Light and Dark

Monday, August 14, 2006 -- Week of Proper 14 (Jonathan Myrick Daniels)

"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. 979)
Psalm 89:1-18 (morning) // 89:19-52 (evening)
Judges 12:1-7
Acts 5:12-26
John 3:1-21

There is some irony in the juxtaposition of the readings today. In Judges we have the story of Jephthah, who is like a character out of a Mafia movie. The illegitimate son of the tribal chieftain Gilead, he was hounded out of town by his legitimate brothers. So he left from there and gathered a gang of outlaws around him. When the Gileadites began to be oppressed by the Ammonites, they went to Jephthah to ask him to help them. He still holds a grudge. I'll fight for you, he says, only if you'll make me your head and commander.

Jephthah provoked the Ammonites into battle. Before the fight, he made a vow to God -- if you will give me victory, I will offer to you as a human sacrifice "whoever comes out of my house to meet me when I return victorious from the Ammonites." He wins the battle, and sure enough, his only child, a daughter comes out to meet him first. She accepts her fate and begs for two months reprieve to mourn her virginity. After the two months, she is offered up by Jephthah as a burnt sacrifice.

That's what happened up to today's reading. Today, the men of Ephraim come to pick a fight because they weren't call to fight the Ammonites and enjoy the spoils of battle. So Jephthah with his army of Gileadites fight and defeat the Ephraimites. At each ford, they challenge the stragglers with a password -- "Shibboleth." Since the Ephraimites can't pronounce their "h's", anyone who says "Sibboleth" is killed. The saga closes, "Jephthah judged Israel six years." You can almost hear the unwritten next sentence, "then he slept with the fishes."

In our gospel Jesus enjoys a verbal repartee with the likable Pharisee Nicodemus, inviting Nicodemus to expand his consciousness. "You must be born from above (or anew). ...What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. ...The wind/Spirit blows where it will." Then Jesus identifies his own ministry with the Spirit and complements anyone who will love light and live in light.

The world of Jephthah and the world of Jesus seem like the worlds of darkness and light. Jephthah's is a violent world where might is power. Jesus' is a non-violent world where love is power. To get from one world to the other is like being born again, being born from above. There is a saying that the Archbishop of Canterbury recalled a few years ago commenting on the lack of imagination in our generation as we face threatening conflicts: "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Jephthah is a man who solves problems with a hammer. Jesus, the carpenter, is a man who solves problems with Spirit.

"And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light... But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

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