MARCH 2, 2008: FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Readings:
I Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, and 10-13a
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

To appreciate Scripture correctly, it's always necessary to know what's happening in the community for which the sacred author writes. No part of the Bible was composed in a vacuum. If one doesn't know the history of the community, one can't write for the community.

According to scholars like Walter Bruggemann, only the Exodus influenced the earliest writings of the Hebrew Scriptures more than King David's reign. Among other things, the authors of Genesis make a big thing out of the fact that neither Isaac, Jacob, nor Judah were their family's oldest son. In each case, Yahweh goes against "common wisdom" and picks someone who doesn't fit the first-son category to receive the promises given to Abraham and Sarah.

Bruggemann is convinced this emphasis on Yahweh's habit of working through younger siblings springs from years of reflection on the event narrated in today's I Samuel pericope. (All three literary sources of Genesis were composed after David's reign.)

David's the most unlikely person to replace the failed King Saul. Yahweh tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse's sons as the next king. Except for the youngest who's "tending the sheep," Jesse lines up his sons according to age, to see which one Yahweh directs Samuel to anoint. To Jesse's amazement, the last of the judges announces, "Yahweh has not chosen any one of these!" The reason: "Not as humans see does God see, because humans see the appearance but Yahweh looks into the heart."

The basic belief of people of faith is that only faith enables us to cut through life's appearances and helps us uncover the true heart God has embedded in all God's creatures.

That's why our biblical authors constantly return to themes of sight and stress the contrast between light and darkness. "You were once in darkness," Paul reminds the Ephesians, "but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth." Jesus' earliest followers constantly reflected on what their faith in his risen presence enabled them to see. Nothing could compare to the light which now illumined every aspect of their lives. The last verse of our passages - probably taken from a hymn sung at baptism - sums up the Apostle's belief on the subject. "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

John's long narrative of the man born blind revolves around the same concept. Unlike the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), who demand people have faith in Jesus before he can work miracles on their behalf, John tells us such faith comes only after the miracle. Notice the blind beggar never asks Jesus to give him sight. He's amazed when he washes the unwanted mud out of his eyes and he can see. He never anticipated a miracle. And when his faith-sight comes, it arrives in stages.

He begins by referring to Jesus as "the man," then advances to "He's a prophet." Only at the end of the narrative does he recognize divinity in the person who took away his blindness. "He worshiped him."

John's convinced that "normal" Christians go through stages in their faith. Things become clearer as we go further along the faith road.

John's Jesus only has problems with those who claim "We see!" but are actually blind. There's nothing wrong with being on the road to sight. But there's a lot wrong with thinking we've already reached the end of that road. Anyone with that mindset would never be able to understand why Samuel passed over the first-born and anointed David.

FEBRUARY 24, 2008: THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Readings:
Exodus 17:3-7
Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
John 4:5-42


Even without reading the Exodus text in Hebrew, students of Scripture can distinguish the Yahwistic author from the book's other two sources when they hear the narrative of Israel's 40 year trek through the wilderness. Almost always when the Chosen People gripe, complain, or argue with God and Moses during this most important event in Jewish history, the Yahwistic author is responsible for the narrative.

Writing in the 10th century B.C.E., 300 years after the actual Exodus, this very perceptive theologian is confronting those in her community who long for the "good old days." Convinced the 13th century was an especially sacred time - because of Israel's liberation from Egypt - these folk long to return to those "thrilling days of yesteryear." They regard their own day and age as sub-par. If they had their druthers, they'd vote to live during Israel's Exodus and wilderness experience. Yahweh was so close to their ancestors during those two generations that one would wake up every morning to new, overwhelming wonders. God's presence and actions were simply a part of everyday life. Too bad they're now condemned to live at a different time, in a different place. Yahweh's greatest actions and Israel's most terrific days are over. The present is nothing compared to the past.

Part of the Yahwist's reason for writing was to convince her 10th century community that Yahweh was just as active in their lives as Yahweh had been three centuries before. One way of accomplishing this goal was to take the "romance" out of Israel's golden age. Instead of depicting awe-struck, faith-filled individuals on the receiving end of these saving actions, she informs her readers that "the people grumbled against Moses, demanding to know, 'Is Yahweh in our midst or not?'" Those taking part in Israel's greatest event never looked at it as Israel's greatest event. They, like the Yahwist's community, believed their best days were behind them. They also longed to return to the past, to Egypt where they had three squares a day and all the water they could drink.

The Yahwist's thesis is clear: There is no golden age for people of faith. No matter how exceptional God's actions are, most people never seem to notice them while they're taking place.

