“Making a whip of cords, Jesus drove them out of the temple…

He told them, ‘Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!’”

– John 2:15-16

Pilgrims on the way,

Misplaced religious zeal has done much, through the ages, to dishonor the name Christian: The Crusades; the Inquisition; the witch trials; the religiously sanctioned system of racial caste; century upon century of wars in which confessors of Christ drew swords or fired weapons at one another across battle lines or, with weapons as instruments of “Manifest Destiny,” seized—as gifts from God’s hands—the lands and resources that had sustained New World peoples for thousands of years.  Such zeal continues, newly resurgent, in our own time—especially of the quasi-religious/political variety, as the Capitol insurrection of January 6 attests. All too often in the long history of humanity, being zealous has translated into being dangerous and destructive.

So we have good reason to be cautious when, partway through Lent, we come face to face with acts of zeal on the part Jesus himself.  Jesus goes to a Sacred Place, and finds instead a market place.  He sees how love of God has been replaced by a system of commerce makes relationship with God a transactional affair.  His reaction is immediate and visceral: Jesus is outraged  Filled with passionate zeal, he acts—tables fly, money scatters, and out comes a whip to drive the whole operation—man and beast—out of God’s House.  STOP MAKING MY FATHER’S HOUSE A MARKET-PLACE! he shouts.

Zeal is not a word we tend to want to associate with Jesus, much less our Lutheran selves.  Zeal may be OK for Pentecostals, or Southern Baptists. But Lutherans?  “Dogged”—that’s a good word; or “staunch.” Staunch Lutherans.  And maybe, on occasion, like our namesake Brother Martin, “bold.”  But we steer clear of “zeal,” don’t we?  And after the long history of zealous religion gone bad, we have a right—an obligation—to be more than a little cautious, don’t we?  Besides, living under the pressure of a pandemic, it seems that we have to hedge a bit on everything we do, even if that means chastening our faith’s bold feathers and clipping its sharp claws.

Here’s the question then: Is there any room in today’s church for the kind of ZEAL we see in Jesus, the kind of HOLY HAVOC that calls systems of injustice what they are and seeks to overturn them?  Is there a way to be zealous that doesn’t involve dehumanizing the other?  That doesn’t involve attacking or denigrating?  A way that doesn’t depend on violence to achieve its ends?

Nobel laureate (and Lutheran) Leymah Bgowee, who with other Liberian women—Christian and Muslim—started a movement that ultimately brought peace in their country after fifteen years of brutal civil war and the deaths of 200,000 people, tells her story in her memoir, Mighty Be our Powers.[1]  This is what she says:

“During the years that civil war tore us apart, foreign reporters often came to document the nightmare. [Their accounts] are all about the power of destruction [and inevitably focus on men.]  In the traditional telling of war stories, women are always in the background.  Our suffering is just a sidebar to the main tale… During the war in Liberia, almost no one reported the other reality—[the reality] of women’s lives.

• How we hid our husbands and sons from soldiers looking to recruit or kill them.
• How, in the midst of chaos, we walked miles to find food and water for our families.
• How we kept life going so that there would be something left to build on when peace returned.
• And how we created strength in sisterhood, and spoke out for peace on behalf of all Liberians.

“This [story I tell] is not a traditional war story.  It is about an army of women in white standing up when no one else would—unafraid, because the worst things imaginable had already happened to us.  It is about how we found the moral clarity, persistence and bravery to raise our voices against war and restore sanity to our land.”[2]

Read her story and then ask yourself, is not the zeal of Leymah Bgowee and the women in white who stared down unjust, self-serving war lords, who PRAYED THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL,[3] is not their zeal the very kind of zeal we find in our gospel?  The kind our world needs in order to get to a place it’s seldom if ever been?

Coming in the heart of Lent, Women’s History Month is an excellent time for becoming better acquainted with the lives and stories of women of faith who, like Leymah Bgowee, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Fannie Lou Hammer, Ella Baker, and on and on, lived out their calling with a zeal that was life-giving instead of life-taking.  You have names of your own to add to that list.  Some whom you know personally.  Some whom you aspire to know—and emulate.  According to the gospels, Jesus’ engagement in holy havoc set in motion his adversaries’ desire to be rid of him permanently.  What they couldn’t see is how the zeal that ultimately led to his death was a necessary step in midwifing God’s dream to birth.  What no one could see is that his death was not the final act but rather the prelude to what would take place “on the third day.”

