The Good and the Enemy

Friday, October 30, 2009 -- Week of Proper 25, Year One
John Wyclif, Priest and Prophetic Witness, 1384

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p.990)
Psalms 40, 54 (morning) 51 (evening)
Nehemiah 2:1-20
Revelation 6:12 - 7:4
Matthew 13:24-30

All of the readings today have some expression of judgment between the righteous and the evil, between God's people and God's enemies. The readings address the issues in different ways.

The psalms are personal prayers which ask God to defend and uphold the psalmist in a time of trouble and threat. The psalmist asks God to intervene to save and to punish those who oppress and oppose him.

Nehemiah tells of his commission from the Persian King Ataxerxes to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He is sent in 445 BCE, about thirteen years after Ezra's mission. This was a time of conflict between Persia and Egypt, so a fortified Jerusalem could provide a military base for Persia. Ataxerxes sends soldiers with Nehemiah to underline the strategic intent.

There is a second aspect of Persian policy that is important. The Empire controlled its occupied regions by controlling access to the land. Persian strategy mandated a strict tribal autonomy over traditional lands, and maintained that authority by creating strong boundaries between neighboring tribes. Intermarriage was forbidden because it tended to blur property rights. Persia encouraged each occupied region to maintain their traditional worship and to include prayers for the Persian King and Empire in their liturgies. The ties of worship also helped maintain tribal unity and purity, strengthening the attachments between people and land. It is Nehemiah's charge to carry out this policy in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah will face opposition. Neighboring tribes will be jealous of the refortification because this imperial preference will bring new money and prestige to Jerusalem, supposedly at their expense. But many of the Jews who had lived in Judah during the exile, and some who had returned, were married to members of the neighboring tribes and had family relationships with them. Nehemiah's plan for ethnic cleansing will rip their families apart. The building of the wall is a symbol of this plan of cultural separation. It will be controversial. (The book of Ruth was written as protest literature against this separatist tradition. The hero Ruth is a Moabite who is an ancestor of David.)

In the book of Revelation, the opening of the sixth seal imagines the consequences of human destructiveness and the justice of God. Although no act of judgment is portrayed, we see the anxiety of the judged. Their fear is contrasted with the sealing of the foreheads of God's people. The forehead is a symbol of human will and worship. The symbolic number 144,000 is built on the number 12 (God's people) and the number 10 (all). All of God's people are gathered from the four corners of the earth. In tomorrow's reading an innumerable multitude from "every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" will appear before the Lamb, joyfully joining the song of heaven. It is a remarkably inclusive image.

And in Matthew's gospel the church is told to leave judgment to God. In our world and in the church, good and evil exist together, the good seed and the weeds grow together. If we were to try to uproot the weeds, we would inevitably damage or even uproot some of the good plants. "Let both of them grow together until the harvest," Jesus says. Some have cited this passage to oppose warfare, for in every war the number of civilian casualties is greater than military causalities.

These readings have echoes today. Israel is building a wall that not only separates Jewish territory from Palestinian, but also breaks off access from one area of Palestine to another. Some Americans have called for a wall between our country and Mexico. Anti-immigration sentiment has a flavor of ethic cleansing to it, and many international conflicts are energized by tribal and ethnic resentments.

The New Testament readings offer realistic images about the damage that human division, oppression and violence brings. But they also offer a more non-violent, non-divisive solution. Let God sort out the good and evil. We are not wise enough. And when we see the image of God's resolution, we see people from every human family in a remarkably inclusive vision of universal reconciliation.
_____

A note about our new feast today:
Wyclif, John [c. 1329-December 31, 1384] Later called "The Morning Star of the Reformation," he believed all pious people have the right to read and interpret Scripture for themselves. His teaching influenced two early translations of the Bible into English (from the Vulgate Latin Bible). The popular legend that he was their translator is discredited. (Oct. 30)

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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, Ar

Two Visions

Thursday, October 29, 2009 -- Week of Proper 25, Year One
James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, and his Companions, Martyrs, 1885

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, 990)
Psalms 50 (morning) [59, 60] or 103 (evening)
Nehemiah 1:1-11
Revelation 5:11 - 6:11
Matthew 13:18-23

We experience a stunning contrast in today's reading from Revelation.

