Br. John R. Barker, OFM

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

Today’s passage from Jeremiah occurs in a section of oracles from the very last days of Jerusalem. The prophet’s strongest criticisms are reserved for the Davidic kings, who are charged with maintaining justice and ensuring covenant fidelity. Yet these “shepherds” have failed to uphold justice and correct worship of God. Because of their negligence, Israel is now under judgment, which will include exile (the scattering of the sheep). Yet God insists that this judgment is not the end of the story. After a time, God will gather the sheep and return them to the land, placing over them a righteous Davidic king who will lead the people as God expects them to be led.

Paul reminds the Ephesians that before they became Christians, they were dead in their transgressions, but have now been brought to life in Christ, a completely unmerited gift (2:1–7). The Gentile Ephesians have thus been brought into the household of the God of Israel through the blood of Christ, who has erased the boundary that separated Jews from Gentiles. What was once two people is now one people. Not only has the estrangement between Jew and Gentile been overcome, but the estrangement of both from God has been healed in the very body of Christ, both the body of Christ on the cross and now in the body of Christ that is the church (the “one new person”).

The apostles Jesus sent out last week have returned. The work of proclaiming the Kingdom is exhausting, and so they are invited to rest. But the work is never actually over; the more the kingdom is proclaimed, the more the people clamor to receive its gifts. Jesus knows, however, that the apostles must be rested and fed so that they can continue their ministry. Yet the people keep coming, looking for Jesus. Not only is this a sign of the faith that Jesus admires and praises so much, but it is also a sign of the needs of the people. It is in response to both the faith and the need that Jesus begins to teach the crowd.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

Amos has been preaching in Bethel, an important cultic site that featured a golden calf, set up by Jeroboam as a rival cult to Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:26–31), and thus “the king’s sanctuary.” Amaziah addresses Amos as if he were a “professional” prophet whose earns his bread by prophesying. Such prophets were often suspect, since their “prophecies” could be geared to favor whoever paid them. Amos insists that he is not a professional prophet; he had a job from which he was taken away by God to perform the dangerous task of preaching in places like Bethel. The rhetorical point is to affirm that Amos is a genuine, because reluctant, prophet, not one seeking to profit from his task.

Paul begins his letter the Ephesians by bringing into focus the divine plan, which the church has been formed to announce. The language of being “chosen” and called to be “holy and without blemish” recalls God’s creation of Israel. In the case of both Israel and the church, God has redeemed and forgiven because God is rich in grace, but also for a larger purpose, “the mystery of his will,” which is now revealed to be to “sum up all things in Christ.” The church, then, is not a collection of individuals, but a people called forth by God for a purpose, which, when fully known, will lead to the “praise of the glory of his grace.”

Despite the faithlessness he has recently encountered, Jesus now sends the Twelve out with the authority to do the “mighty deeds” he has been able to do for those who have faith. They are taking almost nothing with them, which is both an expression of trust in God’s providence and a sign that they are not seeking profit from their work. This is also why they are told to stay in the same house that welcomes them, rather than to accept any offers they may receive for nicer accommodations—another sign they would be looking out for themselves rather than the Kingdom and the people to whom it is proclaimed.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Ezekiel occurs in a vision of the divine glory, in which he is told to speak to Israel, now undergoing hardship at the hand of Babylon. The prophet is sent to the people to proclaim to them what God is doing and why. Yet God knows that the people will not listen to Ezekiel, because they, like their ancestors, are rebellious. Nevertheless, the prophet is sent to speak God’s word, which must be proclaimed regardless of the people’s willingness to hear it. The proclamation of God’s word is not dependent on whether it will be heard or not; it is God’s word to the people, and therefore must be spoken.

