fat rams

 The Old Testament reading from Sunday talked about the fat and lean sheep. And justice between them. Justice is a concept that runs through the scriptures a lot, and this passage is no exception. Wanting and desiring justice between the lean and fat rams, and looking to elevate the lean, while pushing the fat aside. 

This is the same concept that runs right through the Magnificat, which is a constant thing that I see posted. Look: Here's the picture from twitter!

This image shows up all the time: Mary representing the overturn of the existing order. Cast down the mighty, send the rich away. Yeah! Tax the wealthy, raise up the weak and the suffering. Bring justice to this world, and have the wealth of the wealthy consume them.

But here's the thing - I've mentioned this on this blog before, but the only real wisdom to be found in the prequel trilogy from Star Wars is when Qui Gon Jinn, in a miraculous escape through the planet core says the line "There's always a bigger fish."

The way we think about how justice should be meted out by the Lord God is that the rich should be sent empty away, and the rich, by the by, are people who happen to be richer than us. And that's the issue right there, isn't it? Everyone I've ever seen posting that image of Mary recommending that the rich be sent empty away, are all posting that image from North America, and usually from the United States of America. Before I discuss any further, I'm aware that there is horrendous poverty and misery in North America, and that wealth is disproportionate, and so on, but I want you to consider that the wealth gap that we talk about between the 1% and the rest of us, all that does is to get us in the mindset that the wealthy are those who are above us, and they would say that the wealthy are those above them, etc. In the end, it turns Elon Musk and Bill Gates into the Hitlers of wealth. As Hitler is to morals, Elon Musk is to wealth. I may be lazy, rude, have no respect for authority; I may drive over people and beat up my kids, but Hitler's the bad guy, because he's worse than me. I may have stocks, bonds, savings, 2 cars, a garage to put them in, so much food that I throw it away or use it for decor, but Elon Musk is rich. Therefore, he should be cast down from his throne. Mine is just ducky, though.

It's an imperfect measurement, but in Canada, where I live, the GDP per capita is $57, 812, which is 24th in the world. The US of A is in tenth spot at $76, 027. Burundi is clocking in at a cool $856. Per person. There, 1 in 10 children die before the age of 5, and life expectancy is 60.1 years. A full 5 years before you're planning on taking that cruise you've been talking about, if you lived in Burundi, you'd likely be dead, and the only cruise you'd be taking is over the river Styx. 

So, if you want God to cast the mighty down from their thrones, where should he start, and why shouldn't it be with you? There will always be some excuse, why the rich are actually over there somewhere, but if you can say that there's a bigger fish, then so can the fish that are bigger than you. Ultimately, it comes down, as it always does, to grace. For these are words that should make the human heart tremble. If we truly recognize that we are wealthy, which we are, and we are fat while others are lean, then we have to expect a righteous God to smite the wealthy including us. Why wouldn't he?   

And this is the core problem of the Christian moral state: When we read the scriptures, when it talks about how there is good or evil, right or wrong, we are always always tempted to view ourselves positively. That's an issue that is part of not only the Christian perspective, but the global one. When we view media, we identify, typically, with the hero, not the villain. We view ourselves as the main character almost every time. And in the stories that we watch, we view what the heroes do as valid, because they're the heroes. They can kill, maim, torture, despoil, whatever, as long as they come out on top at the end. Because they're the good guys. Bad guys are known by the fact that they stand in opposition to the hero, good guys are known by how they assist the hero. That's pretty much that.

And we view ourselves in that light as well. Good guys are good because they're good to us, bad guys are bad because they oppose us. A referee is good when his calls go in the direction of our team, a referee is bad when his calls go against our team. A cop is good when he pulls over speeders in your neighborhood, and a cop is bad when he pulls you over when you speed in your neighborhood. God is a good God when he lifts you up, and he's a bad God when he humbles you. This is all pretty much standard theology for standard Christians. 

But if you want God to enact justice against the fat rams, who thrust with side and shoulder, then you're asking God to enact justice against you. And this is supposed to be a great leveling, ensuring that we are committed to the notion that we are people who don't live externally to the moral system, but are in and part of it. If God is just, which He is, then he is going to seek justice on this earth. And it is profoundly unrealistic to expect God to start everywhere else instead of with us. Rather, his justice is for the world, and if he seeks justice then he can, and should, start with the injustice that we exhibit. Which we clearly do. 

So what to do? Gosh, you know, it's like we're a people of grace. When it talks about seeking the lost sheep, seeking the lost coin, and whatnot, it's talking about us. You're not the sheep in the fold, you're not the coin in the purse, you're the lost and wandering you know. It really does us no good for us to focus on massaging out the sins that we don't have. What on earth do you think that Jesus is all about? He's all about forgiveness of sins. If you look through the Bible and don't see yourself in any of the sins, then you won't see yourself in any of the grace either. But if you look through there, and you see yourself as the fat ram who actually has been shoving the lean sheep aside, then you'll really start looking for that savior. Because you'll need him. 

And that savior has promised to search for you like the shepherd looking for the lost sheep, or the woman looking for the lost coin. Far from casting you into the outer darkness, he seeks you out. You, who are fat and happy, who have clearly thrust the poor aside, who don't think about the root or consequence of your largesse, he seeks you out. The verses that we read on Sunday are to remind you that you need to be found, and honestly to stop running.

