Daily Office

Year One, Proper 8: Monday

Today's Readings:

• Psalm 106:1-18
• 1 Samuel 10:17-27
• Acts 7:44-8:1a
• Luke 21:52-62

Samuel summons the people of Israel at Mizpah and announces that Saul is their king. Nahash, king of the Ammonites, tortures Jews across the Jordan. Stephen finishes his narrative, he declares that God is in heaven (quoting Isiah) and not in the house that Solomon built. He levies his charge against the council and they stone Stephen to death. Young Saul looks on and approves of the killing. Peter denies Jesus.
There seems to be little here that doesn't go into politics. If Saul is justified in going to war because of torture, then why aren't Islamist extremists justified in going to war against the United States because of the torture going on on our military bases? Why are we allowed to torture people and partly justify it with "Well, these people have no respect for life." We should be above such things. We don't have the right to torture anyone, just because they torture and they behead their enemies, it doesn't justify when we do these things. The council wasn't justified in stoning Stephen, yet Saul, the man Christians revere for his teachings, approved of it, even though he didn't participate in the stoning.
As a progressive, it is easy to dismiss Paul, but since so much of his writings serve as a foundation for the religion, we must deal with what he wrote. Many things should be dismissed ("Women should keep quiet and have no voice in church," for example) but he probably did say a few good things that we need to ferret out. Dismissing him entirely is not worthwhile, because it closes the door on any truth he did write.

posted by Josh English @ 1:18 PM