Whatever you say, I will do for you.

 

Thursday, June 29, 2023


Psalm 145

1 Samuel 19:18-20:11

Acts 13:13-25


Observance: Peter and Paul, apostles and martyrs


Whatever you say, I will do for you.


Raising a young boy means I get to go back to the old classics and meet all my old friends from when I was growing up. Enid Blyton’s series of tales describing the exploits and adventures of Robin Hood and his Merry Men is, I am bemused to admit, one of the best pieces of narrative writing I have read in a long time as an adult. What today’s reading from 1 Samuel, digging into the relationship between David and Jonathon, has brought to mind, is the twin concept of honourable loyalty. Whether Blyton was writing the Merry Men as a reflection of her time, or as a lesson for little boys and girls to learn from, is a reflection for another time. But the attitude of those Merry Men towards their master Robin is something only a Christian could write.


Decrying the evils of modern individualism is cliché. There is much to say that is positive about emphasising the dignity of the individual man or woman made in the image of God. The danger lies in losing what we have inherited from the attitudes of past generations towards loyalty. Because loyalty involves some sort of willing self-humiliation; there is an emptying of one’s own pride and autonomy for the sake of the other.


This may be a paradox. There may be something contradictory between maintaining the dignity of the individual on the one hand while on the other hand lauding the diminishment of the individual for the sake of someone else.


But this paradox is resolved for the Christian when we consider God’s role. The Lord God, Yahweh, is totally unique: the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Yet the Second Person of Yahweh, Jesus, did not consider His Godhood as something to be grasped, and so emptied Himself in order to become incarnate; to serve us as one of us. This is our inherent dignity as individual human beings: that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him may not die. And now, because the Son was obedient unto death, even death on a cross, He has been raised as Lord of all, and we are to deny ourselves, pick up our own cross, and follow Him. Dear Jesus, whatever you say, I will do for you.

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