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THE PRAYER of MANASSEH a Sermon Preached in the Dulto

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THE PRAYER of MANASSEH a Sermon Preached in the Dulto THE PRAYER OF MANASSEH A Sermon Preached in the Dulto Utiversi ty Chapel by The Reverend Professor James T. Cleland Dean of the Chapel 14 March 1965 We are worshipping during Lent. Therefore it is but right to pay some attention to sin: sin recognized, sin confessed, sin forgiven. Has C~d anything to say to us about this matter? Let us approach the subject by looking at a Jewish book found in THE APOCRYPHA. TIIE APOCRYPHA has been denied:.a place in the Canon of the Scriptures, primarily because the fourteen books which comprise it were written in Greek rather than in Hebrew, the holy language of the Jews. One of them is "The Prayer of Manasseh," which was our morning Lesson. I am heretical enough to believe that a word from God is found in that prayer. Let us look at it togetbe~ Manasseh was a king who reigned in Judah, 696-641 B, c. Of all the kings of Judah, he had the longest reign, maintainine his throne in Jerusalem for fifty­ five years. According to Jewish tradition (2 Kings 21: 1-lB; 2 a tronicles 33:1-13) he was one of the three naughtiest kings who rulled in Old Testament Palestine, taking his place at the bottom of the class with Jeroboam and Ahab. You know the usage of designating a king by a single adject! ve: Alfred the Great;' William the Conqueror; Ethelrod the tnready; Edward the Cnnfessor. Manasseh might well be called: ~~nasseh the Wicked, He majored in iniquity; he also minored in it. He was a specialist, with a one track mind f or the bad, accordin ~ to the Biblical record. The reason for this appraisal was that his religion was a tangled eclecti­ cism which, in quite undiscriminating fashion, worshipped Yahweh, Baal and Astarte as if they were co-equals. In addition, he practiced augury and sorcery; he consulted mediums and wizards; he did homa: e to the star•; he turned the Temple into a pantheon; he burned his son alive. Dr. Moffatt's translation of 2 Kings 21: 6 (c.f.2 Chronicles 33: 6) sums up Manasseh tG a few well chosen words: "He did ample evil in the sight of the Eternal to vex him." That is the emphasis of underemphasis. Manasseh was a problem to the religious historians who soueht to account for him. According to the Deuteronomic theory of history, a kine who was so inherently wicked ought to have died young or, at least, to have lost his throne. For the theory is that if one is good, he is successful; if he 18 bad, he is unsuccessful. And longevity was the mark of success and, therefore, of upti~htness. Fbr example, 2 poor wee Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reian. He lasted three months and ten days in Jerusalem. What does the Chronicler say about him? "He did that which was evil in the sight of the lord" (2 Chronicles 36:9). Now what could this laddie of eight have done to upset the lord God of Eosts? A p(')etic critic in Scotland suggests that he cut compulsory chapel and went fishing.* (''Tabernackle" with "fisbin '-tackle" is an ingenious rhyme!) Three months and out. Obviously, he must have done evil. Well, what can be said when there are juxvaposed Manasseh's "ample evil" and a fifty-five years reien? The Chronicler decided that at some point Manasseh must have seen the light and repented. So, aceordin ~ to the priestly editors, Yahweh had him captured by the Assyrians and imprisoned in Babylon. Listen to them: And when he was in affliction, he besou ~ ht the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the Sod of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kin ~ dom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God (12-13), Repentance accounted for his lastin ·~ - fifty-five years on the throne. There is a Jewish midrash, that is, a scribal comment on this verse in Chronicles, which tells that when Vanasseh began to pray he, quite understand­ ably, directed his confession to all the ~ ods whnm he had worshipped. The angels in heaven were afraid that:-despite his enormous wickedness, Yahweh would be tempted to forgive him. So they ran, or flew, round heaven shutting up all the windows and doors so as to block out Manasseh's entreaty. But Yahweh bored a hole under the Throne of Glory, and the prayer came throur; h. Manasseh was forgiven, because Yahweh was both smarter and more compassionate than His angels. Centuries later--maybe between 150 and 50 B.C.