Words, words, words
“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, 2 for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. 3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Proverbs 3:1-3 ESV). What is meant by the word “heart?” I’ve been reading the Revised English Bible of late and it renders the closing phrase: “inscribe them on the tablet of your memory.” This makes sense, helps to understand “heart” in this context. I was reading the awful story of the unnamed women in Judges 19 along with an analysis by Phylis Trible in her book, Texts of Terror, where she draws attention to a subtle Hebrew wordplay. In this terrible story, the unnamed women, taken as a concubine by a Levite, runs home to father after a falling out. It is unclear whether she left in rebellion or out of anger at the Levite’s behavior. In any event, the Levite follows her to dad’s house to “appeal to her and bring her back” (Judges 19:3 REB). Trible suggests an alternate rendering of the Hebrew: “to speak to her heart, to bring her back” (Trible, 67). She cites two more examples of similar Hebrew word usage. After the humiliation of Jacob’s daughter Dinah by Shechem, Trible renders Genesis 34:3 as “he loved the young woman and spoke to her heart” as opposed to the more traditional “spoke tenderly to her.” The other example is from the promise of restoration to wayward Israel placed on the lips of Hosea who declares Yahweh’s intention to bring Israel to the wilderness to, in Trible’s rendering, “speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:14-16). I mention this to point out the need for good words to get across the intended meaning. Something is always lost. Translating across barriers of language, culture, and time only add to the difficulty, but no language can ever convey exact meaning. I propose a sacramental view of language where language becomes a window or lens that opens and facilitates understanding and knowledge to some degree. Knowledge is made present and real in some mysterious way through words. Knowledge, by the way, is not just information. Consider what is meant by “Adam knew his wife.” This is entirely different than saying “Noah knew that the waters had subsided.” Knowledge can be relational. Consider John 10:25-38. Jesus has been asked to “speak plainly” whether he was the Christ or not. His answer, of course given in words, refers to “works” that “bear witness” to who he is and who he is related to. “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know…” (John 10:37-38 ESV). Words here serve to illuminate works that are difficult to understand. What God is doing is often confusing. Thankfully, we have words that open a window onto, provide a lens to perceive the action. We desperately need some good words.
The mother of all errors
“… for in the heavenly mysteries, opinion humanly conceived, even if it does not always give birth to a great heap of errors, is nevertheless the mother of error.” (Calvin, “Institutes,” 1.5.13) All theology is human construction. God doesn’t drop this stuff out of the sky. How do we make sense of what we believe? I’ve been pondering the word “charam” of late. An O.T. term, it can be translated: “to ban, devote, exterminate, annihilate, destroy utterly.” After marching around the walls seven times and creating a tremendous racket by blowing horns and yelling, the Book says: “And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted (charam) to the LORD for destruction” (Jos 6:17a ESV). I believe this Book, but how am I to understand this story? Theology to the rescue! Theologians help us to understand the reasons for war, genocide, slavery, and much else that troubles humanity. Oppression related to ethnicity, gender, social strata, politics, beliefs, behavior, ancestry can all be explained by creative theology. Most of us don’t have time for this. We just want a little bit of happiness and don’t really mean anyone harm. We don’t have the energy to figure this out so we uncritically accept what the authorities tell us, whether we get it at home, church, synagogue, mosque, university, or nowadays more often the tv. Why bother thinking when someone else has already thought for you? Does God call us to exterminate? That seems extreme to our Western sensibilities, but we blandly accept, even require, just war. It’s just war and there’s money to be made! Only make sure it doesn’t happen on our soil. At the end of the day, we all suffer from human opinion. The human mind might be the most violent and destructive weapon there is. Those who choose the way of the sword become slaves to it. This is simple theology, human opinion trying to make sense out of the Book. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. (Mat 26:52 ESV) What are the options? I propose trading charam for a cup. John finishes his retelling of the ear cutting incident not with a philosophical reason but a practice to be lived into. So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” (John 18:11 ESV)
Walls are in again
