If Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him, why did he keep him in the circle of his close companions until the end?
from the community of Taize 21-Mar-2007

Among the many disciples who followed him, Jesus designated twelve to be closest to him, to share and continue his mission. He took very seriously the formation of this group of twelve apostles, praying an entire night beforehand.

But at a certain moment, Jesus realized that one of the twelve, Judas, had changed his attitude. Jesus understood that Judas was becoming distant from him, and even saw that he was going to “hand him over,” as the gospels put it. According to John’s gospel, Jesus understood what was happening already in Galilee, long before the events in Jerusalem that would bring him to the cross (John 6:70-71). Why then did he not send Judas away? Why did he keep him close to him until the end?

One of the words used by Jesus to speak of the creation of the group of the twelve apostles gives us a clue. “Did not I choose you, the Twelve?” (John 6:70; see also 13:18.) The verb to choose is a key word in Bible history. God chose Abraham, and then chose Israel to become the chosen people. It is God’s choice or election that forms God’s people, the people of the covenant. What makes the covenant unbreakable is that God chooses to love Abraham and his descendants for ever. The apostle Paul would comment on this: “God’s gifts and call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Because Jesus chose the twelve just as God chose his people, he could not send Judas away even when he realized that he was going to betray him. He knew that he had to love him to the end, to show that God’s choice was irrevocable. The prophets, Hosea and Jeremiah in particular, spoke in the name of a God wounded and humiliated by the betrayals of his people, but who nevertheless never stopped loving them with eternity’s love. Jesus did not wish to do less, nor could he do so: humiliated by the treason of one of his closest companions, he kept on showing him his love. By lowering himself before his disciples to wash their feet, he made himself the servant of all, Judas included. And it was particularly with Judas that he shared a peace of bread, a fragment of burning love that the disciple took away with him into his night (John 13:21-30).

If he wanted to be faithful to his Father – to the God who chose Abraham and Israel, to the God of the prophets – Jesus could do nothing else but keep Judas close to him until the end. He loved Judas even when Judas was enshrouded by darkness. “The light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). The gospel says that Jesus “was glorified” at the moment he gave his love to Judas, when he loved him without gaining anything by it and beyond all measure (John 13:31). In the darkest night of resentment and hatred, Jesus manifested the unbelievable radiance of God’s love.

Why are the gospels so discreet concerning Judas’ motives?

It is astonishing that the first Christians did not keep silent about the fact that one of the twelve apostles handed Jesus over to the hostile authorities. This fact casts doubt on the character of Jesus himself: did he make a mistake in choosing one of his companions? But it is equally astonishing that the gospels say almost nothing about the motives of Judas. Was he disappointed when he realized that Jesus was not a Messiah with a program of political liberation? Did he think he was acting in the best interests of his people by bringing Jesus’ career to an end? Some have supposed that he was motivated by the lure of a reward; others that he acted out of love, to help Jesus to give his life….

In the gospels there are only two indications concerning the reasons for what Judas did. One is the mention of the devil. “The devil placed in Judas’ heart the intention to hand him over” (John 13:2). But this only deepens the mystery. The devil, or Satan, is the one who opposes, criticizes or slanders. Jesus sensed the resentment that had come to birth in Judas’ heart and that was rooted there to the point of no return. But about why it existed, not a word, not even an allusion.

The other indication is the reference to the Holy Scriptures. Regarding Judas’ betrayal of him, Jesus said, “so that the words of Scripture will be fulfilled: The one who eats my bread turned his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9, quoted in John 13:18). It is important to understand correctly the meaning of this reference to the Scriptures in the gospels. They are not a kind of script where the role of each actor is written down in advance. Everyone who reads the Bible carefully knows well to what extent it offers choices and sets everyone before their responsibilities.

Quoting the verse of the psalm “The one who eats my bread turned his heel against me” (Psalm 41:10), Jesus does not mean to state that Judas could not have acted differently, but rather that God remains the principal actor in what is being played out. There is the drama of the betrayal, and at the same time God is the one at work. For if through Judas the Scriptures are being fulfilled, that means that, in a mysterious way, God’s intentions are being carried out. God is causing his words to come about (Isaiah 55:10-11). The reference to Scripture enables us to believe in God even during the night, even when what happens is incomprehensible.

If Judas’ resentment and hatred remain incomprehensible, Jesus’ love “to the very end” is still more beyond all understanding. The gospels are so discreet concerning Judas’ motives because they do not want to satisfy our curiosity, but rather to lead us to faith. They do not clarify the abyss of darkness of the drama of Judas; they reveal the unfathomable and incomprehensible depth of God’s love.

