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Pentecost 15 - Proper 21-B, Sept 28, 2003
H o
m i l y G r i t s
The Fifteenth
Sunday after Pentecost
Year B
Proper 21 - September 28, 2003
Birthday of Confucius, 551 B.C., in China
(© 2003 by Grant Gallup -
permission given for free distribution in fair use or quotation )
¶ Book of Common Prayer Lectionary:
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and
pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain
your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29 Would that all the Lord's people were
prophets
Psalm 19 or 19:7-14 Coeli enarrant - The heavens declare the glory of God
James 4:7-12 (13-5:6) Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Mark 9: 38-43,45, 47-48 We saw someone casting out demons and tried to
stop him.
¶ Revised Common Lectionary
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 Up to half of my kingdom, it shall be
fulfilled
and Psalm 124 Nisi quia Dominus - If the Lord had not been on our side
or Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29 as above BCP
and Psalm 19:7-14 as above BCP
James 5:13-20 Have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the
name of the Lord.
Mark 9:38-50 as above, BCP
¶ Lutheran Book of Worship
O God, we thank you for your Son who chose the path of suffering for the
sake of the world. Humble us by his example, point us to the path of
obedience, and give us strength to follow his commands; through your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29 as above BCP and RCL
Psalm 19:7-14 The commandment of the Lord gives light to the eyes. - as
above BCP and RCL
James 5:13-20 as above RCL
Mark 9:38-50 as above BCP and RCL
¶ Roman Catholic Lectionary - (26th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Numbers 11:25-29 as above BCP(
Psalm 18 (Vulgate = Ps. 19 Authorized Version & others) The heavens
declare the glory of God
James 5: 1-6 as above BCP
Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48 as above BCP & RCL
¶ Confucius - from Deer Sing - IV Fraternitas - translated by Ezra Pound
Splendour recurrent in cherry-wood,
in all the world there is nothing like brotherhood.
Brothers meet in death and sorrow;
broken line, battle heat, Brothers stand by;
In a pinch they collaborate as the ling bird's vertebrae
when friends of either protractedly just sigh.
Wrangle at home, unite outside
when friends of either are ready of course
to help either with anything "short of brute force,"
And peril past, there be those who
let brothers stew in their own juice
as unfriends born, of no immediate use.
Set out the dishes serve the wine,
let brothers dine tonight with boyhood appetite.
Wife and childer together be
as sound of lutes played concurrently;
there's a deeper tone in fraternity
when elder and younger rise to agree.
Calm over earth, under sky
So be thy hearth and house as they should be;
probe to the utmost plan, here the sincerity to rest a man.
(from Confucius to Cummings, An anthology of Poetry, edited by Ezra Pound
and Marcella Spann, copyright 1964, New Directions.)
¶ The Holy Qur'an - 'Al-Hajj: 22:67-69
"To every community We have appointed ways of worship, which they ought
to observe. And so, do not let others draw you into arguing about it,
but invite them to your Sustianer; for you are indeed on the right way.
And if they argue with you, say: 'God knows best what you are doing.'
Indeed, God will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection concerning
everything about which you would differ.
(from "The Light of Dawn: Daily Readings from the Holy Qur'an, selected
and rendered by Camille Adams Helminski, Shambala publishers Boston &
London, 2000.)
The Koran Interpreted 'Al-Hajj: 22:67-69
"We have appointed for every nation a holy rite that they shall perform.
Let them not therefore wrangle with thee upon the matter, and do thou
summon unto thy Lord; surely thou art upon a straight guidance. And if
they should dispute with thee, do thou say, 'God knows very well what you
are doing. God shall judge between you on the Day of Resurrection
touching that whereon you were at variance."
(from The Koran Interpreted, a translation by A.J. Arberry, New York,
Simon & Schuster 1996. )
In Managua each morning one of my advanced English students comes to read
to me while I ride my exercise bicycle for an hour after breakfast. We
are currently reading, in English translation, Swann's Way, the first
volume of Marcel Proust's seven league booted novel, Remembrance of
Things Past. My student is now 17 years old and I am 71, and I hope to
finish the novel before we both die of old age. The provocation for this
gigantic novel Proust called the involuntary memory
of a long-ago snack of little sponge cakes--called madeleines--dipped in
herbal tea. The idea that taste and smell are the organs of memory is
monumentally suggested here. And Proust is given much credit for it.
But it goes back to the Pentateuch, for in our reading from the Book of
Numbers today we have the wonderful menu of an Iraqi
breakfast--cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic (goat cheese and
olives are not mentioned), all fondly suggested by the absence of these
things and the presence on the menu instead of the little madeleines of
manna, which reminded the people of coriander seeds, gum resin, and pita
bread made with oil. "Now our strength is dried up and there is nothing
at all but these little madeleines of manna to look at." Manna did not
bring liberation to mind, but false memory brought to mind cucumbers,
garlic and onions without their context of cottonpatch slavery. Later,
the people would remember the days of captivity with a liturgical
Passover snippet of bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
Nostaglia, someone has suggested, is another name for depression. And,
someone else has said that it is fake memory. It never was the way we
want to remember it, for our sanity mercifully edits the past to make it
presentable, and to preserve it, like raspberry jam to serve with our
madeleines, for our theology demands that we rewrite the past to make it
sacred history. So meander our Quests for the Historical Jesus and our
Quests for the Historical Moses, and our Quest for the Historical
Muhammad, (1) that we may finally find our way back to Middle Earth by
means of Myth.
The patriarchs and matriarchs of the Bible did not often pray kneeling
and begging, and "Israel" meant someone who wrestled with God, before
"Islam" taught us in the Recital that submission to the same Allah was
also in our sacred history. Abraham was often in argument with Yahweh,
and Sarah guffawed at Yahweh in one of her meditative moments alone with
the Holy One, when Yahweh claimed to know more about her reproductive
capacity than she herself did. Moses, when he didn't agree with God,
or thought God had treated him unfairly, or unreasonably, drew a line in
the sand. Just because Yahweh said it was so, wasn't enough for him. It
had to make sense, too. And if it wasn't clear what God was talking
about, he would ask for clarification. Moses hears the complainers, the
fault-finders, the kibbitzers, on their way to Freedom Land, finding
fault with him one way or another, complaining about the food. "Oh
remember all those good catfish fries we had down in Egypt, and those
juicy watermelons, and the Caesar dressing on our chef salads" and all we
have out here is this tiresome tofu." And Moses goes to prayer, and says
to Yahweh, "Why did you lay the burden of these people on me? Was I the
one who got pregnant with these folk? Are they my kids, that you should
expect me to carry them about and nurse them at my own breasts? Where am
I going to get food to satisfy this crew? How can I carry this burden
alone?"
When I went to Nicaragua in 1985 with Witness for Peace, it was, as it
said, "in the Revolutionary Process", on its way to Freedom Land, and it
looked like Nicaraguans had given old Pharoah Reagan the slip, but there
were complainers on the way to liberation. Many of the burgesas fled to
the U.S. and Costa Rica, and the ruling class all but deserted the
country for its accustomed privileges in capitalism. There were
shortages of everything, from medicine and band-aids to toilet paper and
spark plugs. Nicaragua was short of everything but heroes. The nation
was on short rations, and there were frequent black-outs for lack of
electricity, and basic necessities were rationed so that all would
share. And Nicaragua was diverting much of its life, the bodies and
blood of its youth, to surviving in its struggle against the greatest
and cruellest empire in human history. (When I called it an "empire"
then, I was rebuked. The rebukes don't come any more.) As many
Nicaraguans were killed in the "Contra war" as the U.S. lost in its war
against Viet Nam. So there were some folks who longed for the days of
the Somoza tyranny which had given them special privilege, and even now I
run into a taxi cab driver or a shop clerk who talks as if they had owned
a bank that the Sandinistas had confiscated in the name of the People.
They forget that they had always been driving taxis and selling tortillas
door to door. But I will never forget the poignancy of the sweet young
school girl in Matagalpa who said she thought Nicaragua was poor and
ugly, and that Los Estados Unidos had "muchas cosas bonitas", for she had
seen them on television. Now there are more and more in the North whose
only acquaintance with "the good life" is on their TV sets.
