In the Old Testament reading, tribal War Lords, earthly ones projected heavenward, want their glory acclaimed by all; “I will send men out to… proclaim my glory among nations.” The War Lords want their believers to “bring all the nations as an offering to the LORD.” Nonbelievers who do not glory in the War Lords will be killed, “you shall go out and see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me.”
Throughout the Old Testament violence is promoted against nonbelievers. Practitioners of such violence are commended as heroes because the violence done to nonbelievers is believed righteous. Those who still believe in ancient War Lords still believe they are righteous when they produce corpses. It is the fundamental creed of the religion of Militarism. It is the creed found in the Old Testament with its War Lord Yahweh. It has a twin script in the Quran with its War Lord Allah. Both read comparably and promote violence against nonbelievers. A believer in the righteous violence of the Quran attempted recently to make a corpse of Salman Rushdie. Rushdie is an Indian born British American novelist perhaps best known for his 1988 book, Satanic Verses. The Satanic Verses title concerns verses Muhammad added to the Quran about his worship of pagan goddesses but later revoked admitting he had succumbed to the devil’s temptation. Death threats were directed against Rushdie, including a fatwa (legal ruling) for his assassination. British officials put the writer under guard and he has spent much of his life since in hiding. Translators of the book have been murdered. Rushdie, a Muslim by birth, considers Muhammad “one of the great geniuses of world history,” but also human and capable of mistakes. Believers in ancient War Lords believe Rushdie diminished the glory due the War Lord Mohammad and his mirror-image War Lord deity Allah. Rushdie’s attacker believed he was one of Militarism’s righteous soldiers in attempting to make Rushdie a corpse. The attacker is being glorified across the world by other enslaved members of Militarism. Militarism’s righteous soldiers will “bring all the nations as an offering to the LORD,” or make of them corpses. Thus, Militarists will consequently stifle freedom of expression: falsely claim fake news; promote censorship; ban and burn books; repress women with burkas and little or no education; harass challengers; stalk librarians, nurses, and any who express facts; speak hate; prohibit filming of police, join violent mobs; and kill nonbelievers. So it is that some U.S. Militarists, evangelical white supremacist Islamophobes, are now threatening Muslims. Militarists keep training righteous soldiers wherever and whenever they can. They include the Rushdie attacker, MAGA types, U.S. presidents who issue fatwas against whistleblowers like Assange and Snowden, and against conscientious objectors who free us for peace. Militarists demonstrate a terrible fear of freedom. They cower, finding comfort in hiding behind the commands of others. They fear being one of the ‘corpses of men’ who rebel against War Lords. Anxious about freedom, fearing those who witness it, Militarists keep killing the Christs of our world, the saints, the artists, the lovers, the healers, the truth tellers. They keep killing the strong ones, believing in their right to make corpses, as the corpse that is their conscience decays. But hundreds and thousands more strong ones keep rising. Militarists are bound to a figment of their imagination yet, ironically, lack imagination. They cannot imagine and do not trust their invented deity, nor themselves, to be anything other than a destroyer. They cannot imagine and do not trust any deity, or themselves, to be creators.
Jesus of Nazareth exemplifies a turning point for freedom in human history. 2,000 years ago he created a Community free of ancient War Lords, their violent scripts, and any belief in them. It is a shared human Community of people not enslaved and fearful but free and trusting of conscientious authority, discernment, thinking, pondering, intelligence, wonderment, meditation, reason, logic, and more. It is a free, creative, Community where we are at peace with one another. We are not commanded by War Lords to ‘bring all the nations as an offering to War Lords.’ Instead, we are invited by a peacemaker, to ‘come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and recline at table together in the Community of God.’
Prayer: Spirit, may we live together as free and peaceful people.
Question: When will we stop believing that ancient War Lords are our gods?
August 21, 2022 Gospel Luke 13:22-30 Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time