The Characters:

• Siddhartha
• Jesus

The Setting :

There is a large projected image in the background ‚Äì on one side, a very round golden Buddha statue.¬† On the other side, an emaciated, bloody, crucified Christ.¬† As the play begins, SIDDHARTHA sits up, meditating.¬† JESUS is curled on the ground asleep.¬† Then he awakens…

JESUS : …Where am I?¬† Ow…¬† My head…¬† I was praying…in a garden…¬† I must have fallen asleep.

SIDDHARTHA : I also fell asleep, beneath a tree.  I saw you here sleeping.  I recognized you.

JESUS : Yeah, I do a lot of public speaking.  That bit about the sower of seeds, who just scatters them, willy-nilly?  I came up with that.  The crowds love it.

SIDDHARTHA : …Ah, yes.¬† A joke.¬† For in truth there is no sower.¬† There are no seeds.

JESUS : …Well, not literally, no.¬† It’s just a story.

SIDDHARTHA : But your…stand-up comedy is not how I know you.¬† I’ve seen you in visions, worshiped¬† as the Christ, the only son of God, who was with God before all things came into being.

JESUS : (Pause.¬† Then he laughs) Oh!¬† So you’re the comedian.¬† Only son of God!¬† That’s rich!¬† Just wait till I tell the guys I hang out with!¬† I couldn’t use it my routine, though, because it’s…you know…blasphemy.

SIDDHARTHA : Ah, yes.  You people fear your God.  But perhaps God does not exist.

JESUS : …Don’t say things like that when I’ve got a…headache like this…¬† Ah, well.¬† At least I don’t feel like that guy…¬† (Indicates the image of the crucified Christ)

SIDDHARTHA : …Not yet apparently.¬† But give it a couple days.¬† For that suffering figure on the cross is you.

JESUS : …WHAT!?¬† A cross!?

SIDDHARTHA : You were praying in a garden.¬† So this very night you shall be betrayed, handed over to the Romans.¬† They will put you to death…and then in the third century they will raise you up as their God.¬† Emperors will use your name to keep the impoverished masses from rising up against them.

JESUS : …Now I think I’m gonna be sick!¬† You mean to tell me I’m about to get hung up naked, die on a cross, and then turned into a God?¬† Why can’t I turn into a God now so I can avoid all that?

SIDDHARTHA : It is your karma.  And the cross shall become a symbol of your power.

JESUS : After I’ve died on one?¬† Slowly?¬† Painfully?¬† Naked?¬† And then I’ll become a tool in the hands of the oppressors?

SIDDHARTHA : Yes.

JESUS : Then I’d almost be inclined to agree that there’s no God.¬† Except…who else could have such a sick, twisted sense of humor?¬† But hold on a minute now…¬† As my head clears I think I recognize you too.¬† Puff your stomach out.

SIDDHARTHA : Like…this?

JESUS : Yes.¬† And now your cheeks.¬† Like you’re holding your breath.¬† Ah!¬† I see it now!¬† I’ve also had a vision of you, all fat and jolly.

SIDDHARTHA : …Perhaps you mistake me for your good friend Santa Claus?

JESUS : No, no, you were plated in gold, like…¬† Like that guy!¬† In the picture!¬† There you are!

SIDDHARTHA : I…beg your pardon…

JESUS : Can’t you see the resemblance?

SIDDHARTHA : Absolutely not.¬† Look at me!¬† I’ve spent the last six years starving myself beneath a tree!¬† I’m skin and bone!

JESUS : You shall be called the Buddha, the Enlightened One.¬† Although ‘the heavy one’ would be more appropriate.¬† Monks will observe strict doctrine based on your teachings, temples will be built.¬† King Ashoka will use your teachings to pacify and rule his vast Indian empire.

SIDDHARTHA: But this is not what I desired!¬† I don’t even have any desires!

JESUS : Of course not.¬† What’s left to desire when you’ve eaten that much food?

SIDDHARTHA : Look who’s talking!¬† I’ve heard rumors about you ‚Äì a glutton and a drunk, friend of tax-collectors and prostitutes.

JESUS : …Says the guy who abandoned his wife and child to go sit under a tree and pretend he didn’t exist.

SIDDHARTHA : I don’t exist.¬† My physical body, my historical identity ‚Äì none of this matters.¬† Only my teachings of the Dharma are real.

JESUS : There will be great struggles and divisions over a correct doctrine of your teaching that can be applied to all Buddhists.

SIDDHARTHA : An no less division ‚Äì not to mention bloodshed ‚Äì over a ‘correct’ dogma for Christianity.

JESUS : What, you mean there won’t be enough blood, from me being crucified?¬† People will need to go spill more?

SIDDHARTHA : I’ll do you one better, grasshopper.¬† Your followers will be so hot for blood, they’re gonna pretend to drink it.¬† Every week.

JESUS : This is insane!  I wanted to put an end to sacrifices!

SIDDHARTHA : And you will.  But the sacrifice of you will be ritually repeated every week for two thousand years.

JESUS : I can’t believe it.¬† I’ve spent my life fighting rigid religious structures and empty piety…

SIDDHARTHA : I sought to free people from the control of corrupt Vedic priests.

JESUS : …Have we failed?

SIDDHARTHA : Eh.¬† If you can’t beat ‘em…they’ll wait till after you’re dead, and say you joined ‘em.

The Characters

PETER
MAN (Can be played by a Man or Woman)
ISAIAH

PETER : (Standing on a soap-box, preaching to passers-by) Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Love God, and honor the Emperor! Slaves obey your masters, especially when they’re cruel! Remember, the more abuse you take on Earth, the greater your reward in Heaven!

MAN : (Walking by, very tired, hears PETER) …What is this, a comedy routine?

PETER : (Ignores him) Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, and grow up in your salvation. You are coming to Christ, the living cornerstone of God’s temple. Rejected by people, but chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.

MAN : But I just spent the whole day breaking my back, hauling stones for a new Coliseum!

PETER : What’s more, you are his holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” (Isaiah 28:16)

MAN : Where do the scriptures say that?

