Living As If We Believe In the Incarnation

Paul's epistle to the Church at Colossae contains some important advice about what it means to be the Church.  This is particularly found in Colossians 3.12-17, which is the most well known text within the epistle.

Paul indicates that being the Church is all about cultivating the spiritual disciplines of forgiveness and accountability.  The community is called to hold one another accountable to living their lives according to the example of Christ, but to also forgive one another when they fail to do so, keeping such persons in the community rather than removing them.

Paul's advice makes perfect sense when we consider the high bar that has been set for us through the life and teachings of Jesus.  We are called, as Paul reminds us, to live as Christ lived: to clothe ourselves with love, mercy, and compassion, to have peace within ourselves and to promote peace within the Church and the larger community.

The life that we are called to live, on a broader level, was manifest in God's incarnation in Jesus.  By entering into human life to redeem us, God manifested forgiveness, compassion, love, and mercy.  The very act of incarnation that is celebrated during the Christmas season reveals the nature of the God who was revealed in Jesus, that we are called to emulate.

The Nature of Biblical Prophecy

Biblical prophecy in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament is often characterized by vivid images of physical events, often containing violence and destruction.  It is the tendency of the contemporary Church to interpret these images in a literal manner.

In Luke's gospel, the writer interprets the arrival of John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that God would one day fill up valleys, make rough places smooth, and level mountains and hills.  The perception that John the Baptist fulfilled Isaiah's vision reveals a lot about how we should interpret biblical prophecy.  Most importantly, the physical events that Isaiah described were not fulfilled in a literal manner.  God did not literally fill up valleys and level mountains.  Instead, these physical events were metaphors for what God sought to accomplish through John the Baptist; to prepare people's hearts and minds for the arrival of Jesus.  The valleys and mountains were the impediments in people's souls and minds that needed to be removed through repentance so that God's Word might be revealed.

Let's consider this understanding of biblical prophecy when we interpret biblical texts that we believe speak of the future.  God's agenda remains the same.  God's intention is not to bring about violence and destruction, but to bring about salvation and redemption.  There is already enough violence and destruction in the world.  This is not God's plan or a reflection of God's intention for the world.  God's intention for the world was revealed in Jesus, who arrived to effect reconciliation between God and human beings.

The Odd Paradoxical Situation of Kings

I spoke months ago about the image of the circle in describing all ancient and modern systems of political and social organization.  The one with the greatest authority is in the center of the figurative circle, those who the one at the center gives authority to constitute the circle itself, and the overwhelming majority of those in the system are outside the circle; they are the excluded and marginalized.  In ancient Israel, the King was the one at the center, surrounded by the religious and political authorities (on the circle itself); with virtually everyone else on the outside; children, women, the outcasts, the unclean, non-Israelite males.

This system creates and perpetuates anxiety, suffering, and persecution, with those on the circle neurotic about maintaining their place on the circle, and excluding and marginalizing those on the outside.  Those on the outside were punished for being on the outside of the circle.

You would assume that the one person in the system who was free of anxiety, suffering, and marginalization was the one at the center of the circle; the King.  Today is Christ the King Sunday in the liturgical year, when the image of Christ as King is explored.  This provides an opportunity to reveal the odd paradoxical situation of Kings in the ancient world, as well as their modern equivalents (e.g. CEO's in the corporate world, leaders of sovereign nations, etc...).  The irony is that the one at the center of the circle was actually the one most marginalized, vulnerable, and excluded.  In fact, modern anthropology would suggest that the origin of Kings has its roots not in the process of the most powerful male seizing power, but in the primordial need to sacrifice and scapegoat; that is, that the practice and system of monarchy actually arose out of those who were marginalized to provide a scapegoat--a figure for the community to sacrifice to alleviate tensions that arise within the community.

Jesus said that the one who is greatest in the Kingdom of God would be the one most willing to sacrifice for others.  It is often said that the cross is the last place where you would expect to find a King.  In reality, the ancient world know that this was the first place where you would expect to find a King; being sacrificed for the Kingdom.  The image of Jesus as King refers not to power and glory in the world's eyes, but to a willingness to sacrifice.  When we sing that our cross will be exchanged for a crown, it will not be a gold crown of glory in the world's eyes, but a crown reflecting our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others as one who has lived under the Lordship of Christ. 

