Saturday, February 28, 2009

Simulacron 3

Science fiction is the literature of Big Ideas on Gigantic Canvases. It is also a branch of children's literature, with special attractions for teenage boys. The dreams of competence and achievement have a powerful hold on the imaginations of lads becoming men. I still cite writers of the 60s in my scholarly works, names like Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, "Cordwainer Smith"[1], Bester, and Galouye.

Daniel F. Galouye wrote a novel with an intriguing premise. Imagine a virtual world, populated with artificial intelligences (AIs), created for the purpose of market research. System operators can project their avatars into this virtual world to interact with the denizens.

But suppose the AIs decided to build their own simulacron?[2]

And now for today's parable.
Mar 12:1 İsa onlara benzetmelerle konuşmaya başladı. "Adamın biri bağ dikti, çevresini çitle çevirdi, üzüm sıkmak için bir çukur kazdı, bir de bekçi kulesi yaptı. Sonra bağı bağcılara kiralayıp yolculuğa çıktı.
Mar 12:2 Mevsimi gelince bağın ürününden payına düşeni almak üzere bağcılara bir köle yolladı.
Mar 12:3 Bağcılar köleyi yakalayıp dövdü ve eli boş gönderdi.
Mar 12:4 Bağ sahibi bu kez onlara başka bir köle yolladı. Onu da başından yaralayıp aşağıladılar.
Mar 12:5 Birini daha yolladı, onu öldürdüler. Daha birçok köle yolladı. Kimini dövüp kimini öldürdüler.
Mar 12:6 "Bağ sahibinin yanında tek kişi kaldı, o da sevgili oğluydu. 'Oğlumu sayarlar' diyerek bağcılara en son onu yolladı.
Mar 12:7 "Ama bağcılar birbirlerine, 'Mirasçı budur, gelin onu öldürelim, miras bizim olur' dediler.
Mar 12:8 Böylece onu yakaladılar, öldürüp bağdan dışarı attılar.
Mar 12:9 "Bu durumda bağın sahibi ne yapacak? Gelip bağcıları yok edecek, bağı da başkalarına verecek.
Mar 12:10 Şu Kutsal Yazı'yı okumadınız mı?'Yapıcıların reddettiği taş, İşte köşenin baş taşı oldu. Rab'bin işidir bu, Gözümüzde harika bir iş!'"
How often do you get to write yourself into your own story? Twice? Christians view Jesus (İsa) as, to some exent, a projection of God's person and character into the created order. The universe is God's story, and the Creator wrote himself into the story, as a teacher, a story teller, who now tells this story about himself.

Most of us would make our fictionalized equivalents to be folks of gigantic stature, energetic, heroic. Jesus, as the beloved son of the landlord, takes a passive role. He is merely the Father's emissary, who is rejected, and murdered, by the faithless tenant farmers. Well, the point of the story is -- to expose the nefarious designs of Israel's rulers. They were warned, beforehand, of their folly -- they would reject the Stone that would eventually become the cornerstone of a new, and more faithful, social order.

Another incident in this chapter merits further discussion. Once again, his enemies attempt to trap Jesus in words. (ever notice how often lawyers and others who use words for their livelihood can abuse that power?)
Mar 12:13 Daha sonra İsa'yı söyleyeceği sözlerle tuzağa düşürmek amacıyla Ferisiler'den ve Hirodes yanlılarından bazılarını O'na gönderdiler.
Mar 12:14 Bunlar gelip İsa'ya, "Öğretmenimiz" dediler, "Senin dürüst biri olduğunu, kimseyi kayırmadan, insanlar arasında ayrım yapmadan Tanrı yolunu dürüstçe öğrettiğini biliyoruz. Sezar'a* vergi vermek Kutsal Yasa'ya uygun mu, değil mi? Verelim mi, vermeyelim mi?"
Mar 12:15 Onların ikiyüzlülüğünü bilen İsa şöyle dedi: "Beni neden deniyorsunuz? Bana bir dinar getirin bakayım."
Mar 12:16 Parayı getirdiler. İsa, "Bu resim, bu yazı kimin?" diye sordu. "Sezar'ın" dediler.
Mar 12:17 İsa da, "Sezar'ın hakkını Sezar'a, Tanrı'nın hakkını Tanrı'ya verin" dedi. İsa'nın sözlerine şaşakaldılar.
Jesus calls their bluff, and asks them to show him a coin. Remember where he's sitting -- in the court of the temple. The Jews of that era regarded it as idolatry to carry images of other so-called deities into the temple. Such as, the image of Caesar, and his titles of divinity, on Roman coins. For this reason, they did a profitable business in money changing, converting "idolatrous" coins into specially minted "temple" coins.

But, as the staffing of the American cabinet demonstrates, "lawmakers" typically "make laws" for other people. The Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for administering the tax collection system of the country -- but was confirmed in his office even after having failed to pay his own taxes for several years.

Still, we "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's," even as we withhold that which is God's. Such as the worship human leaders so often covet. Or our children.

_____________

[1] This was actually the pen name used by Paul Linebarger, a High Church Anglican who literally "wrote the book" on Psychological Warfare. Effective propaganda, he taught several generations of warriors, must be characterized by truth and love. The enemy soldiers bust sense that you are being honest with him, and genuinely care for his welfare.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Down memory lane (Mark 11)

Today's reading brought to mind one of the highlights of my undergraduate education. 31 years ago, as a final exam in Koine Greek, we were assigned this chapter and told to translate it into English. At that time, I'd already been reading the New Testament in French for nearly a year, and had that experience to draw upon. When reading something in a new language, if you try to translate every word, word by word, you soon get bogged down, frustrated, and desperate. The trick is to pick out the key words, then decode those around them, until the complete sentence pops into focus. Fortunately for junior linguists everywhere, Pareto's 80/20 rule holds here as well. In English, 20% of the words in everyday use are used 80% of the time -- and almost all of these derive from the Anglo-Saxon side of our language.[1]

Master a relative handful of key words, structural words, skeletal words, and translation becomes possible. The words you know provide a base of operation, so that you can make forays into the surrounding territory, and guess at the meaning of the unknown words.

Meanwhile, thanks to that amazing software I downloaded from http://e-sword.net, I can copy and paste larger chunks of source material into my ruminations here!
Mar 11:15 Oradan Yeruşalim'e geldiler. İsa tapınağın avlusuna girerek oradaki alıcı ve satıcıları dışarı kovdu. Para bozanların masalarını, güvercin satanların sehpalarını devirdi.
Mar 11:16 Yük taşıyan hiç kimsenin tapınağın avlusundan geçmesine izin vermedi.
Mar 11:17 Halka öğretirken şunları söyledi: "'Evime, bütün ulusların dua evi denecek' diye yazılmamış mı? Ama siz onu haydut inine çevirdiniz."
Mar 11:18 Başkâhinler ve din bilginleri bunu duyunca İsa'yı yok etmek için bir yol aramaya başladılar. O'ndan korkuyorlardı. Çünkü bütün halk O'nun öğretisine hayrandı.
Mar 11:19 Akşam olunca İsa'yla öğrencileri kentten ayrıldı.
Mar 11:20 Sabah erkenden incir ağacının yanından geçerlerken, ağacın kökten kurumuş olduğunu gördüler.
Mar 11:21 Olayı hatırlayan Petrus, "Rabbî, bak! Lanetlediğin incir ağacı kurumuş!" dedi.
Mar 11:22 İsa onlara şöyle karşılık verdi: "Tanrı'ya iman edin.
Mar 11:23 Size doğrusunu söyleyeyim, kim şu dağa, 'Kalk, denize atıl!' der ve yüreğinde kuşku duymadan dediğinin olacağına inanırsa, dileği yerine gelecektir.
A Jewish professor once suggested that this episode represented an assault on capitalism. Actually, the key issue was worship. People came from all around the known world to honor and worship the God of Israel. They had an area called "The court of the Gentiles" where they were permitted to stand, with a low "wall of partition" to keep them from the areas where only Jews could tred. Not content with this demeaning gesture, the Jews had turned the place where Gentiles came to worship into a shopping mall.

