Morning Readings 3-18-11

Psalm 40 and today’s beautiful reading from Deuteronomy reminds us that our relationship to God is carried out in our everyday lives. So often we praise ourselves for our “faithful” attendance at church services, but many Hebrew prophets challenged that same view, held by God’s people before us. For today the psalmist writes,

In sacrifice and offering you take no pleasure *
(you have given me ears to hear you);

Burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required, *
and so I said, "Behold, I come.

In the roll of the book it is written concerning me: *
'I love to do your will, O my God;
your law is deep in my heart.'"

It is not outward observance, but a deep change of heart to which God calls us; visible “circumcision” is but the symbol of a deeper self-commitment of the heart.

The opening litany and Psalm 54 reminds us that much of what we are in our everyday behavior lies beyond our “religious” self-awareness. We identify with those who have been wronged, but let’s try this thought experiment. Perhaps the psalmist complains to God about us:

For the arrogant have risen up against me,
and the ruthless have sought my life, *
those who have no regard for God.

Render evil to those who spy on me; *
in your faithfulness, destroy them.

We can only turn to God in genuine repentance when we cease to identify with the faithful and righteous. Isaiah proclaims,

Let the wicked forsake their ways *
and the evil ones their thoughts;

And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion, *
and to our God, for he will richly pardon.

The Hebrews reading turns on the same theme, exhorting us to recognize our weaknesses and to ask for mercy. Often, I suspect, we ask for grace when we experience suffering. Here, in fact, Christians are encouraged to stand boldly in the faith. But the passage also cautions that God sees into the hidden thoughts and intentions of our hearts; God sees the truth about ourselves which we try not to know , and for which we need mercy. And fully understanding what it is to be human, Christ sympathizes with us in our weakness of character and is ready to meet us with mercy and grace.

In the reading from the Fourth Gospel we see that John’s disciples are indignant that Jesus appears to have abandoned John and set up on his own. Jesus must have seemed to him to be at best an upstart; at worst, a betrayer, a repudiator of all that John was. Moreover, what if Jesus was right? Indignation and protection of John proclaimed their faithfulness to their teacher, but it was also a way to shore up their understanding of the truth, the foundations of their world. And for John, surely Jesus’ success provided a great opportunity for brooding and jealousy!

But that is not how John responds. He does not adopt the attitudes we find so easy, so natural. But John recognizes no competition. He knows that he and Jesus are working to the same ends (a purpose greater than themselves); that each of them has been given a purpose. In addition, John knows that he and Jesus are not equals. John’s work is not negated or diminished by Jesus; rather, John’s purpose is affirmed, furthered, and fulfilled in the ministry of Christ.

How do these readings speak to environmental concerns?

Perhaps in all of these readings we are being invited to a perspective that transcends our purely personal concerns. Faithfulness to God involves not merely being “religious,” but taking seriously the world and the needs around us. The fact that God already knows what is in our hearts, knows our secret fears, agendas, and desires—indeed, already knows the true motivations of our actions—can give us the courage to explore the darker parts of our souls, to expose the parts of ourselves we are ashamed of, to circumcise the foreskin of our hearts.

We are also exhorted to look at the ministry of others for what it is, not as a judgment on our own. Possessiveness of “our ministry”—or, to expand it beyond an obviously religious domain—“our expertise” our even “our opinion” regarding what is in best reveals a secondary, self-serving agenda that blinds us to the goodwill of the other, and might just blind us to the good sense in the other’s point of view. Our natural tendency to distrust people who disagree with us sets us at odds at time when open-hearted cooperation may be the only way ahead.

Let us look at the quandary we find ourselves in today. The global implications of fossil fuel involve political and economic stability as well as local and global environmental concerns. Yet to substitute fossil fuels with nuclear power may prove a more immediate danger. Neither can we live with and keep the world we live in more or less as it is. I normally view with suspicion those who minimize environmental dangers in favor of maintaining political and economic stability. However, I am also called to expose the automatic pilot of my judgmentality to the light of God, and to recognize that my fears of environmental catastrophe may be mirrored in their fears of political and economic collapse. The way forward may be through conversation with those who disagree with us; indeed, I suspect that without such conversation, there is no way forward. And conversation is possible only as I surrender my self-righteousness.

