Biblical Thoughts on Nationhood - II

Let’s spend one more day in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).

Isaiah 19

Not the most famous passage, but one of the most scandalous messages of God’s heart for the world. Do you remember the story of the Exodus? Remember how in Egypt, the people of Israel (descendents of the sons of Jacob-renamed “Israel” – the God wrestler) were brutally enslaved? Remember how the Egyptians tried to throw all the Israelites baby boys in the Nile? Remember how the Israelites cried out to God and then God smited (smote?) the hell out of the Egyptians so Israel could go free? Remember all that stuff about Israel being God’s uniquely chosen people? Well, most of Isaiah 19, written hundreds of years later, is about how God wants to save and redeem Egypt, basically doing the same thing for Egypt that was done for Israel. The section closes with this crazy passage in v.23-25:

“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance."

Assyria had the reputation as the most brutal empire on earth (which is why Jonah wanted them destroyed) and Egypt was at this time Israel's unreliable“ally.” But God envisions and proclaims through Isaiah a joint worship service and blessings upon these pagan nations while calling Israel “the third, along with...” them. That would have made some people really mad.

“I thought we were special!!!” * Isaiah isn’t the only prophet that messes with this "choseness" idea.

Amos 9:7

⁷ "Are not you Israelites
the same to me as the Cushites?"
declares the LORD .
"Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor
and the Arameans from Kir?”

Huh? What was God doing with the Cushites, Philistines and the Arameans? We don’t know, but he apparently was involved with “bringing them up” just like he brought Israel “up” from Egypt. One of the things I love about the confusing and mysterious God revealed in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures we call the Bible is that God seems partial, but then is revealed as radically impartial. I wonder what kind of prophetic word God would give to Americans...  To try to find out, let's do an experiment.

Try this:

1) Muster up your most patriotic sentiments.

2) Next, think of the groups of people (and/or their countries) that your kind of Americans most despise or look down upon, or feel threatened by.  Then, fill in the blanks below with the name of those people and/or their countries.  Go ahead.

“In that day there will be a highway from ____________ to ____________. The ____________s will go to ________ and the ______________s to ___________. The _______________s and _____________s will worship together. In that day America will be the third, along with _____________ and _____________, a blessing on the earth. The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, Blessed be _____________ my people, _____________ my handiwork, and America my inheritance.

and

"Are not you Americans
the same to me as the _____________s?"
declares the LORD .
"Did I not bring Americans up from (WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM),**
the _____________s from _____________
and the _____________s from _____________?”

4) Now imagine God saying this to us as Americans (or whatever group of Americans you identify with).

I really believe that this is the kind of God who launches us into lives of service, truth-telling and good-news-sharing. I believe that God’s eternal vision is the reconciliation of all people in worship to their creator and redeemer. And like Israel, we might just find that the people we despise end up blessed, while we learn FROM THEM what it is to repent and worship (once again, see Jonah).  More to come...

* Note: I’m afraid that some people will accuse me here of being anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. I won’t try to credential myself as a non-bigot. Let me just say that my reflections on this have led me to believe that 1)Israel was special as the vessel for so much of God’s wisdom, God's story, God's self-revelation and God's us-revelation. I continue to learn a lot from Jews and Judaism.  By the way "Semitic" refers to descendents of Noah's son Shem, and so also includes Arabs and others.  2)biblical Israel was the vessel of nurture for God-incarnate when Jesus of Nazareth brought salve to all that ails us, the damaged images of God that we are and, 3)beyond that, I think Israel, Israelis and Jews (religious or not) are as deeply beloved of God and as deeply deserving of our honor as the rest of God’s children.

** Note 2: This one is problematic because although I believe in God’s overall sovereignty, I don’t think God was the orchestrator of the Mid-Atlantic slave trade. I hope you don't think so either. Maybe African-American readers could insert “slavery” instead of a location for (WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM) unless you have another preference. In different fashion, Native American readers may still be waiting to be brought “up” after being dispossessed by Euro-Americans, or may want to refer to Asia (as many historians believe) or they may want to tell me where to go. This last option is actually available to all readers... Stunning Painting of the African American Experience of America

Biblical Thoughts on Nationhood - I

Americans have frequently thought of themselves as a sort of “new Israel,” chosen and blessed by God. So this month, between Memorial Day and July Fourth, I hope to share some biblical reflections on nationhood.

It’s hard to find a “golden age” for the nation of Israel in the Bible. The story from Exodus to Judges reads like a dark tragic-comedy of personal and communal failures. Judges is a cyclical tale of heroic freedom-fighters (with their own failures) and communal forgetfulness. Almost every chapter opens with, “and the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

Finally the Israelites ask for a king “like all the other nations.”

God had anticipated this for the last few hundred years (Deuteronomy 17:14) but he recognizes it as rejection. Still, God condescends to Israel’s request and gives them a real winner. Saul was apparently the Fabio of his day (“There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.”), but terribly insecure (maybe Fabio is too, I don’t know). God has Saul anointed king in I Samuel 10, and rejects him in I Samuel 15, ultimately in favor of David. You have to feel bad for the guy ‘cause he doesn’t screw up that bad (in the relative scheme of biblical screw-ups) but he’s also demented, so he kind of loses sympathy along the way.

King David, the shepherd-boy-wonder giant-slayer is installed in all of our heads as “a man after God’s own heart.” He wrote all those great Psalms too! BUT, the adulturer-murderer’s reign is mostly a story of civil and family violence, strife and discord. It reads like the saga of an organized crime family. God won’t let David build the Temple because the man-after-God’s-own-heart has too much blood on his hands.