Israel, frequently described by the prophets as "God's fig tree," had become barren. The Jewish temple / religion / nation was doomed, about to be blighted from the roots up, and cast into the sea.[3]

Happy reading, fellow philologists!

____________

[1] For new readers -- English is a "shotgun wedding" of two contrasting language families -- Romance, from Norman[2] French, and Germanic.

[2] (parenthetically, the Normans were descendents of the men from the North, Scandinavian vikings who settled down and assimilated, adopting the language of their new country.)

[3] Around 150 AD, Roman soldiers needed building material to construct a causeway out to a rebellious island. That is where the masonry of this temple ended up, in the sea.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Informal Allies (Mark 9)

As we have seen frequently already, the Israel of our Lord's day was a demon-haunted culture. We may never know all the reasons why this was the case. Perhaps, the political leaders were too busy sucking up to the Roman occupying powers. Perhaps, the religious leaders were too busy celebrating themselves to notice, or care about, what was happening among their people. In any case, exorcisms occupied a large space in the ministry of Jesus. And we know from Acts 19:13-16 that some of the Jewish religious professionals profited from this situation.

Yet, the use of the name of Jesus by Jewish exorcists happened during the lifetime and ministry of the Lord.
Mar 9:38 Yuhanna O'na, "Öğretmenim" dedi, "Senin adınla cin kovan birini gördük, ama bizi izleyenlerden olmadığı için ona engel olmaya çalıştık."
Mar 9:39 "Ona engel olmayın!" dedi İsa. "Çünkü benim adımla mucize yapıp da ardından beni kötüleyecek kimse yoktur.
Mar 9:40 Bize karşı olmayan, bizden yanadır.
Mar 9:41 Size doğrusunu söyleyeyim, Mesih'e ait olduğunuz için sizlere bir bardak su veren ödülsüz kalmayacaktır."
And, a few words:
  • Öğretmenim -- My teacher. A title school kids in Turkey still us when addressing their teachers.
  • Senin adınla cin kovan birini gördük -- Your / name with / demon / expelling / one / we saw ...
Bottom line? Be thankful for allies! Even those who may not be formally associated with your team. God Himself can and will sort out the sincere from the charlatans.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Men like trees, walking (Mark 8)

In Mark 8, we have another miraculous feast. The disciples forget to pack their lunch afterward, and miss the point Jesus tries to make. He reproves them for their lack of understanding. Shortly after, he will praise Peter for a perceptive insight. In between, though, we have another healing.
Mar 8:21 İsa onlara, "Hâlâ anlamıyor musunuz?" dedi.
Mar 8:22 İsa ile öğrencileri Beytsayda'ya geldiler. Orada bazı kişiler İsa'ya kör bir adam getirip ona dokunması için yalvardılar.
Mar 8:23 İsa körün elinden tutarak onu köyün dışına çıkardı. Gözlerine tükürüp ellerini üzerine koydu ve, "Bir şey görüyor musun?" diye sordu.
Mar 8:24 Adam başını kaldırıp, "İnsanlar görüyorum" dedi, "Ağaçlara benziyorlar, ama yürüyorlar."
Mar 8:25 Sonra İsa ellerini yeniden adamın gözleri üzerine koydu. Adam gözlerini açtı, baktı; iyileşmiş ve her şeyi açık seçik görmeye başlamıştı.
Mar 8:26 İsa, "Köye bile girme!" diyerek onu evine gönderdi.
Mar 8:27 İsa, öğrencileriyle birlikte Filipus Sezariyesi'ne bağlı köylere gitti. Yolda öğrencilerine, "Halk benim kim olduğumu söylüyor?" diye sordu.
Mar 8:28 Öğrencileri O'na şu karşılığı verdiler: "Vaftizci Yahya diyorlar. Ama kimi İlyas, kimi de peygamberlerden biri olduğunu söylüyor."
Mar 8:29 O da onlara, "Siz ne dersiniz, sizce ben kimim?" diye sordu. ...
And, a few phrases:
  • köyün dışına çıkardı -- village / outside / led
  • "İnsanlar görüyorum" dedi, "Ağaçlara benziyorlar, ama yürüyorlar." -- "Men I see," he said, "Trees they resemble, but they walk."
  • Köye bile girme! -- Do not go into the village!
The Gospels contain travel stories, public sermons, staff briefings, and personal conversations. In this healing of a blind man, Jesus takes him by the hand, and leads him outside of the village, away from prying / curious eyes. Prays for him twice. Then sends him to his own home. Apparently, there were times, perhaps most of the time, when Jesus shunned fame, publicity, and big media events.

The John Candy comedy Delirious is a very insightful meditation on the mystery of the Incarnation. In this movie, a writer of soap operas gets hit on the head, knocked unconscious, and awakens inside his own story. Working within the story, he can shape the actions of those around him by using his typewriter to edit the storyline on the fly. Suddenly, the characters start acting out of character. A tycoon stays home from work, waiting for the cable guy. People wonder what makes them say, or do, inexplicable things. At a party, french doors swing open to admit several deer with snow swirling around -- a simple typo on a script direction to bring in "cold beer."

Watch his movie when you get a chance, and you'll see why God played a cameo role when He stepped into His own story, our universe. He respects the character of the people within the story, and does not trample on our sense of ourselves with flashy displays of dominating power.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

With the fist? (Mark 7)

Our Lord's rivals for the public ear, the Pharisees, were masters at the art of "differential righteousness," to use Thomas Sowell's colorful phrase.[1] They cherished a number of traditions that served to distinguish them from people whose real lives kept them too busy to dot every t and cross every i. (this may not be a good example, since the Turkish alphabet includes ı, the "undotted i.") Mark's gospel uses a word found nowhere else in the New Testament to describe their handwashing technique: πυγμῇ . There have been a number of suggested translations of this adjective: did the Pharisees wash "oft?" "To the elbow?" "With the fist?"

Well, back to the story. As Bruce Barton put it in his book The Man Nobody Knows, Jesus was "the most sought-after dinner guest in Jerusalem." His gift of gab, his ability to tell stories and his relish for lively debate, made for entertaining evenings. Even when the target of his repartee
was the host.

