This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:
Scientists achieve invisibility
Revelation 18:15-24
16 ‘Alas, alas, the great city, clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls!
17For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!’And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off18and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
‘What city was like the great city?’
19And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out,
‘Alas, alas, the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth!
For in one hour she has been laid waste.’
20 Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets! For God has given judgement for you against her.
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
‘With such violence Babylon the great city will be thrown down, and will be found no more;
22 and the sound of harpists and minstrels and of flautists and trumpeters will be heard in you no more;
and an artisan of any trade will be found in you no more;
and the sound of the millstone will be heard in you no more;
23 and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more;
and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more;
for your merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24 And in you* was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on earth.’
economic power
The reasons for the divine overthrow of the great city are given here: its merchants gained power over all peoples by the magic of their trading practices; and it put to death the good people who opposed it. The great city is Rome and her goddess Roma, the one great power of the author’s world. If we are to find any modern equivalent would have to look at the capitalist economies as one power, spreading its economic control everywhere; or perhaps at China as the one superpower in its region of the world. The book of Revelation encourages us to look carefully at the behaviour of such powers for evidence that they may have become demonic, in their control of other peoples by economic means and their willingness to kill for their own advantage.
In the eyes of the author the Great City is ripe for destruction. Prophets today may hope that revealing the arrogance of ruling powers may turn them towards justice and prevent calamity.
Luke 14:12-24
12 He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
The Parable of the Great Dinner
15 One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’16Then Jesus* said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.17At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.”18But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies.”19Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies.”20Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.”21So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.”22And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.”23Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.24For I tell you,*none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” ’
Dignitaries at Lord Mayor’s Banquet
Obviously there were people rich enough in Jesus’ society to give banquets. Graeco-Roman culture prized such occasions as ways in which the host could do favours and gain honour while creating an opportunity for his guests to return the favour, gaining honour in turn, thereby cementing the bonds of society. Jesus clearly sees this custom as the intrusion of economics into the domestic realm. If the sharing of food is to be more than domestic, he advises, make sure that the poor and the needy are invited.
He goes on to show in a sarcastic story just how much the “dinner circuit” is ruled by economic concerns. The rich man’s invitation is scorned because people have their own business to attend to: one has purchased land, another oxen, another a wife (!), and mean to enjoy their goods. In a fury, the rich man orders his house to be thrown open to the poorest of the poor. But just suppose that in some sense this rich man is like God who has invited all to share bread in his kingdom of goodness and justice, and finds that only the poorest respond! The goodies of the shared life (the life shared with God!) are despised by those who consider that they are self-sufficient in both material and spiritual wealth.
Both passages today pick out arrogance based on wealth as the opposite of the down-to-earth sharing of all God’s gifts that Jesus commanded.
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