[Oe List ...] 12/17/2020, Progressing Spirit: Rev Lauren Van Ham: Getting Beyond the Usual: Giving Birth to Jesus in the 2020s; Spong revisited
Ellie Stock
elliestock at aol.com
Thu Dec 17 10:01:57 PST 2020
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Getting Beyond the Usual: Giving Birth to Jesus in the 2020s
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| Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham
December 17, 2020
ABOUT THIS ARTICLE: It’s my delight to co-author this article with one of my favorite teachers and respected colleagues, Lee Van Ham, who happens to be my Dad. There are 3 parts of Jesus’s birth story that we want to open here, like gifts. There are many parts of this story that, once unwrapped, hold great truth and importance including dreams, angels and what was going on for Joseph. But we’re exercising restraint and talking only about a radical genealogy, a surprise economist, and behaving unusually. If you’d like to learn more, please consider reading Lee’s book which was reviewed here.
LEE:
The prevailing story of America includes phrases like “land of opportunity” and “living the American Dream.” But increasingly we’re coming to understand that this country was born in the genocide of people who already lived here. They loved this land. The economy was built on enslaving Africans forcibly trafficked to this country. First Nations peoples and Chinese immigrants were also forced into servitude. The true story of America is male and white dominated; women have to fight for similar status; the same goes for Latinx. Religion has more often reinforced the prevailing story and continues to do so. But the story we’re about to get into challenges it with an alternative narrative of life.
The story of America is generically true of all the superpowers of history. Rome’s story in the first century spoke of the “glory that is Rome” and the “Pax Romana” or Roman Peace. It was a peace that kept the Mediterranean world controlled in law and order. But slavery prevailed. Women could not vote or hold office. Seething resentment of many Jews toward Rome erupted in open warfare throughout the first century until Rome’s army finally went into Jerusalem and ruthlessly obliterated it in 70C.E. The vaunted Roman Peace was acquiescence forced by military might. It was not a peace of goodwill for all.
LAUREN:
Does any of this sound familiar?
LEE:
These superpower stories provide the living contrast for what Matthew and Luke have given us. They wrote around 85C.E. about the contrast societies, or churches, created by followers of Jesus. Throughout the Roman Empire, these groups formed with people who felt called out of superpower ways. Women and men were liberated, so too slaves and slaveholders; and it mattered not whether you were Jew or Greek. A whole different story was being lived by these people right in the middle of the superpower. Where did this story come from? The answer to that question lies in the stories of Jesus as told by Matthew and Luke, beginning with the birth stories.
Matthew starts right off with a genealogy of this birth that echoes the many genealogies in the book of Genesis and its creation story. Matthew tells us of a new creation—one radically different from what Rome had created. He begins with an abbreviated genealogy that boldly breaks precedent by including four women—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba. All are outsiders, meaning not Jews. All use their erotic power to subvert the forces of patriarchy, male dominance, and superpower ways.
I’m guessing, Lauren, that many of our readers may well have thought the first 17 verses of Matthew were a boring list of names. It’s easy to miss how revolutionary they are, and how they set the stage for a birth that’s all about liberation from superpower living. The women set the stage for Mary and Joseph as they break the strong social norms that would have put Mary on the street in order for Joseph to preserve his image. This is the story we need today, not because we can change the superpower story. But for a much better reason. We can live a better alternative to it, one that an oppressed Earth and her oppressed people cry out for and die for. This alternative has a really different economy from the endless growth economy that dominates economic orthodoxy today. The “economist” in Luke’s story comes as a surprise.
LAUREN:
It’s Mary! Mary (another woman who was in a scandalous, erotic relationship with a man, Joseph) is oppressed by Rome’s culture and power… until she is freed by a visit with Spirit where she receives a life-changing download, and a new economic manifesto. So infused is Mary, with this new worldview, that she simply gestates (yes) for a time until it is word ripe.
Have you experienced this in your spiritual evolution – a moment when something True rearranged you and needed time to find its voice?
