Ruins at Shiraz: a city in ancient PersiaUpheaval in the Middle East seems to be a human curse. It is a land over which many civilizations – both ancient and modern – have fought, and continue to fight. Today’s Noontimereading is as brutal as any modern headline. Intrigue, slaughter, deception, parlay, betrayal, treaty, treason, murder, truce, assault, skirmish, daring, withdrawal, indignation, victory, defeat, and death – we find all of these in today’s story. We find persuasion but we do not find peace. We see wrangling but we do not see union. We read about standoffs and stand-downs but we do not find true coming together. In this ancient story we might change a few details and find ourselves reading a press release from our favored news source about the conflagration that is the Middle East.
Old tribal fears and alliances govern the lives of those we read about today. Compromise is often seen as a weakness. Honesty is employed only by the foolish. Integrity is not valued. And love of enemy is regarded as idiotic. We also find these clannish tendencies in our own culture despite the fact that we may define ourselves as a mosaic or melting pot or amalgam of ethnicity and customs. Even in our own modern political arena we have the smoking infernos that resemble the fire towers of ancient Persia that we read about here. We will want to study this story in the hope that when we recognize it as our own . . . we will know to turn back to the God who calls us forward together . . . rather than follow the little gods who doom us to our own fiery tower and smoldering pit of ash.
Ahura MazdaCommentary tells us that the tower we see in verse 5 resembles those erected to Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord, who “was the supreme deity of Persian mythology. The Zoroastrians identified him with purifying fire and tended fires on towers as part of their worship”. (“Myth Encyclopedia”) And this leads us to our examination of conscience today as we continue our Lenten journey. What fiery towers to self do we erect? Into what smoldering ash pits do we lead ourselves and others? How do we react to tribalism and the worship of false deities? Do we hate or love our enemies? Do we prefer the fire of self destruction to the salvific love of Christ? Do we seek comfort in our hope to avoid suffering rather than willingly follow the living God whose only focus is our salvation?Today’s narrative is so violent that we might pass it off as an episode in ancient history that deserves only a moment of our time. We might also see it as sectarian violence that takes place only in far off places on the other side of the ocean. We might fool ourselves into thinking that there is nothing here for us to learn. And in this thinking we evade God’s word to us today for when we look closely we can find ourselves. As we enter into interactions with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and strangers we see all the characters of our intimate and public lives: the invader versus the defender, charioteers who ride swiftly through our days swinging swords and mahouts who seat unmoving elephants in our path, foot soldiers who obey and distant leaders who reign over the lowly, Jews and Gentiles, pagans and believers, rebels and loyalists. We brush against these people each day as we move from sun up to sun down, and through it all we have only one question to ask ourselves.Do we throw ourselves from the fiery tower we have built to the gods that have become so important to us that we foolishly take part in daily scenarios that we read about today . . . or do we love our enemies despite the ash pits they build . . . do we ask for peace through our own actions and not just our words . . . and do we love the Living God who saves us more than the tumult of war?
The Noontimes 