Jerusalem, Jerusalem -- Sightings

Jerusalem has, like Babylon and Rome and other cities of the ancient world, has long been a metaphor as well as a place in time and space.  Martin Marty shares his response to a new book by James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword, that wrestles with Jerusalem the city and Jerusalem the metaphor, bringing into the conversation Rene Girard's scape-goating theory, in which it is suggested that violence is sometimes tamed by violence -- a perspective that has been used to understand the cross by some theologians.  I invite you to consider Marty's reflections, even as we watch news of military attempts to tame the violence of a petty dictator.  

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Sightings 3/21/2011

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

-- Martin E. Marty

Jerusalem, Jerusalem is not about Jerusalem the city. Guidebooks abound and histories are plentiful. What author James Carroll was moved to write is a reflection that deals with Jerusalem both as real and as metaphor. He does not exactly do justice to or make much of his subtitle: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World, but his reflections will ignite at least sparks in the minds of readers who want to ponder with him the question: what is it about religion, with all the solace-bringing good its various forms can bring, that also prompts and promotes violence of most barbaric sorts?

I was one of a half dozen respondents to the book at a program at Brandeis University in Boston last Monday. Our panel featured the requisite Jewish, Muslim, and Christian participants—two of each—who could have finished off the guidebook/history approach quite easily. Dealing with Carroll’s chosen plot, however, was demanding. Those of us who count the author a friend, interact with him on occasion—as I do at programs of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute in Grand Rapids—or argued with him over details of his earlier and provocative Constantine’s Sword expect more of him than one more guidebook or history. While his early reviews tend to be positive, some have criticized him for his choice of approach. Thus Damon Linker in the New York Times chides him for using Jersualem in ways which Linker calls “messy.”

Carroll does not pretend to be objective or dispassionate, though he does not side with Christians or Jews or Muslims in the many forms with which they have dispensed violence or told stories about it. So depressing are many of the expressions of Jerusalemitis, that puzzling, disorienting, and often apocalyptic fever which afflicts or is emitted by so many Jerusalemites through the ages, that some of us panelists pondered: what hope is there in dealings with militant people who successively or, worse, concurrently inhabit the sacred and bloody hills. Carroll, metaphorically taking off from Jerusalem’s mountains (as Jesus and Muhammad “really” did, in some cherished texts), was apocalyptic as he envisioned where sacred violence might lead, but let a glimmer of hope shine on the city. People work at peacemaking, he implied, because despite all the warring and bloodshed, “people” overall would prefer peace and more quiet lives.

That kind of warning and dreaming will get you quite far. Carroll is inspired by René Girard’s influential “scapegoat” theory. It suggests, as Linker summarizes, “that human society and culture are shot through with bloodshed that can be tamed only by further acts of bloodshed. The pre-eminent example of violence taming violence, he says, is religion, which arose out of the practice of human sacrifice—a ritual that enabled a community to channel and purge its primitive impulses in a single cathartic act of collective bloodletting.” One need not buy into all details of the Girard speculations to follow Carroll’s theories, which at times sound like cautions against religion and at others as advertisements for some of its forms.

Unfortunately for his own peace and quiet, Carroll writes a weekly column in the Boston Globe. He said something critical of Israel’s recent treatment of Palestinian families on disputed property in eastern Jerusalem. The response from several Israeli voices was instant, vehement, and verbally violent. Whatever else such columns do, they show that violence is still at hand and poised. Monsieur Girard: after the escalations of violence, is there a scapegoat?

References

Damon Linker, “Grappling with Religion and Violence,” New York Times, March 20, 2011.

“Speaking of Faith: Inter-Religious Dialogue in the 21st Century,” Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Grand Valley State University.

Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at http://www.illuminos.com/.

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This month’s Religion and Culture Web Forum is written by D. Max Moerman and entitled “The Death of the Dharma: Buddhist Sutra Burials in Early Medieval Japan.” In eleventh-century Japan, Buddhists fearing the arrival of the "Final Dharma"--an age of religious decline--began to bury sutras in sometimes-elaborate reliquaries. Why entomb a text, making it impossible for anyone to see or read it? And what do such practices teach us about the meaning and purpose of texts in Buddhism and other religions? Max Moerman of Barnard College takes up these questions with responses from Jeff Wilson (Renison University College), James W. Watts (Syracuse University) and Vincent Wimbush (Claremont Graduate University).

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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

The End of the Age

Some people of faith who believe in the prophetic teachings of the Bible look around at the obviousness of increased dramatic weather and natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes in recent years, at the increase in warring conflicts and tensions around the world, at the incredible pace of technological advancement and grow concerned.

I for one believe that their concern is not unfounded.

As Jesus Christ wound down his final days on earth that would culminate with his final teachings and his ultimate sacrifice, he stopped to rest on a hill east of the city known to many as the Mount of Olives.

Christ and his followers had come to Jerusalem for the Passover festivities, and during his first visit to the city he had been questioned by the scribes and Pharisees at the temple. When they left, Jesus pointed the temple buildings out to his followers and stated that "there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

This got some of the disciples to thinking about Jesus' promise that he would come back to the world at the end of the ages, and one of them asked him directly as to "What sign there will be of your coming?"

For all of the studies that many have undertaken of books such as 'Daniel' and 'Revelation' in the Bible, worthy studies of valid information supplied to mankind by a loving and just God who wants us to be prepared and who hides very little from those who seek knowledge, it is Jesus' own reply to the disciple's question at the Mount of Olives that yields the most direct answer as to when the world as we know it will come to an end.

He begins by stating that we need to be on our guard against false prophets and those who would lead us astray with spiritual abominations: "they will deceive many."

How many times in recent years have we heard news stories of men claiming to be the Messiah, only to lead their followers into personal destruction? Men such as Jim Jones in Guyana and David Koresh in Texas are only among the most public such false prophets.

Jesus then goes on to say that "You will hear of wars and reports of wars" but cautions that these will not yet mark the end. For the past thirty years the world has been moving steadily towards an all-out Holy War involving the Islamofascists, the Christian-leaning western nations led by the U.S., and the Jewish state of Israel.

We all know what happened on 9/11 and in it's aftermath in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are all just battles in an ever-expanding war. Jesus follows up his war prediction by saying that "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." The twin World Wars of the 20th century were just a prelude to what is surely to come.

"There will be famines and earthquakes from place to place", our Lord and Savior continued. The earthquake in Chile on February 27th was the 7th largest ever recorded, and the earthquake in Hait on January 12th was the 4th deadliest ever. As we all remember well from December of 2004, Indonesia experienced a 9.3 magnitude earthquake that was the 2nd largest ever recorded and which led to the massive deaths caused by the tsunami in it's immediate aftermath. The four largest magnitude earthquakes of all-time have all occurred in the last half century.

That's just the earthquake half of Christ's signs. Famine is a major problem all around the world from the American hills of Appalachia to the jungles of Africa and everywhere in between. In most of the world, the famine problem is exacerbated by unsettled political disputes and by misguided charitable efforts. The 'USA for Africa' efforts highlighted by the "We Are the World" song and the 'Live Aid' concerts of the mid-1980's being a perfect example. Tons of money raised, no dent in the problem whatsoever.

Christ called the wars, famines, and natural disasters "the beginning of labor pains" for our world as it struggled towards the end times. Perhaps the most frightening time for Christians all over the world is to come in his next prediction.

"Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name." Jesus speaks here of a time when Christians will be directly blamed for many of the world's problems. You can see it happening in some places even now.

The clarity of a religious element in world disputes will become so great and obvious that people are led to hate religion, turn away from it completely, and ban it's influence. A time will come for those alive at the end when they may literally have to lay down their lives for their belief in Jesus Christ.

"And then many will be led into sin; they will betray and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and deceive many; and because of the increase in evildoing, the love of many will grow cold." Christ speaks now of a systematic effort to tear down morals, to eliminate God from our societies, and to encourage brothers to turn against brothers, sons against mothers, fathers against daughters, neighbors against neighbors as mankind degenerates into baseless selfish depravity.

But just as things appear to be reaching their worst, just as wars rage all around us, as natural disasters pile on top of one another, as religious persecution grows and society decays to the point where all appears hopeless despite the ruinous failed promises of false prophets and self-serving political leaders, all will not be lost.

Here is where Christ promises that "the one who perseveres to the end will be saved." He tells us that "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations." Here lies the single most key element in our gaining any ability to predict a time when it is even possible for the end times to arrive.

Never before in the history of our planet has the Word of God, the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ, been spread to every people in every corner of the globe. From the farthest reaches of the highest mountain peaks in Asia to the deepest jungle depths of South American and Africa, missionaries have now travelled and spread the Word. And the internet has opened up and made regularly available these teachings to billions of people at the click of a button.

