Restoring Harmony through Human Sacrifice With the start of the harvest, and before the rains began to fall, the ancient Aztecs ended their celebration of Ochpaniztli with a human sacrifice. The name “Ochpanaiztli” means “sweeping the way,” which may have been, as a Wikipedia article suggests, a reference to the winds that swept across the valley as winter drew near. [1] The holiday was celebrated to honor the goddess Tlazolteotl. A complex deity, she demanded sexual purity while, at the same time, inciting people to adultery and prostitution, both considered immoral to the Aztecs. Indeed, they would punish offenders by beating them to death or crushing their skull. To avoid…
-
-
Faith, Hope, and Charity
The Greatest of These First Corinthians 13 contains Paul’s famous treatise on agape, which in most modern translations of the Bible is rendered as “love.” If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. .…
-
A Time for Everything
All is Vanity “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Eccl 3:1 NRSV). [1] These words start the third chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes. They were written by an anonymous Qoheleth. This Hebrew word is not a name, but a title. It means preacher or teacher or someone who speaks to an assembly of people. And the very first thing we hear from him is, “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (1:2). Qoheleth repeats this phrase throughout the book and expands upon it, giving many examples to show that life is meaningless. The work we do…
-
Jonah and A Message for Our Time
A Call to Compassion Once upon a time, there lived a prophet named Jonah. He was a real person who lived sometime around 800 BCE, but the story in the Bible that contains his name wasn’t written down until about four centuries later, and it hardly represents his life accurately. Indeed, it is a satirical tale, but it offers us a serious message. Jonah’s name means “dove.” Since the dove symbolizes Israel, we can assume that Jonah symbolizes her, as well. He was also the son of Amittai, whose own name meant “faithfulness,” but Jonah was far from faithful. When God told him to go prophesy to Nineveh, he ran…
-
Eve and the First Death
Mother’s Day and the Loss of a Child It is Mother’s Day. Even if the holiday was, as some claim, invented to increase the revenue of greeting card companies, it’s nice to have motherhood recognized. For my part, I am grateful to be a mother. I’m especially grateful that my children are, as of this moment, both still alive. Recently, I witnessed the deaths of two young adults. I had the honor of sitting with their mothers, sharing in a portion of their grief. At such moments, I don’t have any comfort to offer, though I did try to open space for the women to talk. Occasionally, I asked questions…
-
Rahab, Delilah, and Making Righteous Choices
To the Victor Lies the Story When the battle is over and the dust has settled, the victor frames the story. The vanquished, if they survive, create myths of their own, of course, but since they’re unlikely to mesh with those of their new rulers, the official tale will come from the one who conquered, like American history books written to glorify the white man. In recent years we have begun to be more honest about our past, at least in some parts of our country, but our human tendency is to understand the story from our perspective, to justify our actions, and to condemn those who acted against us.…
-
Tamar and the Power of the Trickster
Trickster Tales of Scripture In last week’s column, we looked at the trickster motif and its relationship to honesty. We concluded that sometimes we must earn the right to be told the truth. This week, we look at the same trickster theme, but consider how it relates to power. The trickster claims power, but not a power of violence or aggression. Though not always a force for love, at least the trickster doesn’t destroy. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of trickster tales. Younger siblings supplant older ones. Women survive and even save their communities by using their wits. Cleverness is appreciated, deception encouraged, and audacity rewarded. You could say that…
-
Humility and Walking in Another’s Shoes
Walking in Each Other’s Shoes Early in my chaplaincy, when I worked on a detox unit where residents shared rooms, I helped a young, white man wrestle with his racism. Having been housed with a black man, he felt a mixture of disgust, anxiety, guilt, and a burgeoning respect. He discovered it is easy to hate someone you don’t know. Up close, hatred is a little harder. Our stories teach us about who we are. They also reveal who others are, both the stories they tell and the ones we tell about them. If we’re open to hearing another person’s story, we may find we identify with him in ways…
-
What Is Hidden in the Parable of the Leaven
Myth as Self-Creation We invent ourselves with our stories. Not that we would cease to exist in body or form if we lost our memory, but we would not know who we are. Instead of being embedded in history and culture, we would be so caught up by the sweep of the present moment that we would lose hope, purpose, and intention. To be fully human, we need stories. Humans have always passed down stories through an oral tradition, whether among families or communities. These tales create us as individuals and give us an identity as a people. When communities put their stories on paper, though, something changes. In Nicole…
-
Jesus and the Holy Fool
God Chose Foolish Things In his first letter to the Christian community of Corinth, Paul writes, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” What does this mean? To understand biblical texts, it helps to know something about the context. For instance, during the middle of the first century CE when Paul wrote, the community of Corinth was a relatively new town, a growing commercial center, with a few wealthy business owners and a lot of impoverished citizens. The society was patriarchal, the men vying for prestige and status. Most Corinthians worshiped the…