Full Moon Through the Trees–Photo by William Frank Bellais

Recently I bought an Apple Smart Phone. My new Smart Phone has a number of features, applications, and services not thought of just a few years ago. Except for the feature of notifications of new Email, Face Book, and Twitter postings, I like my new Smart Phone.

Initially, the notifications feature came with strange and startling sounds. These sounds bombarded me night and day, moment by moment, and often at inappropriate times. Because all this was new to me, I looked to see what the notifications were and found that most were for emails about politics, trying to entice me into some new project, or some way to spend more money.

Face Book and Twitter postings are also on my desk top personal computer and all of them can wait for me to read them—rarely do they generate any sense of urgency for me. I have solved the notification problem with all its strange sounds and inappropriate timing by fiddling around with the device. I do not need to be in continual contact with friends and family. Now I am at peace with my new Smart Phone.

The application my new phone I enjoy the most and the one that gives me the least annoyance lets me look at the night sky and identifies constellations, stars, and planets. It is a beautiful piece of work. The screen even sets up for night vision. Now that Saturn is so visible in the night sky these days, this is an especially valued application for me.

The beauty of the universe has long intrigued me. Sometime last year, probably last summer, I did a series of paintings of galaxies as I saw them from the NASA[1] Hubble Telescope. Whether others like them or not is not important to me. Painting and capturing in my mind’s eye the beauty of the universe was my goal. The universe sparkles with a beauty that should entrance us.

My concern is that we will travel too far into space. It is not that I would want to prevent exploration of the universe; my concern is human beings will spoil the galaxies and their planets as we have the earth—we will find a way to mar its beauty and trash its Astro-scape. We already have space junk.

Psalm 148, as it is translated in the Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer[2] captures for me the awesomeness of the space beyond this sphere—our island home, planet Earth. The Psalm is not based in the new found information of astro–physics and related sciences. When the psalmist spoke the words, he saw the earth under a great dome and above the dome the sun, moon, and stars moved over it. He understood that the waters of the heavens—rain and snow—were stored above this dome and God showered the earth from the water stores of heaven. Thus, the Psalm is based on a lack of knowledge but not a lack of awe. Understanding our place in the universe only recently has changed. Galileo was only pardoned of heresy a few years ago—the Church is very slow about such things.

We now know that we are only specks of dust in a vast system of planets, galaxies, suns, and moons. We are a part of a system that remains mostly unknown to us. In our new knowledge of the heavens, some scientist take delight in telling humanity it is not very important and human beings have a small and defined limitation in the overall scheme of the universe. In fact, they proclaim, there is no reason for humans to believe they have any special place in the overall scheme of this planet or the solar system of which it is a part.

This may be a true observation. Possibly, there is little human beings can offer or do to change the course of universal history. Planets may collide, the entire solar system may be swallowed up in a black hole, and meteor may strike the earth and eliminate all life except the cockroach. All of that is possible.

But, as the psalmist did millennia ago, we should sing, “Hallelujah.” We should sing, “Praise the Lord of the heavens.” In this beautiful Psalm, the author wrote of the animals of the sea, the beasts of the wild and the fields, the scorching sun, the tempestuous winds, the snow, and flood, and the elemental events of earthly living and then he sums up his response to nature with,

Let them praise the Name of the LORD,

for his Name only is exalted,

his splendor is over earth and heaven.[3]

In my imagination it seems the psalmists loved creation. Loving the created order, he saw in it humanity as a part of creation and loved it too.

Love is the issue; it always is. When love of creation, love of the creatures of the earth and I suppose of the universe, exploration becomes a source of joy. Exploration of the earth’s unknowns, space unknowns, and even the unknowns of the human body can lead to full and fulfilling lives. Exploitation, on the other hand, leads to death of the planet, humanity, and all the living flora and fauna of the earth—except cockroaches.

Jesus commanded his followers to love one another as he loved them.[4]

Love, in English, is all encompassing word. Love can include passion, friendship, or even simply a fondness for something; for example, loving Neapolitan ice cream, which I do.

Then, what does Jesus seeking for his followers in this commandment of his? Is he asking them to have a passion for one another, a friendship, just a fondness for each other? Additionally, does the psalmist’s love of creation fit into this commandment? Further when reading in the New Testament, when John of Patmos has a vision of a new heaven and a new earth,[5] is he suggesting the earth and the universe as it is should not be cherished?

