REBELS CLOSER TO GADDAFI

This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a healine from world news.

1 Samuel 16:14-23

14 Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. 15And Saul’s servants said to him, ‘See now, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. 16Let our lord now command the servants who attend you to look for someone who is skilful in playing the lyre; and when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will feel better.’ 17So Saul said to his servants, ‘Provide for me someone who can play well, and bring him to me.’ 18One of the young men answered, ‘I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skilful in playing, a man of valour, a warrior, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence; and the Lord is with him.’ 19So Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, ‘Send me your son David who is with the sheep.’ 20Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them by his son David to Saul. 21And David came to Saul, and entered his service. Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armour-bearer. 22Saul sent to Jesse, saying, ‘Let David remain in my service, for he has found favour in my sight.’ 23And whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, and the evil spirit would depart from him.’

David comforting Saul (Rembrandt)

The narrator of Samuel has no problem in attributing to God the evil spirit that torments Saul. As I’ve been indicating this week, the story of Saul is a dark puzzle to the modern reader who can’t see why God dislikes him so much, nor indeed why he favours David so much. I want to say that God, the God in whom I believe, doesn’t send evil spirits to torment people. But the Bible says he does.

A picture of God is not a single snap; it is built of many images. The “dark story” of God and Saul is part of this author’s picture of God and cannot be conveniently dismissed. God’s “jealousy” (no other Gods before me!) is part of this picture, and Saul, the first Israelite to be elevated as King is, through little fault of his own, subject to this jealousy. Christian people will want to correct this picture of God with the more accurate picture they believe they’ve been given in Jesus Christ, but they will not simply banish it. My regular readers may by this time be asking, “But didn’t you, the other day, refuse the image of the God who commands ethnic cleansing and banish it as God’s word?” Yes I did. Sometimes in the light of Christ we have to declare, as in that instance, that what is presented as an image of God is in fact a snapshot of the Spirit of Religious Intolerance.

Anyway, in today’s narrative God’s cruelty in sending Saul a tormenting spirit is matched by his kindness in sending him a comforter, namely David, whom God (unknown to Saul) has already chosen as his successor. There is a deep irony here, that the only one who can comfort the king is the one who will supplant his family. God may also be teaching David about the sufferings of kingship.

Luke 24:36-53

36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ 37They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate in their presence.

44 Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’

50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

the resurrection of the body

It’s important to Luke that his story emphasise the physicality of the resurrection. He is not talking about the survival of disembodied spirit. Persons relate to each other through their bodies. Modern research points to the complete embodiment of human personality: alter the brain (body) and you alter the person. The risen Jesus is for Luke a person with now unrestricted powers of relationship and presence but he is still a body. His resurrection is a victory over death rather than a survival of it or escape from it. We should be sure that none of the details given are accidental products of remembered eye-witness. No, Luke is telling the reader in story form the basic doctrine of the resurrection. The story presents an “appearance” of Jesus and what is recounted is not the experience of the disciples but the doctrine of the church which has sifted the memories of the apostles, discarding the doubtful and retaining the essence. Through Luke, the church tells the reader “what happened.” In particular we are given nothing in the resurrection story that allows us to elevate the spirit over the body or the spiritual over the material. All the elements of life are raised in Jesus.

As a young person I found the doctrine of the resurrection difficult to believe. Now it seems the most adventurous and meaningful of doctrines and one which connects in many interesting ways with contemporary science. Ah, some will say, that’s because you’ve moved along the branch of life and are closer to dropping off your twig: you need something else to hang on to. Well no, I’ve had a good life; it’s the poor and oppressed who need the justice of resurrection; and I believe they’ll get it along with those who’ve made them poor and oppressed them, and others, like me, who haven’t done enough to free them. Still, I’m looking forward to it.