--a Pharisaic scribe decided to compose the kind of prayer which Manasseh might have prayed in his Babylonian cell. It was our Scripture for the morning. There is not time to re-read the prayer. Let me summarize it for you. It begins with a recognition of the greatness of God. He is the creator; the "ma.jesty of his glory is unbearable" (v,5). He is the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent One. He is eternal, while man is the creature of time and of a day. It is a normal place for religion to begin. Yet it is not the heart ~f high religion. Even the devils tremble before the majesty nf God. But they do not worship. There is something else in God which stageers and shatters man into worship. What is it? The mercy of Sod: For Thou art the l.nrd Most High, Tender-hearted, long suffering, and most merciful, And regretful of the wickedness of man. Thou, therefore, Lord God of the upright, Hast nnt ordained repentance for the uprir, ht, For Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who did not sin against Thee; Thou hast ordained repentance for a sinner like me (vv. 7-8), *W. D. C~cker: THE BUBBLY-JOCK AND OTEER POEMS, p. 17. 3 That is the real theme of the prayer: the mercy of God, the everlasting mercy, the undeserved mercy, the mercy which is tbe day-in, day-out revelation of the grace of ~d. For if God could forgive b'l.anasseh, then He is the kind ()f God who can for: ive anyone--if only there is a repentant and a contrite heart to receive the outgoing mercy of God for all poor sinners. I once read "The Prayer of Manas set" in the York Chapel of tl1e Divinity School. At the close('){ the service one of my colleav,ues said to me: "Where did you find that?" I told him--in the J:pocrypha. He commented: "That is the gospel outside the Gospels." It is. It is the teaching of Jesus, long before the days oZ his flesh. Why not? God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Thanks be to ':'.od! ***~'* * Yes, this is the gospel nutside the ::;ospels. &.It it is Ue ~ ospel inside the Gospels, too. I don't have to quote to you the passages whiclo center around the affinnation that Jesus Christ's purpose in coming into the world was to save sinners, no::.· to damn them. This was Jesus' intention for one simple reason: 1 t had always oeen God's intention. This GOspel was picked up by Peter and Paul and John, by Ue early church and the medieval church, by t t e Re:lor·mation and the ecumenical movement. This is the good news: God forgives sinners who repent. Now 1 I can hear the muttered reaction of some of you to this: "It may well be true. It is true. &.It, Cleland, your Lomi letical technique is deplorable, if not wrong. fccentuate the negative. let sinners know what will j appen if they do not repe:.-..t. Give them a glimpse of l:eJ.J.. Fill their nostrils with the smoke of fire Bild brimstone. Cleland 1 you need something of the backbone and vocabulary of Jonathan Edwards." Do you lmow Jonathan Edwards, eighteenth century preacLer i n Northampton, Massachusetts, who has been described as "ti1e outstanding intellectual figure of colonial America"?* lie once preached a sermon on "Sinners in tl.e Eands of an Angry God, It wl ..ich someone has labelled "·t t. e most terrifying sermon ever preached" . Let me share the flavor of it with you, by quoting from it: The God that holds you over the pit of hell mu:::h as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, ... He wi 11 in.::lict wrath without any pity; .•. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity; the1·e will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery; ... And here are the last words of his conclusion: And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, be.Lore this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some *W. W. Sweet: TI·: E STORY OF RELIGIONS Hi J'.MERICA, p. 165. 4 persons, that now sit here in some seats of this meeting-house in health, and quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning! How vmuld you react to preaching like that from this pulpit? Now there may well be truth here. 1 would amend Jonathan Edwards' emphasis somewhat. I don't thinl:: tl~ at God sends any f'f us to Hell.
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