The answer to the questions on the nature of love is, “Yes.” Jesus wants his followers to have a passion for each other, a passion to care about them more than they care for themselves. He wants them to live in community as friends, and he wants them to express a fondness for each other as co-workers on the way. John of Patmos in his Revelation writes allegorically. The new heaven and a new earth is a new way of understanding the nature of God and a new way of loving fellow human beings. The evidence of God is among us. He writes God is among mortals wiping away tears of fear, anger, and hatred with the love Jesus commanded his followers to express.

When we can no longer stand the expressions of hatred and despair infecting the world, we can look to the heavens, look to the fields, look to the forests, and instead of giving up we can praise God for the beauty of holiness that surrounds us. When we allow God to be among us hourly, daily, throughout the years we live, all tears will be wiped away and we will truly experience a new heaven and a new earth. It is not an empty promise.

[1] NASA—National Air and Space Administration.

[2] Page 805.

[3] Verse 13.

[4] John 13:31-35.

[5] The Revelation to John 21:1-6.

Cooking Fish and Other Outdoor Foods

April 27, 2013

Uncategorized

Leave a Comment

Miracle on Lake Tiberias by Raphael – 1515.

A few weeks ago Harrison Ford told a joke on David Letterman’s “Late Night Show” that caused me, for first time in a long time, to laugh out loud in a long. This old joke as I recall is[1]:

Two cannibals traveling from their separate villages met each other on the trail. The greeted one another and then one said that he was having trouble cooking. He said, “The last meal I had didn’t taste too good.” The other asked, “What kind of food are you cooking?” The first cannibal said, “Missionaries.” The second cannibal asked the first, “How do you cook your missionaries?” The first replied, “Well, I get a big pot, then fill it with water, add a little seasoning, then build a fire, bring it to a boil, and then throw in the missionary. The second cannibal asked, “Are the missionaries wearing anything?” The second said, “Oh, yes, the missionaries are wearing long brown robes with hoods and have sandals on their feet.” The second cannibal’s eyes opened wide in surprise, he said, “Ah, certainly, you are cooking them wrong.” The first cannibal, puzzled, said, “Wrong; I am cooking the missionaries wrong?” “Yes,” said the second cannibal, “They’re friars.”

On an open fire all sorts of things can be fried or boiled. I would even suggest food, on an open fire food can be broiled—broiling is more like cooking over coals or barbecuing. If the cook does not have a pan, the question for me is, “How do you cook fish on an open fire?”

While I cannot speak to how a cannibal cooks a missionary, I have cooked on an open fire but never fish. Further, if you cook anything on an open fire I suggest you do it carefully. If you have a pan and some butter, fish can be fried on an open fire otherwise I suppose, the fish has to be skewered and cooked like roasting hot dog. I wonder what we call it when a fish is on a skewer over an open fire; is it broiled?

If I were cooking it, we would call the fish “burned at the stake.”

I have never had much success cooking over an open fire. I believe I would have been an unsuccessful cave man.

Usually, I do not think of fish as breakfast fare. However, in the Gospel according to John, in an after resurrection appearance, Jesus is reported cooking fish on an open fire by the shore of Lake Tiberias—apparently for Jesus it was and suspect in many parts of the world it is breakfast fare.[2]

On my Face Book page someone has posted a painting of Jesus at Lake Tiberias with his disciple and captioned it, “Breakfast with Jesus.” The picture depicts Jesus hunkered next to an open fire “broiling” fish and his disciples are gathered around.

When I was at Lake Tiberias, I recall seeing people eating fish that looked delicious. I say, “Looked delicious.” I did not eat any; therefore, I have no idea what it tasted like. The fish on the platter had a dark brownish, gray skin. The fish was large in that it filled the platter, and when cooked presented to the diner a flaky white meat. It is called, so I was told, “St. Peter’s Fish.” I think the name was given to the fish for my benefit. I do not know what the technical name of the fish in Lake Tiberias is—it is probably tilapia.

Readers of the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ life in the New Testament should notice that encounters with Jesus before and after his resurrection frequently include food and drink. In the instances where food is the essential element of the encounter, he takes food, blesses food, and distributes the food, and in his post resurrection appearances he eats food.

The Holy Eucharist recreates these actions: The priest takes the bread and wine as a gift of the people, blesses both, and then distributes the bread and wine to those present.

