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| The Prophet Samuel -- Claude Vignon (1593-1670) |
- 1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15) and Psalm 138 •
- Genesis 3:8-15 and Psalm 130 •
- 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 •
- Mark 3:20-35
At this point in the
year the Lectionary offers a choice between ‘continuous’ and ‘thematic’
readings from the Old Testament. The thematic readings are intended to fit better
with the New Testament readings, while the continuous readings allow us to
follow a rather longer story over a number of weeks.
This year the
continuous readings take up the long story of the Israelites problematic relationship
with their political rulers. It begins with the celebrated 8th
chapter of the first book of Samuel in which the elders ask Samuel to find them
a king so that they can be ‘like other nations’. He warns them about the
dangers of kingship, but they persist. And so the stage is set for the turbulent
saga of Saul, David and their many successors.
The passage leaves
out the verses in which the Israelites' demand for a King is interpreted as a
rejection of God. Yet this conflict between divine and human sources of hope
lies at the heart of the whole story, and provides the background against which
Jesus’ messiahship has to be understood. Jesus emphatically rejects ‘the nation’
as a focus of hope and salvation. More troublingly, the Gospel passage suggests
that faith in God requires us to reject the family too, since Jesus appears to disown
his ‘mother and brothers’.
This is one of those passages known as the 'hard sayings' of Jesus, and indeed it is difficult to interpret properly, even allowing for the exaggeration typical of middle eastern thought. But however we interpret it, this implication seems inescapable. God demands, and requires, and rewards, a
devotion far deeper than any human being – king or parent -- could warrant.
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