non-metaphysical stephen

Back in August I wrote some observations and concerns about Ezra’s decree that the people of Israel put away their foreign wives.

Today, while working on a book review, I read an article about that same passage and how it relates to modern African-American readers. The article, “Reflections in an Interethnic/racial Era on Interethnic/racial Marriage in Ezra” by Cheryl B. Anderson, outlines the ways in which the text claims to be about religious purity but in fact promotes cultural divisions along racial, class and gender lines.

Anderson states that Ezra’s emphasis on genealogical purity is actually more severe than earlier Hebrew restrictions on group membership, since earlier texts focused on ritual and/or moral purity, both of which are more amenable than Ezra’s position towards the inclusion of non-Hebrews. Anderson also argues that the decree exacerbated class differences, many of which come to a crisis during the time of Nehemiah. Similarly, she notes the asymmetry of the divorce ban–it affects wives more than husbands; Anderson connects this problem with a more widespread use of “women as Other” throughout the scriptures.

It’s nice to see that I wasn’t off track in my concerns about the implications of the text.

At the same time, Anderson demonstrates the parallels between Ezra’s decree and the anti-miscegenation laws in the United States, many of which were defended by theological arguments that deflected attention from the racial, class and gender problems that accompanied them. Thus, she claims, black readers have good reason to identify more with the divorced wives than with Ezra and his followers. If this is so, then modern readings of the texts need to pay attention to these issues lest they reinscribe the problems we have tried so hard to overcome.

As of my count, today (2 Jan.) is the 9th day of Christmas. So there are still (counting today) four days left in the Christmas season.

The season is so odd to me. We spend so much time and energy preparing for it (during Advent), that once the season actually arrives, I’m not clear what we’re supposed to do. And then it gets interrupted by New Year’s (which for the church is the first Sunday of Advent, so it’s not our holiday)–and by football (which I don’t watch, but I know a lot of folks do).

It seems like we spend half the season recovering from Christmas Day, and the last part recovering from New Year’s. And all in all, the season is over so quickly, I’m never sure it really existed. Was there any spiritual growth occurring? Was there any spiritual ANYTHING occurring? If there was, it may be in spite of the season, not because of it.

There has to be a better way to celebrate the 12 days of the Christmas season! How can we make it more substantial?

My dad recently noticed that one of the Christmas albums we listen to every year has a bit of a “mixed-message” (his term–and what an understatement!). One of the lyrics goes:

Let us thank the Lord above that Santa Claus is coming tonight!

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

As one of my online colleagues put it, non-believers have taken the holiday and made it fit their own purposes. I guess the real war on Christmas comes not from the Jews and Muslims and Pagans who have different festivals altogether, but from the semi-faithful who prefer their American commercialist traditions over the penitential season developed by the Church over centuries.

I’ve said it for years now: Save Christ from Christmas!

Today I was driving to my parent’s house, and I got lost — 60 mile detour….

I fear this resembles my spiritual life of late….

The thing I’ve been having trouble with lately is realizing that there is no contradiction between the Cosmic God and the Personal God.

It’s not a problem for God to keep his eye on 6 billion individuals and 13.5+billion light-years of space. It’s only a problem to my limited mind.

From Ezekiel 34 — a good lesson on what we should be doing as priests of the Lord Most High:

Thus says the Lord God:

“Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.”

May we be faithful to do all that God desires of us. Amen.

Daily Reading Bible (ESV Bible Online).

…the electron and the pulsar.

As I wrestle with the vastness of the universe (Pascal’s abyss) and what that means about our place in it, this thought has become part of my statement of faith. For a God who can follow the electron in its path is surely able to notice us here on tiny planet….

Hmm, didn’t Jesus have a parable about this kind of situation?

Judge blasts bad bank, erases 525G debt - NYPOST.com.

Suffolk Judge Jeffrey Spinner wiped out $525,000 in mortgage payments demanded by a California bank, blasting its “harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive” acts.

The bombshell decision leaves Diane Yano-Horoski and her husband, Greg Horoski, owing absolutely no money on their ranch house in East Patchogue.

Spinner pulled no punches as he smacked down the bankers at OneWest — who took an $814.2 million federal bailout but have a record of coldbloodedly foreclosing on any homeowner owing money.

Ezekiel 16.49:

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Pride, excess, prosperity, but no charity.

How many of us does that describe?

…I found Christ and left the GOP: because they lack charity.

And if we have not charity….

