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The Prophet Jesus and the Renewal of Israel

by Richard Horsley (2012), reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

Horsley sketches the major problems in current discussions of the historical Jesus:  the apocalyptic Jesus and the Jesus of individual sayings (the results in a Jesus as wisdom teacher, and the separation of religion from political-economic life).  Horsley’s attempt is to show Jesus as a prophet generating a movement of renewal of Israel over against the rulers of Israel (p 5).

He presents a contextual Jesus, identifying the context of the historical figure; the particular historical situation, the situation of crisis, personal circumstances and qualities, role of leadership, leader’s interaction with the people, decisive confrontation of the leader with the dominant order.  Reading the gospels thus yields a multifactored historical situation (p 26).

Horsley sketches the renewal movements in Israel, elucidating Jesus’ mission, the roles he adapted and the movement that focused on him (p 83); he places Jesus in the role of prophet, pursuing independence from imperial rule and the renewal of Israelite society in justice under the direct rule of its G-d (p 94).  Horsley looks at the gospels, especially in Mark, to detail the contextual perspective. Jesus’ overall program was the renewal of Israel over against the rulers of Israel, and particular episodes of healing, exorcisms, controversies and confrontation were particular components of the agenda (p 103).

We need to take the gospels whole, and not isolate text fragment (e.g., the Jesus seminar, looking at Q [the hypothetical document containing material common to the first three Gospels] apart from the whole).  Jesus’ followers, who cultivated the Q speeches and the gospel of Mark, continued to understand Jesus primarily as the prophet who launched the renewal of Israel against the rulers of Israel, drawing on the memory of the Mosaic covenant.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Jesus and the Powers: Conflict, Covenant and the Hope of the Poor

by Richard Horsley (2011), reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

Horsley looks closely at the gospel accounts from the perspective of Jewish covenantal life. He sees the gospel stories as being full of conflict, as portraying Jesus carrying out a renewal of Israel, and as detailing a struggle between opposing powers (Herod, Caesar, high priests, temple system, unclean spirits and demons)(p1-3). He stresses the need to read the gospels as ‘whole stories’, to see the ‘individual sayings as components of speeches or of dialogue episodes on particular issue; to see that the conflict in the gospels is political-economic-religious (between Judaean, Hellenism and priestly) and details the ‘many resistance movements among the Judean and Galilean people against the Herodian and high priestly rulers as well as against Roman rule’ (p 8).

Horsley emphasizes the crucifixion as the key event that ‘transformed the power that was to intimidate and dominate in the power that inspired commitment and solidarity in forming an alternative social order’ (p 199).  Jesus’ renewal movement regenerated the  power of local solidarity, challenged the rulers publicly in Jerusalem(political/religious capital for Israelites and the Roman power in Judea (p 209).

The movement formed in response to Jesus’ mission provided an alternative society under the direct rule of G-d (the kingdom), expanded the movement in resistance to the power that sought to determine the conditions of their lives (demons, client kings, Roman forces). Horsley’s book emphasizes that Jesus’ followers continue their opposition to the imperial order (to the powers) in imitation of Jesus, so that the Roman instrument of terror became the way to see the Jesus way against the powers.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Short Stories by Jesus: the Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi

by Amy-Jill Levine (2014), reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

Amy-Jill Levine, professor of New Testament and Jewish studies in Vanderbilt Divinity school and a self described ‘Yankee Jewish feminist’, brings a Jewish interpretation to Jesus’ parables.  The parables challenge us to look into the hidden aspects of our own values, our own lives.

Through the centuries ‘the parables have been allegorized, moralized, christologized and otherwise tamed into either platitudes such as ‘G-d loves us’ or ‘Be nice’ (p 3).  Jesus’ first followers would have understood more of them; ‘they knew that parables and the tellers of parables were there to prompt them to see the world in a different way’ (p 4).  Levine points out that just as rabbis held that parables were a means for understanding Torah (scripture), so Jesus the Jew uses parables to help his followers understand the kingdom of heaven (p 8).