Additionally, the stories of Jesus after the resurrection demonstrate that the disciples did not encounter Jesus as an apparition or a ghost. He is there before them in the resurrected body talking, walking, and most importantly eating. Ghosts, apparitions, do not eat and have no need for food.

During the fifty days of Easter, the Scriptures report more story of the resurrected Christ. Appearances of Jesus and encounters with him are physical. He invites Thomas to touch him and to place hands on his wounds. He somehow joins two men walking to a place Emmaus and breaks bread with them. And then later, somehow, he is at Lake Tiberias providing instructions on improving fishing techniques on Lake Tiberias where he builds a fire on the lake shore, broils fish, and then feeds his friends.

In the Acts of the Apostles we have another post resurrection encounter.[3] This encounter is a mystical one and as the others were unexpected this one, because of whom Jesus encounters, was unforeseen. Jesus appears to Saul of Tarsus, a terrible persecutor of the disciples of Jesus.

As Saul travels to Damascus to arrest followers of the Way, Christ meets him on the road and changes his life. Who would have thought this person would be the one Jesus calls to be an apostle?

Saul was a rabbi, a person learned in the Torah and the Jewish law. In his and the Sanhedrin’s view the people of the Way were heretics advocating against the teachings of Moses.

Christ’s encounters with his disciples and later to Saul, who becomes Paul, confirms the veracity of the Christian claim of the resurrection—these encounters point to the fact that Jesus lives tangibly in the world. Further, the world is often surprised when the reality of the living Christ intervenes in the world.

Nonetheless, the skeptics remain skeptical and others wonder in awe. However, Jesus lives in ways and in places unexpected and in hearts and minds taken off guard by the challenges of faith. Jesus appears in a variety of unexpected and often unforeseen ways and places. Sometimes Jesus is encountered in the form of those in need. Often Jesus is encountered in the form of someone answering a need. At times the reports of such encounters seem miraculous while in others seem mundane.

When Jesus makes himself present in people’s lives, something new always happens. Regardless of the nature of these encounters, every meeting with Christ, whether by a new understanding of the Scriptures, the words of a caring person, or even the chance of circumstance, is a miracle.

[1] This is not a word for word quote. It is presented only as I recall Harrison Ford’s words.

[2] John 21:1-19.

[3] Acts of the Apostles 9:1-20.

Bought with a Price

April 1, 2013

Uncategorized

Leave a Comment

After Jesus rebuked Satan in the wilderness Satan thought evil would come back at an opportune time and destroy Jesus. That opportune time came on Good Friday, but Satan miscalculated. Satan’s smugness is shattered. Satan thought that putting the Messiah to death on a shameful execution cross would be the end of Jesus. From all outward manifestations Satan appeared to have won the struggle. To all those who were there it seemed Satan defeated God and the righteous had been outwitted.

Satan and all those who practice evil forgot that the mighty arm of God can strike evil in its gut and strike it so hard evil stands gasping. This is the victory of God. Although evil has not been eliminated it is now under the watchful eye of heaven. Also evil is under the watchful eyes of those who recognize that they are bought with a price and are no longer their own. The Church, that is, those who have been bought with a price and realize they are not their own, also called the community of the saved, has been recruited to struggle against the forces of evil and death.

The Church makes that struggle in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection—our resurrection. Not in the sure and certain knowledge that it knows what virtue is. The community of the saved is not appointed God’s moral watchdog, instead the community of the saved is engaged to be the people who exercise a moral love. A love that requires unbridled compassion for God’s poor. Moral love is a love that acts first to alleviate suffering and then speaks. The community speaks about the love of God that passes all understanding. That Divine love drives the moral lover to action.

As the Body of Christ has only one obligation. It is to live as Jesus did. He forgave, he healed, and he proclaimed the good news that God cares. In Jesus God acted and cared for the world. God has made it evident through Jesus’ life and ministry that caring matters. The function of the Church is to continue caring for the world and bring love to the people of the suffering earth. The promise of faith is more than a promise of a heavenly residence. Faith changes lives it does not postpone living.

While living, we can live in grace. That is, those faithful to the teachings of Jesus live in the love that passes all understanding. In that grace the faithful are saved from the power of sin and released from the terror of death. Salvation seems free to us because it is so freely given but it comes with a price. It is not the price we pay but the price Jesus paid. Therefore, we are the recipients of God’s grace freely given. But that grace is expensive. Because it is so expensive the grace of God must be cherished.