The Widow's Mite and the Need for Self-Awareness

In Mark's gospel, Jesus is very critical of the religious institutions and systems of his day.  He was particularly critical of the scribes.  The "scribes", from the Greek grammateis, were those who were the most knowledgeable of the Hebrew scriptures, and who the Jewish community turned to when they had questions about the meaning and significance of the law.  When there was a complicated question of the interpretation of the law, the scribes were consulted.  The scribes also acted in a quasi adjudicatory capacity to resolve disputes in the Jewish community that arose out of differing interpretation of the law.

Jesus criticized the scribes for their opulent lifestyles, their arrogance, and their self-righteousness.  Specifically, Jesus says that the scribes "devour widow's houses." A few verses later, Jesus and the disciples see a widow placing two copper coins in the temple treasury, which is all the wealth that she had.  Jesus then remarks that, comparatively speaking, the widow has given more than those who given significant sums.

Ironically, the story of the widow's mite is used most commonly on Stewardship Sunday in American churches.  The story is read to mean that we are called to give a huge proportion of our wealth, in the same way as the widow; in other words, the widow is held up as a model of giving that we are called to emulate.

Such a reading of the story ignores two important things: (1) Jesus just spent several verses talking about the corruption of the scribes, and thereby the Jewish religious establishment; (2) Jesus makes no statement suggesting that the widow was wise, righteous, or should be emulated.

The widow is not a paragon of virtue that we are being called to emulate.  She is actually very tragic figure; the tiny amount of money that she had to give is going to be given to the temple, and thereby, to the scribes.  This story is not even about the widow or about giving.  Its about self-awareness, or the scribes' lack of it.  And the terrible horrific tragedy that results by the lack of it.

All of us who seek to live under the Lordship of Christ can do enormous good in this world.  We can also, without awareness of our sin and narcissism, do terrible things, like create and maintains systems that result in widow's giving what little they have to subsidize the scribes' "flowing robes." Jesus' message is awareness, awareness, awareness.

A God of Radical Inclusion

In ancient Israel, if you were physically impaired, it was believed that this was due to either your own sin or the sin of your parents or even ancestors.  The impact of a significant physical impairment in the ancient world was not only the impact on your ability to work and engage in other day to day activities, but exclusion from the community itself.  If it was believed that God was punishing you or your family, through your impairment, then it was considered righteous to participate in God's punishment and exclusion.

By healing the sick and the blind, Jesus, as the one in whom God was revealed, rendered this entire way of perceiving the impaired.  If Jesus revealed God's will, and if God was punishing the impaired, then the impaired would not have been healed because it would have removed a divinely brought punishment.  On a more broader level, Jesus was destroying the very underlying understanding of God's nature.  Rather than being a God of exclusion, God was one of radical inclusion.  God's will was to bring those outside the community into the community.

The God who is reflected in the Church should be a God whose business is always to seek inclusion rather than exclusion.  This is not to suggest that God does not demand holiness and righteousness; only that God's desire is to create a mechanism for the unholy and unrighteous to become holy and righteous through participation in the Body of Christ, the Church.  And that means that we, as part of the Church universal, should be about the business of including, reflecting the nature of the God who seeks nothing but inclusion.

Becoming Like Little Children

Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we will never enter the Kingdom of God

As always, our reading of the text is clouded by our own perception of children, which was very different than the perception of children in the ancient Middle East.  Children were regarded, even until very recent times in Western culture, in a very negative light.  They were, at best, seen as a burden, since they couldn't yet produce anything (i.e. they would work in the fields, but required more food than what their own labor produced).  At worst, they were regarded as sinful and depraved.

Today, when we hear that we must become like "little children," we assume that this means we must become pure, trusting, and joyful, since these are the qualities that we ourselves associate with children.  This association would have been incomprehensible to an ancient audience.

With the ancient perception of children in mind, the meaning of the text is revealed.  In order to be part of God's Kingdom, living under the Lordship of Christ, we must recognize that God chooses to allow us to be part of His Kingdom not through our own merit or through what we ourselves "produce," but solely due to God's infinite grace.  If we think that God is choosing to enter into relationship with us because we meet some standard of righteousness, we miss the very heart of what God's Kingdom is about, and we will never truly see it, and thereby never enter it

Having Salt Within Ourselves

Jesus tells his listeners in Mark's gospel that they must have salt within themselves in order to live in peace with themselves and with each other.

