The Jesus Year: What did you achieve by the time you were thirty-three?

At the age of thirty Jesus started his ministry; three years later he saved all of humanity.  Turning thirty-three is your “Jesus Year”, and it’s a tough act to foll.  When I turned thirty I made it a plan to top Jesus in three years time.  Two years later I was no further than I was when I put myself on this quest, but finally six-months away from the deadline I achieved my goal.

Did you save anyone from eternal damnation, you might ask.

No, I did not.  That’s been done, but there’s more than one way to measure success.  I recently started working for CUNY, a city school, so I’m being paid by the mayor.  More specifically, I’m being paid by the taxpayers of New York City, of which I am one…so, basically I’m working for myself.  I’m self-employed!

…and Jesus?

Well, he worked for his dad his whole life.

I apologize for my lack of post last week, it was a really crazy week…

To make up for it, I’ll post a two-parter today. Feel free to come back and read the second half on Thursday to spread out the entertainment.

If you’re not even going to read the first post, here’s the interesting blog-stat of the month:

I really like it when people search the internet for advice (instead of pictures of Brad Pitt and Christina Ricci) and find my blog. For example, yesterday:

• Someone searched for “i don’t support remembrance day” and read my Why I Don’t Condone a Remembrance Day.
• Someone searched for “saw vi script” and read my Leaked! Check out a preview of the “Saw VI”.
• Someone searched for “tasted foie gras” and read my Foie Gras: How can it be bad if it tastes so good?

I’m not really sure what kind of advice this earcher was looking for, but a search for “when can you hit someone?” led them to my blog.  Whoever you are, I hope my blog helped you with your question.

If you are interested in The Problems of Interpreting the Author’s Intent read on….I’ll save the religious argument for second, so we’ll start wit:

“The problem of Interpretation: This Land is Your Land”

Who has ever had to sing “God Bless America” and “This Land is Your Land” at a school assembly to celebrate how great America is?  (…or since I have music teachers who read my blog, how many of you have made your students sing it?)  Much like Bruce Springsteen’s oft misunderstood “Born in the USA” (He must have been secretly pleased when Bob Dole and Ronald Regan chose it as their campaign song since it’s actually a critique of how are veterans are treated after returning home from war.), Woody Guthry’s anthem also has an ironic subtext:

We all know that redwood forests and the gulf stream waters were made for you and me (not to mention the sparkling sands of her diamond desert), but did anyone ever notice that the song mysteriously ends when the fog lifts at the end of this national journey?  Although usually when “the fog lifts” an illusion disappears and reality is seen more clearly, but in this song after the fog lifts most patriotic singers return immediately to the first verse.  Like a joke without a punchline this question begs to be answered.  Like a chicken trying to cross a road, there are many ways to answer that question.  So why did Woody Guthrie cross this land?  Obviously to get to the other side…but what did he find when he got there?  There are four answers to this question, written by Guthrie but probably never sung by a middle school chorus:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

Sometimes instead of a wall, it was just a sign:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

The above version was originally followed by a bonus verse:

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

…and perhaps the most direct answer to what Guthrie found out about this beautiful land when the fog lifted:

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I’d seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

Interesting that Woody’s actually saying that although this land appears to be made for you and me, in practice it doesn’t work out that way.

“The problem of Translation: The Second Commandment”

Translation always seems to be a pretty straight-forward task.  Take a word in one language and put in a word with the same meaning from another language.  Of course you have to understand idioms and slang, but still these words have meanings and if you understand the meanings, how different could two translations be?  Take the old testamen, ftor example.  The ten commandments are written in Hebrew, but even if you translate “Ratsakh teer lo.” as “Thou Shalt not kill.” or “Do not commit murder.”, it still pretty much means the same thing…well, most of the time.  If you’re going to use the commandments to condemn war, you’re out of luck since Jewish sages note that the word “ratsakh” applies only to illegal killing (e.g., premeditated murder or manslaughter) — and is never used in the administration of justice or for killing in war.  I personally am against killing for any reason, even war, but that’s not what Yahweh was talking about in the ten commandments.

