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Today is the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost.
Whew! Advent will be here before we know it!
I’m preaching this morning in Springfield, Missouri, at National Avenue Christian Church after leading a weekend event on Christian nationalism. And I confess: I wasn’t happy when I saw the lectionary passages for the day and I almost opted to preach on animal blessing and St. Francis this Sunday.
But I stuck with them — three selections. And I’m glad I did. This week, I’m sharing all the lectionary readings with you.
Make sure to scroll to the bottom of today’s post for news about an upcoming film event at The Cottage and the Convocation Unscripted LIVE on the road!
Genesis 2:18-24
The Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.”
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere,
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet.”
Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
Mark 10:2-16
Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
I literally groaned when looking at this week’s lectionary texts. It is hard to imagine three more misused texts showing up on the same Sunday.
Why? Because it is painfully easy to think of the sermon I’d never preach. At first glance, the passages suggest a reflection on marriage — that Woman was created to companion Man, that marriage is the ultimate vocation of womanhood, and that that calling is so sacred it can never be ended through divorce. Another sermon might be on the hierarchical order of creation — God, Jesus, angels, and humans; Man over Woman; and children on the bottom of this pyramid of divinely-assigned roles.
In other words, when I read the selections, it seemed like the perfect Sunday for a Christian nationalist preacher! Christian nationalism is a movement based on restoring ordered hierarchies of gender, race, and role. You hear echoes of these texts and the traditional theologies in these words in political discourse and podcasts all around us. Indeed, one might even suspect that some of the current candidates find today’s readings to their liking.
It is tempting to dump the texts and preach instead about blessing animals and St. Francis!
We think that we read biblical texts free and unencumbered — the Word lives, the Word speaks, we hear the Word. But the truth is that we encounter biblical texts through cultures and perspectives that we’ve inherited. In this case, my reaction to today’s readings is not a response to the passages themselves. Instead, I’m reacting to how those texts have been interpreted by Christians before me. And, as it happened, these passages have been read for centuries through an idea referred to as The Great Chain of Being.
First conceived by ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle as the “ladder of being,” the concept was most fully developed in western medieval Christianity — as a hierarchy of being extending down from God to angels, then to human beings who are further divided into hierarchies of gender, role, and race, then to animals and plants, and finally, to the earth itself.
That structure has stuck in western culture, forming a kind of imaginative template for the way we think of reality. Over time, it has been revised, condensed, and contested. But it has never completely disappeared. The western Christian imagination has been haunted by hierarchies since its beginnings in the ancient world, was codified by the medieval Great Chain of Being, and remains with us still in modified forms.
What if the Chain isn’t really the spiritual structure of the universe? What if there’s a different structure, an alternative way of imagining the nature of things?
What if we live in a Great Web of Belonging?
What if we read scriptures with an eye toward connection — belonging with each other, God, and nature rather than through separate orders in a hierarchy?
When we shed the chain of hierarchy and look at today’s passages as stories of belonging, they read differently. Indeed, they become stories of radical reversal of hierarchy. The Genesis story of Eve’s creation isn’t about some secondary, divine afterthought of femaleness. “Bone of my bones; flesh of my flesh” is the shocking recognition of sameness and equality — not difference or superiority. Adam and Eve belong together, connected by and through a shared being.
The Hebrews passage lifts human beings to an honor higher than the angels — being crowned with glory and honor and subjecting all things to the work of our hands! In effect, Hebrews proclaims that humans have been elevated to a divine status, even to the point that Jesus considers men and women his “brothers and sisters.” Humanity belongs with and in and through God, through a share vocation to care for the whole of the cosmos. All things are subjects to us, not objects to manipulate, domineer, or abuse.
And the scary divorce passage, which we read as a kind of legal prohibition and often experience as a threat, emerges as a promise of connection: So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. The connection between we humans cannot be broken by any legal document or any personal failure. Even if one is divorced, a most bitter disjunction of intimate relationship, the sacred threads of belonging still remain. We are connected. All of us humans. We can’t break the ties. Because belonging is the nature of things.
The final story in these readings is of children: Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Children were on the bottom rungs of the old chain of being. But, in the Kingdom of God, children belong. Because, of all the topsy-turvy pronouncements, Jesus insisted that the Kingdom of God actually belonged to them!
