"Grief Work"

Today, I would like to give a little background, or history, to the very popular "atonement" explanation of Christ's death on the cross, based on the passage from Romans 5:  Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! 

Unfortunately, this passage is based on understanding basic concepts from Genesis, concepts that are alluded to in the rest of the Book of Romans:  ...death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command....if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! (5:14 & 17).  As a Jewish man trained in the Scriptures from childhood, Paul took for granted that his contemporaries would understand these concepts. We do not have the background in Scriptural concepts that Paul and those of his day took for granted.

Nevertheless, Carl Jung is supposed to have said that a naked man nailed to a cross is perhaps the deepest archetypal symbol in the Western psyche.  According to Richard Rohr in Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, Jung's statement has nothing to do with traditional "atonement theories," but rather everything to do with our inner lives and our attempts to make sense out of the tragic history of our world. 

Rohr, a Franciscan friar, is also a trained psychologist who has spent many years doing grief work with people, as well as taking men through traditional "male initiation rites" to explore their meaning. I want to cull out select passages from his book that have helped me to understand much deeper meanings of the cross than those I could never accept -- namely those of an "angry" God awaiting blood sacrifice to appease his "justice."  I should also explain that I had never heard these ideas until I started listening to non-denominational or Protestant preachers on the radio and tv.  Although I learned a great deal from these (mostly) men, and although I was willing to listen to almost every one of them to learn, something in me just could not accept their ideas of 'divine atonement.' For one thing, that idea makes God a 'reactionary' rather than a Divine Being of Free Will.  Unlike an angry parent taking out his own frustration on the child, God was never 'surprised' by man's disobedience; He knew the end of the story from the beginning.

Because I could not accept their idea of a perpetually "angry" God, I had to do a lot of praying and soul searching to find a better explanation.  Imagine my joy when I gradually began to understand through the Bible a deeper picture -- and finally, finding Richard Rohr's gradual unfolding of the mystery of pain and grief, a much better and more detailed study than I had reached on my own.  Please understand that all that follows here is from his book, taken without quotes:

I would define suffering very simply as "whenever you are not in control."  If religion cannot find a meaning for human suffering, humanity is in major trouble.  All healthy religion shows you what to do with your pain.  Great religion shows you what to do with the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust.  If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.

If we cannot find a way to make our wounds into sacred wounds, we invariably become negative or bitter.  Indeed, there are bitter people everywhere, inside and outside of the church.  As they go through life, the hurts, disappointments, betrayals, abandonments, the burden of their own sinfulness and brokenness all pile up, and they do not know where to put it.

If there isn't some way to find some deeper meaning to our suffering, to find that God is somehow in it, and can even use it for good (my emphasis), we will normally close up and close down.  The natural movement of the ego is to protect itself so as not to be hurt again.

Biblical revelation is about transforming history and individuals so that we don't just keep handing the pain onto the next generation.  That 'tit-for-tat' 'quid-pro-quo' mentality has controlled most of human history.  [My note:  this is exactly what the "atonement theories" are based on, and is exactly the opposite, in my mind, of Biblical revelation.]  Exporting our unresolved hurt [my note: think Hitler here] is almost the underlying story line of human history, so you see why people still need healthy spirituality and healthy religion.  The Biblical narrative is saying that there is coherence inside of the seeming incoherence of history.  The Jewish people believed that our smaller stories have a Bigger Story holding them together.....

Let's look at the "Fall" in Genesis 3:  The "Fall" is not simply something that happened in one historical moment to Adam and Eve.  It's something that happens in all moments and in all lives.  It must happen and will happen to all of us.  In fact, as the English mystic Julian of Norwich said, "First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God."  It is in falling down that we learn almost everything that happens spiritually.  As many of the parables seem to say, you have to lose it (or know you don't have it) before you can find it and celebrate fittingly.

The Bible presents us stories in 'little theater' to prepare us for the Big Theater, teaching us, in effect, that it's not just here; it's everywhere.  It's not just this man or woman; it's every man and every woman.....If the text is truly inspired, it will always be revealing "the patterns that are always true," even and most especially here and now -- in me, and not just back there in them.

We start with unitive consciousness, and eventually, the split happens.  It has to happen.  We will eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and suffer 'the wound of knowledge.'  We will get suspicious of ourselves and of everything else.  We will doubt.  That's called the state of alienation and many live their whole lives there....the perfect metaphor for this new split universe, this intense awareness of ourselves as separate and cut off, is that "they realized that they were naked."  Today we would probably call it primal shame.  Every human being seems to have it in some form, that deep sense of being inadequate, insecure, separate, judged, and apart....

There is no medicine for this existential shame, apart from Someone who knows all of me and loves me anyway.  One who knows me in my nakedness and loves me despite and maybe even because, as Therese of Lisieux believed.....

Salvation is only secondarily assuring you of an eternal life; it is first of all giving you that life now, and saying, "If now, then also later" and that becomes your deep inner certitude!  If God would accept me now when I am clearly unworthy, then why would God change his policy later?  You can begin to rest, enjoy and love life.

