Exalting Oneself

“A man planted a vineyard.He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." Mark 12:1-9

Pride Sucks

Jerry received a promotion and now he was Vice President of the Internal Division.  No one was really sure what this meant and Jerry’s job didn’t change, but he was immensely proud of his position.  He told everyone. His wife got tired of his boasting so she decided to deflate him a bit. “Everyone is Vice President of something, now.  Heck, at the supermarket they have a VP of peas!” Jerry thought on this for a while and thought she must be wrong. He called the supermarket and asked, “May I speak to the Vice President of peas?”  The receptionist asked, “Fresh or frozen?”

Pride is defined as arrogance or a sense of self-importance, especially when it is aggrandized. It is also considered to be a horrible sin.  It is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, one of the big seven. It is the sin of Achiles, hubris, which destroyed him and his people. It is singled out as a horrible sin in the Bible:

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  Proverbs 16:18

God opposes the proud  James 4

The pride of your heart has deceived you, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?” Obediah 1:3

So, pride is bad, let’s not do it, done, sermon over, we can go home?

The Proudest One

Well, I just have one niggling thought in my head.  Was Jesus proud? I mean, a guy who goes around saying, “The Father and I are one.”  “I am the way, the truth and the life.” “No one knows the Son but the Father and no one knows the  Father but the Son and those whom the Son chooses to reveal him to.”

If I started saying things like that, “Steve is the way, the only way.  No one knows God except Steve. Want to know God? Listen to Steve! No one else understands God! In fact, I AM God and God is me.”  You’d have problems with me, and rightly so. And you’d approach me and say, “Steve, we think you have a little problem with pride.”

Well, why not?  After all, we call our pastors “Reverend.”  If I am a reverend, a “revered one” then perhaps these claims aren’t too crazy.

Some might rightly say that such statements are okay for Jesus, but not for me.  After all, I am NOT the way. I don’t have all the signicant truth. But Jesus did.  Let’s not argue the claims for a moment but just say that Jesus spoke the truth and he really was equal with God in heaven.  But those statements are still arrogant, aren’t they, even if true? Aren’t those remarks supposed to kinda rub it in against his enemies?  To put him in a higher place? That’s pretty arrogant, isn’t it? Pretty prideful? So how can we honor our leader, who has committed one of the Seven Deadly sins?  On a regular basis?

What is Pride?

Well, here’s the secret.  We don’t actually have pride figured out.  At least, when the New Testament talks about pride, that’s not the same thing we talk about pride.  The funny thing about the Seven Deadly Sins, is that they are actually the sins of Roman culture, the sins of stoicism, rather than the sins of apostolic Christianity.   That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some overlap, but they don’t represent what we see in Jesus’ teachings.

When Jesus speaks of arrogance or the early teachers speak of pride, they are actually talking about something else.  The core idea is still there-- thinking more of oneself than one should. But it has to do with one’s social movement.

One of the curious changes that take place between the New Tesament and later developments in Christianity is the transformation of social position to an indivudual, internal issue.  “Lust” in Matthew 5 is about a look of covetousness, a staring, longing look, but later interpreters understood it as a thought. “Hatred” has to do with insulting someone, not just thinking awful thoughts about another.  Even so, “Pride” isn’t just thinking that one is greater, but acting like it.

A story in the book of 2 Chronicles explains it well.  There was a king named Uzziah. He became king at 16 years old, which already calls for trouble.  But he wasn’t a bad king. He was a good warrior, he built up his capital, he didn’t build statues to himself or anything. Unfortunatly, when he got to be a certain age, being king wasn’t good enough for him.  He wanted more authority. So he walked over to the nearby temple and starting offering sacrifices. The priests stopped him and said, “Whoa, king! You’re a king, not a priest. You can’t just take over our job.  God has you in your place and we are in ours.” But he started ranting, because why shouldn’t he do it? I mean, he was king. And he could do anything he wanted in his kingdom, right?

Well, only to a certain degree because just as he was ranting he developed leporsy, which lasted the rest of his life and so he made a pretty poor king at that point as well.

Taking Authority

Pride, in the Bible, has less to do with feeling important, but taking on importance.  Taking authority that doesn’t belong to one. Taking over situations which really belongs to another.  Taking over land and property that really belongs to someone else. Manuvering for a job that someone else already does well at, or was promised to someone else.

Pride is also treating someone as less important than us, when in reality they are equal.  Assuming that because of their social station or financial situation or position in society that they can’t do something you can.  Or they shouldn’t do something.

