Eisenblogosphere

Last month, both the Adult Catechism and the Confirmation class spent a good deal of time exploring the 10 Commandments and Martin Luther’s explanations for them. We discussed many aspects of the Commandments such as the numbering of the Commandments (Lutherans number them differently from Jews who number them differently from Catholics), the question of whether some Commandments are more important than others (Luther argued that they were written in descending order of importance), and other interesting and challenging questions. One of the most interesting conversations that came up in both classes involved Luther’s expansive understanding of the Commandments. By this I am referring to Luther’s creative interpretations for what the “heart” of a Commandment might be. For example, in his explanation of the fifth commandment, “You shall not murder,” Luther says not simply that we must not “endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors,” but he also adds, “instead [we are to] help and support them in all of life’s needs.”

This expansive practice was not unique to Luther. Jesus too understood the commandments of God to be more extensive than their surface meanings. In his sermon on the mount Jesus teaches, “You have heard… it said… ‘You Shall not murder…’ but I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment… and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Mt. 5:21-22).

I think that Jesus was teaching his disciples that our anger and destructive words can be as catastrophic as physical murder. In fact, our anger and words can lead to death in a literal sense. Destructive words often dehumanize others in the guise of jokes or a “venting” of anger. Our anger can turn our brothers and sisters into something that is wholly other and it is easier to ignore, abuse, or kill that which is other- what we cannot identify with ourselves. I believe that this is what has happened to Jews in the early 20th century; Palestinians and Israelis; Irish Catholics and Protestants; whites, blacks, and latinos in America, and countless others. Jesus saw that not murdering others by your own hands was not enough to encompass God’s will. We have to love our neighbors by our own hands too.

Luther’s Small Catechism is nearly 500 years old, yet it contains lessons and principles that continue to challenge us today. It teaches that our understanding of God’s will in our lives is not so limited as to encompass merely our own personal piety. God’s will is not for us to remain pure, yet isolated. We are not just to avoid murder, go to church on Sunday, avoid stealing, and have sexual relations with only our spouse. Instead, God wills us to be in loving relationship with our neighbors. Those previously mentioned virtues are important, but they are not all that God wills in our lives. God desires us to care for each others’ “life needs,” to listen for God’s word, to support others in their financial troubles, and to love and honor our spouses or partners.

Jesus said that the most important commandments are to love God “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mt. 22:37-39). Jesus and then Luther understood that all of God’s commandments must read in light of an imperative to love God and our neighbors. Love is no static force, but it is dynamic and engaging. Love demands that we not only avoid harming our neighbors, but that we actively support goodness in their lives. The Commandments as understood by Luther and interpreted by Jesus call us to integrative and loving action with the world.

In the hours after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, CT, I watched as bloggers and friends on Facebook added their thoughts, frustrations, and prayers one after another. Some posted prayers for healing and comfort. Some admitted that they had no words to say in the face of such tragedy. Some saw this event as a call to action.

Their messages addressed a few different ills of our society.

“We need better gun control.”

“We need better mental health treatments.”

“We need better security in public places.”

I hear that. I respect that call to action. I agree with the stances of most of what my friends and colleagues had said. Guns get out too easily, no civilian has a pressing need for a handgun with a 40-round clip, and we don’t care for our most vulnerable. Those things do need to change.

But part of me feels like giving up on our own solutions.

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Advent is here and the church will be celebrating the awaiting of Jesus’ arrival. At Christmas we celebrate the incarnation- God has taken on human flesh and has dwelled with us on earth. God is not merely some invisible deity who casually observes the mundane and petty happenings of our world like a child observing his or her ant farm, but God “…lived among us…” (John 1:14).

Jesus Christ draws near to God’s people and fully shares in their joys and their sorrows. During his life, Jesus taught, healed, ate with others, and cried with others. Jesus’ ministry was perhaps most noticeably defined by his compassion for the poor. He called them blessed and assured them comfort from their ills, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted… Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3-4; 10). Jesus himself bears the plight of the poor during his ministry. In his passion, the Son of God is “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” as his message of peace and a rejection of oppressive religious and political authorities provokes the powerful to nail him to a cross.

Christ is incarnate today with those are suffering.

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Every single week I think of this.

On the first of November, the church celebrates All Saints Day. This holiday serves as an occasion to commemorate the lives of all the saints who have gone before us in life and death. By “saints” we do not merely mean canonized individuals often famous for their religious actions, such as St. Theresa or St. Francis of Assisi, but we speak of saints as all those who have been redeemed by Jesus. At many churches, the names of those who have died during the previous year are read aloud.

