My ten-year-old son, James sat at the dinner table one evening in late November. His siblings had all scarfed down their supper and had all retreated to their own corners of the house. James was still picking at his dinner. With a furrowed brow and a look of consternation, he said, “I don’t understand why it gets dark so early.” We talked about the time change and the winter solstice and how the days will keep shortening until the week of Christmas when the days will again lengthen, ever so slightly.
This is a hard time of year for lots of us, for lots of reasons. The dark and the cold seep into our bones and we feel poignantly the grief and the loneliness we carry (with us always but this time of year with us in a different way). As the December dark descends on us with its shortened daylight we fight the dying of the light with whatever light we can muster. We buy gifts and share our family newsletters. We make Christmas candy and cookies and string up lights and decorations. Our Christmas ornaments all hung on the tree, as we sing along to our favorite Christmas CD and watch our favorite Holiday movies. We feel the joy these things bring, but always too, the lingering, long dark.
The promise of Christmas is that those of us who have “walked in darkness have seen a great light; those of us who have lived in a land of deep darkness—on us light has shone” (Isaiah 9:2). The Roman occupied province of Judea in the first century (present-day Palestine) was likewise a dark place to live. Injustice and violence, grief and loss, sickness and death, were the lived reality of the day. But then Christ was born and a new light came into the world. Imperceptible at first—just a babe wrapped in swaddling cloth, laying in a manger—but the week of Christmas, the days began lengthening, ever so slightly. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
My hope for us this Advent and Christmas is that we will train our senses to watch for the light, and see the ways that Christ shines in us, even when the days are dark and the nights are long. May the light of Christ’s coming continue to pierce our darkness as we await the light!
We are in an election year, and we are reminded that four years ago, 81% of White Evangelicals through their lot in with Donald J. Trump, a serial liar who bragged on a recording of being able to sexual assault women just because he was famous, mocked physically disabled reporters, and stoked racism and xenophobia. Many of those evangelicals did so because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hilary Clinton, some because they worried about the growing trend toward secularism in the democrat party, others because their commitment to socially conservative values.
Four years later, the divide between Right and Left has calcified and Evangelical supporters of Trump often march in lock-step with their commander in chief, even when that means ignoring Jesus’ call for justice, and love for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned and the oppressed.
David Moore is is an ecumenical teacher, contemplative anddefender of the defenseless. With degrees from UC Santa Barbara St. Stephen’s University in New Brunswick, Canada and a Doctorate in Theology from the University of South Africa. He has been a pastor (Pentecostal) and an academic (he is currently an adjunct professor at St Stephen’s). In Making America Great Again: A Challenge to the Christian Community, Moore challenges us as Christians to examine our commitment to Jesus in our political life.
The book tells his own story of the racism he experiences as an African American, the tone deaf theological responses he has experienced from (many) white evangelicals, and the ways that he has come to see how Jesus challenges empire, goes to the margins and identifies with the victims.
Moore shares his own personal journey with these realities, addressing particularly racism. While the title frames this as a challenge to Trumpism, what Moore is addressing is more the way evangelicals emphasis personal responsibility and are often unaware of the ways they cooperate with a status quo that oppresses others. Moore paints a picture of Jesus that is liberationist. He blends political observations with theological and personal reflection and evocative readings of the gospels.
This book was a good read. I am sure that Moore answers Trumpism, or if that is really his point. Trump is a symptom of our bigger problem of failing to walk the ways of Jesus in our compassion and care for those on the margins. But Moore also comes across more invitational than judgmental. He wants us to get and to move toward justice and mercy and away from injustice, privilege and the status quo.
I received a copy of this book via Speakeasy and here have provided my honest review.
I kind of have a love/hate thing going on with the Enneagram. I have appreciated it as a tool of self discovery, and my pinned Tweet for awhile on Twitter was, “I am a 7 on the Enneagram, and my wings are buffalo and honey barbeque.” This really sounds like a 7 joke but honestly, eights are buffalos who will mow you down and honey barbeque is always a safe choice (sixes, I see you). But I have been less enamored with how people use the Enneagram as a profile prescription for navigating life. (e.g. “I’m a ___ so I do x), as though each enneagram is a box that encapsulates our whole way of being in the world.
