Keeping the Vision and Finding Strategies

Keeping the Vision and Finding Strategies

By Archie Lee

Introduction

This centennial year celebration is indeed a time to build and to plant for the renewal of the ecumenical student ministry in general and for the strengthening of SCMs in Asia-Pacific in particular. In the process of rebuilding, the importance of vision must be underlined and not undermined. I think no one would doubt about putting forward a vision as a guiding perspective that will shed light on the concrete plans we are to draw up for the future. It is the vision that will give meaning to necessary actions to be taken. I also wish that that vision provided hope and aspiration for a community that has been deeply committed to student ministry in the future.

Having a vision does not automatically lead to achieving the prescribed goal. Strategies must be laid down. The concrete social location and political setting in which the SCM finds itself should be seriously considered when drawing up strategies.

In this biblical reflection, we shall read Trito-Isaiah (ch. 56-66) from the post-exilic community, which was involved in rebuilding and restoration. Before going to the texts, let me say a few

words on the approaches I propose we will adopt in our reflection. First, on the nature of text: any biblical text is historically-culturally conditioned. There is no passage that is value-free and context less. The political setting of the community would not only shape the perception of reality, but also mold the way the text was being written and interpreted. This also applies to both the ancient as well as the modem readers in their readings and re-readings. That means our interpretation and understanding are shaped by our social contexts. Second, I believe in the value of community bible study. Our wisdom and insight will enrich our understanding of the text. We shall bring our social reality to interact with that of the text.

From the analysis of the text done by biblical scholars, we learn of a growing interest of the academics in trying to penetrate behind the present form of the biblical passage in order to grasp the social dynamics of the returned community from exile and to explore the political struggles as well as religious conflicts that gave rise to the presentation of the text. Their attempts have produced enlightening results that would help us understand the social circumstances of the returnees involved in the reconstruction of the nation and the strengthening of the people.

The Social Situation of the Post-exilic Community

During exile, the community yearned for the time to be released from captivity to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the nation, the temple and the city. As time went by with no obvious sign of hope, many people of the exile were in despair and they lost heart of any chance to return. They complained that God did not care for their sufferings and God's ear seemed to be too dull to hear. They even doubted about God's ability to save; either God was tired to do anything or God's arm was too short to save (40:27-28; 59:1). It was when the saving acts of God seemed to be impossible that the announcement was made that the Persian

authority would assist the people to return. The restored community, however, encountered new challenges. Having settled in a foreign land for 50 years, would they take that long journey home to the ruins and, for some of those born in Babylon, Jerusalem being a strange land? Those who did go back found themselves in great difficulties as the community was divided when it came to the model for restoration. The different factions or parties of the community put forward different models for the future due to their respective social locations and political stance. They could agree on the goal to rebuild and strengthen the people, but argued over the ways of achieving the goal. This struggle of the post – exilic community in the Bible in very instructive to us in our attempt to search for our vision and to arrive at the strategies to move forward in carrying out our responsibility in student ministry in Asia and the Pacific.

The Hebrew root for to build is used repeatedly in a few significant places in the oracles of Trito-Isaiah (ch.56-66). The author uses it to bring out the central theme of the text:

Build up, build up, prepare the way, and remove every obstruction from my people's way. (57:14)

Your own kindred will restore the ancient ruins, and you will build once more on ancestral foundation; you shall be called Rebuilder of broken walls. Restorer of houses in ruins. (58:12)

Ancient ruins shall be rebuilt and sites long desolate restored; they shall repair the ruined cities and restore what has long lain desolate. (61:4)

Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over the peoples. (62:10)

These are the words of the Lord: Heaven is my throne and earth my footstool. Where will you build a house for me? Where shall my resting-place be? (66:1)

The community is encouraged to take up the role of a rebuilder and restorer to rebuild the nation and the cities on ancestral foundations. There is however one issue for contention within the community, the role of the temple in the rebuilding process. Prophet Ezekiel's idea is that the temple with its priesthood is the centre of life of the community (ch. 40-48). Haggai the prophet also advocates the primary importance of the temple that the people should put aside their personal and family concerns and devote all their attention to the building of the temple first. This is, to Haggai, the only way to ensure life and well-being for the returned community (Hag 1:7-11).

