The Word of God

The word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb. 4:12).

 

If we take a look at the opening pages of the prophetic books, we find something remarkable -- all of them begin with the same idea:

 

• the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
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• The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.  The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah ... and through the reign of Jehoiakim...down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
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• In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month --- it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoichin -- the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians.  There the hand of the Lord was upon him.
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• ....During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision....
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• The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, son of Beeri, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.
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• The word of the Lord that came to Joel, son of Pethuel....
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• The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa --- what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, was king of Israel.
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• The vision of Obadiah.....
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• The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai:....
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• The word of the Lord given to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah --- the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
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• An oracle concerning Nineveh.  The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
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• The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received....
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• The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah, son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah, son of Amon King of Judah.....
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• In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest.....
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• In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, (king of Persia), the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.....
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• An oracle:  The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi..... 

All of the prophets either saw visions or "the word of the Lord came to [them] saying..."

  And all of the prophets could pinpoint the exact day, hour, and month of the revelation, when the "word of the Lord" came to them.  This was no vague musing of the mind --- this was a moment, an event, a happening:  "The word of the Lord came to me saying....."  The word of God is "living and active," not an "idea" or a "thought."

 

Jesus, "the exact image of the invisible God"(Col. 1) is also "The Word of God, living and active."  He is the Word made flesh, Who accomplishes all He says.  Most of us to whom the Word of God has been made manifest know the exact day and hour when "the word of the Lord" came to us.  It was not an idea we had, nor a thought born of human desire or musing --- it arrived with power, transforming the thoughts of our hearts in an instant. 

 

If we read the biographies of modern day "prophets" like Thomas Merton and C.S. Lewis, or even of the more traditional "prophets" like St. Augustine, we see a moment of conversion out of which grows an entire changed life.  We see a moment when the person "just knows" that God has a claim on their lives, and we see how that moment has changed their primary orientation from the world to the kingdom of heaven.

 

I would love to gather together a group of the faithful -- the Bible calls them "the saints" ---- to hear them reflect on the moments of their lives when "the word of the Lord came to them saying...."  (Sometimes, it is not 'hearing' but 'seeing' or 'experiencing' that changes our direction.)  What a remarkable study that would be!

 

 

The Procrustean Bed

In the Greek myth, Procrustes was a son of Poseidon with a stronghold on Mount Korydallos at Erineus, on the sacred way between Athens and Eleusis.^[1] There he had an iron bed, in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith's hammer, to stretch them to fit. In later tellings, if the guest proved too tall, Procrustes would amputate the excess length; nobody ever fit the bed exactly, because secretly Procrustes had two beds.^[2] Procrustes continued his reign of terror until he was captured by Theseus, travelling to Athens along the sacred way, who "fitted" Procrustes to his own bed.

The Procrustean Bed -- a set of arbitrary standards to which everyone is held -- can be compared to the "kingdom of this world," rather than the "kingdom of God."  I grew up in the 50's, when the "American Idol" for girls was Marilyn Monroe.  Unfortunately, as a 90-pound teenager, I could not begin to measure up to the image of Marilyn Monroe, and so found myself "lacking" according to that standard.  In the 60's, Elvis Presley was the standard universally imitated.  And in the 70's, it was the Beatles.  Today, Justin Beiber is the teen-age short-lived idol, along with the Kardashians, Lady Ga-Ga, and who knows who else?  (These "idols" are probably already outdated.)

In sharp contrast to the Procrustean Bed to which the "world" wants to measure up, there is the very slow-growing "kingdom of God," which develops invisibly and undetectably in ourselves and in the world.  No one even notices its growth until it is fully grown and bearing fruit.  The Greek vine-dressers have a principle called "Teleos," meaning "perfect" to describe this kind of growth. 

After bearing the yearly fruit, the vines are severely pruned for the following year.  Then, the vine-dresser goes out to inspect the vines as they begin to grow again.  If the growth is where it is expected to be for the season of the year, the word "Teleos/ perfect" is pronounced over the vine.  That means it is developing as expected -- not 'finished" or "complete" in its growth, but exactly where it should be for the season of the year.  In a month or so, the vine-dresser closely examines the forming buds.  If they are developing on the vine, he says again "Teleos/ perfect!"  And so the process continues until the fruit is fully developed and ready for harvest.  Anyone who has ever pruned a rose bush understands exactly what I am saying.

Unlike the Procrustean Bed, the Kingdom of God is an organic process.  In Mark 4, Jesus says that the farmer sows the seed, and the rains come, and the seed grows day and night, 'the farmer knows not how," while he sleeps.  When I was 15, I wanted to look like Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor.  What I could not see at the time was the slow growth taking place in my spirit, not yet fully developed, a gift far beyond my youthful desire for external beauty.  What was in me at the time was "perfect," not yet finished, but "perfect' for my season of life at that time.

Today, many years later, I have no desire to be as "perfect" as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor was, according to the Procrustean Bed of the standards of this world.  But I do thank God that He gave me all that I needed to grow according to His standards. I am not yet "finished," but I believe that when He looks at me today, He pronounces the word "Teleos/ perfect" according to my season of life  -- still growing, but where I should be for now.

And I am happy that I no longer conform to the Procrustean Bed of this world, which makes people miserable because they cannot measure up to its standards and expectations.  I have a Heavenly Father who says, "This is My Beloved Child. Her sins and failings I no longer remember, for she is buried with my only-begotten Son and risen again in Him.  She is a new creature, created in My Image and Likeness.  What is still not complete in her, My Son will finish: she is perfect as He is perfect."

For This Cause....

The Lord God cast the man into a deep sleep and, while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib which the Lord God took from the man, he made into a woman, and brought her to him.  Then the man said, "She now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, for from man she has been taken."  For this reason, a man leaves his father and mother, and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh.  Both the man and his wife were naked, but they felt no shame (Gen. 2:21-24).

 

He who loves his own wife, loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh; on the contrary, he nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ also does the church (because we are members of His body, made from his flesh and from his bones).  "For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh."  This is a great mystery -- I mean in reference to Christ and to the Church (Eph. 5:28-33).

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Here is a great example of how the Bible presents a story in the Old Testament, and some 2000 years later, draws out the implications or meaning of the original story. 

 

Yesterday, I was reading the passage from Mark where Jesus' mother and brothers were standing outside the house where He was teaching.  Someone brought word to Jesus that His mother and brothers were outside and asking for Him.  "Who are my mother and my brothers?" He replied.  "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

 

At the wedding of Cana, Mary spoke to Jesus, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  She had said "Yes" to receiving Him for the world at the Incarnation, but now, before He could belong to the world, she had to say another "Yes" to letting Him go out from her.  Once He took on His role as the Bridegroom to the Church, once He was betrothed and married to the Bride, He would no longer belong to her, but to His Wife, to those who do the will of God. 

