The Gospel for THURSDAY, May 19,2005 (St. Dunstan)
Luke 13:31-35
Just at this time some Pharisees came up. ‘Go away,’ they said. ‘Leave this place, because Herod means to kill you.’ He replied, ‘You may go and give that fox this message: Look! Today and tomorrow I drive out devils and heal, and on the third day I attain my end. But for today and tomorrow and the next day I must go on, since it would not be right for a prophet to die outside Jerusalem. ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused! Look! Your house will be left to you. Yes, I promise you, you shall not see me till the time comes when you are saying: Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord!’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
The Fox
William Barclay tells us that Jesus, calling a sitting king a "fox" was about as in-your-face as it could get. Jesus' total disregard for the rules made up in this world are once again recorded. Of note is the New Jerusalem Bible's omission of some texts' "desolate," : "Your house will be left to you desolate."
A Reflection
These words from the gospel attributed to Luke don't ring with the Christological lyrics as the gospel attributed to John; but there is, from a text-critical view, a strong post-Easter flavor in them. The third day, the next day, your [desolate] house, reference to an apocalyptic return: all of these are items that the post-Easter early church needed to underscore as they re-told the story of Jesus' last journey to Jerusalem.
Israel's long-standing tradition of upholding the 613 rules they had created was once again placed as a barrier to their recognition of one of YHWH's chosen ones. In this case, it was God as man whom they rejected.
We today have erected hard hearts and religious systems that blind us to Jesus in our fellow humans, haven't we? And inasmuch as we do a thing to the least of those among us, we might as well have done it to Jesus.
It is recorded that that there were seven kinds of Pharisees in Jesus' walk on this planet. They ranged from the "Good" Pharisees who were warning Jesus here, to ones like those who wore their righteousness on their sleeves, to those who would close their eyes on encountering a woman and bump into buildings rather than be observed looking at a woman in public.
Imagine such a society! These people had it all figured out, and no country-bumpkin carpenter from out in the sticks was going to tell them how to live.
Even though we have a bit "nicer" society in some respects, we still know how to keep our eyes closed, and we still know how to look nice in public while oppressing others in private. And we sure know how to reject Jesus just as effectively as the Jews in Jerusalem in 30AD.
Whether or not there's an apocalypse in my future, the right thing for me to do is to carry out the things that Jesus told me to do. And I can start right now.
The Collect
O God of truth and beauty, who richly endowed your bishop Dunstan with skill in music and the working of metals, and with gifts of administration and reforming zeal: Teach us, we pray, to see in you the source of all our talents, and move us to offer them for the adornment of worship and the advancement of true religion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
5:23:34 PM 
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