Exodus 17:1-7 (first published 27 February 2005)
Several years ago, I was hired to start a branch office in Atlanta for
a company based in Chicago. It was a very exciting time in my life. I
had the responsibility for finding office space, furnishing it with
equipment and supplies, and finding people to do the work. I interviewed
several people for the various positions, and I hired four of them to
start working on an important project. Less than a week after they
started work, I heard two of them yelling at each other in another office.
I immediately went in to see what was the problem, and each of them
proceeded to complain that the other was trying to foist off their own
work onto the other person. The matter was resolved rather easily, but
for the first time in that job (but not the last!) I wondered whether I
was really cut out to be a boss. I really don't like conflict, and my
natural tendency is to avoid it rather than confront it. However, when
you're a leader, you don't always have that option. Moses was faced with
a problem. The people whom he had led out of Egypt were getting tired of
the journey. They wanted to get to the Promised Land already!
They had participated in a miraculous escape from the pharaoh, and they
had witnessed God's provision of manna and quail, yet still they doubted
God and God's chosen leader, Moses. Sure, Moses had provided bread and
meat, but they didn't have anything to wash it down with! Where was the
water? Had it all been a trick? Had Moses really brought them out into
the wilderness to die of thirst? Let's get him! Moses cried out to God,
who told him to strike a rock with his staff and produce water from the
rock. Nothing to it! Moses did as he was instructed, the people's thirst
was quenched, and Moses lived to lead another day. Sometimes when you're
a leader, you may think that you'll never survive the current crisis.
Maybe the stress is just too much and you want to chuck the whole job.
Maybe, despite all your effort, you simply can't figure out a solution to
the problem, so you don't know where to go from here. Maybe you're
dealing with people who have personality conflicts, or even personality
disorders, and you're unsure how to handle the situation. It would be
nice to be able to strike a rock with a stick and solve the problem. (I
should add here that taking a stick to the rock-filled heads of your
antagonists, while perhaps momentarily satisfying, is not an effective
long-term strategy.) In the vast majority of cases, however, there is no
Deus ex machina solution. You're simply going to have to face the
problem and find a solution, even an imperfect one. Most of the time you
will succeed, because you are a leader and God has given you leadership
gifts. Sometimes you will fail, despite the fact that you're a good
leader. Being a leader doesn't guarantee success; what it does mean is
helping others through tough situations, caring for those who work with
you, listening to the advice of others, and making decisions that will
affect other people. If you're a person of faith, being a leader also
means seeking God's guidance and doing your best to follow God's guidance,
to the best of your understanding and ability. If you'll do these things,
you'll be a good leader.
Psalm 95 (first published 27 February 2005)
Paul Maas, a leading scholar of classical texts, says in the first paragraph of his seminal work Textual Criticism, "The business of textual criticism is to produce a text as close as possible to the original." Since the dawn of the modern discipline of textual criticism of the biblical texts, the search for the original text has similarly been the goal of biblical textual critics. In recent years, however, textual scholars who specialize in both Old Testament and New Testament textual criticism have expanded the scope of their study to include examining the use of varying forms of the canonical text in religious communities. As the biblical texts were copied by scribes, they were changed--sometimes accidentally, sometimes intentionally, sometimes perhaps a little of both--and these changed texts were read and heard by congregations of faithful Jews and Christians. Changes that occurred before the texts were standardized (about the second century for Jews' text of the Hebrew Bible, about the fifth century for Christians' text of the New Testament) and that appeared in the standardized texts had far more influence than the earlier, original readings. In all probability, one such reading appears in Psalm 95:7. In the Masoretic Text, the psalmist says, "For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." It is probable that the original reading was something like "For he is our God, and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture," as in Psalm 100:3. Nevertheless, the reading "the sheep of his hand," which at first glance appears somewhat nonsensical, is interesting in the light of the other references to God's hand(s) in the psalm. God's hand holds the depths of the earth. God's hands made the dry land. When the psalm says that we are the sheep of God's hand, it is saying that the same hands that encompass the earth, the same hands that are the creative forces behind all that we see, hold us as well. God holds us, creates us, protects us, feeds us, shelters us, disciplines us, and provides for us, his sheep, with the mighty hands of the Good Shepherd, the King, the Rock that saves us.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti last week for the first time
in seven years. Aristide, a former priest turned politician, became his
country's first elected president in 1991. He was overthrown by a
right-wing coup, supported by the U.S. administration of President
George H. W. Bush. After Bill Clinton became president, Aristide was
restored to office and finished out his term as president in 1996.
After a hiatus, he was elected again and began his second term in 2001,
only to be overthrown once again by a right-wing coalition supported by
the U.S., this time with George W. Bush as president. It is both ironic
and sad that former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, whose
repressive regime was overthrown prior to Aristide's first election as
president, was allowed to return to Haiti a few months before Aristide.