On the final day of Jesus’ life, he confronted a group of people about their pride.  People who used their authority to crush people under them. He told them about a group of farmers who rented the land, and they owned the owner justice.  But every time the owner send someone to check to see if justice is being done, they beat him, they threw them out, they killed them. So the owner sent his son to test them, to see what kind of people they really were.  It turns out, they were full of pride. So full of pride, they would rather take away any right to live of the person who confronted them, rather than set aside their own position because they were unworthy of it. Because they displayed their unworthiness through the death of an innocent, God opposed them.  Because God opposes the proud.

Lessening Others

Recently, there was a panel discussing Race and Homelessness in Portland.  There were a variety of people there, but the person who upstaged everyone else was white and had no experience of homelessness.  He took that authority, because no one stopped him. He was guilty of the biblical sin of pride-- taking on authority that didn’t belong to him, to speak for people of color who were homeless when they were right there on the stage next to him.

I sit in meeting after meeting about homelessness and how to help the homeless and how to organize the millions of dollars given to help the homeless.  A variety of people from the community are invited, but the one group that has the most stakes, the most experience are not invited-- the homeless. Because who are they to think that they could use money to help homeless people?  But anyone who thinks they can help homeless without that perspective being central is prideful.

I went to a meeting of the police comission of Eugene this week.  They all spoke of how they should punish people who are sleeping in public space because they have no where else to go.  No one said, “Hey, what if we let them be. Their live span is 30 years shorter thanours, perhaps we are looking at this the wrong way.”  Because their authority and the biased fear of the community was more important than the right of someone to live. That is pride.

I homeschooled my children and when we felt they were ready, we would put them into public school.  My oldest went to public school in 9th grade and my youngest in 7th grade because she asked to go. So we made the arrangements, but I didn’t want her to go to the school my oldest daughter went, because in that school she was bullied and attacked because they assumed she was arrogant-- after all it was a mostly black school and she was white and quiet.  She wasn’t arrogant, she was autistic, but I didn’t want my younger daughter going there. So I fought with the administration, but they put up a wall. I could not put her in school, but if she goes to public school, she is going to that same school. I was furious.

Why was I furious?  Because I was full of pride.  The proper response was if a child is bullied, we deal with the teacher and deal with the students doing it.  But I was using my authority as a parent and as an important person to do something other people couldn’t do. Frankly, I was pulling my white daughter out of a mostly black school because I was afraid for her.  I was a racist parent. I was acting with pride, trying to take authority I didn’t have.

We have enough power it is easy for us to do this.  We decide who is worthy and who isn’t, who should be listened to and who shouldn’t, who is worthy and who isn’t.  We think we treat everyone the same, but when we live with a certain amount of authority, it is hard to do. We are all little king Uzziah’s taking little pieces of humanity

I highly recommend that we all read this book, White Fragility.  It talks about how we can easily participate in dehumanize people of color, without even thinking of it.  When a person of color says, “That is racism” and we instantly respond, “No it’s not”, without thinking about it.  I’d recommend we listen to this sociologist who carefully explains how we can better listen, and how we can better repent of the small acts of pride.

The funny thing about pride is that unless we are doing some great act of arrogance, like trying to take over the world, we don’t see that we are taking over anyone else’s place, denying their humanity or experience.  I didn’t see that I was dehumanizing a school-full of people of color. But it was my responsiblity to wake up to it, to realize how I was treating others.

The first step to overcome pride is to wake up to it.  To see what we are doing, how we are stepping on others, especially to prop up ourselves.  Because “God opposes the proud.” We cannot display the love of God when we step over others to maintain or increase our importance.

The Tree of Sustenance

Suppose you were watching a movie with a lot of cultural reference jokes.  Let’s say, Shrek.
You are watching Shrek except that you never have read a single fairy tale. So the whole movie
references fairy tale after fairy tale, children’s story after children’s story.  They make a Pinocchio joke,
a Snow White reference, characters from the three little pigs, and you don’t get any of it. It is truly
a bizarre, unfunny tale.

This is how most of us read the Bible.  
The Bible is packed with references to ancient myths, histories, folk tales and literary references
to other portions of the Bible.  In fact, the book of Revelation alone holds approximately 2000
references to passages in the Old Testament and countless references to Jesus’ teaching, but
most people want to think of it as a unique vision of their newspapers.  When we miss the context
of a literary work, we usually miss the intent of that work. We can read something over and over
again and just don’t get it.

So let’s look at the background of a passage we are very familiar with. The parable of the Mustard Seed.
First, we gotta go back, waaaaay back...

Psalm 104

This is a description of how God established creation through the image of Eden.  In the middle
section of the poem is a detailed description of how God continues to supply all creation with water.  
God supplies water through springs and rain, the mountains and streams distribute the water and the
trees and animals are sustained through that distribution.  It describes an ecosystem, begun by God
and perpetuated by all creation. In the midst of this description the mountains are seen as a home for
all creation with the line, “Beside them the birds of heaven nest, lifting up their voices among the
branches.”  So the birds thrive because of God’s provision through the mountain, through the trees,
through the streams, from the spring. It all works together.

