Scripture Notes: A Message to Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17)

Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor, was a center of pagan worship at the time John received the prophetic vision he recorded in the Book of Revelation. And Jesus had a very forceful message for the Church at Pergamum, a message with good news and bad news.

The Christians in Pergamum lived in the city “where Satan’s throne” was. Pergamum was home to a massive temple of Zeus (the “father” of the Greco-Roman “gods) and the cult of a snake-god, and it took an active role in promoting emperor worship. Yet, Jesus said, many of the city’s Christians remained faithful, all the way to death if necessary. That’s the good news.

However, there was a bit of bad news, too, more than a bit. Some Christians were compromising their faith. It was a struggle to be a Christian in a pagan world. Pagan worship dominated social life, and those who refused to participate were treated as outcasts or worse. Families turned their backs on Jesus’ faithful. Christian artisans lost business because they could not participate in the rites of the pagan guilds that regulated trade. Even Christians’ lives were at risk if someone denounced them to the government officials and they were commanded to worship the emperor or else.

So it became easy to backslide, especially when some people in the Church (probably the Nicolaitans mentioned in the text) were telling their fellow Christians that it was okay to participate in some level pagan worship, particularly to eat food sacrificed to idols. This would have allowed Christians to participate in guild rituals and family gatherings.

But there was a problem with it. It was backsliding. It was compromising. It was disobeying Jesus’ words. And therefore, Jesus told the Christians who were doing it and teaching it to repent, literally to go beyond their minds, to let go of their own thoughts and embrace His will. Otherwise, there would be consequences, possibly eternal consequences.

Jesus, however, held out a beautiful promise, an amazing promise, to those Christians who were victorious in Him, holding fast to their faith and refusing to compromise. He would give them some of the hidden manna. What is this hidden manna? The Eucharist. Jesus’ very self, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The Eucharist is our ultimate intimacy with Jesus in this life and a foretaste of Heaven, when we will see Him face to face.

Jesus did not end there, though. He also said that He would give of the faithful a white stone with a new name on it. In pagan culture, people needed an admission ticket of sorts to enter into the festivals and rites. Often it was a small stone. Jesus would one-up that. He would give a white stone, a pure stone, as an admission ticket, not to a pagan feast but to the Heavenly feast, the eternal banquet of divine love. And that stone would have a new name written on it, a name known only to the Giver and the recipient, a name symbolizing a new life and a new, even greater intimacy with God, eternally.

Scripture Notes: The Trouble With Absalom (2 Samuel 18)

King David’s son Absalom turned out to be trouble. With a combination of vanity and hunger of power, Absalom decided that he should have the kingship instead of his father, and he tricked the people of Israel into supporting him. David actually had to flee from Jerusalem, mourning the painful betrayal by his own son.

Soon war broke out between David and Absalom. David had no choice but to fight, but he made his wishes clear with regard to his son. The young man was not to be killed. No matter what Absalom had done, David still loved him and was determined to spare his life.

As the battle progressed, David’s army took the upper hand and put Absalom’s followers to flight. Absalom, riding along on his mule, ended up in major trouble. He always had an obsession with his hair, so it is more than a little ironic that his hair (probably highly styled) caught on the branches of a big tree. The mule kept right on going, leaving Absalom hanging by his hair.

This would have been funny (and rather is in any case) but for the results. One of David’s men noticed Absalom’s predicament and hurried to tell David’s commander, Joab. Joab asked the man why he didn’t kill Absalom outright. He would have had a fine reward. But the man remembered David’s orders; he wouldn’t touch the king’s son for any money. 

Joab, disgusted, grabbed three darts and put them directly into Absalom’s heart as the young man hung helpless from the tree. Some of the young men in Joab’s company finished off the prince and threw his body in a pit in the forest. Joab thought he had won a great victory, but he was forgetting something important.

When David heard that his son was dead, he broke down and wept, crying out, “O my son Absalom, my son, my Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” The army’s victory crumbled, and the men crept back to the city like dogs with tails between their legs. The king’s grief shamed them.

But Joab was more disgusted than ever. He approached David with a dose a reality. David’s servants had saved the king’s life and reign by their courage that very day, yet David appeared anything but grateful. Joab essentially told him to stop carrying on and go out and talk to his people with gratitude and encouragement. Otherwise, the king would have no people by nightfall. Joab even dared to tell David, “I perceive that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased.”

