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

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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