Author Archives: Neil

The Givers

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Eugene Salandra at http://www.saintvictor.org/2012/07/17/monday-in-the-15th-week-only-a-cup-of-cold-water%E2%80%A6/

There are those people who are born with an innate sense of compassion

Whose oversized hearts sometimes lead again and again to painful paths

Where they enter into another’s life and struggles and bear their burdens

But in those moments where their heart is broken and their spirits sag

Rarely do those whom they walked for days with journey a mile in their shoes

Perhaps they wonder if it might be easier if their soft hearts were turned to stone

And their ears could become deaf and their eyes blind to the need that surrounds them

Yet, sometimes the hardest lesson for a giver to learn is the most important

Somewhere in their journey of learning to care for others and to pour out their souls

They come to believe that everyone else is more important than their life

They become deeply wounded healers trying to pour out of exhausted vessels

In believing in the value of others they forgot to value themselves

To have the compassion for their own blemishes that they have for others

And to learn to trust their own heart and mind to seek out those who give to them

Who see in them, not the person who is the soul mender

One whose life is consumed by the endless hunger of the wounded

But the companion, friend, and the ones who see in them the beauty

They struggle sometimes to see in their life

Neil White, 2014

Jeremiah 40: The Remnant

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Jeremiah 40: 1-11 Jeremiah and the Remnant Settle in the Land

Seal of Gedaliah

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he took him bound in fetters along with all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. ² The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God threatened this place with this disaster; ³ and now the LORD has brought it about, and has done as he said, because all of you sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice. Therefore this thing has come upon you. ⁴ Now look, I have just released you today from the fetters on your hands. If you wish to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will take good care of you; but if you do not wish to come with me to Babylon, you need not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go. ⁵ If you remain, then return to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon appointed governor of the towns of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or go wherever you think it right to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present, and let him go. ⁶ Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.

⁷ When all the leaders of the forces in the open country and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile to Babylon, ⁸ they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah– Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, Jezaniah son of the Maacathite, they and their troops. ⁹ Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan swore to them and their troops, saying, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall go well with you.¹⁰ As for me, I am staying at Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and store them in your vessels, and live in the towns that you have taken over.” ¹¹ Likewise, when all the Judeans who were in Moab and among the Ammonites and in Edom and in other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan as governor over them, ¹² then all the Judeans returned from all the places to which they had been scattered and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah; and they gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance.

As happens so often in both the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament, it is the outsider who perceives what the insiders do not. As Patrick Miller insightfully sees, “The one acknowledgement of the truthfulness of Jeremiah’s prophecy I the whole book comes from the lips of the enemy.” (Elizabeth Actemeir, et. al., 1994, pp. 857, Vol. VI). Like in the book of Jonah when the sailors and the people of Ninevah acknowledge Jonah’s preaching, or in the gospels when either the demons know the identity of the son of man, or it is a Syro-Phonecian/Canaanite woman (Mark/Matthew) who shows great faith, or a Roman centurion who at the end of the gospels (perhaps sarcastically in Mark, but Matthew and Luke remove the possibility of reading it sarcastically) “Truly this man was God’s Son” (Matthew 27: 54, parallels in Mark and Luke). But in a ministry where Jeremiah’s message has been continually challenged and unheard, we hear from an unexpected source-a foreigner, a servant of another empire and different gods, an acknowledgment of the truth of the message of Jeremiah. As Jeremiah has testified all throughout his time, now it unfolds that these foreigners can be instruments of the LORD.

Jeremiah is presented a choice, will he go into exile and into a comfortable life after a long struggle in the nation of Judah or will he return to the remnant of the land. By his own words in Jeremiah 24 (talking about the good and the bad figs), although admittedly referring to the previous exile of the elites from Jerusalem and Judah, he indicated it would be those taken into exile that the future would pass through. Yet Jeremiah chooses to remain with the people of the land where, as Kathleen O’Conner puts it he will find himself with the “baddest of the bad figs” who will carry him with them into Egypt. (O’Conner, 2011, p. 130). Yet, Jeremiah’s choice to remain is consistent with his character to not give up on the people and the land. Other prophets will emerge among the people in the exile that will give them hope as they reconstruct their identity as exiles in a foreign land. Whatever Jeremiah’s motives for remaining we will never know, although perhaps there is some insight in the governor assigned to oversee the remnant in the land.