With phrases reserved to address the Roman Emperor like, “Mighty One,” Mary describes her role within God’s creation. She speaks poetically of how Creation insists upon sharing, reciprocity, equality, and enough-ness:
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
(Luke 1:52-54, NRSV)
There’s a reason why artists and musicians have lifted up Mary’s words as the “Magnificat.” Right now, as we ponder a “Just Recovery” from the pandemic, and ask Congress for a “Just Transition” away from fossil fuel addiction toward renewable energy, as we march for Reparations, Police Reform, and Land Return, Mary’s economic instructions define “justice,” “generosity,” “inclusion.”
LEE:
Turning toward Mary’s economics means we need to recognize that it differs from growth economics, but also that such turning is toward justice for all beings of the planet. And it seems to me that now Earth is requiring this kind of turning from us, even though mainstream systems are still largely resisting such turning.
LAUREN:
It’s true. But we know this didn’t bother Jesus much, nor Matthew or Luke. When we look closely, we begin to see many (MANY!) examples of Mary’s economy that thrive and even support our communities today. In what ways will we center our personal economies in these alternative spaces -- the ones that create Mary’s economy?
Together, Jesus, Mary and Joseph created the (un)holy family which was, perhaps, not so different from the families we’re all participating in now -- work-arounds and detours, included. When work-arounds are born from love and inclusion, and when detours are the result of resisting dominant hierarchies, we begin to recognize when, how and which Spirit is infusing our lives. Lee, share some more about the Spirit.
LEE:
Luke, a Gentile, like his Jewish contemporary Matthew, lets us know from the start that he’s writing about the new creation being practiced in the contrast societies, or churches. But instead of genealogy, Luke introduces the Holy Spirit as an energy with enormous power to change society’s usual ways into the unusual. Zechariah, the priest, and Elizabeth, his wife — devout people in the respected, usual ways — experienced this special Spirit. Zechariah was told this Spirit would be upon his son even in Elizabeth’s womb. Then, six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, her cousin Mary arrives at her house. Immediately, Elizabeth greets her, not in her usual voice, but with an unusually, Spirit-filled, loud cry followed by poetic words about her babe leaping in her womb. Whereupon, Mary – as Lauren just referenced – breaks into some more unusual poetic speech about what the babe in her womb will accomplish in life. Later, Zechariah and Elizabeth break society’s norms in their son’s naming ceremony, and soon after Zechariah breaks into words about the unusual mission their son will have.
Luke’s opening chapter has one incident of Holy Spirit after another. Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary all experience their usual being overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, upon which their lives become filled with the unusual. New creation is happening by the same Spirit that brooded over the chaos in Genesis 1 and brought forth an amazing creation.
LAUREN:
What role do we play now in bringing forth a story that embraces creation instead of acquiescing, normalizing or perpetuating our flawed and unjust systems?
I think it’s really important that we recognize ourselves in the lives and experiences of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph. Like us, they were going about their lives, in varying states of comfort and despair, until they were visited by, in Lee’s words, the unusual. The same Spirit can and wants to visit us today. This is not the spirit of our institutions, nations or advertising – those spirits are real and hugely occupying, but Luke wants us to welcome the Spirit that keeps nudging us. Are we open to it? In many instances, our tools of perception have grown dull – we write something off as a “coincidence;” we ignore the ache in our stomach, or we silence the Truth that’s on the tip or our tongue. Our over-reliance on screens, news and technology depletes our ability to perceive with our souls and other senses. But this Spirit is determined to break us into the New Creation. Luke and Matthew urge us to leave the “usual,” and to show up differently. 2021 is asking this of us, too!
