The Insecurity of Covenants

The Insecurity of Covenants

 

Exodus 19:2-8a

The covenant with Israel at Sinai 

 

19:2 They journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.

 

19:3 Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the Israelites:

 

19:4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

 

19:5 Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine,

 

19:6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. 'These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites."

 

19:7 So Moses went, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him.

 

19:8a The people all answered as one, "Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do."

 

The thing about covenants is that they are great…until they aren’t. Think about it. Marriage covenants are broken all the time, whether it is by alienation of affection and infidelity, or just reneging on all the promises we make when we “solemnize” them. I promised to “love, honor, and cherish” my partner, but that reminds me of the old Stephen Wright joke: A guy goes to a store advertising “Open 24 Hours,” and finds the door locked; he bangs on the door until the owner comes out, and he says, “I thought this store was open 24 hours,” to which the owner answers, “Well, not in a ROW!” “Love, honor, and cherish”…but not all at ONCE! Thankfully our 49-plus marriage covenant has not had to weather any storms beyond my occasional breaching of one of these “Honey, I love you” elements. True confessions? It’s usually the “cherish” one, when we are arguing. 

 

There are all kinds of covenants: some are like legal contracts; others are more akin to “handshake agreements.” All of them are some kind of “promise” to either do or DON’T do something. One of the things that may derail a covenant happens when both covenanting parties have divergent views of what the covenant means. Go back to our marriage covenant: when one partner thinks it just means not openly dating another person, while the other takes seriously the whole “love, honor, and cherish” part, bad things happen. Two parties can MAKE a covenant, but if there are varying understandings about how the covenant is kept, even a well-constructed covenant isn’t worth the paper (or “handshake”) it’s printed on. Of course, this reminds me of another joke from Seinfeld: Jerry makes a rental car reservation (a covenant, as he sees it), but when his flight lands, the rental desk has no cars available. He argues with the reservation clerk regarding just what a “reservation” means. He “explains” that a reservation should mean that they will hold a car for him. The indignant clerk protests by saying she knows what a “reservation” is, to which Jerry responds, “I don’t think you do! You know how to “take” the reservation, you just don’t know how to “keep” the reservation!” This goes to our understanding of covenants, doesn’t it? We know how to MAKE the covenant, we may just not agree on how to KEEP the covenant. One only needs to read the Old Testament to see that God and Israel had this problem much of the time.

 

Pastors spend much time “sermonizing” about covenants: reminding members of the “membership vows” (covenant) they took when they joined the church; of the baptismal vows they took (covenant) to raise their children in the life of the church; or of their “commitment to Jesus Christ” (covenant) they made, urging them to be faithful to it. Hopefully we preachers of grace ALSO remind them that in Christ, God made a covenant with humanity that will never be breached. If a “disconnect” occurs, guess who is at fault? This gets at the heart of my own practice of covenant-keeping, by the way. I FIRST assume that if there is a problem with a particular covenant, I am the one at fault. If I start there, it keeps me from immediately blaming the other party. You’d be amazed how many times it never gets beyond that, as I AM usually the party that is having a “promise problem.”

 

In their title song from David Merrick’s musical of the same name, Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote:

 

Oh, promises
Those kind of promises
Take all the joy from life

Oh, promises, promises

My kind of promises
Can lead to joy
And hope and love
Yes, love!

 

These lyrics illustrate the sometimes fickle nature of the covenants and promises we make. Some covenants lead to freedom, while others are designed to create boundaries or restrict. Human beings need both to have happiness and security. But when we bump up against covenantal walls when we’re looking for freedom, we get upset, and when we feel “too free” while needing a fence to rein in our inappropriate wanderlust, it is just as disconcerting. All this well summarizes my opening statement: covenants are great…until they’re not.

 

Covenants that are too constraining are most inconvenient, and while designed to give us boundaries, they may actually make us feel even more insecure. It’s kind of like the Dutch reclaiming land from the sea using dikes. Having the land is nice, but the more the sea strains against our “covenantal” dikes, there is always the chance that one of them will let loose. Now THAT’S an insecurity! Dara and I just signed a binding covenant with a retirement community where we will be moving to next month. And while this has been our plan for some time, and while this is a wonderful retirement community that has fantastic independent living options like the one we’ve taken, there is both a “finality” and a fear about permanently aligning ourselves with both a set of agreed upon rules and standards, and committing so much of our retirement resources to it. You know what is performing a “healing” on my initial apprehensions about this major “covenantal” leap? Beginning to sort and pack our “stuff” to both prepare for the move, and to “stage” our home for sale, as directed by our realtor! Fatiguing myself beyond reason in the process is fully convincing me we made a wise choice. Had we stayed where we are, none of this “weeding out” would have occurred, and our two adult children would have been left with a mess, when we “shuffle off this mortal coil.” At least in the retirement community, they know how to guide survivors as to how to deal with the remaining stupid “stuff” accumulated, may even have others in the community who would like to pick through it like scavengers.

 

Today’s text is about the Sinai Covenant between God and Israel, as brokered by Moses. God, after reminding Israel of all God had already done for them by liberating them from slavery in Egypt, promises to care for them and hold them as a “treasured possession” before all other peoples, if Israel promises to keep the covenant and obey God’s voice. In short: “If you will be my people, I will be your God.” Sounds simple; sounds like a good idea, having such a close relationship with the God of the universe, especially when their “blessings” look so tempting to other “peoples” surrounding them. Here’s the thing that caught my preacher’s eye, though—the last verse of the pericope: “The people all answered as one, ‘Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.’” Knowing human beings, THAT sounds too good to be true. Everything that the LORD has spoken? They will “do” it? It sounds like the teenage boy whose father is gifting him a car. The father says, “I’ll give you this car on the condition that you keep it in good condition, pay for the necessary auto insurance, and drive it safely and obey the traffic laws,” to which the teen hurriedly answers, “Yeah, yeah, I will! GIVE ME the keys!” You know where that one is headed. In this text, God is giving Israel the keys. Oh, and we Christians should remember the parable Jesus told about the father and two sons (no, the OTHER father and two sons), one of whom said he would go work in the vineyard and the other, who said he wouldn’t. The one who “covenanted” to go, didn’t show up, but the one who didn’t commit, DID show up. Jesus praised the latter. Covenants may sound good on paper, but if there is no actual action proposed by them, what are they?

 

I don’t want to get overly negative here. Dara and I were blessed with two wonderful and generally compliant children. We really trusted them, and they rarely gave us any reason to NOT trust them. When they said they would do something, they did it (at least to the best of our knowledge). Similarly, Israel DID often obey God and keep the various covenants they had with the Divine. When they did things went well with them. When they didn’t, the old “What you sow, you will also reap” thing applied. (With Israel’s herky-jerky track record, it’s no wonder that Jesus brought this little chestnut back into prominence through his teachings and parables.) Our experience with our two children reminds us that people CAN keep covenants, and occasionally DO what they say they will DO. However, too anxiously saying “Yeah, yeah, give me the keys” and driving off can sow seeds of impending doom, when it comes to covenants. 

