Vineyards are one of the most powerful and pervasive symbols in the Bible with lots of stories involving them variously in both testaments The vineyard scenario is rich and malleable with changes able to be rung easily Today Isaiah s vineyard song the psalm snippet and Jesus parable all

In today s first reading we meet Samaria and Samaritans We know generally who they were though they are a hot spot in current study Samaria was a capital city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries often in trouble with the biblical historian of the period for roy

In most of the NT materials excluding the letters though the narrated events are set in the 30s of the first century C E the accounts themselves were produced decades later fruit of long and diverse reflection by the young Church on its experience of Jesus Think analogously if after many

Since there is a lot of liturgy this week with many readings I would like to comment on the figure emerging from within several places in Isaiah 40-55 notably in Palm Sunday s reading of Isa 50 4-7 but really marbled throughout that prophetic text The material shares vocabulary and motifs to

The Exodus reading is difficult if we don t take it deep enough At the surface we have a narrative where God s people whine and God seems to withhold basics providing water only after a scene has been made Beneath the water shortage is an accusation that God s plan is to kill the people and

Jesus does not talk about the story of Adam and Eve though Paul does giving it a powerful interpretation that may overwhelm our initiative to continue to reflect on it But Paul s view is not the only way forward here The Genesis story treats in a sophisticated and subtle way the profound que

This Sunday s first reading is woven explicitly into the Gospel a writer s move recently named intertextuality The practice is ancient though often the intertexts are less clear and more difficult to spot Today we have Isaiah 9 1-2 invited by Matthew into the Gospel at the place now ca

The ancients in general seem to have understood that diverse deities existed related competed--and that the question for human discernment and commitment was which one whose was the real God Today s first reading from Isaiah can be understood in that way Perhaps generated from amid a wider

This Sunday s readings invite us into an area of considerable discussion--not to say dispute--in classrooms pulpits pews chanceries and other such places How is Scripture to be interpreted most fruitfully What methods and questions are most suitable Do we need to consider the 8th century c

The reading from Isaiah nicely picked up by the response--Psalm 122--takes us to Zion the hill on which Jerusalem sat where the temple rested whence royal Davidic enterprises worked and most important of all where stood God s cosmic throne rooted deep in the earth and brushing the heavens