She points out that  we need to see them in Jesus’ own context, flowing out of his stories and conversations, not reduced to one-line zingers (‘what would the parables have sounded like to people who have no idea that Jesus will be proclaimed Son of G-d by millions, no idea even that he will be crucified by Rome’ (p 3)).  She emphasizes the temptation to tame the parables into screeds against Jewish practice, ethics or theology (p 278).  ‘The people who first heard him did not, at first, worship him, yet they paid attention’ (282).  She details rabbinic (Jewish) perspectives on the implication of Torah (scripture) on the central perspectives of the parables.  I found her work on the prodigals (Luke 15) and Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16) the most compelling.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Exiles in the Empire: Believers Church Perspectives on Politics

by Nathan Yoder and Carol Sheppard, editors ( 2006), reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

This is a book that explores the troubling paradox of the United States appearing to be both imperial and Christian, living the gospel authentically while also being citizen in an imperial superpower, of being exiles in the empire.  Eighteen essays explore themes of a believers Church Conference held in September 2004.

For me, the key chapters are ‘Jesus’ Confrontation with Empire’, ‘Seek the Welfare of the Empire’, ‘A Personal Journey to Political Involvement, ‘Why Believers Might Conscientiously Abstain from Voting’, ‘Prayer by the Chaplain’.  Several chapters reflect the situation and gospel witness in Lithuania, China, South Africa and Vietnam.

For the United States to be both Christian and imperial is troubling from a missiological, ecclesiological, ethical and Christological perspective.  Metaphors express that hope, metaphors of permanence and transience, of homeland and pilgrimage (p 2-4).  Ted  Grimsrud mentions four connecting points in ‘Jesus’ Confrontation with Empire:  empire’s agents care more about coercive power than about truth (e.g., Jesus and Pilate), the empire’s violence toward any all threats, Jesus’ contrast with imperial leadership styles, the resurrection as an ultimate counter-empire statement’ (p 42). 

‘Seek the Welfare of the Empire’ looks at the implications of Jeremiah’s counsel to the Jewish exiles, exploring the tension of theologically being exiles while politically being Christians, with three implications.  (1) G-d’s primary concern is not the United States empire but the state of the United States church.  (2)  Be prepared for the long haul.  (3)  Find a way booth to love and to resist the empire (e.g., prayer, practice and prophetic witness).  ‘Embodying a new reconciled reality, not advocacy to government, is our first order in a church. . . .  Our well being is not in defeating the empire but in providing viable alternatives to it’ (p 306).  A powerfully prophetic book.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological Economic Vocation

by Cynthia Moe-Lobeda (2013), reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

Moe-Lobeda starts her book by pointing out the connection between the exploitation of sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic and the vast profits made by corporate owners of the sugar cane industry located in the United States.  As a child, she believed that if you simply knew what was on the other end of material wealth, our economic patterns would change.  But mere knowledge is not enough to enable social change.

The chains of structural violence can, however, be resisted and dismantled.  While structural evil may be beyond the power of individuals to counter, it is composed of power arrangements that are humanly constructed and therefore may be dismantled by other human decisions.  ‘What humans have joined, let humans also put asunder.’  Her book  does not seek to instill guilt in the overcoming of claims, but attempts to identify the moral-spiritual resources in our culture, resources that are to be found in all of earth’s great spiritual traditions.

Each chapter tells a story dealing with people’s linkages, e.g., a community in India whose land is being eroded by bauxite mining, with North America the beneficiary of the bauxite in all the aluminum product.  A compelling section deals with love as transformative power, and reiterating that G-d’s love is the foundation of human love for G-d, self, others and earth.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Mapping Exile and Return: Palestine Dispossessionism and a Political Theology for a Shared Future

by Alain Epp Weave (2014), reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

1948 in Palestine saw the Nakba (catastrophe) which accompanied the creation of the state of Israel and resulted in the destruction of 500 Palestinian villages and the creation of refugees, a ‘deliberate displacement’ of the Palestinians by Israel as a matter of policy (p 17).  This policy has continued with land confiscations (from Palestinians) and the construction of physical and legal barriers separating Palestinians from Palestinians, ‘resident aliens’.  This has been reflected in Israeli mapping practices.

