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.
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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
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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.
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.
Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Ar
Fayetteville, Ar
posted by Lowell @ 8:42 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
And did you forget the deliberate seperation created by titles? Mexican-American, African-American, etc. Every American who lacks a special "title" is expected to cheer on the flood of immigrants, legal or otherwise; to celebrate the "African" heritage; and let me guess, you also want to break the barrier created by that evil word "marriage". I mean, lets get serious, marriage creates a barrier between the priviledged "few" who have the special right to marry someone of the opposite sex. And why? Marriage is not special, marriage isn't asking for exclusivity. So lets open the flood gates. Let anyone marry. Marry your love, marry your pet, marry your apple tree. Lets lose all titles, they simply divide.
And since we are on the topic, why do we call ourselves Christians? What is the point? It is simply the most divisive title since the dawn of man (or when we crawled out of primordial ooze).
And finally, you said "we are not wise enough"? Why is it that you acknowledge our foolishness and in the same breath root for Obama and the complete control of our lives by government? Your foolishness in allowing the foolishness of the government control reminds me of an old saying, two wrongs don't make a right.
Wow. Titles and walls can do different things. To edify - to build up - or to separate. I take that as Lowell's point between the two examples he gives - that those are being built to separate.
I take Christian, myself included, to mean living in Christ, or attmepting to live in Christ. Within that life I can include others who call themselves by another name, or I can use that "title" to disavow every name that is other than mine. A wall - a title - different intent and uses, surely. Peace, Janet
So you can "include" other names? For example, are you disavowing the following
"He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son hath not life."
Kind of hard to include any other names based on that. But that doesn't give us warm fuzzies does it?
A wall, a title, more like a canyon, and a bridge. Or you can be like Evil Knieveil and try it on your own.
Dear Reg,
Those are beautiful words from James, are they not? They are life giving words, full of love and compassion and forgiveness as we come to know Christ. They could not be for me a reason to exclude anyone -- as creation, for me, is of God. All of it.
I wish you love, and joy, and Christ's peace on your faith journey. I don't believe faith is something we can give another, or force onto another, we can but give opportunity. I try prayerfully, with my words and my life, to offer opportunity, not condemnation.
And thank you Lowell, for the opportunity of this forum to express what sometimes turns to these deeply personal thoughts and reflections.
Janet
Thanks for your gentle comments Janet, and welcome back Reg.
Reg, you set up such angry, bizarre straw horses. "Marry your pet... Lose all titles." Rubbish. You are violating the 9th Commandment -- You are bearing false witness.
The Son often recognized the presence of God's Spirit in those who were not inside religious boundaries. He healed the child of the Canaanite woman because of her faith, he remarked on the faith of a Roman soldier whose child was ill, he fed multitudes of foreigners in the Decapolis, he healed lepers, including a Samaritan. His was a generous and inclusive love. We can be like him.
Lowell
I'm bearing false witness? Where? Are you saying that your redefinition of marriage is the end? Will this definition then be the last definition? Come on Lowell, you have said previously that if people bear the fruit of the spirit, then all is well.
Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Walking first, then standing, finally sitting. God's warns about a slippery slope.
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