 

It was the responsibility of the Bridegroom to provide the wine for the wedding guests. The Wedding at Cana was the Marriage of Christ to His Bride, to be consummated in His nakedness on the cross, as He gave His Sacred Body and Blood to His Bride for her nourishment, for her preservation, for her salvation.  But first, He had to "leave His father and mother and cling to his wife and become one flesh with her."  First, Mary had to relinquish her fleshly claim on Him. She had to "give away" the Bridegroom to His Bride. 

 

Was she grieved by His words in the crowded house?  She had already surrendered Him to His Bride, the Church.  He was no longer "hers," but now "Hers" -- the church's, the Bride's.  And He now must tend to and feed His Family; He must now lay down His life for His own flesh and blood:  bone of my bone; flesh of my flesh.

 

Besides, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Mary knew that His words did not demean her, but elevated her who had done the will of God perfectly all of her life.  She was not only His mother according to the flesh, but in the spirit, she was also His "mother, sister, and brother."

 

In The Song of Songs, the Bridegroom sings of the Beloved: You are an enclosed garden, my sister, my bride...You are a garden fountain, a well of water flowing fresh from Lebanon.  The Bridegroom rejoices in all the relationships with his Beloved -- the familial, the conjugal, the fruitful.  Our relationship according to the flesh is limited, but not so the spiritual relationships.

 

Imagine Mary after Jesus has left home to be with His bride -- the lost sheep, those wandering in darkness, without light. He is not embarrassed by their "nakedness" and shame. He has espoused them to Himself in love and fidelity, and He must be with them.  He has been gone for some time, and now she hears that He has come home to Nazareth.  He is nearby, in a crowded house; the crowds are growing daily, and Roman soldiers are watching the crowds.  She wonders if anything will happen, so she tries to push through the crowd to see Him. 

 

He does not come out to see her, but remains with His Wife, the masses.  Imagine that she catches a glimpse of Him from the fringes of the crowd, and beholds her Son whose words capture and hold the attention of all:  He is radiant.  Around Him, the crowd becomes family, gathered as one meeting mystery  She smiles at His words, catching in them the same prayer-song she had taught Him as a toddler, wisdom from the mountain - top, and invitation for all to join Him there (taken from a commentary on Mark by Daniella Zsupan-Jerome).

 

She is proud of Him; she is grateful for her role in His Divine Mission.  She surrenders once again her claim on His affections, for now He is a married man -- He belongs to the Jewish people, the Bride whom God had espoused to Himself long ago.  And through them, He will embrace the whole world, the Gentiles also. 

 

God has come in the flesh to embrace His espoused.  He cannot surrender them again to Satan, the demon in the Garden; instead, He will do what Adam could not do.  He will lay down His life to accompany His Bride through her passage of death, bringing her with Him out of the tomb to eternal life.  Orpheus has descended into Hades to rescue his beloved Euridice, but this time, He will not fail to bring her back to life, for, as the writer of the Song of Songs says, "Love is stronger than death."

 

 





What is Wisdom?

When I was in the 8th grade, I was taught by a nun who was also an artist, and she gave us many art projects to complete.  Surprisingly, one of those projects became for me a lesson in wisdom that affected the rest of my life.  I copied something that looked like Aladdin's Lamp, with a wisp of smoke emerging from its lip.  Above the lamp, which I colored in gold, was the word WISDOM, curved over the lamp much as WordArt does today on the computer. 

While working on this project, I fell in love with Wisdom, for some reason, and began asking God to give me Wisdom.  At the time, I had only a vague notion of what Wisdom might be, but I knew I wanted it, whatever it was.  And I also knew that nothing else but Wisdom would ever satisfy my soul.  Imagine, then, as I began reading the Bible, my feelings when I discovered at least two of its books devoted to Wisdom.  Even today, some 40+ years after that initial discovery, I devour those books as if I had just found them yesterday.  Here are a few of my favorite lines from the Book of Wisdom:

Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. 

 

She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men's desire.  He who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate.  For taking thought of her is the perfection of prudence, and he who for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care; because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude. 

 

For the first step toward discipline is a very earnest desire for her; love means the keeping of her laws; to observe her laws is the basis for incorruptibility; and incorruptibility makes one close to God; thus the desire for Wisdom leads up to a kingdom.  If, then, you find pleasure in throne and scepter, you princes of the peoples, honor Wisdom, that you may reign forever....

 

for Wisdom, the artificer of all, taught me.  For in her is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, and pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure, and very subtle. 

 

For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.  For she is an aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nought that is sullied enters into her.  For she is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness.  And she, who is one, can do all things, and renews everything while herself perduring; and passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets.  For there is nought God loves, be it not one who dwells with Wisdom.  For she is fairer than the sun, and surpasses every constellation of the stars.  Compared to light, she takes precedence; for that, indeed, night supplants, but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.

 

Indeed, she reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well.

 

Who would not love Wisdom and seek 'her' after reading this passage?  Only those who skimmed over it without understanding, without savoring the meaning! If we re-read the passage while thinking of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter, promised by Jesus to His disciples, we want to fall down and worship Wisdom, for Scripture tells us that "Christ is the Wisdom of God," and that wisdom He graciously shares with us, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost, "on all my servants," young men and maidens alike (Joel 2).

 

The prophets and scholars of the Old Testament rightly perceived that Wisdom was personified and active, lively, moving.  Further than that they could not see, but Jesus revealed to us the Person behind the image.  He would not have called the Holy Spirit "the Advocate" or "the Comforter" if He did not want us to know the Spirit as a Personal Friend, if He did not want us to be intimate with "the Gift of the Father."  Blessed are they who yearn for this Gift, who ask for this Gift, who await the Gift, according to Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7 and Luke 11!  For the Father yearns to give this Gift upon all who knock at the door, seek, and ask for it.





The Book of Wisdom

Recently, I have been reading the novels of Steven Saylor, all of which are set in ancient Rome (just before the time of Jesus Christ).  The novels are very well researched, so that each one has notes at the end telling about the historic events referenced in the text, as well as the sources Saylor used in his research. 

The novel I am currently reading is The Judgment of Caesar, set in Alexandria, Egypt, in 48 B.C.  The main character (Gordianus the Finder -- a kind of detective and solver of mysteries) finds himself in Alexandria, the land of the Pharoahs.  There he becomes involved in the historic struggle between the Roman Caesar and the Egyptian Pharoah Ptolemy, who is simultaneously at war with his sister, Cleopatra, for control of Egypt. 

During the story, Gordianus mentions the fabled library of Alexandria -- one of the wonders of the ancient world --- which contains 400,000 scrolls.  Although I had read of this library many times, I had no idea it was so extensive.  Reading the novel engendered in me a desire to re-read the Book of Wisdom from the Bible, and the details Saylor includes in his book has shed new understanding for me on the Book of Wisdom.