We re-member in order to resurrect to new life, in order to put up with
ourselves for having put up with things the way they were. Of course
there was good in the past, but you got it at great expense, if your past
was one of slavery; if your past was one of cotton patch, kitchen, or
closet. But don't kid yourself into thinking your slavery in Egypt was a
holiday in a kosher kitchen, whiling away the hours with lox and bagels,
noodle pudding and Mogen David wine. Nicaragua was not a poor country,
for it was and is an agriculturally rich country, impoverished by the
"free market" which has enslaved the Two Thirds World, steals its riches
to sell at a fraction of their value, and calls itself a Benefactor.
There were a few--not many, but a few--who betrayed the Revoltion to go
back before the canasta basica of rice and beans, gallo pinto and sopa
de res. As a U. S. economic colony, they at least had a subsistence
diet, they thought, and now are back to it, but still have the dream of
Carlos Fonseca and Agosto Cesar Sandino for "Nicaragua, Nicaragüita, la
Flor mas Linda de mi querer." ("Nicaragua, little Nicaragua, the
loveliest flower of my desire," We still sing the last line, but it is
harder to do so: "Y ahora que vos sos libre, yo te quiero mucho mas!"
(And now that you are free, I love you so much more!") We deliberately
forget that Nicaragua is no longer free except in name, and has returned
to U.S. domination. Can we sing the Revolution back into being? No, the
Revolution has leap-frogged us into the Coming Age, and like the
Resurrected Christ, goes before us into Galilee.
Moses asks for God to help with this unruly people, nostalgic for the
dear old days of slavery south of the Mason-Dixon line,
and God takes some of Moses' own spirit, his charism, and pours it out
upon seventy of the elders of the congregation at the tent of meeting.
The leadership of the people is thus to be shared, and it is not to be
one person's responsibility to make the Revolution work. It is not only
the job of the Führer, or Il Duce, or "the Dictator" as in the dying
Roman or Gringo Republic, to make things work, the war-time President to
whom the People turn over all their liberties for safe keeping. But two
fellows didn't go to the tent of meeting that day to get their share of
the Spirit. They stayed right down town in the midst of the marketplace,
and prophesied there, and mixed the sacred with the secular. Now an
ardent fundamentalist named Joshua, with Moses from his youth, and
anxious for ritual purity, eager to keep religion out of economics and
politics, away from weekdays and reserved for Sunday morning, runs off to
Moses and denounces Eldad and Medad for preaching in the street, like
Francis of Assisi or like John Wesley or like Dorothy Day in Manhattan or
Dorothy Granada in Mulukuku. And Moses responds, "Are you jealous for my
sake? Forget it! I would be delighted if all of God's people did it the
same way. I'd be glad if the Lord's spirit would splash out on everyone
like holy water on your Easter bonnets." A Revolution cannot be
fulfilled if we keep fooling ourselves into thinking the route to it is
backward. "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward," said
the Queen, wiser than she knew, in Through the Looking Glass. We learn
from today's readings that God is the God of the Future. We don't say
that our God was the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rachel, Jacob
and Rebecca, because we believe they are alive to God. And God, Jesus
tells us, in his Revelation on Resurrection, is not the God of the dead,
but of the Living. "Therefore you do greatly err."
And God is the God of politics and the marketplace as well as the tent
of meeting. God's spirit is poured out upon congresswomen and newspaper
columnists as well as curates and cathedral canons. The angels hover
over the
commandantes of the revolucion as well as the congregations at prayer.
