Does anyone know why the lectionary stops at verse 8? It seems it really should stop at verse 10.
Tigger in ND
Ooops! I take that question back. I was looking at the wrong chapter.
Tigger in ND
This is a kind of mix-and-match Sunday for me as far as texts are concerned. It's church school and children's choir recognition Sunday, when among other things we give Bibles to fourth graders. I'm planning to hand out the Bibles just prior to the sermon, and then devote the sermon to a demonstration of how I work at reading, understanding, and interpreting scripture--"in the preacher's workshop," perhaps.
Anyway, my texts are Exodus 19:1-8a (this week's) and Matthew 9:9-13 (last week's). I'm hoping to show a common thread in the two texts: freedom from, and freedom for. The Israelites were set free from the oppression of slavery, and set free for covenant with God. Matthew was set free from the unpopular profession of tax collector, and set free for discipleship with Jesus.
Re the phrase "on eagles' wings" in the Exodus text:
Mark Link, S.J., has this illustration of “the image of a mother eagle teaching her young ones to fly, as vividly described recently by a modern observer”:
“I shall never forget the day that I stood on the barren plain of Petra with its walls of blood-red rock. Glancing up, I saw a large bird soar out from a mountain crag. Something dropped from its back like a pellet of lead. In a moment the pellet unfolded, and I saw a little bird stretching its wings to fly.
“Before long, however, the uprush of wind proved too strong and the little bird, once more a stone in the sky, began to drop. In an instant the mother bird swooped down and caught it on her back to bear it aloft for a second trial.
“This time the young bird sustained itself longer in flight, but once more it crumpled before the wind and began to drop. But the ever-present mother saved it again for a third testing. As before, the pellet dropped, the wings opened, but this time the young bird flew off” on its own and conquered the wind.
Barnabas Ahern, cited in Mark Link, S.J., “These Stones Will Shout - A New Voice for the Old Testament,” p. 88.
This is a kind of mix-and-match Sunday for me as far as texts are concerned. It's church school and children's choir recognition Sunday, when among other things we give Bibles to fourth graders. I'm planning to hand out the Bibles just prior to the sermon, and then devote the sermon to a demonstration of how I work at reading, understanding, and interpreting scripture--"in the preacher's workshop," perhaps.
Anyway, my texts are Exodus 19:1-8a (this week's) and Matthew 9:9-13 (last week's). I'm hoping to show a common thread in the two texts: freedom from, and freedom for. The Israelites were set free from the oppression of slavery, and set free for covenant with God. Matthew was set free from the unpopular profession of tax collector, and set free for discipleship with Jesus.
Re the phrase "on eagles' wings" in the Exodus text:
Mark Link, S.J., has this illustration of “the image of a mother eagle teaching her young ones to fly, as vividly described recently by a modern observer”:
“I shall never forget the day that I stood on the barren plain of Petra with its walls of blood-red rock. Glancing up, I saw a large bird soar out from a mountain crag. Something dropped from its back like a pellet of lead. In a moment the pellet unfolded, and I saw a little bird stretching its wings to fly.
“Before long, however, the uprush of wind proved too strong and the little bird, once more a stone in the sky, began to drop. In an instant the mother bird swooped down and caught it on her back to bear it aloft for a second trial.
“This time the young bird sustained itself longer in flight, but once more it crumpled before the wind and began to drop. But the ever-present mother saved it again for a third testing. As before, the pellet dropped, the wings opened, but this time the young bird flew off” on its own and conquered the wind.
Barnabas Ahern, cited in Mark Link, S.J., “These Stones Will Shout - A New Voice for the Old Testament,” p. 88.
Doug in Riverside
oops - sorry for the redundancy - didn't hit the stop button quickly enough when I realized I hadn't signed my posting.
Doug in Riverside