A prayer I often use before celebrating the Holy Eucharist found in the Oxford Book of Prayers.[1] In that prayer I acknowledged that the congregation and I were and are in God’s presence and in that presence we are no longer our own. Those words, “no longer our own” meant that we had been purchased (redeemed is another good term to use here) by God through the cost paid by his Son on the cross.

In the deepest spiritual sense we are (as the prayer states) no longer our own persons. Not being our own is a foreign notion especially to Americans who believe fervently in the principle of “rugged individualism.” Americans are their own person and Americans often have a difficult time turning their lives over to something as ephemeral and insubstantial as the institutional idea of God. Further, in that spirit of rugged individualism, being bought is truly a foreign notion.

However, nothing has a value unless it is redeemed and some way paid for. For example, on the television program “Antiques Road Show” appraisers give all sorts of objects a monetary value. The owner may think of herself as rich because the appraiser said the antique object was worth a hundred-thousand dollars. But ask yourself, “Has anything changed?” The owner of the object is still the same person; the object is still the same. Nothing has changed. No one is richer and no one is poorer. How come? Well, no one has offered to buy the object. Not until an offer is made and the money paid has anything been changed. This may be a fact of our lives. We may give our selves a sense of personal value. Supposedly, I am valuable to others but there is no really good way to measure that value. Further, suggesting that my life has value is a self-serving statement. Life will carry on without me. The world was alive long before I existed. Even an idea of the world will continue long after I am not even a memory. If I am the lone assessor, my value is limited. But there is more to this story then the value of self-assessment. Fortunately, God is the one making the assessment. God assessed that my life (your lives, the lives of all of humanity) is valuable enough for God to pay the ultimate price.

That ultimate price is God’s own self. The price has been paid in the form of the most valuable exchange ever devised. The price is Christ Jesus on the cross. The promise of the new life Easter points to did not come cheaply.

[1] Oxford Book of Prayers, Oxford University Press, 1985, reissued 2002.

The Prodigal in All of Us

March 10, 2013

Christian Reflections

Leave a Comment

The Parable of the Prodigal son[1] is more than a story of forgiveness granted by a gracious father it is a story of families and the need for family reconciliation. Further, the story goes even beyond a father and his two sons. The story tells of the need for acceptance, for tolerance, and finally for magnanimity.

I like to imagine the scene after the party has started. The prodigal son is inside with his friends eating from the “fatted calf” and having a merry time. The older brother is outside stewing about the unfairness of the situation and then the father comes out of the house to talk to the older son. He puts his arm around the older son’s shoulders and says, “Son, you know I love you. I love you as much as I despaired for your brother. However, we are now a united family. Your brother is home. You are here. I am here. We are now together—one family at last.”

The older son, still not reconciled, says, “I know, dad. All that is true but it still hurts. I stayed loyal, I did not run away, I did not use up your resources, and I even made a profit for you while that son of yours was away dissipating his life, your life, even my life.”

The father agrees all that is true. Then he says, “If we cannot forgive, if you cannot join the family in forgiving, the dissipation continues. This time you are the dissipater.”

The father pulls his son close to him. Tears begin to fall from the elder son’s eyes—he feels defeated. Arguing will lead to no avail. Nevertheless, the son is not ready to concede the father’s right to bathe his prodigal son in such joy and largesse.

The father says, “Come on, son, let’s you and I go in and enjoy the party. Isn’t that better than staying out here fuming?”

The older son finally sees the point, grudgingly reconciles, and then joins the celebration.

Both sons now forgiven and are now the father’s joy.

That is one way I look at the story of the Prodigal Son. There is another interpretation I think is also worthy of examination.

While some do not wish to acknowledge this fact, we must remember Jesus was not apolitical. That is, Jesus, aware of the politics of the time. Specifically, Jesus knew that a great division had developed between the Jews of Israel and those Jews in diaspora—most especially between those who were greatly influenced by Greek culture in Alexandria. Further, within the Jewish culture in Palestine of the first century, those who wished to maintain a purified abhorred any contact with the non-Jewish world. Those purists wanted to remain isolated from the world.

Division and isolation may be behind the story of the Prodigal Son. The story reminds all parties that they are lost and in need of finding.