The Ivy Bush: Christian Peace Witness includes reflections on the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq as well as a link to the video that is available online through the National Cathedral.

Nonviolence music video

... nonviolent actions in places including India, Nashville, Birmingham, Serbia, and others... we must meet physcial force with soul force... love and prayers, steve

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq

Video from Ken Butigan of Pace E Bene during civil disobedience in front of the White House.

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
Friday, March 16, 2007

It was a long but joyous day on Friday with facilitating Nonviolence Direct Action trainings with Janet Chisholm and Kolya Braun-Greiner for those participating in the worship, as well as, for those discerning a call to civil disobedience. In the morning at St. Mark's Capitol Hill (rain); in the afternoon at Epiphany downtown (sleet); the National Cathedral (snow) where I was honored to have participated in the procession as the Episcopal Peace Fellowship representative and by the seating in the north transept immediately adjacent to the speaker's platform. To have an opportunity to be in the company of the speakers especially Celeste Zappala of Philadelphia (whose son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was killed in Iraq), Pastor Raphael G. Warnock (Senior Pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, spiritual home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), and Jim Wallis (Call to Renewal and Sojourners) was moving and inspiring.

Janet and I, and others, were part of an Affinity Group that provided support for a friend from Nova Scotia who was arrested. Heather was one of 325 that offered themselves for civil disobedience by praying at the fence in front of the White House that evening.

All topped off with a gathering of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship at St. Alban's on Saturday.

For more coverage check out articles by the Washington Post,
United Press International, and the DC local Fox 5 news coverage (brief glimpse of me at 2:05)

Priests to Purify Site After Bush Visit
Washington Post, AP
March 9, 2007

Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday. "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030900076.html

Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

From Louie Crew's Do Justice site

Posted by permission

St. Thomas’ Parish, Washington, DCMarch 11, 2007Readings: Exodus 3:1-15. Psalm 63:1-8. Luke 13:1-9. 1 Cor 10:1-13

Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

I AM THAT I AM has sent me.

We stand on holy ground. This parish is a holy place.

I am a native of Alabama and was brought up in a devout Baptist family. As young teacher on my first job, I fled the Baptist church and was confirmed at St. Peters in Rome, [Georgia ] on October 29, 1961, and two years later I fled life behind the “Cotton Curtain” and moved to St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, Delaware. For me St. Andrew’s was a splendid closet in which I could hide from myself except in the far reaches of the night. I buried myself in the task that I loved best, teaching. For cabin fever, I would visit Octavio, a close classmate from Baylor, who worked at Walter Reed and lived on 17th Street, a minute’s walk from this parish. On many a visit I came here to St. Thomas’ to pray.

St. Thomas’ is holy ground for me. I rejoice that it is holy ground for you too, in all of your rich diversity.

Later I attended Eucharists many times while Integrity met here. Again and again I have reconnected here with many people important to my own spiritual journey. Yall have a splendid history of welcoming gay and lesbian people and everyone else as well.

This neighborhood is holy ground.

I discovered that long before I founded Integrity, or even imagined that the liberation to which God called Moses could prefigure the liberation to which God would call me, you, and so many others before us in this place.

The cry of the lesbians, gays, and transgendered has now come to me; I have also seen how the Church oppresses them. So come, I will send you to the Episcopal Church to bring my people, the Lesbians, gays and transgendered, out of their captivity." But then we said to God, "Who are we that we should go for you?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when the people have come out of oppression, you shall worship God in this holy place."

When I first visited St. Thomas’, I was deeply closeted and told no one what I knew about my body chemistry or my heart. I vividly remember on one visit riding out to the National Cathedral on a bus on a very hot day in late spring. Many on the sidewalks had removed their shirts. The traffic was slow, and at one light the bus waited for several minutes. I stared uncontrollably at a man just standing by the bus no more than a foot from my window. I was glad that my friend Octavio was at my back and could not see my eyes. Then Octavio whispered to me, “Isn’t he gorgeous!?”

I turned in complete surprise. “You too?!” I asked. He smiled from ear to ear, his eyes sparkled, and he shook his head up and down.

Do you see the enormity of it! Octavio and I had been close friends for almost 10 years, yet so oppressive was the hetero dictatorship in our minds, that we dared not even share with each other the beautiful innocence of who we were.