Salt is used today primarily to season food.  In ancient times is was used primarily in religious ritual.  In Jewish tradition, salt was used most prominently in rituals that emphasized Israel's covenant relationship with God; salt was added to the ritual bread on the Sabbath to season it.  Consequently, salt became associated with the need for Israel to celebrate and cultivate a deep relationship with their creator and covenant God in order to live peacefully with themselves and with each other.

There is enormous violence today.  We are abusive to ourselves, failing to forgive ourselves and punishing ourselves for our perceived failings.  We are abusive to each other, which is often nothing more than a projection of our own self hatred.  The nations of the world are abusive to each other.  All this abuse and violence has its heart in the lack of peace within ourselves.  If there is peace within ourselves, then our relationships will be peaceful, and the world is filled with those who are at peace within themselves, there will be peace on earth.

The key to peace is to have salt within ourselves.  In our hearts, to cultivate a deep relationship with God and to enter into covenant with Him as he was revealed in Christ, living under the Lordship of Christ and following his example. 

Why Jesus Went to Jerusalem

Jesus and Peter have an argument in Mark's gospel when Jesus tells Peter that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be executed.  Peter tells Jesus not to go.  Jesus rebukes Peter and emphasizes the necessity of his sacrifice in Jerusalem.

Jesus and Peter's dispute, boiled down to its essence, is really a dispute about the relative valuation that they place on life in this world.  Many of those in Jewish culture in Jesus' day did not believe in an afterlife.  If someone held to this belief, this would naturally lead to a relative high valuation of life in this world (i.e. if this life is all that there is, then this life has enormous value and significance).  Similarly, if one believed in the eternity of the soul and that this life was, in contrast, only a fraction of an instant in that eternity, then the way that we perceive the value of this life radically changes.

Today, materialism is fast becoming the prevailing worldview in Western culture; the belief that this physical universe is all that there is, and that we are, literally, our bodies, and that consequently, when our bodies die, that is it.  Materialism, like other ideologies, has a way of finding its way into the belief system of the Church without the Church realizing that it is finding its way in.  For example, we always seem more preoccupied with the state of our physical bodies in Church than our souls; I literally cannot remember the last time that anyone sought prayer for anything besides a physical illness.  In many expressions of Christianity, there is a preoccupation with the accumulation of wealth; even going so far as to suggest that God wants us all to be wealthy.

As always, our example is Jesus.  Seeing through God's eyes, Jesus knew that this life is an instant in our soul's eternity.  Consequently, all that matters in this life is to do what will nurture our souls.  We are eternal spiritual beings having a brief temporary experience in a human vessel.  Our lives should reflect this.

Cultivating the Discipline of Wisdom

Paul, speaking to the Church at Ephesus, told the community that in order to be authentic followers of Christ, they needed to cultivate the discipline of wisdom.  This, Paul explains in his letters, is because the world's wisdom is actually foolishness, but will appear as wisdom.  Similarly, God's wisdom, which is greater than human wisdom, will appear as foolishness to the world.

The cultivation of God's wisdom and the recognition that human wisdom is actually foolishness, is needed because we remain part of the world, and the world's wisdom seems self evident to us.  In ancient Ephesus, this would have been reflected in the Temple of Artemis, considered one of the seven wonders of the world.  The Temple was within sight wherever you stood in Ephesus, just like the wisdom of the Greeks was so imbedded in everyday thought that it was second nature.

To put it very mildly, the importance of cultivating wisdom in the contemporary American Church has been largely forgotten.  The notion that God's wisdom is foolishness to the world is often considered a license in the Christian community to abandon the need to cultivate wisdom.  The opposite is the case: our wisdom must exceed and transcend the wisdom of the world.  This is the whole point of being the Church: gathering for collective worship, prayer, bible study, and good works.  Through being the Church, we see God's wisdom and the foolishness of the world's wisdom.

Israel in the Desert and the Nature of God's Grace

When Israel escaped slavery in Egypt, they traveled through the desert to the land God had promised to Abraham's ancestors.  Along the way, they were concerned about how to sustain themselves during the journey.

God responds to Israel's request by providing manna (bread) and quail for Israel's sustenance during their desert journey.  The biblical writer indicates that Israel literally found bread and quail on the ground when they awoke in the morning.

We normally assume that what is being described is a supernatural event that violates natural law, thereby revealing that it was God's grace towards Israel that brought manna and quail to Israel in the desert.  However, this reading is not supported by what has been experienced by those who have traveled in the same desert for thousands of years.