“Military intervention to maintain the global status quo will become a constant feature of international relations, whether this is justified in terms of fighting drugs, fighting terrorism, containing “rogue states,” opposing “Islamic fundamentalism,” or containing China”– . Walden Bello. I recently watched “Encounter Point,” a movie about a novel solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and seeing the Wall brought back memories. I was in Berlin in 1990 as that Wall was being dismantled. The human scars of the previous 30 years ran deep. I wan in South Africa several years later just after Apartheid finally ran out of steam. An enduring memory is the little Walls that suburbanites constructed around their houses for protection. Here in the U.S. some people, typically from the wealthier stratum, erect beautiful stone Walls around their mansions to keep prying eyes away. What stands out in my memory is that the ones in South Africa all were decorated with broken glass embedded in the mortar along the Wall tops. A quote from Encounter Point: “We are a military with a state, not a state with a military.” Indeed, the military knows how to build really good Walls. When people are unable to talk and resort to violence, it seems reasonable to put up a Wall for protection. Unfortunately, what really gets protected is the opportunity and breeding grounds for further violence. Germany came to its senses and tore their monster down. The U.S. seems to have missed the lesson. House Resolution 6061 (H.R. 6061), “Secure Fence Act of 2006“, was introduced on Sep 13, 2006, passed the U.S. House of Representatives on September 14, 2006, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 29, 2006. Partial funding for a 700 mile Wall separating the U.S. and Mexico became available at that time. Some would like to extend the Wall the full 2000 miles and then do another 4000 miler to keep the Canadians out too. Just Vision, the organization responsible for Encounter Point, is of the mind that Walls are not the answer. I wholeheartedly agree. See the movie. You might find it in your local library. Or buy the dvd. Invite some Muslim, Jewish, and Christian friends over to watch it together.
Abraham our father
Two books and a podcast have provoked an interesting and important question: What is God doing in the intersection of the three Abrahamic faith streams? Douglas Harink, “Paul among the Postliberals,” writes: “Many Christian theologians and Paul scholars since the 1940s agree on at least one fact: their work cannot go on as if Jews do not exist” (151). Being a follower of Christ who has Jewish ancestry, this is both reassuring, true, and a word to the wise to those who are unfamiliar with theology subsequent to mid 20th century. According to Harink, the events of the Holocaust and Second World War have thrust the reality of an undercurrent of anti-Jewish assumptions in Christian theology throughout the ages into a wider consciousness. Harink’s chapter on Israel pits N.T. Wright against John Howard Yoder, contrasting very opposing views on God’s purpose and intentions towards Israel. Secondly, I received Neil Gillman, “Doing Jewish Theology,” as a Christmas gift from Jacob. Gillman was a student of Abraham Joshua Heschel from 1954 to 1960 and a faculty colleague from 1960 until Heschel’s death in 1972. Heschel is one of those philosopher/theologians who crossed boundaries and gained both audience and respect from the Christian faith stream as well as Jewish. I am interested in both Heschel’s thought and the influence he brought to his Jewish faith stream. Finally,Princeton Theological Seminary, held a public lecture, “The Qur’an and Its Place in Muslim Life,” on Monday, November 23. Sohaib Sultan, Princeton University’s Muslim life coordinator/chaplain and author of The Koran for Dummies and The Qur’an and Sayings of Prophet Muhammad presented. Sultan is the Muslim chaplain on staff at Princeton University and has a passion to promote mutual understanding and dialogue between Christian and Muslim faith communities. I’m suggesting that the ongoing “War On Terror” and the ongoing bombardment of instant and constant dissemination of media news has thrust an awareness of the Muslim faith stream into Western Christian consciousness with a similar impact as the events of the Holocaust and WWII did for the Jewish faith stream. We’ve hardly begun to address the implications, but can no longer plead ignorance. For the Christians, Isaac is the son of promise and Ishmael is the forgotten step child. Abraham, in his old age but before the birth of Isaac, had this conversation with God: Gen. 17:18-19 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” Christians tend to become temporarily deaf and blind to the next verse: Gen. 17:20 “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.” This is somewhat understandable since the next verse declares that the covenant will be with Isaac: Gen. 17:21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year” and the Christian faith stream is all about the covenant and in particular how it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Harink, drawing on Yoder, has provided a strong case to consider that God has plans for the Jews that didn’t end with the Incarnation. Harink’s key issue is God’s faithfulness to his election and blessing. What does that thought mean regarding the promise to Ishmael in Gen. 17:20? I’m convinced that the end of the story is unknown to us at present, but we’re likely to be very surprised. The following is often preached in in a wedding ceremony, but what if the context might apply to these three faith streams that all claim father Abraham: Eccl. 4:12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him–a threefold cord is not quickly broken. We may yet learn to get along together.
Welcome to the Muslim Students Association
of Princeton University
