The Vanishing Faithful

Psalm 12 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

^2 (1) Help, Adonai! For no one godly is left;
the faithful have vanished from humankind.
^3 (2) They all tell lies to each other,
flattering with their lips, but speaking from divided hearts.

Isaiah 2:1-11

Their land is full of idols;
everyone worships the work of his hands,
what his own fingers have made.
⁹ A person bows down, a man lowers himself —
don’t forgive them!

¹⁰ Come into the rock, hide in the dust
to escape the terror of Adonai
and the glory of his majesty.

1 Thessalonians 2:13-20

¹³ Another reason we regularly thank God is that when you heard the Word of God from us, you received it not merely as a human word, but as it truly is, God’s Word, which is at work in you believers.

¹⁹ For when our Lord Yeshua returns, what will be our hope, our joy, our crown to boast about? Won’t it be you? ²⁰ Yes, you are our glory and our joy!

Luke 20:19-26

They sent spies who hypocritically represented themselves as righteous, so that they might seize hold of something Yeshua said, as an excuse to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.

There is a thread that ties all of these excerpts from the readings together, but I am not sure how to tease it out.

Once, I was very good at untangling string or cord that had gotten impossibly tangled. That would not be important except for an unbidden memory that came to me just now— how, when I recognize that someone else is also very good at something that I am good at; or that they artlessly and naively love something trivial that I also unabashedly love; then in that moment I am moved to simple affection for them. Untangling string; building fires; watching Dr. Who; it all has the same effect.

From that understanding, came the natural corollary— when someone is discouraged or saddened by the same things that make me sad, then I have the same response: they become my family in that moment of shared experience. They become my hope, my joy, my crown to boast about.. not because we like the same things, or grieve over the same things, but because we are connected to one another by an intangible but powerful force that shows us that we are the same, that we are not alone. We realize that we breathe the same Air; stand on the same Ground; speak the same Language. We do not fake this realization; we do not calculate our advantage in the midst of it; instead, we receive it as not coming from humans, but from God. It’s in that moment that we become each other’s hope, joy, crown, and glory.

In Lectio Divina, it isn’t necessary to follow a sequence or pattern in the course of the practice of reflection. So, now I’m going back to the Psalm, which speaks exactly (and I mean exactly!) what I feel when I read the news, or the mean and hateful comments on social media. Help, Adonai! All hearts are divided, and no one could possibly hear your Voice above the hubbub, even if they were listening!

That led me on to Isaiah, which made me ask the question: why beg God not to forgive? Could it be that sometimes forgiveness can be the very worst and most permanent condemnation that ever was? If we bow down and lower ourselves in hypocrisy, all the while worshiping our own contrivances, then it’s obvious that we just don’t understand! When Isaiah says, “Don’t forgive them!”  is he really saying, “Don’t give up on them!” ? I would like to think so.

There is another twist on this passage that I suddenly understood. Isaiah says: Come into the rock, hide in the dust, to escape the terror of God. But “the rock” is another name for God and “the dust” is what we are made of, by God’s hands. So, that means the only refuge from the terror of God, is God! The only escape from our own nature, is our own nature. Old Man Zen says: “Understand this well! Penetrate this with your true realization!”

And, finally, the Gospel, which is sourly obvious. There is no need to be other than completely literal. I meet them every day, these spies who call themselves righteous, but are simply looking for opportunities to ‘seize’ on Christ’s teaching in order to hand us all over to some imaginary authority which directs our lives, our beliefs, and all our hopes, but which is a jurisdiction which serves only human interests, not God’s!

Help!

The vanishing faithful,

the ghosts clinging to grasses and bushes,

they have got hold of my ankles!

I open my mouth and lies come out!

Don’t forgive me, please!

I’ve fallen into a crevasse in my own heart

and landed hard

on top of all the broken things

I once made with my very own hands.

Come in here with me, please?

Come under this rock where I’m hiding,

cover yourself with my mortal dust.

It is you isn’t it?

Please don’t leave me here

bowing down under all the wrong words…

Tell me it’s You!