Both those who believe they are descendants of Abraham, by the first century. have wandered away from God and dissipated their heritage.

In the story, Jesus tells the people of diaspora that they are welcome in the family of the Abrahamic descendants who have remained true to the ancient faith. He reminds those who believe that they are entitled to special consideration, God takes people as they are. There is no special status for the stay-at-home Jews on the grounds that they are the true descendants of Abraham. His cousin, John-the-Baptist denounced any claim to special status when he said, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”[2] Nevertheless, God, as the father in the parable, wants all the faithful to return to its foundational roots. Those foundational roots are not so much found in the law of Moses, which by this time is expanded beyond the Torah to over six-hundred prohibitions, as they are found in the beneficent acts of God. If God is beneficent, then the faithful must be beneficent and willing to reconcile and engage the world.

The basic issue, then, is that the people of first century Israel are so bound by their misapplication of the law and demand for ethnic and racial purity that they no longer remember the love God has shown to them. They have, in other words, dissipated the gift of love given to them in the Exodus—the release from slavery and death. They have in their own blindness been enslaved by the prejudice and a belief in their own exceptional and unique status.

The law was intended to teach two basic principles—love God and love your neighbor. The law for the descendants of Abraham, by the first century, had become a means of assuring a privilege and separation. Thus, the only neighbors recognized as worthy of love were people like themselves.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son Jesus teaches that God, who Jesus calls Father, seeks all who worship, whether in Jerusalem or elsewhere, to repent—that is, rethink—of the dissipation resulting from separation from the faithful, isolation as a means of remaining pure, and boasting of being steadfast in the law. When all are reconciled with God, the angels of heaven rejoice.

All that may seem remote to us today in the twenty-first century. I argue, however, if we as a people today do not rethink our misuse of the gifts of Providence, we will remain in the purgatory of squandered wealth and health. If we do rethink our place on the planet, the earth and the entire universe will rejoice. If we do not seek to return to the basic truths of life—love God and love neighbor—we are the prodigals.

Even that, however, may seem remote and untenable to some.

Because of our own pride and self-centeredness, let us place the Prodigal Son story on a personal level. Instead of thinking of ourselves as the prodigal, let us think of ourselves as first, the father in the story, and then, secondly, as the older son.

The prodigal’s father allowed his younger son to have his way. The younger son wants his freedom, he wants to cut his ties to the family, and he wants to experience life—sounds familiar in so many ways. The father, who loves his younger son, instead of attempting to control outcomes, allows the son to have his way. Not only does he allow the boy to go, he gives him his blessing in the form of the boy’s share of his inheritance. Letting children go to do “their own thing” is difficult but sooner or later must be done. Often children make wrong choices and we parents despair. We want to jump into the fray, save the child from his or her mistakes, and make everything come out right. Even in the grimmest of situations and conditions, such rescue does not work. It is not until the child comes to her or his self is change possible.

After years of working with families in the priestly ministry and as a mental health therapist, I have found it difficult to watch families break up in anger with no hope of reconciliation. Such families are heartbreaking. Some in the family seek to heal and others are so angry they will never reconcile; that is, find a way to overcome the hurt feelings and pride. I have seen such anger displayed in families as parents or children cannot forgive. At funerals, for example, when it is too late to reconcile the unrelenting anger does not subside. Anger overcomes grief, jealousies overcome love, and blindness to the humanity of the other prevents reconciliation.

The father in the Prodigal Son story is not willing to stay in an unsettled state of dysfunction–he never surrenders to despair for his sons. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is an appeal to us to turn away from ego and an unwillingness to forgive.

Of course, we cannot forget bad or thoughtless behavior. Such behavior hurts and the pain does not recede easily. However, to keep the pain alive is like refusing to reset a broken bone or to seek healing of an illness or physical injury. When pain is persistent, the more debilitating pain becomes. The prodigal’s father cannot live with pain; he seeks to relieve it. He sees his son recant his past thoughtlessness and the father eagerly accepts him back into the family’s embrace. It is an unconditional embrace as the father says to the older son, “This brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”[3]

Possibly, it is easier to be the forgiving parent. Siblings have a different relationship. Each wants the attention of parent—sometimes in equal measure and sometimes more attention than the brother or sister. Siblings are accidents to each other. They did not create their sisters or brothers and in some instances did not even wish to share space and time with an equal in the family hierarchy. Regardless of birth order, sibling-hood often is a difficult relationship.

