Mitch Lewis

Recreation of the Imperial Crown, Spyer Dom

Why is the crown of the "Roman" emperor hanging in a Christian cathedral?

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Ancient Israel often suffered at the hands of the major imperial powers of its day. It's amazing, then, Israel's sacred texts portray the descendents of Jacob serving in positions of some authority and influence within these ancient empires. Among the faithful Israelites are Joseph, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah Nehemiah, Ezra, Mordecai and Esther. Each of the empires in which they served ultimately fell under God's perfect judgment. The Biblical narrative, however, also tells us how these children of Abraham served the cause of good in the service of empire.

Joseph in Genesis and Exodus

Sold into slavery by his brothers and unjustly imprisoned by his Egyptian masters, Joseph eventually became a senior administrator in Pharaoh's government. He enabled his master's household to prosper and later supervised Egypt's entire agricultural industry. His efforts as an officer of Pharaoh saved countless lives in during a severe famine. His work in Pharaoh's court also enabled the entire family of Jacob to endure the famine, insuring the continued existence of God's chosen family. (See Joseph the Dreamer.)

But Genesis and Exodus are two volumes in the same literary stream. In Exodus we find that "a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt." (Exodus 1:8) The same Egyptian empire in which Joseph served - and which saved the Israelites from extinction - now enslaved and mistreated God's people. Egypt earned God's judgment. The plagues which Egypt suffered revealed the LORD's verdict on Egyptian gods. In the destruction of the Egyptian army, God executed his righteous sentence on the empire that had kept Israel in bondage.

The Book of Daniel

The first part of the Book of Daniel tells the stories of four Judean exiles living first in Babylon, and then in Persia. The four Judeans were  from royal families and exceptionally well qualified to serve in the Babylonian court. Their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. For three years they studied Chaldean (i.e. Babylonian) writings and language. They even received new Babylonian names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they served as advisors to the king of Babylon and administrators of the province. When Babylon fell to Persia, Daniel then served the king of the Persian Empire in a similar fashion. "O king, live forever," Daniel said to Darius. (Daniel 6:21)

Overall, these four faithful Judeans refused to violate the dietary laws given through Moses, to worship idols or neglect the worship of Israel's God. Otherwise, they sought the well-being and success of the empires they served.

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Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. Leviticus 25:10

I want to illustrate the importance of narrative context to the interpretation of scripture by looking briefly at the institution of Jubilee in Leviticus 25:8-55. Jubilee is often held up as a divine mandate for redistribution of wealth, a denunciation of the concept of private property and an indication that an ever-growing gap between rich and poor is evil. In Jubilee, it is said, God is showing us how those concerned for the poor live.

In reality, the situation is more complex than that. The author's primary focus is not simply "concern for the poor" or, more radically, a universal prescription for economic life in the world.

Let me make this clear from the outset: God's people ought to care for those in need. Isn't "love your neighbor as yourself" sufficient for us to know that? If not, there are countless Biblical texts that make our duty to the poor clear. The Jubilee texts under consideration command the Israelites not to treat those in need harshly and not to take advantage of their weakness by profiting from their misfortune. But in the context of the Biblical narrative, is the Jubilee primarily a universal prescription about personal charity or economic structures?

What is Jubilee? And what did it mean in the narrative context in which we find it in the Bible?

Here's the bottom-line up-front: it's about God's promise that Abraham's descendants would possess the land.

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Ephesians 2:1-10 - Lent 4B

Be good.

It's a dated reference, but for some reason I thought of Stephen Spielberg's E.T. - The Extraterrestrial as I began reflecting about today's epistle reading. For those too young to remember, E.T. is a creature who comes from the sky, gets separated from his spacecraft, is pursued by menacing government authorities, is taken captive, dies, and then rises from the dead. As he prepares to return to the skies in his glowing spacecraft, he sticks out his little glowing finger, touches a young boy named Elliot and says, "Be good."

For Christians, part of the story sounds familiar. I think it illustrates two pretty important points about the secular world in which we live. First, try as the world might, it can't hide from its spiritual impulses. Spielberg reworks the story of Christ into a space myth, but E.T. is not just a science fiction story.

Second, and for our purposes more importantly, Spielberg captures what the secular world thinks about religion in general and Christianity in particular. It's about being good. Some stereotype Christians as evil moralizers who want to impose their mean-spirited beliefs on the world. In their view, it's a power-play on our part, pure and simple. Their reaction is, typically, "Keep your morality away from me."

On the other hand, some see Christianity (or what's left of it) as a tool for advancing their own moral agenda. Whether it's advancing the cause of equality, the environment, economic justice, or some other good cause, religious belief is a simply a vehicle for advancing that cause. Faith is a means to an end. You get the feeling that many of these folks would be willing to drop the religious facade if they could achieve their goals by other means. The causes may be good or they may be misguided, but either way, they are not the gospel.

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They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. (22) They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (23) Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, (24) and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." (25) But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" (26) And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. (27) They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." (28) At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. Mark 1:21-28

Epiphany - 4B

Jesus' ministry in the Gospel of Mark starts with a bang. Jesus comes to Capernaum - a nice little town on the banks of the Sea of Galilee - a respectable little town - and goes to the synagogue where he encounters a man possessed by a demonic power.

The man begins to shout at Jesus. Boy, I'm glad we don't have any crazy people shouting at me while I'm trying to preach. Being confronted by really off-the-wall crazy people in the street is uncomfortable enough. Imagine having one sitting next to you in chapel. (If this happened everywhere that Jesus went, that was sure to make him popular!)

Only this man isn't just crazy-sick. He's in the grip of demonic power.

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⁵ You should have the same understanding among yourselves which Christ Jesus also had. ⁶ Having the characteristics of God from the beginning, he did not consider that being equal with God was at all illegitimate, as if he were assuming prerogatives that did not belong to him. ⁷ Nevertheless he emptied himself, taking on the characteristics of a slave, sharing the essence of our lives as a human being. To the those who saw him, he just looked like any man. ⁸ He abased himself, becoming completely submissive to God even though it led to his own death ? and not just any death, but death on a cross. ⁹ Indeed, for this reason God lifted him up to the highest place of honor and bestowed on him a name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow ? those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth ? ¹¹ and that every tongue might join in the proclamation that Jesus is God's anointed one and the master of all creation, to the glory of God the father. (Philippians 2:5-11, author's translation)

Scholars tell us that this passage from Paul's letter to the Philippians is likely a fragment from an ancient hymn. It seems to beg for audience participation. When the reader says, "so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," perhaps our knees should also bow. When the reader says "that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord," perhaps our tongues should also join in this ancient confession of faith: iesous Christos kurios - Jesus Christ is Lord.

The "Kenotic Hymn" ("kenosis" is the Greek word for "empty" in Philippians 2:7) is one of the most beautiful and fascinating passages in all of scripture. As we listen to this passage, we should look not only at the text itself but its setting in Paul's letter. (This is always how we should approach any passage of scripture).

If Paul's major theme in Philippians is "Standing Firm," (Philippians 1:27-30, Philippians 4:1), how does the message of Jesus' self-emptying fit into that theme? The answer is counter-intuitive. Stand firm, Paul says, by kneeling down. Kneel at the feet of Jesus in honor of his name, and kneel in service to others as Jesus himself did.

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