So when I picked up Whole-identity™: A Brain-Based Enneagram Model for (W)holistic Human Thrivingby Dr. Jerome Lubbe, I was both interested and skeptical about what, if anything, it had to offer. Lubbe proports to look at the Enneagram through the lens of neuroscience. Since the Ennagram, is sort of a tradition without much scientific basis, this intrigued me. The book is a white paper, exploring the ennagram and how each type relates to what we know about the brain and how humans use them. Mike Morrell and John Luckovich also right a brief section describing the history of the Enneagram and it’s influences, which provides a nice overview of where the Enneagram came from and its growth in popularity.
One thing I really appreciated, is that Lubbe never puts people into the box of whatever number they are most proficient in:
You are not one thing, you are complex and multifaced; you are interconnected. This is a vital paradigm shift. When you consider having access to all nine numbers simultaneously, you increase and expand your capacity for thriving. (31).
This seems, to me, to be a vital insight. People are never one thing. Nevertheless we do have a core competency and a strategy for navigating the world, that is kind of our go to (which number we resonate most with). Lubbe has a system for helping us understand what our number is (based on the RHETI) and what our wings are. Lubbe also offers an at-a-glance view of the values of each type, and brain-based applications for each type.
I feel like Lubbe spends much of the book, trying to relate the Enneagram to science, rather than providing the ‘science of the Enneagram (repeatable, measurable data). I felt like this was more ‘sciency’ than science. Lubbe spends some time talking about the brain make-up—our brain stem, our limbic system, and the two hemispheres, and then relates each of the the types to things neuroscience tells us about the brain (i.e. which hemisphere each type/wing utilizes and what are the areas of cognitive growth for each type).
But this isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate what is here. While reading this book, I discovered that I have mistyped myself on the Enneagram for about ten years. I had thought I was a 7 because I was jokey (and sometimes used humor to deflect what was going on with me), but as I read through Lubbe’s descriptions of each type, I discovered, I don’t actually fit the 7 profile and their value on experience, as much as I do the 4s and their value on authenticity. So Lubbe, sent me back through my Enneagram texts, and I saw myself in a whole new light (which also made the enneagram make more sense and seem more helpful to me).
Some of the assessment stuff wasn’t helpful for me, since I haven’t taken the RHETI, so don’t know my RHETI number. So I can’t really comment on how Lubbe crunches numbers here.
I am not sure that this book/white paper accomplishes it’s goal of providing a neuroscience basis for the Enneagram. It seems to me that more often assumes the wisdom of the Enneagram and looks for links to Scientific understanding (which isn’t how science works); however, I thought that Lubbe was even handed in providing an overview of what the Enneagram brings to the table and how it relates to what we know of the brain.
I received this book via the author or publisher via SpeakEasy and offer my honest review here.
Lent is just around the corner and that means that though I am profane, most of the time, I hunt for resources to augment my devotional life, as I journey with Jesus on the road to the cross. Paraclete Press reliably carries some wonderful offerings. For this Lent, they have three new books which I will be using this year.
The first one, my whole family is particularly excited about: Gayle Boss’s Wild Hope: Stories from the Vanishing.Four years ago, we read together her Advent devotional, All Creation Waitswhich inhabits the waiting of animals through midwinter (in the American Midwest). We have read it, or parts of that devotional every year since. This year, I didn’t unearth our copy until half way through Advent, but we still had to read through the Christmas morning reading after the stockings on Christmas day.
Boss returns to the Wild to find more teachers for Lent. While her Advent animals taught us about the experience of waiting, these animals inhabit a season of suffering. The subtitle, ‘Stories for Lent from the Vanishing’ alludes to the fact that animals are now vanishing from our planet at a faster rate than at any other time in earth’s history. Boss explores the lives of these animals, with awe and wonder, and sadness for what they are made to suffer by human hands. The animals are grouped by week throughout Lent. Boss explores the animals that are hungry, sick, homeless, poisoned, hunted, and (for Holy Week) desecrated.