It is in this perspective that the Nakba provides a counter memory to Israeli policies, an attempt to resist  erasure of the communities that once were home to the now displaced.  Mapping Exile is a look at the Israeli attempt to remove cartographic (mapping) reminders of villages that once stood here but have since been bulldozed by the Israeli army.  It is also a look at the concept of exile, built on the writings of Palestinian Christians.  Weaver also acknowledges his own location as a descendant of European immigrants who settled on land held by Pawnee and Cheyenne nations.

Kufr Bir’im is one of over 120 destroyed Palestinian villages over which tourism and recreation sites have been established (p 97).  Summer camps in these villages for children and youth descended from the original inhabitants map the memories across generations, emphasizing rootedness in the face of uprooting (p 106).

A powerful book using traditional concepts of exile and land, attempting to see how these can grow into possibilities of reconciliation among the sons and daughters of Abraham.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine

by Mike Peled (2012), reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

Mike Peled was born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well-known Zionist family.  His father, Matti Peled, was an Israeli army officer during the 1948 Israeli war of independence, and a general in the war of 1967 when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai.

The growing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians came into Peled’s family when his niece was killed in a suicide attack in Jerusalem.  Pele, who had been living in California, found the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and this began a warm relationship between Israelis and Palestinians.  Several other discussion groups were formed.  Here he heard Palestinian stories of people forced from their homes as children, and Peled and his new friends began to speak at Rotary clubs, sharing their stories of friendship and trust.

A major high point was when the two sons of a Palestinian friend slept over at the home of a Jewish Israeli home (Peled’s home).  The peace position for Peled developed as he heard more of what his father, an army office, had believed and held on to—how his father had “opposed the massive land confiscation Palestinians had to endure, helped those who had legal issues and spoke out against injustice when people were detained or deported” (p 137).

Through Rotary International, Peled and fellow Rotarians sought to bring medical supplies to Israeli and Palestinian victims, including wheel chairs.  He documents the ways in which Israeli officials, especially the army, held up the transfer of medical supplies, and even charged $7,000 in holding fees (p 133).  He shares the stories of arbitrary arrests and imprisonment (p 210) and the terror of check points, even to himself as an Israeli.  Reading his story brings back the arbitrary state terrorism of Jesus’ Galilean experience, except that it’s the Israelis who have assumed the role of the Roman occupation.  A new empire.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  16 March 2016  •  No. 63

Holy Week and unholy economies
A primer on economic inequality

Processional. “Khen Ephran,” Coptic Orthodox hymn for Holy Week. 

Invocation. “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” —Deuteronomy 8:17

The earth, too, experiences the trauma of Holy week. Picture (right) of a tar sands (bituminous) oil extraction pit in Alberta, Canada.
 
Call to worship. “Wa Habibi” (Good Friday hymn) sung by Fairouz.

Confession. “Some people are so poor all they have is money.” —Bob Marley

Intercession. “In those years, people will say, we lost track / of the meaning of we, of you / we found ourselves / reduced to I / and the whole thing became / silly, ironic, terrible.” —Adrienne Rich, “In Those Years.” Listen to a reading of the poem by Chelsea Tobin.

¶ “It's official. The global 1% of wealth holders now own more than the rest of the world combined. The gap between the richest and poorest has widened so dramatically in the past 12 months that the world's 62 wealthiest individuals now own as much as the poorest half of the global population.” —Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

Hymn of resolve. “Go to Dark Gethsemane.”