 

Ultimately, it comes down to the integrity of those making the covenant in the first place. Then, have the two (or more) parties also hammered out at least a boilerplate shared agreement on what it means to KEEP the promises of the covenant in question? And what about accountability? Are there “penalties” for breaking the covenant, or is it truly just a “What you sow you will reap” system? In the case of God’s covenant with Israel—and with humanity through the Christ Event—the integrity of God is not really in question. Oh, there were those times when Moses had to argue with God and “remind” God of God’s culpability in creating humans with “free will,” n’at, but still, God is not one to be trifled with in covenantal matters. Humans, on the other hand, can have our issues with them. God can go out of God’s way to offer all kinds of blessings and rewards, but when God asks simply that Israel be a “royal priesthood” and be respectful of the Divine, Israel be like, “Oh, do we really have to have the car back by MIDNIGHT?” 

 

And finally, going full circle, we would be well to be reminded that covenants—if only made to offer security of the “lesser” party—may breed INSECURITY more than safety. The best covenants are between two respectful, faithful, and “loving” parties—more like a marriage than a legal contract. When covenants spell out positive actions, describe and “codify” a respectful relationship, and create an environment of mutuality, not dominance. Some naysayers of the Christ Event have suggested that God could have “fixed” the human sin problem by snapping God’s fingers instead of making the kind of sojourn among us that Jesus advanced. But not if you understand what I just said about the nature of a true covenant. Jesus came to “be” with humanity, to fully understand us, our temptations, our fears, and our need for healing at multiple levels. It didn’t matter that these may be “consequences” of our own choices. The fact is, we were separated and suffering, and this is not the life God created us to have. Jesus himself said it: “I came that you might have life, and life abundantly.” In this covenant, there is NO insecurity! Amen.

 

What Makes a Nation Great?

What Makes a Great Nation?

 

Genesis 12:1-9

Journey in the promise 

 

12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

 

12:2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

 

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

 

12:4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

 

12:5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,

 

12:6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

 

12:7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

 

12:8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord.

 

12:9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

 

Did you ever start out a sermon with an unrelated excursus? I’m sure I was told in seminary that this was anathema, but the last verse of this pericope of scripture caught my attention as I began to explore the text. “And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.” That “journeyed on by stages” is what is causing the detour on my OWN sermon-writing journey, presently. You see, I’m a “journey theology” kind of person. There are those who revel in doctrines and dogmas, in terms of their faith, while others swing from worship service to worship service like Spiderman on silk. Then there are those for whom their “incubator” of spiritual formation is prayer and meditation. I’m a journey guy. When John Wesley said that Christ followers should “go on to perfection,” it sounded like a direction to me, so I’ve set my spiritual GPS on “perfection,” and expect life will give me the proper prompts as to when to turn and what roads to take. That has worked well for almost 72 years now. Some would say I’m relying too much on the grace of God, doing it this way, but I fail to see how that is a bad thing? A big part of my “trip” has been academics—degrees, classes, reading, and writing. (Hence, in retirement, I write a weekly sermon, and if you’re reading this on my blog, you’ve stumbled onto my path, dear friend!)

 

If we’re being honest, I think we ALL are on a spiritual journey, if we are Christ followers. As I said in another recent sermon, we follow a peripatetic Savior, and regardless of which spiritually formative practices trip our personal trigger, we ARE going somewhere. And when we’re not? Look at the phrases we use: “I’m feeling stuck,” “I’m stagnant in my faith,” “I feel like my prayers are just hitting the ceiling,” “I’m feeling LOST.” These are all directional vectors, aren’t they? The text says that Abram is on HIS journey by taking it “in stages.” What this evokes in me is the idea that not all steps are equal, not each day’s travel is as far, and when it comes to delays or detours along the way, we can either rail against them as sidetracking us, or stop and check out the place where we are being detained, possibly meeting new friends along the way. This latter idea reminds me of the Camino de Santiago, which I also mentioned in a recent sermon. The “Camino,” as it is known, is a long, walking pilgrimage across parts of Europe that ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. People register to “take the Camino,” and off they go. Several of my friends have done one, and if you want to get a flavor for this unique faith journey, rent the movie, “The Way,” starring Martin Sheen. People meet people and encounter all kinds of “unexpecteds” along the Camino, which sounds exactly like what Abram did on his journey to reach the Negeb. Isn’t “real life” like that? Or are you one of those personalities that just HAS to have a plan for everything, and are “out of your element” if something happens you hadn’t planned for? Maybe it’s time for you to move out of your comfort zone for a while as a “spiritual sacrifice”? For those of you, like me, who relish the “unexpecteds,” especially when they mean new people, new lessons, and new experiences, then ENJOY your “journey in stages” like it is your own personal “Camino”!

 

What I really wanted to address in this message, though, is the word from God that God wants to make from Abram “a great nation.” WHAT is a “great nation,” I wondered? Diehard literalists will probably tell me that “great” here means “large,” “numerous,” or “exceedingly wealthy and powerful.” These might be the hallmarks of a “great nation,” and I can see the truth here, at least from a political perspective. But what truly makes a nation great? If one takes the Torah seriously, one comes to the conclusion that what God, and God’s Jewish people, think is a great nation has little to do with just population, power, and geography. If you get caught up in the contemporary rhetoric about political Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and this Netanyahu/Trump stuff, you may fall into both the pit of despair and the “black hole” of a timeless war that threatens to consume us all, neither of which are welcome detours, frankly. Wrangling over “who is right” and “who is wrong” in this one gives new meaning to “pitstop,” for it is a pit that will stop everything, for there IS no right and wrong in it, other than that I hope we can agree that innocent people dying on either side is a bad idea.

 

No, the Torah postulates a great nation as one that “welcomes the stranger” in its midst, treating the sojourning foreigner like a fully-vested citizen, and providing radical hospitality for them! The Hebrew code of hospitality is one of the strongest commands God gave Israel, pretty much next in line behind loving God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind. Netanyahu should read the Torah. Donald Trump should just read…something. And Christians who back “strong man” Israel against the residents of Gaza and the Arab world should read their Bibles. Great nations are ones made up of citizens who truly want to honor God and their fellow human siblings. Torah, Koran, and the canon of scripture of the Christian all describe “greatness” in terms of honoring God by LOVING God and LOVING neighbor, with the understanding that “neighbor” is anyone other than one’s immediate family, and often especially those with presenting needs.

