Cutting remarks

 What a wild and weird pair of scriptures we have this morning.  The Exodus passage about Zipporah, and Mark’s heavy-handed amputation text.  Both are about cutting things off physical bodies and are disturbing to say the least. 

The Zipporah story happens after Moses encountered the burning bush and was on his way back to Egypt.  The original Hebrew is so barebones, it’s hard to translate.  Who was killing whom, did Zipporah cast or touch the skin to Moses, why was God angry in the first place, and why did Zipporah have a flint knife in the bronze age?

Imagine, people have written books and essays on those 2 little verses, trying to understand just what was going on.  I certainly had never heard of the ‘bloody bridegroom’ before someone here asked about it, not what I was expecting when I invited folks to submit bible passages or quotes they were curious about.  Some people read this as Zipporah, the daughter of a priest, using a ritual obsidian knife, doing the rite while Moses was sick and recommitting herself to their marriage.  Others hear this as Zipporah being angry at Moses for not having circumcised his son, and throwing down the skin in disgust.

The Hebrew is that vague and that easily mistranslated.  But consensus seems to be that she was cutting off that which she saw was a barrier between Moses and God.  Jesus talked about cutting off whatever was separating his followers from God too.  He was using shocking language that would have upset his folks.  Back then there were no prosthetics and no effective anesthetics. Losing a limb often meant death by blood loss or being condemned to a life of begging, unless a family member would take the unfortunate person in.  Losing a foot or a hand was dangerous!

Jesus didn’t want the disciples to start amputating body parts right and left.  He wanted them to take very seriously what it meant to be his followers.  He wanted them to realize how dangerous their attitudes could be.  Let’s remember what they were doing when he scolded them.  They were getting ready to judge someone who was not part of their inner circle.  Someone who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name. 

Now to put this into context, this is the same chapter which talks about Jesus going up to the mountaintop with Peter and James and John, and when he came back down, the rest of the disciples had failed to heal a child of her demon.  So, to see other people do what they had failed to do must have been downright galling.  They were jealous!  They wanted Jesus to cut the others down and condemn them as outsiders. 

Jesus said that he didn’t want to copywrite his name, or to give the disciples an exclusive franchise on the use of his name.  He wasn’t interested in trademarking his healing skills, and he didn’t want the disciples to think that they could be an exclusive club.  But more importantly, he wanted to turn them away from focusing on what other people were doing wrong to focusing on what they could be doing better.

He didn’t say, cut other people’s foot off, he was saying cut your own foot off.  In other words, instead of being angry and resentful and jealous of other people, of being judgmental about them and flying off the handle at them, stay focused on your own spiritual journey.

We have seen a lot of people expressing a lot of anger and frustration these last few weeks.  There’s anger at the government for not doing enough.  There’s anger at the government for doing too much.  There’s anger at my neighbor for disagreeing with me.  There’s anger at my family member for not agreeing with me.  It seems like we’re caught up in an epidemic of anger as much as anything.  And an epidemic of finger-pointing, resentment, jealousy and frustration.

Jesus said to his disciples that rather than point fingers at someone who was having success, they should look at themselves first.  Why were they feeling jealous of someone else?  Why were they being tattle tales and grumblers?  Why were they sure that they had the right to feel superior or to be the insiders who knew better than the rest?

It is easier to blame others for our frustrations and our anger bursts than it is to look inside at our own pain.  Parker Palmer talks a lot about how we are addicted to fixing, saving, advising and correcting others.  We like to be right, we like to be indignant.  We like to judge and be angry.

But that’s not what a Christian is called to be.  Some of the greatest saints of our faith spent a good deal of time wrestling with their darker nature.  They may not have cut their feet or hands off, but they did circumcise their hearts and minds.  Sometimes, like Moses, they were in so much trouble with their anger and their jealousy that they needed someone else, someone wise and faithful like a priestess’ daughter to help them see the source of their disconnection with God and cut that source off with a ritual practice.  Moses was the big hero, the man with all the tricks up his sleeve that would free his people from slavery, but it was his wife that remembered that faith begins at home. 

What do we need to cut off in order to live more faithfully?  This summer I tried drying my clothes on the line like I remembered my grandma doing.  I wonder about buying a solar panel to charge my phone.  I drive my hybrid car to the city less.  I hope to find ways to lower my carbon footprint, as I’m sure you are too.  I cut off my words and thoughts when they slip into racist assumptions, I circumcise my discomfort when I hear stories of residential schools or oppression or racism or homophobia.  These things are painful for us to face and admit, but they are barriers to our relationships with one another and God as well.  When we look at ourselves first before pointing our fingers at others, we are able to start out on our heroic journeys as Christians and healers.  Let us follow Jesus on the path to building a more loving and peaceful society for all creation.

