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

1 Samuel 28:3-20

3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. Saul had expelled the mediums and the wizards from the land. 4The Philistines assembled, and came and encamped at Shunem. Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. 5When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, not by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. 7Then Saul said to his servants, ‘Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her.’ His servants said to him, ‘There is a medium at Endor.’

8 So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes and went there, he and two men with him. They came to the woman by night. And he said, ‘Consult a spirit for me, and bring up for me the one whom I name to you.’ 9The woman said to him, ‘Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?’ 10But Saul swore to her by the Lord, ‘As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.’ 11Then the woman said, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’ He answered, ‘Bring up Samuel for me.’ 12When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!’ 13The king said to her, ‘Have no fear; what do you see?’ The woman said to Saul, ‘I see a divine being coming up out of the ground.’ 14He said to her, ‘What is his appearance?’ She said, ‘An old man is coming up; he is wrapped in a robe.’ So Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.

15 Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’ Saul answered, ‘I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; so I have summoned you to tell me what I should do.’ 16Samuel said, ‘Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? 17The Lord has done to you just as he spoke by me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbour David. 18Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you today. 19Moreover, the Lord will give Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me; the Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.’

20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.

Saul and Samuel: Blake

As the author has portrayed Saul, the shades of death have been gathering round him for some time, but now in this episode, his own journey towards the power of death is displayed clearly, as he turns to the agents of death whom he once suppressed. The life-in-death of shades is well described by Akhilleus in the Odyssey as “the after-images of used- up men.” Samuel’s weariness is obvious in his greeting, but his answer is simply the prophecy he has already made: Saul and Jonathan will be defeated and die. The prone figure of the King of Israel represents the victory of the Lord whose genocidal command he has broken.

I would not want to worship this God but I might do so…just in case…

Mark 5:1-20

5They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ 8For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ 9Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ 10He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ 13So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.

14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. 16Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. 17Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. 18As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19But Jesus refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ 20And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Here’s a man who thinks he’s the Roman Army. Traditional interpretation has emphasised the numbers (for we are many) and forgotten the meaning of the name. A Legion is a detachment of the Roman Army which has invaded and occupied the territory. We would say the man has self-destructively internalised the trauma of invasion. Mark probably intends the reader to note that this area is no longer Israel proper and therefore more likely to be inhabited by evil spirits. His characterisation of the spirit of Roman imperialism is shrewd: a person filled with woe, drawn towards death, determined to harm himself.

Jesus carries the fight to the enemy (Satan) by invading his territory, forcing the possessed man to name his possessors and sending them into unclean animals whose deaths show the destructive nature of the spirits.

The Gerasenes, who live in this spirit infested land, are more terrified of Jesus than they are of the spirits. The man, now sane, becomes a witness to his own people.

Albert John Luthuli

It seems a “primitive” story but it reminds the reader what violent oppression does to people. As well as those who respond with violent opposition, there are those who are afflicted with sorrow, anger and despair. Indeed, as a book about Vietnam veterans bears witness, even the agents of oppression can themselves be afflicted in this way. Jesus’ medicine rests on a right diagnosis: the evil must be named. The courage and compassion required for this are the marks of Jesus’ disciples in a violent world. Today the Episcopal Church remembers one of them, Albert Luthuli (died 1967) who opposed all violence including that of Nelson Mandela and the ANC.