Unfortunately, this book is not always included in the Protestant Bible, even though it was used extensively by the early Christian church.  Wisdom was written originally in Greek, about one hundred years before the coming of Jesus, in Alexandria, Egypt, by a member of the Jewish community living there.  His profound knowledge of the Old Testament (written in Hebrew, of course) is reflected in almost every line of the book, marking him as an outstanding representative of learning among the Jewish sages and teachers of the Alexandrian community, which was noted for its wisdom and erudition. 

The Jews of Alexandria lived in their own enclave, or section of the city, known as "the Jewish Quarter."  As in most cities, ancient and modern, their section was almost a ghetto, with 'foreigners' not usually entering, and with the Jews mostly remaining within its boundaries.  From the time of Alexander the Great, there had been a struggle between the "Hellenized" Jews, who wanted the "progress" and "modernization" offered by Greek culture, and the conservation Jews, who wanted to keep to their ancient ways and traditions.  The progressive Jews (considered apostates by the conservative Jews) imposed ridicule, torment, oppression, and suffering on their brothers who refused to 'convert' to Greek culture, including worship of both mind and body, with all the Greek gymnasiums, baths, and 'work-out' centers.

The writer of the Book of Wisdom takes as his task to convey the splendors and worth of divine wisdom (as opposed to 'education' or learning -- what Paul later called 'the wisdom of the Greeks).  The book treats of the folly of idolatry and the stupidity of worshipping wealth, power, or earthly pleasure.  He reviews the history of the Israelites, showing the hand of God delivering, protecting, and establishing them in the past, reminding people that God is not mocked, that we will ultimately reap what we sow.

Although the book was written in Greek, it was patterned on Hebrew verse, showing the writer to be very familiar with the Hebrew books of the OT.  Thus, reading it today, even in English, requires a different mindset and reading style.  This is not a book to be skimmed for information; like poetry, it requires a slow, meditative, and concentrated reading --- but the rewards for doing so far outstrip the rewards of reading quickly.  This is a book that satisfies the soul and gives food to the mind.  It is a book to be read and re-read and re-thought.

Some Protestant Bibles now include this book as "apocrypha," an unfortunate name, as today that term seems to mean the same as "fantasy."  However, it is clear that the Jewish community to which Jesus and Mary and Joseph belonged used this book in the synagogue services, along with the Book of Sirach.  Certainly both books were used by the early Christian communities.  However, with the Protestant Reformation, and the then-modern access to Hebrew texts, the reformers decided to eliminate any book not originally written in Hebrew.  Their decision was based on that of the Jewish rabbis at Jamni, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans.  The rabbis were afraid that Jewish history and culture and way of life was about to be lost forever, now that there was no center- point for its preservation.  Struggling to preserve their heritage, they embraced only what had been written in Hebrew originally, even though they still considered the Greek books "inspirational," as we can now see from the preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

One reason I love this book so much is that the writer identifies Wisdom with the traditional spirit of the Lord bestowed on the just.  At the time, the 'spirit of the Lord' was not identified with the Person of the Holy Spirit, as the idea of the Trinity could have been developed only after the appearance of Jesus Christ.  However, the writer does personify Wisdom as a "kindly spirit," and most often as a woman, following the concept of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs.  Here is an example:  The spirit of wisdom is kindly towards mortals, but she will not hold a blasphemer blameless for his words, because God, who sees clearly into his heart and hears every words he speaks, is a witness of his inmost being.  For the spirit of the Lord fills the whole earth, and that which holds all things together knows well everything that is said (1:6-7).

It grieves me that my non-Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ do not have easy access to both The Book of Wisdom and the Book of Sirach, two of the most beautiful commentaries on the rest of the OT that can be found.  While we have the other books of the OT (Genesis through Chronicles, for example), it is so helpful to have both the summary of these books and a commentary on their meanings from the viewpoint of a Jewish scholar.

Tomorrow I would like to present some passages from this wonderful commentary, but of course, it would be much better if people would begin reading this book for themselves.  I promise that you will not be disappointed in it, but instead, you may find riches of wisdom and understanding for your soul.

Inward Groanings

About six months ago, my daughter-in-law rescued and adopted an abused dog.  "Dottie" had been the victim of a hoarder/breeder; she had spent her entire life in a wire cage, having one litter after another.  When my daughter-in-law found her, she had been rescued from that situation, but she was a trembling mass of fears and anxieties.  She had never been socialized; she feared people; she had heart-worms, and did not feel well -- so everything was a threat to her. 

Today, after six months of intensive work, Dottie is a "new creature."  Though she still will not venture off the front porch, she no longer hides from strangers, but cautiously approaches to be petted.  She is healthy once again, and even looks like a different dog.  She may never entirely overcome the inward results of her earlier life, but where she is today is a far cry from where she was 6 months ago.  If there are no strangers in the house, she may even be called "a happy puppy." 

There are many things perhaps Dottie will never do -- she may never be able to go for a walk or run in the dog park with other dogs, since she refuses to leave the front porch.  When I see her cowering by the front door --- even getting her outside was a major accomplishment -- I think, "I just wish I could get inside her soul and comfort (strengthen) her from within."  No matter how many times we tell Dottie that "it's okay," her soul is so scarred as to be almost impervious to new experiences.

On the human level, we have all been scarred by sin -- our own and that of others toward us.  For some, the scarring has been so great as to shut down the efforts of God and other people to reach us.  I recall after a good friend committed suicide, thinking, "if only I could have helped him."  But then someone sent me a card with God saying, "I couldn't reach him either."  From the outside, we are limited in our efforts to "repair the damage" to the soul of others -- and even to ourselves, for that matter.  There are scars too deep to be healed from without: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as son, the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23).

During His earthly life, Jesus, just like us, was limited in His ability to reach into the souls of others and heal them. He healed their bodies and forgave their sins, but He was as dependent as we are on words and 'signs' to move the hearts of others.  Though I would have to re-read all the Gospels to find it, I think somewhere it is written that Jesus "groaned within Himself" before healing a blind man.  When He saw the grief of Mary and Martha at their brother's death, He "groaned inwardly" and was disturbed in spirit -- and He wept.

In the Book of Exodus, we read, The Israelites groaned in the slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.  God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them (2:23).

The Israelites were delivered from their slavery, but their hearts were not touched:  Instead, they rejected Him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.  They told Aaron, "Make us gods who will go before us" (Acts 7:39).  One has to wonder if the 9 lepers who never returned to Jesus were delivered bodily, but not in spirit, in the same way.

After His resurrection, Jesus was able to enter from within, "even though the doors were locked" and heal or open from the inside:  Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).  After Pentecost, He enters into all who will receive Him, "groaning with unutterable words" (Romans 8) within us until we be delivered from all that inhibits our new birth in the Spirit. 

The Good News is that, under the New Covenant, God can and does place within us "a new heart," and He writes His laws upon our hearts and minds, through the action of the Holy Spirit in us.  No longer do we have to await heaven to possess the kingdom of God, for it is given to us at this moment:  Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open to me, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me (Rev. 3:20).