So Jesus himself tells us that only then, when all men have had the opportunity to hear his Word and make a reasoned choice as to whether or not to accept him as their personal Savior, only "then the end will come." He goes on to say that the very end times will be marked by overt, outright religious and spiritual deception aimed squarely at the loss of human souls to evil over good.

"When you see the desolating abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place" this will mark a time when those who are God-fearing should be prepared for a time "such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be." Ouch, for sure, but what is that "abomination" and where is the "holy place" so that we may know it when we see it happening?

Following Christ's clue and going to 'Daniel' and then further on to the writings of Paul we find the answer. The abomination is the presence of the Anti-Christ himself. A man who will set himself up at some point as a Christ-like messianic figure, but who will in fact be the ultimate false prophet in Satan's service. The holy place to which he will come will be a restored and rebuilt Jewish temple in Israel at Jerusalem.

As those with a knowledge of the history of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem know, the temple has been built and destroyed twice. It is the rebuilding of the temple for the third time which will start the actual countdown clock towards the true end times. The world of God has been spread to all corners of the earth. Now the temple need only be rebuilt for all the pieces to be in place.

Of course, that building of the third temple is no simple task. It must be built on the same site as the previous two temples, and that site is now occupied by the the mosque which Islamists consider their third holiest site on earth. The struggles that are going on right at this moment in Jerusalem as to the control of the city go right to the heart of this matter. There are already plans being made to rebuild the temple. Should any effort be made to actually make that happen, the religious and military ramifications would be staggering to an area which is already a powder keg.

Christ says that the temple will indeed be rebuilt, and that in those days ever more false prophets will emerge who will perform wondrous miracles and will pass themselves off as messiahs or his direct representatives. These miracles will be so great, the Lord says, "as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect", our holiest, wisest, and most legitimate religious leaders. He cautions us to not believe our very eyes, to not be fooled by these wonder-makers.

It is after this period, after all have had the opportunity to choose Christ or turn their backs on him, after the Jewish temple has been rebuilt and taken over by the Anti-Christ, after massive amounts of people have been deceived by this Anti-Christ who has passed himself off as a savior from the many wars and natural disasters and famines, it is then that it will all end.

In Christ's own words, the very end comes this way: "The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."

No more dramatic words have ever been spoken upon the earth by anyone than those spoken by Jesus Christ in describing his return. Christ tells the disciples that "when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the gates." He further teaches that "of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." He reveals that even he could not give the disciples a day, a year, an age when it would actually happen at that point, that God the Father in Heaven reserved that knowledge.

The point that Christ makes, he makes in closing this particular teaching in answering the disciples initial question on when his return would happen. "Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come...be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

While it may indeed be true that none of us knows exactly when Jesus Christ will return to earth to rule over his people in peace, we can pay heed to the clues and the outright answers that he gave his disciples on the Mount of Olives in one of his final lessons if we wish to discern whether or not we ourselves might be moving towards and even living at the very end of the age.

The First Pentecost

The Greek traveler stood bewildered in the Jerusalem crowd. What was happening? All about him Jews from many nations milled excitedly and pointed to a group in the center of the square.

The traveler had heard that the Jerusalem holidays were exciting, but he was not prepared for this. The crowd was electrified. What was that group up to? He tried to weave his way closer.

"You are drunk!" someone shouted at the group.

The traveler heard one of them, the big man with the gray-streaked hair, respond: "We are not drunk. We are stunned with joy because we have had an experience like Israel had at Sinai."

The Greek traveler wondered what he meant by that.

"Why not own up?" heckled another. "You've been to the wine bottle once too often."

Then the big man raised his hand for silence. The crowd fell quiet.

"Do not judge by appearances," he began. "Listen to our words. At Sinai, God called Israel to be a community of faith. God called our ancestors there to be a holy nation. That meant they should form a community that would worship God and live a worthy life. God also summoned them to be the light of nations, that is, to be a missionary witness helping all people to know God."

"I think I can agree with your first point," ventured a Pharisee in the crowd, "but I don't really believe God wanted us to be missionaries."

"My friend, you have forgotten the meaning of the story of Jonah," the big man remarked. "He was a preacher told by God to go on a missionary trip to Nineveh. Recall that Jonah resisted the call at first until God overcame him. Jonah was an example of how Israel, too, resisted the call."

"Who is that man?" the traveler asked of no one in particular.