We can hear the strain in the older brother’s complaint. He did everything correctly and well. Why should he have to ignore his brother’s bad choices? Would you, if you were in his place? Not only has his brother used up the father’s resources, now he is back taking up even more. Angry may not be an adequate word to describe the older brother—livid, irate, enraged may be more descriptive.

Again unrelenting pain arising from unrelenting anger only leads to more pain, more anger, and more outrage. The father wants his older son to know he too is loved. Nevertheless, the father wants his older son to see life reborn, resurrected, from repentance.

Because he did all the right things, the older son does not have special privilege; he has the privilege of inheritance, of being the son of a loving father. Further, the older son only has done what is expected of a responsible child. Merely being descendants of Abraham does not set the homebound Jews apart from diaspora and visa-versa, and being Jewish does not set the faithful apart from the impure world, the older son’s claim to advanced status in the family does not give him special advantage.

There is no claim to God’s favor without willingness to rethink, to reconsider, to positively change, and return to the family circle of God. We come to the Father as individuals in need of repentance, of rethinking. Everyone needs to rethink—that is, repent—to experience the calmness that comes through reconciliation.

We are all prodigals. All nations are prodigal, all bands of humans are prodigal, and all are in need of repentance, of rethinking priorities, and seeking both forgiveness and to forgive.

[1] Luke 15:11-32.

[2] Matthew 3:9. A repeat of this warning appears in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 3, verse 8.

[3] Luke 15:32.

Watercolors

March 8, 2013

Uncategorized

Leave a Comment

Watercolors.

There for the Grace of God

March 3, 2013

Christian Reflections

1 Comment

“There for the grace of God go I.” That’s a remark I have made after some catastrophic event has hit the news. Remember the big Pacific Earthquake right after Christmas in 2004? Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in the ensuing tsunami. Or the earthquake in Japan last year that led to the collapse of a nuclear power plant and tsunami—again thousands of people died and other thousands were affected by the radiation that escaped from the plant. Airplane crashes, multiple pile ups on the highways, mass shootings—all tragic and again, “There for the grace of God go I.” The grace is that somehow I avoided that catastrophe and the sudden death all those other people suffered. of God.”In the Gospel according to Luke there is a story of Jesus being told of a terrible massacre of Galileans.[1] Those telling the story are not only scandalized by the mass murder of pilgrims who are in the temple in Jerusalem making a sacrifice but worse, their blood has been mingled in with the sacrificial blood on the temple altar. The reporter seems to ask, “Did those people deserve that terrible end?” Jesus responds by asking about another tragedy—this time the people in Jerusalem who had the misfortune of standing next to the Tower of Siloam when it collapsed. What about those men? Were they so evil that God was justified in making the tower collapse, killing them under the rubble? What about all those people who died in the events I described? Did all those people deserve their terrible ends? These disasters are classified, especially by insurance companies, as “acts of God." The message of Jesus to the people of the time is they must be aware of coming calamity that has nothing to do with God. In the Book of Lamentations, a book of which Jesus is certainly conversant, Jeremiah writes, “…for he [God] does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.”[2] Jesus tells his followers, at this time there are apparently thousands following Jesus around Galilee and down the Jordan Valley, that life is a random experience. They do not know when they will die and worst of all they may face the same sudden and unexpected deaths those they have asked about experienced. The response seems to have hopelessness in it. However, Jesus does leave the questioners, the reporters of terrible events hopeless. Jesus tells the people, “Repent.” Repent is one of those words that lead to misunderstanding. Jesus has already said the people in the incidents reported did not die because they were especially sinful and had failed to repent of their sins. They were merely victims of Roman rampage and unforeseen accident. Repentance would not have saved them. Let us think about that word repent. In English the prefix RE stands for again—like review means to see again. In very basic terms, repent means to re-think. Jesus tells his followers to re-think their lives. Think about how they are living life. Then he goes on to tell a parable seemingly unconnected to the conversation. There is an unproductive fig tree in a farmer’s vineyard. The famer wants to cut it down. The vineyard keeper suggests they give it one more year. One more year—what for? The farmer has more than planted the tree. The tree has been looked after, fed special nutrients, and maybe even prayed over. Nevertheless, the tree does not bear figs. In my grandparents back yard in Virginia there was a fig tree. Every summer it sprouted and fruit grew abundantly. It was a great source of food for us in the days before World War Two. We loved that fig tree. I can understand the farmer’s despair. I think my grandfather would have chopped his fig tree down had it not been so fruitful. In the farmer’s field it was using up essential soil, taking too much energy to care for, and probably added to his loss of profit. However, the vineyard keeper wants to give it one more opportunity to produce—in other words, “repent.” Thus if God does not “willingly afflict or grieve the hearts of men”[3] as the Scripture teaches, and Jesus reminds his followers that the people who died such sudden and tragic deaths were not punished for their sins, what then is the teaching? What is the Gospel message? Jesus tells all those people around him to pay attention to life. In other words, he is telling to think again about the nature of their lives—that is, “repent.” Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians echoes the same message. Paul compares the Hebrew ancestors with the people of his time[4] as he tells the Corinthians about the Hebrews who became content with food and drink and were idolaters. They placed their life energies on the things that actually sapped their lives of any spirit to live. Paul will later describe in the thirteenth chapter of the First Letter to the Corinthians the part of life that truly matters—love. Ultimately, Jesus tells his followers, the God Jesus talks of is a God who is not wrathful, as supposed, but is the source of life’s second chances. Thus, if God can find a way to give life a second chance, then it is incumbent upon humanity to give itself a second chance—to give each other a second chance. This is the meaning of forgiveness for both others and for self.

