RCL reading for Sunday, April 5, 2009:
Excerpt from The New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
Isaiah 50:4-9a
4 The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
STUDY GUIDE
Step 1. Read the passage aloud.
Step 2. Discuss what the passage tells us about God.
Step 3. Read the passage again.
Step 4. Discuss what the passage tells us about human beings and the relationship between people
Step 5. Read the passage aloud a third time.
Step 6. Discuss what the passage says about the relationship between God and human beings. How does the passage call us to change?
“Theological Bible Study,” from In Dialogue with Scripture: An Episcopal Guide to Studying the Bible, ed. Linda L. Grenz (Episcopal Church Center, 1993), p. 96.
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This is the Second Servant Song and even more memorably is in the alto air #23 of the Messiah. The pathos that Isaiah describes fits well with brutality of Mark's narrative, even the forensic quality of the last two verses recalls the confrontation with the sanhedren. Why did the rcl shift from the Fourth Servant Song to the Second Servant Song for Palm Sunday?
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