The Worthy, Vigorous, Substantial Woman - Reflections on Proverbs 31:10-31, Proper 20 Year B
Lectionary Reflections on Proverbs 31:10-31, Proper 20 Year B, October 22, 2024
Lectionary Reflections on Proverbs 31:10-31, Proper 20 Year B, October 22, 2024
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The figure of David is among the finest literary portrayals in the ancient world, as I have tried to prove in the preceding weeks of our too brief look at the man. Today is no exception, as our fabulous narrator offers to us a David rather more complex than we may have imagined him to be.
What happens in this passage today demonstrates one of the Bible’s crucial truths: human power and will have decided limitations in the face of the power of YHWH.
The brilliant narrator of the long story of Samuel, Saul, and David has given to us the very pinnacle of story art in this fabulous tale of David and his dalliance with Bathsheba and his calloused murder of her husband, Uriah. There is no better example of the genius of the Hebrew Bible narrative than this one.
It strikes me that after reading and evaluating the picture of David we have seen from his introduction to us in 1 Sam.16 that he is in need of a more straightforwardly traditionally pious portrait, and such is given to us in 2 Sam.7.
I suggest that this tale in 2 Sam.6 indicates that any sacred object, connected to God, is not some plaything for any king to employ as he desires or thinks he needs. There remains something mysterious and uncontrollable about our God, and we, who tend too often to want to bring God into our way of thinking or doing, to sanctify in the name of God, what we already wish to do, need never to forget that strangeness in our God.
It is occasionally necessary to look closely at the omissions that appear in the lectionary collector’s choice of texts. In this Sunday’s text, there is a small series of verses that have been left out: 2 Sam.5:6-8. To be sure, they are certainly odd and troubling lines, difficult to translate and understand. And yet, there is something about those omitted verses that are intriguing and potentially important. Hence, I will focus my attention there in the essay and see why they may be worth a second look.
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