Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

Wednesday, August 31, 2011 -- Week of Proper 17, Year One
Aidan and Cuthbert, Bishops of Lindisfarne, 651, 684

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 982)
Psalms 38 (morning)      119:25-48 (evening)
1 Kings 9:24 - 10:13
James 3:1-12
Mark 15:1-11

Solomon wowed the queen of Sheba.  He excelled in wisdom.  He displayed his great wealth in grand style.  To look at Israel from the boardroom of the CEO, it was an impressive sight. 

But below the surface things were not so pretty.  Solomon's great building projects were driven largely by slave labor.  Although this chapter denies that he conscripted forced labor from Israelites (9:22), that is contradicted in chapters 5 and 10 as well as by the motivation for the subsequent rebellion that divided the nation.  The long simmering resentments over the privileges that Judah enjoyed, and the burden of supporting Solomon's extravagance were already sowing the seeds of rebellion even while Solomon entertained so exquisitely in court.

I can't remember the source, but I recall some reports from archeological studies that point to a dramatic change that occurred about this time in Israel's history.  Throughout the days of the confederacy of tribes and through the early monarchy, there is little evidence of dramatic differences in economic status among the people of Israel.  Wealth was fairly evenly divided and the most prosperous lived in a style that was not remarkably different from the common person. 

Around the time of Solomon that changed.  Archeologists see the emergence of signs of concentrated wealth and consumption among a small group of elite, alongside the presence of a slave class.  There is a new division of wealth and class that did not exist in Israel's earlier history.

As I read of Solomon's exploits and remember the quick disillusion of his empire, two contemporary situations come to mind -- the Arab spring and the new concentration of wealth in this country.

In so many ways Solomon was a typical oriental despot.  He displayed his status and power extravagantly, including his harem of wives and concubines.  The account of his reign is full of weights of measures of gold and other luxuries.  His legendary wisdom, it seems, was an elitist wisdom, not the kind of street smarts that creates a sustainable and just nation.  His dynasty did not survive.  Like today in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere, the subjects of Solomon's reign were hungry for an opportunity to topple the oppressive regime.

Lest our own nation be too complacent, we need to mark some of the signs of instability and injustice that do not make for a sustainable foundation.  A profound economic gap has been growing in this nation beginning from the 1970's.  Income has been flat for average Americans for thirty years.  Wealth has become concentrated in fewer hands. 

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski pointed out recently that 400 Americans own more wealth than 150 million other Americans. 

In the past 30 years the wealthiest 1% increased their share of national wealth from 7% to 23%. 

50% of all the children in our nation will depend on food stamps at some point in their lives.  In our congressional district, the poverty rate recently rose from one-in-five to one-in-four.  That happened in just over one year.

The August edition of "Mother Jones" has a series of graphs and reports that highlight how hard American workers are working -- productivity has increased dramatically -- while wages have dropped and jobs have disappeared.  Corporate profits are strong and many companies have unprecedented cash reserves, but few companies are creating jobs to produce products for consumers who have little to spend.

It is as if all of the money has fled upstairs and just sits there among the elite.  It is not the picture of a healthy, sustainable or just economy.

The irony of the purported rebellion of the Tea Party is that their goals only play into the hands of those who already have so much money and power.  Tea Party policies can only accelerate the concentration of wealth. 

While Solomon entertained the queen of Sheba, his kingdom crumbled beneath him.  An American plutocracy of corporate wealth and power now dominates our policies while an underclass suffers and a middle class stagnates.  These are not signs of stability.

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

From Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 -- Week of Proper 17, Year One
Charles Chapman Grafton, Bishop of Fond du lac, and Ecumenist, 1912

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 982)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning)      36, 39 (evening)
1 Kings 8:65 - 9:9
James 2:14-26
Mark 14:66-72

There was a brief phrase in today's first reading that sent a chill down my back.  It comes at the conclusion of Solomon's dedication of the first Temple.  After Solomon held a great festival, the scripture mentions that "the great assembly" had drawn "people from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt."  The phrase describes the idealized boundaries of Israel during the reigns of David and Solomon.  It is one of those troubling phrases in the scripture that contributes to tension and violence today.

There is some disagreement exactly where Lebo-hamath lies, but it is between mountain ranges somewhere north of Damascus in Syria and east of Beruit in Lebanon.  The Wadi of Egypt is the eastern boundary of Egypt. 

This is one of the phrases in scripture that Zionists, including Christian Zionists, cite to make profound territorial claims on behalf of modern Israel.

I've seen one map promoted by Christian Zionists that declares that God has given to Israel the land in the Middle East stretching from the Mediterranian to the Euphrates, from Egypt to Turkey.  Anyone who does not support Israel's domination of this territory is an enemy of God, they say.  Some of them also cite the faithfulness of Ezra and Nehemiah, and propose some similar form of ethnic cleansing in that territory.