In this case, Jesus and his crew had scandalized the sophisticated crowd by failing to properly perform the ritual ablutions. Let's look at the conversation:
Mar 7:5 Ferisiler ve din bilginleri İsa'ya, "Öğrencilerin neden atalarımızın töresine uymuyorlar, niçin murdar ellerle yemek yiyorlar?" diye sordular.
Mar 7:6 İsa onları şöyle yanıtladı: "Yeşaya'nın siz ikiyüzlülerle ilgili peygamberlik sözü ne kadar yerindedir! Yazmış olduğu gibi, 'Bu halk, dudaklarıyla beni sayar, Ama yürekleri benden uzak.
Mar 7:7 Bana boşuna taparlar. Çünkü öğrettikleri, sadece insan buyruklarıdır.'
Mar 7:8 Siz Tanrı buyruğunu bir yana bırakmış, insan töresine uyuyorsunuz."
Mar 7:9 İsa onlara ayrıca şunu söyledi: "Kendi törenizi sürdürmek için Tanrı buyruğunu bir kenara itmeyi ne de güzel beceriyorsunuz!
Mar 7:10 Musa, 'Annene babana saygı göstereceksin' ve, 'Annesine ya da babasına söven kesinlikle öldürülecektir' diye buyurmuştu.
Mar 7:11 Ama siz, 'Eğer bir adam annesine ya da babasına, benden alacağın bütün yardım kurbandır, yani Tanrı'ya adanmıştır derse, artık annesi ya da babası için bir şey yapmasına izin yok' diyorsunuz.
And, a few words:
  • at -- horse. ata -- ancestor. atalar -- ancestors. atalarımız -- our ancestors. atalarımızın -- of our ancestors.
  • Bana boşuna taparlar. -- to me / empty / their worship (is)
To maintain their traditions, the Pharisees were quite willing to ignore God's law. "Mom, Dad, sorry to see you destitute, but I gave all I had to the church." In America, "fundamentalists" have acquired a reputation for a vain self-righteousness predicated on maintaining a handful of taboos.

Still, the fact that these Pharisees continued invited Jesus over for dinner indicates that real righteousness, a joyous delight in serving God and neighbor, is a winsome trait.

_________

[1] In his book The Vision of the Anointed, Sowell demonstrates by one example after another that the "chattering classes" currently in ascendency in the United States, the politicians, professors, and press, are driven to distinguish themselves from the mass of humanity by championing people and things that normal people find repellant.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Leadership (Mark 6, cont.)

Seeking a few moments of peace and privacy, Jesus and the 12 cross the lake. Their indefatigable fan club sees where they are going, runs around to the anticipated landing spot, and welcomes Jesus, probably with applause, to the spot where he'd gone to try to escape them. And our Lord, moved with compassion, provides some more instruction, and a miraculous meal. He had compassion on the multitudes:
Mar 6:34 İsa tekneden inince büyük bir kalabalıkla karşılaştı. Çobansız koyunlara benzeyen bu insanlara acıdı ve onlara birçok konuda öğretmeye başladı.
And, a few words:
  • tekne -- trough, vessel. tekneden -- from the boat.
  • Çoban -- shepherd. Çobansız -- without a shepherd. koyun -- sheep.[1] benzetmek -- resembled.
Yes, Israel had a ruling class of secular quislings[2] -- the Sadducees who had no faith in the life to come, and made it their goal to do well for themselves in this life, no matter who they had to work with or step on. This power structure had its defenders and fawning media outlets, the Scribes and Pharisees. Yet, from our Lord's perspective, the people of Israel had no one to care for them, no one to help them live as God intended them to.
Yet, this apparently amorphous mob did have its own internal structure. Jesus commanded the disciples to have the men sit down, with their families, in groups of 50 and 100. The Greek text here uses the term συμπόσια συμπόσια -- group by group. A "symposium" is, after all, a group of folks that meets to eat and talk. The Turkish uses a similar construction: Mar 6:39 İsa herkesi küme küme yeşil çayıra oturtmalarını buyurdu. Jesus / all of them / group by group / green grass upon / they must sit / commanded.

Even in cultures characterized by a leadership vacuum, there is an underlying sense of spontaneous order. The early Soviet experiement began with an era of unbridled license and promiscuity. When the stern commisars saw their society crumbling, they immediately put on the brakes and instituted a regimen of puritanical sexual morality. The question people face from time to time, when the established order loses credibility, is -- can spontaneous order fill the gap? Can we keep our families together when the culture around us self-destructs?

______

[1] In English, the plural of sheep is sheep. The plural of deer is deer. Sorry 'bout that ...

[2] The term "quisling" has almost completely fallen out of the vernacular, and is rarely used in idiomatic contemporary English. It refers to a Norwegian prime minister who cooperated with the Nazi occupiers during WW II, and whose name has since become a synonym for puppet leaders.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I don't get no respect (Mar 6)

The late American stand-up comic Jacob Cohen / Jack Roy (better known by his stage name of "Rodney Dangerfield") had a trademark line: "I don't get no respect." With a deadpan[1] delivery, he kept audiences howling with one improbable scenario after another. A few that are suitable for mixed company go like this:
I don't get no respect. Last week I told my psychiatrist, "I keep thinking about suicide." He told me from now on I have to pay in advance.
I tell ya when I was a kid, all I knew was rejection. My yo-yo, it never came back!
Most of the early life of Jesus is a mystery. He lived an ordinary, unremarkable life as son, big brother, and junior carpenter. Apparently, he was good at his trade: Justin Martyr reported that wooden plows Jesus made were still in use more than a century later. When he received his call to preach, and began touring the country working miracles and explaining God's Kingdom, word got back home. The hometown folks were curious. Then, when he finally addressed the local synagogue, they were scandalized. He may have put on freshly washed apparel, but he did not soar in wearing a halo. The people marveled at the elegance of his oration -- but did not at all like what they heard. In Luke's gospel, we get a more detailed report of the sermon. Here, though, Mark focuses on the audience reaction:
Mar 6:1 İsa oradan ayrılarak kendi memleketine gitti. Öğrencileri de ardından gittiler.
Mar 6:2 Şabat Günü olunca İsa havrada öğretmeye başladı. Söylediklerini işiten birçok kişi şaşıp kaldı. "Bu adam bunları nereden öğrendi?" diye soruyorlardı. "Kendisine verilen bu bilgelik nedir? Nasıl böyle mucizeler yapabiliyor?
Mar 6:3 Meryem'in oğlu, Yakup, Yose, Yahuda ve Simun'un kardeşi olan marangoz değilmi bu? Kızkardeşleri burada, aramızda yaşamıyor mu?" Ve gücenip O'nu reddettiler.
Mar 6:4 İsa da onlara, "Bir peygamber, kendi memleketinden, akraba çevresinden ve kendi evinden başka yerde hor görülmez" dedi.
Mar 6:5 Orada birkaç hastayı, üzerlerine ellerini koyarak iyileştirmekten başka hiçbir mucize yapamadı.
Mar 6:6 Halkın imansızlığına şaşıyordu. İsa çevredeki köyleri dolaşıp öğretiyordu.
And, a few words for today:
  • şaşmak -- to be astonished. şaşıp kaldı -- they were astonished / fell into astonishment. şaşıyordu -- He was astonished.
  • Bu adam bunları nereden öğrendi?-- This man / these / from where come / teachings?
  • Kendisine verilen bu bilgelik nedir? -- Who gave (him) this knowledge?
  • Nasıl böyle mucizeler yapabiliyor? -- How / these miracles / is he able to do?
They went on to discuss his ancestery, calling him "Mary's son" (Meryem'in oğlu) -- which must have been an insult in a patriarchal culture, that usually identified people by their fathers. People back then could count to nine, and Jesus was born full-term but three months ahead of schedule.

As this story begins, the people are astonished. When it ends, Jesus is astonished. The obdurate unbelief of his own people surprised even the Messiah. As John put it, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not."