Then Solomon arrives! The reign of Solomon is the ONLY extended period of national unity. Solomon is also the wisest man who ever lived, ‘cause when God gives him one wish, he doesn’t ask for money or fame or more wishes or anything. He asks for wisdom. Because of his wise wish, God also grants him wealth and he has the honor of building God’s house, the Temple in Jerusalem. He also builds his own crib. Note: God’s house is 60 x 20 x 30 and it takes 7 years to build. Solomon’s house is 100 x 50 x 30 and it takes 13 years to build. Interesting…. Why does Solomon get a better house than GOD? Maybe that’s ‘cause God isn’t a pimp. Read on.

God’s original commands for the monarchy (back when God saw it coming) were simple. Don’t get a lot of horses (and don’t go back to Egypt for horses), don’t have a lot of wives, don’t get a lot of gold and silver (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). These are basically the ancient marks of military, political and economic power and security. Oh, and get to know God’s law REAL well.

What does Solomon do? He gets 40,000 stalls of horses (I Kings 4:26). He brings in 666 talents of gold (about $480 million by somebody’s measure, but that’s dated) per year (“besides that from the traders and merchants and governors” – I Kings 10:14) and he made silver “as common as stones.” I know God said he would have riches but… Then he accumulates 700 wives and 300 concubines (including the daughter of the Pharoah of Egypt) and ends up worshipping idols. God gets mad, but tells Solomon that “for the sake of your father David” he won’t take the kingdom away until after his death.

Solomon’s real legacy is revealed in the candid eulogy/advice that the people offer to Solomon’s son Rehoboam : “Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Solomon was remembered as an oppressive monarch. (Incidentally, Rehoboam rejects this advice and the Israelite kingship goes mostly downhill from there; which is amazing)

Okay, so what? At least some Americans want to be a nation in favor with God. It seems pretty unrealistic at this point to model ourselves on biblical Israel. I have no interest in advocating a national theocracy of the biblical Israel type (or any other type). Mostly because I don’t think Jesus was into that. Truth be told, I don’t think we ever got the “deal” (covenant) that Israel got, and I’m glad. I expect we’d do just as poorly. What if we just looked at the basic stuff? Not accumulating horses (military power), gold and silver (economic power) and wives (political power). We are further down these roads than Solomon ever dreamed of. Is it any wonder that we have “In God We Trust” inscribed on our MONEY? What should be a reminder is probably a statement of what our God really is.

But when we start thinking about having a prophetic voice to national leadership in biblical terms, it makes sense to me to start at Deuteronomy 17 with these three simple commands; which will resound as total nonsense in the ears of the leaders of ANY nation-state, and clearly sounded like nonsense to Israel’s kings. Maybe a more moderate proposal would be to say that people who respect the Bible won’t celebrate the fact that our nation has all of the stuff that God told the kings of Israel not to get. If we can just do that, maybe we won’t have to think about God’s plan for the “redistribution of wealth” in Leviticus, or whether we should throw away our blended fabrics.

Some People Say A Man Is Made Out Of Mud

Did you listen to the song?  Youtube wouldn't let me upload it for several days and then apparently honored my request, when it was randomly convenient.
I remember hearing this song on my grandfather’s record player when I was a kid. From time to time it comes back to me. I played the song through the classroom computer for a class of freshmen last year when we were discussing a Christian perspective on work. It seemed so funny to be looking at this picture of a guy who looks like a cross between Fred Rogers and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler.

To top it off, smiley (also known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, one of the biggest recording artists of the 50’s and 60’s) is singing this fatalistic, mournful, tough-as-nails coal miner’s lament written by Merle Travis. I still LOVE the song.

“If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will”

Sure Ernie.
But seriously, what is it about this song that became a hit in 1955? What does it say to (and about) the soul?

In point of fact, when God creates the human in Genesis one and it is declared "adam," what is being said is essentially “earthling.” Creature made from earth. But this creature is also declared to be “in the image of God.”

AND, in Genesis 2:15, before anything goes awry, the earthling is given work to do.  In the next chapter, God says that because of human rebellion, making a living will now be hard work. So here is the challenge to the soul. We are created for work, yet we often experience work as soul-owning, anger-inducing subordination. Let’s face it, Marx was onto something.

So what’s the solution? Paul admonishes early Christ-followers to work “as if for the Lord, rather than men.” Let’s face something else. I doubt too many of the readers here are coal-miners and none get paid in credit slips to “the company store.” Maybe part of what is so difficult about our work is NOT that it’s so repressive (though an increasingly large number of Americans struggle to make ends meet – see Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich) but that we work mainly to fulfill our own facile fantasies of the latest luxury.  The “men” we are working for, instead of the Lord, is ourselves.

Another problem is our theology of "giftedness."  Personally, I also know that I sometimes fall victim to the privileged/entitlement mindset that my work should be a fulfilling matrix of my unique abilities with tasks assigned accordingly and then met with praise when accomplished. I have a wonderful work-situation, but… like most people reading this, I don’t live in fantasy land.

I am finding release from this self-centeredness when I daily remind myself that in fact NOTHING really belongs to me, including my time.  A better theology of giftedness is to recognize that everything I “have” is a gift from God. So, I’ve taken to reminding myself every day that my 9-5 (as with the other hours, but 9-5 needs the most reminding) belongs to God and whatever it contains must be on God’s “to-do” list for me. This doesn’t mean that everyone (including me) needs to just accept “their station in life.” But accepting each day, at the beginning of the day, one day at a time, has been producing a great deal of contentment.

Another day older and deeper in debt for the gift of life.
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, cause there’s lots to do down here.