"Not you. You guys are cool."

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1897049/not-you-you-guys-are-cool

Exposed and Naked: We are Unsafe

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

We are not in control; this bothers us. Further, we are not safe, to others or to ourselves; this angers us. To be out of control is one thing, but to be wildly unsafe, too? Offensive. So, we do whatever we can to create an atmosphere around us that feels safe, that causes us to feel okay, like everything is fine. But it’s not; nothing is fine. As politicians and pundits spin narratives and weave tales causing our attention to be diverted from the real problems plaguing our land and location, we hide behind our own mythologies and cover ourselves up with our various blankets of ignorance. The heavier the blanket, the safer we feel; the taller the myth, the more secure we think we are. We vacillate between having to know increasingly more (the more we know the more we can control) and not wanting to know anything and sticking our heads in the sand (if we can just not know we will regain some sense of safety and maybe even comfort). But this drive to cover up and hide from that which causes us to feel unsafe means that our community with others breaks down: as we hide from and deny the disasters swirling and twirling around us, we—ourselves—become our biggest problem not just to ourselves but especially to our neighbors, the ones fighting for their right to live in this world, the ones most visibly threatened by nationalism and extremism.

So, our lack of control wedded to our being and feeling unsafe makes us feel hopeless. In a world where it feels that World War III is always one strike away, where unstable and erratic egos leave more death in their wake than life, where one’s power and privilege are more valuable than the life of the least of us, our sensations of feeling unsafe surge. Surely, if they are coming for my neighbor…then am I next? In this surging feeling of unsafety, our hypervigilance turns to hyperarousal, and we lash out at anyone and anything. Humans need to feel safe; it’s the fundamental level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The divides and divisions caused by viewer driven news rooms that plague our communities get worse because we must view everyone else as a threat and patch-work some modicum amount of safety no matter how tattered that sense of safety is. But this makes us exceptionally unstable creatures and no mythology (no matter how it glitters and sparkles in the light) will cause use to feel and thus to be safe (to ourselves and to others). We are always just one moment away from complete break-down. We are nuclear weapons charged and ready to go off at any moment. Our lack of control bothers us; our unsafety angers us.

Is there any help for such as these?

Exodus 17:1-7

Moses[ii] begins by telling us of a journey and of a problem, From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink (v1). Being without water is no small issue. Rephidim is the last stop before entering the terrain of Sinai.[iii] Thus, being without water here—about to travel through the terrain of mountains and sand dunes in a climate that is demanding being of high elevation and often cold—is life threatening. In normal circumstances a person can survive 3-5 days without water, add in exertion, a challenging climate, and tough terrain, and that number falls.

The Israelites have every right to be disturbed by this, as Moses tells us, The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink,” (v 2a). Humans without water (assuming they did not have much water to begin with as they embarked on their journey) become easily angered as dehydration sets in; thus, quarreling makes sense as a characteristic of dehydration and the fruit of the fear that is setting in. They feel unsafe and thus they are becoming unsafe to themselves and others. However, Moses appears to be rather unphased by the dire situation. His reply? “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” (v2b). Not the most pastoral response.

So, the people ramp up their complaints against Moses, and it’s understandable. With no foreseeable way to get water, and with a leader who seems to consider their needs to be mere “quarreling” and disobedience to God, the Israelites escalate—which happens when fear and anger are not addressed but exacerbated. As the Israelites feel the impending doom of their being unsafe, they respond from that place of fear and anger and the situation gets worse. As Moses, tells us, But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” (v 3). If Moses doesn’t act now, he’ll be facing a full-on uprising and rightly so. Can we blame the Israelites for their reply of desperation?

Here, Moses senses just how serious the problem is and does what any good leader of God’s people should do (even if a moment delayed): call on God to help. Our text tells us, So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me,” (v4). The narrative doesn’t really give a glimpse of how bad the situation is until Moses mentions to God that the people “are almost ready to stone me.” The community—the people and its divine appointed leader, Moses—are in a tenuous situation. Death threatens to rear his head, anger and fear are the emotional monarchs, and the situation is far from safe; it’s perilous. So, in this moment, Moses throws himself at God’s feet in desperation; he’s failing to deescalate.

