On occasion I've told my students that if I were God, I would do this or
that, but that the job is already taken. Today's reading from Isaiah,
however, calls into question one aspect of my flippant remark. The prophet
responsible for Isaiah 62 lived in a community of Jews in the land of
Judah, some of whom had returned from exile in Babylonia and other of whom
had never left. These two groups had their differences which sometimes led
to conflict in the days of Persian rule, but they all agreed on the need to
rebuild the city of Jerusalem. The language the prophet uses is quite
specific and surprising: "You who remind the LORD, take no rest, and give
him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it renowned throughout
the earth." In other words, the prophet is encouraging the people to hound
God until God delivers on their wishes. So is his message one of
complacency until God chooses to act? Hardly! Further on in the passage
he says, "Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over
the peoples." The two verbs "go through" and "build up" are repeated, and
the message is clear: if God is to rebuild Jerusalem, God's people will
have to be the instigators and advocates of the work. The clause "build
up, build up the highway" is particularly notable, because the Hebrew words
for "build up" and "highway" are based on the same root, and it reminds the
reader of an English translation as well that a highway is a road that is
raised up above the surrounding land. It is a major thoroughfare
constructed in such a way as to avoid being wiped out by floods. It
provides a safe passageway for important visitors to the city, or in the
case of Jerusalem in this passage, the advent of salvation itself. The
prophet may have been speaking to a disheartened people living in the wake
of Jerusalem's devastation, but his words have a much broader application.
We cannot wait around for God or someone else to do the work that needs to
be done in this world, but we must take action ourselves. Both the Arab
Spring and the Occupy movement remind us of the power of people working
together. There are plenty of negative examples as well, such as mass
mobilization for wars of choice or popular outrage at undocumented
immigrants, as though they were the cause of economic turmoil, and these
negative examples are just as important as the positive ones. Mass
movements that undermine the wellbeing of society remind those of us who
long for the global realization of peace and prosperity that fear and
hatred continue to be powerful forces in the world. It's time to call on
God to build a new world, before the forces of evil destroy it, and it's
time for us to begin working--or continue our work--as one of God's
builders.
Psalm 97 (first published 20 May 2007)
But now, instead of discussion and argument, brute force rises up to the rescue of discomfited error, and crushes truth and right into the dust. 'Might makes right,' and hoary folly totters on in her mad career escorted by armies and navies.
American pacifist and abolitionist Adin Ballou penned these words in 1846, in a book entitled Christian Non-Resistance. He understood, as many before him had, that the biggest bully on the block is not automatically right, just because he can knock anybody he wants to on his back. Ballou understood that the biggest bully on the block wouldn't always remain the strongest. Some other kid might outgrow him. Smaller kids might band together to oppose him. A parent or police officer might rein him in. A bully gets his way for awhile, but not forever. In Ballou's day, slavery was the law of the land, and it was supported by the federal government (e.g., the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850), the government of many of the individual states, and even by the Supreme Court, which denied the right of a slave entering a free state to claim his or her freedom (the 1857 Dred Scott case). Such moral outrages raised the consciousness of many Americans who had not before seriously considered the problem of slavery, since it didn't directly affect them, and within ten years of the Dred Scott decision, slavery had been abolished in the U.S., though not until after a tragic Civil War. The psalmist understood that God wanted the nations of the earth to be based on justice, not might. He could have said that God's reign was based on God's invincible power, and no one could have disputed it, but he didn't. Instead, he said that God's reign was based on righteousness and justice: they are the foundation of God's throne. Implicit in this statement is the mandate that human states be based on righteousness and justice as well. The strongest military power on earth today is the U.S., but that military might means nothing without a commitment to justice. Wars of choice, support of oppressive dictators, and gross misuse of the national treasure in the face of unprecedented hunger and disease around the world belie the claims of some that the U.S. is God's special choice to lead the world. The world community is coming to the realization, slowly but surely, that the U.S., for all its military might, is largely impotent when it comes to imposing its will on others. Furthermore, many Christians in the U.S. are tired of the country squandering its wealth--and more importantly, the lives of its young men and women--on adventures that run contrary to the divine principles of justice. More important than God being on our side should be our desire to be on God's side of the critical issues of the day. In the end, those with might lose it, for, as Abraham Lincoln reminded the nation, "right makes might," not the other way around.
In a speech during the 1988 Democratic National Convention, Ann Richards famously said of the sitting vice president, "Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." Aside from a humorous reference to George H. W. Bush's propensity for malapropisms, Richards reminded her listeners that some people grow up with a sense of privilege. Whether it's the divine right of kings, the feeling of entitlement that sometimes accompanies great wealth, or the belief that the country of which you are a citizen is exceptional, the idea that God favors certain people because of their bloodline or their place of birth is noxious and contrary to the teachings of Christianity, as well as of other religions. The letter of Titus, attributed to Paul but believed by many to have been written a generation or more after his death, addresses this issue: "[God] saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." The message is clear: any blessings of God that we might enjoy are purely the result of God's grace, which is both unearned and available to all. The author emphasizes the necessity of rebirth and renewal, a reminder that no one is born with greater rights than anyone else. Obviously in the world we live in this statement doesn't correspond with the actual state of things, but it is the ideal that lies behind all valid notions of justice, and it is the goal toward which all people of faith should strive.
Why did the angels appear to shepherds? The Gospel of Luke places special emphasis on God's concern for the poor and oppressed, so in the context of the overall argument of the book, it makes sense for God's blessing to be announced not to the powerful of the land but to the lowly. This reading is confirmed by the words of the angels themselves: "Glory in the highest realms to God, and on earth peace...." At this point the text of the witnesses to the New Testament deviates somewhat. The majority of witnesses read "among human beings, (divine) favor." This reading divides the song of the angels into three strophes, each with its own subject: glory (to God), peace (on earth), favor (among [all] people). A second group of witnesses, mostly Latin, read "Glory in the highest realm to God, and on earth peace to people of goodwill." This reading recognizes only two subjects, glory and peace, and peace is directed toward people characterized by goodwill. The oldest witnesses, however, read as follows: "Glory in the highest realm to God, and on earth peace among human beings of (divine) favor." This reading, which is preferred by the majority of textual scholars today, seems enigmatic at first, but Hebrew and Aramaic equivalents have turned up in the Dead Sea Scrolls. If we accept this reading, another question arises: who are those whom God favors? And why does God favor some over others? Here the message of Luke comes into play. God doesn't favor people because of their conformity to religious norms, nor does God favor those who make a name for themselves by wearing their piety on their sleeves (or on their foreheads, in the form of phylacteries), or by ostentatiously donating large sums of money to the institutions that purport to set the standards of belief and behavior for others. No, the people God favors are the shepherds, and people like them. God favors those who go about their lives scraping out a living by honest means, sometimes suffering under the yoke of the powerful and connected. The gospel is good news to the poor, the marginalized, the weak, the powerless. It is a message characterized by peace, not only the absence of war--though the abrogation of armed conflict is certainly assumed--but also the presence of a society in which none stands out as privileged as a matter of birth. In this world proclaimed by the angels all basic human needs are met. People have sufficient food, safe places to live, access to education and medical care, freedom to express their love, and opportunities to follow their hearts and God's guidance as they understand it. This seemingly utopian vision is not merely a dream; it is within our grasp today, but only if people are willing to give up their prejudices, their sense of entitlement, their tribalism, and their selfishness and see themselves as part of a global community of children of God, with different understandings of God to be sure (including those who reject the very notion of God). The song that the angels sang to the shepherds is a message a hope for all humankind, a message that lies at the very heart of the Christmas story.