This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

ISRAEL SAYS PALESTINIANS AN OBSTACLE TO PEACE 

(CHINA SAYS TIBET AN OBSTACLE TO PEACE? HITLER SAYS JEWS AN OBSTACLE….?)

Romans 13:1-14

13Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; 4for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. 6For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. 7Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 10Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; 13let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. 14Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

A lot has been made, for and against, of Paul’s instructions with regard to civil authorities. Luther even used it to justify the unjustifiable massacre of German peasants who had rebelled against the state. In truth, Paul’s remarks are no more (although no less!) than a reminder that Christians ought if possible to be good citizens. Reasonable government, even if it is Roman, is a human good which should be recognised- and paid for. I’ve never heard a sermon on the text, “Pay all that is due to them”! In the face of insane nonsense about government from the Christian right, Paul’s recognition of human as well as divine authority looks sound.

But is there something in this passage which is not so sound? Is there just a hint that the end of this world is near? “Salvation is nearer now…” Yep! St. Paul had the second- coming bug which has afflicted Christians from the first century right down to the zany Pastor Camping who predicted last Saturday’s non-event. Yesterday he confessed he’d got his sums wrong, saying “I’m not a genius.” Maybe we guessed, buddy.

The thing that makes St. Paul worth reading even when he’s hinting at an imminent end to things as they are, is his advice to believers. He just tells them to be good citizens, love their neighbours, and to live in the light of the new day that is coming, putting on the character of Christ. No pre-rapture hysteria here. No matter how delayed the new day is, Paul’s instructions retain their relevance. They have been echoed in my society by author Alisdair Grey whose motto is, “Work as if you are living in the early days of a better nation.”

 Luke 8:18-25

19 Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ 21But he said to them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’

22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, 23and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’

the still center of obedience

Here is a painful story about Jesus’ abrupt rejection of his mother and brothers. They have no more claim on him, he says, than anyone who obeys the word of God. In the boat the disciples discover that the elements also can be reminded to obey God’s word for they also belong to the community of obedience. The disciples ask, “who is he?” Luke tells his readers that he is the beloved son who obeys the father. Disciples of Jesus can share his faith in the father and his obedience. Obedience to God is not a popular theme in Christianity today, perhaps because there is disagreement about what is, and is not, commanded. In truth, anyone who accepts enough of the Christian tradition to call herself a believer should be quite clear about the basic commands (love God, love neighbour, love enemy, care for the needy etc) and happy to be part of the community of obedience.