GAZA PEOPLE SAY: NEVER MIND AID- GIVE US JUSTICE

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

1 Samuel 17:31-49

31 When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul; and he sent for him. 32David said to Saul, ‘Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ 33Saul said to David, ‘You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ 34But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. 36Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.’ 37David said, ‘The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.’ So Saul said to David, ‘Go, and may the Lord be with you!’

38 Saul clothed David with his armour; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39David strapped Saul’s sword over the armour, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, ‘I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.’ So David removed them. 40Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.

41 The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43The Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44The Philistine said to David, ‘Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.’ 45But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

Caravaggio's deadly David

The storyteller wants to make much of this theme of small against big, and therefore of David’s courage and faith in the Lord, but he can’t disguise his hero’s canny calculation that he can defeat this clanking giant by his ability to fight from a distance. Goliath wants a battle with all the ceremony of warriors, whereas his opponent is a single-minded killer. In the end the story is one of many examples of David’s eye for the main chance, which doesn’t compromise his faith or courage but is somehow part of it: he believes that God loves him and intends him to succeed, although his self-confident impulsiveness will also bring him God’s punishment. The matchless history of David in the books of Samuel tells how a person in the fullness of his character relates to God, and vice versa.

This story makes David a model of Israel: small against great; human against technological; brains against brawn; faith against unbelief. Throughout his life David was at his best when he conformed to this pattern. The same is true of the life of Israel in ancient and modern times. How can its present leaders not see that in the current conflict the Palestinians take the role of David and Israel that of Goliath?

Mark 1:1-13

1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God

2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight” ’,

4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Jesus shoulder to shoulder

It’s great to come to the beginning of Mark’s Gospel after reaching the end of Luke’s, for the Jesus we meet in Mark is from the start the crucified and risen Jesus. Almost all the narratives in this gospel show the fundamental pattern of cross and resurrection: Jesus places himself in weakness, shame, illness and danger in order that his resurrection power may raise others.

Here in this story Jesus story Jesus stands shoulder to shoulder with repentant sinners and undergoes a baptism which signals the death of an old life. He identifies with these people in their humility and need. Mark tells us that here the heavens are torn apart, just as at his cross the temple veil will be torn is apart, and God confirms him as his beloved son just as later the centurion confesses him to be a son of God.

But the open heaven, the divine confirmation and the descent of the spirit on Jesus are also signs of his resurrection power which will lift people up. The cross and resurrection pattern is evident in just two sentences, verses 12 and 13: the Spirit drives him into the power of Satan; but angels wait on him. Mark is a great, savage, cunning theologian whose picture of Jesus has been underrated in the Christian tradition. William Penn’s statement from the Tower of London says it in brief:

“No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown”