This morning's meditation finishes up our month of "re-imaging" the subjects of
pain and suffering, though the reality of our ongoing need to deal with those issues is unavoidable. I'm sure we
all feel overwhelmed at times with the depth of sadness in the world, and would rather escape even for a while,
into a place where we can pretend it isn't that bad. Such habits however can be very dangerous, because there are
certain things we should never lose sight of. Basic manners and rules of civil behavior, compassion and justice
based on humble recognition of our own indebtedness to God, have always been things that you would think would
be top priorities, and yet we find Paul having to remind the early Christian communities about them time and time
again. Did they forget, or merely focus on something that was "easier to stomach"?
Somehow our keenest memory always seems to be reserved for our highest priorities at the moment. It is said that
Louis Pasteur had to be called from the laboratory to attend his own wedding - he had forgotten! His all-absorbing
attention was focused on his research, and, for the moment at least, his marriage was furthest from his mind! While
the "absent minded professor syndrome" might seem humorous from a distance, one of the great tragedies
of aging is to see how much people we care about and admire forget, not simply in their most basic relationships,
but also in their most practical needs. Even sadder is the seemingly "selective memory" some people evidence
much earlier in their existence, picking and choosing realities that are most convenient to their present circumstances.
Remembering is the foundational stone of the Old Testament, for the wisdom of that book suggests that what we choose
to remember is what will ultimately shape our destiny. Psalm 78, is deeply concerned lest God's people forget what
God has done throughout their history. Stories have been passed down, the psalmist says, "We will not hide
them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, God's power, and
the wonders God has done" (v. 4). The stories of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt and the provision
for their long journey to the promised land (vv. 12-16) - were, and continue to be, a constant reminder of God's
active protection and provision. Yet even these stories can suffer from a contemporary "spin" that is
less that Godly.
We are in the Hebrew season of the festival of Sukkot or Booths. The New York Times just ran an article on the
search for the perfect citron, which happens every year at this time, and of course the market is obviously not
big as you can imagine. The concept comes from a text commanding the Hebrews to celebrate the Sukkot feast with
the "fruit of a beautiful tree" which in Hebrew is "hadar" This also can be translated as citron
or etrog which means "delightful" in Aramaic. The quest is for the most unblemished one possible so that
the owner can show the depth of their thanksgiving and gain much prestige in the community.
It's a far cry from the actual wilderness story, which was never about perfection or prestige, but totally about
dependence. Dependency has never been a popular subject, so why not just shift the focus a little? Primarily because
with just a little shift…we have a whole new theology.
In addition to food and water God also gave the ethical principles we know as the Ten Commandments, and many practical
rules for life in their new homeland. These too were to be passed on to successive generations, in order that they
would continue to put their trust in God and not "forget." (v. 7).
Perhaps it is what we are choosing to remember that accounts for there being so many "angry" people out
there in our world today. There seems to be a dirth of patience and civility, even when the perpetrator of a wrong
is cast in the most obvious light, the anger seems intensified toward the offended one. Someone cuts you off running
through a red light and then yells at you. A child strikes his or her sibling because they felt they were "about
to do" something to them. Nations gear up for war on what may be little more than innuendo and hear say.
The people we meet today in the Old Testament lesson were also angry, and their anger was intensified by fear.
They were constantly complaining, but the real basis of their complaints boiled down to a question of whether or
not they could trust God. This was especially true when the circumstances of their present reality seemed very
different from what they had been expecting.
So too in the Gospel lesson, we find people questioning Jesus' authority. He seemed to be suggesting radical changes
in the way they had always thought. An even to those who weren't sure about him, what he said made perfect sense.
But where did he get such "Chutzpah?" What if he was "only human"?
The bottom line issue of course was, if he was "only human," would doing the right thing then be any
less right? Out of that very issue came this famous parable about the two sons; politically correct answers vs.
appropriate actions. Which is more important? In actuality, neither child really did the will of the father. To
do the will of the father would have been to say "Yes, of course…I'm going." and then to follow through
with your word. Neither son did that. And while Jesus is not offering accolades for exemplary behavior he is championing
the one who had a change of heart.
It seems we live in a society where a person's word doesn't mean very much. People schedule appointments and don't
show up on time. They pick and choose which person they will follow because he/she is the most popular, instead
of for what they say or stand for. They buy things they don't use, join clubs they never attend, and even enter
into relationships they never plan to commit to. "They," translated "We" are far from perfect.
