tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34201062734986249232024-02-20T01:57:48.207-08:00My Morning MidrashWhat the hell do I know?Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-18949306709450309832014-07-04T06:34:00.000-07:002014-07-04T06:34:08.521-07:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Everywhere the Queen Goes, it Smells Like Fresh Paint”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mark 1:1-13</span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Recently, I was flying home from Heathrow Airport in
England. I was flying out of the new
international terminal, “the Queen’s Terminal.”
You cannot believe what it was like.
There were no lines. Not some lines, not short lines. There were NO
lines. I walked right up to a ticket
kiosk, I walked right up to a baggage inspector, I walked right through the
x-ray machine, I chatted with the officer who swiped my hands and bag for
explosives. It was incredible, I was
dumbstruck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The English equivalent of the TSA man, said that their goal was to get us from the ticket
kiosk to through to the terminal gates area in four minutes. FOUR MINUTES. I explained that at O’Hare,
their goal was to get you boarded for your departure before your return flight
landed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As you exited the area, by the way, they had several little
stations along the wall with three large buttons on them: a red a yellow and a
green, so that in one second you could review your experience of the airport so
far. I laughed as I smacked the green
one. Nope, you’d never see that at O’Hare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then, as I proceeded to the gate, things got even more
bizarre. Everything was clean and new
and sparkling, every escalator worked, every screen had something recent and relevant
on it, and at intervals all along the way, were live musicians. Around this
corner there were three musicians in formalwear before noon playing a Schubert
concerto for violin, cello and piano.
Around the next bend was a mariachi band in bolero jackets. Curioser and curioser, right? But then, as I neared my own departure gate,
there stood a row of half a dozen young men in tux pants and white pressed
shirts, holding trays of champagne flutes.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ooookaaaay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At that point, I stopped one of a pair of dishy Bobbies in
their spanking uniforms and asked. Yes, he told me, that was a reception for the
queen. She would be passing through shortly. “Didn’t you wonder why there were
so many policemen in the terminal and with guns?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well, no, I thought, that was the only part of the
experience that felt familiar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is an expression among the English that everywhere the
queen goes, it smells like fresh paint.
She doesn’t have the same experience as the rest of us. For the Queen of
England, there is always the possibility of a Mariachi band around the corner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mark 1 is, let’s remember, the opening salvo of what we
think is the earliest Gospel. These are
the opening words he offers from Isaiah: “Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make his pathways straight.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In other words, line up that Schubert Trio and try to find
six guys to hold the champagne trays. Because, when the savior comes, we want
to be ready, ducks in a row, souls in order, pathways straight. We want toe Savior
to smell fresh paint. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or do we?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because the point of that truism about the Queen is that she
doesn't have a very real experience of the world. Her idea of what an airplane terminal is like
bears almost no resemblance at all to our experience, does it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But when the Savior comes, he isn't looking for us to be
buttoned down and cleaned up. He isn't
going to walk through our lives as we line up before him like troops on
inspection. And that’s a really good thing, because if salvation hung on
whether our bathrooms were clean, no teenagers could ever go to heaven.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No, Scripture doesn't tell us that the Savior is coming to
tour the terminal. It says he is coming
to travel with us. It says he is coming to walk the walk of faith right beside
us, to sit on the aisle so we can have the window and to experience the journey
with all its trials and joys just as we experience it ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the first chapter of Mark we see Jesus baptized, affirmed
by the voice of God, and then immediately thrown out into the wilderness and
tribulation. In two paragraphs!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“AT ONCE the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness.” He didn’t want to go any more than we do. But
that is how the journey of life proceeds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.” THAT certainly sounds familiar. Over the course of the journey of our lives
we are forced into the wilderness by life and we are tempted by Satan.
Sometimes for way more than forty days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then it says, “He was among the wild animals, and the angels
took care of him.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have you ever heard it observed that the experience of Jesus
is a parallel to the experience of the People of Israel in Exodus? Through the waters – The Red Sea in Exodus,
and Baptismal water in the case of Jesus – and then through the wilderness – to
wander for generations in the case of the Israelites and to be tested in the
case of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jesus walks the walk of the people of God. He is our only
advocate and intercessor. He stands for
us, he stands with us. Even in the
wilderness – surrounded by wild animals – the angels take care of him as they
do us. Everything we do in the life,
every experience, blessing or trial, Jesus is with us along the way. And the angels protect us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In these first introductory verses, Mark wants to be sure we
understand that Jesus is not a monarch like Caesar or Elizabeth the Second. He is not distant from our experience of the
world, he is not here to be preceded by Schubert and fresh paint. He is not a leader marching before his troops,
he is a Savior, marching beside them. His experience is not remote, it is identical.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like you and I, he was baptized, like you and I, he is the
beloved of God, like you and I he was thrown into the wilderness, like you and
I he was tempted, like you and I he was watched over by angels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mark begins the first chapter of our journey with Christ
with Isaiah’s urgent wake up call. (Here imagine your mother’s voice through
the door of your room in the morning before school): “Wake up, get ready, prepare ye the way of the
Lord.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Look for him, because he is here, with you, now. Be prepared
to find evidence of him every step of the way. And how awesome is that
really? To have Jesus Christ along as
your traveling companion? To ask when
you come to a fork in the road? To consult when you find your progress slowing?
To console you when you’re baggage becomes too big to fit in the overhead bin? So,
prepare yourself to find him traveling with you. He has walked this path before,
he knows the way. He will help you make
your pathway straight, he is with you on this journey and will see you safely
home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, it seems fair here to ask, if everywhere the Queen goes
smells like fresh paint … then what does it smell like everywhere that Christ
goes? Well, let’s hope it smells like
candles lit for worship, bread to feed to the hungry and, well, you really can’t
go wrong with champagne.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-46538222200608478042013-08-21T04:50:00.000-07:002013-08-21T04:50:04.815-07:00The Bent Woman and the Daughter of Abraham<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have a friend<span style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"> who, when asked why he is in the Episcopal Church, says, "I'm a cradle Episcopalian, it is my home, I am comfortable here." There is a certain truth to that. The dance of the liturgy, the call and response, the pew calisthenics are all familiar and comforting to us. They occupy our bodies and our minds and position our hearts to be receptive to God. I love that about our liturgy. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But is that why one is Episcopalian, or part of any religious community? I hope not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I hope it is because once our bodies and minds are in their routines, our hearts open to God and God reaches in and rattles our cages. God isn't comfortable, God is brazen, God is challenging. Church is not a couch, its a challenge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This week's lectionary is from Luke, the story of the woman who is bent double and Jesus heals her on the Sabbath. (I have a little soap box I keep with me for use once every three years: healing on the Sabbath is not a violation of Sabbath. First Century Judaism permitted acts of mercy on the Sabbath. OY, how many pulpit bloopers have I heard on that topic!!). The woman is known, in some circles, as "The Bent Woman." This is because the construction of "she went bent over and could not stand upright" is such a messy construction in the Greek. She has been crippled, for whatever reason, for 18 years. Jesus comes and frees her from that bondage. Jesus liberates her from the burden she has carried her whole life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Think about what that means for the woman. Lean over and look down at the ground. How much can you see? A circle with about an 18 inch circumference, right? And not much in the periphery, let alone above or ahead of you. This woman's entire world view for eighteen years has been an 18 inch circle of dirt. No future, no past, no one else's face unless they got down there for her. No sky, no hope. And dirt and dust kicked up into her mouth over the years, this is 1st Century Israel after all, right? That is her world view, that is her life. Figuring her first century life expectancy at forty years, it is roughly half her life. That is all she sees for roughly half her life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And what do other people see? They see a woman who is diminished. She is beaten down, she is undignified, she is unable to do what others can do. She is submissive and dependent and strange. Her posture is her public identity. Sit with that one for a while.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then, with a word or a gesture, Christ sets her free. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How has her world view changed? She can look up and around and backward. You can imagine in those first few days, that was all she did: she looked all around, she stared at the sky. I am a huge clouds fan, myself. I can sit and look at clouds all day. I don't know how many times I have been honked at at a stop light because the view out my sunroof distracted me. If she was able, I bet this woman looked at nothing but clouds for the first week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But now she is upright, she has a lot of work to do. She has a whole new existence to create, a second half of her life to live into in redemption of the first half. But also informed by the first half. She appreciates, now, that she can look around her. She appreciates, now, face to face conversation. She understands,now the essential nature of hope, of lifting her eyes to the hills from whence cometh her help. She values, as she especially can, the gifts we take for granted. And with appreciation, comes gratitude, and with gratitude, responsibility. She knows she is blessed and she is honor bound to make good use of those blessings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In my imagination, she uses her new found strength to stand up to forces that bend us over, that foster submission or victimization or force on us an identity that is not a fulfillment of our potential. These forces are myriad in our world, then as now: domestic violence, sexism, child abuse, elder abuse, etc. Women or the homeless, people of color, disabled people, mentally ill people, uneducated people, these people are bent double under the weight of our fallen world. And we see them and think of them as crippled. The Bent Woman reminds us that if that is what we let ourselves believe, it is <i>we</i> who are crippled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the end of the text, the woman is referred to as "a daughter of Abraham." It is the only time this expression is used in the gospels. As a daughter of Abraham she has inherited a mighty fortune in favor, and a double portion of obligation. As a daughter of Abraham she is bound by covenant to serving God. She has an obligation, a unique "perspective" and a generations deep well of grace from which to draw. It is a big task, living into the potential that God has released in us. But when Jesus Christ sets us free - from whatever is crippling us, debt, addiction, pain, anger, - when he takes us from the Bent Woman to a Daughter of Abraham, you better believe that being an Episcopalian is not a couch, its a challenge.</span></div>
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Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-10393687057220346762013-06-20T07:30:00.003-07:002013-06-20T07:30:52.761-07:00Ruth, Jonah, Paul and an Unfortunate Maritime/Marital Analogy<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Something like 13 years ago, I realized that the ship of my marriage was in serious trouble. We were taking on water - baggage with one another that we never bothered to bail out. Over time the water made its way out, but never entirely. And so we started to list off course. We leaned away from each other. The course corrections we made in previous years stopped taking us in the direction we wanted to go. And, possibly the worst part of all, things were getting water logged. That's the permanent damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I did what I thought of- I tried to correct the course with the water in the hold, I tried to eject the ballast. And I bailed. I bailed like hell. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But ten years later it was clear that we were going to have to abandon ship. The captain of that ship was just going to let us go on forever, listing, sweeping, gradually sinking until we were all up to our necks in water. I as the navigator had completely failed to keep us on course. So, I took it upon myself to declare mutiny. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mutiny is a terrible thing, let me tell you. There is no going back. In the 17th Century, when Britannia ruled the waves, mutiny was a hanging offence for all involved. It makes sense really, you cant have that kind of insurgency in the ranks, then everyone would rebel when their food was weevily or their captain was leading them into danger. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But in the eyes of the victims of ineptitude or cruelty, the mutineer was a hero. And to the mutineer, the question seemed to come down to "die of inaction, at the hands of a mad man, or die as the result of your own action and risk the rope." I took the risk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As a result of the mutiny, all hands abandoned ship. This is the point in the story where the maritime analogy begins to be labored. I apologize. Because, in my mind, what I did when I determined to end my marriage was akin to I knowing I had to leave the sinking ship. Not jumping entirely into the water, though, but going calmly, quickly, into a lifeboat. We keep lifeboats as part of the compliment of a larger ship. The larger ship could learn a lot from the lowly lifeboat. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A lifeboat, as you may know, is designed to keep you afloat when other forces would pull you under. A lifeboat, as you may know, is sturdy enough to keep the water out and stable enough to get you to safe harbor. A lifeboat will carry more than one person, plus provisions. This was essential because, as part of the mutiny, the passengers were coming with me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the case of the end of my marriage, adrift on the sea of emotion, the lifeboat was the ethics I and my family had built up and preserved over the course of our lives together. The lifeboat was the infrastructure of our lives, the "why" we do things, that kept us together and safe as we navigated the "what" we had to do. Why we were not in the ship any more, why we needed to be on the sea, why we were paddling in the direction we had chosen, why we set down the paddles some times and let the wind take us. All of these decisions were made because of the nature of our lifeboat, a lifeboat we had constructed over decades, never thinking it would become essential. All of the choices we made as we proceeded through the months of separation toward divorce, were guided by what we knew to be right, what we knew to be "our way." Our ethics were our lifeboat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is not to say that our lifeboat didn't leak. There were certainly times when the sea of emotion slipped in through cracks between the boards of our lifeboat. Nothing tests your ethics like conflict. And we learned where our weaknesses were and how serious and how to repair or mitigate them. And the sea of emotion sometimes swept over the side in great tidal waves of anger and resentment and hurt. In the darkest part of the night there were great swells that topped our gunwales and threatened to overturn us or sink us on one fell motion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In these times, emotion was so overwhelming that our judgement was almost completely lost to us. We could not remember who we were or why we had made any decision. In the darkness you cannot see where you are going or where you have been, and in a storm of emotion, there is no guiding starlight toward which to steer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And what we did in those moments was to turn our attention within. We kept our minds on what was happening inside the boat, because that was all we could control. We couldn't still the waves or make the boat big enough to overcome them. But we could do our best to keep our boat, such as it was, afloat. We picked up our buckets and bailed. We took gallons of destructive emotion and threw them over the side. Anger, disappointment, recriminations and cruelty, greed and envy, all went over the side by the bucketful. In our lifeboat of ethics, dark emotion is valid, it has a place. Its just outside the boat. (I should mention that one of the provisions in any good lifeboat, is a store of fresh drinking water - of love and support, of kindness and empathy and trust. We had that aboard our boat from the beginning or we never would have survived.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, I don't want to give the impression that we were entirely alone on these stormy seas. There were plenty of folks out there. Folks called to us to help guide us toward safety. Friends and family who have weathered divorce and loss like this offered us kind words and encouraging prayer. Folks further away shined a light to keep us from harm. A very good friend of mine, an attorney, warned me about the twists and turns of the "jilted male psyche" and kept me from reefing more than once. And there were, and continue to be, naysayers who figured we were in this trouble because we chose to be. There were even those who, somewhat astonishingly, thought it would be wise to go back to the ship. But these were the voices of folks who live in the sea, it is their world view. We, in the boat, see things from another perspective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, while we were never alone, still it was our lifeboat and it is our job to get ourselves to safe harbor. Our journey of surviving divorce, in our little boat of ethics, is ours alone to experience. That is as it should be because of the retelling. We are a people of stories and so when we tell the fish-tale that will be the anecdote of our experience, we may exaggerate parts, we may minimize others, we may all have a different impression of "the one that got away." But our truth is the truth as we experience it. Too many witnesses may bring veracity, but they diminish truth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And let me say that there was another choice we could have made as the ship began to sink. We could all have chosen to put on life vests and throw ourselves into the water as individuals. That was what the captain chose to do. I cannot imagine what it was like to be alone in the sea of emotion, to be soaked to the skin with it and tossed about without moorings and without anyone to cling to. I think it must have been very cold. I think it must have been terrifying. I think there were times when his head dropped under the water line and he swallowed the sea water into his belly. It tested him and I know it showed his true colors. Ultimately, he found other people who had chosen the life-preserver route. He clung to them as long as he was able, one after another until he found one he could keep afloat with. In the end, just as we will find safe harbor, he will emerge from the sea as well. Who is to say what is right for any of us? I am only glad I chose to stick to what I knew was right for me and for my children. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because, now that the shore is in sight, I can honestly say that I am proud of what we have done. I am proud that we chose to leave in the boat and not to let ourselves be drowned. I am proud of how we stayed in the boat when we wanted to jump out and end it, and when it seemed we would be spilled out or sunk. I am proud of how well constructed our ethics were so that when really and genuinely challenged, we knew what to do because we knew why. We were tested, but we were never pulled under. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is a long and labored metaphor, I know. I am as weary of it as you are, I promise. But it has worked for me for 14 months and will always be the image I carry in my mind for my divorce. My ethics, my knowledge of what is right and my willingness to place the hopes of myself and my children inside that knowledge, that is the lesson of the divorce for me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Faithful readers of this column will wonder where God comes into all this? You may be looking for a belly of the whale analogy or something about Paul and shipwreck. And you're right to think I looked to scripture as a guide for my life. It is, after all, a tale of ethics and my ethics stem from my faith. But the book is not Jonah or Job or Acts or even Revelation, though there may at times have seemed to be a many-headed beast involved. The book is Ruth. Ruth, a woman who chooses her path, not through convention, but because of what she feels to be right. A woman who does the hard work to keep her family together. A woman whose choices have been the subject of speculation and criticism for millennia, but who never herself questioned their validity. A woman whose story we all know and which appears in our lectionary every year. This is the book that guides me here, this is the theology of my divorce. And yet in the story of Ruth, God is never mentioned and God never appears. <span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">I think that might be because God's work is evident </span><i style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">in Ruth's work</i><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">So if you are looking for God in my weary maritime tale, God is in the fact that there was a lifeboat at all. </span></div>
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Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-6794648964684525972012-07-17T09:40:00.005-07:002012-07-17T09:40:29.528-07:00Without a Net: Gliding Through the Garden of Gethsemane<br />
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Luke 22:39-46<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of
Olives; and the disciples followed him.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span>When he reached the
place, he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw,
knelt down, and prayed,‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from
me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ [[<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Then an angel from
heaven appeared to him and gave him strength.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>In his anguish he
prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling
down on the ground.]]<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>When he got up from
prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up
and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.</i><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">’</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">When I was fourteen, after weeks of training on
the ground and in the air, I took my first solo flight in a sailplane. I was so
scared, my heart was beating in my ears and my throat was closing. I could barely squeak out to my instructor as
he walked away and left me with the plane.
“Wait!” I said. “WAIT!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">He turned and looked at me and said, “I’m
getting it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">When he came back he had with him these two big
metal pins that weighted the front of the aircraft so that a slight 14 year old
girl wouldn’t be flying with her nose tipping up the whole time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The tow-plane hooked on, I was swept up into
the air and I watched in terror, my hands shaking violently, for the indication
to release and to glide, free of any propulsion, by myself, alone in the cockpit.
And then I pulled the release. I will
never forget that moment for the rest of my life. I was alone, in charge of my
fate for the first time in my life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">As a child with undiagnosed ADD, I had
struggled in school profoundly and even more so in life. I never knew where I was supposed to be or got
there with everything I needed. I understood every word that was spoken to me,
but I never ever knew what people meant.
And my poor impulse control imperiled more than my own life on more than
one occasion. I was the bane of my hard-working
mother’s existence and a complete contradiction to my brilliant father’s theory
of genetics. I was a danger to myself and
others and the family whispered the words “group-home” on more than one
occasion. I was – and am – a person whose brain, un-medicated and unmitigated –
is not her friend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">But here I was, after weeks of confusion and
fear, intimidated by my instructors and sure of their derision, never the less,
alone in the cockpit of an aircraft, entrusted with my own life, this valuable
plane and the safety of people on the ground. And I thought, “What the hell are
my parents thinking letting me do this?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Fast forward thirty four years. I’m now a
single mother, working full time for the first time in seventeen years. I have
a house to maintain and utilities to pay.
I have two dogs who need almost constant supervision to keep from peeing
on or chewing everything in said house.
And three children – all of whom were more poised and mature in the cradle
than I was at 14- whose psyches are impacted (according to the teenager) by
every single microscopic action I take (hence the scrutiny). I have to get people to things, and I have to
coach, train, discipline, encourage, console and, with frightening frequency,
cuss out, people whom I love. I have to remember, I have to complete, I have to
get up off my ass and weed when I want to read, and I have to sit down all
alone on the couch in the evening and sort it all out by myself. I am, once again, alone in the cockpit,
entrusted with the stewardship and safety of more than I could have imagined
possible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In a sailplane you have a limited number of
stimuli to process. You have an airspeed
indicator and an altimeter and a false horizon and a lift/drag ratio meter. There
is also something called a “yaw string.” This was my best friend when I was
flying. It was a tiny little piece of
yellow yarn stuck to the outside of the cockpit right in front of you that was buffeted
and tossed against the windscreen as you flew.
It told you whether you were flying efficiently: if the wind was passing
over your wings in the most efficient way, whether your attitude to the ground
and the wind around you (your pitch and your yaw) was correct for the kind of
flying you were doing. Whether you were
in a turn or pulling up into a deliberate stall, whether you were thermal-ling,
diving, towing or landing, that yaw string told you that you were in balance as
you did it. A yaw string is also not an instrument in the formal sense, it’s
not a gauge drawing on information it is picking up from a meter on your rudder
or your wing. It’s a little piece of
fiber pushed by the wind. That’s all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I have a yaw string on my minivan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">There is no sound when you are flying (without
a radio, I used to fly without a radio whenever possible) but the wind over
your cockpit, though that can be quite loud.