Unlike Dottie, we no longer have to stand on the porch and cower in fear; there is One within us who is present to deliver us from all fear, One Who gives His Spirit to us "without measure," so that we know we are no longer slaves to fear, but now children of God.  The glory of Jesus is that, having crucified our mortal bodies with all their inherited and experienced scars, He has risen with a new, heavenly body that has overcome death and "the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers."  And this is the mind, body, and soul that He gives to us if we remain in Him:  Christ in me, my hope of glory!

Whose Image Do We Bear?

A small item in today's paper describes some guy in Ottawa, Ontario, who was beaten up by thugs.  The victim complained that he was the victim of a "hate crime" because of the way he looks:  intensely tattooed and pierced, with black-inked eyes, a split tongue, and implanted silicone horns on his forehead.  He claims that "...making me look like the person I want to look like is almost a religious experience for me."

No doubt.

Out of every people and nation, God calls people for one purpose:  He wants "images" of Himself in a darkened world.  He wants His marvelous light to shine out of darkness so that all men might come to a saving knowledge of Who He Is.  He wants men and women whose character says, "This is what God is like."  But those who do not know God cannot know what He is like, nor can our 'natural goodness' or righteousness even begin to approach the goodness and righteousness of God:  "We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."

In fact, science is now discovering that we all bear the "image" of our ancestors, not only in appearance, but also in experience.  A posting on FB yesterday described in detail how our experiences change our DNA by adding or depleting chemicals in the brain, so that it is entirely possible to pass on fears, anxieties, even irrational behaviors, to our descendants.  From the beginning, this has been the teaching termed "original sin"  -- we inherit the weaknesses as well as the strengths of our ancestors.

In fact, even before science, we have the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden "eating" of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It is so interesting that sin has been portrayed not so much as what we "do" as what we consume, as something that enters into us and changes us at the cellular level.  What is minor in Adam and Eve becomes major in the next generation:  they produce both good (Abel) and evil (Cain).  And so the story goes, on and on, until the evil of mankind is so great that the entire earth is corrupted (Gen. 6), man's evil reaching even into the spiritual world.  It is clear that an untended garden will soon be overrun with weeds, and the same is true in the spiritual world.

We are told that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven," presumably because of its inherent corruption.  So what is needed is not "patching up of old wineskins," which are unable to contain the "new wine" of the kingdom of God, but rather new wineskins, and new cloth. It is clear that the corrupted 'natural man' must die in order that a "new man," a man who bears the image and likeness of God, can be "born again."

Adam was birthed from the dust of the earth, and the whole universe is of one substance with Adam.  It is clear from the story of Genesis that what happens to man spiritually happens also to the earth -- the ground is now cursed because of Adam, producing thorns and thistles as well as produce.  By the time of Cain, the earth refuses to yield any produce at all; he is forced to 'wander' over the earth.  The story of the flood is actually an 'uncreation' story -- the earth returns to the watery chaos out of which it was originally formed.

When Jesus came, He took on our human flesh, though incorrupt, through the sinless virgin. But He also spiritually, on the cross, took on the sin of mankind -- He became sin, for our sake, that destroying it once for all in His body, He could give us a "new creation:"

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  The first man became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit....the first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man, from heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so let us bear the likeness of the man from heaven (I Cor. 15: 45-49).

 

Jesus did not come on earth in order to found another religion but to bring us new life, the life of God Himself, the life lived by the Holy Trinity: the communion between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit...Msgr. Aldo Giordano, Special Envoy of the Pope to the Council of Europe, 2009).

 

The only possibility for living the Christian life is to have Christ dwelling in us, living His life in our life.  Paul said, "It is no longer I that live, but Christ who dwells in me to the glory of God the Father."  Thanks be to God, we are no longer controlled by the sinful flesh if Christ lives in us, for when He died, we died.  When He rose, we also rose with Him to a new life -- that is why He is called 'the new Adam," the "second Man." 

 

There is a new kind of life on earth, but we have to make room for it in ourselves -- the room Christ asks for in us.  Just as the guy in the article today is making room in his life for the presence of Satan and "looking like the one I want to look like," so Christians are to make room for and "look like" Jesus, who is the 'exact Image of the invisible God."

 

The "room" inside of us is not empty space; it is fully occupied.  I, the sinner, occupy this space.  And that there may be room for Him, in His resurrected energy,  I (the natural man) must decrease so as to almost disappear, .... that the space in me may be filled with the Lord....This increase of the Lord in me is the light dispelling the darkness (in me and in the world around me).  The darkness does not escape; it is consumed by the light  (Adrienne von Speyr, The Word Becomes Flesh).

 

Allowing Christ to occupy more and more of us is the Christian Life; He will do in me all that pleases the Father, as long as I do not inhibit the action of the Holy Spirit in me.  He will cleanse me from all unrighteousness as long as I continue to walk with Him.  Even were there no promise of heaven after this life, it would still profit me to allow Jesus to live His life in me --- but His promise is that the "spring of living water" that He gives to us is "eternal" life, and that those who believe in Him will never hunger or thirst. 

 

It is clear from the Gospels that we do not have to be "good" to inherit eternal life; we just have to be "willing" or "thirsty."  He will do all the rest.

 



"How, then, is it possible...."

I am going to tell you a "secret" that few people -- even church-going people -- know, a secret I myself did not know for years and years, even though I had heard the Gospel preached since childhood.  Though there are those who have never understood St. Paul and who resent what little they do know of him, it was his writings that drew out the implications of Christ's death and resurrection.  It took someone well versed in Old Testament Law and Scripture to fully delineate the meanings of Jesus' life and death.

In the past, God called prophets to live out His meanings -- as 'visual aids,' so to speak, of things that words could not fully explain.  So Hosea, for example, was called to espouse and to marry an unfaithful harlot, who left him again and again to follow other men.  He had to go 'buy her back' (redeem her) once she discovered that her lovers were not really lovers after all.  Hosea's life was a living testimony to God's love for Israel.  In the same way, though the Gospels give us the words and teachings of Jesus Christ, they all stop with the account of His death and resurrection and the 40 days between the two events. 

It took 40 years, more or less, of Paul's writing to the newly-established churches, reflecting on the young Christians trying to apply the teachings of Christ, and running into difficulties, to fully explicate the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection.  Unless we read and study his letters, we will fail to grasp the 'mystery' of the cross.

So many people believe that Jesus came to "teach us" or "show us" how to live according to God's plan.  Of course, that is fully true, but if our understanding stops at that point, we are truly no better off than the Jews who had the 10 Commandments and the teachings of the prophets -- but who found themselves unable to keep the law.  That is the problem; it is not that we don't KNOW the Law -- it is that we just find ourselves unable to OBEY the law. 

