How does one reconcile the triumphant depiction of God we experience in today’s readings – and the triumphalism of some forms of contemporary Christianity – with the stark humility of Jesus’ life? In this week’s reflection, Marianne Seggerman does not tie up this conundrum in an easy answer, but instead examines how cultural and linguistic context impact even the most recent texts. We are left not with a confinement of simple answers but instead with the open space of unresolved questions.

November 17, 2024: Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Daniel 12:1-3

Psalm 16:5, 8-11

Hebrews 10:14,18

Mark 13:24-32

Of Culture, Language, and Our Search for Meaning in the Scriptures

A reflection by Marianne Seggerman

This week’s reading are three separate accounts, written centuries apart, when the author senses a great power – a magnificence – which we call God. The first reading, taken from the book of Daniel, begins with the image of a great prince. The second, from Hebrews, writes of a sacrifice so great it took away sins. The Gospel of Mark limns an image of a Human-like deity coming with great power. Each writer tries to convey just what they just experienced, telling it in their own words filtered through the writer’s experience and culture.

Consider two classics of mid 20th century literature – no four classics because each work was written first in French then in English – in one case by the same author. What does that have to do with the readings? Bear with me, I'll tie it up, as the lawyers in the courtroom dramas I've been binge watching since I retired. In one, the English version is a physical comedy, almost slapstick yet the French version, by the bilingual author, is nihilistic and bleak. In the other, the version written in English by an American translator is filled with whimsy, yet the French version always makes me cry. I am referring to Waiting for Godot and The Little Prince, respectively. I experience En Attendant Godot and Waiting for Godot both written and translated by Samuel Beckett, and Le Petit Prince and The Little Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and translated (originally) by Katherine Woods – both written less than a century ago – so differently simply when I read them different languages. Imagine the difference between the language and cultures of these diverse Biblical texts (mostly likely written between 500 BCE and 100 CE) and our own experience when they were written in the Middle East over 2500 years ago!

Thus, when we ask the question, “What is God trying to tell us through these writings?” or rather, “How am I to glean spiritual wisdom from them?” using a literal approach to find an answer is absolutely pointless. The cultural and linguistic differences are simply too great. Like any other writing, the Bible is profoundly colored by the language it happens to be written in – and the culture of the time it was written down.

If a literal interpretation of the Bible is not helpful, what am I to make of this week’s readings?  It is at this point I moan – why couldn’t I get the week when the gospel said it was a sin to stiff your contractors, or when Jesus said he came to serve not to be served? But this week’s readings are all about power – and the history of Christianity is unfortunately littered with diverting the power of God, which is only supposed to change human hearts, to exerting power over others. It is depressing to list the numerous examples of this, where Christian missionaries provided the moral cover for the decimation of indigenous peoples, in the Americas and elsewhere around the world. Time after time, Christians were hoping or even expecting that Jesus would be revealed as a great King – oh but that’s next week – and thus they justified exerting political or military power in his name. But Jesus certainly didn’t come into this world in a blaze of power and glory, trumpets blaring.  For heaven’s sake, Jesus’ first crib was an animal feed trough (I have actor/scriptwriter Mark Gatiss for that insight.)  How am I to reconcile today’s readings which depict a triumphant and powerful deity, with the experience and belief I have of Jesus’ life of humility, beginning in such mean surroundings, and steadfastly refusing an exalted status – his life then ending strung up like a common criminal?

Marianne Seggerman joined the chapter of Dignity New Haven around 30 years ago. That chapter is no longer alas but she continues to attend the biannual conference. In her day job she is a computer programmer living (and for the moment working) in Westport Connecticut. She is in a long-term relationship with a person raised Jewish who converted to the Mormon faith.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

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