It was harsh, but there was truth to it. Yes, Joab had disobeyed the king’s orders, but apparently he didn’t regret it. And he did have a point about David’s less-than-kingly behavior. The situation was complex and dangerous. If Absalom had lived, what would David have done? Simply let him go? No, rebellion could not be ignored; it had to have terrible consequences, as troubling as that may have been.

Scripture Notes: “I Am No Prophet” (Amos 7)

Amos spoke a stern warning against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In the years since the North split from the South, ten northern tribes from two southern ones (Judah and Benjamin), the North had drifted (perhaps ran) far into idolatry. Its rulers did not want the people returning to the Temple in Jerusalem for worship, for they feared a movement toward reunion and their subsequent loss of power.

So those rulers set up new sanctuaries in the North, two of them, one at Bethel and the other at Dan, and they put an idol in each of those sanctuaries, a golden calf. This was obviously a serious backslide on the part of the Israelites, a deliberate return to their apostasy years ago in the desert as they were leaving Egypt. The Israelites went back to worshiping the gods they had worshiped in Egypt, blended with the gods of the pagan peoples around them. The one God they were not worshiping was God Himself.

So God called Amos to speak up and say so. God called him to be a prophet. And people hated Amos for it. In fact, one of the priests of the Northern Kingdom, Amaziah by name, essentially told Amos to get lost, to go to Judah and never prophesy at Bethel again. It was the “king’s sanctuary,” the priest announced haughtily, and “the temple of the kingdom.” Indeed, and that was the whole problem. It was not God’s sanctuary or God’s temple but the work of human beings who had decided to worship idols.

Amos replied, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son.” He was a simple shepherd who cared for both sheep and sycamore trees until God called him. The whole prophet thing was decidedly not his idea, but he loved and trusted God and therefore obeyed Him. And Amos would continue to do so no matter what the consequences to himself. He would continue to tell the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom that God was highly displeased and would punish them if they failed to repent of their idolatry and return to Him. Amos had to speak with tough love when he said, “Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land” on account of its sins. And he was right.

Scripture Notes: David and Abigail (1 Samuel 25)

Abigail had the misfortune to be married to an old grump. Her husband Nabal was harsh and nasty and far more interested in drinking than in extending hospitality. So when David sent some of his servants to invite Nabal to a feast, the old crank refused to come in the most insulting way.  

David, furious, quickly (and quite unthinkingly) resolved to crush Nabal and every male in his household. David, of course, forgot in his anger that the males in Nabal’s household were innocent and were likely unable to influence their master’s behavior one way or another.

Thankfully, Abigail heard about the problem from one of the young men, who was probably both appalled and terrified. She jumped to action, getting ready a whole assortment of food as something of a peace offering to David. But she didn’t leave it at that; instead, Abigail got on a donkey and went out to meet David in person. 

She didn’t have to do any of this. She could have let David come in and kill her husband and everyone else, but no matter what she thought of her husband (and it probably wasn’t much), she clearly felt a responsibility for the rest of her household. She was not going to let them suffer for her husband’s extreme rudeness.

Abigail’s humility and courage touched David’s heart. She even claimed responsibility for Nabal’s acts although David didn’t buy that for an instant. She asked him to blame her and accept her apologies and offering, not so that Nabal wouldn’t be punished but so that David would not sin. She didn’t want to see David, whom she knew as a God-fearing man, incur the guilt of taking revenge and killing the innocent along with the guilty.

It worked. David repented of his intentions and blessed God for Abigail’s discretion. He received her graciously, thanked her, and told her to go in peace. Abigail’s tasks weren’t finished, however. She still had to deal with Nabal. He was far too drunk and rowdy that night, so she waited until morning. Then she dropped the bomb and let him know how close he had come to death at David’s hands. Nabal couldn’t take the shock; he died ten days later, God taking the revenge David had intended but on Nabal alone.

The story doesn’t quite end there. David knew a good woman when he saw one, and he recognized Abigail’s intelligence and devotion. So he married her. 

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Part 25

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Jesus.

As the litany approaches its close, we pronounce a plea for mercy. We recognize Jesus as our Lamb of God, the One Who gave Himself up as a sacrifice, taking upon Himself the covenant curses we earned by our sins and carrying them to the cross. Jesus is the only One Who can take away the sins of the world, Who has already taken away the sins of the world by His sacrificial death, so we ask Him to spare us, to graciously hear us, and to have mercy on us. And we are certain that He does.

Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.

One again, we ask Jesus to hear us. We know that He does. He always hears our prayers. So why do we ask? Because we must remind ourselves. We must boost our confidence, our trust in our Lord’s presence and care. We must recall that our prayers are important to Jesus; He never ignores us, never tunes us out, never sets us aside. He may say “No” or “Wait” when our prayers do not correspond to His will. But He always, always, always hears us.

Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who hast said: Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you; grant, we beseech Thee, to us who ask the gift of Thy divine love, that we may ever love Thee with all our hearts, and in all our words and actions, and never cease praising Thee.
Give us, O Lord, a perpetual love of Thy holy Name; for Thou never failest to govern those whom Thou dost solidly establish in Thy love. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

We end this litany with a prayer, again reminding ourselves that Jesus has told us to ask and we shall receive, seek and we shall find, knock and it shall be opened to us. So we pray for Jesus’ divine love, that it may course through our hearts and flow back to God and out to others. We pray that we may be able to praise God always, in all our words and actions, and that we may always love His Holy Name. 

To love God’s Holy Name is to love God, to love Who He is in His deepest character, as much as we can know it.  And to love God for Who He is is to imitate Him, to accept His governance, and to be solidly established in His love. In other words, we give ourselves to God fully, allowing Him to enter our hearts and draw us into His love in deeper and deeper ways.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Part 24

Through Thine institution of the most Holy Eucharist, Jesus, deliver us.

On the night before He suffered and died on the cross, Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist. He began His total sacrifice at that moment when He said, “This is My Body” and “This is the chalice of My Blood.” He completed the sacrifice on the cross. And now that sacrifice stands outside time, allowing it to be re-presented, made present for us, at every Mass, that we may enter into it.

When we receive the Eucharist, we receive Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The very substance of the bread and wine become Jesus Himself, His risen Body, His very Blood. Jesus enters into us, filling us with His presence, changing us from the inside out, immersing us in His love.

Through Thy joys, Jesus, deliver us.

We don’t often reflect on Jesus’ joys, but His life on earth must have been filled with them. Jesus was perfectly united with His Father, and that in itself is the highest joy. But He also experienced the joy of the love of His family and friends, the pleasures of the natural world, the little things in life. Jesus was, in fact, probably the most joyful Person Who ever walked the earth. We are called to share in that joy.

Through Thy glory, Jesus, deliver us.

Jesus is fully human but also fully divine, so the glory of God radiates within Him and through Him. On Mount Tabor, Peter, James, and John saw the divine glory of Jesus as His clothes became dazzlingly white from a light that came from within. 

This glimpse of glory was intended to give the apostles strength the bear the trials they would soon encounter as Jesus suffered His Passion. Knowing Jesus’ divinity, having seen His glory, was supposed to provide Peter, James, and John the ability to withstand, with great faith, what was to come. For Jesus’ glory may have been hidden, but it never once diminished, any more than He ever ceased to be God.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Part 23

Through Thy death and burial, Jesus, deliver us.

Jesus died on the cross for us. We say it so often that we might not realize the drama of it. Jesus sacrificed Himself. He poured out every drop of His blood. He took our sins upon Himself and lay down His life for us. 

Then, when Jesus had died, His disciples placed His body in a new tomb near the site of His crucifixion. They rolled a stone in front of the opening. The Jews asked for and received a guard. But none of that would matter in the end, for Jesus lay down His life knowing fully that He would take it back up again.

Through Thy Resurrection, Jesus, deliver us.

Death could not hold Jesus. Because He was fully human, He could and did die. But because He was also fully God, He conquered death. He rose again on the third day, just as He had told His disciples all along.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He reached out to His disciples in ways filled with love and deep meaning. He opened their minds to the Scriptures. He showed them His wounds. He gave them mercy and peace. He fed them and cared for them and challenged them toward great love, preparing them for their mission to the world.

Through Thine Ascension, Jesus, deliver us.

Jesus ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. But that does not mean He has left us alone. In fact, He is with us more intimately than ever. His Holy Spirit, the Paraclete that He promised, fills us with His divine indwelling at our Baptism and as long as we remain in a state of grace.  What is more, we receive Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in the Eucharist, and He enters into us in a very special way, changes our hearts from the inside out, and is closer to us than we are to ourselves.