 

Truly great nations would have little issue with the benevolent teachings of these holy books, and most especially with the teachings of Jesus Christ. One of the things I have always appreciated about John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, is that he wasn’t about just “saving souls” by leading them to a relationship to Jesus Christ. While he certainly did this, he also believed firmly in saving the PEOPLE involved, too, not just their “soul.” As much as he preached, he visited the sick and those in prisons, and not just to pray for them. He launched ministries aimed at feeding the poor, reforming the prisons, and providing access to education, of which he profoundly understood the value. England credited this holistic ministry of Mr. Wesley’s as one of the most effective “engines” (or at least catalysts) of the Industrial Revolution that cemented that country’s fortune and helped lead many of its people OUT of poverty, in that day. When I made my first trip to England, by the way, it was around the 250^thanniversary of John Wesley’s famous “Aldersgate experience,” which launched the Methodist movement. All over London the GOVERNMENT had hung banners with Mr. Wesley’s visage on them, celebrating alongside the Methodists, validating the importance of this historic movement in the successful history of England’s “great nation.” (As it turns out, though, nations have a hard time keeping their focus on the welfare of their poorest citizens, which is a tragedy we will NOT find celebrated in the Kingdom of God, either “here, there, or in the air,” as they say.)

 

Some “believers” today are saying that their rendition of a “great nation” is one that believes in Jesus Christ (but not necessarily his teachings about the poor, the oppressed, and the identity of “who is my neighbor,” as he relates in the parable of “The Good Samaritan”). They have bought the embellished history that was “rewritten” in the late revivalist period of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and famously “retold” in the 1970s in a book called “The Light and the Glory” by Peter Marshall, Jr., son of the famous Senate chaplain, Peter Marshall, Sr. Marshall and his co-author made “use” of this rewritten revivalist history to assert that American was founded as a “Christian” nation by people like Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Adams, who were devote Christians (they were not). As I have stated in previous sermons, the veritable “pen” of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, was a confessed Deist who absolutely HATED Christianity and the “idea” that God would visit earth in human form. Paine wrote numerous treatises and pamphlets against the Christian faith. All of these historical facts didn’t stop Marshall from capitalizing on this false notion that America has a “Christian” foundation. All this said, this “evangelical” phenomenon has crafted a narrative that says that a “great nation” must be a Chrisitan one, oppose abortion, deify the Second Amendment, and support Israel at all costs. Obviously, there are numerous problems with this formulation. First of all, we were founded as a FREE nation, and these folk are ignoring the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution. And the unwavering support of Israel is advocated because these folk believe the Bible says we must (it does not). While the Bible does talk of Christians loving “God’s people,” it does not address the modern political state of Israel, which is a construct of the United Nations in 1948. It bears little resemblance to Israel of the Bible, especially on the worst days of both! Besides, most of the evangelicals who believe this are doing so because they claim that supporting modern Israel will lead to events that will precipitate the “return of Christ,” something they think will benefit them. (Frankly, the way many of the them are behaving, I don’t think they should be so eager to be face-to-face with the actual Jesus of the Bible. Things might not work out the way they think they will.)

 

So, what IS a “great nation”? Well, I do believe it is one that is “god-fearing,” in that its principles make it easier for people to worship the god of their choice. It is a nation that TRULY CARES for the “least of these,” and offers all people equal rights and opportunities to prosper (something Jesus labeled “abundant life”). A great nation is not racist or sexist, and it respects and cares for its elder citizens. It makes sure that the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” is always lessening, and the faster, the better. Great nations can have almost any kind of economic and governmental system, providing it supports and uplifts ALL of its people, with no political, religious, or economic group allowed to dominate all others. Great nations seek to edify and relate to all other countries of the world. “America First” is not the slogan of a truly great nation. And while we’re at it, can we take a good look at that MAGA slogan, “Make America Great Again”? When was that? Was it when our nation was drawn together over a World War, forgetting the trappings of “rich” and “poor,” largely, and rallying together to eliminate tyranny from the world? Was it after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when again we were “closer” as a people, feeling like an attack on New York City, Shanksville, PA, and Washington, D.C. was a full-on attack on ALL of us? While these were overly “simplified” times of at least some form of national unity, it doesn’t seem like this is what the MAGA folk are meaning. It doesn’t take reading much between the proverbial lines to see that the “America” they want was a strong WHITE America. A nation when other ethnic minorities “knew their place,” and immigrants were only welcome when they were willing to be basically underpaid “slaves” of the white supremacist majority. (Think back on biblical Israel—they were at their WORST with God when THEY thought they were “great.” In God’s world, it’s humility that counts for something.)

 

In this text about Abram and God’s plan for him, it is clear that there is a “road” to greatness. So I guess it IS a journey, after all, friends! Mature Christians understand this, and also know it is both a struggle AND a joy to follow the peripatetic Jesus on HIS journey to make us all “great” by leading us to be SERVANTS of all. Again, humility counts for something with him. Those who want the best seat at the banquet must first be the servant of all. Great nations understand this. Respect is earned, and then maintained, by being the most caring, the most “neighborly,” and the most welcoming of the downtrodden and oppressed. Emma Lazarus had it right. Great nations say “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Christ is God’s “lamp” lifted to light all of our paths toward the “golden door” of freedom, acceptance, compassion, and respect. Great nations have these as their stock in trade. Being Christian doesn’t make a nation “great,” but when its citizens LIVE and ACT in accordance to religious teachings that emphasize citizenship, neighborliness, compassion, and benevolence over an “I’ve got more than YOU do” mentality, it is on the right track. They have engaged the journey, and it is one that will unfold in stages. Just ask Abram. Amen.

The Nature of God Counts for Something

 

The Nature of God Counts for Something

 

1 Samuel 2:1-10

My heart exults 

 

2:1 Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your victory.

 

2:2 There is no Holy One like the LORD, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.

 

2:3 Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

 

2:4 The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.

 

2:5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.

 

2:6 The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

 

2:7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low; he also exalts.

 

2:8 He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world.

 

2:9 He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked will perish in darkness, for not by might does one prevail.

 

2:10 The LORD! His adversaries will be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed."

