Sunday Homily, June 30, 2013, 13th Ordinary Time C
Readings:
1 Kings 19, 16-21, You shall anoint Elisha as prophet to succeed you.
Psalm 16, You are my inheritance, O Lord
Galatians 5, 1, 13-18, You are all called for freedom.
Luke 9, 51-62, I will follow you, Lord, but first…
1 Kings observations
What
A continuation of a larger work, 1 & 2 Samuel, plus 2 Kings.
This is presented as history, but it is a joining together of legends, fables, folktales, and miracle stories. I see this called theological history.
Date
After the Babylonian captivity, therefore around 555 before Christ.
Subject
The book covers 3 events:
– The end of the life of the Great King David,
– The story of his glorious son, Solomon, and his building of
the temple in Jerusalem,
– The famous division of the state into north and south,
Israel and Judah, after Solomon’s death and his weak successors.
Our passage
Coming in chapter 17 you can guess it talks about the third event, the division of the state.
One prophet Elijah is anointing his successor. The presence of prophets signals what? Times are bad and Yahweh is not pleased with the people and leadership for allowing the division.
Sources: Good News Bible, Wikipedia.
The Samaritans
This morning I would like to talk about 2 subjects.
First, the Samaritans. Who were they and why hostility between Jews and them?
Secondly, I have to tell you about an amazing event that happened to me this week.
The Samaritans. These people were and are Jews. They claim to be descendents of some of those 10 lost tribes. Remember the lost tribes?
Take the date 700 years before Christ. There are the two states, Israel in the north and Judah in the south, going back to the time after Solomon when weak kings lost the unity.
700 is the date that the Assyrians (the famous Syria, still in the news because of continued fighting) defeated the state of Israel and scattered the Jewish people, intermarrying with many of them. Some of these Jews survived mostly in Judah.
During the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ, descendents of some of these people did not go to Babylon. They were there when the descendents of those Jews taken from Jerusalem returned.
Hostility developed between the two groups. Each group had developed unique religious customs and each group considered the other to be heretical or bad.
The group supposedly descended from one or more of the 10 lost tribes was called Samaritan. It is also suspected that some of these Jews intermarried with the conquering Assyrians. See why Jesus’ followers often act as if the Samaritans are bad. Remember the story of Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well?
We have a similar situation today. Look at all the Christian sects, Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, and others. Each of these probably considers the others bad. As Catholic kids we were certainly not allowed into a non-Catholic church.
Now for the story. I am a member of Dallas North Rotary, as many of you know. I don’t eat and I miss a lot of meetings, but I love the other members and have known some of them for 20 years.
Tuesday I walked into our meeting and was going around greeting everyone already there. I greeted a lady named Cheryl, who is one of our most active members. After moving around the room, I was passing her again. She says to me, “John, wait.” I stop and she sticks a piece of paper in my hand.
I look and it is a check. I open it and made out to John Stack Ministries is $1000. I am stunned and say something like, “What is this?” She says, “It is for whatever you & your community want.” She says she has had a good month. She is a vivacious real estate agent.
She is not a Catholic and in the old days she probably would have considered us to be Samaritans, bad.
I am humbled by this gift and I will say it again, I am proud to be a member of you people, this community. It is you who are catching the attention of good people.
We will have to put this thousand to work in a special way. I’ve been thinking about Habitat in Granbury, where they are rebuilding 61 Habitat homes destroyed by the May tornado. I would even like to spend a few days working there. Anyone want to go?
So this is the background on Samaritans, the bad folks. Who are the Samaritans in your life?