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November 10, 2004
Render Unto Caesar....
RENDER UNTO CAESAR……
November 7, 2004
The story I have to share with you this morning is one I read Friday in an online newsletter. It is called Truthout.org, and I recommend it to you. It is definitely progressive, and makes no pretense of being neutral.
William Rivers Pitt, the editor, shared the story. He lives in Boston, and was at the Kerry headquarters during the long Tuesday night returns. When Ohio was called for Bush he left the headquarters, walked to a bar, indulged in a stiff drink and then left for home. He stopped at a 7/11 for a can of Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli and continued home feeling angrier by the step.
As he was unlocking the door to his apartment, a young man emerged silently from the bushes behind him. Suddenly he felt like his head exploded. The man threw what was later revealed to be a large, 20-lb. cobblestone at him. It bounced off his shoulder, blasted into his jaw, and dropped heavily at his feet.
He staggered, but did not fall. The fellow, who obviously thought that anyone hit with a 20-lb. rock was an easy mark started after him. Pitt says, "I turned, and in a moment of truly dumb Braveheart macho testosterone rage, charged the guy. He stepped back in surprise, and then turned to flee. I pursued him down the street, brandishing the can of ravioli over my head while screaming unkind comments about his inappropriate sexual relationship with his mother, until my jaw reminded me that it might be broken."
Well, he had to deal with policemen and emergency care workers, received some pretty potent pain medicine and had x-rays which revealed no broken bones. Pitt says, "I assume this was an attempted mugging...possibly the first mugging in American history to be thwarted by a thick skull and a can of Chef Boy-Are-Dee."
And now comes the point of this story. Pitt is actually glad this happened, because it restored his sense of perspective. If the man's aim had been better, he might well be dead. So he took the 20 pound rock and placed it on his desk. And he wrote an inscription in indelible ink: "There are worse things than losing an election."
When my Christian colleagues ask me, "Do you preach from the Bible?" My answer is always; "Sometimes, but I also use other texts. We believe that revelation is not sealed." The story of Jesus and the attempted trap, which he thwarted with the words "Pay unto Caesar what is "Caesar's, and unto God what is God's" is one of those sometimes.
Before we can understand what we religious liberals, who are not Biblical literalists, can learn from the story about Jesus and his response to his challengers, we need to understand a bit about the context in which it occurred.
Israel was a vassal state of Rome at the time Jesus lived. This meant that Roman soldiers enforced the laws, that taxes paid by the Israelites helped support the Roman Empire, and that Caesar was considered divine. Most Roman procurators were wise enough to mostly ignore the fact that the Jewish people refused to bow down to Caesar as to a god. However, the threat of enforcement was always there.
Israel was in a process of transition from an agricultural, mostly pastoral economy to an urban, mercantile economy. This process caused great disruption then as it continues to do now in similar situations. There was a great deal of poverty, and the illnesses caused or aggravated by poverty.
Jesus was one of many holy men who wandered through the villages and cities of Israel, teaching, prophesying, and healing the sick and the ailing. Roman authorities tended to look upon this phenomenon as one of the peculiarities of the Jewish people, and ignored them, as long as they did not challenge the authority of Rome.
We read this story in the gospel of Luke. The Lukan gospel is usually the favorite of liberal Christians, for it is from this gospel that they derive their conviction that Jesus cared about the sick and the poor and the widow and the orphan, and all manner of oppressed people. He speaks of the Kingdom of God, and envisions it breaking into the world right now! He heals sick people, and calls for people to love their enemies and share what they have with those even poorer than they.
Within this context then, what did Jesus mean, and what might his words mean to us today? Firstly, let us note that Jesus' demand to care for the needy was presented as teaching the people how God (or the Divine) wished them to act. This was in contrast to the practices of Rome, which taxed people into poverty to expand its Empire throughout the known world.
However, Jesus knew he was in a trap, and avoided springing it. "Pay your taxes," he said, "but remember that God's work is also necessary." And, for Jesus, God's work was primary.
