As church leaders, one of the things we often struggle
with, both personally and professionally, is the countercultural message we
have been given through Jewish and Christian tradition, history, and Scripture
that community life is one of the great communicators of the Divine. For
the cultural narrative we see doing damage to the personal and communal lives
of our world is Western individualism.
While one of the triumphs of
Western individualism may have been individual liberty and the Bill of Rights
over and against abusive power lodged in the Church and the State, what we have
seen time and again is the inability of humankind to come together, in all of
our diversity, to recognize that we are woven together in a single garment of
destiny. That turn of phrase comes from
Dr. King. And the prophets of our own age
are usually telling us that all signs are pointing toward the need for us to
learn how to live together to solve a number of intersectional issues from the
pandemic to racial capitalism to climate change.
The calls for individual
liberties, freedoms, and rights have been used against us by the powerful and
the wealthy to make us believe that if this group or that group gets their way,
all of the freedoms, accorded to the righteous (namely—us) will come crashing
down. We become fearful that something
we have, and it is presented to us very vaguely, what we have . . . will be
taken away.
Long work done by community
organizers, protests against state violence, and, finally, video evidence, the
testimonies of neighbors, and the screams of family members helped us all to
see what had been said by the African-American community for so long—the
problem is not about taking away the freedom of white people—it is about life
and livelihood for people who are already pinned to the pavement, running away,
sleeping in their own home, their backs against the wall.[1]
I have heard a number of long-time
African-American activists like Angela Davis say that what was going on with
protests that were at their zenith last summer felt different. Felt different because though there are
certainly white folk who talk smack about the protestors--the recent Black Live
Matters protests also brought many more white people out to join the protests—particularly
young people.
Change is happening. But change is hard. And as historical institutions and ways of
community begin to transform, we can ask ourselves, “What is holding us
together? What is holding the universe
together?” For though we know that
community is a Biblical value, we also know that there are righteous
individuals who seem to hold the moral integrity of families, whole
communities, even a nation together.
The Scripture passage we
have from the book of the Wisdom of Solomon is one that poetically tells us
there are times when life hangs in the balance, when danger threatens and
calamity is nearby. Into those times, Wisdom
infuses someone with the strength, and power, and righteousness to bring about
glory, rescue, and salvation. It
happened with the Exodus, with the Flood, when famine threatened Joseph and his
family in the land of Egypt. It happened
with Queen Esther and Ruth. Wisdom
animates someone who steps into the lurch, stands in the maw, and brings about
redemption.
This passage probably
reflects an oral tradition within Judaism which required 36 righteous persons
to hold the world together and make possible salvation. The 36 are the Tsadik Nistarim who receive
the gift of Divine Presence, the Shekinah.
This tradition was thought to originate with the story of Sodom when
Abraham pleaded with God, knowing that his son Lot and his family lived in
Sodom. In contrast to what many
conservative Christians believe the sin of Sodom to be, what the Jewish
tradition teaches was that Sodom was a land of brutal inhospitality, violence,
and cruelty. The ethic of Sodom was,
“What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.” They did not share, they did not care, they
were not kind. Abraham pleaded with God,
“Please, God of Mercy, if there are but 10 righteous people in Sodom, relent
and do not destroy it.” And God
relents. But this is the final story
told of Sodom before its destruction.
[T]here were two young girls who would go out in Sodom to
draw water from a well. And one day when they were walking together, one of
them asked the other one, "Why do you look so devastated, so
distraught?" And she confided in her friend and she said, "Well, we
have no more food left in our home and I'm afraid that my family is going to
die."
So the first girl filled up her pitcher with flour from her
own home and she gave it to her friend. But when the citizens of Sodom heard
about this, they abducted that girl, the one with the generous heart, and they
burned her to death. And so the Holy One said, “Even if I desired to be silent,
justice for that young girl does not permit me to keep silent.”[2]
No. There were not 10 righteous people left in
Sodom. And God could not bear it, that
another kind, young girl might die at the hand of state violence. Judgment came.
We do not want to think of God in those judgmental terms
but what of that young girl? Do we
continue to live and let live as the world burns? Does not
the loss of her life move the Heart of God?
The Tsadik Nistarim, the 36 righteous people necessary,
have become part of Jewish folklore.
They appear at times of great peril to save the world. They come forward out of their hiddenness,
their anonymity and humility, to save the world.
After she helped raise $8.9
million in disaster relief for families affected by 2016 wildfires in the Great
Smoky Mountains, sending them $1,000 checks for six months in a kind of
celebrity experiment with universal basic income . . . After it was known that she sends out over one
million books of month to first serve children in East Tennessee, then in the
United States, and now around the world . . . After she came out in support of
Black Lives Matter by saying, “Of course Black lives matter. Do we think our
little White asses are the only ones that matter? No!”[3],
one of my favorite Jewish writers, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, wrote, “There's an
idea in Judaism that there are 36 special people in the world at all times who
secretly maintain the world. I have
begun to suspect that Dolly Parton may be one of them.”[4] Think about that the next time you hear
“Jolene” being crooned by Dolly or one of the many people who have covered it.
