C
Trinity BFC 2016
Psalm
8
May
22, 2016
Though I’m not proud of it, I have been known to
pick a fight with Tracy so that I can blame her for a past wrong the wrong I
have done to her. I know I messed
up. Now I have to bug her, annoy her,
push her into messing up so I can cast blame on her. And I’ll have to admit that it kind of feels
good to even the score this way. It is a
lovely, twisted thing I do just so I can be right every once in a while in the
marriage. I scapegoat her and make a
fool of myself.
The ancient Jewish ritual of the scapegoat was used
around Yom Kippur, the most sacred time of the Jewish liturgical year, when the
Jewish people affirm their repentance and re-turning to God as a people. It is a time of deep corporate and
self-reflection, corporate and self-examination, corporate and self-criticism. In
return and repentance, the Jewish people approach God at the end of the Jewish
year. They arrive before God, owning
their own stuff, trusting in God’s forgiving nature. Yom
Kippur and the rituals of atonement associated with it reflect the strong value
of moral responsibility placed upon the Jewish nation, community, and
individual.
In the ancient ritual of the
scapegoat, the sins of the people are placed upon the scapegoat who is then
sent out into the wilderness. Recognizing
the strong value of moral responsibility highlighted in the Jewish High Holy
days, the scapegoat is a paradox. Or
perhaps a limit. The scapegoat may
recognize that no matter how much we as a nation, community, or individual take
moral responsibility for the violence we do to one another, the break and
separation we create in our relationship with God and creation, sometimes just
owning our own moral responsibility is not enough. We need to ritually acknowledge that there is
just so much responsibility we can own to repair the breach that has occurred. We need something to say, “We leave this
behind in the wilderness of our lives. We
have done what we could do. Somehow,
some way, we need to move on.” Yom
Kippur is the hope that all of the Jewish people might draw close to a God full
of forgiveness, take responsibility for their action or inaction, and begin
again, renew their relationship with God, with the beginning of the Jewish new
year.
But that is not the definition of
scapegoat that has entered our popular culture.
“Scapegoating” has become the antithesis of self-criticism and
self-evaluation. Rather than the thing
of last resort we turn to as a way of mending the breach between God and our
neighbor, “scapegoating” has become the first thing we turn to as a way of
avoiding responsibility and casting blame anywhere else but within
ourselves. It is easy. We feel a little bit better about ourselves
when we do it. Admit it. Self-criticism
does not feel good. So we push blame to
the other instead of taking it upon ourselves.[1]
Before us today is one of the most
popular Psalms, Psalm 8. Other than
Psalm 23, I have preached on Psalm 8 more than any other. The reason for that, I believe, is that Psalm
8 contains deep truths about who we are as human beings in relation to
God. Psalm 8 turns on two parallel
questions that the psalmist asks God. As
the psalmnist gazes up into the grandeur and the handiwork of the heavens, the
questions are asked, “What are human beings that you think of them? What are human beings that you pay attention
to them?”
These are questions we imagine all of humankind
asking in corporate reflection and examination.
How does God see us? The
psalmnist asks, “What is the long and
short of who we are?” As we look out into
the vast universe, we begin with a recognition of how small and limited we
are. In that self-examination, why would
God even care? That is the key understanding
the Psalm conveys--in looking around us, in taking stock before God and God’s
creation, we should begin as a people of humility.
As the Presidential primaries reach
out to Montana, I know many people, myself included, believe we are arriving at
a dangerous juncture for our country.
People like former New York Times journalist
and seminarian, Chris Hedges, believe that our internal political reaction to
9/11 put a fascist apparatus in place that is just waiting for a charismatic
leader or a Reichstag moment. Hedges quotes Italian author and philosopher
Umberto Eco to write, “The first appeal of a fascist or a fascist movement is
an appeal against the intruders.[2] It would be hard to argue against the fact
that our nation is way past that first movement.
