David - from a traditional church perspective!

 

Blessed Sunday, dear friends! We continue with David, the wisdom tradition of the Bible, and all of its implications for church and tradition…..

Remember that the Blog history is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogspot.com, and that this is not a mission, a fund raiser, a church, a tradition; nothing but a seeking of the one true God who invites us all into the Kingdom of God now…and a sharing of one man’s ongoing journey.

The Christian tradition today, in its evangelical pietism and orthodoxy, continues to preach a theology of sin and salvation, negating this world for one that lies outside the reach of history, and one of which we know little about, but are told to believe in! A place for us, somewhere. No wonder we die so sadly, with fear and trembling. We have no real sense of what lies beyond. We know nothing about what death is and how to engage death as transition. Misery, injustice, and everything tragic is before us in this life, for we are sinners in the hands of an angry God. We live in a sinful world, and even though a child has been born to us, and we may sing about misery and suffering disappearing, they have not.¹⁶ We will have to wait until we make it to heaven, in the wherever and whatever of it! We are led to believe that it will all be made good there. In between, we can only wish each other a good RIP as and when we go, for what else is there to do?¹⁷

The idea of salvation has also been tweaked from time to time, as with the prosperity gospel notion which claimed that giving to God i.e. in reality, to the church, results in receiving material blessings from God! Somewhere in Proverbs it says that a fool and his money are soon parted! The parallel offering has been a long-standing attraction to the 2nd Coming of Christ, as found in the Book of Revelation, with dragons, locusts and other good game stuff. So, are we waiting for the last day on this earth when all will be made good? And all of the bad guys will get what’s coming to them? The ‘end’ seems a long time coming. Might as well count Hindu Yuga’s. Much of Revelation is still up for grabs as to what it is and what it isn’t. The vision of Revelation Ch.22 remains a vision, but it is more. 

The tradition claims to know God’s will and expounds the right to interpret it. But Wisdom says that the church has neither right nor authority.¹⁸ For me, it comes down to the reality I have seen in my lifetime - that while the tradition speaks about spiritual power, it is unable to demonstrate this power in the right living that such power engenders. Not by its leaders, and certainly not passed on to its membership. Seems like PR imaging, perhaps. I need not say more. The tradition insists on speaking within the inherently ambiguous terms of faith and belief and is unable to demonstrate God given reality. The answer to that one is obvious. It’s why Jesus said he that he who has eyes, let him see. As one said of the virus situation, The Lord has seen fit to permit it. Right, sure. Let’s keep describing cause and effect as God’s will. Just a step away from saying ‘The Lord wills it!’, and we can all go back to justifying crusades and warmongering once again!

 

I am not trying to build on Brueggemann’s work on David or continue it. I am coming at it from a different direction and am only passing through. Nor am I in total agreement with his concluding views. My position simply focuses on one aspect that is powerful and relevant. And I have wondered about the spiritual sufficiency of academic scholarship, in and beyond my church ministry, over many years.¹⁹ I have worked backwards from Jesus into David, and from social holiness (corporate, ecclesiological group therapy; easy) into personal holiness (individual, solitary, difficult). And it took me long enough. But the Holy Spirit leads all who seek.

This is why even as a young Methodist Minister, my explanation of salvation was already more than God loves you despite your horrible inherent sinfulness, but rather that

Jesus died for you because of God’s love for you.

You are worth the precious blood of Jesus.

Accept that redeemed worth, and move away from sin

As separation from God via ungodly acts

into successful and measurable living.

It is only the first step that is based on belief and faith.

The next is one of lived reality – successfully.

 

I pastored my first church along these lines, and as long as I was there, it grew, fast. Beyond that it has pretty much plateaued. Spiritual growth is not time bound, and in growing, I have encountered Bruggemann’s work once again, but this time from another perspective.