I have wandered far away from my intention (once again) to explain the history of the "atonement theory."  I keep getting back to its opposite, which I love, of course.  But this seems a good place to stop today.  It will be a few days before I can get back, as I have a grandchild arriving today for some 'together time.'  How precious is that?

"Seeing" Salvation

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life -- Jn. 3:16

 

Today, I had planned to give a background, or history, of the "atonement" explanation of Christ's death---the source of the theory that God's 'justice' demanded a perfect sacrifice--the death of Christ on the cross.  It always helps to know where these ideas originate, even though they do not line up with the experience of Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Israel, and the prophets, not to mention the experience of Mary and of Jesus Himself.  Fortunately, the Bible gives us the stories, the experience, of salvation rather than the theories, or the doctrine.  It is a back-and-forth journey, just like our own, just like that of the apostles, of believing one minute and doubting the next.  That is why Jesus said, "Follow Me; Walk with Me."  If we are not walking with Him, we are like the Pharisees who knew the letter of the law, but still failed to grasp its meaning.

 

Someone once said, "the man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an idea."  I love that, for once we experience, we KNOW; we know with the Biblical meaning of "knowing," which is related to "intimacy," the kind of "knowing" reserved to the sexual intimacy of marriage.  Those who encountered/experienced Jesus, both before but especially after the Resurrection, were not at all swayed by the Pharisees who thought He was a pretender.  The woman at the well KNEW Who He was, no matter what anyone else said to her.  The martyrs were willing to die for their KNOWLEDGE/intimacy with Him, even though all it would take to save their lives was a pinch of incense rendered to Caesar.

 

As I said, my plan was to explain the background of the 'atonement' theory, but today I happened to read a wonderful passage on Beholding Salvation by Abbot Gregory Polan, a passage that so beautifully explains why I keep going back to the book of Isaiah that I thought it better to share some of his ideas today and reserve mine for tomorrow:

 

The Hebrew root for the name Isaiah means "salvation" (yasha).  [In fact, Jesus' name in Hebrew is Yeshua, meaning "God saves."]  The root "yasha" refers to help or deliverance in any perilous situation, whether through a direct act of God or God acting through a human agent.  For example, in the Book of Judges, when God calls Gideon to save the people from the oppressing Midianites, God's own words suggest that divine strength will empower Gideon's own actions: "Go with the strength you possess, and save Israel from the hand of Midian.  Is it not I who send you?"

 

Seeing with the eyes of faith, the OT authors believed that the living God was present and active in their lives, whether directly or through the agency of certain chosen persons.  Thus both the exodus from Egypt and the return from exile in Babylon were considered great acts of salvation and deliverance.  The psalmist (David), freed from an enemy's dominion or oppression, frequently evinces the belief that God's saving hand had brought about this deliverance.  In countless situations, great and small, in which people find escape from a vast array of evils, God's salvation is seen to be at work..... 

 

[Note:  I myself at least twice (and maybe even three times, if I count the lung cancer I had in 2010) in my life have directly experienced God's deliverance from almost certain death -- and of course, I do not know how many times I have been delivered without being conscious of what was happening.]

 

In the Canticle of Simeon, salvation is presented both as the momentous act of God in sending the Messiah and, at the same time, as the proclamation of a humble and devout man.  With eyes of faith, Simeon discerns the hand of God at work through this little child---a revelation that astonishes Mary and Joseph.  God breaks into a world that longs for divine salvation, bringing help to a people in darkness, in need of the "light of revelation" to show the path to peace, hope, mercy....When we give voice to this Canticle, Simeon's words become our own: the affirmation of God's saving help in our own lives.  The words ring true in our hearts: "We have seen God's salvation" in our midst, in great events and in quiet, hidden movements ---both of which manifest God's presence in our lives.  In acts of forgiveness and reconciliation, in experiences of conversion, in answers to prayers, God is forever helping us along on our pilgrim journey to the heavenly kingdom.  Salvation stands before us to behold; we too can see it, if we look with the eyes of faith.  -- (entry in Give Us This Day for Dec. 28).

 

After reading this passage, I turned the page and found Psalm 57, the subject of the message I was listening to on my way to the doctor's on the day I found out I had lung cancer in 2010.  Charles Stanley was preaching on "How to handle a crisis," and his text was v. 2:  In the shadow of your wings I take refuge, til the storms of destruction pass by.  It had taken 45 minutes for me to drive from my house to the doctor in Slidell, and for most of that time, I was listening to this talk.  I have to say that when the doctor told me I had a mass covering the right lung, all I really heard in my spirit was "In the shadow of your wings I take refuge, until the storms of destruction pass by."  The other words never penetrated my spirit, either at that moment or later, through all the tests, through the surgeon's dismissal of me with the words, "I can do nothing for you," through the surgery, and the weeks of recovery.  All that time, I had perfect peace and rest and even joy -- I was taking refuge under the wings of salvation, although I did not know whether I would live or die as a result. 

 

Now Psalm 57 for me is like the Canticle of Simeon: now my eyes have seen the salvation of our God!  Having had these experiences throughout my life, beginning when I was five years old, I cannot ever believe the "doctrine" of an "angry God" waiting to be appeased by a perfect sacrifice.  It just does not line up with my own experience, or the experience that I read about in the Bible, the history of salvation by our God.



