Dark Nights

Matthew 26:1-2 – When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that in two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Humanity will be handed over to be crucified.”

In this season of Easter, while we’ve been celebrating the resurrection, I’ve been thinking about this bald statement coming right after his metaphorical statements regarding the consequences of how we treat others. It was a strange feeling to have read what God wants from her people – to treat others as though they were her/Christ – and come upon this statement predicting even worse behavior than the goats were accused of! The goats were not accused of directly killing people, although their actions may have indirectly led to people’s deaths. 

In any case, I wonder how the disciples reacted. The text doesn’t say; it immediately switches the scene to Caiaphas and the elders at the palace of the high priest. I tend to gloss over things like this because I know the rest of the story. Maybe you do too. On this side of the resurrection, it’s hard to imagine the loss and fear that would accompany this statement. Did they think that they might be crucified along with him? Did they fear for their lives or the lives of their families? How many people left when s#!t became real?

Maybe our current circumstances can give us an idea of such fear and loss. The pandemic is part of, but only part of our fear and loss. As I write this the president has mentioned injecting bleach into bodies as a way of curing COVID-19. He even tried to get Dr. Birx to agree that this should be studied. 

This ignorance is what has led to the pandemic being so bad here in the US, and his refusal to take responsibility has made it worse. When I say ‘our current circumstances,’ I’m including the president and the Republican leaders who keep him there even though he is unfit in every way for this job.

Our president would love to have the power of the Roman legions at his disposal. He fires people when they try to do the right thing. Captain Crozier, for example. Or Dr. Bright, head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, who was fired for opposing the president’s message about hydroxychloroquine. Those are the two most recent examples. To find them I typed in ‘Trump fired’ into Google and came up with many more examples than these. The point is, if he could crucify his enemies, he would. It’s horrible enough what he does to refugees seeking asylum. I don’t want to imagine what he would do with more power.

I woke up this morning thinking I need hope. I wonder if the disciples lost hope hearing Jesus say he’d be crucified. In this dark night of our country’s soul, and maybe our own, where do we find hope? And what do we hope for?

B

Holy Mischief

Matthew 25:44-46 – “Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This reminds me of something that Jesus said according to Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” That doesn’t seem to mesh well with what Jesus is saying here. In both cases, the people he is talking about did not know what they were doing. In the case of the goats, they didn’t know, as evidenced by their question, when? In the case of the Jewish authorities and the Romans, they didn’t know Jesus was the Son of God. (I wrote Song of God – it still works.) Yet, in one case they are forgiven, and in the other they are not.

Possibly the goats are so far gone, as Branca d’Oria from my last post, that there is no hope for them. Or is it that the goats have died while the people crucifying Jesus are still living. There is still time for them to repent?

The idea of repentance led me to think this morning of the Old Testament patriarchs and heroes. One of the things I love and appreciate about our scriptures is that the people in them are so very human. Abram and Sarai laughing at God’s promise of a child of their own. Jacob’s and Laban’s trickster behavior with each other. King David, probably the most revered person in the Old Testament, had a trusted fellow soldier murdered to cover up the fact that he had sex with the soldier’s wife. They all repented and were forgiven. But these stories are in here to remind us that leaders are not perfect. They remind us that these behaviors are not condoned, that they must be rejected in everyone. Idolization of our leaders is a cancer that the Old Testament preaches against again and again.

We are seeing such leader idolatry happening with Donald and his enablers. They are different from the goats and those who crucified Jesus, because they know what Jesus asks of his followers, and they’re not doing it. Yet, they are as human as those Jesus forgave on the cross. I’m not saying they deserve forgiveness. I’m not saying they don’t deserve forgiveness. But they do deserve a chance to redeem themselves if and when they recognize the harm, the suffering, and the death they have caused by their greed and their racism. It is so hard to recognize their humanity right now. Yet, if I don’t want to emulate them, I must.