[1] Luke 13:1-9.

[2] Lamentations 3:33.

[3] Prayer 55. For a Person in Trouble or Bereavement. Prayers and Thanksgivings, The Book of Common Prayer, 1979.

[4] 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

There is No Need for Superman

February 17, 2013

Christian Reflections

Leave a Comment

My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing. Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be impetuous in time of calamity. Cling to him and do not depart, so that your last days may be prosperous. Accept whatever befalls you, and in times of humiliation be patient. For gold is tested in the fire, and those found acceptable, in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.[1]

The second chapter of the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus begins with Sirach’s father advising him to be aware that men of faith will be tested. Sirach’s father, in the quotation I have cited from the Apocrypha, warns Sirach that making a decision to be God’s person does not prevent him from facing all the perils of human existence. In fact, failure will lead to even unexpected testing. Worse, success may test one more. Human existence is filled with joy, sorrow, victory, and calamity. All these experiences have their own tests.

Fortunately for Sirach his father outlines in five ways how to meet the challenges of life. First, be self-confident and steadfast in making life decisions. Second, avoid being impetuous. Third, remain faithful. The promise of faith is prosperity or leaving a valuable legacy. Fourth, when things go right or wrong, accept that outcome, move on. And, fifth, be humble and patient with life.

Nevertheless, it seems when we decide to trust and worship God and exercise the father of Sirach’s five methods of meeting the challenges of life, something almost always intervenes. It is a human thing.

Think of the story of Jesus and the tests or temptations he withstood.[2] He has just experienced baptism and the mystical anointing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has heard God say that he is God’s son in whom God is well pleased. Any of us would be happy to know that God is well pleased with us—it certainly would be an ego booster.

Somehow Jesus, now filled with God’s Holy Spirit, is whisked away to the “wilderness” where he fasts for forty days. At the end of the fast he is extremely hungry, in need of sustenance and drink; he is at his physical and mental weakest point. This is the time evil—personified in the form of Satan—comes to Jesus and offers him a way out from the path that lies before him. The task as Jesus now understands it is to be the incarnation of God, to preach peace, to seek justice, and to carry the burden of the world’s unhappiness on his shoulders. If we were faced with such an opportunity, we might consider a way out too. We must never forget that Jesus, a human with human needs, faces the test the father of Sirach has warned would come to the faithful.

The Temptations of Christ, 12th century mosaic at St Mark’s Basilica, Venice

Jesus’ challenge is this:

He can exercise magical powers,
he can rule the world, and
he can demonstrate his specialness by leaping from a high building—that is, he can be Superman.

Note that when Satan tempts Jesus to fly from the pinnacle of the Temple to test whether the promise of God is valid or not, evil—once again Satan–quotes Scripture to Jesus. Satan cites the Hebrew Psalter, specifically Psalm 91. Basically, Satan is esentionally saying, “Well, there you are. If it’s in the Bible, it has to be true.” Jesus does not fall into the inerrancy trap. He only reminds evil that it is not a good idea to tempt God.