As Paul said in Romans 7:  ...in my mind, I agree with the Law of God....the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.....but we are controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions at work in our bodies....the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.....for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out....now if I do not do what I want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin living in me that does it.....I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me...What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Instead of the 613 "laws" of the Old Covenant, Jesus gave us very few "commandments."  We are to love God with our whole heart, mind, and strength (spirit, mind, and body), and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Ummm, have you actually tried to do that?   And we are to love our enemy, do good to those who persecute us, bless those who curse us --- how many of us have actually tried to overcome our natural reluctance to "love our enemy"? 

I remember once asking a Hari Krishna who was teaching a class I attended:  "Where does this power to 'love your enemy' come from?  It certainly does not come from within me!!!"  (That was years and years before I read and understood Romans 7 and 8.)  I had read about Corrie Ten Boom, who forgave the prison guard who beat her elderly sister to death right in front of Corrie's eyes -- and I thought about how much I would have hated that man!  Where does that kind of forgiveness originate?

How on earth do we have the power to actually carry out and live the teachings of Jesus Christ?  We cannot do it, any more than the Jewish people had the ability/ power to 'not covet their neighbor's goods,' for example, or not worship fertility idols when they wanted children or good crops.

Thank God that He sent Paul to explain to us HOW it could possibly happen that we CAN live the Christian life from within, not just externally, by 'following the rules.'  Christianity is NOT us 'following the rules,' being obedient, being good little children, and earning our way to our heavenly reward!  Not at all!  Who of us has never broken the law of Christ?  Who among us has never 'lusted in our hearts'?  or called our brother a 'fool'?  or 'hated' our neighbor? or passed by someone who needed our help?  Who among us has been obedient unto death, as did Jesus Christ?  or kept silent under accusation?  As the psalmist wrote:  There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away...there is no one who does good, not even one (Ps. 14, Ps. 53, Ecc. 7).

If this is the case, are we to conclude the Christian life an impossible dream?  Are we supposed to "do the best we can" and hope for the best?  Are we to write off the words of Jesus to "be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" as the words of a dreamer, as poetic license?

Tomorrow, the answer to the dilemma.

Isaiah of the Exile (chapters 40-55)

I read through Second Isaiah (40-55) this morning, so many insights and revelations were coming to me, despite the fact that this is not the first, second, or third time for me to read this book.  I see I have notes going back to 1982-82-83, etc., all the way through 2012 and beyond.  Whenever I read a promise or prophecy that applies to myself, my family, my friends, my parish, the nation, or the world, I usually make a note in the margin with the date. With repeated readings, I re-discover the things that were on my mind years earlier, and I often thank God for His answers to prayer in my own life and the lives of those I love.

As I was reading the book with my annotations this morning, I kept thinking about a question my pastor asked me about a year ago:  What do people need?  I was so conscious of the fact that no one needs my insights or commentary on Isaiah -- what they really need is their own insights and understanding, as given by the Holy Spirit.  What they really need is their own marginal notes --- then, and only then, do the words of Isaiah mean something.  Then, and only then, can we have a fruitful sharing of insights and meanings and themes. 

One reason I love reading Biblical commentaries is that I have already studied the books for myself, and the insights of others add depth and understanding to already-familiar texts.  Without previous study, another commentary has nothing to "hang onto," and means very little.

When I finished reading Second Isaiah, I just could not comment on the richness of what I had read -- where does one begin, after all?  But I picked up my daily devotional (Give Us This Day) and read today's entry of "Blessed Among Us."  I had to smile, thinking about how closely that reading matched my thoughts on Isaiah.  The reading was about George Fox (1624-1691), the Founder of the Puritan sect -- not sure he ever called it a 'religion,' but rather a 'society of Friends,' a very apt title. 

George Fox was born during the Puritan revival in England.  Yet he found no priests or preachers who "spoke to his condition."  Eventually, he received within himself an experience of the "Seed of God" present in his own soul.  From that time on, his mission was to attend to that seed, to heed the 'inner voice' and to awaken in others their own consciousness of God present to them.  His message was interpreted as a sweeping rebuke to the Christianity of his time-- as, indeed it was.  He was beaten, persecuted, thrown into a dungeon (all experiences of Jeremiah also).  Once, when he appeared before a judge, Fox urged the judge to 'tremble before the Lord."  It was that judge who coined the name "Quaker" for those who followed Fox's teachings.

The quote from Fox given in the reading:  Be patterns, be examples....wherever you go, so that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them.  Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that [which is] of God in every one.

Rather than my trying to explain what I see in Isaiah, I think I am content to give the advice that George Fox gave:  attend to the Seed of God within and heed the "inner voice" that speaks so powerfully when we read and heed the Scriptures.  Then, and only then, when "that which is of God" in you speaks to "that which is of God" in me, will our conversation be fruitful, according to the words of Malachi:

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.  A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.... (3:16) 

Isaiah of Jerusalem

The first six chapters of Isaiah describe the moral climate of the nation, ending in Chapter 6 with the vision and call of Isaiah to prophesy -- or to describe current events in the light of God's perspective. 

The problem with hearing Scripture read only in church on Sunday is that we have no idea of "what is going on" around the texts we hear.  How many times have we heard the excerpt during Advent: "Ask the Lord your God for a sign....but Ahaz said, 'I will not ask....[Then] The Lord Himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son...."

Of course, this is a beautiful prophecy of the virgin birth and of the Messiah.  But 700 years before Christ, the "sign" had another very powerful meaning.  Reading all of Chapter 7 will give us the background to Isaiah's prophecy.  Here is an abbreviated outline of the events of the day:

742:  Isaiah's vision inaugurated his prophecy (Is. 6)

735: Ahaz became king of Jerusalem/Judah (735-715)

734-732: Syrian-Israelite War against Judah: Isaiah's war memoirs (Is. 7-8)

721: The king of Assyria conquered Samaria/Israel, deporting its upper class and importing Assyrians into the land.

715-701: Oracles during the reign of Hezekiah (king of Judah) (Is. 28-32)

701: Sennacherib (king of Assyria) besieged Jerusalem unsuccessfully (Is. 36-39)

 

When Ahaz became king of Jerusalem/Judah, he sought Isaiah's advice about what he should do as Israel and Syria (Aram) were marching against Jerusalem to destroy it:  "The hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind."  The Lord's answer through Isaiah was this: 

 

Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid.  Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood......it will not take place, it will not happen...within sixty-five years Ephraim (Israel) will be too shattered to be a people....If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.

 

Isaiah instructed Ahaz to ask God for sign, but Ahaz would not do it.  So Isaiah himself gave God's sign:  Before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.  Ahaz' queen shortly afterwards gave birth to his son, Hezekiah. Because of Isaiah's prophecy, the people anticipated the royal birth with high expectation. This "sign" of a son "given to us" was intended to provide concrete evidence of God's continued protection, so that Ahaz would trust Yahweh rather than to act rashly in a political way to counter the Syrian-Israelite threat. 

