Year
AParaphrases of the Scripture Lections
for Proper 20 - Year A - Sunday 21 September 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.
* Exodus 16: 2-15
........Once they were on their own in the outback, the Israelite people began to worry about how they were going to survive, and the whole crowd started whinging and criticising Moses and Aaron. The people were saying, “We would have been better off waiting for the LORD to kill us back in Egypt. At least there was always a pot of stew on the boil there, and as much bread as we could eat. But you two have dragged us out into the scrub so that you can starve us all to death out here.”
........Then the LORD said to Moses, “I am going to make bread fall from the sky like rain for you. Each day the people are to go out and collect enough for that day only. I am going to test out the people to see whether or not they will do what I tell them. They are not to stockpile it except on the day before the Sabbath day off, when there will be twice as much as usual for them to collect and prepare.”
........So Moses and Aaron spoke to the people saying, “You have been whinging about the LORD, and the LORD has heard you and is going to do something about your complaint. This evening you will be convinced that it was the LORD who got you out of the land of slavery, and in the morning you will witness the glory of the LORD. So stop giving us a hard time.”
........And Moses added, “You will know that it is the LORD’s doing when you have meat for dinner in the evening and all the bread you can eat in the morning, because the LORD has listened to your complaints and responded. Then you will realise that we had nothing to do with it, and that your whinging has not been about us but about the LORD.”
........Then Moses said to Aaron, “Give this message to the whole Israelite congregation: ‘Draw close to the LORD, for the LORD has listened to your complaints.’”
........And even as Aaron was addressing the gathered people, they looked out across the desert and witnessed an awesome display of the LORD’s glory in the cloud.
........The LORD spoke to Moses and said, “Because I have listened to the people’s problems, I want you to give them this message: ‘At sundown you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have plenty of bread. Then you will know for sure that I am the LORD your God.”
........That evening, an enormous flock of game birds came in and settled all over the camp where the people could pick them off with ease. Then in the morning, the ground was covered in dew, and as the dew dried, it left a layer of fine flaky stuff on the ground. It looked like a light sprinkling of snow on the desert floor. When the people saw it, they had no idea what it was and began asking one another, “What on earth is this stuff?”
........Moses told them, “This is the bread the LORD has provided for you to gather up and eat.”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
* Psalm 105: 1-6, 37-45
We shout your name and give you thanks, LORD;
........we will tell everyone what you have done for us.
We sing your praises in your presence,
........and publicise your wonderful achievements.
We put your name up in lights, your name alone;
........our hearts burst with joy when we approach you.
It is you we want most of all, you and your strength;
........we try to keep near to you all the time.
Like all the descendants of Abraham and Jacob,
........and all your chosen children,
we remember all the astonishing things you have done
........and the breath-taking wisdom of your decisions.
You led Israel out of slavery,
........carrying off money and goods,
................and every one of them made it out safely.
The local people were glad to see the last of them,
........because they were terrified of them.
You rolled out a cloud like a blanket for them,
........and lit up the night with a fire.
They asked for meat and you gave them quail;
........all they could eat, you dropped from the sky.
You opened a rock and water poured out,
........flowing like a river in the desert.
You were true to your word, LORD,
........just as you promised your trusty worker, Abraham.
Your led your chosen people to freedom,
........laughing and singing with joy.
You gave them lands as a gift
........and made them rich at the expense of others.
In return you asked that they follow what you said,
........and stick to doing things your way.
You are the greatest, LORD!
©2002 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
* Philippians 1: 21-30
........I am on a winner whether I live or die, because for me living is positively full of the Messiah and dying is full of positives! If I was to go on living in the here and now, that would allow me to keep working and score a few more goals. I don’t know which to wish for! If I was given a say in it, I’d be hard pressed to choose between them. On the one hand, I can hardly wait for the day when I shuffle off this mortal coil to be with the Messiah. That will be the ultimate! But on the other hand I know it would be better for you if I were to stick with you. Because I know that that is the case, I’m pretty sure that I will be sticking around and continuing to get stuck into it with all of you, helping you to grow in the faith and enjoy it to the full. My arriving among you again will give you even more cause to trumpet on about being on the winning side with Jesus the Messiah, and I’ll get to share in the celebrations with you.
........One thing though! See to it that as a community, your common life measures up to the message we proclaim about the Messiah. If it does, I won’t have to worry about whether I make it back to be with you or whether I only ever get to hear occasional news of you. Either way I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit and working together shoulder to shoulder with your minds set on the one goal of fully living out the faith we talk about. And I will know that you are not backing down in the least before the threats that are being made against you. Such a life will stand as a warning to those who are out to get you, pointing to the terrifying fate which awaits them and to the life of salvation which awaits you. This, of course, is all God’s doing. God has been generous enough to not only allow you to live with your trust in Christ, but to give you the privilege of suffering for the Messiah as well. That is why you are now up against it so severely. I was up against the same things last time you saw me — I still am — and now it’s your turn to share in it for the sake of the Messiah.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
* Matthew 20: 1-16
While teaching his followers, Jesus said:
“Here is a good illustration of the kingdom of heaven. A building contractor turned up at his job site first thing in the morning and found a queue of casual labourers at the gate looking for work. He offered to pay them the award wage for a day’s labour, and on that understanding, they signed on for the day and got stuck into it. At morning smoko, the boss wandered out the front gate and found another group of labourers standing around with nothing to do, so he said to them, ‘Come and work the rest of the day on my site, and I’ll pay you whatever is right.’“And so things will be completely different,” Jesus concluded. “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”
....They signed on and got stuck into it. At lunchtime and again at afternoon smoko, the boss went down to the gate and signed on still more labourers. About an hour before they were due to down tools, the boss went down to the gate again and found still more unemployed labourers. He said to them, ‘What are you doing standing around here with your hands in your pockets?’
....They replied, ‘We’re out of work and nothing has come up for us today.’
....The boss said to them, ‘The day’s not done. Sign on here and you can work on my site for the rest of the shift.’
....At knock-off time, the building contractor said to his leading hand, ‘Call the labourers into the site office and give them their wages, starting with those who signed on last and working through to those who signed on first thing.’
....When those who had only been on the job for an hour reported in, they were each paid the award wage for a full day’s labour. So when those who had been hired first came in, they figured that they would get a substantial bonus; but each of them was also paid the award wage for a day. When they saw what they had been paid, they were ropeable, and sent one of their number in to take it up with the boss, saying, ‘Some of these blokes barely worked an hour, and you’re treating them as though they were worth the same as us who worked our guts out in the blazing sun for the whole day.’
....But the boss replied, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong by you, Mister. You signed on for the usual daily wage didn’t you? Well, that’s what I’ve paid you, so put it in your wallet and get off home. I can pay the latecomers as much as you if I want. It’s my site and my money, so I can do what I like with them, can’t I? Or are you offended by my generosity?’”
“You felt a wave of compassion for the tree,
.....whose greatness was no thanks to anything you did,
..........and who was born one night and perished the next.
So what makes you think that I should not have compassion
.....for the great city of Nineveh,
whose streets are home to a hundred and twenty thousand people
.....who left to their own devices wouldn’t know which way to turn
..........and whose animals live there too?”