Miraculous Mothers

Y'all remember from last week we almost finished with the prophets; the next book that we're going to look at is the last book of the Old Testament. It's called Malachi; but the prophet's name...Malachi!...isn't Malachi! Ha! I tricked you! No fair! Yes fair, you jumped the gun! Malachi is the Hebrew word for "messenger." Why would a prophet call himself  "messenger"? 'Cause he brings God's messages. Yes. We don't know his name...do you think it might have been Herman? No! Oh.

In Malachi's day, the Judeans were slacking off in keeping the covenant: divorcing their wives; marrying pagan women; and offering stolen, blind, lame, sick or otherwise second-rate animals to God. Instead of acting like Abel, and offering the best...they acted like Cain! Yes, giving God, oh, whatever was on sale. Junk animals. And the priests at the Temple go along with this slackness; they don't care either.

Malachi the messenger scolds them: "I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept any sacrifices from your hand." Oh, dear. As usual God isn't fooled. But if God's children don't want to do the right thing, there are other people who do: "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and everywhere incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering." Now, what is the only place God accepts sacrifices? It's a building...oh the temple! Yes, in...Jerusalem! Yes. But Malachi prophesies that God will accept offerings and incense everywhere among the nations, and not just a good offering, but a pure offering. How are they gonna manage to do that? We'll see.

Y'all may remember that Isaiah said that God was coming, and that the people should prepare the way of the LORD. God now has more to say on that subject. Through Malachi, God tells the Levite priests: "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple..." So not only is the LORD coming to his temple, but a messenger will come before him to prepare the way. "But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire...he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD." Uh-oh...what's the word for purifying gold by burning away its impurities? Purging! Yes, which..hurts! Yes! So when the LORD comes, it probably won't be pleasant for those with, umm, impurities. And God tells us who the messenger will be: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes." Remind me, did Elijah die? No, he went to heaven in a chariot. Yes...we'll have to see how this prophecy works out.

That was the last line of the last book of the Old Testament.

Somebody tell me what an iceberg is. It's a big piece of ice that floats in the ocean. Yes, is most of it above the water, or below? Below. Yes. Most of the ice is below the water, and holds up the ice that sticks out. The Bible's like that: the Old Testament is bigger, and holds up the New, which is easier to see. Now that we've learned about the big part, we can move on to the smaller part that sits on top.

So tell me, the New Testament is about...Jesus! Yes, mostly. So I suppose we should start with, oh, the apostles? No, Jesus comes first. So we should start with Jesus? Yes. But Malachi said a messenger would come before the LORD; so let's start with the messenger. I'll be reading from Luke's gospel.

About a year before Jesus was born, there was a priest named Zechariah who had a wife named Elizabeth. Priests could get married? Yes, but remember they were priests in Moses' Covenant, not New Covenant priests like we have now. Was Jesus married? No. Right. New Covenant priests imitate Jesus: they don't get married. Now, Zechariah and Elizabeth were old...and...sad...they didn't have any children!  Yes! Like who? Abraham and Sarah!  Yes, and like Samson's parents, and Samuel's parents, and so on. Well, one day Zechariah was offering incense in the Temple Holy Space, like we do at Mass around the altar, "And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense"...guess who? Gabriel? Yes! "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news." What good news? That his wife would have a baby! Yes! "your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John...he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink..." That's like Samson and Samuel, who also weren't supposed to cut their hair or get married, or have any alcohol. They were "separated ones", you know this [on the board] N-a-z-i-r Nazirites! Yes. "...and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare a people fit for the Lord." And who did Malachi say God would send as his messenger? Uhh...Elijah? Yes. So Zechariah understood that his son would do important things for God, just like Samuel, Samson, and Elijah did, and prepare the way for the Lord in some way. And of course Elizabeth got pregnant just as Gabriel had said.

How long does a baby grow before it can be born? Nine months! Yes. In Luke's Gospel, which I'm reading from, it says, "And in the sixth month," that's when Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant with John [I draw & talk] here she is, she's happy...and here's John upside down in her tummy...