 

 

 

Explanations?

I am not a fan of Paul, but his writings hold great weight in "Christian" scripture. This is from Romans 5:8 7For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.…  (a reader's response to my last posting).

Let me begin to answer this in a very roundabout way, with a quote from St. Anselm:  Those who have not believed will not experience; and those who have not experienced will not know.

"Knowing," and "understanding" God's revelation in Scripture is based on experience--our own, to be sure, but also the experience of those who have gone before us or walk with us today; "theology" or "doctrine" puts into words the understanding of our experience, and that of others, in light of what has been revealed by God. 

Mary "pondered in her heart" her experience with God, and the result was the Magnificat:  My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the lowliness of his servant....His mercy extends to those who fear him...He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.  He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and to his descendants forever, even as He said to our fathers (Luke 1).

This was Mary's God, the One in whom she rejoiced and magnified -- not someone who was holding a grudge, waiting to be appeased by a "perfect sacrifice," but Someone who beheld the lowliness, the weakness, the insufficiency, and the ignorance of mankind.  Someone whose "wrath" was at the service of His compassion for the weak and the powerless. Someone who sent His Son to embrace the suffering of man in all its "It doesn't make sense; I don't understand; why is this happening to me?" confusion and helplessness.  No philosophy of life inherited from the logic and intelligence of Greek culture can make sense of the loneliness, isolation, helplessness and alienation of one who suffers without deserving it.  Only the cross of Christ can incorporate meaningless suffering into a larger picture -- one that makes sense.

The Blood of Christ mingles with our humanity; indeed, from Mary, it IS our blood lifted to divinity.  When our blood is shed by man, literally or figuratively, He gathers it to Himself, mingling it with His own suffering on our behalf.  I think of Pastor Saeed from Kansas, now in his third year in an Iranian prison cell so cold that he cannot sleep at night and beaten without mercy every day.  His crime:  He went to Iran to finalize plans for an orphanage that he was sponsoring from the states.  Does his suffering make any sense at all?  Has he deserved in any way what he is suffering?  What about his wife and children back in the states, suffering from knowing what he is suffering.  How do we make sense of human cruelty, of injustice inflicted on the poor?

God entered into our world in the person of Jesus Christ, not to condemn it, but to save it, to unite Himself with us and with all that concerns us.  This is the marriage, the union of souls, par excellence:  whoever hurts you hurts Me!  One of the things that concerns us the most is the meaningless of innocent suffering -- the isolation, the loneliness, the heartache of one who suffers without having deserved it. This is why God has always had regard for the "lowly," the poor, the humble, the weak, the suffering -- and why we also are commanded to do the same.

If anyone knew about alienating, isolating, and inflicting suffering upon others, it was Paul.  If anyone "deserved" the "wrath of God," it was surely Paul. His experience of being "the chiefest of sinners" prepared Him to understand how the death of Christ on the cross saved him from the 'wrath of God."  He was to say also in Romans, "We died to sin.....it is no longer I that live, but Christ Who lives in me to the glory of God...the mind of the sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."

Here is where an understanding of Isaiah, for example, comes in.  To read any one of the OT prophets is to understand the meaning of the term "the wrath of God."  It is the same wrath a mama has toward anyone who is hurting her babies.  Yes, God is 'angry' when we walk away from Him, because He knows where we will end up -- just as any parent is both anguished and angry when a teen decides to leave home and live on the streets, among those who will take advantage, rob and rape, and misuse the precious life of the teen. He is angry with those who abuse children, tell lies, and rob the poor also, because of what they are doing to others as well as to themselves.  His love and compassion for us is the same as His "wrath."  But unless we experience that, or at least reflect upon the experience of Scriptures such as Isaiah, we cannot comprehend either the "wrath" of God or the death and resurrection of Christ.

Through the blood (senseless suffering) of Christ, we are re-united with the Father; in Him, we once again draw near, into the same Family, with no separation.  The Incarnation reveals to us the love of God that suffers when we suffer. It is not that the Father is "appeased by blood," but rather that once again, we are gathered up, as blood-brothers and sisters with the Holy Family of the Trinity.  There are so many mysteries wrapped up in this passage from Romans that it is impossible to unpack them all at once -- or even over a lifetime. Even the concept of the "Blood" must be understood from the history of blood throughout the Scriptures, beginning with the 'sacrifice' of the animals in the Garden whose skins covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve, and going through the Blood of the Passover Lamb on the doorposts of Israeli dwellings.

In any case, it is always dangerous to use one passage of Scripture without understanding it to build a case.   I recently saw a beautiful film called "I Am David," where a good man willingly dies for a "criminal," to allow the young child to live.  This is what the "blood" of Christ has done for us -- it has set us free from the "Law" of sin and death that reigns in our bodies until we 'pass over' into the "Law" of the Spirit of Life poured out on us in the "New Adam."  (To get all of this requires reading not only the Book of Romans but those of Exodus, Corinthians, and Ephesians also.)

