Christ Reigns

The last Sunday before Advent is traditionally called "Christ the King" or "Reign of Christ" Sunday. We end the liturgical year (which starts anew on 1st Advent) by proclaiming that Jesus was not just a nice man who lived a long time ago, but one with God as the ultimate power in all the world, and all the worlds.

So, oddly enough when the rest of the world is putting up decorations and singing about reindeer, we will be reading a part of the story of Jesus' crucifixion. If there ever was a clearer sense of how the world has co-opted the Christian story and how counter-cultural the message of Jesus really is, the juxtaposition of this reading and secular Christmas prep is surely it.

This year we read from Luke 23:33-43. This is the conversation between Jesus and the two thieves followed by the mocking of the Roman soldiers. The gist of the feelings of the first thief and those soldiers is that if Jesus really was powerful, then he'd show that by saving himself. If Jesus chose not to call down the angel armies, then he must be a fraud.

The ultimate mockery was the placement of a sign above the head of the bleeding and broken body of Jesus which read, "The King of the Jews." Pilate and the soldiers thought it was a joke. They only understood power in one way, military might.

So how is Jesus powerful? How are we to tap into that power as we exercise power in our lives and world? That's the central question of this day. I read a great quote by William Loader this week, "Jesus did not come to create a set of doormats, but to spread a revolution of love and grace, which entailed identifying and embodying a new kind of power."

The power of Jesus is that of forgiveness, of love, of breaking down barriers between people. The power of Jesus does not use the weapons of the enemy to defeat the enemy; quite the contrary. This applies to so much in our lives, from how we treat each other in families to the issue of the use of torture which is before our nation in these days of the "war on terror." Shall we use the weapons of terror to defeat the terrorists? Is there another way? What do you think?

Hagar and Ishmael and God

Genesis 21:8-21

One of the more difficult stories of the Bible, so much so that Phyllis Trible, the Hebrew Bible Scholar, calls it a "Text of Terror." Some context:

Hagar is an Egyptian servant of Sarah. When Sarah continues to be infertile, she gives Hagar to Abraham to impregnate so that he can have children. Hagar, of course, has no say in this. She does indeed get pregnant, at which point Sarah feels Hagar now sees herself as above Sarah so Sarah "afflicts" her (the same Hebrew word is used to describe how the Egyptians later treat the Hebrew slaves, so you know it means tough stuff). Hagar runs away in desperation, into the wilderness, where she becomes the first woman since Eve to have a conversation directly with God (and one of the only women in the Bible to do so). In this conversation, God tells her to return and promises to make of her son a great nation.

She goes back and gives birth to Ishmael (meaning "God hears" since God heard her cries in the wilderness). Soon after, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Our story picks up after Isaac is weaned (around age 3) and Sarah fears that the first born of Abraham (Ishmael) will take away her son's right to Abraham's name and nation, so she tells Abraham to kick Hagar out of the family along with her son. Regretfully, Abraham follows both Sarah and God and gives Hagar and Ishmael a small amount of food and water and sends them away.

Here is where so many folk have identified with Hagar, especially women who have been abused and made homeless, refugees, women in the midst of war, etc. Hagar is mother to all who have been cast out of families, societies, nations. Her position seems hopeless, and so she cries out in pain and leaves her son so she won't have to watch him die. But God hears her (or the boy, depending on how this is translated) and once again enters into a conversation with her. The promise is that God will honor the previous covenant with her and make Ishmael a great nation. Then God shows her a well.

*****Footnote: In Islam, the geographical location of this well is said to be the Ka'aba in Mecca and part of the rituals of the Hajj involve running from hill to hill as Hagar is said to have done looking for help for Ishmael.*******

So Hagar now is willing to pick up and move into the future, assured that not only is there water for surviving this day, but a promise to give both her and Ishmael a reason not to give up and think all possibilities for prosperity are past.