mebelimebeliChris Hedges will be reading from and discussing his most recent book “I Don’t Believe in Atheists.” In this book Hedges responds to contemporary prominent athiests Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, arguing for the importance of faith in our world and challenging a form of athiesm that can be as intolerant and bigoted as religious fundamentalism. He offers an important voice for progressive Christians today. You can learn more about Hedges on the Union website here: http://www.utsnyc.edu/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=992&srcid=256 or on posters around campus.

See you at 7 p.m. Wednesday evening! Oh… and there will be cookies :)

This novel was probably written to caution people entering the industrial age – 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, “when are you going to fulfill the promises made on these pages?” 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 – 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 “My love/hate relationship with the Bible.” And at first I thought – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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.

The best, most concise articulation I have seen regarding why progressive Christians should be defending Rev Wright was written a week ago by Adam Clark. A sample:

Wright, however, is a preacher; his oath is not to the Constitution but to the Gospel. The statements of Wright may be out of step with the presidential politics of the Obama campaign, but they are not out of step with biblical faith. The forceful denunciations of America’s invasion of Iraq, her support for the unjust practices of foreign governments as well as the invocation of God’s wrath for the inhumane treatment of blacks and people of color are not the crazed anti-American ranting of an old uncle, but statements about the meaning of faith in a God who upsets the powers through identifying with the poor and marginalized.

So here’s a video chronicling the event. Observant folks will notice that the music is the track Lamentation, from my first album! It’s pretty nifty when you chance across cool people who are using your music, and this is exactly the kind of prophetic work I would want to be associated with.

On one of the nights, Bowie and I led the group through the Eucharist which we led at Easter at Avalon last year, a communion by numbers based on a ritual developed by the Grace Community.  A lot of people asked us for the text, so I’m including it here below the break.

It also led to some very interesting conversations regarding Eucharistic theology, Episcopal ecclesiology, priesthood of all believers, and the emerging church.  It occurred to me that Transmission has largely dodged these questions by not incorporating communion into our practice, but this isn’t a decision that we ever discussed.  Eucharist is one of the few practices shared by virtually every Christian tradition (except the Quakers), and yet very few traditions agree on exactly what communion is and exactly why we do it.

Would there be interest in doing a 3-4 week series on Eucharistic theology on the non-Transmission Wednesdays?  It would help many us develop our understanding of communion as individuals and it might lead to us forming a policy on communion as a group.  We might decide that having communion is an important symbol of our connection to the larger Christian community or we might decide that we shouldn’t do it for theological reaons, but either way we would have reached an informed consensus as a group.

Communion By Numbers from Easter at Avalon:

Paper bags are handed out containing a piece of bread and ten envelops.  Participants are encouraged to get in groups of 6-10 and hand out the envelopes, opening them in order.  Inside the envelops are slips of paper that say:

1. Sursum Corda: Have everyone in the group introduce him or herself.
2. Preface: Share one thing from the last week for which you’re thankful.
3. Anamnesis: Read the following story out loud: [normally this would be the words of institution at the last supper, but at Avalon we used the road to Emmaus and in Connecticut we used the lyrics to The Stranger, by j. Snodgrass and myself]
4. Reflection: Encourage everyone to share a reaction they had to the story.  If the story did not move them, they should share a reaction they’ve had to the service, or anything else that might be on their mind.
5. Get the Wine: Send two or three people to the bar to get enough glasses of wine and/or grape juice for your group.  Make sure you know how many want wine and how many want grape juice.  [Since Easter at Avalon was done in a night club, there was a bar]
6. Bless the Bread: Hold the bread so everyone can see it.  Say these words: Blessed are you, God, source of all life, who brings forth bread from the earth. Then break the bread and hold onto it.
7. Bless the Wine: Hold the wine so everyone can see it.  Say these words: Blessed are you, God, Spirit of the world, who creates the fruit of the vine.
8. Epiclesis: Pray these words: Bless these gifts, God, and let them be for us the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  Nourish us with food and community so that we may live in the fullness of life which you intend for us.
9. Communion: Eat the bread, drink the wine.
10. Offertory: Put the garbage back into the paper bag and hold onto this envelope (#10).  Stand or sit together in silence and wait for the next activity. [the envelopes were used to collect money to offset the expense of the event]

See the Future, Live it NOW

A National Conference

at Princeton University.

June 8-10, 2008

One Thousand People.
Forty-five Leading Scholars, Activists, Artists and Pastors.

Twenty Learning Tracks.
Women and Men, Young and Old.
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A broad array of theological perspectives, all focused on one thing:

Christian Engagement in the public square.

Featured Speakers include
Ray Aldred, Vincent Bacote, Jay Bakker, Randall Balmer, Melinda Berry, Bart Campolo, Rich Cizik, Shane Claiborne, Jeremy Del Rio, Lisa Sharon Harper, Obery Hendricks, Al Hsu, Daisy Machado, Brian McLaren, Brenda Salter McNeil, John Perkins, Sammy Rodriguez, Ron Sider, Andrea Smith, Richard Twiss, Miroslav Volf, Jim Wallis, Kay Warren, Randy Woodley and many, many more!

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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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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.

Our dear friend Mel Ahlborn made this super cool and a little trippy flash video of last year’s Easter at Avalon. It takes a minute to load, but then get ready for a smooth ride…

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Alleluia.