000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

148 Palm/Passion Sunday/Year B
We long for the day when Torah will in fact be written on the heart in the
way the prophet envisions.
Palm/Passion Sunday/Year B
Please see Palm/Passion Sunday/Year A, B, and C.
Good Friday/Year B
Isaiah 52:13–53:12
For comments on this passage, please see Good Friday/Year A.
Easter Day/Year B
Isaiah 25:6–9 (Alternate)
Because portions of this text are used elsewhere in the lectionary (All
Saints/Year B, and on Proper 23/Year A), we contextualize verses 6–9 by
dealing with the whole passage.
Isaiah 25:1–5 is a psalm of thanksgiving followed by an eschatological
banquet (vv. 6–8), a hoped-for occasion of thanksgiving. It is addressed to
“the LORD ... my God” (v. 1) in the language of praise. It is spoken by an
individual on behalf of the congregation of the people. It praises God for
having done “wonderful things” (v. 1). What wonderful thing(s) has God
done? God has “made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace
of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt” (v. 2). Thanksgiving for
victory over enemies is familiar from the psalms. While the writers of this
book do not hold God accountable for the destruction of cities and the
many innocent people in them, we do recognize the importance of the
Scriptures’ understanding of salvation as concrete and down-to-earth. We
should allow this passage to curb our tendency to regard salvation as so
spiritual a thing that it is heedless of the course of this-worldly events.
God’s purpose to spread life and well-being entails involvement in the
mess of history.
The city is not named and much scholarly ink has been spilled trying
to identify it. That the city is unnamed may be intentional. Over the span
of time during which the text of Isaiah was transmitted and redacted, quite
a few different cities would have been in the minds of its readers and hearers
and appropriately so. The namelessness of the city enables the text to
find new pertinence down to the present.