Thankfully, God does step in and instructs Moses to cause water to flow,

“Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink. Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called [Rephidim[iv]] Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (vv5-7)

Seems God does not have a problem providing God’s people with water to drink; what if anyone had just asked God? Moses accuses the people of testing God; it seems to me that Moses is the being tested. The people did demand to see that God is present by invoking quarrels with Moses because they were thirsty;[v] thus why Rephidim is then called “Massa and Meribah”, being wordplays on quarreling and trying from v2.[vi] However, the people are also asking a deeper question of Moses: Are you with us? Do you see us? We are about to die of thirst, and do you care? Ignoring and dismissing the needs of the people is not the right way of faithful leadership; it is the slipperiest of slopes to the people devising not only their own solutions and building their case for disbelieving God.[vii] God’s chosen leader must represent God to the people and the people to God; Moses failed this test in this moment. Moses could have heard their cry (the voice of an unsafe situation from people who are scared and angry) and have asked God to help him and them. But now Moses’s leadership is being questioned and doubted. Notice that there are elders to be selected to go with Moses to witness[viii] the striking of the limestone rock that causes the water trapped within to flow;[ix] God is aware that the people need to see (and know) that not only is God with them but God is with Moses thus Moses must be with them. These witnesses will be testament to the reality that both God and Moses are with the Israelites, through thick and thin, in good and bad, when things flow with milk and honey and when water seems scarce.

Conclusion

The Israelites are caught in their fear and anger because the situation they find themselves in is precarious: they are unsafe and they become unsafe to themselves and to others. Fear and anger are born here and cause stones to be lifted to make one’s point known; fear and anger when things are unsafe do not know any limits and boundaries, the rational and reasonable components of the human intellect and mind are bound and gagged. The human being, whether ancient Israelite or post-postmodern person, cannot overcome, on their own without intervention, their anger and fear born from feeling and being unsafe. Trapped in unsafety, the human being will resort to their primal instincts and fight, like any trapped animal would.

As it was for the Israelites, so it is for us.

Lent commands us into a state of being exposed and naked, into an honesty that will peel back our facades and remove our masks, bringing us to a very naked state that will feel like complete and total death. We are brought to our most dreaded confession: we are not in control, and we are unsafe creatures, afraid and angry. But it’s out of this death, this confession, out of this naked and vulnerable place, where God’s word liberates us out of death and into life by God’s love. This word that brings this divine life to dead creatures, God preaches through God’s son, Jesus the Christ; it is this incarnate word that becomes the source of our sure ground when we are at our most unsafe, most exposed, and most naked. It is the very source of our new life, new love, and new liberation. God is coming to clothe God’s own in the righteous garments of divine love, life, and liberation so they can become creatures who have new eyes and ears to see and hear the pain around them, bringing love where there is indifference, life where there is death, and liberation where there is captivity.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Using Moses as the traditional author because it is both easier and makes for more interesting story telling

[iii] Jeffrey H. Tigay, “Exodus,” The Jewish Study Bible Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation, eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: OUP, 2004), 142. “Rephidim, the last station before Sinai…and, to judge from v.6, near Sinai.”

[iv] Tigay, “Exodus,” 142. “The place, Rephidim, not Horeb.”

[v] Tigay, “Exodus,” 142. “Try. i.e. to test, demanding proof that God was present among them and controlling the events.”

[vi] Tigay, “Exodus,” 142. “Massah and Meribah, meaning ‘The Place of Testing and Quarreling.’ These names, playing on the verbs ‘quarrel’ and ‘try’ used in v.2, became by words for Israel’s lack of trust in God.”

[vii] LW 11:55 “For to tempt in the hearts is something else than tempting in words. The children of Israel in the wilderness always doubted that they had been led out by the hand of the Lord indeed, they did not believe it…They came to this unbelief because they argued form a human point of view: ‘If the Lord were with us, and if we had been led out by the hand of the Lord, would we be bothered with hunger and thirst in this way? Would we thus lack everything? If the Lord had done it, we would undoubtedly have everything we want, and we would be in a land flowing with milk and honey, as He promised us. But no, since everything is opposite, it is not true that the lord has led us out, but you have done it.”

