Ouch! The Revised Common Lectionary Cut Out the Bits About Circumcision

For many churches, the Old Testament lesson this Sunday is Genesis 17:1-7,15-16. People will not get to hear verses 8-14 which contains a couple of important points. First, let's read Genesis 17:1-7,15-16 as presented,

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him,4 ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
15 God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’

The message conveyed to the pewsitters is that a covenant was made by God with Abram, and that a "multitude of nations" will be the result. He and Sarai are also given new names and will become fruitful.

But were there any strings attached?

Yes and got cut out today? Hear verses 8-14.

8 And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.’9 God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.12 Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.13 Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.’

Verses 12 and 13 with their mention of circumcising slaves (probably against their will) might offend modern Sunday pewsitters, so out they go.

I have a suspicion that verse 8 is also politically incorrect in this day and age. Doesn't it sound much nicer to present a pluralistic, multi-national, covenant than an exclusivist, "this land is yours" vision for Israel.  This certainly is in keeping with the Episcopal organization's view,

"The Episcopal Church has long advocated and legislated in support of a two-state solution in which a secure and universally recognized state of Israel lives alongside a secure, independent and viable Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as the shared capital of both states......Executive Council said at its June meeting that it voiced the church's 'unequivocal opposition to any action by either party that undermines progress toward negotiations' and urged all Episcopalians 'to pray for the peace of the Holy Land and advocate to their own governments for maximum international support for a negotiated two-state solution.'" Episcopal News Service

I cannot come up with a better explanation for the deletion of verse 8 other than a need for political correctness.

If you leave out the part of the covenant that involves circumcision, then you will have a difficult time understanding what all the fuss was about in the early Christian church as the Gospel
spread to the Gentiles. When I posted on this back in 1982 the best response I received was from Rob Eaton+,

"Circumcision is a critical part of the covenantal relationship between God and Abraham (and all following as his descendants).To read around it is theological cowardice and, dare I say, chilling censorship. Leaving out those verses would be offensive to any Jews hearing the lesson being read. And it seriously undermines the Christian education process by cloaking an essential foundation of the meaning of 'covenant.'
In Christianity the closest ritual we have to circumcision as an imperative of covenental relationship, both as sign and sacrament, is baptism. Can you imagine assigning the Gospel lesson of the baptism of Jesus where the actual verses specifically referring to water and baptism are excised? Would the rest of the story have any deeper sense to it at all?Can we talk about discipleship in TECUSA these days without any reference to 'the baptismal covenant?'Just ludicrous."

It is also somewhat ironic that the Revised Common Lectionary decided to cut out the bits about circumcision.