Wonderings & Wanderings

Esau's Kiss

Summary of a sermon series concluded this week at the Chapel Hill Bible Church

This morning, at the Chapel Hill Bible Church, we finished a two week discussion on shame, shame-management, face-covering, flight from God's presence (or face), and the nature of God's embrace and redemption of humanity.

The narrative covered several facing events in the life Jacob —
• Disguised face, steals his brother's blessing
• Facing event, in a vision at Bethel, he is in the face/presence of God and does not know it
• Community shame, the covering of his bride (an expected custom) used as an act of shame to break a contract and to deceive Jacob into marrying the wrong sister

Then, a great foreshadowinging event of facing —
• Jacob wrestles with a divine being and receives his prophetic blessing. He names the location of the struggle, "Peniel" or "Face" because he entered the presence or face of God.

Finally, a fulfillment event in the narrative
• He encounters his wronged brother with an army of men
• Jacob, embracing his shame, "lowers his face" to ground seven times
• But Esau "lifts up his face" and "kisses his face" — a dramatic moment of experiencing redemption from his shame.

The whole Biblical narrative of shame, anticipation of redemption, the experience of redemption, and the working out of this redemption is dramatized in this story.

A question emerges from this story — how can we embody redemption rather than shame as a community. I think a portion of the answer lies in the Eucharist — being a community that retells the narrative and embodies the story of redemption through a ritual that reforms and reshapes our living. For me, this story challenges me to to rethink a theology and the practice of Eucharist.

I also have felt the need to challenge our view of sin — an embrace of sin should motivate a yearning for the embrace of the redemptive, shame-liberated life. Three failed or dreadly incomplete views of sin (failed because they do not great an anticipation for the rituals and life of redemption).
• The "personal guilt" view — very modern, the product of an over-individualized culture, sin is about the guilt of my self-contained actions of the specific wrongs done to me! (envisions a redemption of a single and simple verdict)
• The "tumor" view — very modern, the product of materialism, sin is an evil substance living in me, (envisions a redemption that is a surgical intervention by trained professionals without an real collateral damage in my life)
• The "Heinous Act" view — largely postmodern, a view that only embrace horrific acts that we would never consider in the first place, the product of a contextual, preference driven culture (envisions a redemption of simple avoidance)

But, if we see the shame of humanity as a relational, contagious, viral, pandemic of the human condition — this anticipates a redemption of shame and guilt that is social, holistic, pervasive (to all of creation) and is practiced in social ritual and relationship/community rather than received in personal decisions, individual commitments, and private rituals.

I think a transformation of our understanding of shame and the human condition reforms our theology and reshapes our communal and ritual lives.

Jacob's Shame (Sermon Blog)

For the next couple Sundays, I'm guest speaking at the Chapel Hill Bible Church. I want to thank LeRon Shults (theology prof at Bethel Seminary) and Kara Eckman Powell (Fuller Seminary) for their excellent presentations at the Emergent Conventions this year on humanity. Their work on the theology of humanity conveyed in concepts of "face" and "facing" inspired this short series on Jacob.

A short summary of Kara's and LeRon's presentation:
• Much of the human experience is shaped by the faces of others. The human experience is also characterized by shame — we cover our faces because of our shame.
• The biblical narrative "face" and the "covering of our faces" takes on a grave theological significance. "Face" not only is used to express human emotion (for example: the biblical phrase for "joy" is literally "shining face), "face" also conveys relational encounters. The Hebrew word for "face" is also the theologically loaded word "presence" used regularly to describe the presence of Yahweh and human encounters with Yahweh.
• The covering our faces reveals the viral presence of sin our lives and community — we hide ourselves from God and from the presence of God in community. (Shame, of course, is experienced in community).

I strongly recommend getting their presentation from youthspecialties.com or emergentconvention.com. I'm just giving you a taste. Their words on the relationality of sin is a deeply provocative portion of theology that has been lost in our very individualized culture. The implications for baptism (a rite of initation into redeemed community) and eucharist (the repetitive practice of uncovering our faces to each other in affirming and accepting God's "face" or "presence" are huge in this concept. LeRon and Kara do a great job in exploring these possibilities.

