Friday, June 26, 2020             (today’s lectionary)
King Alpha’s song
Zedekiah, Jehoia …’s uncle, didn’t stay the course with Nebuchadnezzar. After years and years he stopped paying tribute, what the mafia call protection money. And more than arms got broken. King Neb’s two year siege ended in starvation, slain sons, torn out eyes, and fetters. And then the day came, the awful day when the temple and the palace and all the houses of Jerusalem were burned. Even the walls were torn down.
Turns out the house of Jerusalem was not built on the Rock. Not like the original builders thought, anyway.
Can I just sing a simple song of my home town?
Our guards laugh and mock our tears
Sing us a song, they taunt us, play us a tune
How can we sing King Alpha’s song in a strange land?
Yesterday’s gospel ended Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He left his audience with a vivid word picture. If you happen to have visited the House on the Rock in Wisconsin, then his picture might even be personal.
Build your house on the rock of Jesus’ words, and nothing will budge it. Not rain, not floods, not wind.
The key word is build. Not believe in, or reflect on, or argue with Jesus’ words, but build on them. DO UNTO OTHERS … GIVE … ACCEPT … LOVE … FORGIVE FORGIVE FORGIVE.
God builds the rock, and I build ON the rock. The rock is already there, it’s not going anywhere. It’s my giving and acceptance and forgiveness and compassion that makes the strong house.
Jesus himself never wastes time moving from words to action. Leaving the mount where he preached, he encounters a leper and does not shy away. “Be clean,” he says. But more than that, Jesus touched the man, the leper, the untouchable. With a simple and straightforward, but utterly unacceptable unheard of TOUCH, the leper is healed.
How does Jesus DO that?
No answers, just proof that’s in the pudding. “Live the questions,” Rilke said. That’s a good idea for hanging out with Jesus. Just follow him around and “live the questions.” Let the answers settle gradually into place, mostly at night just before you fall asleep.
