Gone Fishin’

Text:    Luke 4:31-6:17

If John Dominic Crossan and Marcus J. Borg are correct in their thesis that Luke’s birth story was written as a direct counter to the claims to divinity of the Cesars of Rome, it might also follow that the entire gospel supports that claim as well.  But what does all this matter in the 21st Century in a time when divinity has little meaning, and myth misleads the gullible?  What does it mean to be a follower (not a worshiper) of Jesus in the 21st Century?  

Western democracies have more or less given up on colonialist empires.  Imperial governments now are mostly confined to third- and fourth-world dictator-induced disasters such as Korea, Zimbabwe, and – most recently in the news – Haiti.  Food, clothing, shelter (i.e., basic social services), medical care, and education are the basic needs required for sustainable human life in the 3rd Millennium, c.e.  On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following are excerpts.

        Article 25.   (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control..
        
        (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
        
        Article 26.  (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
        
        (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.    

        (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
 
The kind of repressive imperialism that Jesus et al were looking to God to save the world from now resides in multi-national corporations, not governments – which likely explains why the United States government (among others) has not signed onto the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and why non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have.  The irony is that while multi-national corporations carry tremendous political weight with governments, NGOs – which are largely non-profit, humanitarian organizations – have little influence with the multi-nationals, and much less with governments, when compared to the corporations.

Luke reorganized Mark’s story, and added a level of hierarchical authority to Jesus’s loose organization of followers.  In 6:12-16, after spending a night in prayer on “the mountain,” Jesus selects 12 to be elevated to the position of Apostles:  Simon (Peter – aka “Rocky”), Andrew, James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon (the Zealot), Judas the son of James, and “Judas Iscariot, who turned traitor.”  Mark says that these 12 formed a group of companions to be sent out to speak, and to have authority to drive out demons.  Luke’s Jesus does not confer that authority until much later in Luke’s narrative.

Following Jesus is a fundamental metaphor for discipleship in Luke.  But apostleship comes only by appointment from Jesus.  And here lies one of the initial conflicts over leadership in the early Christian movement that still haunts Christianity today.  For the writer of Mark’s gospel, the realm of God arrived with Jesus, and everyone who follows Jesus’s way has the power Jesus had.  But Luke makes a clear distinction between leaders and followers.  This formula may have gotten him into trouble when he wrote Volume 2 (see Acts 9:1-9; Acts 13:9).  The Apostle Paul – clearly the most influential of the earliest interpreters of Jesus’s life and teachings – claimed to have seen Jesus just as authentically as the others who actually belonged to Jesus’s entourage.  In fact, Paul claims that after Jesus’s resurrection as many as “500 brothers and sisters at one time” saw him.  With exquisite one-upmanship, he goes on to say that after the 500, “he appeared to James [the brother of Jesus!], then to all the apostles.  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15:6-8).

Why are we still fighting over who gets to wear the stole, carry the staff, light the candles, lead the rituals?

Jesus is the divine actor in Luke’s story.  His divinity is recognized by the demonic world, but also recognized by the human world (Peter and the first disciples).  His power and authority are demonstrated, but not on Satan’s terms (see 4:1-13).  In a clear demonstration of the need for Biblical literacy among contemporary Christian leadership, Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club, recently opined that the earthquake in Haiti was the result of a “pact to the devil” in exchange for independence from France in 1804. “You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other,” Robertson said.  Perhaps Robertson thinks that Voudoun and Santeria, which are religions indigenous to Haiti, are Satanic.  Actually, both are African transplants, rooted in Catholicism.

Lily Coyle, who wrote a response to the editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune on behalf of the much-maligned ruler of Hell, is much more familiar with either the Biblical or cultural understandings of the Devil than Robertson.  I especially like her reference to “a golden fiddle”:

        Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth –  glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox – that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it – I'm just saying: Not how I roll. You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings – just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract. Best, Satan

Unlike Robertson’s claim regarding the hapless Haitians’ interaction with demonic realms, evidence in Luke’s gospel of the interruption of normal activity by divine agency is seen in Jesus’s exorcism of the man with the unclean spirit, in the healing of Simon’s mother, and in the exorcisms of other demons and the healing of other illnesses, including the paralytic who was let down through the roof to reach Jesus.  The Jesus Seminar scholars suggest that verse 24, which Luke lifted without change from Mark, may suggest that all humans have the power to forgive sins.  The narrator says, “But so that you may realize that on earth the son of Adam has authority to forgive sins, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘You there, get up, pick up our pallet and go home!’”  The fact that the story follows the call to Simon, James, and John to leave their normal activity (fishing) and follow Jesus might support that idea.  (Matthew disagreed.)  

Exorcisms and faith healings are the province of charlatans, fakes, and scam artists in the 3rd Millennium of the common era.  Even the more reasonable aspects of emerging or evolving human consciousness and the power of intentionality get sidelined to day-time talk shows and public television fundraisers.  Suze will tell you how to get rich; Dr. Phil will tell you how to save your marriage; Oprah will tell you how to lose weight, and they all are happy to take your money in exchange for their version of the “gospel.”

For Luke, Jesus is divine, and his story shows that divinity.  It is not a gradual revelation as it is in Mark’s gospel.  It is no accident that Simon is suddenly called Peter by the narrator as soon as he saw the miracle of the catch of fish.  It is a foreshadowing of what Luke’s audience already knew – that Peter was a sinful man, who denied Jesus in the end.  The call to join prophetic action and leave normal life behind is a Biblical motif that runs from shepherds to the “dresser of sycamore trees” and beyond.

Pat Robertson could have suggested that Haiti’s rulers from the 19th Century slave revolt through the 2004 coup that overthrew Jean Bertrand Aristide had betrayed their people for their own self-interest.  That would lend itself more accurately to the Devil’s usual deals, as admitted in the letter quoted above.  Former President Bill Clinton’s attempt to foster investment in Haiti – which may have eventually succeeded in eliminating Haitian government red tape and at least had the potential for economic justice for the people – has now suffered a set-back of Biblical proportions.  But the Devil had less to do with the earthquake than the conditions that set up the people for the disaster they now are suffering.  

Jesus’s remark (Luke 5:10) that “from now on you will be fishing for people” reflects Jeremiah’s warning that God is sending for many fishermen and hunters who will find the people who have been scattered and bring them back to God’s ways (Jeremiah 16:14-16).  The outpouring of humanitarian assistance to Haiti is a start.  But how long can the United States and international financial institutions pour money and resources into the country before “fiscal responsibility” demands either a halt or a payback?  The ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would be another step in the right direction.  But of course, signing onto the Declaration would mandate access to food stamps, affordable public housing, funding social services and regulating financial and environmental entities, establishing universal health care, and federal guidelines for educational goals.

What political party is going to have that as its platform in 2010?

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