That was 45 years ago, but almost any day now the legislature in Nigeria is expected to pass a law that not only will prohibit lesbian and gay marriage, but will also give harsh prison sentences to any gays who associate with each other in public (Look out a bus and whisper ’Isn’t he gorgeous!’ Hold hands? ) and will also punish any heterosexuals who advocate for such gay rights. Last week Time Magazine and The New York Times have joined many newspapers worldwide in condemning this proposal and in pointing a finger at Peter K. Akinola, Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, who is one of the loudest in promoting the new law and in condemning the Episcopal Church.

The old English word hāl gives us three words in modern English: whole, hale [healthy] and holy. They still are one entity. You cannot be whole if you are not healthy. You cannot be holy if you cannot integrate body and soul, mind and spirit.

We stand on holy ground. We stand in a place safe enough to be whole, to be hale, to be holy.

I hope that you are having a good Lent. It is a penitential season. Throughout Lent we look closely at our sins and strive to repent. Rethink! Rethink! The Kingdom of God is very near you. Rethink! gets closer to the opportunity Lent provides than does Repent! Repent! too easily is received as “Feel guilty!“ God does not want us to grovel: God wants us to use our minds and when necessary, to change them.

I learned an important lesson from the Baptists about the dangers of reviewing my sins: namely, don‘t take someone else‘s word for what your sins are. When I arrived as a freshman at Baylor in 1954, I already knew that it was sinful to cuss, smoke, drink, chew, and beat your wife, but imagine my surprise when Texas Baptists talked about “the sin of mixed bathing”! Do men and women here in Texas actually take a bath together? I wondered in Alabama horror!

Baylor did not allow dances: instead, they renamed them as “functions.” Baylor did not allow fraternities and sororities, but instead, named them “social clubs.”The huge amount of time we consumed in sustaining these hypocrisies distracted us from looking at the sins of segregation and racism, of which we were all the silent, uncritical beneficiaries. Our missionaries to Africa could not even get their own graduates admitted to Baylor. It was not until after I graduated that a strong black tackle from the University of Texas scared the beJesus out of Baylor and prompted it to integrate.

Our beloved Presiding Bishop has invited us all to spend this Lent in a time of deep reflection about the place of the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion. I join her in that appeal, with a strong caveat that we not accept uncritically what the Lambeth Conference, the Windsor Report, and the Primates Meetings have told us to be our sins. Octavio and I were not sinning to look out the window of that bus and, like God, to call creation “good.” On the rooftop in Joppa, Peter heard correctly what he had not expected to hear, “Call nothing, [call no one] unclean that I have made!”

As many of you know, the primates of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion have issued an ultimatum that come September the bishops of the Episcopal Church must assure them that they will no longer consent to the consecration of lesbian or gay bishops and will also not allow the blessing of any more lesbian and gay unions.

Yet, the primates have no juridical authority to make such demands. The provinces of the Communion are autonomous -- interdependent we believe, but autonomous. The word autonomy loses all its meaning in the primates’ demands.

Suppose a president of the US (any one of them, this is not a partisan illustration) were to say to the Senate, “The House of Representatives is too cantankerous for me to bother with. Since both Houses must agree on any legislation before it becomes law, I will deal with them no longer, but only with you; and I expect you to vote down anything of which I disapprove.”

That’s the power play the primates are trying, to have only our bishops decide for the church, and unless enough leaders are vigilant, they just may get away with it. It doesn’t occur to most people in the pews that a bishop might be a sinner, that a bishop might grab power.

I believe that our sin is indeed driving this conflict -- not the sin being talked about, but the one we keep hidden: the sin of colonialism with its attendant racism is visiting itself upon us unto the third and fourth generation. Lesbians and gays are but scapegoats, a convenient issue that presents itself to those whom we have systemically devalued and abused for centuries flex their muscles as for the first time, their bishops have become a majority of the Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Communion is the accidental byproduct of British colonial rule, and in time, a byproduct of American colonialism as well. The New York Historical Society has for several years now mounted a series of exhibits about slavery in New York City. The “stock” at the original New York stock market was human stock: it was the slave market. Much of the wealth and power of this country, of this city, and of the Episcopal Church, derives from the fortunes made, directly and indirectly, by slavery and by the continued economic subjugation of descendents of slaves.

During this Lent, take a tour of neighborhoods you don’t normally visit in this marvelous capitol and ask yourself, “Of what I see here, how much is part of the continuing legacy of slavery?”

The cure for sin is not guilt -- the gift that keeps on giving -- but rethinking and right action.