The passage from Isaiah 66:1 questions this building model. Heaven is my throne and earth my footstool. Where will you build a house for me, where shall my resting-place bet is a challenge to even considering building the temple at all. This verse gives us a glimpse at the internal conflict of the community, the different perception of the future among different groups and diverse orientation for the understanding of the restored community.

There are two rival programs of restoration in Trito-Isaiah. Paul Hanson’s sociological study (1) of Trito-Isaiah leads

(1) For a detailed analysis of the sociological understanding of Trito-Isaiah, see Paul Hanson, The Dawn of Apocalyptic, The Historical and Sociological Roots of Jewish Apocalyptic Eschatology, Philadelphia: Fortress Press 1979 (revised edition), ch. 2, pp. 32-208. A different interpretation of the setting of Trito-Isaiah and Isa. 63:7-64:H. G. M. Williamson, Isaiah 63:7-64:11, has suggested 11. Exilic Lament or Post-Exilic Protest? ZAW 102, 1990, pp. 48-58.

him to believe that the powerless visionaries whose hope for the future society is recorded in Isa. 56-58 and 60-62 are in direct conflict with the hierocratic groups who are in control of the cult and whose pragmatic program is described in detail in Ezek 40-48. The community is tragically polarized and the visionaries are being afflicted (Isa. 59, 63-64). We do not know exactly why it was these visionaries’ voice that is being recorded in Trito – Isaiah without being silenced in the first place. Even their cry of frustration and protest at the oppression is given a hearing in the communal lament in Isaiah 63: - 64:11.

The returned community is faced with painful disputes on the question of identity, setting down boundaries and membership to exclude and reject others (56:3-8). The leadership is corrupt and self-serving that Trito-Isaiah calls them dumb dogs who cannot bark, greedy dogs that can never have enough and shepherds who understand nothing, each of them on one’s own pursuits (56:9-11). The prophet describes them as saying,

“Come,” they say, “Let us get wine,

let us fill ourselves with strong drink;

and tomorrow will be like today,

great beyond measure”.

As a result of the corruption of leadership, the society disintegrates and no one cares for righteousness nor show concerns for the suffering of the poor:

The righteous perish,

And no one takes it to heart;

People of good faith are swept away,

But no one cares,

The righteous are swept away

Before the onset of evil. (57:1)

There is hypocrisy in the religious community, which indulges in empty spiritual exercises and cultic practice of approaching God (58:1-2). Members of the community complain that God has not paid enough attention to their prayer and fasting (58:3). The prophet is summoned to address the community and makes a critique of the brand of religion that the people practiced. What is wrong with the religious activity of the people? They are interested in the rewards their religious piety would bring. If it does not pay off in the way they expect, they will launch a complaint that God does not pay attention nor give them benefits in return. They cry to God saying,

Why do we fast, but do you not see?

Why humble ourselves, but do you not notice? (58:3)

The answer given by the prophet refers them to the mistake they make, confusing God’s delight and their self-interest. The same Hebrew word (hps) is used here, delight to know God’s way, and delight to draw near to God (58:2) and your own interest (58:3). A call to reflect on our distorted self – serving religion is pointed out directly by God:

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,

And oppress all your workers.

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

And to strike with a wicked fist…

Is such the fast that I choose,

A day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush?

And to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast?

A day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this fast that I

To loose the bonds of injustice,

To undo the throngs of the yoke,

To let the oppressed go free,

And to break every yoke?

It is not to share your bread with the hungry,

And bring the homeless poor into your houses;

When you see the naked, to cover them,

And not to hide yourself from your own kin? (58:3-7)

When the religious community is preoccupied with its own self-interest at the expense of not caring for the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the naked, not only is the society in chaos and disintegration; the religious community will be held accountable and punished by God. No wonder why this pietistic people are accused of being rebellious in the beginning of the chapter. This is the situation of the post-exilic community.