...another woman gets visited by...Gabriel. Yes. "...the angel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named...Bethlehem! no, try again...Jerusalem! Babylon!...no, no, NO! Stop guessing like monkeys and think: where did Jesus grow up? umm, Nazareth? Yes, "to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was...Mary."  Yes, y'all know all this already. What's this mean: "of the house of David"...that Joseph lives in David's house? He's part of David's family. Yes. Joseph and Mary are descendants of King David. Remember the Jesse Tree...who's at the bottom? Jesse. And next is his son...David, then his son...Solomon, yes. And at the top is...Jesus! yes, and under Jesus is his mother...Mary! Yes. Here's a famous stained-glass Jesse Tree in Chartres Cathedral in France:

The kings run up the middle from Jesse to Mary, and the prophets are on the sides.

Back to Mary. Luke writes: "And the angel came in unto her" that's me, I'm Gabriel. [I see a girl daydreaming in the back] I have huge rainbow-colored wings and my face shines like the sun. [I walk back to the daydreamer, get down on one knee, throw my hands out toward her and proclaim] "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women!" Where have y'all heard that before? In the Hail Mary! Yes, the prayer quotes Gabriel. And how does our volunteer Mary feel about this? She thinks it's weird!  Ha! I bet! Genuflecting and saying "hail" is not how you'd greet a girl, but a queen, someone who was superior to you. Luke says, "But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. [And I say to my volunteer] "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." Wow...Gabriel sounds like Isaiah, when he prophesied, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Now Mary was a good Jewish girl, and she probably knew that prophecy, and recognized Gabriel was quoting from it. How do you feel about having a baby, Mary? I don't know! Right! Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" That's a good, practical question, isn't it, Mary. "And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."

Y'all tell me, if it's a hot summer day, and a cloud overshadows you, how do you feel? Good! Why? 'Cause I'm in the shade. Yes, the cloud protects you from the hot sun, and it protects only who's under it. Y'all remember the God Box that the Israelites carried on the poles with the angels on top [I draw and talk], what's it called? The Ark! Yes, the Ark of the Covenant. When they wandered in the desert, a cloud would overshadow the Ark in the Meeting Tent; [draw & talk] we call it the Glory Cloud. The Hebrew word is Shekhinah, which is not the name of a hip-hop star as far as I know...it's the cloud. You don't have to remember that; I just like to say Shekhinah.

In the Bible, Hebrew says "cover" for "overshadow," so when the Shekhinah overshadowed the Ark, it covered it, sort of like the way Elijah covered Elisha with his cloak to show Elisha was chosen and protected. So when Gabriel tells Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you," he's reminding her of how the cloud overshadowed the Ark. So here's Mary [draw & talk], that dot is Jesus...here's the Holy Spirit.

OK tell me: here's the Ark with the God stuff in it, overshadowed by the...Shekhinah!, yes, the Glory Cloud. Over here we have Mary overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. What's she got in her? Jesus? Yes, Mary's got not just God's stuff in her, but God Himself. She's got more God in her than the Ark does. Now if the God Box is the Ark of the Old Covenant, what might we call Mary? Umm...the Ark of the New Covenant? Yes, genius! Mary's the New Ark.

Then Gabriel said, "And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son (that sounds like Isaiah, too)...For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." Y'all may remember this Latin phrase: [on the board] 'Fiat lux' from Genesis...no? OK, what's 'light' in Spanish? Luz! Yes, and luz comes from the Latin word lux, so lux means...light. Yes. And in Genesis the creation line about light is...let there be light! Yes, so 'fiat lux' means...let there be light! Yes, more like 'let light be done.' In Latin Bibles when Mary says 'let it be done to me' she says, 'Fiat mihi.' [on the board] She uses the same word 'fiat' that God spoke to create light and everything else. Why's that? 'Cause Jesus is like light? Yes, sort of. Sometimes we call Jesus the 'Light of the World.' When Mary says 'fiat' like God did, it reminds me that what she's agreed to, having this baby, will be as significant as God making light, creating the world.

What's this whole story called, when Gabriel announces to Mary she'll be having a miracle baby? The Immaculate Conception? No, that's when Mary was conceived. Think: an announcement...the Annunciation! Yes. What a gimme that was.

Let's remember all those women we've learned about from Sarah and Hannah right up to Elizabeth. Their babies were miraculous in that they were all too old to conceive. And now Mary is also going to have a miracle baby, not because she's too old, but because...she's too young? Well, sort of. She isn't married yet. But she stands at the head of a long line of miraculous mothers, and her baby is the most miraculous of all.

Now Mary's baby is Jesus who's going to grow in her, live in her for 9 months. Baby John has a 6-month head start on Baby Jesus, and Mary decides to visit her cousin Elizabeth. This visit is called...the...Visitation? Yes. John's getting to be a load, and Jesus is just a dot, so Elizabeth can't get around like young Mary, who can help her out. Luke says, "When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit."  Have y'all ever looked at a pregnant woman's stomach and seen the baby moving inside? Eww, gross. That's not gross, it's great! You can see the baby poking its elbows and knees out, it's very cool. People put videos on YouTube of babies kicking their moms from the inside. I bet y'all were all momma-kickers before y'all were born. Your moms know just what Elizabeth felt when John jumped around in her. Then Elizabeth said to Mary, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!" Where've you heard that? In the Hail Mary! That's right. The prayer first quotes Gabriel, now it quotes Elizabeth. "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Now who is Elizabeth's Lord? God? Yes, and so Mary is the mother of...God? Yes, that's why we say "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us." But some people say Mary wasn't God's mom, that she was only the mother of Jesus' human parts. But you can't divide Jesus into pieces: Mary is the mother of Jesus' whole person even though that person was God, who created her. We can't understand it: it's...a...mystery! Yes!

About 3 months after Mary visited her older cousin, Elizabeth had her baby, John...[draw] he's swaddled, see? When she and Zechariah took him to the Temple to be circumcised, Zechariah made a little prophecy about John. What's circumcise? It was a ritual for baby boys before there was Baptism. Well, what happened? Ask your parents. Zechariah said, "you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins... And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel." We'll see how John fulfilled this prophecy in a couple of weeks, this is a good stopping point.

See you back here in two weeks! Are we going to have a Christmas party? You mean during classtime? No indeed, but let's all bring fun stuff to eat, we'll have an un-party. And of course I'll see y'all at Mass next Wednesday for the Immaculate Conception. Come tell me hello afterwards and I'll say nice things about you to your parents.

At the top: The Annunciation (1898) by the American artist Henry Owassa Tanner. 

Lecture Bible

I have what I call my 'regular' Bible, which is a cheap Bible that is a mess of dogears, stains, highlighting, pen & pencil notes, stickytabs, tape. It's good for study, but lousy for class: full of distractions. To avoid teaching from its encrusted pages, for years I've simply printed out the verses I need for a given class in the order I'll use them. That's fine, but then I teach from a piece of paper instead of the Bible; it's not the same for 6th-graders. They need to see The Book Itself be held; pages turned; words read.

This year I've dropped  paper printouts and have a second Bible, the Lecture Bible, for class. It's the same as the Regular Bible, but new, i.e., a new copy of the same NAB edition. I only mark in it what will be used in class. Here it is opened to Isaiah 53, part of the Isaiah-through-Malachi classes:

First, notice the numbered stickytabs at the top: those are the passages for this class, numbered in the order that I'll refer to them. If I fumble around more than 5 seconds to get to the next passage, the kids start to zone out, hence the idiot-proof numbers. There are 10 total tabs for this class; I arrange them so I can see the next number if possible. Tabs at the bottom are from prior classes; I will reuse them at least once. In the meantime they are out of the way, but can still be referred to.

Also see how tidy this page is: highlighting is limited to exactly what I'll be reading during class. Only what's relevant, and what we have time for. This page in the Regular Bible is a mess: good for preparation, bad for class.

With these numbered stickytabs on clean pages I'll have at least one full 55-minute period of smooth teaching and discussion, and if we run over (as we did this year), we simply continue in the next period.

The Modern Century

No, not the 20th; and no, not the 21st. I mean the 19th century, the 1800s.

I never tire of reflecting on the speed with which the West develops ideas; that is, not so much the ideas themselves, but how the West grabs an idea and runs with it. For example, in 30 years, the West went from this:

to this:

And in 25 more years to this:

A virtual eyeblink.  And while 20th century aerospace is fascinating, these examples are shown only to introduce a more beguiling process in the 19th: the development of music.

You don't need to listen to these all the way through, just enough to get a sense of what geniuses imagined music could be at different points in the 1800s. They are all piano pieces, partly to focus on the music rather than the instruments; but also so you can hear the newer ideas being played with the same 88 keys by the successive composers. In other words the development isn't technical (like airplanes), but imaginative.

First up is the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata from 1801.

Followed by Frederic Chopin's Berceuse (lullaby) from 1844.

And from 1888, Arabesque #1 by Claude Debussy.

Can you hear these men standing on the shoulders of their predecessors, each making music that the prior generation could not have imagined? That's the sound of the West at work.

I never get over the fact that the Arabesque is a 19th century composition. Its sensibility seems better matched to my life than to Teddy Roosevelt's. It's still a mystery to me how Debussy could conceive of such music, and a bit surprising that it didn't kill him; like seeing the face of God, which I expect all artists glimpse from time to to time.

This post is linked to Sunday Snippets.

Pilgrims and Passover

This year's Thanksgiving reflection before grace:

"Y'all may remember from last year's Thanksgiving that the Pilgrims saw themselves as New Covenant Chosen People, whose experience paralleled that of the Israelites leaving Egypt and making a new life for themselves in the Promised Land. Not only was this true in general terms, but specifically so with respect to Thanksgiving.

Here's how Exodus describes observing the Passover:

“This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual ordinance”

And the first instruction for the New World's Thanksgiving (1619):

"We ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."  You can see how the writer alludes to Passover in his phrasing for the Thanksgiving memorial.

Let's also recall that  the first Thanksgiving held at the Plymouth Colony in 1621 was attended by a mere 53 survivors of the original 102 Pilgrims. In comparing our current misfortunes, both personal (ICU) and national, to those of 1621, we can be sure that we have much to be thankful for."

Grace follows.

This post is linked to Sunday Snippets.

Thanksgiving Encore

I gave this reflection at my extended family's 2009 Thanksgiving dinner; it was well-received and I can't use it again:

http://platytera.blogspot.com/2009/11/puritans-grace.html

Who's in Charge?

This post has been linked to Amazing Catechists

 

Y'all remember last class we talked about the Christmas Prophet...Isaiah! Yes. We have a couple more of his prophecies to look at.

In this one Isaiah is telling the Jews to cheer up, God is going to make things better. I like this passage, because it shows that although God is masculine, and is our father, that he loves his children like a mother as well:

"Sing for joy...For the LORD has comforted his people...14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me." 15 "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. 16 See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name." Isn't that sweet? It reminds me of how my wife loves our children, even though they are mostly adults now. Then Isaiah says, "All [your enemies] come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall be arrayed with them all as adornments, like a bride you shall fasten them on you."  (Is 49)  I like that part because it reminds me of how beautiful my wife was at our wedding. Just look at this picture, isn't that great, boys? No! Girls? I think y'all look cute!  Thank you! Boys, I'm tellin' ya, wise up: this is the future...your future.

So whenever God talks about his people being his children or his bride, I know just what he means.

Now, y'all may remember from last week Isaiah prophesied that: God was coming; a Messiah, an Anointed One, a king was coming, but he was a talking, persuading king, not a fighting king; and his kingdom would be made of all nations, all peoples, not just the Jews. God also describes this Messiah as his servant:

"Behold my servant, ...in whom I am pleased; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations....Behold, the old things have come to pass, and new things I now declare...Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high." That all sounds pleasant; but then Isaiah says, "...many were astonished at him-- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men..." What's that mean, marred? Like...dented? Yes, let's say damaged, beat-up. Again: "..his appearance was so marred, beyond human [re]semblance" What's that mean? He's so beat up he doesn't look like a person?  Yes, people were mean to the servant; that seems odd. "[And] he shall he sprinkle many nations." (Is 42) Who sprinkles people? Priests! Yes, with...Blood! and...Water! Yes, so if God's servant will sprinkle many nations, then he must be a...priest? Yes. And when a priest sprinkles you what does it show? You got your sins forgiven. Yes, you were cleansed of your sins. And this servant will sprinkle "many nations," not just the Chosen Ones...which is also odd.

Isaiah says so much about this "suffering servant" that we can only look at a few things...please, don't thank me. All this is from Chapter 53: "He was...avoided by men, a man of suffering...One of those from whom men hide their faces...and we held him in no esteem.Yet it was...our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted." Smitten means hit, like with a fist or a weapon. "But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed."  If someone has been "smitten" why would he have "stripes"? 'Cause he was whipped? Yes, good. "We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all." That seems unfair. "...he was harshly treated...Like a lamb led to the slaughter...he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away...he was cut off from the land of the living and smitten for the sin of his people...though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood." Poor servant, why should he suffer for other people's sins? But here's the good part: "Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Because he surrendered himself to death...he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses." So, who was unjustly put to death and took away other people's sins? Jesus? Yes. All this prophecy is about Jesus. We'll come back to Isaiah as we discuss the Gospels, and see how Jesus fulfilled so many prophecies.