Ask yourself what you can do to reverse the legacy of slavery? For example, you might organize a diocesan task on Reparations. You might ask John Johnson how you can become more involved in supporting the Millennium Development Goals (the MDGs). If you have not already done so, calculate .7% of your own annual income and send it to Episcopal Relief and Development earmarked for microeconomic projects in the world’s poorest nations, or earmarked for work with bringing black people back to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

My friend Alex Baumgarten, John’s colleague in our Washington Officeis has warned me that even in individual responses to MDGs we may make ourselves feel better and yet still miss out on an opportunity to have a bigger impact in eradicating economic injustice. .7% from every Episcopalian, if given, would be fine, but only a drop in the bucket to the amounts that Episcopalians can hope to raise for MDGs if we pressure our government to make a similar contributions to the economies of the poorest nations, whose resources corporate and individual American interests have too often exploited.

And hear the words of today’s Gospel writ in our own context:

"Do you think that because these poorest nations suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all us Americans? No, I tell you; but unless we rethink, we will all become as endangered as they are. Or those 2,600 who were killed when the World Trade Center fell on them or the 174 who were killed here in Washington--do you think that they were singled out as offenders? No, I tell you; but unless we rethink our foreign policy, unless we can see God’s image in every Muslim, in every dispossessed person, in every “enemy,” and love our enemies as we love ourselves, many more of us will perish just as they did."

Asked whether he believed in infant Baptism, Mark Twain replied: I not only believe in it: I have seen it happen.

When Ernest Clay and I married thirty-three years ago, I wrote my parents and told them about him. They wrote back saying they were happy for us but asked me not to bring him home to visit. “We are old,” they said, “and while most of our friends would remain our friends, we don’t want to put them to the test. We have to live here, and you don’t. But we hope you will continue to come to visit us on your own.”

I showed the letter to Ernest. He smiled when he had finished, but said nothing.

“Well, get your things. We’re driving to see them. It’s only 250 miles and we’ll be there before bed time.”

“Didn’t you read the letter?” he asked.

“They wrote that only because they don’t know you yet. When Dad sees how gentle you are, just like Mother, he will fall in love with you; and when Mother sees….”

“Louie, you’re going to see them, but I am not. I respect their wishes. They have a right to their quiet retirement.”

And you’re going to see them, because if you don’t, something very important in you will die. You are able to love me because they loved you. In that way, I get the best of both worlds: I have a good husband and I don’t have to spend time with my in-laws.”

“But….,”

“No but’s about it,” he said. I sulked, but I went.

After several visits, my father said, “Son, I don’t want to hurt you but I probably will because I don’t know how to talk about it except as a man of my generation, a son of one of the poorest counties in Alabama.

“I don’t understand how flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood could live with a black man as with an equal. At first I thought you might have chosen a black man so that you could feel superior, and I knew that could not be healthy for either of you. Then I feared you might think yourself as inferior because of being gay, and therefore chose a black man. Yet I have listened and listened and I have found no evidence that either has happened.

“And Son, something about you has changed. I loved you before you were ever born. I remember seeing you in the maternity ward with one foot out from under the cover the way I sleep, the way your grandfather slept, the way your great grandfather slept. I remember my joy the first time that I heard in your laugh your mother’s laugh. But son, up until now, something about you has always been incomplete. That’s not so anymore. I am not ready yet to meet Ernest, but you must go home and tell him that I love him, because he has given my son back to me whole.”

We often were amused that neither set of parents could recognize us when we answered the phone. Apparently we have the same answering style. Six years into our marriage, I answered and Dad said, “I’d like to speak to my son, please.”

“Dad,” I am your son, I laughed.

“No, Louie, I want to speak to my other son.”

This one’s for you, I whispered.

He told Ernest, “We are Christians, but we have not behaved like Christians. Will you forgive us, and will you and Louie come spend this weekend with us. We have invited all our friends to come and meet you.”

I believe in the Holy Spirit. I have seen the Holy Spirit happen.

As late as 1979 the General Convention held the view of gay people stated in Lambeth 1.10, in the Windsor Report and in the primates’ recent communique. If the Holy Spirit has needed almost 30 years to change our hearts, cannot we love those in the rest of the Communion enough for the Holy Spirit to work on their hearts?

I believe in the Holy Spirit. Amen.

--Posted by Ann to Walking With Integrity at 3/12/2007 04:49:00 PM

Quiz: Which theologian are you?

I scored as Jürgen Moltmann. The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about. Jürgen Moltmann 73% Charles Finney 73% Anselm 67% Martin Luther 67% Augustine 67% Friedrich Schleiermacher 67% John Calvin 60% Karl Barth 47% Paul Tillich 47% Jonathan Edwards 27% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com