Jobs.

 

            In 1984 I visited Denmark.  While there some friends took me on a tour of the country.  Part of the tour was a visit to the western shore of Jutland.  Jutland is the largest piece of Denmark, and the only part connected to the European continent.  The rest of the country is islands.

            Along this coast there remain large concrete bunkers from World War II.  It seems that the Germans, who had conquered Denmark early in the war, thought the Allies might invade Germany by landing on the beaches of Jutland, and driving southward. 

            These bunkers are solidly built.  NATO has even used them for target practice.

            The thing that was most shameful to my Danish hosts was that these fortresses were not built by the Germans.  They were built by Danish laborers whom the Germans had hired to do the work.  Why did Danes agree to build defenses on behalf of their conquerors?  They needed the jobs. 

            So basically it was more important that the people have jobs, even if those jobs were the construction of their own prison, than that they endure unemployment.

            This whole idea that it doesn’t matter what one is doing as long as it is paying work, is sad and dangerous.  But it is absolutely pervasive.  This is especially true in a time of economic crisis and high unemployment.  We will gladly, eagerly, enthusiastically take and do jobs that involve the active killing of the Earth and the slaughter of innocent people, as long as the pay is adequate.  In this we are like the Danes and probably other conquered peoples: industriously constructing our own torture chamber for the benefit of our torturers.

            In our case we are willingly crippling the ability to sustain civilization of the only planet we know of that can host life at all.  We may live in denial about this.  We may tell ourselves that “these Nazis are really nice people who mean us no harm, so why not help them out by pouring all this cement over all this rebar?  Plus the pay is good.”  But in the end it is the intention of the conquerors to suck all the life and goodness out of you so they can be more comfortable and secure, until their inevitable end.

            Succeeding generations of Danes do not have a high regard for these diligent workers.  Yes, they had to make hard choices: build their own prison or suffer unemployment; refuse to work and bear the awful wrath of the Germans.  Was not the immediate pressing issue that their families be fed?   

            The same question emerges in the Bible.  On several occasions the Israelites in the wilderness express the preference for going back to slavery in Egypt, where at least they had jobs making bricks for Pharaoh, rather than stay in the uncertainty and danger of freedom.   

            Today we are being told that the only way to create jobs for unemployed Americans is by gutting our environmental and labor regulations, selling out to abusive “Free Trade” agreements, and investing in still more infrastructure for the burning of fossil fuels (like this appalling and catastrophic Keystone pipeline).  We are told that the solution is to give still more money to the wealthy few who already own most of America’s resources and who haven’t used much of it to create new jobs here of practically any kind.

            What is the cost of whatever jobs might be created under such circumstances?  What is the cost of giving your labor to build your own prison?  What is ever the cost of selling your soul to make bricks for Pharoah?

            The cost is first of all freedom.  That’s what you give up in such an exchange.  The power that can pay you to construct your own dungeon may next have you hammer together your own casket, and dig your own grave. 

            And the second and most significant cost is a future.  For not only is it Pharaoh’s oppressive world, but you know in your heart that you are the one who built it.  You know that you prostituted yourself and betrayed your own people for the sake of a paycheck.  The children you sought so to feed will hate you for it.

            Somehow we have to stop taking Pharaoh’s jobs, and organize good work to do together.  Somehow we have to support one another, and not leave each other to fend for ourselves alone against these powers.  Somehow we have to find the courage to get by with less, and even perhaps die, rather than build our own prison, or exhaust and foul the only planet we have to live on.     

The Keys Are For Opening.

Matthew 16.13-20

I.

            Peter’s famous confession in Caesarea Philippi is to tell Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”?           

            “Messiah” is a Hebrew word that means “anointed one.”  To be anointed was to have holy oil ceremonially poured or smeared on some part of your body, usually the head.  In the Old Testament this happens mainly to kings and priests; and sometimes to prophets.  When Peter says, “You are the Messiah,” he means “You are the anointed one,” meaning “You are the king/priest/prophet expected by Israel.” 

            When he calls Jesus “the Son of the living God,” the same reasoning applies.  In the Old Testament, the “son of God” is most often the king.  Sometimes it refers collectively to the people, Israel.  It is also used of a heavenly figure.  Put all this together and Peter proclaims Jesus to be the promised prophet, king, and high priest of Israel.

            Traditionally we think of Jesus as prophet, priest, and king, probably because these were the figures who were “anointed” by God.  The Westminster Confession and Catechisms have long sections on Jesus as prophet, priest, and king.  Calling Jesus by these titles has consequences.  They are not just honorific, they have deep meaning.

