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Friday, July 28, 2006 -- Week of Proper 11

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this link -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 977)
Psalm 40, 54 (morning) // 51 (evening)
Joshua 9:21 - 10:15
Romans 15:14-24
Matthew 27:1-10

"Once upon a time..."

Children know when they hear those words that a story is coming. Native American storytellers sometimes will begin a narrative with this introduction: "I don't know whether it happened exactly this way, but this story is true."

How do we teach our children the stories of our faith, but teach them in a way that they won't have to unlearn them when they get older? Today we have the story of Joshua's military victory over the five kings, when "the sun stopped in midheaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day."

It is an article of faith for some literalists that on this day God interrupted the normal activity of the solar system and physically stopped the rotation of the earth in relation to the sun. (I remember some excited commentator writing about a scientific adjustment in the measurement of time over many thousands of years and saying it corresponds to the day the sun stood still for Joshua -- scientific proof of the truth of the Bible!)

Some people are comfortable simply saying, "God can do anything. If God wanted to stop the sun, God did it." That's not something I'm comfortable with. In God's providence, God created the wonderful relationships of physics as the context for existence and life. I know too much science to believe that the earth stopped rotating for a day (or something comparable).

I remember reading this story in a particular Children's Bible and being so impressed with the way the author told this story. It went something like this. "We don't know what happened, but it was wonderful. The day did not end before Joshua and the army of Israel had won the victory. It felt like time stood still for them. It felt like the sun had stopped moving in the sky until they had won the victory." I thought to myself, that's when the good reader might turn to the child and ask, "Have you ever had any days like that?" The story retains its magic and opens us to its power in our lives without reducing it to a factual either/or. Faith is not the reward of the most gullible.

I think it is a good practice for churches and parents to refrain from teaching children things that they will probably have to unlearn when they get older. Honor the poetry, but let it be poetry. Don't demean the Bible and read it as though it were a newspaper.
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P.S. Today we've got another one of those stumpers for literalism. How did Judas die? Matthew has one version we read today. In guilt and grief Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver into the temple and went an hanged himself. The authorities used the blood money to buy a potter's field to bury foreigners, called "Field of Blood".

Luke has another version (Acts 1:15f) Judas bought a field with the money "and falling headlong (or swelling up), he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out." The field was called "Field of Blood" (nothing about a cemetery).

I've seen a literalist commentary say that Judas bought the field hanged himself, then he burst open, and the authorities made it into a potter's cemetery -- it's all literally true. That seems like a stretch to me.

Sometimes the stories of the New Testament appear to be crafted in order to connect our stories with the great story of Israel -- not history remembered but prophecy historicized. Matthew narrates Judas' death through the lens of Zechariah 11 and Jeremiah 18 and 32. Luke writes with reference to Psalms 69 and 109. Both have access to some remembered tradition linking Judas with the "Field of Blood" and with a dishonorable death. They come up with different stories. The important question is not "what really happened?" or (worse) "which is true?" -- but "What does the story mean?"

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR