TALIBAN TO PERMIT FEMALE EDUCATION

This blog provides a meditation on the Revised Common Lectionary readings along with a headline from world news.

Ephesians 3:14-21

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,* 15from whom every family* in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mark 2:23-3:6

Doctrinal AND practical! Maybe he has it right....

23 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

3Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ 4Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. 5He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

As yesterday so today, the readings show perfect consonance with each other, although in this case the narrative in Mark is much plainer than the slightly mysterious words of Paul’s disciple in Ephesians. This begins clearly enough with the writer praying to God as the source of all true parenting, that his Spirit will clean out the heart’s house so that Christ (the true child of God) may come to dwell there. This (Trinitarian) operation roots them (like a flower) and grounds them (like a building) in love.

The knowledge of this universal love is shared by all God’s saints and goes beyond the abstract dimensional terms which have been used to describe ultimate truth in Greek religiosity: breadth, length, height and depth. The mystery is not abstract, cosmic, mathematical or “religious”: it is the love of God made real in Christ and through his Spirit, in human beings who trust Him. The fullness of God is not some unimaginable quality of being, but is precisely love, given and received. There is no God “behind” the goodness revealed in Christ: God is this goodness..

That leads us to the story in Mark. Firstly Jesus establishes his own wisdom about God’ commands: they are given for the good of humanity not of God. They are therefore to be obeyed, honoured and interpreted in accordance with that purpose and not as if they had been given for God’s sole glory; for the glory of God is the living person. Jesus brushes away the dusty webs of religion from the commands of God and reveals them as instruments of his love. The Son of Man (Jesus and his followers) are Lord of the Sabbath because they know how to appreciate and use God’s gift.

Jesus defence of the Sabbath as God’s gift is seen in his savage question to the legalists, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm; to save life or to kill?” This exposes them as hard-hearted people who use God’s command to maintain their own power. God’s goodness, on the other hand, is available every day: you only have to stretch out your hand.

If the report is accurate, it’s good to see the Taliban moving from excessive reverence for Islamic tradition to an understanding of Allah’s commands for the good of men and women. We should encourage this movement