Thoughts for Wednesday 6th May, 2020

Psalm 100; Jeremiah 23:1-8; Matthew 20:17-28

 Wednesday 6 May   - Rev. Jerry Eve

 I’m tempted with our reading from Jeremiah today to contemplate the merits and demerits of Zionism. I would hope, though, that the passage would be read as one of unity rather than division. Jeremiah is writing at a time when the people had been split in two. There was Israel in the north, and Judah in the south. And what he is doing, I think, by harking back to the time of David is to remind people that this wasn’t always the case. At one time the two kingdoms had been one. A diatribe against faithless rule, and prophetic of Christ, verse 7 is a call for a new exodus of liberation. Read alongside the psalm, my interpretation would be that this refers not just to adherents of Judaism, but to everyone.

 Our Gospel today is one of the best examples I know of a pushy parent. I’m not sure if the mother of James and John knows, though, what she is asking. It reminds me of Rudyard Kipling’s exhortations to young men in public meetings at the time of WWI to join the army. These unfortunately extended to his own son, whose eyesight was far too poor for him to have been a good soldier, when he quickly perished.

 Traditionally, we think of her as the Salome who we meet at the cross (Mark 15:40) and tomb (Mark 16:1). This, though, is apocryphal. And there’s an even slenderer (medieval) tradition that she was a sister or half-sister to Mary the mother of Jesus, and therefore Jesus’ aunt.

The fate of her two boys was quite different for each of them. For, although Jesus says in this passage that they will ‘drink from my cup’ i.e. be martyred as well, the Church has tended to believe that this only happened to one of them, and to James.

 There’s a strong tradition linking James to Galicia in north west Spain, and a great many people these days go on pilgrimage to the cathedral there named after him – Santiago de Compostela. The Bible, though, has him beheaded in Jerusalem on the orders of Herod Agrippa (see Acts 12:2).

 As for John, he’s traditionally thought of as the youngest apostle, who then went on to live into his 90s dying in Ephesus at the age of 93-94.

 For fun today, you might like to imagine yourself arriving at Santiago de Compostela and taking part in a service there, when you will be amazed by the operation of the largest thurible or censer in the world. It’s called the Botafumiero, this is a link to it, and may this be our prayer today, Amen:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8zZE_HJd2g

 

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