Apocalyptic Boogie

Apocalyptic

“See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble… But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” [Malachi 4:1-2a]

We tend to find the Apocalyptic literature in the Bible to be baffling at best. We overlook its primary purpose: to be a literature urging Perseverance in hard times and sustain Hope for a New Day. But let’s be clear about this from the outset: the kind of “redemption” promised in the Bible’s Apocalyptic literature “is not a private lifeboat to save a few privileged folk while everything else is destroyed. Rather, redemption is equated with the coming [the advent] of God’s reign, which spells transformation, healing and wholeness for all of life.” [Sharon Ringe, Luke, p 253] Apocalyptic makes the promise that the world and creation will be made new!

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down…By your endurance you will gain your souls…Truly I tell you, this generation shall not pass away until all things have taken place.” [Luke 21:5-38]

We tend to shy away from these sorts of Apocalyptic passages in the Bible, viewing them as bizarre, incomprehensible, intended for some other people, some other time, some other place. Or, worse still, by avoiding them and paying as little attention as possible to them, we allow others to turn this genre of faith literature into so much commercialized pablum that distorts it all to advance some elitist agenda or other that says some version of, “Only these sorts of believers will be saved, or “Unless you believe what we are telling you, you will be left behind.” As if God’s redemption is somehow limited to a precious few. As if God does not really love all of creation, including all people. As if in our baptism we have not pledged to seek and serve Christ in ALL persons, loving your neighbor as yourself. As if we have not pledged to STRIVE for Justice and Peace for ALL people, respecting the DIGNITY of EVERY human being.

Furthermore, how near the time is coming is never made exactly clear. “How near the time will be is not exactly clear. The word ‘generation’ can refer to the thirty or so years that one would normally assume for a human life cycle. It can also, however, refer to an entire era marked by a particular quality (‘this age’), which could encompass all of human history. We do not know what Luke meant, or in the similar saying in 9:27. But the essence of the ‘revelation’ has been to put an end to such calculation, emphasizing instead, confidence in God’s faithfulness to God’s promises of salvation (21:33).” [Ibid p 253-254]  We do well to note that the Apocalypse in Luke 21 urges us to Be Alert, Endure, and concludes with what to do in the meantime following the lead of Jesus: spend nights in quiet  prayer and contemplation in a sacred place of one’s choosing, and get up early in the morning to, as the voice from heaven commanded back at the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36), “Listen to him.”

 Such franchises as the Left Behind books and movie only serve to trivialize what is going on here. For the audience Luke addresses has seen the destruction of the Temple, and indeed all of Jerusalem, come true. The Temple is central to Luke’s story of Jesus. Luke begins in the Temple with Zechariah. The infant Jesus is brought to the Temple. His family regularly goes to the Temple. He teaches openly in the Temple. The Temple is not only the center of his story, but it is the very center of the universe for all of Israel. It was the center of the Jewish and early Christian faith, the place where God’s finger touched the Earth and held it still. Now, after Rome destroyed it in the year 70CE, not one stone was on top of another, and the entire city, Jeru-salem, “city of Shalom”, “city of peace”, lay in smouldering ruins. It literally looked like Hell.

Try, for just a moment, to imagine what impact this had on the psyche of both the people of Israel and the early Christians, who we are told in Acts chapter 2, worshipped in the Temple every day. Think of other crises that have resulted in generations of psychic memory: The Crusades, The Trail of Tears, Slavery in the U.S., Pearl Harbor, The Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Carpet Bombing, Agent Orange, Thalidomide, Assassinations (JFK, MLKjr, Bobby, Anwar Sadat), September 11, the Climate Crisis. Imagine the lasting damage of any one of these.

Luke, along with Mark and Matthew, includes this Apocalyptic revelation specifically to quell any time wasted calculating the ‘when,’ and even the ‘what,’ to refocus the people, to refocus us, on the importance of what we should be about here and now in “this generation.” The examples are quite simple: prayer and contemplation, and continue to listen to Jesus and to follow him wherever he goes and whatever he does. That’s it. No disaster stories with some swept up we know not where while others are left in eternal torment. Go back and review the list of the kinds of events that linger in the psyche of a people for generations, for decades, for millennia, and realize all kinds of eternal torment are already forever etched in the DNA and memories of all people everywhere.

We do well to note that in giving the disciples an answer as to when the Day of the Lord will come, Jesus instead urges them to sustain the virtue of Hope that the falseness of this world is ultimately bounded by greater Truth and Light. His vision and his revelation is that God’s redemption, salvation, reign, or whatever else one wants to call it, is about transformation, healing and wholeness for all of life – not for some elite group, not for some private lifeboat for a few privileged people, but for all of life – all people, all creatures, all of creation.

And that life is not primarily about what we believe, but rather about what we do. His call is to follow him, to walk in his way, a way that is self-evident in its care for the “least of these of my sisters and brothers.” Jesus repeatedly urges us to remain confident in God’s promises, to be Alert, to Endure, and to Persevere in following the man from Galilee. And to live a life informed by quiet prayer and listening to him.

