a seventy-two

 

Okay, the mind is wandering off reminiscent this morning, and I'm 21 and 22, and after nearly a year of qualifying Navy schools, first in Rhode Island and then in Georgia, I've had my first tour of sea duty, the destroyer that so loved me and that I loved so much that it unexpectedly turned me Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me from USNR to USN for the next two decades. Now I'm 23 and on my first regular tour of shore duty, at U S Naval Station, Mayport, Florida as an assistant department head. And about the Time I turn 24, my superior officer Commander Martin and his family go on leave for two or three weeks, leaving me in charge. 

In the office the phone rings and the secretary puts me on, and the voice on the other end of the line is the Commanding Officer's secretary, who politely tells me, "Captain Farkas would like to see you". It's about a mile across the station, so I drive over to station headquarters, the official looking building next to the flagpole, high on a mound looking out over the carrier basin where dock variously when they're in port, the three CVAs and 24 destroyers that are home-ported here.

    The big event going on station-wide is the annual fundraising campaign for Navy Relief, which my Commander has given no attention whatsoever, and the reason for my summons to appear before the C.O. is so the Captain can point out to me that every department on the naval station has raised generously for Navy Relief except our department, which has raised almost nothing. The Captain tells me encouragingly but firmly that he knows we can do better and gives me two weeks. 

In those days, what, sixty years ago?, most of the staffing for our department was not DOD civilians but white-hats, a couple dozen Navy sailors from seaman through first class, and several chiefs, CPOs, chief petty officers. These are the guys (there were no women sailors in our department) from whom I am expected to raise money? So I think. And what I think is that I'm in the Navy now, and one thing I learned at sea was nautical terms. And I'd observed that some nautical terms are dearer to a sailor's heart than others, and that among these are "hit the beach" and "forty-eight" and "seventy-two" and, following the shrill of the bosun's pipe from the quarterdeck, hearing the word passed over the 1MC "Now liberty call, liberty call". 

A "forty-eight" is two days off, and a "seventy-two" is three days off. So I scheme, and I devise. And, first having been summoned myself, I now summon my leading petty officers and tell them the base C.O. has laid it on us, and we have two weeks to fundraise for Navy Relief. Time is money, and Time will BE money. The sailors (and the chiefs) can buy coupons for future extra Time off, coupons that they can redeem later, whenever they want to. For $75, a Forty-Eight. For $100, a Seventy-Two. 

And the sailors have my word of honor that nobody, not even their chief, can deny them their Time when they wish to redeem their coupon. 

Where before appeals for contributions to Navy Relief had fallen on deaf ears, coupons went like hotcakes, especially Seventy-Two's. By the time the Commander had returned from leave, our department had set an all-time record and was leading the Naval Station in the Navy Relief fund drive. 

Why this reminiscence this morning? Because I've just redeemed a Seventy-Two from my +Time blog. Seventy-Two, or was it a Ninety-Six?, that I earned in six weeks of daily writing about the Gospel according to Mark. 

    Now as our regular Sunday School class, and also as a Confirmation Class example of how a group of Episcopalians might approach the Bible and Bible study, I’m looking at three of the four lessons for today (not the psalm), with points to make about each reading. Members of the class may have more.

Old Testament Genesis 9:8-17

God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Genesis 9 is concluding the story of the Great Flood. In that story, which starts at Genesis 6 and goes through Genesis 9 (and is actually two flood stories combined, which we may pause over one morning), God has looked at people on the earth and been so disappointed with us that he’s sorry he created us in the first place. God chooses one person, Noah, calls him “righteous”, tells him how to build a ship, sends a Flood to kill every other living thing, and starts over with a New Creation. 

The Genesis Flood Story in the Hebrew Bible is not new or unique, nor even the first one. Practically every ancient civilization had its flood saga, mostly about gods fighting with each other. Our Genesis story seems to have origins in the Babylonian flood story. In today’s OT reading, God is assuring Noah that now everything’s fine and is promising that we don’t have to worry about God doing this again.

Of course, there are conjectures, like James Baldwin’s book The Fire Next Time.

Why is Genesis 9:8-17 a good reading for the First Sunday in Lent? For one, because it’s full of divine promise after divine judgment for human sin.

The Epistle: 1 Peter 3:18-22

Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. 

Said by many scholars to have been written about 80-110 AD, in a time of Christian persecution, not written by the Apostle Peter, First Peter has been characterized as the most cultured Greek writing of any book in the NT, certainly not written by an illiterate Galilean fisherman, nor even by Sylvanus, a companion of Paul. First Peter is a call to holy living in the face of adversity, suffering as a Christian. 

The verse that interests me says, “he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison (the spirits have been imprisoned in hell at least since the days of Noah). This is the verse from which we have the line in the Apostles Creed and Baptismal Creed “He descended to the dead” or “He descended into hell”. Tradition says that during his time in the tomb, when his body was dead, presumably Holy Saturday, Jesus in spirit offered salvation to those in hell. 1 Peter 3:19 is the basis for that. 

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark. (1:9-15)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

This is Mark, my favorite NT book. Today’s reading is the first of two “Grand Epiphanies” of Jesus in Mark, God speaking to Jesus at Jesus’ baptism and specifying to Jesus (for Mark, to his readers) that Jesus is the Son of God.

    The second “Grand Epiphany” is Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain when God tells Jesus’ trusted special disciples and friends Peter, James and John (and also again, tells Mark’s readers) who Jesus is, the Son of God.

The 40 days in the wilderness compares with Moses 40 years in the wilderness. My view is that Jesus’ was tempted to decline the assignment of “Son of God” with all the horror it would entail for his life. 

The line about John may indicate that until John was arrested Jesus was associating himself closely with John, and only at John’s arrest struck out independent.

My final comment on today’s gospel reading is that Mark makes quite clear what Jesus’ call is: to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand. NT scholars argue about what that meant to Jesus, many saying that Jesus meant it apocalyptically as the End of Days, as Paul did in preaching about the coming Day of the Lord. What do I think? I don’t know. I’m satisfied to be uncertain and just wonder. 

RSF&BLM&PTL

T+