BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Nov. 7, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 93, 96 [Presbyterian: 19:1-14]
Evening Psalm(s) PM Psalm 34 [Presbyterian: 81:1-16]
Old Testament: Ecclus. 51:13-22 [Presbyterian: Joel 1:1-13]
Epistle: 1 Cor. 14:1-12
Gospel Matt. 20:1-16
Presbyterian Readings for the current day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
For Old Testament Readings, I note that the Presbyterian Book of Worship turns to Joel one day earlier than the Daily Office Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer. With adjustments Monday and Tuesday, including optional readings that match, the two come together beginning Wednesday.
Ben Sira concludes his book with "an autobiographical poem on the author's quest for wisdom (vv. 12-22)" which "leads to his invitation to join him in receiving her instruction (vv. 23-30)" (Burton Mack, HarperCollins Study Bible). Hebrew manuscripts of Sirach discovered recently, show that the poem is in the form of an alphabetic acrostic. The first word of each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a feature found in several Psalms, e.g. Ps. 9:1-10:18; Pss. 34; 37; and others, including Ps. 119, with eight lines for each letter. Ben Sira's poem echoes themes from Proverbs, chapters 2, 8, 9, as well as his own earlier work (chs. 1, 4,, 6, 14, 15, 24). He invites us to put our "neck" under Wisdom's "yoke" (Ecclus. 51:26). He tells us, "I directed my soul to her [i.e. to Wisdom],/and in purity I found her./With her I gained understanding from the first;/therefore I will never be forsaken" (v. 20).
Paul compares the gifts of prophecy and tongues, and shows a preference for the former. "For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation" (1 Cor. 14:2-3). Paul characterizes the gift of prophecy in a way that makes it seem like preaching, or something very close to it. "Those who prophesy build up the church (v. 4). He places special value on this "upbuilding"–which we used to call "edification." With this he provides a criterion for us in our work for Christ. What is it that contributes the most to the building up of individual Christian believers and the Christian community as a whole?
Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to "a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard" (Mt. 20:1). He agrees to pay them the normal day's wage, a denarius (v. 2). Through the day he hires additional laborers, at nine o'clock (literally, "the third hour") (v. 3), at noon ("the sixth hour") and at three o'clock ("the ninth hour"), and again at five o'clock ("the eleventh hour"). At the end of the day, he pays all of the workers the same day's wage, a denarius for each (vv. 9-10). To the complaint of some who began early in the day (vv. 11-12), he replies that he has fulfilled the agreement (v. 13). "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?" (v. 15a), "not a statement of economic theory except as it claims the right to enter into differing contracts" (Elwyn E. Tilden, NOAB). "Or are you envious because I am generous?" (v. 15b), literally "Is your eye evil [implying envy and resentment] because I am good?" (note a). For Krister Stendahl, who discounts the "equal pay" motif as making the story vivid, the meaning is either a defense of "Jesus' ministry to the despised," "a Matthean parallel to the parables in Lk. 15," or "the reversal of order" ("the last will be first, and the first last," v. 16;. cf. 19:30) (Peake's Commentary). Perhaps it's a little of both. No one is so weak or despised in this world that God is not concerned, or takes no notice of him/her.
Ronald D. Worden