In the desert of the Sinai peninsula, there is a plant called the Tamarisk plant that emits a crystalline substance that falls to the ground.  It's texture is bread-like and it is edible.  It has been consumed by desert travelers through Sinai for thousands of years.  It is still a source of food today.  Additionally, those who travel through the Sinai peninsula typically find a large number of quail on the ground, exhausted from trying to fly across the desert.  The quail can be easily gathered up and consumed.

The information above is usually used to support the proposition that what the Israelites experienced was not actually God at work, but simply a "natural event" that has been experienced by travelers for thousands of years.  This reading misinterprets the nature of God's grace and God's activity in the world.  God's free and unmerited gifts in this world are given to everyone, just like all travelers through the desert were given these gifts of food to sustain them.  What made Israel God's covenant community was not that they received different gifts than those who were not part of the covenant community, but because they knew where the manna and quail really originated; through the gracious gifts of the God who is the creator of all people.

As the new Israel, the Church, we are not given special treatment, in the sense of being protected from harm or being given wealth or affluence.  We experience loss, suffering, and death, along with joy and love and beauty.  What makes us God's covenant community is our awareness of the source of all things, and a call to proclaim to the world that which is the source of all good things; the God who is the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all things.

Why God Creates Covenant Communities

In the letter from Paul to the Church at Ephesus, Paul addresses the biggest controversy facing the infant first century Church: whether you had to follow "the Law" in order to be a follower of Jesus.  The controversy was usually framed around the issue of whether male converts to Christianity, if Gentile, had to be circumcised.  However, the real crux of the issue was whether Gentile Christians were bound by all the commandments found in the Pentateuch; the first five books of the Bible that formed the basis of Jewish belief and practice.

Paul's short answer was no, which created conflict with most of the earliest leaders of the Church; particularly Peter, who took the opposing view.  Paul's rationale is instructive not only for the ancient community, but for us as well.  For Paul, in Christ, God has created a New Israel; a new covenant community, and what makes the new community "new" is not only an awareness of what God has accomplished in Jesus, but an entirely new covenant; we are no longer parties to the old covenant and are thereby not bound by its terms, including, but not limited to, circumcision.

Paul's answer is also instructive about what why God creates covenant communities.  Both the old and new covenants were designed to make those bound by it holy.  The entire purpose of the law was not to create arbitrary rules, like circumcision, but to create a system of practices that would make Israel holy.  Particularly, to reinforce God's sovereignty over Israel and Israel's submission before God.  The same is true of the new covenant community; the Church.  The Church gets bogged down in the details, when all that really matters is living under the Lordship of Christ; being a holy people who live under God's sovereignty.

Driving God Out of the Village

There is a story in Mark's gospel where Jesus enters his hometown, Nazareth, and the residents reject him.  The Nazarenes simply couldn't believe that the one in whom God was revealed had been in their presence all along; Jesus had grown up with them, his family was still there, including his mother, brothers, and sisters.  Nazareth was also conscious of its insignificance in Israel, not to mention the larger world; Nazareth was little more than a speck on the map; a village of thatched huts and no more than 100-150 residents.

There is a powerful metaphor here that is enormous good news: God is already here in our midst and always has been.  This is God's default position: we don't have to do things to draw God in: God is already here and always has been.

But the bad news is that we also have the free will that enables us to reject God's call and symbolically remove God from the village.  And like Nazareth, there have been systems that have rejected God's call, whether they are nations, families, churches, or communities.  You can easily recognize them, because they are filled with anger, hatred, discord, and abuse.

But even in those places that have rejected God's call, God is still trying to get back in, through showering grace on those who have rejected Him.  Even as God is being thrown out, God's only desire is to reconcile with those who have rejected Him and to get back in the village so that God can continue the work of redemption.  No matter how far a system has abandoned God and is trapped in a cycle of violence and hatred, it is never too late for that system to repent so that God can transform that system and the system can return to what it was meant to be: God's Kingdom of love and light.

The Day of Salvation is Here Already

Paul's advice to the Corinthians in his letters is very good advice for the contemporary American Church as well.  Paul actual wrote at least three letters to the Church at Corinth.  Two have been included in the New Testament.  A third was not canonized and there were probably more.