PETER : Isaiah, chapter twenty-eight.

MAN : Yeah, but you’ve gone and taken it completely out of context! Isaiah twenty-eight isn’t about making sacrifices! It’s about lying priests getting drunk! And the Lord destroys their city!

PETER : Well maybe the cup’s half empty for you, but—

MAN : I’ll tell you what the cup is filled with! In Isaiah 28:8 “All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.”

PETER : That’s disgusting. Besides, you’ve got to read between the lines. Isaiah was confused, obviously, but one thing he was sure of was the coming of Jesus the Christ – that’s what he meant by the cornerstone!

MAN : What? You have no idea what you’re talking about!

PETER : I’m entitled to my interpretation.

MAN : But I actually happen to have Isaiah, right here.

This novel was probably written to caution people entering the industrial age ‚Äì be careful what you design to aid in human life, there will be consequences. But when I think of this story, I see another parallel, that I do not believe the author intended. Some of us may be aware of a book…called The Bible. Written over the course of more than a thousand years, assembled in its final form some seventeen hundred years ago. Built from scraps of the past, to represent all that’s best about humanity. Designed to bring a message of hope and compassion for the future. And it keeps on asking us, ‚Äúwhen are you going to fulfill the promises made on these pages?‚Äù And in fear and dread we run from it. And it follows us. And sometimes it hurts us, and the ones we love.

Part of the way the Bible hurts us is with ancient laws from distant times and places. For example, three rules from the book of Deuteronomy…

Deuteronomy 22:5 A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is [hateful] to the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 25:9 [If a man refuses to marry his dead brother's widow then she] shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and…Throughout Israel his family shall be known as “the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.”

Deuteronomy 25:11-12 If [two] men get into a fight…and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband…by reaching out and seizing his [opponent's] genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity.

These are issues that some of us deal with every day. Even in this very room, I see women wearing pants. And I see men who would not be alive right now, if their wives hadn’t helped out in a fight. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of these laws, each one established in the hope of helping people. Yet still, the Bible follows us, in the form of people who will call us evil, tell us we will burn, and they’ve got the Biblical passage to prove it.

Jesus was something of a rebel ‚Äì one way to look at his ministry in the Gospels would be to say that he tried to lighten the load of rules, pare it down, simplify things. The book of Deuteronomy gives us ten commandments, Jesus pares it down to two. Love the Lord your God, and Love your neighbor as yourself. But no sooner was Jesus gone than the early Christians went right back to the old drawing board, coming up with more rules. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he says…

1 Corinthians 5:11-13 …I am writing to you not to associate with anyone…who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one…”Drive out the wicked person from among you.”

Whoa! What about Jesus, dining with prostitutes?

1 Corinthians 11:1-6 [Paul says] Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ…Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife… Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head disgraces his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head– it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair.

1 Peter 2:17-20 …Fear God. Honor the emperor. Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all [respect], not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if…you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.

For this article I was given the title ‚ÄúMy love/hate relationship with the Bible.‚Äù And at first I thought ‚Äì I don’t hate the Bible! My father, an episcopal priest, once heard me say I hated someone and he said ‘Johnny, you don’t hate that person. To hate someone means you would be happy if they died.’ And so I guess it’s true, yeah, I do hate that first letter of Peter. I would be happy if it was never heard again. Maybe everybody here can think of some passage from the Bible that told them to shut up, or told them to stay in an abusive relationship with a person or an institution or a government. Maybe some people here have been told that the Bible hates them, that the Bible itself would be happy if they died.

I remember someone once asking me how it felt to know that my soul would burn for all eternity. Then, she made the mistake of saying every member of the Pink Floyd would be there too, which made the situation seem less dire.

And I ask these people…have you read the Bible?

The Hebrew Bible says thirteen times, five in the book of Deuteronomy, to help the widow and the orphan. And sure, you hear all kinds of things about people using the Bible as an excuse to turn wives into widows, to turn children into orphans…that’s the monster, following us again…but it says to help them.

Leviticus twenty-five says that just as people are meant to rest on the seventh day, the Earth is meant to rest on the seventh year. No reaping, no plowing, no farming. But wouldn’t we all starve? Ye of little faith. But just imagine how different our environmental situation would be if people took THIS part of the book literally, if the land we farm to death, had a chance to heal itself.

Later, Leviticus twenty-five says that people should conduct their business for seven times seven years – forty-nine years. And every fiftieth year, there should be a year of Jubilee. The trumpets will sound, and liberty shall be proclaimed throughout the land, everyone would go back to their homes and families.

LEV 25:11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy… you shall eat only what the field itself produces… 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely.

In that fiftieth year, people will not cheat each-other, and anyone who has overcharged for land will pay back the difference. Can you imagine that, in your lease contracts? People who have lost their homes will have a chance to buy them back without inflation ‚Äì or, if you can’t afford it, it’ll be given back. Imagine the debts that the poorest countries in the world owe to our government ‚Äì and our government, founded on this Bible, is foreclosing, no mention of the Jubilee in our constitution. Some scholars have said that Jesus in the Gospel of Luke was asking for this forgiveness of debts, and restoration of humanity. But people who couldn’t think past written laws killed him for it. You could say that the monster killed Jesus ‚Äì I’m not talking about the Judeans, I mean the will to use sacred text as a weapon.

I don’t want to go on and on, I don’t need to. This monster chases us and attacks us, but it can only hurt us as long as we run away, and dread it. If you sit down with this monster, as Doctor Frankenstein should have done with his monster, if you really listen to it… You’ll find that all the best in humanity, the love and compassion and hope, is still there. Yeah, the Bible can be ugly. But if that novel Frankenstein teaches us nothing else, it’s not to judge a book by its cover.

