A Community to Serve the Whole Earth – Tom Mundahl reflects on support, endurance, and hope for the challenges we face.
Care for Creation Commentary on the Common LectionaryĀ
Readings for Sunday June 12-18, Year A (2020, 2023)
Exodus 19:2-8a
Psalm 100
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:8
The arrival of the novel coronavirus has shaken our culture to the foundations. In a matter of a few months, trust in endless economic expansion and progress has all but disappeared. The vaunted American medical system — the ābest in the worldā — has been unmasked as a disorganized boutiqueĀ set of arrangements designed to treat illness among the economically advantaged, not a resilient institution designed to provide public health for all. And the food system with its deadly and exploitative meat processing plants has not only sickened its workers and failed those in animal husbandry; it has led to search for new models.Ā No wonder we hear discussions of āthe collapse complex societiesā and how to live through a ālong emergency.ā
This is all reminiscent of the Epilogue of Dostoevskyās Crime and Punishment, where the now-convicted murderer, Raskolnikov, as he begins his seven years of hard labor in Siberia, dreams that a pandemic plague had killed nearly all humans, leaving those remaining badly shaken. āHere and there people would band together, agree among themselves to do something, swear never to part — but immediately begin something completely different from what they had just suggested, begin accusing one another and fighting….ā (New York, Vintage, 1992, Pevear and Volokhonsky, trans., p. 547).
Among the multitude of dangers described by the author and mirrored in our current situation is the shredding of all that binds community.Ā This weekās readings focus on just that question.Ā In the face of threats to disintegration: what is the purpose of the faith community and what holds it together?
Too often creation accounts have been dismissed as mere stage scenery providing the setting for what really matters, the historical drama of the Exodus.Ā Close attention to the Book of Exodus, however, shows how closely creation and liberation from Egyptās oppression are connected. As Terence Fretheim suggests, āThe deliverance of Israel is ultimately for the sake of all creationā (Exodus, Louisville: John Knox, 1990, p. 13). In fact, the harrowing narrative of crossing the sea on ādry landā points directly to Genesis 1:9-10 with its separation of water and dry land.
In fact, what happens at Sinai can only be understood as an affirmation of the goodness of creation, in sharp contrast with Pharoahās death-dealing use of the Hebrew slaves as mere instruments of production. This suggests that the Sinai Covenant assumes both the coherence of creationās interdependence and the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12 and 17). Whatās more, any new Torah is preceded by a reminder of gracious dealing: āYou have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eaglesā wings and brought you to myselfā (Exodus 19:4). Just as a mother eagle both prods eaglets to try their wings, rescuing the chick when flight fails, so the Creator may be trusted.
Again, the basis of this echo of the Abrahamic promises, āyou shall be my treasured possession among all peoples,ā is anchored by creation: āindeed, the whole earth is mineā (Exodus 19:5). But this election is rooted in generous purpose. āYou shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nationā ( Exodus 19:6). While the notion of āpriesthoodā may seem alien to us, it is central to biblical thinking, especially the tradition that the Jerusalem temple is where heaven and earth meet.
More helpful today is the Orthodox view where the role of the priest is to lead worshipers in ālifting up our heartsā to God so that the earth can be transfigured.Ā As Norman Wirzba writes, āWhen in priestly motion we lift our hearts to God, what we are really doing is giving ourselvesĀ and the whole world to the new creation…so that our interdependent need can be appreciated as a blessing (another priestly function)ā (Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating, 2nd ed., Cambridge, 2019, p. 264).Ā As all creation is lifted up, persons may no longer can be seen as mere āmachine partsā and the fruits of creation become gifts, not commodities. So even before the Torah is given, we see that āIsrael is commissioned to be Godās people on behalf of the earth which is Godāsā (Fretheim, p. 212).
Just as all creation is ālifted upā in priestly service, so humankind recognizes that we join the community of all creation in continuous worship. Psalm 100 makes this clear, for as the place of worship is entered, praise is unison.
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come into his presence with singing (Psalm 100:1-2).
Here the psalmist reminds us that there can be no worship apart from the sabbath community of interdependent creatures whose highest priestly function is never-ending praise (James L.Ā Mays, Psalms, Louisville: John Knox, 1994, p. 319). This is exactly what happens when the Apostlesā or Nicene Creeds with their creation affirmations are professed.Ā We commit ourselves as a community to perform in earth care exactly what we confess.
