I also am indebted to a sermon preached by Rev. Kristy Roberts Farber at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, NC on May, 17, 21015, entitled "Two Sides of the Sea." Although I did not quote her in my sermon, her exploration of imagination led me to seeing imagination as a possibility for responding to Obadiah.
The story near the end of the sermon from Shane Claiborne had an additional quote: Then he looked square into my eyes, with tears pouring from his, and said, "Has your country lost its imagination?" That addition to the quote makes it more powerful in some ways, but I also thought it might distract from the conversation about imagination and shift to a political conversation.
“Future
Justice” FPC, Troy; 7/26/15; Minor prophet series; Obadiah 1:
1-21
Introduction: The minor prophets we have been reading have been looking toward the fall of Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem has fallen to the Babylonians, Judeans are being exiled, and the prophet Obadiah has something to prophesy (Obadiah probably prophesied in the first few years after the fall of Jerusalem. (The New Interpreter's Bible, VOL VII, 436).
Obadiah literally means “servant of the Lord.” or “worshipper of the Lord.” Unlike the other prophets, there is no information given about Obadiah or his heritage.
As I mentioned when i preached on Nahum, only a few books of the Bible are left out of the Revised Common Lectionary's three-year cycle of readings. Obadiah is one of the others. With Nahum, I could see why it ought to have been included.
With Obadiah, I can see why it was left out of the lectionary.
Move 1: Obadiah has a single message – judgment against Edom.
a. Edom was the land to the southeast of Judah beyond the Dead Sea.
1. Edom was associated with Esau, Jacob's brother. Remember that they were Isaac's twins who wrestled in the womb to see who could come out first. Esau was born first, so he was the eldest son. Jacob, the second son, steals the birthright from his brother Esau.
2. Relations between Edom and Judah are characterized by animosity and hostility (NIB, 437).
3. In some ways the hostility goes back to Rebekah's womb, when Jacob and Esau struggled.
4. When the Israelites were traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land, they requested permission from the King of Edom to pass through his land. The king refused Israel passage (Numbers, 20: 14-21).
5. In the time of King Saul (I Samuel 14:47) and King David (2 Sam 8: 13-14), Edom is on the list of enemies.
6. After the fall of Jerusalem, Edom prospered by capturing fleeing Judeans and turning them over to the Babylonians, an act of betrayal (NIB)
b. Jerusalem has fallen, and now Judah responds as we often do when we confront failure – blame someone else.
1. Human response we know -- when feeling hopeless and helpless lash out.
2. Who better to attack than Edom, the enemy for generations.
3. Obadiah finishes with a violent word of hope with the house of Jacob and the house of Joseph being fire and flame that burn down the Edomites (“house of Esau”) is how it is described (Obadiah 1: 18).
c. Prophetic judgment is part of the prophetic tradition, but in all the other cases the judgment is part of a larger prophecy
1. The destruction of another nation speaks to God's justice, and then that is turned against Israel or Judah.
2. Or the defeat of another country is used as a call to Judah to change their ways.
3. Or the destruction is used as a lens to explore how God is at work.
4. But Obadiah just lashes out and stops there.
5. No further development of thought.
6. As Donald Gowan notes, retribution as part of God's final justice is a starting point, but most of the other prophets moved considerably beyond that starting point (Donald E. Gowan, Theology of the Prophetic Books: the Death and Resurrection of Israel, 121).
7. Sort of like the kid who has a temper tantrum and yells, “I hate you,” or “i wish you were dead.”
We might expect the parents to allow for a cooling off period, followed by a discussion of why the child was angry, and some sort of apology, and a plan for moving forward.
8. But the Obadiah model is the temper tantrum with no growing form the experience. The temper tantrum, the anger and the hatred expressed, are the final word.
Move 2: What do we do with Obadiah?
a. As I reflect on that, it reminds me of the generations of hatred that fuel the violence in the Middle East and the terrorism we experience.
1. Or the racial divide that seems to be exploding in our country today.
2. It is never about what happened in this exact moment, but the building up of anger and resentment over generations.
3. How do we break the cycle of hatred and violence?
4. Obadiah would seem to lead us to holding on to the anger and waiting for the day when God's vengeance would take place.
5. From a theological standpoint, I have to ask, “Does that sound anything like what the God was was revealed to us in Jesus Christ would call us to do?”
6. Even from a pragmatic standpoint, we might ask, “how does that seem to work?”
7. From both a theological and pragmatic standpoint, we might say, “it's not working very well.”
8. we seem trapped in a cycle of hatred and violence.