Belonging. We belong. The kingdom of God belongs to us, especially the littlest and least powerful of us. The vocation of caring for all of creation belongs to we humans, because we humans belong to creation.
These aren’t Christian nationalist support texts. Indeed, these passages dismantle any political or social movement that claims superiority over other people or creation.
The Bible doesn’t uphold hierarchy, it subverts it. We’ve been taught to read it as a hierarchical text through the centuries by powers and authorities that wanted it read as a narrative of divine subservience. If we can shed those interpretations, and learn to read it differently, we find new spiritual stories — tales of sacred wisdom that remind us that we belong. We belong.
And those who would insist on superiority and status instead of mutuality and shared responsibility are, frankly, just wrong.
FILM EVENT AT THE COTTAGE — NEXT WEEK!
A SPECIAL SCREENING OF A NEW DOCUMENTARY, TRUE BELIEVER.
Paid subscribers at The Cottage are invited to a private online screening of True Believer. You’ll be able to watch the film during a multi-day period from Oct 8, 8:00 AM Eastern/5:00 AM Pacific - Oct 13, 8:00 AM Eastern/5:00 AM Pacific.
The special ticket price for the film is $5. The proceeds go to the filmmaker, not to the Cottage.
Details on accessing the film WILL BE SENT TO PAID SUBSCRIBERS ONLY on MONDAY, October 7.
Then, on Wednesday, October 9, Kristen Irving, the filmmaker, will be at The Cottage for a live discussion of the documentary (it will be recorded for those unable to attend the live conversation) in conjunction with the special screening.
INSPIRATION
Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that
bottle of pop.
Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.
Open the door, then close it behind you.
Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel
the earth gathering essences of plants to clean.
Give back with gratitude.
If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and
back.
Acknowledge this earth who has cared for you since you were
a dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire.
Let your moccasin feet take you to the encampment of the
guardians who have known you before time,
who will be there after time.
They sit before the fire that has been there without time.
Let the earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitters.
Be respectful of the small insects, birds and animal people
who accompany you.
Ask their forgiveness for the harm we humans have brought
down upon them.
Don’t worry.
The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises,
interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and
those who will despise you because they despise themselves.
The journey might take you a few hours, a day, a year, a few
years, a hundred, a thousand or even more.
Watch your mind. Without training it might run away and
leave your heart for the immense human feast set by the
thieves of time.
Do not hold regrets.
When you find your way to the circle, to the fire kept burning
by the keepers of your soul, you will be welcomed.
You must clean yourself with cedar, sage, or other healing plant.
Cut the ties you have to failure and shame.
Let go the pain you are holding in your mind, your shoulders, your heart, all the way to your feet. Let go the pain of your ancestors to make way for those who are heading in our direction.
Ask for forgiveness.
Call upon the help of those who love you. These helpers take many forms: animal, element, bird, angel, saint, stone, or ancestor.
Call yourself back. You will find yourself caught in corners and creases of shame, judgment, and human abuse.
You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return.
Speak to it as you would to a beloved child.
Welcome your spirit back from its wandering. It will return
in pieces, in tatters. Gather them together. They will be
happy to be found after being lost for so long.
Your spirit will need to sleep awhile after it is bathed and
given clean clothes.
Now you can have a party. Invite everyone you know who
loves and supports you. Keep room for those who have no
place else to go.
Make a giveaway, and remember, keep the speeches short.
Then, you must do this: help the next person find their way through the dark.
— Joy Harjo, “For Calling The Spirit Back From Wandering The Earth In Its Human Feet”
CONVOCATION CORNER at THE COTTAGE
We’re hitting the road with the Convocation Unscripted’s fearless foursome on a Faith & Democracy Tour.
Upcoming: North Carolina and Arizona! SOON! Don’t miss it!
ah, diana...you've done it again; collecting us in Love's embrace. 'like you say "We are connected. All of us humans. We can’t break the ties. Because belonging is the nature of things" and to that end maybe even have a little sweet fun recognizing ourselves as facets of this jewel we call life (see/hear a bit more here: https://vimeo.com/456585529/7bdfbc990d?share=copy
We all "belong" even those who strive to preserve the hierarchies which separate us. While my tendency is to point a finger of blame and excoriate those who are so misguided, my challenge is to quash my own sense of superiority and, instead, to love abundantly, relentlessly, and recklessly, forgiving myself and others, and inviting all into the web of belonging.