Musings of a bored Priest
I took myself down to St. David’s in Englewood this morning. This is the parish, some 45 minutes drive south of Sarasota where I help out from time to time.
The Rector is a good man, and the congregation is wonderfully friendly. But the Liturgy drives me crazy.
It is all so low key; so lacking in energy. It drags on and on. At one point this morning I thought “If this gets any slower it will go backwards”.
I was seated up front behind the Altar, all decked out in my vestments, so I had to look engaged and interested.
But my mind was not in the same place as my body!
I was thinking about the first Lesson and the Psalm for the day. Here are a couple of extracts:
Exodus 12 v12For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals;
Psalm 149 v6Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, 7to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
I began to muse. And I mused about the approved violence in the Bible.
In Exodus the Lord says that he will kill all of the first born in Egypt, as a means to let the Hebrew people escape from slavery. The text suggests that the Lord approves of infanticide.
In the Psalm the people sing the praises of G-d with their voices, whilst they slaughter their enemies with a double edged sword.
St. David’s good Rector ignored these passages in his sermon, preferring to preach from the Gospel reading alone. Fair enough. I too might have done the same thing.
But the two violent passages were left “hanging out there”.
Had I been preaching I would have felt compared to de-construct them, to “let G-d off the hook”, so to speak.
(I would have suggested that the passages project the honest and violent thoughts of the people, rather than the will of G-d).
But maybe G-d should not be let off the hook so easily. After all, even the Book of Revelation in the Christian Scriptures speak of a fearsome G-d of vengeance.
All this is to say that “G-d sanctioned violence” is a part of the Jewish and Christian “Sacred Texts”.
I believe that we should treat these texts with caution and suspicion.
I also believe that we should be honest enough not to castigate Muslims for the approved violence in their “Sacred Text” (The Koran), whilst ignoring the violence in our own scriptures.
The Rector is a good man, and the congregation is wonderfully friendly. But the Liturgy drives me crazy.
It is all so low key; so lacking in energy. It drags on and on. At one point this morning I thought “If this gets any slower it will go backwards”.
I was seated up front behind the Altar, all decked out in my vestments, so I had to look engaged and interested.
But my mind was not in the same place as my body!
I was thinking about the first Lesson and the Psalm for the day. Here are a couple of extracts:
Exodus 12 v12For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals;
Psalm 149 v6Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, 7to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
I began to muse. And I mused about the approved violence in the Bible.
In Exodus the Lord says that he will kill all of the first born in Egypt, as a means to let the Hebrew people escape from slavery. The text suggests that the Lord approves of infanticide.
In the Psalm the people sing the praises of G-d with their voices, whilst they slaughter their enemies with a double edged sword.
St. David’s good Rector ignored these passages in his sermon, preferring to preach from the Gospel reading alone. Fair enough. I too might have done the same thing.
But the two violent passages were left “hanging out there”.
Had I been preaching I would have felt compared to de-construct them, to “let G-d off the hook”, so to speak.
(I would have suggested that the passages project the honest and violent thoughts of the people, rather than the will of G-d).
But maybe G-d should not be let off the hook so easily. After all, even the Book of Revelation in the Christian Scriptures speak of a fearsome G-d of vengeance.
All this is to say that “G-d sanctioned violence” is a part of the Jewish and Christian “Sacred Texts”.
I believe that we should treat these texts with caution and suspicion.
I also believe that we should be honest enough not to castigate Muslims for the approved violence in their “Sacred Text” (The Koran), whilst ignoring the violence in our own scriptures.
Oh, darling, might it be possible that you retired too soon? You are entirely spot on.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder, as I sometimes look out in my congregation and see a retired priest or two, that they aren't making similar comments under their breath about me.