¶ “It is not that humans have become any more greedy than in generations past. It is that the avenues to express greed had grown so enormously.'' —former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, testifying 16 July 2002 to the Senate Banking Committee

Economic divide by race. “In 1963, the average wealth of white families was $117,000 higher than the average wealth of nonwhite families. By 2013, the average wealth of white families was over $500,000 higher than the average wealth of African American families ($95,000) and of Hispanic families ($112,000). Put another way, white families on average had seven times the wealth of African American families and six times the wealth of Hispanic families in 2013.” —Urban Institute

Words of assurance. “May the angels protect you, trouble neglect you, / And mercy direct you when it’s time to go home. / May you always have plenty, your glass never empty, / And know in your belly you’re never alone.” —“Never Alone,” performed by Lady Antebellum and Jim Brickman

Income inequality in the US, visualized in a way that will rock your socks. (6:23 minutes. Thanks, Evelyn.)

American Gospel. “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind.” —Stockbroker Gordon Gecko, fictional character played by Michael Douglas, in the 1987 film “Wall Street”

Faith in trickle-down [economics theory] is a bit like feeding race horses superior oats so that starving sparrows can forage in their dung. — John Kenneth Gailbraith

Among the findings of a 2015 research study (“Is the United States Still the Best Country in the World? Think Again“) are the following:
        •America’s child poverty levels are worse than in any developed country anywhere.
        •Ranks last in median wealth per adult among 27 other high-income countries.
        •36th out of 162 countries in terms of people living below the poverty line.
        •Fourth highest wealth inequality in the world (slightly better than Chile, Mexico and Turkey. —Jill Hamburg Coplan, Fortune magazine and Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post

Music for Holy Week. “God Almighty here I am / Am I where I ought to be / I’ve begun to soon descend / Like the sun into the sea / And I thank my lucky stars / From here to eternity / For the artist that you are / And the man you made of me.” —Kris Kristofferson, “Feeling Mortal”

From 1947 to 1979 the income of the bottom fifth of Americans rose by 122%. From the introduction of Reaganomics in 1979 to 2009 the income of the top 1% rose by 270% while the other 99%’s income remained stagnant.  —inequality.org

Locate yourself. The Global Rich List website shows you where you rank on the world's economic ladder with sobering specificity. See where you stand. 

See “35 astounding facts about inequality that will fry your brain.” —Larry Schwartz’s “35 soul-crushing facts about American income inequality,” Salon

“The godless Galileans feed our poor in addition to their own.” —Roman Emperor Julian, speaking of the early Christian community, considered atheists because of their rejection of the pantheon of gods in the ancient world

Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary and now Professor of Public Policy at the University of California Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, has mastered the art of brief illustrated videos to explain economic matters to common folk like us. View just these three for a crash course.
        •“The 7 Biggest Economic Lies,” with Robert Reich. (2:47)
        •“What are the 3 biggest economic myths propagated by the moneyed interests? (2:34)
        •“The war on the poor and working families.” (2.25)

¶ “Once we recognize that the most basic questions about economic systems were entwined with biblical religion and fought over as an intrinsic aspect of living religiously, we gain leverage to criticize and evaluate economic systems today.” —Norman Gottwald, The Hebrew Bible in Its Social World and in Ours

Music for Holy Week. “Little bee sucks the blossom / big bee gets the honey / poor man picks the cotton / rich man gets the money.” —Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, “Take Me Back to Tulsa”

In a 2014 study by Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Michael I. Norton, researchers “asked about 55,000 people from 40 countries to estimate how much corporate CEOs and unskilled workers earned. Then they asked people how much CEOs and workers should earn. The median American estimated that the CEO-to-worker pay-ratio was 30-to-1, and that ideally, it’d be 7-to-1. The reality? 354-to-1. Fifty years ago, it was 20-to-1.” —Nicholas Fitz, Scientific American

Inequality.org, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, has a large collection of helpful graphic information, as does United for a Fair Economy.

