Daily Office

Proper 8: Thursday

Today's Readings:

• Psalm 131,132
• 1 Samuel 13:5-18
• Acts 8:26-40
• Luke 23:13-25

Several years later, the Philistines prepare for anothe battle, and Saul organizes the troops again, but Samuel does not show up on the seventh day. Saul takes itupon himself to offer the sacrifice. Samuel arrives and chastices Saul. Philip is told to head south, he meets a Eunich, baptizes him, and is taken away to Caesaria. Pilate offers Jesus to be freed, but the chief priests demand Barabbas, an insurgent, to be freed instead.
So maybe Pilate isn't a nice guy after all, because despite finding Jesus innocent, he still offeres to have Jesus flogged before setting Him free. What kind of judgement is that? "Well, he's innocent of any crime, but since you hate him so much I'll have the bejezus whipped out of him and let him go." Doesn't make sense. My Bible has no footnotes linking any of this portion of Luke's Gospel to other parts of scripture, so there is no obvious prophecy this portion ofthe text is meant to fulfill, which probably means that the historical Jesus was treated this way.
I am also confused by Samuels Chastising of Saul. Okay, yesterday I read a passage entitled "Samuel's Farewell Address" and here in Chapter 13, after an unknown number of years plus two (the numbers are missing in the Hebrew and Septuagint according to my Bible), Samuel is still around. The custom of wating seven days to rousethe troops before going to war I get. It can take time to get people where they need to be for any project, but why was it out of place for Saul to make the burnt offerings of good will? He did it to rally his troops, keep morale (and his numbers) up. Why is this a bad thing? Samuel doesn't explain why it's bad, just tells Saul that his time is up, and God is looking for a better King.
At least the book of Acts gives me something to grasp onto. The Rector of my parish has a few famous quips. One of them is "Never resist a generous impulse." Phillip doesn't resist the generosity to baptize the eunich. Also, I find this interesting, when Phillip went to Samaria and baptized with water, the Holy Spirit (reportedly) didn't come to them until Peter arrived. Here, on the road to Gaza, a wilderness road, the eunich is baptized and recieves the holy spirit. Why this difference? It probably had something to do with the various Jesus Movements that were started after the crucifixion. I reject the notion that the New Testament is the sum total of all the books written about Jesus, and we know that several others were written, but eventaully not included in the Christian Bible. There were twelve apostles, and several people who followed Jesus throughout his public ministry: Mary Magdalene, Matthias, and others. There were epistles and gospels written all over the place, and I'm sure that one group believed that only Peter could pass the Holy Spirit to people, and others thought that anyone who was baptized could do it.
I step out of it all by assuring myself that the Holy Spirit is there all the time, spiritual practice is about feeling that spirit no matter where you are.

posted by Josh English @ 11:29 AM