A common thread through the lectionary passages for this week is the depiction of gestures toward what one might call unity. Psalm 133 can be read as a prayer for unification between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel; Acts 4:32-35 describes a level of communality among early Christians that would be considered radical today, specifically individuals selling land and property in order to contribute to a shared pool of resources; and John 1 encapsulates the incarnation: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Psalm 133 will be familiar to readers of Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead, in which it figures:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
When kindred dwell together in unity!
2It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Coming down upon the beard,
Even Aaron's beard,
Coming down upon the edge of his robes.
3It is like the dew of Hermon
Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forever.
Cross references for this passage are as follows. The oil upon Aaron’s beard recalls passages Exodus 29:7 and 30:25-30, both of which describe the anointing of Aaron to the priesthood with oil. In 30, Yahweh gives instructions to Moses to take ingredients including spices, liquid myrrh, cassia, and olive oil, “. . . and you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfume; it shall be a holy anointing oil. . . You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, in order that they may serve me as priests.” The edge of Aaron’s robe is described in Exodus 28:33:
“On its lower hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, all around the lower hem, with bells of gold between them all around . . . Aaron shall wear it when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he may not die.”
The use of dew imagery to describe the divine is also seen in Hosea 14:5: “I will be like the dew to Israel . . .” The language of Psalm 21 also points to the theme of eternal life as a blessing from God: “In your strength the king rejoices, O LORD, in your help how greatly he exults! . . . He asked you for life; you gave it to him—length of days forever and ever” (1-4). The reference to Aaron may allude to the theme of the divine choice of kings expressed in 132:11-12. In juxtaposition with Psalm 132, 133 can be read as an expression of a desire to reunite the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, with Zion (Jerusalem) as a capital, under the kingship of a descendent of David.
The passage from Acts 4 describes a group of early Christians in Jerusalem embodying unity through sharing of assets. Barnabas, who later accompanies Paul on missions, is held up as exemplifying the willingness, not only to share one’s possessions, but to relinquish private ownership itself: “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4: 32-35). The following chapter contrasts Barnabas with Ananias and Sapphira, who do not follow the model of offering private resources for a common pool and thus suffer punishment presented as coming from God.
Before providing concluding notes on the lectionary, I would like to address a subject that has brought American religious practice into the spotlight for the past week, as it relates to this theme of unity: the decisions of the Iowa Supreme Court and the Vermont legislature to recognize same-sex marriages. In much of the media coverage of these two events, there is a trend to depict opponents of marriage equality as staunch Christians, but to either omit discussing the religious identity of marriage-equality supporters, or to emphasize their lack of religious belief or practice. An example is the following excerpt from New York Times columnist Charles Blow:
“The passage of gay marriage legislation in Vermont is momentous, but not necessarily a sign of momentum. Of all the states with pending gay marriage legislation, Vermont may well have been the easiest. Why? Because Vermont is the least religious. Opponents of gay marriage often base their arguments on religious texts.”–Charles Blow
This article made me remember the church I attended in Iowa City in 2000 to 2003, Trinity Episcopal, which was picketed by Fred Phelp’s protestors for being LGBT-friendly. My Iowan roommate sang in a LGBT choir at another church. Although many of the loudest voices protesting same-sex marriage come from self-identified Christians, there is a large literature on Christian communities that actively welcome homosexuals and homosexual couples, including through support of same-sex marriage.
My most vivid encounter with an opponent of marriage equality occurred in the fall of 2006, when the Anglican bishop N. T. Wright spoke at Harvard Memorial Church. Addressing a group of Episcopalian students and grad students, Wright compared the American and Canadian branches of the Episcopal Church to “a housemate who does not clean the bathroom.” While Wright’s comment shocked me, the developments he was referring to—the ordination of Gene Robinson and the blessing of same-sex marriages—represented a clear trend in an American church to bless marriages of committed homosexual couples. It is remarkable to consider that it was only in 2003, in Lawrence v. Texas, that the United States Supreme Court struck down state laws criminalizing sex between partners of the same gender. In England, with the exception of a brief period in the 1500s, homosexual sex was a capital offense from 1553 until 1828—which would have been in keeping with Leviticus 20:13.
For readers who are ministers and planning to preach on this topic in the near future, I recommend Chapter 8 of Peter Gomes’ The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind. The book is a collection of essays on the Bible and controversial topics. Chapter 8 is called “The Bible and Homosexuality: The Last Prejudice,” and the writer examines passages in both the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament that address homosexuality, and offers methods of interpretation.
--Elizabeth Fels
Sources:
Biblical commentary from The New American Standard Bible, available on biblegateway.com;
Coogan, Michael, Ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/vermont-victory-revisited/?scp=1&sq=vermonts%20nones&st=Search
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/wildelawpage.html
Gomes, Peter. The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.
Other lectionary readings for this week: John 20:19-31; 1 John 1:1-2:2.
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