Friday, December 23, 2016

Prolepsis

The word prolepsis means living in anticipation of an event before it happens.  Christmas is a proleptic event because weeks and weeks before it occurs people get excited and live their lives as if the event is in some way already here.  When we know that something big is going to happen, our lives are effected for good and for bad,  by the coming event, a trip to a fun place, graduation, surgery, moving, retirement, a grandchild, and many other such anticipations.

Do you remember the old commercial where the singer sang the song, “Anticipation” as the ketchup came out of the bottle so slowly, incrementally and enticingly?  Prolepsis, there it is.

The three monotheisms are all proleptic religions.  Their traditions believe history has a purpose and is going somewhere. Their preachers teach, despite what what you see with your eyes, you ought anticipate a time when God will come soon, defeat the power of evil and bring peace to the world.  Jews, Christians and Muslims wait in anticipation for the coming of this event. All three are communities waiting in anticipation and hope.

Of course, not all their believers believe that there is actually going to be such an event.  We live in a time of much justified doubt and skepticism.  But this teaching that history is important means what you do every day, in every way, to help any neighbor is vital to working with God in this world.  We are, after all, God's partners, working to repair the world.  I am convinced, to the extent we each act like “a mensch” (a person of character) in our everyday lives, we move history towards rather than away from God.

As Christmas and Chanukah approach, we would do well to remember these three communities, Jews, Christians and Muslims, certainly divided by many beliefs and traditions which ought not be minimized. These communities, at their best, are ultimately united by their commitment to care for the neighbor.  They are not optimists or pessimists.  They are realistic yearners hoping against hope that soon, very soon, God will yet be God. Meanwhile, there is a neighbor bleeding that needs your help.  In the midst of our prolepsis,  a restful and peaceful holiday to all.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Living in the Middle

Part of the problem of being religious in our time is for many it feels like you are deceptively engaged in wishful thinking or superstition.  And no one wants to do that!  So there are more and more “nones”, people who have no religious affiliation, and “dones”, people who are done with traditional religion. These people say, “When I see, then I will believe.”  

On the other side are many people who continue to trust their religious tradition teaches the truth.  They do not think they are being superstitious or foolish.  They are serious people of faith. They also have eyes and think their religion reveals the true meaning of life. They argue “If you believe, then you will see.”

To be fair and honest, religion can been good and not so good.  Jews, Christians and Muslims all teach their followers to trust God and stand with the neighbor or stranger in pain.  Not all the adherents of these religions live out this teaching.  Some people are hypocrites.  Nothing new there!   In the name of religion, over the centuries, some people have been terribly destructive while others have been admirably constructive.  Some have been indifferent and cowardly. Others have been caring and courageous.  After all, religious teaching is a vector that we can either follow or ignore.

But I am convinced, in this crazy time, we need to listen to each other more.  People who are agnostic or atheist need to study religious truth and religious people need to listen carefully to the questions and doubts of those who refuse to believe. And what if  religious people could be honest about their own doubts and questions?  And what if, nones and dones, atheists and agnostics had more doubts and questions about their own positions.  Remember, think that you may be wrong.

My question:  Why is not possible to live in the middle?  Maybe our religion is right about some things but not absolutely right. Maybe our scriptures proclaim the truth sometimes but other times they can be wrong.  Maybe there are parts of our way of thinking about God that need to be changed or rethought?  The question we need to ask about our respective religious traditions or lack thereof, is what about them works and what does not work?   What parts are no longer applicable and what parts are still quite valuable?  The goal of religion is not to be religious.  The goal is not to possess the truth, it is to pursue the truth.   Faith is trusting without knowing for sure.  For good or for bad that is our situation.  So, let's live in the middle between religious absolutism and religious relativism.  Whatever God is about, I cannot believe the Deity gave us minds so that we do not use them.  Live in the middle and we'll see, yes, we will see.

Friday, December 9, 2016

A Jew Talks about Christmas

That time is coming again.  Where I live, when it is Christmas, it is Christmas! Everything becomes part of Christmas.  The movies, the TV shows, the commercials, the malls, the stores, the decorations, the sales, and especially all the lights.  Everything, for good and for bad, gets sucked into the massive vortex that has become Christmas. 

