I read Pilate’s part in the Sunday evening liturgy of the palms. That dialogue led me to reflect on Jesus’ amazing silence (Mk 15:5). Jesus responded calmly to his human judges (chief priest, governor, even tetrarch) but steadfastly refused to react to the streams of prosecutors and so-called witnesses. Even the seasoned Pilate was “impressed, really impressed” (The Message).
This behavior didn’t merely fulfill the pattern predicted by the prophet, though that was surely on the mind of Jesus. Isaiah 53:7 recalls the silence of the Hezekiah’s people on Jerusalem's wall before the messenger of Assyria’s king in 36:21. Isaiah elsewhere associates silence with the shame and suffering, whether just or unjust, as well as with self-restraint on the part of God or his spokesperson.
Jesus’ silence wasn’t merely passive. It was one more way of stepping toward his destiny and the deliverance of his people. By no means innocent like Jesus, I’m thankful his self-giving addresses that stark difference. By his grace, I may even learn to not so readily defend myself, and instead to entrust all to the just Judge.
Especially when he presents opportunities to share in his hardship: aligning with God’s character and cause this day, glad to belong to the Father and following the Spirit. Whatever the price, he is the prize. His table may be bare tonight - an altar stripped and washed in the Maundy Thursday tradition. But his story (and so ours) is far from over.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
of rants and indifference - which is worse?
Recent consideration of the long and bumpy road of Christian theological controversy has led me to wonder if the rants against the faith that I occasionally hear are an indication of troubled relationships with God rather than no relationship at all. It’s not just charitable thinking: The psalms and other scriptures are peppered with the honest, angry and bitter disappointments of sinners-becoming-saints, and even dissent and despair. Even the devil’s contempt and rage are duly noted. Such is the Bible’s mirror.
Utter indifference is a greater enemy – the malaise that won’t rise to the trouble of a cure, the relationship not valuable enough to reconcile, the sin not worth setting right by repentance. Snapping out of spiritual boredom may happen when one addresses pointed complaints to the Judge. At least the dialogue is restarted, and he is known for persuasive acts of sheer kindness.
Utter indifference is a greater enemy – the malaise that won’t rise to the trouble of a cure, the relationship not valuable enough to reconcile, the sin not worth setting right by repentance. Snapping out of spiritual boredom may happen when one addresses pointed complaints to the Judge. At least the dialogue is restarted, and he is known for persuasive acts of sheer kindness.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Third Sunday of Lent 2009 comments on John 2:13-22 - Jesus clears the Temple
Here's the core of last weekend's homily:
What is the meaning of this solitary recorded incident of violence in the life and work of the Prince of Peace?
Jesus previewed the Temple market in place of foreign worshipers, subverting the original vision of global blessing.
Here was the purported site of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, in Moriah. This was Jerusalem, the home of the priest-king Melchizedek to whom Abraham tithed. There are layers of history here: This was the hilltown David, Jesus’ ancestor, the psalmist-king, took from the later Jebusites to make his capital and fortress. Remember God’s counter-offer and covenant promise to David, to build him a permanent temple/house? God responded, “No, but I will build your house” i.e. lineage or dynasty (see 2 Samuel 7:11-16 esp.). Solomon built the first Temple, post-Exile refugees had rebuilt a lesser marvel, and Herod had refurbished and replaced it with a new “attraction.”
Jesus had seen it before, at least annually, across more than half of Herod’s ambitious building campaign since 19 BC. (So John dates this at 27 AD.) But instead of a magnet attracting the nations to the blessing of knowing and worshiping the Living God, the premises sustains a convenient trade in sacrifices that...stank – physically and ethically, because of its profitability for the Temple elite and the space it took from any Gentile would-be worshipers.
Jesus planned - He himself handcrafted the whip of cords he would use to stampede animals and drive out moneychangers. This was no sudden outburst of spontaneous rage, but an action calculated to get the close attention of the Jewish Temple authorities without arousing much interest from the Roman soldiers garrisoned nearby.
Jesus passionately and decisively confronts the stark reality and gaping gulf of his generation’s separation from God caused by sin. By contrast, my expressions of anger are usually spontaneous, sarcastic and passive-aggressive.
Jesus prophesied - This intervention was a prophetic denunciation of business as usual, a warning of impending destruction within a generation, and the promise of a greater center of worship and launch pad for global mission.