 

Sure enough, in just a few years, the Assyrians had invaded and destroyed both Israel (in 721) and Syria (in 732).  They did not destroy Jerusalem at the time, because Ahaz paid tribute as a client state to Assyria, but later, Ahaz' son Hezekiah established alliances with Egypt and Babylon as a hedge against Assyria.  This rebellion caused Sennacherib, then king of Assyria, to attack Jerusalem in 701.  Before he was able to breach its walls, however, a mysterious illness decimated his troops and he had to withdraw back to his own land (chapters 36-37).  The text tells us that an angel of the Lord killed 185,000 troops besieging Jerusalem.

 

Isaiah continued to advise Hezekiah in loyal opposition to his foreign policies, warning the king that all of his alliances could only lead to disaster.  Yahweh continued to protect Jerusalem until after Hezekiah's death, but the seeds he had sown eventually bore fruit:  the end of the first book of Isaiah (chapter 39) contains a warning to Hezekiah:

 

...the days are coming when everything in your house and everything your ancestors have accumulated up until today will be carried to Babylon.  Nothing will remain (vv.5-6).

 

Hezekiah was not at all upset by the prophecy:  "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied.  For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."

 

And he was right; it was not until 587 that Jerusalem was finally overrun by the Babylonians (Nebuchadnezzar) and its people deported to exile in Babylon.  The second book of Isaiah was probably written or dictated by a prophet living in Babylon during the 6th c. BCE.  Scholars know virtually nothing about this prophet, not even his name, so they took to calling him "second Isaiah,"  Though nameless, this prophet is one of the most gifted and inspiring of all time.  He drew from Israel's historic faith and reapplied it to the new setting of exile, giving the people reason for hope.  His poetry is unparalleled and unlike the more narrative text of First Isaiah.  Tomorrow, we will look at the themes of Second Isaiah.

First Isaiah (Chapters 1-39)

The Book of Isaiah opens with a cry of lament over what is happening to Judah (the southern kingdom under Uzziah).  In 742, Isaiah had a vision of the Lord, "high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple," a vision he described in Chapter 6.  Isaiah is overcome with awe and fear, for he "is a man of unclean lips," and he lives among "a people of unclean lips, and [his] eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." 

Isaiah's reaction is the same as that of St. Peter in the New Testament when he realizes who Jesus is:  "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man!"  But the Lord Almighty sends an angel with a burning coal to cleanse Isaiah's "unclean lips," for He wants to send Isaiah to a people "ever hearing but never understanding; ever seeing, but never perceiving." 

Isaiah's question is "How long, O Lord?" [will this go on?]  And the Lord answers:  Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitants, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away, and the land is utterly forsaken....

The Lord's message through Isaiah begins with Chapter 1, and it is sorrowful indeed.  The little kingdom of Judah has already been invaded by her sister Israel and its alliance, Syria, in an effort to make Judah join the coalition against the powerful Assyrians.  When Ahaz came to power in 742, he was in a quandary---remain independent and submissive to Assyria or join in rebellion with the other two, called Ephraim (Israel) and Damascus (Syria) in the text?

Isaiah's words are spoken both to the nation and to "the rulers."  He tells them that God will not accept their "meaningless sacrifices" and the "trampling of my courts" in the Temple because their hands are "full of blood."  Instead, Yahweh wants them to "seek justice, encourage the oppressed; defend the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widow."  Isaiah cries out for a national turning back to God, Who "will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths."  When that happens, when moral corruption is cleansed, then and then only will God "judge between nations and will settle disputes for many peoples":

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

 

Isaiah warns the king to "stop trusting in man" and to instead restore righteousness in the land:  The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people:  "It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses.  What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?" declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

 

The Lord Himself will restore righteousness to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to those who are left after the land has been purified:  He will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire (4:4).  Anyone familiar with the New Testament will recognize here a reference to the fire of the Holy Spirit, who will "convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment (Jn. 16). 

 

People talk about the 'wrath of God,' as though God is an out-of-control despot like the cruel dictators of our day.  But there is a passage in first Isaiah which is more descriptive of the "punishment" that comes to a people whose main concern is to "add house to house and join field to field till no space is left:"

 

Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall,

and it will be trampled.

I will make it a wasteland,

neither pruned nor cultivated,

and briers and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds

not to rain on it.

 

When the Israelites first left Egypt and traveled through the wilderness, the Lord protected them with "a pillar of fire by night and a covering cloud by day."  Throughout all of Scripture, God is described as a "shield," "a wall," "a hedge of protection" around His people.  When they despise His protection, His sheltering Presence in their lives, the natural forces of destruction all around them are free to enter their lives.  Once that happens, "...their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust/ for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel" (5:24).

As in Jesus' parable of the sower, the seed does not take root in a nation in pursuit of greed and power, so its GNP will wither and die; it will be overrun by its enemies when it no longer 'dwells in the shelter of the Most High' (Ps. 91).

Tomorrow, I begin with Chapter 7 of First Isaiah.



His Majesty's Loyal Opposition

For weeks now, I have been returning to the Book of Isaiah, reading and re-reading.  I have no idea at all why I should suddenly find this book so fascinating, but today I even pulled out my old textbook on Reading the Old Testament and started studying the background to the book. 

Most of us are familiar with passages from Isaiah that we have heard for years, especially around Christmas time, with the prophecies regarding the Messiah.  But the book itself is somewhat complex and confusing if we do not understand its context.

I doubt that many people are too concerned one way or another with the Book of Isaiah, so I am hesitant to even begin commenting on it --- except that for some unknown reason, I cannot seem to think about commenting on anything else.  And, as I continue to read Isaiah, I cannot help but see connections with our world today.  As flighty as I am, I cannot promise to continue the entire journey through Isaiah, but at least I will give it a beginning:

To understand Isaiah at all, it is helpful to know something of the history of Israel.  Most people know something about the unified kingdom under David, and the building of the Temple under the direction of King Solomon, David's son.  However, despite all his great wisdom, Solomon achieved his glory through heavy taxation and conscription of labor on his subjects.  After his death, the northern kingdom asked Rehoboam, Solomon's son, if he planned to continue Solomon's policies.  Afraid to appear weak, Rehoboam's reply was that he would "scourge the people with thorns" if they rebelled against his rule. 

With that, the northern kingdom (Israel) broke from the southern one (Judah).  However, the northern kingdom never had a stable monarchy; it wavered continually between independence and submission (paying tribute in exchange for peace) to its stronger neighbors, especially Assyria, right at its border. And most of its kings rose to power by assassinating both their rivals and the current ruler.

The politics of the time inspired the classical prophets, who could be either pro-or anti- monarchy, but who always looked at the moral climate as the determining factor in human affairs.  In the northern kingdom, Amos addressed issues of social justice, and Hosea exposed Israel's religious complacency.   Both prophets warned Israel's kings of impending disaster if they did not address the moral issues of the day. 

