Unrest in the Arab world that began in Tunisia and spread to Egypt
continues in countries such as Libya, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, and Bahrain.
Non-Arab Iran has also experienced protests. It is unclear whether the
people calling for reform in the various countries all seek to install
democratic governments, though some clearly do. When the U.S. joined
the U.N., NATO, the Arab League, and the African Union in imposing a
no-fly zone over Libya, President Obama took heat from Americans on the
left and the right, for a variety of different and mutually
contradictory reasons. I'm generally opposed to war as a means to solve
problems, for a number of reasons, not least of which, from a purely
pragmatic standpoint, is that war often creates more problems than it
solves. I'm particularly opposed to the indiscriminant killing of
people from a distance by means of missiles and bombs, because
noncombatants are regularly killed. In an ideal world, war would never
be necessary, because rogue leaders of countries wouldn't hold office
but would be deposed by legal means by a police force rather than an
army. The unjust structures of our world, however, sometimes require
the use of force to prevent greater injustices, such as the wholesale
slaughter of a megalomaniacal ruler's enemies. Such rulers need to be
removed from office before they can carry out their evil plans. Today's
reading from 1 Samuel is interesting, because it shows the prophet
Samuel in his role of political activist, calling for the overthrow of
the current ruler and anointing his successor. It was a dangerous
assignment, as the ruse of the sacrifice used as a cover to the
anointing indicates. One of the implications of this story is that God
is concerned about justice, and furthermore God expects leaders of
people to work for justice. As this story indicates, God has no qualms
about replacing one God-anointed king with another (see also Jeroboam
later). As people of faith, we too should strive for justice in the
world, not primarily through warfare but, if at all possible, through
peaceful means. This story also suggests that it is wrong to become too
enamored with any given leader, because, like Saul, that leader might
end up disappointing us. No leader is perfect, and leaders will
sometimes make decisions that we disagree with, sometimes profoundly.
For that reason it is important to remember our ideals of justice and
fairness, which transcend both the character of any leader and the
ability of any leader to implement, given the opposition of individuals
and groups with entrenched interests in maintaining the unjust
structures of society for their own benefit. Samuel anointed Saul, and
when Saul failed to live up to his promise, Samuel anointed David.
David likewise failed from time to time--and he is presented by the
biblical writers as the ideal ruler!--but God's desires for justice
never fails, and neither should our desire for justice, even in the
imperfect world we live in.
Psalm 23 (first published 6 March 2005)
About 1880, when Robert Dick Wilson was 25 years old, he made up his
mind to prove the veracity of the Old Testament scriptures. Based on the
lifespans of his immediate ancestors, he estimated that he would probably
live to be about 70 years old, so he calculated that he had about 45 years
left. He decided to divide the remainder of his life into three
fifteen-year segments. During the first he would study every language
that had a bearing on the text or background of the Old Testament. He
would spend the next fifteen years investigating the Old Testament itself.
Finally, he would devote the next fifteen years to publishing his
conclusions. Indeed he did publish voluminously, and conservative Bible
students to this day appreciate much of his work. His life was a prime
example of one that was well planned out and executed. Most people don't
have their lives planned out to nearly the same degree as Wilson, or if
they do, they find that somewhere along the way they deviate rather
seriously from their plan. "Midway on our life's journey, I found myself
in dark woods, the right road lost." I suspect that most people can
relate to these opening words from Dante's Inferno better than they
can relate to Wilson's example. Like the character in his narrative,
Dante himself felt lost in the middle of his life, having been expelled
from his native Florence and sentenced to roam the land as an exile.
Dante's protagonist wanders from the right path, and to escape the attacks
of fierce beasts--leopard, lion, and wolf--he enters the gates of Hell.
Fortunately, he is not abandoned there, for providence has supplied him
with a guide, the poet Virgil, and he successfully navigates the circles
of Hell and emerges in Purgatory, eventually to enter Heaven. The
psalmist similarly describes a journey which humans must take, and like
Dante, he knows that we need a guide to make it successfully to the end.
If the psalm is read as a picture of life's journey, one can see
interesting parallels between the beginning of that journey and its end.
The good shepherd at the beginning of life leads us to lie down in green
pastures where there is plenty of food, while at the end of life he
prepares a table for us. For drink, the shepherd leads us beside still
waters at the beginning, and at the end he fills our cup to overflowing.