Your hands and feet are in place, you are strapped in somewhat
ruthlessly and there is no looking around more than 180 degrees – plus not
down, unless you’re turning, you can’t look down very well. So there is only up. There are clouds, which are my favorite things
in the entire universe because they tell you everything you need to know. They tell you where the wind is coming
from. They tell you where there will be
an updraft, a “thermal” which you can use to keep yourself in the air without
power. They tell you if it is going to rain or that there will be a change in
the weather. They tell you where
something starts and something else end. Clouds tell you everything you need to
know and they are almost always gorgeous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">So you stay in the sky in a sailplane by
finding places, invisible columns of air, that rise up from the ground, usually
because of heat on the ground. These are
called “thermals” and the process of sweeping around in a turn within these
columns of air – as you have seen condors and birds of prey sometimes do – is called
“thermalling.” When you wish to rise, you locate a thermal and you sweep around
in a large, graceful turn inside of it. Your long, wide wings are caught by the
air and you are swept up. You can’t see a thermal, they are entirely
invisible. You can guess where one is:
if you see a bird thermalling, if the ground is dark on a sunny day (soybean field
often make thermals), and under a cumulo stratus cloud. These clouds with tall
white puffy tops and flat bottoms indicate the presence of a thermal. When they line up along a weather front you
can glide for hundreds of miles without losing altitude. This is called, a “cloud street.” Great,
right? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">What the heck does this have to do with Jesus
in the garden of Gethsemane? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I think that being alone, or feeling alone, in
this mortal life, is a visit to the garden of Gethsemane. Even if you have
companions along the way, close, bosom friends, they will sometimes sleep. They
are mortal, they must sometimes sleep.
And, we all now it’s true, sometimes when we need them the most they are
afraid of what will be asked of them and they are asleep when we need them to
be wakeful. And in those moments, we are profoundly, cosmically, and
terrifyingly alone. You are strapped in place by the forces of your life and
livelihood. Your hands and feet must be
where they are to keep things going. You have limited visibility. And you can’t
see what the hell is keeping you afloat. You’re doing it all by the seat of
your pants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">When I was 14 and flying for the first time, I
released the tow-plane, I heard the thump of the hook and saw the rope fall away
and for a few seconds - seconds I sometimes relive in my dreams, I sat in that
cockpit and screamed like a babysitter in a horror movie. I took at least two full breaths and kept
screaming. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">And then my brain clicked off. And my gut
clicked on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">That’s how we get through the garden of
Gethsemane. When we can’t see what is
holding us up, we look for signs of it, for thermalling birds, friendly smiles
and “pokes” on Facebook. When we can’t
see anywhere but up, we can learn to read the sky, we can see places where we
will be held up or lifted up. When the
lift/drag meter is pulling way south, we can see our way clear to a cloud
street and that is all we need. Dawn
comes, it always comes. There is always the moment when you land safely. But getting through the night in Gethsemane
is about going from one thermal to the next. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is, in fact, all about the yaw string. If
you are flying efficiently, you’ll get the most distance on your lift, you won’t
slip or slide out of latitude, you won’t accidently roll or pull up too tight
and stall. You know what to do. You’ve
got the Scripture to guide you, Scripture, which is a little piece of the world
moved by the breath of the Creator: Scripture is a yaw string. Scripture which
will guide you to maneuver through the garden efficiently, effectively, smooth
in flight. It is about flying by the seat of your pants and not thinking. Thinking leads to screaming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">But what of the Angel? When Jesus was in the garden an angel was
sent to him and the angel gave him strength. Frequently these days, I pray for
an angel who will come and give me strength.
(And frequently, in the midst of a record breaking heat wave, I sweat
until I think I must be sweating blood and I think, “I was supposed to have the
angel by now. The angel is late.”) Remember, I said at the beginning that my
instructor put two heavy weights in the nose of the sailplane so that I would
be able to fly in the first place? That is because I, by myself, couldn’t do
it. I by myself, can never do it. But I was never alone in the cockpit, and I
am never alone in the garden. There is a
weight that is with me, before I ever begin the journey, keeping my nose from
popping up, keeping me from stalling out and plummeting to the ground. Easy to
forget. Required to fly. God is the Angel in the garden, locking me to the safe,
firm ground, and enabling me to soar over the Garden with strength and courage.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Let us hear the record of God’s saving deeds
in history, how he saved his people in ages past; and let us pray that our God
will bring each of us to the fullest of redemption.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> (BCP
288)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-51311765700087487982012-06-27T06:27:00.001-07:002012-06-27T06:27:25.275-07:00Cornelius Hill and Chilly Willy<br />
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">May the Holy Spirit guide and strengthen us, that in
this and in all things, we may do God’s will in the service of the Kingdom of
his Christ. <i>Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Today we remember and acknowledge Cornelius Hill. He
was ordained a deacon in 1895 and priest in 1903. Our lectionary guides tell us that he was:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">An interpreter
for Episcopal Services to the Oneida<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Successfully
resisted government attempts to move the nation further west<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">In case you don’t know or
remember, while we think of the Oneida as a Wisconsin nation with a thriving
gambling business, the Oneida are native to New York and were forcefully
removed to Wisconsin in 1821.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">It
says “His wisdom and sanctity are still revered by the Oneida.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Now, I read as much as I could find about Cornelius
Hill. I read up on my Oneida
history. I read <b>biographical material</b>
and <b>excerpts from newspaper accounts</b> and church documents. He was a
truly faithful man, a strong man, a courageous one and very intelligent
one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">But, at the risk of incurring the wrath of the
larger church: he was not an exceptional one.
So I have to wonder how he made it into the canon of the church. How he
got a Feast day and a number of “shrines” built in his honor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of taking
six middle schools from St. James Jackson, Mississippi on an urban mission
trip. We took food and supplies to a location where the <b>Night Ministry</b>
was working. The night ministry offers solace, support, food, medical supplies
and as much help as they can, to people living in abject poverty, in crime
ridden neighborhoods, with addiction, abuse and in the shadows of our
society. I drove these children from a
relatively elite section of Jackson Mississippi to 111<sup>th</sup> and State,
to one of the most threatened areas of our City. At 10PM. In the summer. Over the course of the night we had several
conversations that started with, “Why do y’all have fireworks in the middle of
June, Miss Shay?” and ended with “What do you mean, gunfire?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Now, we have in our culture this sort of new word, it’s
not one I particularly like. The word is “Othering.” <i>Other</i>ing.
You already don’t like it, right? It is defined as “the social and/or
psychological ways in which one group excludes or marginalizes another group.”
When we declare a person or group to be “other” we stress what it is about them
that is different from us. We create a binary: the pernicious but ever present
binary: “us” and “them.” And is so doing we imply that one is superior and the
other inferior, one is normal and one is exotic. One is right and one is wrong. We do this
with stereotypes in our culture and media, we do it by ghettoizing our cities,
and we do it and have done it in the church for millennia when we dismiss indigenous
religious practice and force our language of faith, our means of worship, our
language of praise, on any culture already in touch with the Holy One, the God
of Creation. We in the church are so good at it that we have wiped out dozens
of indigenous religions like extinct animals. And, because we are still, always
and ever at work making excuses, as soon as we identified it, we white washed
it with a nice emotionally neutral term: coercive evangelism. We were killing people
to bring them to the right faith of God – first peoples, Muslims, Jews,
Catholics, Moari, Koreans – we punished them until they did it our way,
frequently at the cost of their cultures, of their livelihoods, sometimes at
the cost of their lives. For Centuries. And still today. And what do we call
this institutional, historical and pervasive tragedy? “Othering.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">On the way down to 111<sup>th</sup> and State, the
kids in the car talked about two things: the glamor and wealth of their
Winnetka hosts. They used words like “rich”
and “white” and “safe” and “beautiful.” They all want to live here when they
grow up. Then, other the other hand,
they talked about who the people were who they were going to see at the Night
Ministry site. Here they used words like
“poor person” and “prostitute” and “addict” and “homeless” and “ex-con.” There was implicit in their speech a kind of
cultural Calvinism that is imbedded in our society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Calvinism is a system of belief developed at the
beginning of the Protestant Reformation and articulated most popularly by John
Calvin. We in the Episcopal Church don’t buy it much, but it is pervasive in
our culture. In our culture, Calvinism
looks like this: if you follow the rules of our culture, you will be successful
and you will be rewarded. But if you are poor and suffering, in our culture,
then it must mean you are doing something wrong. If you are thin and pretty,
you must be eating and exercising, if you are fat or sick, you must be lazy and
a Big Mac fan. If you are wealthy and living in Winnetka, it’s because you
earned it with hard work and good genes.
If you are poor and living on the street you must be one of those things
I listed above: an ex-con, a drunk, a sinner of some kind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">But we don’t believe that about our God, do we? We don’t believe that God only saves those
who worship the right way, who keep the Ten Commandments exactly, who never sin
or never stumble or have no faults. No, our God is a God of mercy. Our God is a God of unconditional love. We can -and do- get up every morning and sin
like heck all the way through the day and at the end of it God forgives
us. God hopes we’ll try. God is waiting
for us to aspire to a better life. God is thrilled when we do. But never, ever does God use God’s grace as a
reward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">About the same time as John Calvin came up with his
commerce of Salvation, a good Episcopalian named John Wesley articulated the
idea of “prevenient grace.” We all have
in us a little box of potential. It
resides in our bodies at the cellular level and inside that box is the grace of
God. It is the potential to be in
community with God, it is the potential to accept God as the guiding light of our
lives. We all have it in us. Every one
of us. We have to use our free will to
let it out. We don’t earn it, God gives
it. Freely. From the moment of our creation. Forever. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">That’s the kind of God we believe in, one who loves
us completely, already and forever, not the kind who gives grace as a gold star
for good behavior. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">So if we don’t accept that God works that way, why
do we accept that society does? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Why is it okay to believe that we are we and they
are them and that is that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Because we are afraid of the reality that there is nothing
between us and them. We work hard. They work hard. We strive and sin and
strive. They strive and sin and strive. We believe and they believe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">What sets up apart is the luck of birth. The privilege
of healthcare and nutrition. The advantages of education, shelter and a nation
at peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">These factors that set us apart … they are man
made. God has nothing to do with abject
poverty. What separates “us” from “them” … is us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">You see, what I learned from those kids in their
experience with the Night Ministry, what I learned, what I remember and what I
hope none of us EVER forget, is that those words they were using, “convict,” “addict,”
“prostitute,” “wealthy,” “educated” or “black” or “brown.” Those are earthly
labels. God doesn’t see those folks as
convicts and homeless people. God sees
them as children. We are all God’s
children. We are all made in God’s
image. And we are all brothers and
sisters in Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">We</span></b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"> put up those walls between “us”
and “them.” <b>We</b> created that binary.
Because here’s a tip about our Trinitarian God – there are no binaries
in Kingdom. There is no “us” and “them.”
The Kingdom is a spectrum. The Kingdom is a rainbow. The Kingdom is a
bridge between Tower Road and Sheridan and 111<sup>th</sup> and State.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">So, here we are, honoring Cornelius Hill, a great
leader among Oneida, a great man among all men.
And we should honor him because a life lead in Christ, any life lead in and
serving Christ, is worth a feast day, for sure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">But as we celebrate him today, let us take a moment
to be grateful for whatever lessons we have learned about ourselves and our Creator
that led us to lift up Cornelius Hill. And let us pray for more courage, more
faith and more wisdom so that the day will come <i>in our lifetimes</i>, when earthly labels fall away and we are all free
to realize our own prevenient grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Before I close, I would like to tell you this one
thing. This sermon is, like all sermons, a composite of things I read, talked
about with friends and prayed about … but this sermon in particular owes its
essence to a man called “Chilly Willy” who gave it in his own terms to the children
I took to his neighborhood one night a few weeks ago. He said, “We all get up every
day and try and fail and God forgives us. All we have to do is ask.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Amen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-7527514789619756862012-03-28T05:45:00.001-07:002012-03-28T05:45:23.108-07:00<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> The Truth Will Make You Friends<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Sermon on John
8:31.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here’s a test: finish
this sentence:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Truth will….<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Set you free, right? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
See, that’s a sign that you’re good Christians and you know
your Scripture and just maybe that you were paying attention just now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But is that really how you would finish the sentence… if you
were being <i>truthful?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here’s how I would finish it: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Truth will…probably get me in trouble.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Truth will…usually hurt someone’s feelings.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Truth will… definitely complicate things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth will…likely cost me money or time or
inconvenience.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth will…hurt me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You see, we don’t really like the truth in our culture. We prefer the brief, innocuous, harmless
white-lie. You can tell because there
are four billion words in the English language for lie and we always have more
words for something we value than something we do not. Eskimos have hundreds of
words for snow. We have dozens of words
for “lie.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Obfuscation<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Prevarication<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Fiction<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Falsehood<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Untruth<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Invention<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Story<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Fib<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But there is only one word for truth. Truth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We tell so many of these little fibs every day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Did you like the play?...I loved it, you’re a great
playwrite.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Do you want to see this movie?... Sorry, I have plans.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Do the kids like their Christmas fruit cake?... You
betcha.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Whadda ya think of the new Rector?...” Well, we’ll take that one
on faith.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How about this one, “Buddy, can you spare a dime?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You know, I have a friend who is an incredibly brave man and
I did not know that about him until a couple of weeks ago. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He set for himself a Lenten discipline that is telling the
truth. For the duration of Lent, he is
trying not to deceive the people around him.
Like this:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Good morning, How are you? “<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I’m having a tense week.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Hey, how’s the family?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Not so hot.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth. Just like
that, not sugar coated with “But I know we’ll be fine” or “I just need some
rest” because then its not the truth.
You don’t know it will be fine. You hope it will, you have faith that it
will. But to say it will, that is not
the truth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s pretty frightening, right? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are two ways for a person to respond to this honesty,
too. One is to back away, palms out
mumbling something about “Too Much Information.” But you know what? The person who asks “How are you” and cant
stand to hear the answer, they are the one that’s lying.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other response might be to stop, look right into the
face of the honest person and say, “I’m sorry.”
Or “I wish I could help
you.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, I don’t know exactly how this is all playing out for my
courageous friend, but I like to think I can imagine it. You come to work one
morning determined to be genuine with the people around you. Committed to being truthful. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Hi, Boss, how are you?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Not so hot.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I’m sorry. Is there
anything I can do?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“No, thank you. I’m under a lot of stress and I haven’t
slept well.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Oh, I’m sorry.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Thanks.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then maybe, in my little fantasy workplace, 3PM rolls
around, the deadly hour when that Sleepy Scion of Satan sneaks into your office
and makes your eyelids heavy and your head nod. But today at three, the
colleague brings you a cup of coffee and a piece of fruit. Or today, the colleague sticks her head in
and says, “I’ll close your door and take your calls for half an hour.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then the next day, she comes in and you say, “How are you?”
and she says, “I’m worried about my son is Afghanistan.” Did you know her son was there? Did you know how preoccupied she is with
it? And later, when she hands you a
document with a formatting issue in it, you’ll be a little less critical, a
little more graceful when you point it out.
Because why? Because you feel closer to her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You shared the truth, you responded to one another kindly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You’re building a relationship.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, its not an easy thing to be honest in this way.
Remember I said this friend of mine was one of the bravest men I know. You have
to make yourself vulnerable. You have to trust your truth in the hands of the
people around you and in turn be trustworthy with their truths. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But if you can do it, you can create deeper, more
emotionally real, more supportive, healthier and stronger relationships with
the people around you. In every context
of your life. The truth will make you
friends.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is another way to to approach the truth, of
course. A way that does not create relationships
but destroys them. A way that that
exploits vulnerability. A way that neither departs from nor arrives at love. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus talks about that here when he talks about enslavement
to sin. He’s not talking about
lying. The truth that sets you free is
not the opposite of lying. The truth
that sets you free is the opposite of the truth that enslaves you. It is a
truth based not on love but on fear, not on trust but on suspicion. The truth
that sets you free creates a safe space for vulnerability, for giving, for
forgiveness. The truth that exploits
vulnerability, shouts down empathy and ends in barriers and destruction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My father was a Counter Intelligence Agent with the Central
Intelligence Agency. He used to say,
“The best soldier is the one who is most intimate with his enemy, the best liar
is the one who knows the truth.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once, I went on a tour of the headquarters in Virginia and
you know what I saw? “The Truth Will Set You Free” is engraved in marble over
the door of CIA Headquarters. Its ironic, right? Here is an organization created for the
specific purpose of obscuring certain critical truths. Here is an institution that intentionally,
consistently and effectively “spins” facts, manipulates truth. How much
mischief has come out of that building with that maxim engraved over the door? And
its stated mission is “to protect” our freedom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But you see, that’s what is different about it. The CIA is charged with protecting your
freedoms, not with granting them. They
don’t guarantee you safety from foreign adversaries, they only police it. They don’t promise you international security,
they only enforce it. This is because they are charged not with revealing the
truth, but with concealing it, not with transparency but with secrecy. That’s not freedom, that’s drawing a line
around something, fencing it in. And
what government body more aptly describes the truth that enslaves us than the
CIA. A necessary evil. A white lie to
protect. A policy of privacy that builds
walls between people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, I’m not saying the CIA isn’t necessary. I am grateful for the good work those men and
women do every day. But I don’t think
that particular institution embodies the message Christ was trying to get
across in this text. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because here is what Christ says: The truth that sets you free puts you in
community with your fellow man and woman.
The truth that builds a wall between us enslaves us to sin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, what about that sentence. The truth will…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth will…test our courage, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth will… challenge society’s norms<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth will…. test the mettle of the people in our lives.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth will set you free… to love and be loved unburdened
by fear and falsehood. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christ offered us that kind of love, unburdened by fear or
falsehood. And he offered us a roadmap
to its source:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and
you know the truth and the truth will make you free… So if the Son makes you free,
you will be free indeed.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-1722990218780523352012-02-15T02:38:00.001-08:002012-02-15T02:38:56.222-08:00The Kingdom of God has Come Near You<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Kingdom of God
has Come Near You<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Psalm 102:15-22<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Isaiah 52:7-10<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Philippians 2:1-5<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luke 10:1-9<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In our text today (Philippians 2:1-5) Paul tells us to “Let
the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”… “having the same love, being
in full accord … do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility
regard others as better than yourselves… look not to your own interests, but to
the interests of others.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luke (10:8-9) tells us: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, …
cure the sick who are there and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near
you.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What do you suppose the kingdom of God is? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We hear elsewhere in Scripture that it is “like” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
A mustard seed<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
A treasure<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
A pearl<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
A farmer<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
And so on…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what is it really? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do you remember the What Would Jesus Do craze? People wore wrist-bands and tee shirts that
said WWWJD – and encouraged us all to think about what Jesus would do. It was a good idea that ended up being kind of
patronizing and a little silly. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a cartoon going around the internet lately that
parodies the What Would Jesus Do campaign.
