“Meditation of My Heart” Page based on Leviticus 19:9-18 Psalm…

September 30, 2018February 15, 2020
by Sara Baron

What sort of world do we want to live in? What world are we trying to create? This is a central question of faith, and the answer has sacred names. It is often called the kindom of God, it is also known as the beloved community. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method which you suggest is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community. Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that. Yes, love—which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies—is the solution to the race problem.”¹ I believe that this vision goes back to the beginning of our faith tradition, and is the the vision of the Torah itself. (The Torah is a name for the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.)

Today I want to look at that vision for the world, and build on it into the vision we see God seeking to build from the world as we know it today into what it could be. The vision we’ll see was one that detailed how society should be set up, specifically outlining how to to create a just system where even the vulnerable can thrive.

Not everyone sees this vision in the Hebrew Bible. Many Christians have been taught to distrust the vision of the Hebrew Bible. The Torah is often interpreted into English as “the law” and that has gained disfavor in many Christian circles. Paul wrote in Romans 7, “But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.” (Romans 7:6 NRSV) Those following his ideas have seen the law as old, as dated, as dead – and thus definitely not as life giving.

I think we miss a lot when we simplify that much. “The law” is a series of rules, regulations, and expectations about what it would take to develop a stable community that values human life. They’re profound, intentional, and life-giving.

The Torah vision emerges out of the core conception of the Divine in the ancient Jewish faith – that God was a God who cared about how people treated each other. God wanted the people of God to create a community where all of God’s people could survive, and thrive! This was notable in a time when most communities conceived of gods and goddesses who cared only for how humans treated the gods and goddesses – related to worship and sacrifices. Instead of a concept of God that is self-serving, the Torah vision sets out a series of rules and regulations about how humans are to treat each other, under the impression that this is what God wants from them. God is pleased when people care for each other. This is the foundation of our faith tradition, and of the Torah vision for good living.

As we see in several of the 10 commandments – don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet what your neighbor has – how neighbors get treated is central to how a stable and supportive society is formed. Of course, we also see in the 10 commandments that how God is understood matters – don’t have other gods, don’t make idols, don’t take the name of the God in vain, and even I would argue, remember the Sabbath day. These two facets coincide with the great commandments as found in the Hebrew Bible. Leviticus 19:18b, “but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” and the Shema, found in Deutoronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” On these two foundations – care for each other and love of God, ancient Israel was built.

According to John Dominic Crossan, the vision was one of distributive justice, and we see that as staring with the Sabbath. Sabbath is a distribution of rest, that applied to both Israelites, and foreigners. It applied EVERYONE, and came every week. That prevented people from being dehumanized by constant work. One day off out of seven means that there is an identity other than work. The Sabbath laws were also about distribution – distribution of rest and thus humanity! The Sabbath rules also, in a way, applied to the land. Fields were mean to lie fallow every 7 years. The Jubilee year was also an extension of Sabbath. Leviticus explains this in chapter 25:

“You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.

In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. (Leviticus 25:8-13, NRSV)

This brings us to the the distribution of land, that land that each family returned to! Every tribe got a portion of the land and then every family got a portion of the tribe’s land. That is, every family got land on which they could live and farm. There was a careful distribution of land to enable all of the Israelites to have subsistence.

Then, there were rules and regulations to make sure that the land wouldn’t be appropriated out of the hands of the family!! One of those was the rule that loans had to be forgiven every 7 years so that debt did not accumulate. The other piece was that land could only be LEASED, as we heard in the Jubilee passage a moment ago. If a family got into financial trouble and had to sell their land, it could only be leased for up to 49 years but it could not be sold outside of the family. This meant a family could not permanently lose their basis of subsistence.

