DEAR READERS! FOR THE NEXT WEEK I WILL BE ON HOLIDAY IN THE HIGHLANDS AND MAY NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE WEB

ISRAELI ARMY DISCHARGES SOLDIER WHO SHOT PALESTINIAN

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

Ephesians 6:1-9

6Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2‘Honour your father and mother’—this is the first commandment with a promise: 3‘so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’

4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; 6not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, 8knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.

9 And, masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.

Here, as in yesterday’s passage, the writer adopts the social convention of his time but attempts to ameliorate its harshness with Christian kindness. We might have hoped that the gospel would have given the writer more incisive insights into these conventions, but both patriarchy and slavery remain unchallenged by his advice: the power of both men and slave owners goes unquestioned. We should read this passage with gratitude for what it does provide-encouragement to kindness-and regret for what is does not- a demand for justice. The Israeli discharge of a soldier for unprofessional conduct in the unlawful killing of a Palestinian is another example of a judgment which goes barely halfway to justice. We should also ask which conventions of our own societies we allow to go unchallenged.

Mark 4:35-41

the crucified and risen Jesus is the rescuer

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Through all the clamour of our troubles and trials, as we face the surges of evil in our world, Jesus is silent because he bears our grief and carries our sorrows. But he also responds to our doubts by awaking in the power of his resurrection to command calm. Who is he? He is the crucified- and -risen Son of God, who travels with us in the ship of faith.