Jacob, Esau, and Notions of Fair Play

Hey All,

Earlier this week a group of us walked through Genesis 27 which recounts the story of Rebekah and Jacob tricking Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing rather than Esau. One of the things that stuck in our craw a bit was that Esau is totally swindled by his brother and mother. Some in the group tried to rationalize Esau getting robbed as a result of his marrying outsiders and the anathema that this was to his folks (Gen 26.34-35). The motivation for trying to justify Esau getting robbed as a result of his somehow deserving it is rooted in our longing for things to be fair. What happens to Esau is not fair. I wonder though if that longing for fairness in our eyes is an unreasonable expectation?

The idea of something being fair is highly subjective and therefore problematic. (Now when I speak of fairness I do not mean justice. I think these two ideals are similar but they are not the same. The intent here is to wrestle with fairness not justice.) What is fair to me may not be fair to someone else. Take the game of Monopoly for example: each household has rules for Monopoly unique to their own sense of fair play. Some folks strictly adhere to the rule that if you land on Free Parking you get the money in the middle of the board other folks do not. If these two groups tried to play a game together and one of the folks from the former category lands on Free Parking and tries to reach in to get the money, well that person will be accosted with loud verbal signals that they are not playing fairly according to the latter group.

In their songs Uncle Frank and TVA, the Drive-By Truckers explore two perspectives on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and that organization’s effects on their families and communities. In TVA the benefits of the TVA are held up and the song shows how that organization was a godsend for a lot of folks. Uncle Frank on the other hand reveals the downside and adverse effects the TVA had on a lot other of folks. Who’s right? They both are. Were the actions of the TVA fair or not fair? I’d have to say both. I bring this up not to propose some relativistic worldview, rather I bring this up to shine a light on the limits of our abilities. When humans are involved we are limited by our abilities, perspectives, strengths, and weaknesses. Humans are not capable of perfect harmony. The TVA was set up with good intentions and yet it ended up wronging folks while in pursuit of those good intentions. Toes were stepped on, lives were ruined, and yet a lot of good was accomplished. What I’m left with is this sense that what might be fair from my perspective in a specific instance would not be fair in 100% of perspectives in 100% of instances. As a result, in my view, the pursuit of fairness is not necessarily something to expend a whole lot of energy towards. Fairness is far too fickle a thing to place in our top ten lists of criteria. Now, let’s turn back to Esau getting swindled out of his birthright.

In Genesis 25.23 God told Rebekah that the younger son would serve the older son. One of the cornerstones of the world that Jacob and Esau were born into is that the oldest son inherits everything the father has while the other kids are beneath the oldest. This is called primogeniture. By choosing Jacob rather than Esau God was throwing the whole societal structure of primogeniture into upheaval. This is a radical, offensive, revolutionary move on God’s part. For God to throw primogeniture aside in favor of Jacob would be unfair in this society. Nevertheless, what we see here is the ground work of the topsy turvy reality of the Kingdom of God where the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We are seeing the Kingdom of God that has come, is coming, and will come at work in the society of Jacob and Esau. The story of scripture is God reconciling creation and that process is occurring here in Genesis 27. Is it fair to Esau? Nope. The thing is I don’t think being fair in our eyes is something God is too concerned with. We see this in the story of Joseph reconciling with his brothers after they had sold him into slavery in. Joseph tells his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50.20).

For me this means that I would do well to accept that God’s will and actions are above me. God operates on a whole other level than I do. This means things may not shake out in ways that I perceive to be fair. That doesn’t mean God isn’t at work in these things. It just means that God’s sense of fair play isn't necessarily going to line up with our sense of fair play. Can we accept that or not?

Have a good one,

Carl

Safety, Acceptance, and A Tasteless Serial Killer Reference

Hey All,

I recently started watching The Shield. Apparently, in 2003 this was the show to watch and I can see why. It’s got a morally ambiguous main character in morally ambiguous situations that the main character reacts to in morally ambiguous ways.  If Tony Soprano had a badge he’d be Vic Mackey. The scene that has stuck with me most is the one where a woman from the neighborhood walks into the police station and demands to be heard:

Glenda: I need someone to listen to me.

Dutch: I'm busy at the moment, but maybe one of the uniforms--

Glenda: I said I need someone to listen to me!

Dutch: ...Okay. Did you want to report a crime?

Glenda: I've lost track of all the crimes.