What can we liberal religionists take from this reading of Jesus' words? Let us pause and examine another rendering of this scene. This is from the Egerton Gospel, which consists of five small fragments from another narrative gospel. Its existence affirms the fact that the Bible as we received it is very arbitrary. There were many other stories and collections of Jesus' teachings that are now lost to history. Here is one of the fragments from the Egerton Gospel:
They come to him and interrogate him as a way of putting him to the test. They ask, "Teacher, Jesus, we know that you are (from God), since the things you do put you above all the prophets. Tell us, then, is it permissible to pay to rulers what is due them? Should we pay them or not?" Jesus knew what they were up to, and became indignant. Then he said to them, "Why do you pay me lip service as a teacher, but not (do) what I say? How accurately Isaiah prophesied about you when he said, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart stays far away from me; their worship of me is empty, (because they insist on teachings that are human) commandments (…) [Robert W. Funk, and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do?, Harper San Francisco, 1998, p. 341]
The Jesus portrayed in the Egerton Gospel is significantly more confrontational than Luke's Jesus. He is exasperated with these men, who ply him with flattering words and do not seem to understand his teachings. He is more radical than Luke's Jesus, more willing to dispute with men who are bent on silencing him.
One reading of this gospel is that Jesus doesn't care whether these agents of the Pharisees and scribes are angry at his response. He's exasperated, and wants the rest of his listeners to pay attention to what he says. He is convinced that the Kingdom of God is at hand, almost here. He wants everyone to help bring it about.
As liberal religionists we hear these stories metaphorically. We honor the teachings of Jesus, but most of us do not consider ourselves Christian. However, I think we can understand this story as affirming our basic belief that we must live out our faith in the world. We must re-visit our deepest values and name them, and then live them to the best of our ability. We are called to do this in our personal lives, and within the institutions in which we live.
And, we can hear the words of Jesus as telling us that bringing into being the beloved community is part and parcel of our faith. We are called to work to spread our compassion, our passion for fairness, our love of humankind and the earth within our society.
Many liberal religionists worked to defeat Michigan's Proposition 2 in the recent election, which denies gays and lesbians the right to marry and other civil rights. This Proposition passed by a substantial majority. My heart aches over this fact. I cannot understand people who are so cruel to their brothers and sisters. I have struggled, trying to think what we might have done, could have done, should have done to defeat this monstrosity that will deprive people of their civil liberties.
I think that by the time it was placed on the ballot it was too late to defeat it. I think we missed the boat by failing to spread our saving words of inclusion and fairness and love for all people for years before this election.
If we are to overturn this proposition, if we are to build a society in which all people are truly equal, if we are to imbue our values of fairness and compassion and love for all people in the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens, we must commit ourselves to that task right now. And that task, my friends, is the work of the church, not the state, nor the government, nor any particular political party. It is our task.
Like the Grinch, some of our citizens have hearts that are too small. It is our work to help them grow. Please keep this in mind as we shape our future together in this faith, in this congregation.
In our faith we learn from the scriptures of many faiths and cultures, but we also place a high value on learning from life experiences. Let us return to William Rivers Pitt's story. In his article he continues by examining all the really dire consequences that he, a liberal, foresees as a result of the re-election of Mr. Bush. But then he returns to the 20-lb. rock sitting on his desk inscribed, There are worse things than losing an election. He ruminates on the record number of people who voted, and on the increased number of young people who became active in politics. And then he quotes from one of his heroes.
"Howard Dean recently wrote, 'There is more to politics than elections. Thousands of young people have discovered, as generations have before them, their efforts matter. Their actions matter because by getting in the game instead of staying on the sidelines, they are empowered, whether or not their candidate wins.
Historically, whether through the campaign of Gene McCarthy in 1968 or John McCain in 2000, the enthusiasm and hard work waned after the election. This time we cannot let that happen. Democracy is the most highly evolved system of government ever created by human beings. And like everything else we create, it will wither and die unless we nurture it.'" (Truthout.org, Friday, November 5, 2004)
No matter where different members of this faith fall on the political spectrum, we all agree that participation in the democratic process is critical. Howard Dean's words echo my thoughts when I try to come to terms with the results of this election. For years I lamented that too many citizens seemed to be asleep. For years I chafed at those who have labeled our people as consumers instead of citizens, at the reduction of people to materialists rather than participants in democracy. When I read reports that a record number of people voted all across the country, I could only rejoice. Democracy will not survive unless citizens participate. I think they are waking up.