Paul couldn't agree more. Scholars often point out that the Apostle rarely refers to the historical Jesus in his letters. If his writings were our only source of knowledge of the Jewish carpenter-turned- reformer, we'd have to be content with, at most, just one small paragraph of facts about his life. (Remember, Paul was martyred about 10 years before our first gospel was composed.)

Paul always focuses on what the risen Jesus is doing in the lives of his followers. In today's Romans pericope, for instance, he zeroes in on what our faith in Jesus is offering us right here and now. His dying for us, "while were still sinners," brings about a "peace with God." Because of Jesus, "we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand." The good old days are our present days.

John works from a parallel premise in constructing his Samaritan woman at the well narrative. Among other things, Jesus not only breaks into the life of a "heretic," he also gets rid of the idea that some geographic places are more sacred than others. "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem . . . . The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth." True worship can be done any time and any place.

The "biblical trick" is not to pray that God enter our lives, but to pray that we discover how, when, and where God's already in our lives.

FEBRUARY 17, 2008: SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Readings:
Genesis 12:1-4a
II Timothy 1:8b-10
Matthew 17:1-9


Some priests of my era insightfully employed a quote from Dag Hammarskjold on their ordination memorial cards. "I don't know who - or what - put the question. I don't know when it was put. I don't ever remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone - or Something - and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life in self-surrender, had a goal.

Hammarskjold, a U.N. Secretary General, was killed in a September 18, 1961 plane crash while on a Congo peace mission. Not only did his words hit a resonant chord in the hearts of those newly ordained men, they do the same for all people of faith. We should have them playing in the background of our minds as we listen to today's three readings.

I always remind my students that our sacred authors create "biblical call narratives" with their readers in mind. Because our writers aren't certain about the actual historical details of the calls they describe, they arrange their narratives in a way which will enable us, their readers, to better understand the implications of our own calls.

For instance, when the II Timothy author mentions, "God saved us and called us to a holy life," he doesn't detail how such calls actually happen. But he does presume, as does Hammarskjold, that everyone who is called is drastically changed by that call. In this case, our call provides us with a "strength that comes from God," a strength which empowers us to "bear (our) share of hardship."

The author hits the faith-nail on the head when he reminds us it's a call to a "holy life," a call to be different from those around us.

We see this holiness dimension front and center in Abraham's call. Though he and his wife Sarah - the first Jews - eventually will be so blessed that people will employ their names when they bless others, divine calls always contain elements of the unknown. "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from our father's house to a land I will show you." Responding to that "Someone or Something" always demands we give up whatever provides us security. We're constantly walking down a road whose destination is known only to God.

Matthew tells us that even before Jesus' resurrection his followers glimpsed a future for which they and all people of faith long: a transformed world.

As I mentioned above, scholars take for granted today's gospel narrative didn't happen exactly as the evangelist describes it. This mountain top scene depicts an insight we presume all Jesus' followers receive at one time or another, else they wouldn't follow him. For them, Jesus is the epitome of biblical faith - represented by Moses and Elijah. He embodies our hopes for a better word - symbolized by the tents in which people will live when Yahweh arrives to transform the lives of the Chosen People.

There's just one problem. No matter how convincing such insights are, they normally last only a few seconds. "When the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone." We're still expected to carry out our call long after the insight which accompanied that call is long past.

That seems to be why Matthew's Jesus ends the pericope with the command, "Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." Only after we experience the death our call demands will we experience the life our call offers.

Years before his fatal crash, the called Dag Hammarskjold put this dying/rising concept into more modern terms. "It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity." If everyone ignores God's call, our world will never change for the better.

FEBRUARY 10, 2008: FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Readings:
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11


As with so many essentials of faith, Scripture gives more than one response to questions about temptation and evil.

The Yahwistic author of Genesis (thought by many scholars to have been a woman) provides us the best known myth of how sin and evil entered our world. According to this 10th century BCE theologian, Yahweh created humans without sin's disorder. The last line of chapter 2 states, "The man and woman were both naked, yet felt no shame." If evil is to break into our human existence, it must come from outside. No one can be tempted from within.

As this point of salvation history - more than 500 years before our familiar concepts of a devil began to appear - the serpent takes on the role of tempter. After the "fall," evil becomes embedded in our nature. "The eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked." Things will never be the same again. (In chapter 4, Cain doesn't need a serpent to tempt him to kill Abel. Murderous thoughts can now come from within.)

Though our catechism doctrine outlining the precise transmission of original sin is found nowhere in Scripture - even the phrase "original sin" is non-biblical - many of our sacred authors regard our first parents' sinful actions as somehow influencing our own weakness in dealing with temptations.