The cartoon depicts Jesus on a hillside and lists things Jesus would NOT
do. The list includes:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Harass a
single mother<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shoot a
doctor – shoot anyone- own a weapon<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Hate his enemies<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Attack the poor <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
And my personal favorite…Run for
President<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s not too hard to define the kingdom of God in the
negative. We know what it isn’t. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But how can we know what it is?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At our Women’s Retreat this past weekend, a member joking
declared that the manna- that mysterious and miraculous sustenance which was
offered to the Israelites as they crossed the desert in Exodus- that the manna
was actually Diet Coke. We discussed
this idea at some length and decided that manna would taste different to each
individual, for some it would be crème Brule and for others guacamole and
chips. This being a women’s retreat the consensus was that manna would likely
taste like chocolate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Accepting this unorthodox but not entirely theologically
unsound premise, the kingdom of God might look like different things to
different people. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
It might look like clothing to an
impoverished mother<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
It might look like food to a
starving Somali<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
It might look like enfranchisement to
a Chinese dissident<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
It might look like reunion to the
spouse of a deployed soldier<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
It might look like health to a
person in pain<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
It would without a doubt look like
arms outstretched and hands open <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today we celebrate the life and work of Thomas Bray, an 18<sup>th</sup>
Century priest and missionary to the American Colonies. Here are some of the
things he did:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He radically reorganized and
renewed the Church in Maryland.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He arranged for the instruction of
children there<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He re-organized the process of
discernment and training of priests and pastors<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He opened 31 libraries and a number
of schools<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He defended – from the pulpit both
in England and the U.S. – the rights of enslaved Africans and displaced Native
Americans<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He persuaded Governor Oglethorpe to
found the colony of Georgia as a as an alternative to debtors prison<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He founded the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel and The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
both of which survive two hundred and fifty years later. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
(He was in America exactly 10 weeks)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are things he didn’t do:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He didn’t force the Gospel on
anyone – he offered them a chance to hear and learn it themselves.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He increased the presence of the
Church – not by building buildings, but by propagating servants<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He didn’t seek to punish those who
had fallen on hard times, he sought to alleviate their suffering<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He didn’t turn the other way when
he saw the oppression of marginalized, enslaved, exiled people – he spoke from
the pulpit at considerable personal risk – in their defense<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thomas Bray had a list of things he wanted to accomplish in
this life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We all have a list of things we want to accomplish in this
life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What makes Thomas Bray exceptional is not <i>what</i> he accomplished, but <i>how:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He did nothing from selfish
ambition or conceit but in humility<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He looked not to his own interests
but to the interests of others<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
He clearly tried to let the same
mind be in him that was in Christ Jesus. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, on the list of things Thomas Bray DID do, I forgot to
mention:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
He brought the Kingdom of God closer
to us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, only Christ, when he returns, can bring the Kingdom of
God finally and completely to us all. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But in the mean time, while we are waiting, we are asked in our
texts today to bring the Kingdom of God “closer.” It almost doesn’t matter what you do. If you
are in the same mind as Christ, if you let yourself be motivated by a desire to
be of like mind to Christ… you are bringing the Kingdom closer to us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
How beautiful upon the mountains <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
are the feet of the messenger who
announces peace,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Who brings good news,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Who announces salvation<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Who says to Zion, “Your God
reigns.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-63745268250019961802012-01-04T06:54:00.000-08:002012-01-04T06:54:04.286-08:00There But For the Grace of God<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There but for the
Grace of God<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Jan 2, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">John 9:1-7 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?’<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jesus answered,
‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works
might be revealed in him.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">4</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wemust work the
works of him who sent me<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>while it
is day; night is coming when no one can work.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">5</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As long as I am in
the world, I am the light of the world.’<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When he had said
this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on
the man’s eyes,</span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">7</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means
Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You know, there is just not that much difference between
people in the first century and people in the 21<sup>st</sup> century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the first century, people commonly believed that
your sins would be visited on you and on your children and their children for
generations. </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">They believed that if something ill befell you, it
was a sign of your sin. They even had certain sins assigned to certain
illnesses,</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">impure thoughts might manifest themselves as
insanity,</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">gossip resulted in throat cancer,</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">anger might emerge as bile in the gut. </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Envy is commonly associated with blindness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And so in this text, our 1<sup>st</sup> Century
characters see a blind man and wonder what he did to deserve to be blind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To our 21<sup>st</sup> Century ears, that sounds
inhumane, completely lacking in empathy, unthinkable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Or does it? </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">How often do we hear of the misfortune of others
and immediately look for a way to distinguish ourselves from them.</span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Our first instinct is to erect a wall between what
happened to them and what is possible for us.</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">“I don’t live where there are tidal waves”</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">“We never go to Brown’s Chicken”</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">“We never leave candles burning.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The implication is that there is something about me
or my circumstances that will keep that misfortune from happening to me.</span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">The implication is that there is something about her
or her circumstances, that resulted in his misfortune.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You see, people in the 1<sup>st</sup> Century and
in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century are not that different at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But that misses the whole point of this Scripture
and indeed of the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels as a whole. </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">In our Gospel today, Jesus is not concerned with
the reason that the blind man is blind. </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Jesus is concerned with the opportunity it offers
him, the opportunity it offers all of us, </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">to be the vehicle for transformation in the lives
of those less fortunate than ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Scripture says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">4</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We must work the works of him who sent me<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>while it is day;….<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">5</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Bad things do happen to good people. </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Accidents, illness, misfortune, they are
indiscriminate.</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">No one deserves to have their entire community
swept away by a tornado.</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Nobody deserves to be blind. </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">But the answer is not to make a distinction; </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">The answer is not to define an “us” and a “them.” </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">The answer is never a wall between people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">(Here’s a tip: when you are wondering if your
actions are following in the footsteps of Christ… if you’re building a wall
between people, they’re not.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Good News in this Gospel is that Jesus takes
people where he finds them. </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">No looking back with regret, no “what if.” </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Jesus teaches us to start where we are and move
forward. </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">There is an opportunity for God’s grace here, the
potential for the presence of the Lord.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">4</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We must work the works of him who sent me<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>while it is day;….<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">5</span></sup></i><i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In this
Scripture we are called to work the works of mercy and kindness…</span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">to be the
light when there appears to be only darkness. </span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">We are
called to be the instruments of consolation, the conduits of God’s healing
love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">And how
are we expected to achieve such an awesome task?</span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Th ese are
scenes of tragedy and trauma and suffering, how can we possibly be expected to
make the love of God present in situations such as these? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Well,
Jesus spit on the ground.</span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He spit
and made a mud ball and smeared it on the poor blind man’s face...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This is
one of those cases where it helps to know the context. Galilee is a pretty arid
place. The soil is fertile, but it takes some work to grow things. </span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">What
Jesus does, then, is take dry, arid dirt and add water to make it fertile. </span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">And not
just any water, water from his own mouth.</span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"> </span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">His own
essence is part of what makes the dirt into soil and releases its potential for
growth. </span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Jesus’ saliva
represents something essential to him, something unique and priceless.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He took a
little bit of himself, some of his DNA and added that to the soil to make the
poultice. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And that
is what this text calls us to do. When we are confronted with tragedy, with
suffering and with misfortune… we are called to be instruments of God’s grace. </span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">And not
just with some soil and some water from our water bottle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Now, you
may be thinking, “Oh no. I have no more time in my day to cook for the soup
kitchen. I work full time, I cannot train with the Red Cross.” </span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Don’t
worry, I’m not going to ask you to. </span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">There are
times when all we can do and in fact the best thing we can do, is write a
check.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In that
case, by all means write that check. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">But when
you do, add a little of your own essence to it.</span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"> </span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Enclose a
note to the relief worker – there are places on the Episcopal Relief website to
do that.</span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"> </span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Or just
stop before you press send and say a little prayer over your gift.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Join your
energy with God’s to transform the lives of the less fortunate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">That is all
this Scripture is asking us to do…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">to add a little of ourselves, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">become invested, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">draw on our own resources,</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So that
the healing and the mitigation and the resolution are part of us and we are
part of them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">No longer
is the suffering person “other” or distinct from us, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">now we are blended, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">blind man and healer, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">sufferer and comforter, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">friend and friend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">That is all we are asked to do. To give of ourselves, as
we are able, and with the grace of guidance of God, to heal what is broken in
Creation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the
first Century and in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, When we witness human tragedy,
we are tempted to have the same initial response of fear. </span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">We whisper,
“There, but for the grace of God go, I”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But we
are called by this Scripture to respond differently. </span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">We are
called to say, not in a whisper but in a loud and very clear voice,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Here, by the grace of God, are we…all in it together.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-50952300948335927822011-12-19T07:41:00.000-08:002011-12-19T07:41:10.911-08:00Doubting Thomas: The Essential Twin<br />
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<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Wednesday, December 21, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">St. Thomas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Doubting Thomas, at last
something I feel qualified to preach about.</span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">
</span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Thomas the Apostle was also called Didymus, which means “the twin” in
Greek.</span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;"> </span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Interesting, isn’t it, that in
the first community of </span><i style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">faith</i><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;"> there
was one among them who was called to articulate </span><i style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">doubt</i><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;"> and he was a twin. Doubt is the twin the faith, the brother
of believing. It is not the opposite of believing, not the nemesis of
believing. Doubt is essential to belief, incorporated into belief.</span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;"> </span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">It requires doubt, as well as its
counterpart, belief, to create the whole, complete</span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;"> </span><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">and dynamic entity that is the life of faith.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Are you familiar with the T’ai
Chi? We sometimes hear it called the Yin-Yang symbol. It is a Taoist symbol, a
circle made up of two identical halves, one black and one white, each
stretching into the other a little, like two comets dancing around one another.
Within each half there is a dot of the other.
So, in the white half, there is a distinct circle of black and within
the black there is a matching circle of white. The two halves, then create a perfect circle,
a whole, which is where its name comes from: T’ai Chi translates to “Great
Ultimate.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">I think it is a useful image to
use when we encounter doubt and belief.
Belief is that brilliant white side, where we are full of confidence and
consolation. But within that brilliant
white space there is a small but not insignificant measure of black doubt. And,
on the other hand, doubt is that dark place that seems bottomless and engulfs
us in despair, but within that darkness is one small but essential circle of
light, of belief, present even in the domain of darkness. The whole thing
together, the dark and the light, wrapped around one another and also
incorporating one another, creates a whole, a complete circle, an entity we
call Faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Toaists use the image of T’ai
Chi to represent the dynamic nature of the Universe. The Yin signifies rest and the Yang
represents movement. Stasis and
progress. Being and becoming. Belief and doubt. As described by Dr. K. K. Yeo,
the T-ai Chi embodies the natural state of Creation: “change, even chaos, is not to be disliked
manipulated or feared. Change produces a
life of pilgrimage. It is in that change and pilgrimage that one finds his
being, the meaning of existence.” (Yeo, <i>What has Jerusalem to do with Beijing?</i>
1998, p.98)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Belief and doubt exist in
relationship to one another and it is that relationship that keeps them alive.
It is the give and take of doubt and belief, the constant movement between one
and the other that creates the living and growing and changing whole that is
faith. Believing is part of faith, but
it is not all. If faith and belief were
the same thing, we could just rest on our laurels all the time, saying, “I
believe and that is all there is.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">But that isn’t what we find in
the Scripture. Thomas questions Jesus.
Thomas has doubts. Not just in our text
today but also in John 14 in which Jesus says: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">3</span></sup><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book;">And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that
where I am, there you may be also.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: LuzSans-Book;">4</span></sup><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book;">And you know
the way to the place where I am going.’<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: LuzSans-Book;">5</span></sup><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Thomas said to
him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’</span><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: LuzSans-Book;">6</span></sup><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Jesus said to
him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Doubt opens the door to belief. Doubt
articulates what isn’t and in so doing creates an opportunity for belief to
articulate what is. Doubt enlivens
belief. Doubt forces us to confront what
we don’t believe, where we can’t go emotionally, intellectually or spiritually.
Doubt is a dark place that we try, as a rule to avoid. But the fact that there is such a dark place
means that, within the whole of the Great Ultimate, there is also a light
place. We know there is because in the
depths of the darkest place, there is a hint of light. It looks like a dot but
it might also be a beam. A beam of light that can draw us back into the light
side of belief. And when we get there we
are on firmer footing because we have been in the darkness of doubt, we know it
is there and we are never permitted to forget.
There’s a spot of it right here in the light all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">This, I think is the most
important point to be made. Because we
know even when we are perfectly secure in what we believe, there is always the
possibility of doubt. Therefore we also know, just as surely and with just as
much resolve, that when we are in the abyss of doubt and it all seems
impenetrable darkness, that there is there, as well, the possibility of Belief,
the hope of renewal, the essential element that can bring us back to balance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">That is the Great Ultimate, the whole
life of faith. And because these two elements are constantly in relationship
with one another, a life of faith is never static. The life of faith is always growing, always
changing. We know well that over the
course of our lives we come and go from believing, we come and go from
doubt. And that coming and going is
natural, it is essential. It means the life of faith is never stagnant, it is
never still, it is never dead. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">Doubting Thomas was a member of
the community of faith around Christ.
His words were important enough to be recorded many times over, his
legacy of skepticism is preserved thousands of years after other disciples
words and actions have been lost to history.
I think this is because even in the community of Jesus, in the presence
of the most brilliant, bright and absolute belief, in order for it to be
complete, there must be one small but unrelenting dot of doubt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book;">I’ll leave you with a little
piece of poetry- and it is trite, I apologize - from the Christian Reformed
Church from a poem about St. Thomas.:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 11pt;">May we, O God, by grace believe<br />
and, in believing, still receive<br />
the Christ who held His raw palms out<br />
and beckoned Thomas from his doubt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 11pt;">(Thomas Troeger, 1984, Psalter/Hymnal of the Christian Reformed
Church)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-81963518306073365692011-11-16T15:19:00.001-08:002011-11-16T15:23:17.651-08:00St. Margaret of Scotland: Why, not How.<br />
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> ‘The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me,</span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"> because
he has anointed me</span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"> to
bring good news to the poor.</span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">He has sent me to
proclaim release to the captives</span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"> and
recovery of sight to the blind,</span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"> to
let the oppressed go free,</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.’</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the course of the entire history of the Christian church, there has
been a fascination with the elemental questions about Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Obviously, the central question is “Who is Christ”? Son of God, Descendant of David, Son of
Joseph…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Throughout the history of the church there have been searches for the
historical Jesus, leading to the helpful of sometimes confusing distinction
between the “pre-Easter Jesus” and the “post-Easter Jesus.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Immediately after his death the second most nagging question arose,
“What is Christ”? All man? All God?
God and Man?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And “How does<i> that </i>work?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But of all the questions we ask ourselves about Christ, one that is
almost never under discussion is “Why?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why was the Word made flesh to dwell among us?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why did he perform his ministry over the course
of his life?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why did he perform miracles?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why did he tell parables?</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why did he preach the overthrow of tradition
and traditional wisdom?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At the risk of
offering an extremely simple answer to an impossibly complex question: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our text today tells us that he did so “because he was moved by the
Spirit.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me</span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, the Scripture doesn’t say that the Spirit of the Lord told Jesus to
go out and perform miracles, it doesn’t say, “Drive the devil out of a man, and
then into some pigs and then toss them off a cliff.” It doesn’t say, “Answer direct questions with
obscure cultural references and ambiguous metaphorical aphorisms.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There are no instructions in this text at all about how to get it done.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Just what needs to be done:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bring those who are distant from it, closer to
the love of God<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Help those who are enslaved by sin in every
form<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bring light where there is darkness<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Empower those who have no power<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Be a beacon of Hope for the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today is the anniversary of the death of Saint Margaret Scotland. She is
the only Scottish Queen to be canonized.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She was born in around 1045, and when she was 20, she and her family fled
the Norman invasion of England intending to go to Northumberland. According to legend, a storm blew up and sent
their ship to Scotland. The place where
it is believed to have landed is called St. Margaret’s Hope. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Margaret was a renowned beauty and King Malcom fell in love with her on
sight. After their marriage, she is
credited with being a civilizing influence on his court. Though he could not read, she read stories of
the Bible to him. It is said the he
“disliked what she disliked… and loved, for love of her, whatever she loved.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And what she loved was service. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She instigated religious reform, striving to
make the worship and practices of the Church in Scotland conform to those of
Rome. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She was considered an exemplar of the
"just ruler", and influenced her husband and children, especially her
youngest son, later</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">David I, also
to be just and holy rulers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She served orphans and the poor every day
before she ate, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She washed the feet of the poor in imitation of
Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She rose at midnight every night to attend
church services. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She invited the Benedictine order to establish
a monastery at</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dunfermline</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in Fife <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and her blessings extend even into our
congregation - she rebuilt the monastery at Iona – where our own curate went in
pilgrimage and heard his call.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Saint Margaret was</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">canonized</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in the year
1250 by</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pope Innocent IV</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in recognition
of her personal holiness, fidelity to the Church, work for religious reform,
and charity.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Now,
just to be clear, Canonization, whether formal or informal, does not</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">make</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">someone a saint: it is only a declaration that
the person</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">is</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">a saint and</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">was</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">a saint even before canonization.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The
person proposed for canonization “must have lived and died in such an exemplary
and holy way that he or she is worthy to be recognized as a saint. The Church's
official recognition of sanctity implies that the persons are now in heavenly
glory, that they may be publicly invoked and mentioned officially in the</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy" title="Liturgy"><span style="background: white; color: #0645ad; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">liturgy</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">of the Church,
most especially in the</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litany_of_the_Saints" title="Litany of the Saints"><span style="background: white; color: #0645ad; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Litany of the Saints</span></a><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">22 miracles are attributed to St. Margaret. After her death, people who
were afflicted would have a vision of a beautiful and elegant woman who told
them to go to the burial place of St. Margaret and there to be healed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Useless hands were made whole, lesions and injuries were healed,
insanity, infertility, and dropsy all born away on the prayers of the
faithful. My personal favorite is the
man who suffered for years with a bally full of lizards. God knows that can be uncomfortable. He was
set right in prayer at St. Margaret’s resting place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, I don’t think you need to believe in these miracles as such (though
you are welcome to if you like, the older I get the less sure I am of the
boundaries of reality as I know it.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What is striking about these miracle stories is what they say about
Margaret’s life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Margaret of Scotland’s biography tells the story of a woman whose life
and works were infused with the Holy Spirit.
