Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 23, 2020              (today’s lectionary)
Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner
As Secretary of the US Treasury, Steven Mnuchin has survived three plus years under President Donald Trump. His longevity might be a near miracle. Mnuchin’s humility has been evident at times, and I think of his most famous predecessors, Henry Morgenthau under FDR, Salmon Chase under Lincoln, and of course the least humble of them all, Alexander Hamilton under George Washington.
After shaping the New Deal and Morgenthau Plan to rehabilitate Nazi Germany, Henry was summarily fired by Harry Truman the first chance he got. Salmon Chase tried to resign several times, and eventually Lincoln accepted. Lincoln said about his secretary that he was “never perfectly happy unless he is thoroughly miserable and able to make everyone else just as uncomfortable as he is.” And of course nowadays Lin Manuel-Miranda has made sure we all know Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.
But Shebna? Who the heck was he?
Shebna was King Hezekiah’s secretary of the treasury. Someone important, obviously. But not as important as he thought he was.
I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station.
In the 1950’s an archaeologist translated an inscription found on a rock tomb in Israel. Shebna had quietly carved for himself a beautiful tomb from solid rock. God was not pleased with Shebna’s secret pride and sent Isaiah to call him out. In fact Isaiah threw him out and installed Eliakim to be King Hezekiah’s second finance minister.
I will clothe Eliakim with your robe and gird him with your sash.
When he opens, no one will shut, when he shuts, no one will open.
The inscription read “There is no silver or gold here, only bones and the bones of his slave-wife too.” The name is partially obscured, but many scholars believe this is Shebna’s tomb, ironically, a tomb he never inhabited once he had been banished from Hezekiah’s court.
The Lord sees the humble and knows the proud from afar.
His kindness endures forever.
Lord, do not forsake the work of your hands.
Not OUR hands, as the prayer goes in Psalm 90. But YOUR hands, God’s hands, the Creator’s hands, and also by the way his eyes, which are never only on the sparrow. God’s eyes saw straight into Shebna’s motives and his secrets.
Lord Acton’s famous “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” might just have come from one of these God-centered psalms. God knows us well, and is regularly frustrated with us. God will not be mocked, although he regularly is. Even in my regular, predictable betrayals however, God works deep inside me to turn me around.
Come to me, come back to me!
I for one do not always heed your call, Lord. Some hunger deep inside me strives endlessly to understand and control the workings of my life, and then the lives of those around me, and then the life of the universe. Beyond a certain point that is not my job and is impossible for me. Finding the “certain point” between control and surrender, between taking responsibility and letting it go, is a major task that will occupy me all my life.
How inscrutable and unsearchable are his judgments and his ways.
This should not be the subject of debate.
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Calm down and carry on. Seek understanding, but then relax, let it go. Be still and know.
From him, and through him, and for him are all things.
To him be glory forever.
As he did with Eliakim, Jesus anointed Peter with power to move heaven and earth. He did NOT call Peter or Eliakim any of those super-anointed names reserved for the Messiah, for Yahweh, for the Holy Spirit. And I am sure Jesus earnestly hoped that neither Peter nor his successors would be corrupted by their power. Right? How much does God know, and when does he know it? I guess that’s a question for theology as well as for the FBI.
How satisfied can Jesus be with the way Peter and I have handled our freedom and our power? Well, I don’t know. It’s hard for me to imagine the unconditional love of God when I ignore him or supersede him, when I ignore my brother and sister, when I spend money and time on myself but not the good of others.
But I don’t have to imagine it, I only need to talk to God about these things, and sit there to receive forgiveness. In fact, that does take time and I don’t do it nearly often enough. But the Jesus Prayer rescues my perishing time and time again.
Jesus, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
This prayer moves mountains of guilt off my chest. God’s forgiveness cleans me up and prepares me for another day, hopefully one in which my blasted pride and arrogant certainties will not take center stage. But if they do, then I will simply pray again.
           (Isaiah 22, Psalm 138, Romans 11, Matthew 16)
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