[viii] Tigay, “Exodus,” 142. “Moses is to take some of the elders, perhaps as witnesses, and set out for Horeb (Sinai), ‘the mountain of God’ 3.1), to obtain water.”

[ix] Tigay, “Exodus,” 142. “Strike the rock: In the Sinai there are limestone rocks from which small amounts of water drip, and a blow to their soft surface can expose a porous inner layer contained water. A similar but enigmatic episode, with differences suggesting that its an oral variant of this one, appears in Nu. 20.2-13…”

Cyrus the Based

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1737373/cyrus-the-based

"The #Hebrews’ flight from #Egypt is on a lot of #Jewish minds right now, as the annual cycle of #Torah readings has reached the Book of #Exodus.

But for many Jewish leaders in #Minnesota, the ancient story has particular resonance.

With #Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descending on the #TwinCities in search of #undocumented #immigrants and stirring chaos and pushback, the story of Exodus — about a king who tries to thwart the growing number of “foreigners” in his midst, and the leader who seeks to protect them — is inspiring widespread anti-#ICE actions.

“As we’re currently reading in the Torah, #Moses confronts #Pharoah knowing it won’t be easy, and feeling his own doubts about such an act,” #Rabbi #AaronWeininger, who leads the Conservative #AdathJeshurun Congregation in the suburb of #Minnetonka, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And in doing so, the #Israelites enslaved in Egypt are able to get unstuck. They’re able to taste freedom.”

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-884190

The identical nature of Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Megyn Kelly's antisemitic rhetoric with a large portion of the modern left is a case of 'allayall are the same enemy' as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who feels more comfortable aligning themselves with these people ideologically without interrogating why they're in alignment and rejecting it is a dangerous fn kookball.

"[T]he real outrage here is the insidious underbelly of his argument: the suggestion that #Jews today aren't "real" descendants of biblical #Israelites. This is straight out of the #antisemite's playbook, echoing debunked #Khazar #conspiracy theories that have fueled #pogroms and prejudice for centuries. The science is overwhelming and unambiguous. Peer-reviewed studies from powerhouse institutions like Harvard and Hebrew University show that #Ashkenazi, #Sephardi, and #Mizrahi Jews share deep #Levantine roots tracing back to ancient populations, with natural admixtures from #diaspora life."

https://www.jfeed.com/news-world/tucker-carlson-23andme-israel-antisemitism

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

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#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh

(Irish) Milesians

The Milesians represent the Irish people. They’re Gaels who sailed from Iberia (Hispania) after spending hundreds of years travelling the Earth. When they landed in Ireland, they contend with the Tuatha De Danann, who represent the Irish pantheon of gods.

The 2 groups agree to divide Ireland between them: the Milesians took the world above, while the Tuatha De Danann took the world (the Otherworld).

The 9th century Latin work Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) says that Ireland was settled by 3 groups of people from the Iberian Peninsula. The 1st are the people of Partholon, who all died of plague.

The 2nd are the people of Nemed, who eventually return to Iberia. The last group is led by 3 sons of a warrior or soldier from Hispania (miles Hispaniae), who sail to Ireland with 30 ships, each carrying 30 wives.

They see a glass tower in the middle of the sea with men on top of it. But the men don’t answer their calls. They set out to take the tower, but when they reach it, all but 1 of their ships are sunk by a great wave.

Only 1 ship is saved, & its passengers are the ancestors of all the Irish. In later Irish texts, it’s the people of Nemed who are drowned while trying to capture a tower by the sea.

The Labor Gabala Erenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland), an Irish work which was 1st compiled in the 11th century AD by an anonymous writer, purports to be a history of Ireland & the Irish (the Gaels).

It tells us that all mankind is descended from Adam through the sons of Noah, & that a Scythian king named Fenius Farsaid (descendant of Noah’s son, Japheth) is the forebearer of the Gaels. Fenius, a prince of Scythia, is described as 1 of 72 chieftains who built the Tower of Babel. His son, Nel, Weds Scota (daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh). They have a son named Goidel Glas.

Goidel crafts the Goidelic (Gaelic) language from the original 72 languages that arose after the confusion of tongues. Goidel’s offspring, the Goidels (Gaels), leave Egypt at the same time as the Exodus of the Israelites & settle in Scythia.

After some time, they leave Scythia & spend 440 years wandering the Earth, undergoing a series of trials & tribulations similar to those of the Israelites, who were said to have spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

In some versions of the Lebor Gabala, there was a succession dispute between Refloir & Mil (also called Galam) over the kingship of Scythia. Mil kills Refloir, & is exiled for this kin-slaying. Eventually, Mil & his followers reach Iberia/Hispania by sea & conquer it.

There, Goidel’s descendant Breogan founds a city called Brigantia, & builds a tower from the top of which his son, Ith, glimpses Ireland. Brigantia refers to Corunna (then known as Brigantium) in modern-day Galicia in Spain, & Breogan’s tower is likely to have been based on the Tower of Hercules, which was built at Corunna by the Romans.

Ith sails to the island with a group of men. He’s welcomed by its 3 kings: Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, & Mac Greine. These 3 are members of the Tuatha De Danann, which ruled Ireland at the time. With is then killed by unnamed attackers Ith’s brother, Mil (also called Mil Espaine, “of Hispania”), lead an invasion force to avenge his death & take Ireland.

After they land, they fight against the Tuatha De Danann & make for Tara, the royal capital. The hill of Tara is a hill & ancient ceremonial & burial site near Skryne in County Meath, Ireland. Tradition identifies the hill as the inauguration place & seat of the High-Kings of Ireland.

On the way, they are met on 3 mountains by Banba, Fodla, & Eriu, the wives of Ireland’s 3 kings. They’re believed to have been a trio of land goddesses. Each woman says that the Gaels will have good fortune if they name the land after her. One of the Gaels, Amergin, promises that it shall be so.

At Tara, they meet the 3 kings, who defend their claim to the joint kingship of the land. They ask that there be a 3-day truce. During which the Gaels must stay a distance of 9 waves from land. The Gaels agree. But once their ships are 9 waves from Ireland, the Tuatha De Danann conjure up a great wind that prevents them sailing back to land.

However, Amergin calms the wind by reciting a verse. The surviving ships return to land & the 2 groups agree to divide Ireland between them. The Gaels take the world above, while the Tuatha De Danann take the world below (the Otherworld) & enter the sidhe, the ancient burial mounds the dot the Irish landscape.

Amergin divides the kingship between Eremon, who rules the northern 1/2 of Ireland, & Eber Finn, who rules the southern 1/2. The Lebor Gabala then traces Ireland’s dynasties back to Milesian Gaels such as Eremon & Eber.

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#11thCentury #9thCentury #amergin #banba #breogan #brigantia #brigantium #christian #corunna #countyMeathIreland #earth #eberFinn #egypt #eremon #eriu #exodus #fenius #gaelic #gaels #galam #goidelGlas #goidelicLanguage #highKings #hillOfTara #hispania #historiaBrittonum #historyOfTheBritons #iberia #iberianPeninsula #ireland #irish #israelites #ith #japheth #latin #leborGabalaErenn #macCecht #macCuill #macGreine #medieval #mil #milEspaine #milesians #nel #nemed #noah #otherworld #partholon #refloir #romans #scota #scythian #skryne #tara #theBookOfTheTakingOfIreland #towerOfBabel #towerOfHercules #tuathaDeDanann2

It Is (in fact) Our Problem

https://youtu.be/cOgsOsLmYGA

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]

Introduction

NMP. “Not my problem.” Have you heard this phrase before? I’ve use it when I need to draw a line between me and the three human beings born from my own body. Sometimes it’s important for them to (safely) experience their own problems; I already passed 8th grade…it’s your turn. It’s also something I’ve had to learn to whisper in my various occupations, drawing necessary lines in the sand so I don’t lose myself to my job in one way or another. From what I’ve heard through therapy and therapy related news, being able to draw that line in the sand between what is yours to bear and what isn’t is healthy and actualized. So, there’s nothing sinister or contentious about NMP, until there is.