Presentation given by J.Snodgrass for the Marble Collegiate Church Young Adults 20s/30s

Every year, the gap between rich and poor gets wider. The title I was given for this presentation – “Rich and poor, two worlds…” reminded me that in economic terms we actually have three worlds on this Earth ‚Äì the first world, capitalism, the second world, communism, and the third world, “other,” which has become synonymous with whole nations of people living in abject poverty. The recent disaster in New Orleans was yet another reminder that, although America is a first-world country, there’s a third world in here, too, a small nation’s worth of people that our own government left behind and forgot once the first-class citizens had been rescued.

Every year the chasm gets wider, and every year I’m reminded of a story Jesus told in the Gospel according to Luke chapter sixteen, about an un-breach-able chasm.

Luke 16:19-26

“There was a rich man…dressed in purple and fine linen who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

In Hell, where he was being tormented, [the rich man] looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’

But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus [got nothing]; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’

So here we’ve got this rich man, dead, suffering, and what does he say to Abraham? ‘Send that boy down here, that poor boy that used to lie outside my gates, tell him to fetch me some water.’ Even dead, burning in Hell, this rich man has not learned his lesson. But the chasm cannot be traveled, even if Lazarus had wanted to. This rich man could have spared himself all that suffering, if he had bridged the chasm in life, but never had he reached out to invite this poor man to his table. The story continues…

Luke 16:27-31

[The rich man] said, ‘Then…I beg you to send [Lazarus] to my father’s house– for I have five brothers– that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ [Abraham answered], ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

How correct Abraham’s words proved to be. Because later in Luke chapter twenty-four, someone does rise from the dead. And from that time to this, two thousand years, every Easter Sunday Jesus rises from the dead again to tell the rich man and his five brothers how sorry they will someday be…for not bridging that chasm, for not inviting that poor man to their table. And every year on Easter Monday the stock-exchanges open again, tracts of land are bought and sold out from under peoples’ feet. The price of fruit goes up and someone goes to bed hungry. The price of fruit goes down and someone wakes up without a job. And the dogs just keep on licking that poor man’s open, running sores.

It’s a good thing dog-saliva contains natural antibiotics, because that’s the only kind of health-care a lot of people can afford. I know that’s nasty. When I was a migrant construction-worker, we’d come in all bloody at the end of the day, and the dog was our medic ‚Äì we didn’t even have band-aids.

“Rich and Poor: Two Worlds, One Family.” The family aspect of this reminds me of something else Jesus used to say… “A father had two sons…” Jesus begins a couple of his parables this way, the most famous being the Prodigal Son. Two brothers born equal, each entitled to half of their father’s estate, but one of them is, well, prodigal, which means ‘wasteful, recklessly extravagant.’ And he blows his share of the wealth and ends up feeding pigs in a foreign land, then returns to ask for work as a day-laborer, and the father welcomes him home with open arms.

But Jesus was not by far the first in the Bible to use ‘two sons’ to represent the different worlds in our human family. Going all the way back to Genesis, when Adam and Eve had two sons. One of them, Cain, was a farmer, he settled on some land and grew crops, and stored up his goods. Their other son, Abel, was a wandering shepherd, he never had more than the animals in his flock, and the shirt on his back. But when they each made sacrifices to the Lord ‚Äì Cain from the surplus of his wealth, Abel from the bits of his sustenance, the Lord preferred what Abel offered. Then Cain smashed his brother’s head and stashed the body.

Abraham had two sons. One was Ishmael, born of an affair with an Egyptian servant-girl, Hagar. The other was Isaac, born later with his wife Sarah. And when Isaac was born, Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. As we read in Genesis twenty-one…

Gen 21:14-21

So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness… When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes…and sat down opposite him a good way off, [saying] “Do not let me look upon the death of my child.” And…she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the [cries of mother and child and] called to Hagar from heaven… “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for [I have] heard the voice of [Ishmael] where he is. Come, lift up the boy…for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well… She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with [Ishmael], and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.

One of Abraham’s sons inherited his father’s lands and fortune, while the other received nothing but a loaf of bread and a bag of water. And yet from the Lord, both sons received the promise, and Ishmael who had nothing, became the father of a mighty nation.

Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac…had two sons. Twins, but definitely not identical. The first-born was Esau, and as we read in Genesis twenty-five, he was born covered in red fur, like wool. Reading further in Genesis twenty-five…

Genesis 25:26-34

Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob [which means "ankle-grabber"]… When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents… Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from [working in] the field, and…said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” …Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.”

Esau’s birthright was his share in the promise of his grandfather Abraham, to inherit lands and become a founding father of a great nation. But unlike his brother Jacob, who lingered in the tents with the servant-girls, Esau knew how to fend for himself, how to farm the fields and hunt for food. Esau didn’t need the promise to survive, he traded his share of it for a bowl of stew. Later, Jacob tricks Esau again, and this time he steals something that does matter to his brother ‚Äì the dying blessing of their father. Esau was enraged, and Jacob fled to spend years hiding from him. And while Jacob became known as Israel, stumbling through misadventures, fathering twelve sons who became the twelve tribes, Esau kept right on working, and became a wealthy and powerful man of the land.

Years later, the two sons of Isaac and Rebekah met again ‚Äì Jacob was wandering around with his wives, servant-girls and twelve rag-tag kids, and sent gifts of livestock ahead, for fear of his brother’s anger…

Genesis 33:1-15

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him…and kissed him, and they wept.

When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” [The maids, Leah, Rachel, and their children bowed down before Esau, who asked,] “What do you mean by all [the livestock you sent me?]” Jacob answered, “To find favor with you, my lord.”

But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my gift…for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God– since you have received me with such favor.”

Jesus probably knew this story well, of the wandering son, crawling back to grovel at the feet of his wealthy brother. In this case, their father is dead, but Esau welcomes Jacob with open arms. And seeing the forgiveness in Esau’s face, Jacob compares it with the face of God. As was the case in the Prodigal Son, the chasm is bridged between rich and poor, between the two worlds in this one family, so that another chasm will not have to divide them in the life to come.

Sadly, war in the East is nothing new ‚Äì some of us may remember Operation Desert-Storm. Some of the older ones among us may remember…the Crusades… There might even be a person or two in the room who remember the Hebrews invading Israel some thirty-three hundred years ago, and how they were in turn attacked by the Philestines, the Persians, the Babylonians and the Romans… And those who remember all that ‚Äì what are you still doing in the 20′s/30′s group? You know who you are…

With all this history of conflict, the question is…How do we bring peace to a warring world? And to answer the question, I’ve opened the lines for some Biblical figures to give us their unput. Hello?

GOLIATH : Urrrrrr…

NARRATOR : Ur to you too. Who may I ask is calling?

GOLIATH : I am Goliath.

NARRATOR : And where are you calling from?

GOLIATH : Gath.

NARRATOR : And how is Gath this time of year?

GOLIATH : Urrrrrr…

NARRATOR : Same here in New York, I hear ya. So we’re wondering. How would you bring peace to a warring world?

GOLIATH : I would stand against the enemy forces, wave my spear at them and shout out ‚ÄúChoose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us… Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and [your bones] to the wild animals of the field.” (1 Samuel 17:8-9, 17:44)

NARRATOR : …Well yes, that’s one way of bringing peace, but…

GOLIATH : Also I would call them cowards. And fools. Foolish cowards.

NARRATOR : Alright, thanks. And I see we’ve got another caller. This is..?

SAMSON : This is Samson. You can tell that fool Goliath I killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey, so I bet I could take him down with the beak of a sparrow. (Judges 13:15)

NARRATOR : Um… We’re talking about peace here. How would we bring peace to a warring world?

SAMSON : Oh yeah, um… Well, you let me know how that works out. But if it doesn’t, all I ask is a fresh supply of jawbones and I’ll take on any army.

NARRATOR : Thanks. Okay. Alright. Um. So. Are there any callers who’d like to tell us something about bringing peace to a warring world? Hello?

JAEL : (Pronounced ‚ÄúYah-El‚Äù) Hi, this is Jael. I think, with these men always so hot to clash against each-other on the battle-field, it’s no wonder we never have peace. If you want war, ask men. But if you want peace, you should be asking the women.

NARRATOR : And how would you bring peace about?

JAEL : Well, I remember when there was a terrible battle near my tent, the Canaanites attacked, our men fought bravely, and the Canaanites went into retreat. Their commander, Sisera, snuck into my tent to hide. And even though he was the enemy of my people, I let him in, gave him some water and a place to sleep. (Judges 4:17-20)

NARRATOR : And did your kindness change his disposition?

JAEL : I don’t know if my kindness changed him…because while he was sleeping I took a hammer and drove a tent-peg through his head till it sunk into the ground. (Judges 4:21, 5:24-27)

NARRATOR : Ow…

JAEL : But things definitely got more peaceful after that.

NARRATOR : Um, you know? While we’re on the phone, I think maybe I should…cancel my reservation at your Bed-n-Breakfast, I, um… Something…came up. Urgent.

JAEL : I understand.

NARRATOR : What about prophets? Any prophets out there with a word about peace? Jeremiah, is that you?

JEREMIAH : “The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.” (Jeremiah 28:8-9)

NARRATOR : And how likely does that seem?

JEREMIAH : Not very.

NARRATOR : Is there no-one who will speak for peace?

ZECHARIAH : Hello? Hello?

NARRATOR : Hello?

ZECHARIAH : Got my voice back just in time! You see, I’d lost it for a while. This is Zechariah, husband of Elizabeth, father of John the Baptizer.

NARRATOR : Quite a resume. And do you have some words of comfort for us?

ZECHARIAH : ‚ÄúBlessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us…that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant…that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days… By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.‚Äù (Luke 1:68-79 Abbreviated)

NARRATOR : Thank you, Zechariah. And our other callers, you were…helpful too. And now, rather than a word from our sponsors, I’d like to share a passage from Isaiah, chapter fifty-seven.

‚ÄúIt shall be said, ‘Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s [path].’ For thus says the [Lord]: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not continually accuse, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirits would grow faint before me, even the souls that I have made. Because of their wicked covetousness I was angry; I struck them, I hid… I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will lead them and repay them with comfort, creating for mourners the fruit of [song on their] lips. Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the Lord; and I will heal them. (Isaiah 57:14-19, Abbreviated)

James 1:19-27

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into…the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act– they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God…is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Unstained, undefiled by the world. It reminds me of a sleep-away-camp skit I saw once saw. A little girl held a clean, white sheet of paper. And someone stomped onto the stage, grabbed her piece of paper away and crumpled it. She picked it up and held it. Someone else walked across, took the sheet of paper, threw it to the ground and stomped on it. She smoothed it out and held it again, but it looked so different from what we’d seen at first. Finally, a third person stomped across the stage, grabbed the paper and ripped it, throwing both pieces to the ground. This time the girl did not pick it up. She just looked at us. A fourth person walked on, picked up the two pieces, smoothed them out, held the pieces together and handed it back to the girl.

Anybody ever wake up with a sheet of paper like that? Anybody ever look in the mirror and say ‘Jesus called me the light of the world, and today I’m gonna let it shine’? Anybody ever bring a sheet of paper like that onto the subway at rush-hour? When I was growing up, we moved around a lot. And I remember the first day of school in New Jersey, first day of school in Ohio, first day of school in Western New York…me and my clean sheet of paper. And then a few days later in the principal’s office, waiting for my parents to show up, because I’d been fighting again. But look what they did, I always tried to say. Look what they did to my clean sheet of paper.

Presumably Jesus started out with a clean sheet of paper ‚Äì maybe even cleaner than the rest of us. But in Mark’s Gospel he’s often unwelcome, and sometimes insulted and openly conspired against. Entering the Synagogue in Mark chapter three he almost loses his temper…

NRS Mark 3:1-5

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. [The pharisees] watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him [of breaking the laws of Moses]. And he said to the man [with] the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he [asked the Pharisees], “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” [The man] stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Here he was, trying to do some good in the world, and these dudes are trying to bust him on this technicality, working on the Sabbath. Even doing the Lord’s work on the Sabbath. And he could have walked away, or maybe he could have taken them down ‚Äì he did travel with a posse of twelve big dudes – but instead he breaks the law right in front of the pharisees…by healing someone.