            To call Jesus a prophet is to see him mostly outside of the established religious institutions.  The prophets paid close attention to the moral life of the people and the leaders.  They predicted the dire consequences of disobeying God’s law. 

            Jesus never calls himself a prophet; but he acts like one.  He upholds the moral law of the Old Testament.  He says that at the heart of the old morality, based on God’s law, there is one core truth, which is love.  Start from there, and all the rest falls into place.

            To call him a priest is a bit more consequential.  Priests worked within the religious establishment.  Since he was not part of their exclusive group (although his mother did come from a priestly family), the claim that Jesus is a priest would have been a challenge to the priests actually holding office at the time.  They accuse him of blasphemy and eventually crucify him for it.  Certainly Jesus is a religious reformer, as we see in the disturbance when he drives the commercial interests out of the Temple. 

            But Jesus never calls himself a priest either.  But his followers, especially after his resurrection, call him the great high priest who was to come and renew the people’s faith.  As priest Jesus fulfills and completes the religion of God’s people, revealing its true character, boiling down its elaborate rituals into one simple meal of bread and wine, representing God’s saving, liberating, loving presence.

II.

            But the most substantial claim made by Peter when he calls Jesus “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” is the inference that Jesus is king.  If he is king, the people actually holding political office are false usurpers.  This makes him a political revolutionary.  The leaders see this very clearly and have him crucified for sedition.  It is this, kingly, political aspect of being the anointed one that Jesus proceeds to talk about as he continues to respond to Peter’s confession.

            Peter is realizing that Jesus demands our complete allegiance and loyalty, in the moral, religious, and the political arenas.  There can be many prophets, even working at the same time.  There can be many priests, although only one official High Priest.  But there can only be one king.  When Jesus allows himself to be called king, it is a direct challenge to whomever happens to hold the title of king.

            The people expected the Messiah, the anointed one, to be a king.  They hoped for a political leader who would be like his ancestor, King David, and liberate the nation from its enemies by force, so they would be free forever.  The people are willing to call Jesus a prophet; but he doesn’t look like the promised anointed king.  So they don’t identify him as such.

            Jesus does not come to reform or restore the political order.  Not in the sense of a new kind of government or constitutional framework which is imposed by force.  He doesn’t come to be chief executive or commander-in-chief.  In fact he rejects that kind of kingship and power way back at the beginning of his ministry when Satan tempts him with it in the wilderness.  His kingdom, as he says to Governor Pilate in a different gospel, is “not of this world.”

            But his kingdom is in this world.  Jesus is starting a new political order if by that we mean a new community that lives according to new rules and standards, but which is voluntary.  Everyone is invited into this community; but only some know themselves to be called to it.  Jesus establishes this community as his church; the Greek word for church is “ecclesia”.  It means “called out.”  His community consists of people called out of the world dominated by Caesar and Pilate, and gathered into his new community, ruled by him as king through the Holy Spirit. 

            Jesus says Peter is specially blessed.  Jesus declares Peter to be the foundation upon which Jesus’ new community will be built.

            Jesus intends Peter to be the leader of the church.  And then he gives several important central characteristics of this church, moving forward. 

III.

            First, he says “the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”  The gates of Hades represent both death and the condemnation of hell.  This community will be a refuge against these awesome powers that cripple and corrupt human life.  Because it will be rooted in his resurrection, the church will be a place of eternal life.  It will be a place where people are connected to and participate in the very life of God.

            Jesus says, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  As Jesus did not come to the world for condemnation, neither does his church make it its business to condemn, reject, judge, or punish people.  Rather it is a place where God’s love overpowers death and banishes condemnation.  It is a place of forgiveness, peace, hope, and compassion.  It is a place of justice and equality.

            Jesus also intends this new community to be the gateway, the entrance, to the Kingdom of Heaven.  They will have the “keys” to unlock the mystery of God’s saving presence with and among us.           

            Finally, this new community will be the venue for the interpretation of the law.  The church will decide what Scriptures are binding, or how loosely to interpret them.

            Later, in chapter 23, Jesus will rail against the scribes and Pharisees because they “lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.”  It was the religious establishment that was binding people under a strict and uncompromising legalism, even while they were more lax towards themselves and their rich friends.

            Clearly Jesus does not give the church these keys to the kingdom so they can lock people out, or demand an admission fee.  They are not given to make faith more difficult.  The keys are for opening.  Jesus intends the keys he has entrusted the church with to unlock the Kingdom of Heaven so people may come in.  If people are not allowed in, it will be the fault of the church.  They had the key and didn’t use it as it was intended.