There is one exception to the land distribution though. One tribe did not get ANY land. That was the tribe of Levi, the Levites. The Levites, instead, lived off of the tithes of the other nations. The Levites were the “holy people”, from that tribe the priests were chosen. The Levites were set aside to deal with matters of the Divine. They were the moral compass of the community. The Levites were dependent on the other tribes for their survival when they otherwise had so much power, it kept them motivated to seek the well-being of the tribes because they were interdependent. It also meant that while most of society was at work farming and tending to herds, there were people pondering, considering, and attending to the big picture. It wasn’t that they were closer to God, simply that they got to spend more of their time attending to the things of God on behalf of everyone else.

The Torah vision had other safeguards in place to try to keep things just. Loans could not be given with interest. That means that there was no penalty for needing a loan. One did not go further into poverty because one was in poverty. It also means that those who were doing well enough to offer loans did not glean further wealth from it.

The was also a provision for gleaning. Those who owned land were banned from picking the edges of their fields as well as from going back to pick a second time, making sure to get it all. That way, those who didn’t have land – the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners, had a way to feed themselves by picking the leftovers. I am also under the impression that some of the work of the tithe was to feed the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners. That is, that even though the Torah tried to make sure everyone got land, there were also careful provisions for the exceptions! This is summarized in Leviticus 19, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)

Finally, the Bible absolutely obsesses over having a fair justice system that shows no partiality. To go back to Leviticus 19 for a concise version of this, “You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.” (Leviticus 19:15) The very concept of justice in the Torah vision is tied into the lack of partiality, neighborliness, and to God’s own nature. Almost all of those Leviticus 10 provisions end with “I am YHWH.” God’s own being requires this care of people, and this care of people is what builds a society that reflects God’s own being!!

Of course, ancient Israel often failed to live into the Torah vision. That’s why we have so many prophetic books filled with prophets calling kings and the powerful into compliance with the care of the vulnerable and justice for all!

Now, I do not wish to live in a theocracy, I think they tend to go poorly. But, I think there is a whole lot in the Torah vision that is worth considering and pondering. I don’t see a whole lot of justice in our society, and I do see a LOT of partiality. Starting with where we are today, what do we see God at work trying to create? How is God seeing to make sure all people have sustenance? How is God at work to make justice systems just and fair? How is God trying to ensure the vulnerable are cared for and that those who have experienced oppression or harm are heard? I believe we can hear this work of God, if we listen for it; and see this work of God, if our eyes are open.

Psalm 19 celebrates the vision of the Torah, it celebrates the Torah itself! It is beautiful, isn’t it? It calls the Torah a source of reviving the soul, and wisdom, and clarity. It says the Torah is sweeter than honey and better that gold! It thinks this communal living that attempts to reflect God’s love of God’s people is THAT good! What delight is there in envisioning a society, a WORLD, where all are cared for?

The Torah-vision, the kindom of God, the beloved community, they are different ways of saying the same thing. So too, I believe, is the often repeated quote from Rev. Dr. J. Edward Carothers, teaching of the church existing to “to establish and maintain connections of mutual support in ever widening circles of concern.” Just so, the Psalmist says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” As people of faith, we are called into these visions – to see them, to dream them, to move towards them, to celebrate them as they come into being, and work towards them. Sometimes the biggest work of all is to dream big enough for God. Thanks be to God. Amen

1Martin Luther King Jr. 1957, found at http://www.wearethebelovedcommunity.org/bcquotes.html. Accessed on 9/27/28.

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Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sermons

“The Anti-Heroine Extraordinaire” based on 1 Kings 21:1-16

August 20, 2017February 15, 2020
by Sara Baron

Jezebel is evil personified as a human. Or, at least, that’s what we’re supposed to think of her. She may well be the inspiration for Lady Macbeth, and I’m fairly confident that every female antagonist the Walt Disney corporation ever dreamed up is at least loosely based on her. She’s got it all: manipulative skills, greed, power, murderous intent, and the ear of the king.

Every bit of her story is carefully crafted to arouse distaste and horror. She is, right from the beginning, the enemy who has invaded the royal palace. Jezebel is introduced in 1 Kings 16. Right beforehand we hear that King Ahab of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any of his predecessors, which is incredibly impressive. Then it says he married Jezebel, a princess from an external land who worshiped an pagan gods. It then suggests that because of her, Ahab also worshiped those gods and set up worship spaces for those pagan gods (and goddesses! Gasp!) in his capital city.