Near Jericho in Palestine is an abandoned Greek Orthodox Monastery. It is on a hill called the “Mount of Temptation.” At the base of the hill is a wayside inn, actually a tourist trap. It is called the “Temptation Inn.” There are many temptations in it. Souvenirs, food, and a camel ride. Of course, money, more than a spiritual experience, is the reason for the inn. When I visited the Temptation Inn, other than finding a bite to eat, I can say that I avoided its offerings.

As the tourists look up to the monastery, one can imaging Jesus could see all the nearby kingdoms from there. Today, standing on the mountain, the view is of the Kingdom of Jordan, The State of Israel, and Palestinian territory (probably Saudi Arabia can be seen from the same hill). The stark landscape of the place, the desert, and the downward flow of the Jordan River to the Dead Sea makes the environment seem dismal. There is little evidence of life. The earth and the air are dry. Only vultures fly in the cloudless sky looking for the carrion left behind by creatures unable to escape to life-sustaining water. This is the “wilderness.” This is the site Jesus entered into for fasting and preparation for the demands of his life and ministry. The view of the hill-side and the stark nature of the country moved me to contemplate Jesus’ tests or temptations. For me, in that place, it would be an easy decision to accept Satan’s offers—who would not want to be Superman and go somewhere other than this arid desert.

Then I thought that Jesus, because he knew that he was God’s son and God is well pleased with him, had an inner personal and spiritual strength far beyond mine. With that strength he successfully navigated around Satan’s charm and promise of an easy way out. However, again I wondered would I be able to move around and avoid Satan under the conditions of hunger and thirst in an unforgiving environment—would anyone?

Let me restate Satan’s tests:

Magically turning stones into bread. If one is hungry enough that might be a good idea.
Becoming the ruler of the world.
Power is a wonderful thing to exercise.
Flying down from a high place with the expectations that angels would be there to prevent disaster –the Bible promises such an outcome, does it not?

Of course, none of us is Jesus and we never have to face such a test—or do we?

Daily magical thinking interferes with making rationally sound decisions about life.

A young woman might think, magically I can turn my abusive boyfriend into a good husband.

If I spend this money and buy lottery tickets, magically God will let me win two-hundred-million dollars.

A person is given responsibility to care for another and because this responsibility provides a basis for power, child or elder abuse is the outcome.

A man or woman is elected to responsible office but the exercise of power is more important than good government.

The belief that the words of the Scripture are some kind of shaman’s incantation prevents one from sickness or death from the overuse or abuse of God’s gifts is diving off a tower expecting angels to intercept before hitting the ground.

Daily, we face temptations of all sorts. That is what Sirach’s father told him—even good people face trials of success and calamity. It is the recognition that life itself is a test. This recognition refines human beings into rare and precious beings. Giving into Satan’s temptation to avoid the tests of life, leads to the ultimate human downfall. Giving up on the test of life and giving into the temptation to think magically, to seek power, to see if God is real is a distraction leading to human and personal failure.

Jesus’ life teaches humanity to live above itself and to seek a higher realm than living as animals. In that higher life we find that living by animal instinct alone, which we see in those who live by power alone, defeats humanity’s created purposes. Nonetheless, in recognizing that we are frail and susceptible to Satan’s charms, provides for us a form of defense.

Magic does not meet human need. Power corrupts. Testing God leads only to profound unhappiness. The recognition that humanity is frail and must find reconciliation with itself and God is the beginning of wisdom and strength.

When temptations and the tests of life come to us, we are to trust in God, find a way of living leading to health and longevity, and then finally remember all our hope is in God. It is a mystery that the doubters attempt to refute but it is true that trust and hope is the way to a full and abundant life—a life promising more than magical and wishful thinking and the lust for power. This is the true tests of time about which Sirach’s father advise

[1] Wisdom of Sirach 2:1-6. This book is also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus or the Book of the Wisdom of Sirach Ben Jesus.

[2] The story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13.

—theowlpress

Just another WordPress.com site

The Universe is on My Smart Phone

Cooking Fish and Other Outdoor Foods

Bought with a Price

The Prodigal in All of Us

Watercolors

There for the Grace of God

There is No Need for Superman

Follow “theowlpress”