Promises, Promises | Christianity Today

I’ve known about The Political Illusion but didn’t know much about what he says in it until it showed up in my Google Search results a few days back. Tonight I found this discussion of the book from Christianity Today, a magazine I generally have very little in common with other than being a Christian and living “today.” (The article is by Chuck Colson, with whom I also have very little in common. The fact that he wrote this piece almost makes me suspicious of how he’s using Ellul, who had some harsh things to say about conservative Christians.)

From the article, it seems that Ellul focuses on the problem of relying on government for everything. Although I’m critical of all the accusations of socialism (mostly because I feel that the free market is screwing people over and that something needs to change), I recognize that we can’t simply turn everything over to the government. This idea is one I’ve believed for a while, but I must admit that I’ve been reluctant to give any credence to the paranoiacs on the right.

I’m trying to keep my critical distance with all the policy debates going on, and hearing this idea from someone I trust intellectually (Ellul) helps. The church needs to take a stand for human rights, needs to stand up for the people who are getting squeezed by the capitalist system. But how to do this without simply leaving everything up to the government.

I’m convinced that an unregulated free market will continue to be a bad thing. But I don’t want the theocrats getting into office either. So what’s the option for the church to follow that can set an example of how to fix the system without relying more and more on the government?

Thought from today’s Bible Reading:  When Isaiah said “Send me!”, did he know the message was going to be so dark?

From Isaiah 8.8-13:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”

And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is a desolate waste,
and the Lord removes people far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.

Thanks to the numerous shows on television about the Universe, I’m having to face some problems with my conception of God. As I realize just how big and incomprehensible the universe is, its harder for me to understand how God can both see all things and yet pay attention to us as individuals. The Cosmic God and the Personal God seem harder to reconcile within the same Person.

Yet, I recall C.S. Lewis pointing out (in God in the Dock) that the church has always known this–that the standard astronomy text for most of European history (Ptolemy’s Almagest) points out that the earth is no bigger than a point in comparison with the rest of the cosmos. And I recall Pascal’s confession that the recent discoveries about the size of the universe can be terrifying for those who believe in God.

So it’s not a new problem, and it’s not insurmountable.

What I need to do is to rethink my notions of God to include the vastness of time and space. Rather than let the problem of infinity become a problem, I need to change my notions of God to incorporate what we now know to be plainly true about the size of creation. I guess I’ve been keeping God in too small a box–well, any box would be too small.

How do I reconcile this much vaster God with the personal God who dwells among us? Recently I’ve been turning more to Christ Jesus: the one whose life testifies to me about God. It’s not enough for me to have conceptions of God as omniscient, omnipresent, etc. I need to remember that my faith is not built on definitions but on the historical example of Christ. My faith in God has to stem from my faith in what God has done here on earth, among the Hebrews, among the disciples, among all the saints, and most especially through the person of Jesus.

May the God who watches the pulsars and quasars give me the faith and the wisdom to understand his presence here in our midst.

Through Christ our LORD,

Amen.

It seems to me (from my layman’s perspective) that what Michel de Certeau describes in his Practice of Everyday Life is what’s happening here with the banking industry and the bailout: The banks aren’t interested in reform; they’re interested in weathering the storm and preserving their profits and their power. Unless they are forced to make radical changes to their policies, they’ll make only superficial alterations–just enough to get them through this recession, like using duct tape on old pipes.

And for some reason, churches aren’t active enough in calling these folks out. Probably because we rely too much on them, both in terms of church investments and in terms of having them as members/tithers.

Archbishop of Canterbury: Repent, bankers

Anglican spiritual leader fears financial industry has not changed

Archbishop Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, said in an interview Tuesday that he senses a feeling of “diffused resentment” against bankers for failing to accept responsibility and that the government should act to cap bonus payments.

“There hasn’t been a feeling of closure about what happened last year,” Williams said in an interview on BBC television.

“There hasn’t been what I would, as a Christian, call repentance. We haven’t heard people saying ‘well actually, no, we got it wrong and the whole fundamental principle on which we worked was unreal, was empty.’”

I recall my first experience with Ramadan: I was a junior in college, living in an apartment at the Wesley Foundation on campus, and the center had rented out the meeting space in front of my apartment for Ramadan prayers. If I recall correctly, it was also Rosh Hashanah AND my birthday–I wonder if that was a sign for me about my own future as a scholar working on religion and diversity issues?

Va. synagogue doubles as mosque during Ramadan

The partnership isn’t entirely new. The two communities have held occasional events together going back a decade: dialogues and community service. Still, some members of both communities were unsure of how things would work at first.

“When they rented the place, I was surprised, but then after that when I came here and saw how nicely everything is set up and how well done it is … I am very happy with it,” said mosque member Ambreen Ahmed.

