Ladders, Circles, Covenant: Year A, Proper 11

Genesis 28:10-19a; Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19; Isaiah 44:6-8; Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24; Psalm 86:11-17; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder, soldiers of the cross.
We are dancing Sarah's Circle, sisters, brothers, all.
Every round goes higher, higher, soldiers of the cross
Here we seek and find our story, sisters, brothers, all.
Sinner do you love my Jesus? soldiers of the cross.
We will all do our own naming, sisters, brothers, all.
If you love him why not serve him? soldiers of the cross
Every round a generation, sisters, brothers, all.
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder, soldiers of the cross
On and on the circle's moving, sisters, brothers, all

The Abraham saga continues, with Jacob’s dream. Christian dogma claims that Jacob’s dream is about divinity interacting with humanity. The patriarchs of ancient Israel were all 100% human, even though they may have dreamt of a great destiny. But Christianity trumps all that with the human/divine Jesus/God, who came to dwell among us. Cherry-picked Paul piously points orthodox theology into the apocalyptic future, “while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” Matthew’s Jesus rants that “The son of Adam will send his messengers and they will gather all the snares and the subverters of the Law out of his domain and throw them into the fiery furnace [where] people will weep and grind their teeth.”

Jewish legend says that Jacob’s pillar, which he set up to mark the spot of his prophetic dream, (Beth El) is the same spot where his father Isaac was prepared by Abraham for sacrifice; it is also the Temple Mount of present-day Jerusalem. Global political and religious layers of meaning surround this story. It should be treated with respect, and not with glib literalism by anyone, including descendants of the People of the Book.

Recent Christian youth and feminist leadership has replaced the militant sexism of “climbing Jacob’s ladder, soldiers of the cross” with “dancing Sarah’s circle, sisters, brothers all.” Somehow the original seems more honest. “Sinner do you love my Jesus? If you love him, why not serve him? Soldiers of the cross” can’t be mistaken for peaceful coexistence with Jews, Muslims, or any other non-Christian spirituality. “Dancing Sarah’s Circle” sounds inclusive, but Christian hegemony lurks in the background like a watermark on fine stationery: “Here is where we find our story; we will all do our own naming; every round a generation, sisters, brothers all.” The story of Sarah, Keturah, Rebekka, Rachel, Leah, Dinah, Bilhah, Zilpah, and all the other women, named and unnamed, who contributed to the founding mythos of the Jewish people and the Jewish religion is not a Christian story – except by “adoption.” That is certainly not where Paul was trying to take his Roman community.

The power in these readings is the power of covenant relationship. In Jacob’s dream, God’s voice confirms the promise made to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac, that the land belongs to them and their descendants, and those descendants shall be as numerous as the grains of dust on the earth. God also promises that wherever Jacob and his descendants go, God is still their God. So God and God’s realm are not confined to a particular geographical location, but reside in the hearts of those who accept the Covenant. The Elves leave out Jacob’s part of the deal. For the first time, the patriarchs make a promise to God. Jacob promises to establish the pillar as “God’s house,” and to return to God one-tenth of everything God gives to him. Genesis 28:19b-22. As the editor of the Harper Collins Study Bible wryly comments, “Jacob’s faith is more markedly contractual than Abraham’s” (p. 43).

The portion of Paul’s letter plucked out of context for Proper 11 is also about Covenant. Whenever we join Jesus in the relationship with God that is so close as to be the same as a father, we are then children of God, and heirs of God. What do we inherit? Rather than one strip of real estate in the Middle East, the heirs of God, brothers and sisters of the Christ, inherit the Realm/Kingdom of God, where distributive justice rules. The caveat is that we “suffer” with Jesus. In other words, we participate with the spirit of Jesus in restoring/reclaiming God’s realm of distributive justice-compassion. “Suffering” is not about persecution and torture for believing that a corpse came back to life. “Suffering” is what happens when we attempt to live in radical abandonment of self-interest and fail. “Suffering” is what happens when by extraordinary commitment we succeed in achieving that radical abandonment of self-interest, and the systems of retribution inherent in empire intervene.

Paul rhapsodizes on: “. . . for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; . . . that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. . .” This is not about believers going to heaven in the next life. It is about partners actualizing the promise of God’s rule in this life. The “children of God” are not some superior race. They are whoever joins the program – Christian or non-Christian; people “of the book” or not. Has this happened yet? No. “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” The Elves cut him off here in mid-argument. The finale comes next week.

Meanwhile, Matthew’s Jesus proceeds to further complicate and rob the parable of the sower of its covenantal transforming power. He has apparently forgotten his own Sermon on the Mount and has sold out to fear. The parable of the sabotage of weeds introduces an enemy that comes in the night and sows weed seed in the field so that it is impossible to eradicate the weeds without also destroying the good crop. (Sort of like that hapless Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto.) In a variation on the 13th Century epithet, “slay them all, God will know his own,” this apocalyptic Jesus says, “Let them grow up together until the harvest, and . . . I’ll say to the harvesters, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to burn . . . .’” What happened to “love your enemies”? Matthew 5:44.

Matthew’s Christian community – which possibly had been thrown out of their synagogue, or had chosen to leave – was very likely under siege. Viewed with suspicion by their neighbors, confronted with the destruction of the Temple, under surveillance by the Roman authorities, who can blame them for finding it difficult to love their enemies? That 1st or 2nd Century community, and others in similar circumstances, was not much different from communities today. Certainly the governments and the people in the Middle East are still fighting the land battles described in all the foundational myths. Dictatorships and oligarchies from Asia to Africa to South America deny human rights to their citizens to the detriment of their nations’ economic well-being. Further, since September 11, 2001, American society has been under political, social, and economic threat – mostly self-inflicted.

We do not need to follow Matthew’s Jesus into paranoia and the fear-mongering that arises from it. As the apostle Paul says, the present problems are nothing, compared with the transformation that is coming. The Elves should have had us read on in Romans 8 to verses 26-30. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness,” Paul says. “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” What is that call and purpose? To be partners with Jesus in bringing God’s realm of distributive justice-compassion into human civilization. “For those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.” What God knows and does looks to us like prior action, the editor reminds us. Harper-Collins Study Bible, NRSV, p. 2127. So Paul is not talking about some “predestination” that we are powerless to modify, which fore-ordains some to be “chosen” for “salvation” and others “chosen” for damnation. We are adopted children of God, and because of that, we are conformed to the image of Jesus the Christ. “Those whom [God] predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Wow. The crowd should be on its feet cheering. All we have to do is sign up. Those whom God/dess knew would be her own, s/hecalled. Those whom God/dess called and who responded were thereby made holy and just; and those who were made just, were celebrated as belonging to – even inheriting– the kingdom, without bargain or price.

The Circle is open but unbroken, and the traffic on Jacob’s ladder is an interchange.

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