What Is Being Asked of Us?
Matthew
18:10-20
19 To repeat, I tell you that if two
of you here on earth agree about anything people ask, it will be for them from
my Father in heaven. 20 For wherever two or three
are assembled in my name, I am there with them.” (CJB)
19Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on
earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in
heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there among them.” (Mission St. Clare Lectionary, probably NRSV)
19 Again I say to you, if two of you
agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father
in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered
in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (RSV)
“Again I speak the truth, if two of you on earth are in
accord concerning the entirety of what is being asked, it will happen naturally
for them at once from my father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered
on behalf of my name, I am there among them.” (My adaptation from Mounce Greek Interlinear)
Suddenly, as
I was struggling to make sense of this passage by means of studying the Greek Interlinear,
something clicked. I connected the sense of this passage with my previous
thoughts about prayer, and my notion that prayer isn’t really about asking God
for things… it’s more about listening for what God is asking of us.
So, if we
were to read this passage as,
“If two of us on this earth are in accord about
the entirety of what is being asked of us, it will naturally happen for
us right away, coming from the Source in the Air. For where two or three come
together, naming me, I am there among them.”
(I’m trying
to avoid what I consider to be misleading associations with phrases like “Our
Father in Heaven,” since they carry such a weight of cultural accretions. I
want to make it impossible for my readers to associate my words with the image
of a larger-than-life patriarch with a flowing beard sitting on a cloud looking
down with a frown on the human ant colony below.)
The phrase “in
accord” or “in harmony” also struck me. One of the translations I looked at used
the phrase “a symphony of prayer” and I thought, “What a great phrase!”
It seems, though, that there are two parts to
my understanding of this passage, and one of them presents some tension for me
as a hermit, and that is “when two are in accord…” That seems to mean
that my enquiry into ‘what is being asked of us’ can’t be conducted alone, but
must be in company with others. (At least one other….)
It was
worrisome at first, because I got bogged down in some of those very same cultural
encrustations, and I started thinking that this ‘gathering together’ had to
take place in the context of attending church. Since I haven’t been to church
in a while, I immediately started to smell that familiar scorched-earth odor of
guilt as it filtered cunningly under the door of my study.
But then I
sat up, shook myself, turned off my space heater, and started to remember my
frequent conversations with a friend of mine. I realized that we are often “in
complete accord” with one another, and the topic we most often explore is
most definitely that of “what is being asked of us?”
Not only
that, but often I come out of these earnest lunch-time discussions (prayers?)
feeling a shift towards understanding— as if something has “happened naturally”
and is taking place right away, right now.
As far as the
part about “in my name,” I have to ask this: “What is the name that Jesus
most often called himself?” It appears to be “Ben Adam,” or “Son of Man,”
which is a Hebrew euphemism for a human being, or for “Humanity/All Human Beings.” This is why I
sometimes refer to Jesus as “The Human” in my writings.
So, if my friend and I are gathered in the name of
Humanity and, over beer and burgers, we struggle with what is being asked of
us, then it’s no surprise to me that The Human should be right there along with
us.
What’s more, it’s certainly
no shock that we just naturally and inevitably find that it’s Happening— we are
becoming more Human, just as simply as we breathe the Air around us.
But, as it happens, Old Man Zen occasionally wanders up
in the form of a coyote and lies down under our table waiting for crumbs.
At least I thought that’s what he was waiting for,
until he bit my ankle hard enough to leave a bruise.
All he said was, “Humans don’t taste all that
great.”
"The Human" suddenly strikes me as not simply referring to Jesus as a human person, but also to "that which is human" within us, among us, around us. I like it a lot!!
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