"His name is Peter," a tradesman replied.

"He is their leader," said a woman nearby.

A young woman in the crowd, moved by Peter's sincerity, asked, "How is it you were speaking in a language we all could understand when you burst upon us here in the square? How did you manage to unify all of us who speak so many different tongues?"

"Perhaps I can explain this best to you," Peter answered, "by comparing this to the old story of the Tower of Babel. That was a tower of human pride that resulted in a breakdown in communications. The people at Babel could not understand each other.

"Our Master, Jesus, asked us to spend time in prayer to await his Holy Spirit. We followed his word and meditated for nine days in the Upper Room. Into that tower of prayer this day came the Holy Spirit, whose greatest work is to bring all people to unity in Christ. At Babel, people babbled. Here we speak a message that will unify people in mind and heart."

"Is that why you said you've had an experience like that which Israel had at Sinai?" asked an elderly man.

"Exactly," replied Peter. "The difference is that what happened at Sinai was but a shadow of the promise and reality that has happened here today. It is because of Jesus, who died and rose for us, that it has happened. Because of him and his Spirit, we really can be a community of faith and a light for the nations."

"How can we have this experience?"

"Is there any hope for us?"

"Go on, tell us more."

"As I look out over the vast crowd in this square," answered Peter, "I think of a world full of dead bones. I know that my comrades and I must go into this valley of the dead and bring life. Don't you remember the story of Ezekiel and the dry bones?"

[God] said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "Lord GOD, you know."

Then he said to me: "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!…I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin,...and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD."

The traveler listened to Peter's voice as it carried over the square. It is like a wind, he thought, bearing good news to the world.

On that Pentecost day, Peter asked the people to repent, to change their way of life, to seek a new life in Christ. And they did respond. The Holy Spirit of Jesus moved into the valley of dry bones and brought three thousand to life.

A new Church began!

"Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams," Peter exclaimed.

That's what happened. The young let loose a flood of heart-expanding ideals across the earth. The old suddenly realized that their dreams of a happier tomorrow were no longer foolish thoughts, but a reality come true.

WRITTEN by Alfred McBride, O.Praem. and posted at AmericanCatholic.org on May 31st, 2009

The Place of the Skull

Golgotha is a real place, once a hill in Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross and died for our sins. Be it in Latin, Greek, or Aramaic, the word or term that we know today as 'Golgotha' means 'the place of the skull'. That is also how it was described in all four of the Biblical Gospels. There are many important places in human history where events have taken place that have shaped humanity. There are none more important than Golgotha, for it was here that Jesus died so that you and I, and indeed the entire human race, might have the chance at eternal salvation. Jesus had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, had to endure six separate hearings or trials in one overnight and morning period, been beaten, whipped, and mocked, and had a crown of thorns embedded into his forehead. The Romans had hoped that this unmerciful treatment would satisfy the Jewish leaders' appetite for Jesus' blood, but it did no good. Their cry continued to be "Crucify him!" And so that is what Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor over Judea, ordered to be done. It is very hard to imagine how we can now refer to the remembrance of these events as 'Good Friday', for there was nothing good about the way that Christ was treated. With his back, arms, and legs scarred and bleeding from the beating, he was forced in the morning sun to carry his own cross up the rugged embankments of the hill known as Golgotha. When he reached the exact place that the execution was to take place, his hands and feet were tied and then nailed to the cross. His cross was then raised up and placed into a holding 'ring' which had been struck into the stone for support. Here hung the Son of God, who had come down to Earth as man to achieve this very purpose, in the hot baking sun for three hours. Then at noon the sky went suddenly dark. As Jesus hung on the cross during this period of darkness, God withdrew Himself, and Christ bore the full weight of the sins of all mankind, you and I and all men throughout history, utterly alone. At approximately 3:00pm, Christ uttered his final words: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." He breathed his last and gave up his spirit. A great earthquake rocked the land as tombs were split open and the Temple veil was torn from top to bottom. Taking in this dramatic site, a stunned and awed Roman centurion stated "Truly this was God's son!" His body was then taken down and away by Joseph of Arimathea, to be prepared for burial in a nearby tomb belonging to Joseph's family. The place where Christ was crucified and buried now lies fully within the boundaries of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The church was built by the Roman emperor Constantine, who had converted to Christianity in the 4th century and whose mother, Helena, had researched and discovered the exact site of Christ's crucifixion, which had occurred some three hundred years earlier. Sometimes called by the gentler name of 'Calvary', it is a menacing name, Golgotha, "the place of the skull", and it was the site of one of the most important events in human history. We should recall those events today with awe, with acknowledgement of the guilt that we all share in creating them, and with thanks for the sacrifice made by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. NOTE: As always, the title of this article is a link to further information, this time to a site devoted to information and pictures of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Conquering Fear