John's vision first takes us into the joy and harmony of God's presence, where "every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them" sing in praise. They praise the Lamb. The Lamb is an amazing image. The Lamb is a gentle animal, vulnerable and unthreatening. The Lamb is a sacrificial animal that takes on the suffering of others in liturgical rites of purification. The Lamb is a recipient of violence, not an initiator. The Lamb is a symbol of peace and nonviolence. John's climactic vision of heaven is a universal hymn of praise "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"

Four living creatures speak the "Amen" to this universal hymn. These four living creatures seem to symbolize the four orders of creation. One is like a lion; another like an ox; another like a human; another like an eagle. They have miraculous gifts of movement (six wings) and full understanding (eyes all around and inside). (4:6bf) The twenty-four elders bow in worship. (the number 24 double the symbolic number of God's people, 12)

That is John's vision of universal harmony and peace that accompanies God's presence.

Now the drama shifts. The Lamb opens the seals of the scroll. As each seal is removed, we see a glimpse of an aspect of the cosmic drama of human destructiveness, divine justice, and eventual peace. Today we experience the four seals of human destructiveness.

The four living creatures call out four horses and their riders. A rider with a bow rides a white horse; a rider with a sword rides a red horse; a rider carrying scales rides a black horse; and a rider named Death and Hades rides a pale green horse. The appearance of a military conqueror always leads to war which always leads to famine which always leads to death. Sword, famine, pestilence and wild animals hold authority over a fourth of the earth. (Future series of scrolls will increase in their damage.)

The contrast is extreme. Universal harmony with the Lamb. Violence and death with the activities of human warfare.

(One note about the passage "do not damage the olive oil and the wine." So much of the famine that is a consequence of warfare comes from the destruction of annual crops such as wheat and barley. Long-term crops such as olive oil and wine are not so susceptible to war-induced famine. Olive oil trees can grow for centuries. Yet, I heard a story the other day of some Palestinian residents mourning over the destruction of 1,500 olive trees that were burned by Israeli settlers in a retaliation strike. Israeli authorities had removed the settlers from an unauthorized outpost in the West Bank. The settlers retaliated by destroying the orchards of neighboring Palestinians. In the Middle East, an act of violence against olive oil trees is considered particularly outrageous.)

John will continue the drama that shows the apocalyptic consequences of human evil and violence. But it is a drama with a good and peaceful end. The Lamb will triumph, and will do so without violence.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

Today's Readings

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 -- Week of Proper 25, Year One
Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles

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

EITHER, the readings for Wednesday of Proper 25, p. 990
Psalms 119:49-72 (morning) 49, [53] (evening)
Ezra 6:1-22
Revelation 5:1-10
Matthew 13:10-17

OR, the readings for Sts. Simon and Jude, p. 1000
Morning Prayer: Psalm 66; Isaiah 28:9-16; Ephesians 4:1-16
Evening Prayer: Psalms 116, 117; Isaiah 4:2-6; John 14:15-31

I slept late today and didn't give myself time to write a reflection.
Here are the readings.

Lowell

The Journey of an Inch

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 -- Week of Proper 25, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 990)
Psalms 45 (morning) 47, 48 (evening)
Ezra 5:1-17
Revelation 4:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9

We have two images of the interior life today.

The Revelation of John offers an image of the ideal spiritual landscape. John sees an open door and hears a voice, "Come up here..." He goes inward: "At once I was in the spirit." He comes to the center, to the throne of God. Everything is in perfect harmony around God's throne -- the twenty-four elders, the seven spirits of God, and the four living creatures. Heaven and earth, all creatures -- human and animal -- sing in harmony the eternal songs of praise. It is as it should be.

The Gospel of Matthew offers an image of the common spiritual landscape. Jesus describes a seed sower who has a strange process of agriculture. He broadcasts seeds extravagantly and abundantly across the landscape. The seed falls on different kinds of ground -- a path, rocky ground, among thorns, and on good soil. In the good soil, the seed produces varying fruit, "some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

Each of us in the complexity of our lives is that field. There are parts of us that have welcomed and nurtured what God has given us, what the Spirit has taught us. The welcome response produces good fruit. But our response is more ambiguous to other messages from God.