 

In 1992, I was appointed as an associate pastor to St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Allison Park, PA. That church was also getting a new lead pastor (or “senior pastor,” as we called them back in the day), the Rev. Dr. Ronald Hoellein. Having served as a solo pastor (what is now called “senior pastor,” interestingly, by the appointment cabinet) for seven years, I knew this would mean an adjustment, on my part. The “good news” was that Ron Hoellein turned out to be the best pastor I have ever personally witnessed, and serving as one of his subordinates (a term HE would never use, by the way) was a great joy. As “associate” pastor, I joined a full-time Director of Christian Education, who was herself finishing seminary and planning for ordination as an Elder, and a retired former district superintendent, who served as our “minister of visitation.” And while my portfolio as associate pastor included a very vital and active youth ministry, Dr. Hoellein rather quickly discovered my administrative skills, and used these gifts to help “reorganize” St. Paul’s considerable “stable” of ministries, which numbered over 121, at that time. And that didn’t count the North Hills Community Outreach Center, which St. Paul’s had been integral in founding in the mid-1980s. It operated out of a building on our campus, and was growing rapidly, eventually eclipsing the operating budget of St. Paul’s! 

 

I offer this background so you can understand how important my five years of working with Ron Hoellein was to forming my ministry, going forward, after my tenure at St. Paul’s ended, at least at that time. I learned much from Ron’s wisdom, but I’m not sure any specific thing was more pronounced than what I learned from his astute and well-honed understanding of human psychology. It was the basis not only of his counseling ministry, but was woven into his interpretation of scripture and his preaching. As one who loved to “teach” the Bible in my own preaching, I came to see how important it was to “make the connection” with my listeners at levels they could truly grasp, especially when it came to feelings, personal needs, and “affectiveness.” And this is where we make the leap to what may be the most important thing I learned from Dr. Hoellein: How do we understand the NATURE of God?

 

I know I’ve brought this topic up numerous times before in these “retirement” sermons, but I guess its importance is so paramount that it just keeps “rearing its head,” as I peruse the lectionary in preparation for writing these weekly sermons. How DO you—YOU—understand the nature of God? Is your view of God that “he” is “the man upstairs”? Or is God the high, holy “judge” who is watching us, and will mete out rewards and punishments based on how we behave? Or, do we believe God IS love? And if so, what does this mean? While we who like to think “theologically” typically rebuff the temptation to “write ourselves on the heavens and then call it God,” it may be redeeming to have a view of a benevolent God who prefers to “rescue the perishing” rather than sink their boat and call it “justice.” How we “see” God may truly define how we act in the PRESENCE of God, and it most certainly may define how we treat OTHERS on this journey.

 

Ron Hoellein always said that our view of the nature of God set the tone for how we related to God, to OTHERS, and even to ourselves. Believing he is correct in this psychological/theological assessment, this brought a whole new perspective into my personal spiritual journey. I took time—still do—to assess this within myself. What IS it I believe about God, and how do I reconcile the scriptures and my own history to it? This concept certainly breathed new life into Outler’s famous “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” for me! Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason are the tools for this personal process of reconciliation, guiding our insights about God, me, and yinz all. It married quite well with Buber’s famous “I-Thou” analysis. 

 

All of this is why this week’s passage from I Samuel chapter 2 tripped my trigger. In this passage, Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel,” is giving her famous (and quite prophetic) speech, praising God and setting forth the broad field that will be plowed by her beloved offspring. Her view of the nature of God is profoundly progressive, well ahead of its time, and accurate of the view of God one should receive from a learned and careful view of, you guessed it, Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason! Her speech is perhaps once of the most profound narratives one may find in the Hebrew Bible, and it comes from a woman, which should make some of these testosterone-laden, modern “evangelicals” quake in their cowboy boots. Hannah largely succeeds in laying out a biblical view of the nature of God Almighty. Let’s look at it.

 

Hannah had been upstaged by her husband’s other wife, Peninnah, because she was apparently extremely fertile, while up to this point, Hannah had been barren. Now that Hannah had “miraculously” borne Samuel, she had to tell God what she thought of the Divine, and be thankful for her “deliverance,” to the glory of God. So, part one of her view of God’s nature was that God is a delivering God. She is quite exuberant in her praise of God for offering her God’s favor.

 

God is a God who exalts the humble, lifts the downtrodden, and boosts the poor, while also knocking the “high and mighty” down a few pegs. Human history has clearly shown that when humans are “winning,” we tend to too quickly sing our own praises and give “the big I” praise for all that we have accomplished. Not only do we naturally tend to push God to the side, but we also may use our newly acquired “throne” to cast aspersions on others who now are “less” than we have made ourselves to be. God is the opposite of this, and God tends to not abide humans when they “queue” in this manner. It is truth that one of the saddest realities of human practice is that when an oppressed group finally gets a few rungs up the ladder of deliverance, they “queue” themselves ahead of the next lower oppressed group. As Whites have oppressed Blacks in America, for example, so once Blacks began to make a few gains, they have sometimes turned their ire toward Hispanics. Again, God in Hannah’s speech is a God who doesn’t abide this “queuing” behavior.  

 

The commentators flag the highlighting of “sovereignty of God” issues in Hannah’s speech. Given that I attended a seminary that was organized around the Reformed tradition, God’s sovereignty was foundational to this understanding. The question is: Is there ANYTHING that is not in the purview and “power domain” of the Almighty? The Reformed and typically orthodox answer to this question is a resounding “NO.” As a Wesleyan Christian, I’m guessing John Wesley didn’t spend much time debating or defending God’s sovereignty for one simple reason: If one posits a “God” who created the universe INCLUDING humanity, why even question that such a god is all powerful and master of all domains? If we choose to believe in Yahweh, then we accept this as a given. The Wesleyan question becomes: How then shall we live? And the issue here, at least for Mr. Wesley, was going about the requisite moral/ethical life driven not by “fear” of a vengeful God, but motivated by gratitude for the love and grace extended to the creation by a benevolent God. This “difference” is key to how we perceive the nature of God, isn’t it? If I do something nice for my neighbor out of fear for being punished if I don’t, as opposed to doing it out of love of my neighbor, and out of wanted to glorify God though a benevolent act that “mirrors” God’s own love of me, is this Christian behavior? (I suppose one could argue the point that loving others because God first loved me might be seen as just a variation on the “fear” theme. Is there a higher genuineness in loving others just because they are my neighbors and fellow siblings on the path of life?) Here’s another thought that I personally believe trumps the “sovereignty” question: God created us in God’s “image,” which is a God of love, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion; these are, therefore, the natural “engrams” upon which my being is erected, and it is “natural” to live with them as my personal “core process.” 

 

Scholars point out the “prophetic foreshadowing” in Hannah’s speech. Is it also in our understanding of God’s nature that this “prophetic” manifestation of God’s action among humans is designed to guide our steps, warn us of impending hazards and pitfalls, and keep us both safe and heading toward the “abundant” life Jesus talked of? This view diverges from a more common one of the Hebrew Bible’s prophetic “ministry” being more warning Israel that bad days are coming because they have again screwed up. Hannah’s speech, in my opinion, bolsters the former view of prophecy, and has many have pointed out, seems directly related to the speech we have come to know as the “Magnificat of Mary” in the New Testament. So, God’s “ultimate” nature hasn’t changed between these two prophetic speeches? Who knew? Oh, and it’s important to point out that the two speakers, who seem to so clearly hone in on the actual nature of the divine are WOMEN.