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

[1] Mighty Be our Powers (New York: Beast Books, 2011)

[2] Ibid.  Prologue, p. ix, x.

[3] A film by this title tells the story of the Liberian women for peace who successfully pressured their leaders to engage in peace talks.  Bill Moyers Journal featured Leymah Bgowee and the film’s producer Abigail Disney in an interview on June 19, 2009.  Find it @ http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06192009/watch.html The film Pray the Devil Back to Hell can be purchased through this website: http://www.forkfilmsdvdsales.com/

Artist Ric Darrell, based on Zeffirelli film,
Jesus of Nazareth

“Making a whip of cords, Jesus drove them out of the temple… He told them, ‘Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!’”

– John 2:15-16

Pilgrims on the way,

Misplaced religious zeal has done much, through the ages, to dishonor the name Christian: The Crusades; the Inquisition; the witch trials; the religiously sanctioned system of racial caste; century upon century of wars in which confessors of Christ drew swords or fired weapons at one another across battle lines or, with weapons as instruments of “Manifest Destiny,” seized—as gifts from God’s hands—the lands and resources that had sustained New World peoples for thousands of years.  Such zeal continues, newly resurgent, in our own time—especially of the quasi-religious/political variety, as the Capitol insurrection of January 6 attests. All too often in the long history of humanity, being zealous has translated into being dangerous and destructive.

So we have good reason to be cautious when, partway through Lent, we come face to face with acts of zeal on the part Jesus himself.  Jesus goes to a Sacred Place, and finds instead a market place.  He sees how love of God has been replaced by a system of commerce makes relationship with God a transactional affair.  His reaction is immediate and visceral: Jesus is outraged  Filled with passionate zeal, he acts—tables fly, money scatters, and out comes a whip to drive the whole operation—man and beast—out of God’s House.  STOP MAKING MY FATHER’S HOUSE A MARKET-PLACE! he shouts.

Zeal is not a word we tend to want to associate with Jesus, much less our Lutheran selves.  Zeal may be OK for Pentecostals, or Southern Baptists. But Lutherans?  “Dogged”—that’s a good word; or “staunch.” Staunch Lutherans.  And maybe, on occasion, like our namesake Brother Martin, “bold.”  But we steer clear of “zeal,” don’t we?  And after the long history of zealous religion gone bad, we have a right—an obligation—to be more than a little cautious, don’t we?  Besides, living under the pressure of a pandemic, it seems that we have to hedge a bit on everything we do, even if that means chastening our faith’s bold feathers and clipping its sharp claws.

Here’s the question then: Is there any room in today’s church for the kind of ZEAL we see in Jesus, the kind of HOLY HAVOC that calls systems of injustice what they are and seeks to overturn them?  Is there a way to be zealous that doesn’t involve dehumanizing the other?  That doesn’t involve attacking or denigrating?  A way that doesn’t depend on violence to achieve its ends?

Nobel laureate (and Lutheran) Leymah Bgowee, who with other Liberian women—Christian and Muslim—started a movement that ultimately brought peace in their country after fifteen years of brutal civil war and the deaths of 200,000 people, tells her story in her memoir, Mighty Be our Powers.[1]  This is what she says:

“During the years that civil war tore us apart, foreign reporters often came to document the nightmare. [Their accounts] are all about the power of destruction [and inevitably focus on men.]  In the traditional telling of war stories, women are always in the background.  Our suffering is just a sidebar to the main tale… During the war in Liberia, almost no one reported the other reality—[the reality] of women’s lives.

• How we hid our husbands and sons from soldiers looking to recruit or kill them.
• How, in the midst of chaos, we walked miles to find food and water for our families.
• How we kept life going so that there would be something left to build on when peace returned.
• And how we created strength in sisterhood, and spoke out for peace on behalf of all Liberians.

