Being Followed

Have you ever had that uneasy feeling that you are being followed?
     Unfortunately these days in America that might not be a paranoid delusion! It is done by the secret police. Peaceful protesters are being literally snatched from our street and pushed into unmarked civilian cars by governmental agents. It happened in Portland and this Tuesday (the 28th of July) it was filmed here in NYC. Nikki Stone was kidnapped and detained by secret policemen in an unmarked car, allegedly for some minor infraction.
     I grew up under a totalitarian regime in central Europe and would never believe I might see anything like that in the United States. This is the stuff of hard-core nightmares. Please, don’t take it lightly! My dear late friend Rev. Diana Austin was similarly kidnapped in the 1970s by Argentinian Junta and almost did not survive and her friend Elisabeth Käsemann, a daughter of a famous German Theology Professor, was “disappeared” from Buenos Aires street and murdered in a sacred detention center.
     Plain-cloth agents kidnapping pedestrians in unmarked vehicles is NOT normal! We must not be silent, we must identify with the protestors and demonstrators. And in 96 days (from this Friday the 31st of July) we all  must go and vote and thus express our revulsion over this state of affairs. We must resist this abuse of power and at the same time we must resist fear.
     In Judaism and in the early Church there was a lovely legend that people of God escaping from Egypt were also followed on their journey across deserts from slavery to freedom. But they were not followed by any agents, they were followed by a mysterious life giving source of water. According to that legend (first ever recorded in 1Cor 10:4 and then mentioned by Philo and in Talmud) the spring of water followed them, wherever they went. And that is going to be our text and our theme this Sunday. On our journey to freedom, we are supported by a divine gift of refreshment and strength. So, do take heart! We are being followed by sweet, refreshing divine blessing. And don’t forget, in November go and vote. 

Pillars of cloud and fire

Kīlauea - a pillar of "fire" here being bent by the trade-wind.

In the book of Exodus we hear that when Moses led people of God from Egypt, on their journey to freedom and the Promised Land, they were led by God in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

            I personally saw those pillars in Hawai‘i. I saw the pillar of volcanic gases rising from the Kilauea caldera and at night the view was even more mesmerizing. That pillar of gases was shining red and orange being illuminated by the incandescence of lava lake.

            I have no doubts that was the image which biblical authors tried to describe. And it is not just another rationalistic explanation trying to explain biblical miracles. This recognition offers us several important insights.

            The first one is factual, geologic and geographic because the Bible does not describe just any volcanism. It clearly alludes to an eruption of a shield volcano. Hawaiian volcanoes are of this kind. But the same type of shield volcanoes also exists on the western side of the Arab peninsula all along the Red Sea.

            Theologians, historians and cartographers of the early 20^th century were specifically locating Biblical events at Hallat al Badr volcano in the North West Arabia, but it does not fit the time. That volcano seems older than human history. There are, nevertheless, other much younger volcanoes further south. Some of them active in historical times. One eruption and its lava flow almost destroyed Medina in the XIII century CE. Another volcano on the border with Yemen erupted as recently as 1810.

            I am not saying that Exodus took place in what is today Saudi Arabia. But I am convinced that some biblical authors had the first-hand experience with volcanism in this broader geographic area. Just think about it! At least part of our faith tradition, and the one as important as  theophany, was anchored in the broader region of Mecca and Medina as it powerfully influenced the imagination of biblical authors.

            And that is the other insight we can gain. Shield volcanism is calmer, more peaceful than destructive eruptions of stratovolcanoes (like almost proverbial Vesuvius or recent American experience with Mount Saint Helens.) Lava lakes and lava flows on lava fields last for a long time and are truly awe inspiring, especially if you get closer.

            On Kilauea I finally experienced what Rudolf Otto meant by Mysterium tremendum et fascinans (Divine mystery before which we both tremble and to which we are at the same time attracted). Before I read about it, I knew about it, I studied it. On Kilauea, I experienced it in my entire body. I witnessed pillars of cloud and fire and was forever touched and transformed by this encounter and its intersection with my biblical faith. The glowing light, the radiating heat, the volcanic smell, the deep infrasonic hardly audible rumbling all of it touched not only senses, but permeated my entire body. Now I know first hand why the biblical authors used this image.

