Saturday Night Theologian
28 November 2010

Isaiah 2:1-5 (first published 28 November 2004)

Out of the ashes of World War II the nations of the world came together with the goal of creating a lasting peace. War had ravaged many parts of the world repeatedly during the previous century, and the advent of the nuclear age was a harbinger of death on a previously unimagined scale. The League of Nations, born after World War I, had failed to bring peace to the world, but delegates from around the world remained convinced that an international peace organization was vital for the survival of the human race. The negotiations led to the creation of the United Nations. The preamble to the U.N. Charter spells out its goals:

We the peoples of the United Nations determined and for these ends have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.
To stress the organization's focus on ending war, the cornerstone of the U.N. headquarters in New York City bears an inscription from the book of Isaiah: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their speaks into pruning hooks." The message of today's reading from Isaiah is clear: God desires a world where warfare, hatred, and internecine conflict are replaced by peace. Anything short of peace fails to meet God's standard for human behavior. The preamble quoted above allows nations to take up arms only "in the common interest." Despite this pledge, nations which have signed on to the U.N. charter frequently violate their commitment to the charter by waging war and acting belligerently toward their neighbors. The U.N. is not a perfect organization, and the structure and procedures of the U.N. often leave something to be desired, but the organization's stance in favor of peace is something that all people, and certainly all Christians, should applaud. It is a tragedy that so many Christians, both those who hold political office and those who elected them to office, oppose the mission of the U.N., believing that unbridled nationalism is the answer to the world's problems. They are wrong: nationalism is just a collective version of individual selfishness, and it will never lead to peace, only to more conflict. As we begin the observance of the Advent season, Christians who stand for peace must remind the world--and our fellow Christians--that we follow the Prince of Peace. Although we should evaluate all local, national, and international bodies, including the U.N., critically, we should also support all efforts to bring an end to warfare all over the globe. Let us commit ourselves anew to support those leaders who are working for the establishment of peace and justice in our world and to oppose those whose primary interest lies in expanding their own nation's power over their neighbors.

Psalm 122 (first published 28 November 2004)

Psalm 122 is a song that pilgrims would sing on their way to one of the annual feasts that were celebrated in Jerusalem. These worshipers saw Jerusalem as a place where God's people could gather to offer sacrifice to God and worship God corporately. If the psalm is postexilic, as it most likely is, Jerusalem was no longer the center of political power for the nation, for no king sat on the throne of David, but it was exclusively the center of religious observance, for there stood the temple, which Jews saw as the seat of God. Other religious traditions have their own sacred places. For Muslims, Mecca is the holy city and the primary place of pilgrimage for the faithful. For Samaritans, it is the remains of the temple on Mt. Gerizim, near Nablus. For Christians, holy sites include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Rome, especially St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Other sacred places include the Black Hills of South Dakota (for some Native American tribes), Uluru (Ayer's Rock) in Australia (for Australian Aborigines), the sacred city of Lhasa in Tibet (for Tibetan Buddhists), and the Ganges River in India (for Hindus). What makes a place sacred to a group of people? Places are sacred because they are closely associated in some way with the deity, and worshipers have encountered God there. Many modern followers of God don't believe that any particular place is more holy than another, but they can still respect the beliefs of those who do recognize one place or another as sacred. Furthermore, many of them have their own personal places in which they have encountered God and which are special to them. Where have you encountered God in a real and powerful way? A church building? A retreat center? A mountain? The ocean? A forest? The desert? A concert hall? A museum? In a conversation with friends? In a place of ministry? Regardless of whether you recognize one or more places as being especially sacred or whether you have experienced God's presences in a variety of places, you can probably relate to the psalmist's sentiment: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!'" Encounter with the divine is one of the centerpieces of religion; some would say it is the goal of religion. Sometimes we experience God most strongly in a worship service, sometimes during a pilgrimage to a sacred or special site, sometimes during ministry in the name of God. All worship experiences or pilgrimages or ministry opportunities may not result in deeply felt encounters with God, but they all have that potential. When we feel discouraged, or tired, or even unsure of our faith, that is not the time to abandon our quest for the divine, for it is in those times that we need to experience God the most. Luckily for us, it is also in those times that God often seems most inclined to appear to us.

