Tuesday, April 30, 2013 Day 114 – II Samuel 13-15, Psalm 94, Acts 9 Kathleen Gannon
II Samuel, Chapter 13 is one of the most difficult chapters in the scripture, I think. Tamar, tricked, raped, abandoned. Add incest and revenge, and you have a clearly callous viewpoint on this story. No outrage, no justice. In the footnotes of The New Oxford Annotated Bible (4th edition) the commentators call this “…a measure for measure punishment of David. He appropriated Bathsheba and arranged for Uriah’s death, so rape and death are unleashed against his house.” And the comments go on to say that it may not have been quite that, but rather “…this story may have been unconnected to the Bathsheba event and served to introduce Absalom’s revolt.”
The narration in II Samuel 13 is all about the men and the politics. Even the words in the footnotes, I find offensive. ‘appropriated Bathsheba’? …the ‘Bathsheba event’?
What is wrong with this picture?
In The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response, Episcopal priest, The Rev. Dr. Pamela Cooper-White says, "Even the poignancy of Tamar's humiliation is drawn out for the primary purpose of justifying Absalom's later murder of Amnon, and not for its own sake" (p. 29 in the 2012 Second Edition).
The story of Tamar needs to be heard for its own sake. That this story is included in our scripture reminds us that women were indeed chattel and in many parts of the world are still treated as possessions and not people, even today.
In the nearly two decades between the publishing of Cooper-White’s first edition in 1995 and the second edition in 2012, much progress has been made in the area of women’s rights and protection in cases of all kinds of violence, including domestic violence. But as the church, we must still be aware that sexual violence against women is a real and present danger. In addition, the trafficking of young girls and women is the second largest organized crime behind drug trafficking.
At St. Paul’s in Delray we have three events planned to raise awareness of the issues of human trafficking… May 11th our Brotherhood of Saint Andrew will offer the documentary Sex + Money, to engage the men of our church in the dialogue of awareness and prevention. On June 9th and 10th Becca Stevens from Thistle Farms will be with us for a series of events. In June we will offer a training by Shared Hope International… stay tuned to our web site for details. www.StPaulsDelray.org.
In counterpoint to the II Samuel chapters we also read Acts 9 today. The story of ‘Saul to Paul’ is one we hear annually at St. Paul’s on the occasion of our patronal celebrations which includes our Annual Meeting and Festive Meal in January. Saul has persecuted the followers of The Way, yet God found a way to redeem Paul with a bold of lightning and a healing from blindness. I have read nothing about S/Paul being involved in rape or incest. Can God’s forgiveness really extend that far? The immensity of God’s ability to forgive is clear. And, our ability to forgive is surely a gift from God.
II Samuel, Chapter 13 is one of the most difficult chapters in the scripture, I think. Tamar, tricked, raped, abandoned. Add incest and revenge, and you have a clearly callous viewpoint on this story. No outrage, no justice. In the footnotes of The New Oxford Annotated Bible (4th edition) the commentators call this “…a measure for measure punishment of David. He appropriated Bathsheba and arranged for Uriah’s death, so rape and death are unleashed against his house.” And the comments go on to say that it may not have been quite that, but rather “…this story may have been unconnected to the Bathsheba event and served to introduce Absalom’s revolt.”
The narration in II Samuel 13 is all about the men and the politics. Even the words in the footnotes, I find offensive. ‘appropriated Bathsheba’? …the ‘Bathsheba event’?
What is wrong with this picture?
In The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response, Episcopal priest, The Rev. Dr. Pamela Cooper-White says, "Even the poignancy of Tamar's humiliation is drawn out for the primary purpose of justifying Absalom's later murder of Amnon, and not for its own sake" (p. 29 in the 2012 Second Edition).
The story of Tamar needs to be heard for its own sake. That this story is included in our scripture reminds us that women were indeed chattel and in many parts of the world are still treated as possessions and not people, even today.
In the nearly two decades between the publishing of Cooper-White’s first edition in 1995 and the second edition in 2012, much progress has been made in the area of women’s rights and protection in cases of all kinds of violence, including domestic violence. But as the church, we must still be aware that sexual violence against women is a real and present danger. In addition, the trafficking of young girls and women is the second largest organized crime behind drug trafficking.
At St. Paul’s in Delray we have three events planned to raise awareness of the issues of human trafficking… May 11th our Brotherhood of Saint Andrew will offer the documentary Sex + Money, to engage the men of our church in the dialogue of awareness and prevention. On June 9th and 10th Becca Stevens from Thistle Farms will be with us for a series of events. In June we will offer a training by Shared Hope International… stay tuned to our web site for details. www.StPaulsDelray.org.
In counterpoint to the II Samuel chapters we also read Acts 9 today. The story of ‘Saul to Paul’ is one we hear annually at St. Paul’s on the occasion of our patronal celebrations which includes our Annual Meeting and Festive Meal in January. Saul has persecuted the followers of The Way, yet God found a way to redeem Paul with a bold of lightning and a healing from blindness. I have read nothing about S/Paul being involved in rape or incest. Can God’s forgiveness really extend that far? The immensity of God’s ability to forgive is clear. And, our ability to forgive is surely a gift from God.
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