…but I digress.  The point is that the difference between “murder” and “kill” is a minor one.  The problem with translation is the cultural understanding of concepts…such as the significance of names.  The Hebrew word for a name is שם (shem), but “shem” is much more than just the word you use to identify one person from another.  It also means the “breath”, not as in the exchange of air in the lungs, one’s breath is the life inside you.  It the internal qualities of an individual that make him or her unique.  Shem translates most simply as name, but more completely as character.  It is not just what you are called, it is who you are.  In some cases it’s even translated as “fame” as in 1 Kings 4:31, “and his fame was in all the nations round about.”  They didn’t just know his name, they understood very clearly who he was and what he was about.

To go back to the commandments, it’s also found in “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.”  which would more correctly translate as “Do not take the character of God in vain.”

So what does it mean?  Remember that Shem not only means “character”, but also “breath”.  Going back to Genesis, God gave Adam the breath of life.  This is a highly meaningful act.  God did not just fill up Adam’s lungs.  God could have done that without breathing on him.  It was God placing within Adam a representation of himself, his character was placed within Adam. Remember that there were other people in the world at the time of the Garden of Eden.  The town of Nod, for example, was full of people with air in their lungs…but not the Shem of God.  God’s shem can’t be taken, only given by God.

Which brings us to the next important Hebrew word: נשא (nasa), which KJV translates as “take”.  Like take (“Take a number”, “Take a walk”, “Take my wife, please!”, etc.) , nasa can be used for a multitude of meanings.  It translates variously as lift, carry, accept, exalt, regard, obtain, respect, and so one and so forth.  In some way it always refers to possession.  In the context of being used with the direct object of “name”.  If one is to nasa a name, it means to “lifts it up.”  God wants his followers to lift up his shem and show this character to others, and he takes it seriously if one were to represent his character falsely.  Correctly translated “Adonai shem et sah tee lo shay’la kha hey lo e.” means is acting like the people of God or more idiomatically, “You’ve got God in you, so you’d better act like it.”

Thinking of this commandment in terms of action makes more sense than when you should or should not say God’s name since orthodox Jews never pronounce the literal name anyway.  If they already have a rule that says, “Don’t say God’s name.” why would they need a second rule that says “Don’t say God’s name in vain.”  That’s like a teacher telling her students, “Don’t cheat on tests.” and “Don’t cheat on math tests.”

Keep the Christ (and the Santa) in Christmas!

I heard a surprising (metaphorical) cry from my church this year.  It seems that someone’s upset about us singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus at Christmas.  It seems they don’t want us to focus so much on the birth of Christ, but on the true meaning of Christmas.

Can that be true?  A meaning of Christmas that isn’t Jesus?  If you take the Christ out of Christmas, you just get Mas.  Although “Merrymas!” is fun to say, it seems a little hollow when compared to THE BIRTH OF CHRIST! (That’s my godly voice, BTW.)

Well, actually Christmas isn’t a celebration of the birth of Christ.  Jesus was born in the springtime when the shepherds would be out tending their flocks.  If we were celebrating his birth, we would celebrate then.

So what are we celebrating?  Not Jesus at all?

Yes, Jesus…but we’re celebrating what he represents, not when he was born.

A winter holiday for Christians was borrowed from the Pagans. 

Some time ago, I was convinced that the appropriation of Yule from the pagans was a political move to either win pagans to Christianity or to appease the ones that were forcibly converted.  I don’t believe that anymore.  As far as the calendar goes, it makes the most literal sense to celebrate his birth in the spring.  As far as the wheel of the year goes, it makes the most symbolic sense to celebrate the coming of Jesus in the thick of winter.  It’s the celebration of Yuletide, the holiday that reminds us that in the deepest, darkest, coldest part of the year…when we might be running low on supplies and worried about whether we might actually be able to make it through, literally we might die…but…there is hope.  And hope is the reason for the season.

