Year
AParaphrases of the Scripture Lections
for Proper 6 - Year A - Sunday 15 June 2008
Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary.
Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT)
P. O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.
* Genesis 18: 1-15, (21: 1-7)
........One blazing summer afternoon, Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent, when the LORD appeared to him. Looking up, Abraham saw three strangers approaching him. He immediately jumped up and hurried to welcome them as honoured guests. He said, “Please allow me the honour of sharing the hospitality of my home with you. Come in. Take a bath. Put your feet up for a bit. Let me serve you up a meal so that you can leave refreshed and strengthened. I would count it a favour to have the opportunity to serve you in this way.”
........So they said, “Thank you, we accept.”
........Abraham hurried into the tent and said, “Sarah. Quick! Knock up a batch of scones while I organise the barbeque.”
........Then he ran out to his grazing herd and butchered a prime calf. He instructed one of his workers to prepare the best cuts for the barbeque. When it was all ready, he served it up for his guests with a yoghurt dip and plenty to drink, and waited on them while they ate.
........During the meal, they said to him, “Where is your wife, Sarah?”
........Abraham replied, “She’s inside; in the tent.”
........Then one of the three said, “Mark my words! I’ll be back this way in about a year’s time, and by then your wife Sarah will have a son.”
........Sarah was in the tent behind them as they talked, and she overheard this. Knowing well that she and Abraham were both elderly, and that she had long since passed menopause, she laughed to herself, saying, “Fat chance! Am I going to have such pleasure at my age; and with my husband past it too?”
........The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and question whether she can have a child at her age? Is there any good thing that the LORD is incapable of doing? I’ll be back this way in about a year’s time, just as I said, and Sarah will have a son.”
........Sarah was shocked that she had been caught, and blurted out, “I didn’t mean to laugh.”
........“Yes, but you did laugh,” replied the LORD.
........The LORD was good to Sarah and followed through on the promise made to her. Sarah fell pregnant to Abraham and gave birth to a baby son. This happened when they were both old and grey — Abraham was already one hundred years old when the child was born. Sarah gave birth to their son right at the time that God had spoken about. Abraham named his son Isaac, and circumcised him when he was eight days old, because that is what God had told him to do. Sarah said, “Now God has given me something to laugh about! And everyone who hears the news will laugh with me! Once no one would have dared raise the topic of me having a baby with Abraham, but now I have given birth to the old man’s son!”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
* Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19
I love you, LORD!
........How could I not love you
................when you always respond to my cries?
You are always ready to listen to me,
........so I will bring my needs to you as long as I live.
How can I ever repay you, LORD?
........What gift could ever express my gratitude?
I will raise my glass in your honour,
........I will name you as the one who saved me.
I will make good on all I promised you, LORD,
........and I’ll let everyone know its for you.
Whenever one of your faithful people dies
........it affects you deeply.
LORD, you have released me from my chains.
........I will serve you forever,
................just as my forebears have done.
I will bring a gift to say thanks;
........I will pray to you, and you alone.
I will be true to the vows I’ve made;
........and I won’t keep it hidden.
In full view of all your people,
........in the public place of worship,
................I’ll do all I promised you, LORD.
All the praise and all the credit are your, LORD!
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
* Romans 5: 1-8
........It was our faith that put us back in the good books with God. We put our trust in Jesus Christ our Lord and we can rest assured that he has cleared up everything with God for us. Christ got us in on the extravagant generosity of God, and that generosity has given us a safe place to plant our feet. We don’t just stand there, though. We hold our heads up high and announce, with pride, that we confidently expect to be sharing the glory that is coming to God. Actually, it’s not just what’s coming in the future that makes us feel so good. Even now, when life seems to be giving us a raw deal, we can stand proud. We know that going through suffering can make us tough enough to survive the worst of times. This ability to tough things through will in turn generate new depths of integrity and maturity within us. And that brings us full-circle because it is this integrity and maturity that gives us our confidence about the future. Our confidence is not in vain either. We are sure about that because of what we have already experienced: a flood of love surging into our hearts from the Holy Spirit who God has given to us.
