[Propertalk] Proper 4 b 2018 part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

	THE EPSICOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST

	1 SAMUEL 3:1-20  PROPER 4 b

	2 CORINTHIANS 4:5-12   3rd JUNE, 2018

	MARK 2:23 – 3:6   PSALM 139:1-5, 12-17

	 Let these words

	 lay themselves

	 like a blessing upon your head,

	 your shoulders,

	 I think I may have asked you this before, or, at least, something
like this. Did you have an easy time trying to determine what your
vocation, your calling, was or, in the case of some of you, what it is
still?

	 Thinking about all the things which spark our interest; thinking
about the sort of things that seem to relate to experiences that
we’ve had; thinking about family and friends; - all of these can
help us set our minds pondering in one direction or another. Of
course, there are other factors. Perhaps we went for further education
beyond high school, or maybe even in high school itself, a career
counsellor or an academic advisor might have asked some probing
questions and piqued our curiosity. Another student, or for that
matter, a faculty member or a chaplain may have made suggestions which
might never have crossed our minds otherwise.

	 Coming as I do from a strong faith background, I believe that God
uses all sorts of people, and situations, to try to arouse my
curiosity and to push, pull, prod, or lead me. God can use an ad, or
an article in a paper or a magazine; God can use an internet blog or a
radio programme to help us to focus and to exercise our imaginations.

	 The opportunities for guidance in our day-to-day activities AND our
whole vocations are endless. The only requirement in all of this is a
mind, a heart, a pair of eyes and a pair of ears that can be awakened
to the possibilities of something new and creative going on in our
lives.

	Of course, a society that has no time for religious beliefs and
principles isn’t going to help you and me much in the way of
allowing our particular ethical standards to come into play. When the
business model of self-enrichment and the amassing of personal power
and control is what drives the world; when this happens, it can be
incredibly difficult to hear and apply the sensory stimuli of God’s
justice and righteousness to our lives.

	There’s one sentence at the beginning of the first reading today
that sends chills of sadness and apprehension, all the more because
it’s not a stretch to hear these words as applying not just to
twenty-six hundred years ago, but to today also.

	“The word of the Lord was rare in those days.”

	Remember, we’re reading passage after passage describing the life
and history of people whose focus was avowed as being on God and God
alone. Everything about the nation, everything about the leadership
and the government, everything about the Temple was to be centred on
the expression, “In God we trust.” But if the word of the Lord was
perverted to accord with human whims; if the word of the Lord was
indeed heard rarely in the land, the God in whom the people said they
trusted was definitely NOT the God who had freed the people from
slavery, and led them through difficult journeys, and brought them to
a land whose continued cultivation would have provided for them and
for all the aliens who came to stay there, as well as the visitors who
passed through.

	God, it appeared, no matter how God’s word and direction were
delivered and perceived; God had come to the point of being irrelevant
to the nation in its advanced and settled state. What’s worse,
exactly the same could have been said about religious life, about the
Temple, about the staff and leadership of the Temple. God, to anyone
who might look in a critical way, did not matter anymore.

	That’s how Eli’s sons understood things. They were in it for the
power, for the money, for the security of the pension and other
benefits they could seize for themselves. Their vocation, if you
remember the history of Israel; their vocation as descendants of Aaron
was to approach the altars and to do all in their power to intercede
with God on behalf of the people. Compassion and understanding were
supposed to be the hallmarks of their lives. Their vocation was to
reassure the people that God listened and acted out of justice for all
people, and that God would and DOESforgive sins.

	But this simply couldn’t co-exist with the life that Eli’s sons
chose for themselves. Putting themselves first at the altar and
throughout the religious, political and civil environment wouldn’t
be possible if they were to be mediators on behalf of everyone in the
nation. Eli’s sons had rejected God and spread a climate of fear,
and greed, and self-service in place of the righteousness of God.

	THIS was what the Temple had become. It was little different from an
arm of the corruption of the capital. Instead of challenging those in
power, it connived with it. The Temple had become a rubber stamp to
those whose hearts had left the courts of God.

	Little wonder, then, that things were confusing. I can’t imagine
what it was like in the Temple, but, obviously, Eli was NOT in
control. Oh, I’m sure he went through the motions. He wore the usual
vestments; he got the altar fire started and made sure it was stoked
up for the day; he would have got the scrolls out and cleared his
throat so that he could speak as if he had authority. He may even have
run through the motions regarding sacrifices. But his sons were out of
control, and he wasn’t that far behind them.

	They were happily ensconced in their hereditary positions, so they
had nothing to prevent them from abusing those who were depending upon
them. Their priorities ensured that they were safe from criticism.
Their power, therefore, was practically limitless. Their father and
their connections had their back.

	
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20180602/f4af971d/attachment.htm>