What Large Love!
“What Large Love!”
1 Samuel 2:1-10 Mark 13:1-8
Twenty Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, November 14, 2021
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
Good guys and bad guys, winners and losers, the righteous and the wicked. The light, the dark, whatever metaphors, analogies, images, or words you want to use to create opposites: there are many ways to categorize and label. We see people blaming others all the time. That culture is shaped by wars, political influence, and threats is nothing new. In 1 Samuel this prayer of Hannah’s is actually a national thanksgiving, words put in her mouth by a nation that reveres their king. You can tell it’s a literary device, because they don’t have a king yet according to the narrative. This text gives thanks to God for delivering the oppressed, for defeating the enemy, and for strengthening the king. Good guys and bad guys, winners and losers, the righteous and the wicked, and even in 1 Samuel, the media used to control the narrative.
Nations in our time aren’t much different. For generations now, the official military strategy and nation security policy, especially since nuclear weapons were introduced, has been Mutually Assured Destruction. MAD. This is supposedly a deterrent, because if an attacker launches an assault, the defender will obliterate them, even though the defender is also destroyed by the attack. Everyone loses. Mutual destruction. So far, it’s the best solution to destruction that humanity has come up with! It is madd. Total destruction!
Yet here we are in 2021 and “might makes right” is the ethos of millions of people, if not billions. The stronger the warrior, the more certain the victory, especially with God on your side; that’s the belief. If someone with violent intent views their perspective and practice as blessed and anointed by God, this is a dangerous scene. Yet entire nations give a sacrosanct quality, an inviable, sacred reverence to the industry of taking up arms. Defenders are venerated. Weapons are built, sold, and used all around the world at tremendous costs, in more ways than one.
That the existence of weapons, either nuclear or not, is acceptable to most people, weapons that cannot be used without the full intent of destroying life, reveals the limitations of humanity’s mental capacity to this point in history. Good guys and bad guys, winners and losers, righteous and wicked; these categories show us how we split the field, and our very thinking is rooted in judgment, in pitting one thing against another. In being against something, energy is put into proving you are right and they are wrong; more energy goes into making the other look bad, both to rally people to your cause and to validate your strongly defended position.
This is a tiring and hard way to live. Most of the time, it’s the only game in town. But saints and mystics throughout the ages have somehow tapped into another way. They’ve learned, or had revealed to them, a deep Wisdom that helps them navigate through a world seemingly controlled by a level of consciousness that has gone madd, and is easily manipulated through unexamined biases by the egoic pride of the rich, powerful, and politically connected elite. These saints and mystics don’t play the game of splits; they practice a new mind, not based on judging or dividing or the comfort of preferred biases, but of detachment that actually cultivates connection and shows the deeper roots of inter-abiding that lay closer to our heart of hearts.
Hannah in 1 Samuel rejoices from the heart, finding strength in God. In passing, this national hymn mentions, “The bows of the mighty are broken,” and ends by saying “…not by might does one prevail.” But even these words tied in the larger hymn seem bound to the idea that God helps you win, that God is on the side of the victors, and these are the ones who writes the scriptures, the winners. But again, this “might makes right” way of thinking points less to a reality, and more to a mindset, that has developed to a point, but is unable from that point to see a larger view. Much like our world, where we now face multiple major problems, but they will not be solved by the same mindset or systems or practices that created them.
Thus the scene in Mark chapter 13 as the disciples come out of the Temple in Jerusalem and seem very impressed by grand stones forming the architecture of the building. Their Jewish world considers that Temple as God’s residence, the place on Earth where God lives, so it’s fitting for those stones to be mighty. “A mighty fortress is our God! A bulwark never failing; our helper amid the flood, of mortal ills prevailing. (Hymn #260) Our own tradition values these images of God as strong, a reliable defense against the woes of the world. There’s a place for this, but we’re also invited toward a larger view, a deeper experience, and less volatile perspectives.
A mentality of win/lose, a paradigm that assumes a “for or against” stance denies what’s deeper. This is what’s behind Jesus’ response. He’s less concerned about the building, about the construction of stones stacked on one another, or the belief that God dwells in one place, and more concerned with breaking through the disciples’ lack of awareness, dull, unconsciousness hearts distracted by externals, and their fear and worry about events outside their control, their wanting God to save them from pain and suffering. Peter, James and John ask Jesus when all this destruction will come, and what the signs will be. Jesus seems to know that the mentality of a mythical level of consciousness is easily manipulated, so he warns them not to be led astray by others who play on their own limited assumptions. History certainly does rhyme.
I watched a movie the other night called “The Seventh Seal” and it was made in 1957 in Sweden, directed by Ingmar Bergman. The context was the twelfth century, the middle of the 1100’s, and the main character was returning from the Crusades, the Christian/Muslim wars of the Middle Ages waged in and around Jerusalem. He went off to war for God’s glory and returned humbled and searching for the real Truth. He was trying to get home to his castle, to his wife whom he’d not seen in many years. The fearful population he met along the way was suffering the plague. One of the scenes shows a parade of people whipping and flogging themselves, and each other. They intentionally drew blood, caused pain, tried to punish themselves in order to appease God. A hellfire preacher stood up and condemned them all. They felt the plague was God’s judgment on them for being wicked sinners. They felt sure they were in the End Times and God was destroying the world. The movie made critiques on organized religion and peoples’ misguided assumptions, even sincere, devout, and faithful people. The movie points out the evolution of human consciousness and how we are not exempt from the need to self-critique, or learn new perspectives, better yet, cultivate a heart space that doesn’t need perspectives, that doesn’t perceive enemies as enemies but as brothers and sisters, part of one body, living connected in Christ consciousness.
Jesus is not ignorant of the times we live in. He does say, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.” Rather than end times, maybe he means the end of violent thinking is still to come; that wars and rumors of wars will cease, and future humanity will hear troubling tales of times past; it hasn’t happened yet, people resort to violence and patterns of domination, but someday that type of thinking will stop. He says, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes, there will be famines.” All this is status quo for us. We hear this at COP 26 about the stresses of climate catastrophe even as nations struggle to coordinate with each other. But then Jesus says, “This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.” Birthpangs.
Pain and suffering are not empty. Birthpangs really hurt, but they are an indication of imminent new life coming from within. It takes effort to give birth, and the help of loving people. Solidarity, compassion, love, these bring new life through the struggles. Bringing down stones that guard the heart seems impossible, but through humility and intention, God answers the invitation to change us from the inside. Jesus comes out from the temple, and we are God’s Temple, living expressions of God’s love in the world.
May God help us to trust a deeper vision, a new paradigm, higher levels of renewed thinking transformed by grace, and to keep our attention on God’s creative power shown through the vulnerabilities of love. And may God’s humble love be glorified, now, and forever, both inside and outside of time. Amen.