{"id":3554,"date":"2018-06-12T08:36:41","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T08:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/batkol.info\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2018-06-12T08:36:41","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T08:36:41","slug":"11th-sunday-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/2018\/06\/12\/11th-sunday-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"11th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS FOR THE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

11th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, 17TH<\/sup> JUNE 2018 CYCLE B<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ezekiel 17:22-24;\u00a0 Psalm 91:2-3,13-16;\u00a0 2 Corinthians 5:6-10;\u00a0 Mark 4:26-34<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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[su_button url=”https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1eCrrGnbJRJYX_wwMjWDhwSfYQjBcULfX\/view?usp=sharing” target=”blank” style=”flat” icon=”icon: cloud-download” icon_color=”#ffffff”]Download[\/su_button]<\/p>\n

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\"\"O<\/em><\/strong>ur readings today speak of the growth of God\u2019s kingdom \u2013 and our dependence on God for that growth.\u00a0 The gospel reading from Mark<\/strong> is taken from his central teaching section, concerning the parables of the kingdom of God.\u00a0 Many of them involve miraculous appearance and inexplicable growth as a metaphor for the kingdom: \u201cthe seed is sprouting and growing;\u00a0 how, he does not know.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Great trees, typically cedars, were symbols of powerful empires \u2013 as we see in our reading from Ezekiel 17 \u2013 but mustard plants are invasive shrubs that grow to be a few feet high.\u00a0 Like many other parables, this one is satirical and humorous:\u00a0 the kingdom is like a scrubby, invasive bush!\u00a0 It suggests that \u201cthe kingdom of God\u201d starts from a very small beginning, but grows miraculously.<\/p>\n

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The reading from Ezekiel – a prophet of the exile – is the conclusion to chapter 17, which is an extended metaphor about the disastrous results of the people seeking help from Egypt, one of the great political powers of the day, having fallen foul of the other great power, Babylon.\u00a0 God\u2019s covenant had been broken and now God adds God\u2019s own ending to the story:\u00a0 God will take a sprig from the top of the cedar and plant it on a high mountain of Israel and it will flourish, demonstrating God\u2019s sovereignty.\u00a0 It\u2019s an idyllic ending, unexpected in the midst of oracles of punishment, and promises restoration.\u00a0 Like the gospel story of miraculous, unexpected growth, Israel will indeed thrive under an upright ruler of the house of David:\u00a0 \u201cEvery tree of the field will learn that I, the Lord, am the one who stunts tall trees and makes the low ones grow \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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There is a similar message of hope and growth, based on righteous living according to God\u2019s covenant, in Psalm 91:\u00a0 \u201cThe just will flourish like the palm-tree and grow like a Lebanon cedar.\/Planted in the house of the Lord\/they will flourish in the courts of our God\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0 Lebanon cedars, proverbially stately trees with deep roots, are an obvious antithesis to the metaphor of ephemeral grass used to represent the wicked.\u00a0 The contrast is like that of Psalm 1, between the righteous as a tree planted by waters and the wicked as chaff blown by the wind.\u00a0 The psalm concludes by picking up the call \u201cto tell\u201d<\/em> from the beginning, so that it begins and ends by affirming what a good and fitting thing it is to tell of God\u2019s greatness, for\u00a0 \u201cthe Lord is just.\/In God, my rock, there is no wrong\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Mark places the two kingdom parables together as a pair, possibly because he understands them both to be conveying the same message of assurance of the coming of God\u2019s kingdom.\u00a0 The early Christian communities may have taken comfort from them in the belief that, though response to the gospel was often indiscernible, God was in control and they could be confident that the harvest would eventually appear.\u00a0 Paul, in the Letter to the Corinthians<\/strong>, also expresses confidence in the future.\u00a0 His dilemma here is reminiscent of his Letter to the Philippians, where he says, \u201cLife to me \u2026 is Christ, but then death would bring me something more;\u00a0 but then again, if living in this body means doing work which is having good results \u2013 I do not know what I should choose\u201d<\/em> (2:21,22). The enigmatic relationship between bodily existence and eternal life is also suggested in the Jewish tractate of the Mishnah, \u201cSayings of the Fathers\u201d:\u00a0 \u201cBetter is a single moment spent in penitence and good deeds in this world than the whole of the world-to-come.\u00a0 And better is a single moment of inner peace in the world-to-come than the whole of a lifetime spent in this world\u201d (Avot 4:17).\u00a0 But what is certain is our knowledge of God\u2019s \u201clove in the morning\u201d<\/em> and God\u2019s \u201ctruth in the watches of the night.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 For that \u201cIt is good to give thanks to the Lord\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This week\u2019s Sunday Gospel Commentary was prepared by<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sr Margaret Shepherd, NDS, London, UK<\/strong><\/p>\n

margaretashepherd@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

[Copyright \u00a9 2018]<\/strong><\/p>\n

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PLEASE NOTE<\/em><\/strong>: The weekly Gospel commentaries represent the research and creative thought of their authors, and are meant to stimulate deeper thinking about the meaning of the Sunday Scriptures. While they draw upon the study methods and sources employed by the Bat Kol Institute, the views and conclusions expressed in these commentaries are solely those of their authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of Bat Kol. \u00a0Questions, comments and feedback are always welcome.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bat Kol Institute for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1983-2018<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cChristians Studying the Bible within its Jewish milieu, using Jewish Sources.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

gill@batkol.info <\/em><\/strong>Website: <\/em><\/strong>www.batkol.info<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS FOR THE 11th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, 17TH JUNE 2018 CYCLE B Ezekiel 17:22-24;\u00a0 Psalm 91:2-3,13-16;\u00a0 2 Corinthians 5:6-10;\u00a0 Mark 4:26-34 [su_button url=”https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1eCrrGnbJRJYX_wwMjWDhwSfYQjBcULfX\/view?usp=sharing” target=”blank” style=”flat” icon=”icon: cloud-download” icon_color=”#ffffff”]Download[\/su_button]   Our readings today speak of the growth of God\u2019s kingdom \u2013 and our dependence on God for that growth.\u00a0 The gospel reading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":3541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}