As with All Creation Waits, Boss’s reflections are accompanied by the stunning wood cuts of Illustrator David Klein. Unlike her Advent devotional, this is not quite a daily reader. There is an Ash Wednesday entry and then four readings for each of the weeks of Lent and Holy Week (only Ash Wednesday, and days in Holy Week, have day specific readings). I am really interested in how my children will respond to these readings. They care deeply about creation and are often sad about the ways we people have failed to care for the environment. I am eager to explore these stories with Boss, and hear about not just animal suffering, but about a pernicious and wild hope.
The next Lenten offering comes from Anglican theologian and Chancellor of St. Paul’s Cathederal, London, Paula Gooder. Let Me Go There: The Spirit of Lent,follows Jesus through the 40 days of Lent, as the Spirit beckons him into the wilderness. Following six Lenten themes (wilderness, journey, fasting, taking up your cross, discipleship, prayer, and temptation). There are 34 readings designed to take you up to Holy Week, on the grounds that you will probably by then be wanting to turn your attention, reflections and devotions on to Jesus’ death and resurrection,” (8). That is 6 or 5 readings a week, until Holy Week, so you can miss a day or two of each week and not have to play catch up.
Gooder, is a New Testament scholar, and a favorite author of Rowan Williams and others. I am excited to dip into this one, as I journey with her through the wilderness of Lent.
Finally, Martin Shannon, CJ’s Lead Us Not into Temptation is designed to take us from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, exploring how to deal with, you guessed it, temptation. Shannon is an Episcopal priest, liturgist and a devotional writer. He is part of the Community of Jesus in Cape Cod, MA (the community which operates Paraclete Press). I have read and reviewed his devotionals in the past, including another Lenten devotional,According to Your Mercy (which explored praying the Psalms through Lent).
This devotional came out of a weeklong retreat that Shannon attended before Ash Wednesday 2019, with other members of the Community of Jesus (5). At that retreat, Shannon felt led to write a daily devotional on dealing with temptation for their community, and now they are offering it to the world. Shannon is a perceptive spiritual writer who reads scripture attentively. Each daily reading closes with a quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Creation and Fall, and Temptation.
Ash Wednesday is coming up, so order copies today (follow the links to the publisher website, or order from Amazon or wherever fine books are sold).
Notice of material connection: Paraclete Press provided me with copies to review.
The chorus of the Rich Mullins’s song, Hold Me Jesus, goes:
So hold me Jesus,
Cause I’m shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won’t You be my Prince of Peace
Maybe these lines do nothing for you, but in anxious times, these line find me and become a prayer: You have been King of my glory, Won’t You be my Prince of Peace?
Those of us who have grown up singing hymns and songs about God’s grandeur and goodness, if we have lived long enough, have bumped up against hard things—a disheartening diagnosis, the loss of a job, the death of a loved one. We’ve felt the dissonance between our belief in the transcendent and omnipotent God and our longing to feel God’s comfort and presence with us in places of profound struggle.
As we enter the second week of Advent the theme is peace, and honestly isn’t this so much of what we long for through the whole season? And the rest of year too? That Jesus would come to us and the peace of God would reign? That violence would end, that God would comfort our anxious thoughts and worries that keep us up at night? You have been King of my glory, Won’t You be my Prince of Peace?
In several of Walter Brueggemann’s books on the Psalms, he employs the typology of “Orientation, Disorientation and New Orientation on the Psalms”. When you read through the Psalms there certain ones that burst forth in praise to God, confident in his sure rescue, his glory. These are confident songs, which believe fully in a King of Glory. These are psalms of orientation
Then comes psalms of disorientation. The psalmists encounter war, sickness, oppression, exile. They cry out to God. They lament. They long for God, and ache at God’s absence.
Lastly there are psalms of New Orientation. These are songs for those who have gone through difficult times, and emerged with a new confidence that God has brought them through.
Brueggemann’s typology is useful, not only for categorizing Psalms, it also names stages of faith (akin to Ricoeur’s movement from a first naïveté to a second naïveté), and I think it is makes sense of our liturgical seasons. It has only been two Sundays ago that the liturgy proclaimed “Christ is King” before we entered this disorienting land of Advent. And it is now we lament, and we long, and we sigh, “how long?” When Christmas comes (because ‘a baby changes everything’), we occupy a space of ‘new orientation,’ sensing that God is with us, here, in the struggle of everyday life.