Initially it may seem that nothing could be further from the notion of priestly service than a gospel reading detailing healing and the sending of disciples. But when we recognize the ācompassionā Jesus views the crowds with, we see nothing more than a slightly different form of ālifting up.ā Those elevated are āharassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherdā (Matthew 9:36). These are personal problems, to be sure, but also afflictions that cannot be separated from the corruption of the religious elite, the āso-called shepherds,āand Roman oppression of Judea (Warren Carter, Matthew at the Margins, Orbis, 2000, p. 230).
Jesus reframes this as kairos, a time full of opportunity–āthe harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are fewā (Matthew 9:37). Without a doubt, there is an element of judgment here that cannot be avoided, judgment of the false shepherds and Roman oppressors. But āharvestā is hardly a time for grim judgment alone; it is a time of nourishment and celebration of a new and different kind of empire.Ā In a commissioning that foreshadows the final sending (Matthew 28:19-20), the named apostles are empowered to heal and spread the news of the new āimperial order.āĀ It may seem odd that Matthewās Jesus limits the mission to Israel. But they are the very ones foundering ālike sheep without a shepherd.ā Beyond that, as we recall from the First Lesson, Israel is the people called to be a blessing to all the earth, the instrument channeling hope to the nations and the whole creation.
The spirit with which Jesus sends the disciples to participate in this harvest festival of care, is further evidenced by the āeasy yoke and light burdenā Jesus describes (Matthew 11:29-30). Following the seemingly weighty instructionĀ to āCure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons,ā Jesus reminds the Twelve, āYou received without payment; give without paymentā (Matthew 10:8). This new community spawned by compassion, runs on a gift economy. Ā Just as āthe sun rises on the evil and on the goodā (Matthew 5:45), so no one earns the benefits of this new creation. For it is as productive as the mysterious seeds which yield āsome a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirtyā (Matthew 13:8), and as generous as the vineyard owner who pays a full daysā wages for one hour of work (Matthew 20:1-16).
Another way of describing living out this harvest festival we celebrate and share, the one we have been welcomed to āwithout paymentā (Matthew 10:8) is āpeace with Godā (Romans 5:1). Too often, while reading Paul–especially Romans–we forget that he is writing about the same realities that occupy our other readings. āPeace with God,ā then, is no pale abstraction. It is a result of having been āmade rightā with GodĀ and is the active participation in the interdependence and care necessary to maintain the āpeace–shalomā intended for all.
Just because believers are welcomed into this community graciously through baptism into the cross and resurrection (Romans 6:1-6) and live this out in worship, learning, and care for creation, does not mean that they will be applauded by the dominant culture. Because this culture tends to idolize competitive struggle for wealth with little or no regard for the fate of āthe losers,ā opposition is guaranteed.Ā When sisters and brothers live out their calling to join Native American āwater protectorsā in protesting building an oil pipeline through the Missouri River, they are classified as domestic terrorists. When teenagers of faith follow the lead of Greta Thunberg and commit to the āschool strikeā to change views and behavior toward the climate crisis, many adults still believe they should ānot waste their time, but stick to their studies.”
No wonder Paul responds to the inevitable opposition of those who find their security in wealth, power, and success with the logic of the cross: āwe also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint usā (Romans 5:3-5a). Despite how successful our efforts to build ecojustice appear, this endurance –another gift–has its source in openness to Godās trustworthy future, a new creation (Ernst Kasemann, Romans, Eerdmans, 1980, p. 135).
As we began this essay, we looked at what to all of us just six months ago would have seemed only a nightmare illuminating the troubled psyche of one Rodion Raskolnikov.Ā As violent as thisĀ dream was, we could hardly have imagined that we would find ourselves in what may be a multi-year pandemic. But we still can learn from this rich, but troubling novel. For as this young Siberian exile recovers, taking a break from producing gypsum he looks across a river and sees the black specks of the yurts of the nomads of the steppe. āThere was freedom, there a different people lived, quite unlike those here, there time itself seemed to stop, as if the centuries of Abraham and his flocks had not passed awayā (Crime and Punishment, p. 549).
What was Raskolnikov seeing?Ā Community. Real community based not on the fevered longingsĀ for personal greatness, but on a deep promise, a promise that enables him to hold the hand of his friend, Sonya, for the first time with assured fidelity.Ā Although we will depend on the best science to focus on the global problems of Covid-19 and the climate crisis, we equally will need resilient and dependable communities to provide support, endurance and hope.Ā This weekās readings assure us that this is a gift Godās people can provide.
Originally written by Tom Mundahl in 2020.
tmundahl@gmail.com