Paul's advice to the Corinthians is helpful to us because our cultural context is a lot like Corinth.  Christianity was a new religion so most Corinthians were very unfamiliar with it.  The community grew as Paul went about his work, but Christians were competing for attention with other religions; there were also many people in Corinth that didn't practice any religion and didn't see any reason to.

Many of the religions that Christianity competed with promised their adherents relief in the future and in the present from the sufferings that we often experience in this world.  In fact, their sermons would often recite a long list of things that adherents would be protected from.  In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul satirizes this sermon technique by quoting a long list of sufferings himself.  However, rather than stating that the point of Christianity was to keep Christians from experiencing these sufferings now or in the future, Paul made the bold claim that by participating in the suffering of others, as Christ did, we experience salvation here and now. 

The Day of Salvation, that was preached in Judaism as a future event of liberation from bondage to Rome, and that was preached by the religions that Christianity competed with in Corinth as a present and future event where the god of their religion would protect him, is presented by Paul has occurring in the immediate moment when we accept Christ as Lord.  The sufferings don't go away; instead, we obtain victory over them by realizing that in literally entering the sufferings of others, we find salvation for our souls.  By seeking the needs of others, entering into their sufferings, being present with them, we save them and bring salvation to ourselves.

How Satan Casts Out Satan

Jesus poses a riddle to his listeners in the Gospel of Mark: "How Can Satan Cast Out Satan?" The answer to the riddle is that it happens all the time.  In fact, it is one of the fundamental characteristics of human culture.

Satan is translated as the "Diabolos," or the "deceiver." The deceiver, as the name implies, is all about the business of deception.  The Satan's long con in the Church is to convince us that we are doing God's will when we are actually acting in the exact opposite way that God wants.

When wrongdoing or evil is recognized in a community, whether it is within the nation state, the Church, or the family, our propensity is to cast out the evil persons or element and to exclude it.  By doing so, we are acting contrary to the will of God, who entered into the human community with no thought other than our redemption and reconciliation with us.  When God sees evil or wrongdoing in the human community, God seeks to enter into that which is evil and transform it so that it might become good.  Consequently, by casting out that which is evil, the very act of casting out is contrary to God's will.  It is Satan casting out Satan.

The purpose of the Church is not only to be God's conduit to reveal Christ to the world but to retain the practice of casting out those who are not part of the Body of Christ; that is to simply change the subject matter of what is being cast out.  The purpose of the Church is to recognize that in Christ, God changed the way communities are to respond to wrongdoing in their midst; not seeking its exclusion and banishment, but its redemption.

Changing the Game that Religion Plays

Stories in the gospels were remembered, recorded, and eventually reduced to writing because they represented something important for the community.  Often the stories became representative of something greater than the story itself.

In the Second Chapter of Acts, the disciples begin speaking in many languages, and the visitors to Jerusalem, gathered from throughout the known world, begin hearing the disciples, although Galilean, speaking to them in their own language.  Herein lay a fundamental premise of what the Church understood about itself and its nature, and how it distinguished itself from what came before it.

In the ancient world, religion was literally about the practice of exclusion.  That is, the community created rituals, practices, and beliefs to distinguish itself from what was outside the community.  The rituals and practices themselves allowed the community to define itself.  Whenever there was someone or an element within the community that acted contrary to the rules and practices of the community, the community excluded and cast out the person or element that violated the community's practice.

The Second Chapter of Acts evoked the earlier story of Babel, when the peoples of the earth were symbolically scattered; they began speaking different languages.  In the Second Chapter of Acts, the opposite occurs; the people of the earth are drawn together.  The God who was thought to be the one who scatters is revealed to be instead the God who gathers together.

God's vision, the new salvation history, was not to simply create a new chosen people with a new set of beliefs and practices centered in Christ, but instead to change the very understanding of religiosity as the business of casting out and exclusion.  In Christ, God became the one who was excluded to change our perception of the excluded.  Now, the role of the community is not to cast out those who have violated the terms and practices of the community, but to always seek to gather, as God's will is always the redemption of the fallen and lost.  The Church is called to be the community whose every motivation is to gather together so that the entire world might find redemption.

Singing a New Song to the Lord

The Psalmist encourages us to sing a new song to the Lord.  There is a lot that we can learn about discipleship and about God solely through this single phrase in Psalm 98

The metaphor of the believer as songwriter itself is instructive.  The metaphor could be tax accountant and the believer could be encouraged to create for the Lord a new tax shelter.  Songwriting is fun, joyful, and exciting.  It requires enormous creativity and insight.  God wants our discipleship to be like this.