Certainly we may feel each of these to varying degrees. But in Advent I always feel the disorienting dissonance and the weight of absence of Christ’s already-not-yet reign. I feel the angst of wanting to know the peace of God more fully.
Somewhere in the communion of saints, Rich prays over us, ” You have been our King of my glory, Won’t You be our Prince of Peace?” as we long for swords to be beat into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4) and predators to give up their predatory ways (Isaiah 11:6-9).
These days, if you here the term evangelical in the public sphere, it likely is a reference to a certain type of Right wing, religious conservative voters (speaking specifically of the U.S. American context here). Evidently, 81% of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in 2016, and that support has not diminished.
But while evangelical has become synonymous with a certain type of political expression, Evangelical theology in general is self-consciously apolitical. Evangelicals describe the gospel as salvation for our sin-sick souls. At the recent Together For the Gospel conference, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president, Al Mohler declared, “Justification by faith alone is not merely a way of describing the gospel, it is the gospel.” Belief in Jesus saves us at the end of life, and it guarantees our place with God in eternity. It is all about what happens after you die with no concern for the current social order. Progressive Christians for their part, are similarly committed to progressive politics, while holding a privatized faith.
But despite our enmeshment in our chosen politics, or our apolitical envisioning of eternity, Advent is inherently political.
When Isaiah spoke of Messianic expectation, he envisioned a political leader— a king in the line of David. You don’t hope for a king unless you are hoping for a change to the political order:
Isaiah 11:1–6 (NRSV)
1A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.2The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.3His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
Isaiah hoped for a king that God’s spirit would rest upon. A ruler who was full of wisdom, good counsel and knowledge. One who feared the Lord. A leader with righteous discernment who would not judge by what he saw and heard, but in ways that championed justice for the poor and equity for the downtrodden. One who would stamp out injustice. Righteousness and faithfulness would be the belt around his waist (he wouldn’t be caught with his pants down).
When Mary sang her Magnificat centuries later, she believed the Son growing in her womb was the answer to Israel’s suffering at the hands of Empire, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” (Luke 1: 52). When John appeared in the wilderness declaring that “the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand”(Matt 3:2), it was a hope which directly challenged the politics of usual in Ancient Palestine. When the early church declared emphatically that Jesus was Lord, it implied that Caesar was not. When John of Patmos saw a vision of the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, he hoped for the end of Roman persecution. Advent hope is hope for the coming Messiah, and that hope is political hope.
And here we are 2019, on the cusp of an election year and feeling jaded. It has been another year of corruption and partisan politicking. We have a president who lies reflexively, who mocks mercilessly, who petitions foreign governments for political dirt on his opponents, and promotes policies that fall short of God’s justice. Some hope for impeachment, or a new election cycle, while others of us wonder if the Democrats offer any real alternative. After all, Trump has dedicated his first term to undoing Obama, except in the case of Obama’s militarism (lets increase that!), or border security (let’s amp that up!). People on the margins have been hurt by the politics of both Right and Left.
The time is ripe for Advent politics. What does it mean for the reign of Christ to break into our world a little more? What would it look likefor leaders to lead others with a commitment to care for the poor, the oppressed and marginalized? What would it look like to not pad the pockets of the powerful but to rule with justice? To listen to counsel, and to care for the poor?
Our politics is not what it should be. The American dream has fallen short of the Kin-dom of God. Advent is hope for a new kind of political order. When the messiah reigns, politics as usual will be no more. Justice, equity and peace will flourish. The military industrial complex will be brought to an end. A new world order is coming. Whatever happens in Congress, or in the Primaries, Jesus is our political hope. Come King Jesus!
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine
linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man
named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what
fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The
rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he
looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on
me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue;
for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that
during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner
evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all
this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might
want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to
us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I
have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into
this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets;
they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes
to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not
listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if
someone rises from the dead.’” -Luke 16:19-31
Greta Thunberg, 16 year-old Climate Activist
If you watched the news this past week, you probably saw enough to be discouraged about the state of things. Greta Thunberg gave an impassioned speech at the UN about climate change and the impact on, particularly the younger generation. Many of us are in awe of her bold powerful speech but a slew of climate-denying pundits, questioned her grasp of the situation—”she is only a child,” “she is on the spectrum,” and “she is being used by the left to hoist their environmentalist agenda on the rest of us.”