She was intentional in the use of her talents, powers and privilege as
means of serving her fellow man and her Father in Heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think when people go to her grave and pray for a miracle they have not
been brought by the “how” of her life, but by the “why.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Why did she do all that she did in the service of the Kingdom of
Heaven? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Because “the Spirit of the Lord was upon her” and when the spirit of the
Lord is upon you, all things, all things are possible. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> As long as we don’t lose sight of
the “Why”…. The “how” will work itself out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“and the
Scripture will be fulfilled in our hearing.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Amen</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-13603727280154564742011-11-09T04:24:00.000-08:002011-11-09T04:24:47.690-08:00The Loaves and the Fishes: Occupy Galilee<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b>Matthew 15:20-39</b></span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This is my favorite of all of the miracles Jesus performed during his lifetime. This and the story of the wine casks in John – when Jesus is asked to provide wine and turns dozens of gallons of water into the finest wine at a wedding. I love these stories because they remind us that our God is a God of abundance. And that is such an important message that we can’t say it enough. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But the story of the loaves and the fishes is unique. It is the only miracle story recounted in all four Gospels. In fact, it is told six times in the gospels. Some scholars think that indicates that the event, or some kind of event actually took place – not metaphorically, not allegorically – actually… that there was an event of feeding a mass of people in the wilderness. In Jesus’ time and, as in this text, in the wilderness, food would be scarce and the people would be pretty desperate – to feed such a crowd would be a feat worthy of recording at least six times. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The people following Jesus have been three days without anything to eat. They came to be healed and have miracles performed for them, their motivation was great, but it has been three days and they are probably in pretty bad shape. They are in a crowd of four thousand men and untold numbers of women and children. They have come for miraculous healing, so at least when they started out they were injured or ill or in pain. And they have remained in faith and subject to the elements for three days and nights. They are, we can safely say, a profoundly wretched bunch. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And they are starving. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But they are also faithful - for in their time with him, they have been made whole, cured, made well.</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So, what does Jesus do? He </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">has compassion</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> on them. He takes what resources are present, blesses them. There are seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Seven loaves and a few fishes is probably just enough to feed himself and his 12 Apostles. There is no way it can make a dent in the needs of the four thousand. But Jesus and his party put them into seven baskets and hand them out into the crowd.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now, it doesn’t say he magically magnified the food as he did with the wine in John. There is no indication in any of the six versions of the story that he did anything more than bless the bread for their consumption. So, without a miraculous incantation, how on earth did those seven baskets of food feed four thousand plus people? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Well, it has been suggested that certain of the people, when they saw how little food there was and that it was meant to feed so many, didn’t take any. They decided they did not need any and let the less fortunate have some. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Maybe there were some who had neighbors nearby and the promise of a good meal very soon. Some may have brought food of their own and let the basket pass by them, some may even have put food from their pockets into the basket as it went by.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In any case, at the end of the story, the baskets make their way back to the Apostles with food remaining in them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-left: .5in;"><i><sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">37</span></sup></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-left: .5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The obvious modern application of this text is Occupy Wall Street. It seems clear to our Loaves and Fishes Informed eyes that the top 1% of Americans need to spread their wealth more evenly among the 99% who are not as privileged. Clearly, they need to put their loaves into baskets with a blessing and send them off into their communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But that isn’t the lesson of the Loaves and the Fishes, is it? I mean, the miracle was not that Jesus and the disciples were generous enough to put their wealth in a basket and send it out into the world. That is what we would expect from the Messiah and his apostles.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The miracle was that the 99% were able to share it. No one horded, no one jealously guarded, no one cheated, and further, many people must have replicated the initial act of generosity in order for the food to go as far as it did. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Do you think if we sent seven baskets of money into the crowd of 4,000 at an Occupy Demonstration, that they would come back with change in them? I confess, I doubt it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So what is the difference between the 4,000 in Galilee and the 4,000 in the financial district?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The 4,000 in Galilee had come to see the Messiah in faith. They believed in him, in his ability to heal and to set things right. They believed that his actions were motivated by love and that his teaching was the truth. They believed that everything would be alright. They had faith. Not just faith in Jesus, faith in God. A God of abundance.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The demonstrators at Occupy don’t have that confidence. They have a scarcity ethic: “there isn’t going to be enough”, “I won’t get what I need, if I choose moderation now, I may starve later.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So, the miracle Jesus performed in Galilee was not that he magnified the resources, it was that he replaced the crowd’s fear with confidence. He replaced their insecurity with generosity. He replaced their desperation with faith in a good and gracious and abundant God. And when he did that, he set them free.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Absent their insecurity, the crowd was able to be generous.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Absent their fear, they did not panic and hoard.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Absent their doubt, they were filled with faith in an abundant God and the ability to live out his commandments with courage and conviction.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And, it tells us, everyone went away full. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Miracle of the loaves and the fishes didn’t happen in the bread baskets, it happened in the hearts and minds of the people who knew and loved Christ. That is worth repeating six times because not only is it amazing, it is timeless. It can happen today. It should happen today.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We have, at Christ Church, a ministry called Christmas Angels, in which Christ Church families “adopt” less privileged families, provide for them for Christmas, wrap the gifts and sometimes give a little extra as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This year, because some supporting agencies were unable to take their usual number and because more families than ever are in need, we at Christ Church have taken on 60 new families – large families. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now, this is a lean year for many of us. We none of us are able to give as generously to our loved ones during the season as we would like. We none of us are able to fulfill the dreams or fill the stockings the way we had hoped to be able to. We have only enough for our own Christmas this year, and not even enough to do that properly.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We have only the seven loaves and a few fishes for our whole family. How can we be expected to share it with 3,995 other people? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Well, we don’t have to share it with 3,995 other people. We have to share it with one other family. We have to reach into our pockets and say, “I have enough for me and mine. Let me leave in this basket for you, what I do not need.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Because God is good and bountiful, I can afford – no I am privileged to be able to – extend His bounty to you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In our hearts, we may be afraid and insecure. We may secretly embody a scarcity ethic. But we also know and we believe in that super abundant God who miraculously fills wine casks and bread baskets. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now, this isn’t a “prosperity Gospel”: it doesn’t tell us that if we pray for a pool we’ll get a pool. It isn’t really about material things at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is about being faithful to the God in whose image we are made, remembering and believing in the Messiah in whose footsteps we are meant to walk and embodying the Holy Spirit, and being her hands and feet in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I we can do that: remember, believe, be…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We can all walk away fulfilled. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
</span></div><div style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Amen<o:p></o:p></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-33428140833960025822011-10-18T20:49:00.000-07:002011-10-18T20:49:39.935-07:00Something Greater Than the Temple.<div class="MsoNormal">Matthew 12:1-14<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Chapel Sermon 10.19.11</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Can you cite Scripture chapter and verse?<span> </span>I can’t. I know people who can – I know a Baptist preacher cum doctoral candidate, my dyed in the wool Methodist grandparents, but mostly the people I know who can quote Scripture chapter and verse are fundamentalist Christians. <span> </span>And mostly they quote it to me to tell support positions that I believe are wrong.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">They may say “a divorced woman should never marry again” quoting Leviticus. They may say tell me that they don’t have to make charitable donations, quoting Ecclesiastes, and they may quote Exodus when telling me that women are the weaker sex. And I will answer that I believe those sentiments to be wrong, but I cannot say they are not Scriptural. Irritating as it may be, the truth is the Scripture does say those things. I just don’t think it <i>means</i> them.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The interesting thing is, when my Fundamentalist friends quote chapter and verse to me-this is called “proof texting’-they are taking the verses out of context.<span> </span>My friends are using the words without any frame of reference to original intent and using them to support whatever position my friends want to take. What they are not doing is looking at the context: at the conditions under which the words were spoken.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">My friend Kevin works all day on elaborate data collection programs. They run on giant massive programs and they crunch numbers in equations that would take months if they were done by hand. But sometimes an equation is too big or too elaborate or flawed in some way and he has to stop the computer from crunching away forever on it.<span> </span>In this care, he decides to end all the calculations and to shut down all the programs.<span> </span>He says to his assistant, and I have heard him say this, “This will never work, kill them all!”<span> </span>Out of context, this sounds like a pretty frightening statement. In fact, in context it is so innocuous as to be downright boring.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">As a rule, when my Fundy friends quote me chapter and verse it is because they are delimiting something.<span> </span>They have built a wall around righteousness or piety. They have made a little line in the sand and said “inside here is what is right.”<span> </span>It gives them comfort, it’s easy, they don’t have to think. And when I ask them why, why do they think that, you know what they say?<span> </span>They say, in one form or another “because the Bible tells me so.”<span> </span>But that isn’t entirely accurate. The Bible may say it, but in context, reading with your brain engaged and your heart open, that is certainly not what the Bible is trying to tell us.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the text we are looking at today, Jesus does not like being hemmed in by imaginary Scriptural boundaries.<span> </span>The Pharisees, who are Ancient Israel’s answer to modern Fundamentalists, have an idea in their minds of how The Law works and if you are not doing that you are in violation of The Law.<span> </span>Jesus, tells them to look past the letter of the Law to its intent: “If you had understood what this meant…” he says, you would not have made the mistake.<span> </span>Not what it <i>said</i>, what it <i>meant</i>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Jesus teaches us to look past literalism to ethics – ethics from the word Ethos - Greek for character, used to describe the beliefs or ideals that characterize a community. Our ethic is not a law that guides us, it isn’t a more that circumscribes our behavior – our ethic, our ethos if you will – is the nature of our community, what is in our hearts, what invigorates our actions;;; Like the Holy Spirit, our ethos is the wellspring of our motivation and our ethics are the expression of that zeitgeist. Jesus is reminding us here that the single central Christian ethic is love.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the first story the Apostles are hungry and they forage for food.<span> </span>The Pharisees say, “harvesting is prohibited on the Sabbath.”<span> </span>But the Apostles were hungry- they are motivated by need not wantonness- and essential to the celebration of Sabbath is being sure that everyone is fed, that no one goes hungry.<span> </span>In the second story, Jesus encounters a man with a crippled hand and the Pharisees say, “is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?”<span> </span>Now it is important to note that they are not asking it if it right – I think there is no doubt that they would not think it was right to let a man suffer on the Sabbath, they would, if they could, cure him – but in doing so they would knowingly violate the Sabbath.<span> </span>So their question to Jesus – in an attempt to discredit him- is “is it lawful”?<span> </span>He answers with a rhetorical question I think because he has already answered this question above…<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">“Something greater than the temple is here…”I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”<span> </span>If you had known this, you might not have made the mistakes you have made. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Jesus here is reaching beyond the letter of the law.<span> </span>He says elsewhere that he is not come to change the law, that not a jot or tittle will be altered… but neither will He let us continue to adhere to the law without thinking, without feeling.<span> </span>Jesus asks us here – as he is wont to do – to work for it.<span> </span>You know God loves you, would a loving God want you to observe Sabbath while your brothers and sisters went hungry?<span> </span>Would a loving God think it was illegal to heal a brother or sister before your Sabbath celebration? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">No, if Jesus of Nazareth is anything, he is a breaker down of walls. The walls of literalism that my fundamentalist friends use to hem in righteousness and delineate piety, Jesus tears down with an ethic of brotherly love. And while observing the Sabbath law maybe mutable – there may be times when you knowingly violate it – the law of Love is inviolable, never suspended, never suspect, never in error. And it is a law that does not build up a wall between men, rather it is a law the breaks down barriers and brings mankind together <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">And therefore it defines much more than what is righteous… it defines what is right.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, before I close today, I just want to point out something that I noticed for the first time when I approached this text to preach on it this week.<span> </span>This text is, in its own way, very amusing.<span> </span>You see the Pharisees come to Jesus with righteous indignation and a feverish concern for the preservation of the Sabbath saying: “You should not harvest on the Sabbath!” (and so now we get to kill you) and “It is illegal to heal on the Sabbath” <span> </span>and yet what does the Scripture end with?<span> </span>“But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, to destroy him.” Feeding the hungry is not appropriate for the Sabbath, healing the disabled is not lawful on the Sabbath but go ahead an conspire to destroy a Rabbi, that’s an okay activity for the Sabbath.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">So you see, it is not just our common sense that guides us in the conduct expected of us by our Lord Jesus Christ, it is also our sense of humor.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Amen. <span> </span><o:p></o:p></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-60822255966821305752011-06-20T05:24:00.000-07:002011-06-20T05:24:22.975-07:00Evangelism is show, not tell.<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">17</span></sup></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">18</span></sup></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">19</span></sup></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">20</span></sup></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”</span></i></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Matthew 28:16-20<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word for that is “evangelism” and in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century in a liberal protestant church like ours “evangelism” is a dirty word. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The word evangelism is harmless in itself; it means the zealous dissemination of something we profoundly believe in. It means “propagating for a cause.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can evangelize your health club or the model of car you drive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">No, it’s a dirty word not because of what it means (indeed very few dirty words are dirty because of their meanings) but because of its associations:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Evangelical, Evangelist, Televangelist. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">In a modern context, evangelism is when you are accosted on the street or on your own doorstep by someone who is selling something you don’t even want to talk about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And from its earliest inception, that has always been true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evangelism is when some self-righteous stranger tells you about Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it seems like, historically, that something is something you really don’t want to hear.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">For example, that being Christian means being a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">white eastern European male.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Or that the beautiful and practical clothing of the people of the Andes must be traded for Eastern European garb in order to embody Christian propriety.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Or that the breathtaking music of Sub-Saharan Africa must be replaced by the music of Bach and Beethoven in order to be sacred.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Or that the awe inspiring images of the deity and Holy Spirit to be found all over Asia are heretical graven images and must be replaced with the image of a white man and a Holy Spirit we can’t describe (we only know their depiction is wrong). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Evangelism is responsible for the darkest moments in the history of the Church: the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, complicity in Nazi and Stalinist atrocities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Evangelism is a secretly corrupt man in an expensive suit in front of a podium with no evidence of Christian images anywhere near him…. or worse excessively violent images… telling you who among your acquaintance is damned.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Evangelism is, I am afraid, a word which has been used to justify more bloodletting, more physical and emotional and cultural violence than any other in any language that I can think of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is not because of what it means.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Evangelism is obnoxious at best, horrific at worst.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Or is it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Where is the line where Jesus tells us that the only way to be Christian is our way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where is the part where he tells us to oppress others?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To punish them for diversity, to destroy anything unfamiliar that threatens our self-righteous ego-centric definition of faith?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Maybe it’s Paul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was always good at telling us what to do, Paul was good at telling us how.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">There’s nothing here about killing other people, there’s nothing here about homogenizing culture or even worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “how” that Paul seems to be advocating here is not “tell” but “do.” Not “oppress” but “live in peace with.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Paul tells us this, my brothers and sisters, because that is what Evangelism REALLY is. It is doing, not telling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And here the really shocking part: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we are, all of us, all the time, unwillingly, unrelentingly and whether we like it or not, evangelists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Because when we are in the world, when we hold the door open for the man with his arms full, when we put our shopping carts back in the cart corral, when we pause to be thankful before a meal, when we swear like sailors as the train goes by… every moment of every day we are Christians and we are representing for Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">All Paul is saying is, we have to be more intentional: be aware of what we are doing. Imagine in every moment that we are wearing tee shirts that say, “I am a representative of Christ.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, that doesn’t mean we have to be saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul says explicitly that we don’t have to be perfect, even Christ was half human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means we have to try to be perfect, we have to “fake it till you make it” or “dress for the part you want” or, and I know we’re all sick of it but, it means you should ask yourself “what would Jesus do?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">In the words of the mahatma: we have to be the change we seek in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And this is the way Evangelism really works. I can tell you how great my health club is, but if I really want you to know, to understand the experience as I understand it, I will give you a visitor’s pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I want to experience the difference between my minivan and Tina’s mini cooper, I’m going to have to take it for a test drive. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s it that’s all we have to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Because the Holy Spirit does the rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because maybe that person you met today goes home and says, “All Christians are not Oral Roberts or Pat Robertson (no relation, thank you very much).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know a really great woman in Winnetka, a really great one. And she’s a Christian.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">You see, evangelizing is not so much something we do as it is something we assist the Holy Spirit in doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evangelizing, in its truest form, is when we demonstrate the glorious feeling we have when we are in touch with our divine nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evangelism is when we follow the still small voice inside of us, the grace placed there by our creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is when we seek to know the spark of divinity that is present in every other living creature. It is when, thorough our actions and impact on the world, we open other people to their own divinity and blessing. Then, in that moment, the Holy Spirit can spread wide her wings and fill that person with an understanding of how blessed and brilliant a creation he or she is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, don’t get me wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evangelism is not necessary to conversion. That divine spark, that “prevenient grace” is present in everyone and it can be turned on with or without the intervention of any other person. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But in this text we are called to ask, “How can I help?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What can I do to share the joy I feel in my faith with other people who aren’t there yet?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century we add, “without making them unfriend me on Facebook?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">How can we help the process along? Well, we cannot hope to change an entire culture with sweeping reforms and testimonials broadcast over the airwaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can hope to change one person at a time, the way all good viruses are spread: with a handshake, with a hug.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Evangelism works through contact, not coercion. Plenty of sentences have begun with the words, “I know what’s good for you.” None of those sentences resulted in real evangelism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">So I’m going to ask you to think about this, this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can I, in my own life, in my personal interactions, in my own little insignificant way, how can I be the change I seek to see in the world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can I embody my experience of God? The loving and wonderful creator of all things?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can I be guided by the Holy Spirit to walk in the footsteps of my Redeemer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">If we let ourselves be guided by those questions, we will be evangelists in the truest sense of the word: in action, not word, in fact not theory… in faith and in the name of Church. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #777777;">"</span></span><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”</span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: LuzSans-Book; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-32933978835825079232011-05-29T23:16:00.000-07:002011-05-30T09:01:16.481-07:00All that is seen and unseen<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you love me, you will keep my commandments. <sup>16</sup>And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.<sup>17</sup>This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;">18</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;">”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. <sup>19</sup>In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. <sup>20</sup>On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. <sup>21</sup>They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.</span></i></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: right;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;">John 14:15-21<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The text from John this week always reminds me of the lyrics to the Beatles song: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“I am the Walrus.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The rest of the lyrics of that song make almost no sense to me... it's word salad - at least forward... but at least I get this one little bit. You see, this text is preparing us as we creep toward Pentecost when the Apostles were given their marching orders. It says we are all one in Christ, all one in the manifestation of God on Earth. I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Every week, as part of the Nicene Creed, we say we believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is the story of something unseen. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I have a friend who was deployed to Afghanistan in December and is back now, safe, though, injured, and sound. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for his return. His presence over there was like an itch in the small of my back. It wasn’t enough to keep me from living my daily life… but it was worrying me. I prayed for him, I prayed for his family, and occasionally, I closed my eyes and imagined I could see what his eyes were seeing. I reached out to him with my mind and my heart in an attempt to let him know that I was holding on to him from thousands of miles away.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I don’t know if this worked for him, if he was aware of someone praying for him. But it worked for me. For a little while, I felt I could hold him up when he was too tired to stand, or watch over him while he slept. It was as if I could lend him some of my strength, some of my safety, just for a few moments. It was as if, for a few moments, I was he and he was me and we were together. It’s a strange thing to say, I know, but I warned you, this was about Creation that is unseen. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is Memorial Day Weekend and for some of us that means singing a nationalistic song in church, barbequing or marching in a parade. But what I think it ought to mean is not so much remembering as re-membering.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I wonder if we could think of the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. I wonder if we could imagine holding them in our care, as I did Mike. Would we feel as if we were with them? Would we feel as if they were part of us? Could we, for a moment, displace their suffering? Could we offer them eternal presence in our minds and hearts? Could we return them to membership in our communities, in our faith, of our church, by holding them in our hearts?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is what I think Jesus was trying to tell us in this text. We are all together, all part of a great whole, the whole of Creation. We have, within us – if we are willing to be open to it – a little bit of God: The Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;">You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And, having a little of the godhead within us, we are made a part, an active part of the Kingdom of Heaven as it is manifested on earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So, if you accept that the Holy Spirit is in you, and that you are in Christ and Christ is in God and God is in you… what then? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you love me, you will keep my commandments.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. As. Ourselves. Imagine Mike, then, and looking through his eyes at the battle field. Imagine someone you know, reach out to them with your mind and your prayers. Love them as you love yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I will not leave you orphaned;<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">He has not left us orphaned, he has left us with family. He has left us with one another. Even those who have gone on to be with God, he has left in our care, as part of our family. As part of Creation, of all that is seen and unseen. They are part of us, they live on with us… and we who knew them are a part of them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There is a school of thought that the Kingdom of Heaven is to be achieved now, in an on-going process of reconciliation and unification. The Church should be the vehicle, the critical mass through which the Kingdom is achieved. But the Kingdom can have no end, there can be no death in the Kingdom, no being alone, no being orphaned. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So we have in us the Holy Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit as an Advocate, we have God. And we are charged with loving one another as ourselves. And with contributing to the rising tide of healing across the globe. We do this not just now but always, with those who have come before, those we know now and those who will follow and remember us. And we do this together: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So, today, let us take a moment to remember those people who are not with us – those on active duty and those who have laid down their lives for the greater good – let us hold ourselves out to them, become part of them and let them become part of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Let us form a Church universal, a vehicle for change, a critical mass. Let us pray that we can become the Kingdom of Heaven, and look for God to be revealed in one another and in the world around us. Let us pray that we can come together and bring about Kingdom of Heaven, and close the gap between all that is seen and all that is unseen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif; font-size: 12pt;">They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-39909076787711913802011-05-21T05:46:00.000-07:002011-05-21T05:46:21.629-07:00John 14:1-14: Doors Open on the Left in the Direction of Travel<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; line-height: 22px;">Today is the fir</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; line-height: normal;">st day of the rest of your life. Because yesterday was not the last… or until the next mathematical genius gets too much press and spins up a news cycle with equations of doom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, in fact, inevitable that over the course of the remaining years of our lives, we will again be threatened with the coming of the Kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Best get ready, then, eh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the immortal words of the bumper sticker sage: “God is coming, look busy.