Of promises.And covenants. And yes, circumcision.

7/27

Tonight, Marsha, Russ, Deacon James and I meet for Bible Study. We’re back in the chapel, while Dion is working on the FARMIGO food distribution. Tonight we’re into Genesis 17. Where God promises Abram that at 99 that he will be the father of multitudes, which he finds laughable. Though not as laughable as Sarai when she gets the news.  This is the covenant cutting with Abram, (b’rit) which requires as a sign the actual cutting of the foreskin of the penis. So we have to stop a minute and ask why. Marsha suggests that it was initially a public health issue that maybe got retrofitted in this way. It has remained to this day, though it has gone from standard medical practice to semi-controversial, you know, like with debates in Tikkun magazine and all.

I remember the b’rit of my 3 sons. The old rabbi who performed his free hand style with a cool and quick hand.  (This was after we had to get the hospital to take it off of our standard bill.) The hip baby books said if you wanted to get a circumcision, go natural, get a moel. The first was at a friend’s, the second in our apartment community room and the last at our house’s back yard. The first had 6 ministers and 3 rabbis. There was of course a degree of shock for the protestants on hand. My father, who’d always wanted a baptism, was more than content. Somehow this ceremony made the child and his name official. Today there are alternate naming ceremonies. But I still remember my brother-in-law John holding the babies at each bris.

It wasn’t just Abram. And not even just the Hebrews. It was everyone, slaves and all. (damn, not only am I a slave, but this too?) And these are adults. Abraham is 99 years old! Even Ishmael at 13. For this reason, Muslims have a special circumcision ceremony at that age. (Or earlier, varying by culture) I remember the street in Duisberg, Germany where in addition to being the Muslim bridal gown capital of Europe, there are shops selling little prince like outfits for boys for this special occasion. Anyways, it remains shrouded in mystery.

Abraham is promised ,the land of Canaan. Well what about the people who are already there? Even though this is a story told to justify what has already been done, what about the Canaanites? Abraham pleads for Ishmael, and he too, will father a great nation, but no covenant.

We enjoy the fact that Sarah’s question is whether she will have pleasure at her late age, the word implying dampness, wetness, the precondition for fertility, but the point is pleasure…Far from the Catholic tradition of sex for only procreation, the Jewish tradition has always recognized pleasure.

There’s also this whole run around with Abraham and Sarah as to whether she laughed or not. She says, NO, but Abraham knows she did. All that laughing (yitzhaking), which can also mean mocking or sexual activity, will name the child. Abram and Sarai are now Abraham and Sarah and a child is coming who will be named for laughing.

So what,we wonder? Marsha suggests well ,at least it’s never too late. Even when you think everything is barren and it’s all over, there’s still hope. I want to believe that. Sugarman, Rodriguez gets found, rediscovered. Old man Bebo, one of the creators of Cuban son, is found in a Sweden piano bar and starts a career again. Angelo Romano has his first real gallery show at age 80+. So, there’s till hope.

And always, we see an empire telling its own mythic story for its own reasons.

Once again, we walk out as the Antigona cast is ready to go on. Russ and I will head to the Gate for a recap.

As many as the stars in the sky: mythic history and Genesis 15-17

7/20

The Noche cast has been here since at least 4 PM, going through their individual warm ups in preparation for tonight’s performance of Antigona. Meanwhile, Marsha, Russ and I are in the chapel, where Dion is handling the FARMIGO  food distribution, to study Genesis 15-17.

Lots to cover tonight. Lot and Abram have split up, deciding this place is not big enough for the two of them. Lot, dazzled by the well watered, irrigated plains of Sodom has gone that direction. Knowing what Russ Howard-Brook has to say about agriculture  vs. taking what God has provided, bad choice. No wonder then that when hostilities break out, (where did all these people come from? Where do all thee kings come from?) No wonder then that Lot gets taken captive.

So Uncle Abram has to put together a guerrilla force to win Lot back. When be succeeds, the king of Sodom offers Abram all kinds of riches (he’s played this game before and won) if we will turn over the people he has accumulated in this campaign. This time, even though he got over on Pharaoh, Abram refuses. Sure, the king of Sodom is B list compared to pharaoh, but nevertheless, Abram has stood his ground, refused to capitulate. Refused to become a mercenary. And as Marsha pointed out, these kings stay in his debt

Lot and Abram exchange no words. And Lot, apparently a slow learner, goes back to Sodom. (You know that’s not going to end well…) . So far we’re seeing more how the empire operates.

