GAZA SHIP “A PARABLE OF PEACE” THREATENED BY ISRAEL

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

1 Samuel 25.1-22

25Now Samuel died; and all Israel assembled and mourned for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David got up and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

2 There was a man in Maon, whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was clever and beautiful, but the man was surly and mean; he was a Calebite. 4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, ‘Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 6Thus you shall salute him: “Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing, all the time they were in Carmel. 8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favour in your sight; for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.” ’

9 When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David; and then they waited. 10But Nabal answered David’s servants, ‘Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters. 11Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?’ 12So David’s young men turned away, and came back and told him all this. 13David said to his men, ‘Every man strap on his sword!’ And every one of them strapped on his sword; David also strapped on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, ‘David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he shouted insults at them. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we never missed anything when we were in the fields, as long as we were with them; 16they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17Now therefore know this and consider what you should do; for evil has been decided against our master and against all his house; he is so ill-natured that no one can speak to him.’

18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys 19and said to her young men, ‘Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you.’ But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20As she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, David and his men came down towards her; and she met them. 21Now David had said, ‘Surely it was in vain that I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; but he has returned me evil for good. 22God do so to David and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of all who belong to him.’

David and Abigail. The eyes are marvellously expressive

In spite of the self-justifying rhetoric and the testimony of the shepherds, it’s clear that David is initially in the wrong. He and his men are basically saying to Nabal, “If you pay up, nothing bad will happen to your flocks. But if you don’t pay up, well, there are lots of bad people around.” It’s a protection racket. David’s response is also that of a Mafioso: anger, boasting, and an intention to cause serious damage. The author wants us to see this so that we can also understand how providentially he is prevented from acting on his own worst instincts. There is a subtle comedy being played out which the author attributes to the author of all events. God has planned that through the mess of human motives David will learn a lesson and find a wise wife. Neither the author of the story not the author of life seems to have much sympathy for Nabal.
My readers can reflect on their own lives. When I do so I can recognise how often my worst intentions have been restrained not by conscience but by the merciful intervention of some delaying circumstance.

Mark 4:21-34

21 He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ 24And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

 Mark gives the reader examples of Jesus’ parables. Those who are of “the crowd”, that is, those who haven’t committed themselves to Jesus’ way, have to work out the meaning of the parables. If they do so, they will be illuminated with the light of the teaching, which is not there to be hidden to be revealed and to reveal the truth. It seems to me that Mark gives Jesus’ words about “more being given to those who have” their right context. The student who receives the teaching actively is ready for more whereas the uninterested student is ready for nothing.

In Mark’s thinking, the teaching is only part of the “kingdom” which is the active rule of God in the world. God sows the seed, which is teaching of course, but also the lives of men and women, including that of his beloved son. The seed is fruitful because it is designed to interact with the soil. God’s seeds are designed to be fruitful in the world, but their growth cannot be forced: it happens. Over- anxious or violent people who want to force the growth of the kingdom are rebuked in this parable; those who trust in Jesus’ way as God’s way are comforted: the harvest will come.

The modesty of the kingdom’s beginnings in the world or in the individual soul is contrasted with the protective majesty of its full growth. Vulnerability becomes protectiveness. This is a profound truth about any kind of human flourishing.

St. Macrina (4^th century CE), whose day this is, devoted herself to meditation and charity, after the death of her fiancé. With her mother she formed a community of women who cared for the poor and afflicted. After her mother’s death she brought up her ten brothers, including Basil the Great and St Gregory of Nyssa, helping them to grow and blossom in discipleship of Jesus. Out of her own vulnerability she became a mother to many.