Where are the hard path places in our hearts, where we are defensive toward a new and more faithful way of living? How have we responded quickly to some call to wholeness and reconciliation, but failed to persevere and lost the edge and momentum of the vision? How have we been distracted or fearful or proud or greedy and let those lesser concerns block out the healthy response to God's calling? What have we embraced and made real of God's love?

At the center of our being, we are always one with God. God dwells in and with us at the core of our true self. Whenever we can let go of our attachment to the distractions of life, we naturally come to that place of union, like a rock drifting to the bottom of the sea. The experience of contemplative prayer fosters that union. Something like the images John sees is always present and alive in our deepest being.

Out of defensiveness and hurt, we all have created a false self landscape that blocks the free flow of the Spirit from deep within our lives. We've cut ourselves off, we are easily distracted, we lose our focus and center.

In her wonderful book "Wisdom Distilled from the Daily," Joan Chittister reflects on the Rule of Benedict and on Benedictine Spirituality. (The ethos of the Anglican Church is deeply Benedictine.) She says that "Benedictine spirituality requires all of us to go through life taking back one inch of the planet at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again."

That reclamation project is both inward and outward. The process of inward transformation is our spiritual journey toward holiness. The process of outward reconciliation is the planetary journey toward justice. It is all energized by divine love.

What part of the garden will we work today? How can I take an inch of my interior landscape, break the hard pan, till and fertilize, loosen and work it until it is fertile again? How can I take the inch of life that will be in front of me today to reclaim and work it on behalf of wholeness and health?

An inch a day. Doesn't seem like much does it? We can do it, an inch at a time.

Almost like an afterthought, a quote from the end of Graham Green's novel "The Power and the Glory" returns to me. It is the sudden realization that the whisky priest has as he awaits the hanging that will end his life. "It seemed to him at that moment that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint. It would only have needed a little self-restraint and a little courage. He felt like someone who has missed happiness by seconds at an appointed place. He knew now that there was only one thing that counted -- to be a saint."

A little self-restraint and a little courage, an inch at a time...

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

Peace? No!

Monday, October 26, 2009 -- Week of Proper 25, Year One
Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, 899

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 990)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning) 44 (evening)
Zechariah 1:7-17
Revelation 1:4-20
Matthew 12:43-50

There is a problem with peace. At least there is a problem from the perspective of three of our readings today.

We interrupt our start in the Ezra-Nehemiah collection in order to read a dream vision from Zechariah. The vision fits chronologically with our reading in Ezra. The year is 519 BCE, the time of the building of the foundation of the Jerusalem Temple. Zechariah sees four horsemen, a heavenly patrol that watches over the world's affairs. (Four is a symbolic number meaning wholeness or totality.) The horsemen report, "We have patrolled the earth, and lo, the whole earth remains at peace." Sounds good, right? No!

The angel is angry that people are at ease while Jerusalem is in such ruin. The angel declares that God's time of judgment of Jerusalem is over, and that God has returned with compassion. The house of God will be rebuilt and "my cities shall again overflow with prosperity." It is a call for the world to shake off its attitude of comfort and presumption, and act with urgency to respond to the need of God's people.

We begin a journey today through selected sections of the book of Revelation for the next four weeks. John's vision is a vision of suffering and conflict, but the social context is peace and prosperity. Roman peace (Pax Romana) is exactly the problem that Revelation addresses. John warns the little Christian community not to be seduced by the glamour, luxury and imperial power of the Greco-Roman culture. All of that decadence and indulgence is the enemy which will be defeated by the triumphant Christ, who has "made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever."

And Matthew's gospel tells of someone who has cleaned up their act. They have repented and straightened up their life, emptied it and put it in order. For Matthew's theology, it is necessary to persevere in consistent action after you have repented. Not to do so could leave you in a worse condition. So, do not long for peace and quiet, says Matthew. Continue to persevere in discipleship, or "the last state of that person is worse than the first."

These messages and images are poignant reminders especially to us, first-world dwellers in a land of remarkable prosperity and imperial power. Zechariah would tell us today, "How dare you sit there in America, comfortable in your warm houses, when the Holy Land (and other lands) suffer and struggle so!" The book of Revelation could be written today for us, attacking the luxury, decadence and imperial power of the United States as today's Rome/Babylon. And Matthew's call to perseverance is always timely.

