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

xviii Introduction
unfaithfulness, and Matthew 25:14–24, on the parable of the Talents.
Linking these two texts leaves the impression that the Jewish community
portrayed in Zephaniah is similar to the one-talent servant who is condemned
and thrown into outer darkness. A more complicated dimension
of contrast comes when the Gospel reading pictures Jesus (and the disciples)
in conflict with leaders of Judaism (e.g., Pharisees, scribes, priests).
Many scholars today conclude that the Gospel writers themselves polemically
created such contrasts to justify a conflict and growing separation
between the congregations of the Gospel writers and some other Jewish
communities after the fall of the Temple in 70 CE. This motif is at work
on Epiphany 9/Year B when Mark 2:23–3:6 portrays Jesus in two conflicts
with the Pharisees regarding eating heads of grain and healing a person
with a withered hand on the Sabbath. After these two brief incidents,
Mark says vitriolically, “The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired
with the Herodians against [Jesus], how to destroy [Jesus].”
The third possible relationship between lectionary texts is typological.
By this the lectionary means that the Old Testament reading posits a
promise, prophecy, or foreshadowing that the lectionary interprets as fulfilled
in the Gospel or Epistle lesson. Christian preachers sometimes intimate
that the entire purpose of the lesson from the Old Testament was to
predict the coming of Jesus, thus committing the errors associated with
the prologue view of the Old Testament that we discussed just above. To
counter this point of view, the preacher needs to encourage the congregation
to recognize that the Old Testament writers did not specifically
anticipate the coming of Jesus, although many ancient Jewish authors did
anticipate that God would work in the future to bless Israel and the Gentiles.
The preacher can help the congregation recognize that the writers
of the New Testament found the ministry of Jesus to be an expression of
that forward movement and can explore the idea that the Second Testament
extended the promises of God to Gentiles while not negating the
promises that God made to Sarah and Abraham and their descendants,
promises that included Gentiles (Gen. 12:3).
The Revised Common Lectionary never allows the congregation to hear
in sequence the overall story that is told in the Old Testament. During the
key cycles of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Day and Lent-Easter-Pentecost
Day, the Gospel lesson sets the theme for each Sunday. Even after Trinity
Sunday, when the lectionary provides for semicontinuous reading of representative
passages from the Old Testament, the story is told in segments
separated by almost six months. In Year A, the congregation hears narratives
from the Pentateuch and hears about the entry into the promised land,