Lent 2B Chesed and God's Beloved

Chesed and God’s Beloved

Poor Peter. After Jesus outlines what will happen in Jerusalem, that he will suffer, be rejected, be killed, and then rise again on the third day, Peter rebukes him [Mark 8:31-38. Talk about chutzpah! Telling off God’s anointed, God’s messiah. Making sure that the disciples see and hear what he is about to say, Jesus rebukes Peter, “Get behind me, satan! You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

 

Jesus knows, misunderstanding what he is saying here as he sets out for Jerusalem can lead to tragic consequences. And it has. Even in the Church. So much so, that in the year 2000, Pope John Paul II apologized for some of the damage done: “From the altar of St Peter's Basilica in Rome he led Catholicism into unchartered territory by seeking forgiveness for sins committed against Jews, heretics, women, Gypsies and native peoples.” The Pope included such episodes as The Crusades, The Inquisition and The Holocaust. Twenty-one years ago, there were many in the Church who did not want to have that conversation. Today, it seems, as a nation we are still struggling to honestly enter into the same conversation. [13 March 2000 The Guardian]

 

Just what are these ‘divine things” Jesus speaks of? I have come to believe it all depends on an understanding of what it means to “deny” oneself, take up our cross and follow Jesus, and what it means to live one’s life for “the sake of the gospel.” On both of these it is easy to understand how Peter may have mis-heard all of this – and overlooked what is no doubt the key phrase, “…and after three days rise again.” What Jesus says is that the cross is not the end of the story, but the beginning! New life is just around the corner!

 

 Let’s begin with living for the “sake of the gospel.” We promise in our baptism that everything we say and do will proclaim the gospel, or good news, of Jesus. Just what is this Good News?  I have long relied upon L. William Countryman and his book, Good News of Jesus for clarity [Cowley Publications, 1993]. Countryman writes, “What God says in Jesus is this: You are forgiven. Nothing more. Nothing less. This is the message Jesus spoke and lived.” [Countryman, p.3] He goes on to say that there are other messages God in Christ could have delivered, but most of them are not truly good news. “If you are really really good, God will love you.” Or, “If you’re really really sorry you have not been really really good, God will love you.” Or, worst of all, “God loves you! Now get back in line before God changes God’s mind!” [Ibid, p.4]

 

God could have simply said, “You are loved. I love you.” But we might think it’s because of something we did to deserve to be God’s Beloved. Rather, God says, “I love you just the way you are, no matter what. I’m not trying to bribe or threaten you to change. It’s not because you are particularly good or repentant. I love you because I love you. No matter what!” We know that Jesus embodied this good news that he proclaimed. He lived it. He shared meals with outcasts and others who were considered sinners and unclean. He incorporated women and tax collectors into his circle of disciples. At least twice he gave away all the food he and the disciples had. All because God declared him to be, “My beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

 

This love of God’s for all of humanity and all of creation is expressed in one Hebrew word: chesed/hesed. When God is described, as in our collect today, as one whose glory “is always to have mercy,” or “abounding in steadfast love,” the word is chesed. When the prophet Micah says, “He has told you, humanity, what is good, and what God seeks from you – nothing but to do justice, and love chesed, and walk humbly with your God,” chesed is usually translated “loving kindness.” [Micah 6:8] But God’s love is not a feeling or an emotion. It means doing something for someone in need. Ellen Davis, with whom we are studying the book of Ruth at Noonday Prayer during the week, translates chesed as “good-faith,” or “act(s) of good-faith.” It is the ability to put the interests of another, weaker, party before one’s own: widows, orphans, the poor, strangers, and even resident aliens escaping foreign lands where life is dangerous. “From a biblical perspective, the moral ecology of the world functions properly when God and humanity are engaged in the perpetual exchange of chesed, good-faith and the acts that follow.” Chesed is meant to be the most basic characteristic of humanity, exercising chesed toward God and one another. [Ellen Davis, Who Are You, My Daughter, p xiii-xiv] Accepting that we are God’s Beloved is the very basis of being human, and the very essence of the good news, the gospel. The exchange of chesed with God and with others who are in need is what it means to live our lives “for the sake of the gospel.” This is the essence of those who are forgiven.

 

This helps us to understand what it does and does not mean to “deny” ourselves. It does not mean adopting a severe kind of asceticism: starving oneself, being overly penitent, denying our own real needs. God’s love of us, no matter what, means God wants us to take care of ourselves and even love ourselves. We are to rejoice in the news that we are forgiven and loved by God no matter what. Self-love is a good thing which we are meant to accept as the gift it is, and which Paul proclaims, “The love of God has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us!” [Romans 5:5] Our Belovedness is our most precious gift.

 

Belovedness, however, God’s chesed, is not something we are meant to keep for ourselves. It needs to be exchanged, shared, given away, as gift to others – or, like the manna in the wilderness, if you store it up and keep it for yourself, it goes sour, it becomes rotten, it can even become evil. Herein lies the paradox of the Good News: you need to accept God’s love, God’s chesed. and the healthy self-love we are given, before we can embody God’s chesed and share it with others. Our Belovedness calls us to give it away to those in need, those without resources, even dissolute souls like the Prodigal Son, and total strangers from foreign lands and traditions like the Good Samaritan. Or, like the Moabite woman named Ruth: her chesed toward her mother-in-law results in her marriage to Boaz from which she becomes the great grandmother of David, the good shepherd boy who becomes king. The book of Ruth depicts an entire chain of faith-acts, acts of loving kindness among the characters of the story, which reflect the chesed and love of God for all humanity, all of creation, and our love for one another and our neighbor.

 

It is important to remind ourselves every day: We are God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with us. I am God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with me. We do nothing to earn or deserve this love, this chesed, of God’s. But our God is the God whose property is always to have mercy, whose glory is mercy, whose mercy is steadfast love, because God loves us, no matter what. Just as we are. Just as I am. Not to love God in return, not to share it with others, is tragically to deny ourselves any kind of authentic and honest, generous selfhood. Which we need to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. We need to accept God’s love, and then, like God, in whose image we are made, share it and give it away for no other reason than to love others – all others, no matter what. It won’t always be easy, as Jesus says and Peter will soon find out. But it will always result in new life – new life for others and for ourselves. “It’s gonna take a lot of love to change the way things are.” But one way or another, says Jesus, a change is gonna come! Amen. It is true.