As fleshy, meat creatures working with a gray-matter unfit for our place in post-postmodernity with its technological advancement and emphasis on autonomous existence and identity, we tend to confuse what is and isn’t “my problem.” In other words, we often say NMP where MP would work better and MP where a good solid NMP would. What I’m getting at here is biblical, like Genesis 3 levels of biblical: when we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we took on the burden of determining—apart from God—what is good and what is evil and history—both spiritual and temporal—have demonstrated that we’re kind of very bad at determining what is good and what is evil. Looking around, I’m not sure we even know if there is a difference between good and evil. And if this is so, I think we’ve also confused what is and what isn’t our problem.

We need to be reoriented in a serious way. We need to be brought back to the source of the knowledge of good and evil: God. And from there we need to walk carefully while navigating the world around us. Why? What does it have to do with you? Everything…absolutely, positively, everything. The earth is sick, people are being threatened and killed because of their religion or the color of their skin or their sexual orientation and identity in the world, and community (in any form) is circling the drain. Once these things go, we’re dead…in the water. We’ve been commanded and exhorted by God through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to love the land and our neighbors and care for them because they are among us and we’re among them. Yet, we refuse in the name of NMP. However, according to Jeremiah, this is very much a “you and me” problem.

Jeremiah 29:4-7

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah is speaking to the deported Judeans who are in Babylon.[2] Rather than tell them to refuse to make the best of it, to ignore the things around them because they ain’t your problem, God, through Jeremiah, commands the Judeans to act as if they are home. Home. Exiled yet home.[3] They are to embrace both the fact that they are in this foreign land and are prevented from returning to Jerusalem (home), and embrace the land and the people around them, even the government and the state. Israel would have expected Jeremiah’s exhortation to seek the welfare of the city as an exhortation referring to Jerusalem (home). But it’s not. It’s referring to Babylon, the place that is definitely-not-home but now must-be-home.[4] The Judeans stuck in Babylon for another two generations are to take the issues and problems of Babylon onto themselves because those issues and problems are now their issues and problems. Anachronistically, Jeremiah is asking them to take up their cross and bear it, and that Cross carries the problems of the neighbor and the state. In taking up this “cross” the Judeans will make the issues and problems burdening Babylon and the Babylonians their own; like God, they will identify with the problem, plight, and pain burdening the people.

Why is Jeremiah exhorting the Judeans to bear this “cross”? Because the Judeans are falling prey to false prophets.[5] By exhorting the Judeans to get comfortable, build homes and families, and care for the welfare of the state, Jeremiah was dutifully giving the Judeans hope and encouragement,[6] which was an antidote to the poison the false prophets were offering. While the false prophets were promising easy solutions, quick ends, and creating antagonism between the Judeans and their surroundings, Jeremiah spoke God’s word of comfort and hope into this swirling chaos and tumult: God will come, Judah, so wait peacefully for God.[7] In the meantime… *waves hands around*

You see, for God, thus for Jeremiah, to identify with the burdens and problems of Babylon and its people worked to fortify Judah’s loyalty to God.[8] How So? Because Israel’s mission was to right the wrongs of the world through their faith inspired praxis in the world. How better to do that than to do so when one is in exile. Faith isn’t always focusing one’s eyes on God and refusing to see the problems and issues around you; faith isn’t about letting something burn because it doesn’t involve you because it’s not your land, or your people, or your problem. Faith builds beautiful things wherever it is and you are. And that’s because faith is in you, eager to work itself out in loving deeds everywhere, not just at your preferred home among your preferred people. So, Jeremiah exhorts the Judeans, your call is still valid…even here in Babylon.[9]

Conclusion

Jeremiah graciously reminds us that we’re fellow creatures with other creatures of the earth, especially with our fellow humans; and we are reminded that this link and connection is the very product of God’s love for us and our love for God. So, we must begin to see that the problems of the land, of creation, of those who suffer hunger, thirst, loneliness, isolation, deportation, exile, harm, threat, danger, and death are our problems…even if we don’t feel like we’re home or that we should care because, well, they made their choices so, w/e. So, in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, I want to close with the following Lakota creation myth; I believe it speaks to this exhortation to be and bring the divine love you have received into the world:[10]