Ezekiel 31

God through the prophet speaks to Egypt, saying, “You are just like Assyria.”  An analogy is given
that Assyria was like a huge cedar tree that took on a huge amount of resources, but supplied the
animals and birds.  In this analogy, the birds are the nations of the world whom Assyria took on as
clients. “All the birds of heaven nested in its branches,” the text says.  God provided the resources of
the earth to Assyria, and Assyria’s responsibility was to fairly distribute them among all the nations.

However, as we continue to read, we find that Assyria didn’t do that.  They withheld the resources for
themselves, causing their tree to rise higher and higher and leaving the nations to survive on scraps.
 In reality, the Assyrians destroyed and tortured whole civilizations in order to retain everything for
themselves. So, says Ezekiel, God chopped down that tree and the birds thrived on the remains.  
Because the nations of the world could thrive better with Assyria dead than alive.

Daniel 4

Emperor Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a tree which grew high and “the birds nested in its
branches”.  But the tree was shown to be inadequate and it was chopped down. Sound familiar?
Daniel tells the Emperor that the tree was him and he was in danger of seeing his power drained.
 Daniel’s recommendation was that the Emperor “give to the poor” generously, and to give glory to
God as the creator of his empire. That his empire had a divine purpose— to distribute to many,
especially the poor, so that all might thrive together, according to the creation-plan of God.

Mustard Tree

That’s the background.  Now let’s get to the meat, Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed.

“What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like
a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes
the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can nest in its shade.”  
Mark 4:30-32

Here, we see the key phrases that brings to mind the previous passages. “Huge branches that
birds nest in.” In the ancient Greek translations, the group of phrases use the same words as the
three passages quoted above.  

The mustard seed parable is half about the growth of God’s kingdom.  It is also about the nature of
the kingdom. The kingdom is the distribution of the resources of God, according to the mercy and
love of God.

The kingdom Jesus speaks about begins tiny, with one man distributing God’s healing, food,
deliverance and forgiveness to as many as he could reach.

The kingdom will have reached it’s apex when whole nations, ethnicities, corporations, churches
and religions join in God’s distribution network, making sure that everyone obtain what they need to
both survive and thrive.  As the kingdom’s distribution network grows, so does the world thrive.

Who Got This?

Interestingly enough, the early church understood this immediately.  The first church, as described in
Acts, distributed food to the poor in Jerusalem, and when their was controversy whether enough
people are being feed, the church leaders made sure that everyone was provided for.

Paul himself in Galatians said that though he disagreed with Jerusalem leaders about some issues,
they agreed that distribution to the poor was an essential aspect of the church.

Even the Romans agreed in the third century that they needed to persecute the early church, but that
the church “provided for our own poor as well.”

In the fourth century, as the church was getting organized, a group could not be officially claimed to
be a “church” unless they had a distribution network for the poor in their system.

What about us?

I do not identify the “kingdom” with the churches we see.  Because part of the core nature of the
kingdom of God is distribution to the poor, needy and outcast, as Jesus displayed and taught.  Not
everyone who teaches Jesus displays this basic understanding. Many who proclaim the name of
Jesus, teach or display a withholding of resources, sowing a distrust of the poor or outcast.  These

y: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">churches are not a part of the kingdom of God as Jesus described it.

And there are many secular organizations that do demonstrate the principles of God’s kingdom.  
Even as in Jesus’ teaching of the Sheep and the Goats shows, many who have done the acts of the
kingdom will be a part of it, even though they didn’t know who Jesus was.

Let us not think that our task is primarily or mostly “spiritual”, focusing on just prayer and word.  If we
do not organize and provide for the physical needs of the people in our community, we are not a part
of Jesus’ kingdom.

Was Jesus Racist?

Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”  But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.  Matthew 15:21-28

Look, we all make mistakes.  It is a part of being human. We can’t get it right all the time.  After all, we have limited vision, and limited understanding. Our brains make glitches.  In fact, I was talking to the Church Growth Committee the other about about sending a group around to contact those who are not afflicted with any church.  I mean, affiliated. I noted in the bulletin that our Thanksgiving meal will be shared with gracious hostility. I mean hospitality. In our new Bible study we will share in prayer and medication.  No, wait. Anyway, we all make mistakes.

