People who use sacred texts have often found ways of selecting passages appropriate to their needs. Disciples of Confucius used a complex system of hexagrams, chosen by lot, to find images and comments suitable to their time, place and situation. In classical and medieval times, the writings of Virgil and Homer were used in a similar way. Sometimes the Bible was accessed by lot or dice or random procedures. The Church responded to the need to select appropriate wisdom from the Bible, by the daily lectionary, a selection of readings for every day in the year, which was originally used in monasteries, but has for some time been used in daily mass in the Catholic Church, and for private devotion in others. Obviously the choice of passages reflects a theology and the Christian calendar, but it also has an arbitrary element. It asks the reader, “Can this wisdom be applied to your soul, your community, your place, today?” This blog follows the daily readings and hopes to uncover some wisdom.

 Reading 1, 1 Kings 10:1-10

1 The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame and came to test him with difficult questions.

Raphael's image of the Queen and Solomon

2 She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels laden with spices and an immense quantity of gold and precious stones. Having reached Solomon, she discussed with him everything that she had in mind,

3 and Solomon had an answer for all her questions; not one of them was too obscure for the king to answer for her.

4 When the queen of Sheba saw how very wise Solomon was, the palace which he had built,

5 the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he presented in the Temple of Yahweh, it left her breathless,

6 and she said to the king, ‘The report I heard in my own country about your wisdom in handling your affairs was true then!

7 Until I came and saw for myself, I did not believe the reports, but clearly I was told less than half: for wisdom and prosperity, you surpass what was reported to me.

8 How fortunate your wives are! How fortunate these courtiers of yours, continually in attendance on you and listening to your wisdom!

9 Blessed be Yahweh your God who has shown you his favour by setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of Yahweh’s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to administer law and justice.’

10 And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

Gospel, Mark 7:14-23

14 He called the people to him again and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand.

15 Nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean; it is the things that come out of someone that make that person unclean.

16 Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!’

17 When he had gone into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable.

18 He said to them, ‘Even you — don’t you understand? Can’t you see that nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean,

19 because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach and passes into the sewer?

20 And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of someone that makes that person unclean.

21 For it is from within, from the heart, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder,

22 adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.

23 All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.’ 

This episode in the Bible’s story of King Solomon cannot be taken in isolation: it is told as a stage in the moral corruption of the King. In itself it seems innocent enough. The foreign Queen pays tribute to the Jewish King’s wisdom and prosperity. (-though the slight coyness of the narrative, “everything she had in mind”, “left her breathless” may excuse those who have detected a sexual subtext) The fact that Solomon is a monarch envied by other monarchs is a source both of pride and regret to the narrators. He has become the very model of a modern potentate, and has begun to forget his calling under God, to use his wisdom for the benefit of his people. Ironically, the narrator puts an expression of this calling in the mouth of the queen, “God has made you King to administer law and justice.” Solomon still glitters, but inwardly he is being corrupted by greed and arrogance.

 Jesus’ words about ritual cleanliness take the radical view that no religious custom can make us either clean or unclean in God’s eyes. Obviously a large and authentic part of Jewish religion made ritual cleanliness an essential part of daily life. If ordinary people could not always keep the strict rules meant for priests, they could obey the rules concerning food, illness, sex, death and sacrifice. Mark depicts Jesus as rejecting this whole area of religious observance, using an argument based on common sense: nothing that goes into us can defile us (morally), but only what comes out of us (immoral words and actions). This ignores the fact that the purity laws were not concerned with morality, but rather with what was “fitting” for the people of a jealous God. From the Gospel presentation, we have to conclude that Jesus saw all that ritual as distraction from the will of God.

 (It seems worth noting that I do not regard “cleanliness” as a dead issue for the church today. I guess that many of those who have a gut reaction against the ministry of women, feel women are “unclean” in certain ways, especially vis a vis the sacraments. The same may be true with regard to some forms of homophobia. Jesus’ redefinition of the clean/unclean issue may be helpful in these cases.) 

Jesus had a prophetic accuracy about the human heart, especially the religious human heart. He knew the tortuous deceptions and self-deceptions of which it is capable: it is what comes out of us, that makes us dirty, he tells us, and we know he’s right.  

Solomon looked good to the worldly eyes of the queen of Sheba but his heart was already corrupt. 

Jesus hunts down everything that shields human beings from an encounter with the goodness of God.