+Z’ev

Today’s assigned readings:

Deuteronomy 13:1-11, 2 Corinthians 7:2-16, Luke 17:20-37

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!’ or “There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
Luke 17:20-21

If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents, and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, “Let us follow other gods” (whom you have not known) “and let us serve them,” you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
Deuteronomy 13:1-3

I’ve been reading up tonight on some odd things that, like normal on the internet, just seem to pop up at random. People will join anything for “a religion” won’t they? I mean it’s real easy to laugh at Suicidal UFO cults or SNakehandlers, but I want to point out my own journey of constant conversions.

And then, two passages tonight telling us to stop looking for omens, portents, things that can be observed…

It’s a curious thing, not just about our odder, fringe cults but about religion in general. Despite Jesus’ direct warnings here, the early church can be read (in one light) as really getting hung up on miracles and “speaking in tongues”.

We don’t need the big signs either: any sign will do. The first time I sat foot in an Episcopal Church for a Sunday Eucharist, after 5 years in Orthodoxy, I found it portentous that on that day in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we were praying for the Canadian Anglican Diocese whose Cathedral is 4 blocks from my boyfriend’s apartment. Or the way that, at several important times in my life, the same reading from Isaiah has come up in the lectionary. Random Omens, you know.

We like signs and wonders - even the ones simply crafted into the Liturgy. We like feelings of awe and wonder. The same was true in Ancient Russia:

Vladimir wanted to know which of the world religions was the true one. So, he sent a group of loyal subjects to the Muslims in Volga. They reported back to Vladimir that they thought these people were possessed. Next, they traveled to Germany and Rome. The Church of Rome was more to their liking, however, they found it to be without much spiritual beauty. Lastly, they visited Constantinople, the center of Byzantium. After attending a Divine Liturgy, the travelers reported, “We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere upon earth. . . God dwells there among humans.”

(From Russian Life)

We often go looking for other things: ancient teachings are currently popular among the New Age sorts in all spiritual paths. New is right out, but put the label “ancient” on it and it works. This is “hype” I talk about every once in a while on my other blog, talking about the buzz that surrounds “ancient” liturgies (which, in their final form are not much older than the original Book of Common Prayer). We like to hear not that someone has come up with a new statement of truth but rather that the “ancient” truth has been “channelled” from some spirit of Atlantis. We prefer a religion “unchanged” since our Celtic Forefathers or pre-Columbian Americans. And, yes, Miracles are good, too!

9/11 was seen as God’s judgement by some fringey Christians and some fringey Muslims. Some Rabbis are still said to be working miracles today. The same is true among Hindu Yogis and Aboriginal shamans. Much of New Age spirituality is hung up on “signs and wonders” and, if you want proof it’s not just the fringe, in the heart of Orthodoxy is the Holy Sepulchre and at Easter, there is the ceremony of the Holy Fire:

For quite some time this ceremony has been a political act, “proving” that God was on the side of the Orthodox - and not the Armenians or the Copts or the Roman Catholics.

When we consider the very few miracles recounted in Acts and the Epistles of St Paul, we have to wonder how this Gospel spread to thousands of people. Read the saints of the early Church, or the Apologies of the Martyr Justin. The issue is not miracles, or “smells and bells” or awe. If miracles were a daily happening after the Ascension - or even a once-a-year happening, they didn’t come up so very often in conversation until much later in the Church’s history. There must have been something else to this story about an itinerant preacher that pulled people in.

What is so awesome about meeting in someone’s house, praying, sharing a meal (including some extra prayers over bread and wine) and discussing “the memoirs of the Apostles” as Justin calls them, that would have cause men, women and children to risk their lives?

For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.

I can only speak in the first person: “what works for me”. I could go on for a while about the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation and the Church, the linking of those three for our salvation… Or I could offer a meditation on “What is meant by ‘worship the father in spirit and in truth’.” But I’ll stick with the basics: they will know we are Christians not by our military lockstep liturgies, nor our antiques, nor by our smells and bells, nor even by our miracles.

There’s only one criteria: Love. That is the Kingdom of God happening among us here and now… and later, too.