Today I want to clearly proclaim Jesus’ humanity!  It is interesting that in most of the NT the divinity of Jesus isn’t argued about much (except in the book of John), but there is quite a bit of discussion about his humanity.  Almost having to prove that Jesus was not only of the spirit of God, but he is most importantly human. After the Enlightenment, the western world has doubted Jesus’ divinity, but is mostly assured of his humanity, and some now doubt his existence at all.

I want to proclaim today Jesus’ full humanity!  That he did not know everything! That he got angry at the wrong things sometimes!  And that he made mistakes, perhaps really big mistakes! And I might be so bold as to suggest that we have the beginnings of a mistake in this passage.

Jesus travels outside of Israel to connect with the Jewish groups that live in Tyre.  He may have healed some folks there or he was just known to do that, but either way, a woman approaches him to heal her daughter who is mentally ill.  And he ignores her. She keeps at him, and he keeps ignoring her. Finally the disciples jump in and beg him to get rid of her because she was irritating them.  Then he says, “I am only here for the children of Israel.”

Now persistence is something that Jesus has praised in other situations.  In fact, he takes it as an indication of faith. And he has healed the servants and children of other Gentiles.  So the fact that she was not Jewish or the fact that she is irritating isn’t the problem for Jesus.

I will say that many people have tried to excuse Jesus here.  To say that he was secretly encouraging her to continue to ask.  That he was just testing her to see how far she’d go. That he was speaking sarcastically.  I can’t deny that possibility, but I don’t see anything like this in the text. Rather, I think the most important hint was early in the text-- that she was Canaanite.

From the time that they are children, all Jewish people are taught about the evil nature of the Canaanites.  That doesn’t mean that they all do evil things, but that it is in their nature to be evil and that it would be better that they never existed.

This is throughout the Torah and the Tanakh, the whole Hebrew scriptures.  The story of the Canaanites begins with Noah. All of humanity is destroyed, only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives have survived.  Noah, perhaps by accident, perhaps not, got seriously drunk and fell naked in his tent. Ham, one of Noah’s sons, saw him naked and told his brothers.  After this, Noah is furiously upset with Ham and curses Ham’s son, Canaan. But this seems like an extreme reaction. A little bit of reading between the lines, though, seems to indicate that Ham saw Noah naked because he was in the tent for another reason.  Ham, it seems, wasn’t satisfied with his wife and so had incest with his mother, Noah’s wife. This is why Noah didn’t curse Ham, but Ham’s son, Canaan, the product of an adulterous, incestuous relationship.

Is the story true?  That’s not the point.  The point is that the Hebrew Scriptures sometimes talk about the incestuous ancestry of their most hated enemies, such as Moab and Ammon.  It is a way to dismiss a whole nation or group of nations as unworthy to exist.

Later, when God tells the Israelites that he will clear out the Canaanites for them, over a long period of time.  But Moses commands them to destroy the Canaanites utterly, to kill every man, woman and child, to kill everything that breathes in their nation.  When Joshua failed to take them all out, then God revoked that command, saying that he would leave the Canaanites to test the Israelites.

The Canaanites were so hated that in later centuries, Jews who married Canaanites weren’t allowed to remain Jewish.  They had to divorce their wives or they would no longer be counted among the Jewish people.

The Cannanites weren’t even powerful enough to be considered a true enemy of Israel, they are weak, despised and hated by all Jewish people, not counted to be important enough to exist.  They were better off to be destroyed, and if not destroyed then enslaved and if not enslaved, then ignored.

Jesus is not the kind to destroy or enslave anyone.  He recognizes everyone’s right to exist and to live in freedom.  But he is, it seems, trying to ignore the existence of this Canaanite, despite her continuing, pitiful pleas. Jesus, on occasion, has no compassion for people who approach him, and this woman receives the worst treatment by him.

He tells her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

To call someone a “dog” I’m sure you know, is the worst thing you could call a person.  It is the “n” word of the first century. It is the worst slur a Jewish person can give to a gentile.  Mostly because every gentile understands the full insult behind that slur, while they may not understand the other common slur for gentiles, “pig.”

But rather than be offended and storm off, rather than meekly withdraw from the rebuke, this woman has a brilliant counter to his slur: “But even the dogs will eat from the crumbs that fall from the children’s table.”

She is saying, “Okay, I am a dog.  I accept your slur. But there is no reason for you to refuse to heal my daughter.  You should heal her, even if you think you have the right to insult me and my people.”

She is still persistent.  She is still demanding. And she is humble.  Not humble in a quiet way, but humble in accepting the low position that she does not deserve.  No one deserves to be called a slur. Everyone should have a certain amount of respect accorded to those who have been made in God’s image.  But she accepts what she did not deserve in order to gain a greater benefit for her daughter.