And God wants us to sing a new song, rather than sing the songs that we have sung before.  God loves new expressions of discipleship; new ways of being God's people.  God wants the Church to be a living, organic thing filled filled with excitement and wonder

To put it mildly, the Church often acts exactly the opposite of the image of discipleship that is suggested by the Psalmist.  We make discipleship about as exciting as the creation of a new tax shelter.  Rather than celebrate new ways of being God's people, we stick to the old.  We are terrified of change and want things to stay the same.

Being Easter People means that we understand the nature of the God in whom we believe and have our Being, and then model ourselves after this God.  God is a God of endless creativity; a God whose nature is unchanging, but God's unchanging nature is to incessantly create something new.

Becoming Unblemished Lambs For God

The covenant between God and Israel that is codified primarily in Leviticus and Deuteronomy consists of both ethical commands and ritual sacrifice.  The most important sacrifice was the sacrifice of a lamb for the purpose of atonement, or restoring relationship between God and Israel.  When the relationship between Israel and God was broken, it was Israel that was the breaching party.  Consequently, restoring relationship was really about God offering Israel redemption. 

God commands Israel in the Hebrew Bible to only sacrifice animals without blemish, and this is true of the lambs that were sacrificed.  In fact, particular lambs were cultivated with particular care in the hope that they would be suitable for sacrifice.  The task of the shepherd was to ensure that lambs were raised so that they could become the instrument of reconciliation between God and Israel.

As the Lamb of God, Jesus acted as the instrument of God's reconciliation of the whole world.  Similarly, we are described as the sheep of Jesus' sheepfold.  Consequently, God pours His grace upon us so that we can become God's instruments of facilitating the reconciliation and redemption of the world.  God's intent for us is not that we would be protected from harm, but that we would be God's agent in the redemption of the world.  Through the Church, we seek God's sanctifying grace so that we might become unblemished lambs suitable to be God's agents in the world.

God Turns the Sacrificial System Upside Down

In the ancient world, religious practice centered on ritual sacrifice.  The central purpose of the sacrificial system was to effect reconciliation between the believer and the god in whom they believed when the believer had engaged in some act or omission that violated the relationship between them.  In this system, the believer is the active participant and the god the passive participant; the believer is presenting their offering to god in the hope that god would accept their offering and thereby reconcile with the believer.

In the resurrection of Christ, God turned the sacrificial system upside down.  The image of Jesus as the Lamb of God was deeply evocative for the disciples and other earliest followers of Jesus: lambs without blemish were sacrificed to bring about reconciliation between God and Israel when Israel had violated their covenant relationship with God.  But now it is God who offers up a sacrifice, Jesus, to the world, to bring about the redemption of the world and the reconciliation of the world with God.  In Jesus, God does what God ultimately did not demand of Abraham in the story of Abraham and his son Isaac.

Before we have the capacity to know God, or even speak God's name, God has already begun a good work in us in the hope that we will turn to God and enter into relationship with Him.  And when we sin, God remains willing to forgive and let the reconciliation effected in Christ be manifest in His relationship with us.

The Behavior of the Crowd During Holy Week

Today begins Holy Week, which culminates in the celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Holy Week takes up a significant portion of all four canonized gospels.  This is particularly true of the Gospel of Mark, which has been described as the period of Holy Week with an extended introduction.

There are a number of characters that play a role during Holy Week.  There are the obvious major characters of Jesus, the disciples, Pilate, the Roman military, and the Jewish religious establishment.  But one of the most interesting characters in the story is what can be called the "crowd." The crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowd that is given the choice between executing Jesus and Barabbas, and the crowd that witnesses the crucifixion.

It is very likely that the "crowd" in all three of these scenes is composed of many of the same persons.  The population of Jerusalem swelled during Passover, but the city was still small by modern standards, both in terms of physical size of the city itself, and the size of the population.

The "crowd" has a personality, just like the other characters in the story.  Most importantly, the crowd is easily swayed by popular opinion and the powers that be.  The crowd welcomed Jesus into the city, probably because of the rumors that they had heard that Jesus was the Messiah, which led them to perceive him as someone who would initiate a military coup.  That same crowd gathers to watch Jesus overturn the tables of the money changes.  The crowd then follows along as the trial and crucifixion of Jesus are brought about by the Roman government and Jewish religious establishment.

