I’m going to self-tell on one of my character
flaws. I am a huge fan of a good horror
movie. In fact, the harmony in my
marriage is based on finding a horror movie that is not so much about gore and
screams but about the uncomfortable feeling that evil is real and all is not
well with the world. My wife and
daughter can tell you that I spend way too much time overanalyzing why a good
horror movie works or doesn’t work.
Several years ago, an
independent movie, “The Blair Witch Project” made quite a name for itself by
showing the plight of three young filmmakers who enter into a New England
forest to chase down the lore of the Blair witch. Before the movie even began, I noticed that a
low, obnoxious hum was being broadcast in the movie theater. It was the beginning of setting the stage for
all of the creepiness that we would soon enter into with the storytelling. The hum set the house on edge. The unease and agitation created by that low
hum got into us. In turn, the house reacted
with greater trepidation and fear about an evil the movie never did show
us. We never did see the Blair witch. But the house’s reactions to the movie became
predictable.
In Greek, the root word for both “economy” and
“ecology” is the word “house,” “home,” or “household.”[1] Etymologically then, “economy” means the
“managing of the household.” Remember
that as we go forward. “Economy” is the
managing of the household.
Our Biblical creation myth is a
derivative of a Mesopotamian myth written sometime earlier than the creation
myth we have in Genesis. The parable of
the lost tree of immortality is found in both the Mesopotamian myth and the
Biblical myth teaching that humankind’s striving after immortality is a
delusion. In the Biblical story, that
impossibility of immortality is replaced by the necessity of conscience. In the end, that is all human has for its
future: conscience.
Contrary to popular teaching, the word “sin” first
appears in the Bible not with the story of Adam and Eve but with the story of
their two children in Genesis, Chapter 4.
The Biblical story is not decided peacefully. When Cain kills his brother Abel, the word
“sin” first appears in Scripture. Cain
then goes off to build a city and violence increases exponentially. God declares that whoever kills Cain will suffer
sevenfold vengeance. Lamech, a
descendant of Cain and father of Noah, declares that he has killed a young man
for wounding him, and whoever kills him will be avenged greater than one who
would kill Cain, seventy-seven fold. Lamech
is ok with violence. He just doesn’t
want it to happen to him.
Biblical scholar, John Dominic Crossan says,
therefore, escalatory, retributive violence is humankind’s original sin, laced into
our primal creation myth as to how we build and keep civilization. That original story comes with a warning: “Sin is lurking at the door. Its desire is for you; you must master
it.” Genesis, chapter 4, verse 9. The teaching says that this original sin is
innate and unavoidable but a free choice.
It is not a matter of God sanctioning this violence which makes the
violence escalate. Rather, violence
escalates due to human consequences. All
humankind has for its future is conscience.
But we think we need violence to save us.
In contrast, another tradition in the Bible teaches
is that human civilization does not necessarily need to be built by violence
and violence is not necessarily woven into our human nature.[2] As a
Christian, Crossan believes Jesus looked deep into his tradition to counter the
idea that retributive, escalatory violence is necessary. The lie we have been telling ourselves for
ages is: Retributive, escalatory
violence is necessary to protect me and my own, to get the jump on you who will
harm me, to show my armor and weaponry superior to yours, there is a need to go
bigger, to exact more damage so that civilization might be secured and peace
might be achieved. In contrast, Jesus,
looking deep into his Jewish faith and tradition, taught: we belong to each other. And though we may believe we belong to each
other, evil always seeks a foothold.
Crossan outlines this whole argument in his 2016 book,
Is God Violent? How to Read the Christian
Bible and Still be a Christian. Against this normalcy of retributive, escalatory
violence in human civilization meted out by those who believe they
are doing justice, Crossan counters with a Biblical story that shares the
Radicality of God found in distributive justice. Distributive justice believes God intends
life and life abundantly for all of us and comes to fruition when we seek
justice for one another. Two traditions,
one Bible. Which one will carry the day? We sometimes seem to understand that we
belong to one another, only to have evil predictably find a reason to suggest
that we may belong to one another but . . . there are reasons I can do violence
to you and your kin.
