Tag: 1 Samuel 11

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Confront the Spirit of Cruelty

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel 11 Listen: (2:43) Read: 2 Peter 3 Listen: (3:21)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 11.2, 6

2 But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel.”

6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger.9.14-18

Reflection: Confront the Spirit of Cruelty

By John Tillman

The city of Jabesh Gilead tried to make peace with Nahash the Ammonite. But cruelty made peace impossible.

They offered political, economic, and legal compromises—to pay tribute, surrender control, and be ruled by their opponent. But that wasn’t enough.

Perhaps Nahash disputed the border, feeling that he should have legal sovereignty over the area. Perhaps Nahash felt he was financially taken advantage of or deserved to gain an economic advantage in the region. If so, those claims were secondary. Nahash didn’t voice political or economic demands. He wanted to gouge out eyes. He wanted to cause shame, humiliation, and disgrace. Cruelty was the point.

When news reached Gibeah, they exhibited three biblically appropriate reactions to injustice and unacceptable cruelty—weeping, anger, and action.

First, weeping. Our hearts should be moved when others suffer cruelty, humiliation, and shame. Weeping includes crying out to God in prayer for justice. This is especially true when the victims are members of our community. However, Christ’s teaching does not define “neighbor” in geographical, political, ethnic, or familial terms. Christ charges us to act as neighbors, even across these borders and divisions.

Second, anger. Saul “burned with anger” after the Spirit “came powerfully upon him.” Injustice and cruelty should inspire Spirit-empowered (and controlled) anger. Expressing this anger, both in prayer to God and in critiques and challenges to fellow humans, is a vital part of seeking justice. When critiquing injustice we don’t need to “tone it down” so long as we are telling the truth and not being abusive, arrogant, or hypocritical. We want people to help stop injustice because they fear God, not because they fear us.

Third, action. Action takes risks. Saul not only took action himself, he demanded action from others. Saul defended those who were threatened and freed those held captive. He prevented shame, dishonor, and humiliation. There may be times we are powerless to stop oppressors. Even then, resistance is required. We cannot passively permit evil to easily overcome its victims. We must stand in its way, even if we fall before its advance.

One key to spotting injustice is the spirit of cruelty. This spirit spoils even the enforcement of good laws. Where cruelty rules, justice is absent and peace is impossible. Open your eyes to see injustice and be ready to weep, to burn with anger, and take action. Confront the spirit of cruelty wherever it occurs.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

But as for me, this is my prayer to you, at the time you have set, O Lord:
In your great mercy, O God, answer me with your unfailing help.
Save me from the mire; do not let me sink; let me be rescued from those who hate me and out of the deep waters.
Let not the torrent of waters wash over me, neither let the deep swallow me up; do not let the Pit shut its mouth upon me.
Answer me, O Lord, for your love is kind; in your great compassion, turn to me. — Psalm 69.14-18

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Do Not Take Advantage

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Do Not Take Advantage
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The “quartet of the vulnerable” is a term for those vulnerable to harm, particularly in the Bible: the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the poor.

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Joy Despite Everything :: Readers’ Choice

Selected by reader, Michelle Bartlett from Littleton, Colorado
We tend to think of the story of Martha and Mary as either/or because of the “better part“ part. Perhaps Mary did choose the better part. But it was Martha, like the father of the prodigal son, who stood in faith, scanning the horizon. She may not have sat at Jesus’s feet, but she was certainly eavesdropping from the kitchen and “stored up all these things in her heart.”

Scripture Focus: John 11.27
I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.

Reflection: Joy Despite Everything :: Readers’ Choice
Originally published December 21st, 2018
By John Tillman

When we wait in Advent we know the date on the calendar when Christmas comes. We know the day we will blow out the candles the final time. We know the number of shopping days left. We know how long until we will take the decorations down.

But in our lives, many times we wait in faith without a date on the calendar. There are many times we wait in hospital rooms. Wait on a phone call. Wait to see if our miracle will arrive.

And many times we stand over a casket instead of sitting around a table. We make an unemployment claim instead of a promotion. We box up our things and move in with our parents when our miracle passes us by.

Advent grows darker as the year wanes. And Martha greets us at the darkest point of her life. When faith has failed. When her wick smolders. When the smell of death wafts, unwanted through her mind.

Martha shows us how to wait. Martha shows us how to have faith, and then when your faith is crushed into pieces, how to hold out your shattered faith to Jesus. Not demanding. Not asking. Just saying, “My faith is broken. But I’m not letting go. I still believe. In spite of everything.”

Martha, Martha.
She was concerned about many things.
But she came to be concerned only with one thing.

Martha who believed in faith that her brother would be healed.
Martha who sent word to Jesus.
Martha who received back the messenger and wondered why Jesus wasn’t with him.

Martha who waited…

Martha who tended her brother in his sickness.
Martha who occasionally gazed down the road.
Martha who watched him suffer…and die.
Martha who remained strong
Who made arrangements.
Who cared for her sister.
Who buried her brother—the brother she had believed Jesus would save.
Martha who watched her sister melt down in emotion.
Martha who saw Jesus coming.
Martha who was prepared to meet him.
Martha who lost her miracle and still blessed the tardy miracle-maker
Martha who stood before a man who failed her and proclaimed him to be the Son of God.
Martha who dared announce the Messiah in the suburbs of Jerusalem, in the shadow of Christ’s most powerful religious enemies.

Martha, Martha…
Teach us to wait in faith.
Teach us to believe.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us saying: “…In all truth I tell you, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All who have come before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: such a one will go in oud out and will find pasture.” — John 10.7-9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 11 (Listen – 2:43) 
Romans 9 (Listen – 5:15)

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Read more about One Thing Needed
We often preach on Martha’s scolding of Jesus about her sister and too rarely preach about Martha’s open declaration that Jesus was the Messiah.

One Thing Needed