Basically, there was the easy way…and then there was the Jesus way. Never the same thing. I can’t help wondering how he’d be remembered if he’d have gone before Pontius Pilate and said ‚ÄúTruly I say unto you…lemme outa’ here and you’ll never see my face again, I’ll be on a beach in Margarita-ville.‚Äù Pilate didn’t care. He probably would’ve said ‚ÄúYoe, you’d better take my limo, the one with the tinted windows, ’cause there’s people looking for you.‚Äù Wow… No, Jesus never did things the easy way.

He worked hard…and he PRAYED hard, like we heard last week in Luke 22:44, how he prayed and the sweat rolled down his face ‚Äúlike great drops of blood falling down on the ground.‚Äù And maybe one of the things he prayed for was for other people to be born into a better world than the one he found. This world of war, occupation, un-met need, crime… A world where people could shine their light, hold up their clean sheet of paper without fear of how it would be crumpled and torn and thrown back at them. ‚ÄúDon’t hide your light,‚Äù he said ‚Äúor else what good is it? What good is even the greatest faith if you never go out and show it?‚Äù

James 2:14-18

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

One of the ways in which Jesus showed his faith was through activism ‚Äì non-violent demonstration. On the very first Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Imagine this country-boy, riding into the big city on a colt… Actually, according to Matthew 21:5, he rode in on a colt and a donkey at the same time…but I don’t know, Matthew may have written that real late at night… Anyway, what’s important to remember is that if he’d wanted, he could have rode in on a chariot, or a thunder-cloud. He could have told the people to bring swords, but instead…palm-leaves… And instead of shouting in anger they were singing with joy.

Jesus showed peace by enacting it, by letting people know he had abilities beyond a normal man, but using those abilities to bring people together, even back from beyond the grave. These are things that some of us…are unable to do. But in our own ways, like Jesus we can model peace, show others and ourselves what the world would be like if just one more person practiced forgiveness. All of us are called to make the world a safer place for others to hold up their clean sheet of paper, without fear of what might happen to it.

Jesus couldn’t have it both ways, couldn’t always take the hard road AND survive for two thousand years to be with us now. As the expression goes, ‚Äúno good deed goes un-punished.‚Äù Jesus knew he had to leave, had to demonstrate his peace a final time on the cross. And so in John 14:27 he says to his disciples, ‚ÄúPeace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.‚Äù

Somewhere inside, I still carry that kid, the fighter I once was and still sometimes his anger comes to the surface. What can I do? I try to set a good example for him.

Ephesians 4:29-32

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God…has forgiven you.

Proverbs 3:5-24 (Wildly Abbreviated)

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. … 13 Happy are those who find wisdom… 15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. … 21 My child, do not let these escape from your sight: keep sound wisdom and prudence, … 23 Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble. 24 If you sit down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Proverbs 1:7 tells us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Ironically, as we find in Genesis 3:10, knowledge was the beginning of fear. Once Adam and Eve have eaten of the tree of knowledge, their first act is to hide from God. Because for the first time they are aware that they are naked.

Fascinating to find that fear of the Lord did not prevent them from breaking the one rule in the Garden…not to eat of the tree of knowledge, not to break the first covenant with God ‚Äì that the Lord would take provide for them. Their fear begins as they come to realize that they have insulted the Lord by seeking the knowledge to provide for themselves.

Adam and Eve, expelled from the Garden, made clothing for themselves, but they were still naked. They learned to provide food for themselves through toil and hardship, but they were still afraid.

Thousands of years later, we work to buy clothing and food for ourselves, but we are still naked and afraid. Henry David Thoreau described modern life with the expression “quiet desperation.” No matter how well we provide for ourselves, one wrong step on the high-wire and we lose everything, with no Garden of Eden to go back to.

From Genesis three onward, fear is a constant theme in Biblical texts. The words “Be not Afraid” appear eighty-five times in the Bible, twelve times on the lips of Jesus. Maybe because he knew that Adam and Eve ran naked from the Lord, and we’ve been running naked ever since, frightened that God and Man alike will see how exposed we really are.

In paintings, Mary is always shown being calm. But when we first see her in the Gospel according to Luke, she is a frightened girl of maybe twelve or thirteen with an Angel standing over her. And he says, in Luke 1:30, “Do not be afraid.” Paintings of Joseph show him as an older man, calm and patient, but in Matthew’s Gospel he hears about Mary’s pregnancy and an Angel catches him trying to skip town. Joseph was concerned about his reputation. And the angel said, in Matthew 1:20, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is on a boat with his disciples when a terrible storm hits. Calming the storm he asks them in Mark 4:40, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”

The Gospel of Mark ends with three women going to the tomb of Jesus after his death, to clean the scarred and broken body. But when they get there, they find that the tomb has been opened, and a young man in a white robe is sitting inside it, waiting for them. He says “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” And why would he say this unless they were terrified? Mark’s Gospel ends with chapter sixteen, verse eight: [Mark 16:8 (Original Ending)] “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

Another ending was added later, showing the celebration of the resurrection, the joyful reunion of Jesus and his disciples, but the original ending has a lot more to tell us about the early Christians. This was a message to a frightened, persecuted people ‚Äì if you hide the good news, it will be lost. These witnesses at the tomb told no-one, but I tell you this: SOMEBODY must have told SOMEBODY, else we wouldn’t all be gathered here right now.

Some five hundred years later, Saint Patrick went to Ireland, to live among the Pagans and teach them of Christianity. He met with total disinterest. He tried to tell them the stories, teach them the prayers, but nothing he could do would get through to them. These were the Celts, known to be the wildest warriors the Romans ever faced. How wild, you ask? Well, imagine your average Roman soldier, wearing some sixty pounds of armor. Now imagine your average Celt, wearing some four ounces of blue paint. Anyway, gradually, as Patrick lived among them, they came to notice something about him. Every night, as the sky darkened, they would toss and turn in fear of the darkness, while he would sleep peacefully. Finally they asked him how he had overcome his fear of the darkness, and he told them about theGod who had taught him not to be afraid.