To some extent, this may have been the "consultant effect." A consultant, the American idiom tells us, is "someone fifty miles from home with a briefcase."[2] Or, maybe we are blind to that which is closest to us. Familiarity breeds contempt, the old proverb says.

Or, maybe Jesus presents himself in deniable form. It takes faith to view the universe through the lens of one man's biography, and faith is how we interface with our Creator.
_____

[1] "deadpan" means -- with a straight face that is incongruous with the hilarious comments being uttered. Frequently adopted by the "straight man" in comic duos.

[2] Or, "someone who borrows your watch, tells you the time, then charges you for that service."

Monday, February 16, 2009

Esenlikle git. (Mark 5)

Today's reading is full of action. Jesus crosses the lake to the Gadarene area. Perhaps he'd heard the howls and shrieks of the tormented soul -- and yes, you can hear a human voice across Lake Galilee at that point, given certain conditions. Jesus then encountered a demoniac who lived in ritually unclean places, among the tombs. In the midst of what an American preacher and prohibitionist called a "bootleg pork industry." Dutch scholar Grotius[1] suggested that this region was populated by renegade Jews, who'd turned their backs on the laws and culture of their society. Or, maybe they raised pigs for the Roman and Greek occupying forces. In any case, it was not a wholesome environment. Yet Jesus brought mercy and deliverance to the most miserable of its occupants. One man had "contained" enough demons to drive 2,000 self-respecting pigs to commit suicide! On his next visit, whole towns came out to greet and welcome him.

Well, today's selection comes from the second story in this chapter, the case of a woman who'd suffered "an issue of blood" for 12 years. A continuous case of ritual uncleanness and isolation. She forced her way through a crowd that closed in on Jesus from all four sides, assuming that a mere touch of the hem of his garment would suffice to heal her. It was as she believed -- and a man on a mission, crowded and jostled all around, nonetheless perceived that one one touch faith. He stopped, asked the beneficiary to step forth, then told her,
Mar 5:34 İsa ona, "Kızım" dedi, "İmanın seni kurtardı. Esenlikle git. Acıların son bulsun."
Let's look at a few words:
  • Kızım -- my daughter. In Turkey, students call their teacher Öğretmenim -- my teacher.
  • İmanın -- your faith. Second person singular possessive, used for children and close relations.
  • seni -- you. Second person singular pronoun, used for children and close relations.
  • Esen -- peace. Esenlik -- peaceful. Esenlikle -- peacefully.
  • Acıların son bulsun. -- your sufferings an end have found.
I hope more of my readers will start learning Turkish. It's a fascinating language, with a very regular grammar. You build words by snapping suffixes onto the root, like lego blocks. Turkish is also the fifth largest language family on earth; only English, Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish have larger numbers of speakers. Turkish, and closely related dialects, are spoken in the central Asia region stretching from the Urals to the Pacific.

___

[1] Yes, I downloaded Matthew Henry's commentaries along with all the other treasures available for free from www.e-sword.net !

Sunday, February 15, 2009

A sower went forth to sow (Mark 4)

A sower went forth to sow.
Mar 4:13 İsa sonra onlara, "Siz bu benzetmeyi anlamıyor musunuz?" dedi. "Öyleyse bütün benzetmeleri nasıl anlayacaksınız?
Mar 4:14 Ekincinin ektiği, Tanrı sözüdür.
Mar 4:15 Bazı insanlar sözün ekildiği yerde yol kenarına düşen tohumlara benzer. Bunlar sözü işitir işitmez, Şeytan gelir, yüreklerine ekilen sözü alır götürür.
Mar 4:16, 17 Kayalık yerlere ekilenler ise, işittikleri sözü hemen sevinçle kabul eden, ama kök salamadıkları için ancak bir süre dayanan kişilerdir. Böyleleri Tanrı sözünden ötürü sıkıntı ya da zulme uğrayınca hemen sendeleyip düşerler.
Mar 4:18, 19 Yine bazıları dikenler arasında ekilen tohumlara benzerler. Bunlar sözü işitirler, ama dünyasal kaygılar, zenginliğin aldatıcılığı ve daha başka hevesler araya girip sözü boğar ve ürün vermesini engeller.
Mar 4:20 İyi toprağa ekilenler ise, sözü işiten, onu benimseyen, kimi otuz, kimi altmış, kimi de yüz kat ürün veren kişilerdir."
And, a few words:
  • benzemek -- to resemble. A famous Turkish proverb goes "Biz bize benziriz" -- we resemble ourselves.
  • benzetmek -- to like, compare, mistake for
  • benzetme -- parable
  • benimsymek -- to adopt as one's own, consider one's own.
This parable is rather important, as our pastor has said several times. İsa sonra onlara, "Siz bu benzetmeyi anlamıyor musunuz?" dedi. "Öyleyse bütün benzetmeleri nasıl anlayacaksınız? Jesus then said to them, "You this parable understand not? How can you then all the other parables understand?"

Millenial cults expect God's Kingdom to drop suddenly, fully-formed, out of the sky. The classical name for this aberration is chiliaism, from the Greek word for thousand, chilia. Jesus, however, tells us that the Kingdom grows quietly and discretely for the most part, as people appropriate His Word, incorporate it into their lives, and become living examples of divine mercies and excellence.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

A mixed bag (Mark 3)

There's a lot to talk about in this chapter. We could, for example, discuss the episode where the mother and brothers of Jesus show up, apparently motivated by concerns about our Lord's sanity. There's also a story about how hardhearted religious folks can be. But I'm sure we'll swoop through here again someday. So, let's look at the odd company Jesus selected as the foundation stones of His new civilization:
Mar 3:14-19 İsa bunlardan on iki kişiyi yanında bulundurmak, Tanrı sözünü duyurmaya göndermek ve cinleri kovmaya yetkili kılmak üzere seçti. Seçtiği bu on iki kişi şunlardır: Petrus adını verdiği Simun, Beni-Regeş, yani Gökgürültüsü Oğulları adını verdiği Zebedi'nin oğulları Yakup ve Yuhanna, Andreas, Filipus, Bartalmay, Matta, Tomas, Alfay oğlu Yakup, Taday, Yurtsever* Simun ve İsa'ya ihanet eden Yahuda İskariot.
And, a few words:
  • on -- ten. iki -- two. on iki -- twelve.
  • yurt -- homeland. sevmek -- to love. Yurtsever -- patriot. Turkish foreign policy -- and I wish it was ours -- is pretty simple. Yurta suhl, cihanda suhl. Peace at home, peace abroad.
It's interesting to note how these disciples are identified in varying detail. Some, like Taday, Tomas, and Matta, just have their names listed. Alfay's family is mentioned. We know who his daddy is. Yakup and Yuhanna come with their nicknames attached, in Aramaic and Turkish, as well as their paternal connection. They are simultaneously the sons of Zebedi, and the sons of thunder. (Did their irate father explode when his lads walked away from the family business? Or did Jesus comment on their hot-headed character? Or both?)

People have always had different approaches to dealing with the culture around them. Simon belonged to a nationalistic party that yearned to purge the land of Greek and Roman influences. On the other hand, Philip was named for the father of Israel's Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great. Imagine the charisma it took to make a cohesive team out of such contrasting personalities. Imagine the lively they conversations they had around campfires!