            The church, the gathering of people who have been called out of a world dominated by death and condemnation, is supposed to witness to Jesus’ welcoming, inclusive, accepting love.  We are supposed to make the Kingdom of Heaven more accessible, more available, and more present to people.  He orders his church to be a community of forgiveness, healing, restitution, and liberation. 

            It is not a place where every literal detail of every law is absolutely binding on everyone.  Rather it is a place where the gathered community, guided by the Spirit, administers with the love of our anointed king the keys of binding and loosing.  The community decides what is binding and what may be more loosely interpreted.  He gives the community awesome power here.

IV.

            The last thing Jesus says is that they should not go around telling people he is the Messiah.  Messiah was a word with a lot of baggage.  He didn’t want to have to define himself relative to this baggage.  The worst thing that could happen would be if people argued and chose up sides over whether he is the Messiah or not, and no one changes their lives.  He didn’t want people to be distracted about this or that title, or doctrine, or theological category.  He wanted people to live together according to the love of God he reveals.

            He also does not want his Messiahship to be reduced to a verbal proposition that people cognitively agree with or not.  Even if we don’t tell anyone in words he is the Messiah; by all means we should live our lives convicted of the truth that he is the Messiah, God’s anointed.  People will know he is the Messiah by the quality of our discipleship.

            So who do you say that he is?  And how is who you say he is expressed in your actions?  Is Jesus your prophet, who shows us the moral life in its integrity?  Is Jesus your priest, who by giving his life reconciles us to God and each other?  Is Jesus your king, the one whose will you obey, the one who shapes our life together, the one who welcomes us into a new community, the Kingdom of Heaven?

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Lord of the Dogs.

Matthew 15.10-28

  

I.

            Jesus and his disciples land their boat in Gennesaret.  As he is healing people he gets into an argument with some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem.  They say he is too lax in keeping the purity regulations in the Torah.  Jesus says they are adding burdensome rules that are not actually in the Torah.

            Jesus starts teaching the people exactly the opposite of what the Pharisees had always told them.  The Pharisees were so zealous for the strict keeping of the letter of the religious law that they added things to it to make it stronger.

            The Pharisees have an agenda.  Their primary goal is to maintain Jewish national and religious identity and distinctness.  The Pharisees were hyper-vigilant about what and how people should eat, and who they should eat with, and by extension, what they should see, hear, feel, smell, or take into themselves in any way.  They wanted to control people by regulating their consumption, what they were allowed to touch, or whom they were allowed to associate with. 

            The Pharisees believed that it was only by keeping these rules that their nation maintained its existence.  Without the law they would easily be swallowed up in Greek culture like just about every other nation in the eastern Mediterranean.  What people ate was not just a matter of religious observance.  They felt it was a matter of national survival.

            That is why, when Jesus says things like, “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles,” the Pharisees get very nervous and angry.  If people didn’t regulate what went into their mouths, if they just started eating ham sandwiches and fried clams, if they ignored the rules for pre-meal ablutions, if they ate with Gentiles, or ate the meat of animals that had been sacrificed to pagan deities, then the Jewish nation would simply cease to exist.  What Jesus is saying us unpatriotic.

            They were a small nation, surrounded by the alien Greek culture, they had fought for their independence, and Rome was allowing them to keep their religious laws.  But if there were ever a crack in this monolith of strict, legal observance, they were sure it would all be over.

            The Jewish people were using these laws to maintain their identity as an oppressed minority.  But this is also a tactic of any empire or authoritarian regime.  If you can regulate what people consume: what foods they eat, what they drink, what books and newspapers they read, what websites they visit, what art they may look at, then you maintain control over them.  The greatest threat to the powers-that-be is when people start to listen to other voices, eat other foods, hear other music, entertain other opinions, and associate with other people.

 II. 

            Jesus sees the hypocrisy here.  If we reduce faith to what we consume, if we think that we have fulfilled our responsibility as God’s people as soon as dinner is over, then we are prone to forget the more important demands of the law, which is that we actually love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.  You may eat the perfect kosher meal, quite satisfied with the impeccability of your piety… and then go out and commit acts of violence, bigotry, and hatred against people, and think that is fine.  While the Pharisees made themselves into the food police, Jesus is healing people.

            Jesus understands that God is love, and that this spirit of love interprets and even overrides the details of the written code.  It not about what you take into yourself, what you eat, what you drink, what you read, what music or words you listen to, and so forth.  It is about what you do, what you produce, what comes out of your mouth in words, what you express and accomplish with your body.  That is what the law is really about.  It has to do with coming to live according to love and compassion, justice and peace.

            “For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”  So says Jesus.  He doesn’t say we should eat with dirty hands, he means to reduce the importance of these excessive rules about ritual hand-washing which the Pharisees had added to the requirements of the Bible.

