MEETING GOD

The law of biblical Israel can be viewed as a legalistic monstrosity by a flat, unnuanced reading of the Old Testament. Exodus 22:21-27 is a case in point:

21 “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. 22 “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. 25 “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27 because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

This scripture, found within the section call the Covenant Code, is demonstrative of how Israel’s belief inGod and their law was inextricably connected. The attentive reading of this material shows how the observance of the law was considered to be both an ethical (how to act) and a religious (how to believe) combined response to the divine presence.

Because God’s self-disclosure to humanity is marked by compassion for the unfortunate and concern for their well-being, only similar care for the poor, in particular the alien & widow & orphan, on the part of Israel constitutes a worthy response to God. In Israel’s male dominated society these three categories were especially vulnerable and in need of protection. This passage from Exodus contains a yearning for the weak in order to establish a system that doesn’t take predatory advantage of the less fortunate. Both the OT & NT are filled with warnings of God’s wrath flaring against such exploitation.

In his book, God’s Politics, Jim Wallis contends the best contribution of religion in our nation’s life is when the voice of the OT prophets is heard, challenging both major political parties from a consistent biblical ground. The prophets deal with moral valueswhen they speak to rulers, employers, property owners, the wealthy calling them to greater accountability before God. The prophets speak for those with no voice - the vulnerable, the dispossessed, widows and orphans, the hungry, the helpless, the least, last and lost. God’s “politics” is diminished when religious groups seek to acquire power for themselves ratherthan use the power of God’s Word and ways to change hearts. One day a biblical lawyer, a scribe, asked Jesus which of the 613 prohibitions and prescriptions of the Mosaic Law is the greatest (Mt 22:34ff). Rabbinic practice classified the 613 laws as “heavy” and “light.”Jesus astounded the lawyer by pairing a “heavy” with a “light” law – linking the love of God (Deut. 6:5) with the love of neighbor (Lev. 19:18) – and made theme qual and independent. Our love for God, who is easyto love, in inextricably bound with our love of neighbor, who is not easy to love. A letter with the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the early 2nd century by a well educated pagan named Aristdes shows how earlyChristians accepted Jesus’ challenge very seriously.The letter tells how Christians loved one another by expressing it in concrete action: helping widows, rescuing orphans, showing hospitality to strangers. Aristitdes tells Hadrian that the Christians are really anew kind of human being. There is something divine in them. Many other thoughtful pagans recognized the same “godly power” at work within Christians. While living this tent existence on earth, the only concrete way we can love the God we cannot see is by loving the neighbor we can see. Loving our neighbor is loving God. Only loving can we discover our true self. Only in being loved we appreciate our true value.

If love is the center of our essential self, if love is our most radical and profound act, if love is the way we express self outside of our self, then love is where we meet God.

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- Rev. Colby Smith