Fourth Sunday in Lent 'B'

Sunday March 22, 2009

Pay attention to your instincts!

The first and second Book of Chronicles are, as the titles suggest, a ‘chronicle’ of Jewish history from creation up to the beginning of the Persian Empire under Cyrus.

But they are not pure documentary ‘chronological’ accounts. They are faith history, the unfolding of Jewish events as interpreted by the narrator in the light later historical events. He put a spin on the events as manifestations of God’s will.

In essence, the lessons of Chronicles are quite simple and might be summed up in those famous words of George Santayana: “Those who do not remember the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.”

The Israelites just didn’t get it and as sophisticated as we are intellectually and theologically, we still don’t get it. But more about that later.

The Israelites knew about God but they didn’t know God. Their understanding of God was similar to the views held by pagans of their warring gods except that the Jewish God was one and was the master ruler of the universe whom the people had to please and appease or else suffer the consequences. So the author/s/ of Chronicles wrote with a mindset of this prevailing Jewish view of the ‘master-God.’ But in his view, the Israelites trusted their own judgement rather than God’s; they invested in their own wisdom, they indulged in their own selfish interests and they lost everything in the process. They desecrated Jewish worship by their infidelity to what they perceived to be God’s law—not just the letter but also the spirit. They didn’t practice what they preached!

In a real sense, the instincts of the chronicler were right on target. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know when you’re on the wrong track. Long before the data tell you that you are on the wrong road, your instincts tell you.

A couple of years ago, I was heading for a family dinner at a country restaurant in Pennsylvania. I decided to use my new GPS to get there because I didn’t trust my own sense of directions or the directions of my nephew. So off I went. Passing through Clinton, New Jersey, the GSP voice directed me to make a left turn. Instinctively I realized this route would take me northeast – the opposite direction to which I should have been heading. I drove twelve miles to the northeast with the sun at my right at sundown before it dawned on me that the GPS was wrong! It may sound like a simplistic anecdote but it makes the point that when something tells you are on the wrong road heading in the wrong direction, then that ‘something’ is correct notwithstanding directions by Google.

This is what the chronicler is attempting to sift from the history of the Israelites.
They were on the wrong road. Their infidelity was “rewarded” by their alienation and exile — political, economic and spiritual and they had no one else to blame but themselves. Something told them that they were headed in the wrong direction and they paid no attention to their instincts and worse yet, those prophetic persons who addressed their infidelity were dismissed or dispatched with the sword. The prophets were the living evidence that the God of Israel was not a distant God but a God who wanted to dwell among them, especially in the poor and disenfranchised. We in the Christian era see in this prophetic insight a change in the image of God moving toward an incarnate God who appeared in human form in the Christ.

Our God is not a God of vengeance but of mercy and compassion even in the face of the arrogance of political and religious leaders. Despite suggestions to the contrary, God has never willed the death of the sinner but that the sinner be converted and live. How many times have we read these words in one form or another. We heard them again today in the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians echoed in the famous hymn by Newton: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!”

So God said to himself: “How can I convince them that I will not their destruction? I want them to have life in greater abundance. I know — I will send them someone who can show them the way to true freedom. I will ‘lift’ this One ‘up’ for all humanity to see so that in lifting him up, all may be ‘lifted up.’

This is the testimony of John the Evangelist who was more than a storyteller. He was a mystic who knew the mind of God and recognized in Christ, the full manifestation of God. In other words, in Christ, we see the living God present in human form.

In his explanation of Christ’s role in redemption, John made a very strange association with an incident about Moses as described in the Book of Exodus. When the people became disgruntled in the desert because of their hunger and thirst, they grumbled against God. Moses was instructed (inspired) to wrap his staff with a serpent and extend it over the people much as was done by pagan leaders. The people were healed. This too is a faith story. Moses was not a magician and was not adopting a pagan practice but adapting it for a religious purpose. He used the staff (caduceus) as a visible sign of God’s presence to his people and of God’s desire to save them despite their disobedience. This is another example of a God who wanted not to distance himself from the Israelites but to be among them as healer.

John used that same Greek word, ‘hupsoun’ i.e., to ‘lift up’ and applied it to Christ who was “lifted up” on the cross, and “lifted up” in his resurrection from the death and finally “lifted up” on the mount of the Ascension. He was lifted up for all humanity to believe in him as the “way, the truth and the life,” the witness to justice, the light of hope, the path to salvation, the gateway to everlasting life. In the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians, “I live not, no longer I, but Christ lives in me!” In other words, Jesus become one with our instincts or put another way, our instincts become those of Jesus through the power of the Spirit.

John 3:16 is probably the most famous of all New Testament texts, the most often quoted in pulpits, on bulletin boards and on sign posts: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” He is the One sent that we too might be lifted up and enjoy the same reward as he — eternal life that John insists begins in this life. Jesus paid the price of all the ancient prophets and so was ‘lifted up’ on the cross only to be justified by the being lifted up in the resurrection, his risen life residing in his body, the Church, especially in its prophets who not only preach to the world but also to the Church itself.

