George of Sylvania

Tag: deconstruction

  • Jude, the Saint of Despair

    Jude, the Saint of Despair

    John 15:17-27:

    Jesus said to his disciples, “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

    “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world– therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. It was to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

    “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.”

    Saint Jude is the patron saint for lost causes, impossible situations and despair. It is a hard time for those of us who don’t believe empathy is a sin. When holding all that has happened in Minneapolis, thinking about Keith Porter Jr being murdered by immigration customs and enforcement, the horrific details in the newly released Epstein files, I needed to think about, and create space for despair for a bit.

    When I read this Gospel passage, which is specific in the lectionary to St. Simon and St. Jude (who both share the martyrdom on 10/28), it really had my mind going. See, when I read of Jesus in this passage talking about not being of this world my context, historically, of this passage is much different than what I believe now.

    For a long time I feared the idea of the day of judgment, specifically because of the language around it. I grew up around the apocalyptic concept of fire, brimstone, etc., but then I found out that apocalypse literally means uncovering in Greek, as in, learning something new. When I found this out, I dove deeper into the Jewish roots of Christianity. Because of this new information, I was deeply curious about what this day of judgment would mean. After some time, I became much more comfortable.

    The idea of the day of judgement, is the work of God setting things right, the way they were supposed to be.

    It is creating justice in an unjust world, and for those of us who seek justice, who seek the safety of others, who seek after the words of Jesus, it really isn’t a scary thing. Sure, there are aspects of our lives where we are continuing to hone and align the way we believe with how we live our daily life, but on the whole, the setting of things in their correct manner shouldn’t be that scary.

    When we strip down the concept of wanting to live in a world where everyone is safe, no one has to worry about food, healthcare, being othered, bombs, and genocide as seen in Sudan and Gaza to name a few. These things that make us feel fear in our daily lives, these systematic issues that cause us to live into despair. As I sit with this, I feel connected to the despair that St. Jude is the patron saint of. It’s not hard right now to let those feelings consume us, but cynicism is easy.

    Then I remember, despair is easy.

    Hope, love, and taking care of one another in community is hard.

    It takes bravery to love someone.

    It takes bravery to stand up for someone.

    It takes almost nothing to cast someone aside, and not only deny their humanity, but the image of God that is interwoven through their very being.

    So when I read and sit with the part in Luke where Jesus says, if the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you, my mind goes to the lie that is christian nationalism. Those I have heard prosecution stories loudest, come from those that uphold white Jesus. And we know that they cannot be the people Jesus is talking about here.

    May you find some hope in these words my friends.

    Grace and peace.

  • Prayer Meeting Reflection

    Trinity Chapel

    The following is my reflection from the prayer meeting held at Trinity’s 12 Noon service on 3/25.

    Matthew 5:17–19 (NRSV)

    Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

    The sermon on the mount is a teaching I have been spending a lot of time with as of late. I cannot speak for everyone, but this part of the sermon always gave me pause. As a young Christian I was taught that the Old Testament no longer applied to my life because Jesus came and liberated us not just from sin, but from all that “legalism.” Whenever this passage came up in church or wherever, this part always tugged at me, and the best explanation I could get from anyone was that it no longer applied. Paul had written about the law and how it did not apply to us, so we were free from it because of grace.

    As I have grown older, I have personally come to realize that I cannot take that view because of how short sighted it is. To determine that something in the text no longer applies to you gives you permission not to take it seriously. It gives permission to be permissive about it, and when we become permissive, we are no longer curious. I find for myself, when curiosity is gone, what was fresh and vibrant become stale. I do not want to personally live in a world where the Sermon on the Mount becomes stale. So, what does it mean for this part of Matthew to continue to breathe new life?

    Taking place on a mountain side, Jesus sits down and teaches his twelve disciples while others crowd around him and listen in. This image of Jesus is, I would argue, is what we would recognize today as Jesus at his most rabbinic. Rabbi and scholar Jacob Neusner in his book, A Rabbi talks with Jesus, writes: 

    …the sage sets for himself a worthy challenge, one that every sage in every generation does well to meet: receive a tradition whole and perfect, hand it on never intact but always unimpaired, so taking a rightful place in the chain of tradition from Sinai.

    What Rabbi Neusner writes about, is how traditionally new teachers of the law would be raised up. Those who were picked and went through the training to become a teacher of Torah would be taught the commandments by heart. Then, their teacher would put their spin on it by providing some new perspective. This is what it means when a teacher passes on the law, not intact but always unimpaired. What Jesus is building on in his Sermon on the Mount, is the Torah, the law given at Siani to Moses and the ancient Israelites.

    When we talk about no longer being subject to the law of the Old Testament and say that we must follow teachings like the sermon on the mount, something important is left out. What Jesus does with the Sermon on the Mount is what rabbis would call, “building a hedge around Torah.” Imagine that this law is so precious to you, not because of sin or persecution, but because you believe it is the best and you want to live it, that you put a buffer between yourself and it. Like a house with a hedge surrounding, it for protection, is what Jesus is doing in this sermon. The hedge, as Rabbi Neusner puts it, the hedge is important because it allows us to, “…conduct yourself in such a way you will avoid even the things that cause you to sin, not only the sin itself.”

    There is a famous teaching associated with the Hillel the Elder where a gentile comes up to him and asks to be taught the Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel responds with something like, “that which is bad for you, do not to your neighbor, that is the Torah, the rest is commentary.” 

    For Jesus to give this teaching, encouraging us that not murdering is not enough, and we must not even have hate in our hearts. It is not just about not cheating on your spouse, but to not even to look at someone lustfully, and if you do, cut your eye out (because it is not the person’s fault you are looking at them like that). When I sit with this part of Matthew, as I have for the past year, I am reminded that for me, if all of Torah is about caring for my neighbor, and as Rabbi Neusner confirms, Torah is all about teaching us how to show mercy, then I am proud to teach others to show it. 

    I am excited to invite others along the path to teach and show mercy and love in ways that may not be new but are still worth doing. Especially in the climate we find ourselves in, this yoke, this teaching, must be passed on. When you hear it, it may not be intact, but it will at least be unimpaired.

    Grace and peace.