Monks Serving God and Mammon?

Famously, Jesus is quoted as saying that human beings cannot serve both God and mammon, or wealth. We are not to favor our bank accounts at the expense of God. Jesus' instructions are generally understood to imply that wealth and faithful living stand in opposition to one another. Either material gain is the ultimate determiner of our actions, or worship of God. One cannot serve both masters.

The New York Times this morning has an interesting article that might suggest otherwise. Universal Music has contracted with Catholic monks in Austria to sell recordings of their chant, and it's making big money for both the record company and for the monks. These devotional chants have formed the essence of daily worship in the monastic community for perhaps the last seven hundred years. Now they have been recorded and are selling in the top ten albums in Europe, set to debut here in the States next week. According to the article, the success of the chants is part of a massive fascination in secular society with the "otherworldly" monastic lifestyle. The monks see it as a chance for the peace of God to be shared most broadly through music, and the millions that they make on the scene will help with the bills and attract new members to the community.

On the face of it, it appears as though the monks have sold out, compromised their pristine and isolated worship of God in order to make quick cash. If we take what Jesus says at face value, their prayers can only be harmed by the "filthy lucre" that's now a reality and a force in the community. Money does have power, and some members of the Catholic Church hierarchy in America have seen fit in the priest sex scandal to overlook evil for the sake of protecting their stash. Examples of the corrupting influence of money abound in other churches as well--they are available wherever one might choose to look.

At the same time, God does not only work through those who are poor. The majestic cathedrals that were funded at least in part through generous donations from the wealthy stand even today as permanent testimonies to the glory of God. Many a secular heart has been stirred into contemplation of the holy by stepping into such a sanctuary. No doubt the same will be true of this chant music as well. Furthermore, it is a false expectation that the church always be unsullied by the claims of the world. There is always corruption and impurity within the church, just as there is beauty and divine perfection outside of the church. God's Spirit will still be able to move hearts and souls by this new arrangement.

All the same, I wish it were not so. By agreeing to share their talents for material gain, the monks missed an opportunity to stand in opposition to an overly material culture. In agreeing to this proposal, the monks perpetuate the idea that Universal Music is the arbiter of true musical talent, and not God. The people who seek the glory of God must now pass through the gateway of Universal's toll booth. This gives the corporation more authority than it in fact has. Beauty is freely showered on all the world from a most bountiful God, but our systems of wealth instead suggest that beauty comes to those who have the money to download it online. By contrast, the church exists to make divine beauty available to all free of charge. More people may now be able to hear the chants of divine prayer, but they pay for the privilege. How much better if at their local congregation they were to find free devotional music in its proper context: worship to a loving, forgiving, creative and empowering God.

Stephen and Christian Anti-Semitism

The end of the seventh chapter of Acts records the conclusion of Stephen's speech, just before the crowd stones him to death. Stephen says to his Jewish audience:

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it. (Acts 7:51-53)

The passage troubles me because it encapsulates all the anti-Semitic rhetoric that Christians have thrown at the Jewish people for the past two millennia. Christians have spread the false propaganda that Jews have betrayed the wishes of their God, misunderstood the teachings of Yahweh, and are the killers of Christ. Stephen's words, taken out of context, become a bludgeon with which some Christians continue to abuse Jewish people today.

Jesus Christ was a faithful Jew. He never ceased to be one, and all his closest followers were faithful Jews as well. He began his teachings in the synagogues and never when far from them. Those teachings, by and large, are the accumulated wisdom of centuries of Jewish thought. In the gospels we find evidence that some groups of Jews received him gladly, while others resisted him. Jesus himself gives no suggestion that he has come to start a new religion. Throughout the gospels, he is a reformer within Judaism itself.

The split between Jews and Christians came about after Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus-believing Jews grew ever more convinced that Jesus was the messiah. Their faithful Jewish neighbors knew that Jewish tradition proclaims the coming of a military messiah who will overthrow all oppression, including the Romans. They found it ridiculous to think that a messiah would die on a cross instead of fighting the Romans with holy war.

The exchange between Stephen and the crowd who killed him was an inter-Jewish conversation. Like most family fights, there was exaggeration and over-reaction on all sides. Stephen ignores a lot of Jewish history and prophetic reflection in the heat of the moment, when he's trying to make a rhetorical point. All speakers, writers and preachers do this--leave part of the truth out in order to make a certain point in context. It is foolish to read what Stephen says to the crowd as a model for how Christians are always to respond to the Jewish people. Christians and Jews are still learning how to understand our shared histories and live in peace.

