WEDNESDAY AFTER CREATION 5
9 October 2013
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
Job 39:19a, 26a: “Have you given the horse might?… Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars?”
Luke 6:35: “[The Most High,] he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.”
Reflection
You remember Job. A “blameless and upright” man who “feared God, and turned away from evil”, Job becomes caught up in a kind of “cosmic dare” between God and Satan. God lets Satan test Job’s faith with every possible affliction, except to his physical life. Job’s “friends” reason that Job must have offended God somehow, and encourage him to repent. And through all of this, Job, with an odd mixture of courage and humility, desires an audience with his Maker.
When God finally does speak to Job out of the whirlwind, it’s only to put Job in his place. In essence, the response is: “This happened because I am God, and you are not”, to which Job replies: “I did not understand… therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:3b, 6). I’d be lying if I said that I was satisfied with this answer, or that I would appreciate being a test subject in a divine contest, or even that I would respond like Job. But, I believe, this book calls us to look beyond its surface, and deeper into its core.
The Season of Creation’s focus this week on “animals” provides a lens through which to view this core. And in today’s passage, the picture painted is one of beauty, balance, admiration, and awe. Our might can domesticate a horse; our wisdom can understand the hawk’s flight. But the doe has no need for Lamaze techniques; she knows how to give birth. The donkey need not learn “Nutrition Facts”; he knows what food he needs and where to get it. The lesson is that we are to have respect for a power that is not our own. We are not God. We are not life. We are not masters of the universe, or even of this earth. We have to know, and be in harmony with, our place as a part of creation.
And yet this is not Jesus’ agenda today. In the Gospel reading, Jesus challenges his followers with a new lesson in ethics:
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also.” (Luke 6:27-29)
So much for balance here. But Jesus’ logic in shifting the balance away from us sheds light on the kindness (and maybe the image?) of God, who “is kind toward the unthankful and evil.” That horse, hawk, doe, and deer from before—do they thank their Maker? Certainly not in a way we can perceive. What about the predators that may attack or devour them? Certainly their actions are cruel to us. But God provides for the needs of both groups without expecting anything in return.
The hard lesson is that we mustn’t wait for a thank-you, or for people to treat us well in order to “go and do likewise”. Through good or evil, thanksgiving or ingratitude, we are called to the first of both. To be kind as God is kind; to reflect the image of God—both Job’s and Jesus’ God—we have to realize that the balance is not meant to be in our favor.
Prayer of the Day
O God,
grant us a deeper sense of fellowship with all living things,
our little brothers and sisters,
to whom in common with us,
you have given this earth as your home.
We recall with regret that in the past,
we have acted high-handedly and cruelly
in exercising our domain over them.
Thus the voice of the earth,
which should have risen to you in song,
has turned into a groan of travail.
May we realize that all these creatures also live
for themselves and for you—
not for us alone.
They too love the goodness of life, as we do,
and serve you better in their way,
than we do in ours.
—A prayer of St. Basil of Caesarea (329-379) as found in the New… Saint Joseph People’s Prayer Book of the Roman Catholic Church.
Hymn: “Lord of glory, you have bought us”
(Words: Eliza S. Alderson, 1818-1889; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013; 3rd stanza adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 2006;
Tune: ‘Charitas’, John B. Dykes in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1868)
Lord of glory, you have bought us
With your lifeblood as the price,
Never grudging for the lost ones
That tremendous sacrifice,
And, with that, have freely given
Blessings countless as the sand,
To the evil and unthankful
With your own unsparing hand.
Grant us hearts, dear Lord, to give you
Gladly, freely, of your own.
With the sunshine of your goodness,
Melt our thankless hearts of stone
Till our cold and selfish natures,
Warmed by you, at length believe
That more happy and more blessèd
’Tis to give than to receive.
Wondrous honor you have given
To our humblest charity
In your own mysterious sentence,
“You have done it so to me.”
Naked, sick, in prison, hungry—
In the least, your face we view,
Saying by your poor and needy,
“Give as I have given you.”
Lord of glory, you have bought us,
With your lifeblood as the price,
Never grudging for the lost ones
That tremendous sacrifice.
Give us faith to trust you boldly;
Hope, to fix our souls on you,
But, oh, best of all your graces,
Give us love each day anew.
No comments:
Post a Comment