LEE:
Notice how Luke contrasts the powers of Holy Spirit with what is happening under Jewish and Roman rule during the reign of Herod. The story he is about to tell, Luke emphasizes, happened while Herod, the great dark lord of Judea, was king. Imagine the spirit of the land under Herod’s rule. It was like the rule of dark lords today that oppress us and suppress truth, science, women, and basic help for those who hurt the most — even while these dark lords claim narratives of greatness and high-mindedness. In such circumstances, our spirits are drained from our lives, and all the while the spirit of the powers moves across the populace and destroys the ecology of our land. Luke’s story boldly proclaims that into this hurt, chaos and fragmentation comes a mighty Spirit from the cosmos. She dwarfs the powers of all other spirits, mighty though they seem, depressing as they are. People utter speech that is unusual by society’s standards, babes are born through unusual circumstances. The narrative that the powers have insisted upon as historical truth is burst apart with a creation born in the cosmos and delivered by the Spirit! How can this Spirit be called anything other than holy? She is sacred. She is whole. And where other spirits have split and splintered the world, she delivers a oneness that reaffirms the interdependence of all beings — a treasure smeared throughout our cosmos and the new creation our Earth yearns for.
LAUREN:
And THIS is the liberation that comes through the birth of Jesus – a liberation empowering us to address the crises of today. It is only liberating, though, if we allow ourselves to live it out. In the words of Meister Eckhart (1260-1328):
We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal
birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within
myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full
of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do
not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness
of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us.
Thank you, Lee, for sharing with me in these thoughts and ideas. Let’s all be on the look-out for the unusual. And let’s embrace the new creation in this new year!!
~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham
Read online here
About the Authors
Rev. Lauren Van Ham was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare and corporate settings. Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lee Van Ham directs a U.S.-Mexico nonprofit, Jubilee Economics, focused in OneEarth living. Born to a bilingual, tenant-farming family in Iowa, he pastored in the Midwest for 32 years before switching to work explicitly on the interplay between ecology, spirituality, and economics. He and his spouse, Juanita relocated from Chicago to San Diego in 2002, where they live within ten minutes of their grandchildren, who are a big part of their lives.
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Question & Answer
Q: By Jennie
How do we really know what Jesus said? They get so much wrong. Is it not a house of cards?
A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong
Dear Jennie,
It is not easy to determine what Jesus actually said or did, but I believe it is more substantial than a house of cards. Probably the reason traditional Catholics and evangelical Protestant fundamentalists try to literalize the Bible is that they recognize how fragile their grasp on truth really is and, unable to be secure in that fragility, they make incredible claims for the literal words of scripture or for the teaching authority of the church. Literalism in any form is little more than pious hysteria.
The problems are that we have nothing in writing from the time Jesus lived. The earliest material in the New Testament would be Paul's Epistles, written 20-34 years after the crucifixion and by a man who did not know the human Jesus. Paul's conversion is dated some one to six years after the crucifixion. From Paul we learn that Jesus was crucified, that he introduced the Lord's Supper and that he was perceived as alive in some way following the crucifixion and little more.
The gospels are written between 70 at the earliest (Mark) and 100 at the latest (John). Yet all four gospels reveal the impact of this Jesus on a variety of people. The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar spent more than a decade going over everything that the four gospels record Jesus as ever having said. When they completed this study, they determined that no more than 16% of the sayings of Jesus are authentic to the man Jesus which, of course, means that some 84% of the sayings attributed to Jesus are not historically accurate. The Seminar did not find a single word attributed to Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (John) to be authentic. The Jesus of John's gospel speaks to the concerns of the Christian Church near the end of the first century, not the literal words of a man of history.
I think I can demonstrate that all four of the gospel writers knew they were not writing either history or biography. Each was interpreting Jesus in the context of their relationship with the Synagogue and their time in history, most especially following the Jewish-Roman War when in 70 CE the city of Jerusalem was leveled by the Roman invaders.
If we looked at the gospels as portraits of Jesus painted by the second or even third generation of Christians and not as photographs or tape recordings capturing his exact deeds and words, I think we would be closer to the truth.
I believe the gospels give us insight into the impact of a man of history and they open the doors for an exploration into the mystery and wonders of God. That is why I treasure them.
~ John Shelby Spong
December 11, 2008
Read and share online here
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Thank God for Religious Diversity
Thursday marked the beginning of the Hanukkah, the Jewish celebration of the rededication of the Temple after the Maccabean revolt. Christmas and Hanukkah are just two of many religious celebrations that occur this time of year. For Progressive Christians, the diversity of religious celebrations is a great reminder of our respect for other religious traditions. In fact, at ProgressiveChristianity.org we have 8 points—or values—that help to define what it means to be a Progressive Christian.
