2008 February

Greetings to all on 10 FEB 2008

Word for the Day
Transmogrify - To change into a different shape or form, especially one that is fantastic or bizarre.

Quote for the Day
Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire builders have been people unable to give and receive love. - Henri Nouwen

Website for the Day
http://terryrush.blogspot.com/2007/12/brian-mashburns-terrific-article.html
Some of you have already read this. If not, it’s a must read for all you COC people out there.

Thought for the Day
Do you remember what happened when Solomon’s son refused to listen to good advice? The result was a divided kingdom with Rehoboam reigning in Judah and Jeroboam as king of the northern tribes. Now fast forward about 200 years and let’s refresh our memory.

In 722 B.C.E. Sennacherib conquered Samaria, marking the end of the northern kingdom as an Israelite nation. The Assyrian relocation strategy resulted in Samaria becoming a mixed breed of people and, therefore, an unclean cousin of the southern tribe of Judah. This blossomed into full-fledged hatred between the two nations by the first century.

In 701 Sennacherib invaded Judah and captured several key cities as he continued his march toward Jerusalem. Before laying siege to Jerusalem, he sent an envoy to deliver terms of surrender to Hezekiah. As it turned out, Judah was saved by the hand of ADONAI. You can finish the story found in 2 Kings 18-19.

But there’s another detail that you might not remember. The spokesman for the Assyrian envoy was the Rabshakeh (chief butler). He insisted on speaking in Hebrew to Hezekiah’s representatives. Eliakim protested, “Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it: do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” The Rabshakeh’s reply was rather crude, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to you, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”

Is there a post-modern parallel to this? We still have the conversation behind the wall among those who speak the language of authority and control. [1] Negotiations and decisions are made behind closed doors, out of earshot of the people. Even questions of interpretation are settled in a hermetically sealed environment. Not unlike the leaders of Jesus’ day who described the common people as “this mob who knows nothing.” [JOH 7.49] Some things haven’t changed in 2000 years!

Meanwhile, the people on the wall grope for answers to questions that affect their lives.[ACT 17.27] Many lead lives of quiet desperation. [2] We wonder why we are not invited into the conversation. Do we have nothing to add? Every day, people are languishing, even dying, on the wall. Jeremiah pegged it when he said, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace.” [JER 6.14]

May God Bless
Mike Toole
Lori Moores, ed.

1. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation And Obedience, Fortress Press, Minneapolis MN, 1991, pp. 76-94

2. Henry David Thoreau, with my apologies to both him and the writer of 2 Kings for transmogrifying their words. No apology is needed toward Brueggemann or Jeremiah.