There are two lessons that we learn from this character in the story.  The first is the danger of automatically conforming to the behavior of the majority.  This story reveals that the crowd lacks wisdom, discernment, and courage.  Second, as those who are called to live according to the example of Christ, we must not be swayed by what the "crowd" thinks of us.  If we are faithful to God's call, we may be called to act in a way that is contrary to the crowd.  We must accept the fact that the crowd will not like us very much.  All that matters is following God's will.

The Reward for Belief

The gospel reading in this week's lectionary contains the most well known biblical verse in Protestant Christianity: John 3.16.  This provides an opportunity to carefully examine the way that this text is presently read, and whether this reading is correct.

As interpreted in contemporary Protestant Christianity, the text means that if we think that a set of abstract principles about Jesus are true, we will not be punished in the afterlife, but will instead go to heaven.

This reading of John 3.16 can be challenged by considering the significance of three words in the verse: "believe", "everlasting life," and "world." Let's start with "believe." In its Greek context, the word does not mean that we think that a set of principles is true.  Instead, the word is indicative of following and trusting.  "Believing" in Christ means that we will recognize him as Lord and live our lives according to his example, living a life of sacrifice, mercy, and compassion.

The word "everlasting life" does not refer to something that is found in the future, but something that is already present.  The word has strong correlations to the Jewish notion of time as divided between two ages; the present age of darkness, and the age to come, when the Reign of God would be revealed. 

The word "world," from the Greek kosmos, is best translated as "domination system." It does not refer to the planet, or even the people who inhabit the planet, but the system by which human culture operates, exemplified in Jesus' time by Rome.  Human culture is based upon violence, destruction, and hatred.

When we put these understandings of "believe," "eternal life," and "world" together, we arrive at a very different reading of John 3.16.  God loves the world, despite the world's darkness.  And into the darkness of the world, God sent His Son, who exemplified sacrificial love for the world, despite its darkness.  And if we recognize Jesus as Lord and follow in his steps, living lives of sacrificial love for the world despite its darkness, we will experience God's age right here and now.  We will recognize that God's presence is already here, in us and in the world.  And in each other.  And we will recognize that if we live as God's people, we will remain in God's presence and live in God's reign now and forever.

Carrying God's Light Forward

Today is Transfiguration Sunday in the liturgical year, which ends the season of Epiphany.  Transfiguration Sunday focuses upon the gospel story where the disciples see a vision of Jesus upon a mountain, with Elijah on one side and Moses on the other.

It is normally thought that the vision means that Jesus is being compared to Moses and Elijah.  Seen in the light of the gospels and the New Testament as a whole, Jesus is actually being contrasted with them, or more particularly, what Elijah and Moses had come to represent.  Elijah, for Israel during Jesus' day, was representative of Israelite triumphalism and a desire for vengeance; the notion that being God's chosen people mean that Israel was superior to Rome and that God would bring vengeance upon Israel's enemies.  Moses, for Israel, was the one who brought the law, which, in Jesus' day, had become associated with the rote following of rules and regulations.

By being both compared and contrasted with Elijah and Moses, Jesus reveals the nature of the Church, as the new Israel, and the nature of the light that the Church is called to reflect.  The Church, as the new Israel, is not a community of arrogance which seeks vengeance upon our enemies.  We seek reconciliation with our enemies.  And we are not called to be a community that proof texts; where the law becomes our God.  The law of God is written upon our hearts and minds and we are guided by the directives of God's Spirit.

The season of Epiphany celebrates God's light that has come into the world in Jesus.  The story of the transfiguration reveals the nature of the light that we are called to reflect as the new Israel, the Church

Lessons from Corinth

The Epistle lesson this week is a text from Paul's first letter to the Church in Corinth, addressing a controversy facing the infant Christian community.

Ancient Corinth, like other cities in the Roman world, had become very diverse culturally, and all the cultures that arrived at Corinth brought their local religions.  Virtually all ancient religions centered in perpetual ritual sacrifice.  There were sacrifices for everything, to mark occasions, to seek intercession, to ask for forgiveness.  And most of these sacrifices involved food.  Once the sacrifice was over, the food was sold in the market, marked down.