What makes academic work spiritual? Because you prayed over it? But now, it explains perfectly well what I am seeing in David’s life and personality. Hence the importance of getting to the tradition that stands behind David and not just describing the events of David’s historical narrative.

Grace is more than it has been made out to be. It is indeed amazing, but only because it calls us into taking on the prototokos offer of identity and capacity, by taking off the forgiven sinner face mask and going beyond that into a kind of ubermensch identity.²⁰ The people of God are not an elite group into which entré is enabled by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.²¹ Rather, all people of all religions and all cultures are invited into the people of God, into something that is more than being Christian. It is a challenge to enter real growth, beyond a construct that is religious in form - and into God willed human community. 

Brueggemann reminds us that the thinking of those who act as ‘religious despisers of culture’ as opposed to a ‘Christian’ culture, created a vocation of despising culture and community!  Taking our lead from them unwittingly, we have neither affirmed the humanness of our non-Christian brothers, as in 1 John 4:20, nor trusted and believed in ourselves! Nor have we fostered an inclusive faith. Rather, we have ended up being exclusive and hegemonic, excluding everyone who is not on ‘our side.’ We have not risked innovation. But God always has! And God is on no one’s side; yet again, God is on everyone’s side. And from the beginning it has been so.

Wisdom’s consequences for the formative tradition of the faith are revolutionary. But like the Cardinal in Ch 11 of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Jesus has been quietly sent on his way and the Church has ignored Brueggemann’s leading on Wisdom.²² There is no other explanation for why In Man We Trust didn’t become a runaway best-seller!  In the end, as in the secular world, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Theologians and priests and most pastors are trained and supported by the Church, since the Church supports the academic institutions that train its priests.  It is a rare institution or social structure that will support a point of view that might affect its value, status and funding. And it is a rare individual who would provoke such a point of view.

It is convenient for religious authority to have control of a spiritually defeated and morally decadent creature, using faith definitions that promote such an identity, as opposed to struggling with the true meaning of the spiritual freedom that the Son offers. All the tradition asks is obedience and acceptance of religious authority and a financial commitment. Further, the ability to carry out what is asked validates that which is professed! In other words, your faith is proven and confirmed by the fact that you are giving to church, attend church, and participate in church. But a true and free reality says, if you can’t heal the blind, why am I listening to you!? And if I can’t find healing for myself, what good is this ‘religion’? or this tradition? or this church?

The church has enjoyed supervision over its members ever since the days of its proclaiming that the keys of the Kingdom had been passed from Jesus to the head of the church, so that whatever is ordained on earth is ratified in heaven. Not that the Lord’s Prayer says otherwise. Days when the church wielded the then accepted power of excommunication, threatening to separate a person from heaven forever, and priests could make Kings kneel in the snow for days, seeking repentance. Along the way, politicians learnt a great deal from the church, and men learned a great deal about claiming superiority to women. Unworthy and sad conclusions for both.  Today, the church still exercises a subtle control, in that if you do not accept the Jesus of the Church there is no other way to heaven.

But deliverance-salvation is not about accepting Jesus by word of mouth, but of walking with Jesus, way beyond the so-called accepting. Then, Jesus accepts you!  Hence his ‘many are called but few are chosen.’ And being in a relationship of accord with the Almighty is something that is difficult to get into and easy to lose. It is also foreign to our experience and understanding. Like the story of the project technician who accidentally stumbled into the cave of Machpelah (of the still small voice of Elijah) and encountered the Holy Spirit, who sang to him. So he said. But the beauty of the singing was such that it drove him mad. He was not prepared for it. Interesting truth. The spirituality of God is not that which we are accustomed to.

Wisdom speaks differently from the interpretive tradition that we are used to.  It says that the way we ought to live is clear for all to see, given to all by God in and through everything that supports and promotes human community. We are all trusted creatures, valued and loved by God. The norms for our rules and our behavior are seen in what squares with life through actions that are authentic and effective. This life here and now is an opportunity for growing in our humanness. And our relationship with God requires us to be totally in synch with each other and with our environment.