From a Jewish perspective, we have come to expect this electrical lighting cosmic celebration every December.  The hoopla around Christmas though has made our holiday of Chanukah more important than it used to be.  The word Chanukah means dedication.  In the year 165 b.c.e. the temple in Jerusalem was rescued from Greek desecration and rededicated by the lighting of candles in the temple.  There was only enough oil for one day. But, by some miracle, the candles stayed lit for eight days.  So, the Rabbis took that event and made it into a holiday of celebration that occurs every December.  The lighting of candles for eight nights demonstrates the power of Judaism over assimilation and God over evil.

Is it possible to connect Chanukah to Christmas?  Why should we even want to connect them?  Isn’t it easier for you celebrate yours and we will celebrate ours?  Some would say, let’s not mix what should not be mixed.

I disagree.  In my life I have come to understand Christmas as a holiday of hope, that the light will and can overcome the darkness. Near as I can tell, Jesus was a Rabbi who tried to teach Jews and non-Jews that the light was greater than the darkness.  Chanukah candles proclaim that the darkness shall not prevail over the light.  I am not sure Jesus ever celebrated Chanukah but I think he would have celebrated the lighting of candles on the Sabbath and other holidays to symbolize God’s light over the darkness.

But we have to say that all the talk about how the light overcomes the darkness can sound hollow in the midst of terrorism, cancers, drug addictions and the many other calamities of life. Better and more honest to say, the light is always struggling to overcome the darkness.  Sometimes it succeeds.  Sometimes it does not.  And that tenacious struggle not to allow the darkness to prevail is the true meaning and connection between Chanukah and Christmas. So, light the candles, Jewish or Christian and let us, each day, do what we can do to hold back the darkness. A restful holiday season to you all!

Friday, December 2, 2016

Moving is a Schlep

Moving is a Schlep

The word “schlep” is a Yiddish word that means “hauling something very heavy from here to there.” In a few months we will be moving from a townhouse to an apartment in Sioux Falls.  That doesn't sound very stressful and yet it is.  And I ask myself, why is that?  First and foremost, you have to pack and leave your home.  You have to say goodbye again.  Leaving home is not easy.  Home is not only where the heart is; home is where everything is settled and you’re safe.  You are in control. At home, you can close the door on whatever is going on outside.  You can walk around in your underwear. Unless your home is a crazy place, you yearn to be home.

Moving, even across town, is a schlep.  More so for my wife, whom I thank here, since she packs and organizes so much of our stuff.  Moving takes away from our sanity.  It messes with our roots and our stability.  It makes us crabby with each other. It’s not fun even if you like where you are moving. 

So, what to do?  Moving happens.  It’s part of life.  We move for a new job, for a new school, for a new place that will keep us safe.  It’s part of the restlessness of life in America.  We are always looking for the right place to live.

And moving has a certain rhythm.  We have to work through the stress, frustration, exasperation, of finding and packing boxes upon boxes, of determining what to keep and what to dispose, of hiring the right movers, deciding whether to downsize to one car, changing all the mail addresses, through all this we try to work together. 

It’s what we do.  And it takes courage and pluck to move.  It’s easier to just stay in one place even if it is terribly painful.  I understand that.

In the Bible, the first mover was Abraham. God told him to move, to leave his family, his land and his community.  He traveled far to a strange and uncomfortable place.  He received a promise that he and his people would be taken to a land that would be their home. And so, the quest began. In most of the Bible the people of Israel are either traveling to get to the land or in diaspora away from the land.  So it was for them and so it is for us. We are, after all, related to Abraham.  We leave where we are in search of that place where we will feel at home.

But, moving is not all bad.  It’s an adventure.  Now, adventures are not all they are cracked up to be.  I get it.  But we are moving to a place that will become our safe home, a place where we can hug, be safe under our covers while the wind howls and the snow falls, enjoy and marvel at the wonderful view, wait for the spring and birds to return, stare at the beauty of the trees, be at peace as much as we can be.

I know, in the end, we will walk through it all together, love each other and survive to tell the tale. Yet, no matter how I much I rationalize it, leaving home is a schlep.

My oldest son, when he was fifteen, asked me once, “Dad, why does there have to be goodbye?”  That’s a great question!  I answered, “I don’t know Nate, but such is life and you and I can’t change it.”  And we will walk through it together, encourage and be kind with each other and thereby keep each other sane.  Blame it all on God, Abraham or American restlessness.  But here we go again.  And moving is a schlep.