Proper 8 Year A
Taken from Lectionary Reflections Year A
Description
Lectionary reflections - Year A
Ordinary Time
Proper 8
Jeremiah 28.5–9
Romans 6.12–23
Matthew 10.40–42
Ours is an age with a great deal of interest in ‘spirituality’. We have rediscovered that ‘spirituality’ is good for us and, like exercise and a low-fat diet, we pursue it, but on the whole rather sporadically. It becomes another way of paying attention to ourselves, and trying to meet our own needs, but we do not allow it to make demands upon us or inconvenience us too much.
There is really remarkably little in the way of this kind of spirituality in the Bible. It may have been what Hananiah was offering. I see him as a kind of Californian guru, or a tele-evangelist. He looks at all the anxious, stressed people, and he wants to help them. And if, by some lucky accident, that leads to wealth and favour for himself, well, whoever said that God wants us to be miserable? That poor man Jeremiah really should get himself some therapy, and not lay his guilt trips on other people.
Perhaps Hananiah really did believe that he was speaking God’s word into the situation, but he seems much more interested in the personal psychology of his listeners, their needs and fears...
Taken from Lectionary reflections year A by Jane Williams - Published by SPCK