Stephen and the Bible in Progressive Christianity

My last post was about my readings in Esther. This time, I want to reflect on what I'm reading in the Christian Scriptures. In the sixth chapter of the book of Acts, the apostle Stephen is arrested for preaching about Jesus in Jerusalem. Then in the seventh chapter, when he is called on to give a defense of his actions, he launches into a detailed history of the Jewish tradition, with what amount to direct citations from the Hebrew scriptures. Abraham and his descendants, Joseph in Egypt, the saga of Moses, and the prophets all figure in Stephen's lengthy historical justification for his public ministry in Jesus' name.

Stephen illustrates a mode of belief in action that I believe is critical for Christians today. We know from chapter six that he was chosen with six others to be a servant to widows, orphans and others in the Christian community who were in need. He is named first, as "a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit." His calling and his activity is service to others, to the wider community. But in his service, he evidently leaves time to learn and study what he knows of Hebrew Scripture, to the point where he can quote the words of Moses or Abraham by heart. He has memorized the stories of faith, and they come to his aid when he is hard-pressed about his beliefs.

In the progressive Christian circles where I often find myself, my peers and I are trying to find the right balance between action and reflection, service and study. We admire the strong liberal tradition of resisting the status quo oppression, lifting up the broken-hearted and serving those in need. Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa, William Sloane Coffin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are a few of our most prominent heroes. Nevertheless, we are learning from our forebears in faith that such committed social action must be rooted in deep spiritual practice and faithful study of Scripture. Here, we are learning from our evangelical neighbors in faith, Christians who place a high priority on knowing the Bible and its relevance for today's world. Whatever differences we might have about our understandings of the Bible's counsel for current social issues, progressive Christians nevertheless would do well to pay attention to how evangelicals study the Bible.

Stephen gives us an excellent model of how we might benefit from greater knowledge of the Bible. He shows progressive Christians the wisdom of knowing by heart the words we recognize as God's revelation. All social action against war, decrying racism, or in favor of a minimum wage increase will be challenged, and Christian activists will have to state their beliefs. The more we know of our holy traditions, the more we can speak from them with confidence and knowledge, even in the face of strong opposition. When we are called on to defend the way we are using Jesus in support of the poor, marginalized and overlooked, we had better be well-studied and able to give a sound defense. Anything less and we do dishonor to the God who gives and grounds our every action.

Esther's Revenge: The Dangers of Victory

I just finished reading the book of Esther, and it continues to be a most puzzling piece of literature. I think it's a fantastic tale, and I like it a lot, but the ending feels a bit like a sucker punch. Most of the book is a typical good vs. evil, Jews vs. heathens, etc. But the book doesn't stop fast enough when the good triumphs over evil. Curiously, it goes on to describe in dramatic detail how completely the good Jews vanquish their opponents, to the point that the Jews start to look just as bad as the earlier wrong-doers. When the Jews have the right to defend themselves against those who attack them, they turn around and slaughter all they suspect of not being Jews. I wonder if God, through the writer of the book, wants us to hear about the dangers of victory.

I also can't help but hear resonances with the situation in the modern state of Israel. After centuries of persecution, the Jewish people have a homeland where they can prosper and survive. Yet rather than pursuing peace and defense only, some Jews, including the current administration in Israel, have pursued a policy of hostility and warfare against their Arab neighbors. Palestinians are certainly not innocent of aggression either, but the Jews clearly have the upper hand. Just as Mordecai and Esther against the native people of Susa, the Jewish leadership has instilled its own pogrom against its neighbors. Racism and ethnic warfare continue to be the bywords of the empire, no matter who is the most recent victor.

Christians have a different model in Christ. The God who defeated sin and evil forever does not turn around and declare war on non-Christians or sinners (notwithstanding fundamentalist Christian imagery such as The Passion of the Christ). Christ has the power to win, and also to refrain from seeking revenge against those who oppose him. Christ is the one who prays forgiveness for his killers, who stands as a slain Lamb at the end of history, redeeming all. In Christ the sword is truly beaten into a plowshare, so that the nations might not know war any more.