I don’t know how this presentation came to have so much nakedness in it…I guess that tells us something about MY fears. But I do feel exposed and afraid, naked even in my clothing…especially when I’m addressing a room full of people. And then I think of the Biblical heroes, how they overcame that fear through faith. Jesus on that cross was naked but not afraid. As Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter six…

Ephesians 6:13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. …Fasten the belt of truth…and put on the breastplate of righteousness…Take the shield of faith…the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

In closing, I’d like to share some of the 27th Psalm.

NRS Psalm 27:1-14 (Wildly Abbreviated) The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh…they shall stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident. …Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me…I will sing and make melody to the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud…Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me…Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence. I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the and of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

There’s an episode of the Simpsons called “Homer the Heretic,” where Homer stops going to church. In this episode, he has a vision in which he meets God, and the two of them take a walk together in the clouds.

Now, in Deuteronomy 4, The Lord says…

Deuteronomy 4:15-19 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman‚Ķany animal‚Ķor any bird‚Ķor any fish…. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars‚Äîall the heavenly array‚Äîdo not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. (NIV)

The God of the Israelites refuses to be depicted in any sculpture or image, and yet many of us do have a picture in mind of what God might look like. If you would, please close your eyes a moment, and see if you have a mental image of God.

Would anyone here like to share what they saw?

In “Homer the Heretic,” God appears in the following way. He’s‚Ķ Well, first of all, he’s clearly male, and probably white, because his hand is yellow. God’s face is never seen, always cut off at the top of the screen, but we do see the long white beard and flowing white robe. I don’t think the Simpsons creators showed this image to reinforce the idea of God as a white man ‚Äì rather, I believe God is depicted in this way as in invitation to reconsider this icon. What does it mean about us if we imagine God in this way? What does this tell us about the concept of God having a “chosen people?” This, obviously, could be its own discussion ‚Äì and if we locked ourselves in this room for seven straight days, I doubt we’d have run out of things to say.

But rather than hold everybody hostage, I’d like instead to take a look at this image of God, where it might have come from. As many of you know, the most famous portrait of God is probably in Michelangelo’s painting on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. There we see numerous portraits of God, enacting the various stages of creation from the book of Genesis. One of these is the iconic depiction of God, reclining on a heavenly couch made of cherubim, giving life to Adam by touching his finger. Can everybody close their eyes a moment and see this image?

Michelangelo was commissioned in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the church, and the project took him four years. He’d originally been a sculptor, and as references for some of the images, used sculptures rather than hired models. So it’s actually possible that, just as God made the first person from clay and then brought it to life by breathing, Michelangelo may have actually made God from clay, then brought it to life by painting on the ceiling. Michelangelo’s God is a bearded white man.

When we look at artwork based on Biblical stories, particularly from centuries past, it’s important to remember that an artist had two major avenues for actually getting paid. One was portraits of rich people. The other was Biblical scenes. But nonetheless, these artists had something inside themselves to express ‚Äì messages about their own time and place, using live models and familiar scenes. Obviously, a painting of David, a blond shepherd boy in blue pants, standing in an Italian meadow has nothing to do with David the Semitic teenager in brown robes on the rocky terrain of Israel. But nonetheless, these renaissance images have entered into our cultural consciousness and become definitive. We were made in God’s own image, but we have depicted Biblical characters in our own image.

Several times throughout the run of the Simpsons, we’ve seen vignettes where Bible-stories are played out using Simpsons characters. In one for example, Bart is shown as David, taking on a giant Nelson-Goliath. Here again, we see the mark of our own culture superimposed over a Biblical story.

‚ĶAnd, speaking of Biblical stories, I’d like to close with a tale from Exodus 33, where the Lord’s glory is revealed to the eyes of Moses.

Exodus 33:18-23 And Moses said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And [God] said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee [but] Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live… Thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will…cover thee with my hand…And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen. (KJV)

The next time you’re touring Rome, or viewing the roof of the Sistine Chapel on the internet, you may be surprised to find among the many images of God, one in which the Lord’s back is turned to the viewer. And the flowing robes hang open in the area of God’s back-parts, to inspire and strengthen us, as Moses was amazed by God so long ago.

-or-

Meeting the Devil’s Advocate in the Desert

By j. Snodgrass

Presented 3 February, 2008

READERS :

Narrator (Bible Student)

“Luke” (Author of the Gospel According to Luke)

Jesus (Live Free or Die)

Devil (Advocate of Alternate Strategies)

Moses (Supposed Giver-of-the-Law in Deuteronomy)

NARRATOR : Today, in honor of the Lenten Lectionary, we’re going to take a look at my all-time favorite Biblical passage – The temptation of Jesus in the desert, in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter four, verses one to thirteen. As a matter of fact, I love this passage so much, we’re going to hear it twice!

‚ÄúLUKE‚Äù : Jesus…was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him,

DEVIL : “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

JESUS : “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”

“LUKE” : The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

DEVIL : “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

JESUS : “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

“LUKE” : The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

DEVIL : “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
‘He will command his angels…to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

JESUS : “It [is written]: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

“LUKE” : When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left [Jesus] until an opportune time.

NARRATOR : Great. Man, there’s a lot in there. What we’re going to do now, is hear this scene again. But this time, we’ll have a running commentary track, from a Bible Student, and also from Moses. Now what’s Moses got to do with this? Well, throughout this scene, it seems like every line Jesus says begins with ‘it is written’ – these are all references to the book of Law РDeuteronomy, which is said to be the transcript of Moses’s farewell speech. So, if we’re all ready, let’s press play again, this time with commentary…

‚ÄúLUKE‚Äù : Jesus…was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil [came] to him,

NARRATOR : When the author says ‚Äúthe devil‚Äù here, it’s probable he was talking about…Satan… And it’s worth taking a quick look at this character of‚ĶSatan‚Ķ Or, Ha-Satan (Pronounced Hah-Sah-Tahn) as the case may be. If you were an Ancient Near-Eastern King, your word was law ‚Äì you were considered a God to your people. And you had a council of advisors, but basically it was their job to say…

ALL READERS : ‘Yes, Your Majesty.’

