In this Sunday’s Gospel Jesus asks a question: “Who do people say that I am?” He is directing listeners outward toward other’s opinions. Those opinions reflect external social and religious norms about rulers. Then Jesus rephrases the question for Peter: “Who do you say that I am?’ Jesus is directing his friend inward toward conscience which questions such norms. Peter responds from conscience and says Jesus is of God, a Mystery of Presence and Power. But then, later, Peter reverts back to defending the norms. He does this after Jesus speaks the truth that the norms produce dominating rulers who reject and kill people of conscience, like Jesus, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.”
Social and religious norms include laws but are far more expansive. They are usually produced by and for the dominant class – elders, chief priests, scribal types – to maintain a culture of supremacy. Supremacists project their norms onto a deity to sanctify their domination. The result is most cultural norms are both secular and religious. This is true of both the Bible and the U.S. Constitution. Both are products of the dominant class. They maintain a culture of supremacy that rejects and kills those who question their system. The system may help non-rulers, but rarely and usually only when persons of conscience make enough of a public challenge to require it. More challenging to the system is creating something new. Jesus was a person of conscience who broke with cultural norms. He broke with laws written in the Old Testament and in legal codes. He started a new Community, of God – but not a supremacist, dominating God and thus not a supremacist, dominating community. The world needs more such people of conscience and more egalitarian communities. We need people who are willing to transcend discriminatory Biblical and Constitutional norms. We need people like Fred Shuttlesworth, Rosa Parks, and Dr. King who broke white supremacist Jim Crow laws, Roy Bourgeois who broke with the supremacy of warmakers, and Bernard Nathanson who broke with the supremacy of abortionists. Is it true that Kim Davis of Kentucky is, as she says she is, a Christian acting out of conscience: “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s (Biblical) definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience.” Is it possible that Kim Davis is, instead, promoting social and religious norms that maintain a culture of supremacy? We can listen to how she answers the question: “Who do you say Jesus is?” She says “Jesus is Lord.” But Jesus never called himself Lord. Paul did that. Paul did it to return the image of God to the Old Testament deity Paul worshipped. The Old Testament deity was a projection of supremacist men who imagined him into existence. Marriage was based on men dominating women as property which included polygamy, harams, and force. Jesus transforms that supremacist system into a communion when he teaches “a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife.” (Mt 19:5) Jesus first encourages the man away from the parental relationships that secure him his social and economic positions of supremacy. Jesus then encourages him relinquish supremacy in his marital relationship; be vulnerable, depend upon your partner, cling to her. Jesus radically transform marriage’s supremacist elements into a relationship of communion.
In Christ, we are called to conscience and to relinquish supremacy. Since Ms. Davis supports supremacy in marriage, in this case heterosexual supremacy, she cannot be identified as a person of conscience in the Christian / Christ-like tradition.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, teach us humility.
Question: What matter of conscience might move me to break a cultural norm?
September 13, 2015 Gospel Mark 8:27-35 Twenty-Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time