Reflection on the Word for the Sunday of February 13, 2022.
Be like a tree planted by the streams of water. - PSALM 1
1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the Lord’s law. On his law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.
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It is said, that maybe until the age of the fusion type nuclear reactors kicks in, and until the other green technologies are incapable to cover the energy needs of the growing cities, the global economy is still based on the oil and the gas consumption. We hope that our dependence on the fossil fuels will change eventually, but until that our economy is still flying on kerosene or shipping on diesel fuel on the oceans and on the rails and on the roads. Still, life in general is based not on oil, neither on methane, but on water.
Nowadays, when planet Mars is frequently visited by space-faring nations like the United States and their adorable pal, the People's Republic of China, having a very friendly competition in the so called space race, Mars still looks like a nuclear wasteland. Despite the grim face of the Martian surface, some dreamers keep hoping to find substantial amount of water there, either in the form of ice or in underground seas.
Without water, life in Earthly terms, is unimaginable. Water has a pivotal and irreplaceable role in maintaining and sustaining life. Just like air, water is indispensable.
Time to time, culture from culture, people tried to regulate the water circulation on Earth. The global weather, including cyclones and hurricanes, was possibly very well regulated in the prehistoric, but by now lost civilizations. Nowadays, they are scientifically closer and closer to that point again, but regarding real efficacy, they are still at nowhere near to the required level, not even mentioning the planned terraformation of Mars.
In the documented history not having real success of controlling the climate or even just the local weather, people in the past put their hope in prayers, and in frequently arid areas they turned to people, who were called rainmakers. Almost every society had rainmakers, or having traditional memories of having them.
In the ancient of days, the Bible tells, that more than 800 years before Jesus, during the rule of King Ahab in Israel, Prophet Elijah cursed the land with a devastating drought, as it is written in the first Book of the Kings, that “Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab (the King), ‘ As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. ’
” The drought had lasted for more than two years punishing the idolatry of king and country, and in the third year the Lord told Elijah, saying, “Go, show yourself to the king; and I will send rain on the earth.” In other faiths, it might be different, but in the Jewish tradition, prophets do not act in their own will, but on behalf of God, conveying the message as a messenger, or declaring the judgment of Heaven, either it is a punishment of sins of one man and often a community, or blessings from Heaven, bringing longevity and prosperity for people, balance and fertility to land.
A little bit later, during the rule of King Alexander Jannaeus, when the head of the Supreme Court was Simeon ben Shetah, who was known for his strictness, at that time, around eighty years before Jesus was born, there was a man, remembered as Honi the Circle-Drawer, a pious scholar.
During an extraordinary drought people said to Honi the Circle-Drawer, "Pray that rain may fall." “All right”, he answered, " but go out and bring in the Passover ovens, that they be not softened." He told them to do so, because the ovens were made of clay. In a rainfall, they could be damaged. So he prayed, but the rain did not fall.
He was quite annoyed, how on Earth, it could have happened. Imagine our prayers.
Many times we pray and we do not get it granted, it seems that we are not heard at all. Actually, even when we are not praying, we are always heard, though, it is true, that our wishes most of the times not granted to us.
As it is written by the Apostle James, that “ You pray, and don't receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures. (…) don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ”
But James also wrote, that “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”, just as it is reverberated in the Gospel of John, when the blind born man answered the Pharisees that “We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God, and does his will, God listens to him. ”
Honi, the Circle Drawer, got a bit annoyed, because he was a righteous man, and he demanded, that God must have listened to him. He drew a circle and stood within it and said before God, that "Master of the Universe, your children have turned their faces to me, for I am like a son of your household. I swear by your great name that I will not stir from here, until you have pity on your children." According to the historian Josephus and to the written tradition, the rain began falling drop by drop.
But the people came to complain, that this is all, that you can do? Which almost meant, that is this all what your friend, God, can do? Little drops? He said them and also prayed to God that , "Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain, that will fill the cisterns, pits, and caverns."
Then, it began to rain, like a wild rainstorm, with drops like human fists. People, of course, complained again, that it is too wild. Honi said them, that "Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain of goodwill, blessing, and graciousness."
Then, it rained in moderation, until the Israelites had to go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount, because of the excessive rain. They went to him and said, "Just as you prayed for the rain to come, so pray that it may go away!"
The drought had been deadly before, but now the water was too much. So he prayed and the rain ceased. Some people were still angry with the events, and they reported Honi to the Supreme Court, accusing him with wizardry, which was a capital crime at that time, punishable by death.
The head of the court, Simeon ben Shetah sent to him, saying, "Had you not been Honi, I would have pronounced a ban against you! But what shall I do to you? You importune God and he performs your will, like a son that importunes his father, and the father performs the son’s wish. Of you the Scripture says, 'Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her that bore you rejoice.' "
Some people, like Enoch and Moses and Elijah, are like a friend to God, and their request are granted. They are like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever they do, shall prosper.
According to Honi, a drought can wither the tree, too much water can make it rot. Even watering of the tree must be balanced, by blessing. May the Lord bless us, in order to live, by water and the Spirit. And whatever we do for the sake of God's love, may it prosper. May the eternal God be blessed in the Son by the Holy Spirit, AMEN
