws (justice) leads to peace

2:5  O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!
"Let us walk"  This phrases echoes the previous verse:  "They will say...come, let us..."  This is why the translation, "In the last days," is not as helpful because 2:5 invites us to participate in that vision here and now.

"Light of the Lord"  This is the only time that this expression appears in the Bible.

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, most recently October 2016.

Summary:  I doubt many of us will preach on this passage, but I wanted to offer a look at a few quick things.  Ministry is hard.  But Christ is faithful.

Three words
αναλυσις (literally analysis, meaning "death", 4:6)  I find it telling that analysis literally means death in Greek.  Ultimately to analyze something is to break it down...to the point where it may or not be living!  This is not a note suggesting that analysis is bad (this blog is devoted to analysis!), but it is reminder of how analysis can destroy the goodness, if not even life of something.

αγωνα (literally agona, meaning "struggle", 4:7)  I have fought the good fight sometimes makes it sound almost romantically Olympic.  The word for fight here comes into English as agony.  Throughout his letters, but certainly in this chapter, Paul points toward the loneliness and even persecution that comes from serving Christ.  This truly is a pastoral epistle, encouraging Timothy (and all of us) not to lose hope, even in the most difficult of times.

αγαπαω (agape, meaning "love", 4:8)  This is really fascinating -- Almost every translation uses the phrase - "those who have longed for his appearing."  Paul literally writes, "those who have loved his appearing."  The first question is -- which appearing is Paul referring to?  His first (incarnation) or his second (paraousia)?  The bulk of the time Paul uses this word, it refers to the 2nd coming.  However, in 2 Timothy 1:10 Paul uses this word (appearing -- επιφανεια) to refer to the 1st coming.   What is also interesting is that Paul uses the perfect tense here, suggesting a state of affairs created in the past that still is in effect to the present.  In that light, it seems that Paul is referring to a love that began in this first appearing and still maintains itself as a love for the 2nd appearing.  I'm not sure we could easily capture this sense in English:  "those who loved and continue to long for his appearing."

A Greek concept:  Perfect tense
Just about every verb in this section is in the perfect tense.  The perfect tense in Greek is fairly easy to identify because the Greek verb adds a repeated sound to the beginning of the verb and the endings usually have "k."  Hence:  τελεω becomes τετελεκα. 

They are really cool because we do not have the same concept in English.  The perfect suggests a completed action (like in English) but one that still has a present state of affairs.
For example, in Greek, the stone at the tomb has been rolled away .  All four of those words are in the one verb in Greek, parsed in the perfect tense!!  The point is that at some point, the stone was rolled away (past completed action) that still has a present impact -- the stone is not there!  In the case of Paul's letter, Paul has kept (perfect) the faith.  Paul did this in the past, but it has a present implication -- he still has faith!  The perfect tense in English draws attention to when the action happened (completed in the past).  The perfect tense in Greek draws attention to the connection between the past action and present state (like in the example above regarding love.)

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

This passage appears in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C (most recently August 2016)

Summary:  The writer of Hebrews focuses on the reality of trials and tribulations of a faithful life here on earth.  The Christian life is not one of avoiding suffering, but embracing it as Christ embraced his own suffering.  We follow Christ who suffered before entering glory.  Along the way we have our faithful brothers and sisters to inspire us.

Key words:
πιστει (pistei, dative of πιστος , meaning "faith", throughout chapter 11).  I discuss this word and its use in my last week's post for Hebrews 11.

μαρτυρων (genitive form of μαρτυς, martys, meaning "testimony"; 12:1)  As I've written about 100 times before the word μαρτυς simply meant witness in a legal sense.  However, so many Christians died giving their witness, that the meaning of the word changed.  Here in Hebrews 12 we already see the shift in the meaning of this word, in that suffering is clearly connected with witnessing.  While we may not have modern martyrs in the same sense of direct persecution for faith, most of us have received a powerful witness from someone whose faith endured suffering and obstacles.

αγωνα (agona, meaning "race" or "struggle"; 12:1) The word is essentially agony!  We are invited into agony for Christ.  This word appears in another verse in relationship to witness:
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight (αγωνα) of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Translating it as race makes sense given the verb "run" used in 12:1.  However, this may seem like a competition against others.  The focus here is on the struggle against sin.

This word can also mean "heat" like run a "heat." Or life on earth is like a heat!

αρχηγον (archegon, meaning "pioneer"; 12:2)  The word comes from two basic Greek words:  αρχη meaning first or primary; ηγον a derivative of αγω meaning lead.  Jesus is the first leader!  Moving beyond word games, this word appears twice in the letter to the Hebrews.  In 12:2 but also 2:10
Hebrews 2:10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer (αρχηγον) of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus the pioneer (αρχηγον) and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Both verses speak of Christ attaining perfection and pioneering our faith.  But both also clearly go via the way of the cross.  Christ leads the way, but it is always through Calvary.

Some fancy word play:
The writer of Hebrews plays on some words here in a way impossible to detect in English.
περικειμενον  vs ευπεριστατον:  In 12:1 the writer says that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses; sin is clinging to us.  Both words have a similar root: περι (peri, around).  The cloud of witnesses is abiding around us; sin is also standing around us.  The word describing sin is quite interesting:  ευπεριστατον which breaks down into ευ-περι-στατον:  Pleased-around-standing.  Sin is happy to stand around us!