In the meantime, Israel was trying to grow strong enough to resist the pressure of its northern neighbor, Assyria.  Assyria really wanted to advance to Egypt, by going through Israel and Judah.  This required Israel's submission and non-resistance to Assyria, the bully.    Israel, however, was trying to force its sister Judah into armed resistance against Assyria.  The king of Israel had already made an alliance with Syria, but he still needed Judah in the picture.

While the kings of Judah were weighing their options, Isaiah appeared on the scene.  He seems to have been well-respected by the court and could have been the son of the high priest in Jerusalem at the time.  However, he opposed the priestly and prophetic spokespersons who stood in the service of the court and its policies.  He frequently equated them with the "smooth talkers" of the foreign nations, the diviners, soothsayers, and necromancers.  He saw himself not so much as a "prophet,"  but more of a teacher of Torah. 

Isaiah was fiercely loyal to the Davidic dynasty, but he opposed the official policies of Ahaz.  His message to the king called for trust in God rather than in political alliances.  (Imagine if someone told our President to "trust in God" today rather than to forge political alliances.)  King Ahaz simply did not want to trust that policy and continued to forge political alliances with Syria, Egypt, and Babylon in his efforts to resist Assyria.

The Book that we know today as "Isaiah" is divided into three sub-sections, ranging over a period of 200 years.  Even after the death of Isaiah, his prophetic "school" or "disciples" continued, those who held fast to his message, and they continued to prophesy at critical moments in the history of the southern kingdom:

Chapters 1-39 is called "First Isaiah," the collection of prophecies given by Isaiah of Jerusalem during the Assyrian period (742-701).

Chapters 40-55 is known as "Second Isaiah," written or spoken by Isaiah of the Exile during the period of Judah's exile in Babylon (546-538).

Chapters 56-66 is "Third Isaiah," written or spoken by Isaiah of the Restoration, during the period of return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the city and temple (538-520).  It was meant as an encouragement to those returning to find their city walls crumbling and their city in ruins -- kind of what we experienced after Katrina.

Tomorrow we will look at First Isaiah.

The Parable of the Sower

All of us (I guess) want to be wildly successful at whatever we do.  When we use the gifts we have been given, we want to "sow the seeds" to the world around us, and we naturally want people to receive and appreciate the things we have to give.  We hate to have the gifts we love and nourish despised by others, and discredited as "of no account."  That is the reason we hang our kindergartener's drawings on the refrigerator, why my dad once wore a varnished popsicle-stick tie tack with "Dad" spelled out in noodles to church one day.  We want our children to know we value the gifts they have to give us.

I think the reason the 3rd temptation of Christ in the wilderness actually WAS so tempting to Him is that He desired with all His heart and soul to possess "the kingdoms of this world" offered to Him by Satan.  He did not want to possess the kingdoms for Himself, to rule as king --- that much is pretty obvious.  But He yearned with everything in Him to "gather them under His wings as a mother hen with her chicks," and He was grieved at the realization that so many would walk away to their own destruction.  He came to make the Father's love incarnate, palpable, receivable --- but men would still choose not to become "children of God."  That suffering had to be intense for the Christ who knew the consequences of man's choices.

To choose God's slow, invisible, and agonizing way instead of the short-cut offered by Satan had to be tempting to Jesus.  Later, He was to teach the Parable of the Sower.  As He was 'scattering the seed,' the Word of God, the devil was robbing some of the hearers, "so they cannot believe and be saved" (Luke 8).  Some, He knew, loved to hear the Word as He was teaching, but, having no root, the word would fail to grow within them.  [This is why He once said, "Blessed are they who hear the Word and keep it.]  Some would hear the word and believe for awhile, but the word in them would eventually be choked out by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, so it would not mature in them.  But there would be a few who would "receive the word, retain it, and produce a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."

It takes faith and trust for us to 'sow our seed' without visible results.  We want to be successful and are always tempted to give up if we fail to see results of our labor.  It is hard to trust that we are not sowing seeds in vain.  But as the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote:  As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.  / Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening, let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

As a gardener, I have faith that when I sow seeds, something will eventually come up.  Not every seed will bear fruit, and some that do will be eaten by birds, caterpillars, and slugs.  But I would not even begin to sow unless I thought the earth would yield the product I had hoped for in some degree.  All I can do is to carefully prepare the soil and water the invisible seeds until I begin to see signs of growth.  Then I have to protect the young seedlings until they are strong enough to withstand threats on their own. 

Many of Jesus' parables had to do with the hiddenness of the kingdom of God -- the yeast buried in dough, the seed in the ground that sprouts and grows, "though the farmer does not know how," the mustard seed, "the smallest seed you can plant in the ground."  Sometimes I wonder if He learned all these things by planting seeds with His mother in her garden or by watching her bake bread.

When we share with others the gifts we have been given, I think we have to trust that God is working with us in some mysterious way  -- "My kingdom is not of this world," said Jesus.  I think that while we work in the flesh, the Holy Spirit is working in His own realm.  We may not see the results today of what we plant today, but that does not mean we should not plant -- or let our light shine:

Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed?  Instead, don't you put it on its stand?  For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open....Consider carefully what you hear...with the measure you use, it will be measured to you -- and even more.  Who has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Going back to Ecclesiastes, we find this:  Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap (11:4).  Jesus said to Peter: If you love Me, feed my sheep.  I think we just have to begin somehow with the little we have, and trust the Lord that our work is not in vain, that somehow, some seed will fall upon good soil and eventually produce a hundredfold.

Reminders for the New Year

Many churches distributed the Catholic Extension Calendar on New Year's Day this year.  A beautifully illustrated calendar, it contains excerpts from the first encyclical of Pope Francis:  The Joy of the Gospel.

Not everyone got a copy this year; our church attendance is running larger this year than last.  So, before I give my copy to a good friend, I thought I'd capture the excerpts here, for myself and for others:

Jesus, the Evangelizer par excellence and The Gospel in person, identifies especially with the little ones.  This reminds us Christians that we are called to care for the vulnerable of the earth.

God's Word, listened to and celebrated, above all in the Eucharist, nourishes and inwardly strengthens Christians, enabling them to offer an authentic witness to the Gospel in daily life.

An attitude of openness in truth and in love must characterize the dialogue with the followers of non-Christian religions.

John Paul II asked us to recognize that "there must be no lessening of the impetus to preach the Gospel" to those who are far from Christ, "because this is the first task of the Church."

Mother of the living Gospel, wellspring of happiness for God's little ones, pray for us.

The joy of the Gospel is such that it cannot be taken away from us by anyone or anything.

Evangelization aims at a process of growth which entails taking seriously each person and God's plan for his or her life.

The rise and growth of associations and movements mostly made up of young people can be seen as the work of the Holy Spirit, who blazes new trails to meet their expectations and their search for a deep spirituality and a more real sense of belonging.

Faith also means believing in God, believing that He truly loves us, that He is alive, that He is mysteriously capable of intervening.

I want a church that is poor and for the poor.  They have much to teach us.  Not only do they share in the sensus fidei, but in their difficulties, they know the suffering Christ.  We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them.