 

All this to say, dear ones, that our view of the nature of God should COUNT FOR SOMETHING! And that “something” has to do with how we understand our relationship TO God, to God’s creation, and to our human siblings, worldwide and next door. But possibly just as importantly, it has to do with how we see ourselves and how we govern ourselves in the affairs of life. Hannah’s speech reminds us that the poor will be exalted, the righteous will reap the benefits of a blessed life, and those who mete out evil will be judged and will likewise “reap” what they have sown. God’s grace is available to all, but the “power” to reject all such benevolences is still granted to the people God has created. Our “free will” gift may be used for good OR for evil, and may even be squandered by us in our most foolish moments. We have within us the seeds of God’s own nature—a God who “wishes that none should perish.” The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the most perfect reflection of God’s desire to be in a loving relationship with the created. We seem to be doing an adequate job of squandering that, too. On the downside, I would say that the church has more to fear from this, than from the proverbial “gates of Hell.” On the upside, we have been given the power to bring fulfillment to the prophetic speeches of these two great women of the Bible: Hannah and Mary, the mother of Jesus. God’s “nature” certainly counted for something for each of them. Do thou likewise, Beloved. Amen.

Hadad, Medad, and Who Dey?

 

Eldad, Medad, and Who Dey?

 

Numbers 11:24-30

The spirit rests on Israel's leaders 

 

11:24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent.

 

11:25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

 

11:26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, so they prophesied in the camp.

 

11:27 And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."

 

11:28 And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!"

 

11:29 But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!"

 

11:30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

 

 

Yeah, we ALL know “Who Dey,” don’t we, Yinzers? “Dey” are the Cincinnati Bengals, one of the division rivals of the favored Towel People. Full disclosure: I happen to like the Bengals, when I’m not rooting for the Steelers against them, for a couple of reasons. First, my son-in-law is a Bengals fan, and I really like my son-in-law. And second, I am a fan of Bengals’ quarterback, Joe Burrow, the closest thing to “Broadway Joe” in the NFL today, in case you haven’t seen his getups he wears enroute to games. (Too bad a man with such fashion class has to play for a city whose bridges look like they came out of an Erector Set.) But for the purpose of today’s sermon, let’s forget about the Bengals, the Steelers, and the skyline horror that is Cincinnati. The text is far more interesting.

 

Yes, sports fans, it is Pentecost Sunday, the ugly stepchild of Christian “holidays.” Christmas and Easter are the “Joe Burrow” of high holy days, while Pentecost is a beer-belied scruff bucket in a MAGA hat. And it shouldn’t be so. The birth of Jesus is truly a magical, fantastic story that grabs at the heart of human babyhood. The Holy Week narratives remind us not only of human frailty and something British author Francis Spufford called HPtFtU, which stands for the “Human Propensity to [foul] things Up.” We killed the Son of God because we “differed” from his rhetoric about what we most needed to do. Easter fixes everything. EVERYTHING, or at least launches that rocket. No wonder we dress up, decorate, and eat ourselves into oblivion over these two Christian celebrations! Then there’s Maude, er, Pentecost. 

 

I suppose the first problem with Pentecost is that we don’t understand much about “God’s Spirit.” We get the baby in the manger and the Savior triumphant over death and the grave. These we can picture. But a “Holy Ghost”? Who is she? (Oh, I’ve gotten in a lot of trouble over the years referring to the Holy Spirit as a “she,” but she really CAN be seen in this light.) The Hebrew and Greek words we translate “Spirit” are feminine, AND, if we are made in the image of God, then God certainly embodies the whole spectrum of gender and gender expression. I have often told my congregations to think of the woman or women who most embodied the love and grace of God in their lives, and then think of this person when imagining the Holy Spirit. It makes a lot more sense than “Holy Ghost,” which conjures up images of either Casper or “The Amityville Horror,” neither of which is particularly “holy” in nature. (I guess there is that wispy apparition of the rehabilitated Anakin Skywalker who shows up in the final frames of the third Star Wars film, but his “deathbed” heroism isn’t the stuff the Spirit’s made of, is it?)

 

The importance of the Holy Spirit to the birth, history, and continuation of the Christian church cannot be overemphasized. In marching band, we used to say, “Without the band, football is just a game.” Without the Holy Spirit, there IS no music, no “game,” nor is there a score for either (like what I did there?). From the Holy Spirit we get the language of invitation and grace, the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and the “after dinner gifts” to send everybody home happy, and with a job to do. Need wisdom? Ask God, and the Holy Spirit will DoorDash it your way. Feeling like you have nothing to contribute to the Unfolding Kingdom of God? Trust the Holy Spirit for your giftedness, and gifted you will be. Not all of us get the dais, but the most essential spiritual gifts work in the backrooms and kitchens of the Kingdom, anyway. The Holy Spirit uses the entire human spectrum from “cradle to grave” to lead people to a relationship with the Divine, and can work through walls, be they physical, spiritual, or mental. And like “Rocky” in “Project Hail Mary,” the Spirit has superhuman hearing, so don’t be afraid to ask for what you need. 

 

I was thrilled to see this Numbers text come up in the lectionary for Pentecost this year, bored as I am with the Acts text and its winds, tongues, and flames. Honestly, they aren’t bad metaphors for the “powerful” stuff of which the Spirit of God is capable, but there seems to be a lot of “Hollywood” going on here. While the pyrotechnics are impressive, most of the work of the Holy Spirit goes on in private, and at the depths of the human heart. I once heard the Holy Spirit described as the “Hound of Heaven,” meaning that the Spirit just keeps touching the heart, sometimes bringing a wayward soul to a moment of conviction wherein they finally say “YES” to God’s great “YES” to the world, Jesus Christ. Jesus, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, can uniquely mend the broken heart and make a person whole AND holy, when before they were just “full of holes.” I was a box-seat witness to the miracle the Holy Spirit did at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church to guide it through the COVID pandemic. Not only did the Spirit give wisdom to the St. Paul’s leadership team to get us through, but she brought the best gifts of our weekday ministry directors and staff to the fore, keeping our important childcare, preschool, and afterschool programs operating, sparing innumerable families even more COVID hardship. This is what brings us to Eldad and Medad—the miraculous, essential, and sometimes “pesky” work of the Holy Spirit.