Sermon connection:  How we can be reminded of the cloud of witnesses, that they may be ever before us as much as sin is?

περικειμονον vs προκειμενον.  Both words have at their root:  κειμον from κειμαι meaning "lie around."  περι (peri) means around vs προ  (pro) means before.  The cloud of witnesses surrounds us for what lay head of us.  And what does lay ahead of us?  Agony here but glory later.




Sermon connection:  What challenges do you have before you?

Hebrews 11:1-3;8-16

This reading occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C.  The Roman Catholic church includes slightly different verses, including either  Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 or Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-12.

Summary:  The writer of Hebrews uses an advanced style of Greek that makes reading it more difficult.  I have included a number more technical notes than usual if you want to dig in.  The big picture is this:  Faith is a mighty, hard and costly matter.  A good preacher should be able to extol the power of faith.  A better preacher should help the people see that their faith is not their own, but a gift from God, that comes to us by the Spirit and the Word.  A great preacher, dare I say it, preaches in such a way that people hear the Word and by the Spirit have this faith.  As Jesus says in the related Gospel passage:  Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (12:32)."

Key words and grammar insights:
υποστασις (hypostasis, meaning "confidence"; 11:1)  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the word from all of the Trinitarian debates:  One ousia and three hypostases!  First, let's break down this word:  It comes from υπο- meaning "under" and -στασις meaning "a standing."  The hypostasis is the thing that settles to the ground; the foundation.  This becomes understood metaphorically then as the base of confidence.  The thing upon which you can stand, not just literally, but emotionally.

This is an interesting way of looking at the Trinity -- we have one substance (God) but we have means of confidence, three bedrocks of our life: the creation, the cross and the community of faith.  Okay, I got a little cute there...

ελεγχος (elegchos, meaning "testing; 11:1).  Liddell-Scott defines this word as "a cross-examining, testing, for purposes of disproof or refutation."  Three facts that seem useless:
- It is only used once in the New Testament;
- Old Testament it is found almost exclusively in translations of wisdom literature;
- It has a different meaning if it is declined as a neuter instead of masculine noun. 
What is important here:  It is really hard to figure out what this word actually means because you cannot get many similar uses as the one here.  The other meaning of the word is "rebuke" which makes no sense in this context.  If anything, faith is the rebuke of things seen!

ελπιζομενων (participle form of ελπιζω, meaning "hope"; 11:1)  How to translate this participle?  First, it does not have any article, which would seem to rule out a substantive or an adjective participle.  Second, it is in the genitive case and there are no other nearby words in this case, making it difficult to translates as a circumstantial participle.  The word that helps us know how to translate this participle is πραγματων.  This word is also a genitive neuter plural word meaning "things."  There is a parallel structure in the sentence now genitive plural object - nominative singular subject.  I would argue to translate ελπιζομενων as a genitive substantive participle

ελπιζομενων υποστασις assurance of things hoped for
πραγματων ελεγχος:  proof of things (unseen)
You could argue that ελπιζομενων modifies πραγματων; in this case the above translation (and how everyone translates it) does not change.

βλεπομεν (participle form of βλεπω, meaning "to see"; 11:1;3) This word appears in both verse 1 and 3 in different participle forms.  The point is that faith and sight are often not connected.  The other point is that God can bring about things that we cannot yet see.  Who would have predicted that Africa would be the heart of Christianity over a century ago?  Who would believe in life after death when sitting with someone as they die in suffering?  Who would believe in forgiveness when they have seen the pain that people cause?

εμαρτυρηθσαν (from μαρτυρεω, martyreo, meaning "testify"; 11:2)  As I written about before, Christians changed the meaning of this word.  Because so many Christians were killed for their witness, the word martyr came to mean to die for one's witness!  The sentence literally reads "the elders were martyred in this faith."  In this case, the word means "be well spoken of", like a "we can say about them now" kind of thing.  But the most literal translation should shake us up.  Faith has a cost!

πρεσβυτεροι (presbyter(oi) meaning "elder"; 11:2)  This word can mean ancestors but also simply elders.  In the early church this became a position of leadership and is still used today in various churches to designate leadership.!

πιστει (dative form of πιστις, meaning "faith"; 11:3 and then throughout the passage).  The writer of Hebrews will begin using the word πιστει repeatedly.  It is the word for faith in the dative case.  The dative case can have many meanings, most likely in this case the "instrumental" idea.  (By means of faith...)  In English, we almost always have to have words with prepositions to show how they fit together.  Greek can simply "decline" them in cases so show their meanings.

κατηρτισθαι  (form of καταρτιζω, meaning "restore", 11:3)  This is fascinating. Typically translators understand 11:3 to refer to creation -- the old creation.  This would make sense in that the writer of Hebrews is going to begin a retelling of the Old Testament.  But the writer intentionally chooses restore (as in Galatians 6:1:  If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently).  I wonder if the writer of Hebrews here is connecting the old and new creation:  God is restoring the new creation -- at his word -- having made the seen from the unseen.  My sense is that belief in God's work in making the new creation takes more faith than belief in God's work in making the old creation!  I don't think translating this in terms of the old testament creation is wrong (in fact the verb tenses later in the verse suggest this as well as, again, the whole framework of the passage).  I just think there might be a small note of the new creation joining the chorus here.

Little bonus:  In verse 10 you find a curious word for builder:  δημιουργος or demiurge of gnostic faith!