We want peace, yes, but not peace with injustice, or peace in the face of other's suffering. We want peace, yes, but not the peace that supports indulgence through abusive power. We want peace, yes, but not the passive withdrawal from consistent action. Peace that is true is peace that is inclusive, just, and active. Mississippian William A. Percy writes in the final verse of his great hymn (661), "The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing -- the marvelous peace of God."
____

This is one of those days when I deeply appreciate the annotations and scholarship of "The Access Bible" which I use for my daily readings. The editors do an especially fine bit of work interpreting the perplexing book of Revelation. The clarity and depth that they bring to just this one book is worth the price of the Bible.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

Prayer, Foundations, and Spirit

Friday, October 23, 2009 -- Week of Proper 24, Year One
Saint James of Jerusalem, Brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Martyr, c. 62

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER, the readings for Friday of Proper 24, p. 988
Psalms 31 (morning) 35 (evening)
Ezra 3:1-13
1 Corinthians 16:10-24
Matthew 12:22-32

OR, the readings for James of Jerusalem, p. 999
Morning Prayer: Psalms 119:145-168; Jeremiah 11:18-23; Matthew 10:16-22
Evening Prayer: Psalms 122, 125; Isaiah 65:17-25; Hebrews 12:12-24

I chose the readings for Friday of Proper 24

Chapters 3-6 of Ezra focus on the rebuilding of the Temple as the "house of God." It was simpler and more easily accomplished to build the building than it was to build the community as the "house of God." The latter took several generations. It is hard to date this material, but it probably is much earlier than 458 BCE when Ezra arrived.

Note the order of their work. They begin with worship. They set up the altar in the open, without foundations or walls, and they keep the ancient festival of booths, Sukkot, a fall harvest festival that remembers the days of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness. In some sense, the fragile community of returned exiles is like that earlier group, journeying to their home from the wilderness of exile. It is of first importance to them to establish a regular form of worship according to their traditions.

Some time later (around 519) they laid the foundations for the rebuilt Temple. There is an emotional response as they sing in a liturgy of praise. Sixty-eight years had passed since the former Temple had been destroyed. Yet there were some present who remembered that house, and the text says that "they wept with a loud voice when they saw this house." Commentators imply that their weeping was because this new Temple was smaller in size and less in grandeur than the Temple of Solomon. But the weeping over what was lost was drowned out by those who "shouted aloud for joy."

I know that whenever I move, one of the first things I try to establish is my regular discipline of prayer in the new place. When a new church community is founded, it typically begins with prayer and worship, and only later starts to build its building. When a child is born into a Christian family, we typically baptize the child, incorporating the infant into the Body of Christ and our prayers, and then the family and church work together to raise that child up in the Christian faith and life, into a holy temple. We begin with prayer as the foundation of the building of God's house.

In our reading from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he is closing his epistle with some final greetings. Yesterday he reminded them of his important mission of stewardship, the outreach collection for the struggling congregation in Jerusalem. He expects them to contribute to that work every week so that the collection will be finished by the time he returns. He commends Timothy and Apollos, the household of Stephanas along with other colleagues Fortunatus and Achaicus.

We also have a woman's name in the list, Prisca (Priscilla) and her husband Aquila, who lead a house church as they travel with Paul in Ephesus. It appears that they helped Paul found the congregation in Corinth and continued to travel with him. Acts 18 mentions that when Apollos came to Ephesus teaching boldly of Christ, though he knew only the baptism of John, the couple took him aside and "explained the Way of God more accurately." Prisca and Aquila are among the earliest theologians of the church. At the end of Paul's letter to the Romans, he again sends them greetings, and in those acknowledgments includes thanks to another woman, Junia, his companion and fellow apostle.

The evidence is strong that women in Paul's churches taught, led prayers, hosted congregations, and held high authority in the community. A couple of generations later, the writers of the letters attributed to Timothy and Titus expressed discomfort with this egalitarian tradition (which also seems characteristic of Jesus' company). The church lost one of its early graces, and diminished the ministry of women. It has taken centuries to reclaim that heritage, and even now, the Roman Catholic Church has announced it will welcome Anglicans who are more like Timothy and Titus than like Paul and Jesus.