 

In the Numbers text, these two fellows stayed in the Israeli camp, after the 70 elders Moses had appointed had stopped prophesying. Eldad and Medad felt the call of the Spirit of God to prophesy, but they did so all around the camp, so the “common folk” could hear the Word of the Lord. They were not part of the “in-crowd,” or the “chosen elite,” but just two guys whom the Spirit touched and sent to give a good word. A young man tattled on them to Joshua, who petitioned Moses to make them stop. This story has a parallel in the New Testament, when Jesus’ disciples—who were obviously part of the “chosen,” at least in their minds—tattled to Jesus that they had heard of a guy casting out demons and “doing good” in the name of Jesus, but he was not part of their group. They admonished Jesus to stop the man, much like Joshua wants Moses to do to Eldad and Medad. Jesus gave a timeless response: “The one who is not against us is for us.” Leave them alone, for the Spirit of God is afoot.

 

There are two important lessons here: The Holy Spirit will do what the Holy Spirit will do, and is no “respecter” of persons, meaning the Holy Spirit may choose to work with and through anybody who is a willing vessel. There is a randomness, at least seemingly, to the Spirit’s “methodology,” and often a kind of playfulness as well. Maybe this is another reason she gets that “Hound of Heaven” moniker? The second lesson is that we are not the gatekeepers on the work of the Holy Spirit. I’m not saying that we Christian leaders shouldn’t be on the lookout trouble stirred up by errant doctrinal teachings or persons being sucked in to harmful religious practices by bad or self-serving theology. What I AM saying is that we should be tolerant of faith expressions we may not either understand or feel completely comfortable with, ourselves. While I struggle with more “fundamental” or “evangelical” Christian philosophies and practices, I acknowledge that the Holy Spirit CAN and DOES work through these manifestations of our faith to lead some into a relationship with Jesus. I don’t abide the judgmental attitude I often see in these groups, but if persons are finding faith through them, I should acknowledge this and be thankful. I can also pray that these “new” Christians find growth through the Holy Spirit that may lead them to a more inclusive, mature understanding of what Jesus was trying to build in the Kingdom of God.

 

While we in the United Methodist Church do not frequently practice the “sign gifts” of the Holy Spirit such as prophecy or speaking in tongues, we do believe the Holy Spirit may still use them for good in the Body of Christ. The Pentecostal and Charismatic churches do manifest these gifts, and many have come to faith through these expressions, too. We Christian believers are admonished several times in scripture to “not attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil,” meaning that, while WE may not cotton to these “showier” or outwardly demonstrative spiritual gifts, we should not declare them either “wrong” or null and void in our time, as some have. Doing so may rob the Holy Spirit of valuable avenues to lead the broader realm of humanity to faith in God. I often said in my sermons that my theology and mode of ministry might reach persons that the Black church or the Pentecostal church down the street could not reach, and vice versa. We are all part of the Body of Christ, after all. Besides, Hadad and Medad are here to remind us that the Holy Spirit may choose to use someone we have never even heard of to touch persons with the love and redemption of God! Who Dey? Dey be channels of the Spirit!

 

Moses’ response to this “outrage” of Hadad and Medad’s peripatetic prophesying ministry is also a lesson for us: Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his spirit on them! Moses gets it! Good leaders don’t look to RESTRICT, they recognize the wisdom of turning the Spirit loose, and encouraging “those who are not against us.” Moses did. Jesus did. And those are the Bible’s two most influential figures! May we persons of faith “borrow” the Cincinnati Bengal’s rallying cry, in this regard: “WHO Dey? WE Dey!” Amen.

The Devil You Say

 

The Devil You Say

 

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

God sustains those who suffer 

 

4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

 

4:13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.

 

4:14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

 

5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

 

5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

 

5:8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.

 

5:9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.

 

5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.

 

5:11 To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

 

Many moons ago, a Black comedian—Flip Wilson—crafted a character who used to say, “The DEVIL made me do it!” He always got a laugh out of it, but as the years went by, we began to see people doing horrible things—even killing throngs of people in nightclubs, outdoor concert venues, schools, and even a synagogue here in Pittsburgh, because “the devil” put such a deep hatred in their hearts that ideas and bigotry mattered more than human lives. Someone has said, “The devil is in the details.” Perhaps the devil IS the details, for it is in the details that so many have lost their souls and came to believe that only THEIR “details” are the right details, or the most “spiritually correct” ones. When people act out of such strong, often deluded confidence, “devilish” things can happen, and they are usually swallowed up in them, themselves, before the debacle is all over. This is how the “devil” works. It’s important to note how this general epistle describes “the devil” as prowling like a “roaring lion.” Lions prowling as they hunt for food is perfectly normal thing; it’s nature working as nature does. What has been labeled as “the devil” works through perfectly “normal” human processes, but evil happens when they become distorted by overzealousness, misplaced passion, or are enacted “out of proper context,” kind of like letting a lion loose from a zoo, or removing it from its natural environment and dropping it off in a child’s playground. Metaphorically, this is what happens when persons’ ideas grow distorted and they act upon them. Is “the devil” for real?

 

Most of the first-century Christ followers had been Jews. The Jewish people were—and are—strict monotheists, believing in only ONE God. The famous Shema is: “Here O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD is One.” While this is why these early Jewish Christ followers had trouble grasping the “divinity” of Jesus Christ, it is also why they didn’t accept the idea that “satan” or “the devil” was in any way a god-like being, with any of the power or traits of the Eternal. (The early Gentile Christ followers were a different matter. Many of them had come from pagan traditions where they had gods for everything, so one that was a “dark-sider” would not have been unusual, in their thinking.) While the Jewish people had little to do with a “devil,” and tended to either place evil in the purview of GOD (yes, just read your Old Testament; such strict monotheists HAD to believe that their ONE God was somehow even responsible for evil events), OR in the hearts of human beings. Note that we’re not talking about random “bad events” that can happen to any of us. The Jews did NOT believe that EVERY happening had to be either caused by or “permitted” by Yahweh. Bad things can happen to good people in life, and most of the time, “evil,” either personified in a “devil” or personalized in the evil acts of an individual or a government, are not “of God.” 

 

The Christian church did extract belief in a “satan” figure, based on some of the accounts they read in scripture. Most especially, we have the “temptation of Christ” stories in the Gospels, where Jesus is put to the test by “the devil.” But again, these are just the passed-down accounts from the authors of the text, as they were NOT eyewitnesses to these events, so they could be more “theological excurses” than historical accounts of what molded and formed Jesus before he began his earthly ministry. Modern fundamentalists and certain Pentecostals have formulated very definite “doctrines” around a satanic persona—the “roaring lion” of I Peter—and even specific procedures of how to deal with “him” or to hold power over “him.” I may be starting to sound like I deny the existence of such a being, and in a way, I am, but I have my reasons, which I’ll address now.

