Readings:
Ezekiel 26-28
Titus 3

Ezekiel 26-28

These several chapters are prophetic pronouncements against Tyre, a city in what is now Lebanon. Tyre was a Phoenician trading hub and so became a very wealthy city in the late Bronze Age and into the Iron Age.

Setting it apart from the earlier denunciations of Moab, Ammon and Edom, this one stands apart because Tyre was never a mortal enemy of the Israelites like the others were, and was often an ally. It is where the cedars that built the temple in Jerusalem came from and was a major trading partner with David and Solomon.

Apparently this all changed in the later days of the divided kingdom and Tyre found itself on the Assyrian side of the power struggles in the region. But because of its former status as a close ally, it receives more attention than the others in these denunciations.

Titus 3

Titus is told to remind them to be submissive to proper authority. This can be difficult sometimes, and as an American I had an even bigger sense of self determination than people in other places might have. It’s baked into our national consciousness, that we “make our own way” and are our own bosses. I’ve also been a business owner most of my working life, so even in that area I never had anyone above me, in a sense.

Couple those things together with my Protestant beliefs that made me essentially my own pope and reading this passage was like the sound of nails on a chalkboard to me.

Now, after years in the Catholic Church, I see this not as a burden but a liberation. I no longer have to be the boss of my own personal brand of Christianity, where I check off a list of hundreds of doctrines. There’s so many possible variations that almost no two people agree on every single item. That system of beliefs and principles is exhausting.

This is natural because this is how the world is meant to operate. All through the Bible we’re shown different strictures for society, different systems of government, and even the establishment of the Kingdom of God. And as different as they all are, they share a similarity in that they all have order built into them.

We’re also told to avoid quarreling and be gentle in conversations. A person always looking for a fight isn’t following the example of Jesus Christ who died for those who loved him, and even for those who hated and despised him.

Tomorrow Readings:
Ezekiel 29-30
Ephesians 1