At the same time that 1 Kings turns its attention to the evils of Ahab and his wife Jezebel it introduces the prophet Elijah. For the Hebrew Bible, Elijah is the prophet of prophets, he sets the tone for the prophetic tradition. He even shows up in the New Testament in the Transfiguration story when Moses represents the Law and Elijah the prophets. Elijah’s introduction at this point is meant to set up the classic balance of power in the time of the kings: an evil King is held to account by a prophet well connected to God. There is, however, one LITTLE incongruity in this particular story.

Elijah is awful. His opening lines are declaring a drought that will bring a famine, and then he LEAVES, going up to Jezebel’s home country so HE can eat. THREE YEARS LATER Elijah declares an end to the drought. (You can decide for yourself if you think Elijah was speaking for God or not). Meanwhile, we’re told, Jezebel was on a killing spree, trying to kill off the rest of God’s prophets in Israel. That counts as a major strike against her. When the drought ends, Elijah intentionally gets himself into a fight with the prophets of her god, Baal, and shows them up. He then orders THEM all killed. This is the “small” problem with Elijah, he murders in the name of God and is still seen as acting on God’s behalf by the Bible.

So, the story goes on, Jezebel is really mad he killed 450 of her priests, and threatens his life, so he runs away for another long while.

The next story we have about her is today’s text about the sulking King. This text is really interesting in that it may reflect actual differences between ancient Israel and the nations that surrounded it. According to the Torah, from the beginning each tribe was allocated land, and then each family within the tribe was given land from what the tribe had. Thus, at least in theory, each family had land to live on and sustain themselves with. The land could not be sold, although it could be leased for a short term. The whole of the Torah vision was meant to create a stable society that didn’t allow for generational cycles of poverty, so no one could permanently lose their land. Furthermore, no one could force someone to lease their land! The land belonged to the people. The King, then, was meant to be as much of a servant to the people as anything else. The King functioned as the general during times of war and as a judge and administrator the rest of the time.

In other nations of the Ancient Near East (as well as many other times and other places), the King was understood to control ALL of the land. Those Kings, then allowed their advisors and Lords to control parts of the land, but only so long as the Kings found their loyalty acceptable. The advisors and Lords could sometimes also break the land up to their loyalists – but the the land was still understood to belong to the Kings.

You see the difference? In Ancient Israel, the land belonged to the people. In surrounding nations, including the land where Jezebel had been raised as a princess, the land belonged to the King. So when Ahab wants to buy land and isn’t able to, he is annoyed and frustrated. For him, it is the final answer. He may appear to be a toddler having a tantrum, but he accepts the system of power of his nation and that the system of power reflects God’s own vision.

Jezebel comes from a different nation, one that understood power and ownership differently. Her father owned all the land. No one could say no to him. She does not accept the premises of Israel’s system. In some ways, I think the Bible’s emphasis on her commitment to her gods and not their YHWH is meant to indicate exactly this. She didn’t buy into the Torah vision, she didn’t buy into the God who envisioned it. Yet, she knew the laws. She knew that a man could only be stoned to death when TWO witnesses agreed, and she put it into action.

After the deed is done, the king stops sulking, almost as if he’d been hoping she’d deal with it for him, and just didn’t want to know how.

Elijah comes next and condemns them for this act of atrocity, this murder. (Not sure what moral foot he is standing on.) He promises both of them terrible deaths. The text is then silent on Jezebel until 2 Kings 9 when it relates her death.