            On our journey we are being led by awe inspiring, dangerous, yet benevolent, yes loving and protecting God. Come to rejoice in divine exodic liberation, divine presence, protection and guidance. The march to freedom continues.

A "pillar of cloud" above Halemaʻumaʻu crater in the light of the rising sun. 

Path through the sea

This week I want to invite you to a beach. Not for a swim, though, but for lessons how to walk on water.

            In the gospels we hear about Jesus walking on water. Most of the miracles Jesus performed were to help people, he healed them, he fed them, he even brought a few back from the dead.

            Walking on water appears to be one of very few ostentatious, arbitrary perhaps frivolous miracles. Nevertheless, this miracle is anything but capricious! It plays a very important role. Walking on water is a true epiphany story. Or to put it differently, the early Christian told this story to explain who Jesus was for them, to explain in a simple story his divinity. There are famous sea walking precedents, biblical and even millennia older.

            This Sunday we will rejoice in one of those earlier examples. We will actually hear about the entire community of faith following God and walking on water. And we all will be invited to follow. So this Sunday, Meet you on the beach! And don’t worry should it be choppy or even stormy, that is and has been part of the deal.     

Different take on this mytheme (myth-theme) is here in this short video - Biblical Chaoskampf.

Radical Passover Feast

An orange represents the radical nature of Seder and thus can also indirectly illuminate the radical nature of our Holy Communion.

            When our Jewish friends celebrate Passover all aspects of their Seder feast become allegories telling the story of liberation from slavery. Directly in the Bible we hear about the significance of the Passover lamb and hear explanation of the unleavened bread matzoth.

            Then after the fall of the Temple and through the Medieval times the Seder feast was developed further. Each part plays some role and has some  meaning. Maror and Chazeret are two types of bitter herbs reminding of the bitterness and harshness of the slavery. Karpas is a vegetable which is dipped into salt water or vinegar and representing the tears of slavery. Charoset is a brownish part of apples, raisins and nuts standing for the building materials used for slave labor in Egypt.

            And then in the 1980s an orange, Tapuz, was added by Dr. Susannah Heschel. She protested prejudice against Lesbian and gay members. She picked an orange for its sweetness and fruitfulness to represent LGBTQIA contributions to their communities of faith. And if the orange has seeds even the act of spitting seeds represents spitting out, rejecting, prejudice which narrows minds and attempts to limit divine grace.

            Our Christian tradition of Holy Communion, Eucharist, came exactly from the same source of the Passover feast. Jesus’ last supper was very likely a celebration of the Passover feat. In gospels you can make out some early aspects of the pointing and storytelling of when Jesus takes bread and explains and afterwards also the cup.

            The Passover feast (Seder) is a remembrance and actualization of the liberation from slavery. In our Christian permutation it became a radical program of God’s new kingdom in which no one will be enslaved by any injustice or prejudice, in which no one will be hungry and all will share freely in a radically new community. Every time we celebrate communion we enact liberation from slavery and envision Jesus’ new kingdom and the orange (Tapuz) is a beautiful reminder of its radical nature.

Mystery of the biblical narrative genre

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua Judges, Samuel, Kings - There is a great structural problem with all these Biblical books. If they were written at the time in which they want us to believe, they should have been written as epic poetry - And they were not. They were composed in prose.

           Just imagine Homer in mundane prose narrative! It would not do - it would be very strange. What is true about Greek culture is also true about other Ancient Near East literature - Gilgamesh is a poetry, the legend of Sargon is written in verse, Canaanite myths and legends are all poetry. Biblical historical narratives simply do not fit the time and genre.

           To use the Greek dating: All the historical books of the Hebrew Bible must have been written after Homer (as enigmatic as his dating might be). They must have been written from the time of Herodotus (c.484 – c.425 BCE) onward and considering their theme (Exodus and journey through Desert, or Royal Saga of David and Solomon) after Xenophon ( c. 430 – 354 BCE).

           And so, just like the oldest parts of the New Testament are not gospels but genuine letters of Paul (1Tes, Gal, 1+2 Cor, Phil, Philem, Rom) in a similar fashion the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible are not books of Moses, but some ancient prophets. Oldest recorded versions of Exodus could be preserved in Hosea, Habakkuk or Micah.

            Join us this Sunday, in July we will listen, learn and rejoice in the divine story of Exodus.