Also this week, the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, announced the beginning of an impeachment inquiry in relation to a phone conversation between President Trump, and Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelensky. As more information about this conversation has come to light, including a transcript of their conversation, and the whistleblower’s complaint, it has been interesting watching the various responses. Those on the political Left see clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. Those on the Right may allow that the conversation wasn’t Trump’s finest moment, but there is no “quid-pro-quo” and ‘nothing approaching something criminal.’
Call me, maybe.
I mention these examples from the
news, not because I am trying to make a partisan, political statement which you
may or may not agree with, but to point out the obvious. People with the same
access to information, observing the same event can come away with radically
different interpretations. There is lots
of reasons for this. We each carrying
our own set of assumptions based on experience, socioeconomic status, education,
and personal beliefs. We each have our
own starting point and our own vantage point on events.
When we turn to the parable of the Lazarus
and the Rich Man, we have an example of two men with very different starting
points, and as it happens, two very different end points. A rich man and a poor man die. The rich man finds
himself in the place of the dead, suffering in the flames, the poor man at the
side of Abraham. The rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus, the poor man to
him, to give him some relief.” But he is rebuffed, “Child, remember that during
your lifetime you received your good thinv gs, and Lazarus in like manner evil
things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this,
between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want
to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’
That the rich man finds himself brought
down and a poor beggar is lifted up, may be a reversal of each’s expectations
but this is very much in keeping with the message of Luke’s Gospel, where Mary
sings, “the hungry are filled with good things and the rich go away empty” (Luke
1:53), Jesus announces that he comes to proclaim “good news to the poor” (Luke 4:
17:21) and pronounces judgment on the
rich and comfortable because they have
already received their consolation (Luke 6:24-26).
If the experience of the rich man and Lazarus is radically different in the next life, one thing remains consistent. a great chasm has been fixed between them.
Jacop Bassano – Lazarus and the Rich Man, circa 1550
“The Great Chasm”
The entire parable contrasts the rich
man and Lazarus. We are told at the beginning of the parable that the rich man
dressed in purple and fine linen and that he feasted sumptuously everyday (v19).
Purple was an expensive dye in the
ancient world, reserved for wealthy elites. As was fine linen. This was their equivalent
to red-carpet designer fashions. He feasted on delicacies every day in his
father’s house with his five brothers. This was a wealthy, decadent family, no
doubt famous and celebrated for being wealthy. Perhaps they were the ancient
world’s equivalent to the Kardashians. When the rich man dies, he is buried.
There was likely an elaborate funeral procession with all the important people attending.
At his gate sat a beggar named
Lazarus. Lazarus longed to be fed by trickle down economics—the crumbs that fell
from the rich man’s table. Instead he is left out by the gate. Dogs would come
and lick his open sores. These weren’t well coifed Bishon Frises and Labradoodles
but unclean scavengers, who came and licked his open wounds, making him ritually
and perpetually unclean, marked off from his community. He had no family of his
own to look after him and when he dies there is no mention of a burial. But he
is whisked away by angels to Abraham’s side.
Lazarus was the poor man who discovered his place in the kingdom
of heaven, but the rich man, already had his consolation.
When the rich man calls out to
Abraham from the flames, it is remarkable that he knows Lazarus’s name. There is
no evidence in the parable that he ever spoke to him and even now, he only
addresses Abraham. “Father Abraham, show mercy and send Lazarus to me to cool
my tongue for I am in agony.” He is still operating from a place of privilege
and entitlement, expecting to command the poor and vulnerable to do his biding.
But the rich man is told he had a lifetime of good things while Lazarus had none, but now Lazarus is comforted.
Now this is a parable and I am not
sure it is intended as an accurate depiction of the afterlife but if we
contrast the two men we hear of a decadent rich man who lived a life of self-centered
entitlement and a poor beggar who is ultimately blessed by God. The name
Lazarus comes the Hebrew name Eleazar meaning the one who is helped by God. One
man had the resources to help the other but left him out by the gate. The other
man died alone and homeless and vulnerable and welcomed into the kingdom of
God.
