Various Thoughts

Monday, August 24, 2009 -- Week of Proper 16, Year One
Saint Bartholomew the Apostle

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)

EITHER, the readings for Monday of Proper 16 (p. 980)
Psalms 1, 2, 3 (morning) 4, 7 (evening)
1 Kings 1:5-31
Acts 26:1-23
Mark 13:14-27

OR, the readings for St. Bartholomew, p. 999
Morning Prayer: Psalm 86; Genesis 28:10-17; John 1:43-51
Evening Prayer: Psalms 15, 67; Isaiah 66:1-2, 18-23, 1 Peter 5:1-11

I chose the readings for Monday, Proper 16


I don't find myself focused on a particular moment or theme in today's readings, but a few things in each of them drew some attention.

The succession of Solomon to David's throne must have been filled with conspiracy and intrigue. It would have been expected for David's oldest son Adonijah to be the heir. When David is old, and "he could not get warm," he is tested. They bring a beautiful young virgin, Abishag the Shunammite to his bed to comfort him. "But the king did not know her sexually," the text says. It is an ancient sign among kings. An impotent king is no longer a fit king. It is time for a successor. (This story is 1 Kings 1-5, and for obvious reasons, it isn't appointed for public reading.)

The palace is split, however. General Joab and Abiathar the priest support the presumed legal heir Adonijah. But the prophet Nathan, Zadok the priest, and one of David's wives Bathsheba promote Solomon. Their lives depend upon a plot on behalf of David's appointment of Solomon. One way or another, blood will flow. Whoever becomes king will annihilate all potential rivals.

Maybe it was David's intention to appoint Solomon. Maybe they took advantage of his age and possible senility. There is no record elsewhere of David promising the throne to Solomon, but Bathsheba and Nathan "remind" him of such a promise. And what a strange alliance. The last time we saw these two together, Nathan was challenging David over the circumstances of Bathsheba's becoming David's wife. This is stuff that rivals Henry the Eighth.
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The next time I read Acts, I want to note the parallels between Jesus' passion story and Paul's story. There are very many similarities. Today we have an allusion to Festus' earlier judgment that Paul, like Jesus, had done nothing deserving death. Pilate famously washed his hands of Jesus' judgment. The great contrast between Paul's story and Jesus', is that where Jesus is silent, Paul speaks. Paul's audience is with Herod Agrippa II, son of Herod the king during Jesus' life.

Paul presents himself as an observant Pharisee. The highlight of Paul's testimony, which includes the third account in Acts of Paul's conversion on the Damascus road, is his closing claim that "nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place: that the Messiah must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles." Although he only mentions his ministry within Judea, it is his strategy of attracting Gentiles away from the Jewish synagogues with the no-circumcision required promise of full inclusion into the new Christian-Jewish movement that has been so controversial among the Jews, provoking their passionate accusations.
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Apocalyptic writing was well known as a form of literary encouragement to communities that feel threatened or powerless. Here's the conventional message of apocalyptic literature: Be steadfast in the face of persecution or hostility, even though things look threatening and chaotic, God is in control. There will be a momentous divine appearance into history, and the good will be rewarded and the evil punished. We find this literature cross-culturally among groups that suffer persecution or who feel themselves to be disenfranchised or powerless to affect their future. Mark's little apocalypse is classic stuff. Familiar and easily recognized at the time it was spoken or written.

Scholars debate over whether or not Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, or whether the early church adopted the traditional apocalyptic genre as a way of presenting their faith and Jesus' story. Most of the parables of Jesus are pretty mundane, without apocalyptic flavor. But Jesus was close to John the Baptist, and he was a prophet of apocalyptic thinking. We find apocalyptic passages in Paul's earliest writing, 1 Thessalonians, and later here in Mark and the parallels picked up by Matthew and Luke. Matthew adapted Mark's version, interpreting the signs not as the end of the age, but as indications that followers are living according to Jesus' teaching.

Revelation, or the book of the Apocalypse, was a very late addition to the New Testament, and has provoked much controversy and interpretation. Steve Thomason will offer us a four week series about Revelation beginning in mid-September during the 10 a.m. Christian Formation hour.

It seems to me that threatened and marginalized communities, American slaves or the base communities in Latin America, have much more claim to the images and message of apocalypse. It seems inappropriate that most of the fascination (and abuse) of Biblical apocalypse comes from comfortable Sunday morning churches with padded pews, well-suited preachers and fine amplified sound systems. It takes a lot of imagination to believe you are persecuted when you are the largest, wealthiest church in town. But some folks can pull it off. It doesn't sound real to me though.

Lowell
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About Morning Reflections
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 location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas