Above: A Depiction of the Chaldean/Ne0-Babylonian Destruction of Jerusalem
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THE FIRST READING
Ezekiel 16:1-15, 59-63 (TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures):
The word of the LORD came to me:
O mortal, proclaim Jerusalem’s abominations to her, and say: Thus said the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: By origin and birth you are from the land of the Canaanites–your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your birth, when you were born your navel cord was not cut, and you were not bathed in water to smooth you; you were not rubbed with salt, nor were you swaddled. No one pitied you enough to do any one of these things for you out of compassion for you; on the day you were born, you were left lying, rejected, in the open field. When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you: ”Live in spite of your blood.” Yea, I let you grow like the plants of the field; and you continued to grow up until you attained to womanhood, until your breasts became firm and your hair sprouted.
You were still naked and bare when I passed by you [again] and saw that your time for love had arrived. So I spread My robe over you and covered your nakedness, and I entered into a covenant with you by oath
–declares the Lord GOD;
thus you became Mine. I bathed you in water, and washed the blood off you, and anointed you with oil. I clothed you with embroidered garments, and gave you sandals of dolphin leather to wear, and wound fine linen about your head, and dressed you in silks. I decked you out in finery and put bracelets on your arms and a chain around your neck. I put a ring in your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a splendid crown on your head. You adorned yourself with gold and silver, and your apparel was of fine linen, silk, and embroidery. Your food was choice flour, honey, and oil. You grew more and more beautiful, and became fit for royalty. Your beauty won you fame among the nations, for it was perfected through the splendor which I set upon you
–declares the Lord GOD.
But confident in your beauty and fame, you played the harlot: you lavished your favors on every passerby; they were his.
…
Truly, thus said the Lord GOD:
I will deal with you as you have dealt, for you have spurned the pact and violated the covenant. Nevertheless, I will remember the covenant I have made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish it with you as an everlasting covenant. You shall remember your ways and feel ashamed, when you receive your older sisters and younger sisters, and I gave them to you as daughters, though they are not of your covenant. I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD. Thus you shall remember and feel shame, and you shall be too abashed to open your mouth again, when I have forgiven you for all that you did
–declares the Lord GOD.
THE RESPONSE: OPTION #1
Psalm 11 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 In the LORD have I taken refuge;
how then can you say to me,
“Fly away like a bird to the hilltop;
2 For see how the wicked bend the bow
and fit their arrows to the string,
to shoot from ambush at the true of heart.
3 When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
4 The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD’s throne is in heaven.
5 His eyes behold the inhabited world;
his piercing eye weighs our worth.
6 The LORD weighs the righteous as well as the wicked,
but those who delight in violence he abhors.
7 Upon the wicked he shall rain coals of fire and burning sulphur;
a scorching wind shall be their lot.
8 For the LORD is righteous;
he delights in righteous deeds;
and the just shall see his face.
THE RESPONSE: OPTION #2
Canticle 10 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
Isaiah 55:6-11 plus the Trinitarian formula
Seek the Lord while he wills to be found;
call upon him when he draws near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the evil ones their thoughts;
And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion,
and to our God, for he will richly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as rain and snow fall from the heavens
and return not again, but water the earth,
Bringing forth life and giving growth,
seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So is my word that goes forth from my mouth;
it will not return to me empty;
But it will accomplish that for which I have purposed,
and prosper in that for which I sent it.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
THE GOSPEL READING
Matthew 19:3-12 (J. B. Phillips, 1972):
Then the Pharisees arrived with a test-question.
Is it right,
they asked,
for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds whatever?
He answered,
Haven’t you read that the one who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said: “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two separate people but one. No man therefore must separate what God has joined together.
They retorted,
Then why did Moses command us to give a written divorce notice and dismiss the woman?
He answered,
It was because you knew so little about the meaning of love that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives! But that was not the original principle. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife on any grounds except her unfaithfulness and marries some other woman commits adultery.
His disciples said to him,
If that is a man’s position with his wife, it is not worth getting married!
Jesus replied,
It is not everybody who can accept this principle–only those who have a special gift. For some are incapable of marriage from birth, some are made incapable by the action of men, and some have made themselves so for the kingdom of Heaven. Let the man who can accept what I have said accept it.
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The Collect:
Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Some Related Posts:
Regarding Divorce:
http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/week-of-7-epiphany-friday-year-1/
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/week-of-proper-2-friday-year-1/
http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/sixth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-a/
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/proper-1-year-a/
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The Kingdom of Judah, according to Ezekiel 16, was like an abandoned baby girl. God had adopted her, raised her to womanhood, adorned her, and treated her like a queen. Yet she turned to prostitution, that is, entered into alliances with dangerous foreign nations, and even paid her lovers, that is, paid tribute to those nations. As one continues reading, one reads of the resulting punishment and public humiliation. And, among her sins, was not supporting the poor and needy (verse 49). Yet, despite everything, God will establish a covenant with Judah and forgive her:
I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD. Thus you shall remember and feel shame, and you shall be too abashed to open your mouth again, when I have forgiven you for all that you did–declares the Lord GOD.–Ezekiel 16:62-63
Shame is a social construct. One has only the amount of shame others assign to one. We humans, being social animals, often internalize such standards. Thus one must, in order to feel shame, have a sense of honor, another social construct. Often honor overlaps with a sense of morality, definitions of which owe their shapes partly to social norms. (In the Antebellum U.S. South, for example, many professing Christians did not consider owning slaves to be immoral. There was even a prevailing orthodoxy which said that God condoned or commended the practice.) It is true that sometimes–perhaps much or most of the time–when we sin, we know that we are doing that. We have our reasons–bad ones, granted–for our actions, but we still know what we are doing. Or we should know better, if we do not.
There are consequences of actions, but there is also the possibility of forgiveness. The forgiven should know that they need it. And there ought to be remorse. But–here I differ with “Ezekiel”–there is no need to wallow in remorse or shame. Writing as a Christian, I come from the perspective of one who acknowledges that God has taken the burden of sin away from us. We impose it on ourselves and each other, but God first took it away from us.
So, liberated from that heavy burden, may we live in freedom and in gratitude to God. May we love God fully, love our neighbors as ourselves, enjoy God, and glorify our Redeemer.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 6, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, BIBLE TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT BRUNO, FOUNDER OF THE CARTHUSIANS
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Published originally at ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS BY KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR on October 6, 2011
Adapted from this post:
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/week-of-proper-14-friday-year-2/
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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