Listening
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 the stories of the oppressed.
Not the stories Caesar tells about them.
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?
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