Many people are also pointing to the presumed
Presidential nominee from the Republican Party as the demagogue who will carry
us into full fascism. In a recent interview
with David Axelrod, satirist Jon Stewart reminded us all that Donald Trump is
just a manifestation of what we hear on talk radio. Stewart opined that, at the very least,
Donald Trump is being more logical than the established rhetoric of his
party. When one views immigrants and
Muslims as the country’s vexing problem, one does not shut down the
government. One builds a wall.[3]
Here is a caution however. I would argue that with President Obama
hailed as the Deporter-in-Chief and the recent announcement that Immigration
and Customs Enforcement is about to begin a scorched earth campaign where it
will begin deporting mothers and children[4], with the continuation of drone killings of
Muslim people who are post-strike labelled as terrorists, double-tapping to
make sure emergency responders are killed as well[5] and the
war crime of the bombing of a Doctors without Borders clinic[6], I would
ask whether we are being given the choice of fascism regular or fascism
lite.
With such blatant hubris, how can we possibly claim
humility before God? What are human
beings that you think about them? What
are human beings that you pay attention to them? We have done scapegoating one better. We not only blame. We blame the victims of our wars and policies
and publicly and privately scapegoat the most vulnerable among us.[7]
Christian pastor, theologian, and martyr, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer opposed the scapegoating Adolf Hitler accomplished by reminding his parishioners
that “God wanders among us in human form speaking to us in those who cross our
paths, be they stranger, beggar, sick, or even in those nearest to us in
everyday life, becoming Christ’s demand on our faith in [God.]”[8] In the midst of World War II, Bonhoeffer
wrote, “We have for once learned to see the great events of world history from
below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the
powerless, the oppressed, the reviled—in short, from the perspective of those
who suffer.”[9] Bonhoeffer strongly opposed those German
Christians who proudly waived the Nazi flag from their churches and saw the
marriage of Christ and country as one.
He wrote to his grandmother, “The conflict is really Christianity or
Germanism, and the sooner the conflict come out in the open, the better.”[10]
Psalm 8 does not end with humble, reflective
questions however. It continues by
remembering our power, remembering that we were made only slightly less than
divine or the angels. Where we are first
called to be humble and self-reflective so we are also called to remember our
power. Dietrich Bonhoeffer also chided
other Christians who were scolded and made fun of by Hitler for their
hypocrisy. Bonhoeffer, as the psalmnist,
knew a forgiving God who called the church community to act regardless of their
shortcomings and their hypocrisy. He
enjoined his sisters and brothers not to be bullied into silence.
Spiritual writer Marianne Williamson wrote a
beautiful piece of poetry that has been attributed to Nelson Mandela and his
inauguration speech. It reminds us of
our power and goes like this:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness
that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does
not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as
children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light
shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.[11]
This is the challenge before us, sisters and
brothers. Faith is never found in one
candidate or one particular party, but in deep values that call us to humility
and power. It is daunting. It requires not our proficiency or expertise
so much as it calls for our courage.
I want to leave you with a surprising, modern day
prophet in our midst. On May 5,
Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed in Israel. Yair Golan, the Israel Defense Force, Deputy
Chief of Staff, created great controversy by saying that he saw the seeds of
the Holocaust in his own country, Israel, and warned that the Holocaust,
must make us think deeply
about the responsibility of leadership, the quality of society, and it must
lead us to fundamental thinking about how we, here and now, treat the stranger,
the orphan and the widow, and all who are like them.
There is nothing easier
than hating the stranger, nothing easier than to stir fears and intimidate.
There is nothing easier than to behave like an animal and to act
sanctimoniously.
On Holocaust Remembrance
Day we ought to discuss our ability to uproot the seeds of intolerance,
violence, self-destruction and moral deterioration.[12]
You may have seen that his superior,
Yoshe Ma’alon, Israeli Defense Minister, defended him, calling Yair a person
driven by values and many accomplishments.