Well, we've covered a lot of Isaiah's prophecies; now let's hear a story from Isaiah before we move on to Jeremiah. It's not a parable, though, it's real. Hmmm...I already need a volunteer! Get up here & stand by me! Your name is Shebna, Shebna. OK class, my name is Hezekiah. I'm the king of Judah, and he isn't, so I have all the power, and he...doesn't have any! That's right. But being the king, do I want to run around the kingdom all day collecting taxes and taking care of business, or do I want to lounge around the palace and eat pizza? You want to lounge around the palace and eat pizza!  That's right! Boy, y'all are smart. And even if liked running the kingdom I might have to leave town to visit other kings, or lead the army, or maybe I'd get sick sometimes...I'm just not going to be available 24/7...[I put my arm around my powerless volunteer] dear me, what shall I do? Make him your helper!  Now, there's an idea...does that suit you, Shebna? Yes! OK, Shebna, you're going be my prime minister...anyone know what a prime minister is? Like the president? Ummm...sort of. More like the vice-president. Who's the head of England? The Queen? Yes, Queen...Elizabeth. Yes. Queen Elizabeth has a whole lot of ministers, each one's in charge of something: the army, the navy, the treasury, stuff like that. She lets them use her authority to do all the things she doesn't have time to do. They don't have any power of their own, just however much of the Queen's power that she lends them. And she has one minister who is in charge of all the rest: the prime minister. If she's traveling the world he is in charge of all the rest while she's gone.

Shebna, I won't be here often and I'm leaving you in charge [I take out my key wallet & show the contents]. Here's my palace key, my chariot key, my castle key, my credit card, my bank card, and my library card. Take care of everything for me [I put the wallet on his shoulder]. Class, have I put someone in charge? Yes, Shebna! How do you know? You put your wallet on his shoulder. Yes...why didn't I just slip it in his pocket? So we could see. Yes. Now I won't give my wallet just to anyone...only to...someone you trust! Yes!

As it turns out, Shebna started using his position to make himself rich. Isaiah says, "Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, "Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here and whom have you here, that you have built here a tomb for yourself, you who make a tomb on the height, and carve a habitation for yourself in the rock?" See, Shebna has bought him himself a very fancy tomb to be buried in; God only knows what else he's done..he...can't...be...trusted! Yes!

[I address Shebna] "Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you, 18 and whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there shall be your splendid chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down from your station."  Shebna, you're fired [I take back my wallet]! Go sit down. Dear me, if I fire Shebna how will stuff get tended to? Get another prime minister! Can I do that? Yes! You're right, the prime minister-ship is an office; he's an official. I'll just get a new one. OK, I need another volunteer, get up here, your name is Eliakim.

"...I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe (hand it over), and will bind your belt on him (hand it over as well), and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah." [I act these things out on Eliakim] Class, how should I show you Eliakim's in charge now? Put your wallet on his shoulder! Yes! Isaiah says, "And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open." [I put the wallet on Eliakim's shoulder] So when someone in the Bible gives someone else a key...he's putting them in charge! Yes, geniuses! Go sit down, Eliakim, and give me back my wallet!

That's all for Isaiah, let's learn about our next prophet, Jeremiah. I will be reading from Jeremiah! yes, the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was born about 650 years before Jesus. By comparison, the Pilgrims came to America about 400 years ago. In Jeremiah's day, Judah had been conquered by a new, bigger enemy, Babylon, which had beaten the old enemy, Assyria. The king and the people had returned to their old bad habits, worshiping the baby-eating false god Baal, and taking the LORD for granted. Jeremiah tries to warn Judah that even worse may happen:

The LORD tells Jeremiah, "Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word...Amend your ways and your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place." What's the house of the LORD? The temple?  Yes, built by...Solomon?  Yes. In what city? Jerusalem!  Yes. And remember, the seraph, the burning one, purged Isaiah's lips where? In the Temple? Yes. Jeremiah goes on to say, "4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' Of course it's obvious that Jeremiah is standing at "the temple of the LORD," so what's his point? No guesses, that's OK. He means that if the Judeans keep misbehaving, the temple won't save them, won't make any difference. And worse, he won't let them "dwell in this place," Judea. "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not shed innocent blood in this place...then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever." How would the Judeans "shed innocent blood in this place"? Umm, by sacrificing babies? Yes, I think so. How awful.  "Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house...only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of thieves in your eyes?"  Imagine if your house, or our church, was turned into den of thieves; why should God put up with that? He shouldn't! Right; Jeremiah says: "Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, says the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to this house...as I did to Shiloh." What happened at Shiloh? Everybody got killed! Yes, more or less: Eli, the high priest died; his bad sons died, and his daughter-in-law died. Even worse, what was captured? The Ark! Yes. God abandoned Shiloh and never dwelled there again, due to all the sinful behavior.

So, did the Judeans listen to Jeremiah? No! Of course not. Jerusalem was a huge, fortified city with a spectacular Temple, not some bump-in-the-road like Shiloh with a moth-eaten old Meeting Tent. Get real, Jeremiah. But within a few years Judea rebelled against Babylon, and was crushed. The people were hauled off as captives to Babylon, the Temple was demolished, and Jerusalem was left desolate, just...like...Shiloh! Yes, worse than Shiloh.

But the Judeans were humbled by their defeat, and inclined to repent. Jeremiah offered them hope: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. "  Remind me please, what covenant do the Judeans have with God? No guesses...it's the one they made when "I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt" The one with Moses? Yes, we call it the Mosaic Covenant. And God is Israel's husband, that makes Israel his bride, and I can imagine how he loves her and how his heart breaks when she isn't faithful.  "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people..." Where did God write the Law he gave the Israelites? On the tablets? Yes, on stone tablets. And now "I will write it upon their hearts." Which is the better place to write laws, stone or hearts? Hearts. Why? Because then you believe it?  Umm, sort of; if someone's name is "written on my heart" then...you love them! Yes. So law written on one's heart is based on...love? Yes. That's how parents are with kids. Parents don't want to make up a bunch of rules; they want you to obey them because...we love them. Yes. And because they love you- just like God. Finally Jeremiah says,"I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." That's like parents, too. I forget most of the bad things my kids have done, just as my parents have forgotten the bad stuff I did. Parents and God are alike: they both want to forgive the children they love, but the kids...have...to...be sorry! Yes. They have to repent.

Our next prophet is Ezekiel. How many more prophets are there? Well in our class, after Ezekiel there are only two more, Daniel and Malachi, but none of them take as long as Isaiah. OK. We're only going to look at one thing Ezekiel said...but first, tell me about Naaman and the Jordan river. He had leprosy and washed it off in the river. Yes, and did his sins get washed away, too? No, just the leprosy. Yes, physical healing, but not spiritual. Now listen to Ezekiel's prophecy, he was in Babylon, and wanted the Judeans to feel better about going home someday: "For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land." That would make me feel better; but he goes on:  "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Being sprinkled clean from idol worship isn't physical, it's spiritual, yes, getting cleaned from...sin. Yes. Do people ever have their sins washed away by water in church? Yes, at baptism. Yes. And when that happens it's like getting a new spirit and a heart of flesh. Y'all may not know that on the night before Easter there's a Mass called the Easter Vigil. Lots of adults get baptized at that Mass, it's pretty interesting. When you're older and can stay awake, get your parents to take you. Seeing them get baptized always reminds me of Ezekiel's prophecy.

On to Daniel. Daniel lived in Babylon with the captive Judeans; who knows the story about Daniel and the Lions' Den? The king put him in there with the lions but they didn't eat him. Right, that was the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Well, one day Daniel had a vision of God judging all the earthly kingdoms that had oppressed Israel at one time or another; they appeared as fantastic beasts. "And as I looked, the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. 12 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away...13 I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days (that's God) and was presented before him. 14* And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away..." So after all the earthly kingdoms are swept away, a "Son of Man" comes on heavenly clouds, and is given a never-ending kingdom that includes "all peoples," as Isaiah would say. Who does that sound like? Jesus! Yes. Not only is that prophecy about Jesus, but when Jesus is arrested  after the Last Supper, he quotes Daniel's prophecy. But all that comes later on.

At long last we're down to our last prophet. Don't cry, but class is over for tonight, so we'll pick up next week with Malachi.

See you next week!

In Flanders Fields

In case you didn't read this last April, it's appropriate for today:

http://platytera.blogspot.com/2010/04/bloody-wipers.html

And there's also this rock'n'roll treatment of the elegaic poem, In Flanders Fields:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqSejdRvevc the words vary a bit from the original, and are online.

The original poem:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.