August 10, 2008
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Jealous or Zealous
I’m no biblical scholar. Nonetheless, as a choir member for more than sixty years I’ve
heard lots of scripture reading, been present for lots of sermons, and sung lots of hymns,
anthems, motets, and oratorios.
Mendelssohn’s Elijah, is a favorite: soul-stirring music wedded to evocative, King James
Edition prose. And by happy chance, today’s lectionary reading from the Hebrew Bible
is about the prophet, Elijah—and what it means to be jealous or zealous..
We’ve already been treated to Conor’s powerful rendition of Elijah’s lament, “It is
Enough”. Over the next few minutes we’ll focus further on Elijah, working through some
history, some philology, some comparative religion, and some reflections on racism. Our
sequence of hymns will move from the Old Testament to the New Testament and lastly to
that very special body of hymns arising from the African American tradition. As a
celebratory treat—perhaps as a bit of relief from my layman’s message, we’ll wind up our
order of worship with some true zeal: an African American gospel hymn. Prepare to
buckle your seat belts for that!
==
Preaching from the lectionary is good discipline. Many of us will remember last Sunday,
August 3, when Rhonda really made sense of the “loaves and fishes” story: the lectionary
Gospel reading of the day. We were all inspired, but I also felt intimidated. I was on
deck for August 10, and I knew Rhonda would be one tough act to follow.
So I re-checked the lectionary. For “Year A, Season after Pentecost, Proper 14 (19),
August 10, 2008”, the Gospel story is about Jesus walking on water. No way could I
tackle that in a lay message. But here also was the Hebrew Bible text, I Kings 19:9-18.
Familiar turf. I could almost repeat the text verbatim for these were Elijah’s words in the
oratorio I knew: the very words Conor has just sung for us so stirringly.
But there was a problem. My battered score of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, given me by my
grandmother a half century ago, quotes Elijah as fervently saying, “I have been very
jealous for the Lord”. Our lectern bible, the New Revised Standard Version, reads, “I
have been very zealous for the Lord”. Jealous? Zealous? What gives?
Now, you folks over here on the left. Let’s describe you, as the King James Edition
Elijah described himself, as “jealous”. Hmm. MS Word’s thesaurus says you are either
envious, green, green-eyed, covetous, resentful, desirous, invidious or protective,
suspicious, wary, watchful, or mistrustful. You are anything but trusting.
What about you folks over here on the right. Let’s describe you as “zealous” as the New
Revised Standard Version Elijah described himself. You are either enthusiastic, keen,
passionate, fervent, fanatical, obsessive, eager, or extreme. You are certainly not
apathetic. You are zealots—and we all know about extremists like you!
Let’s forget the labels you just tried on. We can agree that words acquire new meanings
over time. These meanings often follow usage more than they guide usage. (Think of the
evolution of the words “cool” and “gay”). And sometimes words and their bring to mind
mental images that may be hard to define.
So let’s ask: what might be the average American’s mental image of a zealot? What is our
2008 stereotype of a zealot? Does he wear a turban and a beard, or does she perhaps
wear a veil and enveloping burka?
Could these be the words of such a zealot?
Say: "We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed from on high
upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and Ishmael and
Isaac and Jacob and ,their descendants, [111] and that which has been
vouchsafed to Moses and Jesus; and that which has been vouchsafed to all the
[other] prophets by their Sustainer: we make no distinction between any of
them. [112] And it is unto Him that we surrender ourselves."
These words are from the Koran, Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:136. Is the follower of this
faith a zealot?
Let’s re-examine our mental image of a zealot. Might the following actions, quoted from
the AP wire of July 28, be those of a zealot?
An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two
people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for
its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday. Police:
Man shot churchgoers over liberal views.
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD,
Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 28, 7:41 PM ET .
Does such a news report rattle our stereotypes?
Where does the word, zealot, come from? The OED defines a zealot as “a member of a
Jewish sect which aimed at a Jewish theocracy over the earth and fiercely resisted the
Romans till the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70”. Interesting. A theocracy is a religious
state—and a little hard to reconcile with a democracy characterized by freedom of
religion. Some contemporary critics speak of militant Islam as seeking to establish a
divinely inspired Islamic “caliphate” (a theocracy) throughout the world. The end game
of the Jewish zealots of the first century and the militant jihadists of today are close to
identical—save for the God invoked.
(I’m reminded of the profane gag about an apocryphal billboard at the border of Mormon
Utah which read, “Welcome to Utah. Our God can beat up your God.”)
Now lets look back on the scripture passage of today and consider whether it meets our
evolving definition of zeal and of zealot. Starting with vs mid-verse 13 of First Kings,
Chapter 19, “Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’
He answered, ‘I have been very zealous [or jealous] for the LORD, the God of hosts; for
the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your
prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’
Then the LORD said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus;
when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu
son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-
meholah as prophet in your place. [Now comes the critical sentence.] Whoever escapes
from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu,
Elisha shall kill. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not
bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.’