Friday, February 13, 2009

The thunder of exploding canons (Mark 2)

Sorry, some great puns[0] lodge in one's memory for decades! Besides, that's a more eye-catching title than "Jesus on paradigm shifts," which is what we'll discuss from today's scripture reading. Let's start with "epicycles."

In Ptolemy's model of the universe, the earth sat rock-solid in the middle, and the heavenly bodies slid by overhead on their well-greased tracks.[1] However, some of the vagabond/hobo stars did not keep pace with the other stars. In fact, they slid backward a day or three per year. OK, mount those on slower or faster tracks than the rest of the stars. Then put them on a cycle (epicycle) that actually twirls around the track it's mounted on, to explain the apparent retrograde motion.

This model of the universe got trickier every time a new heavenly body was discovered, but it rattled and clanked along for quite a while. Then, Copernicus had a brilliant notion: perhaps the sun, not the earth, was the center of the heavenly dance. Change your perspective, and things suddenly look much more logical.[2]

Thomas Kuhn popularized the term "paradigm shift" in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. A model of reality works for a while, with a few exceptions. Patch on a few rules to account for those exceptions, and then a few more pop up. Eventually, your model is so plastered over with exceptions that it's hard to see what it's good for. About that time, a new model pops up that resolves the conundrums.

The old order keeps trying to impose its rickety traditions on the new paradigm, of course. That's what humans do. A locomotive going through a city must be preceeded by a man on horseback waving a warning flag. The motor on a horseless carriage must be in front, because horses go before the cart, of course!

Jesus was asked why he and his disciples did not feel themselves compelled by the tabus and totems of their culture. Why, he even drank wine and feasted with notorious public sinners and quislings! With a typically vivid word picture, Jesus replied:
Mar 2:22 Hiç kimse yeni şarabı eski tulumlara doldurmaz. Yoksa şarap tulumları patlatır, şarap da tulumlar da mahvolur. Yeni şarap yeni tulumlara doldurulur."
And, a few words for today:
  • yeni -- new. The "new troops," the yeni çeri, entered our language in the anglicized word janissary.
  • şarap -- wine
  • tulumlara -- wineskin
  • patlatır -- to explode
  • eski -- old. A Turkish proverb concerning putative political "change" is appropos for our day, when Carter-era handlers come out of the woodwork to manage their new figurehead -- Eski hamam, eski tas. Same old Turkish bath, same old pouring bowl.
Conversion is a profound paradigm shift. You suddenly realize that you are not the center of the universe, but you do have a Creator to answer to. Then, you discover that this Creator loves you, and provides everything you need to pursue an incredible adventure in living. Then, you discover that this Creator and Savior has good things in mind for the world He so loved, and you're invited to pitch in!

Nations and cultures, too, can suffer / enjoy paradigm shifts. Perhaps the most pithy paragraph on that topic was penned by my favorite Marxist Jesuit, the late Ivan Illych:
Some fortuitous coincidence will render publicly obvious the structural contradictions between stated purposes and effective results in our major institutions. People will suddenly find obvious what is now evident to only a few . . . Like other widely shared insights, this one will have the potential of turning public imagination inside out. Large institutions can quite suddenly lose their respectability, their legitimacy, and their reputation for serving the public good. It happened to the Roman Church in the Reformation, to royalty in the Revolution. The unthinkable became obvious overnight: that people could and would behead their rulers. ("Tools for Conviviality", p. 111)
We live in interesting times ...

________

[0] Thanks and a tip of the hat to Jim Graham, classmate at William Fleming HS.

[1] See the movie The Truman Show, which begins, literally, with a "falling star!"

[2] Kepler's Witch is a powerful biography of the guy who refined Copernicus' chart. Johannes Kepler was a large-hearted but rather frail Protestant who had to hit the road several times when his home town came under the jurisdiction of a Catholic ruler. He thought Christians could find better things to do with their lives than fight one another, and reached out in Christian charity to a conceited Catholic lens grinder and fellow astronomer, Galileo, during that gent's time of trial. Later generations failed to give Kepler the credit due him, in part because of his "day job" -- royal astrologer. His era's equivalent of our economists.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Second Call (Markos 1)

Mar 1:16 İsa, Celile Gölü'nün kıyısından geçerken, göle ağ atmakta olan Simun ile kardeşi Andreas'ı gördü. Bu adamlar balıkçıydı.
Mar 1:17 İsa onlara, "Ardımdan gelin" dedi, "Sizleri insan tutan balıkçılar yapacağım."
There are a lot of words to enjoy in these few sentences!
  • göl -- lake. Celile Gölü'nün -- sea of Galilee.
  • -- net. ağ atmak -- to cast a net.
  • balık -- fish. balıkçı -- fisherman. Note the -çı suffix. It's the "agent ending," like the -er in the English words baker or painter.
Folks, it's my third trip through İncil, and it's finally starting to be fun. Enough vocabulary has lodged in my cranium so that I can actually read chunks of İncil, instead of just struggling through Turkish. And sometimes, still, when I need to look up a few words, the effort brings a familiar story into a vivid, sharp, focus.

Try this sentence, for example:
Mar 1:35 Sabah çok erkenden, ortalık henüz ağarmadan İsa kalktı, evden çıkıp ıssız bir yere gitti, orada dua etmeye başladı.
And the words:
  • Sabah çok erkenden, -- Morning very early
  • ortalık henüz ağarmadan -- surroundings not yet had turned gray
  • İsa kalktı, -- Jesus got up,
  • evden çıkıp -- the house left
  • ıssız bir yere gitti -- waterless a place went to
  • orada dua etmeye başladı-- there prayer began
So much to reflect upon in this brief chapter! We could note how Jesus always seemed to have a convenient desert to retreat to. Apparently, the sown areas of Palestine had an ongoing battle with the encroaching wild parts. Biosphere II, an adventure described as "The Three Stooges Meets Star Trek," failed because the makers assumed that nature is normative, rather than fallen. They insisted on including a desert in their sealed environment, which soaked up oxygen from the atmosphere. At one point, they had to sneak in another 20 tons or so of the vital gas!

What most forcibly impressed me, though, was the "double call." The first chapter of John's gospel introduces us to the characters we meet in this chapter, perhaps several years earlier. These rugged fishermen knew who Jesus was, and knew that He had a mission to achieve. For some time now, I imagine, they had been "waiting for the other shoe to drop." Big parties in those days took a long time to prepare. So the host would send out a general invitation -- "be ready in the next week or so." When all things were ready, another invitation would go out -- "Come and get it before we throw it away!"

Most of us have a vague sense that we are destined for greatness. We have a notion that there is a reason for our time on this planet. This presents us with a dilemma: do we coast while awaiting the second call? Or do we prepare ourselves for it? I've had several very painful experiences that resulted from answered prayer that I was unprepared to profit from. The lazy man assumes that he has more time than is actually the case. In reality, we never have quite as much time as we had counted on.

For example: my written exams exposed an embarrassing lack of mastery in the area of theory. SO when I prepared for my orals a few weeks later, I consecrated the Saturday before to really nailing down my factoids in the area of theory.

Then, I got laid off on Friday, and was too upset to really study the rest of the weekend. The following Monday's conversation was very unpleasant in places.

I hope someday to work, perhaps teach, in Turkey. Hence, my daily work with the Turkish language. When my opportunity presents itself, I yearn to be ready.