Yesterday, Ma’alon resigned in protest believing that Israel is headed
down a dangerous path. He had said in
defense of the IDF Deputy, “If there’s something that frightens me about
Holocaust remembrance it’s the recognition of the revolting processes that
occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany,
back then . . . and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016.”[13]
We
are in a difficult time, a defining time, for our nation and our world. The modern day scapegoating is at a fever
pitch. It will take people of great
fortitude and courage, people driven by their values and their experiences of
the most vulnerable to say that there is a more ancient hymn, a deeper story,
that reminds us of our collective humility but also reminds us that we were
made to be a little less than divine. End
the scapegoating. Look to those who are
being victimized to show us the path.
For you . . . you are the Children of God, each of you, a Child of the
Most High. Amen.
[1]
Borrowing heavily from Rabbi Sharon Brous, “Scapegoat,” May 7, 2016. http://www.ikar-la.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5.7.16-Parashat-Acrhei-Mot-Rabbi-Sharon-Brous.mp3;
and “Conversation with Rabbi Sharon Brous:
Days of Awe,” On Being with Krista
Tippett, September 2, 2010. http://www.onbeing.org/program/days-awe/transcript/803#main_content.
[2]
Chris Hedges, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
(New York: Free Press, 2008)
[3]
“David Axelrod Conversation with Jon Stewart,” The Axe Files, May 9, 2016.
[4]
Julia Edwards, “Exclusive: US Plans new
wave of immigration deportation raids,” Reuters,
May 12, 2016. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-deportation-exclusive-idUSKCN0Y32J1.
[5]
Spencer Ackerman, “41 men targeted by 1147 people killed: US drone strikes—the facts on the ground,” the guardian, November 24, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147. Tara McKelvey, “Drones kill rescuers in 'double tap', say activists,” BBC News Magazine, October 22, 2013, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-24557333.
See also the recent work of investigative journalists
Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill.
[6]
“Afghanistan: MSF Demands Explanations
After Deadly Airstrikes Hit Hospital in Kunduz,” October 3, 2015. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/afghanistan-msf-demands-explanations-after-deadly-airstrikes-hit-hospital-kunduz.
[7]
S. Mark Heim has written an insightful article titled, “The End of Scapegoating”
which relates how the cross is an overturning of scapegoating theology which
places Jesus in solidarity with the victims of scapegoating. “Prime candidates [for scapegoating] are the
marginal and the weak, or those isolated by their very prominence. Typically they will be charged with violating
the community’s most extreme taboos. The
process does not just accept innocent victims, it prefers them: outsiders with no friends or defenders. . . .
This is the genetic flaw in our normal approaches to peacemaking, the “good”
violence against them that drives out bad violence among us. . . . Scapegoating
is one of the deepest structures of human sin, built into our religion and our
politics. It is demonic because it is
endlessly flexible in its choices of victims and because it can truly deliver
the good it advertises. It is most
virulent where it is most invisible. So
long as we are in the grip of the process, we do not see our victims as
scapegoats. Texts that hide scapegoating
foster it. Texts that hide scapegoating
foster it. Texts that show it for what
it is [the Bible] undermine it.” Found
in Patterns of Violence: Christian Reflection: A Series in Faith and
Ethics (Baylor University, 2016), pp. 22-23. Heim concludes, ethically, as a Christian, “To
believe in the crucified one is to want no other victims. To depend on the blood of Jesus is to refuse
to depend on the sacrificial blood of anyone else. It is to swear off scapegoats. . . . One of
the crucial things that makes the Church a community is its constitution in
solidarity not against some
sacrificial victim but by identification with the crucified one.”, pp. 25-26.
[8]Geffrey
B. Kelley, “The Life and Death of a
Modern Martyr,” Christianity Today,
1991. http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-32/life-and-death-of-modern-martyr.html.
[9]
Ibid.
[10]
Ibid.
[11]
Marianne Williamson, A Return to
Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", (San Francisco:
HarperCollins, 1992), p. 190.
[12]
Gili Cohen, “Israeli Defense
Minister Defends IDF Deputy Who Likened Trends in Israeli Society to 1930s
Germany,” Haaretz, May 5, 2016, http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.718043.
[13]
Ibid, “Israel politics: Defence
Minister Moshe Yaalon resigns in protest,” BBC
News, May 20, 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36340185
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