Wednesday, August 12, 2020            (today’s lectionary)
The truth of Thao
The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is “thau.” On ancient excavated Samaritan coins, this “thau” resembles a cross. That’s good enough for me. God gave Ezekiel a vision of the suffering Messiah, even as he placed that mark on the heads of those who suffered for him on this day in Jerusalem.
The Lord cried loud for me to hear!
The killers came toward the city, with a man dressed in linen in their midst.
Mark a “thao” on the foreheads of those who moan and groan with grief at all of these abominations.
Theo, Vincent Van Gogh’s brother, suffered along with Vincent, sometimes with him, sometimes away with his wife in Paris reading Vincent’s agonized missives from the south of France. The mark of Thao was on Theo’s brother’s forehead also, or might have been. Vincent had been a bipolar servant of the Lord in Holland, then in Paris, then in Arles, a minister, a potato-eater, a painter without parallel, a madman, a wild and crazy servant of the Lord.
Sounds like an artistic Ezekiel to me.
God spoke to the killer angels:
Do not touch any marked with the “thau.”
Follow the man in white linen through the city, and begin at the temple.
Defile my temple and fill the courts with the slain.
Do not look on them with pity.
Show no mercy to old men, maidens, women and children – wipe them out.
Never enough suffering servants, never enough crosses marked on foreheads, never enough thao flowing through the lives of God’s saints and sinners. But there are always some. And God’s creativity knows no end. God will turn five into five thousand.
Up above it all was the glory of the God of Israel.
Turn back, O man! Forswear thy foolish ways. Even in death it is never too late for reconciliation with our Father.
From the rising to the setting of the sun
The name of the Lord is praised.
Who is like him?
Jesus will not have us settle into acceptable sin, not in our soul, nor in our society. He gives us a clear protocol to follow when sin occurs. And then he honors those who do not settle for sin, as he commends them:
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
About forgiveness he said,
Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
And then Jesus calls us to come together. Let us break bread together on our knees.
If two of you agree on earth about anything and pray for it,
It shall be granted unto you.
The great succor for martyrs is the presence of Jesus with them. Jesus spoke of this, teaching us not just to come together for worship, but even under the Coliseum, listening for the lions. He will certainly be there too.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name,
There am I in your midst.
Cyprian, a great pastor in Carthage during the plague of 250 AD when many Christians were being blamed and martyred, bolstered the courage of his congregation with these words, “These are trainings for us, not deaths. They give the mind the glory of fortitude, and by contempt of death they prepare us for the crown” (Christian History #135, p. 14).
           (Ezekiel 9, Psalm 113, 2 Corinthians 5, Matthew 18)
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