Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 17, 2008 - St. Anthony, Abbot
[1 Samuel 4:1-11 and Mark 1:40-45]The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; every man fled to his own tent. It was a disastrous defeat, in which Isreal lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead.
The Bible doesn't report too many losses in battle for the Israelites. But when they do lose, they lose big time. In the incident reported in today's scripture, the Israelites believe that the presence of the "ark of the Lord" will protect them from loss. It did not. The only reason that seems to be hinted at is in the deaths of the two wicked sons of Eli, the priest: Hophni and Phinehas. The corruption of these two wicked priestlings is reported earlier in 1 Samuel 2:12-36, where Eli is warned that his two sons would die on the same day. It appears that they were abusing their position and demanding sexual favors (Does this sound familiar in regard to big time religious figures?). In any case, the Israelites learned a costly lesson about claiming that God is always on their side no matter what! The ark of the Lord, the most sacred religious object, is captured (but returned later when the Philistines learned that God was not amused about it). There is a lesson in all of this. No matter which culture or nation we may be citizens of, we have no right to claim "God is on our side." The lessons of history should tell us that. We Americans thought we were fighting Godless communism in Vietnam, but we did not win, despite the heroic efforts of our ordinary soldiers. Nor should we claim that every "victory" is the will of God. The scripture today hints at internal reasons for the great loss. It may be that our own nation should look to its internal struggles with drugs, abortion, political and commercial greed, racism, hunger, poverty, lack of health care for so many before we try to take the moral high ground and battle other nations. Our own church has had to learn these lessons over and over again as well. It's hard to do this on a level larger than the personal one (and we know how hard the personal battle can be). But if enough individuals succeed personally in gaining spiritual and moral integrity, we can be confident of our relationship to God and we can at least be thankful to God who always gives grace in that kind of struggle. AMEN
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