NARRATOR : And if they said no, you chopped off their thumbs and big toes. But there‚Äôs only so many times the King can decree that ‘Friday shall be Hawaiian shirt day’ or ‘From henceforth we shall all speak in Jamaican accents, man’ or whatever, before the populace gets antsy. So there was one person in the King‚Äôs court whose job it was to say ‚ÄúMmmmm…No.‚Äù And no matter what the king decreed, this person had to come up with an argument against it ‚Äì let‚Äôs call it ‚ÄòPlaying Devil‚Äôs Advocate.‚Äô

This person‚Äôs job-title was a word meaning ‚ÄúAdversary‚Äù or ‚ÄúAccuser‚Äù ‚Äì ‚ÄúSatan.‚Äù This name or title only appears in three books of the Old Testament ‚Äì brief cameos in Chronicles and Psalm 109, and then a scene in the book of Job. In first Chronicles, 21:1: ‚ÄúSatan…incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said… “Go and count the Israelites…Then report back to me.”

Sounds innocent enough. But why would King David take a census of Israel? The same reason as now – taxation and the draft. So in a way, it makes perfect sense to say the Devil tempted him to do this, and of course the result was a disaster. The Lord was so furious with David that he sent a plague to kill seventy thousand men. (1 Chronicles 21:14)

[The Lord was so furious with David, that he offered the king three options: 1 Chronicles 21:12 “three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies…or three days of the sword of the LORD - days of plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel.' (David chose three days of attack at the hands of the merciful God, who killed only seventy thousand men – 1 Chronicles 21:14). This is what King David got for listening to his Satan.]

But even the King of Kings, Lord of Lords – even the Most High God, was thought to have such an advisor. As we read in the book of Job…

Job 1:6-12

One day the Heavenly Beings came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered… “From roaming through the earth…”

Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Some of Job’s eleven thousand animals were stolen, the rest were destroyed by fire from the sky. His servants were slaughtered, a house collapsed on his seven sons and three daughters, and his skin was stricken with boils. Even his wife said ‚ÄúJust curse the Lord and die ‚Äì get it over with!‚Äù (Job 2:9) But Job‚Äôs response was not what the Satan expected. In Job 1:21, Job looked out over the devastation of all he once had and said ‚ÄúNaked was I born and naked will I die. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, his name be praised.‚Äù (Job 1:21) And at the end of the book, Job’s fortunes are restored, with new children and more animals than he had before.

So now we jump forward again to Jesus in the wilderness, full of the spirit. He’s got a plan ‚Äì speak out against authority, and get himself killed in the most agonizing, humiliating, excruciating way possible ‚Äì and when I say ‚ÄúEx-Cruc-iating,‚Äù I mean EX-ecution on the Cruce/Crux/CROSS, in more pain than it would take to give birth to septuplets EIGHT times in a row. And in comes Satan, or the Sah-Tahn, to tell Jesus he has another option…

DEVIL : “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

JESUS : “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”

NARATOR : Moses?

MOSES : Deuteronomy eight, two to five – Remember how the LORD your God led you…in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know…whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you…to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

“LUKE” : The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

DEVIL : “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

JESUS : “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

NARRATOR : Aaaand let’s pass the mic to Moe…again…

MOSES : Deuteronomy six, thirteen to fifteen – Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods…for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.

“LUKE” : The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

DEVIL : “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

NARRATOR : Here the devil quotes from Psalm 91, a battle-hymn of courage for those who believe in the Lord.

Psalm 91 [Wildly Abbreviated]

5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys [in the afternoon].

7 A thousand may fall at your side…but…

9 If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the LORD, who is my refuge-

10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra…trample the great [beast] and the serpent.

JESUS : “It [is written]: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

NARAROR : One…Moe…time…

MOSES : Deuteronomy six sixteen – Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah.

NARRATOR : “Massah” was where the Israelites, weary and thirsty from being led through the desert, cried out against Moses. The Lord caused water to flow from a stone for them, and they named the place “Massah,” which means “Testing” because there they had put the Lord to the test. (Exodus 17:3-7)

“LUKE” : When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left [Jesus] until an opportune time.

Now we’ve heard two very different versions of this story. First, we heard a story in which God’s ultimate messenger for Good, Jesus, faced off against God’s ultimate messenger for Evil, the Devil. A classic struggle, a clash of titans, an ideological battle with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Righteousness prevails.

But it’s the second story we heard that interests me more. A young person, guided by faith, has chosen to speak out against authority, to do what he or she believes in, even at the cost of his or her own life. And someone else ‚Äì maybe someone evil…or maybe a friend or lover, an trusted advisor, even a caring parent…says ‚ÄúWhat about food? Security? What about climbing the corporate ladder? Why don’t you run for president? If you’re so righteous, so faithful ‚Äì why not let God take care of you? Don’t you want to live?‚Äù

My father is an Episcopal priest. His great goal in life is to die for what he believes in ‚Äì to stand against unjust authority, and be executed for it. But that’s not his goal for me. He’s always telling me to take the safer path, get a middle-class job with insurance and whatnot. That doesn’t make him evil, it makes him a responsible parent. My goal is also to fight the system, and if need be, to die for what I believe in. But now I’m a father too, and the minute my son shows any sign of rebellion I’ll be saying ‚ÄúMy son ‚Äì go with the flow. Get a job, settle down, take it easy, and live.‚Äù Don’t get me wrong ‚Äì I’m not condoning sympathy for the devil, or saying we’re all Luke Skywalker today and Darth Vader tomorrow. The point is that even for Jesus, light of the world, no choice was ever truly black and white.

