Readings for the Day:
Original Manuscript:
There’s a conversation I remember having with my previous bishop, Bishop Sloan. I don’t remember the day or the year or even what we were initially talking about. What I do remember is him mentioning the characters from the Old Testament, the Tanakh, particularly with the Israelites. He confessed something to me: that he often felt he could relate to them in the stories from the Old Testament.
As we talked, I confessed something too. His words had opened in me a realization I had been working to, yet wasn’t quite at until he said those words. For many years, I had read the stories of the Israelites wandering in the desert, complaining against the God who freed them from slavery in Egypt, and I looked down on them. I always felt, “how stupid can they be?” It wasn’t even just them. I felt the same way about Elijah running away from Jezebel into the wilderness after a minor setback from an incredible victory in his career. I felt that way about Peter and all the times in his enthusiasm he says something stupid and wrong.
Yet as I grew older, in fact as I grow older still, I’ve come to see what Bishop Sloan saw in these stories. I no longer see a bunch of stupid, ungrateful people. I see myself. Now I realize that these stories aren’t meant for me to look down on others. They aren’t meant for me to judge other people. These stories are meant to a mirror to hold up to myself to see where I maybe going wrong so that I can fix myself.
Really Scripture is a mirror for all of us to hold up to ourselves. It’s meant as a warning to us so that we don’t fall down the wrong path as so many others before us have.
That is what Paul is saying to the Corinthians, and to us, in the Epistle today. Paul is looking at the behavior of the Corinthians in his time and showing them how similar it is to the ancient Israelites in the Book of Numbers. He even tells them that these things were written down as a warning to them. They can see that the path of sin leads to death and destruction from these stories. These stories offer the Corinthians, as well as us, the chance to stop, reflect, and hopefully change.
Jesus has a similar message in the Gospel this morning. The details of the two stories He refers to are unfortunately lost to time. It is as if we merely have the headlines from the “Galilean Gazette” without the full substance of the story.
In answer to the question, “did these people suffer this way because of something they did wrong”, Jesus answers, “no.” At the same time, He does say that unless the people repent, they will suffer the same fate. It seems that Jesus is saying that unless we turn back to God, unless we turn back to Him, death will be our ultimate fate. Only in putting our full Faith in our Lord can we be restored to new life in Him at the end.
Regardless, Jesus is saying what Paul says too. All of these stories give us something to learn. If we can only listen, if we can only see ourselves in them and understand the road we may be walking down, then maybe our fate can be different. We do have to be open and listen first.
As I continue on the journey of life, I have started to see myself in the characters of the Bible. By that I mean, I see myself complaining to God instead of being grateful like the ancient Israelites. I see myself getting mad and frustrated at God for bad reasons, like Jonah. Sometimes I see myself like Elijah, ready to run away instead of running towards what God has planned for me. I no longer see bad people in the stories of the Bible. Instead I see the worst in myself from them. I imagine that many of you see the worst of yourselves in these stories of Scripture too.
Yet there is hope. In seeing ourselves in these stories, we don’t have to follow the same fate. In fact, we can turn away from them. To do that, though, requires deep listening. It requires turning away from our own path and returning back to God’s. This is the only way to gain our lives back. It is the only way to be made whole. It is the only way for us not to suffer the same fate, but instead live unto the Resurrected Life that Jesus has to offer us all.