Time for hate

 There are some passages in the scriptures that we, as clergy, are supposed to explain away. For example, when Jesus says 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple,' we're supposed to say that he didn't really mean it. 

For some reason, we bring forward to the listening public the idea that Jesus just wanted to fill in pages, and wasn't actually saying things that, you know, needed to be said. But that prompts the question as to why Jesus would bother saying these things if he doesn't mean them. We would have to come up with some kind of scenario in which Jesus really wanted to get this information across to you, but didn't actually mean any of it. 

But what if he did?

There is a new movement afoot of Biblical literalism that says that there needs to be a lot more focus on the words of Jesus Christ where he tells you how to love and care for your neighbor, and that he meant all those things literally, and I can get behind that. What I can't get behind, though, is the idea that in addition to all those very true sayings, Jesus said a bunch of stuff that was obviously said simply for exaggeration, and is not meant to be taken seriously. And he's not going to tell you which is which.

People may say that context, or culture of the time or what have you will tell you what parts of the words of Jesus are supposed to be taken seriously and which aren't but I've never been a big fan of Jesus as some kind of cosmic trickster, who just won't tell you which parts of his word is truth, and which is a trap. Instead, I take the Bonhoeffer approach, which is the route of expensive grace. 

By the way we argue, we distance ourselves fundamentally from a biblical hearer of Jesus’ word.

If Jesus said: leave everything else behind and follow me, leave your profession, your family, your people, and your father’s house, then the biblical hearer knew that the only answer to this call is simple obedience, because the promise of community with Jesus is given to this obedience.

But we would say: Jesus’ call is to be taken “absolutely seriously,” but true obedience to it consists of my staying in my profession and in my family and serving him there, in true inner freedom.

Thus, Jesus would call: come out!—but we would understand that he actually meant: stay in!—of course, as one who has inwardly come out.

Or Jesus would say, do not worry; but we would understand: of course we should worry and work for our families and ourselves. Anything else would be irresponsible. But inwardly we should be free of such worry.

Jesus would say: if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. But we would understand: it is precisely in fighting, in striking back, that genuine fraternal love grows large.

Jesus would say: strive first for the kingdom of God. We would understand: of course, we should first strive for all sorts of other things. How else should we survive? What he really meant was that final inner willingness to invest everything for the kingdom of God.

Everywhere it is the same—the deliberate avoidance of simple, literal obedience.

How is such a reversal possible? What has happened that the word of Jesus has to endure this game? That it is so vulnerable to the scorn of the world?

Anywhere else in the world where commands are given, the situation is clear. A father says to his child: go to bed! The child knows exactly what to do.

But a child drilled in pseudotheology would have to argue thus:

Father says go to bed. He means you are tired; he does not want me to be tired. But I can also overcome my tiredness by going to play. So, although father says go to bed, what he really means is go play.

With this kind of argumentation, a child with its father or a citizen with the authorities would run into an unmistakable response, namely, punishment. The situation is supposed to be different only with respect to Jesus’ command. In that case simple obedience is supposed to be wrong, or even to constitute disobedience.

This is a long quote, but it gets to the point of how we approach the word of Jesus Christ. Of course he said to do certain things that require simple obedience, but we sure don't do it, do we? But when we disobey God, it's not as though we just say 'we don't want to do that,' but rather 'that's not what Jesus could possibly have meant.' and this part about hating your family, and yourself, that's on that list too. Sure, Jesus couldn't possibly have meant that. He meant to love your family more than you love him!

But that's where we get into trouble. For I have seen innumerable people have principles, even Biblical principles, and break them down based on how things are going in their families. They may have a view about Biblical morality, sexuality, church attendance, what have you, and then when push comes to shove, and their children, spouse, whatever disagrees and lives in accordance with that disagreement, all of a sudden, Jesus didn't really mean that. He meant the opposite. Conveniently. 

You have to have these principles as non-negotiables, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. These are things that are required for you and for me, and we don't get to quit on them when things in the real world disagree. In fact, we must be in the business of conforming ourselves to God, rather than conforming God's word to ourselves. Literally anyone can do that, you know. Anyone on earth can shrug, and say that God's word needs to fit them. But the truth of the matter is that we need to fold before the word of God. The expensive grace of Bonhoeffer says that when we disobey, or find fault with God's word, it's going to be a matter of us knowing why it is that we are doing wrong, and then realizing exactly why it was that Christ had to shed his blood.

Does this mean that you have to go out and be actively rude and difficult to your family? Of course not. But think about yourself only for a second. You know that frequently, over the course of your life, you want to do things, think things, say things that God emphatically rejects and you know that you shouldn't. When you go to church on a Sunday, and you confess your sins, you confess that you have sinned in thought, word and deed, by what you have done, and by what you have left undone. When it comes to you, you can typically work out that when you sin, you need to bring those sins to God to be forgiven, which he does. If you can work that out about yourself, you can work that out about those around you as well. Realize that the things your friends and family do are the same, really.

And when we talk about cheap grace, we have to remember that every time we look at the scriptures and say 'God couldn't possibly have meant that,' what he is showing you is what he is prepared to do for you, because you are not prepared to do it for yourself. When he says that you have to hate your father and mother and wife and children and even your own life in service of the Gospel, Jesus spends the rest of the New Testament living all that out. But he doesn't live all that on behalf of God. He lives that all out, he keeps what we would have thought he couldn't possibly mean, for you.