For example, the Radicality of God says, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.” (Leviticus 25:23). In contrast, as evil tries to get a foothold, the normalcy of violence through civilization building says, “Ok, but I can still make loans with land as collateral. That is not buying and selling but about loaning and foreclosing.”[3] Or, I can make more money by evicting and re-renting than finding solutions with a present renter. The violence building in the rental and eviction crisis could destroy life for so many Americans.[4]
The economic crisis precipitated by the pandemic has only fueled an existing eviction catastrophe. Today, nearly 18 million households have little or no confidence in their ability to pay the rent, over 20 percent of renter households are behind on rent, amounting to over $50 billion, and landlords have filed hundreds of thousands of evictions during the pandemic despite the federal eviction moratorium.[5]
The greatest single predictor of eviction? Having a child..[6] As a nation, this is how we are managing our household. Hear within that the idea that I outlined a couple weeks ago, “The king takes away as a spiritual practice that normalizes the violence of civilization.” This crisis moves us further and further from democracy and more and more toward authoritarianism.
The normalcy of civilization’s violence over and
against the Radicality of God is what is at issue in the David and Goliath
story. Shall Israel be shaped by
normalizing the violence of civilization or shall it be shaped by the
Radicality of God? In a critique of the
sin to go bigger, get the jump, and show my weaponry and armor superior to
yours, David pushes aside the armor offered to him by King Saul and goes to
meet Goliath in the valley between the two armies. The armor doesn’t fit David.
But Goliath is the epitome of armed-to-the-teeth violence—a
culture and civilization driven and operating by its value that violence and
all of its trappings—triumphs. Not only
is Goliath an impressive physical specimen, we learn that the Philistines are
far more technologically advanced than the Israelites. The Philistines drive chariots, Goliath wears
a helmet of bronze, armor of bronze upon his chest and legs, and holds a spear
that is an impressive weight of iron.
Goliath walks out into what we have come to proverbially refer to as
“No-Man’s Land”, the space between two warring armies. In Scripture just before our reading today,
Goliath is literally referred to as “The Man In Between” or the one who walks
into inhuman country.[7] For, inevitably, as we normalize civilization
with our violence, escalate that violence to maintain and keep civilization,
this is who we become over the long haul.
We become inhuman.
The very caution of this story begins way back at
the beginning of
So who are we?
David or Goliath?
As Rev. Dr. Samuel Wells has said, we are a nation
of 300 million people, and we all have one thing in common. We all like to think that we are the little
guy. We talk about standing up for the
little guy. And in the reading of this
story, 99% of us identify with David and not Goliath. We want the inspiring movie where the little
guy wins out over the mighty giant. But
then we spend the rest of our lives amassing our armor to become more like
Goliath. It’s quaint that David, pushed
aside Saul’s armor, but look at the degree, look at the job, look at the car,
look at the house, look at the country!
We have stockpiled so many spears and helmets and breastplates and
swords that we cannot even imagine life with a sling. And then we spend so much
money on safety and security devices and procedures, that we, like David, can
hardly move around in them.
We cannot be a democracy when those who assert their
humanity are consistently met with violence and the implements of war,
demonized and told that that they are not our sister or brother, sibling or
cousin.
The continuing Hebrew Scripture story is a caution
to human nature which likes its underdog stories but seems to act with the
character of Goliath. And it happens in
the Biblical story. When David ascends
from kid to king, the newly-minted authoritarian system changes him. David became Goliath. David became a bully. He takes away. David raped Bathsheba. David killed Bathsheba’s husband. David became a merciless, military power
broker. David became a ruthless
acquisitor of pleasure and advantage. David became the overblown, beached whale
he had begun his career by destroying.[8] The armor now fits. He did it all with a sense that God’s chosen
have full license to do as they will, outside the character of God, because
they are the ones who maintain civilization’s boundary between what it means to
be human and inhuman.