¶ “. . . when God forbids oppression of the poor in the Book of the Covenant [Exodus 22:21-24], it is the first time the Scriptures explicitly affirm that God becomes angry.” —Thomas D. Hanks, God So Love the Third World

Textbook case of biblical illiteracy. “When the pope criticizes an entire economic system and is negative about it, he is indulging in politics, and I don’t think he should. I personally do not want my spiritual life mixed up with my political life. I go to church to save my soul.” — Stuart Varney, Fox news commentator, criticizing Pope Francis’ statement that “unfettered capitalism is a new tyranny”

The Walmart-owning Walton family alone has more wealth than 42% of American families combined.

Music for Holy Week. “Lamentations of Jeremiah I,” Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.

¶ “While debtors prisons were abolished in the 1800s and Supreme Court cases found that jailing people because they can’t pay debts without assessing their ability to pay violates the constitution, these practices have seen a resurgence across the country.” So much so that on Monday “officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) will send a letter to chief justices and court administrators across the country warning them against operating modern-day debtors’ prisons.” —Bryce Covert, thinkprogress.org

Others aren't happy with Roman Catholic Pope Francis’ attention to the poor. Said one souvenir seller near St. Peter’s, “He is always talking about the poor and so the poor come to the Vatican and they have no money to spend.”

¶ “The superfluities of the rich are the necessaries of the poor. Those who retain what is superfluous possess the goods of others.” —Saint Augustine

¶ “The mainstream consensus has long been that a growing economy raises all boats, to much better effect than incentive-dulling redistribution. . . . But now . . . research by economists at the International Monetary Fund suggests that income inequality slows growth, causes financial crises and weakens demand. . . . A survey for the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos pointed to inequality as the most pressing problem of the coming decade (alongside fiscal imbalances).” —Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist

¶ “Reading the Bible with the eyes of the poor is a different thing from reading it with a full belly.” —Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit

Music for Holy Week. “O all you who walk by on the road, pay attention and see: / if there be any sorrow like my sorrow. / Pay attention, all people, and look at my sorrow: / if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.” —Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), "Tenebrae Responsories – 14 – O vos omnes," performed by “The Sixteen”

¶ “Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday on the nationally syndicated radio show the Thom Hartmann Program that the US is now an ‘oligarchy’ in which “unlimited political bribery” has created ‘a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.’” —Jon Schwarz, The Intercept

Old world religion. “You know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while [in situations of unequal power] the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” —5th century BCE Greek historian Thuycydides

Preach it. “Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless. Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and needy.” —Proverbs 31: 8-9, Today’s English Version

Music for Holy Week. “The Passion,” Fairouz

The State of our disunion. Noam Chomsky explains, in one sentence, how the interests of private capital undermine the public good, fostering survival-of-the-fittest ethics: “That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.”

Robin Hood in Reverse: Climate Change Takes from Poor, Gives to Rich. “A new study finds that climate change is triggering a massive reallocation of resources to the world's wealthiest countries.” —Nika Knight, Common Dreams

Call to the table. “For now I ask no more than the justice of eating.” —Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat whose death was likely ordered by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973

In our day, “poor people find themselves denigrated and demeaned in ways that shock conscience. Former South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer once likened them to stray animals one feeds at the back door. Fox ‘News’ pundit John Stossel sees them as the enemy in a battle between ‘the makers and the takers.’ Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning compares them to scavenging ‘raccoons.’ Ann Coulter says welfare creates ‘irresponsible animals.’” —columnist Leonard Pitts

Music for Holy Week. “Dido’s Lament,” from the aria “When I am laid in earth” in Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas,” performed by Alison Moyet.

If Bill Gates could find a way to spend $1 million a day, it would take him 218 years before he bounced a check. —Allison Jackson, GlobalPost

In this animated video Wesley P.P. Hall explains the root cause (a “mutant form of capitalism”) of war, poverty and terrorism in under two minutes.