James in his letter today tells us that our God is the God of the poor,
and the God of working people, and of the tillers of land, and of all the
people of justice. We think that only Wall Street opens with prayer. He
says that the rich should learn how to weep and howl for the miseries (he
remembers, from the future) that are coming upon them! God promises the
poor a land flowing with milk and honey, symbols of prosperity and
plenty, but God does not promise that anyone shall have good things at
the expense of others. James says that the wealth of the rich, the
superfluous property which they should have shared with the poor, has
rotted in their hands and their fancy clothes are moth eaten, their
precious metals rusted. Here, he preaches the labor theory of value a
long time before Carlos Marx wrote it up in Capital. . The ruling class
got rich by holding back the wages of the worker, and by fraud, and by
fattening at the expense of others. It isn't that nice clothes and gold
and perfume are bad things in themselves, for they were said to be
amongst the gifts brought by the Magi to the Infant God. Yet it was not
the gold and silver that Mary treasured in her heart, but the Visit of
the Wise. And the Magi did not present their gifts to God while standing
on the faces of the poor of Palestine, as does Ariel Sharon, arm in arm
with Bush. "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are
coming upon you.
On September 24, 1988, God sent the Spirit down to Boston, Massachusetts,
to anoint a 58 year old African American woman named Barbara Harris to be
the first of her gender to be a Bishop in our Communion. Apparently the
72 men, including Eldad and Medad, weren't enough. "Carry them in your
bosom," God said to Barbara, "As a nurse carries a sucking child." He had
said the same to Moses and the elders of long ago, with a more
metaphorical emphasis perhaps.
For thousands of years males alone had been carrying the burden of God's
people in their bosoms, and for thousands of years Moses has been
reminding God that their dugs had dried up, that the ministry needed the
feminine, that the Church needed the maternal, the motherly, the womanly,
the feminine. As Moses knew, it sometimes takes a while to get God's
attention. There were those who like Joshua ran around in anguish
shouting "My lord, forbid her!" And young John, who himself was
kissy-face with Jesus, ran around calling to Jesus, "Lord, we saw Gene
Robinson casting out demons in your name. The Pope says he can't do
that! The Episcopal Church Missouri Synod doesn't like it. Teacher! We
saw a gay man in holy orders!" (Their vision had improved!)
For centuries, the Church withdrew into the quiet tent of meeting, where
it muted the strong voice of the prophets to a wistful whispering about a
metaphysical heaven. The God of Hosts was reduced to the god of wafer
bread, trapped in a monstrance of a mouse trap. The Fire that Jesus came
to spread upon the earth has been stoked down to light paraffin candles.
God breaks out of our rules for the transfer of power and authority,
breaking us even out of God's own rules as we thought they were, for the
leadership of God's people to run away with us to the Human future. We
are on the move to a feast of liberation in a new human society, where
God's spirit is poured out upon all God's people, including the Ummah of
Islam, and all of God's faithful people everywhere, in all churches,
sects, and sideshows.
"The Dutch theologian, Edward Schillebeeckx, wrote, "In El Salvador, a
communist guerrilla may not have any direct connection with Christianity,
but if he lays down his life for the liberation of his fellows, there is
no essential difference. . . in the end, we are judged by whether we have
given water to the thirsty or whether we have helped the poor.
Humankind's affairs are God's affairs, and whether you are Martin Luther
King or a Commuist guerrilla, in El Salvador, you are in fact identifying
yourself with God's affair, whether you are conscious of it or not."
Matthew Arnold, also one of the prophets, wrote:
"Children of men! the unseen Power, whose eye
For ever doth accompany mankind,
Hath looked on no religion scornfully
That men did ever find.
"Which hath not taught weak wills how much they can?
Which has not fall'n on the dry hearts like rain?
Which has not cried to sunk, self-weary man:
Thou must be born again!
"Children of men! not that your age excel
In pride of life the ages of your sires,
But that you think clear, feel deep, bear fruit well
The Friend of man desires." (2)
GRANT GALLUP
Apartado RP-10
CASA AVE MARIA
Managua, Nicaragua C.A.
Tel. 011-505-2662165
gallup@tmx.com.ni
GRITS 3rd series now on-line:
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/homilygrits
(1) The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, essays edited with
translations by Ibn Warraq. .New York, Prometheus Books. 2000.
(2) "Progress" by Matthew Arnold, in The Story of Jesus in the World's
Literature. New York: Creative Age Press.
1946. From Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold, the Macmillan Company.