Two weeks ago I also reminded us that we continue to
be a country at war—the longest running war in U.S. history. We order our household through the most
escalatory violent means possible—war. We
live in a war economy. It is the deep
hum in the background which unsettles and agitates us, subtly tells us like a
spiritual practice how we are supposed handle conflict and move through the
world to build civilization. In contrast
to the deep wisdom that we belong to one another, the violence now coursing
through our veins has us not only at war with those outside our country but
asserting some are more human than others by arming ourselves to the teeth,
using borders as a weapon, destroying land and water, and asserting inhuman
violence—all to remind everyone that we are Goliath.
Five years ago, in the early morning hours of June
12th, 49 people were gunned down in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando,
Florida, a nightclub frequented by the gay community. The shooter clearly targeted members of the
LGBTQ+ community in a month that celebrates the gifts, personhood, and goodness
of the LGBTQ+ community. CNN reported
that gun violence happened in six states last weekend—Washington, Georgia,
Illinois, North Carolina, Texas, and Ohio—brought mass shootings in the United
States to 272 just this year alone.[9] Now we see people regularly using their automobiles
as armor over and against those who are proclaiming that we belong to one
another.
Again and again, people are responding to evils we
can never see. But we assume they are there because our house
is ablaze with the regular, persistent, and consistent hum of war.
Instead of educating us about the consistent hum of
war, we are consistently educated and trained to believe it is people who are
protesting who are fomenting violence.
We are the innocents. We are the
Davids. The Goliaths are those inhuman
beasts out there who are destroying property.
In fact, too often media from the far right to CNN and MSNBC, are
regularly using war language to speak of protests and protestors, makes an
assumption that the violence is instigated by those who take to the streets. Our households are educated in and learn the
language of war.
The Harvard Radcliff Institute, however, released
their study last fall which disputed these assumptions. That report read:
When the Department of Homeland Security released its Homeland
Threat Assessment earlier this month, it emphasized that self-proclaimed white
supremacist groups are the most dangerous threat to U.S. security. But the
report misleadingly added that there had been “over 100 days of violence and
destruction in our cities,” referring to the anti-racism uprisings of this past
summer.
In fact, the Black Lives Matter uprisings were remarkably
nonviolent. When there was violence, very often police or counterprotesters
were reportedly directing it at the protesters.[10]
That report ended with the statement that
authoritarian leaders regularly call out protesters as criminals as a way of
delegitimizing them and justifying heightened violence against them.[11] As people of faith, we must begin to
recognize how crucial protests, true “Davids” standing over and against the
heavily-armored Goliaths, how crucial protests are to the functioning of
democracy over and against authoritarian rule and the household set ablaze to
the hum of war.
In
Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change, he clearly links economy and
ecology. Again, remember that ecology
comes from that same root word as economy, the ordering of the household. And Pope Francis makes it clear that economic
growth and technology will not save us from the coming devastation to our
household. Our armor will not protect
us. We order our household, create an
economy, that runs against the wisdom of the household, our ecology. Rather, our present policies amount to a war
on not only the environment but a war on the poor of the world. What does Pope Francis recommend, broadly? A
turn from our individualism to a building of community to care for the diverse
color of the coral reefs as well as a connection with the poorest of our
sisters and brothers, siblings and cousins.
Ecologist Bill McKibben hopes this will be a return to a rethinking of
what it means to be human.[12]
The
very function of violence and war is to view our opponent as inhuman so that we
might justify inhuman acts and behaviors.
We are at war with each other and at war with God’s creation to maintain
“our civilization.” We must turn from
our addiction to this war economy.
We
belong to each other—not only as humankind but as siblings to Lake Michigan and
the St. Joseph River, as relatives to beech and birch, bees and blueberries.
Indigenous activist, Audrey Siegl, standing up bravely with her ceremonial drum, the heartbeat of all creation, raised in protest to Shell’s
monster oil rig, stood in her small boat and said, “When we unite, become one and move with open minds and hearts, we are unstoppable. When we connect and stand as an indivisible and determined force for good, we can only succeed."[13]
Because what we often miss and do not account for is that
there is another low hum. I want to
invite us to that soft melody that is playing deep within us and in our
tradition.
