Listening and Lies

The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy (Jn 10:10)
What does Yahweh ask from you
but to do justice, love loyally,
and walk humbly with your God (Mic 6:8)

When we started we asked the question "can we draw a straight line from Genesis to Cyprian's church?" Now we can ask the question in a different way.

When we explore the scripture, do we find a God of Life who is committed to defeating Death? Do we find a God who provides freely for all and opposes accumulation? Do we find a God who is working to unite humanity into a kingdom of every tribe, tongue, and nation under His rule? Do we find a God who commissions His partners to peaceful rule of the Dirt, teaching the nations?

Do we find the God the early church claims to be worshiping, in the person of Jesus, in the Christian and Hebrew scriptures?

I think when we read the scripture through the eyes of the early church, we do. When we read the scripture through Caesar's eyes, we cannot find this God. I cannot serve two masters. If I try, I will love one and hate the other.

I want to emphasize that we have been talking about a fundamental change in belief about the nature of reality.

We do not reject the power of the sword, that is Death, out of pious works. We reject the power of the sword because we understand that Death is false power and has been destroyed by the God of Life.

We do not reject accumulation out of empty works. We reject accumulation because we trust in the God of provision who gives Life to the Dirt.

We do not refuse to bind ourselves in citizenship to human kingdoms because we hate our country. We reject such loyalty because we understand we are citizens of the Kingdom of Sky where all are loved and welcome, a kingdom of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

To believe these things is to deny the world. To believe the world is to deny these things.

No one needs to teach children that death is power, that money is valuable, or that Caesar is lord. These beliefs are burned into us from the day we are born, in ways we may never be conscious of. If I would enter the narrow gate to the Way of Life something inside me needs to die.

God defeated Death for us out of pure grace and love, accomplishing what we never could have. God provides for everyone, making it rain on the just and the unjust, out of His bountiful love. God, in welcoming love, calls us out of our kingdoms of Death, inviting us to return to the Kingdom of Sky and Dirt.

If we find it hard to believe the things the early church claims are true about the world, what do we do? In my experience the answer is simple and painful. Listen to the stories of the oppressed. Hear their cry as God does1.

If we are citizens of Caesar's kingdom, able to accumulate "enough", and feel relatively safe from the principalities and powers of Death, then it can be hard to see clearly.

Those who have been declared by Caesar to be disposable not-citizens understand why we need to live as citizens of God's kingdom.

Those who are hungry, thirsty, and naked because someone has hoarded the provision meant for them understand the need for everyone to trust for God's provision of our daily bread.

Those who have watched family slaughtered by the sword understand the horror of a world in which people trust in Death over God's life.

Listen to their stories. Believe them over the lies of the powers of this world.

And lie they will. If the stories of the oppressed are true, then Caesar is not a savior2, he is just another murderer3. If the stories of the oppressed are true, then the wealthy are starving the hungry4. If the stories of the oppressed are true, then human kingdoms are rebels gouging borders in blood and death on God's Dirt5.

So the powers lie about the oppressed. They don't belong in our kingdom. They are less human than we are. They are lazy. They broke our laws. They are dangerous criminals. They are natural slaves. They deserve it. They brought this on themselves. Treating them this way breaks no law. There is no God. God does not see. God has forgotten the oppressed. (Ps 10, Ps 94)

Do not believe the lies.

Listen to the story of the crucified One and believe.
Stories are how we understand the world.

Next we will turn to the story of Genesis, the founding story of the Dirt. We find that it is not a warrior hero's journey. Instead we find God herding animals, hearing the outcry of spilled blood, becoming a stateless person on the Dirt, and giving promises to immigrants in foreign lands.

Contemplation Questions

Remember, sit with the question and listen, don't try to answer it.

God hears the cry of the oppressed.1 Do we?

Footnotes:

  1. Ex 22:21-22, Ps 10:17-18, Ps 12:5, Ps 72:12-14, Ps 146:7-9, many more. Proverbs 21:13 is also instructive, saying that those who do not hear the cry of the poor will not be heard when they cry out. ↩ ↩2

  2. The Priene Inscription “Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the gospel for the world that came by reason of him" ↩

  3. Habakkuk 2:12 "Woe to him who builds a city by bloodshed, and founds a city on injustice!", Ezekiel 22 "Will you judge the city of blood?", Ezekiel 34:1-10 "you ruled over them with force and with ruthlessness." ↩

  4. James 5:1-6 "you rich people, weep and cry aloud ... Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts." ↩

  5. Amos 1:13 "For three transgressions of Ammon and for four I will not revoke the punishment, because they ripped open pregnant women in order to enlarge their territory!", Nahum 3:1–3 "Woe to the city that has shed much blood! .. The crack of the whip! The rumbling of the chariot wheel! ... Chariots charge! Swords flash! Spears glitter! Many corpses are piled high", 1 Chronicles 22:8 "you shall not build a house for my name because you have shed much blood upon the ground before me." ↩