Now, mosque members sometimes greet the rabbi with the Hebrew greeting “Shalom”; he’ll answer back with the Arabic equivalent, “Salaam.” Nosanchuk spoke at Friday afternoon prayers recently. The imam spoke at Friday evening Shabbat services.

Both groups say the relationship won’t be over when Ramadan ends in North America over the weekend. The rabbi and imam are talking about possibly even making a joint trip to the Middle East, and Friday prayers will still be held at the synagogue.

Magid says some mosque members, in fact, have permanently moved from the mosque to the synagogue.

Something similar is happening among Christians as well:

Muslims find new Ramadan fast partners: Christians

Ries is among a small group of Christians who’ve joined well-known evangelical author and speaker Brian McLaren in observing a Ramadan fast, opening a new chapter in interfaith relations between two traditions often at odds.

To McLaren and his Christian and Muslim fasting partners, it’s a neighborly gesture of solidarity that deepens their respective faiths and sends a message about finding peace and common ground.

[...] McLaren, 53, is the godfather of the “emerging” or “emergent” church, a loose-knit movement that seeks to recover ancient Christian worship practices and, in some cases, question traditional evangelical theology.

[...]In announcing his Ramadan fast plans on his blog last month, McLaren wrote, “We are not doing so in order to become Muslims: we are deeply committed Christians. But as Christians, we want to come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them.” The goal is to join Muslims in the observance as “a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship and neighborliness,” he wrote.

McLaren, a former pastor, said his Ramadan fast is also part of his post-9-11 worldview.

“Some Christians in the U.S. are becoming more anti-Muslim,” he said in an interview. “They are retrenching in a fearful, angry posture. Other Christians are saying now, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, we have to recommit ourselves to the work of peacemaking like never before. That has been my response.”

Here’s the message I wish I could get across to all the conservative folks who try to use Christianity to explain their political policies:

1. Do you follow the Constitution or the Bible?
2. Do you trust in the Founding Fathers or in Jesus?
3. Do you serve the USA or the Realm of God?
4. Are you a citizen or a priest?

You can’t serve two masters. It’s time to pick one.

That’d be my billboard. What’d be on yours?

Next month our church has a couple of activities centered around the life and ministry of St. Francis,one of the greatest figures in church history. I thought it would be nice to include in the church newsletter one of the best known stories about him–the Wolf of Gubbio. What follows is my paraphrase of the story, which is found in chapter 21 of The Little Flowers of St. Francis by Brother Ugolino. (more…)

Sometimes I wonder if the modern Republican party is the worst threat to American Christianity….

I’m really having a hard time pinning down the reasons for my own disgust of and anger with the GOP. I honestly can’t stand to hear them on TV or the radio–I don’t want to give their ideas any credence at all. My partner thinks this is hypocritical, so I’m trying to ensure that I have good reason for my radical avoidance.

In short, I have two reasons for not even wanting to listen to the conservative pundits:

1. I don’t trust them. They have twisted the truth for years, and they have admitted they aren’t interested in working on any of the Democratic platforms. Their whole effort these days seems to be to ensure that the Democrats fail. They don’t want to help citizens; they simply want to regain power. This disgusts me. So I don’t trust anything they say.
2. (And I hope this is more important:) As a Christian, I disagree with their goals. I don’t see Jesus in the GOP’s platform. I don’t see how they are modeling the Realm of God. I only see a bunch of Pharisees (the devout but judgmental types) and Sadducees (the non-believing church types) who want to exert control over the culture. As a Christian, I simply can’t accept what they want this country to look like.

Quite honestly, I think the GOP and the Religious Right have made an idol out of the country (the “we’re the greatest nation ever” motif). I think they care more about the USA than about the Realm of God. I’m sure the progressives do the same thing, but they usually aren’t claiming to speak for the Word of God either. (And I do need to watch that I don’t equate the Democrats and Progressives with God’s will.)

I want to be concerned more with God’s people than with the nation. As a Christian, my citizenship is in God’s country; the USA means little to me other than a temporary homeland. I am less concerned with preserving democracy and capitalism than I am with working to ensure that all people can be treated fairly and not be oppressed by those in power. And I don’t see that as the goal of the GOP–instead, I see them laying burdens on the weak and exalting themselves.

May God heal the divisions among us. May God deliver us from bad leaders and raise us up to be people of light, truth and universal fellowship. And may God have mercy on this nation and lead us into charity and humility.

In Christ,

Amen.

Wow — today’s reading from Nehemiah and Luke follows up on the issues I discussed in my “Jesus v? Ezra” post a few days back….

Nehemiah continues Ezra’s focus on ethnic purity:

On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.

