Ask and Expect . . . the Impossible.

“Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it he found nothing on it but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again (Mark 11:12-14a).”

In verse 21 of this same chapter we discover that the fig tree Jesus pronounced a curse upon had withered. Jesus response seems even more difficult to understand than his initial action, “Have faith in God, I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain,“Go throw yourself into the sea’ and it does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him (11:22-23).”

First, he was teaching his disciples that faith gives us the authority to have expectations about life. We are to have faith to the degree that we learn to ASK AND EXPECT the IMPOSSIBLE. Human hunger required the fig tree to have some figs on it. It did not matter that “It was not the season for figs.” It was not fulfilling its function as a tree, and the need outweighed the fact that it was not the season for figs.

Too often that is the excuse we have for refusing to pray, for refusing to meditate, for refusing to believe that God can heal, give success, give control over things and situations that are obstacles, answer our prayers for ourselves and our loved ones, and empower us to make a difference in the world.

We use the excuse, “It’s not time yet. I have not accomplished enough. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough education. We don’t have enough members. We are not ready yet to move in that direction. The timing is bad—this is just impossible for now. It is just impossible. God expects too much. The Bible expects too much. We must be practical and learn to face reality.”

Jesus had just entered Jerusalem on a colt. People had thrown down Palm branches and their cloaks for him to rid over, hailing him with the words, “Hosanna—Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” They were waiting for David. They were waiting for a messiah. They were waiting for a hero—a champion—for someone to come and rescue them from Rome, from trouble, from oppression.

But Jesus knew that they already had the power to rescue themselves. They already had the freedom in their souls to shake off Roman bondage. They already had the ability to rise above Rome. They did not need to sell each other out, to betray each other, to cow-tow, to bow down to Caesar—notwithstanding his military and political might—as if he were God. They did not need to wait for a messiah or anyone else to bring hope to the Jews who found themselves overwhelmed in every sense by one of the mightiest military empires in history. They were guilty of perpetuating their own oppression, their own suffering, by refusing to wholly trust God who was with them, to act and move and rescue them in spite of overwhelming “non-seasonal” odds.

So Jesus reacted to this idolatry on the part of his people and his disciples by cursing a fig tree that had no figs. No. It was not the season for figs, but that didn’t make a difference. Jesus hunger demanded a miracle. The hunger of the world for meaning and hope and love demands a miracle. The people of God are charged with exercising and carrying out miracles in the world, notwithstanding its powerful forces of evil.

So many will enter sanctuaries Sunday that are like the fig tree. Too many churches, temples, synagogues and mosques act as if they have no responsibility to speak out against injustice. They preach and teach a watered-down, faithless apostasy that honors human beings and their systems over the almighty sovereign God. They worship the “golden calf” of the rich and powerful and remain silent in the face of a suffering humanity. They excuse themselves by celebrating their own perceived weakness and powerlessness. They also placate the masses by teaching and preaching that it is not the right time-what faith calls for is impractical and they need to be good practical persons.

The disciples of Jesus knew better. The writer of Hebrews reminded the people, that faith speaks of a certain day—and concludes, NOW is that Day. NOW is God’s accepted time for us to believe, to act, to receive miracles and demonstrate the miraculous power that God made available to us before the beginning of time. NOW is the time of deliverance. NOW is the time for us to fully commit in faith to action and living that will make a difference. It matters not how impossible, how improbable, or what odds seem against us. HAVE FAITH IN GOD. It is this exercise of faith that qualifies us to live. Without it we are disqualified as servants of the most high God and certainly not persons of any kind of faith.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with surging. . . . Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:1-3, 10).”

The injustice of the racialization of the crack epidemic

One-Year Bible, 2/27-"The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, seeking their very lives; but the Lord will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned when brought to trial (Psalm 37:31-33)."

Yesterday I viewed this video, and was disturbed to be reminded of the large number of African and Hispanic American young adults who languish in our prisons because of unfair drug sentencing 100-1 (crack verses powered cocaine violations). It is even more unjust because it was the Reagan contras (Ollie North has a TV program where he is unapologetic) under the CIA, then led by George H. W. Bush. that facilitated the entry of cocaine into Southern California in the early 1980s and which in turn fueled the crack epidemic.

Nevertheless, the Psalmist reminds us that we must not give up--we must not become discouraged. We must work to bring President Obama's revised 13-1 sentencing formula-(thanks for your valiant attempt to rectify the injustice Mr. President) sentencing down to 1-1. The racialization of the crack epidemic was also a strong factor in this sentencing and war on black and Hispanic youth also facilitated and funded by the two President's mentioned, to justify mass incarcerations of black youth.

The Lord will be with us in the court room, on the streets, in the Congress in the State House and on the internet as we seek to rectify this injustice and bring these young failed business men and women out of the criminal "just-us" system to lead productive lives. They will need OUR-(THIS MEANS EVERYONE) guidance and support as they use their business skills to build meaningful legal enterprises.

God's Word on the Immigration Issue in America

One-Year Bible, 2/26/12 – “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19:33.34).”