Writing on the Wall - Daniel 5

Guess how old the oldest graffiti is?

Long before people began scrawling ‘Kilroy Was Here’ or before craft stores had to lock up cans of spray paint, humans were making graffiti. There are examples of graffiti on the walls and streets of Pompeii, put there before Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.  Some people argue that the cave paintings discovered in France are the first.  Regardless of when it started, graffiti has a long history, and like modern examples, it has been a record of where people have been and what they have been thinking about.

Often what they have been thinking about has been the issues they feel most passionate about – hunting mastodons for the early Cro-Magnons, where to find women of easy virtue in Pompeii or how ancient tourists felt when standing at the foot of the pyramids in Giza.  Early Christians wrote on the walls of their catacombs in Rome, where they were able to worship safely and secretly together during times of political turmoil.

But I think the oldest written story about graffiti is this one in the book of Daniel.  It has become such a common phrase, 'The writing on the wall’ that I suspect most people don’t know or remember that it comes from the Bible.

Daniel, for those who haven’t heard of him, is more famously remembered as surviving a night with starving lions, protected by God because even the threat of death would not shake his public commitment to his faith and to God.  Like his friends, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego who were thrown into the fiery furnace, Daniel was part of the first generation of captives from Israel to be targeted for cultural assimilation into the Babylonian system.  They were chosen from the rest for special education, and special food to enter government service.  Their names were changed from typical Hebrew names to Babylonian ones.  Daniel and Mishael with ‘el’ in their names, another name for God, were to be called Belteshazzar, and Meshach.  They were also told to eat non-kosher foods too, something Daniel was able to foil with a clever plan (Daniel 1). 

They stayed committed to the God of their ancestors, which is an amazing feat of itself.  It was common for conquering countries to brag that their gods were the source of their victories.  When they fought, they believed their gods fought, and when they won, their gods won.  A winning God was worth praying to, and a losing God was either seen as dead or added to the family of Gods.  In Egypt and in Greece there were dozens of gods because of this.  The theology of the time thought Yahweh had failed and lost and was no longer to be honored.

So Daniel, by going out on a limb and speaking for God, was being radically counter cultural.  By reading and interpreting the words written on the wall, he was declaring to the thousand officials that his God was not forgotten, nor had he been assimilated, and even though he was surrounded by people who were the ruling class, he had not forgotten to follow the God who cared about the weak, the down-trodden, the widow, the orphan.  The God who cared for the conquered people living in a foreign land, and the slaves who needed rescuing from the powers of Egypt.  The God who nurtured community and compassion. The God of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Miriam, the God of Covenant not conquest.   And when Daniel saw the writing on the wall, he probably knew that God had not forgotten him either.

We too can see the writing on the wall if we know where to look.  We are at a challenging time in the history of humankind, the most challenging in my lifetime, although not for those who lived through the Depression or World War Two.  The extreme heat we experienced this summer, another bad year for crops as well as glaciers dying and permafrost no longer permanently frozen, is a sign that global warming is real and needs to be addressed.  20 years since 9/11 and the Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan.  Surging numbers of Covid cases and hospitalizations in Alberta with vaccination rates plateauing and yet people are surprised that they are being asked to wear masks again.  Like King Belshazzar, we have been focused on the wrong things.  Daniel was focused on different priorities, God priorities.   

Jesus was the same way.  He knew that if he continued to challenge the priorities of the people in power, he would end up in trouble.  He knew that challenging the status quo would have only one outcome.  But he kept his focus on God’s priorities and was prepared to do whatever it took to meet those priorities.

God’s priorities haven’t changed.  Caring for the folks without hope, the people who feel they don’t have power over their lives.  The lonely, the frustrated, and yes, even the folks who think they have all the answers, and the ones who party like kings.  When do we take time to ask what God might think of our society, how God might measure us, count us, weigh us, and challenge us?  The time is now.  The opportunity is there, and the action is simple.  Whether we request a mail in ballot, a trip to the advanced polls, or show up to cast our vote, let’s vote as if we have seen the finger of God writing on the wall of our world.  Vote as if this is the most Christian thing we can do.  Vote as if this is how we follow Jesus even if it looks like it will end up in suffering and challenge and change.  Vote as if we are Daniel, telling a powerful society  that the writing is on the wall.  Because we are called to follow Jesus, and speak truth to power, even if it challenges the culture, even if it goes against what everyone thinks we should do.  And because we are called to see the writing on the wall and tell it to the people even when they don’t want to hear it.  Let’s be brave and bold as we serve Jesus, empowering and inspiring each other to make a difference in the world!

