Reflection by Frances Flatman on the Readings for next weekend:-
We in Britain and its Commonwealth have just been part of an enormous period of royal pageantry as we celebrated the reign of a long lasting monarch, and welcomed the reign of her son Charles and the continuation of their dynasty. Yet our Readings reflect on the eternal power of God himself, something altogether different and they appeal to biblical passages more to do with those who ‘make’ kings and those who challenge established modes of authority in the world as they recount stories emphasising the grace and power of God which stands aloof and infinitely superior to any earthly rulers.
Our Reading from 2 Kings (5:14-17) is about Elisha the prophet successor of Elijah, both prophets of the Northern Israel in the 8th century BCE at times when there was political unrest, as Syria and Israel and the other local kings seem to have been almost continually at war with each other. Elijah and Elisha both seem to have been highly political figures during this time, playing their parts in the rise and fall of different ruling houses in Israel, those of Omri and Jehu, whereas the Southern Davidic Judah seemed comparatively stable and successful. By 721 BCE The Assyrians had invaded and captured Samaria, transporting its elite to their territories and introducing foreigners, pagans into the whole of the North, both Galilee and Samaria which, even centuries later, were seen as not properly Jewish by the posh lot down in Judah. Our story of Naaman the Syrian commander, a leper who is healed under the instruction of Elisha, is all about this volatile situation in which the all-powerful general is cut down to size in his quest for healing from the leprosy which isolated him from his society, regardless of his military successes and his power in Syria. The prophet simply requires him to wash in the Jordan, no great river, and in the dry season barely a trickle, and at first he angrily compares it with the great Euphrates, Syria’s unfailing and mighty waterway, until his servants cajole him into a more compliant frame of mind and he is healed. Then, naturally, ecstatic with joy he wants to load Elisha with gifts – all very much part of ancient tradition and the way folk got rich quick. But Elisha will have none of it, it’s all the work of the God of Israel and the, ultimately, humbled Syrian begs a box of Samarian soil on which to worship on his departure.
In our Gospel, (Luke 17:11-19) Luke’s Jesus uses this similar division between kosher Judah and its faith and the decidedly iffy North, placing his story, unique to Luke, in the border country between Galilee and Samaria, as he and his followers make their way south (as they started in 9:51) for Jerusalem and the Lord’s Passion and death. All the way on this journey, we have seen Jesus cutting down to size those who thought themselves superior to those not of their class, race or religious observance, with the stories of; the Good Samaritan v the Jewish priest and Levite, three meals with Pharisees where he shames them, arguments with Jewish ‘lawyers’, stories that show up the shallowness of the rich, discussions of relations between masters and slaves, Jesus’ warm relations with despised tax collectors, collaborators with the Romans, and even the shocking story of the wicked son and the forgiving father, people who smashed all the rules. And last week with the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man who ended up in Hell for his failures to care for the poor in life.
We should not be surprised after all this then when in our Gospel the 10 lepers accost Jesus not with the respectful Lord! - Kurios in Greek - but with the Northern up-country ‘Hey Boss!’ Epistata! ‘Pity us,’ and he heals them all; typically lavish in his mercy and grace as only God can be. The nine dash off to see a Jewish priest and be readmitted once more into society – they were Jews and devout to a fault. Jesus simply comments on the one, a Samaritan leper, and of course an outcast to Jerusalem, who recognising the power in Jesus turned back and flung himself at the feet of his healer praising God for his cure. Jesus expresses surprise, disappointment even, that the other nine have neglected to recognise who their healer was, and yet he does not withdraw the gift, remarking instead to the Samaritan, ‘Go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’ For this man is not merely healed, he has seen God, and his life from now on will be utterly different, god-focussed. It is this reject in faith who has recognised the presence of divinity when he met it, whereas the law abiding Jews, so wrapped up in the minutiae of their faith, have actually missed the moment. No doubt Luke, whose Greek was impeccable, played this story for his Lord, his Master Theophilus, one who had every right and would have expected to receive all the proper status and acts within due protocol owing to his high position. Luke gently but firmly reminds Theophilus that it’s not simply the squeaky clean that get into heaven, but those who recognise the divine in the most unexpected and off beat, in the meeting of the weary and footsore and scruffy travellers on the road to Jerusalem.
2 Timothy (2:8-13) reminds us of precisely what the Good News given to every Christian is all about ‘Jesus Christ risen from the dead; sprung from the race of David.’ It might seem obvious to us, but at the time of writing and near history Jews, the race of David were a conquered nation, mostly far from their own country and shamed. Their Temple was in ruins never to be rebuilt, and their cities something like the ruins of Mariupol today. Reminding them that the Saviour of the World, a borrowed Imperial title, took human flesh from there was a bit of a shock. The writer reminds his recipients of the letter that he is himself imprisoned for the faith, and then goes on to the crux of his message, reciting an ancient creed recalling why we have faith in Jesus and the eternal life he promises us, “We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self.” Now there’s something to conjure with.
Comments