So I have to go back not to "explanations," which cannot explain to those who have not experienced the love of God in Christ, but rather, I must turn once again to the experience of those who know Him.  Quoting Deuteronomy, written 1000 years before the life of Jesus, He testified that the "greatest of the commandments" was to "love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole strength."  If our image of God is wrathful, grudging, unforgiving without appeasement, who can love Him like this?  It is impossible.  And without loving God like this, it becomes even more impossible to love our neighbor as ourselves.

People who have this idea of God must imagine themselves to be more humane, more understanding, more forgiving, more gentle and loving, than the Divinity, and yet we are supposed to be created 'in His image and likeness."  This is why we cannot read Scripture without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who will 'reveal all things to us.'  Reading with the mind can only lead us to the place where we cry out, "Abba, Father!  Send the Light of your Spirit into my spirit and enlighten my mind with your Truth!"  And in the meantime, we need to keep reading and not stop with one passage.

Who said God is vengeful?

When we actually read the Bible for ourselves, it is full of "Divine" wrath and punishment. It says that "God" held a grudge over humanity from the time of Adam and Eve and sent "His" son to be put to death as a blood sacrifice to appease "Himself".   (a recent posting on Facebook)


This is one of the saddest interpretations mankind has ever devised for Biblical teaching.  When you read the Bible for yourself, with an open mind, one that has not been polluted with interpretations such as this one, you will see just the opposite.  You will see a God mourning the loss of His children, repeatedly calling them back to fellowship with Himself, but they would not, for the most part.  Because they would not, they continually suffered the loss of His wisdom, love, and guidance, often ending up in the hogpens of the Prodigal Son, suffering because of their stubbornness of heart.
Jesus, reflecting the heart of His Father, was 'grieved at their stubbornness of heart" and their refusal to come to His welcoming arms.  The Father of his parable was still on the roof of the house, searching the horizon daily for the return of His beloved son.

Just this morning, before I read this, I was wondering to myself how God ever got such a bad reputation.  It seems to me that mean-spirited people will grab passages out of the Bible without ever seeing their context and use those passages as proof of their own mean spirits, attributing vengeance to God, just as the slave-owners who certainly never read the Bible, or heard it, used one passage to justify their own willfulness and vengeance.

The whole teaching on "Divine Justice" having to be appeased by a perfect sacrifice is one of the most unspiritual teachings I have ever heard, devised by people who clearly have never experienced the love of God.  If we want to know the heart of God, it is revealed in the Bible to those who are open to it, but closed to those who have no respect or love for Him.

If we want to know what the Bible really says, we need to ask for wisdom and understanding.  Jesus always explained His words to those who asked; to those who walked away, understanding was never given.  Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."  Later, He revealed that He Himself is the Truth that sets men free.  Until we come to Him, we are forever imprisoned by ideas such as the one above, ideas taught by men and not by God.

I have been toying with the idea of commenting on the Book of Isaiah, but have been intimidated by its length and depth. (The Book of Isaiah is a kind of microcosm of Jewish history.) However, reading this comment this morning may be the impetus that pushes me beyond my hesitancy.  After experiencing the lovingkindess and faithfulness of God for most of my life, hearing someone say that God is vengeful grieves my soul even more than if someone were to say the same about my husband and children.

To base our understanding of God on someone else's interpretation of the Bible is to close our hearts to Yahweh;  I am Who I am; I will be Who I will be.  It reminds me on a very tiny scale of my mother, who, as a teacher of the 7th grade at St. Catherine of Sienna, was known as "Wildcat Kuehne" by the boys she taught.  She would often have a classroom of 50 or more children, and because of her reputation, the nuns would put the worst boys in her class, the ones who in previous years had been known to get rid of several teachers in a year's time.  All the 6th graders "feared" to enter my mother's classroom because they knew she was not going to put up with their smart-alec, sassy, and out-of-control behavior.  By the end of the year, those same trouble-makers adored my mother; they would tell her how they got rid of former teachers and had planned to get rid of her too.  But, instead, they would gather around her on the playground, carry her books, and help her out after school.  Many of them came back after entering Jesuit in the 8th grade and tell her how grateful they were to her for preparing them for what lay ahead.  She loved them too much to allow them to run wild.

Was my mother mean?  Was she vengeful?  Did she carry a grudge?  None of the above.  But I tell you one thing:  no child under her care was ever bullied by another child or another teacher.  She would not stand for it.  It seems to me that if we indeed "read the Bible for ourselves" as the FB writer states, we would find out for ourselves the same kind of truth that my mother's class discovered from being under her care.

God With Us

God comes to us disguised as our life (Source unknown).

 

A theist is one who believes that God is "up there" or "out there," perhaps identified with the forces of nature.  A Christian is one who believes in a God "down here," with us, a God with His feet planted firmly on our earth and present in our lives (paraphrased from a passage in Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr.)

 

Because we read Isaiah in hindsight, after the fulfillment of his prophecy, we see nothing remarkable in his words.  But this morning, I realized that Isaiah was speaking 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and yet, he had the audacity to say that the child born to us would be called "Mighty God."  Wow!  That took some nerve! 

