Sermon on Jesus Rolling His Eyes (and also divorce)

2014-02-16 NBW Sermon<—–click here to listen along (sermons are spoken events. So much of the meaning comes from the hearing of it.)

Years ago there was a project undertaken by Bible scholars whereby they were trying to ascertain what was really knowable about Jesus of Nazareth as a historical figure.  The scholars would take the Gospels, verse by verse and vote as to which things they thought Jesus actually said and which they thought were made up later. They wanted to determine the historical accuracy of Jesus’ words and actions. Now, there was more to it and perhaps this is a legitimate academic endeavor –  it’s just not a question I personally find at all interesting.  I could care less what fancy Bible scholars say is more or less historically accurate when it comes to Jesus’ teachings.  What I would be game for, is if scholars started voting on which of Jesus teachings were more or less done with his eyes rolled.  I mean there are just some texts where I feel like I can almost hear the annoyance in his voice.  Like when on the way to Jerusalem, he tells his disciples that he is about to be betrayed and handed over to the authorities, and condemned, beaten and die and then after 3 days rise again and they are like, “so when you come into your kingdom will I be seated at your right hand or will it be Steve?” – you know the guy was like…really?

I mention this because I wonder if this section from the Sermon on the Mount didn’t have an undercurrent of “I can’t believe I even have to say this to you” to it.

But he does.  He does have to say these things to us. Because we, like those who first heard them, are a forgetful people.  We need to hear what it means to uphold the 2 commandments that matter the most:  Love the Lord your God and Love the neighbor as yourself.  Because we so easily get bogged down in details, we can fail to see the big picture.

A couple weeks ago we were studying the 10 commandments in the catechumante class.  The Thou Shalt Nots of the 10 commandments are pretty recognizable to even the least religious among us.  Growing up I was taught that the law – especially the Ten Commandments – are there because they are God’s prescription for our lives.  People would say that the word Bible stood for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Basically the importance of the Bible is that it gives us all the rules we have to keep so that we are right with God.  God gave us these rules (and a bunch of others that the church added along the way) and they are there because God loves you and wants you to be happy.

But now I see it differently. Now I think the law is less about God loves you and wants you to be happy and more about the fact that God loves your neighbor and wants to protect them from you. And God loves and wants to protect you in so far as you are also someone’s neighbor. That is to say, that this strange God we have who created this world, and spoke through fiery prophets and freed a people from slavery and gave them a law and said they were his…this same God who came to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and loved people so completely, this God is strange, but what God is not – is distant.  This God does not create the world, give us some rules and then leave us to it. Because what we see in the teachings and life of Jesus is that people matter. Human relationships matter to God.  The way we are treated matters to God. So some laws are established for that.

But Laws are made for us, not us for laws. That is to say, there is a spirit behind each law that at times trumps it’s letter. I know that may sound like slipping dangerously into moral relativism, but so be it.  Our obsession with moral absolutes comes from clinging to the letter of the law as though it can love us and save us when really that’s what Jesus is for.

And you know who got in trouble, like all the time, for breaking the letter of the law? Jesus. Hey Jesus, your disciples are not washing their hands.  Hey Jesus, why are you eating with sinners? Hey Jesus, we saw you heal a guy and it was the Sabbath. And as we see over and over again, Jesus had no patience for this. The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath, he would say. And that usually shut them up.  You know, until the next time.

All of that is to say that: what Jesus seems to be doing in our text for today is reminding us of the spirit of the law so that we know how to love one another.  That insulting people and being mean to them may not be murder, but it certainly does not uphold their dignity.  And again, Jesus rolls his eyes and is like, “I can’t believe I even have to say this”

What Jesus seems to be doing here is reminding us of the spirit of the law so that we know how to love one another.  That sexting and flirting and lusting over someone who is not our spouse may not be technically committing adultery but it certainly does not uphold our dignity, or that of our spouse or the object of our lust.

Jesus seems to be unfairly raising the bar on us, but in reality he’s just insisting that we not do violence to each other through loopholes. That we not put our relationship with the law above our relationships with our neighbor. And if that seems harsh and unnecessarily strict, know that he says all of this so that violence is not done to you as well. God loves you and wants to protect you.

Which brings us finally to the dreaded divorce text. This week I asked for your stories about how this text has shown up in your lives and on two occasions, the responses caused me to tear up in public, which as I’ve mentioned before is not exactly my favorite thing.

Now, I really try to not yammer on and on about the historical reality in the 1^st century. But what is important to understand is that at the time (if my memory of seminary serves), if a man divorced a woman it was often a death sentence. She relied on him for security and income.  It’s not like today when she could just go back to teaching or work in a shop to make her way.  She often would not be welcome back in her father’s home. So the reality of divorce for many women was that it sentenced them to a life of poverty and possibly begging or prostitution. So for Jesus to say, look, just providing a certificate does not get you off the hook, her dignity needs to be upheld – well, this was a way of saying that God loves you and your spouse and desires that cruelty and violence not be done to either of you. Jesus was wanting to protect women.

