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The Meditari SafariThe readings: Two scenes, two kinds of leader. In Exodus, months of work end: the people bring every finished piece of the tabernacle to Moses, the tent, the ark, the lampstand and the priests' clothes, and it's all done just as God commanded. Moses looks it over and blesses them. In Matthew, King Herod throws a birthday party. Herod has jailed John the Baptist for saying his marriage is wrong. His stepdaughter dances, he promises her anything, and her mother tells her to ask for John's head. Herod is upset, but in front of his guests he won't back down. John is killed in prison.
What it means: Moses' people worked together, finished what they were given, and were blessed. Herod had all the power in the room, and he used it to protect his image. He knew killing John was wrong; he "was grieved." But he cared more about his oath and his guests than about doing right. John, with no power at all, told the truth and paid for it. The question for us: are we finishing the good work we were given, or are we, like Herod, sometimes more worried about saving face than doing right?
Across the traditions: the same truth, in other words.
Carry it today: Is there something right you've been avoiding because of what others might think?
This week the RCL has followed the tabernacle from plans to finished work. Today it's done, and Matthew sets beside it a king who built nothing but his own reputation, preparing for tomorrow's question about what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God.
1. All the Work Was Finished
"Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished; the Israelites had done everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses."
2. Moses Saw, and Blessed Them
"When Moses saw that they had done all the work as the Lord had commanded, he blessed them."
3. John and Herod
"Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been telling him, 'It is not lawful for you to have her.'"
4. Out of Regard for His Oaths and Guests
"The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; he sent and had John beheaded in the prison."
5. They Went and Told Jesus
"His disciples came and took the body and buried him; then they went and told Jesus." John's story ends in grief and faithfulness: his followers give him an honorable burial and bring their sorrow to Jesus. Matthew says that when Jesus heard, "he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself" (14:13), and then, when the crowds followed, he fed five thousand people. Herod's banquet ends in death; Jesus' meal in the wilderness ends in abundance. The tabernacle finished in faithfulness and Herod's feast ending in murder are a sharp contrast: what we build with our power either makes room for God and others, or makes room only for ourselves. Tomorrow's Gospel asks the same thing with a coin: what belongs to Caesar, and what belongs to God?
John the Baptist is honored as a martyr for truth, and the finished tabernacle has long been read as a picture of God dwelling with people.
Carry it today: Finish one small piece of good work you've left undone, and bless someone else's finished work with a word of thanks.
Today's readings through Hindu and Jain eyes: Maha Saptami and fearless truth.
Today is Shukla Saptami, the seventh day of the bright half (Shashthi ends at 5:54 AM India time), with the moon moving from Mula into Purva Ashadha (per Indian calendars; exact Chicago times couldn't be confirmed).
What the words mean (all Sanskrit):
Today's readings through a Sikh lens: speaking truth to power.
Hukamnama (the verse drawn each morning from the Guru Granth Sahib at the Golden Temple and read by Sikhs worldwide): Ang 725, Raag Tilang, by Guru Ram Das. It opens, "The Guru, my friend, has told me the stories and the sermon of the Lord" (the rest of the translation couldn't be read today). A teacher who speaks the truth to his friends, the role John played for his disciples.
Today's readings through an Islamic lens: Yahya, the truthful prophet.
6 Jumada al-Ula 1448 (may differ by a day where the moon is sighted locally).
Today's readings through a Jewish lens: Noah, the finished ark, and the Shabbat of completion.
6 Cheshvan 5787, Shabbat Noach. Havdalah in Chicago 6:47 PM.
Today's readings through a Buddhist lens: right speech and right effort.
No uposatha today. Next one: the quarter moon on Monday, October 19 (per the Wat Metta calendar). The rains retreat ends with Pavāraṇā on October 26.
What is Stoicism? A philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium around 300 BC in Athens, named for the painted porch (stoa) where he taught. Its most famous teachers are Epictetus, born into slavery; Seneca, a Roman statesman; and the emperor Marcus Aurelius. The Stoics taught that we can't control events, only our judgments and choices. Their four virtues are wisdom, courage, justice and self-control.
When the emperor Vespasian ordered the senator Helvidius Priscus not to come to the senate, Priscus replied, "It is in your power not to allow me to be a member of the senate, but so long as I am, I must go in." Threatened with death, he answered, "it is your part to kill; it is mine to die, but not in fear." (Epictetus, Discourses 1.2, Long translation.) Epictetus tells this story as a model of keeping one's integrity before power. Priscus was later executed. He, like John the Baptist, understood that a ruler can take your life but not your character. Herod is the opposite: he had the power, but he couldn't stand up to his own guests.
Today's readings through a Bahá'í lens: truthfulness, the foundation.
2 'Ilm 183 B.E., the second day of the month of Knowledge. (B.E. means "Bahá'í Era," counted from 1844.)
The time. Exodus is set around the 13th century BC; the tabernacle chapters belong to the Priestly tradition, probably shaped during or after the Babylonian exile. Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to AD 39. John the Baptist was killed around AD 28–29.
What scholars broadly agree on. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing around AD 93, confirms that Herod Antipas imprisoned and executed John at the fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea. Josephus says Herod feared John's popularity might lead to a revolt, a political reason the Gospels mention but don't stress. Josephus also says many Jews saw Herod's later military defeat as God's punishment for killing John.
What it meant then. Herodias had been married to Herod's half-brother (Josephus calls him Herod; Matthew and Mark call him Philip). Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21 forbade marrying a brother's wife while the brother was alive, so John's charge was grounded in the Law. For Matthew's readers, John's death foreshadows Jesus' own: both are innocent, both are killed by rulers who hesitate but give in.
The allegorical readings. The fathers read the finished tabernacle as a figure of the Church, built from the gifts of many, and of Christ's body. Some read Herod's banquet as the world's feast, ending in death, set against Christ's feast of the loaves, ending in life.
What's debated or unknown. Josephus doesn't mention the dance or the banquet, so some scholars think those details are popular storytelling; others think they preserve real memories. The dancer's name, Salome, comes from Josephus, not the Gospels, and her age is unknown. Scholars also debate how an elaborate tabernacle could have been built in the wilderness, or whether the account describes an ideal.
The week's voices: Rohr on a restless homesickness that pulls us toward God, and on dying as going home; Brené Brown, "Spiritual homesickness has been a constant in my life"; Willie Jennings on untangling his family's story from the Bible's; Diana Butler Bass on the Bible as humanity's search for home. The closing practice follows James Finley pulling over to watch a sunset and sensing that our homesickness echoes God's longing for us. The finished tabernacle is that home, made real. Read it
Br. Geoffrey says Jesus is troubled by hypocrisy because of the harm it does to the one who practices it. "Keeping up appearances can grow into something corrosive to the soul." Herod, grieved but unwilling to lose face before his guests, is today's picture of it. Read it
Drawing on the Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 85), the writer stays sober by asking a Higher Power for sobriety one day at a time, and notes that those who drank again hadn't asked on the day they picked up. Keeping Step Ten daily keeps life in order. Faithful work gets done one day's piece at a time. Read it