Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

7^th Sunday after Epiphany – Year A  

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Those of you in Wisconsin know the governor is playing games with the jobs of public workers. Threats are made to jobs themselves, wages, benefits. Threats are made to bring in the National Guard.

It is difficult to read this passage and then face ideologues whose sense of economic realities is as small as their compassion.

Though it can apply to any party, the current Republican dilemma includes a promise to deliver $100 billion in spending cuts—and its members face the prospect of Tea Party primary challenges if they fail to deliver big cuts. Yet the public opposes cuts in programs it likes—and it likes almost everything. What’s a politician to do?

Once you think about it, it is obvious: sacrifice the future. Focus the cuts on programs whose benefits aren’t immediate; basically, eat the country’s seed corn. There will be a huge price to pay, eventually—but for now, you can keep the base happy.

Paul Krugman in a February 14, 2011, New York Times article, “Eating the Future”, ends his column, “And so they had to produce something like Friday’s proposal, a plan that would save remarkably little money but would do a remarkably large amount of harm.”

Do you hear in this that there is nothing left for the gleaners, for the poor, the alien? Do you hear the defrauding, slandering, and profiting from the blood, pain, loss of your neighbor?

We have here a huge grudge borne against Neighb*r. We have here a denial of community. We have here a false idol of Market.

And so the people do as G*D does, rise in opposition to theft of common-wealth. Demonstrations Today and Tomorrow!

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Sing along with the noontime Solidarity Sing Along in the Wisconsin state capitol by getting your copy of their Song Book.

Sing Along Sample

It isn’t nice to block the doorway
It isn’t nice to go to jail
There are nicer ways to do it
But the nice ways often fail
It isn’t nice, it isn’t nice
You told us once, you told us twice
But if that is Freedom’s price
We don’t mind

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 

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Two phrases from Everett Fox's Schocken Bible translation:

Verse 2
Holy are you to be,
for holy am I, YHWH your God!
Go for it. Be not afraid of holy being. It is you.

Verse 18
be-loving to your neighbor (as one) like yourself,
I am YHWH!

Fox notes: "The meaning of this phrase, and the concept, have been widely debated throughout the ages." So where is the debate about this in our age? Who here thinks they get it? Start talking about "be-loving" and see how far you get.

Where do you see this intersecting with neighbor Iraq? And what are you doing about what you see? Can you see the apoplexy of SECRETary of deFENCE Donald Rumsfeld when he finally gets it, "Be-loving to Iraq who is like America." What, like America with weapons of mass destruction, etc.!? Yes.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/october2002.html

 

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when connected to:
Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Moses or Joshua. How do you choose between your kin? Thanks for Moses, thanks for Joshua, thanks for you.

We are not to bear a grudge against kin or neighbor (see if you can tell the difference between the two -- at some point the only difference is spelling).

To insist that everyone live up the wisdom I have achieved is to bear a grudge against those who aren't as far along and those who have gone much further. To insist on a particular answer for the testing questions of life is to fail the test, to insult a Living GOD, and to reduce our neighbor to our self. To insist is to slander.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html

 

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when connected to:
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6:13-17 or Psalm 1
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46

Moses, the great liberator, is shut up in foreign Moab. Ruth, the great grandmother, comes forth from Moab.

All of this disparagement and honoring of Moab, depending on time and perspective, is background to the famous "love your neighbor" dicta.

This is basic inclusionary, progressive vision. It allows Jesus to continue engaging those who would be his enemy, in this particular the Pharisees.

It is encouragement to us to keep the line open with our supposed enemies, for we may well find ourselves dying in their space and rejoicing when they bring forth a heroine of our own.

 

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what is a millennia
what is a moment

a tension between
enlivens this present

relatives become enemies
enemies become friends

we chase one another
and flee the same

in a moment
all is lost

in a millennia
we can see today

may we prosper
in our in-between time

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

 

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Those of you in Wisconsin know the new governor is playing games with the jobs of public workers. Threats are made to jobs themselves, wages, benefits. Threats are made to bring in the National Guard.

It is difficult to read this passage and then face ideologues whose sense of economic realities is as small as their compassion.

Paul Krugman in yesterday's New York Times speaking of national politics disguised as economics also describes our state political environment.

Which brings me back to the Republican dilemma. The new House majority promised to deliver $100 billion in spending cuts — and its members face the prospect of Tea Party primary challenges if they fail to deliver big cuts. Yet the public opposes cuts in programs it likes — and it likes almost everything. What's a politician to do?

The answer, once you think about it, is obvious: sacrifice the future. Focus the cuts on programs whose benefits aren't immediate; basically, eat America's seed corn. There will be a huge price to pay, eventually — but for now, you can keep the base happy.

Paul calls this "Eating the Future" and ends his column, "And so they had to produce something like Friday's proposal, a plan that would save remarkably little money but would do a remarkably large amount of harm."

Do you hear in this that there is nothing left for the gleaners, for the poor, the alien? Do you hear the defrauding, slandering, and profiting from the blood, pain, loss of your neighbor?

We have here a huge grudge borne against Neighbor. We have here a denial of community. We have here a false idol of Market.

And so the people do as G*D does, rise in opposition to theft of common-wealth. Demonstrations Today and Tomorrow!

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/02/leviticus-191-2-9-18.html

 

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And the connection between “wholeness” (perfection) and “holiness” is what?

Again note how this wholly holy is connected to the common good.

Leviticus is very much a tribal book that lays out the boundaries of this particular tribe. It will be necessary to continue pressing our tribal nature to expand past our self-imposed limits of care. What does it mean to not demean anyone into a position where it is alright to steal from them or for them to steal to live? What does it mean to not slander another tribe in toto or in part (think here of Native Mascots)? What does it mean to not take vengeance upon an enemy or a tribal neighbor?

This is not just an individual morality, this is deep work of nurturing seeds found in a ground of all being that they might be for themselves, others, and next generations.

Here is holiness—love your neighbor as yourself.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/02/leviticus-191-2-9-18.html