“This [story I tell] is not a traditional war story.  It is about an army of women in white standing up when no one else would—unafraid, because the worst things imaginable had already happened to us.  It is about how we found the moral clarity, persistence and bravery to raise our voices against war and restore sanity to our land.”[2]

Read her story and then ask yourself, is not the zeal of Leymah Bgowee and the women in white who stared down unjust, self-serving war lords, who PRAYED THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL,[3] is not their zeal the very kind of zeal we find in our gospel?  The kind our world needs in order to get to a place it’s seldom if ever been?

Coming in the heart of Lent, Women’s History Month is an excellent time for becoming better acquainted with the lives and stories of women of faith who, like Leymah Bgowee, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Fannie Lou Hammer, Ella Baker, and on and on, lived out their calling with a zeal that was life-giving instead of life-taking.  You have names of your own to add to that list.  Some whom you know personally.  Some whom you aspire to know—and emulate.  According to the gospels, Jesus’ engagement in holy havoc set in motion his adversaries’ desire to be rid of him permanently.  What they couldn’t see is how the zeal that ultimately led to his death was a necessary step in midwifing God’s dream to birth.  What no one could see is that his death was not the final act but rather the prelude to what would take place “on the third day.”

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

[1] Mighty Be our Powers (New York: Beast Books, 2011)

[2] Ibid.  Prologue, p. ix, x.

[3] A film by this title tells the story of the Liberian women for peace who successfully pressured their leaders to engage in peace talks.  Bill Moyers Journal featured Leymah Bgowee and the film’s producer Abigail Disney in an interview on June 19, 2009.  Find it @ http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06192009/watch.html The film Pray the Devil Back to Hell can be purchased through this website: http://www.forkfilmsdvdsales.com/

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies…”

– Romans 8:22-23

Companions on the Way,

February is a bridge month, split between the brilliant light of Epiphany and the ensuing descent into Lent.  The last burst of Epiphany comes in a mountaintop vision of a transfigured Jesus holding council with Moses and Elijah—stand ins for Israel’s covenant and prophetic traditions.  Dazzled by the light, the three awestruck disciples who’ve made the hike with Jesus struggle to understand what it all might mean.  Peter finally settles on the idea that they ought to set up tents and stay awhile—why not let the adulation sink in!  He mistakes the martyr’s white Jesus is wearing for party attire.

I don’t blame Peter.  After all the day-by-day slogging through fear, loss, trauma and fickle internet connections the pandemic has brought upon us for twelve months running, I’m eager for a celebration, too!  The vaccines are beginning to do their thing, to slowly turn the tide.  But there is no magic by which we will be transported back to our pre-pandemic lives.  Even when the road ahead is lined with hope, the losses are real and close at hand; no inoculation can sweep them away. The bridge we cross this month moves us off the stage of luminous light and points us down the hill to the road leading to Jerusalem.  Over the threshold of that bridge are the words: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  Never, in this generation, have these words bespoke such truth.

In a prose poem entitled WARNING TO THE READER, Robert Bly writes:[1]

Sometimes farm granaries become especially beautiful when all the oats or wheat are gone, and wind has swept the rough floor clean. Standing inside, we see around us, coming in through the cracks between shrunken wall boards, bands or strips of sunlight. So in a poem about imprisonment, one sees a little light.

But how many birds have died trapped in these granaries. The bird, seeing freedom in the light, flutters up the walls and falls back again and again. The way out is where the rats enter and leave; but the rat’s hole is low to the floor. Writers, be careful then by showing the sunlight on the walls not to promise the anxious and panicky blackbirds a way out!

I say to the reader, beware. Readers who love poems of light may sit hunched in the corner with nothing in their gizzards for four days, light failing, the eyes glazed . . .
They may end as a mound of feathers and a skull on the open boardwood floor . . .

On the Mount of Transfiguration, limned by such awe-full light, one could imagine—as the disciples did, as the birds in Bly’s poem did—that in those slats of light lies freedom!  But the downward wending trail of Lent testifies to the deeper truth: the only way out is down and through—through the rat’s hole.  The only true gateway to resurrection is the cross.

Our hope for this life and the next, finally, comes not from any power we have nor attribute we possess, but from trusting that we do not journey alone.  Christ journeys with us; we have each other; and are accompanied by the Spirit “who intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”  And that, dear ones, is enough.

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

[1] From his collection, What Have I Ever Lost by Dying? (New York: HarperCollins, 1992) p. 65