Readings: JER 7:23-28; LK 11:14-23
Today’s readings focus on a common theme in the biblical tradition – hard hearts.
In the reading from Jeremiah, God laments that the people just won’t listen to what God is trying to say to them…again. God sent prophets and others to the people but the messages went unheeded.
Then in Jesus’ time, the people aren’t convinced that Jesus is from God so they say that he’s doing what he does from some demonic power. Jesus being ever-wise says that powers on the same side do not fight against each other. He goes on to say that if he’s doing what he’s doing by God’s power, then God’s kingdom is ALREADY in their midst and they missed it. He then goes on to say his famous saying about the strong man getting his house broken into.
What do we make of all this?
Where we read ourselves in the stories makes a big difference in what we hear.
I know that I was taught to read myself on Jesus’ side. It’s probably not a coincidence that in a Christian dominant country and as a straight, white, cis male (to name just a few of the particularities of my social identity), I was encouraged to think that Jesus and I were on the same team, and somehow the group that I was part of had understood and applied the gospel in the right way. Those who opposed “us” or our plans were clearly not open to God’s plan for the world.
Thankfully I have learned (or more accurately unlearned!) a few things along the way. Sure we can read ourselves onto Jesus’ side, but it seems equally important to read ourselves onto the hard-hearted or those who just refused to believe that Jesus was from God. It’s very possible that revelation has happened right in front of us and we missed it somehow. Heck, we might have even opposed it when we encountered it because it challenged something that we were not prepared to surrender. Maybe we were not even conscious of it happening.
I love the writer Anne Lamott who says that, “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
Scripture scholar, Ched Myers, is someone who has helped me unpack today’s gospel (I don’t know about you but I need help unpacking it!). He says that Jesus is the “stronger one” who intends to overthrow the so-called “strong man” (the establishment culture and all who support it) and that this subversive power is ALREADY among them.
For me this raises some very real questions of where subversion and liberation are taking place in the world. Who is resisting “business as usual”? Who is making it harder for the empire to carry out its work? Who is working to resist the isms, asserting their own freedom and making sure that others are liberated in the process?
If the gospels are a guide, then liberation doesn’t look like what we thought it would (especially if we are part of the dominant or more powerful groups). Like the people of Jesus’ time, we might be witnessing the work of the “stronger man” in our midst and have no clue that it is taking place. We might even wish it weren’t happening because it upsets our convenience, our privilege, our way of life. These are all questions that we need to take up as disciples. And remember the famous quote from Arthur Schopenhauer that “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Some of what we come to believe as self-evident has already gone through the other two stages (either personally or collectively). It’s probably safe to say that those two other stages are currently operating (again, personally and collectively) about other issues as well. For today, reflect on where you see God’s liberating activity happening in a form that might be hard to recognize, might be challenging for you or might not privilege your perspective? What kind of support might that liberation require from you?