The High Stakes of Biblical interpretation

Transcription

1 Pentecost 13 - Proper 18A Grace St. Paul s - 9/7/14 The High Stakes of Biblical interpretation It has already been declared an international health emergency. It is spreading like wildfire, racing ahead of efforts to control it, according to the World Health Organization. The numbers are rising by the second, but a couple days ago the WHO reported that the number of people infected with Ebola had grown to 3500, with more than 1900 deaths. The outbreak is now in five countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal. Last week, the WHO estimated that the virus could spread to 20,000 cases and take six to nine months to contain. None of those countries affected have the resources themselves to contain the disease. There are not enough ambulances, hospital beds, or health care workers. Sanitary conditions cannot be met and in fact, there is not even enough to eat in many of those communities. The crisis is in full gear and Christian spokespeople across the region and elsewhere are making a spiritual response. One came from more than 100 Christian leaders in the Liberian Council of Churches. They released a statement that was approved unanimously. I can t a group of six Episcopal clergy approving a unanimous statement about the weather. But this group across the Christian denominational spectrum agreed to this statement. God is angry with Liberia, it reads. Ebola is a plague. Liberians have to pray and seek God s forgiveness over the corruption and immoral acts (such as homosexualism, etc.) that continue to penetrate our society. As Christians, we must repent and seek God s forgiveness. Their recommended solution to the disease ravaging the nation is that everyone should stay indoors for a three-day period of fasting and prayer. 1

2 The head of the Living Water Pentecostal Church in Liberia, Wimot Kotati Bobbroh, described the outbreak as a national curse brought by God to force repentance. He said that chlorine and soap were not working, but God s mercy was saving people. Then there is American Christian radio talk show host, Rick Wiles. This Ebola epidemic could become a global pandemic, he stated, and that s another name for plague. Ebola could solve America s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography, and abortion. He goes on to say that, Ebola may be the great attitude adjustment that I believe is coming. If Ebola becomes a global plague, you better make sure the blood of Jesus is upon you, you better make sure you have been marked by the angels so that you are protected by God. If not, you may be a candidate to meet the Grim Reaper. On the website 924jeremiah.wordpress.com, we read this lovely statement; Bring on the Ebola virus. God does not exist to give us what we want, and if killing off our loved ones is going to help us realize this, then this is what He will do. Columbia Christians for Life summarized all of this theology by putting it this way; Providence punishes national sins by national calamities. My guess is that all of you are feeling a bit sickened right now by the notions espoused by these Christian leaders. Perhaps you feel embarrassed and ashamed. Perhaps you want to know where in the world these folks could come up with the twisted notion that God purposely creates diseases and disasters to punish evil doers. Well today, we have that answer. Their thought process does not come from some cryptic source they have hidden away in a secret vault. They get their theology from this 2

3 book of ours. They get it straight from today s first reading from Exodus. We are also not talking about some unknown passage in an apocryphal book. We are speaking of the description of the most important event in the history of Judaism, a happening that we commemorate each year, by the way, right here at GSP. We all love the liberating events of the Passover, but today we also get to hear the seedy side of the story. The word Passover, of course, refers to the instruction Yahweh gives the Hebrew people to mark their houses with blood, so that Yahweh will pass over them, and then proceed to kill the babies of their oppressors, the Egyptians. The writer of Exodus believes that when Hebrews are emancipated, this has to mean death for the previous oppressors. A few sentences further on in Exodus we will read, There was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. There are no two ways around it. The Bible says that God purposely killed babies to punish those who had oppressed the Hebrew people. Things do not improve much in that Psalm we just sang either. In the first half of it, we could joyfully celebrate all this wonderful dancing and singing and praise of God. But in the second half, the musical instruments turn into weapons of mass destruction. The Prayer Book translation is this; Let the praises of God be in their throat and a twoedged sword in their hand; to wreak vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples. Beloved, the Christian leaders of Liberia did not make this stuff up. Our Bible does espouse a God punishes evil people theology. We cannot hide the fact that the texts today say that God slays the chosen people s enemies. In fact, it s even worse 3

4 than that. It says that God not only smites the perpetrators of the oppression, but also their innocent babies. From today s very prominent biblical stories, it only makes sense that a religious leader would come to the conclusion that Ebola must be a plague sent by God to punish evil people. That s what God does, says our text. I would also suggest that it is this same theology that allows a terrorist to create a religious rationale for beheading a so called enemy. That kind of biblical justification for terror is horrible enough. But the cause and effect theology that suggests that healthy people are good and sick people are evil takes us down an even more destructive path. Think of the effect that this theology has on anyone who has a disease or a virus. What that thinking does is cause us all to ostracize sick people. It is exactly the issue Jesus must contend with in the Gospels. If God is cursing the sick, then humans are justified in doing the same. Thinking that healthy people are being blessed by God is just as dangerous. When religious leaders tell us that Ebola is like the Passover, that God is killing people because they are evil, the result is not just distasteful, but downright destructive. These beloved, are the incredibly high stakes involved in Biblical interpretation. What we do when we interpret a sacred text creates meaning and a moral compass for much of the world. Because if you believe that the Bible is a book written by God, that God is describing Godself throughout this text, then you really have no alternative than to accept that God kills your enemies. It is also clear then, that as images of God, our job is to wipe out our evil doers. 4