All other attempts to sensationalize Apocalyptic thinking is the fantasy of those who find the call to follow Jesus too difficult to imagine and instead are looking for an easy ticket out of here. Boy, will they be surprised! It’s not about best-selling books, disaster movies, and calculating when the Day of the Lord will come upon us. It will more likely come out of our faithfulness to a way of walking in this life than anything we can say or believe. Faith and Love are about doing, not saying a thing. Persevere in doing Faith and Love until the New Day dawns from on high.

We Come From Love, We Return To Love, and Love Is All Around

“Since no one really knows anything about God,

those who think they do are just troublemakers.”*

The eighth-century Sufi female mystic Rabia best captures the scene in Luke 20:27-38. Some Sadducees approach Jesus in Jerusalem. He is nearing the end of his journey to the cross and resurrection, to return to whence he came. Up until now Jesus has been sparring most often with Pharisees who, like himself, believed in the resurrection from the dead. Sparring, or debating, Torah is what the Pharisees loved most! It was their way of trying to be closer to God, the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was their love of debating Torah that sustained their hope in resurrection because they imagined that the eternity of the next age would offer them endless time to debate the meanings of Torah for ever and ever, all of the time! What could be better?

The Sadducees, on the other hand, were a more conservative group, largely located in Jerusalem – they were aristocrats and priestly families, maintaining the sacred life of sacrifices in the Temple. They felt they were responsible for the continued life of the people Israel. And they felt that there was little else to debate, discuss or learn about God and God’s ways. The Sadducees renounced fate, the concept that God commits evil (all evil emerges from humanity’s free will), the immortality of the soul (Plato et al), an afterlife, and postmortem rewards or punishments.

Their plan to trick Jesus and demonstrate how impossible and absurd hope in resurrection was, admittedly, a good one. They based it on the practice of Levirate Marriage. Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man who is childless is obliged to marry his brother's widow. Although its primary concern was to keep common family property in the family and continue the family line lest a widow marry outside the clan; it was also a way of protecting the widow and keeping her within the care of her deceased husband’s family.

So, some Sadducees, “those who say there is no resurrection,” come up with a fantastic version of Levirate marriage in which a poor widow remains childless through her marriage to seven brothers, each of whom dies childless. Which of the seven brothers, then, will be her husband in the resurrection? Ha! Let this country bumpkin from Galilee answer that one if he can. Surely this will demonstrate how absurd it is to believe in the resurrection of the dead.

Now surely Jesus can see just how absurd their puzzle is since it assumes the very thing the Sadducees deny: the resurrection of the dead! What do they care? Of course, it is just a trap. But not so fast. Although outside the canon of Torah and the Tanakh, the whole of Hebrew Scriptures, he might have sited the story of the mother and her seven sons who were tortured and killed by Antiochus IV for refusing to deny the God of Israel and eat some pork to prove their denial. One by one they all refused to disobey the commandments of their God. Their mother bore the anguish of watching her sons die with good courage “because of her hope in the Lord…Filled with a noble spirit, she reinforced her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage, and said to them, ‘I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore, the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.’” [2 Maccabees 7:20-23] That is belief in the resurrection of the dead!

Jesus might have replied with this story. But Jesus showing infinite patience and wisdom has another answer. "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

We might note the not so subtle dig at the Sadducees when he says, “…but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age!” Ouch! The argument, of course, is that resurrection life will not be a replica of this life, and the commandments for living in this life have no relevance in the age to come. We say, at the time of our mortal death life is changed, not ended. Levirate marriage was necessary for preserving family lines in this world, but then we shall all be children of one father, one God, children of the resurrection! We are made one with all creation from the very beginning. Like Jesus, we shall all return to from whence we came.

Jesus shows patience and mercy with his opponents, a quality of character we would all do well to make our own. We live in a world in which troublemakers like the Sadducees in this story try to undermine all that is good and wonderful and true in this life with trick questions, false narratives and patent untruths. As Rabia learned 13 centuries ago in Basra, those who think they know it all and are unwilling to open themselves to that which is true are the real troublemakers – and they are often the saddest among us all. As the old quip puts it, “The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection – that is why they are sad, you see!” And after the destruction of the Temple, the Sadducees disappeared from history altogether along with all parties and movements that refuse to align themselves with the truth. Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth-century theologian, reminds us:                            All are having a relationship with God.

A pear taken from a limb and

set in a bowl,

surely it is talking to its Lord,

and happy that it is being honored for its life,

and somehow knowing

that soon it will be

returning to

Him.

We use words like “returning.”

Think about that. Inherent in that word is

separation,

and separation from God is never

really possible.

What can you be that He is not? “You

cannot be what I am not,”

my Lord once said

to me.*

*[Quotations from Rabia and Thomas Aquinas are from Love Poems From God, Daniel Ladinsky, translator, Penguin Compass, 2002, pp 27 & 147]

All Saints 2019

Scientia Cordis

I recall one Sunday after church, a gentleman came into my office, sat down and declared more than ask, “Why do we pray for the dead? It’s not in the Bible!” I don’t recall what I said to him that day, but today I would say something like this: Because our mystical communion with the dead is what strengthens our virtue of hope that the falseness of this world is ultimately bounded by a greater truth and light despite the fact that the world rarely provides much evidence that such hope is justified. When we pray and reflect on the things they did in this life it inspires us to live lives of faith, hope and charity – even risking everything to bring greater truth and light to all persons, all creatures and creation itself.