For personal comfort, the psalmist says that the shepherd restores his
soul at the beginning of the journey, whereas at the end he anoints the
psalmist's head with oil. At the beginning, the psalmist says, "He leads
me in right paths," and at the end, "I shall dwell in the house of the
Lord forever"; in both cases, God is right there with the psalmist. When
I was a young seminary student, like Robert Dick Wilson I had my life
pretty much planned out. I was going to get my Ph.D. and teach in
seminary for the rest of my life. As it turns out, my life didn't work
out that way. Now halfway through my life's journey, I look back and see
that life has led in directions I never would have imagined. In some ways
life has been better than I imagined, and in other ways it has been more
difficult, but it has certainly been different. Now I work at a job that
didn't even exist twenty years ago when I was in seminary, and I teach in
an institution that is quite different than I envisioned back then, but I
wouldn't trade the life I've had for the one I imagined, not in a million
years. The reason I wouldn't is that all along the way God has been
leading me, sometimes in ways that were blindingly obvious, sometimes in
ways that were apparent only in retrospect. God was there in the
beginning, God was with me during times when I sometimes felt like an
exile, and God is with me now. That's the message of the twenty-third
psalm to me as I contemplate where I've been and where I'm going. At the
beginning of the journey, at its end, and everywhere in between, God is
with us.
Ephesians 5:8-14 (first published 6 March 2005)
Mani was born about the year 216 in Mesopotamia. He was raised as a
member of the Elkesaite sect, a group descended from followers of John the
Baptist but heavily influenced by Gnosticism. Mani was only 12 years old
when he received his first revelation from the Holy Spirit. Twelve years
later he had another vision, calling him to preach a gospel of extreme
dualism. Mani proclaimed that there were two worlds, one of light and
another of darkness. As the apostle of light, Mani urged his followers to
forsake the darkness and seek the light. He was enormously successful in
his evangelistic efforts, and he eventually suffered martyrdom at the
hands of the Magi, Zoroastrian priests jealous of the influence the
Manicheans were gaining in the Parthian Empire. Mani was familiar with
the teachings of Jesus, and it is likely that he knew of the letter to the
Ephesians, which contains a passage that Mani's followers would have found
consistent with their own beliefs. "Once you were darkness, but now in
the Lord you are light. Live as children of light." Where Mani differed
from most early Christians was in his idea of what it meant to live as
children of light. Mani advocated a strict asceticism, including many
dietary restrictions, as a means to purify the soul (the light) from the
evils of the body (the darkness). Most Christians had a more holistic
view of human life, believing that the body was not bad, because it was
created by God, but it must be disciplined to avoid sin. Light and
darkness are useful metaphors for good and evil, but Christianity and
Manicheism are quite different in their respective approaches to these
contrasting concepts. For Manicheans, light needs to be separated from
darkness in order to purify the light. For Christians, light needs to be
shined on the darkness to illuminate it. Whereas Manichean leaders urged
their followers to separate themselves completely from the things of
darkness, Christians are called on to mingle with the world in order to
shine the light of Christ there. Yes, Christians must avoid unnecessary
entanglements with the sin that is everpresent in the world, but they must
not simultaneously avoid those who are trapped in the sins of the world,
for they are the very people who are most in need of the light that Christ
offers.
John 9:1-41 (first published 6 March 2005)
You don't really believe that "all men are created equal" when you allow the institution of slavery to exist. You don't understand the expression "in Christ there is no male or female" when you discriminate against women in the church or in the workplace. You don't alleviate the problem of terrorism by dropping bombs on civilian neighborhoods where terrorists might or might not be hiding. You don't solve the problem of poverty by cutting taxes for the rich. Some things are just blindingly obvious to many people, yet at the same time there are some who just can't see what should be obvious to them as well. What obstructs our vision? Sometimes tradition keeps us from seeing the reality of life. If tradition teaches you that blacks are inferior to whites, and you are white, you will struggle to overcome that prejudice, even if intellectually you know better. Sometimes extreme nationalism keeps us from a true perspective on the situation in the world. Those who think the U.S. armed forces are invincible, despite evidence to the contrary in Vietnam, will continue to support unwarranted U.S. intervention in countries around the word. Sometimes selfishness can blind us to the effect of our decisions on other people. When wealthy Representatives and Senators pass massive tax cuts for the rich, and when the bill is signed by a wealthy president, they and their wealthy constituents may be unable to appreciate fully the financial burden that they are shifting to the poor and middle class, and they seem to have no awareness of the burden that future generations must bear as well because of burgeoning budget deficits. When Jesus confronts the blind man on the side of the road, Jesus can see right away what his main problem is: he can't see! After he heals the man, religious leaders come and question the one who was healed. "Who healed you?" they ask. "Someone named Jesus," he replies. "How?" "By applying mud to my eyes." "He must be a sinner, because he doesn't keep the sabbath," they respond. "Give glory to God, for we know that this man is a sinner." The formerly blind man's answer to this charge is the crux of the story: "I do not know whether he is a sinner, but one thing I do know: once I was blind, and now I see." Whether it was tradition, jealousy, or legalism, something blinded the religious leaders and prevented them from seeing the obvious. Standing in front of them was a man who had been blind from birth, but now he could see. How could they miss God at work in this man's life? What blinds us to the truths that we should be seeing? Regardless of what it is, Jesus offers to remove the blindness and show us the light.