Sun City Dream

Dreams, hopes and aspirations can get crushed, but they never really go away! The divine spirit of peace and justice is unquenchable. A marvelous example of this reality is preserved in the place where people would least look for it, in the book of Revelation and in ancient Anatolia (today’s Turkey).
    When in year 133 BCE the last king of Pergamon Atallus III bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans, a local man named Aristonicus claimed the throne and initiated an uprising of the surrounding population. Instead of being subjugated to the expanding Roman Empire as expendable serfs, Aristonicus promised to his follower citizenship in Heliopolis (city/state of Sun).
    His movement attracted large following especially among peasant and urban poor in broader western and central Anatolia (modern day Turkey). But before they progressed in making their dreams reality, their experiment was crushed by Roman legions. Aristonicus was captured, paraded in Rome and executed by Roman Consul in 130 BCE.
    It might appear that the dream of the Sun City was extinguished and completely forgotten. But two hundred years later it appeared again in the very same geographic area. Again it was associated with the Roman persecution of a social and religious movement, this time Christian. A dream of Heliopolis appeared again in a vision of the New Jerusalem basking in the direct and never-ending sunshine of the divine (there will be no night there).
    The Revelation is probably the least understood of all the biblical writings. Fundamentalists of all different stripes take it literally and abuse it to instill fear. That is the very opposite of its original intention. The message intended to bring encouragement in the middle of persecution and an invitation to dream about an alternative, better, more harmonious sunshine divine world.
    When people forget to dream, it is the most tragic thing that can happen. When they take the gray drudgery and often abusive reality of their everyday lives as the only possible and imaginable reality and option it is the saddest sight. The last two chapters of the Book of Revelation inspire and invite to dream. Come this Sunday to dream the Sun City dreams.

A vlog (video-blog) is present here https://youtu.be/nD2mGBU1rnI

Festival of (Bio)diversity

How would you feel if someone called you a pest or garden weed?
     I would certainly feel offended, put down, denigrated. But such name calling might be more sinister than just that. These labels can also indicate serious threat. Totalitarian regimes are known for using these kinds of expressions and metaphors to single out individuals and groups of people they do not like and consider enemies. These kinds of horrid farming metaphors have facilitated and justified ostracism, persecution, and even genocide, just remember the Nazi or the Balkan ethnic cleansing and its vocabulary of weeding out those they considered heterogeneous. We can also consider the very local Committee on Un-American Activities, somehow milder but with quite strange aftertaste!
     But wait a moment. Pest and weed are considered abusive labels only because we all have accepted and internalized a narrow and self-serving perspective of farmers. Ask pre-agricultural hunter gatherers about pests and weeds and they would not know what we are talking about. Ask modern biologists and environmental scientists about the weeds and pests and they will be in seven heaven. They like least of all monocultures - those miles upon miles of identical (often genetically modified!) crops of industrialized farming.
     Our agro-industry became so effective in suppressing all the pests and weeds that it threatens to exterminate them all while simultaneously polluting water, soil, air, and even the very food it produces. It seriously compromises biodiversity of our countryside and harms our environment and subsequently all of us. For biologists and environmentalists pests and weeds are not swear words, but sweet words. They are positive signs of nature fighting back, trying to preserve and expand natural biodiversity.
     This importance, beauty and deep significance of biodiversity is only slowly being discovered and appreciated by modern science. Thousands of years ago Jesus pointed it out to his disciples and followers. This Earth Day Sunday we will uncover and celebrate the deep and conjoined roots of social and eco-justice and celebrate a (bio)diversity festival.

Pirates of the Galilean

In Sunday sermons, and even greater depth in our Sunday morning bible classes, we have been engaging in cutting edge biblical theology. In the field of New Testament scholarship it has been called the Third Quest for the Historical Jesus. In the last decade or so biblical scholarship has substantially changed our understanding of Jesus and his time. It is an exiting time, because this scholarship supports the social stands of our congregation and can further integrate social justice advocacy with most recent theological scholarship. Even a common image of Jesus on a fishing boat can suddenly convey a quite radical social message.
 