I have never been propositioned by a crimson-red man with horns and a tail, offering me the world on a plate (if choices were so clear ‚Äì why would we even need this cryptic Bible for enigmatic guidance?). But I have been propositioned, offered things, position, power, whatever, by people. Sometimes people I know and trust, sometimes people I don’t ‚Äì sometimes by people who hold worldly authority over me. When I’m faced with temptation, I ask myself the obvious question ‚Äì What would Jesus say? But of course, Jesus couldn’t ask himself this question… ‚ÄúWhat would I say?‚Äù Jesus looked to HIS heroes, often Moses and Isaiah. In this case, he found in the words of Moses the guidance he needed to fend off the Satan’s temptation. But the story does not end there, as we see, the Devil only departs from Jesus ‚Äúuntil the opportune time.‚Äù Worldly temptation will last as long as the world endures, but now as we face it, with the words of prophets in our hearts, we have another hero to consult as well. Jesus, who could not be swayed by temptation, even when it meant his own death.

Given 26 January, 2008

When I finished college at 21, the first piece of advice I got was this : Kiss your twenties good-bye – nobody gets anywhere in their twenties anymore. I resisted, I denied, and then I worked some jobs, ate some pizza, lived in some apartments, smoked some cigarettes, and here I am, just around the corner from thirty. Wow. And then I found out that this is some kind of cultural phenomena – the vanishing twenties, the disappearing decade, the lost years.

How did this happen? When did it begin? Well, I decided to start my search way back, in the opening book of the Bible, see if it might shed some light. And I found the results pretty comforting. Take Abraham, for example, when the Lord told him about fatherhood.

Genesis 17:17 ‚Äì ‚ÄúAbraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” (NIV)

Abraham’s wife Sarah had a similar reaction to motherhood.

Genesis 18:12 – “Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my [husband] is old, will I now have this pleasure?’”

And then of course there’s old Noah, who built the ark. But when I say ‘old’ I really mean, as we read in Genesis 7:6, “Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters [swelled] the earth.” (NIV)

Noah, what happened? “Well, I worked some jobs, ate some matzo, lived in some huts, smoked my pipe and here I am, just around the corner from six hundred.”

And then I started wondering‚Ķwhere was Jesus in his twenties? The gospel of Luke has him at age twelve, making mischief in the Temple and then‚Ķhe‚Äôs thirty years old, being baptized for repentance…

[Actually, Luke 3:20 reports that John the Baptizer has been thrown in prison, and then Jesus is baptized in the following verse, Luke 3:21. The book doesn’t say who did it.]

What might this be telling us about Jesus in his twenties? All of the Gospels mention John the Baptizer, Luke even makes John and Jesus cousins, but each Gospel in its own way takes a few steps to distance Jesus from John, who was considered a wandering desert lunatic, wearing animal skins, eating locusts. The more we see the Gospel-writers trying to separate Jesus from John (especially with John and Jesus agreeing that Jesus is better), the more we’re led to assume that Jesus was in some way connected to this unpopular doom-and-gloom prophet, maybe as a disciple, before starting his own radical movement.

Luke 4 has some helpful hints. Jesus goes to a synagogue in his old hometown of Nazareth, and reads from a scroll of Isaiah. Then he gives a short sermon about how he‚Äôs the fulfillment of prophecies and bringer of good news to the poor. But the Nazarenes quickly lose patience, asking ‚ÄúIsn‚Äôt this old carpenter Joe‚Äôs boy?‚Äù (Luke 4:22) They drive him out of town, take him to the edge of a cliff, about to throw him over, but he disappears into the crowd and escapes. Bet you didn’t know about Jesus the escape-artist. In Luke 4:24 he says ‚ÄúNo prophet is accepted in his hometown.‚Äù

I’ll leave that one alone – suffice to say, the people who’ve watched you eat dirt and chase girls with sticks as a kid are probably not going to be the first to call you Heaven’s Messenger. More fascinating from this passage is the assertion that Jesus was literate. If this were indeed true, then it’s likely Jesus would have been a rabbi or Pharisee in his twenties. The Pharisees were a radical sect of Judaism who believed in angels and bodily resurrection. Of course, Jesus has plenty of nasty things to say about the Pharisees, but this might actually be a sign that he was one.

It’s worth mentioning here that the Gospel of Luke was written for an educated urban audience, so it’s probable that the Luke author made Jesus literate so as not to let him seem like a country bumpkin…which he was – the other gospels do not show Jesus reading.

Perhaps the best hints we get about Jesus in his twenties are the scattered clues about his social life. First, let’s check out his entourage…

Luke 8:1 Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women… Mary (called Magdalene)…Joanna… Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Now hold on a minute! What in the world is the Gospel of Luke talking about? Many women? Supporting Jesus out of their own means? Well, in these days, women were often married at thirteen and widows at twenty, sometimes wealthy. And where was Jesus always going? It’s odd, for a holy man, he doesn’t spend nearly as much time in Synagogue as he does at parties. As a matter of fact, his party-boy reputation was so memorable, that two generations after his death, two of the Gospels had to apologize for it. In Luke 7:34 and Matthew 11:19, Jesus says…

‚ÄúThe Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ‘ 35But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” (Luke 7:34)

This makes it probable that long after his death, when you told someone you’d dedicated your life to Jesus, they were likely to ask “Wasn’t he a glutton and a drunk? A friend of sinners?” And this is how you were meant to answer them : “Wisdom is proved right by all her children.” Good. But what does it mean? It probably means that there was no excuse. Jesus was a party animal, who loved a good feast so well that two thousand years later, how does he want to be remembered? …Eating and drinking.

The roaring twenties of Jesus will always be a mystery – we, like the earliest Christians, arrive on the scene to find that a man has been killed, and all we can do is try to reconstruct his story backwards from the cross. He might have been a rabbi or a raver, a lady’s man or a desert disciple to the Baptizer – he sure does seem to know a lot about the dregs of society. He may have hitch-hiked by camel through India, or surfed across to Cuba and back, or lassoed a comet to explore the galaxy. What’s most likely, though, is that there’s really nothing to tell. He did some carpentry, ate some matzo, lived in a hut, smoked his pipe, and then, just around the corner from thirty, heard the call that his time had come – and so began his ministry…