The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time



ISAIAH 5:1-7: Four voices speak in this elegant and unsettling

poem that Isaiah delivered to the people of Judah.



There is first of all the woman who loves the vine dresser (5:1 and 2). She speaks of how tenderly her beloved cared for his vines and grapes:



Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He digged it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and he looked for it to yield grapes.



But it yielded wild grapes.

The vine dresser picks up the poem (3 and 4), and his words express his perplexity:



And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard,

that I have not done in it?

When I looked for it to yield grapes,

why did it yield wild grapes?

The voice of Yahweh picks up the poem, as the God of Judah compares Jerusalem to the vineyard that will not yield good fruit (5 and 6):



And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge,

and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall,

and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;

it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and briers and thorns shall grow up;

I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

Yahweh has compared the vine dresser's vineyard to Yahweh's Jerusalem. The prophet recognizes this and brings the poem to its grievous completion (v. 7):



For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting;

he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;

for righteousness, but behold, a cry!

PSALM 80:1-7, 17-19: The recurring theme of this psalm is that God should come with might to save us: "Restore us, O God; let thy face shine, that we may be saved!" The three invocations of the deity in these responses seem to grow in intensity. "Restore us, O God; restore us, O God of hosts; restore us, O Yahweh, Lord God of hosts." Two stanzas of the psalm compose our reading for the day.



"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel." This is the only use of this title for God in the whole of the Old Testament. Calling God a shepherd is a daring thing to do. As Samuel Terrien reminds us, (Message of the Psalms) "a shepherd often risks his own life for the sake of a single stray sheep. . . . The poet attributed the highest quality of endurance and self-sacrificial love to the God whom he addressed as the 'shepherd of Israel.'" But there is more to the title than an acknowledgment of God's goodness. It also carries with it an admission of national stupidity and obstinate waywardness. "Ancient shepherds knew how stupid, cowardly, and irresponsible sheep could be. When Israel is aware of being God's 'people and the sheep of [his] pasture'" (Ps. 79:13), says Terrien, "it confesses its utter inability to reach moral decency and civic maturity."



Israel has to pay for that. As long as the people are wayward, the shepherd feeds them the bread of tears and gives them tears to drink in good measure. "Restore us, O God of hosts."



This God is said to be "enthroned upon the cherubim." These are winged creatures with human heads. They came to Israel and Judah through connections with Phoenicia and Canaan, Judah's neighbors, and behind these loom the cherubim of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Isaiah, in his call to prophecy, saw similar statues in the temple at Jerusalem (Isa 6). The name given to the people is also rather unusual. They are called "Joseph," "Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin." Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph, according to Genesis 48:1. Benjamin was the other son of Jacob and Rachel. There is a thought that it was the tribes of Joseph and Benjamin who led the Hebrews out of Egypt. In Canaan the tribe of Joseph split, and they took on the names of the sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Asaph, to whom this psalm is attributed, often used the name "Joseph" for the whole of Israel.



80:17-19 point to a different situation. The people are at the point of repenting, and if they do, God might treat them with favor. "Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, the human being whom though hast made strong for thyself." "Son of man," which is used in the psalm, refers only to a human being and not to a divine figure. "The man of thy right hand" might also be "the man who has enjoyed thy favor," or it could even be "the man who has been nurtured by thy power." Verse 18 is a vow taken by the people, a pledge of more faithful conduct in the future. Having named God their shepherd and confessed their sin, the house of Joseph vows to be more faithful in the future. They seal their vow by appealing to God: "Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! Let thy face shine, that we may be saved!"



HEBREWS 11:29-12:2: Two kinds of witnesses are described in this passage. These examples are drawn both from the Old Testament and from the intertestamental books of Maccabees.



One kind (11:32-35a) are those who triumphed over all enemies, with dramatic deliverances from all threats and dangers, even death. They conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection; this incident is said to have taken place during the Maccabean wars. God had promised them victory, and they had received it.



The other group (11:35b-38) is marked by everything from molestation to violent death. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life; these were the seven sons of a particular mother, all involved in the wars of the Maccabees. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawed in two (the prophet Isaiah was said to have suffered this fate), they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. All these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised,


But both groups represent faith. Faith results in neither success nor failure but in perseverance, in holding on to the promises of God no matter what the situation of life. Faith especially involves looking to Jesus as an example of faith, and this is described in the last part of the text, 12:1-3.



This familiar passage in Hebrews contains many unique words and phrases. As we explore them, our reading of the passage will be enriched.



"So great a cloud of witnesses:" We present Christians are being watched by huge multitudes of faithful people who have already handed on the baton of faith and are waiting as invisible spectators to encourage those who run later. "Host of witnesses" is probably a better translation than "cloud of witnesses." They are a stimulus to our own faith and endurance.



"Let us lay aside every impediment that ensnares us:" "Impediment" is anything that gets in the way of what we are doing. "Ensnares us" is a nearly untranslatable word. It could mean "distracting us," or it could mean "diverting us from our course." It is a word that the author coined himself. It fits in well with the image of a race and with the author's appeal for concentrated attention on Jesus.



"With perseverance": Visser t'Hooft, the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches, pointed out that this is the most precious gift Christians can receive. It is the gift of steadfast endurance, patience, but also active resistance against the temptation of apostasy, falling away from the faith. The key to it is Christ. Christ "persevered" to the point that he went to the cross. We are to "persevere" so that we can continue to run the race of faith. (Renewal of the Church)



"Run the race that is set before us:" "Run" has to do with foot races in a stadium, of which there were many in the Greek and Roman world at the time this letter was written. "Set before us" has to do with a race that is run not privately but in full public view. "Race" is the Greek word "agon." "Agon" has to do not so much with the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," spoken of in every contemporary Olympic contest, but with the struggle to prepare oneself for that contest: the practices, the exercises, the anticipation, the fear that goes into every moment of the preparation. Christians have a race to run; they have to prepare for the race; they are surrounded by a host of witnesses as the athletes who engaged in the public games were surrounded by a great multitude of spectators.



"Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith:" "Looking to" means "fixing our eyes on." "Pioneer" is "someone who begins something, the first in a series, the one who supplies the impetus for others to follow, the originator, the founder." The word behind "perfecter" has to do with ending something. It is the opposite of "originator." This too is a word that the author of this letter appears to have coined, for it is found nowhere else in Greek literature.



"Who for the joy that was set before him:" This can be taken in two different ways. It could mean "instead of the joy that was set before him" he went to the cross. It could also mean "for the joy that was in his grasp," that the cross and the salvation he offered to others through it was his joy.



"Disregarding the shame (of the cross)": Death on a cross was the most shameful thing that could happen to a man. The crucified man was held up as a public spectacle. His body could not be touched by his friends. He could not even be buried in the tomb of his family. "Disregarding" means to look down upon with contempt, to scorn, to care nothing for, to disregard, to be unafraid of" that which was his object. Jesus was not afraid to go to the cross, no matter what it might cost him in personal pain or public shame.



"Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart." "Grow weary or lose heart" were words that were deeply embedded in Greek thinking. Aristotle had used them to describe the physical collapse of a runner after he had finished his race. The runner had given the race everything he had, and at the end he could take not one step more, his body shaking, his muscles cramping, his breath gone, he was exhausted. The best way for the Christian to avoid this spiritual collapse of person and faith is to fix our eyes on the example of Jesus as he himself underwent the test.



LUKE 12:49-56: I believe that both these two arresting statements from Jesus apply to his coming crucifixion.



"I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled!" "Fire" in the Bible means two things. The "fire" can be the fire of judgment, or it can be the fire of cleansing and purification. Jesus' crucifixion is like this. It judges, and it purifies. Those who do not respond to the crucified Christ are judged. Those who do respond to him are purified and cleansed. But the act of crucifixion was a painful one. The Roman orator Cicero said that it was the most painful and humiliating death that a man could undergo. Jesus saw this excruciating moment in front of him. As these words come out of him, he is saying that he would prefer that it be behind him rather than in front of him. But he knows he has to undergo the pain of this death, because he "has come to cast fire upon earth," the fire of judgement and the fire of cleansing.



He also says, "I have a baptism with which I shall be baptized." Had not his baptism taken place long ago at the hands of John? In this statement, Jesus says, "No." It is still in his future. The cross and the death that would follow it will be his baptism. This baptism would result in his resurrection from the dead. This comparison makes sense. Baptism by immersion involved hurtling oneself beneath the surface of the water. Who knows if one would emerge from the water alive and cleansed or would be carried off to one's death by the rushing streams? Jesus faced this uncertainty as he went to the cross. Would God act upon his promise to raise Jesus from the dead? We do not do Jesus justice if we do not face up to the risk and uncertainty with which he confronted his death. He too must have felt anxiety in placing himself in the hands of the soldiers, wondering at the same time if he was also really in the hands of God.



"I am constrained until it happens." This odd statement can be and is read in many ways. It can mean "how I am totally governed by this," a good meaning, since it speaks of Jesus' commitment and says that everything Jesus did in life was governed by his coming death. The New International Version of the New Testament translates it "how distressed I am," and I have already indicated above some of the distress Jesus may have felt as he drew closer to Jerusalem. The New Revised Standard Version translates "what stress I am under." That may speak of stress that is not at the same time distress, the kind of stress he felt even though he was confident that his decision to go to the cross was the one God wanted him to make. Jesus recognized that his commitment, his stress, and his distress would be with him every day of his journey until he had completed it upon the cross in Jerusalem.



Jesus then asks a question. "Do you think that I have come to bring peace upon earth?" "Why, of course you have, Jesus," we say in response to this. We remember the promise of the angels at his birth: "Peace on earth." We recall that Jesus often concluded a meeting with someone by saying, "Go in peace." John's Gospel adds that Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." But on the way to Jerusalem Jesus tells his followers, "I have not come to bring peace but rather division."



He may have been speaking of his own household. His brothers and sisters did not understand his mission, and his mother had her questions about it as well. He may have been foreseeing what would come among his followers: "In one house there will be five divided, two against three and three against two." Or Luke, who wrote these words, may have been reflecting what he had already seen in households where some members of the family committed to Christ and his mission, and other members did not. "Father is divided against son, and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." Many a family, many a synagogue, experienced these divisions as the word of Jesus Christ went out into the world.



It is bound to be so. Because our commitment to Christ shapes our values, priorities, goals, and behavior, we cannot make a commitment to him without its affecting the way we relate to friends and family members, to associates in business, in schools, in all the social settings of life. Jesus saw this happening as he moved from Galilee to Jerusalem and the cross, and he projected what happened then into the long future of his dealings with men and women in times to come.



But why did not people sense this coming crisis of judgment and cleansing? Why did so many that he met upon the way act as if nothing portentous was happening in their lives, why did they go about their daily business as if this day was like any other? Jesus asked himself that question, too, so he spoke to the assembled people in a parable. "You know that when you see a cloud rising in the west a shower is coming. You know that when you feel the hot winds off the desert there will be scorching heat." The Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Negev desert to the south governed much of the weather in Palestine. "You are quick to read those signs," he said. "But how can you fail to interpret the crisis about to come upon you? How can you?" Jesus had a hard time answering that question within himself.