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.” —Voltaire, 18th century French historian and philosopher

You don’t necessarily think of Forbes magazine (“reliable business news and financial information”) as the place to turn to for prophetic economic critique, as in Drew Hansen’s “Unless It Changes, Capitalism Will Starve Humanity By 2050.”

And then there’s this, from Bloomberg News, crystal ball for the one-percenters and their wannabees. “Goldman Sachs Says It May Be Forced to Fundamentally Question How Capitalism Is Working.” —Joe Weisenthal

Altar call. "Nobody gets to heaven without a letter of reference from the poor." —Rev. Dr. James Forbes

Music for Holy Week. “Golgotha,” Logos Music.

¶ "There are two modes of invading private property; the first, by which the poor plunder the rich . . . sudden and violent; the second, by which the rich plunder the poor, slow and legal." —John Taylor, "An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States" (1814)

What can I do, you may ask, about economic inequality? Maybe the first place to start is to transfer some part of your savings or retirement funds (however meager) into community investing, in community development banks or microlending organizations. Get your congregation to do this, too. And lobby your denominational body (or labor union or civic club or university) to do the same. —Read the “Resolution in support of community investing: Putting a portion of household, congregational and denominational money where our mouths are.” At the end of that article are brief stories about two congregations’ choice to do this.

Benediction. “Lo, I Am With You,” John Bell, performed by the Wild Goose Worship Group.

Recessional. One day we’ll have Easter Sunday recessionals like this.

Lectionary for Sunday next. “But Mary stood weeping, weeping, weeping, outside the tomb.” —see Ken Sehested’s “Choral reading of John 20:1-18," a script of John’s resurrection account for 8 voices”

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

• “Refuge in the shadow,” a collection of Scripture for Holy Week, on "darkness" and "shadow" as the place of God's abiding presence

• “Choral reading of John 20:1-18,” a script of John’s resurrection account for 8 voices

 • “Resolution in support of community investing: Putting a portion of household, congregational and denominational money where our mouths are.” Something you can do to rebuild a holy economy.

• “Come to the Waters: Litany of Confession and Pardon,” inspired by Isaiah 55

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at klsehested@gmail.com.

 

Who gonna’ roll that stone?

Easter sermon

Easter morning, Sunday 24 April 2011
Marion Correctional Institution
(maximum security prison for men)
Text: John 20:1-18

by Ken Sehested

        It was still dark when Mary Magdalene crept away from her home, down the street, up into the garden to where Jesus had been buried two days before. Joseph of Arimathea had bravely volunteered to take Jesus’ body away from the Golgotha killing ground. Nicodemus, with whom Jesus had earlier met secretly at night, also came to the burial place, bringing traditional ointments and spices to retard the smell of a decomposing body, along with linen, the customary burial garment of the time.

        No one—not Joseph, nor Nicodemus, not the disciples, nor even the women, who at that point had been the most courageous of any of Jesus’ followers, certainly not the high priest or Pilate or the Roman soldiers—no one expected Jesus to survive. Empty tombs don’t tell no lie; but who gonna’ roll that stone?

        But just in case Jesus’ followers tried to pull a fast one, to come and steal his body and make some ridiculous claims about being resuscitated, the authorities posted armed guards. And, to make double-sure, the placed a boulder over the entrance of the tomb. Stones like that don’t roll away. Threats like Jesus don’t get away. That’s what the authorities teach us to think.

        Empty tombs don’t tell no lie; but who gonna’ roll that stone?

        In each of the four Gospel accounts it is the women who first risk the venture out from behind locked doors to go and care for Jesus’ body, just like they were the only ones who stayed with Jesus on the cross until the bitter end. The men-folk were too scared. And—get this—the women were the first to encounter our Resurrected Lord. Great God Almighty! They became the first evangelists!

        Reminds me of the speech by Sojourner Truth, the 19th century woman born a slave who later became one of the greatest anti-slavery advocates in the country.

“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

“Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? I said, where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.”