At this point, if Jesus had accepted the training he had received as a good Jew of the first century, he should have sent her away.  He should have not had anything to do with her. Instead, I believe, that Jesus realizes that he has a conflict of principles.

He has alway said that those who have faith would be healed.  Not faith as simple belief. Jesus commended faith that was brash, persistent, resourceful and demanding.  He never required a person be of a certain nationality nor that they be polite. The very principles that God the Father and he determined insists that he heal this woman’s daughter.  However, the prejudices of his society, the perhaps unthinking biases of his people demands that he reject her.

I think that Jesus had a recognition that he was mistaken.  That he was siding with prejudice instead of compassion. That he was going along with the racism of his society instead of demanding a change for justice.  I think that he was face to face with an assumption that he hadn’t considered before. That a woman demanded that he end his bias against her and her people right then and there.

And I think he did something that most people, almost all people, wouldn’t do.

He repented.

I believe firmly that Jesus was tempted to do evil here, to refuse to help a woman because she was of the wrong ethnicity.  He came close, so very close to sinning against love. But this woman pulled him back from the brink. You know how? She was the only person in all recorded history to throw Jesus’ words back to him and to defeat him in debate.

So Jesus proclaimed, “I can’t believe your faith!  You are an amazing woman! Of course you belong in God’s kingdom!  I wasn’t sure, because I wasn’t sure that Caananites, the people who were condemned to death, should be among the people of God.  But you assured me! You and your daughter are fully deserving of God’s blessing! Be healed!”

I believe that Jesus, the Son of God, and Son of Man gave us a powerful example, here.  He paid attention to a people that had horrible prejudice against it and rather than obey his prejudices that he was taught since he was born, he listened to a marginalized person.  And thus, a person who didn’t deserve his mercy or compassion suddenly became fully deserving. Even so, we need to listen to the issues of women, of African Americans, of Native Americans, of Palestinians, of the immigrants, of the LGBTQ, of the homeless.  We need to pay attention to their pleas, demanding compassion, demanding help. We may think that they aren’t deserving. We may think that they didn’t work hard enough. We may think that they need to obey the proper laws. We may think that there is sufficient help for them already.  We may think that they are irritating, that their cries for help are just unjust.

But the example of Jesus compels us.  If the Son of God can recognize that his compassion is inadequate, that he needs to welcome another group into the fold… then perhaps we do to.  We should stop before we ignore the cries of the needy. And reconsider. And possibly repent.

Bible Study on Canaanties:

Noah and Canaan-- Genesis 9:20-27
Judah had a Canaanite wife, but his descendents weren’t by her-- Gen 38
God taking the land-- Exodus 23:20-33
Utterly destroy-- Deut 2:33-34; Deut 7:16; Deut 20:16-17
Revoking command-- Judges 2:21-23
Divorcing cannanite wives-- Ezra 9-10

Salvation in Ancient Times (and today)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Isaiah 61:1-2

One of the main hopes that Isaiah gives us is freedom from this oppression.  Over time, when oppression became such a permanent part of the landscape, church officials spiritualized the hope of Advent, the hope of the Bible, so people wouldn’t despair of the lack of progress.  So we would hope for a “salvation” which is usually intended to be a non-physical manifestation of freedom. But that is never the case in the Bible. Freedom specifically had to do with a physical, social release from being in that place where we would be punished for not succeeding according to our societal standards.

It is helpful, sometimes, to look in the ancient world and see what oppression meant to them, and see how it is different today.

For instance, in the ancient world, a person wasn’t put into prison for a crime.  The majority of the time, they were placed into prison for debts. If they owed a lot of money, first they would take possessions, like articles of clothing, and hold them until they were paid.  If they still didn’t pay, they would get security guards and place them into jail until their family and friends bailed them out with the full amount of money that was owed. Either that, or the debtor and his family would be sold into slavery to regain some of the debt owed.

Slavery was also a form of oppression.  Slavery was rarely for life in the ancient world.  It was forced labor with little or no pay for room and board.  But slaves in the ancient world could often work for others who were not their masters, so they could earn money to pay for their release.  In Roman society, an average period of time of slavery was six years. In Hebrew society, all debt slaves had to be released every seventh year, so the maximum a person would be enslaved would be six years, according to the law.  But it is still an oppression, a period of time in which one may not work for themselves and they might very well lose their families in this process.

Another form of oppression in the ancient world is not having land.  Every family is supposed to have their own land, their own place to make their living and their home.  If a family is forced to sell their land, or lose their land because someone steals it, the government is supposed to step in, according to the law, and restore that land back to the family every 50th year.  They had a timeline in which the oppression would end.

