Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Third Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 4](A)

Gen. 6.9-22; 7.24; 8.14-19 Ps. 46 Rom. 1.16-17; 3.22b-31 Mt. 7.21-29

Genesis 6.9-22; 7.24; 8.14-19:

1) The story of the Flood and the renewed blessing runs from 6.9 to 9.29. Noah is introduced as a “righteous” man, a term applied rarely.

a) He alone among his peers is blameless.

b) Following the formula used by the so-called “P” (“Priestly”) writer, not only is Noah introduced, but his descendants are also.

2) God is described as intending the destruction of the world because of “violence”. This is a revisionist translation. The term in Hebrew means “lawlessness”.

a) God is described as seeing evil and acting upon it.

b) In v. 11 this translation says that the earth is “corrupt,” and in v. 13 that God will “destroy” the earth.

i) The word used in Hebrew are the same in each verse: The earth is “destroyed” or “corrupted”.

(1) This parallelism points to the fact that the destruction to be wrought by God is the completion of the destruction wrought by human wickedness.

(2) The word used for flood is only used here and in Ps. 29. The meaning is one of the chaotic waters tamed by the Lord.

(3) Noah is to bring examples of every living thing. All creation is good.

Psalm 46

1) This is the first of the Zion hymns, hymns in praise of the Temple.

a) Chaos is contrasted with the rule of the Lord.

2) This psalm is the basis of Luther’s famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress is our God” (no. 687).

a) Notable throughout the psalm and hymn is the collective “our” and “us”.

i) This is a hymn for God’s people; for those living in community in covenant with Him, rather than a statement of individual trust.

Romans 1.16-17; 3.22b-31:

1) Paul proclaims that the Gospel is not just a message, a philosophy or a system of thought to be learned.

a) It is the “story of the cross” (1 Cor. 1.18).

b) The power of God is expressed for the salvation of the believer.

i) God’s power and righteousness are revealed in the fact that He exercises this power to acquit the believer by and through Jesus Christ.

2) God’s righteousness is revealed to the believer “through faith for faith”.

a) This phrase is much debated, and the Greek use of two prepositions is problematical.

b) The meaning may presuppose a growth in faith, from a beginning faith to a more perfect faith, or

c) The meaning may be that we participate in salvation through faith, but that “for” faith reveals the purpose of the divine plan (that we attain perfect knowledge of God).

d) The quotation (“... as it is written”) is taken from Habakkuk 2.4.

3) The Lectionary here omits 1.18-3.20, in which Paul’s theme (that the righteousness of God is revealed through the Gospel, justifying the faithful) is set forth negatively, by what happens to those who do not have faith.

a) The Lectionary jumps to positive examples, how a new period in human salvation began with the coming of Jesus.

4) It is important to go back and look at the verses that the Lectionary has omitted!

a) Paul is talking about how God’s wrath is revealed.

i) His wrath does result because of bad behavior, but the bad behavior itself reflects that in his wrath God has given sinners over to their own devices.

b) In focusing only on the “positive examples (3.22 on), the Lectionary focuses on the message that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

i) All have sinned, but stating the positive only, and not the negative, is a very incomplete version of the message of Scripture.

Matthew 7.21-29

1) Those who seek to omit sections of Scripture because they do not agree with the message, that the message is not “correct” or comforting, will do well to pay attention to Matthew 7.21:

Jesus said, “not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

2) In this Gospel passage, God is the Judge and Jesus the Advocate at the Last Judgment.

3) Building upon the truth of Scripture is to build on a solid foundation. Those who seek to build on “sand” (human beliefs alone), build on no foundation.

a) Jesus describes the solid foundation as (in v. 24) as “these words of mine”.