Reflection and Poem For 25th Sunday after Pentecost The Church of the Holy Cross, Hertford, NC November 19, 2023 Thomas E Wilson, Guest Celebrant
Judges 4:1-7 Psalm 123 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Matthew 25:14-30
But, What Do I Get Out Of This?
Almost 30 years ago, as part of my Sabbatical, Pat and I went to study in St. George's College in Jerusalem to take a course on the Palestine of Jesus. One day the class went up to Mount Tabor which the Hebrew Testament Lesson identifies as the battle site of the Wadi Kishon where the forces of Deborah and Barak defeated the Canaanite forces of Sisera. The Bible in this chapter of the book of Judges records the Battle and its outcome but the next chapter has The Song of Deborah, the “fiery woman”. It is a Hebrew poem, which may have been written as early as the 12th Century BCE, or as late as the 3rd BCE, and may or may not describe an historical event, but it is treated as true in the minds of people who come to the site to worship. In the Song of Deborah she sings about the death of Sisera, who was fleeing the Battle, and then was killed against the laws of Sanctuary by Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite who was not Jewish. She was hiding him and feeds him perhaps drugged milk and covers him with a blanket, speaking softly to him, and then drives a tent peg through his skull. Then there is a heartbreaking couple of verses where Sisera'a wife is wondering why his chariot of glory is taking so long. The song of all the mothers and wives waiting for their men to come back from one more senseless war. David sang it best when in the Book of Samuel, he laments the deaths of his enemy Saul and Saul's son and David's lover, Jonathan. “How the mighty have fallen and the weapons of War perished!”
Mount Tabor is also identified as the Mount of the Transfiguration, where Jesus was transfigured and the disciples got a glimpse that Jesus was more than a traveling Preacher.. We were up there to worship; the practice of worship and the point of the Sabbatical, is the practice of seeing things in a different way. Mount Tabor on the Megiddo plain, in the Valley of Jezreel is about a 2+ hour drive north from Jerusalem, about 8 miles west from Nazareth and about 11 miles east from the Sea Of Galilee.
When we were on top of the mountain. We could see the the plain where the battle in the poem or at least is idiomatic of the history, took place where the Wadi Kishon overflowed and turned the area into quicksand which swallowed up the mighty chariots of Sisera.
We could also see the centuries of historical battles where invaders brought war and destruction. In my imagination I could see the forces of Pharaoh Tutmose III of Egypt cruelly crushing his opponents at the Battle of Megiddo in the 15th Century BCE.
In my prayers, I could see the next major Battle with historical documentation of Megiddo where the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II fought with allies of the fading Assyrian Empire and their vassals like King Josiah of Judah against the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 609 BCE., where Josiah is killed. Therefore, setting up the Babylonian conquest and destruction of Jerusalem 20 years later. In this battle Egypt is expelled out of Asia Minor.
I could see the Greek Armies of Alexander the Great slaughtering on their way from Gaza to Damascus and to Persia in 331 BCE.
I could see the Roman Legions of Pompey the Great and Mark Antony, a couple of Centuries later killing all in their path of making a Roman Client state under Herod the Great. There were Battles and slaughters of Jews in 55 BCE and in 66 CE
After Christianity became the religion of Rome, I could see the Iron rule of the Christian Roman Emperors being enforced with blood.
I could see the Desert Tribes out of Mecca conquering all in their path getting rid of Christian Empire rule.
I could see the Crusaders from Europe come in to conquer the land for Christ and killing Jews for Jesus.
In my imagination I could see could see the the Meggido area being the site of battles between Mongols coming from Central Asia, Crusaders from different crusades and Muslim forces, all of them slaughtering whoever stood in their way. The area changed hands in 947, 1099, 1212, 1229 and 1263; slaughtering Jews and Christians for the glory of Allah or Jesus.