Jarrod McKenna, the teaching pastor at Cornerstone Church in
Perth, Australia, recently shared his reflections about the economy of
Christian baptism which requires us to imagine a counter the evil cultural
hum. Cornerstone Church began to form a
ritual around the humble practice of feetwashing. The first thing baptizands would do arising
out of the waters of baptism is to be seated while the Elders, the respected
people of the church, would dry the baptizand’s feet and say, “No longer with a
sword, but with this sign we now conquer,” effectively reversing the
Constantinian appropriation of violence for the Christian tradition.
It is a reminder that we do not do this hard work of
Christianity alone. Angels and
archangels, saints, teachers, allies, guides, mentors, mystics, ancestors of
old, encircle us in a web of connection and courage, and hold their hands out
to us to join with them in standing with and for the household of God. May we, as Pilgrim Congregational United
Church of Christ, participate in the low hum of Divine Radicality, the economy,
the household of God.
May the sin of violence and war be named as such.
May non-violent, confrontational protest be known as tool to
carve out a deeper and fuller democracy.
And may we become aware of the unseen good, the communion of
saints both dead and living, who come together in a chorus to tell us that we
belong to each other, we are not alone, and as David shouts to Goliath, “You come to me with sword and spear and scimitar; but I
come to you in the name of the Living One of hosts, the God whom you have
defied.” Then may we also shout as the
activist Bree Newsome did six years ago, as she nonviolently removed the
Confederate battle flag from the Charleston Statehouse, “The Lord is my light and salvation! Whom shall I fear?” Indeed.
Whom . . . shall . . . we . . . fear?
We belong to one another.
In that moment, may we all know, that we not
only have each other, but that God stands with us as our courage rises to see
and love the world as God does. We
belong to each other. God is with us. Let us learn violence and war no more. Amen.
[1] oikos (oikos) is the Greek word. For a more detailed discussion of how these
words develop from Greek to English see Letty Russell’s book, Household of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology (Annie Kinkead Warfield Lectures,
1986). See also, M. Douglas Meeks, God the Economist: The Doctrine of God and Political Economy (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1989).
[2]
John Dominic Crossan, “The Character of the Covenantal God: Toward a Christian
Theology of the Christian Bible,” Transforming Christian Theology: Shaping the Future of the Church, June
18, 2013, Lecture 1.
[3]
John Dominic Crossan, “Christianity’s Criterion: Historical Jesus Christ or Biblical Jesus
Christ,” Transforming Christian
Theology: Shaping the Future of the
Church, June 20, 2013, Lecture 4.
[4]
Peter Hepburn and Devin Q. Rutan, “America Can’t Just Build Its Way Out of an
Eviction Crisis,” Slate, May 6, 2021, https://slate.com/business/2021/05/evictions-infrastructure-housing-biden-data.html.
[5]
Emily Benfer, “The American Eviction Crisis, Explained,” The Appeal, March
3, 2021, https://theappeal.org/the-lab/explainers/the-american-eviction-crisis-explained/.
[6]
Ibid.
[7]
[8]
Samuel Wells, “Five Smooth Stones,” Faith
and Leadership: Where Christian Leaders
Reflect, Connect, and Learn. http://www.faithandleadership.com/sermons/five-smooth-stones?page=0,0,
May 14, 2010, Duke University Chapel, Duke University Baccalaureate.
[9]
Chris Boyette, Jay Croft, and Hollie Silverman, “Gun violence in 6 states this
weekend brings US mass shootings to 272 so far this year,” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/12/us/us-mass-shootings/index.html.
[10] Erica Chenoweth and Jeremy Pressman, “Black
Lives Matter Protesters Were Overwhelmingly Peaceful, Our Research Finds,” Washington
Post, October 20, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/16/this-summers-black-lives-matter-protesters-were-overwhelming-peaceful-our-research-finds/.
[11]
Ibid.
[12]
Bill McKibben, “The Cry of the Earth,” The
New York Review of Books, June 18, 2015.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/jun/18/pope-francis-encyclical-cry-of-earth/
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