The Vision of New Heavens and New Earth

To challenge the present situation, the prophet upholds a vision of hope at the end of the Book of Isaiah. It is embodied in the well-known New Heavens and New Earth passage. Isaiah portrays a future for the suffering people in terms of transformation of human situation, society and nature. The Lord announces and promises a renewed creation to the returned community:

The former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my sight. For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating… no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime… they shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No more shall they build and another inhabit; or plant and

another eat. No more shall they labor in vain, or bear children for calamity. (Isa 65:16b-18a, 20a, 21-23)

Looking from the perspective of the vision of an ideal community depicted in Trito-Isaiah, one sees several characteristics and elements that contribute to such a community. The sufferings and troubles of the past will be eliminated. There are four no more’s – sound of weeping, infant mortality, being dispossessed and laboring in vain. The promise to build houses and plant vineyards presupposes the possession of a piece of land, space that can generate life and give life dignity and protection. The future of the city that the returned community envisages is one that gives security, peace and prosperity (60:17-18). Walter Brueggemann sums up this passage or vision as follows: this daring poetry manages to link the transcendent verbs of God (I will create) to the concreteness of reordered communal, socio-economic, political existence (2).

The Vocation of a Servant Community

At the center of the message of Trito-Isaiah is a servant community, which takes upon itself the vocation of bringing the vision of God’s commitment to create new heavens and a new earth into reality. It acts as an enabler to concretize the vision and contextualize it in our social situation. Endowed with the spirit of God, the community is sent to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release to the prisoners (62:1).

Members of this community will be called Oaks of righteousness (61:3). Oak is a strong, enduring tree. Oaks of righteousness

(2) Walter Brueggemann, Using God’s Resources Wisely, Isaiah and Urban Possibility, Westminster / John Knox Press, 1993 p. 84

then symbolized the certainty in the establishment of righteousness.

Another feature of the returned and restored community will be its openness, inclusiveness and participatory nature. The people will be accepted as members of the formerly exclusive and privileged groups. Traditional offices of kings, priests and prophets will then be democratized; a new leadership emerges:

You shall be called priests of the Lord,

You shall be named ministers of our God. (61:6)

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,

And a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

You shall no more be termed Forsaken and

Your land shall no more be termed Desolate. (62:3-4)

Paul Hanson draws attention to the rival program of the hierocratic group led by the Zadokite who intended to monopolize the new cult and the priestly function (Ezek 40-48) (3). The following passages will give us a glimpse into the group’s exclusive attitude:

Mark well those who may be admitted to the temple,

And all those who are to be excluded. (Ezek 44:5)

They (the Levites) shall not come near to me,

To serve me as priest…

But the descendants of Zadok shall

Come near to me to minister to me. (Ezek 44:13, 15)

The new and open community is in contrast with these segregationist ideas, with foreigners, strangers, the poor, disabled,

(3)Paul Hanson, op. cit.

handicapped and physically deficient people being welcomed to participate fully as members. They will not be in fear of being discriminated against, or feel being inadequate or oppressed. It is an open, inclusive and egalitarian community in which everybody can freely participate and contribute to its building process (56:3-8). Its mission is to weave vision and the concrete social situation, to work hard to implement the building plan and to continually reflect on the progress.

In conclusion, I would like to relate the fable of Jothan in Judges 9. At the death of Gideon, their charismatic leader who took up his vocation and mission entrusted by God to give peace and order for forty years, the people of Israel were in search of a workable social model and a responsible leadership. Able persons did not respond to the call and the crisis. Jothan, the only survivor of the seventy political opponents murdered by Abimelech who was made king after violent bloodshed, tells the following fable:

Once upon a time, the trees came to anoint a king, and they said to the olive tree: "Reign over us." But the olive tree answered: "Shall I stop producing my rich oil by which gods and mortals are honored, and go to sway over the trees?" Then the trees said to the fig tree, "You come and reign over us.” But the fig tree answered them, "Shall I stop producing my sweetness and my delicious fruit, and go to sway over the trees?" Then the trees said to the vine, "You come and reign over us.” But the vine said to them, "Shall I stop producing my wine that cheers gods and mortals, and go to sway over the trees?" So all the trees said to the thorn-bush, "You come and reign over us.” And the thorn-bush said to the trees, "If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come under the protection of my shadow; if not, fire shall come out of the thorn and burn up the cedars of Lebanon. " (Judges 9:8-15)