Do you know that there was a naval battle in ancient Galilee between Jews and Romans?
        Josphus Flavious reports this event in his book De bello Judaico (Jewish War III.10 [497-515]). He describes how in the year 67 C.E. the Romans captured the fortified city of Tarichess (also known as Magdala). He relates how some of the Jewish resistance fighters escaped in boats on the Galilean lake and how the Romans chased them down the next day and defeated them in the first but last known Galilean naval battle. Josphus attributes the Roman victory to their superior ships, while the boats of the Jewish resistant fighters were, according to him, good only for piracy.
        This mention of piracy could be considered just a standard schematic denunciation of any sea-born opposition. One can hardly envision any true piracy on a lake, because you can easily see from shore to shore. On the other hand this inadvertent remark could be quite close to reality and interestingly illuminate Jesus’ life and ministry.
        In year 1986, two brothers - Moshe and Yuval Lufan - discovered the remains of an ancient boat in the Galilean lake near modern Migdal (ancient Magdala). The boat rested in shallow water and had been covered and preserved by mud since the first century C.E. It was retrieved and painstakingly reconstructed and now is on display in the museum of Kibbutz Ginossar. 
       The boat was about 27 feet long and 7.5 feet wide. It carried five crew members, in addition, it could carry about a ton of cargo or ten passengers. The boat's bottom was nearly flat, permitting it to be used close to the shore. It could also easily land and be pulled out of water on shore - all properties sought after by fishermen and pirates alike, giving them opportunity to embark and disembark, to appear and disappear almost anywhere along the shore. One more detail was interesting: the boat was patched together from fourteen different kinds of wood and most of it was reused - salvaged from other older boats. Evidently in the first century even the ship owners lived under severe economic pressure.
       Now think about Jesus. He called fishermen as his disciples, preaching from their boats moored by the shore, appearing in villages and towns around the lake, embarking and disembarking along the shore, often on the deserted places. You cannot avoid thinking he was escaping across the lake, crisscrossing the lake often by night. I am not implying he was a leader of any true pirates who robbed other impoverished fishermen and struggling merchants. Jesus was someone much more glorious and dangerous at the same time. He was a preacher and healer with a message of the kingdom of God, with an incendiary message of a new order built on abundance found in sharing, plentiful divine grace, stigma lifting healing, peace and the justice of God. He was reconnecting impoverished, dispossessed, alienated people, offering them acceptance, restoring their self esteem and their integrity and bringing them hope.
      The economically stressed and disenfranchised fishermen recognized this otherworldly grace. They allowed him in their boats, they let him preach from their boats, they offered him the skills and protection of old salts. It wasn’t just a regular piracy, it was an intellectual, spiritual, gospel driven piracy, the most noble, gentlemanlike piracy. This is a piracy which is still needed even two thousand years on, desperately needed on our noodle-shaped island and along the Hudson Bay shores. People still need to hear and experience feeding of multitudes, gaining liberation and healing from political and financial oppression, liberation from evil spirits of selfishness, greed, negativity, vindictiveness, etc. We still need to bond against the powers of destruction in the name of divine grace. On Sunday mornings in bible classes and in worship we continue in this subversive quest for justice, peace and healing.
 
A Quiz Question: In a sermon and in several bible classes I have mentioned tangentially that fish from the Lake of Galilee were processed in coastal towns on an industrial scale. What was the major product and export article of this Galilean fish industry? You can give me any ancient name of this article or even only its description. Please send me answers to  astehlik@rutgerschurch.org .

A chart of the different kinds of wood used in this ancient boat. The boat was clearly repaired several times and at times with a reclaimed wood. This further underlines reality of a financially depressed fishermen.  

This article was published in Renewal - Rutgers Presbyterian Church Newsletter in Spring 2010.

Was Jesus censored?