John goes on to tell us that belief in Jesus Christ is the assurance of peace with God, the assurance of peace with ourselves, the assurance of peace with others; the assurance of peace in the face of daily challenges and ultimately the assurance of eternal life that, by the way, does not begin at the end of our earthly life but begins with the life (gift) of grace in which we live during our earthly life.

We must embrace Christ without condition just as God has embraced us in Christ without condition. We must commit ourselves to live with integrity and to love without measure. There are no short cuts —there are no free lunches but we have the gift of God’s grace to animate and empower us to goodness—“Amazing grace!”

As we ‘progress’ through this economic crisis, the prophets may well ask how many on Wall Street knew instinctively that something was wrong? In a PBS New Hour Interview about his recently published book, ‘House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess,’ William D Cohan went on at great length to describe the ins and outs of Wall Street excess symptomatic of a culture in danger of losing its soul, favoring the rich over the poor and middle class. It took seventeen years and the loss of his job for him to voice to his instincts that something was very wrong in climate and culture of unbridled Capitalism.

I remember reflecting in a homily at St. Therese Parish in Paterson where I was pastor many years go during the civil rights unrest that when the economy begins to impinge on the progress of the middle class, we will hear about it and the outrage of Martin Luther King’s cries for the civil rights of blacks will pale in comparison. I was using some hyperbole then as I am now but it is ironic (prophetic) that now a black president is speaking loud and clear for the middle class.

We used to say, “The devil is in the details.” I would say, God is in the details and if we are paying attention to the prophets, the world, now a global village, will never be the same. There can be no solution that favors one class over another or that results in a lack of equity for the poor not only in America but also across the globe.

Things have not been right for a long time but it didn’t become a ‘world class action’ pursuit until the middle class woke up. ‘We’ did not listen to the voice of the poor, so now we will listen to the anger of the diminishing middle class. But the president is correct; we ought not act on anger but on an intelligent, exhaustive but inclusive process that combines vision and practical wisdom. Such a plan will call for sacrifice but sacrifice is a familiar term for those who survived the great depression. My generation still remembers when we put pieces of linoleum in our shoes with holes in them to hold us over until we could afford a new pair of shoes. We lived through the rationing of many goods and services – gas, sugar, butter, etc. We recycled metal and lived with less and shared with those who have even less than we.

Yes, there was dishonesty in the system even then but belief in democracy and energy that redounded in a full day’s work for a full day’s pay paid off in the increase in the standard of living for many.

As out of touch as the Pope’s message in Cameroon, Africa may have appeared to many and indeed, they did not reflect the scientific advances and insights into human sexuality and the psychology of human behavior, his overall cautions about excess certainly should not be ignored. It is not only economic excess that diminishes human dignity but also sexual exploitation that is rampant in our culture. Unfortunately, the credibility of the Pope and other Church leaders have earned the warning of Jesus to the Pharisees, “Listen to what they say but do not follow their example!” But this is a whole other chapter on what I might call “Ivory Tower Theology.”

Some time ago, I came across a book entitled, “Life’s Greatest Lessons—20 Things That Matter” by Hal Urban. It has been haled far and wide as a classic. The noted authority on leadership and management, Stephen covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” said this: “A tremendously enriching book full of classic wisdom to live by.”

Ken Blanchard, co-author of “The One Minute Manager” said: “With its timeless message for people of all ages, this book is going to become a classic. It should be in every home in America.”

Here are the chapter headings:

•Success Is More Than Making Money.
•Life is Hard… and Not Always Easy.
•Life Is Also Fun and Incredibly Funny.
•We live by Choice, Not by Chance.
•Attitude Is a Choice — the Most Important One You’ll Ever Make.
•Habits Are the Key to All success.
•Being Thankful I s a Habit — the Best One You’ll Ever Have.
•Good People Build Their lives on a Foundation of Respect.
•Honesty Is Still the Best Policy.
•Kind Words Cost Little but Accomplish Much.
•Real Motivation Comes from Within.
•Goals Are Dreams with Deadlines.
•There’s No Substitute for Hard Work.
•You Have to Give Up Something to Get something.
•Successful People Don’t Find Time — They Make Time.
•No One Else Can Raise Your Self-esteem.
•The Body Needs Nutrition and Exercise — So Do the Mind and Spirit.
•It’s OK to Fail — Everyone Else Has.
•Life Is Simpler when We Know What’s Essential.
•Essential #1 Is Being a Good Person.

But Napoleon Hill had the first and last word before the title page: “All great truths are simple in the final analysis, and easily understood; if they are not, they are not great truths.”

“There are no free lunches!” but there must be a world table of opportunity large enough for everyone to find a place.

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