O
cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration!
Soften
the ground of our being
and
carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide.
Fill
us with your creativity
so
that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission.
Let
each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire.
Endow
us with the wisdom to produce and share
what
each being needs to grow and flourish.
Untie
the tangled threads of destiny that bind us,
as
we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.
Do
not let us be seduced
by
that which would divert us from our true purpose,
but
illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.
For
you are the ground and the fruitful vision,
the
birth-power and fulfillment,
as
all is gathered and made whole once again.
Having
read many reviews and opinions about the movie, and knowing my topic today
would be the “Faith of the Historical Jesus,” I decided to watch the movie.I
wanted to see if I could watch the movie as a way to experience solidarity
with political prisoners around the world suffering oppression.I
wondered if Jesus could stand in for them and increase my empathy for their
suffering.
It
didn’t work.
The
first scene of the movie locates Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.He
is struggling with his foreknowledge that he will be betrayed and arrested
that night.He pleads for the cup
to pass from him, one of Jesus’ most human moments in Christian scripture.At
that moment, Mel Gibson plays fast and loose with the story adding the
temptation of the devil.The devil
suggests the sins of the world are too much for one man to bear.A
snake crawls out from under his robe and slithers over to Jesus.The
Adam and Eve story is recapitulated in Jesus’ moment of weakness.The
scene ends with Jesus crushing the snake underfoot, beginning to reverse
Adam’s curse.None of this is Biblical.None
of this has anything to do with what almost all Unitarian Universalists
believe.
As
you’ve no doubt read or heard, the movie proceeds into an orgy of bloodshed,
briefly interrupted by flashbacks to happier times.The
portrayal of the Jews thirsting for the crucifixion is particularly offensive.Pontius
Pilate gets off very lightly for his role condemning Jesus to death.The
favorable treatment of the Roman leader is sort of an apology for the later
Roman adoption of the messianic religion rejected by the Jews.Of
course there is a happy ending as the stone rolls away from the tomb.We
see Jesus leaving his shroud to settle as he is restored to his old self
… except with some holes in his hands.
The
whole point of the movie is not to reveal the life and teachings of Jesus
but to move us by the horrible suffering we witness.If
all you knew about Jesus came from this movie, you’d conclude that his
suffering and death encapsulate the meaning of his life.Being
the object of abuse, torture, and execution tells you all you need to know
about Jesus.His spirit could not
be destroyed by the suffering.It
is in his death that he is revealed as God.
This
death cult approach to Jesus does not resonate with the vast majority of
Unitarian Universalists.We do not
see his death as instrumental in our salvation.We
look to his life for guidance and inspiration.For
us, the revelation ends with Gethsemane rather than begins.
What
is at stake theologically is an understanding of the Domain or Kingdom
of God.One of the few historical
facts everyone can agree on is that Jesus proclaimed the Domain of God
on earth.There are two ways the
Domain of God is understood.Evangelical
Christians, like Mel Gibson, understand the Domain of God as a future event
that coordinates with the second coming of Christ.This
is the apocalyptic orientation found in so many fundamentalist churches
today.Biblical Scholars and many
Unitarian Universalists believe Jesus proclaimed the Domain of God was
already here right now.They
believe Jesus did NOT have any sort of apocalyptical orientation.These
two divergent beliefs create entirely different worldviews that underlie
today’s culture wars in our nation.
Last
spring, at our UU Minister’s Chapter meeting in central New York, our theme
presentation was done by Jesus Seminar fellow, Robert Miller.The
Jesus Seminar is a consortium of Biblical scholars, theologians, historians,
archeologists, and others who study first century Palestine in one way
or another.Their groundbreaking
work was a combined analysis of the Gospels.They
voted practically on each line to determine if they thought Jesus actually
said or did what is found in the text.I
wish I had had my video camera so I could share with you the many fascinating
insights into the Christian Scriptures that fell from Dr. Miller’s lips.Wanting
to share some of his wisdom with you was the inspiration for this service
this morning.