It should come as no surprise that this commandment is the second one in Leviticus 19 that admonishes, “You will love . . . as you love yourself.” Jesus said of verse 19:18 that it was the second greatest commandment on which hung “all of the Law and the Prophets.” If that is so, we can infer that this is the third greatest commandment. Not only does God expect us to love our neighbors as ourselves, but to love the alien, those who are foreign, those who are DIFFERENT who live among us as ourselves.

This is not an easy command, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. There is nothing easy about absorbing and assimilating the God-consciousness, the unconditional LOVE that leads to Life. It is certainly a challenge to the renewal that is required of all of us. We are comfortable with the familiar—that includes people who look like us, love like us, speak like us, eat like us, drink like us, walk like us, drive like us, work like us, play like us, etc. But the renewal of our soul-life requires us to MOVE BEYOND our “US.”

No one is immune from the bigotry associated with chauvinism, elitism, heterosexism, nationalism, nativism, racism, sexism and xenophobia. Those who are different too often become the scapegoats for our anger and frustration as we seek to carve out a place of peace and prosperity for ourselves in an ever-competitive, compassion-less, selfish society.

Ironically these bigoted behaviors and mindsets find strong expression in the United States of America, a nation settled by persons from many lands, cultures, languages, folkways and mores alien to each other. In fact, the original native inhabitants have virtually disappeared as a result of physical and social genocide by the end of the 20th Century.

America is truly a nation of immigrants, or aliens. If any nation is to celebrate differences, and to treat all people equally while doing so, America should be the one place where God’s dictum to Moses is held up as a primary value. Equality of opportunity and equality of treatment, including treatment under the law, must be the guiding principle we use as we learn the true meaning of “land of the free.” May our borders and exclusionary fortress-like thinking crumble as we grow into the perfection that God's undeserving love offers us as a people.

DFG

Profits Trump People . . . Again

One-Year Bible, 2/20/12
“The demons begged Jesus, ‘Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.’ He gave them permission and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this . . . . When the people came out to Jesus they saw, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, dressed in his right mind. . . . Then the people plead with Jesus to leave their region (Mark 5:12-17).”

Reading this you might say not much has changed. Jesus had entered the beautiful hillsides of the Gerasenes on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It is a beautiful region of verdant hills not unlike Northern California. It was a very prosperous multicultural community, hence the herding of pigs—an unclean animal in the eyes of Jesus and his disciples.

Now Jesus had healed a man whose demented, tortured condition was well known. This man, a “cutter”, once so insane that he could not be subdued, was now in his right mind. Did they congratulate Jesus for finally curing the man of his extreme mental “dis-ease?” Did they celebrate the positive outcome? Were they encouraged that others who struggled with similar serious conditions might be relieved? No.

Their concern was the loss of profit--that they had lost the pigs, not that a man had been healed and returned to the community as a productive, happy and healthy citizen. The challenge that Jesus faced concerning human greed and disregard for human well-being continues to confront us as people of faith and people of good will. Will you stand against communities, leaders, political strategies programs and public policies that place profits before people?

Happy President’s Day

The inhabitants in our land . . .

One-Year Bible, February – Exodus 23:27-29 - “I will . . . throw into confusion every nation you encounter, . . . I will make your enemies turn their backs and run . . . . the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them our in a single year, . . .”

In his study, Journey of Souls (Llewellyn Worldwide, 1994), psychologist Michael Newton writes:  Even as victims, we are beneficiaries because it is how we stand
up to failure and duress which really marks the progress in life. Sometimes one of the most important lessons is to learn to just let go of the past (p230).

As Israel traveled to the land long ago promised to Abraham, they were to encounter its inhabitants. Were they to slay them, run them off immediately? No. They were warned not to intermarry with them or take up any of their religious and social practices, but otherwise it would be a slow process. The Books of Joshua and Judges reveal that it would be a process of many years, perhaps centuries.

Not everything we are to become or that we are to have in life comes to us immediately. In fact it is in the process of failure, of loss, of suffering, of tragedy, of setbacks that we have opportunities to grow into all that we are to become. In the 34th chapter of Exodus the issue of “the inhabitants” of the land recurs again. In the celebration of the Feast of Weeks, three times each year the young men are to appear before the Lord. The promise is that as this is done, God will slowly drive out the inhabitants who occupy the Promised Land.

Who are the “inhabitants”? We think of them as Israel’s enemies-the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites. But the text suggests that these enemies are symbolic representatives of something else. They are mentioned after the reiteration of the Ten Words that set them apart and make them different, from the other nations. The Ten Words do not necessarily make them better, but they do make them better representatives of what YHWH (Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, the Lord) wants to accomplish in the world through them and in them. The warning about their religious and social practices is a word to Israel regarding its own proclivities. The enemies are not external but internal.

