The Great Reversal

Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Proper 29, the week of the last Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Old Testament reading:

15For the day of the LORD is near against all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 16For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations around you shall drink; they shall drink and gulp down, and shall be as though they had never been. . . . 21Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

You will find the full text of todays Old Testament reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 994)

AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130

Obadiah 15-21; 1 Pet. 2:1-10; Matt. 19:23-30

David's Reflections

Jesus' beatitudes and some of his parables speak of a double reversal of fortunes--those who have been deprived and oppressed will be delivered and filled while those who have been satisfied and filled while abusing their wealth and power will be brought to poverty and deprivation. (See Luke 6:20-26.) Obadiah's message was that the day of God's final salvation would reverse fortunes in that way.

Obadiah prophesied after the Babylonian Empire had ravaged Judah and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Babylon's wrath was expressed against Judah, a rebellious vassal, by ravaging the capital and taking the leading citizens into captivity. That policy of deportation was intended to make rebellion more unlikely by removing the leaders who could facilitate effective resistance.

Judah's neighbor to the southeast, Edom, took advantage of the helpless Judeans as they were being forced out of Jerusalem, and they may even have collaborated with the Babylonians in despoiling Judah. Hence, Obadiah's oracle predicts that Edom will be treated as she treated Judah when the day of God's final salvation dawns. (See Obadiah 8-9.)

Passages like this one move me because the prophet's oracle itself represents one of God's ways of being with the powerless and sharing their oppression. God not only knows about it but God shares in their plight and suffers it with them. Would that God's intense and consistent love of the powerless and the oppressed would find its way more deeply into our value systems and into our feelings and outlook. God shares in their plight. When we respond to them in love, we are responding to the God who shares their distress.

Would that we were looking behind every piece of our lives, our consumerism, our prosperity, the ease of our live style and asking hard questions. Who really pays for our style of life? Who suffers deprivation that we might maintain it? Are we unknowingly complicit with those who exploit the powerless to provide our clothing and our autos and our coffee and our food at lower and more competitive prices? Are we ignoring the presence of a loving, saving God among the exploited?

The confession of sin in the Episcopal liturgical supplement, Enriching Our Worship I gets at it.

God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you, opposing your will

in our lives. We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves, and in the

world you have created. We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have

done, and the evil done on our behalf. Forgive, restore, and strengthen us through

our Savior Jesus Christ, that we may abide in your love and serve only your will.

Amen.+

What would Obadiah have to say to us? If we could alter even one way in which we are being an Edomite, complicit with the exploiters, that would be progress. Buying coffee from distributors who do not exploit growers or workers would be one example of an anti-Edomite behavior. Dissenting from political and economic policies that exploit and make us unwillingly complicit would be another. Then, once those changes and behaviors are more fixed in our lives, we could move on to another area and make further adaptations. This particular vigilance must be ongoing.

+Enriching Our Worship 1: Morning and Evening Prayer, The Great Litany, The Holy Eucharist. (New York: Church Publishing, 1998), p. 56.

Collect of the Day, The Last Sunday after Pentecost

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 236)

A Collect for Guidance

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP 100)

For the Poor and the Neglected

Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick, and all who have none to care for them. Help us to heal those

who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow into joy. Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 826)

A Prayer for Light

O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)

Daily Office Old Testament Reading, Obadiah 15-21

15For the day of the LORD is near against all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 16For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations around you shall drink; they shall drink and gulp down, and shall be as though they had never been.

17 But on Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall take possession of those who dispossessed them. 18The house of Jacob shall be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor of the house of Esau; for the LORD has spoken. 19Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah shall possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the towns of the Negeb. 21Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer