THE PROBLEM WITH Christianity today is not that Christians lack faith in God. The problem is that Christians believe they “know” and “understand” God completely. In a world overflowing with information, we hardly acknowledge the importance of God’s unknowability. Yet a conception of God that doesn’t recognize the unknowable keeps us in an uncritical banality, which in turn leads us to follow orders without questioning, to play it safe, and to go along with mass opinion.
For Christians, conversion is required. Theologian Bernard J. F. Lonergan defines conversion not simply as an acceptance of a new belief system, but rather as “a radical shift from an old horizon to a new horizon.” Religious conversion, in particular, is to “fall in love with God.” Thus, to convert is to deny the conventional, habitual belief and knowledge system, and to discover a new reality in which one becomes open and vulnerable to challenges. Conversion is not a solitary experience. It is a prolonged dialogue that constantly transforms one’s horizon and motivates us to wonder, appreciate, and raise more questions.
The texts for the next four weeks invite us to a conversion experience. They are reminders that conversion starts with abandoning any sense of security based on doctrines, dogmas, rituals, and systems of belief—precisely because God’s love never allows us to find comfort in human constructions.
[ October 5 ]
Unearned Privilege
Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:7-15; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46
IN ISAIAH 5:1-7, God’s bitter disappointment with the people of Judah results in divine rejection and punishment. The types of injustice noted by Isaiah include a failure to defend the weak (1:23), an accumulation of wealth for themselves (1:29), the suppression of the poor (3:14-15), and the deprivation of rights of the innocent (5:23). God expects Judah to use their privilege to stand for the weak and vulnerable, but they instead use it for injustice.
God’s lament continues in the gospel, but divine judgment is not the end of Matthew’s story. While the parable of the wicked tenants sounds like a warning, it is intended to clarify, for the chief priests and the Pharisees, exactly who Jesus is—thus giving them a chance to reflect on the way they have lived. Jesus’ question to the privileged is evocative: If the rejected stone became the cornerstone of God’s kingdom, will you be the ones crushed by the stone or the ones producing the fruits of the kingdom?
Jesus’ question is a call to conversion. Both Isaiah and Matthew suggest that the way to conversion is to focus on the neighbor, to be able to see God as the face of the homeless, as the poor, or as the abused child. For the privileged, this means becoming more aware of a responsibility to the weak and vulnerable, rejecting the temptation to insulate themselves. For the underprivileged, conversion means becoming a coworker in the kingdom of God, rather than victims in an inhumane social order.
[ October 12 ]
Through God’s Eyes
Isaiah 25:1-9; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14
THE PARABLE OF the wedding banquet in Matthew 22 makes us anxious. It describes a situation in which someone fails to meet God’s expectations. In our own lives, even though we are called by God, we remain in a mixed reality: God repeatedly offers us the opportunity for life in the kingdom, but not all of us accept the invitation. It’s not because we refuse God’s invitation by will, but because, like the invited guests in the parable, we misunderstand God’s intention. We make light of what is important to God. We cannot understand God’s intentions with clarity.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians touches upon this anxiety; his joyful encouragement is paradoxical. Paul wrote the letter from prison, under threat of capital punishment. He could have been caught in a spiral of frustration, bewilderment, and despair. However, in the midst of all his trouble, Paul tells the Philippians to focus their minds on what is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable (verse 8). Is he encouraging himself and his fellow Christians as an exercise in positive thinking, trying to convince them that the “power of believing” will secure their safety?
What Paul suggests is rather contrary. He tells the Philippians to take a risk—the risk of seeing a reality different from the one they are facing. Paul urges them to see and experience the counter-reality of God’s kingdom. “Bring everything to God in your prayer” (see verse 6) means to strive to communicate with God by scrutinizing one’s requests and desires from God’s viewpoint—not from one’s own. We do not know God’s intentions with clarity, and we will never know. Yet, we ought to remember that Christianity does not provide security. God is our only security, and we cannot experience that without losing whatever other security mechanisms we use for consolation.
[ October 19 ]
What Is Empire?
Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96:1-13; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22
THE BEAUTY OF Jesus’ answer to the trick question posed in the text from Matthew is that while it looks like an endorsement of the census tax (verse 21), it actually subverts the emperor’s power. To those who are able to see the kingdom of God as being beyond Caesar’s territory, Jesus puts the imperial claim to rule in perspective: Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but remember who owns the world. “[God is] the Lord and there is no other,” says the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 45:6). Which side will you stand on when Caesar tries to usurp divine authority?
Empire in our time is different from the empire of Jesus’ time. Empire in our time, according to political theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, “establishes no territorial center of power and does not rely on fixed boundaries and barriers.” With the globalization of capitalist production, empire in our time seeps into and impacts all aspects of our lives in a God-like way. It reaches everywhere. It is both transcendental and immanent. Efficiency, convenience, and productivity have become a new gospel. Even our reasons for going to church are marked by empire: Christians go to church in order to make their lives better—to make them more efficient, convenient, productive.
In order to belong to the kingdom of God while living in the empire, one needs to choose God consciously at each and every moment of her life. From a pragmatic viewpoint, the consequences of belonging to God are suspect. As Martin Buber notes, “Success is not one of the names of God.” We never expect to “win” empire. Compared to those who feel comfortable remaining in empire, those choosing to live in the kingdom of God might look idiosyncratic, feeble, and incompetent. However, the kingdom of God enables us to live a life of bliss beyond our limit to conceive, a life we don’t have to win.
[ October 26 ]
What Kind of Love?
Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18; Psalm 1; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22:34-46
IN JESUS' RESPONSE to the Pharisees’ question in Matthew, he affirms that to love God means also to love God’s people. These two are an inseparable corollary. The key problem in interpreting this double commandment for our time is that we do not interrogate the biblical meaning of love. Most Christians “love” God and treat their neighbors “lovingly.” However, just as we know that not all of us have the same mind when we use the word “God,” love also has various connotations. What kind of love is Jesus commanding?
Leviticus 19:2 offers one answer to that question: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Each one of us reflects God’s image. The image of the Triune God in us urges us to live justly, truthfully, and equally in relation to others. Love means to make that image of God in us visible and tangible to others; not just maintaining a positive disposition toward others. Love is to imitate God and toeventually “be God with God,” as Flemish mystic JohnRuysbroeck puts it, by doing what God did for us.
Divine love is, therefore, different from human love, which can lead to a temptation to exercise coercive power in order to keep hold of another. Divine love is not about attaining or grasping one’s object of love, Dorothee Soelle reminds us. Instead, divine love works through and alongside us to make God’s intention discernible. Divine love is, therefore, not to achieve, but to become. It is always en route. It transforms all parties involved. By loving others, we move others, ourselves, and the world from an old horizon to a new beginning.
"Living the Word" reflections for September 2014 can be found here; “Preaching the Word,” Sojourners’ online resource for sermon preparation and Bible study, is available at sojo.net/ptw.
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