SOUTH SUDAN- A NEW KINGDOM BRINGS JOY

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

Psalm 110

Of David. A Psalm.
¹ The Lord says to my lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.’
² The Lord sends out from Zion
your mighty sceptre.
Rule in the midst of your foes.
³ Your people will offer themselves willingly
on the day you lead your forces
on the holy mountains.
From the womb of the morning,
like dew, your youth will come to you.
⁴ The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,
‘You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.’
⁵ The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
⁶ He will execute judgement among the nations,
filling them with corpses;
he will shatter heads
over the wide earth.
⁷ He will drink from the stream by the path;
therefore he will lift up his head.

drink from the brook

This is one of the so-called “Royal psalms” celebrating the accession of a new member of the Royal household, most probably in the era after the “return from exile.” It is vigorous in its expectation of the King who is instituted by God as warrior and priest of his people. He will gather the youth of the nation for holy war, and like the fabled Melchizedek (king of righteousness) of Jerusalem, he will act on God’s behalf, establishing his justice over the mighty of the earth. …except he won’t. We know that this is the extravagant language of the royal court where tame prophets spouted this kind of flattery. We may hope that such prophecies at least encouraged kings to stand for justice.

Christians have re-interpreted the psalm as pointing in a symbolic way to Christ the King, and this may help us to appreciate Jesus’ spiritual warfare. The stream by the path is a nice detail. The king may be so thirsty after shattering heads that he might not manage any more but God has provided a handy brook to refresh him and give him a second wind. I once heard a sermon on this text in which the king was seen as a soldier of the Salvation Army and his warfare against evil and poverty. When exhausted he finds that God has provided the refreshment of the Holy Spirit on which he calls by prayer.

Mark 1:14-28

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. 21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. ²²They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. ²³Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, ²⁴and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ ²⁵But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ ²⁶And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. ²⁷They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He^* commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ ²⁸At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Christ the king

Possibly Mark had the witness of the royal psalms in his mind as he wrote his story of Jesus. In the ministry of Jesus God himself is about to take the reins of power. Jesus gathers his forces, the young men come to him readily and will help him to gather (fish for) others. This is a decisive moment of holy war in which it’s legitimate to break the commandment about parents. Jesus carried forward the war on two fronts: teaching and healing, and he does both with royal authority. Both are important but the latter is crucial. In this warfare people are given life rather than deprived of it. The enemy is the power of evil, identified in the gospel as The Satan, the destroyer of humanity.