At the end of the reading from Matthew today there is a passage that has troubled many and lacks definitive interpretation. The gospel speaks of the terrible consequences of blasphemy against the Spirit. I don't know what that means either, but in the context, it seems to mean something like failing to recognize God's power in the work of the Spirit. At an early time in our history we failed to recognize God's Spirit at work in the leadership and ministry of Christian women, and the church has suffered terrible consequences indeed. The Spirit is unpredictable and blows where she will. When we fail to recognize her, we lose some things that cannot be completely recovered.

A fun morning. From grounding prayers to laying foundations to foundational leaders and the eternal creative work of the Spirit. May this day follow such a pattern: prayer, foundations, servant leadership and always, God's Spirit to empower us.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

Intro to Ezra-Nehemiah

Thursday, October 22, 2009 -- Week of Proper 24, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 988)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning) 37:19-42 (evening)
Ezra 1:1-11
1 Corinthians 16:1-9
Matthew 12:15-21

Today we begin reading Ezra-Nehemiah for the next few weeks. Some background info is in order.

It is best to read Ezra-Nehemiah not so much as an historical narrative, but more as an historical apologetic. This work's intention is to defend a particular theological (and therefore political) perspective. Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the governor are both historical figures and literary figures. They work to rebuild the "house of God." The house of God is a major metaphor throughout the readings as they rebuild the physical structure of the Jerusalem Temple, as well as the renewed community in Judah, and finally the walls of Jerusalem. These walls also have a cultural effect to separate the Jews from the surrounding tribes and religions. The community as the house of God is being redefined.

Ezra and Nehemiah both carry out the policy of the Persian Empire and do so under Persian authority. The Persians used a fascinating technique to control their subject populations. The Persians maintained control of their conquered regions by controlling access to the farm land. Their emissaries were charged with maintaining order in agriculture, and a big part of that was securing stability in land ownership, defining the boundaries and access to lands.

The biggest threat to land boundaries was the presence of neighboring tribes. As long as the tribes stayed within their borders, passing on their ancestral lands from generation to generation, the goal of agricultural stability was maintained. But if families from different tribes intermarried, the definitions about who had access to which lands blurred.

Therefore the Persians enforced a strict policy against intermarriage between the tribes in their conquered territories. They authorized officials such as Ezra and Nehemiah to enforce their restriction on tribal intermarriage, in order to control access to the farmland and maintain order in the empire. You might say that Persia was the first agricultural multinational. The Persians also promoted the traditional religious practices of each region as an additional strategy for keeping distinct boundaries between the conquered nations. They used religious and governmental agencies to maintain separate territories based on tribal definitions to secure orderly access to the lands. The Persian ethnic cleansing policy pursued by Ezra and Nehemiah met with resistance among Jewish families who were already related to the neighboring tribes. Their policy and was seen as a direct threat to many married inter-tribal couples. The book of Ruth is a form of protest literature directed at the policies of Ezra and Nehemiah.

The fifth century BCE was a century of war and conflict for the great empire of Persia (modern Iran). There was a series of battles with Greece, and there were two rebellions by Egypt. A major Egyptian rebellion in the 460's made the region around Jerusalem strategically important.

Let's talk dates. Jerusalem was conquered and her people sent into exile by Babylon in 587 BCE. Cyrus the Great defeated the Babylonians in 539 BCE, and Cyrus issued his Edict of Restoration for Israel (our reading today from Ezra 1) at that time. The important leader Ataxerxes I ruled Persia from 465 to 424 (Nehemiah was his cupbearer). Egypt rebelled against Persia in 460, provoking a six year war. Ezra came to Jerusalem in 458 BCE, and Nehemiah's first stint as governor as in 445. The book of Ezra-Nehemiah was written around 400 BCE.

During these days Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are writing great plays in Athens. Athens is attempting to become an empire competing against Persia and Sparta. The Great Canal begins in China and Buddha dies in India in the 480's; Confucius dies in 479. Socrates is born in 469; Pericles leads Athens 461-429 as philosophy and science bloom. The next century will bring us Alexander the Great and Republic of Rome is rising.

For the next few weeks we'll live with the sometimes petty, often whiny, challenging work of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. There will be intrigue and drama, faithfulness and racism, politics and prayer. These leaders did it their way (also the Persian way), and the books in their names offer their contemporaries an historical and theological defense of their acts and offer us a wonderful peek at a troubled time.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

Lamentations

Wednesday, October 21, 2001 -- Week of Proper 24, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 988)
Psalms 38 (morning) 119:25-48 (evening)
Lamentations 2:8-15
1 Corinthians 15:51-58
Matthew 12:1-14

While reading the passage from Lamentations my mind went to the pictures that all of us have seen of the suffering of people in violent and war-torn places. The pictures of mothers holding a dying child in their arms. Of refugees walking with stunned faces with nothing but what they can carry from their ruined homes. Of fires and smoke and bodies where a living community used to be. Of the obscene angle of naked bodies blown apart by ordinance. Of the forlorn look in the face of an abandoned orphan.

"My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city."

These words of Lamentations date from around 586 BCE. In almost 2,700 years of human civilization we have not learned enough to heal these images. They are as new as today's news. In Sudan and Chad, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere, violence and disaster bring ruin, horror and starvation to millions today just as in Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE. "The infants and babes... faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom."

One feels a certain helplessness in the face of it all. Yet the demand of those eyes that look at us through the camera images is unyielding; the poetry of Lamentations is insistent. What can we do to make a compassionate response? How can we hold them in our heart, in God's heart? How can we offer our resources to respond to their need?

Lowell

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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

Spiritual Beings

Monday, October 19, 2009 -- Week of Proper 24, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 988)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning) 36, 39 (evening)
Lamentations 1:1-5(6-9)10-12
1 Corinthians 15:41-50
Matthew 11:25-30

In Lamentations we are given an image of profound catastrophe and suffering. The city and nation has been destroyed. Life is grievously bitter.

Paul offers a vision through the suffering. He is one who has suffered greatly, yet he lives with courageous hope based on the resurrection (see yesterday's Morning Reflection). He comments on the dual nature of our being: We are mortal, perishable, and dust. We are also immortal, imperishable, spiritual beings. Just as we became human beings through Adam, we have become spiritual beings through Jesus. "If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body," he says.

In our reading from Matthew, Jesus invites us to live in the energy of the reality of our spiritual identity, especially in our experience of suffering and trials. "Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Our deepest reality is that we are God's beloved. At the center of our being, we are always one with God. Our spiritual body is eternally united with Christ. In Christ's spiritual embrace we are beloved, accepted, and whole. Jesus invites us to rest in that primary identity. Let spirit carry gently what dust imposes heavily. We are human beings, not human doings. Jesus invites us into the freedom and lightness that is our inheritance as spiritual beings: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

"I die every day!"

Monday, October 19, 2009 -- Week of Proper 24, Year One
William Carey, Missionary to India, 1834

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 988)
Psalms 25 (morning) 9, 15 (evening)
Jeremiah 44:1-14
1 Corinthians 15:30-41
Matthew 11:16-24

"I die every day!"

Paul's remarkable courage is manifest in many places in his letters and in the Acts of the Apostles. He frequently faced life threatening situations. He mentions one of those today -- "If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus,what would I have gained by it?" His letters are full of potentially demoralizing conflicts that he addresses among his churches. He lived a difficult life, full of conflict and threat.

There is something about his trust in Christ's power of resurrection that allowed him to face all of this with profound courage. "I die every day!" he says.

His courage was enabled by his detachment. He trusted the power of Christ in his life -- the power of life over death. He trusted Christ so much, that he could let go of everything. He could let go of the results of conflicts about things important to him, and even his own existence. By clinging to nothing except a fierce trust in God's activity revealed in Christ, he was free. Nothing could really threaten him. Not animals in an amphitheater, not a storm at sea capsizing his ship, not church fights that threaten to split the congregation he had founded. He was able to let go of his attachment to all of that, trusting in Christ's power of resurrection to bring about new life regardless of what the circumstances might be. He was bulletproof. Not a bad way to live.