            When Peter expresses some nervousness about offending the powerful Pharisees, Jesus answers, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.  Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.  And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” 

            In other words, it is as if Jesus is saying: “It doesn’t matter what these so-called religious professionals say.  There are no Pharisees in the Torah.  God didn’t plant or institute their order.  God didn’t make them boss.  They are just making this stuff up; they are reacting out of fear, nationalism, ethnocentrism, and a lot of other things that are not God’s love.  They add extra, oppressive rules to the Bible.  But what they add, God has not planted, and in the end, what God has not planted will not last.  So don’t worry about it.  It is enough of a challenge to keep the laws that are actually from God, without having to add these extra things on top of it all.”

III.

            Then Matthew recounts a situation that arises which provides an example of what Jesus is talking about.  Jesus and the disciples have walked over to the coastline, about 30 miles, and they enter Gentile territory.  A Canaanite woman approaches them.  Canaanites were not Jews, they were the people who inhabited the land before the Israelites came from Egypt and conquered it, over a thousand years before.

            She pleads with Jesus to heal her daughter.  Jesus ignores her.  The disciples ask him to send her away because she is a pest.  Jesus says to them, loftily: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  And when the woman actually kneels before him begging for help, Jesus says; “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

            Now, there are at least two schools of thought on this.  One is the Jesus-changes-his-mind party.  I am of another persuasion, the Jesus-is-being-deliberately-sarcastic party, in interpreting this answer.  I think he is mimicking the bigotry he continually hears from his own people, even his disciples, about Gentiles.  I think he is making a point here. 

            He addresses these harsh and cruel words to the woman, words that would surely defile – which is to say, offend and enrage -- most people to whom they were addressed.  Nasty words that would cut to the heart of someone coming to him for help.  You expect her to go away angry, hurt, sad, disappointed, and brokenhearted.  You would expect her to go away hating Jesus, Jews, and their God.  You expect taking in these words would defile her thoroughly, the way we sometimes dwell on and sourly nurse the unfair, nasty, mean things that people say to us.

            But the words don’t defile her.  Without skipping a beat, she says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  The words enter her ears, she takes them in.  But she turns them around through her humility and her limitless trust in this man who has just called her a dog!

            I can see Jesus looking at his disciples, shaming them.  It is as if he is saying: “I still shouldn’t heal this woman’s daughter, just because they’re Gentiles?  She shows more faith and trust in me than you guys do most of the time, but I shouldn’t heal her daughter because she’s not one of our people?  I said words to her that you’ve never heard me say to anyone, and yet she produces from her heart in response words of pure gold.  When are you guys going to get it, that the Gentiles are the lost sheep of the house of Israel?  And that I have come to serve, to heal, to liberate, to redeem the people whom others dismiss as ‘dogs’?  I am the Lord of the dogs!”

IV.

            Then Jesus turns to her and says: “Woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  And at that moment her daughter is healed.

            Between the Pharisees and this woman there is a huge gap.  The Pharisees were self-righteous, superior, entitled, and bossy.  They took it upon themselves to protect God’s law by developing still more hoops for people to jump through in order to be accepted by God.  They wanted to control people by regulating what they ate, what they took in.  The woman takes in some nasty words… but she transmutes them into a miracle by means of her humility and her trust in Jesus.

            Jesus says that it’s not what goes into us that is determinative, but what comes out, in terms of our words and behavior.  What comes out of this woman is a willingness to be like Jesus: last of all and the servant of all. 

            I remember this verse in Proverbs: “A living dog is better than a dead lion.”  It is better to be poor, humble, and common and alive, than to be important, powerful, wealthy, respected, and pious… and dead.  What God has not planted will be uprooted, no matter how strong and rich you are.  God did not plant these Pharisees who like to pile ever heavier burdens on people.  They may have the reputation of strong and glorious lions, but they are in effect, dead.

            But Jesus says it is the gentle who inherit the earth.  The humble, the trusting, the ordinary, the broken, the needy, the outcast and excluded… like this mother pleading for her daughter’s life… these are the people who constitute the future.  She is the mother of the whole Gentile church, which includes us. 

            The point is to have a deep enough trust and humility so we can transmute what does come into us into something beautiful, something healing, something blessed and good.  What is the level of our trust and humility?  Are we willing even to be dogs, patiently and with great attentiveness awaiting a crumb from the master’s table?

            If we trust in Jesus, I know that what will come out of us will be what came into the world through him.  We will be a blessing to the world.  We will be people who heal, who set people free, who do justice and love kindness, who participate in the redemptive will of God.  What comes out of us will be the love of God for the whole world.

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