In my prayerful imagination, I could see the armies of Napoleon in 1799 returning from Egypt, taking Gaza and then getting stalled at Acre and failing to capture Mount Tabor. His troops killed many in the unsuccessful siege but his troops lost several thousand men from plague in the failed attempt. He gave up and returned to France to take over as Dictator there, and to being his wars back to Europe.
In my imagination, I could see British General Allenby spilling British and Turkish blood in 1917-18 on his way to fulfill the Balfour Declaration where the British Foreign Secretary made a promise to the Rothschilds to make plans for a Jewish Homeland after the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, AND at the same time making promises to the leaders of the Arab revolt to kill Turks, AND at the same time making concessions to France to help her regain a mideast empire, AND most especially protecting the Financial Treasure and Economic Jewel of the Crown of the Suez Canal. Four different promises, to four different groups, with four different agendas is a recipe for disaster.
In my prayers, I could see the blood of Jews and Arabs on the ground in 1948 and all the years after and was still going on in terror campaigns that we saw in Jerusalem that year. While we were there an Israeli soldier walked off his base and emptied his weapon on a group of Muslims and a Muslim terrorist opened fire on a bus full of Christians and Jews.
In my imagination I could see into the future the vision of the Book of Revelation of Blood of the the last Battle of the Megiddo, called by its Greek name Armageddon. All of history in the area of the Mount of the Transfiguration where followers of Jesus were told to listen to a Prince of Peace: To love their neighbor and to even love the enemy. Imagine Loving an enemy!
When I was writing this reflection, I took a break and checked my e-mail. I subscribe to a blog of quotes from the writings of Frederick Buechner. He was saying what I was trying to say on Wednesday was from his Magnificent Defeat:
THE LOVE FOR equals is a human thing—of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing—the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing—to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is the love for the enemy—love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.
Now, what does that have to do with the Gospel reading from Matthew of the parable about the servants and their Talents? Now, of course you know that the word Talent refers to a measurement of money rather than a attribute of a person of a particular skill like a Talent for Music. It would be intellectually dishonest and lazy for me to confuse in your mind a measurement of money with a skill; but I will do it anyway. A parable is a an extended metaphor to teach a certain quality and the quality is in the twist at the end; sort of like a punchline of a joke, For example in the Good Samaritan Parable, which teaches that your neighbor you are to love includes your enemy.
Another point of a parable is in the use of outrageous quantities. As in the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep alone to search for the one lost. In this parable, the quantity is in the value of a Talent. A Talent is not a coin but a weight of measure. A day's wage was a denarius of silver and a Talent is the weight of silver equal to 6000 day's wages, or twenty years. Five Talents would be 100 years wages, three Talents would be sixty years wages, and the poor schmuck who got only one Talent would get the equivalent of 20 years wages. Do the math and figure out your lowest paying year of earning and figure out how much we are talking about.
In this parable the metaphor for God is the Landowner, the servants are you and me, the Talents are the attributes that we have been given by God in our creation, which we have either used or hoarded. What are the things that God calls us to use in living a faith filled life? Is Jesus saying that the point of a faith filled life making lots of money? Or is it to bring peace, do justice, love mercy, share hope, and forgive outrageously. I look at my life and I realize that I have been blessed with many talents and gifts. As I look at quantity called for in the parable I figure I am more than a couple decades behind in bringing peace, doing justice, loving mercy, sharing hope and forgiving outrageously in every day of my life.
How are you doing in spending your Talents?
But, What Do I Get Out Of This?
O.K, I get it! Just get off my back.
It has gone past a point to belabor
I'm supposed to love my neighbor,
About who I don't even know jack!
What do I get out of finding a rhyme
with strangers? Where's my profit,
besides making happy some prophet,
mumbling Aramaic in another time?
The problem is he keeps on speaking,
as if he knows me right now and here,
as if he expects my own heart to hear,
and then respond to neighbor seeking.
Speaking in the space between words,
whispers love through all the worlds.
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