Wherever there is life, fervor, and a desire to bring Christ to others, genuine vocations will arise.

True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others.  The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.

The Scapegoat and the Atonement Theory

From the time of Cain, who projected his own feelings of alienation and inadequacy onto his brother Abel, the history of mankind has been one of saying, "Yes, but it's not my fault!"  Most of history has been dominated by people telling us who to fear or hate-- Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hitler, for example.  Once mankind left the union with God and others symbolized by the Garden of Eden, they felt 'naked and ashamed' and looked for victims onto whom they could project their own sense of failure and alienation.  Today, ISIS and Al-Quaida feel they are doing Allah a favor by exterminating the 'infidels."  All religion at some point in history (except maybe Buddhism) has felt it their job to destroy the 'evil' element in the world.  Even Communism and Nazism, from their own viewpoints, were eliminating the evils of capitalism and Judaism.

In Jesus Christ, God has entered our world as the Supreme Scapegoat:  The blows who have hated you have fallen upon me.  Jesus willingly took the place of the woman caught in adultery, in the place of the outcast, the tax-collectors, the sinners, and the poor in his own life and in his death.  He was nailed between two thieves: one who accepted Him, and one who seemingly was a rebel and who deserved his plight.  Jesus on the cross was "naked" and uncovered.  While The Divine Seamstress sewed coverings for the nakedness of Adam and Eve so they would not be overcome with shame, He left His Son exposed on the cross.

We are the only religion in the world that worships the scapegoat.  In the wilderness, Moses was instructed by God to nail a serpent to a brazen pole; all who gazed upon it would be healed from snake-bite --- an interesting analogy when attached to the episode in the Garden.  The very thing that was killing them was the thing that healed them.  Anyway, Richard Rohr says this about the cross:

Today, this is perhaps what we would call 'grief work,' holding the mystery of pain and looking right at it and learning deeply from it, which normally leads to an uncanny and newfound compassion and understanding.  The hospice movement and the exponential growth in bereavement ministries throughout many of the churches are showing this to be true, but how long it has taken us to rediscover such wisdom. 

 

I believe we are invited to gaze upon the image of the crucified to soften our hearts toward God, and to know that God's heart has always been softened toward us, even and most especially in our suffering.  This softens us toward ourselves and all others who suffer (p.192).

 

Many people today commonly accept as the 'mainline opinion' that Jesus' death was 'appeasing the justice of God, who was 'offended' by man's disobedience.  What they do not realize is that the "Atonement Theory" emerged in the Middle Ages with the growth of universities and 'scholars.'   One could really argue that to read both Isaiah and the Book of Romans from a masculine, organized, theoretical viewpoint, the theory can be demonstrated with select quotes from Scripture.  Some of the Dominican scholars, in particular, with their emphasis on accounting for every minute detail of theology (as in Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica), reasoned that a debt or sacrifice had to be paid to someone for some reason.  Some said to the devil, some to God the Father, while others like Peter Abelard were not sure why either was necessary. 

 

The subject was one of debate in the Middle Ages -- after all, most of us have heard about and laughed about the "how many angels on the head of a pin" debate, stemming from the same era.  Here's the interesting thing:  the debate continued unabated for decades, without either denial or condemnation by orthodox Catholic teaching.  The Franciscan and Dominican schools were almost the official "debating societies" of that time.  [Today, we might see the Church's same stance on the subject of evolution:  There is room within the church on both creationism and guided evolution -- neither position is thrown out while the debate continues.  Obviously, we learned our lesson even before the farce of Galileo and the Inquisition.]

 

The Franciscan interpretation represented by John Duns Scotus, primarily, was considered a legitimate 'minority position," much as our Supreme Court operates today.  Duns Scotus put his intelligence and spirituality to work on the written and stated positions of the "majority positions," primarily held by the Dominicans.  Duns Scotus relied more on the books of Ephsians and Colossians than on the book of Romans to explicate his theory of Divine Compassion.

 

When the Reformation occurred, however, the Protestant reformers largely accepted and even furthered the "majority position" (necessary blood sacrifice, or atonement) rather uncritically.  Even while "protesting," the Protestant tradition continued with popular Catholicism much more than it realized.  Strangely enough, it became less "broad-minded" than the church it condemned on some issues. 

 

John Duns Scotus saw the frequent references to 'blood sacrifices' in the Old Testament as speaking powerfully to a people surrounded on all sides by pagans devoted to human sacrifice.  God chose Abraham to teach His people that it was not the sacrifice of their sons and daughters He wanted.  He mercifully gave them a "substitute" for that impulse, even though the 'blood' of lambs and goats could not undo the sense of sin that haunts all of us.  The story of the Old Testament is our story:  God gradually leads us from "information" to "transformation," by participating with us in the human condition.  If God is somehow participating in human suffering, instead of just passively tolerating it and observing it, that changes everything.

 

Jesus is, in effect, saying, "I am taking the bite of the serpent, the worst thing that has ever happened to you, and transforming it into the best thing that has ever happened to you."  The Bible says that "he became sin for our sake, and nailed it to the cross."  He is "not working some magic in the sky that saves the world from sin and death;" He is taking our sin and our death and destroying it forever, so that it no longer has power over us.  (Read Romans 7 & 8).  He is saying, "you will never be victimized, destroyed, or helpless again! I am giving you the victory over all forms of death and dis-union."

 

Jesus refused to blame or to scapegoat others for what was happening to Him.  He "was tempted in all things as we are without sin."  He entrusted Himself into the hands of the Father instead and returned curses with blessings.  He refused to be overcome by evil.  What dies on the cross with Him is not our body, but our ego.  We surrender our "I" to Him, the "I" that needs to defend itself against all attacks, real or perceived -- and we allow the false "I" to undergo death in Him so that the Real Me -- the me that is the image and likeness of God -- can be resurrected from the dead and live forever.  And we do not need to wait until our physical death for the process to begin.  Through the outpouring of Jesus's Resurrected Spirit at Pentecost, we can all be daily dying and rising with Jesus. 

 

Fortunately, our Salvation does not depend on our theology  -- unless our theology is keeping us away from the love of God poured out on us in Jesus Christ and in the daily ministry of His Spirit at work in us.  We can continue to defend the Atonement Theory without diminishing the Love of God for us if we choose -- as do many, if not all, radio preachers.  But if that theory just cannot resonate in us, given our own experience, I would say we need to reach further for ourselves.  Unless outward authority is matched by the inner authority of our God-given spirits, we do well to prayerfully examine the teachings of others.  Even the 'ex-cathedra' teachings of the Catholic church, given usually after long centuries of thoughtful prayer and study and "majority" agreement among men of good will, are there for our own entry into worship, prayer, and thought.  There are many who are not inclined to think, pray, inquire for themselves -- but even then, Jesus promise remains:  You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

(Note:  I have taken the history of ideas from Richard Rohr's Things Hidden, weaving my comments into his text.  )