Gedaliah is given a very positive reading in this text. He comes from an established family. As Patrick Miller highlights:

His grandfather (Shapan) and father (Ahikam) had both been involved in the discovery and handling of the scroll of Torah found in the Temple during Josiah’s reign. Moreover, his father had protected Jeremiah from execution by the people after his trial in chap. 26. (Elizabeth Actemeir, et. al., 1994, pp. 857, Vol. VI)

Perhaps Jeremiah feels some loyalty to this family which had protected him and had attempted to be faithful to the LORD. In this short introduction we see Gedaliah urging the people to settle down, to raise their crops and to serve the Chaldeans, words remarkably like those of Jeremiah in other places. With the return of some of the scattered military in the open country and the refugees in the surrounding lands it looks like a miniature return to the land and a possible new beginning. Yet, this is not the ending of this unfortunate and traumatic story.

Jeremiah 40: 13-16: Whispers of Assassination

¹³ Now Johanan son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah ¹⁴ and said to him, “Are you at all aware that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to take your life?” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them. ¹⁵ Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah at Mizpah, “Please let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one else will know. Why should he take your life, so that all the Judeans who are gathered around you would be scattered, and the remnant of Judah would perish?” ¹⁶ But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Do not do such a thing, for you are telling a lie about Ishmael.”

Carl von Clauswitz famously said, “War is a continuation of politics by other means.” Yet within both the modern world and the ancient world there have always been other means to influence the policy within one’s region and to either call attention to oneself or away from one’s desired area of influence. History is often learned from the perspective of which empire is reigning at any one time, but often there is much more going on under the surface. Here we see the king of Ammon meddling in Judean and Babylonian inter-relations and this is not the first time. The king of Ammon in Jeremiah 27 is one of the kings also explicitly linked to the Judean resistance to Babylonian domination, and so the Ammonites may not have been happy with Gedaliah’s policy of cooperation with Babylon. Johanan becomes aware of the plot and comes to warn the king and offers to quell this plot before it has an opportunity to come to fruition. Unfortunately Gedaliah is either to naïve or refuses to believe the accusations about Ishmael plotting his assassination and this will have disastrous consequences for Gedaliah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the remnant in Judah. A foreign power is meddling in the affairs of a weakened Judean homeland, stirring the pot of international intrigue pivots the story once again towards the ending of Jeremiah’s narrative.

Athur Kacker, By the Waters of Babylon (1888)

Images for the Sixth and Seventh Sunday after Pentecost-Lectionary 16 and 17A

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Was out last week, but here are some images from the Sixth Sunday After Pentecost (Matthew 13: 13:24-30, 36-43)

James Tissot, The Enemy Who Sows (Between 1886 and 1894)

Felician Rops, Satan Sowing Seeds (1872)

Abraham Bloemaert, The Parable of the Wheat and Tares (1624)

Illustration from Martin Luther’s time comparing the devil sowing seeds in the field to the sale of indulgences

The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-53)

This is a series of parables which Jan Luyken has an illustration for each one

Jan Luyken, Parable of the Mustard Seek in the Bowyer Bible

Jan Luyken etching Parable of the Leaven

For the Treasure Hidden in the Field there are several images

Jan Luyken, etching, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

possibly Rembrandt; possibly Gerard Dou, Parable of the Hidden Treasure (possibly 1630)

John Everett Millais, The Hidden Treasure, 1864

Jan Luyken, etching, Parable of the Pearl of Great Price

Domenico Fetti, La Perle de grand prix

Jan Luyken, etching, the Parable of the Dragnet

The Kingdom of Fools

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The Pearl of Great Price, engraving by John Everett Millais (1864)

Into the fertile fields committed to the harvest wheat and tares are allowed to grow together

And the kingdom of heaven grows from the inconspicuous seed into the noxious bush

Making a mockery of the cedars of Lebanon or the towering cypress and majestic oaks

It bears no fruit and yet it grows resiliently much to the dismay of those who would cut it down

It is a foolish kingdom where a woman contaminates fifty pounds of flour with unclean leaven