During our visit to Israel and Palestine we were able to meet a number of Palestinian Christians whose families have lived in the Holy Land for centuries.  They told us a bit of what it is like living under occupation.  It was an ugly story.  The numbers seem to show that Christians in Israel are being ethnically cleansed, in some sense.  Palestinian Christians are leaving, those who can.  They find life in their own land terribly constrained and even hopeless.

Our closest experience of some of their everyday life was the checkpoints.  We went through the checkpoints and experienced what seemed like senseless harassment and intimidation.  The government of Israel does not want tourists to stay in Bethlehem, which is in the Palestinian territories.  So our bus of very ordinary American tourists was stopped at the checkpoint each time we went between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.  The wait was at least twenty minutes, at most fifty minutes.  Twice we had soldiers armed with automatic weapons walk through our bus where we showed them our passports.  The soldiers looked so young, so immature.  One seemed almost chagrined that he was having to do this. 

On another day we were all escorted off of our bus under gunpoint and processed about one hundred yards to go through a metal detector.  There we witnessed close up the harassment and humiliation of the local population.  A Muslim woman was in tears as she exposed herself underneath her full-body robe.  Apparently the metal from her bra had set off the detector.  An elderly man in flowing robes was held up for about twenty minutes.  Finally he found what the contraband was.  He showed it to the tourists as he eventually passed through the machine.  It was a coin, less than half the size of a penny.  A nurse was delayed from her work.  She would be late to the hospital.  Her metal buttons and zipper on her jeans made her inspection very time consuming.  Every one of us, the tourists, set off the machine.  We were waved through.

The ethnic cleansing of Christian tour groups staying in Bethlehem has been pretty successful.  Our tour guide told us that very few groups are willing to put up with the hassle of the checkpoints.  The company we toured with has an old relationship with the once thriving Christian community in Bethlehem.  They persist in staying there for the sake of that struggling community.  They thanked us for our patience, and for the hours of touring we sacrificed in order to make some contribution to the survival of our Christian brothers and sisters still living in Bethlehem.

I am no expert on the Middle East.  But I experienced something that I would call injustice when I stayed among the Palestinians for a while.

There are those who declare that the world will never be at peace, that Jesus will not return, until Israel has dominion from Egypt to Turkey and from the Mediterranian to the Euphrates.  I think those are the people who prevent peace. 

In our reading today, the promises made to Solomon were conditional.  The reign of the house of David and Solomon was conditioned upon their following God's commandments.  The commandments include the expectations of justice, and they demand the same law for the foreigner as for the native. 

Fulfilling God's intention for the Holy Land is more than domination on a map, particularly if that domination is accompanied by injustice.  Those of us in the mainstream of Christianity need to confront the dangerous and unjust claims of Christian Zionism.

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Temple

Monday, August 29, 2011 -- Week of Proper 17, Year One
John Bunyan, Writer, 1688

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 982)
Psalms 25 (morning)      9, 15 (evening)
2 Chronicles 6:32 - 7:7
James 2:1-13
Mark 14:53-65

Some of the ways I think of God include aspects of the spatial.  I think of God as the center of all being, the midpoint of life and creation.  Dante ends the Divine Comedy in the center of the circle of the Holy Trinity, his desire and his will being "turned like a wheel, all at one speed, by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars."  In some sense my imagination has been affected by the cosmologists' description of the singularity "before" time from which emerged the Big Bang of creation.  I imagine God before and behind all that is, the transcendent center from which everything emanates and yet is completely connected -- the animating energy, loving Wisdom from whom pours the Spirit of being.

There is also the sense of God's immanence.  God is the Center with no circumference.  Deeply present, closer to me than the air I breath, as lifegiving as my blood, my thought before I think.  The seeing, the seer and the seen.  "Where can I flee from your presence?" 

So we hear Solomon's dedicatory prayer for the Jerusalem Temple.  "But will God indeed dwell on the earth?  Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!"  Yet the ancients insist, God's Name may dwell in a place made with hands.  The builder asks that God's "eyes may be open night and day toward this house." 

So we think of a Temple.  A dwelling for God's Name among us and a focus for our earthly prayer.  I think of the holy places made with hands where I experience a divine presence.  Our altar.  The aumbry where we ask the Name of Jesus to dwell.  An icon.  A candle.  Solomon asks God to hear the people of Israel when they pray toward the Temple.  "O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive."

The Temple becomes a thin place of connection between heaven and earth, where oaths are confirmed and judgment rendered.  A place of confession and forgiveness.  Where the people bring their experience of catastrophe and find succor. 

In the Temple there is ample room for the foreigner.  Solomon asks that the prayer of the foreigner be honored in the Temple as the prayer of the Temple's own people.  Our reading from James reminds us that we are to honor the poor and poorly dressed no less -- maybe even more -- when the congregation gathers in our holy place.