The first time that I had experienced this practice was at the chapel of my seminary in Philadelphia. That year my distant cousin whom I had only met on two or three occasions died. A few months prior to All Saints day that year my grandmother had also died. The service got off to a booming, energetic start as we sang the hymn “For All the Saints” (ELW 422) with enough gusto to knock down the walls of Jericho. But about halfway through the service one of the seminarians began to read the names of those who had died the past year. The chapel became a vacuum. Dead silence filled the worship space as each name echoed throughout the room. Then, I heard the names of my loved ones pierce the air, “Izzy” and again, “Rita.”

Hearing those names seemed to conjure their very presence into the chapel with me. I was flooded with memories. Hearing Cousin Izzy’s name spoken, I vividly recalled the last time we had seen each other. We had met for a Passover dinner with several other family members and now that memory was present in the seminary chapel. Hearing my grandmother’s name, Rita, spoken, I recalled how frail she seemed in the last days of her life as she was dying from complications from her stroke. Oma was weakened to the point where she could hardly speak in an audible whisper and it was difficult for me to witness this part of her life. She too, with breathing tubes, IVs, and all, was present in the seminary chapel.

There in that place, Izzy and Rita felt truly present. As their names were read, we remember the life that God had given them and the blessing that their lives have been to us. For me, I remember Izzy challenging my faith with critical questions about why I want to become a pastor and inviting me to participate in our family celebration of Passover though I was studying abroad in Israel, thousands of miles from home. I remember Rita, my grandmother, serving my brother and I ramen soup on a fall day and I remember her smile on the day of my wedding 15 years later. The church reads the names of the saints to recall their blessing in our lives, but also to remember their death. They have died and are not part of this mortal life anymore, but in remembering their death we also remember their eternal life. As saints they are beloved by God. They have been given the gift of eternal life. On All Saints Day, we remember that they have been brought into God’s kingdom. Their death, though we still mourn it, is the beginning of their eternal lives.

All Saints Day is, in a sense, the day after Ash Wednesday. On Ash Wednesday we hear the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.” On All Saints Day we remember that we saints have triumphed over the dust of death. We are joined with God in the resurrection of Christ, tears are wiped away, and death is no more. 

Never Been Slaves

Text: John 8:31-36

We have never been slaves to anyone… well that’s just not true.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is speaking with the “Jews who had believed in him” (as the text calls them) and he tells them that if they follow his commands, they will know the truth and the truth will set them free. To this, the Jews who had believed in Jesus respond, “What do you mean ‘free?’ We’ve never been slaves to anyone.”

Well, that’s just not true.

As a matter of fact, Jewish identity is probably most centrally wrapped up in their slavery in Egypt. It was from this slavery that God delivered the Israelites with miracle after miracle in the form of the 10 plagues, God led the Israelites through the parted Red Sea, God fed them manna in the wilderness, gave them the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai, and finally led them into the Promised Land of Israel.

But the Israelites did not remain free even after arriving in the Promised Land. In 722 BCE the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom. In 586 BCE the Babylonians finished off the southern kingdom and hauled away the Israelites as prisoners to Babylon. About 100 years later the Persians conquered the Babylonians and the Jews with them. Under the Persians the Jews were allowed to return to Israel, but they were later conquered by Alexander the Great and the Macedonians. They were ruled by the Seleucids and Ptolemies and finally conquered again by the Romans. They were ruled by the Romans even as they spoke the words in our Gospel reading, “We have never been slaves to anyone.” Well, that’s just not true.

It seems terribly evident that the Jews had been ruled by many, many people, so how could they make the claim, “We have never been slaves to anyone?” The way I see it, there are only two possibilities. One, they must have had particularly awful memories and had somehow forgotten that they had been slaves to practically everyone in the Near East. Or two, they are saying the words “We have never been slaves to anyone” as a statement of defiance. In saying “We have never been slaves to anyone,” the Jews who had believed Jesus refuse to acknowledge Rome’s power, Egypt’s power, or anybody’s power over the Jewish people. They preface this defiant statement by saying “We are descendants of Abraham.” They remember their ancestor Abraham who received the promise of God that he would be the ancestor of a great nation as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand by the seashore. It was their nation that God promised to be God to. They would be the holy people of God. So when the Jews say, “We have never been slaves to anyone,” they are saying “Although we may have been ruled by Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedonia, and now Rome, we’ve never truly belonged to anyone but God.” Their statement refuses to acknowledge that any nation has the power take from God what belongs to God- the people of God.

Jesus’ next statement is particularly interesting. He expands our understanding of enslavement by responding, “…everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” For Jesus, political and national powers do not possess the sole ability to enslave people. This statement is particularly condemning- especially when we remember the words from Paul in our epistle reading, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If we take both Paul’s words and Jesus’ words seriously then all of the world is enslaved to its own sin.

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