So, this week, as I read your stories, stories of being violently yelled at and slapped and choked and having church folk stand over you and say that God loves you only if you stay with the man who does this to you, when I read about another of you being a 24 year old woman who was literally abandoned by your husband and then how your church would no longer give you the Eucharist, when I heard of the shame felt by one of you as a divorced man who felt like he wore a scarlet letter D in church, when I heard of loveless marriages that went on for decades…I thought how the hell is it that the church can manage to take a text meant to protect people and make sure violence is not done to them, and then use this same text to do violence to so many for so long?

I don’t know what to say. I just know that it is real. And if Jesus rolled his eyes when having to re-orient his disciple’s understandings of things, I can only imagine his reaction to what has been done with his teachings about protecting people.

And so tonight, from this pulpit, and under the yoke of this stole and from the office of a clergy person and with whatever authority that still manages to hold in this world… I want to offer an apology. As a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ, please hear me say I am so sorry this happened.  If you are someone who has had violence; emotional, spiritual, physical or otherwise done to them in the name of Jesus Christ (of all names under heaven), if you have been shamed or excluded or denied what is only God’s to give, if you have been made to stay in a situation that denies your humanity or kills your soul because someone said that’s what God wants for you,… on behalf of the church, I apologize.

And let me say this one thing more: We do not serve a distant God, but one who actually cares about how you treat people and how you are treated. People matter. Relationships matter.  The diginity of human beings matters. May the church, of all institutions, uphold this truth and ask forgiveness when we do not.

Amen.

sok vajat olvasztottam, mert szerintem minden jó recept így kezdődik :)

aztná beleszecskáztam három almát, megszórtam sok fahéjjal és vanília kivonatot öntöttem rá.

amikor megpuhult és megpirult hozzáöntöttem a maradék fagyasztott meggyet és elzártam a gázt és befejeztem a mosogatást.

aztán két óriási evőkanál mascarponét kutyultam bele.

ennyi. jó étvágy!

két hete vasárnap írtam.

ez a hétvége ünnep és lezárás és új kezdet.

néha beletartom az arcom a napba, megállok egy pillanatra és azt gondolom: hé, ez az életem.

hogy ami velem történik, az a valóságom. és ettől aranyszínű lesz a fény és én boldog. annyira annyira boldog.

emil épp szétvési a fürdőszobámat. állati hangos.

még soha nem laktam annyi ideig egy helyen, hogy fel kelljen újítani a helyet. most is a legerősebb késztetés bennem ez: add el, menj tovább. óriási szintlépésnek élem meg, ha képes leszek arra, hogy megtartsak valamit. bármit. hogy ne csak a falak közé költözzem be, bármikor mozdíthatóan, de a falakat, a környezetemet formáljam magamhoz.

egyrészt azt gondolom, hogy a gyökértelenség pozitív tulajdonság, és iszonyú erőfeszítést igényel tőlem, de azt is látom, hogy a valahová megérkezés és ottmaradás művészete is fontos lehet. még nem döntöttem el, hogy akarom-e, képes leszek-e megtanulni. most mindenesetre van egy fürdődézsám és most a törött csövet is megjavítják alatta.

megtartani. ott maradni. tárgyakhoz kötődni. nem tudom. olyan idegen világ ez nekem...

emberekhez tudok kötődni. néha talán túlságosan is. helyek és tárgyak helyett is. mégis, amikor feldübörögnek a mélynyomók a lelkemben: menni kell. menni kell. akkor hirtelen elkezdem a lelkemet a hozzám legközelebb állókról leválasztani. és fáj és rossz, de már távolodom is. mintha muszáj lenne.

hol van mindennek az egyensúlya? kihez lehet sokáig tartozni? mit jelent egy helyhez kötődni?

fogalmam sincs...

én becsszó nagyon örülök, hogy ember járt a Holdon és tudjuk, mi a kovalens kötés, de ma szeretném leróni tiszteletemet annak a névtelen hősnek, nagyszerű elmének, a nők megmentőjének, aki föltalálta a melegvizes palackot.

megemlékezünk róla minden alkalommal, ha fáj, ha sajog, ha vacog. írjanak róla ódákat a költők.

legyen áldott a neve és az emlékezete!

és akkor fölment a fény. előttem az első sorban egy úr még telefonált. és a kopf alatt ott állt meztelenül a férfi egy rózsával.

Két karodban ringatózom csöndesen. Két karomban ringatózol csöndesen. Két karodban gyermek vagyok
hallgatag. Két karomban gyermek vagy te hallgatlak. Két karodban átölelsz te ha félek. Két karommal átölellek
s nem félek.
Két karodban nem ijeszt majd a halál nagy csöndje sem. Két karodban a halálon, mint egy álmon átesem.

Ma hajnalra virradóan ment Miklós után Fanni. Itt kicsordult a könnyem.

Verekedtek. A férfi és a nő. Két fájdalmas test. Enyém a rózsa, szeress-szeress, szeretkezz velem, akarj engem. Ütötte a nő. Nem adom, várd már ki, olyan szemét vagy. A fejemben mintha szinkron lett volna, hallottam a történetet.

Én voltam a tükör ahogy felöltözött.

Annyira egyedül voltak a történetükkel. Nem volt semmi a táncukban egyenként, ami azt mutatta volna, hogy tudnak majd egyszerre, egy ritmusban, egyfelé.

Annyira ismertem. Középen a fénysávban a nő táncát. Hogy mindent ügyesen megcsinálok és betartom a szabályokat és megnyomom a megfelelő gombot és itt ezt meghúzom, arra rálépek. Magamban, magam körül pörgök, miközben azt hiszem, jövök ki magamból Felé.

És valahogy mégis.

Mégis alkalmazkodott a kettejük lépése. A lebbenő kar. A mosolyok.

Az elfelejtett Dosztojevszkij.

Nekem az volt a szerelem, amikor úgy táncolták a saját történetüket, hogy együtt. Nem értek egymáshoz, de összekapcsolódtak.

És kijöttek. A színpad és a nézőtér közötti plazmafalon. És velünk táncoltak.

És utána önmaguk voltak. Nem eltáncolták a barátságot, hanem ők voltak ott és mi láthattuk.

És az első fájdalmas, sebes romos testekből ragyogó szép fényesek lettek.

Aztán kijöttünk és még ragyogtunk sokáig. Még a buborékában vagyok. Fényes.

Radioballet: A szerelem természete. Mu színház.

Relax without laziness
Focus without tension
Perceive without projecting
Witness without judging
Enjoy without craving
Reflect without imagining
Love without condition
Give without demanding
Receive without possessing
Serve without self-seeking
Challenge without dominating
Meditate without identity
Correct without blaming
Overcome without pride
Laugh without cynicism
Cry without pity
Confront without hatred
Guide without superiority
Be without self-defining
Live without arrogance
Enter without self-importance
Depart without regret
Be one with God

~ Mooji

February 2014
www.mooji.org

ajánljatok nekem könyvet.

de nem ám akármilyet! olyat szeretnék, hogy legyen eleje, közepe és vége. mély legyen, szép. nem kérek törött, bizarr irodalmat. emberekről szeretnék olvasni. nem kérek vámpírokat, szörnycumpikat, gusztustalanságokat, felszínes románcokat. ma nem ilyen napom van.

olyan könyvet szeretnék, hogy amikor olvasom, vegyem észre a körülöttem lévő világban is, ami a könyvben van. és amikor befejezem, más szemmel tekintsek magamra.

ja, és a legnehezebb kitétel: még nem olvastam.

vaj olvaszt, bele egy fej lilahagyma és 10 centi póré. amikor megsült, három felvert, sózótt, borsozott tojás. nem kotrod, békén hagyod, míg megsül. akkor aztán felszeletelt mozzarella és arra egy kábé három centis cékladarab nyersen, finomra reszelve. jeerával megszórtam, félbehajtottam. jó étvágyat.

ps. állítólag akkor tökéletes az omlett, ha nincs rajta kicsi barnaság, vagy feketeség se. szerintem ez hülyeség, de ha neked fontos, akkor úgy kell csinálni, hogy amikor olvasztod a vajat és az habzik, mindig leszeded a habot, míg tiszta nem lesz. vagy eleve tisztított vajból (aka ghí) csinálod.trikk.

since ten years I sign my letters with the word: love.p or lovelove, loving, i love you. or simply: love. maybe because that's my name. my essence. my religion.

i say goodbye and hug with it.

and then, 8 years ago, when Mom died, and so did I for the life as I knew it before, it became more emphatic in my life: i have only one job in life: to love. 'cause if life is so breakable, and maybe someone i meet today, never gonna cross my path again, then it's immpossible that s/he does not know i love her/him.

i love to say i love you.

it's also true, that many people's love is 'uneducated', and they cannot divide divine, unconditional love from eros love or friendship. in such cases i have to show it. look, this is love like thism and this is love like that. i hate to cause pain, but sometimes it's just inevitable. there is only one person, who couldn't forgive me, that i didn't loved her the way she wanted me to. it's not good at all for me to think about it. but i already outgrew to violate myself for the sake of others...

for me love is light. the atomic explosion, wich fills my empty heart. an empty heart full of light. that's all. that is ALL. that's everything. i live for this. that's my religion, my faith, my creed, my morning and evening.

even my name sometimes :) it's so good.

loving out the wounds from somebody. loving out my pains, the hardnesses indoctrinate in me. loving it out. what a nice verb, isn't it? it's like 'dreaming it alive'. but that, i'll write another time.

i love you.

love.p