And, of course, there is illness, disease, disability and mental illness.  These were seen as forms of oppression, a spiritual oppression, forced on people by evil spirits. And we can clearly see how that would limit someone.  If someone cannot see the basket or has no arms to throw, how can they make the basket, meet the social obligation? If they are raving or enraged all the time, how can they meet their own needs or the needs of others?

Advent is about the freedom from oppression.  Frankly, the whole bible is about freedom from oppression.  That is what “salvation” or “deliverance” means— not a spiritual release, but a release from various oppressions that come upon people.  When we spiritualized oppression, when we say it is only about “sin”, then we are blaming people for things that they had no control over, we are then oppressors.  When we keep people in situations where they cannot meet their own needs, or take their resources that they use to meet their own needs, then we are oppressors.

What does freedom from oppression look like? Not a promise that our sins are forgiven.

It looks like release from illness, by having decent healthcare.
It looks like fair wages for one’s work, that one can live on.
It looks like freedom from debt.
It looks like land that one can live on.

The hope of the ancients looked like this. Nothing has changed.

The Four Spiritual Laws of Moses

Let’s talk about the four spiritual laws.

Not Bill Bright’s four spiritual laws.  He’s one of those people who are guilty of spiritualizing real issues people deal with every day.  No, I’m going to talk about Moses’ four spiritual laws. These spiritual laws are what forms the backbone of most of the Bible, including the teaching of Jesus.  So let’s get to them and you’ll see how they apply to what we have been talking about.

1. 1. God has a plan for your community to live in justice and peace— First of all, Moses isn’t talking about individuals, but peoples.  Perhaps an ethnicity, perhaps a community with a variety of ethnicities, but a people who sees them. And God’s plan isn’t to make us individually happy, but for us, as a community, to live in justice and peace with each other.
2. 2. Oppression separates us from justice and peace.— Not our individual sin, but people who have power, who use that power to keep us from meeting our own needs.  Oppressors could be governments, or wealthy people, or religious people, or families or many other people or groups with power. Groups of human beings have great power, no matter how that group is collected.  And if a powerful person or a group of people move the basket, or blame people for being unable to meet the standards they themselves create, then they are oppressors. For instance, to take a privilege, like having certain colored skin or being able to pay for electricity or running water, and establishing that as a standard to live or to have children, and they will take your right to have children or to live because of that standard, then that is oppression.
3. 3. We separate ourselves from oppression by crying out to God for deliverance, an act of grace.— The third spiritual law has to do with crying out to the highest judge.  The God of the Hebrews is the god of slaves, the god of the poor, the god of the oppressed. Not the god of one ethnicity, nor the god of one religion, but the god of the poor.  And God’s job is deliverance from oppression. God created the world and gave it to humans to rule. But if one group of humans force a second group to live and work for the benefit of the first because of their power, then God, as judge of the world steps in and brings salvation, deliverance, freedom from oppression.  God asks only that we cry out and ask, even demand, that deliverance. Because God will not step in to take over the sovereignty that God established us from the beginning. God delivers by request only.
4. 4. God requires that in receiving deliverance and grace, we also generously give it.  So God steps in and delivers the poor, the enslaved, the oppressed. God grants them freedom from their oppressors and grants them resources to live, to survive.  Some would say that this is unconditional, but Moses didn’t and neither did Jesus. There is one standard— that we are to live according to the deliverance we have received.  If we have obtained freedom from debt, we are to give freedom from debt. If we were immigrants in other people’s lands, we are to give place to immigrants. If we have had education granted to us for free, we are to give education for free.  If we have been healed, we are to heal others. Whatever we have received, we are to give. That is the payment. We will talk about this more another time.

For now, we need to see our place in Advent.  Advent is about the hope of release from deliverance.  It is a time of prayer, when we will cry out to God for deliverance.  It is a time of longing for peace and justice.

If we have what we need, if we can make the basket, then we need to be praying and working for others who are oppressed.  Because we live in a world of oppression. We live in a world where powerful people regularly take advantage of those without power and discard them when they are done.   And Jesus promised us all deliverance from those powers, and he only asks that we participate is people’s release from debt, slavery, landlessness and sickness. Here's a video of the teaching . (below the video is Moses' scriptures on the subject)

1. God has a plan of peace and justice for your community.
Exodus 3:7-8
Yahweh then said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. And I have come down to rescue them from the clutches of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that country, to a country rich and broad, to a country flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples—for indeed you were the smallest of all— but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was why Yahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

2. Oppression keeps us from peace and justice.

Exodus 1:13-14
The Egyptians gave them no mercy in the demands they made, making their lives miserable with hard labour

Exodus 5:5-6, 9
And Pharaoh said, ‘Now that the people have grown to such numbers in the country, what do you mean by interrupting their forced labour?’  That very day, Pharaoh gave the order, ‘Give these people more work to do, and see they do it instead of listening to lying speeches.’ 