There was another world before this one. But the people of that world did not behave themselves. Displeased, the Creating Power set out to make a new world. He sang several songs to bring rain, which poured stronger with each song. As he sang the fourth song, the earth split apart and water gushed up through the many cracks, causing a flood. By the time the rain stopped, all of the people and nearly all of the animals had drowned. Only Kangi the crow survived.

Kangi pleaded with the Creating Power to make him a new place to rest. So the Creating Power decided the time had come to make his new world. From his huge pipe bag, which contained all types of animals and birds, the Creating Power selected four animals known for their ability to remain under water for a long time.

He sent each in turn to retrieve a lump of mud from beneath the floodwaters. First the loon dove deep into the dark waters, but it was unable to reach the bottom. The otter, even with its strong webbed feet, also failed. Next, the beaver used its large flat tail to propel itself deep under the water, but it too brought nothing back. Finally, the Creating Power took the turtle from his pipe bag and urged it to bring back some mud.

Turtle stayed under the water for so long that everyone was sure it had drowned. Then, with a splash, the turtle broke the water’s surface! Mud filled its feet and claws and the cracks between its upper and lower shells. Singing, the Creating Power shaped the mud in his hands and spread it on the water, where it was just big enough for himself and the crow. He then shook two long eagle wing feathers over the mud until earth spread wide and varied, overcoming the waters. Feeling sadness for the dry land, the Creating Power cried tears that became oceans, streams, and lakes. He named the new land Turtle Continent in honor of the turtle who provided the mud from which it was formed.

The Creating Power then took many animals and birds from his great pipe bag and spread them across the Earth. From red, white, black, and yellow earth, he made men and women. The Creating Power gave the people his sacred pipe and told them to live by it. He warned them about the fate of the people who came before them. He promised all would be well if all living things learned to live in harmony. But the world would be destroyed again if they made it bad and ugly.

[1] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[2] Marvin A. Sweeney, The Jewish Study Bible Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation, eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: OUP, 2004), 983.

[3] Sweeney, “Jeremiah”, 983. “Jeremiah’s letter begins with God’s instructions to accept life in Babylonia and to build lives and families there. The activities enumerated in vv. 5-6 are those of establishing a new home, indicating that for at least two generations Babylonia should be treated as home.”

[4] Sweeney, “Jeremiah”, 983. “The rhetoric of this verse is intended to shock—most people would have expected the words ‘And seek the welfare of the city’ to refer to Jerusalem, not to Babylon.”

[5] Sweeney, “Jeremiah”, 984. “The letter raises the issue of false prophets, a major theme of the preceding chs.”

[6] Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, Jeremiah: with Hebrew text and English Translation, ed. Rev. Dr. A Cohen. Soncino Books of the Bible. 6th Impression (London: Soncino Press, 1970), 188. Jeremiah’s duty is to preach hope and encouragement to the people

[7] Freedman, Jeremiah, 188. “…[Jeremiah] was at the same time realistic, and deemed it his duty to warn the people not to delude themselves into thinking that the exile would come to a speedy end, as some false prophets were assuring them.”

[8] Freedman, Jeremiah, 189. Identifying with the interests of the country and loyal citizenship, “The fact that Jeremiah could urge this doctrine upon the exiles, while at the same time assuring them of their restoration after seventy years, indicates that in his mind no mutually exclusive dual loyalty was involved, but that on the contrary each fortified the other.”

[9] John Bright, Jeremiah: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, The Anchor Bible, eds. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (Garden City: Doubleday, 1965), 211. In this portion “…Jeremiah charges the exiles to disregard the wild promises of their prophets and to settle down for a long stay, pursuing a normal life as peaceable subjects of Babylon, and even praying to Yahweh for that country’s welfare…”

[10] Lakota Star Knowledge: http://www.crystalinks.com/nativeamcreation.html

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