(begin) If I needed a reminder of how astonishingly far from us the biblical times really are, today’s Scripture readings will do. The difficulties these texts pose make me feel like I have entered a disorienting time warp. To my twenty-first century self, little in these texts makes sense; the world they disclose is so different from what I know and value. Let’s be honest: It takes work to not be angry and feel like I just don’t want to read biblical texts like these anymore. It’s also tempting to have the opposite reaction and imagine that uncritical acceptance is somehow what faith requires.
In the first reaction I dismiss the texts off-hand. In the second I may appear to accept but also ultimately dismiss these writings. In both instances I have allowed these texts to become just so much “church speak.” Yes, they are there, but I don’t really want to bother with them. Whether as a voice I reject, or one I accept, the difficult wrestling each generation needs to undertake with the intricate library of texts we call the Bible (written in a thoroughly alien and ancient society!) has been thwarted. In literary criticism there is a helpful concept called “defamiliarization.” It means that by purposefully complicating daily life (think about the writings of the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins), what may otherwise pass unnoticed claims our attention. Read Pied Beauty and then go outside at sunset.
So how is defamiliarization a strategy that can help us struggle productively with today’s readings? We first need to avoid taking refuge in the familiar, and instead face what is difficult. When we turn away from the section on the Eucharist and instead see what takes up most of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we should be shocked. Far from an idyllic past where the Christian community lives in harmony, what Paul writes of divisions and bitter polarization.
Paul even seems to suggest that it’s good to have these factions exposed; then the ones “who are approved” can be identified. There’s something about this that is deeply troubling, and that can remind us of the bullying and shaming of others by opposing sides that dominates today’s social media environment. Paul’s letter reveals how quickly we descend into tribalism. The notion that “I am always right and you are always wrong” replaces dialogue and, as we can see in this letter, nearly destroyed a community called to oneness in Christ Jesus. Will it finish us now?
Similarly, today’s story from the Gospel of Luke should jolt us. The ancient practice of ownership over others who were treated as non-persons erupts out of this reading to confront us. The person Jesus is asked to heal is a slave, and the only reason given for why this unnamed slave should be saved is because of what is owed to the centurion. If we situate ourselves in their time attentive to our uneasiness, we can imagine life for the Jewish population. Just keep the Romans happy so they will allow us to live.
In Capernaum, Jesus is near his hometown; these are his people. Does Jesus have to make nice with the powerful because the other alternative would unleash violence upon his community? How long can he do this? As we know, eventually Jesus will stop making nice, his friends will go into hiding and it will cost him his life. Today’s readings make us aware that divisions and dehumanization were rampant in the ancient world from which our religious tradition arises. Feeling the sting of such a brutal and far from perfect world can connect us better to our kinship with our ancestors in the faith and with Jesus, who eventually faced down the darkness because God’s heart was breaking. The brokenness of our humanity cries out to God. How will we answer it? (end)
Deacon David Pierce
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