BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Oct. 4, 2004

    Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm

Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 106:1-18

Evening Psalm(s) PM Psalm 106:19-48

Old Testament: Hosea 14:1-9

Epistle: Acts 22:30-23:11

Gospel Luke 6:39-49

Hosea's message closes with a call to repentance and God's promise of forgiveness and new life. "Return to the LORD,/say to him,/'Take away all guilt;/accept that which is good,/and we will offer/the fruit of our lips" (Hos. 14:2). God promises to "heal their disloyalty;/I will love them freely,/for my anger has turned from them" (v. 4). After more promises of blossoming (v. 5), beauty and fragrance (v. 6), flourishing "like a garden" (v. 7) and God's faithfulness (v. 8), the book closes with a reminder that wise people understand that "the ways of the LORD are right,/and the upright walk in them" (v. 9).

After his arrest in Jerusalem, Paul is brought before the Sanhedrin. He claims to "have lived my life with a clear conscience before God" (Acts 23:1). Apparently assuming Paul's guilt, the high priest (Ananias) "ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth" (v. 2). In the following exchange, Paul claim's his right and appears to apologize for not recognizing Ananias as high priest--"difficult to imagine" (Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Harper-Collins Study Bible), but probably "ironical" (G. W. H. Lampe, Peake's Commentary). Ananias represents the Saducean High Priesthood that soon came to an end in the war with Rome. According to Josephus, he was assassinated by terrorists at the beginning of the war. Paul "will not recignize a high priest in Ananias. If the latter were in any real sense a high priest, Paul, as a devout observer of the Law, would never have dreamed of insulting him" (Lampe). The meeting of the Sanhedrin ends in confusion when, after Paul's claim to be a Pharisee, there was "a dissension . . . between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided" (v. 7).

The Gospel reading, Luke 6:39-49, is the end of the "Sermon on the Plain" according to Luke, a parallel to the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. The "parable" of the blind man leading a blind man (Lk. 6:39; cf. Mt:15:14) follows the warning not to judge (Lk. 6:37; cf. Mt. 7:1-2) and leads to the warning about trying to remove the speck from a brother's eye, when there is a log in one's own eye (Lk. 6:41-42; cf. Mt. 7:3-5). Then follows the metaphor of good and bad fruit (Lk. 6:43-44; cf. Mt. 7:16-20), which Matthew applies to false prophets (Mt. 7:15), probably heretical Christian teachers. Both sermons end with the story of two houses, one of which withstood the storm that destroyed the other.

May we find forgiveness as we heed Hosea's call to repentance, and be found faithful as we heed the words of the Lord.

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.