Making that which could last throughout the year begin to mold and decay within a period of days

Perhaps only a kingdom filled with gluttons and tax collectors and sinners would merit

Such a wasteful exuberance, an amnesia of common sense and self-preservation

Only in a place where the harvest is thirty fold, or sixty fold or a hundred fold

Would such a feast be possible and such a kingdom endure for more than a fortnight

This scandalous kingdom where one finds what others have missed and to one’s profit

One goes to procure the field where the hidden treasure lays concealed from the world’s eyes

Where all common sense goes out the window to acquire a pearl of exceeding size

Laying aside the needs of the day and the needs of the future to acquire the one thing

The precious result of a long lasting irritant surrounded by the excretions of the fearful mollusk

And perhaps this foolish kingdom is less about some distant and unseen harvest where

Wheat is separated from weed and good fish from bad and fires and barns and markets are fed

But about the presence of the kingdom in the midst of all kinds of fish caught in the net

Where treasures new and old are brought out and put in the service of this crazy dream

And in the midst of the world which holds on with a death grip anxious for some feared future

The insane generosity and abundant belief begins to shape the lives and actions of the servants

Caught up in the inauguration of the kingdom of fools, disciples of a lord of foolish grace

And rather than being consumed by what to include and to exclude they learn to join the banquet

And to be a part of the kingdom that emerges slowly and patiently in their midst

Neil White, 2014

Silent Nights

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I spend my days in a world saturated by sounds and people

Conversations that catch my ear and individuals crying for my attention

Frequently called upon to address the cares of the moment

Retreating only occasionally into the sanctuary of my own thought

Meditating and centering myself to once again enter into the fray

Into the blinding light of attention that sometimes comes with being a public person

Craving the moments of rest and calm in the midst of the squalls of life

Yet, sometimes the silence I seek in the saturated day haunts the night

At the time when we seek that companion that hears our stories

To lay down our burdens and exit the avatars that others see

To open up our souls and pour out the burdens of the heart

Yet, all that answers back in the loneliness is the echo of our own voice

Bouncing off the walls in the silent nights of solitude

Calling forth the contrast between the public life of the day

Where the world waits upon the words we speak

And the dark nights of the soul where our words echo hollowly

Off the quiet hallways of the house where we enter the night

Neil White, 2014

The People We Wish We Were

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Love is Not a Victory March by Marie -Esther@deviantart.com

Admiration can so quickly turn to envy and self deprecation

When we see someone else who in the sliver of their life we see

Inspires us and yet reflects back the part of us we like the least

We desire that which we are not yet and perhaps cannot be

And in our infatuation with the people we wish we were

We fail to fall in love with the people that we truly are

And the long and sometimes painful journey that forged our story

Not that we don’t continue to change and grow and evolve

But that our lives are not lived in the pursuit of some ideal person

Bound by expectations that are not ours and roles we don’t fit

Perhaps, it is the very piece of that personality which others note

Sometimes in a remark they intend to be helpful or constructive

That reconfirms in ourselves our own unresolved identity issues

Re-awakening the voice that tells us that we don’t fit or belong

Yet, that very trait in the right setting becomes the gift we bring

The key that unlocks the possibility of the moment that once was closed

From the well of our souls we pull forth the living water to bring life

And perhaps that moment goes unseen and unheard even by us

When I reflect upon the crucible that formed and shaped me

The white hot forge where the steel was folded and shaped

And the stone that slowly honed the edges of my life for its fight

Or the continual use that dented and dulled my blade

Sending me back again to the blacksmith’s forge and stone

And how that strength was used again and again and again

Yet, somehow wanting to be something different, another tool

But it is that form and shape, the gifts and the limitations

That come together in this form and I am who I am

Maybe someday the smith will shape me to be something new

Some softer tool forged from more malleable materials

Perhaps, someday, the task for which I was shaped will be complete

But until that day, I was created and honed and wonderfully made

A masterwork of sweat and long labor pounded into form

And the person I am for all the imperfect edges I may see

For all the admiration of the other tools in the creator’s workspace

I can still wonder at the labor and the struggle that forged me

And rather than longing for the person I wish I was

I can learn celebrate to celebrate, with the smith, the person I am

Neil White, 2014

Jeremiah 39: The City Falls

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Jeremiah 39: 1-10 The Destruction of Jerusalem

