Babylon v. Jerusalem
Sundays of my evolving life now have us "sleeping in" - - rising a couple hours later instead of, as so many years, three o'clock sharp to finish preparations for the morning. Retired from leading our adult Sunday school class as of the end of May 2022, I no longer have that responsibility to meet competently and in my own personal style of Episcopal approach to the Bible.
And, as from start of the Fall Semester 2022, unless I have the pulpit for the day, either as designated preacher or as supply priest for the Rector, instead of leaving 7H at seven o'clock to start with the eight o'clock service, we go to church for ten-thirty worship.
Today is such a morning - - a relaxed beginning.
Intrigued still and all, I'm looking at the Propers, the Bible lessons that Lectionary Year C assigns for today, and enjoying. Especially the Jewish memories of the Babylonian Exile, maybe 586 to 516 BC, as recorded in their Bible. Some scripture is so vivid that I feel like I'm there with them. From Lamentations, and especially Ezekiel, and more especially the anguish of Psalm 137 with its angst that grows as the psalmist's mood builds to a climax of rage, sheer fury.
The Babylonians have conquered Judah at last and, reducing Jerusalem to a rubble of building stones, deported the intelligentsia and elite ruling class to their capital city, Babylon. A splendid city with magnificent hanging gardens and where the Jewish exiles ultimately find, much to their chagrin, that they are well treated, and life is good, and they blend with the population, and when later the Time comes for Return from Exile, most of them, having no memories of Jerusalem after seventy years, nearly three generations away, prefer to stay on "home" in Babylon.
But for the moment, shown by Ezekiel (below) and the psalm (scroll down) their homesickness is acute. Don't take too literally the vicious bitterness expressed at the end of the psalm, it's perfectly human reaction to having been ripped up from life as, in retrospective sentimentality you remember it to have been. And it won't be long before the Lord tells folks to settle in and enjoy the new life that he has given them, because the "punishment of exile" isn't really all that bad after all.
In fact, from a Lectionary point of view, it's our OT reading for next Sunday:
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
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But here's for now and today, starting with Ezekiel:
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. (Ezekiel 1:1f KJV)
And the rest of today's Propers:
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Old Testament
Lamentations 1:1-6
How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal.
She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
they have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into exile with suffering
and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations,
and finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate,
her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,
and her lot is bitter.
Her foes have become the masters,
her enemies prosper,
because the Lord has made her suffer
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
From daughter Zion has departed
all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags
that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.
Psalm 137
1 By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, * when we remembered you, O Zion.
2 As for our harps, we hung them up * on the trees in the midst of that land.
3 For those who led us away captive asked us for a song, and our oppressors called for mirth: * "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
4 How shall we sing the Lord'S song * upon an alien soil.
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, * let my right hand forget its skill.
6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, * if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
7 Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord,
against the people of Edom, * who said, "Down with it! down with it! even to the ground!"
8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, * happy the one who pays you back for what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones, * and dashes them against the rock!
The Epistle
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God-- whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did-- when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
The Gospel
Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.
"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
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Glad I'm not preaching today. I'll get you next week though!
RSF&PTL
T