 

Seven hundred years before Christ, God indeed had already manifested Himself as 'going with' the Israelites on their journeys and as 'being with' them in their daily lives.  He had accompanied them out of Egypt and through the desert.  He had defeated their enemies and had settled them in the Promised Land, and He sent prophets to instruct the people and to interpret His word for them.  He had told Moses that He Himself would go with them, but that they would not see His face.

 

But "a son born to us" and called "Mighty God"?  Who could conceive of such a thing before it actually happened?  If God wanted us to live a godly life, He was first willing to live a fully human life.  Our goal is not to "reach heaven" as much as it is to "live heaven while on earth"  -- and the only way to do that is to live in union with God Himself through His Spirit.  This is what Jesus did on earth.  But He did not stop with just living in union with the Father, as a role-model; through His "new birth" of the Resurrection, He is able to dwell in us, to accomplish in us all that the Father wills for us.

 

It took the apostles some years of being with Jesus, and even then, not until after His death and resurrection to slowly come to the conclusion that Jesus is "Mighty God."  Thomas fell to his knees and said, "My Lord and My God!" when he encountered the Risen Christ.  Peter knew ahead of time, but faltered, while the others seemed to have doubted until the Resurrection and subsequent appearances:  I am with you always, even to the consummation of the world.

 

The incarnation means that God is with us, now, not "up there" or "out there."  He is here, disguised as our life: in our comings and our goings, in our meetings and our conversations, in our homes and around our tables, in sickness and in health, in riches and in poverty -- the ultimate union of God and man.  He could not wait until heaven to spend time with us; like a passionate lover, He had to join us in our human existence and dwell among us.

 

Anyone who reads the Bible or who listens to the Word of God proclaimed by the prophets will be comforted by His desire, announced from the very beginning, to be with us.  Adam and Eve were never afraid of the Divine Presence until they had sinned and had become ashamed of their nakedness.  But even then, the Divine Seamstress sewed together animal skins to cover their nakedness so they would not be ashamed to stand in His Presence.  Sinful though they were, He still wanted to be with them.  With Jesus now as the "covering" for our nakedness, there is no longer any reason to be afraid of the Divine Presence, any more than Jesus was afraid to be with His Father while He walked the earth.  In Him, we are fully acceptable to God, even though we are still sinful and weak.  We now live the Resurrected Life, the life of union with God, even while in the flesh:  I no longer call you servants, but friends, because servants do not know what the master is doing.

 

What a revelation!  If only we could really believe it!



The Message of Advent

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth

and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you

and his glory appears over you.

Nations will come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your dawn (Is. 60).

 

Yesterday, I wrote about how the Lord comes "suddenly" to His temple.  Until then, we walk in darkness, with a "veil" covering our hearts, in the words of Paul, who above all men, should have known by experience what he was talking about, "because only in Christ is it taken away" (2 Cor. 3):

 

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God....For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

 

Yesterday, I quoted the Book of Malachi, saying, "First, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.  Then the Lord you are seeking will come suddenly to his temple."  The end of that passage, which I did not quote was this:  So I will come near to you for judgment.  I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the Lord Almighty.  

 

Perhaps this passage, along with all of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, helps to explain better than anything else the meaning of "fear of the Lord."  Those who oppress others, deny justice and fairness in wages or treatment to others, especially the weak and the alien, have no "fear of the Lord," who hears and answers the cry of the poor.

 

When John the Baptist came, these are the ones to whom he gave warning:  The Lord is coming, and His winnowing fork is in his hand.  He will clear the threshing floor, gathering the wheat into his barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3).   John's message was "Prepare ye the way of the Lord."  But we have sung that song since childhood, a time when we could not even begin to apprehend its meaning.  As adults, it has no more meaning for us than our other childhood verses.

 

We have heard forever that the word "Gospel" means "good news."  What we have not been told is that the word was originally used in a Roman context to herald the "good news" that one of the generals was returning to Rome triumphant from conquering outlying areas:  The Punic Wars; the Gallic Wars, etc.  He was on his way home, bearing captives in chains ahead of him.  The "forerunner" or herald was supposed to run ahead of him, announcing his imminent arrival and proclaiming that the roads were to made smooth for his victory march.  The old roads were often in disrepair or neglect, but now they were to be filled in, smoothed out, built up where they had fallen low, so that the chariot carrying the victor would not be bumping along or falling over.

When John the Baptist arrived on the scene, he proclaimed that the "roads" or way was to be cleared for the coming Messiah, because he would take captives of those who had no "fear of the Lord," those who were cheating others, oppressing widows and aliens, and hoarding the goods of this world.  Many came to him, confessing their sins, and being baptized in preparation for the coming judgment.  He "turned the hearts of the fathers toward their children," in the words of Isaiah.  So the world was ready for the arrival of Jesus.

As we approach Christmas in the 21st century, we no longer believe that the Light of the World is coming through the darkness of our lives.  We believe in Santa Claus more than we believe in the coming judgment.  If we want Light to shine in our hearts, maybe we need to hear once again the message of the John: prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight paths for him.  Put away the works of darkness and turn toward the Light!

Eureka!

Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything  But because you say so, I will let down the nets (Luke 5).