Which reminds me -- I'd probably be wise to wind up my dissertation as quickly as possible.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Korkmayın! (Mat. 28)

Ghost stories usually involve "things that go bump in the night," not things that happen in broad daylight. You find yourself in an ominous place, preloaded with trepidation, nerves on edge, and a cold shiver of dread going down your spine. Maybe you think you see something or someone uncanny out of the corner of your eye in uncertain light. The story gets bigger with the telling, and the next visitor to the haunted site is even more likely to verify your ghost story.

Every culture has its ghost stories. Apparently, we are hard-wired to sense an eternal dimension to our personalities, something that must extend beyond the termination of bodily existence. In most pagan pictures of the universe, the afterlife is the after-life, populated with disembodied spirits who float around, tethered to the pains of the past, bitterly envious towards those of us who are still "on the clean side of the dirt."

The resurrection of Jesus, the cornerstone of the Christian faith, does not follow these "ghost story" expectations. See for yourself:
Mat 28:2 Ansızın büyük bir deprem oldu. Rab'bin bir meleği gökten indi ve mezara gidip taşı bir yana yuvarlayarak üzerine oturdu.
Mat 28:3 Görünüşü şimşek gibi, giysileri ise kar gibi bembeyazdı.
Mat 28:4 Nöbetçiler korkudan titremeye başladılar, sonra ölü gibi yere yıkıldılar.
Mat 28:5 Melek kadınlara şöyle seslendi: "Korkmayın! Çarmıha gerilen İsa'yı aradığınızı biliyorum.
Mat 28:6 O burada yok; söylemiş olduğu gibi dirildi. Gelin, O'nun yattığı yeri görün.
Today's amazing phrase: O burada yok. He, at his place, is not!

Today's amazing word: Korkmayın! -- Fear not!

And, let's see how Matthew's biography of Jesus ends:
Mat 28:18 İsa yanlarına gelip kendilerine şunları söyledi: "Gökte ve yeryüzünde bütün yetki bana verildi.
Mat 28:19 Bu nedenle gidin, bütün ulusları öğrencilerim olarak yetiştirin; onları Baba, Oğul ve Kutsal Ruh'un adıyla vaftiz edin;
Mat 28:20 size buyurduğum her şeye uymayı onlara öğretin. İşte ben, dünyanın sonuna dek her an sizinle birlikteyim."
In heaven and on earth all power to Me has been given.
For this reason (Bu nedenle) go, all nations My disciples/students make ...
Behold I (İşte ben) the world's end until (dünyanın sonuna dek) all the time (her an ) with you I will be (sizinle birlikteyim).

The Muslim faith assumes that one as holy and beloved by God as Jesus could never have died such a shameful death on a cross. The problem is, the eyewitness accounts hold taht this is exactly what happened. Furthermore, it is the resurrected Jesus who sends us out to bring every nation under the oversight of our gracious King, and who promises to be with us as we pursue this assignment.

By the way -- I discovered an amazing Bible study tool on the web, at www.e-sword.net . Click here to download it yourself. In case you're wondering why I'm including longer Scripture extracts, it's because I no longer need to type them up myself on my Turkish keyboard. I now have the entire Turkish Bible on my computer, along with several other languages and versions. For example: the last time I priced the Septuagint (Greek OT), hard copies cost around $70. I now have a free copy on my hard drive. I can read a selected chapter, add my own notes to it, or see what Matthew Henry had to say about it.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Kangaroo Court, cont. (Mat. 27)

Strangely enough, Pontius Pilate is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox church. After all, he did try to short-circuit the judicial lynching Jesus was being hustled into. And his wife did have that disturbing dream the night before, right? The historical record doesn't support that optimistic speculation. Pilate was a provincial governor who was noteworthy for his brutality. Once, when exhorting his hearers to repent, Jesus cited the example of some Galileans, "who blood Pilate mingled with that of their sacrifices." After one massacre too many, Pilate lost his job, retired to the Swiss mountains, and drowned himself in Lake Geneva. Yet to this day, the name of this petty and venal Roman satrap is recited day after day in the creeds of the Christian faith:
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
The third day, He arose again from the dead.
Let's take a look at a memorable selection:
Mat 27:23 Pilatus, "O ne kötülük yaptı ki?" diye sordu. Onlar ise daha yüksek sesle, "Çarmıha gerilsin!" diye bağrışıp durdular.
Mat 27:24 Pilatus, elinden bir şey gelmediğini, tersine, bir kargaşalığın başladığını görünce su aldı, kalabalığın önünde ellerini yıkayıp şöyle dedi: "Bu adamın kanından ben sorumlu değilim. Bu işe siz bakın!"
Mat 27:25 Bütün halk şu karşılığı verdi: "O'nun kanının sorumluluğu bizim ve çocuklarımızın üzerinde olsun!"
And, a few phrases:
  • O ne kötülük yaptı ki? -- This one, what evil has he done?
  • Onlar ise daha yüksek sesle, "Çarmıha gerilsin!" -- They again more loudly screamed, "To the cross compel him!"
  • elinden bir şey gelmediğini-- from his hands this thing had gone / become impossible
  • kalabalığın önünde ellerini yıkayıp -- the crowd in front of his hands he washed
Finally, we find in this selection the phrase that Jewish folks call "the infamous blood libel" -- O'nun kanının sorumluluğu bizim ve çocuklarımızın üzerinde olsun! -- His blood guilt is ours, and our children's, will be upon. Well, they got their wish, quite literally. The penalty for demanding Barabbas rather than Jesus, for preferring a murderer to the Lord of Life, was paid in full a generation (40 years) later when Roman armies and internal warfare turned Jerusalem into a charnel house, which experienced a catalogue of horrors unsurpassed before or since.

The grandchildren of the self-accursed did not inherit the guilt of their fathers. However, it's pretty hard to admit it when your folks made a monumental blunder. Add a few thousand years of being in denial, and opinions can really harden. Still, throughout history, Jewish people have become Christians. Including the founding pastor of our church.

OK -- one piece of unfinished business from yesterday: for a detailed handbook on dealing with the police, you can go to this website. Probeer is die beste verweer, our Afrikaaner friends tell us. Preparation is the best weapon. Or, as the old English proverb has it, Better safe than sorry!

Monday, February 9, 2009

If you are arrested ... (Mat. 27)

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's magnificent epic The Gulag Archipelago begins with a description of being arrested. You've been walking past discrete doors for years, assuming that they have nothing to do with you. Then, suddenly, a pair of neatly manicured, but strong, hands reach out. And the universe is shattered. After all, each of us is the center of his own universe.

Or maybe you're walking through a university housing area after stopping by to see a friend, quietly minding your own business, and an overbearing rent-a-copy asks to see your driver's license. "Why?" you ask, in honest curiosity. "Because I asked you to," he replies, and an incredibly stressful 15 minute conversation ensues. You suddenly realize that America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave," has become a police state while you weren't looking. The old Nazi command, Zie papieren, bitte, the internal passport, has come to our shining shores.

And then you start to notice how many cop shows acclimatize us to the notion that armed military assaults on American civilians are normal. Agents clad in military regalia, carrying military weapons, following military tactics, smash open doors and barge in shouting "FBI! FBI!" And you find yourself recalling how the largest government massacre of civilians since Wounded Knee -- more than 80 men, women, and children burned to death inside their own church -- began as an FBI publicity stunt.

Hey, fellow frogs, the heat is slowly being turned up on our kettle.

