Today’s Scripture Reading (March 7, 2016): 2 Samuel 6
Orson Welles once said that “everything about me is a contradiction, and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There's a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.” The problem with Welles statement is that it makes us uncomfortable. We don’t want to be a contradiction (although I admit that I agree with Welles - I also am a contradiction.) We want everything to match up. Don’t talk to me about my inconsistencies, because all I want to do is deny that they are there.
Yet, in and out of the church, we spend a lot of time trying to “reconcile the poles,” maybe because we feel we have to in order to be taken seriously. One of the common comments I get from people outside of the church is that they refuse to be involved in the church because it is filled with hypocrites. And often they are confused when I agree with them. I know that there are hypocrites in the church because I am there. I am a hypocrite. I am a massive contradiction, even in the areas of faith. I am a doubter. I am often scared. I question the church and the things that we believe all the time. I am trying to live my life with a heavenly intention, while realizing that every fiber of my body is being constantly dragged down into an earthly reality. I am constantly wondering what it all means. I understand exactly what Paul meant when he says that “now we see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12 – King James Version).
But before you set out to judge me too rigorously, this is the description of the way that we all live our lives. Inside of every Republican is a Democrat waiting to get out. And inside every Democrat, a Republican strains against the darkness. I found it interesting that at the Academy Awards, Leonardo DiCaprio made a pitch for his political concern – global warming. He said that the world needs to wake up, that global warming is real and we need to do something about it. Then DiCaprio said that the team who made “The Revenant” had to fly to the Southernmost tip of South America in the making of the movie just to find snow (I suspect there was some other reason, because Northern Canada still has lots of snow, just watch Ice Road Truckers, and the Eastern Coast of North America has received record amounts of the white stuff over the past few years.) But there is also an inconsistency in the statement that no one has bothered to latch onto. Unless they went by sail boat, which I know they didn’t, then DiCaprio’s trip from the North to the South, with all of the crew and equipment and sets, contributed a lot to the Green House Gases that are causing the Global Warming. I agree with DiCaprio, we need to wake up and realize that Global Warming is both real and dangerous, yet every morning, at least during the cold snowy months, I get up and start my car and drive to my office. It is inconsistent, and DiCaprio and I are both hypocrites.
Which brings us to this man named Obed-Edom. Consider what we know about him. His name, which is the chief way that the Bible describes its characters, means “Worshipper of Edom.” Even if that is not who Obed-Edom worshipped, it is fairly apparent that his family were worshippers of a god other than the God of Israel. He is also described as a Gittite, a name that is normally applied to a Philistine from Gath. And the Ark of the Covenant, the most holy relic of Israel, was left in his possession.
In other places, we find that he was a gatekeeper at the temple, probably a position given to Obed-Edom as a reward for keeping the Ark of the Covenant, and that he was a singer in the temple. And 1 Chronicles also adds that he was a Levite. And all of this just simply adds to the contradiction we find in Obed-Edom.
It is possible that Obed-Edom was a Levite, and rather than being a Philistine from Gath, he was a Levite who was living in the area of Gath. His name could be a result of the backsliding of Israel at the time away from God. None of this is impossible. But some have wondered if the suggestion in Chronicles that Obed-Edom was a Kohathite Levite might be just another example of someone trying to “reconcile the poles.” It makes sense, if he was a Levite, that David would leave the Ark in his care, and it also makes sense that he could be enlisted as a gatekeeper at the Temple and singer in the choir, both activities that by law were to be done by Levites. But the problem is that that is not the way that Obed-Edom is introduced us in Samuel. Our introduction to the man is simply that he was a worshipper of Edom in the area of Gath of the Philistines. And the later writing of Chronicles tries to reconcile these things by assuming that Obed-Edom must have been a Levite. The assumption lessens the contradiction.
Of course, as Easter approaches we are reminded that it was another foreigner, and most likely a non-believer, who carried the cross with Jesus. His name was Simon of Cyrene, or Simon of Libya. And Simon’s presence carrying the most holy relic of Christianity is a reminder that God can use whoever he chooses, no matter their nationality, faith or situation. Obed-Edom might have been a Levite, or he might be just another foreigner conscripted by God to take care of what holy. And yes, there is a contradiction there, but God is big enough to handle it.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 15
No comments:
Post a Comment