Monday, 6/16/14
The first reading tells us a story about king Ahab. He had wanted
to acquire the neighboring land of a man named Naboth, but that land had been
part of Naboth’s family for a thousand years, and he would not part with it.
Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, finding her husband dejected, and
feeling that the desire of the nobility should take preference over the needs
of lesser people, took action. Under
the seal of king Ahab, her husband, she commanded the elders to assemble
a court. The letter told the elders to obtain the service of two scoundrels to
bring a false charge of Blasphemy against Naboth. It concluded by ordering the
elders to stone Naboth to death for the supposed crime Blasphemy.
Now, the thing to know about this story is that it is not
just a story. It is part of the Bible’s manual for right living. It is telling
you not to want more than you need. It is telling you that God’s privileged
people are not the wealthy, the clergy, and the nobility. No! Blow the
trumpets! Clear the path! God’s privileged people, the folks working for
minimum wages, are coming this way!
My friend Katie told me about the Tolstoy story “How Much
Land Does a Man Need.” The king told a man he could possess all the land he could
stake off before returning at sunset. The man gleefully staked off hundreds of
acres; but then, wanting just an acre more, he collapsed and died. When the
onlookers asked the king what was to become of all the acres the man had staked
off, the king said, “Just dig him an eight by four foot hole here. That’s all
the land a man needs.”
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