1. Human response we know -- when feeling hopeless and helpless lash out.
2. Who better to attack than Edom, the enemy for generations.
3. Obadiah finishes with a violent word of hope with the house of Jacob and the house of Joseph being fire and flame that burn down the Edomites (“house of Esau”) is how it is described (Obadiah 1: 18).
c. Prophetic judgment is part of the prophetic tradition, but in all the other cases the judgment is part of a larger prophecy
1. The destruction of another nation speaks to God's justice, and then that is turned against Israel or Judah.
2. Or the defeat of another country is used as a call to Judah to change their ways.
3. Or the destruction is used as a lens to explore how God is at work.
4. But Obadiah just lashes out and stops there.
5. No further development of thought.
6. As Donald Gowan notes, retribution as part of God's final justice is a starting point, but most of the other prophets moved considerably beyond that starting point (Donald E. Gowan, Theology of the Prophetic Books: the Death and Resurrection of Israel, 121).
7. Sort of like the kid who has a temper tantrum and yells, “I hate you,” or “i wish you were dead.”
We might expect the parents to allow for a cooling off period, followed by a discussion of why the child was angry, and some sort of apology, and a plan for moving forward.
8. But the Obadiah model is the temper tantrum with no growing form the experience. The temper tantrum, the anger and the hatred expressed, are the final word.
Move 2: What do we do with Obadiah?
a. As I reflect on that, it reminds me of the generations of hatred that fuel the violence in the Middle East and the terrorism we experience.
1. Or the racial divide that seems to be exploding in our country today.
2. It is never about what happened in this exact moment, but the building up of anger and resentment over generations.
3. How do we break the cycle of hatred and violence?
4. Obadiah would seem to lead us to holding on to the anger and waiting for the day when God's vengeance would take place.
5. From a theological standpoint, I have to ask, “Does that sound anything like what the God was was revealed to us in Jesus Christ would call us to do?”
6. Even from a pragmatic standpoint, we might ask, “how does that seem to work?”
7. From both a theological and pragmatic standpoint, we might say, “it's not working very well.”
8. we seem trapped in a cycle of hatred and violence.
b. Mitch Albom,in his book Have a Little Faith, tells his story of being asked to do the eulogy by rabbi Albert Lewis, with whom he had grown up.
1. It led to a series of conversation with the rabbi.
2. In one of his reflections, he was reminded of a previous sermon a 1974 sermon preached by Rabbi Albert Lewis: Talmudic interpretation (the Talmud is the collection of wisdom pre-Christian rabbis who studied the Hebrew texts developed through the years; reportedly 6200 pages of interpretations) of the crossing of the Red Sea: After seeing Pharaoh's soldiers drowned in the Red Sea, the angels in heaven wanted to celebrate the enemy's demise. God grew angry with this and said, '"Those are my children too.'" Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: a true story (76)
c. I read Obadiah and think that it is in the biblical canon to challenge us to do better.
1. It led to a series of conversation with the rabbi.
2. In one of his reflections, he was reminded of a previous sermon a 1974 sermon preached by Rabbi Albert Lewis: Talmudic interpretation (the Talmud is the collection of wisdom pre-Christian rabbis who studied the Hebrew texts developed through the years; reportedly 6200 pages of interpretations) of the crossing of the Red Sea: After seeing Pharaoh's soldiers drowned in the Red Sea, the angels in heaven wanted to celebrate the enemy's demise. God grew angry with this and said, '"Those are my children too.'" Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: a true story (76)
c. I read Obadiah and think that it is in the biblical canon to challenge us to do better.
1. Imagine how God might be at work in new ways that break the cycle of violence and hatred.
2. Rodger Nishioka quotes Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge because while knowledge defines all the we currently know and understand, one's imagination point to all we have yet to create.”
3. we know the history and the present reality of violence and hatred just like Obadiah knew the history and present reality of Judah's enmity with Edom.
4. But do we have to carry that forward? Is that what God desires? Or is God calling us to a new way?
5. Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist. I was in Baghdad in March 2003, where I lived as a Christian and as a peacemaker during the "shock-and-awe" bombing. I spent time with families, volunteered in hospitals and learned to sing "Amazing Grace" in Arabic.
2. Rodger Nishioka quotes Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge because while knowledge defines all the we currently know and understand, one's imagination point to all we have yet to create.”
3. we know the history and the present reality of violence and hatred just like Obadiah knew the history and present reality of Judah's enmity with Edom.
4. But do we have to carry that forward? Is that what God desires? Or is God calling us to a new way?
5. Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist. I was in Baghdad in March 2003, where I lived as a Christian and as a peacemaker during the "shock-and-awe" bombing. I spent time with families, volunteered in hospitals and learned to sing "Amazing Grace" in Arabic.
There is one image of the time in Baghdad that will never leave me. As the bombs fell from the sky and smoke filled the air, one of the doctors in the hospital held a little girl whose body was riddled with missile fragments. He threw his hands in the air and said, "This violence is for a world that has lost its imagination." Blog Don't Eat Alone, Milton Brasher-Cunningham, 8/28/2011, http://www.donteatalone.blogspot.com/
Conclusion: We come to our Lord's Table – a place that is set by the God who imagined a better way; a future ruled by love; a future in which death was transformed into life.
We come to the Table to find a better way that Obadiah never found, but the way to which God calls us.
Really liked the sermon today. Message I needed to her.
ReplyDeleteGood conclusion to a tough passage.
ReplyDelete