Monday night and all day Tuesday I kept the church open. I lit candles in our lovely sanctuary and had music playing part of the time. A few people came in, but not many. As the polls started closing on Tuesday I haunted my e-mail news sources. That's when I first learned about the tragic death of Cathy Harrington's daughter. Her daughter, Leslie, was brutally murdered twenty years and two days after my daughter, Kathleen, suffered the same fate.
I knew, even before William Rivers Pitt, that there are worse things than losing an election. Facing a major tragedy has the painful effect of building a sense of perspective that never leaves one. A sense of perspective is a great asset when we are required to live through difficult times, no matter their source. However, when people are faced with tragedy, they must make some meaning out of the pain, if they are to continue life and learn to enjoy it again.
My own response, which took more than a year of reading and thinking and meditating, was to craft a personal mission statement. It allowed me to look toward the future, and continues to guide my life. The statement is, "I will spend the rest of my life working to make the world safe for women and children." I know that I did not include men in that wording. I think that most, maybe not all, men are already safer than the women and children with whom they live. I did not intend to exclude men, it is just that my life experience called me to concentrate on women and children.
I have no illusions that I can affect the whole world, only that small area in which I live. When I was considering how to implement this mission statement I thought of entering politics. However, I rejected that idea. While we must eventually pass laws that ensure safety for all people everywhere, the prior task is to change people's hearts.
Only when most people know in their hearts that we will all be better off if the streets are safe for women to walk at night will we pass and enforce laws to ensure that they are safe. Only when most people know in their hearts that all children are precious gifts of the divine, and must be treated as such, will we pass and enforce laws to ensure that they are safe and cared for. Only when most people know in their hearts that our children deserve to inherit clean air and water and fertile soils will we pass and enforce laws that ensure that we can pass on a life affirming inheritance.
And changing hearts is the work of the church. There are many of you who are active in politics. For this, I thank you. We need people, (and who better than our own?), to do the political work that registers voters, reminds them to vote, runs for office, and serves in governing bodies. We can be assured that such people will work to enact and regulate laws that enact our values. I praise your work, and sometimes I join you. I encourage all of you to consider serving your community on boards, committees and in elected positions.
However, my work, and the work of this faith community as a whole comes prior to politics. Our work is defining those values that we believe assure a safe and healthy life for all people. Our work is to speak those values, live those values, and share those values with others that are seeking a liberal faith community.
There are legions of people in our communities who live with a hole in their hearts that needs to be filled. They may vaguely think that love is better than hate and playing fair is to be encouraged. However, they don't have the inner conviction that these messages are from the Divine. They don't know that there are faith communities that don't require members to subscribe to a creed that insults their intelligence. They need to be sought for, invited, and escorted through our open doors. We need to welcome them with our open hearts, and share with them the results of our open minds.
And we need to be about growing the hearts of all our members, and all of those with whom we have contact. Pinched hearts make for unhappy people who resent the happiness or possible happiness of others. This is our task--to grow the hearts of all people until they understand that we are one people, no matter our faith, our skin color, our ethnicity, or our sexual preference.
I offer you a way to begin. One of our members, Brenda Bush, called me with a request on Friday. "Could we," she asked, "have a discussion after church on how to respond to people when they say something that really assaults our values?" She gave an example of a remark made to her that left her unsure of what to say.
I agreed that this was a good idea. So, after the service I invite you to get your refreshments and greet your faith companions. Then, at around 11:45, if you wish, I invite you back into this space. We will talk for a few minutes about crafting an elevator speech that you can make in 3 minutes or less. We'll talk about what to say when someone makes an insulting remark about a minority group. We may even do some role-playing to give you an opportunity to think through possible responses.
This is a small beginning; however, it is a beginning. You are not helpless. You are a child of the Divine. You are able to join with others to help shape the future you crave. For me, that future must include safety for women and children. I invite you to envision the future you need, and to work toward its implementation.
Amen.
Blessed Be.
Shalom.
Saalat.
Posted by nanak at November 10, 2004 10:32 AM