Abram starts to worry about succession, about offspring. Like is all of this going to go to the offspring of Eliezer of Damascus? (We didn’t know either...an ironic reference to his chief of staff. ) There’s the touching scene where God takes him outside and show him the stars of the sky and tells him that’s how many offspring he will have.

Sarai comes up with the wise idea that Abram get together with their slave girl from Egypt, Hagar. When  she gets pregnant, apparently Hagar smirks at Sarai and gets sent away. An angel to the rescue. Clearly God cares for Hagar. She is part of his plan. And soon enough, she gives birth to Ishmael (Ismail).  Who apparently will have countless descendants. And will be a wild ass of a man with hands against everyone and everyone’s hands against him, living at odds with all his kin.  Ismail will be claimed as the ancestor of the Muslims. 

The God cuts a covenant with Abram. After a lot of animals are literally cut, comes this verse, source of so much trouble when applied to real life situations:

When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That’s when God made a covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.

The maximalist Zionist dream.

Marsha wonders why Sarai and Hagar couldn’t have gotten together. Why did it all have to all be about Abram? And we discuss how this is not written as factual history, but as mythic history, to support an established empire. Marsha wonders what alternate stories were told around campfires that never got written down. And how all this mythic history continues to play a role in ideology.

As we leave, we pass through the backstage area for Antigona, the dancers and singers ready to go onstage.

Russ and I will head to the gate to continue the conversation.

Later, I'll find RL watching the Leverage where the team helps prevent an old church from being stolen by a developer. Hmmm. Mythic history....

Maybe we need a theology of staying

7/13

As the Noche crew hustles to get ready for their first preview, Marsha and I meet in the chapel for Bible Study while Dion works with the weekly food distribution from our  online farmers’ market, FARMIGO.

Tonight we’re looking at Genesis 12 where there is a famine in the land and Abram decides to go to Egypt to deal with the problem. In Wes Howard-Brooks’ line of analysis, we have another failure of agriculture at work here. And at the first sign of  difficulty, Abram, without ever seeking the guidance or assistance of YHWH, decides to look for help from another empire and abandons the land he had been promised. His journey to Egypt in search of help is a trope that will repeat itself through the Biblical narrative.

Drawing on his Babylonian experience, Abram figures he knows how to deal with empires. Looking at the beauty of his wife, Sarai, he fears that if they think she is his wife, they’ll simply kill him and give her to pharaoh. But if he presents her as his sister, a better bargain can be made. And sure enough, in return for handing her over, he is rewarded with sheep and oxen and camels and male and female slaves. He is in essence, a made man.

God then intervenes, brings plagues down on pharaoh and Egypt (another trope to be repeated.) And pharaoh demands to know why Abram lied to him about Sarai. And Abram never says a mumblin’ word. Instead of the predictable execution, pharaoh simply tells him to take his wife and get out, apparently with all he has gained in the process.

After noting the humor and asking if some of this might have been written just for entertainment values, Marsha questions Howard-Brooks’ perspective that this is a cautionary tale about life under the empire. And points out that Abram leaves richer than before. He got over. By the time we get to Genesis 13, he is very rich indeed, a wealthy and powerful homeless person. He’s got gold and silver, which only comes as a result  of trade.

Things are so successful that the land teeters under the weight of the livestock and entourages of Abram and Lot, his nephew.  They decide which way to go, Lot, deceived by the wealth of the well-watered (IE, irrigated) plains of Sodom goes that way with an ominous comment (…this was before…) foreshadowing what is to come. And there we end. Only we don’t.

We begin to reflect on going vs. staying. I reflect on a friend of mine’s struggles about leaving New York for North Carolina, her home. Marsha reflects on having left Texas, her time as an organizer for the  farm workers and asking why she’s still here. I recall my visit to Cuba and the pastors that stayed with their flocks while their colleagues fled for the US where a white liberal denomination rewarded them with national staff positions while those who remained sustained a remnant community. Maybe we need a theology of staying, she says.

                                                       ****

I join my friend Beppe for Noche’s preview of Antigona. Once again I am swept up into the passion of the story and the edginess of Martin’s conception. And once again transfixed by the transcendent power of Soledad’s dancing. When the performance ends, there is an audible moment of silence and then the audience explodes with applause, bravos and ole’s.  Outside, Beppe is speechless. I…I don’t know what to say, he says. Tears streaming down his face. Later, Martin will say he couldn’t ask for a better review.