........Christ got us on track at the cost of his own life. He did it right when we most needed it; when we were way off course and too weak to ever get ourselves back. It’s hard to believe, but true. You rarely hear of people putting their lives on the line for others, even for innocent children. Perhaps we might be able to imagine finding the courage to die for someone who we deeply admired and loved. But if you need proof of how much God loves us, just look at what Christ did. While we were still showing no signs of ever offering God anything but contempt, Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
* Matthew 9:35 - 10:8, (9-23)
........Jesus hit the road and began teaching in the meeting halls of every city and town he came to. He broadcast the wonderful message about God’s reign, and healed people of every kind of disease and sickness. He was meeting crowds of people everywhere he went, and their predicament always made him feel sick in the guts. They were under so much stress and were so powerless to do anything about it. They were like children caught in a rip with not a lifesaver in sight. He said to his followers, “The world is an orchard, groaning under a bumper crop, ripe and ready for picking; but there are hardly any workers ready to bring it in. So get in touch with the Lord of the crop, and put in an urgent request for more workers to be sent out to do the picking.”
........Jesus called his twelve closest followers together and commissioned them to deal with every spirit of evil they would encounter, and to heal people of every kind of disease and sickness. These are the names of his twelve chosen ambassadors: first there was Simon, who was also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; there were the brothers James and John, the sons of Zebedee; there was Philip; Bartholomew; Thomas; Matthew who had collaborated with the Roman occupation forces; James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the freedom fighter; and Judas Iscariot, the one who later double-crossed Jesus. Jesus gave these twelve their marching orders as follows:
“I am not giving you the job of going to foreign places or to groups that are hostile to our people. Instead I want you to go to the people of Israel who have gone off the rails. Everywhere you go, broadcast the message that the realm of heaven has come close to us. Restore the sick to heath, raise the dead to life, integrate the outcasts back into society, flush out the demons. You haven’t been asked for payment for what you have been given, so you too are to do all this free of charge for others. Don’t take a wallet full of money just in case, and don’t go carting luggage around. Live simply and depend on others; for those who work hard have earned their food.
“Whenever you arrive in a new town, accept the hospitality of someone who is trustworthy and on-side. Stay put until it’s time to move on. No shopping around for a better place! When you arrive in someone’s home, honour everyone as a friend. If they are good people they will benefit from your generous spirit; but if they prove unworthy of it, you have lost nothing by offering it. If you arrive somewhere and they refuse to welcome you in or listen to what you have to say, just turn your backs and walk away. Scratch their name off your map and forget them. I kid you not; on judgment day the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah will get it easy compared to that town.
“Keep your wits about you, because on this job you will be like children swimming among the sharks. You will need to be as street-wise as a feral cat and as harmless as a budgie. Be on your guard against those who make wild allegations against you and turn you in to the authorities or incite mobs to beat you up in public. Because of your association with me, you will be dragged before the magistrates and political leaders. This will be your chance to speak out for the truth before an international audience. When they arrest you and put you on trial, don’t worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say in the witness box. You will be given the right words to say when the time comes, for it won’t really be you doing the talking, but the Spirit of God speaking through you. People will end up betraying even those closest to them, their own brothers and sisters, and having them killed. Parents will dob in their own children, and children will turn on their parents and send them to the gallows. People everywhere will despise you because of your association with me, but those who tough it out to the end will be brought home safe and sound. When they begin to kick you around in one town, clear out and make a fresh start in the next. You can take my word for it; you will not run out of options before the New Human arrives on the scene.”
“Give this message to the people of Israel. ‘You have all seen what I did to the people who kept you in slavery. And you have all seen how I swooped down like an eagle to rescue you from them and make you mine. So now this is the deal: if you live the way I tell you to live, and continue to be true to the alliance I have made with you, then you will belong to me and be the most valuable people on earth to me. Of course the whole earth belongs to me, but you will be a nation set apart and dedicated to me, serving as my priest in the world.’ Go now, Moses, and tell the Israelites what I have said.”So Moses went back down the mountain and called together the Israelite tribal elders. He told them everything that the LORD had told him to say. The people of Israel were unanimous in their reply: “We will do everything that the LORD is asking of us.”