This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:
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EXODUS 34: 21-35
21 For six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in ploughing time and in harvest time you shall rest.22You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year.23Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.24For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the passover shall not be left until the morning.
26 The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
27 The Lord said to Moses: Write these words; in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.28He was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.*<!– 29 –>
The Shining Face of Moses
29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant* in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them.32Afterwards all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face;34but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,35the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
making foie gras-offensive to God?
Scholars think that this chapter contains some of the oldest stories of the covenant. The rules about Sabbaths and festivals are all intended to remind the people that the land does not belong to them but is the gift of God to them: they are stewards of the wealth of God, not owners of it. These observances will keep them from the hardheartedness that results from pride of possession. One little detail is significant. The Canaanites had a delicacy produced by seething a kid in its mothers milk. This seemed an excessive and disgusting luxury to the law-givers of Israel. Male kids, like male lambs, were on the whole uneconomical and would be eaten, but using its mother’s milk to cook it demonstrated a sense of power which was offensive to God.
The text records the shining of Moses face as a result of his meetings with God. This is the reflection of God’s glory in the face of his servant and Moses veils his face from a sense of modesty: his intimacy with God is not for display. This contrasts with the immodest display of cheap evangelists who make demonstration of their spiritual accomplishments. Such displays are the mark of snake oil salesmen in all times and places. In 2nd Corinthians 3:7-4:6 St Paul produces a spectacular verbal riff on this story in which he contrasts the veil on Moses face with the “unveiled faces” of Christian believers who have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Paul is speaking about an inward experience of exposure to God’s glory in Christ, which renews the life of believers in Christ’s likeness, and grants to them an openness which banishes both secrecy and display (which Paul calls “boasting”). What shines out for Paul is the actual transformation of people’s lives as they become more like Jesus. This is a creative use of the old story to express the meaning of the gospel.
Matthew 5:27-37
Concerning Adultery
27 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.”28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.*30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.*
Concerning Divorce
31 ‘It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.”32But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Concerning Oaths
33 ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.”34But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.37Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.* 
Oh dear, there are things here that sit uneasily with our social customs. Of course most of us are against adultery, so none of us ever intend to commit adultery. No, we have a unique relationship outside marriage which demands a unique right to consummation, a special harmony of souls which requires bodily expression. Or, on the other hand, we have a frank episode of pleasurable lust which is so trivial it will be forgotten in a week and is no threat to our partner. In these and other forms of self-deception, the tragicomedy of unfaithfulness is played out. Jesus’ words cut through these self-deceptions. It doesn’t start with the actions, he says, but with the intention of possessing which has to be amputated from our characters as rigorously as an infected limb is amputated from our bodies. Jesus was not aganst sex. Indeed he stated that men and women were created for a sexual relationship with each other. But for him the joining of bodies was also the wholehearted joining of lives in marriage.
His forbidding of divorce also runs against our civil laws and the practice of some churches. In Mark’s version of this command, there are no exceptions. I think that’s likely to be the original form of Jesus’ words because I think he was not giving a law (with or without exceptions) but rather an expression of the Creator’s intention, which would have to worked out in the life of the church community. Matthew’s version probably shows how it was worked out in his church. We may say that Jesus’ rigour on this issue reflects his concern for the position of women in his society, but we shouldn’t try to dodge its clear meaning. By all means let’s say that Jesus’ teaching on this matter is time-bound and wrong for us, if that’s what we think, but let’s not hide his words away.
And as for oaths! Yes, most English-speaking nations encourage oaths in court to be made on the Bible and “by Almighty God”, in clear breach of the explicit command of Jesus. Jesus’ concern is that no religious hocus-pocus should undermine the duty of ordinary honesty. As soon as we start monkeying about with special guarrantees of truth we’re half-way to deception. It is to the honour of Quakers that they have always refused to use oaths.
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