For this reason our tradition sets aside three days to face into our mortality as a way of maintaining our hope – “the blessed hope of everlasting life…and when our mortal body doth lie in death, there is prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the heavens.” [BCP 349] It is this hope, not love, that is unique to the Christian faith, for nearly all religions can and do instruct us on how to love others as well or even better than we do. Nor is our perspective on faith unique. As Fr. Sam Portaro observes, “It is the basis of all religion, and the very substance of government and economy, for no God can inspire, no government can rule, no commerce can work without genuine faith – faith in God’s authority to guide, faith in those who govern, faith in the value of goods and services. But where else is hope?” Where, indeed. [Sam Portaro, Brightest and Best, p 200]

So, All Hallows Eve (Oct 31) originated as a festival to use the powers of humor and ridicule to confront the power of, and our fear of, death. On All Saints Day (Nov 1) we reflect on the lives of those who embody faith, hope and charity and their remarkable deeds of triumph over the powers of darkness and the devil. And All Souls (Nov 2) we remember the great diversity of all who have gone before us as we again proclaim our aspirations, hope and expectations of a shared eternity, recalling that all the people of God in the early church were commonly referred to as “saints.” As the hymn proclaims in song, “there’s not any reason no, not the least, why we all shouldn’t be one too.” [Ibid p 199]

The book of Daniel is a book of tales and visions written several hundred years before Jesus. In chapter seven, Daniel has a dream, a vision: “I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.” [Daniel 7:1-3] Seeking clarification, Daniel learns it is about four kings rising up, but that ultimately, “… the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever—for ever and ever." These ‘holy ones of the Most High’ are the people like the rest of us. To the extent that Daniel describes a messiah, that messiah is the faithful people of God! That is the holy ones of the Most High are you and me! Written in a time of severe repression, and being forbidden to practice the religious rites and rituals of Israel while under foreign occupation, this vision among others in Daniel counters the depression of the people with the hope that ultimately, the people will one day, collectively, “possess the kingdom for ever.” And if that is not enough, the interpreter adds, “for ever and ever.” This is no doubt the equivalent of Buzz Lightyear’s, “To infinity and beyond!”

Jesus in Luke chapter 6, in his blessings and woes [v 20-31] encourages a similar hope as Israel is now under the domination of Caesar’s Rome. Only Jesus takes it all a step further: Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping, and persecuted “on account of the Son of Man,” for yours shall be the kingdom. But Woe to those who are rich, full, happy and well regarded; you will now be poor, hungry, mourning and will now be regarded as false prophets in the reign of God. Once again, the people of God, not those presently in charge, will inherit everlasting life, once again sustaining the hope that all the people shall be the holy ones, the saints of God in this world and the next. And what matters most, Jesus continues, is to love God, love neighbor, love your enemies, and in your spare time be merciful as God is merciful!

After chasing after our fears of death, ghosts, goblins and the devils on All Hallows Eve, we reflect on the lives of those who in their time most embodied what it means to be “holy ones of the Most High" and saints of the church of Jesus Christ. Some of their names are familiar, like Martin Luther King, Jr, Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Jonathan Myrick Daniels. Others, like William Laud, Richard Hooker, Evelyn Underhill, Elizabeth of Hungry and Hugh of Lincoln we need to read about to learn who they are and what they have contributed to human society. We would learn that Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, alone among all bishops in England, quelled anti-Semitic riots and killings in his diocese in the twelfth century. Elizabeth of Hungry, a wealthy princess, married well, and yet escaped the “woes” Jesus enumerates for the rich by giving all her wealth away: after her husband died she gave her dowry away as alms, sold her jewels to establish a hospital, opened the royal granaries in time of famine to feed the poor, and when her resources were reduced to subsistence she devoted herself to serving others until she died of exhaustion – ending a life of one who gave all she had as a “holy one of the Most High.”

Jean Vanier, was a Canadian Naval Officer, philosopher, theologian and founder of the L’Arche communities where he and others live together in homes as companions and care givers for those who have what he calls intellectual disabilities. Vanier began the first L’Arche home in1964, and lived in them until he died this past May. The experience has been healing for everyone involved. In one book called Becoming Human, Vanier describes some of what he has learned from those he serves about what the ancients call “Scientia Cordis,” science of the heart: “The science of the heart permits us to be vulnerable with others, not to fear them but to listen to them, to see their beauty and value, to understand them in all their fears, needs, and hopes, even to challenge them if need be…The mature heart does not seek to force beliefs on others; it does not seek to impose a faith. The mature heart listens for what another’s heart is called to be. It no longer judges or condemns. It is a heart of forgiveness. Such a heart is a compassionate heart that sees the presence of God in others. It lets itself be led by them into unchartered land. It is the heart that calls us to grow, to change, to evolve, and to become more fully human.”(Vanier, p.88)

I had my own experience of this mature heart one Sunday as guest preacher at St. Mark’s, Newark, NY, a parish that has a ministry to those who have intellectual disabilities and live in a nearby State Hospital. As I was preaching, there they were in the front row. Among them was Phyliss, a somewhat loud but loving woman. She was so proud as she told us she would soon receive an award for 25-years-service in a work program. Phyllis felt comfortable interrupting me when she had something to add to whatever I was saying. At one point when I was talking about the presence and grace of God in our lives, Phyllis told us all about being in the hospital the year before, and how it is true that God was with her through the whole ordeal of her surgery and recovery. I simply stopped and we listened to Phyllis for several minutes witness to the power of God in her life.