Point 2 reads:
Affirm that the teachings of Jesus provide but one of many ways to experience “God,” the Sacredness, Oneness and Unity of life, and that we can draw from diverse sources of wisdom, including Earth, in our spiritual journey.
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
The Origins of the New Testament, Part XXI:
Introducing the Gospel of Matthew
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
April 29, 2010
The second gospel to be written is called Matthew. It made its debut into the world a decade or so after Mark, which would date it in the 82-85 CE range. Matthew’s gospel was heavily dependent on Mark; indeed he incorporated about 90% of Mark into his text with many of these quotations being verbatim. A revealing insight into the mind of this second gospel writer can be gained by analyzing the parts of Mark that Matthew omitted, but that is beyond the scope of this study. One only has to read a book called Gospel Parallels published by Thomas Nelson Co., to become aware of exactly what these omissions are. It is clear that Matthew bends Mark’s message toward a more traditional Jewish perspective.
Who was Matthew? The early church tradition that linked this gospel with Levi Matthew, the tax collector, is today generally discredited. This gospel was written originally in Greek, indeed a better Greek than that which appears in Mark. A Jewish follower who sold his services as a tax collector to the unclean Gentiles would hardly have been expected to have the educational and scriptural background that is revealed in this book. This gospel also displays a rather sophisticated theological perspective, probably only second to that of John among the gospel writers. We have no reason to believe that any of the twelve were educated or learned men and this would certainly be true of one called Levi-Matthew.
>From internal evidence we can discern that the author appears to be the leader of a synagogue, which followed the liturgical patterns and observed the high holy days of the ongoing Jewish tradition. Whoever the author was he had a deep knowledge of and appreciation for the Jewish Scriptures as well as the historic Jewish expectation that the messiah would come to and for the Jews. When we analyze the editing of the text of Mark’s gospel, from which he copies so freely, we discover that he is prone to remove from Mark things that might offend the Jews. Some scholars have even suggested that he wrote an autobiographical note into his text when he told the brief parable of the householder (Mark 13:51-52). Here he wrote: “Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Matthew was clearly dedicated to preserving what was old.
Matthew at the same time adds a number of things to the developing Christian tradition. Most people do not know the gospels well enough to distinguish what parts of the Jesus story are added by each gospel writer. To make us aware of Matthew’s unique contributions, we need to note that this is the first gospel to introduce a genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:1-17) that begins with Abraham and journeys through the high points of Jewish history to King David, then through the kings of the House of David to the Babylonian Exile and finally to the life of Jesus. Luke, writing 10-15 years after Matthew, also gives us a genealogy but he goes backward from Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, all the way to Adam, the father of all human life. In many details we need to note that these two biblical genealogies are very different and cannot be reconciled. They differ first on who Joseph’s father was. Was it Jacob, as Matthew asserts, or Heli (Eli) as Luke contends? Did Jesus’ line flow through the royal house of kings from David to Solomon to Rehoboam as Matthew states or did it avoid royalty altogether by going from King David to Nathan and skipping all of the Judean kings as Luke states? Luke’s genealogy also includes many more generations than Matthew. They cannot both be accurate. The consensus of the scholars is that neither is accurate. There are other distinctions between the two ancestral lists, but that is enough to make the point of their radical incompatibility. Biblical literalists generally simply ignore these differences hoping that no one will notice.
