2 Samuel 7:1-14a

Some connections in this one. I mentioned the cedar of Lebanon a couple weeks ago. I mentioned the change in culture in Haggai. The arc of this passage is the connection from the people out of Egypt to this kingdom. Then there's the connection Christians are always trying to make, to Jesus, at the end. To them, this is some sort of prophecy. I would call it more of a development in the mythology. God calling the anointed king a son is a move toward having adopted sons be more important than natural children. As early Christians worked out just who Jesus was, one of the ideas floated was that he had been born human then God declared him to be his son, that is, he adopted him.

The part about raising up offspring became some sort of cosmic ritual of cloning David into Jesus. Of course, the Lectionary leaves out the next verse which starts, "When he commits iniquity…", which makes it tough to map onto Jesus. But Paul says Jesus came from the "seed" of David. The Greek word is "sperma". They had different ideas about how procreation worked back then though, so don't take that too literally. Anyway, the "forever" in verse 13 will stick, leading to the idea of a messiah. This verse might have been inserted later, and I don't accept that someone was taking notes on an actual Nathan/God conversation anyway, but someone, a few someones, wanted to inspire their people to think of themselves as special.

Ephesians 2:11-22

Last week I noted that the passage should not be interpreted as saying some people are pre-destined to get to heaven. That sort of breaks my rule that I don't tell you what to believe, so, go ahead and believe that if you want. Actually what I said was, predestination is not consistently stated throughout the Bible and you should have good evidence if you want to believe it. This week's passage would be counter evidence. It's counter to any idea of exclusionary Christianity. I don't know how you can get from here to not wanting your children to marry outside your denomination or even major monotheism.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

At this point in the book of Mark, you might be wondering how these teachings caught on. Once again, it says, "and he began to teach them many things" then skips 20 verses and goes back to doing some healing. But it doesn't skip any teaching. It just says he taught them many things. But then it switches to telling the story of loaves and fishes and then Jesus walks on water. These are covered in Matthew in a different Lectionary year. It's more stories of people seeking his miracles and those close to him not getting that he's a miracle worker.

The modern view of the gospels is that they are a story that provides a backdrop for some teachings of a philosophy of how to live a good and just life. Ideas of heaven or being judged at the end of your life have faded into universal thoughts on morality. Mainstream Christians are more likely to point to the Sermon on the Mount or Jesus' speaking up against the Pharisees than they are to the sacrifice for our sins. They fill in the "many things" Jesus taught with their own sense of goodness that they developed in a modern, secular and pluralistic world. A few parables will come later, but I'm not sure they are the central theme.