Did the biblical evangelist or early followers censor Jesus or misrepresent him? It certainly might look like it, when you consider the great number of gospels and their fragments which never made it into the Bible. Some of them are as old as the Biblical writings and many of them containing almost certainly authentic stories about Jesus or his pronouncements and his teaching.
    For instance one of the oldest surviving Biblical manuscripts which is now kept (and treasured) in the Cambridge University Library (Codex Bezae) mentions a story unrecorded by any other biblical version or manuscript: Jesus noticed someone who was working on the Sabbath day, and he said to him: Man! If you know what you are doing, you are blessed. But if you don’t know, you are damned and a transgressor of the Law. In our Bibles this story belongs between Luke 6:4 and 6:5. There are a great number of similar and even more enigmatic and surprising sayings which never made it into the official Bible and we will be talking about them this Sunday.
    So, was Jesus censored or misrepresented by his early followers and evangelists? This question itself is an example of anachronistic misunderstanding. Such a notion would come only later with the appetite for control from the power-obsessed Church, an attitude which has been perfected by the bible thumping American fundamentalists. 
    Evangelists were writing what they thought important for spiritual orientation, but it never crossed their minds that it was the ultimate spiritual authoritative text. In the evangelist John’s own words (The original closing colophon: Of course, I didn’t record in this book all remarkable things which Jesus did. But what I have recorded I recorded so that you may be convinced that Jesus is the Chosen One/Messiah, the Son of God, and if you put your trust in him, you will have fulness of life. John 20:30ff) he did not attempt to give an exhaustive account of Jesus’ life and teaching. Gospels were meant to be invitations, open doors to Christian faith and Christian life. Like so many important aspects of life, Christian faith does not have any ultimate textbook or manual; it cannot be learned and fully understood from any books. Thankfully faith is to be lived in a community and all (including YOU) are invited and welcomed into this shared quest for the fullness of life.

Facsimile from the Codex Bezae of the insertion of the Sabbath Work Agraphon, first in Greek and below in Latin. Context places this insertion clearly after Luke 6:4 and not after 6:5 as many sources indicate. 

Subversive Jesus

Was Jesus subversive? I am convinced he was!

He was tried, condemned and executed in the same way as dangerous rebels against the imperial and religious status quo.

       He was crucified by the Roman Imperial authority with quiet support from the leaders of his own religion. I believe that, in essence, the authorities understood him well and they felt appropriately threatened.

I believe that Jesus intentionally subverted the corrupt, pompous, abusive Temple religion.

I believe that Jesus intentionally subverted the brutal, arrogant and exploitative Roman Empire.

He opposed everything and anything that was unjust, abusive, degrading and untrue.

His primary instruments of this subversion were peaceful, nonviolence, blessing, forgiving, healing, and self-giving in love. But that did not make him any less subversive; actually it made him even more so!

       The authorities recognized it and decided to get rid of him, or at least they thought so. Their intimidating brutality worked for thousands upon thousands of crucifixions, but somehow it did not work this time. This one particular cross jolted the world from its axis. And it happened not by any power, but by weakness. You see, Jesus is subverting even the traditional images of God (Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent, and External to the world)! Jesus’ cross undermines it all. 

        I believe that God is present and active in the world, not through any divine power, but in the divine weakness of self-giving love. For that very reason of the weak divine presence, Holy Friday is so important and meaningful.

Проклятое поле (Cursed Field), 1878 painting by the Russian Historic-Realist Фёдор Андреевич Бронников (Fyodor Andreyevich Bronnikov). This painting captures nature of Roman crucifixions. It was not unique to Jesus, it happened to many subjugated or enslaved. The crucified were not nailed through their palms, though,  but were  left naked to die and rot, as evil food for crows and grim pickings for dogs.

A donkey and The Beast

This Sunday we will celebrate a special event in Jesus’ life. His joyful, prophetic and playfully political entry to Jerusalem just before Easter.
    Interestingly, an international news report from Jerusalem this week can help us better appreciate Jesus’ and early Christians’ sense of humor, their point of view and their hope-laden message.
    Earlier this week the President of the United States arrived in Israel for a state visit. He came on board of a special presidential plane (Air Force One) and his special presidential limousine was flown onboard another plane to carry him from one function to another. But the car broke down before the President arrived. Mechanics had hard time putting the car on a flatbed tow-truck because all the armor and classified gadgetry made it so heavy. Allegedly the Secret Service calls this vehicle “The Beast”. And it is a real beast indeed as officially it makes just 9 miles to the gallon, and don’t we all know how it is with these official numbers?! Thankfully, they keep several such “beasts” in the White House stables, because before that day was over, another identical limo was flown in. The President could ride into Jerusalem in another thirsty Cadillac Behemoth.
    Please, understand me well, I do not question the need for the security and privacy of any president, least of all the American. This was certainly a small incident in the president’s travel, but because it happened at this particular time of the year and at the entry into Jerusalem, the poignant difference between The Beast and a she-donkey can hardly go unnoticed. And please understand me well again, I do not think that this has anything to do with the president as a person, and everything to do with the timeless imperial institutions and structures (those societal realities which apostolic authors called ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσίαι  “principalities and powers”).
    The timing of this presidential vehicle hiccup was just a coincidence, but I am convinced that the story of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem was deliberately modeled on similar ancient ceremonies of pomp and circumstance. The entire story is built around the contrast between the official diplomatic protocols of the earthly empires and the spontaneous joyful welcome to the arriving kingdom of God.
    Days before “The Beast” broke down I called my Sunday meditation “Carbon-Neutral Visit” not knowing how funny and timely it would get (Church staff and some friends can confirm this.) Come this Sunday to celebrate coming of the spontaneous, gentle, hope-filled, different, and clearly alternative world of God. 