And I don’t want to emulate them. There are many lessons we can learn from this presidency. One of them is how to recognize a bad example of leadership when we see one; to not follow such leadership. There are many examples in the Bible of leaders making bad decisions. In addition to the examples above, there is Herod, who killed every child in Jerusalem under two years old. As far as I know, he did not repent. It is much easier to recognize bad leadership when our survival or our way of life depends on recognizing it. But the opposite is also true. It is much harder to recognize bad leadership when our survival or our way of life depends on not recognizing it. What the Republican leaders and Donald’s acting secretaries are doing is very human. It is behavior that civilization has been fighting against for a long time.

The question arises; how do we recognize bad leadership? What are the signs and symptoms? One simple answer is whether the policies of the leaders lead to death, destruction, and devastation. That’s bad leadership. By contrast, good leaders endorse and enact policies that give life, build up people, and maintain what has already been built; both physical and social structures.

I have been reading about the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which operated in England during WWII. Their mission was to send agents trained in sabotage and mayhem into German-controlled territories to “set Europe ablaze,” as Winston Churchill put it. I think I’m going to be incorporating more sabotaging and mayhem in my thinking about resisting the president’s policies. I’m not sure what that will look like, but any non-violent action we can take to slow down or stop this evil is a loving act.

How will we create holy mischief? Sanctified sabotage? Sacred spying? Reverent resistance? Consecrated chaos? Devout disruption? Prophetic subversion? Loving defiance?

B

Heaven or Hell

Matthew 25:41-44 – “Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’”

A few verses ago, 25:37-39, I mentioned making a heaven on earth. The same applies to hell. We make a hell on earth by not meeting Jesus’ criteria of loving our neighbors. We all know people, or of people, who create their own hells. Sometimes it’s a sense of entitlement, sometimes it’s resentment, sometimes it’s holding a grudge, sometimes it’s holding on to grief, sometimes it’s bad coping mechanisms in general. To be clear, I’m not talking about addiction, or depression, or chronic pain. I’m talking about making bad choices; financial, social, relational, work-related.

Dante agrees with me. In his masterpiece, Inferno, he describes a character who is still walking on the earth, but his soul is already in hell. In the ninth circle, Dante meets a fellow Florentine who tells him of a soul whose body is still living. According to Dorothy L Sayers's commentary, Branca d’Oria invited his father-in-law, Michael Zanche, to dinner and murdered him. For this betrayal, his soul is in hell while his body still lives. In fact, his soul flew down to hell at the same time, or close to it, as Zanche’s.

139 “I think,” said I (Dante), “that these are pure deceits,

                For Branca d’Oria has by no means died;

                He wears his clothes and sleeps and drinks and eats.”

145 “Up in that moat where the Hellrakers bide,”

                He answered, “Michael Zanche’d not yet come

                To boil and bubble in the tarry tide

145 When this man left a devil in his room,

                In his flesh and that kinsman’s flesh, whom he

                Joined with himself in treachery, and in doom.

…

154 … I found

                One of such rank deeds, such a Genoan,

                His soul bathes in Cocytus, while on ground

157         His body walks and seems a living man. (Canto 33)

Our actions affect others is the lesson here. We can make life hard for ourselves and others by closing ourselves off to the love God offers us at every moment. One way to do this is to resist “stay at home” orders. Or be untrustworthy, or betray our friends, or ignore the need we see around us. This may seem harsh, but we become truly mature, as individuals and as nations, when we realize how deeply interconnected we are with every person, creature, and plant on the planet. Our actions affect others. It’s our choice whether to affect others positively or negatively. Making choices that hurt ourselves or others is how we create hell on earth. This includes abusing our planet’s resources, not giving or caring whether others have access to food, shelter, water, or healthcare; not to mention emotional and spiritual support. All these are necessary to thrive. 

There is no hope for Branca d’Oria. Of course, that’s Dante’s theology, not necessarily God’s. With God nothing is impossible. 

Let’s learn from d’Oria’s example and work for the flourishing of others, which ultimately leads to our flourishing as well.

B