In the Christian tradition, Jesus is that hope. 

In both traditions Yule and Christmas are holidays to keep away despair.  Despair, after all, is not only a mortal sin but unforgivable (I John 5.16 -17).

In many ways I feel we should be celebrating that hope instead of his birth.  It’s a holiday practice in which we are supposed to banish despair!

…but we are easily distracted.

That’s the reason throughout his life he would keep telling his followers and those he healed not to go around telling anyone.  He had a lot of important thing to say, but if people stopped thinking of him as the Teacher and started thinking of him as that-guy-who-heals-lepers they’re going to miss the point.  After all, healing blind people is cool!  The beatitudes were nice, but making the lame walk?  That’s awesome!

It’s the same way with Christmas: virgin births and angelic chorus are a lot more dramatic than the simple idea of hope, so it’s easy to get distracted.

Christmas is a celebration of hope.

Hope is a rather abstract word.  In this sense it’s keeping one’s spirit up.  They “If we pull together, we’ll make it through” kind of attitude that Pagans and Christians share alike.  The best thing you can do this Christmas is to support someone in their time of need: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and visit the sick.  What could be more Christian that that? (In fact I think those are the corporal woks of mercy.  Thanks, Sr. Donald!)  It’s these things, but also the everyday things, too.  Be nice to each other.  Sing.  Take time to play!  Anything you need to do to keep your spirits up, do it!  Don’t give in to despair.  Keep your spirits up and raise the spirits of others.

So does that really mean no singing “Happy Birthday” in church?

It depends.  Does singing songs to Jesus raise your spirits?  Does it help you keep going through the year until better times come?  Does it help you remember that the birth of Jesus heralds hope for us all?  Then, YES!  Sing “Happy Birthday” in church!

Does that mean I can sing “Frosty, the Snowman”.

This is one of my favorite Christmas carols.  Snow is a scary, deadly thing.  Anyone that’s been caught in an avalanche or lost on a winter hike will tell you that there’s nothing cheery or happy about snow, but the exercise of finding joy in terror is what Christmas is all about.  YES!  Sing “Frosty the Snowman!”

What about Christmas Trees, Candy Canes, and Nutcrackers?

Do they raise your spirits?  Then, YES!  If you want to make up a neat, little story to connect them to your faith then sure…Christmas trees are always green like our hearts should always be hopefully…candy canes are shaped like the first letter of Jesus (as long as you don’t spell in in Greek or Hebrew)…nutcrackers…um…well…oh!  Even though it looks like a walnut can’t sustain you because it’s shell is too tough, he can crack through and nourish your body the way Jesus can crack through your doubt and nourish your soul.  Heck, you don’t even really need a reason to be cheerful this time of year.  If something that has nothing to do with Jesus raises your spirit, then I’m sure He would approve.  That’s why He came!

…but that doesn’t mean Santa’s okay, does it?

Of course not!  A man whose sole reason for existing is to bring joy to children?  Bah!  That sounds like it has nothing to do with Christmas!  Are you kidding?

Yes…but like with all things you must look at them through the reason for the season: Hope.

Jesus is easy.  Jesus is hope.  You don’t have to work to make that leap.  Santa’s more dangerous.  If you believe that Santa is a man that will give you everything you want as long as you’re good, then I don’t believe that has a place in Christmas.  If you believe that the world is a pretty tough and miserable place, but it’s worthwhile to dedicate yourself to making the lives of others more pleasant…then yes, Virginia, you can have a Santa Claus.

Hope, health, and happiness.

Those are the three things I wish you this Holiday season. 

If you’re pagan, keep the yule log burning…the harvest will come again.  I promise.

If you’re Christian, keep the advent candles burning…Jesus will come again.  I promise.

If you’re Jewish, keep the menorah candles burning…miracles will happen again.  I promise.

We’ve all got something we’re waiting for, and we all need hope in our lives.