 

See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.  Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple (Mal. 3).

*********************************

 

I recently had lunch with a friend.  "Do you think I am a negative person?" she asked me.  I hesitated, not knowing what to say.  I am a very slow thinker, not at all quick on the draw; sometimes it will take days for the camera in my mind to come into focus.  I had not up to this time thought of Anna as "negative," strangely enough.  But her question forced me to re-think.  She had once told me that she was a "professional worrier," and that did seem to describe her.  I knew that whenever we got together, she would go over all the issues with her family, with her neighbors, with the city, county, and world that occupied her mind -- and there were many of them. 

 

So, no, I had not thought of her as "negative," but more as someone who worries a great deal about things over which she has no control.  But her question made me start praying:  What do I say to someone who asks me such a question?  I did tell her that day that I did not think she was negative, but more a "professional worrier," the phrase she herself had used. 

 

Very early this morning, as I drifted in and out of consciousness, I had a "Eureka" moment.  I recalled my own state of mind and soul before "the Lord suddenly came to his temple" in my own life.  While I would not have had enough awareness at the time to call myself a "professional worrier," and while I certainly had too much pride to even think of myself as "negative," looking back on it now, I realize that both descriptions were appropriate.  I worried about everything:  Edgar Cayce had predicted famines in the US in the late 70's and 80's, and I was bringing children into the world in the early 70's.  Would I see my children starve to death?  I needed major surgery:  how would anyone manage my house, with an 11-month old just learning to walk, a 2-year old just being potty-trained, and a 4-year old who needed to begin pre-school without mom to walk him there?  Everything I thought about seemed to have a black cloud over the issue. 

 

As it was, with 3 children prone to daily illness, I considered myself a total failure for not being able to manage to get dinner on the table, to get the house cleaned, to take care of the babies in the way I thought was competent.  I never knew what to cook, so dinner time was a constant source of panic for me; I never seemed to have the right ingredients in the house, etc.  Finally, I was exhausted from 6 years of nursing babies throughout the night.  I was helpless and hopeless.

 

Then, "suddenly, the Lord I was seeking came to his temple."  While in the hospital, I heard the story of my roommate, whose life of helplessness and hopelessness with drugs was healed by something she called "the baptism of the Holy Spirit."  Whatever that was, I wanted it too.  Dinnette prayed for me, and suddenly, a peace I had never before known settled over me from head to toe.  Suddenly, I felt a joy that I had never before experienced.  Suddenly, I knew that I did not have to be in control, that I could relax and let myself be taken care of. 

 

The morning after surgery, I reached over and found the Gideon Bible in my nightstand.  The book fell open to the Acts of the Apostles --- first page, go figure!  Since I had very rarely read the Bible, or any part of it, on my own, I had no idea what I was doing here.  But as I began to read, I suddenly realized that what I was reading about the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles had just happened to me!  Then, it was not ancient history I was reading, but my own story.  I could not stop reading.  In the coming days, while recuperating, I continued to read through the Gospels, the letters of St. Paul, and Revelation.  Then I started with Genesis and read the entire Bible again to Revelation.  Eventually, I got out maps and history books and started studying in earnest.  All this, of course, had nothing to do with my own determination or desire --- it was simply and entirely a gift of the Holy Spirit!

 

That happened on June 15, 1977.  Today, I am so grateful for the gift I have been given, the gift that St. Peter describes as the Lord transferring us from the kingdom of darkness to His kingdom of light!  While we walk in the darkness, we have no idea of the light; we think we are experiencing reality, but it is truly "the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers." 

 

As I reminisced this morning, I had yet another "Eureka" moment.  Until the Lord "suddenly" comes to His temple, and until we encounter the living, resurrected Christ, we cannot understand anything the Bible describes, for it belongs to another world, another realm.  We have no experience, no words, to understand the Bible story.  In fact, now I believe the Bible gives us the words to understand our own experience.  Until that happens, we "work hard all night," as Peter said, but we catch nothing.  But when the Lord speaks, when He breathes out His Spirit on us, our eyes are suddenly opened and we see!  We know, we understand for the first time!

 

"Am I a negative person?"  No, Anna, you are a good person who is working hard.  But you still seek the Lord who makes all things new again!  Until then, my joy and my job is to pray that the same Lord who came to me in the hospital will suddenly come to His temple in your heart and mind and soul.  Then you will see all things with His eyes, and He will "wipe away every tear" that you daily bear.

 



Seeing Through the Eyes of a Child

When I asked my students to question the Gospel of Mark, it turned out to be an eye-opening experience --- for ME!  The questions they posed seemed at first to be naïve, but as we began to delve into their questions as a group, it was MY eyes that were opened.  I began to see things that I had never seen before, because I had read things long familiar; they were reading as seeing for the first time, reading as the people who were encountering Jesus for the first time in Galilee must have been seeing Him.