Not a bad way to start each day. What would it take to die every day? What would it take to die every morning? ...to let go of attachment and anxiety about everything, including one's own being, and march into the day confident that God will bring the power of resurrection to whatever comes? That's the source of Paul's courage. We are given the same source for our own lives as well.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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

Ebed-melech

Friday, October 16, 2009 -- Week of Proper 23, Year One
Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Bishops and Maryrs, 1555

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 988)
I got a bit confused today. After I finished my reading and Morning Reflection, I realized I was using yesterday's Daily Office Lections. Here are Today's assigned readings. Below that, the readings that I used from yesterday.

Friday's Readings:
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) 22 (evening)
Jeremiah 38:14-28
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Matthew 11:1-6

Thursday's Readings that are the basis of my Reflection:
Psalms 18:1-20 (morning) 18:21-15 (evening)
Jeremiah 38:1-13
1 Corinthians 14:26-33a, 37-40
Matthew 10:34-42

[Note: It's good to be back from our trip to China. We got in last night. We had a great trip. It was good to see Gray, and China is a fascinating place. I'm not sure what time my body-clock thinks it is, but it is certainly wonderful to be home.]

What a dramatic story we have from Jeremiah today. We are in the early 6th century BCE. Zedekiah became King in 597 BCE, appointed as a tributary by the Babylonian (Chaldean) Nebuchadnezzar II who had captured Jerusalem, deposed and exiled King Jehoiachin following a brief siege. Zedekiah was a strong leader. He sought to release Judah from the crippling tribute imposed by the Babylonians, entering an alliance with the Pharaoh Hopra of Egypt. That alliance became the official policy of Judah, and provoked a second and completely devastating 30 month siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, which ended in the city's complete destruction and exile.

Jeremiah opposed King Zedekiah's policies. He warned against an Egyptian alliance and counseled surrender and complete vassalage to Babylon. In the name of the Lord, Jeremiah urged all Jerusalem's citizens to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, to leave the city and to abandon the King's military strategy. Jeremiah's words were about as welcome as the words of so many church leaders during our former administration's pursuit of war against Iraq in 2002-3.

We read today how three powerful Jerusalem leaders reacted to Jeremiah's un-patriotic counsel: "This man ought to be put to death, because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such words to them." In a passive aggressive action (with "plausible deniability," to recover a phrase from the Nixon days), Zedekiah acts as though he cannot control the patriotic fervor of these three leaders, and looks the other way as they conspire to silence Jeremiah. They will not actively murder him, but they lower him into the mud of a dry cistern to die of thirst and exposure.

But there is a righteous voice who speaks up courageously. He is a foreigner -- an African from Ethiopia. He is Ebed-melech, one of the king's officials, a eunuch. He speaks to the king's conscience and effects a rescue for Jeremiah.

The prophet Jeremiah will continue his anti-war counsel and remain in the middle of a fierce political and military conflict until Jerusalem is overthrown. Thank God for prophets who speak truth to power. It can be a dark and lonely ministry. But the prophet's calling is to speak God's word to the present moment. Christian prophets speak the word of Jesus to power -- applying the fundamental values of Jesus in the public forum: love, compassion and justice.

Today's gospel reading from Matthew speaks of the inevitable conflict that discipleship often provokes. Living in the spirit of Jesus means making love, compassion and justice more important than anything else. Faithfulness to the example of Jesus is even more important than one's family loyalties, we read in the gospel for today. More important than family, nation or self-interest.

Ultimately following the way of Jesus -- the way of love, compassion and justice -- is the most authentic way to be loyal to family and nation, it is the most authentic way to be your true self and to act in accord with your deepest self-interest. But power and fear and ego will challenge the values of Jesus. Jesus promises great reward to any who follow faithfully -- divine hospitality, the reward of the prophet, the reward of the righteous, the reward of the compassionate (vs. 40-42)

Twenty-six hundred years after his life, we remember Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch of the tragic court of a sixth-century BCE Judean king. His "cup of cold water," the compassionate rescue of a prophet who was saying uncomfortable things that seemed threatening to a threatened nation, is remembered in the reading of millions of people today who follow the Daily Office. We hear how Ebed-melech had the courage to speak an unpopular word to power and to act out of love, justice, and compassion on behalf of a prophet during an extreme moment of a nation's history. Ebed-melech receives the prophet's reward, the reward of the righteous, the reward of the compassionate, and we celebrate his example of divine hospitality as inspiration for us to act with similar virtue in our day.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

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