As a biblically formed Jew, Paul integrates his belief in the risen Jesus into his prior beliefs about Adam and Eve's sin, leading him to pen one of his most famous lines. "Just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one, the many will be made righteous."

Without going into detail, Paul is convinced Jesus' dying and rising has brought us the means to achieve the life our original parents lost.

This is why Matthew begins Jesus' ministry with a temptation narrative. Just as the Yahwistic creation narrative begins with temptation and failure, so Matthew's new creation narrative begins with temptation and success.

Scholars presume the earliest version of Jesus' desert temptation - as found in Mark - simply describes him being "generically" tempted by the devil; it contains no list of specific enticements. Matthew and Luke found their famous list of three in the "Q" document. Since no one seems to have known exactly how the historical Jesus was tempted on this occasion, the "Q" author reflected on his or her second generation Christian community's temptations, and inserted them into this collection of Jesus' sayings. Since all early Christians presumed they were as one with the risen Jesus as Paul and the Yahwistic author presumed all humans are one with Adam and Eve, then their temptation becomes Jesus' temptation and vice versa.

Reflecting on these three specific attractions, we realize few of today's Catholics are tempted by them. This wasn't the case 20 centuries ago when some of Jesus' followers were inclined to care only for people's physical needs, to exchange their day by day humdrum faithful living for high profile, spectacular exploits, or to sell out Jesus' values in order to have power over people and their lives. Once the church developed a hierarchical system of government, we presumed only our leaders could give into such allurements.

Most of us still are bogged down in the same temptations and sins we confessed a few days before our first communion. After all these years, we're not involved enough in Jesus to actually be tempted as he was. Perhaps the inclination to think we're personally unworthy to carry on Jesus' ministry might be the biggest temptation any of us will face.

FEBRUARY 3, 2008: FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings:
Zephania 2:3, 3:12-13
I Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 5:1-12a

One of the most disturbing dimensions of taking Robert North's courses in biblical archeology was his stated conviction that the historical Jesus never intended his followers to number more than a small minority in any community. The Jesuit scholar contends that very few people actually have the courage to carry out Jesus' teachings and imitate his lifestyle. Once organized religion took over Jesus' faith, his beliefs were either ignored or, at best, watered down, enabling large numbers of people to claim they were other Christs.

Karl Rahner had said the same thing in his late 50s book The Christian Commitment. The famous theologian was convinced that, once Christians reach a certain percentage of the population, Christianity no longer has any effect on the culture or environment in which it exists. It's far easier to follow the teachings of a religious institution than to follow Jesus.

The prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures surfaced a parallel truth long before Jesus shuttered his Capernaum carpentry shop to start his itinerant preaching ministry. Almost every prophet eventually develops a "remnant theology."

The basic prophetic message is "Return to Yahweh!" Prophet's don't preach to pagans or atheists. They proclaim God's word to the "good folk:" those who claim they're already doing what God wants them to do. It's the task of the prophet to point out that much of the religious stuff with which people are concerned actually has nothing to do with God's will. Only a small number of the faithful are actually willing to return to Yahweh and discover what real faith is all about.

That's why Zephania proclaims, "Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the earth . . . seek justice, seek humility . . . ." Only those searching for God and developing these two characteristics will have a faith-fulfilled life.

Given his ministry's poor results, the prophet has no other recourse but to quote Yahweh's comforting, but realistic promise. "I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of Yahweh: the remnant of Israel."

It's ironic that those who actually return to God and carry out God's will are society's least significant members. Six hundred years after Zephania, Paul reflects on the background of his Corinthians Christians. "Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many of noble birth. Rather God chose the foolish . . . to shame the wise, . . . the weak to shame the strong, . . . the lowly and despised .. . those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something."

Matthew's Jesus zeroes in on the same insight at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Though Jesus' followers have heard these beatitudes for almost 2,000 years, most are content just to recite and memorize them. Few actually make these "blessings" an essential part of their lives. After all, who really would think their lives a success if they're continually poor, mourning, meek, hungry and thirsty for justice, merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers and persecuted for righteousness?

It didn't take long before organized Christianity began to develop the loopholes which permitted individuals to be labeled Christian without actually imitating the Christ. Personal poverty, for instance, eventually morphed into religious communities, many of which (using the words of John L. McKenzie) shared in a common possession of wealth. Within 300 years non-violent peacemaking was replaced with the doctrine of a "just war."

Perhaps those of us who work at being Christian leaders should spend most of our time simply surfacing, point out and supporting the humble, the just and the poor among us who are actively seeking God or imitating Jesus - the only people on this earth who will actually change this earth.