Wednesday • 8/16/2023
Wednesday of the Eleventh Week After Pentecost (Proper 14)
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 101; Psalm 109; 2 Samuel 14:21–33; Acts 21:15–26; Mark 10:17–31
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1-3,11a,14c,18-19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68-79, BCP, p. 92)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you. This Wednesday in the Season After Pentecost our readings come from Proper 14 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.
It is often said that New Testament realities show up in shadow form in the Old Testament. Forgiveness is one such matter. We saw yesterday that the New Testament apostle Paul can proclaim to the elders of Ephesus the wonderful fact that God has purchased the church at the cost of the blood of his own dear Son. The result, as he will later write to them, is that they can “forgiv[e] each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). With Christ’s giving himself up for us as “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” a new power has been introduced into human affairs: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice” (Ephesians 4:31).
Image: Detail from stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida
2 Samuel 14: grace only partially realized. In the wake of his monstrous sins against Bathsheba and Uriah, David can appreciate the grace by which Gods covers his sins (Psalm 32:1) and renews a right spirit within him (Psalm 51:10). He can even find a way to extend mercy to Mephibosheth, the crippled grandson of his former tormentor Saul (2 Samuel 9).
But David cannot find a way both to forgive and to establish a renewed and reconciled relationship with his estranged son Absalom. In no small part, as we see in today’s and tomorrow’s readings, Absalom has become a monster himself: an entitled, power-grabbing, narcissist.
With the death of David’s firstborn son Amnon, Absalom has as good a claim as anyone to be next in line for the throne. Besides that, he is of regal appearance —
“Now in all Israel there was no one to be praised so much for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. When he cut the hair of his head (for at the end of every year he used to cut it; when it was heavy on him, he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head, two hundred shekels by the king’s weight” (2 Samuel 14:25–26).
No member of any 80s hairband had anything on Absalom (though my own 70s afro may have given him some competition). Problematically, nobody outranked Absalom in narcissism and sense of entitlement!
David has permitted an angry Absalom to return to Jerusalem, though he senses that he must keep his still-smoldering son at arm’s length. David refuses to see him for two years. Twice, Absalom summons Joab to try to get him to intervene. Twice, Joab ghosts him. Absalom finally gets Joab’s attention by burning his barley field (2 Samuel 14:28–32). He shows himself to be no less a manipulator than David had been in the murder of Uriah in the first place, nor what he himself had been in the murder of Amnon. David finally relents. He receives a son who is prostrate in body if not in soul, and kisses him (2 Samuel 14:33), though that kiss will be answered with treachery in the next chapter.
Forgiveness and reconciliation are there by way of promise in the Old Testament, but their reality is still a long way off.
Acts 21: grace in action. In vivid contrast is Paul’s demeanor upon his arrival in Jerusalem with his gift from the Gentile churches. He later explains to the Roman governor Felix: “Now after some years I came to bring alms to my nation and to offer sacrifices” (Acts 24:17). In fact, he came merely to bring alms, but before he could do so the sacrifices had been demanded of him (Acts 21:20–25). Luke never tells us whether Paul got to present his gift; nor does Paul ever discuss it in his letters that follow. Perhaps he did present the gift to a grateful Jerusalem church. Perhaps he was completely blown off. But where Luke’s narrative should recount a great celebration of the power of God’s gospel to reconcile Jew and Gentile, there is silence. Crickets! Instead, Paul is put upon to prove that he is still a good Jew by undergoing purification rites at the Temple and by underwriting the expenses for the rites of four other individuals.
Paul’s response? He doesn’t protest. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t lay down a condition that the Gentiles’ gift first be accepted. He simply complies. Because of Christ, he is able to lay aside all bitterness and wrath, all sense of entitlement, any possible sense of being belittled. He accedes to their wishes. Because of Christ, his life becomes grace in action.
Mark 10: true riches. And that is precisely the life into which Jesus invites the rich man of Mark 10. It is a life of not being controlled by anything but the love of the one who says, “Follow me.” When I realize that Jesus is indeed the personification of God’s goodness, everything else fades in importance, whether “great hair,” pride of accomplishment, pride of place, financial security ... anything.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+