This is a painful passage for those of us who seek to follow the Mosaic command to welcome the stranger. But in these verses, we are told… (more…)

Today’s sermon was on the Epistle reading: Ephesians 4.25-5.2:

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Lots of food for thought in the passage (and in the sermon!), but (our pastor) Bob’s discussion of one verse in particular really jumped out at me: (more…)

From today’s reading:

Passage: nehemiah 5 ESV Bible Online.

When I read this passage, I thought of the way so many of us today are trapped and abused by our employers, our bankers, our credit card and insurance brokers:

I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.”

And I held a great assembly against them and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!”

They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.”

It is not good that we should profit at the expense of others. May God show us how to prosper by treating one another fairly, with compassion and generosity, and may God use us to testify to the world of the ways of God. Amen.

For several years now, I’ve tried to counter people’s notions that holiness means “purity” in the sense of (moral) cleanness. The Hebrew and Greek words don’t connote cleanness, but rather separateness: things that are holy are “set apart.” So in the scriptural discussions of temple utensils, they are set apart for worship and not to be “defiled” by being used for other purposes. They still get dirty, but they get dirty only in service of the Living God.

So my usual analogy is your parents’ holiday china–the plates, glasses and silverware that only came out for special occasions. This china is “set apart” for particular use. You’re not going to use it for that microwave dinner you’re going to scarf down before jetting out the door; you have “ordinary” dishware for that. No, this china is reserved for special uses.

And so are we: we are set apart for God’s uses, and not for the common usage of the world.

But I’ve been wondering how to describe what that worldly usage is. Here’s a quick example of what I’ve come up with:

• The world seeks a combination of power, wealth, luxury, pleasure, etc.
• The world gets these things through deceit, manipulation, violence, etc.

So to say that we are set apart from the world–set apart for God’s service–means that we are called to avoid those worldly goals and those wordly methods. That is what it will look like when we live lives of holiness.

And may we be truly set apart from the world for the service of God, through the Spirit of Christ Jesus,

Amen.

And I say, Right on, Brother Frank!

Far-Right Evangelicals And The Campaign Against Obama

Above all, ordinary Americans—and especially religious people who seek faith rather than power—need to understand that the evangelical right is basically unpatriotic and anti-American.

As I have said before, the Religious Right has turned the nation into an idol and now worships the scriptures of The Constitution and The Wealth of Nations. So I’d say they’re also un-Christian….

May God deliver us from all who advocate nationalism in place of the humility and charity of Christ. Amen!

I love reading stories like this one:

LA priest’s mission: Saving flock from foreclosure

CHRISTINA HOAG, AP

A priest’s typical mission is saving souls, but the Rev. John Lasseigne has a more down-to-earth goal — saving homes.

That’s like trying to work a miracle in Lasseigne’s Roman Catholic parish of Pacoima, a blue-collar corner of the San Fernando Valley where bank sale signs sprout faster than weeds. One in nine homes is in default, making it one of the nation’s hardest hit towns in the foreclosure crisis.

“We’re talking thousands of foreclosures,” said the 44-year-old priest at Mary Immaculate Church. “I was stunned.”

Lasseigne has gone from praying for parishioners to lobbying politicians and negotiating with lenders on their behalf. His daily discourse is as likely to include talk of balloon payments and negative amortization as Hail Marys and The Lord’s Prayer. Meetings with banks rather than bishops fill his agenda.

It’s great to see clergy members taking their ministries from the sanctuary out into the world:

“Works of justice are an integral part of the priesthood,” the lanky priest said. “We have to take stands in aiding the needy and denouncing the injustices of society. The financial entrapment that was part of this was unbelievable.”

It reminds me of one of my pastor’s favorite sayings: We have been raised for such a time as this–Rev. Lasseigne certainly seems to have been:

Still, delving into the fine print of mortgage finance may seem highly unusual for someone who will probably never have to worry about buying his own house. Lasseigne, however, is well qualified. Before entering the seminary, he graduated from law school and knew how to read contracts.

That knowledge, a passion for social justice and a priest’s role — in a parish so devout that two Masses are said daily and nine on Sunday, all but one in Spanish — have made him the foreclosure-fighting father.

May God bless his work and make him fruitful. And may God raise up more clergy to fight for the rights of their parishioners against the practices of companies that would take advantage of the weak. Amen!

There’s an odd juxtaposition of texts in my online daily Bible readings. Today’s reading includes Ezra 10, the passage in which the people of Israel, having been rebuked by Ezra, agree to put away their non-Hebrew wives.

Before I get to the second passage, let me make a few comments: (more…)