Just one week until Palm Sunday, and just two until the glory of Easter Sunday. For those Christians who go to church next weekend and receive their palm branches, do you know what it is that they are supposed to help you recall and what they represent? The palm branches are representative of those waved by the adoring crowds at Jesus Christ during his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem in the days prior to his arrest, persecution, sacrificial death, and His rising from the tomb. Before any of these events had taken place, there was a true sense of excitement and urgency among many of the people as the sacred occassion of the Passover approached. The Passover itself is the perhaps the single most important event on the Jewish calendar. It is a rememberance of the night that God struck down the first-born of Egypt in a show of power that led directly to the deliverance of the Jewish people out of the bondage of centuries of slavery. As the angel of death moved about the nation taking the lives of those Egyptian first-born, it passed over those houses whose doors were marked with blood, a sign that God had told Moses to pass along among his chosen people so that they might be distinguished and saved. It became a great custom among the Jews to travel to the great city of Jerusalem in order to celebrate this day, and in fact an entire great festival had been set up around the feast. As the time came, many wondered whether Christ would even show up in Jerusalem at all. It was well known among the people that the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, that person should inform them, so that they could place Jesus under arrest. Jesus had been involved in his public ministry for a couple of years at this point, and his teachings and reputation had grown so strong among the people that the traditional Jewish leaders felt severely threatened. There was talk that Jesus was going to become a king, and was going to establish a new kingdom, something directly threatening to the power of the Jewish leaders, but which would also possibly bring the wrath of the Roman empire down on them should these events leak out. The Jewish leaders wanted greatly to eliminate the threat which they believed Jesus was becoming, either by debunking him or, if necessary, killing him. The final straw came when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, a feat that overwhelmed even those who had already seen Christ perform any number of miracles in the previous months. The scribes and Pharisees saw the swelling numbers and the passion of his following, and plotted to eliminate him as a threat. This word reached Jesus and his disciples, and they went 'underground', no longer moving about in public. So as the Passover feast arrived, the people wondered whether Jesus and his followers would indeed challenge the authorities and come out in public. They got their answer in a big way. Not only did Jesus arrive at Jerusalem, but he arrived in the manner that had been foretold for centuries by the prophets, entering the city while riding on an ass and through the city gate that had also been prophesied. The great crowd which had already begun gathering for the Passover celebrations heard that Jesus was arriving, and they rushed out to meet him, waving palm branches as he passed them. The palm branch was the traditional item used to hail the arrival of a conquering hero from a triumphant battle, and this was how many of the people were beginning to view Jesus. His message of love and peace was taking root. His message of conquering fear and even death itself was spreading like wildfire. The Bible says that one of the Pharisees on seeing this outbreak of affection said to the others "You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him." This is how large and emotional and affectionate the crowds were as they jubilantly waved their palm branches at him and shouted among one another "Hosanna!" which meant "Oh Lord, grant salvation!", a true sign of how they viewed Jesus. Just after Christ entered into the city a group of Greeks came wishing an audience with him, and to them he spoke plainly: "Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." The message was clear to all. Jesus was a wanted man in the eyes of the authorities, a threat to their rule, and perhaps a threat to the entire Jewish nation if the Romans found out about his coming 'new kingdom'. But he entered into the great city not through a back door, but through the front gates in a manner indicating that he was the Messiah, the promised Savior, the coming new king. He entered publicly, and on entering he proclaimed that the current ruler would be driven out. He showed no fear. He had conquered fear, he had raised a man from the dead, and in just a matter of days he would rise and conquer death itself. Many among even the ranks of the authorities began to believe in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not acknowledge it openly for fear of being expelled from the synagogue. They preferred human praise to the glory of God. It is the overcoming of this worldly fear that Jesus Christ showed in his triumphant entry in Jerusalem. It is the overcoming of this fear to which he calls us all. You should not fear shame in publicly declaring your Christianity, in publicly celebrating your belief, and in publicly calling others to salvation in Christ. Conquer your fear as Christ conquered it, directly and loudly and openly, and envision the palms waving around you in triumph as you receive them next weekend.