Putting your ducks in a row
Today we read from Colossians 3: 1-11. This passage begins by reading, "If you were raised with Christ, seek what is from above. The word, in Greek for from above is "Ano", and is where we get our word Anode or the post on a battery rises with its charge to charge whatever we want our battery to charge. It is the same word, except for a suffix used in John 3: 1 – 8 and in particular John 3:3. In both cases the same meaning is being talked about.
Fundamentalists argue vehemently that the correct rendition of John 3:3 is "born again." John is famous for a rhetorical device called double entendre. That means double meanings. In the start of a book I am working on, Travels with Brother Delvery, I also use one. I have two birds singing, at the very opening of the book, "I’ll be There" by the Jackson Five. When Michael Jackson sings that song, he is talking about a girl he is singing to. At another level, I have the Holy Spirit singing to his church, "I’ll be there" with you the church when you are in need. At another level I have the Holy Spirit singing to his church about where The Holy Spirit will be. The scene portrayed in the book is the slums of Appalachia, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. Which meaning is the right one? As the writer, I want you to see the last two.
The same applies with John in John 3. He wants you to see that you must be born from above. In Romans 6: 1 – 11 we read that in our Baptism we die a literal, physical death with Christ. We then rise again with him. We are indeed born again, and from above. It is Christ, not our choice that causes us to die with Christ, and it is Christ, not our choice that allows us to rise with him in baptism and in the Eucharist.
Colossians 3 continues this theme. There is a physical death here. We now have a new life in Christ. People who have died, who have near death experiences do undergo a transformation and this is the transformation St. Paul, and St. John have in mind. The born again crowd is correct in that there is a rebirth, but that rebirth has no direction. What St. Paul and St. John have in mind very much has direction. It is to become like Christ. Christ is the great healer. We are called to be healers. There is no longer room for pornography. That is our sister in that picture on the wall. Is that the way we want our sister treated? That is our sister in the brothel. Is that the way we want our sister treated? There is no longer room for impurity. Want to know what impurity is? Learn what purity is first. Find it in Galatians 5: 22-23: In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, tranquility, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
We are called to put to death rotten desire. What is rotten desire? Look at its opposite. This is found in Isaiah 11: 2 – 3. "The spirit of the Personal Name shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of building up, A spirit of being like the tree, soft on the outside, but strong on the inside and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of looking to the Personal Name, and his delight shall be looking to the Personal Name." Avoid greed which is idolatry. The modern market based system is based upon greed, as per the words of Adam Smith, the founder of Capitalism and the writer of the Wealth of Nations. He argues that man is by nature greedy, which he views as good. This differs from Shema which says inclinations are neither good nor evil, and that we need God’s help to discern how to apply our inclinations. Adam Smith says greed is good.
It is interesting that the Greek word for a home is oeconos, from which we get our word, economy. In ancient Israel, and to this day the word for husband is Baal, and Baal was an ancient fertility god who ran the household of the agrarian system. Baal became Mercury the god of the market and thieves. Mercury, in the age of enlightenment and the scientific understanding of things became the market.
Look at Isaiah 5: 18 – 23: Woe to those who tug at guilt with cords of perversity, (telling the poor that if they are poor it is their own fault) and at error as if with cart ropes (bringing forward the faults of other as an excuse for their exploitation)! To those who say, "Let him make haste and speed his work, that we may see it; on with the plan of the Dedicated One of Israel! Let it come to pass, that we may know it!" Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own sight, and prudent in their own esteem! Woe to the champions at drinking wine, the valiant at mixing strong drink! To those who acquit the guilty for bribes, and deprive the charitable man of his rights (like a living wage, the right to see a doctor when required (Universal Health Care) dignity in the work place, a decent retirement in old age!
In Mark 12: 28 – 34 Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. He quotes the Hebrew Creed, Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, the Shema. In Hebrew the accent is almost always on the last syllable. In the creed we are told that God is Almighty and God is One. We are then told that we are called to love God with all our hearts. The word for hearts is plural and the word for "your" is singular. That is because we each have two hearts. One is the heart we were given through Adam, the good heart the tendency to be in the image, Shalom, and the likeness (A) Dam (Oth) or the blood, anima or nurturing principle of God. Blood has the distinction of being the only cell type in the body which touches each and every other cell in the body. It does so to nourish the body. The other is the heart we were given through the fall of Adam, the tendency to rot. In quoting the Jewish Creed, Jesus not only reminds his questioner of the Catechism of the time, he tells us we are called to love God with both. Jesus tells his questioner to love God with his tendency to rot too. Our hearts, are neither good nor bad by themselves, it is how they are put to use.
St. Paul and St. John are telling us that by ourselves we cannot know what that right direction is. In Romans 8: 11 we are told: "If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you." In verse 14, "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" In verse 26, "In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groaning."
Now we have our direction. We are a community, a nation, a people born together, by a common rescue experience, just like the Jews from Egypt and the Americans from their oppression in Europe, the sweatshops of the northern US in the industrial revolution, and the slavery of the rural south. We are all children of the one Father, who is God and the mother who is the church. We have our new birth in baptism. We are born again each time we receive the real body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Romans 6: 53.
Remember, the Hebrew word for flesh and the Hebrew word for Good News is the same. When we receive the real flesh, we also receive the good news. When we receive the blood, per Genesis 9: 4 we also receive the anima of Jesus. Jesus now lives within us guiding us in the right way. It is not us, people of flesh who do the will of the Father, but Jesus, the Presence (Shekinah) of God who dwells, (Shekin) within us. Let us go out and bring the Presence of God into the world.
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