Here was the issue facing the Church in Corinth: was it proper to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols? Did this constitute idolatry? Paul's advised the Corinthian Church that it was not improper, because the gods of other religions were not real, so the sacrifices were actually not being made to anything, and it was thereby not improper.  However, Paul also advised the more mature Corinthian Christians not to eat the food that had been sacrificed to idols, because it might cause the new members of the community to become confused: in virtually all ancient religions, it was believed that you could practice more than one religion.  Therefore, Paul reasoned, if the new members of the community that were still being acclimated to what discipleship was all about saw the mature members of the community eating food sacrificed to idols, this might confuse them and lead them to believe that the mature members of the community practiced other religions.

The lesson for the contemporary Church doesn't lie in Paul's answer to the theological question itself.  The worship of other gods and food sacrifices vanished thousands of years ago.  The lesson lies in the fact that Paul says that there is something more important than disciples having the right answer: the impact on the Church as a community.  What is implicit in Paul's response to Corinth is that the collective holiness and spiritual growth of the community matters more than individual disciples in Corinth knowing the right answer.

The Church today has largely become relegated to a place where individuals go to get right answers to questions and then go back into their individual lives throughout the week to apply the right answer.  Paul says that the Church is a community, rather than a collection of individual believes.  And as a community, what is best for the community trumps the welfare of the individual.  This is necessary for the Church to fulfill the great commission; for those already within the community to become holy, and for those outside the Church to be brought within.

The Meaning of True Holiness

A passage from the Book of Jonah is the Hebrew Bible lesson in this week's lectionary.  This is one of the books of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible that tells the story of God calling Jonah to prophesy to Nineveh.  Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, located on the bank of the Tigris River.  The Assyrian Empire was greatly feared by the nations that it conquered.  Unlike other empires that sought to maintain good will with its subject peoples, the Assyrians didn't hesitate to burn any bridges.  The Assyrians epitomized evil in the eyes of Israel.

It is very surprising, given who the Assyrians were, that they immediately repent.  The Assyrians because the very unlikely heroes of the Book of Jonah.  Jonah, similarly, becomes the unlikely villain.  Rather than given thanks that the Assyrians have repented, Jonah is angry when God chooses not to punish the Assyrians.  Earlier in the book, Jonah also rejects God's call, and only responds to God's call with great reluctance.

The Book of Jonah is traditionally recited on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.  It is the day when Israel collectively seeks atonement and forgiveness.  In reciting the story of Jonah, Israel sees itself through the perspective of Jonah rather than Assyria.  True repentance begins with acknowledging our need for repentance.  Jonah is portrayed in the story as an unholy mess who is mysteriously called by God to a great and monumental task.  The same was true of Israel.  Israel was an unholy mess, just like the rest of the world.  Israel was a chosen people not because of its righteousness, but because God had mysteriously chosen to enter into covenant relationship with Israel.

Like Jonah, we are an unholy mess.  God has chosen to enter into relationship with us not because we became righteous enough, but because we are an unholy mess.  The Christian Church in American often displays an arrogance and a self congratulatory attitude towards itself, and a judgmental attitude towards the rest of the world.  We need to perpetually repent and turn to God for forgiveness.  In order to do so, we must be cognizant of ourselves as an unholy mess.  Ironically, when we acknowledge our unholiness, we can most effectively seek to be holy. 

The Discipline of Letting Go of Control

Its funny when we tell someone that we think they have "control issues." Its a bit like accusing someone of breathing oxygen or inhabiting the planet Earth.  We all have control issues.  It is something that is intrinsic to being human.

Choosing to take upon ourselves the mantle of discipleship means that we will discipline ourselves to work on our control issues.  Choosing to follow Jesus requires being baptized by water and the Spirit.  The word Spirit in its Greek context was closely linked to the word for "wind." Think about discipleship like this: we are required to give up the need to use a rudder, and instead simply head out onto the seas and allow ourselves to be taken where the wind takes us.  God has a specific plan for us that might fly directly in the face of the plan that we have for ourselves.  Being a disciple is not about having a better ship to get where we are going.  Its all about getting rid of the rudder.

A subtle but very significant trend in Christianity today is that the Church has begun to frame discipleship into a mechanism to bring about our fulfillment; in marriage, our vocation, our finances, etc.  Expensive seminars and books are offered about how God can make us financially successful, to have a stronger marriage, and to be fulfilled.  This is not the right approach.  God is not our agent to give us what we want.  God calls us to give up the things that we want so that God can transform us and lead us to those places where we can most effectively bring about God's purposes.  Very likely, these are places where we would choose not to go.