3. We cry out to God for deliverance and God will deliver.
Exodus 2:23-25

The Israelites, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God.  God heard their groaning; God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  God saw the Israelites and took note. 

Exodus 14:13-14

Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid! Stand firm, and you will see what Yahweh will do to rescue you today: the Egyptians you see today you will never see again. Yahweh will do the fighting for you; all you need to do is to keep calm.’ 

4. We offer freedom as we were granted freedom

Exodus 22:20-23
‘You will not molest or oppress aliens, for you yourselves were once aliens in Egypt.  You will not ill-treat widows or orphans; if you ill-treat them in any way and they make an appeal to me for help, I shall certainly hear their appeal, my anger will be roused and I shall put you to the sword; then your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans. 

Deuteronomy 15:12-15
If any of your people sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free. And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.

Deuteronomy 16:10-12
Celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

Deuteronomy 10:18-19

He it is who sees justice done for the orphan and the widow, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing. Love the stranger then, for you were once strangers in Egypt.

Jesus Doing Politics

Once upon a time there was a nation at war.  They killed many children and many others were injured with disabilities that they would suffer from all of their lives.  Some would have cancer, some were physically disabled, others were to live with trauma haunting their memories, others would commit suicide because of all they have lost.  Tired of living this way, the children banded together and held a protest. Masses and masses of them, so many one could not count them all. They filled the capital city with broken limbs, broken minds, broken lives, all because of the tragedy visited upon them by their leaders.

Although they blocked traffic and stopped the everyday commerce, they were ignored by almost everyone.  One news station filmed them and placed them at the end of their evening report as a “human interest” story.  In this story, one line was offered as comment: “Poor kids. They just don’t understand politics.”

Mark 3:21-34—

And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

“Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”  Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Our story thus far:

Jesus looked at the politics of his day and so proposed and established a new nation, because there was no redeeming the old one.
Baptism is the ceremony of immigration from the nation of birth to the nation of Jesus

This means that if we are following Jesus, we no longer belong to the nations of this world, but to the kingdom of God.   

Jesus, however, participated in the politics of his day.  Paul declared himself a Roman citizen and James, the brother of Jesus was considered a Judean in high standing.  How do we be a good citizen of the kingdom of God and involve ourselves in politics?

First, we need to understand how Jesus did NOT do politics:

Jesus did not become a Sadduccee.  If he had done this, he could have made changes within the contemporary system, supporting the power system and encouraging it to make positive changes.  He did not choose that path of politics.
Jesus did not become a Pharisee.  He did not try to obtain popular support for his ideas and interpretations of law.  He did not support the current synagogue system, attached to the temple in Jerusalem.  He used this system, but he did not build onto it.

Jesus did not become an Essene.  He did not form a separatist community, which kept themselves pure apart from the corrupt world.  Instead, he was deeply involved in the world.

Jesus did not become a Herodian or support Herod’s regime.  He didn’t choose to unify the Jewish people through power. He didn’t choose to unify people under one political entity at all.

Jesus did not choose to be a Zealot.  He did not choose to create a violent insurrection against all doers of oppression and corruption.

In general, Jesus’ plan to do politics was to establish a new nation and invite all to participate in it, not by force, but by a welcome invitation.  He explained the new law that the kingdom would have, the new people and a new power by which it would rule the world. He lived and taught a new politics of the kingdom.  

Jesus’ politics wasn’t to keep the system going.  Rather, he was proposing a revolution. A complete dismantling of “politics as usual” and starting all over again.  And his people are not to be proponents of “politics as usual”, but starting over again.

How Jesus decided to do politics is a huge subject, and quite complicated.  But I think this passage in Mark 3 can give us an outline of his general plan of how WE should do politics, even today.

1 Jesus began his politics with radical acts of life-saving mercy

The subject being discussed is Jesus freeing people from severe mental illness.  Yes, they are talking about demonization, which is how the ancient world understood and communicated about mental illness.  The story about people who acted in inappropriate social ways was that they were being judged for their sin by being attacked by a demon, who was ruled by Satan, which is the title of the great prosecutor of the spirit world.  Satan is a title, which means Accuser, the official name of the one who condemns humans before God. In some concpts, he is also the one who carried out the punishments against humans who did evil. He is the agent of Karma, giving evil for those who do evil and mental illness, it was said, is the result of that attack.  We can see a clear story of this in the story of Saul in the book of I Samuel. He disobeyed God and so he was given an evil spirit to attack him and he became more and more insane.

But Jesus would deliver the mentally ill by exiling or “driving out” spirits that punish humans.  He gives them freedom from the punishment that was visited upon them. He is freeing them from oppression.  Giving them another chance to live.