We make bad choices from time to time, and that seems to be an "acceptable reality" in scripture. In
fact it is fair to say that Jesus spent a disproportionate amount of time with people described in the gospels
as; the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers, the hungry, sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, the persecuted,
the downtrodden, the captives, those possessed by unclean spirits, all who labor and are heavy burdened, the rabble
who know nothing of the law, the crowds, the little ones, the least, the last and the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. In short, Jesus hung out almost exclusively with losers.
So in our upwardly mobile, highly competitive, and striving for self-sufficiency lifestyles it probably is a good
thing to stop and ask honestly "Is the Lord among us or not?"
It was important for the Israelites in the wilderness, the Pharisees in their skepticism about Jesus, and those
of us today who are trying to be authentic Christians in the Twenty-First Century. "Is this from God?"
How do we know? How do we really know anything is of God? We really don't want to be following a religious leader,
or a path that is not "of God."
In the wilderness they got their answer by discovering water at a time when they were apparently parched and dry.
Perhaps the conditions of the people on this symbolic journey were also symbolic. Maybe we really only get serious
about our questioning of God's will in those times when all the other possibilities of our own invention have gone
south. Maybe too, only when we see the glaring reality of a truth we do not want to face, do we come to that ultimate
question "Is Jesus Lord or not?"
It's the issue of compliance vs. commitment? Do we do the right thing because someone is watching? Because we have
to at this particular moment? Or because it's the right thing to do? The two biggest perennial threats of congregational
life have always been internal dissent and external threat. To focus on either apart from the power of God to overcome
both is to lose the gift of community.
Henry Kissinger as a young Jewish boy ate the sour grapes of the Holocaust experience, and set the teeth of the
world on edge all the years he ran the White House. What Time magazine editor Walter Isaacson says in a new film
on his disastrous career is that "Kissinger had a very cynical reaction to the Holocaust. Coming out of that
horrific experience, he viewed power as more important than anything else, and needed to be close to the seat of
it. He was not a man guided by a strong moral compass or great regard for American democracy, but as a person coming
out of the Holocaust, having lost family members to it, he went the way of those people who develop a real hard
line attitude toward totalitarianism in any form. He saw Communism as an only slightly different manifestation
of the totalitarianism of which he'd been a victim, which resulted in his extraordinary commitment to ending it.
But his anti-Communism was important enough, that he would go beyond the law to pursue it. In the end w become
like that which we most despise."
On July 23, an Israeli pilot dropped a one-ton bomb on a house in a dense residential neighborhood in Gaza. His
work was to execute Salah Shehadeh, a Hamas activist without trial, but in the process he also slaughtered 16 neighbors,
including 11 children and wounded dozens of others.
Elana Uri Avnery on August 24 wrote to him in an Open "Letter to a Pilot", quoting Bialik, the national
poet, "Even Satan has not invented the revenge of a little child." The children eat the sour grapes and
will live to grind the dragon's teeth of violence. Now, alas, it is the children of Palestine and the Jewish children
in the occupied territories that are being fed a diet of bitter grapes indeed, along with their mothers and fathers.
And the old proverbs still rule: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" but these are lying proverbs,
that discount the possibility of turning, that reject the gospel's call for a nonviolent response to the most recent
acts of revenge."
Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, delivered an "unprecedentedly strong warning to Israel, arguing that
the country is adopting a stance 'incompatible' with the deepest ideals of Judaism, and that the current conflict
with the Palestinians is 'corrupting' Israeli culture." Rabbi Sacks said, "I regard the current situation
as nothing less than tragic. It is forcing Israel into postures that are incompatible in the long run with our
deepest ideals." He said he was "profoundly shocked" at the recent reports of smiling Israeli servicemen
posing for a photograph with the corpse of a slain Palestinian. "There is no question that this kind of prolonged
conflict, together with the absence of hope, generates hatreds and insensitivities that in the long run are corrupting
to a culture."
One of the classic patterns of people who have endured physical or emotional abuse is that they come to abhor such
behavior and almost inevitably practice it to some extent. While they will be extremely vigilant to avoid such
practice in their primary relationships, they will blissfully ignore it in the way they treat "lesser people."
Suffering is real! There is no question of that fact. In the parched reality of the worst levels of human existence
we still have a choice as to how we will respond. Therein is the water hidden in the rock.
In a modern paraphrase of today's Epistle Eugene Peterson renders this text: "If you've gotten anything at
all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit
means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care--then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other,
be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself
aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough
to lend a helping hand."
Life will make you bitter or better. The choice is yours!
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