Solomon asks God's hearing of our prayer whenever we turn toward the Temple, wherever we may be.  I have been with my Muslim friends as they face Mecca for their prayers, and I sense the groundedness of place and identity that comes from such a material spiritual anchor.  I also find myself moved by those who come to receive communion in our own little church, who open their hands to receive the bread of Christ, and who look above and behind me at the east window image of Jesus welcoming the little children. 

Where is our Temple?  Where do we turn when we direct ourselves toward God? 

My most common image involves a descent into the center of my being where I sense an opening into the infinity of God.  A mutual indwelling opens in that vast singularity.

So many other things share a Templeish quality, all outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace.  Moses sees a burning bush, and behold, it is full of God.  There is the Name.  There are words, mere created letters or sounds, which open into the Word.  There is the shudder of intuition that seems to radiate a meaning or emotion that is not our own.

We turn to the Temple.  We become the Temple.  We are to be the place where God's Name dwells.  Maybe even occasionally, we might be the Temple that someone else may turn to, like Jerusalem or Mecca, to seek God's presence or succor when in need or threat.  I send a word of thanksgiving and reverence to those friends and strangers who have served as my own Temple.

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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

Friday, August 26, 2011

Making Promises Again

Friday, August 26, 2011 -- Week of Proper 16, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 980)
Psalms 16, 17 (morning)      22 (evening)
1 Kings 5:1 - 6:1, 7
Acts 28:1-16
Mark 14:27-42

I remember educator John Westerhoff saying something like this:  The Christian life is nothing more than making promises, and breaking promises; and making promises again, and breaking promises; and making promises again, and so on.  The important thing is to keep making promises again.  He then pointed us to the promises of the Baptismal Covenant, which we make with good intention.  Within those promises, we resolve to continue to get up and to try again each time we fail:  "...whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord."

Last night I was speaking to a friend who has just returned from Japan where he was helping untangle some of the legal issues that have occurred in the aftermath of the Tsunami.  Wills and other legal documents have been lost; whole families drowned.  How do you sort out the complicated property matters and other relational issues? 

He described a town that lay on the coast, protected by a thirty foot sea wall.  The city was settled along a coastal plain, spreading inland for a couple of miles to the foothills of some descending mountains.  The Tsunami was more than twice as high as the sea wall, he said.  The water simply overwhelmed it and swept the town away entirely.  Complete destruction all the way to the hills.  Near the seashore, on the beach there is a pole that has been established in the ground.  It reads in Japanese:  "Fall down seven times.  Get up eight."

"You will all become deserters," Jesus tells his companions.  Unthinkable.  Impossible.  Peter protests, "Even though all become deserters, I will not."  But we can be broken.  Despite our best efforts or strongest intentions, we sometimes fail.  At the heart of the prayer Jesus taught us looms the threatening possibility -- "Save us from the time of trial." 

Jesus prays earnestly to be delivered from the time of trial.  It is not to be.  Peter's strong will and intention will be broken by that trial.  He will betray the one he most loves.  He will betray his deepest belief and commitment.  He will be broken.  He will fail.

You can feel it coming even before the fact.  As Jesus prays in anguish, he asks his friends to stay with him just a bit.  Stay awake.  They don't have to do anything.  They don't even have to pray for him, to carry his fight for him.  Just stay awake.  But they are tired.  Exhausted.  Drained.  We get that way.  How many days in the hospital has it been?  How long have we kept going?  We meet our limits.  We fold. 

"Simon, are you asleep?  Could you not keep awake one hour?"  Jesus knows what is coming is more threatening and harder than just keeping awake when exhausted.  He urges Peter to pray for himself.  "Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial."  If Peter is withering now, what will happen when the real threat comes?  Peter means well.  "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

We sense what is coming.  Peter will fail.  At the most important moment of his life, he will shrink back.  He will break.  He will lie.  He will deny his beloved friend.  Three times.

Peter's greatest triumph is his subsequent willingness to live with his failed self and to renew his confidence. 

Judas, who failed similarly, was too proud to do so.  Judas' continued to insist on exercising full control of his life.  Suicide is the ultimate act of control.  Judas couldn't live with himself -- not a failed self. 

But somehow Peter accepted his own miserable failure.  He let himself be who he was.  When Jesus rose from the dead to meet Peter, Peter willingly faced him and rejoiced, despite the shame. 

I love the story on the beach, that concludes John's gospel.  Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him.  Three times Peter reaffirms his love.  It is a poignant reaffirmation.  Three times he denied his friend.  Now three times he confirms him.  Peter is restored and empowered.  "Feed my lambs.  ...Tend my sheep."

If Judas had not been so willful, had not stayed in control and continued to take things into his own hands, he too could have been similarly restored.

Well... the day is here.  Time to get to work.  I've got promises to keep.  And some to renew.  I'll never keep them all. 

"Fall down seven times.  Get up eight."

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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