We
spent a good chunk of time working with and discussing the concept of the
Domain of God.The very term itself
gives you a taste of the paradoxical way Jesus taught.The
actual term used by Jesus was most likely the Greek word basileia.The
Greeks used this word to describe a commercialized agrarian empire like
Rome.The basis of the economy was
agriculture.A tiny ruling elite
used its military power to take the surplus production above subsistence
through taxation.
Roughly
1-2% of the population took 50-65% of the agricultural production.If
the farmers couldn’t pay, they incurred debt.If
they couldn’t pay their debt, they lost their land.That’s
the commercialized part of the equation.This
appropriation of land was particularly irksome to the Jews because they
believed the land was not a commodity but rather a sacred birthright.The
result of depriving people of their land, in an economy primarily centered
on agriculture, forces the family into landless destitution and poverty.These
were the people to whom Jesus ministered and healed.
Your
average Jew is going to hate the word basileia.It
represents all the evil of Roman oppression.Dr.
Miller believes Jesus chose this term for its ironic and startling flavor
as he described the basileia … of God.
Instead
of Caesar, God is
already the king of THIS basileia.And
this basileia turns everything you know about the world upside down.THIS
basileia is not a place, or a future state of affairs.Despite
the testimony of our ears and eyes looking at the “real” world of Roman
domination and oppression, Jesus proclaimed the basileia of God is present
here-and-now.
To
the first century Jew, this sounded ludicrous, naïve and politically
dangerous.But to those with ears
to hear and eyes to see, this was good news.Not
only did Jesus announce it, he taught it, embodied it, and celebrated its
presence in everything he did.Jesus
didn’t use intellectual concepts that the simple people he preached to
wouldn’t understand.He appealed
to their imagination through parable and story.He
invited his listeners to use their imagination to recognize this divine
reality.
How
did he do it?
Hear
the Parable of the Mustard Tree.It
shows up in three of the four gospels and also in the Gospel of Thomas.
What
is the kingdom of God like?It is
like a mustard seed that a man took and tossed into his garden.It
grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky roosted in its branches.
This
parable would astonish and mystify a first century farmer hearing it.A
mustard plant is a weed that would be removed from a garden, not planted
in one.Any good farmer isn’t going
to toss a seed into the garden.
This
violates the Jewish law.The first
century listener will know Leviticus 19:19 instructs: you shall not sow
your field with two kinds of seed.A
mustard seed doesn’t grow into much of a bush and certainly not into a
tree.The last thing farmers want
to invite into their gardens are those marauding birds who will steal the
harvest.
The
image of a weedy tree subverts traditional expectations.Spiritually
symbolic trees are the cedars of Lebanon described by the prophets as a
metaphor for the restoration of Israel.The
landless birds of the air, like the landless peasants of the times, will
have a home in their branches.The
mighty cedar was a symbol of the rule of God on earth, not a pesky weed--or
is it?
Another
parable Jesus used shows up in both Luke, Matthew and Thomas:
What
does the kingdom of God remind me of?It
is like leaven that a woman took and concealed in fifty pounds of flour
until it was all leavened.
Jews
have a special relationship with leaven.Every
year during Passover, no leavened bread is eaten to remind them of their
escape from Egypt when the bread didn’t have time to rise.Jews
ritually purify their homes each year to eliminate any speck of leaven.
This
rejection of leaven during Passover created a negative symbolism associating
it with death.The rising of leaven
was sometimes compared to the bloating of a corpse.A
well-known proverb of the first century was “a little leaven leavens the
whole batch of dough.”We find this
expression in Corinthians 5:6:
Your
boasting is not a good thing.Don’t
you know that “a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?”
Men
prepared the dough for ritual meals.The
insertion of a woman basically poisoning the huge amount of flour again
adds this dimension of contamination.Once
concealed the infection is uncontrollable.
This
is the domain of God?
We
get a hint of the meaning from Jesus’ other use of the word leaven.“Watch
out—beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mark
8:15) “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy.”
(Luke 12:1)Jesus again turns our
expectations upside down.There is
a deeply challenging and subversive message secretly buried in that flour
that cuts his followers off from the old ways and establishes a new relationship
with God.