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Well, the lectionary offers us a timely passage for our consideration, though almost any passage can be timely, that is the nature of Scripture. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In this passage, Jesus is giving us several important clues into the nature of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom with whose coming we have been threatened as if it were a punishment over the past few weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gives us clues to where it is and he gives us directions to it. Let us look at few of them: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">You know, one of the things I dislike about seminary is the underlying implication that only those who have been in seminary – taken OT and New T and two sections of Church History and Greek- can truly understand what is going on in the Scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s crap and don’t ever hire a minister who tells you that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, as the result of a seminary education, I know something you may not about this verse and it may help to understand it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In the first century, when John the beloved disciple wrote these words, to be “in a person’s house” did not mean literally to be “in their house.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, it meant to be “in their community” or “part of their world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A modern corollary, admittedly a flawed one, might be the Mafia concept of “cosa nostra.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not in the house, but of the people, not occupying the rooms, but an element of the whole. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So what Jesus may be telling us here is that there are many ways to be one with God, under his protection, an element of the whole of His Creation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">I think this is related to the next little clue: “you know the way to the place where I am going.” Remember, where Jesus is going after this text, is to jail, to court, to the Cross and to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is fulfilling his calling, that’s where he is going. Here he seems to be saying, “You know how to be what God wants you to be.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">So, so far, we know:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1) that there are many ways to be part of God’s Creation; and 2) we know in our hearts what is expected of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, that’s pretty clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the confidence that we can be joined in spiritual unity with God, and through thoughtful prayer, we can discern our way.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">But, wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next shoe to drop will complicate things: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.”</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">SO much harm has been done in the name of this verse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I could change the language in any part of the New Testament, this would be on my top ten list of candidates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been used to coerce people out of their genuine nature and into a white Anglo Saxon Protestant or Catholic norm in the fear that their own appearance, nature or liturgy is damnation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been used to oppress people of faith who worship God in another name or another fashion. It is used today to tell people who look for all the world like they are acting in “good faith” that it isn’t faith if it isn’t our faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us tread carefully here, then, knowing that Jesus Christ would never tell us to condemn any of God’s creatures, never tell us to think we were better, never to think that service and subjection were the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Absent all that baggage, then, the verse seems very simple. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.”</i> Jesus tells us that he is “the way.” In Greek the word for “the way” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hodos,</i> meaning the road or the course of conduct, in modern parlance, “in the direction of travel” (as in “at Clark and Division, doors open on the left in the direction of travel”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Chinese word is Tao, and it translates better, “the path.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Arabic the word is Islam and it translates as “the way to peace.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you begin to see how the many rooms in my father’s house verse works now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are many ways to view it, many words for it, but it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> way, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> path, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the </i>direction of travel. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">And where are we traveling to?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is our destination? Truth and through the truth, Life, everlasting, redeemed and redeeming, transformed and transforming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life in the house of, in the family of, as an essential element in, God.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">There, I said it, when we are in the house of God, when we are truly with Him, we are one with God. Does that scandalize you? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Well, never fear. I don’t know anyone who is entirely one with God. I’ve read about someone, Jesus, but I don’t know anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it sounds heretical to say that one could aspire to be Jesus, to be as close to God as the one who came who WAS God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, it seems to me Jesus is saying just about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a place for you, he says, you know the way, he says. I have shown you the way, he says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what it looks like to be on the path, to know the truth and to live it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I am there” he says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I am making a place for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you </i>there. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">These verses seem to me to say, there is a bridge, an open window through which we can see heaven from the mortal world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is Michelangelo’s finger of God, reaching out and with the lightest, tiniest contact, actually touching man.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">We have arrived at a very difficult concept, one which lends itself, again, I am sorry to say, to smarty-pants theological education posturing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does it work, exactly, that Jesus is God, but God is still in Heaven?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Jesus is entirely God and entirely man?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does that work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And how can any lesson in which Jesus says, “Do as I do” be of any use to people who are not entirely God but simply entirely human? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">There are many answers to this question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The early church offered us a few, “of the same essence”, “light from light”, and kenosis, self-emptying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are some of the ways of conceiving of Christ as man and God, and, just to complicate things, Holy Spirit as well. These are some ways of conceiving of it, but not all the ways, and maybe not your way. As you study Scripture, as you pray and wait and pray… you will have your way, your way of understanding Christ and his life and his words and his miracles and his death and his resurrection as a means of becoming closer to God, as a means of being in relationship with God. Yes, over time and in faith, you will develop, or perhaps have developed your own understanding of how you fulfill God’s purpose, how you are an essential part of His Creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You, in fact, and in faith, will know your room in our Father’s house, and how to get there, and how Jesus Christ is, for you, the way, the truth and the life. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">All that is left for you to do is pick your seat and sit down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-82356019022678368532011-05-19T06:09:00.000-07:002011-05-19T06:09:38.499-07:00Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last week my congregation finished reading the Bible in a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were treated to a presentation by a local Theologian and educator, Adam Ericson, to a means of interpreting the Revelation of John which offered us a vision of a loving God, of a healed earth, of a goal rather than a condemnation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And yet there were those in the audience who persisted in asking, “What happens after? Isn’t there a judgment? Isn’t awful?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, thank God we got through the book last week, in any case, because this week Harold Camping and his Oakland based “Family Radio” are getting a lot of press with their prediction that the world will end on Saturday (again, he was wrong about that thing in 1994 – oops!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Camping, an erstwhile engineer, foresees the end times through a complicated mathematical formula that incidentally places Noah’s Flood in space and time, as well as the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A credible argument for either of these events would in themselves be newsworthy to the academic community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the absence of said credibility, Camping’s theories depend in credulous congregants deceived by fiction in the form of Theology and film in the place of fact.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, there is little doubt that the book of Revelation contains a warning to a certain people of the consequences of their actions if they persist in their current behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in a departure from my usual uber-liberal soap box, I would further argue that we as liberal churches do not do a responsible job of addressing Revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not as though there aren’t other ways to approach the idea that history is building toward a single end point. A dichotomous and much more ancient alternative to the “blood soaked Jesus” of Revelation is the Jewish concept of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tikun olam:</i> the healing of Creation, the ultimate return to the Garden through reconciliation, peace, re-ordering and righting of all that has fallen away from grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But whatever option for education a community chooses, it may not turn its face away from the concept of an end times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result is a congregation which is not equipped to speak to these episodes when they arise. We, as liberal Christians, are afraid of the louder voices of our conservative brothers and we shy away from the confrontation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I think that is a shame and a failure on the part of the liberal church, it isn’t the focus of this essay today. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What struck me about Adam’s presentation last week, was the persistence of “what happens after.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were no questions about the main subject of his presentation, which was “how should we be until then,” that is, no one said, “what are we being warned against? What are we to do?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Many years ago this month, I lay on the floor of our family room, an eighteen month old in my arms and two elementary school students in their beds and had this very conversation with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had cancer and it would be five long days before we knew how serious the disease or course of treatment would be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went through all the steps: I bargained, I was angry, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while I am blessed with a truly atrocious memory, the one thing I do remember is all the things I regretted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were dozens of things I had left undone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(My dad had always said, “The things you regret in life are the things you did not do.” This always struck me as bad parenting, but it turned out to be true.) I had not seen the Northern Lights, I had not published any novels, I had not told my children that I loved them enough, I had not had enough sex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were others, but you can see that the list was pretty wide-ranging. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We are told, not just in Revelation, but over and over in the Bible, that the world will end. We don’t know when, Jesus didn’t know when (Matt 24:36), which means God doesn’t know when.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if God doesn’t know when, Harold Camping doesn’t know when. But we know the end is coming for each of us, a pale horse in our future whose rider is cancer or something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, I don’t believe the world will end Saturday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I did, today and tomorrow would be easier, I’ve got a 3 stage huge bar mitzvah, two choral performances for two different children and a Brownie horseback riding outing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But I don’t have to believe the world is ending Saturday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I only have to know the world is winding up, history is progressing toward something. And what matters is what we do today, this minute, and in every minute between now and the parousia, personal or communal, public or private, immediate or in the future. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will we have regrets on the last day?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will that element of us that is eternal, our legacy in the form of children or work or music or security or justice…. Will it be a part of the healing of Creation? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That seems to me to be the ultimate lesson in the idea of an end times, be it in the words of John in Revelation or the lessons in the first book so Genesis: are we making the kingdom of heaven on earth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whether or not we are, we are praying for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are praying for an “end times” that realizes God’s will for us, and we are praying that our lives will contribute to that end. We only have to be more intentional when we say these well-worn words aloud: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thy Kingdom come.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thy will be done.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On Earth as it is in Heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-42407755848092465062011-05-18T17:02:00.000-07:002011-05-18T17:02:55.133-07:00You Shall Be Faithful: The Seventh Commandment in the 21st Century<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"> <a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It might be possible to say that this commandment, perhaps more than any other in the list, must be set aside today, as persons have learned a new joy and fulfillment in life through the adoption of much freer relations between human beings sexually.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Marriage in the United States is no longer defined as narrowly as it was in the past and adultery has lost its teeth as a social taboo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modern American media accepts and glamorizes adultery and Americans voraciously consume it.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> And yet, we are also conflicted about it, “a vast majority of people still say it’s wrong.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> However, does it follow that the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), has lost its relevance for the 21<sup>st</sup> Century?<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> At its core, the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment offers us guidance about creating and sustaining relationship: bringing two individuals together in the creation of a singular and sacred covenantal union. As long as humanity cleaves together in covenant relationships, we will need the guidance this commandment offers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This paper will address ways in which a less literal and more faithful understanding of the 7th Commandment elucidates its relevance for the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">I. Adultery in Historical Context<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In its historical context, the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment defined adultery very narrowly:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">An engaged or married woman committed adultery if she had sexual relations with anyone other than her husband or her betrothed husband-to-be. The man committed adultery only if he had relations with the wife or betrothed of another man. (Harrelson 1980, 123)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The prohibition of adultery is, in essence, a “property rights” issue. The 7<sup>th</sup> commandment was written in order to assure a husband that the progeny produced by his wife was his own.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The husband, as head of the household, was in control of his wife’s fertility and the progeny she bore him and, by extension, of her sexual fidelity.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there was more at stake at the time than bragging rights. “Paternity is essential for inheritance law,”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> so it was critical that the mother be virtuous – pure or unadulterated – to assure paternity. “Within this biblical framework, virginity was an economic, not an ethical concern.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> A husband “owned” his wife and if another man adulterated her purity; it was a crime against the husband: he had been robbed of predictable progeny. The adulterers in this case were the man who “robbed” the husband, and the woman whose reproductive purity was adulterated. “The man can only commit adultery against a marriage other than his own, the woman only against her own.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">There is, of course, a prohibition in the Decalogue against stealing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too literal a reading of the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment might lead one to erroneously perceive it as redundant to the 6<sup>th</sup>. In fact, the Decalogue builds on itself, to some degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 6<sup>th</sup> Commandment, “You shall not steal” (Exod 20:13) is not repeated in the 7<sup>th</sup>, but nuanced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only should you not steal the property of your neighbor, you should not render his property unusable to him. You should spoil it, so to speak, or blur the lines of ownership. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remembering that adultery is also a form of trespass and that the commandments were written to a people living in community, there is in the proximity of the 6<sup>th</sup> and 7<sup>th</sup> Commandments, a template for respect among neighbors. The two commandments together might be interpreted as saying, “Don’t take what is not yours, and don’t even borrow it without permission.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The language of adultery in the text could have “the man or the woman as subject” (Childs 1974, 422), but the act of adultery imparts impurity only on the woman. If the fertile ground in which the husband will presumably plant his seed had not been “polluted,” the wife is “unadulterated.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">If a man has had intercourse with her but it is hidden from her husband, so that she is undetected though she has defiled herself… (Numbers 5:13)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, turned aside to uncleanness… (Numbers 5:19)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had intercourse with you (Numbers 5:20)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be immune and be able to conceive children (Number 5:28) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity (Numbers 5:31) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Adultery was a crime against the husband, certainly, and a serious one because progeny, legacy, the perpetuation of the family line was essential to early Israelite identity (Levine 2009).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, “since the aim of every person and every family was to live on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in perpetuum</i>, siring a son was both a matter of self-interest and a duty to family ancestors” (Levine 2009, 316). Absent from this understanding of adultery is any expectation of equity or parallelism between the parties involved.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no presumption of monogamy on the part of the man. He is not bound to his wife in the way she is bound to him. There was “no equivalent demand for male marital fidelity” (Levine 2009, 198).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was incumbent on a man, should his wife not produce progeny, to look elsewhere for a wife who can perpetuate his name in Israel (Levine 2009, 316, 23-24).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, polygamy was commonplace in the Ancient Near East and is nowhere prohibited in the Bible. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The term for betrothal signifying sexual “separateness” …referred only to the status of a wife. For while a man sexually separated a woman from all other men, there is no equivalent female verb: a wife does not separate her husband! (Levine 2009, 71)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Adultery was also perceived to be a sin against God. The man committing the adultery rendered the woman unsuitable for reproduction (Levine, 2009 178) and violated the commandment to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor is the woman blameless in the eyes of God: “Who forsakes the husband of her youth and forgets her covenant before God” (Prov 2:17) and is punished with such severity (Lev 18:20, 20:10, Deut 22:23). The curse of Onan combines both sins: he “spilled his semen on the ground” rather than impregnate his brother’s wife, doomed his brother’s line and incurred the displeasure of God (Gen 38:8-10) (Harrelson, 123).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">II. Adultery in Contemporary Context<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1.0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">“In the last half-century new truths and new attitudes have fueled a sexual reformation. Standards, values and choices are being redefined and altered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The task of the Christian in such a world is not well served by remaining ignorant of or blind to these changes.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title="">[12]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1.0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, much of what is premised in this historical context has become obsolete. First and foremost, marriage is no longer primarily a question of “property law.” A betrothed or married woman is no longer considered the property of her partner in any legal way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His concern with her virtue before they enter into an understanding is no longer protected by law. However, in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, what was once bound by law is bound in convention. One is assumed to have an obligation or a commitment to the person with whom they are in covenant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nature of that obligation may vary from covenant to covenant, but the convention of commitment is well established.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In addition, in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, determination of paternity is no longer at issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Genetic paternity can now be determined in a laboratory with virtually incontrovertible results. And the importance of determining paternity in order to “perpetuate the family name” is not as important as it was in Ancient Israel. “Bloodlines” are not the only way to perpetuate a legacy; adoption is far more commonplace and widely accepted, and inheritance law no longer requires a literal “son and heir.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In the absence of the need to determine and protect progeny, those aspects of the prohibition against adultery which depended on that need have also become archaic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Ancient Israel, a woman could inherit property in the absence of a male inheritor, but ownership passed away from her upon her marriage (Frymer-Kensky 2005).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, depending on jurisdiction, property brought into the union can be considered communal – that is, owned by both – or remains the sole property of one party.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title="">[13]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The commandment proscribed fidelity for women only: men were presumed to have extra-marital affairs as well as to be polygamous (Levine 2009, 189). In the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, where monogamy is the norm, fidelity is expected of both parties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contemporary divorce law permits either party to bring a divorce complaint on the grounds of adultery.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title="">[14]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Interestingly, while Biblical adultery turns on a “property rights” issue, in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century as a rule and in my home state of Illinois, divorce law tends away from adultery as grounds for divorce because it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does not</i> have a bearing on “the distribution of marital assets” (ILGA.GOV , Coladarci, 2010). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">III. Covenant in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Ancient Israel defined marriage in very limited terms: two individuals, a male and a female, entering into a heterosexual covenantal union and sexual relationship for purposes of procreation.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Adultery” applied only to persons in or entering into that definition of marriage (Freymer-Kensky, 2005).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In the 21<sup>st</sup> Century in the United States, however, marriage encompasses a much wider spectrum of covenantal arrangements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>State governments, the governmental bodies that grant marriage licenses, as a rule do not concern themselves with the reproductive goals of the couple applying for a license, except where consanguinity maybe at issue (ILGA.GOV). Some states exclude the one-man-one-woman requirement.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Churches and religious organizations are no more uniform in their definition of the covenant of marriage (for example the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church of America).<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> And while the majority of people forming covenantal unions in the U.S. do so in a “traditional” marriage, the number of “partner” unions<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> which fall outside of those parameters is rising dramatically.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The 20<sup>st</sup> Century also saw a rise in behaviors that might once have been considered adultery, but in a modern context are within the bounds of covenantal behavior including “swinging,” and “open” marriages. “The only limit on the freedom, the only demarcation of the moral space, is in the terms of preservation of the covenant commitment.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title="">[20]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Certainly, in an era in which the Decalogue was compiled, unions and arrangements like these were beyond comprehension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The language, “You shall not commit adultery,” reflected its contemporaneous cultural setting. However, the essence of the commandment surely does not stop there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The Levitical laws have to do with a particular kind of sexual act, not with the gamut of affections, feeling, act, and commitments that belong to a relationship of two persons that is intimate and permanent, characterized by love and faithfulness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Miller, 2009, 295)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The Word of God, the 10 Commandments and specifically the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment are meant to apply to all people under all conditions. “The commandments are meant not only as norms of behavior but also as objects of contemplation to lead toward the perception and love of God” (Falk in Dozeman 2009, 462). What God wishes for humanity, he wishes for all of humanity, regardless of the presence of a state license or a valid ketubah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to return it to relevance in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment must be examined at its most elemental and universal level and applied to covenantal unions in their myriad modern forms.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">IV. Redefining Adultery<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The way in which the Old Testament takes up the matter of adultery and sees it as an image and parable for the faithful relationship with God is consistent with Paul Lehmann’s suggestion that the man-woman relationship as described and laid out in the creation stories can be understood as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">foundational</i> rather than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">limiting</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">restrictive</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is paradigmatic for human relations rather than restricting them. In various ways employment of the adultery image indicates that we have in the marriage relationship and its protections something that points us to various relationships and identifies the critical thing as keeping covenant and not harming the neighbor’s relationship. This has much significance for understanding what matters with regard to same-sex relationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>…it is a matter of the significant in the factual, in this case the character of the relationship, more than the fact of it. (Miller, 2009, 295-296)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Adultery is a legal term that applies only in limited circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We seek here to apply this limited proscription to a broader and more modern context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can do this by looking closely at the commandment itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word “adultery” originates from the Latin <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">adulterare</i> meaning “to corrupt.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[21]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Historically, this corruption applied to the wife, betrothed or progeny. We have seen how this application is no longer valid in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In light of these shifts in social context, perhaps we are better served by the Scripture if we read the commandment as prohibiting any action that makes impure or compromises not the wife or the progeny, but the relationship itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The prohibition against adultery stakes out the claim of the two partners in marriage to a relationship between themselves that is not to be compromised or destroyed by the action of either partner. (Harrelson 1980, 125)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In antiquity, it went without saying that the product of the union was progeny. Both parties entered into the relationship understanding reproduction to be the desired result and the boundaries around fidelity were very tangible and specific thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, where there is a much wider diversity in the kinds of covenantal relationships available to individuals, what constitutes “adulteration,” that is, what blurs the lines of the relationship can be as varied as the relationships.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Whatever the agreement (if it really is an agreement), that is the accepted ideal for this couple... The infidelity is the breaking of that agreement.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title="">[22]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Biblical commentators cleave to the belief in “the possibility of a genuine relation of fidelity that is outside the conventional sanctions of legal marriage.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[23]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the absence of strictly conventional boundaries and a uniform definition for “adultery,” they have arrived at a constellation of qualities which describe (even if they are not altogether specific and concrete in their terms) an unadulterated modern union. An unadulterated covenantal relationship is one in which both parties thrive:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In its fullest interpretation, the command against adultery envisions covenantal relations of mutuality that are genuinely life-giving, nurturing, enhancing and respectful. (Brueggemann 1994, 850)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It fosters a sense of one-ness, of being united by the covenant and a commitment to the union:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The commandment against adultery might be restated, at the most, to underscore commitment and to support partners in committing themselves to one another … in such a way as actually to reflect the commitment they are making to each other as a whole. (Harrelson 1980, 130)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">And it is unique and “binding”:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The understanding of marriage as a covenant that joins the two parties together in a binding relationship and in a commitment that does not allow either one to commit to any other in the same way. (Miller 2009, 285)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">And so its opposite must necessarily be as universal, and as vague: “Adultery means anything that shakes human confidence and weakens human trust.