Note: The Lectionaries contain readings for an Eighth Sunday of Epiphany to account for the peripatetic Feast of the Resurrection. This year (2022) Epiphany 8 does not occur.

The scriptures of Israel are occupation literature. Most reading them in a North American context are not living under the same kind of duress. It may make more sense for readers in the United States to hear the words of restoration from the prophet addressed not to US citizens, but to the displaced and resettled native peoples of this land. Such readings should not erase the original context or its contested implications for the contemporary physical land of Israel and for the Palestinian people. The Sophia traditions in the epistle and gospel portray a God who alone has the wisdom to resolve the internecine troubles of earth justly. As always, a word of caution about the rhetoric of New Testament writers when it pertains to internal Jewish conflict and conflict between the Christian community defining itself over and against its Jewish forebears. Christians have a moral and ethical responsibility to address and curtail antisemitism and anti-Judaism in the text as well as in historic interpretation.