Jesus
didn’t tell his followers what they expected to hear.Again
and again, the authors of the gospels need to append explanations to the
challenging statements of Jesus.These
are two snippets from a short list of sayings and parables from the lips
of Jesus we have the most confidence in.The
gospel writers preserve them for us because his followers probably knew
them and repeated them.Rather than
preserving the paradox and ambiguity, the authors couldn’t resist putting
in their interpretation around them that fit with their understanding of
his teaching applied to their social situation.
Why
did they follow him if he was so controversial?He
must have exuded charisma.He manifested
some kind of healing power that was uncommon.He
lifted up those whom society would prefer to ignore.He
reached out to the rejected who must have rallied around him.
One
thing we can be sure of: Jesus was dangerous to the status quo.Turn
the other cheek?Welcome the stranger
and the unclean?The last shall be
first?No leader with such disturbing
ideas can last long.Such a teacher
will need rehabilitation after he is dead.But
once he is dead, his followers can revise Jesus’ thinking to what they
knew he should have said and done in the first place.
This
is what disturbs most Unitarian Universalists about the focus on Jesus’
death rather than his life.The blood
soaked theology of human sacrifice as substitution for our sins dishonors
and disconnects us from the challenging illumination of Jesus’ teaching.The
core of that teaching, the inherent worth and dignity of every human being,
is lost at the foot of the cross and discarded with the empty tomb.The
ritual of salvation moves from a willful change of life to a helpless acceptance
of grace.It changes the focus from
life to death and a reward beyond death.
Looking
for a reward beyond this world will eventually destroy our beloved blue
green planet.Seeing the world as
a means to a heavenly afterlife threatens life on earth.The
apocalyptic orientation of many Christians today welcomes the destruction
of our biosphere as a sign of the second coming.Dr.
Miller explained to us why those who revel in Revelations don’t think we
need to fix what’s wrong.
They
believe:
1.God
will intervene directly and decisively in the near future.This
intervention will be utterly obvious to everyone.
2.Humans
are powerless to bring about the changes God has planned.Our
role is to wait, anticipate, and persevere.
3.When
God is finished, there will be no evil people.They
will be either converted or annihilated.
According
to the Jesus Seminar, Jesus did not hold these beliefs.They
have their origin in the first century views that Jesus did not teach,
but rather resisted.
In
a time of great suffering, it is always tempting to seek escape and comfort
in the future or the past, anything but face the hardship, injustice, and
inequality of the present.Jesus
does not escape the present but moves into the middle of it to heal it.The
Domain of God isn’t some bye and bye but available right now.The
love of God is not locked in the past or to be enjoyed at some future time.The
love of God is here right now in this room, in each heart of each person.The
mystery to be solved is our inability to witness it.
Watching
Jesus tortured to death doesn’t inspire a vision of an interdependent world
community.The vision of God allowing
his son to be victimized is hardly a model for the creation of a healthy
society.Using crucifixion as the
supreme example of redemption creates a terribly destructive justification
to rationalize suffering.No one
should be killed by the state for any reason. The Passion can best be used
to move us beyond a passive view of salvation.The
Passion can best be used to move us to a dedication to work against oppression
so others will not suffer the same humiliating end.
Through
following the teachings of Jesus, we will discover the faith of Jesus,
not in his death but in his life.This
is our understanding of the ministry of Jesus that has been transmitted
from generation to generation for the last two thousand years.What
Jesus discovered about the nature of reality is still true.Jesus
discovered the potentiality of love is always present, always a choice
we can make.Choosing love can be
difficult and painful, but is the true path to the end of suffering.
May
we preserve this understanding of Jesus’ life-giving message as part of
our tradition and hand it on to the next generation.
The
Jesus of history comes alive for us today through studying and meditating
upon the words he most likely actually said.By
doing this, living wisdom and spirit can be “born again” in us, and help
us lead more fulfilling lives.We
seek his guidance not to pile up treasure in the hereafter but rather to
live and love well in this world.
Take
from this service the heart of Jesus’ teachings and share it with a hungry
world.
Copyright
© 2004 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore.All
rights reserved.