By that point Ahab has died on the battlefield, and his son Ahaziah had taken over after his death. Ahaziah takes a nasty fall and dies from its complications, and his brother Jehoram had become king. He reigned for 12 years. At the end of those years, Jehu, who had been the commander of Ahab’s army, the commander of Ahaziah’s army, and the commander of Jehoram’s army, is anointed as the new king by Elijah’s protege. Then Jehu kills the current king and becomes the King. Jehu thus begins a 5 generation dynasty, the longest in Ancient Israel’s existence. (That history is super messy.) As Jehu arrived to kill his predecessor, Jehoram asked if he came in peace. Jehu replied, “What peace can there be, so long as the many whoredoms and sorceries of your mother Jezebel continue?” Then, it is said, he killed him. Afterward he killed Jezebel. Then he killed all of Ahab’s decedents, said to number 112 men – to start with -and even more whose numbers aren’t known.

There is a little detail in the story of Jehu coming to Jezebel. It reads, “When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out of the window.” (He has her thrown out of that window). The text accuses her of PRIMPING before her death. Now, she knew she was going to die, and she choose to do it with some dignity. In fact, for some women, the best chance they have to hold power comes through their looks. We wouldn’t expect a man to face death without at least holding his shield, yet she is derided for trying to hold her own death with the dignity that remains to her.

So, you see, it is very easy to derive from the text that Jezebel was truly terrible. Everything about her story is meant to lead us to that conclusion. The murderous bits are the big parts, but all the other details also point in the same direction. Of course, she seems surrounded by EQUALLY terrible men: Ahab, Elijah, Jehu whose names are not still synonymous with evilness in their genders. Jezebel, in essence, does two things: (1) she defends her faith tradition with all the power she has and (2) she uses power the ways she’s been taught to use power.

So, let’s look at them. You’d almost think that Ancient Israel, what with it’s faith tradition, would understand someone else also being faithful to their faith tradition. Yet, that doesn’t happen at all. The story holds that YHWH is God and everyone else is an impostor, and those who follow the impostors are described as pure evil. I think this is the case of history being written by the victors as well as a case of later editors wanting to pretend that monotheism happened way earlier than it did.

Regarding the second issue with Jezebel, that she uses power how she’s been taught to, I think that actually makes Ancient Israel look really good! It suggests that the vision of the Torah DID hold some power, and the Ancient Israel society WAS doing things right, and that there ARE other ways for societies to understand themselves. However, the stories as they’re told undeniably speak of her using the power she had for evil.

So. Is Jezebel really the worst human ever to walk the face of the earth? Seems unlikely, she wasn’t even the worst character in her story line! Heck, I’m not even sure she was that much worse than the Bible’s most significant heroes. David and Moses are both also accused of murder as well as led military campaigns that killed man under the idea that the God they worshiped wanted those other people to die.

In Bible Study we started to wonder about all of this. We started to question the integrity of the stories themselves. Perhaps there was a Jezebel, and perhaps she’d been a princess in a foreign kingdom, and perhaps she didn’t convert to Ancient Judaism. That’s all pretty feasible. However, it is also feasible that all the rest of the details about her were propagated by Jehu and his dynasty to JUSTIFY his treason, his murder of his king, and taking over the kingdom. Because, I mean to be real, when you murder your king and take his throne, it is REALLY helpful to have some good stories of why he wasn’t worthy of that throne to begin with. And if you can blame it on a terrible, foreign woman who had influence over the last three kings (as wife and then mother), all the better!! Because, people are willing to believe stories about women being terrible, and about outsiders being terrible, so foreign women are a great narrative target!

It seems possible that Jezebel’s name is synonymous with evil because it was easy to believe terrible things about her, whether or not any of them actually happened. Since all of her descendants were killed and the stories were passed down in era’s of their murder’s dynasty, the stories told of her are HIGHLY questionable. She may be “evil personified” only as justification for someone else’s acts of violence.

All of this serves as a great reminder to bring our critical thinking skills to stories. It may be of use to change the human characteristics (gender, race, age, national origin, political party, person we love with person we don’t, etc) of the protagonists and antagonists in the stories we hear, and check to see if our opinions change. That little trick may make us less susceptible to propaganda and more open to seeing the people in stories as fully beloved people of God. We all have biases. Our biases can do significant harm, but with careful attention we can loosen the power of propaganda and make space for God’s mighty power of love! Thanks be to God! Amen

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