To Impersonate a Lion
Dress up a donkey.
Limit donkey’s exposure.
Assume the divine right of kings.
Be a public figure on behalf of the lion.
Talk a lot.
Distract folks with urgent demands.
Give violent commands satisfying old grievances.
Question the inquisitive.
Eliminate truth-tellers.
Reward collective amnesia by threatening to unleash shame.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25 (NIV)
Have you ever felt as if your giving was accomplishing nothing, except making less of you? Here’s a contemplation for you from Miroslav Volf and The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, 118-119.
We are good trees who bear good fruit, wrote the apostle Paul, because “we live by the Spirit”, whose fruit our gift giving is.
The Spirit counters our indolence as givers by molding our character to conform to Christ’s and employing our talents for others’ benefit. The Spirit also gives us hope. Often we experience a sense of futility in giving. We give, and recipients seem none the better off for it. Unscrupulous people insert themselves between our gifts and the recipient’s benefits, and gifts seem to disappear together with their intended benefits. Or recipients seem to receive gifts like a black hole sucks in light. Giving doesn’t make sense, not so much because we lose by giving but because the world doesn’t gain much. We give, but it seems to us that we aren’t mending the world.
What is the relationship between our gifts and others’ benefits? We tend to think of it in terms of cause and effect. The gift is the cause: the benefit is the effect. As causes produce effects, giving should produce benefits. Often that’s not what happens, so we despair of giving.
But in fact, our gifts and others’ benefits are not related as causes and effects. They are related as the cross and the resurrection. Christ gave his life on the cross — and it seems as though he died in vain. His disciples quickly deserted him, his cause was as dead as he was, and even his God seemed to have abandoned him. But then he was resurrected from the dead by the power of the Spirit. He was seated at the right hand of God and raised in the community of believers, his social body alive and growing on earth. Did Christ’s “gift of death” cause his own resurrection and its benefits for the world? It didn’t. The Spirit did. So it is with every true gift of our own, however small or large.
Like Christ’s healings or feeding of multitudes, often our gifts offer immediate help. We give, and the hungry are fed, the sorrowful comforted, and loved ones delighted. We are like a tree, laden with fruit that only waits to be picked. At other times, we give, and the gift seems less like a ripe fruit than like a seed planted in the ground. For a while, nothing happens. Dark earth covered with cold winter holds the seed captive. Then spring comes, and we see new life sprouting, maybe even growing beyond our wildest imagination.
Sometimes it seems as if a fate worse than lying in the dark earth befalls our gifts. It is almost as if some evil bird takes away the seed we planted before it can sprout and bear fruit. We labor in vain. We give — and it seems that no one benefits. Yet we can still hope. The Spirit who makes a tree heavy with fruit and who gives life to the seed that has died will ultimately claim every good gift that the evil one has snatched away. Just as the Spirit resurrected the crucified one and made his sacrifice bear abundant fruit, so the Spirit will raise us in the spring of everlasting life to see the harvest of our own giving. Our giving is borne by the wings of the Spirits’ hope.
7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:7-10 (NIV)
Listen & Watch: We Labour Unto Glory, Porter’s Gate Worship Project
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRuPZCXShg4
Did you miss the irony of a government official quoting Romans 13 to church leaders?
It happened because church leaders have called into question the US government’s policy of separating children from their parents. In Canada we have already seen the devastating impact and trauma caused by en masse policies of separating children from their parents. In fact, as a people we are slowly coming to terms with reality: The willful division of families as an effort to demoralize and project power on the bodies and psyche of another people is wrong.
The claim to ecclesial power and divine permission, even divine mandate, for such immorality is nothing new. So the church probably should not be surprised by the current claim by Jeff Sessions that they are wrong. That’s why he recently leaned on Romans13 to squash the mouths and conscience of church leaders. He may as well try to silence God.
Not surprised, but not taken in?
Romans 13. The bible does indeed say “be subject to the governing authorities.”
1Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. Romans 13:1-7
But, Romans 13 is a more subversive text than the civil leader and the casual reader of Scripture may realize. And herein is the irony. Sessions is using the Apostle Paul’s letter a church immersed in tension. They were a diverse church that gathered in homes under the watchful eye of Rome in the first century. The Gentile and Jewish background members of these congregations were familiar with the push and pull of the Empire. These congregations had probably been impacted by Emperor Claudius’ edict forcing Jews to leave Rome. Before the edict the churches likely had a strong Jewish cultural flavour and ethos. However, with the edict a more Gentile / Roman and Hellenized ethos prevailed in the congregations. Then in AD 54, the edict lapsed and the Jews began to return to Rome. This would have included Jewish Christians who would have found a gap between their expectations and their experience in the congregations of Rome. This conflict is the occasion of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Paul expresses a pastoral concern for how these two cultural streams of Christians are going to get along with each other and with an Empire that has a love/hate relationship with them. Even as these believers declare, “Jesus is Lord” Paul seems to want to help them figure out how to be citizens and residents of Rome. He is helping them enter the tension between “Jesus is Lord” and Ceasar as the head of the empire. Romans 13 then does indeed affirm the gift of governance that maintains a civil society and the believer’s responsibility to the civil authorities. But Romans 13 also affirms a higher call and way: the call of Christ and the way of love. Paul continues on Romans 13:
Romans 13:8-148Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.11And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
So whenever Christians hear someone call out, “Hey you, be subject to the governing authorities,” these same believers must also hear loudly in their consciences, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.” When someone says, “Hey you, shut up and be subject to the governing authorities. Remember God gave us to you,” then the believers must also hear the Spirit of God say, “Love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
For the true believer trained by the Word of Jesus, any mention of Romans 13 is code for “Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So why speak up? Why show up? Why can’t love just be quiet? Yes, sometimes, even most of the time, love must act quietly. However, at the intersection of citizenship and followership is a person: that’s you and me. We are citizens of a country and we are following Jesus Christ as Lord. At that intersection our lives and decisions are political. Commenting and protesting immorality, even immoral policies, becomes necessary if we are truly to love our neighbour as Jesus envisioned “your neighbour.” Taking seriously Jesus’ words on the treatment of children and His call to be the true neighbour requires that we cry out for the respectful and non-violent treatment of all those who cross our borders.
Romans 13 : Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Preserving life and pursing God’s vision of human flourishing requires leadership. Resisting a culture of death requires leadership. Within the regular conversation of the Church is what some may experience as an annual interruption provided by the Incarnation of Jesus and the Resurrection of Jesus: women who lead. The women who showed up at the tomb became the first to proclaim and give witness to the Good News, “Jesus is alive!” Its this work of God that inspires the New Testament.
Likewise, though not as regularly considered in the church, the redemptive work of God in the exodus of Israel from Egypt provides us with what is not meant to be an interruption. In fact, I believe its because these events are treated as “interruptions” and not the normal activity of God that we find ourselves so shorthanded in the church and the mission of Jesus. If only we remained hitched to the full testimony of the whole Scripture, we would see that the interdependence of men and women in leadership has been God’s way in all our beginnings.
The extraordinary redemptive work of God precedes our texts. Exodus gives birth to Genesis. Moses emerges from the influence of the Egyptian empire because God has heard the cries of His people and is working. Genuine leadership in the Kingdom of God, is a response to the graceful stimulus of God. Such leadership takes its form in the promotion and preservation of life.
Exodus 1:15-22 (NIV)
15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Exodus 2:1-10 (NIV)
1Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
Exodus 2 is most often read as an introduction to Moses. But actually its an introduction of God and how He is working. These six women are called out by God. They are called “out” because they act in resistance to the culture of death. They have gotten out of step with the empire and the king’s insistence that every male child be thrown into the Nile. They are out of step with the culture of death.
The Company of the Committed
Let’s list out the company of those who resisted, who became aligned with God. They surely had to make internal decisions to pursue life even at the risk great cost, even their lives. That’s what leadership does: a leader counts the cost for pursing a vision greater themselves especially when it aligns with God’s righteousness.
Shiphrah and Puah: The midwives who delivered boys and girls equally and resisted the king’s death edict. They entered into a form of civil disobedience against evil; they did not give in when confronted by the king.
Jochebed: The mother of Moses. She kept her son and then strategically let him go. She built an ark for the preservation of his life. Her name means, “YAHWEH is glory.” Her husband is Amram.
Miriam: The sister of Moses. She assisted the redemption of Moses from death by strategically floating Moses in the Nile, waiting to see what happens, and then intervening with Pharaoh’s daughter to strategically find help (Jochebed) for nursing the child. Her name has several associations but the most direct is to her own birth: bitter – in reference to her birth in a season of bitter labour and harsh treatment at the hands of the Egyptians. (It should be noted that in some commentary Jochebed and Miriam are sometimes identified as the brave midwives, Shiphrah and Pauh.)
Bithiah: The Pharaoh’s daughter. In direct opposition to the king’s edict, she ordered the rescue of Moses from the Nile, had compassion on the baby, adopted him as her own, named the child, paid for his care (which came to Jochebed), and welcomed him into the Pharaoh’s court and family. She is named in 1 Chronicles 4:18. In Midrashic tradition is considered to be the one and the same daughter who rescued Moses. Her name means, “Daughter of Yah” — most often understood in reference to Yahweh.