I recently read an incredibly detail and helpful "how to" essay on dealing with police, but haven't been able to track it down since. This essay contains much of the same information. You may have to be patient -- the server takes a while to respond.

Or, for a handy wallet-sized summary, you can go here:

Bottom line: NOTHING you tell a curious cop can do you any good. ANYTHING you say can and will be used against you. Remember the Magic Words "I am going to remain silent. I want a lawyer." Practice saying these Magic Words -- in front a mirror, in drills with friends -- until you can automatically recite that mantra during one of the most stressful moments of your life.

So what does this have to do with the Bible? Well, Jesus was arrested on trumped-up charges. If' He'd had sense enough to keep His mouth shut, The Man would not have had anything to charge him with.
Başkahin ise O'nun, "Yaşayan Tanrı adına sana yemin ettiyorum, söyle bize, Tanrı'nın Oğlu Mesih sen misin?" İsa, "Söylediğin gibidir" karşılığını verdi. "Üstelik size şunu söyleyeyim, bundan sonra İnsanoğlu'nun, kudretli Olan'ın sağında oturduğunu ve göğün bulutları üzerinde geldiğini cöreceksiniz."
Today's words:
  • Söylediğin -- as you say
  • gibidir -- so it is.
If Jesus had stopped there, things could have turned out differently for Him -- and for those of us who have been redeemed by what happened next. But, He had to go ahead an incriminate Himself.

Folks, keep in mind that we can very easily talk way too much when in stressful situations. Memorize the magic words, use them, and you just might save yourself a world of trouble.

And the world isn't depending on you for its salvation, anyhow!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Nedir bu savurganlık? (why this waste?) Mat. 26

Loyalty can be bought. Folks tend to remember those who extended a helping hand in their hour of need. Savvy politicians exploit this fact all the time. Apparently, generosity was a part of our Lord's ministry during his last three years. He would heal the sick, cast out devils, and, from time to time, miraculously cater a massive picnic. I get the impression, however, that this was in addition to a usual, routine, program of dispensing alms. Consider today's chapter. While Jesus and the disciples are dining at the house of Simon the Leper, a woman comes in and lavishes costly aromatic oils on Jesus. The disciples are shocked:
Öğrenciler bunu görünce kızdılar. "Nedir bu savurganlık?" dediler. "Bu yağ pahalıya satılabılır, parası yoksullara verilebilirdi."
And, today's words:
  • Öğrenmek -- to learn.
  • Öğrenci -- a learner. Öğrenciler -- learners.
  • yok -- nothing.
  • yoksullar -- those who have nothing.
  • savurgan -- prodigal, extravagant.
Think how much good we could have done with this money that this dumb chick just wasted!

Jesus reproved them for misunderstanding the significance of this act of worship. "Don't worry, you'll always have poor people around to help. But you won't always have Me with you like this."

Interesting how that works. Yes, we must help the poor. The fact remains, however, that the demand for charity, for free goods, will always exceed the supply. When a government decides, for example, to dump a few more billion dollars into "poverty" programs, the supply of poor people increases to meet the demand. In 1973, America had the moon. Politicians decided they'd rather buy poverty -- and we have a lot more hopeless poor people among us now.

Utlimately, the only way to truly feed the poor is at the table of the Lord. When poor people begin attending church, sit under the teaching of the Bible and modify their behavior to fit in with the new crowd, they usually cease being poor within a few years. When Jesus fed the multitudes, in John's account, they showed up at synagogue the next day to demand another free meal. They were more interested in what Jesus could do for them, then they were in what He required of them.

Ultimately, our "food" is to do God's will. The rest falls into place when we get that right.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Gel, efendinin senliğine katıl ! (Mat. 25)

This is a very frightening chapter to read, if you are "between jobs" and living on government largess in the form of "unemployment insurance." It starts with the parable of the ten virgins (On kız benzetmesi) going to a party.
Bunların beşi akılsız, beşi de akıllıymış.
The words:
  • Bunların -- of these
  • beş -- five
  • akıl -- mind, intelligence, wit
  • akılsız -- foolish (lacking the above)
  • akıllı -- wise (possessing the above)
  • mış -- narrative / dubitative tense indicator
The problem with effortless subsistence living is -- you can get comfortable there. The "assistance" cripples drive and initiative. As Rush Limbaugh mentioned once, sparrows raised in captivity have brains about 30% smaller than wild sparrows. The African immigrants to our country had something that the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Jewish, Ukrainian, etc. immigrants lacked -- assured room and board. As a wise old Lutheran pastor and former associate of Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "The natural condition of mankind is slavery. This is what people yearn for and seek above all else. A slave, after all, is domestic cattle, who needs to be housed and fed." Haagen Staack, a buy who'd seen the Nazi regime up close and personal in the course of smuggling 126 Jews out of Germany, achieved this insight while pastoring a blue-collar union-dominated town in Pennsylvania.

It takes very little effort to subsist, to let "the village" take care of you. African tribesmen who anticipate a good crop will often go out at night and destroy part of their own fields, lest their prosperity triggers accusations of witchcraft. They can meet their goals of subsistence during good times, but starve when bad times come.

In our Lord's grim little cautionary tale, the foolish virgins did nothing more than what the moment apparently required. They contacted their two possible employers per week. Then, when the long-awaited, longed-for opportunity happened, they were caught with their britches down.[1] They did not have the surplus resources needed for the moment. They had failed to use their time, their opportunities, wisely. The expression "high leisure preference" is the modern euphemism for the older word "lazy."

The bottom line is, if we are not OVER-prepared, we will not be ready for our opportunities. When Arturo Toscanini aspired to become a great conductor, he memorized orchestral scores. When his opportunity finally came to substitute for the regular conductor, he strode to the podium, closed the score, and conducted the symphony from memory.

Folks, it is scary when you recall that God does, indeed, answer prayers and give us the opportunities we cry out for. Bungle a few of those by neglecting current opportunities, and this parable resounds "like a firebell in the night."

And the second parable is like unto it. A rich man entrusts his assets to several managers. Takes a business trip. Comes back to see what they've achieved. The winners are praised. The loser, however, is the guy who tried to coast, to mark time, to merely subsist. He never got to hear the glad words addressed to his peers,
Gel, efendinin senliğine katıl!
Come, of your Master's joy, enter in!

And what is our Master's joy, that we are called to participate in? I suspect, it is the joy of creative productivity. The Bible presents a God who works, who rejoices in His work and His works, and who invites us to become, like Him, productive.

May we have the grace and character to do so.



_____

[1] Little American cowboy metaphor. When the hired gun comes looking for you, you really don't want to be caught "doing your business" in the outhouse!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

You better watch out! (Mat. 24)

Watch the classic German flick M some time. It's a standard police procedural with some interesting twists. The criminal underclass makes common cause with the police to track down a child murderer. The characters are recognizable types, the cops and robbers so frequently encountered in our own movies, acting as expected.

The kicker? The movie was released, I believe, in 1938 or 1939. The perfectly normal society it depicts is -- Nazi Germany. When you are on the eve of dramatic and permanent cultural disaster, it's still hard to believe that life won't go on just the same as always.

Some of our Lord's words were starting to worry His disciples. If He felt free to castigate the legitimate rulers of Israel, what could the Israel that followed their lead hope for? In their anxiety, the disciples pointed out the apparent permanence of the cultural landmarks at the center of their identity as Jews.[1] "Master! Look at these buildings! This magnificent masonry!"