 

First of all, “blaming” some external “perpetrator of evil” like a “satan” figure is so often used as a scapegoat to excuse evil human behavior. We humans have proven time and time again that we are quite capable of such incredible evil, from pogroms, to World Wars, to genocide, to mass shootings. These things are far worse than anything that should be attributed to some “devil,” and they are of our own doing—no “devil” needed. Furthermore, it seems each generation births its own horrors of human evil, the latest in our time being excessive, excused bigotry against persons of color, other ethnicity, or members of the LGBTQ community, as well as the near continuous “rash” of murder-suicides we see almost daily in our nation, a nation that has made an idol out of the gun, which makes such horrors so possible. Again, no “devil” needed. It would be so easy and convenient to have someone like “satan” to blame these things on, but honestly, we must take the responsibility for these devastating events. That we are capable of such things, as well as having the chutzpah to RATIONALIZE them, in many cases, should school us on the lack of need for a devil. How simple it would be to believe we could just perform some kind of “exorcism” to end such suffering! “Be GONE, Satan, in the name of JESUS!”, and everything would return to the steady state.

 

If there IS a “devil” in the world, a better name for him would be “Deceiver.” The power to deceive is an awesome and terrible thing. We are living in a time when our own national government is using deception and outright lies as a “super power” to grab and maintain a tremendous amount of power. Some of the poorist and most oppressed people have been convinced that supporting acts that increase their own suffering and disenfranchisement is what’s best. Folk who work hard to care for themselves and their families are being convinced that losing their healthcare and paying higher prices is “in the national interest” and “for their own good.” And this deception is so effective that many of these same people are wearing the symbols of their oppressors on their heads, tattooing it on their appendages, and erecting signs and banners of tribute in their front yards. That we have national leaders who perpetrate such deceptions and use them to maintain “legitimacy” may sound REALLY evil, but honestly, from a political standpoint, it’s just what “roaring lions” do, in this arena. It’s quite natural for them. That their modus operandi is so blatant and so uncontested (or so it seems), is a sign that more than “human” evil may be at work here. If there IS a devil, he is certainly in the details of this dastardly drama.

 

The writer of this text in I Peter warns believers to “resist” this devil, and by “this” devil, I mean any who would use their power to deceive to further their own agenda and feather their own nest. Down through history, countless purveyors of this “art” have effectively done this, and they have been so good at it that the “victims” they fleeced basically shouted, “Thank you, Sir, may I have another!” They, too, have engaged in petting the lion who is devouring them, even in the act of doing so. What do you think this author of scripture was warning against? In his time, it was Rome, which, under the guise of the “Pax Romana,” was enslaving and controlling the “common folk” in order to fund and preserve the “peace” of the illuminati. Is today any different? That “roaring lion” is just so beautiful, isn’t he?

 

All right, where is the GOOD NEWS here? In the big picture, it is that Jesus Christ himself flew right into the maw of the “roaring lion,” and while he endured the cross, he triumphed over the ultimate “threat” of “the devil”: death! Resurrection is the Christian belief that this “final word” on who’s in charge is NOT the final word, and its finite condemnation has no power over the grace of the Eternal, who came to rescue us, and to judge the perpetrators of this “devil/evil.” 

 

The “final word” of this Good News is that the “God of all grace” has visited us in Jesus Christ to “restore, support, strengthen, and establish” us! The collective term used in ecclesiology is “edify” the Body of Christ. Jesus Christ IS the final authority on this wonderful ministry of reconciliation, renewal, and resilience of God’s people. Those who cling to their manipulation, deception, and victimizing of the innocent (in some cases, the ignorant) will be judged by a “higher power.” Those who have been marginalized and oppressed will continue to be set free by “the God of all grace.” The “devil,” be he real, imagined, or incarnated in the selfish desires of powerful people, will be dispatched with a word, even as he was by Jesus in the temptation stories.

 

Friends, this is not just an eschatological promise—it’s for right now, for all to invoke! “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” is something that all Christ-followers have the power to do. Just don’t be surprised that when you invoke it, who leaves! There is evil masquerading as your economic, political, and even “moral” saviors, and in their hearts, they mean you no good. Resist them, for our world and our church will not recover until we do. Amen.

Entanglement

Entanglement

 

Acts 17:22-31

Paul's message to the Athenians 

 

17:22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way.

 

17:23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

 

17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth, and does not live in shrines made by human hands,

 

17:25 nor is God served by human hands, as though God needed anything, since God himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

 

17:26 From one ancestor he made all people to inhabit the whole earth, and God allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,

 

17:27 so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for God and find God--though indeed God is not far from each one of us.

 

17:28 For 'In God we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we, too, are God’s offspring.'

 

17:29 "Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

 

17:30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now God commands all people everywhere to repent,

 

17:31 because God has fixed a day on which the world will be judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this God has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

 

 

What if I told you that science has proved the bizarre theory that two subatomic particles—photons—can be given a like charge, and then split apart as far as the East is from the West, and because of something called “quantum entanglement,” if the nearest one has its charge reversed, the other particle, with which it is entangled, will instantaneously change its charge to match? And this “entanglement” phenomenon seemingly happens at much faster than the speed of light, which the General Theory of Relativity (Einstein’s work of genius) says is impossible. Now, there are lots of “explanatory” theories as to how this may happen, the most unusual of these having to do with how the very act of observing the particles itself changes them. But how can one particle know what is happening to the other, especially if it has been sent halfway across the galaxy? This is the “magic” of quantum entanglement. I say “magic” because it is, actually. The stuff of quantum theory that has already been proven, much of it in the laboratory, has left little room for questioning its validity. The quantum understanding of the nature of existence is so “real” that we have already tapped its “magic” to build the earliest of quantum computers. I read recently that one of these “primitive” quantum computers, when fed mathematical “chum” (complex problems set up by a “regular” computer of current technology), was able to perform calculations that would have taken the current “fastest” computers over 10,000 YEARS to do, and it did them in a matter of seconds. You see, a quantum computer is not limited to the “off” and “on” binary states of current digital computers, but has all of the various quantum states as operators. Unbelievable.