James Tissot, The Flight of the Prisoners

In the ninth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it; ² in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. ³ When Jerusalem was taken, all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, with all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴ When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward the Arabah. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him. ⁶ The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes; also the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. ⁷ He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters to take him to Babylon. ⁸ The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard exiled to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who remained. ¹⁰ Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

The city finally falls, the event which Jeremiah has foretold but also dreaded has finally occurred. Nebuchadrezzar’s army besieges the city of Jerusalem for a year and a half. The parallel telling of this event in 2 Kings 25 also relates, what we learned in the previous chapter of Jeremiah, that food had run out and that at the time the city wall is breached the people are beginning to starve. After a year and a half under siege this part of the narrative shows this final collapse happening with little resistance. The King Zedekiah and the remnants of the army and the officials flee by night, the officials of Babylon set up court in the gate of the city, and even in their fleeing we get the impression that Zedekiah and they are quickly overtaken as they attempt to flee across the Jordan river to Arabah. The punishment of the leaders is swift as the sons of the kin and the nobles of Judah, the leaders who had continued to push for resistance to Babylon, are killed when Nebuchdrezzar passes sentence in Hamath (Syria). Zedekiah is blinded and bound, most likely to be led back through the capitol of Babylon as a spoil of war to show how the might of Babylon has humiliated the Judeans who opposed them. In contrast to the first exile where the majority of the people are left in Judea, now this time Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, is charged with organizing a massive exile of those who survived the siege as well as those who fled and surrendered to Babylon. Only the poorest are left, these meek who inherit the earth, the pastures and the vineyards that were once owned by the powerful. Perhaps these are some of the slaves who were freed only to be brought immediately back into captivity (see Jeremiah 34), or those who suffered the loss of everything in the long costly war brought onto them by their leaders. Regardless, for the majority of the Judeans heading into exile it is a bitter pill to swallow. As Psalm 137 laments:

By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there we hung up our harps

For their our captors asked us for songs,

And our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How could we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you,

If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall

How they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to the foundations!”

O daughter Babylon, you devastator!

Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!

Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!

(Psalm 137)

The promise of Jerusalem, the temple, the Davidic dynasty have all failed as the people are marched into a foreign land as exiles. They will have to begin to rediscover who they are as the people of God, and what it means to be the chosen people without the land, a temple or a king. But for this moment they are entering a season of lament and grief. We know from earlier in Jeremiah hope will rise again, but in the midst of the desolation of despair the people may only be able to sings songs of lament and utter prayers of vengeance.

Jeremiah 39: 11-18 Protecting Jeremiah and Ebed-melech

¹¹ King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, ¹² “Take him, look after him well and do him no harm, but deal with him as he may ask you.” ¹³ So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon sent ¹⁴ and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard. They entrusted him to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan to be brought home. So he stayed with his own people.

¹⁵ The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah while he was confined in the court of the guard: ¹⁶ Go and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to fulfill my words against this city for evil and not for good, and they shall be accomplished in your presence on that day. ¹⁷ But I will save you on that day, says the LORD, and you shall not be handed over to those whom you dread. ¹⁸ For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have trusted in me, says the LORD.

On the orders of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, Jeremiah is sought out by the officials present in Jerusalem for protection. Jeremiah is freed from his confinement in the court of the guard and placed under the care of Gedaliah who is left in charge of the devastated city and land. Jeremiah is protected, and perhaps for many of his own people this only furthers their conviction that he is a traitor, yet he is sheltered and protected in the midst of the destruction and allowed to remain with the Judean people in the land. Although we only hear the promise of protection to Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian who pulled Jeremiah out of the cistern in Jeremiah 38, he also is promised his life and protection. In contrast to King Zedekiah who heard Jeremiah’s message several times and did not listen and is forced to watch his sons killed and led to Babylon in chains, now this servant of the king who is not a Judean and is a eunuch does hear and inherits his life, the same promise that Jeremiah made again to the king in Jeremiah 38. This is not a story where Jeremiah or probably Ebed-melech live happily ever after, but in the midst of the death that surrounds them they live and they endure in the midst of the destruction of the nation and city around them.