Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Resources

1. In the Catholic/Lutheran option of the Revised Common Lectionary, this same passage falls on Proper 22C, just four weeks earlier. See the reflections on this text at Proper 22C.

2 Thess. 1:1-4, 11-12

Resources

1. James Alison, Raising Abel, p. 120; the skipped-over verses, 2 Thess. 1:6-8, are quoted as an example of apocalyptic language from Paul. Alison takes on the view that Jesus was wrong about expectations of the coming of the Lord's Day. See an excerpt of his basic argument from pp. 124-127, "The Apocalyptic Imagination."

2. N. T. Wright is also challenging the view going back to Schweitzer and Bultmann that Jesus was wrong about apocalyptic expectations. He argues that Jesus used apocalyptic and prophetic language to correctly predict the "earth-shattering" events of the Roman-Jewish War as the logical end to insistence on military revolt as the way to liberation. For more on this, see Part III of "My Core Convictions" essay.

Reflections and Questions

1. Once again I wonder about deleted verses -- in this instance, verses about apocalyptic expectations that especially make sense out of verses 11-12.

Luke 19:1-10

Resources

1. Andrew Marr; link to his online essay "The Town of Jericho and Zacchaeus."

Reflections and Questions

1. In 2004 we moved this lesson up a week to use for our "Commitment Sunday" (stewardship pledge campaign) since it otherwise falls on either Reformation Sunday or All Saints Sunday in the most common of Lutheran practices. It speaks well to the claim that discipleship makes upon one's life. Jesus calls Zacchaeus to be follower and that makes immediate changes upon how he must live out his vocation: "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much" (Luke 19:8).

We paired this text, however, with a different text from the Hebrew Scriptures to help ring out our overall stewardship theme of "Sharing Our Blessings." That text is Genesis 12:1-3:

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

2. "I will bless you, so that you will be a blessing" has also been a personal/family motto as we adopt to children from Liberia. Link to an article that appeared in our local Racine newspaper under the banner of this verse, "'You Will Be a Blessing.'"

3. In 1995 I preached a sermon, indebted to Robert Capon's work on the parables, entitled "Salvation Makes a Housecall."