July 3
The Old Order Must Change
Psalm 48;2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10;2 Corinthians 12:2-10;Mark
6:1-13
Samuel and Mark are almost like contrapuntal music. We can
only judge what is abnormal by having experienced the normal.
David goes from glory to glory. "All the tribes of
Israel" come to him, citing his great works and his evident
acceptance by the Lord. The old order is rejected. David
"became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts,
was with him."
The psalm carries forward this triumphal note: "Thy right
hand is filled with victory." The pilgrim is bidden,
"Walk about Zion, go all around it. Count its towers,
consider well its ramparts; go through its citadel that you may
tell the next generation that this is God."
Whether the ruler is Saul or David or the president of the
United States, the old order changes but remains distressingly
the same.
Then great David’s greater Son strides into history. To
read Mark 6:1-13 against 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, is to realize
something new has entered history. Like David, he came of bone
and flesh. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of
Mary?" A later teller of the Story than Mark was to say,
"He came unto his own, and his own received him not."
Sometimes we don’t want the old order to change. We have
become very comfortable with it—or we have come to hallow
it. Notice that Mark sets Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth in
the religious place.
The disciples were to go without providing for the morrow,
proclaiming that all should repent. All? They looked different
from the old order, and their message was different. Gone was the
proud boast of the towers, the ramparts, and the citadels.
Small wonder they took offense at Jesus. If the new does not
offend, it may be we have not truly heard, or we have quickly
absorbed it into what we already understand.
The new order has its temptations, too, as Paul so eloquently
and agonizingly illustrates. Jesus taught by word and example
that there is power in weakness, but such is the deviousness of
the old order that the citizens of the New Order can take pride
in their lack of pride.
But Paul hears the marching order of the new order:
"Power [God’s power] is made perfect in weakness [human
weakness]." The promise: Behold, I make all things new.
All things.
VERNA J. DOZIER is an educator and lay theologian in
Washington, D.C. She is the author of The Dream of God: A
Call to Return (Cowley Publications) and The Authority of
the Laity (The Alban Institute).
