+Z’ev

Today’s assigned readings:

Nahum 1:1-13, 1 Peter 1:13-25, Matthew 19:13-22

Then someone came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Jesus, “Which ones?”
Matthew 19:16-18a

Which ones?

That’s what we all want to know, huh? I mean we want Jesus - or anyone, really - to tell us the exact minimum needed for advancement. As a Religion Geek with a modicum of OCD - or else the hyper-exacting focus that comes with Asperger Syndrome - I enjoy knowing where the bar is. I want to be perfect at it, as well. One of the fun things about Orthodoxy (in any religion) is there is no minimum: if it’s a rule, do it. Thus when I was Eastern Orthodox I had trouble discerning between things one does “Because God…” and things one does if one wants/needs/can. If someone told me of a given rule, I just did it (for a time). Then, of course, I broke down and became Angry. You can only take on so much: you must prostrate, you must venerate, you must fast, you must… stop.

One of my favourite stories of Fr Victor Sokolov, of Blessed Memory, who was my priest, has me asking him how to do the Advent Fast. The “basic” fasting rule of Orthodoxy is to abstain from all animal products (land or sea) as well as oil. While we say it is essentially vegan, there are some oddities: like shell fish are allowed, even though other water creatures are not. It is assumed that everyone is doing the “basic” fasting. But then comes the variations for Saints’ Feasts, etc. One day may allow fish wine and oil, while the next may only allow wine and oil. And then there are questions one can ask: does “wine” mean all alcohol or only just wine? I’ve been told that Beer is always allowed. Does “oil” mean only olive oil or all oils? Can you have soy “fake meat” or is that just a cultural compromise? So I was looking at a calendar and I turned to Fr V and said, “How should I fast at Advent?” He flipped through the calendar, looking at numerous days marked “Full Abstinence”, “Wine and Oil”, “Fish Wine and Oil”, etc. He said, “This is for monks.” And sat it down. “Does watching the news make you angry?” Yes, I said. “Then stop watching the news!”

Of course, I promptly stopped watching the news and threw away all the meat in my house and I inflicted both my fasts (news and animals) on my boyfriend and anyone else that I could. I remember sitting at the office Christmas Party and enjoying the delicious guilt that comes from stressing over a menu on which *nothing* fits the rules.

Which rules?

The young man was asking, essentially, a rabbinical sort of question. Rabbi A might say some things are important. Rabbi B might have another list. But the thing about Christianity and Judaism is not that one must do everything all at once. They are ladders, steps to perfection; a perfection most of us never reach in this life time.

But all of the saints - Jewish and Christian - bring us to the same thing. Love God, love your neighbour as you love yourself. The saints of both traditions even said that the latter half was more important for the neighbour is here and now. In fact, God sent the neighbour your way exactly to teach you to love. To love the neighbour is to love God.

Jesus walks us up the steps in the verses today: If you’re keeping all the commandments that Jesus mentioned in verses 18-19, well then the punch line in verse 21 makes perfect sense. You are trained in the love required to not-steal and not-adulter, etc, well then giving up everything you own is the next step in love.

In his classic work, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, author Richard Bach has Jonathan teach his students starting with level flight. All his students (fellow seagulls) want to do flips and loops and speed flight. But Jonathan insists on teaching them level flight first. When he dies, he passes on the teaching responsibility to his student Fletcher. The book ends as Fletcher says, “Let’s start with Level Flight…”

In a true and mystical way, Jesus starts with the same. The commands Jesus quotes are all about how we treat our neighbour. We don’t take his life. We don’t take his spouse. We don’t take his stuff. We love him - even if he is our parents. And when you have succeeded in all of that, love them even more: sell everything and go live among them yourself. Become one of them. Jesus will show us the real meaning of love.

Eastern Christianity sees this as a synergy. You learn the steps: you move gradually along the way of perfect, participating in your own salvation. This is “working out your salvation in fear and trembling.” So also some Jewish teachers see the mitzvot, the commandments, as a ladder. You take on the mitzvot one at a time: today you give up shrimp. Tomorrow you worry about cheeseburgers. Later we’ll talk about keeping your head covered or wearing ritual clothing when praying. Each Mitzvot, each act of participating with the Holy One in making your own life holy, is an act of gradual purification that, as St Peter says, leads upward to love:

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.

1 Peter 1:22

But you don’t start there. You can’t get to be perfect love, perfect truth, perfect God of perfect God without growing up a good bit first.

Let’s start with level flight.

Much love,

Huw