lenten blog | March 11, 2024

The reality of failure and the power of hope

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 11th:  Exodus 15:22-27; Psalm 107:1-16; and Hebrews 3:1-6.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

As I have written before, I appreciate the honesty behind the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ authentic human nature, I likewise appreciate the honesty I hear in the telling of Israel’s backstory, an example of which we read today in the Exodus passage.  If you are not bound by any sense of truthfulness, you can tell a story anyway you wish.  You can say things that are obviously false, but that’s not to say they can’t be believed.  People can choose to be credulous.  People can choose to believe what they want regardless of reality’s objections. 

It would have been easy for the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures to share stories that were only complimentary and optimistic.  Take, for example, the comparison between the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges.  Both share accounts of Israel’s emergence in the land of Canaan.  Joshua offers a rather idealistic story of consistent military success.  Then you encounter Judges and you wonder if both books are talking about the same history.  Judges is far more balanced in its presentation.  Accounts both favourable and unfavourable are recorded.  Israel’s conquest of Canaan was not steady and assured.  Joshua definitely has its merits, but to study the history of the conquest, Judges has more to offer because it is not afraid to tell of victories and defeats.

Likewise, when the Exodus story is told without the constraint of avoiding anything that may be negative, its message resonates more powerfully because of its authenticity.  The people of Israel wandering through the arid Sinai complain about the lack of potable water.  This faces the reality of people in the desert.  Even with all of the direct manifestations of God, the people still worried.  It is brave for a people to include this in the story of their own creation.  It combines the reality of being the Chosen People with the reality that they did not always live up to the calling.  Israel is far from unique in this matter. 

As I said, I appreciate the authenticity of not whitewashing the biblical text.  The story of faith is not a dictator’s propaganda.  It is the complicated story of imperfect human beings trying to live into God’s perfection.  In Hebrews, it is said we are “holy partners in a heavenly calling.”  That’s us Christians.  Do you see heaven on earth around you?  We are partners in a heavenly calling that has not yet been realized.  Isn’t that not unlike what happens by the waters of Marah in the Exodus passage?  Before we tar and feather our Hebrew ancestors, we need to look at ourselves.

However, I don’t think God expects perfection of us.  I think faith in God opens us up to perfectibility.  Faith allows us to believe we can be better, and that belief encourages and strengthens us to act accordingly.  This was what we talked about on Saturday with the theology of recapitulation.  It is a similar theme that Hebrews presents when we read, “We are [God’s] house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.”  Hope is a mighty power.  We can tell whitewashed stories of perfection, but that keeps our attention attuned to the failure that we are not perfect.  Hope gives us the fuel to actually make things better.

I’d like to close with a necessary addendum because of the rise of antisemitism in our society.  People, most often people who call themselves Christians, will isolate stories such as today’s Exodus passage and use them to vilify the Jews, that they were an unfaithful and stiff-necked people and that they are and always will be.  However, as I wrote above, the Hebrews text highlights our stumbling progress toward perfection.  Any aspersion we cast upon the Jews is one we must face.  The Jewish people are our religious forebears.  Jesus and the earliest Christians were Jews.  And most of the book that we call the Holy Bible is from the Jews.  May we push back on this rising tide of hatred and prejudice, especially as Christians. 
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.