2:1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before. 2 So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors' graves, lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What do you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors' graves, so that I may rebuild it." 6 The king said to me (the queen also was sitting beside him), "How long will you be gone, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a date. 7 Then I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may grant me passage until I arrive in Judah; 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, directing him to give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy." And the king granted me what I asked, for the gracious hand of my God was upon me.

9 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent officers of the army and cavalry with me. 10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. 12 Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode. 13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon's Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue. 15 So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest that were to do the work.

17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace." 18 I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, "Let us start building!" So they committed themselves to the common good. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, "What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" 20 Then I replied to them, "The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem." (Nehemiah 2:1-20, NRSV)

While we are in the world (cf. Matthew’s parable, the Weeds among the Wheat, below), we would do well to emulate Nehemiah’s courage and determination, not to mention his faith, “God . . . will give us success” (Neh. 2:20). He requests and is granted permission to travel from the palace in Susa, where he was a servant of the Persian emperor, to Jerusalem, “to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it” (Neh. 2:5). He also requests letters from the emperor (king) which, upon his arrival, disturb the local leaders, Sanballat (governor of Samaria according to a papyrus found in Egypt, A. Jeffery, J. J. Collins, NOAB, 2^nd ed.) And Tobiah (“apparently an Ammonite official in Persian service,” (Jeffrey-Collins). Accompanied by Jewish leaders Nehemiah surveys the situation and encourages rebuilding. The leaders respond with, “Let us start building!” (v. 18) and, in spite of mocking and ridicule from the non-Jewish provincial leaders, he adds: “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you (i.e. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem the Arab) have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem” (v. 20).

4 How the gold has grown dim,

how the pure gold is changed!

The sacred stones lie scattered

at the head of every street.

²The precious children of Zion,

worth their weight in fine gold—

how they are reckoned as earthen pots,

the work of a potter’s hands!

³Even the jackals offer the breast

and nurse their young,

but my people has become cruel,

like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The tongue of the infant sticks

to the roof of its mouth for thirst;

the children beg for food,

but no one gives them anything.

⁵Those who feasted on delicacies

perish in the streets;

those who were brought up in purple

cling to ash heaps.

⁶For the chastisement of my people has been greater

than the punishment of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment,

though no hand was laid on it.

⁷Her princes were purer than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than coral,

their hair like sapphire.

⁸Now their visage is blacker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it has become as dry as wood.

⁹Happier were those pierced by the sword

than those pierced by hunger,

whose life drains away, deprived

of the produce of the field.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women

have boiled their own children;

they became their food

in the destruction of my people.

¹¹The Lord gave full vent to his wrath;

he poured out his hot anger,

and kindled a fire in Zion

that consumed its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth did not believe,

nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,

that foe or enemy could enter

the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³It was for the sins of her prophets

and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous

in the midst of her.

¹⁴Blindly they wandered through the streets,

so defiled with blood

that no one was able

to touch their garments.

¹⁵“Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them;

“Away! Away! Do not touch!”

So they became fugitives and wanderers;

it was said among the nations,

“They shall stay here no longer.”

¹⁶The Lord himself has scattered them,

he will regard them no more;

no honor was shown to the priests,

no favor to the elders.

¹⁷Our eyes failed, ever watching

vainly for help;

we were watching eagerly

for a nation that could not save.

¹⁸They dogged our steps

so that we could not walk in our streets;

our end drew near; our days were numbered;

for our end had come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter

than the eagles in the heavens;

they chased us on the mountains,

they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life,

was taken in their pits—

the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow

we shall live among the nations.”

²¹Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom,

you that live in the land of Uz;

but to you also the cup shall pass;

you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

²²The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished,

he will keep you in exile no longer;

but your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will punish,

he will uncover your sins. (Lamentations 4:1-22, NRSV)

The first sixteen verses of Lamentations, chapter 4, describe the suffering of Jerusalem and her people. Gold and sacred stones have no value, “emphasizing the severity of the suffering” (F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Lam. 4:1). People are cruel (Lam. 4:3, “the children beg for food,” but remain hungry (v. 4). “Happier were those pierced by the sword/than those pierced by hunger” (v. 9). This suffering is due to the LORD’s “wrath . . . his hot anger” (v. 11). The narration changes to first person in verse 17, “a transition into the ‘we’ of the community whose horrible plight has just been graphically depicted” (Dobbs-Allsopp, on vv. 17-22). “Our eyes failed, ever watching/vainly for help” (v. 17).

