Friday, September 19, 2014 (Theodore of Tarsus; Ember Day)

Friday, September 19, 2014 
(Theodore of Tarsus, 690; Ember Day)

Judith 4:1-15 

You might not be very familiar with the book of Judith. And I’ll be honest... neither am I. (I've included today's reading at the bottom of this entry, in case your Bible doesn't have it.) Judith is part of what we call the Apocrypha: books that we consider secondary to the Hebrew Scriptures, but quite possibly interesting, helpful, and edifying. Many of the apocryphal books were popular with early Christian thinkers and Jews (even though they’re not canonical for them, either). Though we’re just ‘assigned’ a portion of the book, I intend to take a deeper plunge into the book and report back later this month. In the bit of research I’ve done, it sounds like a blast. Considered an early Jewish novel, it has suspense and adventure and a strong heroine in Judith. There are also obvious historical errors (Nebuchadnezzar was Babylonian, not Assyrian), which scholars think are intentional, as if the author is playing with history like Shakespeare did. But art can deal in truths that transcend mere facts, as a certain eccentric German filmmaker is known to say. 

Judith 4 works well with today’s remembrance of the 7th century Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus, as well as today’s status as an Ember Day (a day set aside for special prayer and discipline). As the Israelites are shaken by the prospect of war all the people -- and even the cows -- come together to pray and fast. It is quite an image... indeed, a communal sign I would love to see in our Church some day. Theodore of Tarsus was tasked with looking after a Church that was enduring growing pains. In 663-4 the Synod of Whitby took place which determined, basically, that the Anglo Saxon Church would adopt Roman (rather than Celtic) practice. However, just because a big conference made a decision, it didn’t mean that everyone went along with it right away. Such things take time. Theodore walked into a church in transition, and his vibrant personality and administrative skills helped to set the Church on more solid ground. He had learned English before arriving, and then went about getting to know the land and the people. He made changes to dioceses and ensured that people were well looked after. 

While we, a people who have rediscovered the gifts of Celtic spirituality, might wonder how things would have turned out had the Synod of Whitby decided differently, there’s a good chance that any institutional church body with power, and made up of human beings, would have fallen prey to certain errors, as the Roman church certainly did. But we can’t forget the gifts of that tradition, such as Benedictine monasticism -- something else that many lay folk have discovered in recent years. Theodore of Tarsus was an influential and dynamic thinker and doer who helped bring about a more common vision among our spiritual ancestors. In recent months at our own parish of St. John’s we’ve been blessed by some gifted people who are having a profound impact on our life as a worshipping community. May we have faith in a God who will equip us, not just for survival, but for ministry in the world. And may our leaders be as passionate and resourceful as Theodore of Tarsus. 

“The Lord heard their prayers and had regard for their distress...” 

- Matthew Kieswetter

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When the Israelites living in Judaea heard how Holofernes, general-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians, had treated the various nations, plundering their temples and destroying them,

² they were thoroughly alarmed at his approach and trembled for Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lordtheir God.

³ They had returned from captivity only a short time before, and the resettlement of the people in Judaea and the reconsecration of the sacred furnishings, of the altar, and of the Temple, which had been profaned, were of recent date.

⁴ They therefore alerted the whole of Samaria, Kona, Beth-Horon, Belmain, Jericho, Choba, Aesora and the Salem valley.

⁵ They occupied the summits of the highest mountains and fortified the villages on them; they laid in supplies for the coming war, as the fields had just been harvested.

⁶ Joakim the high priest, resident in Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the inhabitants of Bethulia and of Betomesthaim, two towns facing Esdraelon, towards the plain of Dothan.

⁷ He ordered them to occupy the mountain passes, the only means of access to Judaea, for there it would be easy for them to halt an attacking force, the narrowness of the approach not allowing men to advance more than two abreast.

⁸ The Israelites carried out the orders of Joakim the high priest and of the people's Council of Elders in session at Jerusalem.

⁹ All the men of Israel cried most fervently to God and humbled themselves before him.

¹⁰ They, their wives, their children, their cattle, all their resident aliens, hired or slave, wrapped sackcloth round their loins.

¹¹ All the Israelites in Jerusalem, including women and children, lay prostrate in front of the Temple, and with ashes on their heads stretched out their hands before the Lord.

¹² They draped the altar itself in sackcloth and fervently joined together in begging the God of Israel not to let their children be carried off, their wives distributed as booty, the towns of their heritage destroyed, the Temple profaned and desecrated for the heathen to gloat over.

¹³ The Lord heard them and looked kindly on their distress. The people fasted for many days throughout Judaea as well as in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.

¹⁴ Joakim the high priest and all who stood before the Lord, the Lord's priests and ministers, wore sackcloth round their loins as they offered the perpetual burnt offering and the votive and voluntaryofferings of the people.

¹⁵ With ashes on their turbans they earnestly called on the Lord to look kindly on the House of Israel.