When she finished there really was nothing more I could say. I thanked her and encouraged us all to take a few moments of silence to take her words to heart. For whatever capabilities Phyllis may lack, hers is surely a mature heart, and a heart that rests in the very heart of God in Christ – she is one of the “holy ones of the Most High” from whom we all have something to learn.

Jesus encourages us to see that the communion of saints and Holy Ones extends far beyond the William Lauds and Richard Hookers of the church, far beyond the Desmond Tutus and Mother Theresas. To be human is to be merciful as God is merciful. To be human is to have a mature heart that reflects the very heart of Christ. To be human is to be one of God’s saints and holy ones.

Today we give thanks and praise for ALL the saints. Those who from their labors rest, and those who, like Phyllis, live among us even now. We give thanks for a tradition that takes three days each year to remember the great and broad diversity of saints among us now and throughout all time. We give thanks for everyone who in any way gives us a glimpse of what it means to be human, imago Dei, created in the image of God. We give thanks for ALL the saints. And we give thanks that “there’s not any reason no, not the least, why we all shouldn’t be one too.” And that is why we pray for the dead: so we can become human, sustain the virtue of hope, and live life with a mature heart. Amen.

The Trap

The Trap

Jesus tells another story, a parable, and it’s a trap. It’s about a Pharisee and a Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee, a respected teacher and authority on matters of Torah, gives a somewhat puffed up rundown of how he has practiced Torah fasting and tithing beyond the commands, unlike others “like this tax collector.” The Tax Collector, considered by many to be collaborating with the Roman oppressors by collecting tolls and taxes for Caesar and tacking on more for himself, on the other hand, looks up to God and simply says, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Luke, as narrator, frames it as being aimed at those who consider themselves righteous – in a right relationship with God – and who therefore “despise others.” And Luke tacks on a familiar conclusion by this time in his gospel: “…everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Thus, how Luke frames the story leads one to the standard interpretation: the Tax Collector, because of his humility, leaves “justified,” while the Pharisee, as a result of his perceived arrogance, does not.

There are several problems with this interpretation. 1) Such an interpretation leads to negative and quite distorted views of Judaism and Torah, leading directly to tacit or outright anti-Semitism. Such negative views of Judaism and Temple ritual stands against both the teachings of Jesus and the witness of his followers who, long after his death and resurrection, Luke tells us in his second volume, The Acts of the Apostles, “day by day” continue to worship in the Temple together. 2) The parables of Jesus are meant to shock, surprise and make us think in new and different ways, which the standard interpretation does not do. The standard zero-sum solution, one must be justified and one is not, in the end is limits Divine Grace and Generosity, and leads us to practice the kind of elitist chauvinism this caricature of a Pharisee suggests. We are happy to be “saved” ourselves; we are less happy when those we dislike or look down on are also saved, especially if they are “sinners.” 3) And of course, all of us are sinners. There is that.

The standard interpretation suffers from several misconceptions of the world Jesus lives in regarding the place of the Temple in Judaism, the place of faithful practice of prayer and Torah in a communitarian culture, and as usual, an English translation issue. If it is at all shocking that the Tax Collector, a self-confessed sinner, is justified, a deeper understanding of the world in which this parable lives can lead to an even more shocking conclusion!

Worshipping in the Jerusalem Temple was not limited to male descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel. Quite the contrary, people from all over the ancient world, female and male, were welcome as the Temple had a place for everyone to stand: the Holy of Holies for the Ark of the Covenant, the Sacrificing Altar for the Priests, a court for Jewish men, a court for Jewish women, and an outer court for everyone else, i.e. Gentiles. Life in the Temple, and throughout the land of Israel, was communitarian. Jewish prayers speak to “Our Father…Give us…Forgive us….”. Praying in the plural recognizes that each member of the community is responsible for every other. The Temple is where we come to remember this and make things right.

That is, the negative practices, sins, of one person can negatively impact everyone else, just as the good deeds of one person can positively impact the whole community. Similarly, the Temple sacrifices were offered for the well-being of the whole community. In the story before us, it is likely that first-century Jews understood that the Tax Collector with his prayer of atonement might tap into the merits and practices of the Pharisee, especially since he stands in the very place where atonement can be attained: the Temple. Just as one person’s actions can bring calamity upon the community, so can the merited behavior of one person save the whole community. It is just such an understanding that leads Christians to believe that Jesus’s actions and faithfulness allows others to be justified.

Then there is the problem with verse 14a, most often translated, “I tell you, this man [the Tax Collector] went down to his house justified rather than the other.” Yet, it can also be rendered, “To you, I say, descending to his house, this one is justified alongside that one.” The Greek word in question is para, from which we get such words as ‘parallel,’ ‘paradox,’ and ‘parable.’ It can mean “rather than,” but just as often it means, “alongside of,” or “because of.” To judge one or the other as “better” is to fall into the trap of the parable. To judge one or the other leaves us believing that God’s mercy and forgiveness is limited – which goes against that core Biblical teaching that “the sun shines on both the good and the bad, on the just and unjust alike.” To dismiss them both also traps us, since few of us are as overwhelmingly good as the Pharisee, nor as sinful as the Tax collector.

Which is why the more challenging interpretation of the parable rests on the very generosity that allows the Tax Collector to benefit from the collective repentance of the Temple system and the good deeds people like the Pharisee. [Amy Jill Levine, Short Stories by Jesus, p. 211] Yet, often this is what we want for ourselves, but don’t want others to have. Yet, deep down inside we know this does not sound like a consequence Jesus wants to teach us. Jesus teaches and practices the wideness of God’s mercy. God’s love, forgiveness and mercy are limitless and available to all. There’s enough for everyone. It is not a zero-sum, either-or world that Jesus practices.

Amy Jill Levine likens this all to a middle-school-group-project. One person may have the wisdom, one artistic talent, one can provide the snacks, and one appears to contribute nothing. Yet, if the project gets an A, all four benefit, even the one who did nothing. “This may seem unfair, but what if it is because the other three of us dismiss him as lazy or stupid. The other three may signal disappointment at his being assigned to our group. He may have felt unworthy in our presence. Yet, he trusted us and the system. Had the rest of us been more generous with him rather than resentful, we would have learned more as well. And what if he didn’t care at all? What if he depended on us, even though we were fools for doing his work for him? What we do is still worthwhile. We can afford to be generous. There are other systems of justice (e.g. test grades, a final judgment) in which his contributions or sins well be assessed.” [ibid p 211- 212]

In the end, like all parables, the story is left unresolved. Does the Pharisee praise God, or praise and only care for himself? Does the Tax Collector change his job and offer restitution to those he ripped off, or must he continue to work for Caesar’s Empire? Is only the Tax Collector justified in the end? Or, is he justified along with and because of the extraordinary life of the Pharisee? Do we believe we are our sister’s and brother’s keeper? Do we choose to live in a communitarian world where we all have something to contribute, even if what we give is the opportunity for someone else to provide us a benefit? And if our good deeds aid someone else, rather than begrudge them, why not celebrate and live a life in which all are justified? Will we despise others? Or, will we work and pray on behalf of the common good for all people?

The choices are left to us. Deep down inside we all know the choices Jesus makes. Will we fall into the traps in this story? Or, will we walk in the way Jesus calls us to follow? We know God’s goodness and mercy exceeds all that we can either desire or ask for! Thanks be to God forever and ever. Amen!

Faith and Law

Emunah and Halakhah

Walking on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus tells another story, about a widow demanding justice from a judge. He says it is about prayer, but quickly it becomes about faith and justice. It ends asking, When the Son of Man appears, will he find faith on earth? [Luke 18-8] The Hebrew word for faith is אמונה, emunah, and is an action-oriented word meaning "support". This is important because the Western concept of faith places the action on the one you have faith in, such as "faith in God". But, the Hebrew word emunah places the responsibility of action on those of us who "support God". When the Israelites find themselves embattled with a foe, as long as Moses holds his hands up, they prevail. When he tires and lets them down, they lose ground. Eventually, two of the Israelites find a rock for him to sit on, and then each of them hold up one of his arms. This is emunah. This is what faith looks like in the Bible: supporting and assisting others. All others.

As in we are to support and to love our neighbor, especially widows, orphans and the alien who lives among us – we are to provide them with daily bread. We are to give them a place to stay. We are to provide safety for them. And, “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. [Leviticus 19:33-34] That is, true faith is striving for justice and peace for all people, loving your neighbor as yourself. And remembering where we come from and who saved us.

That is, we are to live according to the laws of the God of Israel: the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus. This is called הֲלָכָה, halakhah – which is often translated as Judeo-Christian Law, but literally means “the path one walks.” The basic Biblical understanding of faith has nothing to do with what comes out of our mouths, what we say and believe. People are willing to say all kinds of things, and confess all sorts of beliefs, but it is our actions that matter in the world God creates for us, for all people and all creatures. In fact, halakhah demands that in addition to observing sabbath, praying at least twice a day, what to do when we wake up and go to bed, most important of all is the love we are to have for all other people and all creatures. Halakhah insists that neither people nor animals are to be mistreated. Neither God nor people look at what comes out of our mouths, but watch where our feet take us to provide justice for all people, all creatures and this fragile island home, the Earth. We are to walk the walk.

So, as we read that a widow comes to a judge asking for justice, [Luke 18:1-8] we immediately recall she represents a special protected class of people without resources. We are not told who her opponent is, nor what sort of justice she desires, but we do know that to live a life of faith, of halakha, it has to do with someone being required to do something that will improve her life. The judge we are told neither cares for God, nor does he care for people. We might say he is a secular rationalist. He does not reverence God, nor does he walk in God’s ways, and he does not follow human opinion polls, but rather does his job as he sees fit – which in some ways may make him an impartial and just judge.

Yet, he betrays his lack of concern for people in that he does care about his reputation. For when the text says that due to her persistence she will “wear him out,” the word literally means to “give him a black eye.” That is, his reputation will suffer if he does not grant her justice as understood in the halakhah YHWH has commanded. He will lose both his reputation and his privileged place in the community. The story is about faith, emunah, and that faith means doing justice, doing love of neighbor, including love of widows, orphans and resident aliens. This was summed up neatly by the prophet Micah approximately 700 years before the time of Jesus: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Granted, the judge in the story is not particularly humble, but he does do what is required whether or not he regards the teachings of halakhah. Jesus’s question, “When the Son of Man returns will he find faith on earth?” it means he expects to find anyone who claims to be walking in his way to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. That is, emunah, or faith, is the sum of our actions on behalf of God and of others – all others. There is no neutral stance – faith is action, action is faith. It is also true that prayer is action, and action is prayer.

This is true even among the most mundane things that we do, e.g. wash our hands, do the dishes, share a meal with others, observe sabbath. When everything we do is for God and for others, there is justice for all, and that is the sign that we are faithful people. This attentiveness to what we do is what Tich Nhat Hanh calls being mindful of every little thing we do. We are to remember that it is not about having faith “in God, and that God will do something for us,” but rather that the word emunah requires action from those of us who support God, support others, and walk on the path of God’s ways, God’s halakhah. It’s about being mindful of what we do.

That is, we are those people who speak God’s truth to Power, and are the hands and feet of God in this world. Bishop Desmond Tutu spoke of the life of faith as not remaining neutral and doing nothing in the face of injustice and the falseness of this world. Those who suffer are not at all impressed by our neutrality. The recently deceased  Congressman Elijah Cummings, my representative in the United States Congress, summed this up earlier this year commenting on the risk, pain, sacrifice and suffering Michael Cohen had undertaken by testifying before the House Oversight Committee: “When we’re dancing with the angels, the question we’ll be asked is: In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say and do nothing?”

This parable of Jesus declares a resounding, “No!” Jesus expects to see those of us who call ourselves Christians, whose faith means to walk the path he walked to Jerusalem and do the things that faith calls us to do on behalf of others, not standing on the side lines, but engaged in actions that declare that our hope and our faith is that the falseness of this world is ultimately bounded by a greater truth. And that acts of faith, hope, justice and charity are the very essence of what it means to be human, created in the image of God. Female and male, God creates us in God’s own image which is that of a God who loves, gives and is merciful.

As the Old Testament declares repeatedly, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” [Exodus 34:6] This is the God Jesus knows. The God who has faith in us to walk in his way. Jesus walks in the way of this God, in the ways of emunah and halakhah. In this little parable, Jesus urges us to be persistent in having the kind of faith that continually is acting on behalf of God and of others. So that when we are dancing with the angels there will be no question that we are not those people who live their lives on the side lines, but that we are those who walk in the way of the Lord. The question remains, When the Son of man comes will he find faith on earth?

Faith Is A Verb

Faith Is A Verb

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" (insert a still audible,”Sighhhhhhh…” before he answers): "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. – Luke 17:5-6 The disciples want more faith. As if faith is a commodity. As if faith is quantifiable. According to Jesus, just the tiniest bit of faith is enough. Mustard seeds are tiny – and yet, that seed can grow into a tree of anywhere from six to thirty feet tall under ideal conditions!

Faith is best understood as a verb, not a noun. Or, suggests Fredrick Buechner, more as a process than a possession. “It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where you’re going but going anyway. A journey without maps. Tillich said that doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.” And as to doubt Buechner writes, “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” [Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, Frederick Buechner, Harper&Row, pp 20&25]

Faith, then, has at least two dimensions: 1) This first dimension, as Hebrews has it, is our assurance or trust in things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And we know that the vast majority of creation, the universe, remains unseen; and 2) To act and to live in ways that sustain the hope that the falseness of this world is ultimately bounded by a greater truth and light despite the fact that the world rarely provides much evidence that such hope is justified. [Stanley Hauerwas, A Community of Character]

Faith throughout the Bible means something like holding up or supporting others when they are weary or in need – even when we may be exhausted ourselves. It also can mean allowing others to support and hold us up – especially when we are exhausted or losing our faith.

While reading the Sports section of the Baltimore Sun the other morning (Thursday, October 3, 2019) Peter Schmuck described what was undoubtedly the best thing that happened at M&T Bank Stadium last Sunday: the celebration of O.J. Brigance’s 50^th Birthday. Brigance was on the Ravens 2001 Super Bowl winning team and had a 13-year NFL career. In 2007 he was diagnosed with ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Yet, he remains with the organization as a senior adviser for player development. And he, and his wife Chanda have founded the Brigance Brigade Foundation to help victims and families of victims of the disease deal with the impact of ALS on their lives. The day Brigance was diagnosed, he and Chanda fell to the floor in the kitchen racked with tears and uncertainty. “Through their faith, O.J. and Chanda knew they would be OK and their attention turned to others in need. The Brigances chose to be a beacon of light for those affected — to show you can remain positive, continue to love and continue to feel the blessings of the life you were given, no matter the circumstances.” [Schmuck, ibid]

As 60,000 fans sang happy birthday to him, Brigance broke out in a big smile that lit up the entire stadium. Thanks to AAC (augmentative alternative communication) devices and Tobii Eye Trackers, people with ALS (PALS) can speak. And after the singing OJ addressed the crowd: “It’s an honor to be considered an inspiration, but we began this whole journey to help those that are walking the same journey. We have focused on how we can be a blessing to others, instead of focusing purely on what is happening with us. The opportunity to establish a lasting legacy of hope is something that we are very proud of. One of our greatest joys comes when someone shares how our actions or words have encouraged them in their lives.” [Ibid]

Brigance is not alone in living his life of faith despite ALS. A long-time friend in Maine, Sue Gawler, a Botanist and Regional Vegetation Ecologist at NatureServe, succumbed to the disease a little over four years ago. After not having seen her for many years, she began to communicate with me on Facebook, responding to my posted sermons. As a scientist she was also a person of deep faith, and like Brigance, she also possessed an irrepressible 50,000 Watt smile. It was a low time in my life, and I was constantly buoyed by her positive spirit as we ‘discussed’ the intersections of science and religion. As her ALS progressed, she eventually got an AAC device and Tobii Eye Tracker. She kept up with the world and all her friends who, like myself, felt supported by her while we tried our best to support her. Our FaceBook conversations helped to get me through some of my darkest times. While in Maine conducting a memorial service for a musician friend of some nearly 50 years, I called her brother John to see if I could visit. Alas, she had just gone down for a nap, but Kirk Jr, my friend of 50 plus years John Koehler and I, did stop in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, to talk with John. “It’s the darndest thing,” said her brother, “but despite everything else, her smile remains even on the most difficult days. It just continues to shine all the time. Those face muscles have just been trained to do nothing but smile.”

Sue posted this on her 60^th birthday: “What a fantabulous 60th birthday I had last Friday,,! First,, all the wonderful posts from you, my fb friends.... I read them all, and sent love to each of you as I did; I'm sorry not to have the eye strength to Like each one.” The day after she died her sister posted this, “Able to say goodbye to my darling sister today. What a beautiful inspiration she has been to us all! She wanted to die peacefully, and that's what she accomplished. Right up until the end, she managed it all with such wisdom, and with exquisite compassion for her loved ones. And now . . . Radiating loving-kindness over the entire world . . .Meg Gawler”

Recently, another friend, Robert Benjamin, has been diagnosed with ALS. Bob and I were religion majors and studied Hebrew together in college. We have kept in touch throughout the years, with Bob usually calling me with a theological or Biblical question. I was devastated to learn of his diagnosis, but that devastation is turned to wonder when I talk to him on the phone, which is difficult for him, and when I visited him last May. Bob is Jewish and in a continuing care center. He joined a Christian Bible Study group there to continue his faith journey, and has become one of the leaders in the group. He also heard of a woman who missed her Catholic Mass on the Sundays there was no visiting priest. Bob said, “Let’s you and I have time together on those Sundays and worship together.” He told me that since he has accepted his diagnosis, he has found a whole new purpose in life beyond his career at Goldman Sachs. He lives his faith through supporting the faith of others – all others, no matter how their faith may differ from his. As I traveled around the facility with Bob in his motorized chair, the greetings and smiles from everyone we passed in the halls were testimony to the positive power of Bob’s witness to his faith. Like OJ and Sue, Bob lives his faith in action.

These stories of faith, I believe, illustrate what Jesus was telling his disciples. There is no quantity to faith, only quality. And there is only quality in faith when you live it, share it and give it away. For that is what is meant by the Bible’s instruction, to love one’s neighbor, whoever it may be. The falseness of this world is bounded by greater truth and light thanks to people like OJ Brigance, Sue Gawler and Bob Benjamin. A mustard seeds bit of faith does change lives.  

When Will We?

When Will We?

As I have pondered the parable of Lazarus and The Rich Man [Luke 16:19-31 I am constantly reminded how easy it is to forget how this story, the story of God, God’s creation and God’s people, begins. In chapter one of Genesis we are created, female and male, imago Dei, in the image of God. Further, as a collective all of us, not some of us, a few of us, or even a lot of us, but all of us are tasked to be stewards, caretakers, of all of the earth, all its creatures, and one another. From the outset things go wrong, so wrong that God is pictured walking through the Garden in the cool of the evening calling out to us, “Where are you?” That is, we tend to fix a divide between ourselves and God, and between ourselves and one another.

The counter narrative does not take long to begin. In chapter four of Genesis, after a fit of anger and jealousy results in Cain killing his brother Abel, the Lord again asks, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain replies in words that have replaced all notions of ‘the common good’ among nations and individuals, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” From there on out, from Genesis through The Revelation of John the answer is, “Yes, yes you are your sister’s and your brother’s keeper.” For as Richard Swanson reminds us, this is what makes us human at all: that we care for the earth and we care for one another. The most basic characteristic of being human is to respond, or what we call responsibility – the ability to respond. As the Psalmist sings, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything therein.” [Psalm 24:1] Any worldview that denies this then lives out of a worldview that believes it’s “every man for himself,” which results in a world of endless violence.

The world, writes Swanson, has always been an intricate web and an interdependence of need and ability. “We respond to each other; that is what makes us, together, human. If we sever that link of responsibility [like the chasm that separates the Rich Man from Lazarus in life and in death], we become something less than human. These days we have instituted governmental programs to act out our responsibilities to each other. We have also trained ourselves to resent the taxes that fund those programs. It should be noted in passing that this resentment amounts to a wish to sever the links of responsibility and, as such, represents a threat to our humanity, our ability to live together in [and with] God’s creation.” [Provoking the Gospel of Luke, Swanson, p.203] This applies to communities, states and nations as it does to society as a whole.

In the story, although he passes by poor Lazarus, covered with sores, every time he exits or enters his house, the Rich Man has maintained a chasm, a divide, between his life and that of Lazarus, despite everything in the Law of Moses (Torah – Genesis-Deuteronomy) and the Prophets urges and even requires love of neighbor – and neighbors are to include poor widows, orphans, and strangers in the land, i.e. all those who for whatever reason are without resources to care for themselves. The word “love” in these texts does not mean telling them “to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps,” but rather to provide material assistance. Period. For whatever reason, the Rich Man, who has no name in the story perhaps to represent an entire class of rich persons, cannot even bring himself to send a plate of leftovers out to Lazarus who desires only the crumbs under the table. Only the dogs in the street reach out to comfort poor Lazarus. The Rich Man does not even possess the compassion of a dog. What a sad man.

Amos, who preached some 750 years before Jesus tells this story, issued a warning to “those who are at ease…who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches…who drink wine from bowls,

and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore, they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.”

The “ruin of Joseph” addresses the plight of the whole nation, not an individual. Corporate responsibility for the whole nation and all those who dwell therein. We forget that we are our sister’s and brother’s keeper at great peril, as the Rich Man finds out all too soon. Lazarus dies. So does the Rich Man. There is a reversal. Lazarus ends up in the lap of Father Abraham, the Rich Man finds himself in Hades, tormented, and cries out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' Despite his tormented state, he still thinks he is a Rich Man who can order people like Lazarus to do his bidding. Abraham points out it is too late. Although their situations are reversed, the chasm between them remains. Still not concerned with anyone but himself and his own family, the Rich Man wants Abraham to order Lazarus to warn his family, his five brothers.

This is where the story becomes interesting. “They have Moses and the Prophets, just as you had. They should listen to them.” That is, let them read and live out of the covenant I made through Moses, and the warnings of my Prophets like Amos to return to my covenant of Love for all people, especially those in need. The Rich Man pleads to send Lazarus, “one from the dead” to warn them. In case we did not listen the first time, the story ends as Abraham repeats, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' That is, the covenant of Love with Israel is the covenant of Love Jesus preaches and lives. Jesus is calling for a return to the beginning. A return to the common good of all people, the earth, and everything therein. A return, a “repentance,” to putting the world right-side-up again. A call to Tikkun Olam – Repair of the World. The whole world and everything within.

For, as Sister Catherine Nerney, SSJ, illustrates in her book, The Compassion Connection: Recovering Our Original Oneness: “The whole thing is one, just at different stages, all of it loved corporately by God (and, one hopes, by us). Within this worldview, we are saved not by being privately perfect, but by being “part of the body,” humble links in the great chain of history. This view echoes the biblical concept of a covenant love that was granted to the Jewish people as a whole, and never just to one individual like Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Esther, or David. Similarly, the prophets and Jesus spoke both their judgments and their promises to the collective of the House of Jacob, Moab, Bashan, Gilgal, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Jerusalem (and on and on) much more than they ever did to individuals. Many Christians’ failure to recognize this has led to a major misinterpretation of the entire Bible.” [p 12-13]

That is, we are all in this together. The warnings have been in front of us all along. The love of neighbor has always been there. Alms giving and tithing for the common good has always been there. As Amy-Jill Levine concludes in her commentary on this parable, the problem is not the message; the problem is that people don’t listen. Or, sadly, just don’t care. She concludes, “Ironically, what the Rich Man asked Lazarus to do – to warn his brothers of the threat of hell – the parable does for [its] readers. Will the five brothers, who may hear Torah’s insistence that they ‘love the neighbor’ and ‘love the stranger,’ listen? We do not know. Will we?”

[Short stories by Jesus, Harper One, Amy-Jill Levine, p 294,296]

PS “The Gospel is less about how to get into The Kingdom of Heaven after you die, and more about how to live in The Kingdom of Heaven before you die.” – Dallas Willard