The reception Aristide received from the people, however, was jubilant,
for Aristide is widely considered the father of his country. The
Haitian people have endured much suffering through the years. The
western third of the island of Hispaniola was settled by the Spanish and
French and became a French colony in 1697. Slaves imported from Africa
worked the land for rich French landowners, until a slave revolt--the
first successful slave revolt in history--overthrew the French in 1804.
Nevertheless, despite nominal independence, France imposed on the
Haitian government an immense bill for reparations, which continued to
cripple the economy for more than two centuries. After a series of
repressive dictators, the Haitian people have experienced democracy in
spurts, most recently going through yet another fraudulent election
earlier this year. In addition to their economic and political
suffering, Haiti has experienced numerous natural disasters, including
hurricanes, earthquakes, and severe environmental degradation. Most
recently a massive earthquake stuck Haiti in January 2010, killing more
than 300,000 people. The earthquake was followed by a cholera epidemic
that killed several thousand, followed in turn by yet another hurricane.
In today's reading from Romans, Paul tells his readers, "suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character
produces hope." If that's true, the Haitian people must be among the
world's most hopeful people. Paul goes on to say that hope does not
disappoint. He is speaking theologically, of course, and in general
terms. Everyone knows that not all who suffer learn to endure, and not
all who endure hardship develop strong, positive characters. Still,
especially among people of faith, suffering and endurance do often
result in hope. Some of the people around the world who have suffered
the most are shining examples of endurance, paragons of hope. I've had
many mission experiences in third world countries, and one of the things
I learned early on is best expressed by one of the people who
accompanied me on more than one trip. "People think they come to places
like this in order to save the people who are here. The truth is, we
come because we need to be saved." Yes, we rich Americans (and the odd
Australian) on these trips offered our labor, our money, and our
education to help our hosts, but what we received from them was just as
important. On these trips, and in other types of mission experiences
with the economically disadvantaged, I learned that people can be happy
without all the things we think we need to survive in the developed
world. I learned that the poor take just as much pride in a job well
done as those of us who are better off financially. And I learned that
the poor understand that they are poor because of injustice in their
country and in the larger world community, but they nevertheless have
hope that their children and grandchildren will be able to overcome
their poverty and enjoy more of the benefits that so many of us take for
granted.
John 4:5-42 (first published 27 February 2005)
How do people respond when they hear the voice of God? One reaction that occurs in the Bible is to fall on one's face to the ground. Another is to run away in fear. Still another is to blather inanely on some theological topic, as though that were what the occasion required. Peter's reaction to Jesus' transfiguration is one example of this last reaction. The Samaritan woman's is another. When Jesus asks her for a drink of water, she is surprised, both because it was unusual for a man to talk to an unrelated woman in public and because he is a Jew and she is a Samaritan. When she comments on the situation, Jesus responds by offering her living water so that she will never be thirsty again. When she accepts his offer for the living water, he tells her to call her husband. When she says she has no husband, Jesus reveals an awareness of her life story, including her five marriages and her current relationship. At that point the woman recognizes that she is hearing the voice of God, and she believes Jesus to be a prophet. How does she respond to the divine voice? She decides to discuss theology! Now there's nothing wrong with discussing theology, or even debating theology, but there is a right time and a wrong time, and when you hear God speaking to you in some way, that's the wrong time. When you hear a divine message for yourself, you need to listen and obey, not debate the fine points of theology. But that's exactly what the Samaritan woman did. Jews and Samaritans had different understandings of the proper location of the temple--who was right? Those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth, Jesus replied. The physical location made no difference. Another theological idea occurred to the woman. The Samaritans had a tradition that the taheb, another prophet like Moses, would come to deliver the people, and she knew that the Jews had a similar belief in the messiah. When Jesus told her that he was the messiah, she believed and told all her friends. The Samaritan woman's attempt to discuss theology with Jesus is somewhat comical, especially because she uses the discussion as a diversion from Jesus' negative comment on her lifestyle. However, it reveals a great blind spot that many people today still have. They think that God is only interested in certain areas of life, particularly religion and theology, and as long as we're correct in our beliefs and rituals, we're right with God. However, God is interested in every area of life. Jesus himself said that God cared about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and the Bible tells many other things of a non-religious nature that God is interested in. God cares about the poor. God wants justice to reign on earth. God wants people to be in right relationships with one another. God wants people to care for the earth, which after all belongs to God. God is opposed to all forms of discrimination. These issues are not what usually comes to mind when thinking of theology, but maybe that's because our definition of theology is too limited. God wants us to listen and obey, as the Samaritan woman ultimately did, but God also wants us to think and talk about theology, in the broadest sense of the term. God isn't as interested in the minutiae of theology or religious practice--should we use drums in worship? is the eucharist literally the body and blood of Christ, or only a symbol, or some mysterious combination of the two? God is more interested in weightier matters, such as justice and mercy. Have you thought about theology today? Are you talking to your friends about what God is revealing to you?