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title="">[24]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adultery as Idolatry<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The appropriation of the marriage and adultery metaphor for speaking about faithful an faithless conduct on the part of Israel seems to rest very much on the understanding of marriage as a covenant that joins two people together in a binding relationship and in a commitment that does not allow either one to commit to any other in the same way. (Miller, 285)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In the face of these somewhat sweeping generalizations, the language of Scripture offers some guidance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“</b>The worship of other gods and the construction of their idols in the second commandment are interpreted as adultery.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[25]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adultery is commonly used in the Bible as a metaphor for the relationship between God and Israel: “Love’s passion becomes a theological motif to describe the relationship of Yahweh to Israel” (Dozeman 2009, 485).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Idolatry displaces God with imagery or concepts that are not divine and opens the door to behavior that should be confined to the covenantal relationship (i.e., worship).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Idolatry lends itself to adultery as a metaphor:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Law gives voice to reservations concerning Israel’s capacity to remain faithful to covenant” (Dozeman 2009, 461).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Idolatry, in general terms, is the mistaken elevation of an “idol.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In English translations of the the Hebrew Bible, the English word “idol” may reflect a variety of Hebrew words including: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pesel:</i> “carved image;” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">masseka</i>: “statue;” and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shiqqutsim</i>: “shameful ones.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title="">[26]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The language and imagery of adultery is most commonly present in Scripture where Israel’s fidelity to God is threatened by idolatry: “Israel’s faithfulness is spelled out in detail as a story of broken marriage, punishment and restoration” (Miller 2009, 283).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is of interest to us in this application is not the imagery of adultery, per se, but more specifically, the imagery of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">separation and alienation</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Israel violates its covenant with God, it does so by creating a distance between itself and God. Idolatry creates an unnatural separation between covenantal partners; it violates the boundaries of the relationship (Dozeman 2009, 477).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Those who love (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ahab</i>) Yahweh draw forth a response of love (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hesed</i>) from God,” whereas, “the root meaning of “hate” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sane</i>) is forced separation” and may also “refer to rebellion of a treaty partner” (Dozeman 2009, 486).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The notion of forced separation is carried over into divorce law. A spouse declares divorce by publically proclaiming his or her hatred (Deut 22:13-16, 24:3). (Dozeman 2009, 485)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the texts below, the italics which emphasize the germane language are mine. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">….because the Lord your God, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who is present with you</i>, is a jealous God. The anger of the Lord your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth. (Deut 6:15)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she went up</i> on every high hill and under every green tree, and played the whore <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there</i>? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">return</i> to me’; but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she did not return</i>, and her false sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sent her away </i>with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she too went</i> and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. (Jer 3:6-9)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Perhaps the most famous of the tales of adultery is the story of David and Bathsheba:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">So David <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sent</i> messengers to fetch her, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she came</i> to him, and he lay with her….When the mourning was over, David <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sent and brought</i> her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. (2Sam 11:4 , 11:27)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The child conceived outside of the boundaries of Bathsheba’s covenantal relationship was to die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was only when David <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">brought her into</i> relationship with him that their children (Solomon and Absalom) would be allowed to live. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">By far the most challenging imagery related to adultery is present in Hosea. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the selected verses below the dichotomy is thrown into sharp relief;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>adultery is described in terms of separation and alienation, while fidelity to the covenantal relationship is described in terms of return and re-union.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Infidelity/Separation:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">1:2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go, take</i> for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So he went</i> and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">2:5 For their mother has played the whore;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>she who conceived them has acted shamefully.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">For she said, ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I will go after</i> my lovers;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they give me my bread and my water,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’… <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">2:7 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She shall pursue</i> her lovers,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but not overtake them;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she shall seek</i> them,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but shall not find them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Fidelity/Union:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">2: 6 Therefore <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I will hedge her way</i> with thorns;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">build a wall</i> against her,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so that she cannot find her paths. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">2: 7 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She shall pursue</i> her lovers,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but not overtake them;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she shall seek</i> them,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but shall not find them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then she shall say, ‘I will go<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">return</i> to my first husband,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for it was better with me then than now’… <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">2: 9 Therefore <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I will take back</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my grain in its time,…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">2: 14 Therefore, I will now persuade her,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bring her</i> into the wilderness,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and speak tenderly to her. …<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">2: 19And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I will take you</i> for my wife for ever; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I will take you</i> for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. 20<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I will take you </i>for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">These texts reaffirm the association of separation and disunity with adultery and of intimacy and unity with fidelity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Idolatry replaces one “beloved” with another and thereby alters the original condition of covenantal union. Where the boundaries of covenant are blurred or crossed there is disunion and separation, the covenant is adulterated. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">V. Adulteration and Boundary Making<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Fidelity should be the guiding theme of interpretation of this command, as distinct from legal arrangements that bespeak old property practices and rights. (Brueggemann 1994, 850)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Brueggemann here suggests, and this paper will explore, the possibility that the efficacy of the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment is obscured by its language. If we were to change the phrasing of the commandment from the negative: “You shall not commit adultery,” to the positive: “You shall be faithful” then our focus shifts from prohibiting the violation of legally binding vows to embracing a mutual understanding of commitment and union. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Fidelity (from the Latin <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fidelitatem</i> meaning "faithfulness, adherence")<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[27]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> is here used to express the honoring of boundaries, the intentional commitment to common understanding, the unification of two into one (Gen 2:24).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fidelity contemporizes the notion of “covenantal relationship.” By framing it in terms of fidelity, the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment can speak to the much broader spectrum of relationships in evidence in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Fidelity is gender neutral. Where adultery implied an impurity on the part of the female (and perpetrated by a man), fidelity is a dialogical concept: either party may be faithful or unfaithful with no distinction for gender or dominant/submission stereotypes. Adultery is premised on insuring the purity of relationships in which progeny is at issue. Fidelity, on the other hand, manifests itself dialogically between two parties who share a mutual understanding of the nature and limits of their union. Fidelity, therefore, applies to relationships which are not strictly monogamous, not intent on reproduction, etc. In short, “fidelity” embraces the width and breadth of covenantal relationships because it allows for the definition of union to be established on a case-by-case basis between the parties involved. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The premise underlying the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment, then, is this: When two parties enter into a relationship, the nature of that relationship should be unique, mutual and transparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither party should be deceived as to the other’s intent. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The chief thing is that human beings continue to commit themselves to one another honestly, truthfully, and lovingly, avoiding deception, exploitation, and irresponsible conduct of any kind. (Harrelson 1980, 130)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment, the Scripture warns us against adultery and, in its narrative warrants, exhorts the virtues of fidelity. The objective of the commandment is union, mutually supportive, transparent, covenantal, and loving union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such a union is defined not by a convention established by a government or religious body, but by the parties entering into the covenant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is delineated by boundaries that are determined by those parties in clear communication and as an act of creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, the boundaries and behaviors of each union will be unique to each couple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will also be incomprehensible to those outside the union. Inherent in this interpretation of the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment is a presumption of privacy. Only the people who delineate the boundaries can speak to their location or permeation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the union of two into one in fidelity, in mutuality, in trust and in love.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">VI. Conclusion</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Far from its perceived obsolescence in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment offers valid and insightful guidance for forming myriad covenantal unions in faith.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[28]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The prohibition against adultery ensures and sanctions unions formed with clear communication between the parties, with boundaries and objectives which foster trust, commitment and integrity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where the foundational trust and boundaries are violated, there is disunion and heartbreak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unions made in the faith of fidelity and transparency, reflect God’s expectations for his covenantal union with humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In as much as we are created in His image, we should aspire to create covenants that reflect our covenant with Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">From Justin and Aquinas, through Luther and Calvin, and into the present time… Christian interpreters have explored the universal truth of the Decalogue for creating a just society. (Dozeman 2009, 473)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Scripture, like all literature, was written at a specific time by a specific set of authors for a specific audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, we are bound to admit to the frailties of the text: the language may not be acceptable to contemporary ears; the cultural context may seem impossibly bigoted or arcane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, Scripture is distinguished from other literature in consequence of its revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We as Jews and Christians believe that this text documents the in-breaking of the Deity into human history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe that we can expect more of the words of Scripture than of any other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In consequence, we may not look at portions of Scripture as essential and revered as the Decalogue and say they simply do not apply in the modern era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, it is incumbent on us as faithful readers and scholars to seek in Scripture the eternal truths and timeless exhortations, which are as valid in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century as they were when they were written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment, we must look beyond the prohibition of adultery to see the affirmation of faithful, loving and blessed covenantal union.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Gen 2: 24-25)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" /> </span> <div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Resources<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Achtemeier, Paul J., under “Idol,” in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harper Collins Bible Dictionary</i>, (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco) 1996, 448-450.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Brueggemann, Walter, “Exodus” in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New Interpreter’s Bible</i>, Vol. 1, (Nashville: Abingdon Press) 1994.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Chadman, Charles E.,”Adultery,”in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Concise Legal Dictionary</i>, (Chicago: American Correspondence School of Law) 1909.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Childs, </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Brevard Springs, "Exodus: A Commentary," <i>Journal of Biblical Literature</i> 81, no. 4, (Westminster Press) 1962: 428-318. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dozeman, Thomas B, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commentary on Exodus</i>, (Cambridge: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company) 2009, 457-495.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. "Israelite Law: Personal Status and Family Law," in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vol. 7 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia of Religion, </i>2nd edition, ed. Lindsay Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference) 2005. 4730-4734. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Dec. 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Frymer-Kensky, Tikva, “Virginity in the Bible” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East</i>, Matthews, Levinson and Fymer-Kensky, eds. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, LTD) 1998, 79-96. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Harrelson, Walter, T<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he Ten Commandments and Human Rights</i>, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press) 1980.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Levin, Etan, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marital Relations in Ancient Judaism</i>, (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz) 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Miller, Patrick D., <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ten commandments: Interpretation Resources for the use of Scripture in the Church</i>, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press) 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Müller, Sigrid, “Adultery- medieval times and reformation era” in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, </span><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Italic;">Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception </span></i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">1 (Berlin/New York :Walter de Gruyter) 2009, </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">accessed 12/9/10.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Parker-Pope, Tara, “Love, Sex and the Changing Landscape of Infidelity<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,” The New York Times</i>, published, October 27, 2008, accessed December 10, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Phillips, Anthony, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Essays on Biblical Law</i> (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, LTD ), 2002.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; tab-stops: 67.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Pittman, Frank, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Private Lies: Infidelity and the Betrayal of Intimacy</i>, (New York: W.W. Norton and Company) 1989.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Setel, Dovorah D.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Exodus” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women's Bible Commentary</i>. Newsome and Ringe, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox) 1998,<b> </b>31-39.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Spong, John Shelby, and Denise G. Haines, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beyond Moralism</i>, (San Francisco: Harper and Row ) 1986.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sueltz, Arthur Fay, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New Directions from the Ten Commandments</i>, (New York: Harper and Row) 1976.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
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</div><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <!--[endif]--> <div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">All references to Scripture in this text will be the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise noted.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Harrelson, Walter, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ten Commandments and Human Rights</i> (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), 129.</span><o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In February, 2010, following the revelation of her husband Mark Sanford’s affair, Jenny Sanford’s memoire reached #8 on the New York Times Best Seller list (http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2010-02-28/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html<span class="MsoHyperlink">) </span>; the 2009 season premiere of AMC’s Mad Men, featuring philandering business men in the 1960’s, garnered 2.9 million viewers (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2074481/mad_men_season_premiere_sets_ratings.html<span class="MsoHyperlink">)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Tara Parker-Pope, “Love, Sex and the Changing Landscape of Infidelity<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>in<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The New York Times</i>, published, October 27, 2008, accessed December 10, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> This paper is does not engage in the debate about what does or does not constitute “marriage” in a modern context. Not only is such a definition a movable target, having changed in appearance profoundly between the Post Exilic period and the present, it is also highly subjective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More to the point, however, framing this commandment in such a way as to make it applicable only to traditional heterosexual marriages limits the universality inherent in the Decalogue as a moral code.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we wish to bring biblical guidance to bear in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, we must have faith in its limberness and the underlying absolute right it represents. We need not protect the word of God from the realities of His creation. Rather, we must look to Scripture with eyes of faith for its divine guidance in any context. This paper, therefore, will apply the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment to a variety or relationships without concern for their qualifications as “marriages” under any terms.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Etan Levin , <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marital Relations in Ancient Judaism</i> (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz), 2009, 189.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">T. Frymer-Kensky offers a wonderful exploration of the foundations of the “cult of virginity” in ancient Israel and the A.N.E. in “Virginity in the Bible.”<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Tikva Frymer-Kensky, "Israelite Law: Personal Status and Family Law," in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vol. 7 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia of Religion, </i>2nd edition, ed. Lindsay Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference) 2005; As a rule throughout this paper, the term “wife” will presume the inclusion of “betrothed” as well because “a betrothed girl…was for the purposes of the law of adultery in the same position as a wife” (Phillips 2002, 83).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn8" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Thomas B Dozeman, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commentary on Exodus</i>, (Cambridge:William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company) 2009, 494.</span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn9" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Dovorah D. Setel, “Exodus” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women's Bible Commentary</i>. Newsome and Ringe, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox(1998),<b> </b>34.</span><o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn10" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Brevard Springs</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> Childs,</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Exodus: A Commentary," <i>Journal of Biblical Literature</i> 81, no. 4, (Westminster Press) 1974: 422.</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn11" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> “In the ten cases devoted to marriage and sexuality in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Decretum</i> (Secunda Pars, Casus 27–36), Gratian (d. before 1160) deemed husband and wife equally liable for adultery” (</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Sigrid Müller, “Adultery- medieval times and reformation era” in </span><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Italic;">Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception </span></i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">1 (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter) 2009, </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">accessed 12/9/10.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn12" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> John Shelby Spong and Denise G. Haines, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beyond Moralism</i>, (San Francisco: Harper and Row ) 1986, 88.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn13" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">John A. Coladarci, Esq., Coladarci and Coladarci, Attorneys at Law, in personal correspondence, 12/7/10.</span><o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn14" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Illinois Legal Code: (750 ILCS 5/) Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act., hereinafter<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ILGA.GOV, </span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=075000050HPt%2E+IV&ActID=2086&ChapterID=59&SeqStart=3700000&SeqEnd=5200000 Accessed 12-09-2010.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn15" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> “Marriage in a modern sense was unknown in ancient Israel. There are, for example, no words for ‘marriage,’’ wife,’ or ‘husband.’ The terms commonly translated as such mean ‘taking,’ in the sense of taking possession of something, ‘woman,’ and ‘master,’ respectively” (Setel, 34).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn16" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112448663<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn17" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> www.ucc.org/lgbt/issues/marriage-equality, www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/ecumenicalhandbook2007.pdf</span><o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn18" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> It is important to note that partner unions would not have been considered adulterous in Ancient Israel because the woman in question is not betrothed or married to another man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn19" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> In the 2000 Census of the United States, of the 1</span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: LucidaSans;">05.5 million households in the United States, 52% were maintained by married couples (54.5 million), 5.5 million couples who were living together but who were not married, (up from 3.2 million in 1990). These unmarried-partner households were self-identified maintained by people who were “sharing living quarters and who also had a close personal relationship with each other.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-5.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-5.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> (accessed 12/9/10)</span><o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn20" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[20]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Patrick D. Miller, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ten commandments: Interpretation Resources for the use of Scripture in the Church</i>, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press) 2009., 279.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn21" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[21]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=adultery&searchmode=none (Accessed 12/10/10)<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn22" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 67.5pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[22]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> Pittman, Frank<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, Private Lies: Infidelity and the Betrayal of Intimacy</i>, (New York: W.W. Norton and Company) 1989, 20.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn23" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[23]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Walter Brueggemann, "The Book of Exodus" in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New Interpreter's Bible</i>. Vol. 1. (Nashville: Abingdon Press) 1994, 850.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn24" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[24]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Arthur Fay Sueltz, , <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New Directions from the Ten Commandments</i>, (New York: Harper and Row) 1976, 73.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn25" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[25]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Thomas B. Dozeman, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commentary on Exodus</i>, (Cambridge: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company) 2009, 485.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn26" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[26]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Paul J Achtemeier, under “Idol,” in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harper Collins Bible Dictionary</i>, (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco) 1996, 448-449.</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div><div id="ftn27" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[27]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fidelity">http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fidelity</a> (Accessed 12/7/10)<o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn28" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Sony/Documents/You%20Shall%20Not%20Adulterate%20-%20Final-SCR.docx#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[28]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Throughout this study, I have used the expression “in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century” to reflect a socially diverse, liberal, literate and practical American context. In short, I am preaching here to my own demographic. The presumptions made about society, and covenantal unions in society, are not meant to reflect or to speak to contemporary communities for whom social, religious or cultural norms might prohibit them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This disclaimer is intended to explain the narrow focus of my language in this paper, it is not meant in any way to undermine the universality of my conclusions.</span><o:p></o:p></div></div></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-72507126346907281762011-05-11T16:16:00.000-07:002011-05-13T08:06:49.162-07:00The Ninevites and the Al QaedaThe Ninevites and the Al Qaeda:<br />
Contemporary Lessons of the Book of Jonah<br />
<br />
Shay Robertson<br />
May 2, 2011<br />
In the biblical book of Jonah, a man who is the victim of a violent crime is asked by God to offer the hand of peace and salvation to the very people who committed the crime against him. Jonah is understandably unwilling. The Ninevites are criminals in Jonah’s experience. If they convert to the religion of YHWH, they will be Ninevites all the same. And, Jonah fears, God will show them mercy, forgiveness that Jonah does not believe they deserve, salvation to which he does not wish to be a party.<br />
It is very much the same quandary that presents itself to Christians this week following the death of Osama bin Laden. Here is a man who has committed a heinous crime against the United States. We as a country and a culture have hunted him down and sought our own retribution in kind. What remains are his people, Al Qaeda, our sworn enemies. And we as Christians are called by God to love our enemies, to hold out the hand of peace and salvation to the very people who committed the crime against us. But even if we reach out to them in compassion as bearers of God’s love, they will be Al Qaeda all the same. Jonah hoped for the destruction of the Ninevites, he feared that God would let them live. Can we, as emissaries of a God of love, find it in ourselves to pray that God’s will be done to our enemies, even if it means that Al Qaeda goes unpunished?<br />
The book of Jonah offers us an opportunity to examine our internal conflict in the context of Scripture. Jonah is a character in very much the same situation. He struggles with setting aside his own opinions and fulfilling the call of the Lord. Scholarly criticism frequently interprets Jonah as a character as representing the people of Israel, God’s people. They tend to interpret the story as instructional, though they disagree as to what the lesson may be. In any case, for generations, Jonah has been held up as an instructional narrative. This work attempts to explore how Jonah as a literary character speaks to us today, as the people of God in light of current events.<br />
The Book of Jonah<br />
The book of Jonah is to some degree an unknown quantity. There is relatively little in the text to suggest a firm date of authorship beyond a very general “late exilic or post exilic period.” There is some debate over the composition of the text: it may be a composite of various pre-existing elements and it certainly embodies a long standing folkloric tradition (Limburg, 1993). The ambiguity of the intended audience at once confounds some scholars, and delights others, as it opens the door to broader and more radial hermeneutical application. It is this aspect of the Jonah story which I will exploit in this examination.<br />