For example, in Chapter 3 of Mark, there is a scene all of us have heard many times read in church:  the scene of the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.  For the sake of review, let me quote it again here:

Another time, he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.  Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.  Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."  Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil?  to save life or to kill?  But they remained silent.  He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.  Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

 

So one of my students asked why Jesus asked the question, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil?"  She said, Why even ask the question, 'Is it lawful to do evil on the Sabbath?'  It is never "lawful" to do evil, so why even ask?  The answer seems obvious.  I had never asked that question before, and since I had not, I had missed what was most obvious of all in the passage:  Jesus was plotting to "break the Sabbath law" by doing good.  What the Pharisees could not see was that, even while they were externally observing the Sabbath by not working, they were plotting to do evil on the Sabbath, plotting how they might kill Jesus.  His question to them brought out the thoughts of their hearts, even though it was not obvious to innocent bystanders what He meant.  

 

Hebrews 4:12 says, 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.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.  After having one of my students ask a penetrating question, I now see Jesus' question in the synagogue not just an "obvious" or "throwaway" question, but rather as penetrating and judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Furthermore, I see it not just as judging the hearts of the Pharisees in the synagogue that Sabbath, but as judging the thoughts and attitudes of my own heart and the hearts of those who judge others.

 

Is it lawful to do evil on the Sabbath?  Not so obvious a question, after all.  How many of us have gone to church on Sunday to fulfill the law, and even while there have we judged our neighbors who did not go to church.  Or even while at Mass have we looked around at those "public sinners" who dared to approach the altar, even though they were "unclean" in our eyes?  How many in the gathering have sat in judgment on the priest or pastor because the sermon was too long or for some other reason?

From the beginning, Jesus was always an outsider, on the fringes of respectability and acceptability by the leaders of the synagogue.  Very soon, they were plotting how to get rid of Him, but since He was so popular with the people, their schemes had to be carefully hidden.  His word turned things upside down, making the little ones, the ones of no account, enter first into the kingdom of God, leaving the "first" outside, or making them enter last.

Reading Scripture though the eyes of a "child," someone who is seeing it for the first time, is an educational experience for someone who has read it so often as to take it all for granted:  "Lord, open my eyes; I want to see!"



To Know Christ Jesus

Recently, I asked my students to read the Gospel of Mark (because it is the shortest) and to select a quote from each chapter to write down.  Then, they were asked to write a comment or question pertaining to each chapter.  After they had completed the assignment, I asked them to tell me about their experience.  Here are a few of the comments:

While reading the Gospel....at first I was a little bored and I kept thinking to myself, "Oh, this is silly; I don't understand any of this."  However, as I read on, I began to feel enlightened....In the end, I would definitely do this assignment 1000x over because I learned a lot about Jesus and myself.

I felt good about this assignment....I felt as if I learned more about God and Jesus, because not only was I reading Scripture, but I was also writing about it.

You are able to think about it MUCH more when YOU are the one personally reading and comprehending it...I was thinking so many things that I could not limit my comments to just one.

I enjoyed sitting and just reading.  It was very peaceful.
---------------------

The students who persevered past their initial boredom discovered something that Frank Sheed wrote in his To Know Christ Jesus (around 1940, I believe):

We read the Gospels to meet Our Lord.  We must read and reread them, if we want to come to our own personal intimacy with our Redeemer.  Intimacy of that sort cannot be handed to us by anyone else, however gifted he may be, whatever the measure of his spiritual insight.  We have to make it for ourselves, with Jesus as with any other friend, by constantly meeting him, experiencing him, meditating on the experience....it is a vast gain for any one of us to have made for ourselves this personal relation with Our Lord.

If we do not know Him as he lived among us, acted and reacted and suffered among us, we risk not knowing him at all. For we cannot see him at the right hand of the Father as we can see him in Palestine.  And we shall end either by constructing our own Christ, image of our own needs or dreams, or in having no Christ but a shadow and a name.  Either way, the light he might shed is not shed for us -- light upon himself, light upon God.

For the kind of ignoring I have in mind cuts off a vast shaft of light into the being of God....In Christ Jesus, we can see God in our nature, experiencing the things we have experienced, coping with situations we have to cope with.  Thereby we know God as the most devout pagan cannot know him....We must read intently, growing in knowledge of his words and acts, building our intimacy with himself.

 

Frank Sheed's book, long out of print, has been re-issued in a 2014 edition, a gift to anyone who would "Know Christ Jesus" for himself.  For Sheed is absolutely correct; St. Jerome said centuries ago: "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ."  No one can tell you "about" Christ; He must be encountered in a personal experience --- and that experience comes through the Scriptures. 

 

Think back to the first days of the church, beginning with Pentecost.  On that day, 3000 people were converted.  They returned to their homelands, speaking about the things they had heard and witnessed in Jerusalem.  Those who had been baptized and those who heard their reports had to be monumentally curious about Jesus of Nazareth.  Their one longing had to be, "Tell us about him.  What was he like?  New Christians would ask old Christians; everyone would ask those who actually saw and heard him.  Each one would describe what he had seen and heard, emphasizing the things which had impressed him or her.  New meanings and awareness would emerge as the stories were told and re-told, and people would recognize passages from the Old Testament which shed light on what they were hearing about Jesus.  Finally, the stories had to be written down and passed to the local churches to ensure accuracy and to quench false or imagined stories.