Dutch: I don't underst--

Glenda: I've lived in this neighborhood all my life keeping my complaints to myself. But no more. My apartment has been broken into seven time in the last four years. SEVEN TIMES! And you never catch anyone! You have got graffiti and cuss words on every single wall that you see. I've got needles on my sidewalk, beer cans on my lawn, and I stopped ducking at the sound of gunshots years ago...How does this make sense? I see that yellow police tape everywhere that I go. And it's all sirens and helicopters and search lights... You got mothers killing their children, children killing strangers, and maniacs flying airplanes into buildings -- and I just want life to go back to the way it should have been! [Pause] What are you doing to make us feel safe?

What sticks with me and what I’ve been mulling over is Glenda’s question to the police: “What are you doing to make us feel safe?” My reaction to this scene was “Why are you going to the cops or any government institution in order to feel safe?” She has apparently witnessed the lack of ability the cops have in cleaning up the streets and yet she continues to turn to them. I suppose my question is why do we, like Glenda , turn to institutions that have shown time and time again that they are not able to, willing to, or interested in, focusing on our safety and well being. What makes us think that the government is willing or able to make us feel safe? What lengths would the government have to go to ensure that warm fuzzy feeling of safety? Is feeling safe worth the cost of a government providing it for us?  

¹⁰ Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. ¹² Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. ¹⁶ Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸ When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” -1 Samuel 8:10-18

If we want to sleep peaceably in our beds at night maybe we should stop outsourcing our peace of mind to rough men willing to do violence on our behalf. Perhaps our ability to feel safe should be an inside job.

Frankly, I’m not even sure that feeling safe is something that I should be desirous of at all. After all I’m trying to follow an individual who told his followers, “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” That doesn’t sound like a guarantee for safety and neither does this:

Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. –Luke 12.51-53

Those aren’t exactly words that imply that we should pursue a careful timid life. I’m not advocating a cavalier approach to life that throws caution to the wind at all. I’m going to continue to look both ways before crossing a street. I’m just wondering how we got it in our heads that feeling safe should be a top priority.

Maybe instead of striving to feeling safe we should strive to accept the world as it is right now. Now to be clear, accepting something does not mean approving of, or liking something. I can accept that Jeffery Dahmer had an eating disorder. That doesn’t mean I approve of it and it doesn’t mean I like it. The question is can we acknowledge that at any given moment something decidedly unsafe may happen, accept it, and live our lives in light of this? The world is chock full of unsafe situations, people, and objects and we are powerless over 99% percent of them all. That 1% we do have power over is how we react to this precarious reality. Do we react by making an institution the linchpin of our serenity like Glenda? Or do we accept it, keep our heads on a swivel, and try to react out of love instead of fear?

Have a good one,

Carl

Outcasts, Mercy, and God's Grace

Hey All,

In Genesis 25 we have the final account of Ishmael’s life and death. The writer is tying up the loose ends of Abraham’s life and is preparing to move onto Isaac. What we see in verses 12-18 is that God fulfilled the promise given to Hagar in Gen 21:18 “…I will make him into a great nation.” I see a lot of hope in the life of Ishmael because he was, in the Hebrew tradition, cast out. It was made clear that Isaac was the child of promise and that Ishmael was not, and yet God still cares for him. Even though God’s people had cast Ishmael out God had not.  What I see time and time again in scripture is God’s concern for the outcast, the misfit, the trickster, the poor, and the oppressed.

It is this Divine concern that compels me to take the view that I ought to follow suit in my views, perspectives, and stances so that they to have an eye for these folks. I also believe I should have that bias  because I to was once a misfit, outcast, trickster, poor, and oppressed. And in some ways I still am these things albeit in different ways. In any case, I’ve found it important in my striving towards the will of God to never forget where I came from and to never forget the sin the rages still in my heart. By this I intend to, as Bonhoeffer puts it in his book Life Together, live under the Cross:

Anybody who lives beneath the Cross and who has discerned in the Cross of Jesus the utter wickedness of all men and of his own heart will find there is no sin that can ever be alien to him. Anybody who has been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother. He knows how utterly lost it is in sin and weakness, how it goes astray in the ways of sin, and he also knows that it is accepted in grace and mercy.

I am more inclined towards mercy and grace and remaining open to the folks around me when I remember just how merciful, graceful, and open God is to me.

This does not mean I dwell on the past in sackcloth britches tossing ashes on my head. Rather, living under cross compels me to move forward, learn what it means to live a life of love, and listen to the stories, experiences, and travelogues in weakness and defeat, strength and triumph of others. I get to stop grasping at the meaningless, fleeting things of this world, and instead hunker down on the call to love God, neighbors, and enemies and enjoy the spread that the Lord of the Banquet has put on.

Have a good one,

Carl