While the story’s historical context is uncertain, its setting is solid: the Jonah mentioned in the books is evidently the same Jonah as appears in 2 Kings 14:25 and is there identified as a prophet. As is common to biblical narrative, Jonah’s name may hold some clues as to what we are to think of him. Jonah, the Hebrew word for “dove” might hold the same connotation to its contemporary audience as it would to modern ears: he is an emissary of peace, an extended olive branch following an act of violence (See Genesis 8:6-12). Further, the dove as an image would very likely have communicated to the text’s intended audience that Jonah was meant to represent the people of Israel. “Ben Amittai” translates to “son of the faithful one”(Trible 1998) perhaps indicating that he comes from a tradition of piety. For our purposes, it bears repeating: Jonah ben Amittai is a messenger of peace, a symbol of Israel and of a long tradition of faithfulness to YHWH. <br />
According to 2 Kings, Jonah of Amittai lived during the reign of Jeroboam, II (785-744BCE). Accepting that date, Jonah had very good reason to resist any contact with the people of Nineveh:<br />
During the reign of King Menahem ben-Gadi, shortly after Jeroboam II's reign and before the conquest of 722 B.C.E. the King of Assyria imposed his rule over the land, making Menahem a vassal ruler who paid allegiance and taxes to Assyria. Assuming that political events do not happen in a vacuum, we can assume that during Jonah's lifetime, the Assyrians were already seen as a grave threat to the Northern Kingdom. We can then further assume that in those days Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria could stand for an arch-enemy poised for the destruction of Israel.<br />
Nineveh’s reputation in other books of the Bible is no more flattering:<br />
Woe to the bloody city,<br />
All full of lies and booty… (Nahum 3:1)<br />
<br />
It is to this horrible place, to these reprehensible people, that Jonah ben Amittai is sent on an errand of the Lord.<br />
Also important to our application is the idea that Jonah might be considered a parable (Trible 1998, 469). A parable is a literary device which uses hyperbolic or exaggerated characters, events or language in the context of a narrative. It frequently incorporates irony to enable the audience to perceive the absurdity and incorporate the lesson or objective of the story. As rule, parables are used in biblical narrative in order to communicate moral or ethical guidance and/or social correction (for example, 2 Samuel 12, in which Nathan relates the parable of the rich man and the lamb as a corrective to King David). If we look at the story of Jonah as a parable, as a satire of traditional prophetic literature (Trible 1998, 474), then we must ask ourselves with whom we are meant to identify in the text. As Jonah seems to have been intended to personify Israel, that is the “us” in this text, we are, inescapably, meant to identify with Jonah (Trible 1998, 467).<br />
Looking at Jonah<br />
Having established his narrative and literary context, let us take a closer look at Jonah as a character.<br />
Jonah is not a prophet. The text begins with a word from God (1:1). As a rule, prophets who are told by the Almighty to jump, ask “how high?” Jonah runs the other way: “Go at once to Nineveh…But Jonah set out to flee” (Jonah 1:2-3). Much has been made of the fact that Jonah’s behavior is unconventional for a biblical prophet. However, in the book of Jonah, there is no mention of Jonah as a prophet, it is only in reference to 2 Kings and where commentators have perceived the Jonah story to be midrash on 2 Kings, that his role as a prophet is explicit (Trible 1998, 472). As a matter of fact, Jonah bears very little resemblance to a traditional biblical prophet. Biblical prophets tend to speak to Israelites (the exception is Elijah who prophecies to foreigners) (Trible 1998, 481), their prophecies are more specific about what kind if sinning is happening and what consequences lie ahead if we proceed down that road and as a rule prophets are pleased at the success of their prophecy, whereas Jonah is decidedly not (4:5). Thus, while Jonah ben Amittai may be a prophet in 2 Kings, in the book of Jonah he is not acting like one.<br />
It is the overwhelming irony of the story of Jonah that, despite his departure from the prophetic type and his utter lack effort, he manages to convert everyone he comes in contact with. By the time he departs the ship, the sailors are converted: “Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows” (1:16). With one phrase uttered on the outskirts of town, every Ninevite down to his donkey is converted (3:9).<br />
Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’(Jonah 3:6-9)<br />
Jonah is insincere. Jonah is confronted with a task he does not wish to perform, so he runs away, he flees the “presence of the Lord” (1:3). Now, he knows this is an exercise in futility. He describes God as sovereign over all Creation (1:9), but that doesn’t stop him. He hires a ship with a pagan crew and goes the opposite way from Nineveh (1:4). If Jonah were a stereotypical prophet, he might get onto the pagan ship and start shouting the praises of the Lord, but instead the sailors on the ship are the first to mention YHWH and must call on the prophet to speak to the god for whom he theoretically is the mouth piece:<br />
The captain came and said to him, ‘What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.’ (1:6)<br />
But alas, Jonah is no more inclined toward typical prophetic behavior now that he’s had a storm thrown at him.<br />
The message with which Jonah is charged is significant, as well. “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2, 3:2). We are not told in this verse exactly what Jonah is to say. It is not altogether clear that YHWH has the destruction of Nineveh in mind until 3:10: “God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” Upon arriving in Nineveh, and creeping in a few feet, his prophecy is a mere 8 words long (5 in Hebrew), a half a verse in our modern translations. He doesn’t tell the Ninevites what to change, how or even to repent of evil, and he doesn’t even mention YHWH at all: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (3:4b). <br />
It is interesting to note that Jonah is almost as averse to being proactive as he is to the commission he has been given. He is called on to perform a task for his Lord and, having flagrantly headed in the wrong direction, proceeds to take a nap. When something has to be done to end the storm and save the lives of the sailors, Jonah is picked up and thrown into the sea (1:15). It is the sailors who take action that might enable Jonah to complete his mission (1:13). Jonah asks twice for God to take his life (4:3, 8). He doesn’t take any initiative himself, he just begs for death. Even when finally driven to complete his task, Jonah fails to measure up to our expectations as a representative of God. Despite the city’s being “a three days walk across” (3:3), Jonah walks only part of the way in – a day’s walk (3:4).<br />
Jonah is not angry at Nineveh. It is significant that the book of Jonah does not end with Nineveh complying. The story is not about Nineveh, after all. It is about Jonah, about Jonah’s relationship with God and himself. It is for this reason that the last chapter of the book, and indeed the last verses, are among the most compelling of the entire work. We learn in the fourth chapter why Jonah fled from his duty as a servant of YHWH. Jonah is not angry at Nineveh after all. He is angry at YHWH:<br />
He prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. (Jonah 4:2)<br />
These words echo a description of the attributes of God, a formula which appears in a number of places in the Hebrew Bible (Dozeman 1989). But here he turns the recitation of praise into an accusation. These divine qualities praised elsewhere in the Bible, are supremely frustrating for Jonah.<br />
It is at this point that God asks Jonah the pivotal question of this text: “Is it right to be angry?” Initially, he asks the more general question, after he has apparently made a decision about Nineveh. The second instance, however, follows his provision and then destruction of a plant to shade Jonah. He asks specifically if it is appropriate for Jonah to be angry “about the plant.”<br />
God’s action and question served to reinforce Jonah’s anger at divine justice. Now Jonah’s own experience with destruction as the hands of God has convinced him that God is not just.<br />
In Chapter 1, Jonah knew YHWH created all the earth and sea and still sought to “get away from” him. Now, Jonah, knowing and loving God for the attributes he names here, is still unable to keep from resenting him for those very reasons.<br />
Jonah was committed to a God of strict justice and was scandalized by God’s compassion for those he considered to be wicked and due for severe punishment – the justice/mercy conflict. (Magonet 1992, 941)<br />
<br />
Jonah is not a paragon. Finally, it is critical to note that the weight of scholarship thinks of Jonah “whose values are the inverse of those of the real prophets” as a parody (Magonet 1992). Parody depends on the audience knowing what is expected in a certain context and being surprised when they find the reverse. By exaggerating certain characteristics, parody enables the audience to perceive the absurdity of a situation or character. As mentioned above, Jonah can be thought of as representing the people of Israel and his absurdities, therefore, are subject to the scrutiny of, and hopefully be modified by, the text’s intended audience. Jonah is not a paragon, then, but a parody, a character with whose foibles and flaws the reader is intended to identify… and consequently reject. <br />
What we are not asked to do.<br />
Let us look at Jonah, then, as a cautionary character. He has been called to offer forgiveness to his enemies; he has spoken God’s truth to them through clenched teeth and thereby become the unwilling vehicle of their salvation. Jonah is now faced with the very conflict that confronts us as Americans and Christians this week.<br />
In the wake of our righteousness, we, like Jonah, have been given a task by God. And, we, like Jonah, are asked to do what is painful to us. We are asked to be the faces and hands of God’s peace in relationship with an enemy we have learned to despise. Jonah offers us a lens with which to examine what are and are not asked to do as we live out this calling.<br />
We are not asked to be prophets. Nowhere in our text is Jonah called a prophet and, as pointed out above, nowhere in our text does he act like one. Neither should we. Unless we have been chosen, we are not in the business of predicting outcomes in the name of the Lord. We should not be tempted to predict dire consequences and ascribe them to the Almighty. We should not be on a mission unless we are sent on that mission.<br />
We are not asked to be martyred. Jonah’s life was never in danger. Jonah repeatedly begged for death (2:12, 4:3, 8) but God did not permit it. Even when Jonah was tossed overboard like so much ballast, God sent a great fish for his rescue. Our own destruction is not a part of the salvation of our enemies. In this case at least, what is necessary for the healing of what is broken in creation is not self-sacrifice. It may be self-examination, it is certainly self-discipline, but it is not martyrdom. <br />
We are not asked to convert anyone. Note that Jonah was not asked to convert anyone in Nineveh. He was asked to give them God’s message and while we don’t know exactly what that was, the words Jonah spoke were not evangelistic: ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ It was left to the Holy Spirit to do the rest and because Jonah didn’t get in the way, it all went down with amazing smoothness. From the beginning of the text of Jonah to the end, there is no indication that God wanted their fealty. He wanted them to “give up their wickedness.” God never spoke of converting them to Yahwism. It may have been in his mind, it may just have been gravy, but in any case, the conversion of the Ninevites was not part of Jonah’s prophetic call. Jonah was called to do as he was asked, God was sovereign over the rest. We would do well to remember that.<br />
We are not asked to decide the fate of our enemies. The overarching lesson of Jonah is that God is sovereign: “Deliverance belongs to the Lord” (2:9b). We can lie down and go to sleep and God will get the work done. We can run as fast as we can in the other direction, and God will get it done. We can argue and threaten and pout and God will get the job done. And he may even use us against our will to get the job done, as he did with Jonah, but ultimately our will is not the operant force in the process.<br />
What we are asked to do.<br />
Just as it did to Jonah, the word of the Lord came to us. We, like Jonah, have been given a task: to “love God with all our hearts, our minds and our souls and to love our neighbors as ourselves” (Matt 7:12). That is our calling, simple but not easy, short but not sweet. Jonah was asked by God to take a message of tenderness to people he despised with all his heart and he tried to escape the calling. He fled, but he failed. God was with him in the depths of his despair and in the belly of the Great fish (2:10). There is no depth to which we can sink from which God cannot rescue us. With this confidence we are asked by God to perform one and only one task: To love God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves.<br />
We are asked to love God with our whole heart. Whenever we go into the world, we are emissaries of the Word. It is a kind of incidental evangelism. We are loving because we are loved by God. We are righteous because we have a righteous God. We are compassionate because we have a compassionate God. We are created in the image of God and we try to live that out daily. Even when meeting the enemy face to face. Even when speaking in public about the enemy, even when filled with rage that “burns” like the rage in Jonah (Trible 1998, 517). Even then we are the face of God to others and we must embody that evangelism responsibly.<br />
We are asked to love God with our whole mind. We believe that man is made in God’s image. Even members of al Qaeda. We may be furious and hurt, we may need consolation and desire justice, but we cannot forget that God created all men, all men, in his image and what we do or say to our fellow man; we do or say to God and his creation. <br />
We are asked to love God with our whole soul. We are asked to show mercy and to offer compassion. We are asked to give generously to those who have taken from us, simply because they have need. We are asked to look at the children of Al Qaeda and see only children of God.<br />
And we are asked to love our neighbor as ourselves. We love ourselves even though we know the ugly truth about ourselves. We are sometimes cowardly (1:3), we are sometimes petty (2:8), and we are insincere (3:4) and resentful (4:2). But the book of Jonah gives us an opportunity to see those weaknesses for what they are and to address them. We get up every morning and look in the mirror at a flawed person; we forgive that person and try to begin again in a new day. That is how we love ourselves, one day at a time, one sin at a time, with chagrin, humility and faith. That is how we are asked to love our neighbor. <br />
Even the neighbor we hate.<br />
The book of Jonah asks many difficult questions: Why do good things happen to bad people? Is God arbitrary or unjust? And finally: Are we right to be angry at God for being compassionate to those whom we despise? It asks these questions, but it does not answer them: “the ultimate fate of its principle characters is undetermined.” This is perhaps the most telling fact of all about the book of Jonah.<br />
I am not sorry that Osama bin Laden is dead. But I am not glad. I am not willing to call back the forces deployed to protect my children from terrorist attacks, but I do not want them to drop another bomb on a village in Iraq. I have not forgotten the people I loved and lost on September 11, 2001 and I have not forgiven their murderers. And so, though I have scoured the text and read the commentaries and searched my heart, I confess, I still have no answer to the questions put to us in the book of Jonah.<br />
Perhaps that is why the book of Jonah ends on a question mark.Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-14915309500939761222011-01-01T07:45:00.000-08:002011-01-01T07:45:38.283-08:00Resurrection is New Year's Day<em>Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. (John 2:19-21)</em><br />
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Outside my study window this morning more than the usual number of warmly dressed and determined runners are fulfilling their New Year's resolutions. With a show of hands, all across our great country, it would be interesting to know how many people are resolving in some way to alter the condition of their bodies. <br />
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In this portion of John's gospel, Jesus has found the Temple of the Lord in bad shape. It has been ill-used (to his mind: historically, commercial transaction there might arguably have been acceptable) and let fall into decay. The he people present ask him who he thinks he is to tell them how to care for their temple. He responds, "tear it down and I could build it back up in three days." The Scripture tells us that he is talking about his body.<br />
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We all know that our bodies are our temples, and by extension that our lives are edifices of our existence. I am, it so happens, forty six years old and my body bears a horrible and shocking likeness to the temple in question. Over the course of 46 years, I have not laid every brick with loving care. I have had periods where I knowingly used construction materials that were inferior, in fact harmful, to the structure as a whole. I have gone through times where my attention to detail, let alone artistry, was lacking or entirely absent. And the result is that there are places in my temple which are weak, there are flaws in the foundation and there are places that got so bad that they were unsafe and had to be removed.<br />
<br />
And what have I been doing in this progressively less pure and wonderful temple? Like the Jews in the text, I have not always conducted myself as befits <em>imago dei</em>. I have hurt people, destroyed things I could not rebuild, been capricious and ruthless and "done trade where I shoulda done prayed."<br />
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This is my favorite holiday - not for the drinking, though I am almost an exclusively champagne drinking kind of gal - but the new beginnings, the fresh journals and open calendars and the suspenseful potential for organization, self discipline and brighter days that have not yet been squashed by a lack of time or energy or the cruel reality of mediocrity. I make resolutions every year, though I should really just photocopy them from year to year, about losing weight or getting fit or not chewing my nails or solving some nagging problem with my foot. We all do, don't we? Hope for self-discipline? Hope to realize the potential of a new beginning in ourselves, now, once and for all?<br />
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When Jesus said he could raise the temple - even if they utterly destroyed it - in three days, the Scripture tells us the Jews knew he was speaking of his body. Commentary tells us he was speaking of resurrection. But perhaps he was also talking about New Year's Day. <br />
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What if I told you that no matter what you've done to your body - even if you've been doing it for all forty six or however many years of your life - it can be returned to its previous perfection in a ridiculously short period of time, in the course of an unbelievably simple resolution and with the result of miraculous transformation. All you have to do is dial 1-800 - ha-ha, no just kidding. All you have to do is make the right resolution.<br />
<br />
Resurrection is New Year's Day: resolve to let the Holy Spirit do her work in you.Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-18899861240756304492010-09-10T03:40:00.000-07:002010-09-10T03:48:16.083-07:00Remember and Do Not Forget (Exodus 32:1, 7-14)<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, `I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Exodus 32:1,7-14<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Golden Calf episode (Exod 32:4) is a pivotal text in our history. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. Now, it is important to note that they weren’t slaves the way you and I think of slaves. It wasn’t the depraved and incomprehensible atrocity enacted on African slaves in the United States; “Hebrews” in Egypt lived with their families, had livestock, etc. But it was no picnic either. Before they left Egypt they were cruelly worked and punished by their masters and threatened with genocide. So, God intervened, Moses led them and they fled into the desert. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Today’s portion takes place forty days later. Moses has gone up the mountain to have a confab with God and the “Israelites” have been left at the foot of the mountain to eat manna and wait. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">How long does it take lose faith? For the Israelites, evidently something less than forty days, because after forty days, they turn to Aaron, their erstwhile leader, and say, “What the heck are we doing? Back in Egypt, we had jobs and homes and regular meals. Now we’re out here in the desert living tents on manna. Back in Egypt we knew our gods and how to worship them. Now, we don’t know what to do with the God of Moses and where is Moses anyway? Let’s just build an idol, we know how to do that, and go back to worshiping the way we know how to do it.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">God looks down from the mountain and sees what the Israelites are doing and says, understandably, “Go down there and fix that or I will.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now there is a lot of interesting language in this text. First of all, God says to Moses, these are “your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt.” Well, wait a minute, didn’t God bring them out of Egypt? Or didn’t He at least give the marching orders? They are not Moses’ people, are they? They are God’s people, aren’t they? </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">In making an idol and mistaking it for the god that freed them, the people of Israel appear to have chosen not to be the people of God. They are now just a group of metal cow worshiping vagrants following a very embarrassed and absent prophet. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 19px;">And as such, God need have no compunction in wiping them out.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">But Moses intervenes. We learned in the story of Abraham that God listens when we talk to Him, that He seeks to make Himself understood. But unlike Abraham, Moses’ argument does not turn on who the people are, but on who God is. He doesn’t even try to make a case for the Israelites, which is doubtless very prudent indeed. Rather, he turns the focus on God because, I think, that is the point of the passage.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Israelites lost sight of God. They had all these signs and miracles at the beginning, but now it’s been a while since they saw any real evidence of God. They have had to go along on faith, in the absence even of their prophet. Their faith faded, their resolve diminished, and they lost sight of (or turned their stiff necks away from) God. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Moses resolves the issue by focusing on God. He says, “I know you to be the one and only, the merciful and just God of the Israelites. But there are people who don’t know you. There are even those who those who suspect you. If you lose your temper and smite your own people, they will never see you for what you are, indeed they may hide their eyes from you in fear.” Now, Moses knows, and God knows, and you and I know that God does not want us to fear Him and that His greatest pleasure comes when we turn our eyes and lift our voices and open our hearts to Him. Clearly, Moses has a point.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">And he pressed that point to the limits of chutzpah. Moses goes on to say, “Also, you know us for who we are: weak and sinful, and dependant on you. You have always guided us and you have promised always to guide us. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You swore by your own self!</i> If you destroy us now,” Moses seems to be saying, “Which of us would be turning away?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now, whatever you believe about how the Bible came into being, there is no doubt that there was a moment in time when it was determined that this was a story worth re-telling. Why is that, do you think? I mean, it doesn’t reflect well on God, really, He looks a little hot tempered. And Moses comes off looking like the captain of the debate team, which is less classically heroic than one might expect. So what is in it for us?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Well, for me, today, this morning, it holds a frightfully urgent message. Recently there have been those among the broad brotherhood of mankind who have lost sight of God. They created for themselves an image of worship that was false and their pursuit of it threatened the unity of God’s creation, the peace He so earnestly desires, the efforts we all make at healing the wounds of the world, and potentially put at risk the lives of innocent and brave men and women whom I personally know and love. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now, this morning, before dawn and the morning news breaks over the horizon, it looks as if that particular conflagration of sin has been averted. And what I take from this text this morning, is that I must forgive. I may not reach out wrathfully. I may not take my anger out in print or in deed. I have been the object of God’s mercy, I have read the lesson of God’s grace. And I have been told: <i>“</i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>Remember and do not forget how you provoked the</i></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i> </i></span></span><span class="sc"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><i>Lord</i></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i> </i></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the</i></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i> </i></span></span><span class="sc"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><i>Lord</i></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i> </i></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place.</i></span><i>” (Deut 9:7)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">I must move on from here, grateful that they have seen and hopeful that I have seen, the true nature of a just and forgiving God. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now, I would be a poor lecturer indeed if I neglected to tell you that as our story proceeds from this point, Moses himself goes down and opens up a can of whuppass on those idol worshipers… but that is a story for another time. </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br />
</div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-12265773931507638692010-08-26T06:42:00.000-07:002010-08-26T06:42:48.904-07:00Caution: Student Driver<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Amos 6:17, 1 Timothy 6:11-19, Luke 16:19-31, Psalm 146 1-9<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The Scripture reading this week is full of prophecy and it affords us a brilliant opportunity to explore what prophecy is and what it is not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prophecy is not Edgar Cayce seeing a fixed, predestined future. Iit is not Professor Trelawney reading an imminent and unavoidable grim into a tea cup. It<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> is</i> Bob Dylan warning that if we don’t change our ways, a hard rain is gonna fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Scrooge in the final moments of his Christmas Eve dream, in prophecy we see the shades of things that might be, not things that will be.* If we mend our ways and “wake a new man” as Scrooge does, then our future is not set. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It is vitally important that we remember that distinction whenever we read prophecy in Scripture. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunetelling is a promise, not a threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prophecy is a threat, not a promise. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">My eldest child is learning to drive this summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will come as a relief to some of you to hear that it is not as stressful a process as you imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the initial stages, when she was learning the rules of the road and getting in the habit of rolling on her heel from the accelerator to the break, we drove around a cemetery and empty parking lots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On those occasions I would say things like, “Okay, slow down around the curve” and “start to unwind your turn a little earlier…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Initially I was training her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to drive</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I am training her to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be the driver</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Now that she has a clear idea of what to do, she drives to places, on errands and etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This process requires a very different set of instructions from me: “If you don’t want to drive down streets packed with parallel parked cars, how should we go” and “There is construction up ahead there, how will that impact you?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In those first lessons I was helping her to learn how to be a driver. Now she’s the driver and I have to ask her whether she has thought about where she’s going.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Our Scripture this week does very much the same thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">I can totally relate to Amos in this text. He’s sitting next to his readers in the passenger seat, his arms crossed over his chest, his lips pressed together with all his power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he does speak, its with considered resignation, he knows he’s going to be late at the least and there may be a five point turn in a parking lot in his near future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Are you sure you want to go this way?” he’s asking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Because I can see down this road and I know that if you miss the turn onto Niles Center you’ll end up at the Golf Course.” He shrugs helplessly and maybe even whispers, “I’m just sayin’.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The authors of the letter to Timothy are in a similar place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Timothy is in charge of a new church at Ephesus and this letter is written to give him guidance from knowledgable people who are, however, not actually in the car with him. It’s the next step in the evolution of the driver - one I have not yet made. The driver is left to her own devices and all that can be said is, “You know how to do it, just think about it before you do.” The authors of the letter are pretty good parents, to my mind, they express confidence, they promise goodness. And they place the burden of the outcome on the driver with the most important instruction that can be given, the one that was given by Christ with every parable: “You know how to do the right thing, just think before you act.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It may seem that I am avoiding the obvious meaning of this week’s readings, they are clearly about wealth, privilege and charity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(We hate these passages, don’t we? The ones that point right as us and make us cringe?) I will tell you that I am never comfortable telling other people how to spend their money, or their time. I hate unsolicited advice and I avoid giving it at all costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know, after all, who among my friends are wealthy and who are upside down in their mortgage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know who is generous with their time and talents and who is jealous of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know these things, I cannot judge them, therefore I do not tell them how they should act. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">But I know that they know. They know what God expects of them as regards their fellow man. They know who the Lazarus is at their doorstep and they know what they could do for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They know who in their lives has spoken a word of warning to them about their habits, about their reputation, about the path they are on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they are able to choose for themselves to heed or not to heed those prophets in their midst. This is, I think what is meant by the parable of the wealthy man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knows but he does not do. And when his actions lead to his inevitable demise and he pleads for another intercession for his brothers on earth he is told, “They haven’t believed anything they’ve heard so far, what difference could it possibly make to send another?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This seems to be particularly pertinent in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. Having ignored good advice your entire life, would you suddenly be convinced by a zombie in your office suite? Was Scrooge convinced by Marley, jangling the chains he forged in life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or by the prophetic spirits who illuminated the path before him? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The day may come when my daughter acts rashly or stupidly and breaks the law in a car. God willing, no one will be injured. God willing, the accident will be minor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the moment that the police officer pulls her over, in the moment when the ticket is issued, in the moment when she stands before the judge and hears the age-old adage that “ignorance of the law is o excuse,” God willing she will remember that she knows the right path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And God willing she will elect to follow it from there on out. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">We are always encouraged to put our faith in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But, </span>I think it is just as important to remember that God has put his faith in us, first. He knows we can do it, he knows we are good drivers and capable of making safe and smart choices on the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because he is a good and loving parent and, like all parents, wants only the best for his children.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">You may think my metaphor, of the parent teaching her child to drive, is a silly one, but clearly I think it is apt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not the least because clearly the writer of the Psalm for today is praying like the Dickens that the God in whose hands he has put his life, or the life of his child, is a good and faithful and kind one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly, this is the prayer of a parent watching a child drive away for the first time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also think the metaphor works because the stakes are the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When your child gets behind the wheel of a car they take their own life in their hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And potentially the lives of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to trust in them, believe in them, know you have done every possible thing to prepare them and then you have to let them make their way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>God and God in Christ does the same for his children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He offers us the rules of the road, he’s given us the best driving instructor we could possibly imagine, and he vests us with boundless and unyielding love. But it is for us to decide whether to steer ourselves along the road he has paved for us, or to depart from it, and pay the price with our souls.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">*For this reference and analogy I am indebted to “Prophecy and Apocalypse,” a brilliant chapter of Barbara R. Rossing’s, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rapture Exposed: The Messages of Hope in the Book of Revelation,</i> (Oxford: Westview Press, 2004), 80-102. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-46591644603732342162010-08-06T07:26:00.000-07:002010-08-06T07:27:36.646-07:00Genesis 15:1-6: Disappointed (מאוכזב )<h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><i>T</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><i>he word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.</i></span></h3><br />