Andrei Rublev (1405)  - He Baiophoros

Mytho-Logic of Empty Tomb

This is my opening thesis which I would like to defend, illustrate and expand in this lecture.

The Mosaic in the St. Mark Basilica in Venice is a clear illustration of that powerful  mytho-poetic imagery of the story of the empty tomb. The resurrected Christ (still with crucifixion wounds!) tramples on the personified Hades (who is bound), the gate of netherworld is broken, its lock and keys useless. Jesus is pulling/resurrecting  Adam (and Eve) surrounded by other OT figures such as David and Solomon (two figures with crowns at the right side).

This is how the ancient tomb looked. Newer development allowed for a more efficient use of space. 
Tombs were expensive to make and were often shared by large families of clans. Ossuaries were boxes for bones after the body decomposed.

This is the historically oldest known preserved story (and first ever mention!) about the empty tomb of Jesus as translated by NRSV. It dates to the early 8th decade of the Common Era.

The diagonal red line in this slide represent the time axis of the early Common Era. Upper left side contains some events from the history of the texts which later became part of the NT canon. Lower right side represent some events important for early church and their relation to the passage of time.

After the Easter Event, the first disciples struggled to find words to describe or even think about their experience. For them it was a completely new experience without the precedence and without adequate vocabulary. The first attempt to express their experience consisted in simple acclamations such as “Jesus is Lord” KURIOS IESUS! And the like. Later, the disciples developed simple statements or formulas such as “Son of God Formula” stating that the crucified Jesus was the Son of God. “Self Giving Formula” Jesus died for us, and the “Pistis formula” which is quoted on this slide.
     The Easter Event had several parallel and simultaneous ways in which it was being described as:
1) Inspiration (the disciples felt a gift of spirit and they lost fear) the Pentecost tradition was originally closely associated with the Easter event.
2) Exaltation (The Crucified was lifted up to the divine presence, became Son of God etc.) Ascension was also originally closely associated with the Easter event.
3) Resurrection (The presence of the crucified was felt and experienced - the inter-testamental Jewish political justice concept of resurrection was used to explain this aspect)
4) Only quite late in the process it was it also described in an archetypal/mythical way (this would be the story of an Empty Tomb)

The traditional Orthodox depiction of the Ressurection (H ANASTASIS). Venetian mosaic actually took inspiration from the broadly established orthodox mode of depicting the resurrection.

These three slides represent outlines of the resurrection story as narrated in biblical and extrabiblical gospels. We can observe uncertainty about the number and identity of women. Gradual addition of male characters to compensate for legal untrustworthiness of women in patriarchal society. Development in the presence and moving of the stone. Changes in numbers and roles of angelic figures, introduction of the guards and attempt to explain their silence. Similarly we can observe slowly creeping in antijudaism of the early church which is absent from the earliest accounts.

The text critical (more precisely tradition criticism) approach is further supported by the historical context and archeology of crucifixion as we discussed in the previous lecture. Minor inconsistencies in this explanation only strengthen it.
     As we stated in our opening thesis: The story of an opened and empty tomb is ahistorical, (unconcern about matters of history). On the other hand the historical-critical method can help us describe and interpret its emergence and gradual development.
     The story’s original function was kerygmatic (sharing the message). Its popularity grew from powerful symbolism and its veracity is that of mythical metaphors and deep spiritual archetypes.