We are not so much in need of salvation – to be saved from this life, as much as to be saved for it ie we just need to get the rottenness out of it! So, salvation means first embracing the opportunity to be fully human and to enjoy the abundant life God has given, here and now. Again, we have sheepishly participated in the technological and exploitive economies of human devised systems that function at the expense of human community. Only when we have fixed these things through genuine human growth, societal and individual, will we be ready for what lies beyond. Then we can go beyond the songs about being somewhere out there. But the church has always claimed to have the knowledge of God’s will and insists that it alone can interpret said will. Small wonder ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ are key words in the practice of religion – they are stupefyingly vague and offer precious little concrete direction!

The Implications of Wisdom’s argument for our direction thus far? Working backwards from Jesus - the church, through its traditions and divisions of control, has interpreted the Bible to the supposed glory of God, but in the same vein neglected the God given glory of man. A move essential to maintaining structure and control? When Jesus refers to David, he reverses this trend. You might wonder at the selectiveness of Wisdom, since it apparently only reached David, and neither Saul nor Solomon? Were they not listening? The answer lies in our acceptance of God wholly into our lives and in the degree to which we build a relationship with the friendliness of God. Saul was a raw beginning, a King after the nations, and he would fall, then get up, only to fall again. That process is substantially over-simplified. Perhaps the closeness of God drove him a little mad.  His life is perhaps best symbolized in the sad incident with the medium of Endor.²⁴ Solomon is Ecclesiastes to a T. He has it all, almost knows it all, but cannot see beyond it all. Even though God is right next to him! He learns the language but fails the test of its meaning and significance. As for David, there are aspects to his life that can only be guessed at, like Jesus during the ages of 13 to 33, because historical detail is insufficient, as with the context for Psalm 23. Or Psalm 8.

You see, if the wisdom tradition was a formative element in David’s life, it was only just that, and no more. One shining moment, that fades away too soon. It is like Lancelot’s moment in the movie story of Camelot when he uses the sincerity and will of love to save a life he did not intend to take. He can do so only because he is willing to give up his own. As Kierkegaard once said, purity of heart is to will one thing.²⁵ For a moment, a shining light is seen, and it gives hope and points the way. The challenge for us is to learn from David and to grow beyond him.

Because David begins to anticipate the prototokos offer that Jesus witnesses to, David’s life carries lessons on how deliverance-salvation works for the individual. His relationship with God struggles to move from dependence to interdependence. His transitions are not always smooth and not always successful. This is where Jesus picks up the challenge in his public ministry, bringing to completion God’s will for us. David picked up the challenge but stayed in trial mode and with some error! Nevertheless, extraordinary changes began to take place in his person, character, and perspective - for a while. These are what Brueggemann has focused on.

Before David, the Bible portrays our relationship with God as one in which God leads, and we follow. It is a relationship of dependence. In David’s life, this relationship begins to change. God teaches David that he owns his personal life and needs to follow no one. David learns that God trusts him to be responsible for his own life. This teaches us the true meaning of waiting on the Lord. It is not about waiting. Rather, it is about recognizing God’s timing and not God’s actions. It is about our actions. We can keep waiting for God to act, and we will wait in vain. Because God wants us to go forward and is waiting on us! This is our God given life! We need to make our decisions and our choices and cannot ask God to make them for us. We must own and live our own lives! Many of us think that faith is about stuff like ‘waiting on the Lord.’ But the ecclesiological interpretation of scripture is not always accurate. It is more the perspective of how the church chooses to nuance the interpretation of the Bible. Is it possible that spiritual power and spiritual growth work differently from how the church teaches us to think that they do? That teaching creates dependency. But God leads us into interdependency, into becoming co-workers. And the one in the middle – the necessary but transitional step of independence - is very tricky. To be continued…have a most blessed week in Jesus! Always, G.