One of my favorite movies is A Fish Called Wanda. It's completely dated and pointlessly vulgar. Right up my alley. And my memory of this movie is mercifully vague. But as I recall, at one point, Kevin Kline is trying to steal diamonds from a safe. He painstakingly breaks into the and when he finally opens the safe door, it is entirely empty. He pants, calmly and then yells, "Disappointed!"<br />
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In our portion this week it seems to me that Abram is doing about the same thing. Not stealing diamonds from a safe, obviously. Not doing anything illegal or immoral or even funny. And he certainly doesn't cuss up a storm as is the case in this movie. But he has worked toward a goal, he is operating on faith that if he does the work, takes his time, is patient and diligent, that God will deliver on the goods. <br />
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But in this moment, Abram doesn't see any evidence of the goods. Abram has done everything God has asked of him so far: dragged himself and his family into the desert; pitched battles; made odd sacrifices and acted generally irrationally in the eyes of the people around him. In exchange, God has promised to make his descendants numerous and blessed. But right in this moment, Abram doesn't see it. He thinks everything he has worked for is going to someone barely related to him. He seems presciently to know about Ishmael and to despair of leaving him any legacy. He is, shall we say, in a snit about it, and he is giving God a piece of his mind.<br />
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Which is kind of a lovely thing, really.<br />
<br />
It says, "the word of the Lord came to Abram." Abram is so in touch with the Lord that he is open at any given moment to receiving God's words of instruction. God can speak to Abram and Abram can hear Him. And Abram can, immediately and with full throated emotion, answer back. Abram and God are so closely entwined with one another that they can have a dialog. Further, God is so present for Abram that they can actually move around together. God "takes Abram outside" and "shows him" something. God is present for Abram and so Abram can hear Him and talk to Him and even fell Him.<br />
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Here's an adage for you: the path between the houses of neighbors who are friends is more easily trod than the road to a stranger, even a loving one. The conduit of communication is more easily traveled when we are open and frequent in prayer. <br />
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Readers of my blog will know that my Grandmother was a very formative person for me. And she was a person in perpetual prayer. When she wasn't singing a hymn, she was conversing with God about the candles she was dipping or the beans she was snapping. I still see her sitting on the stoop of her back door, a big old collie sitting placidly beside her, telling me about how well she and God understood each other: "God gave me curly hair because He knew I'd never get myself a perm.<br />
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And she had plenty of reason to toss her hands up into the air and yell "Disappointed!" at God. She was one of millions of barely-getting-by farmers in the middle west in the early parts of the 20th Century. They were hungry, desperate, they had five kids, severe health problems and they were always only day away from the poor farm. In his seventies, with advanced Parkinsons Disease, you could give my Dad a year - any year between 1932 and 1945 - and he could tell you how much his family owed the store in town. Her family was bifurcated over the Klan, her children suffered severe burns and epilepsy, her daughter was widowed within weeks of her marriage. Pedro was an icky pig, her real estate classes were a waste of time and the "pond garden" never ever worked out. And she survived her husband. She had plenty to be disappointed about.<br />
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Like Abram - like Sara, she walked in faith when there was no hope left. She praised God at gravesides and bedsides, over stacks of dishes and in the face of blazing fire. I know there were times when she appealed to God and He could not offer her the words she wanted to hear. And I know she threw her hands up at God and yelled at Him. WHAT was He thinking? HOW was this helping? Sometimes we pray and there is no consolation, but we must continue to keep the conduit open.<br />
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And that is what I take from today's portion. We are aloud, in fact expected, to take our disappointment to God. We are aloud to question Him, to have moments of doubt and anger and fear. In those moments we have not lost our faith, indeed, our faith is not even tested. Any more than God's faith in us is tested when we disappoint Him. Because above all things the most important is not always feeling happy with God, it is not always to be blindly accepting. Above all things the most important is to keep the conduit open.<br />
<br />
So that God can hear you.<br />
So that you can hear God.<br />
So that God can be with you.<br />
So that He can show you the stars.Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-56471497401252956172010-07-29T15:54:00.000-07:002010-07-29T15:54:09.516-07:00The Kenotic Qohelet<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ecclesiastes 1:12-14; 2:(1-7,11)18-23<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[I said to myself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself." But again, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine-- my mind still guiding me with wisdom-- and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.]<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me -- and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">An emotion, a sensation, a sentiment, a smell, all of these things can be described, but they are not communicated with bare description.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really good writing brings its subject into the experience of the reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the reader says, “Yes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know!” the work is done. If the reader says, “Yes! I know!” without having had the experience themselves, it is genius. Qohelet, the “Teacher” in our text this week, is not such a writer. Usually. (I frankly have almost no use for Ecclesiastes, except for the charming memory of being in an Intro to OT class where I, one colleague and the professor were the only ones who knew who Pete Seeger was….)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In this case, though, he’s managed to capture a moment, a fleeting and very “non-verbal” instant that occurs in the mind, or perhaps the heart, of the person who suddenly believes. In seminary we call this a “conversion” moment, but I dislike that term. It sounds like the person was “persuaded” or worn down under questioning by a really great attorney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that were the case, I can think of at least two people who, enduring daily training under just such an attorney, will never be worn into submission or conversion. “Coming out” is a vastly better term, I think. Becoming a believer in God is a little like coming out: it’s the public acknowledgment of a truth that has resided inside for a while. But I think an awful lot of born-again people would be uncomfortable with “coming out” and so they don’t deserve to get to use it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In any case, the moment Qohelet is describing here is the moment before the “conversion” and the moment before the “coming out.” It’s the moment before the truth becomes clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the pre-conversion moment that has no name, can’t be described, but is as tangible and coherent as can possibly be imagined. It is helpful to know, as we read it, that the “vanity” he is describing here is not vain, but in vain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not the Carly Simon “You almost think this song is about you” vanity, rather it is Mr. Darcy’s “In vain have I struggled” vanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good translation from English into English might be “to no avail.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In today’s text, Qoholet describes a person who has aspired to great happiness and utterly failed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has had a brilliant academic career. It did not make him happy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has been a party animal. It did not make him happy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has been a brilliant businessman, built an empire, achieved great things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet he is not happy. All that work, he tells us, was in vain. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It would be easy, here to say, “Well, that’s because none of those things gives pleasure.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Easy and wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All those things bring pleasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Education is the light that fills my life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Partying must give pleasure, or we wouldn’t have New Years Eve. Successes in business, accomplishments, even wealth certainly do give pleasure, satisfaction and happiness, just as their opposites give disquiet, displeasure and sadness. So there is pleasure to be had through these methods, and yet Qohelet whinges on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He isn’t satisfied, he isn’t content, he is still restless in search for meaning in his life. None of the things that were on offer in his world give him the rest and completion he desires. He finds all those aspirations are in vain. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">I think it is interesting to look his language here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He uses active verbs: “applied my mind,” “searched out by wisdom,””lay hold of,” “made,” “planted,””bought.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly he was hard at work trying to figure out how to be happy, trying to accomplish satisfaction, trying to acquire contentment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And where does he end?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">“All is vanity and chasing after wind.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">And here my point may shock you. I, who ardently embrace the dissection and criticism of Scripture, I, who feel that the first responsibility of faith is skepticism, I here acknowledge that the only remedy for this kind thoroughgoing angst… is resignation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Because it is in resigning our feigned authority that we are brought under the wing of divine protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in acknowledgement of our ignorance that we are given to understand. It is by embracing our humility that we begin to comprehend His greatness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Qohelet throws up his hands and stops trying to understand it, to obtain it, to bend it to his will: </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Luke Timothy Johnson is famous for his dislike of polarities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I concur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of our experience of life takes place on a continuum: of faith, of gender, of race, of power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there is one place that I can think of where absolutes apply: humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must become entirely vacant in order for the Holy Spirit to enter. We must acknowledge our utter powerlessness in order to comprehend divine grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must admit that ultimately all that we can do is vanity and chasing after wind. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It is called, elsewhere (and with great pretention): <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kenosis</i>, the emptying out.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In the moment right after we do that, when the ghastly and gaping hole of insecurity threatens to engulf us, then, and maybe only then, can we begin the process that we call “reconciliation” or “conversion” or “salvation.” Regardless of what you call it, it begins now, right after the then. The then that Qohelet so admirably depicts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">NB:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Qohelet will go on, in this text, and complain about how others benefit from the fruits of his labors. He will gripe on forever about how some young whipper-snapper with an MBA is going to run his business into the ground when he’s gone. In answer, the Gospel of Luke reminds us that our earthly treasures are insignificant… but the genius of the Lectionary writers this week is in Colossians:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But now you must get rid of all such things-- anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth</span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">….</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Paul is telling us, in the nicest possible terms, “Here’s another chance to use resignation as a tool: Don’t let Qohelet’s complaining get to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just smile and move on. Remember, you are an idiot sometimes, too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-74560381845227082182010-07-22T10:34:00.000-07:002010-07-22T10:34:50.834-07:00A Lesson in Transparency: Abraham and God at Sodom<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777;">17</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">The</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777;">18</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777;">19</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">No, for I have chosen</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">by doing righteousness and justice; so that the</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777;">20</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Then the</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">said, ‘How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777;">21</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="color: #010000;">Then Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?</span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">24</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?</span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">25</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ </span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">26</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">And the </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="color: #010000;">said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><sup><span style="color: #777777;">27</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">28</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ </span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">29</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Again he spoke to him, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ </span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">30</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ He answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.’ </span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">31</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">He said, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ </span><sup><span style="color: #777777;">32</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’ </span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">(Gen 18:17-33)</span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">In reading and commenting on this particular passage, I think we sometimes get off the track a little, thinking that this is an example of Abraham negotiating with God, that he is changing God’s mind. That would present us with a pretty frightening idea of God as someone who can be persuaded, influenced by flawed and fallen humanity. That would be terrifying indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, I don’t see evidence of that here at all. Rather, I see this as a passage in which God is instructing us, intentionally trying to teach us how to be in community with Him and with one another. God is teaching us to be transparent with one another by means of a very transparent narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It behooves us to look at it closely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">Let us remember that this story takes place relatively early in God’s relationship with Abraham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are learning how to be with one another, the way we do when the patterns of friendships are forming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And God is aware that he is teaching Abraham, who will teach everyone who follows him, how to be in a relationship with God. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777;">17</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">The</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,</span><sup><span style="color: #777777;"> 18</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000;">God could very easily have just done what he was going to do with Sodom. He did not need to consult Abraham or give him advance warning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He can just say, “This is what I am doing,” that would be vastly easier, I should think. Why open the floor to discussion? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777;">19</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">No, for I have chosen</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">by doing righteousness and justice; so that the</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="sc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">Aha! So that he may instruct Abraham in how to “keep the way of the Lord” in order to bring Abraham the great joy of relationship with God and so that Abraham in turn, can teach all of us who follow and wish to partake of that joy. So God is telling us – quite transparently, I think – “here is how you should act to me and by extension to one another.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">The next line begins with the word </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">u·iamr</i><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;"> “And He said.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result of his reasoning in the sentence above, He makes the gesture to Abraham. He opens himself to Abraham deliberately. Importantly, He explains what He is going to do and it isn’t destroy Sodom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is going to go down and look things over and see what is needed. This is why I think the hullaballoo about Abraham negotiating with God is in error, God has not made up His mind, and Abraham did not change it. God did, however, admit Abraham to the wholeness of His experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, I think, is the first lesson of how to be in loving relationship:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>opening up to sharing in the experience: transparency.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">It’s not an easy thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The person to whom you open may be critical, may ridicule or demean what you have shown them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or he may question you incessantly about it, which is what Abraham does. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="color: #010000;">Then Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?</span></i><span style="color: #010000;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Note that Abraham never implies that he intends to change God’s mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only wishes to understand what God is doing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He operates from a position of humility and love, thus: “I know you are just and righteous” and “I know that I can’t possibly understand it all” so help me understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #010000;">Despite the inherent</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="color: #010000;">chutzpah</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #010000;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">of the act, Abraham is trying to understand God: what is the minimum number? Where is the line where your wrath becomes mercy? Abraham never says the Hebrew equivalent of “Let’s make a deal” and God never says the Biblical equivalent of “Oy! You’re right, Abraham! I’ll change my mind.” Abraham is asking: “Let me understand you” and God is answering “Yes, you are welcome to ask and to try to understand and I for my part, will try to remain open to you and let you come in and understand me.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">The next part of the lesson is in how Abraham responds: </span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><sup><span style="color: #777777;">27</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">Humility is the essential ingredient in entering into relationship: “I cannot know, I do not know, therefore I ask, explain to me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humility, you may know, means “from the earth” or for our purposes, from the ground up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also present in this humility, a presumption of love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><i><sup><span style="color: #777777;">25</span></sup><span style="color: #010000;">Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">That is, we have no earlier baggage that causes us to suspect one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe you to be a good and honest person, I know you do not mean to be unfair - let me understand you. I know you are a good person - let me understand how this happened. I love you and I know if you let me in, I will find inside you even more to love. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">This, I believe is residue from an earlier broken relationship (Gen 8:9): we are our brother’s keepers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see none of us really thinks we are bad or evil inside, we think, “If only they knew my real motivation, they would not judge me harshly” or something like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the chance, indeed the obligation, to open oneself to the understanding of your brother – and to expect to be met with loving kindness. Empathy emerges from understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">Implicit in this description is the implication that we should be able to question God. It is important to remember that to question is not the same thing as to doubt. I believe questions are elemental to faith. We know God is great and trustworthy and ultimately good, and so we pursue an understanding of God with that certainty in mind, knowing that we will find that in the end. We do this because we love our God with all our hearts and all our minds. We must engage critical faculties to understand God – a famous theologian once said (roughly) “God did not bless me with intellectual powers and then expect me not to use them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, in this passage, God seems to be calling on Abraham to use them. And there is a tradition of questioning God in our Scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rachel, laments the death of her children (Jer 31:15) and God is called to account for what had transpired. And so we are called upon to ask and, like Abraham in this passage, to keep on asking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">It is not, you see, God's job to explain God to us. It is our job to pursue an understanding of God. If we wish to know God we must use our faculties and we must ask and ask and ask questions, down the last minutia, until we are at risk of getting on God's very last nerve. That is what Abraham does here and guess what? God is patient with him, God answers every question. God does not jump ahead and answer more than Abraham asks, God never snaps at Abraham for being persistent in his pursuit. In order for Abraham to lead his people into an understanding of God, he must ask and ask and ask. And here we see that God will answer and answer and answer. This, I believe, is the next step in the lesson on relationship: patience. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">When our loved ones want to probe us, we must be willing to answer the questions that are asked, patiently, lovingly. Because in so doing we open ourselves to understanding, to empathy and to love. We must be guided by God’s gesture of openness to us. For if we are not, we risk being mysterious, unpredictable and ultimately alone. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">And when we want to ask the questions of someone else, to be able to understand and therefore to love them, we must keep asking the questions. We must risk irritation, redundancy, nagging, boring and being nosey. However, we must be lead by Abraham's example as well: we must operate from a position of love. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">It is a terrifying prospect for all involved: to expose one's self, to open oneself to questioning; and also to question a loved one and risk rejection. It is frightening to be vulnerable, it is frightening to be questioned, it is frightening to ask to be admitted into someone's heart. It takes courage to be in relationship, with God or our fellow human being. But it is, it seems to me, that courageous vulnerability is what God wants from us. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">But here is my post script, as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said in the outset that this passage occurs early in the relationship of Abraham and God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They learn to be in relationship with one another and their transparency and willingness to be vulnerable to one another leads them to an almost ideal intimacy. But what then?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later in their relationship, God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son – the Akeda, the binding of Isaac (Gen 22).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that text, Abraham does not ask anything of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He does as he is explicitly commanded – the polar opposite of this passage. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">Perhaps Abraham participates willingly I the binding of Isaac because of this earlier experience with God. Perhaps God has the emotional currency with Abraham to be able to ask anything of him without question. We could argue that the kind of transparency we learn in this passage enables us to endure trials like the Akeda in our lives and relationships. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #010000;">And yet that does not satisfy me. Because of the relationship of Abraham and God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after </i>the Akeda. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never again does God speak directly to Abraham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never again does Abraham speak to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can it be that in that moment -God by not opening up to Abraham and Abraham by not seeking transparency with God - they lost hold of the divine intimacy that they knew at Sodom?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t help but wonder if Abraham had raised his voice at the Akeda, as he does here at Sodom, would his relationship with God have ended differently? </span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420106273498624923.post-68948219165779065982010-07-16T09:01:00.000-07:002010-07-16T09:01:20.668-07:00Mary, Martha and Me<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. </i></span></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. </i></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me."</i></span></span></span><i>But the Lord answered her, " Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many tings; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her. (Luke 10:38-42)</i></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The story of Mary and Martha, like so much of Scripture, has changed in meaning for me over the years. That's the beauty of Scripture, I think,that is it timeless. It can speak to us over and over again, continues to be relevant and contemporary, personal and corrective. It continues, indeed, to be needed. </span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Occasionally, as a mother of </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">three with a house and a yard and all kinds of driving to do, I am Martha. I keep everything and everyone clean, fed and put away. I do not get to read, go to the movies or get my run in. I do (here imagine me closing me eyes and holding the back of my wrist to my forehead) what is <i>needed</i> for my family at my own expense. It is possible to read this passage as permission to be the martyred and under valued stereo-typical stay at home mom. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">On better days, I am Mary<i> as</i> Martha. Or maybe, Martha with an attitude adjustment. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Martha did, after all, invite Jesus in. She knew there would be some work related to that kind of entertaining, she knew what needed to be done and she did it. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I read this as permission</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> to throw a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday party, plan elaborate and nutritious meals no on would eat, don a proverbial cocktail apron and putter around the house with a hot glue gun and colorful ribbon (a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">fter all, it says i</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">t is <i>Martha's</i> house). </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Jesus doesn't tell Martha to drop what she's doing, she's not doing anything wrong.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I am doing what I needs to do at this moment. I needed to nurture my family.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">But most days, a mother of three in graduate school for Bible and with other ambitions outside the home, I read this text in a whole new way. Martha <i>and</i> Mary. I am Mary: I want to be at the feet of the master, I desperately want six more hours of study time in a day, I would love to go to that conference in Fall...I am Martha who knows that the laundry, if let lie on the basement floor will get moldy and spidery and no one will have anything to wear.... and I know that I have a paper due on August 6th... </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">and all the time that grass is growing and growing, higher and wilder....</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">But the text reads, "You are distracted by many things. There is need of only one thing."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Recently, my 8 year old daughter was sitting in the back yard with nothing to do, no camp, no summer school, no chores or lessons. She said, "Mom, if time were money, I'd be rich." I answered, "If time were money there would be no "rich." We all get the same amount of time."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">My mother, who made her living writing fiction, would occasionally be told by a neighbor or friend, "I could write a novel if I just had the time." She would answer, "I get 24 hours in a day. How many do you get?"</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Her house, by the way, was always just one dust bunny shy of actual squalor and she was an absurdly contented person.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> "There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">We all have a certain amount of time and we all have to "spend" it on what is needed. If we spend it doing something that we think isn't "needed," then we are wasting our time, our time is "taken away from us." </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Now it is important to note that "needed" is not the same as "valued" or "enjoyable." It may be working a job that sucks but pays the bills, it may be having a PhD but sticking your hand in a clogged sink drain. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">And there are certainly times when very urgent and horrible things are happening in the playroom, when what I <i>need</i> is to shut the door to the kitchen and sing "Praise to the Lord Almighty" very loudly. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The point is, <i>needed</i> comes from within. Only you know what is really <i>needed</i> in any moment. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The question is not "What do I want?' or "What do I deserve?" but rather what, in this moment in time, in this context in my life, do I <i>need</i> to do. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">As long as we know in our hearts that what we are doing is "what is <i>needed</i>" and not a "distraction" then our time is not "taken away from us" and we are "choosing the better part." </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">In my mind's eye, verse 10:43 has Martha walking back into the kitchen and saying, "I <i>need</i> to know that these dishes are soaking. I will <i>need</i> to make Mary wash them later." Then she walks back in and sits down at the feet of the Master, beside Mary and nothing taken away from either of them.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div>Midrashional Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10202196633648657585noreply@blogger.com1