 

Jesus had promised that the Holy Spirit would "lead them into all truth" -- and the leading was gradual, as they pondered in their hearts the events of Jesus's life and ministry.  How can we be sure that when we read the Gospels, we are hearing the words of Jesus?  St. Augustine has given us the answer:  "Not words but things."  When we read with the intent to discover Him, we unite our minds with the mind of Christ, and the thoughts of His mind can become the thoughts of ours---all the more when the Holy Spirit living in Him lives in us also.

 

Those who refuse to read, learn, and pray for themselves may find themselves "locked out" on the last day as Christ says, "I never knew you" (and you never knew Me.)

Broken Clothespins--Broken Dreams

Behold, I make all things new! (Rev. 21:5)

 

If anyone be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation; the old has gone; the new has come! (2 Cor. 5:17)

 

*********************************

 

As a five-year old child, I believed my daddy could fix anything.  As I have written before, one day I was playing in our back yard, and my dad was working in the laundry shed behind the house.  Our next-door neighbor was hanging sheets on the line when a clothespin broke.  "Give it to me," I said, "my daddy can fix anything."  Smiling, she handed the clothespin over the fence.  I took it to my daddy and continued playing without concern.  I had no doubt that he would return it "fixed."  And sure enough, within a few minutes, he brought me a brand-new clothespin, which I proudly handed to our neighbor. 

 

All of us have experienced broken lives, broken dreams, a broken world.  And all of us have probably experienced our own plans to repair the damage or to start anew:  we'll make better choices; we'll get out of debt; we'll save money.  We'll work hard to earn promotions at work; we'll go on a diet and take better care of our health.  All of our expectations are based on the nagging fear that we are on our own in the mission of improving our lives.  We recognize that we need a plan, a new beginning, a new relationship, and we resolve to begin again.

 

In the midst of our plans, or in the midst of our disappointments in ourselves, every life is graced by sacred moments of visitation by the Divine Presence.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they did not recognize the moment of their graced visitation --- they were too busy with their own plans to save themselves, even while their Source of Grace dwelt among them.  The One Who makes all things new again was with them, but they could not see Him.  In fact, they were disappointed in Him, for He did not look at all like what they were expecting.

 

Our expectations of "heaven" or of "salvation" often take the form of sitting at a dinner table with people we love, when the air is filled with laughter and deep, radiant joy.  These moments give us a glimpse of the heavenly banquet in our father's house -- but the moments are ephemeral and cannot be sustained beyond the activity which produces them.  The joy Jesus promised us is that "which the world cannot give."  And the joy He gives continues to exist even when our dreams are shattered, when we are overwhelmed by the disappointments of life and the interruptions of our "heavenly banquets."

 

I just received an e-mail from a good friend whose granddaughter died yesterday from leukemia.  For over a year, we have been praying for Katie, hoping for a healing.  The e-mail my friend sent reads as follows:  God has answered our prayers, but not in the way we hoped -- Katie died this morning.  Please pray for my daughter and her family.  My friend knows the One Who makes all things new again, and she knows that Katie is not dead but alive beyond all our dreams of healing.  And Katie herself knew the Lord Who makes all things new again.  Her blog written throughout her illness is filled with hope, joy, and love.  I will have to get the address once again, as I lost track of it along the way. 

 

The broken dreams of our lives are invitations to a new life, because we have a Savior who came back from the dead, and Who offers us participation in His new, resurrected Body that can no longer be conquered by sin, suffering, death, or alienation.  By His power, He holds all things together -- even our broken world!

 

No matter how great our plans to repair and restore our dreams, we can never quench our spiritual thirst.  When we can finally recognize our limitation, our hunger for more than we can give ourselves, we are ready to receive the "living water" that flows from heaven, the Spirit that Jesus promised to all who come to Him.  Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, the image of a river is used as a metaphor for the blessings that God wants to give us.  The book of Psalms begins with a promise that those who delight in the law of the Lord will be "like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither."  Isaiah refers to "streams in the desert."  All the biblical references constantly make two claims:  The first is that we need the water from this river to become spiritually alive.  The second is that this water can be given to us only by God, because the river flows from out of His heart into our world.  In light of these claims, it makes sense that John plainly states that the river of living water is actually the Holy Spirit.  Apart from the Spirit which Jesus gives, our souls wither and our dreams dry up, for they are based on "empty cisterns that we have dug for ourselves," in the words of Isaiah. 

 

We tend to think that we don't need prayer --- there is so much work to be done, so why can't we just get to it?  Certainly, after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, the world was filled with broken hearts, broken dreams, and broken lives.  The Apostles had an overwhelming task to perform, much as anyone does who looks around our world today.  But Jesus told them not to begin, but to return to Jerusalem and to await the "Gift of the Father," the promised Holy Spirit.  For nine days, the disciples gathered in the upper room with Mary, not only because that's what they were told to do, but also because they had no idea of what to do or how to do it on their own.  When the Holy Spirit came, they were filled with power from on high.  At last, the rivers of living waters began to flow through them as they had flowed through Jesus -- at last, broken dreams could be made new again through the living Christ who remained with them and in them.  The Father had handed them brand-new clothespins which could be passed across the fence to their neighbors!