This is a political stand.  Because society believes in karma.  They believe in punishing people who do wrong, even if they can’t prove wrong was done.  They believe that homeless people should suffer some because there must be a good reason for them to be on the street.  They believe that people with AIDS should suffer for their acts. They believe that mental illness is just a weakness, and they deserve to suffer.  So giving people release from oppression who “deserve” to be oppressed is an act of rebellion.

2. Be attacked
So here come these officials “from Jerusalem”-- these aren’t just local people, but people who are the official word, giving an official judgment on Jesus’ work.  And their judgement is that Jesus is under control of the evil forces, and that his actions are not good, as they seem on the surface, but evil. Why are they evil?  Because he is speaking against them and their acts of oppression and insisting on too much authority for himself.

The one who does good in a way that is not accepted by society will be attacked by society.  Jesus said this, not as a possibility, but as a promise. He promised his disciples that for their good work, they would be officially condemned and arrested and hated by their own families and churches.  

Even so, the very people who should see Jesus as a force for good, instead labels him as the force of evil.  And this is typical of “politics as usual”. Good will be painted as evil by those who should embrace it.

3. Speak out against corruption
Then Jesus moves into political discourse.  First, he belittles the arguments of his opponent.

He says, “How can the force of judgment relase people from judgment?  That is the Prosecutor acting against his own goals. The jailer doesn’t set people free.  The executioner doesn’t let people go. Satan has a purpose, and to free people is the opposite of that purpose.  That is an act of civil war. So it is just silly to say that my work is the work of Satan.”

Then Jesus speaks to their judgment of him:
“If you look at good work and call it evil because of your political views, you will never know what good or evil is.  You can look at me and point out my deficiencies. You can call me names and say evil things about me-- that’s fine. But this work of the Holy Spirit is good.  It is the work of God among people who are cruelling suffering. If you call the good work of God an evil work there is no hope for you. You are hopelessly blinded by your point of view and you will never change.”

Today there are so many people who look at good and call it evil.  There are so many people acting out of judgment instead of love. We may not be a part of this world, but we must speak and act in this world.  We need to act for people who are oppressed and free them. We will act in any way we can, as long as it does not harm another. We must act by votes, we must act by good will, we must act by our speech, both private and public.  And we must not just love, but we must speak out against forces of hate. Forces that want to oppress, want to harm the innocent, want to block the ways in which people can be freed. Yes, our family may oppose us. Our church may oppose us.  The people we love may oppose us. But we must stand for doing good, and do good, no matter what the cost. Even if it is illegal. Even if we will be rejected by everyone. We must do what will save the lives of the oppressed.

4. Build Community
Jesus did a number of other things to change the politics of this world, but there is one more thing I want to mention from this passage.  Earlier in the passage, we have a description of Jesus’ “own” who were standing outside, determining that he was insane and needed to take him home and lock him in a closet.  After this showdown with the officials from Jerusalem, someone is finally able to get Jesus a message from his family, telling him to come outside, where they plan to do a Gaston and lock him up as a crazy person.

Jesus ignores their request, however.  This is because he knew that his family wants to obstruct his work, even as the scribes from Jerusalem does.  He instead points to his disciples around him and says, “These are my real family. The people who do the work of God are my true family.”

What is Jesus doing?  A family is one’s base community, out of which everything else is formed.  Jesus is saying that his family-- his physical brothers and mother-- are not his base community.  Who is his real community? Those who have chosen to learn from him the path of doing good. The people who are standing up for the oppressed.  The people who will deliver others. Who will forgive, who will set them free from the punishment that society thinks they deserve. These who will deliver the mentally ill, restore people to good standing, who will feed the hungry, shelter those out in the cold, deliver people from prison, make the sick well.  These are the community of Jesus. They may have different beliefs, different opinions of how the world works, they have different radical acts of freedom they do, but they have this: they stand together with Jesus to change the world, by freeing one person at a time from their suffering.

One of Jesus’ most powerful acts of politics is to create a community that can do more good together than they can separately.  And these people aren’t just Jesus’ friends, they aren’t just Jesus’ buds-- they are Jesus’ family. They are his real community.  This family is the outgrowth of Jesus’ kingdom. It starts with him-- setting people free in every town he goes in. And then it expands to all his disciples, each of them freeing people from suffering, just as Jesus did.

So how do we do politics?  Again, it can be complicated, but here’s a starting point for all of us:

1. We work to set free the suffering and oppressed
2. We are targeted by those who want people to suffer for their own political motives
3. We deny their explanation, by labeling good works as good and evil works as evil.
4. We build communities that can release more people from suffering than they could separately