Parousia – The Coming of the Lord – Part 3: Year A, Proper 26

Joshua 3:7-17; Micah 3:5-12; Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37; Psalm 43; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13; Matthew 23:1-12

This series of essays on Parousia relies on the 2004 work by John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan R. Reed, In Search of Paul (Harper SanFrancisco, 2004), specifically pages 124 through 177. What must be acknowledged is that Crossan’s interpretation of the Apostle Paul’s theology as revealed in his authentic letters can be and is debated among Christian scholars and theologians. That said, Crossan’s argument points the way for a transformation in Christian thought that matches the post-modern, 21st Century intellect. Serious thinkers are not interested in a spirituality that finds its meaning outside the boundaries of the known Universe – evidenced by the “brain drain,” as disillusioned Christians take their minds anywhere but Church on Sunday mornings.

The cherry-picked portion of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians seems at first glance to hardly be relevant to how Christianity might change, and thereby avoid the death foretold by John Shelby Spong. Paul is reminding his readers how difficult the work was in their community. “Night and day” – 24/7 – toiling to save sinners: “pleading that you lead a life worthy of God. . .” So often leading a “life worthy of God” means following the 10 Commandments, marriage between a man and a woman, no sex outside of that marriage, and recently in the U.S., the right to keep and carry guns of all varieties, and to do as we please with our property – financial, commercial, agricultural, or personal.

But Crossan suggests that is about as far from what Paul and the community in Thessalonika were doing as one can get. Paul’s message to the communities he founded around the Mediterranean was that Jesus died because he preached a kingdom/realm of justice-compassion ruled by a God – even a kenotic God – whose distributive, radical fairness directly challenged Roman imperial theology. The 24/7 “labor and toil” that Paul and his companions engaged in was the highly dangerous project of preaching that same message and the absolute necessity of encouraging and supporting the members of the community to live the radical denial of self-interest that a serious acceptance of Jesus’s message entailed. The “God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” was not Cesar; therefore not only preaching such a life and such a God was – as Crossan says – high treason. Living such a life meant signing onto a continuing subversion. Martyrs were made.

In those circumstances, the only hope was a hope for vindication upon the return (parousia) of the Christ. Here’s where after 2,000 years of dogma, the Christian train is in danger of permanently leaving the track.

“Notice Paul’s use of . . . technical terms for visitation and reception. He uses parousia for 'our Lord Jesus at his coming' in 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 'the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints' in 3:13, 'the coming of the Lord' in 4:15, and 'the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ' in 5:23. . . . That metaphor controls the entire discussion.”

In Search of Paul, p. 168 (emphasis in text). Two of the above verses are left out of the readings cherry-picked for the next couple of weeks by our intrepid Elves. But it is important to read the entire letter, not just the portions selected to emphasize the meaning agreed-upon by Christian Church organizers, who ended up collaborating with Empire, not disarming it.

Paul's writing about God calling folks into his kingdom, and the Christ coming again in glory, were the second and third counts of high treason that could be charged against him. Only the Emperor came as parousia – as procession, as visitation, as establishing and confirming his power over everything from coins to buildings to economies, to military control. The metaphor will be complete when Paul (and the Elves) gets to what happens along the parousial route into the City on the part of the Emperor, and into a transformed world on the part of the Christ. For now, Paul’s point is to bolster the courage of his people in the continuing struggle for distributive justice and peace.

The other suggested readings for this Sunday – often celebrated as Reformation Sunday and the Feast of All Saints – are not irrelevant to this discussion. Setting aside Paul’s essay on the struggle to reestablish God’s realm of distributive justice-compassion, illustrated by the profound difference between the coming of the Emperor and the Coming of the Christ, we still have the call to Covenant.

Joshua’s credentials as the successor of Moses are established as the story-teller’s great leader motif continues. Not to press the metaphor too far, but the entrance of the Ark – the Presence of the Hebrew God – into the promised land resonates with the parousia of an earthly Emperor. The very elements of the natural world stand back in reverence when the priests’ feet touch the waters of the Jordan River.

But the march of the normalcy of civilization into retributive systems soon overtakes the best intentions of God himself. Some unknown hundreds of years after the arrival of the Hebrew people in Palestine, Micah – an 8th Century BCE prophet of the common people, not the intelligentsia – condemns Jerusalem and its rulers and prophets for their injustice. A millennium later, Matthew’s Jesus begins a series of condemnations of corrupt “scholars and Pharisees,” who only pretend to abide by Mosaic law. Matthew’s diatribe is against the same kinds of prophets and rulers that Micah prophesied about. Matthew is defending his own fledgling community, under increasing threat from the equally endangered Jewish community, whose central home has been destroyed. The danger of losing any connection to Covenant, non-violence, distributive justice-compassion, and peace is great on both sides. Matthew seems to be erring on the side of exclusive piety: Only Jesus can be called “Rabbi,” he maintains. With Jesus, the prevailing order will be reversed: “Those who promote themselves will be demoted” and vice versa.

Matthew seems to have forgotten what he earlier reported Jesus had said about the way to counter the fear that he and his community were facing. Serendipitously, one of the readings for the Feast of All Saints in Year A is Matthew 5:1-12: “Congratulations to the poor in spirit! Heaven’s domain belongs to them. Congratulations to those who grieve! They will be consoled. Congratulations to the gentle! They will inherit the earth. Congratulations to those who hunger and thirst for justice! They will have a feast. . . .” Do not be afraid of persecution, because you belong to the realm of God – the Kingdom of distributive justice-compassion – Heaven’s domain. All you have to do is trust it – like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.

If anyone needs an example of how dangerous that message is for today’s followers of the Christian way – or anyone who works to establish distributive justice-compassion as the grounding for human societies – we only need to consider the words of Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for Vice President. She defined the parts of the country that would vote for her and McCain as “pro-America,” leaving the obvious conclusion that anyone outside of those areas, who might prefer the Democratic ticket, is “anti-America.” Crowds in Palin’s and McCain’s rallies have called for Barack Obama’s death.
Indeed, one of the many threats against him in the last week before the election was serious enough to result in FBI arrests and media coverage.

Readers might argue that this is “politics.” But – inflammatory reports notwithstanding – Barack Obama comes from a Christian tradition that is steeped in distributive justice, civil rights, and liberation theology. Right-wing Christians are the ones supporting the Republican campaign, and encouraging piety, war, and victory as prerequisites to peace. Once again, “Christianity” – as it is defined broadly by the media – has aligned itself with Empire.

But before liberal Christians claim Elijah’s righteous mantle, strike the Potomac waters, and begin the triumphant parousia into world power, pay attention to Paul’s words to the Thessalonians: “. . . [W]e dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” Micah spells out what the normalcy of civilization looks like: “Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Surely the Lord is with us.’”

As Matthew’s Jesus said, as he sent his disciples out “like sheep to a pack of wolves . . . you must be as sly as a snake and as simple as a dove” (10:16).

So Vote, and stay awake. The fall out of Covenant and into Empire comes like a thief in the night. By the time the warning sounds, it will already be too late.

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