The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Jackson emphasized the nuances of the word "believed" and "righteousness" in
It is this notion that it is God, and not human beings, who are bound by an oath. Because many of us act as if we're the ones who owe something to God, don't we? Here, what God is saying, is "No I promise you something, I owe you something, I will do something for you. You needn't do for me, I'll do for you. And that promise is irrevocable, and its binding, and it can't be broken, and nothing can change it. And nothing you can do can alter it. And nothing you can do can take it away. And nothing you can do can make it less. Because there's nothing you can do because I passed through the pieces. And may the same thing, God says, the same thing happen to me if I break my oath to you!" What more fitting text can we have... as we walk towards Easter? Amen.
Brilliant! Simple, moving, honest, humble and salvific: one of the earliest and most primitive explications of God's grace and steadfast love that endures for ever in the Bible.
I needed that message today. Last night I read that an as yet unidentified man greeted the white supremacist murderer who entered the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, NZ with the words: "Hello, brother." This brave and loving soul was the first of 49 victims. Earlier in the afternoon, while doing errands with my soul mate, I was told of a local man who set his house on fire - killing his childhood sweetheart and their three children - before taking his own life. Later, as I listened to the evening news, I heard the president of the United States tell the world that he has all the tough people on his side - the police, the military, the bikers for Trump - and should we push him too far, the tough ones will be unleashed upon us and it will be very, very bad. Before going to sleep I read this chilling but essential analysis of this moment in time by Robert Kagan at the Washington Post entitled "The Strong Men Strike Back." (please read the whole lengthy article as an act of prayer, confession and awakening @ https:// www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/ wp/2019/03/ 14/feature/the-strongmen-strike-back/?fbclid=IwAR3idJ6yWSfe2vpw-Q5nwcKyZ85D2UYh0ltQWL0JG-UfYXDpticHWOM5-0w&noredirect=on&utm_term=.6058cb8c91a3)
David Brooks, whom some progressives love to quote while others love to excoriate, noted that the violence of our era - be it white supremacist terrorism, the opioid epidemic in the USA or our sky rocketing rate of suicide - is a consequence of the personal, cultural and social alienation and anxiety we all know at this moment in our history. This violence "is a societal problem. It’s strongly associated with social isolation. Men die at higher rates than women, single people more than married people, rural people more than urban people, Native Americans and whites more than blacks or Latinos. It’s also a values problem. Our individualistic culture means there are vast empty gaps in our social fabric where people suffer alone and invisible. It’s also a guns problem. A lot of people die simply because at their lowest moment, there happened to be a gun around." (Brooks, NYT @ https://www.nytimes.com/ 2019/03/14 /opinion/suicide-prevention.html)
The world many of us loved and struggled to solidify over the past 70 years is now in tumult. The Gilet Juanes movement clashed with police and black shirted anarchists on the Champs Elysees this weekend proclaiming: "This is the apocalypse!" They burned and looted elite shops and cafes. The house of Jesus in Rome is collapsing amidst sexual violations and scandals of staggering proportions. And other parts of the holy family of Christ in Europe and the USA are being co-opted by white supremacists and neo-fascists. My heart is sick. My soul is weary. I fear for our future. Once again I hear Jesus lament our condition as recorded in today's gospel according to St. Luke: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
And yet while I grieve, I don't despair: I trust that the steadfast love of God endures forever. To be sure our realm is passing through a dark and ugly season where hatred of women, fear and bigotry against immigrants, homophobia, racism, as well as an aching for social order unknown in our culture for 70 years has become the new normal. Not since the rise of fascism in Europe and the brutality of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe has the West been so lost and confused. Many of us - myself included - never believed that we would find ourselves living into such a terrifying bleakness. We sensed that we had likely eluded both 1984 and Brave New World. But we were mistaken. A vicious brokenness of heretofore unknown proportions is polluting our politics, our culture, our religious traditions, our habits, our neighborhoods and our imaginations. And while this horror is not the only game in town - I think of the youth protests to save the environment that happened all across the world this weekend - fear is ascending, violence is escalating, and hatred is maturing in ever more macabre ways.
We are truly on the road to the Cross. If we travel with Jesus there is no avoiding the pain, the humiliation, the uncertainty, the trials and the agony. By trusting the Lord like Abram - or Jesus - or Magdalene or Mary the mother of our Lord, we know that all the anguish will not be the end of the story. God's steadfast love endures forever.
credits:
+ https://rdgstout.blogspot.com/2016/02/cutting-covenant.html
+ https://thegirlsun.com/the-horrific-mosque-massacre-in-new-zealand-has-united-the-world-in-grief/
+ http://www.beholdhim.org/cross/WOC_4.html
David Brooks, whom some progressives love to quote while others love to excoriate, noted that the violence of our era - be it white supremacist terrorism, the opioid epidemic in the USA or our sky rocketing rate of suicide - is a consequence of the personal, cultural and social alienation and anxiety we all know at this moment in our history. This violence "is a societal problem. It’s strongly associated with social isolation. Men die at higher rates than women, single people more than married people, rural people more than urban people, Native Americans and whites more than blacks or Latinos. It’s also a values problem. Our individualistic culture means there are vast empty gaps in our social fabric where people suffer alone and invisible. It’s also a guns problem. A lot of people die simply because at their lowest moment, there happened to be a gun around." (Brooks, NYT @ https://www.nytimes.com/ 2019/03/14 /opinion/suicide-prevention.html)
The world many of us loved and struggled to solidify over the past 70 years is now in tumult. The Gilet Juanes movement clashed with police and black shirted anarchists on the Champs Elysees this weekend proclaiming: "This is the apocalypse!" They burned and looted elite shops and cafes. The house of Jesus in Rome is collapsing amidst sexual violations and scandals of staggering proportions. And other parts of the holy family of Christ in Europe and the USA are being co-opted by white supremacists and neo-fascists. My heart is sick. My soul is weary. I fear for our future. Once again I hear Jesus lament our condition as recorded in today's gospel according to St. Luke: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”And yet while I grieve, I don't despair: I trust that the steadfast love of God endures forever. To be sure our realm is passing through a dark and ugly season where hatred of women, fear and bigotry against immigrants, homophobia, racism, as well as an aching for social order unknown in our culture for 70 years has become the new normal. Not since the rise of fascism in Europe and the brutality of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe has the West been so lost and confused. Many of us - myself included - never believed that we would find ourselves living into such a terrifying bleakness. We sensed that we had likely eluded both 1984 and Brave New World. But we were mistaken. A vicious brokenness of heretofore unknown proportions is polluting our politics, our culture, our religious traditions, our habits, our neighborhoods and our imaginations. And while this horror is not the only game in town - I think of the youth protests to save the environment that happened all across the world this weekend - fear is ascending, violence is escalating, and hatred is maturing in ever more macabre ways.
We are truly on the road to the Cross. If we travel with Jesus there is no avoiding the pain, the humiliation, the uncertainty, the trials and the agony. By trusting the Lord like Abram - or Jesus - or Magdalene or Mary the mother of our Lord, we know that all the anguish will not be the end of the story. God's steadfast love endures forever.
credits:
+ https://rdgstout.blogspot.com/2016/02/cutting-covenant.html
+ https://thegirlsun.com/the-horrific-mosque-massacre-in-new-zealand-has-united-the-world-in-grief/
+ http://www.beholdhim.org/cross/WOC_4.html
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