5 That logic seems impenetrable enough. But if that is what you believe, and that is how you understand what this book is, you must also believe, according to today s reading, at least one more thing. Because right there in the same sentence in which Yahweh tells us that He is going to kill the babies, he says something else. On all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh. There you have it. Yahweh clearly states that He is not the only god. Yahweh says that He is the God of the Hebrews only. The Egyptians, Yahweh says, have their own gods, and Yahweh is going to show them who is boss. Now I could be mistaken, but I would be willing to put down a large sum of money that not a single one of those 100 Christian leaders in Liberia believe in a pantheon of Gods. But there it is, right in the same sentence of the text that justifies a belief that Ebola is a curse from God. If you believe that God killed innocent babies as today s story says, if you believe that God smites your enemies, you need to finish the very same sentence in today s reading. Your God is also polytheistic. In that one sentence, we see the problem with any literalist interpretation of sacred scripture. It s impossible. Whether they want to admit it or not, even literalists must choose the parts of the Bible they are going to accept. And in this case, they choose to accept the first half of the sentence, while rejecting the second. Personally, I find such disregard for portions of our sacred text to be sacrilegious. If we are to take what we are reading seriously, there has to be a way to see the truth in the entire sentence. And for my soul, what is really going on in today s text is an ancient struggle to come to terms with the nature of God. The early Hebrews saw Yahweh as their god among many gods. As our text today points out, for hundreds of years 5

6 Hebrews understood Yahweh as one god among many. The great lesson here for all of us is that those early Hebrews did not, as some do today, suggest that the Bible was the once and for all complete understanding of God. Instead, they understood that there is always more to learn. Because of this, their understanding of God continued to evolve. Eventually, they would discard the notion that they were a chosen people of a certain god, and begin to envision a single God of all people. This universal vision brought them to a place where they would reject what this part of their sacred text says, the abhorrent notion that God turned evil people into salt or killed the babies of their enemies. Their vision of God changed. Unfortunately, in an effort to justify our own feelings of hate for people we see as our enemies, some humans continue to resurrect this ancient vision of God that Judaism would eventually reject and Jesus preaches against on a regular basis. Whenever you start to believe that God hates the same people you hate, than you can be assured that you have created God in your image, rather than the other way around. This is exactly the issue at stake in today s Gospel. The early church has come to the realization that God does not smite their enemies. They saw Jesus life as their example of how they were to live out this new image of God. Jesus not only tolerated people that used to be the enemy, but he invited them to dinner. A few weeks ago, Jesus does not call for the ouster of a hated Canaanite woman, the arch enemy of the Jewish people, as his disciples ask him. Instead, he tells her that her faith is stronger than Peter s. Sometimes, Jesus points out to us, the people who we see as not getting it, the people who we see as our enemies, are the ones with the most faith. But to recognize the goodness in others, we first have to let them in. The early church has 6

7 done just that, but now they are dealing with the practical issue of living with and worshiping with people who see things very differently. Sound familiar? It is not easy following the God of Jesus, the one who insists that despite our differences, we worship together. As we learn in today s Gospel, it caused arguments and fights even in the early church. It is much simpler to believe that God is on our side and kills our enemies. Because then, you only need to worship with like minded people, who understand God just like you. Such a simplistic, black and white vision of religion is very calming and reassuring to many. But it has nothing to do with religion as Jesus saw it. This is perhaps the most important lesson that I take from today s readings. Whenever I catch myself separating from others based on what I believe, I realize that I have fallen into the same trap as the Christian leaders of Liberia. Whenever I start to think about how much easier my life would be if all of you had the same theology I did, I need to remember that Jesus calls us today to live in the ambiguity of difference. It is also why on Robin Williams top ten reasons for being an Episcopalian, the number one choice is this; No matter what you believe, there s bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you. I disagree with our church... a lot. But on this one, I believe we have it right. Most denominations formed from a common belief structure. But the Anglican church began very differently. From the beginning, we have been a church of Puritans and Catholics, Lutherans and Orthodox. The church formed not to create a place of like minded people, but because we have always believed that we are called to worship together despite our theological differences. I believe that it is this understanding of the purpose of religion that holds the potential to save the world 7

8 from ultimate extinction. If we are going to have any hope of living together harmoniously in an increasingly smaller world, we must abandon the archaic theology of God killing babies to punish the people who enslaved the Hebrews as well as the notion that God curses people by giving them Ebola. As Anglicans, we are in the unique position to lead the world into this vision. Yes, we are called to be a church of diversity. Yes, we are called to embrace one another in our varied theological positions. But, we are also called this morning to end once and for all the ridiculous and extremely dangerous notion that the Bible is an encyclopedia of facts. Only when we embrace our sacred text as the evolving story of our great religious tradition, a story where the understanding of God changes as we learn and grow, can we let go of the archaic idea that God kills babies to punish evil people. Only then can we put an end forever to the destructive theology that Ebola is a curse from God. Only then can we begin to heal all those who suffer from any disease and embrace them as God intends. Amen. 8