We have inhabitants “in our land” which are challenges to the lessons for growth and development. We have “issues” and “challenges” to the life lessons that our souls need, not intellectually but experientially, in order for us to become the full human beings of promise. The “journey” of our souls will never be complete until they arrive at “the promised land;” and the Promised Land is achieved only by negotiating all of the “inhabitants” that we carry with us on the journey of life. They are the people and things that we make our Gods, they are the desire we have for what others have, they are the wish that we were born to different parents, had different choices in life, were different people either mentally, physically or both. The inhabitants are the innate desires we have to be someone else, to have someone else who can complete us, to compete and win against someone else. They are the blame that we hurl at God and others.

In Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar," Cassius comments to Brutus, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves . . . " And we, like ancient Israel are left with a remedy: “A righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers us from them all. The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him (Psalm 34:19,22). The process of redeeming our souls, of preparing us for the future world, is an arduous and long task, but the power to drive out the “inhabitants” is in us.

When GOD passes by . . .

 "And God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'the LORD, the LORD (Adonai), the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:6,7).'"

Too often it is assumed that the Hebrew Bible is a book of law and punishment, and the Christian Bible is one of grace and love. But by reading the Bible through in this systematic fashion, it is amazing to discover that God's overwhelming love, long-suffering grace and kindness, and willingness to recall judgments and punishments is found throughout the texts that Christians refer to as the "Old Testament."

Jesus nor the apostles ever referred to the Hebrew scriptures as "old testament," for it was their Bible. Jesus said that not one diacritical mark, punctuation or accent mark would pass away from these texts.

Moses was so distraught by the complaining and rebellion of the Hebrew people as they traveled to the land promised, that God allowed him to "see His train" as a means of encouraging him. When God passed by, Moses saw that God's primary and principle attributes were in this order: compassion, kindness, mercy, patience, unconditional love, faithfulness (keeps promises even when He seems to have forgotten us).

The statement on punishing the guilty is interesting. While it is a reiteration from the Ten Words (ten commandments), it is an afterthought in the text. It's like saying, "Oh yeah, don't forget, God is righteous and God's standards of righteousness have not been relaxed (concerning aggression against the neighbor, worshiping things and people that are not God, irreverence and disregard for life and the planet, and seeking material gain over and against the well being of the community of persons)." But God's love and faithfulness and forgiveness is there for you when you fail to measure up. You are expected to seek to live by that standard. But the essence of God is love, kindness, mercy and forgiveness in the face of our failure.

It was a way of saying, "yes, you are sinners--you fail--you often do not measure up," but remember to balance this against the fact that I am Love itself, and will keep you and the promise I made to you. I will not leave you, nor will I abandon you. I will honor your efforts and intentions."

Meditate on these wonderful truths sisters and brothers.

Don Guest

“Watch out that no one deceives you."~ Jesus, the Christ

One-Year Bible, 2/08/12 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life (Matthew 25:31-26:13).”

Jesus’ promise that there will be eternal punishment is as sure as the promise of eternal life. It is amazing to listen to the illogic and back-peddling sophistry of contemporary Christians on this issue. In Chapters 25 and 26, Jesus continues his sermon on the “end of days” that began in Chapter 24. The first warning he gave the disciples must never be forgotten, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name claiming, ‘I am the Christ’ and will deceive many.’”

In our day and time, there are so many self-appointed “Christs” who with great ease and self-assurance tell us that Jesus did not really mean what he said. “God is too loving to send anyone into eternal punishment.” I wonder by what authority they make these pronouncements? Why should we accept their word as true and authoritative after 2012 years of the Judeo-Christian community's sound affirmation of this truth?

Yet I quite agree with them on this one point. God is not responsible for our refusal to live and act in the power of the spirit of unconditional love. God does not send us into eternal punishment. We destroy our own souls. Through our in-actions—not our words—we decide which side we are on.

God does take sides. God sides unconditionally with the poor and marginalized e.g., Luke 1:53, 4:18. Father Oscar Romero was assassinated by thugs working at the behest President Reagan's administration, because he declared that God has "a preferential option for the poor." In one of several places in the Gospels where Jesus emphatically and clearly speaks of the decree of eternal punishment, it is clear that refusal to respond to the hunger, the thirst, the homelessness, the poor living conditions, the criminal-criminal justice system, the absence of health care, education, the means to a livelihood for those who find themselves in the margins of life, garners the declaration from God: “Depart from me you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.”

What is required of each of us if we are to approximate divine unconditional love and avoid cursing our lives and our futures is to work to eliminate hunger, thirst, homelessness, imprisonment, poverty and all kinds of sickness and suffering, using the means available to us (25:42-44).

Those who claim to be persons of faith and spirituality while ignoring these truths in favor of a “personal relationship with God” or “one-ness with all humankind” have made their choice. These are important aspects of our faith, but not having achieved them does not consign us to eternal punishment. Your argument is not with me. But remember that your notions of God’s all-forgiving, all-encompassing love come from the same Jesus and the same Gospels that include these passages.

You judge for yourself.

P. S. After Jesus finished his sermon to the crowd we read, “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him (26:3-4)." I want to remind you that those who determined to “take Jesus out” after he taught them God’s “whole truth” were also good, sincere and devout religious people.