I wonder
if the rich man’s afterlife would be different if he braved the great chasm in
life and used his dishonest money and resources to make friends with
Lazarus the beggar.
What about us? Who are the folks
across the great chasm from us? Maybe, like in the parable, you are on one side
of the have or have nots divide. Maybe it is political. Like the examples I
mentioned above, about some conservative and liberal responses Greta Thunberg or
the president’s phone call you would think that the left and the Right have
nothing in common with one another.
There is some research to back that
up. Conservatives and Liberals seem to have different brains. There are various studies that show liberals
tend to have more brain activity in the left anterior insula, the section of
the brain that regulates emotion and is associated with compassion and empathy
while conservatives have more activity in the right amygdala, the part of the
brain responsible for regulating our fear response.[1]
So when you hear your ultra-liberal friends talk about the need to be
compassionate to those asylum seekers on our southern border and your ultra conservative
friends are talking about how we need to have strong border security to keep our
country safe from terrorists, drug dealers and some very bad people, there very
brains tell them to think the way they do about the world around them. It is as
though a great chasm has been fixed between the two.
Or has it?
When the rich man knows Lazarus won’t
come to his aid, he asks instead for Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn
his 5 brothers of coming judgment. And Abraham answers, if they don’t listen to
Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises
from the dead.”
Beyond the reference to Jesus’ own
death and resurrection, Abraham’s word to the rich man is that his brothers already
have everything they need to know that they are danger of God’s judgment. With a
lifestyle of feasting and finery they left a poor beggar at their gate to have
his sores licked by dogs. In the Torah,
Israel was repeatedly urged to care for the poor, the widowed, the alien and
the orphan (cf Deut 14:28-29; 24:17; Exodus 22:22) When Israel harvested their
land, they were to leave some of the fruits of harvest in the field so that the
poor could come and glean and no one in the land would go hungry.(Leviticus
19:10-11) When we turn to the Hebrew prophets, we hear page after page warning
Israel that their failure to care for the vulnerable, would result in exile and
judgment.
6 brothers partied in their house
while a poor beggar sat at their gate, hungry, destitute, dogs licking his
sores. But if the dead beggar came back, wouldn’t the other 5 brothers listen
to him?
Abraham says no. And he is right.
Resurrection and Confirmation
Bias
Confirmation bias is a thing. We tend
to give weight to the evidence which reinforces our view of the world and produce
explanations which cover the counterevidence. So, when we read the gospels it
is interesting to see how people respond to Jesus’s miracles. He heals on the
Sabbath, and some are impressed by his compassion and authority, and they praise
God while others point at how by breaking the Sabbath, he is leading the Jewish
people away from Torah. They see the same event. Two radically different
interpretations consistent with their own worldview. Or consider miracles in
general. John’s gospel calls miracles “signs” because they give us a
demonstration that Jesus is truly the Word made flesh. But at times these
miracles become a spectacle which distract from the message of Jesus. John
Tucker observes, “[Jesus] says that some people cannot see the truth because they
are hung up on the miracle.”[2]
Had
Lazarus the dead beggar came back to warn the brothers. I don’t think they
would have changed anything. They would have called the exorcist to drive him
away. They didn’t let that man inside the gate when he was alive, there would
be no way, they’d let him in now that he was one of the walking dead. They
might be momentarily arrested at the sight of him, but then one of them would open
a fresh bottle of wine, and they’d turn the music up until the voice of the
crying beggar was drowned out, as much as it ever was.
When I read this parable, the message I come away with is this: cross the great chasm. Include the person who is easiest for us to exclude. Become the type of person that will include those who view the world differently. Don’t assume your view of the world is the most right, become open to challenges. Become a person who listens. Listen to scripture as it challenges us to not just live for our own enjoyment and comfort, but to expand our care for the vulnerable and to live for God. And if some one rises from the dead and you find him standing at your door, knocking, you may want to listen to what he has to say.
William Holman Hunt – “The Light of the World”- Manchester Version, Painted between 1851-1856
[2]
John Tucker, Zero Theology: Escaping Belief through Catch-22s, (Eugene: Cascade
Books, 2019), 30. Tucker is commenting on Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the 5000,
and the fact that the multitudes follow him only because they ate the bread and
were filled (30).
thoughts, prayers & songs: 