Deut. 9:4-12 Heb.3:1-11 John 2:13-22

The Deuteronomy Reading: In our satisfaction at the failure of another person where we succeed, we would do well to remember this passage. Perhaps, indeed, it is not about us at all. If that be so, we had better beware. In fact, rather than revel in how much better we are, this passage calls us to remember our weaknesses.

What happened at Horeb? We easily read the story and identify with Moses, annoyed at the impatient idolators waiting at the base of the mountain. But it is not easy to wait. What takes Moses so long? Has he died? Has he forgotten us? What should we do? So the Hebrews did what they thought most expedient, lost and forgotten out somewhere in the wilderness: they turned to the ways they knew. Can we blame them? Don’t we do precisely the same thing? “Don’t just sit there; Do something!”—a maxim that just about sums up our cultural attitudes…

On the other hand, I’ve seen a Zen T-shirt that reads: “Don’t just do something----sit there?” It hilarious, isn’t it, because it seems so silly; it’s so counter intuitive. And yet, that may be precisely what the Hebrews at the base of the mountain needed to do----and often what we need to do. Why is that? Because when we act, we act from what we know, our emotional reactions, our understanding of life. But what if God wants to “do a new thing?” What if we wait and listen deeply, instead of repeating the same behaviors again and again?

The Letter to the Hebrews: I find the opening of this passage confusing; the point I think the author may be making is obscured by the analogy of the builder and the house. But clearly, Jesus is set in parallel to Moses (though at a much higher level) as the head of the House of God. Precisely what is meant by that House is unclear to me. For Moses, is it the people? The cult? The Law? All of those things? The House of God presided over by Moses is set parallel to the house that God has built, presided over not by a servant, but by his son, namely: us “if we hold firm.” But this is clear: we are the House of God.

It would seem from the second half of our passage today, the house of God in both cases is the people of God. But we are cautioned not to make the mistake made by the Hebrews in the desert, not to harden our hearts when we are in trouble, not to distrust God. This theme echoes our Deuteronomy reading: we are too quick to judge, too quick to give up on what God is doing. But we are called to wait and watch through troubled times, not merely to react.

The writer counsels us to rest in the “confidence and pride that belong to hope.” It is in this way that we live out our vocation as the House of God, the living structure in which God actively dwells, presided over by the Son, the Logos itself. (What is the pride to which he refers?)

The passage from the Fourth Gospel would seem to contradict the message of waiting quietly in hope! Here we see Jesus at his most “active,” or perhaps at his most “reactive.” Yet at the height of his tirade, he makes a cryptic remark that makes this narrative seem even more bizarre, doubtless further alienating all but his closest disciples.

But what are we to see? On the surface, we are told that this is a prefiguration of his death and resurrection. But there is something more subtle to notice here. The immediate judgment both outsiders and the disciples make miss the point. Understanding of the meaning of the whole episode comes only later, in perspective. Here before us is demonstrated the fact that it is that understanding takes time. Hence, the wisdom of God, the “new thing” of God often requires incubation: confidence and trust that give space to God working in a situation and within us as well.

Environmentally: This is very difficult. Today we face even greater dangers than a week ago, with the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan. Last week the world’s energy crisis and climate change was a very difficult challenge; today it is nearly impossible. And we must act quickly in Japan; and if we are wise, we take the warning of Japan seriously and look carefully at our antiquated nuclear power stations and storage and transport of used fuel rods. Environmental dangers beset us on all sides; and however you look at it, national and economic stability of the world as we currently know it are threatened.

Do we know the way forward? Do we have the time to “just sit there”? Of course not. Experts must act immediately. But most of us, holding all sorts of opinions, can do nothing overtly constructive. Yet we can offer our minds, our hearts, our prayers. It is we who have the luxury to listen for a way forward—without a predetermined commitment to preserve our status quo. Who can hear the divine voice today? What is the word?