Toward the end of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul “boasts of the things that show my weakness” (11:30). Although he has himself had “an abundance of revelations,” he also knows himself to be profoundly weak, as evidenced by whatever it is he calls the “thorn in the flesh.” Christ allows this thorn to remain, despite the fact that it is “an angel of Satan,” to prevent Paul from falling into the trap of relying on himself rather than on Christ. It is a great paradox that acknowledging weakness, and the hardships and struggles this entails, allows believers to let the power of Christ work in them, making them strong (because they realize that it is not in fact their strength, but Christ’s).

In last week’s Gospel, when Jesus brought to life the daughter of Jairus, the people had ridiculed him, an expression of their lack of faith. Here again Jesus encounters a want of faith in his hometown. Although they acknowledge the wisdom of his teaching and the reality of his “mighty deeds,” the people can only see Jesus as just a local boy. The “offense” they take at him may indicate a sense that he is trying to “rise above his station.” Their disbelief, grounded in their own idea of what is proper or possible, is self-fulfilling, in that it prevents Jesus from bringing to bear in their lives the full power of God.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

In the book of Wisdom we see the fruit of centuries of reflection on the meaning of the first chapters of Genesis. Wisdom insists that in God’s original plan humans were immortal; this is, at least in part, what it means to say that they were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). It was only because of the machinations of the snake, now identified as the devil, that humans experience death. But this is certainly not what God, who is resolutely opposed to death, wants for humans. The larger point of the Wisdom passage is to warn people to be faithful to God and thus not to “court death by your erring way of life” (1:12).

In his letter the Corinthians, Paul now turns to his collection for the Christians in Jerusalem. He challenges them—who “excel in every respect”—to excel in giving also. Here they should look to the example of Christ, from whose generosity they have been enriched. One way to show their gratitude is to share other forms of “riches” with the struggling church in Jerusalem. He seals this appeal with a reference to Exodus (16:18), which refers to the distribution of manna in the wilderness. The point is clear: any abundance the Corinthians enjoy is a gift from God, which is meant to be shared equally by all of God’s people.

In both stories of the longer form of the Lectionary reading, the role of faith—trust in Jesus’ will and ability to save—is central. The woman believes quite simply that if she touches Jesus’ clothes, that will be enough to cure her. Jairus approaches Jesus with absolute confidence that by laying his hands on his daughter, Jesus will save her from death. Most notable about both of them is the fact that neither hesitates or hedges. Neither says, “If you can,” or “If he will,” or gives any other expression that would serve to prepare prepare them to be disappointed if Jesus refuses or somehow fails to save.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

God’s creative power is often expressed in the Bible through the metaphor of God controlling chaotic waters. In Genesis 1, God controls by speaking, while in other places, God must defeat the waters, personified as hostile “sea monsters,” in battle (Psalms 74:12–17; 89:10–12). Here God refers to this creative power in response to the demand that he give an account of himself for Job’s suffering. This response includes the assertion that Job is not capable of comprehending the complexity of the world and how it works, because Job did not have a hand in it. It was God, not humans, who “shut within the doors the sea” and “set limits for it,” stilling its “proud waves.” Only God, in other words, is capable of controlling the chaotic waters.

Paul has just been speaking of the need for perseverance. It is precisely what we do with this life that will determine the nature of our encounter with Christ the Judge. But what really impels Paul is the love of Christ. This is true in both senses: the love shown by Christ in dying for all so that we can become a new creation, and our love for Christ in return, which should lead us to embrace the gift of this new creation. Christians no longer live for themselves, but for the one who transformed them. The gift, in other words, can only be received by loving the giver back and living into the larger purpose for which the gift was given in the first place.

The account of the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee draws clearly on Ordinary Time images of dangerous, threatening waters that represent personal or social chaos (note, for example, that a psalmist regularly cries out to be saved from drowning or from sinking into the deep, an expression of personal distress and danger). In the Old Testament, it is God alone who saves by controlling chaotic waters, and yet the same is true of Jesus here. The fact that Jesus was asleep during the storm reflects his own faith that the chaos will not prevail, and his questions to his disciples are intended to provoke the same faith in Jesus’ saving power.