Matthew is also the first person to introduce any account of Jesus’ miraculous birth into the developing traditions. Once again, Luke, writing 10-15 years after Matthew, also tells us a virgin birth story, but it is quite different from the one in Matthew. Only in Matthew do we have an account of a star in the east and magi who followed that star bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child. Only Matthew involves King Herod in the birth narrative, both by having him give the magi directions to Bethlehem, and later developing the account of Herod sending his soldiers to slaughter all the Jewish boy babies in a vain attempt to wipe out the presumed threat to his throne. Only Matthew has the holy family flee to Egypt to escape this murderous wrath of Herod and then to return to their home in Bethlehem after Herod’s death. Later, God was said to have warned Joseph in a dream about the continuing danger represented by Herod’s son, who was now on the throne, and directed him to take the child to the safety of Galilee in order for Jesus to grow up in the village of Nazareth. In each of these episodes in Matthew’s birth story, he makes the claim that these maneuvers occurred “in order to fulfill the scriptures,” by which he always meant the messianic expectations of the Jewish scriptures. Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Matthew says it was to fulfill the expectations of Micah (5:2) that the messiah must be born in the city of David’s birth in order to demonstrate that he was the direct heir to David’s throne. Why was Jesus born of a virgin? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill a text from Isaiah (7:14), which interestingly enough does not have the word virgin in it. Why did Herod slaughter the male babies of Bethlehem? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill a text in Jeremiah (31:15) that spoke of Rachel weeping for her children who were lost. Why did Mary, Joseph and the child flee to Egypt? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill the words of Hosea (11:1) that “out of Egypt have I called my son.” Why did Jesus move to and grow up in Nazareth? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill a prophecy that he would be called a Nazarene, but we have no idea which prophetic text it was to which Matthew was referring!
Were any of these particular texts being properly used by this author? If we are speaking literally, not one of them was! Indeed they are not even close! Micah was referring to a Davidic messiah coming out of Bethlehem who would restore the fortunes of the Jews. In all probability Jesus was born in Nazareth. The first gospel, Mark, assumes that. In Isaiah 7:14, the prophet was referring to a birth in the royal family that would be a sign that Jerusalem would not fall to the foreign armies of Kings Pekah and Resin that were surrounding the holy city as Isaiah wrote. He was certainly not referring to an event 700 years in the future. Jeremiah was referring to Rachel, the tribal mother of the Northern Kingdom, weeping for her children who were lost to the Assyrians when they conquered the Northern Kingdom in 721 BCE. Hosea was referring to the Exodus in which God called his people out of slavery in Egypt, not to a trip of safety engineered by Joseph for Jesus centuries later. Finally, we know of no expectation that messiah will be related to Nazareth. The fact is that Matthew quoted scripture in a fast and loose way.
Matthew was also the first gospel writer to give content to the story of the temptations in the wilderness. Mark had only said that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days being tempted. Matthew spells out the content of each of the three temptations and recorded Jesus’ response to each.
To the surprise of many when they first hear it said, Matthew is the only gospel to record Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount. Luke scatters some of the Sermon on the Mount material throughout his gospel, but only Matthew pulls it together in the form that we know best.
Parables unique to Matthew include the parable of the weeds (13:24-30) and its interpretation (13:36-43); the parable of the hidden treasure and the “pearl of great price” (13:44-46); the parable of the net (13:47-50); the parable of the unmerciful servant (18:23-25); the parable of the wise and foolish maidens (25:1-13), and the parable of the Judgment where the sheep are separated from the goats (25:31-46).
When we come to the narrative of the final events in Jesus’ life, Matthew adds the unique notes that the betrayal by Judas was for thirty pieces of silver and that Judas hurled that money back into the Temple when he repented of his deed. Matthew alone tells us that Judas then went and hanged himself. Matthew is also the first gospel writer to portray Jesus as appearing to the disciples in Galilee following the resurrection. He said this appearance occurred on a mountain top and in this narrative we have the first occasion that the risen Jesus was quoted as saying anything to anyone. Those words you may recall are what we now call the “Great Commission.” Go into all the world. There is no Pentecost moment in Matthew, but only the promise that Jesus is “Emmanuel” which means “God with us,” “Lo, I am with you always” is as close to the coming of the Holy Spirit as Matthew gets.
I believe it is necessary to absorb these special Matthean touches before we can begin to put this gospel into an interpretive context. For now, I ask you simply to embrace these special Matthew contributions to the developing Christian story. Try to isolate Matthew’s point of view as it is revealed in his additions to the story. Then we will begin the process of penetrating the mind of this writer of the second gospel in order to discern just how he perceived Jesus. To that story we will turn next.
~ John Shelby Spong
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