No one asked him why - only for authorization. A corrupt Temple leadership was caught with its fingers in the coffers, and everybody knew it. What everybody didn’t know was what this prophet had in mind for how to replace it with a permanent place of prayer for all nations. The Holy One had come to visit his own “house,” and nothing could be exactly the same anymore. His three days from crucifixion to resurrection would change everything.
Jesus lived the Law like no other. [Earlier we read the Ten Commandments and parts of Psalm 19 and Romans 7.] He recognized its original intent and freely committed himself to its fulfillment: to reveal God, to demonstrate what it means to belong to God. Jesus’ full obedience to the moral code and bodily sacrifice at the Cross in parallel to the ceremonial code has led to his reign in civil relations between those who receive his own righteous standing with God. His gift brings both an undeniable longing to obey God out of gratitude and the power to increase such compliance through the same indwelling Holy Spirit who accompanied his.
So, what is the meaning of this solitary recorded incident of violence and show-of-force in the life and work of the Prince of Peace? With fierce love, he joins the force of law (from Sinai) with the power of sacrifice in his zeal to fulfill both on that second mount, Zion.
What other God allows himself to be “consumed” on behalf of his worshipers? All other competitors to Yahweh would consume us! Who had more right to obedience? He who obeyed – zealously. Take his gift and yield to him; it’s the only way forward.
What is the meaning of this solitary recorded incident of violence in the life and work of the Prince of Peace?
Jesus previewed the Temple market in place of foreign worshipers, subverting the original vision of global blessing.
Here was the purported site of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, in Moriah. This was Jerusalem, the home of the priest-king Melchizedek to whom Abraham tithed. There are layers of history here: This was the hilltown David, Jesus’ ancestor, the psalmist-king, took from the later Jebusites to make his capital and fortress. Remember God’s counter-offer and covenant promise to David, to build him a permanent temple/house? God responded, “No, but I will build your house” i.e. lineage or dynasty (see 2 Samuel 7:11-16 esp.). Solomon built the first Temple, post-Exile refugees had rebuilt a lesser marvel, and Herod had refurbished and replaced it with a new “attraction.”
Jesus had seen it before, at least annually, across more than half of Herod’s ambitious building campaign since 19 BC. (So John dates this at 27 AD.) But instead of a magnet attracting the nations to the blessing of knowing and worshiping the Living God, the premises sustains a convenient trade in sacrifices that...stank – physically and ethically, because of its profitability for the Temple elite and the space it took from any Gentile would-be worshipers.
Jesus planned - He himself handcrafted the whip of cords he would use to stampede animals and drive out moneychangers. This was no sudden outburst of spontaneous rage, but an action calculated to get the close attention of the Jewish Temple authorities without arousing much interest from the Roman soldiers garrisoned nearby.
Jesus passionately and decisively confronts the stark reality and gaping gulf of his generation’s separation from God caused by sin. By contrast, my expressions of anger are usually spontaneous, sarcastic and passive-aggressive.
Jesus prophesied - This intervention was a prophetic denunciation of business as usual, a warning of impending destruction within a generation, and the promise of a greater center of worship and launch pad for global mission.
No one asked him why - only for authorization. A corrupt Temple leadership was caught with its fingers in the coffers, and everybody knew it. What everybody didn’t know was what this prophet had in mind for how to replace it with a permanent place of prayer for all nations. The Holy One had come to visit his own “house,” and nothing could be exactly the same anymore. His three days from crucifixion to resurrection would change everything.
Jesus lived the Law like no other. [Earlier we read the Ten Commandments and parts of Psalm 19 and Romans 7.] He recognized its original intent and freely committed himself to its fulfillment: to reveal God, to demonstrate what it means to belong to God. Jesus’ full obedience to the moral code and bodily sacrifice at the Cross in parallel to the ceremonial code has led to his reign in civil relations between those who receive his own righteous standing with God. His gift brings both an undeniable longing to obey God out of gratitude and the power to increase such compliance through the same indwelling Holy Spirit who accompanied his.
So, what is the meaning of this solitary recorded incident of violence and show-of-force in the life and work of the Prince of Peace? With fierce love, he joins the force of law (from Sinai) with the power of sacrifice in his zeal to fulfill both on that second mount, Zion.
What other God allows himself to be “consumed” on behalf of his worshipers? All other competitors to Yahweh would consume us! Who had more right to obedience? He who obeyed – zealously. Take his gift and yield to him; it’s the only way forward.
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