PROPHET OF FINANCE FOR POOR WITHOUT HONOUR IN OWN COUNTRY

Muhammed Yunus -see Google

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

1 Samuel 24:1-22

24When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, ‘David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.’ 2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3He came to the sheepfolds beside the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. 4The men of David said to him, ‘Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, “I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.” ’ Then David went and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak. 5Afterwards David was stricken to the heart because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak. 6He said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to raise my hand against him; for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ 7So David scolded his men severely and did not permit them to attack Saul. Then Saul got up and left the cave, and went on his way.

8 Afterwards David also rose up and went out of the cave and called after Saul, ‘My lord the king!’ When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. 9David said to Saul, ‘Why do you listen to the words of those who say, “David seeks to do you harm”? 10This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, “I will not raise my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord’s anointed.” 11See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand; for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak, and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life. 12May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. 13As the ancient proverb says, “Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness”; but my hand shall not be against you. 14Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A single flea? 15May the Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you. May he see to it, and plead my cause, and vindicate me against you.’

Adullam-bandit country

16 When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, ‘Is that your voice, my son David?’ Saul lifted up his voice and wept. 17He said to David, ‘You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. 18Today you have explained how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. 19For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. 20Now I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. 21Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not wipe out my name from my father’s house.’ 22So David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home; but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Here both the author’s main characters behave with dignity and large-heartedness. But readers who have come to know David may perceive something more that a desire for mercy in his sparing of Saul. He can foresee that it will not be fitting for the one whom the Lord favours to murder the Lord’s anointed. He is careful of entering into the kind of evil from which there may be no exit. Saul recognises that he is already in that evil and feels that his fate is sealed. David puts his trust in the Lord’s favour whereas Saul despairs of it. Saul’s situation, as a king caught with his trousers down, could have been exploited by the author for coarse humour but is instead used to reveal the vulnerability of a great king and the delicacy of a guerrilla chief. It is likely that although the author has sources for his history, much of what he writes is his own invention. He wants to show that understanding history in the light of the Lord does not diminish but rather enhances the humanity of his protagonists and offers the reader a model for understanding his/her own life and the life of the nation. The persistent trivialising of people in the public eye, which is common in our mass media, trivialises our own humanity.

Mark 4:1-20

4Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. 2He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

Batolome de las Casas

My judgement is that the explanation for this parable given a few verses later, is itself another parable, the parable of the soils, which may or may not come from Jesus. This parable focuses on the sower, who goes out to sow, knowing that some of the precious seed will be wasted. Some of Jesus’ rural audience would have known the mingled hopefulness and resignation of sowing seed on poor land. Nevertheless the sower continues because he knows that where there is good soil the yield is great. Not to sow because of the poverty of the land would be seen as madness. If all this is true of human beings how much more is it true of God who persistently sows the seeds of his kingdom. Some of Mark’s readers may have wondered why God had sown their lives in difficult and dangerous places (his readers seem to have known persecution). The sower knows what he’s doing, the parable says: there will be a yield.

Bartolome de las Casas, (1474-1566) whom the church remembers today, was for much of his life a solitary voice arguing against his own nation’s treatment of native peoples in their new world empire. He even refused communion to those who kept native people as slaves. As a Dominican brother and priest he wrote voluminously, documenting the genocidal practices of his countrymen. He made several unsuccessful attempts to establish estates in the Caribbean and South America where the native people would be treated justly. He articulated a gospel-centred view of the rights of all human beings. Probably he thought of his life’s witness as a failure. He died a traitor in the eyes of his own people.. Yet his example and writings were encouragement over the years to men and women in religious orders who wanted to preach a true gospel in Spanish America, and, albeit much later, to those who struggled for the liberation of their people from the Spanish yoke. Some seeds found good soil.