The slave girl and the attendants: As persons under the leadership of Bithiah and as witnesses of Bithiah’s life preserving actions they have become complicit with her resistance to the king, and are aligned with her great value life.
Leading Agents of God’s Redemption
These six women are raised up by God as agents within His redemptive work. Together they conspired to preserve the life of a vulnerable child. They knew his name. They knew his history. They knew the treasonous actions that preserved his life. Yet, over the next twenty years they never yielded. As far as we know they never used the subversive knowledge as a threat. They did not know what Moses would become, but God did. They did not know what Word would create God’s people. They became participants in the supreme flow of God’s purpose.
The exodus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is the Passover. But the Passover has a history too. It is built on a series of redemptive acts inspired by God, making His values visible, and leading up to His dramatic intervention. Likewise the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is Easter. However, the story of God’s Kingdom is an extended series of redemptive actions inspired by Jesus before and after His Resurrection. In both the Exodus and in the Resurrection, women and men led themselves and others to respond to God even in the face of raw, violent, oppressive power. They chose to obey God in the regular course of their lives rather than those who would project a false supremacy and a culture of death. In so doing, they became leaders and participants in the flow of God’s true life. We can celebrate, we must celebrate how God works. God has always chosen to work redemptively through the leadership of both men and women.
Today, 5 June 2018, marks the anniversary of André Trocmé’s death in 1971.
André and his wife Magda, served Jesus in the French village of Le Chambon for fifteen years. During those years of service their village and parish because known as “the republic of Le Chambon” because of their persistent resistance to the Nazi violence against Jewish people. It is estimated that over 2500 people found safe refuge through their village, as the villagers took seriously their calling to be a city of refuge,” a sanctuary.
André was equally concerned for the victims and the perpatrators of violence. Jesus had arrested André’s anger and channeled his passions through deep convictions regarding the sanctity of life and the great value of a soul evidenced through the Cross of Christ. But still, André Trocmé was known as a “dangerous pastor.” Author Phillip Haille, opens a window on the struggle André and the village of Le Chambon faced:
World War II, between the Axis and the Allies, was a public phenomenon; military, journalistic, and governmental reporters made it abundantly available to the public. It impressed itself powerfully and deeply upon the minds of mankind, both during and after the war. The metaphors that descried it have a flamboyant cast: the war itself was a “world war,” with many “heroes”; there were “theaters of war,” and soldiers who participated in major “campaigns” received “battle stars.”
No such language applies to what happened in Le Chambon. In fact, words like “war” are inappropriate to describe it, and so are words like “theater,” While the story of Le Chambon was unfolding, it was being recorded nowhere. What was happening was clandestine because the people of Le Chambon had no military power comparable to that of the Nazis occupying force, or comparable to that of the Nazi conquerors. If they had tried to confront their opponents publicly, there would have been no contest, only immediate and total defeat. Secrecy, not military power, was their weapon.
The struggle in Le Chambon began and ended in the privacy of people’s homes. Decisions that were turning points in that struggle took place in kitchens, and not with male leaders as the only decision-makers, but often with women centrally involved. A kitchen is a private, intimate place; in it there are no uniforms, no buttons or badges symbolizing public duty or public support. In the kitchen of a modest home only a few people are involved. In Le Chambon only the lives of a few thousand people were changed, compared to the scores of millions of human lives directly affected by the large events of World War II.
The “kitchen struggle” of Le Chambon resembles rather closely a certain kind of conflict that grew more and more widespread as the years of the Occupation passed….
But the people of Le Chambon whom Pastor Andé Trocmé led into a quiet struggle against Vichy and the Nazis were not fighting for the liberation of their country or their village. They felt little loyalty to governments. Their actions did not serve the self-interest of the little commune of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the department of Haute-Loire, southern France. On the contrary, those actions flew in the face of that self-interest: by resisting a power far greater than their own they put their village in grave danger of massacre, especially in the last two years of the Occupation, when the Germans were growing desperate. Under the guidance of a spiritual leader they were trying to act in accord with their consciences in the very middle of a bloody, hate-filled war.
And what this meant for them was nonviolence. Following their consciences meant refusing to hate or kill any human being. And in this lies their deepest difference from the other aspect of Word War II. Human life was too precious to them to be taken for any reason, glorious and vast though that reason might be. Their consciences told them to save as many lives as they could, even if doing this meant endangering the lives of all the villagers; and they obeyed their consciences.
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The story of the village of Le Chambon and how goodness happened there. Philip Hallie, 1979.
Both André and Magda Trocmé and their nephew Daniel Trocmé have been included by Yad Vashem as the Righteous among the Nations. As well the whole village of Le Chambon has been honoured by Yad Vashem, only the second whole community to be honoured in this way.
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