The 36 righteous are part of the Jewish tradition
now. One of the 36 is said to maybe even
be the Messiah. And so the Jewish people
look for people who rise in difficult circumstances. That orientation ripples out wider and
wider. Strangers are treated with great
kindness in the belief that one of them might be a Tsadik or one of the Tsadik
Nistarim or even the Messiah. They arise
because we need them.[5] The Jewish people look for them everywhere,
even in Country Western singers, because as they look, they are rummaging-through
for the places where they see God’s goodness, presence, and activity in the
world.
As President Biden’s Build Back Better infrastructure bill are being stripped of their climate provisions, I found myself not only angry but losing hope for our world, for any quality of life my future grandchildren might have. When I read an update on Friday with Tracy traveling to see her mom and daughter, I sat up in bed and cried and just couldn’t stop crying. I really didn’t want to preach this Sunday . . . wondered why I do this anyway if it is not to be about serving the righteousness and wisdom of God.
Then I read again the story of the five young people from the Sunrise Movement who are fasting outside the White House. Fasting is a spiritual practice. It disrupts habits and the regular. It hones attention. And purifies intent. Fasting detaches from the Domination System to remind us who or what is truly the source of our power.
Rather than church people,
five young climate activists from the Sunrise Movement. They have been fasting now for eleven or
twelve days. I think these young people
show me to be a hypocrite and call me to such action. That will have to be
worked out talking with family and this church about how that might impact us
all for me to take that risk. Because it
scares the heck out of me to believe that my faith calls me to that spiritual
practice.
One of the strikers, Kidus
Girma, almost died from low blood sugar.
He continues his fast. Girma said:
I’m
on a hunger strike for my family and my future and the promises that the
president made to young people who put him in office. I’m on hunger strike,
after having a dangerously low blood sugar amount, because the president of the
United States made promises when he was running for office and the couple of
months leading up to this deal, and even while this deal is being negotiated,
that he would deliver the climate mandate that he was elected on. I’m on a
hunger strike because this is what the world needs.
I’m asking the president of the United States to be the
president of the United States and to fight for climate, to fight to make sure
that the next wildfire, to make sure that the next hurricane, to make sure the
next possibility of famine is not as extreme as it has to be. And right now I
feel like the president of the United States is fighting for a superstorm and
not for kids. And I need the president of the United States to start fighting
for me.[6]
Kidus Girma moved with his
family from Ethiopia to the United States when he was 8 years old. Girma’s mother supported the family with her
job at Samsung which paid her $8 an hour.
He knows how fragile that life was and how climate change is tied to everything,
including housing and public transportation.
In the original Build Back Better bill, Girma was particularly
interested in the Civilian Climate Corps because it embodied his work and his
hope for a healthier earth.
Girma said in an interview before he began his fast, “We
won’t win unless we are actively creating a new world.”[7] Not surprisingly, I think that sounds like
faith language spoken by an immigrant young man who is using a spiritual
practice to hone our attention and purify not only his but our intent.
I think Kidus Girma is one of the 36 righteous who have
been hidden but now have appeared, in all their humility, to the Divine
Presence with us and show us the way.
Who do you think one of the 36 are in our world in this
generation? Out of humility, they have
remained hidden till now but have begun to show themselves because the world
needs saving. Have you begun to look for
them? They are known by their everyday
kindness, by their courage which came forward when called upon. Maybe you are one of them, too humble to
believe that the Divine Presence would be shared with you. But you are aware that the time has come. And . . . Dolly Parton?! Right?
Look for the Tsadik Nistarim as the Jewish people have
done in each generation. Do not lose
hope in the goodness of God who would not leave us alone in this hour. Discern whether you are one of them.
Wisdom gave to holy people the reward of their
labors;
she guided them along a
marvelous way,
and became a shelter to them by
day,
and a starry flame through the
night.
for wisdom opened
the mouths of those who could not speak
and made the
tongues of young people speak clearly.
Look
for the Tsadik Nistarim in our schools, communities, in our wider world. And search your heart. Maybe you are one of them. Amen.
[1] “Backs against the wall” is
a term coined by Howard Thurman.
[2] Rabbi Sharon Brous, “The
Spirit of Sodom lives: Reflections from
the Border,” ikar, November 16, 2019, https://ikar-la.org/sermons/the-spirit-of-sodom-lives-reflections-from-the-border-rabbi-sharon-brous/.
[3] Alyssa Rosenberg, “Dolly
Parton is the superhero America needs in 2020,” Washington Post,
November 18, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/18/dolly-parton-is-superhero-america-needs-2020/
[4] Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg,
Twitter, November 17, 2020, https://twitter.com/theradr/status/1328861214168977414?lang=en
[5] Rabbi James Stone Goodman,
“The 36 Unknown,” toddweinstein.com, https://toddweinstein.com/project36.html.
[6] Kidus Girma, “Hunger
Striker Out of Hospital Demands Biden Keep All Climate Provisions in Build Back
Better Plan,” Democracy Now!, October 27, 2021, https://www.democracynow.org/2021/10/27/white_house_climate_activist_hunger_strike.
[7] Amal Ahmed, “The Sunrise
Movement’s Trailblazing Questi for a Green New Deal,” Texas Obverver,
August 9, 2021, https://www.texasobserver.org/the-sunrise-movements-trailblazing-quest-for-a-new-green-deal/.
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