A Piece of an Ear

Lectio:

Amos 3:12-4:5

¹³ “As a shepherd rescues from the mouth of a lion
a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear;
so the people of Isra’el in Shomron (Samaria) will be rescued,
huddled under cushions in the corners of their beds.

2 Peter 3:1-10

³ First, understand this: during the Last Days, scoffers will come, following their own desires ⁴ and asking, “Where is this promised ‘coming’ of his? For our fathers have died, and everything goes on just as it has since the beginning of creation.”

Matthew 21:23-32

²⁷ So they answered Yeshua, “We don’t know.” And he replied, “Then I won’t tell you by what s’mikhah* I do these things.

*ordination or authority to teach

Meditatio:

And there it is, the image of the poor bloody-handed shepherd panting and gulping down tears with his hands full of mangled body parts, along with the image of bewildered folks blinking from under the cushions they tried to hide behind.

—

And there it is, the image of these poor bleating lambs being driven back and forth by “scoffers” like savagely amused, tongue-lolling wild dogs who won’t stop barking and growling at them.

—

And there it is, the image of these smug lawyers getting caught with their collusion collapsing, and their fancy pants down around their ankles while the bathroom stall door that they thought they locked swings wide open.

Oratorio:

Amos gets brutally graphic. The desperate shepherd is so freaked out about losing a sheep that he rushes in and makes the lion spit out the bits, even though it’s really too late. There’s nothing left worth rescuing. Then Amos gets even more brutal, with a picture of panicked people hiding under the covers of their beds. One translation implies that they will be yanked out of there to safety, cushions, covers, and all, after which they are left to slowly realize that nothing’s left but a corner of their bed and the cushions they’d covered their faces with.  They aren’t in Kansas anymore.

—

Peter tries to be practical. It’s hard to get people to calm down once they’ve gone into a tizzy over something. Even to this day, no tried-and-true way has ever been discovered to get people to start being rational again once they’ve started disregarding things they should know. Things they know perfectly well. Things they would be silly to overlook. And the scoffers bark: “Nothing’s changed! Who cares? You’re clueless! Only an idiot would believe what you believe! Give us a break!” But the poor chumps just keep running right past the open door to the barn, where they would be sheltered from scorn, and safe from harm.

—

Jesus pulls the rug out from under us. He does this all the time, but I don’t think we take the lesson from it that he meant for us to take. If we try to hedge our bets, he’ll dump us on our asses. If we quibble, he’ll take our quibble and rip the corner off, cushions and all, and leave us blinking right out in the open. If we try to duck the issue, he’ll run up and rip our leg bones out of the lion’s mouth and give them a decent burial. If we try to split hairs, he’ll serve us up a toupee on a plate.

—

Contemplatio:

What we don’t know is just the stump of an ear in our bloody hands—

Will everything go on as it always has?

Jesus raises an eyebrow.