        In John’s resurrection story, Mary Magdalene is alone when she comes to the garden. Some scholars think she is the same as Mary of Bethany, brother of Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead. But the text is clear that it was this same Mary that, earlier in John’s Gospel, that anointed Jesus’ feet with costly perfume. It was the kind of anointing given to royalty, usually in the presence of a king, staged in the palace by a high-ranking religious official, probably in the company of a legion of Rome’s elite feared soldiers. But in this case it was only a peasant, in an ordinary house. And a mere woman at that! A woman who had no place being in the public company of men.

        Ah . . . but ain’t I a woman. “And in my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me.”

        Empty tombs don’t tell no lie; but who gonna’ roll that stone?

        Listen with the ears of your heart to this story, to the footsteps of Mary Magdalene sneaking up to the garden tomb under the cover of darkness—the same darkness that hovered over Egypt as the slaves escaped. Can you hear the angels singing that more modern slave song: “O, Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn. Oh, Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn. Pharaoh’s army got drown-ded. Oh, Mary don’t you weep.”

        Can you hear it? Empty tombs don’t tell no lie; but who gonna’ roll that stone? Or maybe it’s Mary you hear, singing that Gospel tune:

        “I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses.

        “And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.

        Empty tombs don’t tell no lie; but who gonna’ roll that stone?

§  §  §

        A few years ago I was working as a stone mason. I got a job doing what’s called a “dry stack” wall, which means you don’t use any mortar. It takes a lot more skill to dry stack a rock wall. You have to match the stone shapes more carefully, and make sure you use gravity to keep them in place.

        This particular job was especially difficult because I had to actually cut a walkway about half-way up along a steep hill. Just standing up was hard enough, while using a pick and shovel to clear a level path for the base of the retaining wall. On top of that I had to lug 50-100 pound rocks up that hill and try to keep them in place just behind me, or just above, as I cleared the path a step or two at a time.

        I had a lot of rocks go tumbling down that hill. Gravity is a powerful force! Like water, rocks are always trying to go downhill, as if they’re trying to go back to the place where they came from.

        In the same way, those rocks are always trying to get back down in front of that tomb, to seal it up,

      •to keep Jesus from rising up,

      •to tear the heart out of the resurrection story,

      •to keep Mary from her rendezvous with the Lord,

      •to keep the disciples hidden behind closed doors and shivering in fear,

      •to halt the sun’s rising on Easter Morning!

      Is there a stone in front of your life, sealing up your hope for resurrection? Are you still wrapped in the linen of the dead, no way to breathe, no way to sing about “Up From the Grave He Arose”? No way to venture out in the darkest hour just before dawn to join Mary in her walk with the resurrected Christ? No way to sing about the “joy we share as we tarry there”?

        And it continues to happen, even up to this day: the stones of the world keep rolling back in place to keep us in the tombs of our self-centered ways and our violent days. To keep the grave sealed on our anger and rage, steeled in the cell of embittering gaze?

        Empty tombs don’t tell no lie; but who gonna’ roll that stone?

§  §  §

        The circus was coming to town. Before each stop on their travels, an advance team would show up first to do promotion and advertising. One person in that advance team was a high-wire acrobat. A wire was strung fronm one tall building to another. All the media was alerted: “Come see this death-defying act!” It always guaranteed a lot of free publicity for the big tent that would soon arrive, with its elephants and clowns and cotton-candy and sometimes lions and tigers, too.

        The acrobat would first walk the wire with a long balancing poll. The gathering crowd politely applauded. Then he put aside the pole and walked the wire, suspending high over the hard pavement below, with no safety net and nothing but his sheer skill and balance. This time the applause was more hearty.

        Then he announced that he would now push a wheelbarrow across the wire; and after several tense moments, when it appeared he might lose his balance and fall to the street below, he finally made it safely to the rooftop across the way. By now the assembled crowd was cheering wildly.

        After quieting the crowd, which by this time had gotten very large, he shouted down: “Do any of you think I can put someone in my wheelbarrow and roll it across to the other side?”