"So?" Jesus replied. "Not one of these stones will be left standing on another."[2]

"When will all this happen?" the startled disciples asked when they'd settled down for the evening. The resulting conversation, the Olivet Discourse, is reported in all three of the synoptic gospels. It is couched in the Biblical language of prophecy, using themes and metaphors drawn from prior scripture. Jesus answers their "when" question thus:
Size doğrusuna söyleyeyim, bütün bunlar olmadan bu kuşak ortadan kalkmayacak.
I'm telling you straight, this generation will not have moved on before all of these things happen. (in the Turkish, you can string together double negatives for emphasis. Jesus means exactly what He's saying.)

So what are we supposed to do? Well, Jesus tells us several things NOT to do:
Sakın kimse sizi saptırmasın!
Korkmayın sakın!
Do NOT let anyone deceive you.
Do NOT be afraid.

And, one thing the listeners were assured of:
Ama sonuna kadar dayana, kurtulacaktır.
A few words:
  • bu kuşak -- this generation
  • bütün bunlar -- all of these things
  • Sakın -- watch out! Beware!
  • saptırmak-- deceive
  • korkmak -- fear
  • sonuna -- to the end
  • kurtulacaktır -- will be saved
When Jesus came with / in the clouds of judgment, the whole world beheld that the Son of God was, indeed, reigning from heaven. Those who were prepared to drop everything and head for the hills escaped with their lives. They had endured, holding fast their allegiance to Israel's Messiah, even when most of Israel went back to "business as usual." Therefore, they were ready, when the prophesied events came to pass, to make a run for it.

Tough times don't last, Robert Schuller entitled a book of his. But tough people do.

______________

[1] To this day, during a Jewish wedding, a crystal goblet is broken to commemorate the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem.

[2] When the temple caught fire, much of the gold trim and accessories melted, and flowed down between the building stones. To recover the gold, the Romans dismantled the ruins stone by stone.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Usurpers (Mat. 23)

Replacing a reigning social paradigm is hard work. The status quo has an inertia that keeps it going long after it's lost its bearings. One thing you can do, of course, is accuse the current caretakers of having betrayed their legacy. In the early part of the Turkish war of independence (Kurtuluş Savaşı -- war of salvation), Kemal Atatürk often referred to the "captive Caliph," and asserted that the reigning political and religious head of the Ottoman Empire was the victim of unscrupulous aides, who compelled him to act contrary to the interests of his people. This reminds me of what I read this morning in Mat. 23:
Bundan sonraİsa halka ve öğrencilerine şöyle seslendi, "Din bilginleri ver Ferisiler Musa'nın kürsüsünde otururlar. Bu nedenle size söylediklerinin tümünü yapın ve yerine getirin, ama onların yaptıklarını yapmayın. Çünkü söyledikleri şeyleri kendileri yapmazlar.
And now, a few more words.
  • kürsü -- pulpit, professorship, chair. What I'd like to have when I finish my dissertation!
  • din bilgin -- religious teacher
  • yapmak -- to make or do. yapın -- do this! yapmazlar-- they do not do.
When you offer a new interpretation of accepted truths, your biggest adversaries will be the folks who are vested in the status quo. They will not welcome your fresh and fervant insights with alacrity, since you are also, perhaps unknowingly, asserting that they dropped the ball. Missed the point. Lost the scent.

Most people, most of the time, go with the status quo, and the established leaders. A remnant, however, will hear and heed. Isaiah's Job, as Albert J. Nock explained, is to explain "the way of the Lord more perfectly," day by day, essay by essay. Some will hear. "The gospel is like a joke told to a circle of men. And one man smiles." (Ivan Illych) And, when the house of cards comes tumbling down, those who have a better idea will be ready to lead.

A focus of my scholarly and personal interest for the last four decades has been supplanting civilizations, usurping paradigms. Few in first-century Israel heard and heeded the message of Jesus. Today, however, a billion or more of us around the world call Him Lord.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Her şey hazır, gelin sölene! (Mat. 22:1-10)

This is the parable of the big party,and of the people who missed it.
İsa söz alıp onlara yine benzetmelerle şöyle seslendi: «Göklerin Egemenliği, oğlu için düğün şöleni hazırlayan bir krala benzer. Kral, şölene davet ettiklerini çağırmak üzere kölelerini göndermiş, ama davetliler gelmek istememiş.

«Kral yine başka kölelerini gönderirken onlara demiş ki, `Davetlilere şunu söyleyin: Bakın, ben ziyafetimi hazırladım. Sığırlarım, besili hayvanlarım kesildi. Her şey hazır, gelin şölene!'

«Ama davetliler aldırmamışlar. Biri tarlasına, biri ticaretine gitmiş. Öbürleri de kralın kölelerini yakalayıp hırpalamış ve öldürmüşler. Kral öfkelenmiş. Ordularını gönderip o katilleri yok etmiş, kentlerini ateşe vermiş.

«Sonra kölelerine şöyle demiş: `Düğün şöleni hazır, ama çağırdıklarım buna layık değilmiş. Gidin yol kavşaklarına, kimibulursanız düğüne çağırın.' Böylece köleler yollara dökülmüş, iyi kötü kimi bulmuşlarsa, hepsini toplamışlar. Düğün yeri konuklarla dolmuş.
As you can see, this story did not have a happy ending for the folks who got the invitations. Let's look at a few of the words Jesus uses to describe God's glorious kingdom:
  • konuk -- guest
  • davet -- invitation, party, reception
  • şölen -- feast, banquet
  • ziyafet -- feast, banquet
Way back in the old days, leaders didn't have business meetings, they had feasts. The guests would show up and "pledge allegiance" to the King by partaking of his food and drink. So one picture we have of the Heavenly Kingdom is of an ongoing celebration, a rocking, raucous, party, with the King having the most fun of all.

But, there is a dark side to this happy picture. Suppose you refuse the invitation? What if you are so embedded in the narcotizing routine of life that the call catches you by surprise? How many of you have had your heart's desire dropped into your lap, then fumbled away because you'd neglected to prepare yourself for the desired opportunity?

Well, folks, you can't say you weren't warned. If you look back upon those educational failures in your life, they came despite the advice and counsel of friends, family, and your own conscience. Procrastination, or just plain laziness, immobilized you, kept you from acting upon what you should have done -- and it can take decades to recover from the consequences of missing your window of opportunity.

Or even eternity.

Or, as in the case of Israel, thousands of years. Ever since God's promise to Eve in the Garden, of a redeemer who would crush the Serpent's head, God had given His people "previews of coming attractions." He had sent the prophets generation after generation to "make plain the way of the Lord." The religious leaders of Israel knew how to count, and knew from Daniel's prophecy that The Messiah was right in their midst. Yet, for reasons of their own, they refused to recognize God's King, and led a whole nation over a cliff.

Invitations in those days took two stages. First of all, the King would let it be known that the event was going to happen. Then -- well, it takes a lot of time in a pre-industrial society to slaughter, butcher, and cook a lot of beasts. To bake up a lot of cakes and cookies. To blend the beverages, count the silverware, get the ducks in a row. Finally, when all things were ready, the food was hot, come and get it, the second invitation went out.

Folks, my prayer every day is for wisdom to heed the first invitation, the knowledge of what I ought to be doing right now, so that the second invitation doesn't catch me flat-footed and embarrassed before the world, and the clown on the stage of my own conscience.