Is that zeal? Is it also genocide? Is it paranoia? Is it “theocratic”?
Well, we can safely say it isn’t “Christian” for it was another several centuries after
Elijah’s death that Christ was born. More troubling for me is the flip-side of “Christian”:
the seeming belief of many of Christ’s earthly contemporaries that Jesus and his teaching
were considered “Elijah-an” (if I may coin a term). Even well into his teaching ministry,
and after “the disciples saw him walking on the sea”, Jesus’ followers were searching for
a definition of his identity. In Matthew 16:13 Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people
say the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah,
and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Later, by the time of his crucifixion
Jesus had thoroughly identified himself with acceptance of one’s suffering, with
willingness to turn the other cheek, with forgiveness of one’s enemies. His teachings had
moved far, far beyond Elijah, and far beyond the core themes of the Hebrew canon. His
teachings were revolutionary but bloodlessly so. These teachings came to pervade
Western thought, ethics, and belief, profoundly affecting two millennia of history. I very
much doubt that Christ would have said, as Elijah did, either, “I have been very jealous
for the Lord” or “I have been very zealous for the Lord”. Christ had moved on. For him,
God was still speaking.
Of course, Christ’s followers have proved to be pretty human. They are both liberal and
conservative, aggressive and passive, evangelical and privately pious, conquistadors and
crusaders or penitents and pilgrims. For two millennia Christians have come in many
stripes. And although I find myself here in a congregation of a denomination which by
most definitions is more liberal and pacifist than many, I grew up singing “Onward
Christian Soldiers, marching as to war.”
Which takes us to the church in an America of slaves and their descendants and of slave-
owners and their descendants. Slavery and the racism on which it was built—a racism
which continue albeit less overtly--are not uniquely American themes. There always
seems to be a tension between whatever culture is dominant and “the others who are not
like us”. But, in our society the racism of white vs black is an iconic characteristic, one by
which the world at large recognizes our culture. (Parenthetically, the world and America
itself are sitting in judgment of our electorate’s legacy of racism as we confront our
November election choices.) It is this very racism which infused the music of black
churches with such power. African American Christian songs could not be songs of overt
rebellion, but they could be songs of oppression, songs of forgiveness, songs of hope,
songs of resurrection and of rebirth in a better and by far brighter world.
So let’s now loop back to jealous faith and zealous faith. In doing so, let’s see if two
cultures, each with a history of undergoing oppression, fit into either a “jealous” box or
into a “zealous” box. These are the cultures of Israel and of the African-American
church.
The culture of Israel today (and for millennia before today) appears to me to be a jealous
culture. It holds dearly to its belief that is is a chosen people, possessing its land by
divine fiat. It is not in the least evangelical or proselytizing. I see it with hands cupped
into a protecting sphere, jealously guarding the elements of its faith and its covenanted
real estate. I see it proud of its religious law and of the centuries of persecution it has
overcome. “Never again” it vows. I see it holding tightly to an energizing yet private
faith and to a distinct ethnic identity. It does not choose to waste significant time or
resources in attempted conversion to Judaism. Its flag is its religious symbol.
On the other hand I see the African-American church tradition energized by an inner zeal.
Theirs is a zeal that shuns overt rebellion and territorial ambition, but nonetheless finds
itself shouting with joy. It effuses optimism. It sees a brighter tomorrow. “We shall
overcome!” (but not bloodily). And our Jesus welcomes you! Beckoning, enfolding,
embracing. What a liberating passion it is to acknowledge that “I have been very zealous
for the Lord.” Just as Israel is infused with faith, so too is the African-American church.
But, unlike Israel, the African-American church effuses that faith.
So, here we are, back again with our passage from the oratorio and the scriptures.
I really don’t know how Elijah, the interpreters who wrote our bibles, or Felix
Mendelssohn really felt about the terms, jealous and zealous. Curiously, these two terms
are alternate translations a single Hebrew word, “qana”. Perhaps today’s exercise of
poking these two terms with a stick has done little to advance our understanding of what
God has been telling us. A sterile parsing of scripture can miss the real point. The big
picture is that “God is still speaking”. “Still speaking”. We just need to listen.
Our next hymn, NCH 537, Christian, Rise and Act Your Creed, moves forward, as we
suggested, from the Old to the New Testament. It speaks of zeal. After a few more
minutes we will break into our final hymn, Glory, Glory Hallelujah—and we’re going to
demonstrate some real zeal. We’re going to spread some “God is Still Speaking” joy!
So let us reflect now for a minute of silent prayer, shepherded by Deacon Bev Vaughan..
Sermon 08/10/2008