I'm my sermons, I'm exploring these themes through the story of Jacob and his narrative of face covering. Note these incidents —
• Jacob disquises himself to steal his brother Esau's blessing. This, naturally, enrages Esau and Jacob must flee in the night to save his life.
• In his great dream, Jacob in his shame is blind to a facing event. At Bethel, the presence or face of God is revealed to Jacob but he proclaims his own shame and blindness with some of the most tragic words of the OT, "surely God was in this place and I didn't know it!"
• The bizarre wedding scene where he marries Leah rather than the intended Rachel. As was the custom, the face of the bride was covered during the ceremony. As Jacob goes to consummate the marriage, he finds that he has been tricked by Laban (the father of these two women). Face-covering in this scene reveals the treachery and dishonesty of all of humanity.
• The Jacob story is a narrative of two journeys — a shameful journey from home and a forced journey to home, to the place of Esau's angry face and the places (specifically Bethel) where Jacob has encountered the face of God.
• As foreshadowing of the presence of God, just before reaching Esau, Jacob encounters angels. Jacob names this place "the camp of God" (a place where God stops by on occassion?).
• As he sends his family and gifts ahead to appease Esau, Jacob wrestles with a divine figure. At daybreak, Jacob demands a blessing (literally "show me your face"). The blessing that Yahweh has always intended for Jacob is given. Jacob names this place, "Peniel" or "Face" because he has encountered the presence of God and survived.

It is a great story, an "everywoman" and "everyman" story of our fleeing in shame from the face or presence of God. Next week, I'm going to continue the story by looking at "Esau's kiss" — an event laden with divine eradication of shame and typology of Jesus.

For those who heard me today, feel free to use the comments here to share a story or a thought. The covering of our faces in a universal human experience. Freedom from shame comes in community that follows the journey of Christ.

Paul's Awkward Gift: Philippians 4:10-20

In the comedy "Analyze This," Billy Crystal plays a therapist who is employed by a mafia boss (Robert DeNiro) to help him deal with his repressed anger. Crystal's patience with one his client's temper explosions prompts DeNiro to send him a gift. And what a gift it is — a huge stone fountain (it's so large that it almost is taller than Crystal's two storey middle class home and takes up much of his front yard)! You can imagine the dilemma — how can you accept such an overwhelming gift that might bring you under suspicion from others (why would a mafia boss be so happy with you?) and how can you afford to appear ungracious to a giver with such a violent history.

The apostle Paul finds himself in a similar situation (described in Philippians 4:10-20). The Philippians generously send such a large financial gift that Paul is prompted to say, "I'm now well supplied," and imply, "Please don't send any more!" The gift is awkward because it challenges his ministry principle of paying his own way as he preaches. He wants no one to be able to accuse him of profiting from his calling. But how can he turn down or even rebuke this amazing example of sacrificial giving? In this text, he walks a tightrope of businesslike detachment from the gift (at one point he states that he has received the gift using a Greek term that denotes "receipt" — giving the Philippians a businesslike "bread and butter note" acknowledging their gift formally and stiffly) and effusive praise (comparing the gift to the pleasing aroma of an acceptable sacrifice offered to God in the Israelite temple).

This is my text for my August 8 sermon. This was a fascinating text to consider with so many thoughts about gifting, receiving, community, and worship. If you study this text, I think you'll quickly see a broad understanding of gifting and receiving as acts of worship — that worship (a life posture of dependence on God) demands that we give sacrificially and receive with discernment and humility. The communal nature of worship and the spiritual life are also affirmed. Giving and receiving are essential acts of community (when done as Paul suggests they require community involvement). Hence, a strong link of community to worship is made in this text.

I found some other significant points of theology to consider from this text...
• The text touches on the mystery of God's response to our material needs. I don't understand why God doesn't alway intervene in legitimate material needs — Paul seems to affirm that the conditions of our lives (our finances, the quality of our lives and relationships) do not always seem to line up with the spiritual reality of our lives.
• Paul seems to emphasize the role of vision/values on our giving and a life of simplicity (living beyond our circumstances, enjoying a vibrant communion with God regardless of our life situations).
• Paul challenges us to live in a manner that fosters a dependent, organic union with God. This is the core principle to shape both our giving and receiving. This is also a sharp challenge to our tendencies to be dependent, entitled persons or to be radically independent persons.

For those of you who heard my sermon (and any others), I would be honored for you to use this space as a place for public dialogue about gifting and receiving and a place for sharing your own narratives on this subject (for first-timers there's reply box at the bottom).

I have written a few times in this space on related issues (July 7 and July 8). I know that a significant portion of my journey involves an essential challenge to my strong tendency toward independence which can make me awkward in gifting and receiving. My path to worship seems to run through these challenges.