Romans 13:11-14

Two of the protagonists in Carson McCullers's book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter engage in a fierce argument over the question of what needs to be done to awaken the U.S. in the 1930s to the injustice that plagues the poor, and especially African Americans in the South. Dr. Benedict Copeland, a black physician who has spent his life caring for the black populace in his town, thinks a march of a thousand Negroes to Washington, DC, will force the government to acknowledge the unequal treatment of his people and to take steps to ameliorate the situation. Jake Blount, a white man, sees things differently. He has no trust in government, which he sees as run by the rich entirely for the sake of the rich. His proposed solution is to publicize among the working class a recent act of brutality against three incarcerated black men (one of them Dr. Copeland's son), so that the poor will rise up in revolt against the plutocratic system. Despite their disagreements as to strategy, both agree with Paul's assertion, "It is now the moment for you to wake from sleep." Too many people in developed countries are living dream lives, reminiscent of the inhabitants of the Matrix. Injustice swirls around them, and they are either oblivious or unconcerned. However, it is possible to awaken them, or as my friends in South Africa used to say, to become conscientized. When we acknowledge the need for people to be awakened, we realize that people are in various states of slumber. Some are completely unaware of the injustice around them because they go through life with blinders on, rarely if ever seeing the suffering of others, except perhaps for family members and close friends. Others admit that suffering occurs, but they dispute that there are many who suffer, or they think that most who suffer do so because of their own weakness, laziness, or sin. Others agree that people sometimes suffer through no fault of their own, but they think that such situations are fairly rare or are limited to people living in poor countries. Some see injustice around them but believe that only prayer will help. Others see injustice and complain about it but never do anything else. Still others see injustice and do what they can do to help individuals who are suffering, without acknowledging the structural nature of injustice in society. Finally, some people understand that injustice is not merely an acute problem but is chronic in our world. Injustice is indeed perpetrated by evil or uncaring individuals, but it is also built into many of the systems that characterize the modern world, in the developed as well as the underdeveloped world. When the poor, and sometimes the middle class, cannot access adequate health care, something is wrong with the structure of society. When dictators exploit their people and the world community's seemingly only option is to declare war, something is wrong with the structure of society. When a downturn in the economy causes the poor to suffer disproportionately, something is wrong with the structure of society. When the richest 1% of the population in the U.S. makes more than the poorest 50%, something is wrong with the structure of society. When multinational corporations are accorded the same rights as actual people, something is wrong with the structure of society. When billions of dollars are spent fighting a "war on drugs" but both drug abuse and the violence associated with narcotrafficking increases, something is wrong with the structure of society. I could go on and on, because examples of structural problems that lead to injustice abound, and these few are only representative. As progressive Christians, we must be concerned not only with the suffering of individuals in our world, but we must also address the larger causes of suffering, namely, unjust structures in society. But before we can do that, we must first be aware of the true nature of injustice in the world. In other words, we must wake from our sleep.

Matthew 24:36-44 (first published 28 November 2004)

The story of The Cat in the Hat involves a playful cat, two somewhat reluctant children, and a very reluctant fish. The children are bored on a rainy day, so the cat shows up to entertain them, and the end result is a huge mess inside the house. The cat meant no harm, but the mother's footsteps on the sidewalk indicate that the time of visitation is at hand. Amazingly, however, the cat, using an incredible contraption, manages to clean up the mess and get out the door before the mother reaches the front door. According to Jesus, the coming of the Son of Man will be even more sudden than the kids' mother's footsteps falling on the sidewalk. It will be sudden and unexpected (by most), and it will affect ordinary people who are at work in the fields and at the grindstone. Jesus says that one will be taken and the other left. Those who believe in the doctrine of the rapture point to this passage as proof of their beliefs. However, those in the field and at the mill who are taken are not taken to paradise; they are taken away in judgment, as the context demonstrates (cf. v. 39). There are two key ideas in this passage. The first is that no one, not even the Son, knows the exact time of Christ's return. The second is the simple command, "Keep awake!" The implications of the first idea on the doctrine of the Trinity will have to wait for another time. More important are the implications for the idea on those who interpret certain biblical prophecies in very specific ways, including suggested dates for the Parousia. If Jesus himself didn't know the schedule of his own return, why should people today believe that they can figure it out? The command to keep awake continues to be applicable today. In many ways, it is even more applicable today than ever before. The increasing lethality of human weapons has not been matched by an increase in human wisdom and respect for other people, so the time we live in is more dangerous than any ever before faced by the human race. The Cold War doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) continues, despite the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and the advent of democracy and capitalism to many parts of the globe. Earlier generations of Christians were often content to exegete the scriptures, but that is no longer enough. We must also exegete the world around us. The pages of the Bible are not the exclusive "playground" of God, for God is also at work in all parts of the world, and it is our duty as God's followers to divine truth from error, to discern the work of God from the work of humans, whose inclination is evil (Genesis 6:5). Like the children in Dr. Seuss's story, it is easy to get caught up in the situation, knowing that something is not quite right (as the fish said, "He should not be here when your mother is out!"), but failing to take decisive action until it is apparently too late. No one who is paying attention can deny that the world is in a mess, and the mess is getting worse. The indicators are there: species of plants and animals are going extinct at an unprecedented rate; the polar ice caps are melting; knowledge of nuclear weapons is spreading; the human population is booming; autocratic rulers are leading some of the most powerful nations in the world; nationalism is running rampant; wealth is concentrated more and more in the hands of a few powerful families and multinational corporations; viruses and bacteria are mutating at a faster rate than advances in medicine can (or will) keep up; wars are continuing almost unabated. Now is no time to sleep. Progressive Christians need to read the signs of the times in the light of their understanding of God's will as revealed in the Bible and throughout history. Above all, we need to heed the words of Jesus: Keep awake!