 

No, I’m not going to tell you more about quantum entanglement and quantum mechanics, because most of what you have just read is all I know, and this is after years to reading about it and trying to understand it. And, believe me, most of what you have just read will be disputed, corrected, and even totally debunked by the latest of quantum theorists. I’ve already read, for example, that the “Bell’s theorem” about the entangled photons may be true because the two “particles” (and yes, there are serious questions in quantum mechanics as to whether “particles” actually exist) may not be “apart,” even when we think we have moved them thusly. Their relationship to each other, according to this wrinkle, cannot be altered, even when we think we’ve done so. Think this is weird? How about the little particle we have dubbed a QUARK? Quantum theorists tell us there are six “flavors” of Quarks they have named: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. These are the kinds of strangeness the just-emerging quantum computer can tap to do its magic! You think we have a problem with computers now, just imagine when they are millions of times faster, come in “flavors,” and are so “related” to each other through entanglement that we can’t turn them off. Where can we go to make any sense out of this stuff? How about the Bible…

 

Yes, the Bible. Some in the community of faith believe the Holy Spirit “inspired” the writers of the Bible to get it perfect, which is how we must interpret it and believe it. Not me. My belief in the Holy Spirit “inspiration” of the Bible comes from its postulates that sound a lot like modern Quantum physics, yet written thousands of years ago, and no, aliens weren’t involved. You know that little, modern praise ditty we sing, “Our God is an awesome God”? I like to redact it to “Our God is a Quantum God,” which is actually more awesome than the original songwriter could have imagined. 

 

If we believe God exists, and has been around for a long while, at least long enough to have been the Creator of all we are and see, then we would necessarily have to believe that God is also the author of all of this Quantum weirdness out of which we somehow exist. If I were to put my life experiences up against the Quark’s, I think I can match it, for my life has seen up, down, top, bottom, strange and charm, many times and manifest in many ways. And after 49 years dedicated to the same partner, I can say that we are close to mastering entanglement, and yet this relationship definitely has had its “strange” and “charmed” moments. Just this morning, in fact. 

 

If there is a biblical author with even a primitive scientific context to his work, it is Dr. Luke, the author of this weekend’s text. Of course, he’s reporting on what the Apostle Paul allegedly said to the gathered braintrust of the Areopagus, the Athenians who liked to parse the meaning of life. And we should not forget that Paul was highly schooled, himself a student of the great Gamaliel, so he was no piker when it came to throwing out some astute postulates to rattle his intellectual audience. Paul starts with their statue to an “Unknown God,” a kind of catchall deity they crafted as a contingency for those things not covered by the myriad other gods festooning the Areopagus. Nothing like a little educated “CYA,” as they say. However, Paul takes the “Unknown God” to extremes, suggesting this God doesn’t just exist to pick up the loose ends, but is instead the CREATOR of it all. It certainly got their attention. He tells them this God can stand alone quite well, thank you, and has no need of anything, particularly from US, whom this God actually created in the first place. This REALLY got their attention, for I’m pretty sure the Areopagus gang felt that by standing around philosophizing, they were “doing God’s work,” and were invaluable to the continuance of reality. I have to ask myself, how far have we progressed from this idea? 

 

I do happen to believe that we humans are called into a “partnership” with God to the ministry of “tikkun olam,” as our Jewish siblings would say. It means “fixing the world.” But it is God who calls us into this service, and not because God “needs” us, but because we need to take some ownership in the task. If God in genie-like fashion just fixed it for us, we would promptly “subdue” it again, if not in the name of profit, then at least power. But God doesn’t “need” us, any more than a modern parent “needs” children. (There was a time in earlier agrarian America when a fleet of children were necessary to help the subsistence farming efforts of the family, but we are long past that.) We tend to have children today for a variety of reasons, the best of which is we want a family to love, and to build into a supportive, growing, and interdependent “community.” And if we do it correctly and ethically, we might just turn our children out into the world as responsible adult citizens who will continue to engage in tikkun olamin their generation, for let’s face it, there is a lot more “fixing” to do than we can get done in our time. 

 

This “partnership” God is calling us into is not furthered by our doing the “Athenian coffee hour” kind of thing, standing around “doing theology” and making up religious rules to make disinterested others do what we believe they should be doing. We are in an era when a lot of this is going around. In our own faith of Christianity, we have more than enough “thinkers” who preach a brand of Christianity that “clearly” lays out the correct doctrines and dogmas, pontificates on the “appropriate” interpretations of scripture, and tacks the label “biblical authority” on its own version of the catchall “Unknown God.” The kind of partnership God is calling us may well be helped, not hindered, by alliances with humanists and believers of other religions who share the goal of fixing the world, not proselytizing it. 

 

In a book I’m reading right now, Unapologetic: Why despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense, by Francis Spufford, he makes a case for expanding the partnership. He quotes Irish novelist and playwright, Samuel Beckett, as defining his own atheism in a single statement, “God doesn’t exist, the bastard!” Beckett, like so many other atheists, would like to believe there IS a deity who desires all humans to live together in peace and harmony, but he just doesn’t see it, and he’s sad about that. (I found Beckett’s statement both haunting and insightful, and am still pondering it.) And while I DO believe God exists, I am tempted to echo Woody Allen’s thought that God may well be an “underachiever.” But perhaps it’s WE who are the underachievers?

 

And this brings me to my final point: entanglement. Paul, at least in Dr. Luke’s testimony here, says something quite insightful that would have grabbed the Areopagus crowd right in the groin, regarding their “Unknown God”: In God we live and move and have our being, a statement Paul attributes to one of their own poets. Talk about entanglement! Couple that with what Paul tells the Colossians, that “God is all and in all, and that which holds all things together,” and you pretty much have a decent first-century description of what the Quantum scientists are telling us. We, the creation, AND the Creator are forever entangled, and even as the quantum computer people are just scratching the earliest surface of what a quantum computer will look like, so we, as humans may just be about to embark on a cursory understanding of what this entanglement with each other, God, and the universe may look like. At the very least, it pretty much kills off the “Lone Ranger” version of religious narrative. I happen to believe that this “entangled” God DOES exist, and until we “get it” about just how entangled we all are under the sun, then WE are the bastards—the ones needing reconciliation to the model. 

 

Speaking about “under the sun,” there is the Son to be dealt with. God has “so entangled the world that God sent the only Son into the world that none should perish.” Heard something like that before? God is SO entangled with us that God Almighty sent Jesus into the human world as PART of the human world, and as soon as he was able to speak, he began connecting us to the “quantum” scriptures of the Torah and teaching us about how to live as people forever “entangled” with God and our neighbor. 

 

This text ends up talking about judgment. Why do we always connect biblical talk of “judgment” with punishment? (And yes, I know there are texts that do that, but what if this “judgment” is just an entangled God’s way of saying we would be periodically “graded” to help improve our efforts at partnering with all this fixing, redeeming, and reconciling stuff? Even Paul in this text seems to equate this judgment with the hope of the resurrection, leading me to believe that this is precisely what God wants to do, when the word “judgment” is thrown around. An “entangled” God wouldn’t “judge and punish,” but would instead “grade and correct,” for to quote the immortal Steve Smith (“Red Green”), “We are all in this together.” Maybe all those quarks, mu mesons, photons, and Higgs bosons are just following our lead? After all, Jesus DID try to teach us how to cope with all of life’s up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm moments of life! Amaze, amaze, amaze! Amen.