But what then? Well. If we take the antithesis of might, wealth and wisdom, we might come up with a triad of weakness, foolishness and poverty. And, of course, that's what we get in Jesus of Nazareth. For God chose foolishness that is wiser than human wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. First, you know the gracious act of our Lord, Jesus Christ who though he was though rich, yet for our sake became poor so by his poverty he might make ready rich.
It turns out that the life of the Crucified One exhibits the counterpoint to the great seduction of Jerusalem. He is the embodiment of weakness as he stood vulnerable before imperial authority. He is the embodiment of foolishness. Terry Eagleton describes him this way:
"Unlike most responsible American citizens, Jesus appears to do no work, is accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. He is presented as homeless, property-less, celibate, peripatetic, socially marginal, disdainful of kinfolk, without a trade, a friend of outcasts and pariahs, averse to material possessions, without fear his vote for his own safety, careless about purity regulations, critical of traditional authority, a thorn in the side of the establishment, and a scourge of the rich and powerful, The morality Jesus preaches is reckless, extravagant, improvident, over the top, a scandal to actuaries and a stumbling block to real estate agents. Forgive your enemies, give away your cloak as well as your coat, turn the other cheek, love those who insult you, walk the extra mile, take no thought for tomorrow."
So far Eagleton.
He is the embodiment of poverty with nowhere to lay his head or even healthcare. The remembered Jesus sits amid our posturing, it reminds us that the great imperial triad of might, wisdom and wealth never delivers the security or the happiness that it promises.
But I will not linger over that counter-triad of weakness, foolishness and poverty that waits silently for us, because that triad is too outrageous and too remote from our business at hand.
Last week, one of the daily readings was from a section of Psalm 19 and one
particular verse of that struck me as an especially outrageous claim of
both the potency of the Mosaic Law and the possibility of
extra-biological, extra-sociological wisdom so radical that it could
even overcome stupidity.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
That's a scandal and a stumbling block to our entire intellectual establishment, everything that values being a wise guy, savvy, sophisticated, in-the know, informed. Especially the Darwinian-genetic view of intelligence and the benefits that brings being intrinsically and exclusively attached to the biological inheritance of rich-well-connected families and others so blessed by chance and the actions of natural selection, white supremacy and things like the British class system, the original entirely artificial code of laws that is the origin of that delusion as biological science.
Thinking about it this past week, I think it's true. If you did follow The Law, especially as codified by Jesus and, with a slightly different spin by Hillel, from Leviticus, to do to others as you would have done unto you AND ALL OF THOSE OTHER THINGS LISTED BY TERRY EAGLETON, the benefit of your life to those around you and to other living beings would be more than the equivalent in worldly wisdom. The worldly-wise being so prone to be respectable crooks, cheaters and hoarders.
I have mentioned before, thinking of those wise men such as are lauded in the media, by people like Walter Issacson and Evan Thomas, that I realized that I could name hundreds of such smart people the world would be better off without (in my estimation) but I couldn't think of a single good person the world would be better off without (by the evaluation of anyone of honesty and good will). I could name you a score of sharp lawyers and businessmen and shop keepers in my area who are a blight on everything from their neighbors to the watershed and the ground water, I could name you some who are nearly as no-account as Jesus is listed above who I would imagine would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it.
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey,
and drippings of the honeycomb.
I prove the continuation of that Psalm because I think, getting that much right, it's a good idea to consider the rest of it seriously.
Given that catalog of the teachings of Jesus it is certainly no wonder that he and Christianity are so on the outs with today's intellectual leaders, the wise guys in universities, literary establishments, churches, the mass media and how the most vulgar of vulgar materialism, what might, wealth and wisdom are used to extract from life for those who have those resources, is perfectly in line with it. It is no less surprising that the establishment, the Churches, the political right, all have to present an alternative Jesus who is all about might and wealth and a slyness and shrewdness and calculation that can well go by the name of "wisdom" if the term "wise guy" means the same thing as in the Hollywood presentation of American organized crime. That is why you can have a Senator from Kentucky posing with automatic weapons with his rich, connected, wise-guy family in front of a Christmas tree and so many who profess Christianity will accept that as morally coherent.
The fact is that most of the most "traditional" of Christians are thoroughly invested in the neo-pagan system of what Jeremiah identified as the source of the impending disaster in Jerusalem and Judea. Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, secularists, atheists, slacker indifferent agnostics, a large number of them are fully invested in that imperial triad and its ersatz equivalents that can be made to work like the real thing under our corrupt judicial and legal and political systems. Is it any wonder that is the case when slavery and genocide and the theft of a continent are the basis for its legal foundation? I wonder if you could tease out the outrageousness of Jesus in some of the remaining verses of the Jewish prophetic verses and in those that might have been suppressed as too outrageous and too remote from any rescue effort because they were too counter-cultural, too foolish? Maybe Jesus knew something of those verses or decided to provide them, himself.
Link to the first in this series.
Note: I am transcribing these as I hear them at the video of Walter Brueggemann's talk Slow Wisdom As A Sub-Version Of Reality. Any faults in the text, its presentation and its punctuation are entirely my fault. I will try to remember to post links to the video at the point my transcription begins so you can hear what he said, for yourself. Please let me know any errors you notice. I will continue this unless I get a request from the author not to.
No comments:
Post a Comment