Reflections for Sunday June 10

1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)

All the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." Samuel prayed to the LORD, and the LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only-- you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them."

So Samuel reported all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; [and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers.] He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day."

But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, "No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles."

[Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingship." So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal. There they sacrificed offerings of well-being before the LORD, and there Saul and all the Israelites rejoiced greatly.]





“We want a king! We want a king!” said the people.

 “Oh no you don’t!” said Samuel.

“Oh yes we do!” said the people. 

Behind the low comedy of this scene, there is serious truth about economics, theology, and how they fit together.

The people want security. There have been periods of stability under the leadership of charismatic individuals called judges, but it has been a hit and miss affair, and Samuel, the latest judge, is getting old. The only social arrangement they can fathom is the one they see all around them, a dynastic monarchy. 

It sounds great, but Samuel tells them a few home truths. Kings like to have palaces, courts, and armies, which cost money. So kings start taking a cut of the gross domestic product. The trouble is most of the people are small farmers, working on very tight margins. One slightly bad harvest, and they won’t be able to pay their full apportionment. “That’s ok,” the king will say, “Just give me part of your land.” With part of the farm gone, it becomes even harder to pay up the next year. “That’s ok,” the king says, “Just give me your livestock, your farmhands, your daughter, your son, your whole farm.” As inevitably as a glacier flowing down a mountain, land and wealth are taken from the broad base and placed in the hands of the king and his entourage.

Theologically it’s a mess too! God is supposed to be Israel’s king, which implies a profound equality among people. Remember Genesis: God gave humans dominion over creation, but not over each other, not over other people. Monarchy conflicts with this vision.

Were all the kings scoundrels? No, not all. But most. And in just the ways Samuel predicted.

Is our vision sometimes narrowed by our perceptions of “the way things are done”?  Sometimes we look to the business world, or other secular institutions, for ways to organize ourselves as a Church. What might be helpful about this? What might be restrictive?

  

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture-- "I believed, and so I spoke" -- we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.



To understand Paul’s letters, especially the Corinthian ones, it helps to imagine you are listening to one half of a telephone conversation. We can hear what Paul is saying, but Paul is always responding to a real problem in the community. We have to try to fill in the other half of the conversation.

Here, Paul is addressing the problem of suffering. The Corinthians may be asking, “If Jesus has won this great victory for us, why are we having such a hard time?” Paul’s answer changes over time. In his first letters, the ones to the Thessalonians, he says not to worry about persecution, because one day God will punish their tormentors, and won’t they be sorry!

Paul’s later answer is a bit more profound. Though suffering might grind away at our “outer nature”, the life we receive from our parents, it actually can strengthen our “inner nature”, the new life we receive through faith in Jesus. Suffering doesn’t cut us off from the glory of God. It can help prepare us for the glory of God.

Like the Corinthians, we can be tempted to see suffering as a sign that something has gone badly wrong. But, can you see moments in your own story when suffering has actually brought you closer to God? Could Paul actually be right?

Mark 3:20-35

The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" -- for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."



You could call Mark’s gospel a story of misunderstanding. In our reading, that misunderstanding becomes very sharp. Jesus is radically misunderstood by people who should be in closest solidarity with him: his fellow teachers, and his family.

Scribes accuse Jesus of ‘having a demon’ –working with the powers of darkness and destruction, not against them. Jesus answers with a puzzle: is Satan driving out Satan? Has Jesus somehow divided Satan’s house against itself? More likely, Jesus is the one who has entered the strong man’s house, Satan’s house, bound the strong man, and taken his stuff. (Which in Satan’s case would all be stolen property anyway.)

When Jesus speaks in puzzles this way, often he is trying to shake his listeners, and us, out of their customary ways of thinking about things. He is trying to expand our vision enough for us to understand who he really is, and what he is really doing. He is not just a wandering teacher. He is the Son, and he is engaged in a desperate, life and death struggle with all the forces of evil.

This is a tough thing for people to accept, and even Jesus’ family worry about him. Has he gone out of his mind? He is claiming so much; he is making himself so difficult to understand! But do we sometimes do the same thing? Do we sometimes try to ‘domesticate’ Jesus, take the radical edge off his ministry and turn Him into a dispenser of wise truths for healthy living? I once heard the Beatitudes re-packaged as “The Be-Happy Attitudes”. Could that be a case of ‘domesticating’ Jesus? Could He be talking about something deeper than our own personal happiness? do we sometimes try to make Jesus less radical, and more attractive?