        The crowd went nuts. SURE! Yes! Of course!! Everybody wanted to see such a spectacle like that.

        Then, when the shouts of encouragement finally died down, the acrobat looked down and said, “Do I have any volunteers?”

        Dead silence. The cheers were gone. Everyone is thinking, “I want to see someone else do that. But not me.”

        Brothers and sisters, Easter morning is not just for pleasant conversation with the Risen Christ, “while the dew is still on the roses.” Yes, “he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.”

        But what does it mean to be among Christ’s “own”? What does it mean to belong to Jesus, to walk and talk with him. To hear the promise of mercy and grace which he offers. To know that his arms are large enough even to carry your failures, your broken heart, even your prison sentences? What does it mean to know that no stone is too large that it can’t be rolled away? Or to hear Jesus sing out, “Ain’t no grave can hold my body down”?

        What do these things mean? Is it more than a pleasant garden stroll lit by the sun’s early rays? Is it more than rubbing shoulders with the Son of God? Maybe a picnic breakfast, with the Holy Spirit frying up some potatoes and bacon—or cheese grits, if that’s what you prefer? Scrambling some eggs, offering hot biscuits right out of the oven slathered in butter and a whole row of jellies and jams? Maybe a delicious pastry and a little fresh fruit on the side? With plenty of strong coffee and all the cream and sugar you need? And the angel choir hovering overhead, singing “Up From the Grave He Arose”?

        And you can get seconds, even thirds, if you’ve worked up a good appetite.

        Makes me hungry just thinking about that feast.

        But I don’t think that’s what it mean to be claimed by Jesus, to be considered among his own. To be paroled from jail and go directly to the streets of gold. To have St. Peter ready to open those pearly gates, and bring out the party hats, the moment he sees you coming, one of the prodigal sons returning home.

        No, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that’s not it. Nope—it’s something else, something else altogether to being claimed by Christ as one of his own.

        What it means is getting in that wheelbarrow! Are you ready for that wheelbarrow? What it means is to let you life hang in the balance. To face up to the fear of falling to your death. For it will take your death, so to speak—it will take your willingness to die to your own self-centered life, to give pardon and mercy to those around you, without the expectation of return.

        Love is not something you barter to get what you want. Love is something you offer, because it is something you have received. Salvation is more than the promise of a heavenly crown. Salvation is more than a lifeboat, keeping you alive while others all around you are drowning. Salvation is jumping in to those tempestuous waters, risking your life, to save others from the raging sea.

        Your capacity to receive Christ’s pardon is directly related to your willingness to extend it to others. Otherwise, your religion is nothing more than a clanging symbol. Otherwise, your piety is a whitewashed tomb full of rot and stench and the bones of the dead.

        The promise of Easter morning’s saving sunrise hinges on a Good Friday death. You don’t get to skip over it. As we will soon witness, there is first the dying symbolized in the waters of baptism. Only then can we rise with Christ.

        Are you ready for that kind of baptism? Are you ready for that stone to roll?

        Wade in the waters, children; for God’s gonna’ trouble the waters.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Dueling psalms

A litany for Good Friday, with texts contrasting Psalms 22 and 23

by Ken Sehested

Oh LORD, you are my shepherd, I shall not want.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

You make me lie down in green pastures; You lead me beside still waters.

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.

You restore my soul and lead me in right paths for the Heaven’s Holy Namesake.

In you our ancestors trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.

Even wending through the darkest valley, I fear no evil.

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to intervene.

But the scent of Your Presence is there.

O LORD, do not be far away! O Help of the helpless, come quickly to my aid!

Your rod and Your staff — they comfort me.

On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.

My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws.

Surely goodness and mercy track my steps all the days of my life.

For the Beloved One did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted.

And I shall inhabit the house of the LORD my whole life long.

To the Ancient of Days, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before the Architect of Creation shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for this Advocate.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org