As noted earlier, the first four chapters of Lamentations are in the form of alphabetic acrostics. With the line, “The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished” (Lam. 4:22), beginning with a taw word, tam (‘accomplished’), the verse “signals the conclusion or completion of the alphabetic acrostic portion of the sequence. Moreover 4:22a forms the mirror image of 1:3a, underscoring the strong sense of closure” (Dobbs-Allsopp, on v. 22). On the acrostic form as used in Lamentations, Dobbs-Allsopp says,

The alphabetic acrostic functions as the material, physical container of this poetry, literally holding each poem’s component verses together and conveying a strong sense of closure through its clear structure and fixed length. Yet the acrostic conveys meaning symbolically as well. The poet’s whole attempt to render the chaos of his world into language, to contain his fragmented lyrics within the frame of the alphabetic acrostic, thus becomes an attempt to control and contain, and ultimately transform, the suffering and hurt that engulfed Jerusalem and its inhabitants” (from the Introduction to Lamentations, NOAB, 3^rd ed.)

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

7:1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, 3 saying, "Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads."

4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel: (Revelation 6:12-7:4, NRSV)

John sees the sixth seal opened (Rev. 6:12-17), which leads to “a great earthquake” (v. 12) and various cosmic catastrophes, for example, “the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit” (v. 23), perhaps meant symbolically to “represent social upheavals and divine judgment on the Day of the Lord” (B. M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on vv. 12-14). Before the opening of the seventh seal (chap. 8), there is a marking of the foreheads of the “one hundred forty-four thousand” redeemed persons (7:1-4), a number which is also symbolic. It does not limit the number of the redeemed, but “symbolizes completeness; not one of the redeemed is missing” (Metzger, on 7:4).

24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' 28 He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.' " (Matthew 13:24-30, NRSV)

Jesus said: The Kingdom of the Father is like a man who had [good] seed. His enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The man did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to them, 'I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and burned. (Gospel of Thomas, no. 57, trans. Thomas O. Lambdin)

Neither Mark nor Luke have a parallel to this parable, but Mark has a parable of a Growing Seed:

26 He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29, NRSV)

Matthew’s parable and the one in the Gospel of Thomas are very similar, but the eschatological interpretation of it (Mt. 13:36-43, the reading for next Monday, Oct. 31, 2005) has no parallel in the Gospel of Thomas, though both refer to separation of the weeds from the wheat and burning the weeds. Mark’s parable of the Growing Seed focuses on surprising growth. “The kingdom of God will surely come to full fruition, just as the seed inevitably sprouts, grows, and produces a harvest (cf. Joel 3:13)” (Richard A. Horsley, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Mk. 4:26-29).

I grew up in the wheat country of western Kansas, where farmers sometimes hired boys to walk through the wheat fields and pull up the rye–usually taller than the wheat–and throw the stalks out of the field. :Perhaps something like that was done in the country that Jesus knew, but the timing is different in his parable. The modern wheat farmer’s harvesting machine (the combine) could not separate the rye from the wheat at the time of harvest, so the separation is done prior to the harvest. But Jesus says, “Let both of them grow together” (Mt. 13:30). Some have seen the parable as reflecting “concern over the character of some members of Matthew’s church” and as teaching tolerance,

but vv. 24-30 do not clearly address a situation in the Christian community. Augustine used this parable to argue against the Donatists, who wanted to exclude the lapsed from the church. 13:36-43, however, quite plainly identifies the field with the world, not the church. (Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Oxford Bible Commentary, 862)

Given the larger context in the Book of Matthew, the parable clearly pictures judgment and separation. The good news is that God does not lightly cast away his people, but does all that he can to redeem them.

Daily Scripture Readings
Friday (October 28, 2005)
Daily Office Lectionary, The Book of Common Prayer, the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.	Daily Lectionary, The Book of Worship, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.	Daily Lectionary, Book of Worship Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, c. 1978 (2002 printing)
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
Unless otherwise indicated, the scripture texts quoted are from The New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers), 1989.
According to Proper25*	According to Proper 25*	According to Proper 24*
Friday: AM Psalm 40, 54 PM Psalm 51 Neh. 2:1-20 Rev. 6:12-7:4 Matt. 13:24-30 St. Simon and St. Jude: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Simon&Jude.htm AM: Psalm 66; Isaiah 28:9-16; Ephesians 4:1-16 PM: Psalm 116, 117; Isaiah 4:2-6; John 14:15-31	Morning: Psalm 84:1-12 Nehemiah 2:1-20 or Lamentations 4:1-22 Revelation 6:12-7:4 Matthew 13:24-30 Evening: Psalm 25:1-22	Morning Pss.: 84, 148 Morning: Psalm 88:1-18 Ezra 3:1-13 or Jeremiah 43:1-13 1 Corinthians 16:10-24 Matthew 12:22-32 Evening Pss.: 25, 40
*For this week (of the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost): the Lutheran tradition remains a week behind the Episcopal and Presbyterian traditions.