What old bible quote are you interested in hearing a sermon on?  Contact me and I will put it together.  Or leave a comment below.

Favoritism

Favoritism seems to be an inescapable part of human nature.  Last week we heard about how God favored Abel’s offerings over Cain’s, and Cain murdered Abel because of that favoritism.  Today, we have an uncomfortable story about even Jesus, our role model and our teacher, playing favorites.  Not only that, he calls a woman a dog.  That is as offensive today as it was back then.  Why?  Because of her ethnicity.  He judged her because of her race, and this lady wasn’t good enough.  Jesus was playing favorites.

How many times have we been the favorite?  How many times were we singled out as not being the favorite?  How many times have we shown favoritism towards someone over someone else? 

Even God seems to show favoritism from time to time, especially when it comes to the Hebrew people.   Malachi 1 has the famous quote that was turned into a novel about twins and favoritism, “Yawheh says, Yet I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau;”

It’s hard not to show favoritism.  One of the hardest jobs as a parent is doing our best to be impartial, not favoring one child over another.  Even with the best of intentions, it can still be difficult.  One of the saddest funerals I ever presided over was a twin who had died in a car crash.  She was part of a big family, and one of the younger children.  The family was so large that she was given away at birth to another family, and that act shaped her in desperate ways.  That led to complicated grief all because of what was perceived by some as good intentions but by others as favoritism.

It’s easy to play favorites by judging appearances, or by how articulate someone is.  My grandfather, who was a travelling salesman, used to tell us that the best way to judge a person’s character was from how shiny their shoes were and how clean their fingernails were.  Again, that’s natural.  So natural, James warned his people some 2000 years ago not to do that.

That’s easier said than done.  How do we do that?  As a congregation! When we practice the commandment of “love your neighbor as yourself”, we are countering the addiction to favoritism by replacing it with the ancient art of hospitality.  Parking Palmer describes it in more modern language, calling it “giving and receiving welcome.” He says “People learn best in hospitable spaces… we support each other’s learning by giving and receiving hospitality.”

We have been hospitable in many ways.  Every time we have a guest speaker who has experienced the hurt of favoritism and discrimination, they feel welcomed and supported.  People like Thom’s choir, Phyllis when she talked about Truth and Reconciliation, Debbie with her stories of rejection by churches, and Gill remembering Amber Valley settlers.  Taking prayer shawls to the Chinese restaurants and hotel families for Asian History month.  Cooking meals for the community.  Putting a rainbow flag in our window. Holding forums on wills, estates and legacy planning.  Hosting educational events for LGTBQ and their allies.  Working with PRAAC to put in place funding and programs to tackle family violence.  Providing food, clothes and counselling for homeless people struggling with a variety of issues.  Teaching cooking lessons to low-income parents and Blue Heron members and so much more.

There’s one act of hospitality that particularly stands out in my mind.  A few years back, we had several people in town ask what we the United Church were going to do about Syrian refugees.  I went to the interfaith refugee committee to ask what they were planning and heard one person say that they didn’t think it was wise to bring Muslim people into Athabasca where we only had Christians.  They wanted to bring people in who might join their churches, and they also said they wanted to bring in refugees that were not getting attention from the media, which was a good reason.  But Syrians?

Syrians like the lady Jesus talked to in our scripture reading today, who said even the dogs deserved to eat the crumbs that fall off the dinner table.  Syrians who wanted a chance to bring up their families away from tanks, bullets and bombs.  With the invaluable partnership of St. Andrew’s Zion Church in Collinton, we brought not one or two but eight people to Athabasca, Christians and Muslims alike, and taught them how to survive Canadian winters.  We bought thousands of dollars worth of gift cards to raise money for dentist bills and school clothes, for laptops and education.  One family we brought, the Halawas, are applying for Canadian Citizenship this month, the girls are planning to study nursing and pharmacy, the son is growing up and graduating from high school and hoping to become a police officer or mechanic.  The oldest girl is now married to a husband she picked of her own free will and is very happy.  Everyone is working on driver’s licences and English is no longer a struggle for most of them.  They have jobs and they are thriving.  Why? Because Jesus heard the Syrophoenician woman’s challenge.  He let her disturb him to the point that Jesus changed his mind.  Because of her challenge, her descendants, thousands of years later, found a welcome here among us.  Because Jesus acknowledged her humanity, we too acknowledge the humanity of everyone we meet.  When we turn away from playing favorites and choose instead to empower, engage and inspire the people we meet through giving and receiving radical welcome and hospitality, we bring God’s healing into this troubled world.  May we continue to inspire and welcome those without favoritism.  Amen!