I heard someone kind of stumble through a bit of a debate with a talk show host today and during my listening I heard the caller make the same old error in both facts and logic that you all are dealing with in the past two generations. In fact, this error has been taught in schools, so you are not alone in hearing it and taking it for granted. Here is the statement that is not factual or logical:
"Religions were developed by humans in order to make them behave in the way the society feels is proper."
Um....nooooooo, that's so wrong that it doesn't even pass the first and simplest criticism.
But before I shred the facts and logic, let me tell you the proper statement that is factual and logical, and thus you can follow my critique and criticism more easily. Here is a factual and logical truthful statement:
"Religions were developed as a means to interact with divine forces. A true religion is one based on actual interaction with the actual one and only God. A false religion is one based on presumed interactions with divinities that in actuality do not exist."
Here is the first and simplest way to totally refute the first statement and prove the second statement. What part of the pagan religion of the Greeks and Romans (worshipping the various gods of Olympus such as Zeus/Jupiter, Hera/Juno, Mars/Ares, etc) is an attempt to codify good behavior in humans? *tick tock tick tock tick tock....ring ring ring!* That's right: absolutely none. The pagan religions have two purposes and thus two activities (the "what" and the "why"), and one purpose/activity (the "what") is to tell stories (mythologies) about all the things those rascal gods are up to: sex, booze, jealousy, warfare, lots of lying and deception, tons of coveting, etc. So the Greek/Roman religions were filled with voyeuristic watching, through stories, of the shenanigans of the gods, and were certainly not templates for human behavior, and not even an idiot would have written down those mythologies claiming they inspire righteous behavior.
The second component, the "why" of those Greek/Roman beliefs is that they feared the world, which they did not understand, and so they projected (a human psychological term) their own "what if I were a god" thoughts upon the supposed supernatural forces. Ancient story tellers and elders would have thought of, using what they thought were reasonable assumptions, that gods were just like humans but much more powerful, and thus they organized their thoughts about the supernatural to resemble what "all powerful" human families (aka syndicates) would act like. So the "why" is that if gods were just like humans but with hair trigger anger and lots of gift/punishment ability, let's set up a system to worship and appease them with sacrifice and flattery.
So this is the easiest and most obvious way for you to see that for centuries, and indeed thousands of years, false religions developed because humans started with the "what you see is what you get" notion of a template for the so called gods and goddesses, which is what "we humans do here on earth, well, they must do the same thing but on a super scale 'up there.'" That is the opposite of a religion being developed to codify righteous behavior, because false religions imagine that gods are just like humans but "more so."
Now let's look at a shade of gray area, which is Hinduism. And remember, as I've stated before, I've never criticized sincere traditional follows of any religion, but I will point out error (and have done so including in my own religious institution (not the doctrine) of the Catholic Church.) So here is the problem with Hinduism: what part of the most rigid caste system ever developed among humanity is a "way to make people behave better" or be more righteous? None, of course. However, you do start to see how even in religions that contain error, the impulse to understand and cultivate goodness is there, and that is why the erroneous but understandable principle of karma and/or reincarnation came into being. So Hinduism is like a blending of the two "whats" about why a religion is developed, why it comes into being: one part is the what of imagining that there are multiple gods in human like family groups with sex, war, coveting and so forth, and so sacrifice must be made to them because they will be angry, or to gain favor, but there is also the second part which is an attempt to interact with divinity by being good, and thus through some un-understandable way receive good karma and better reincarnation.
I explained that the Holy Spirit of the one true God does indeed move among all people of the world, all the time, believers or non-believers (more urgently in the latter, obviously), in order to make the true one God known. Likewise people reach out to the "spirit," knowing in their hearts that there must be some ultimate goodness, even if it cannot be seen. In this effort the people who first codified Hinduism felt a touch of the Holy Spirit and interpreted that in some unseen way one does live on forever based on good behavior.
Buddhism is a prime example of what I am saying, even though people who don't give it much thought ascribe the first hypothesis (the erroneous one) to its existence. People have a reflexive, and understandable, though wrong, thought that since much of Buddhism is about goodness and good behavior that it must have developed for that reason. Well, the history shows otherwise. People, including the Buddha, do not meditate in order to come up with a list of good behaviors and thus "invent" a religion! If they wanted to "invent" a religion they would consult lawyers, judges, elders and so forth and have a list of do's and don'ts. No.... a person who goes into a contemplative life, one filled with meditation, is not trying to come up with a list of do's and don'ts, but is trying to communicate with divinity. So once again, like the Hinduism, Buddha and the early Buddhists touched some aspects of the Holy Spirit, but did not discern the presence of the one God. A key difference is that we know that the Buddha had disciples who wrote down his thoughts and thus created a system for passing on and amplifying the insights and conclusions of his meditations. Again, that's further demonstration that the Buddha's disciples were not setting out to "invent" a religion to "control" or encourage good behavior per se, though they were obviously pleased at whatever work they did that did so as a result.
So here is how you can now turn to the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and easily understand they were not "developed" in order to "make people be good." God initiated conversation with Adam and Eve when they were in Eden, when they had "everything," when they had no need to be "good." God started "talking" to human beings directly at a time when God provided everything for them, not when they were lawless and needing "goodness." A true religion arises (as distinct from being developed or invented) when humans have authentic communication with the actual one true God.
The caller argued that Judaism/Christianity was "invented" when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Um, what? That was thousands of years after when God first made himself known and had many, many, many generations of interactions with believers who had a genuine relationship with him. Um, the religion had already come into being at the first moment of genuine communication with the one true God, well before God responds to the needs of humans in order to serve him (not in order to be "good") by giving them his Laws.
Remember, humans were already "good" because they were created by God, and all his creations were deemed "good" by God. So there is a vast difference between "good behavior," which should be the desire of all people, and "knowing and serving God," which is the purpose of true religion of the true God.
Adam and Eve did not fall from God's favor because they had unlawful or bad behavior in the way that modern humans think of it. They fell because they disobeyed the one thing God told them not to do, which is to try to duplicate what God himself only is able to do. They wanted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge not so they could commit more burglaries or engage in voter fraud, or have domestic violence, etc.... they wanted to have the wisdom that God alone has. And who tempted them? Not the angel who runs around committing grand larceny, molesting little kids, robbing banks, declaring wars, etc, but the angel who thought he knew as much or if not as much then at least the loopholes of God, the angel who would not serve, Lucifer.
So there is nothing in the thousands of years of factual, legitimate and truthful dialogue between the one true God and the humans who heard and believed him that is a step by step cookbook or programming exercise in developing a list of good behaviors for humans to follow. What you do have is a history of people trying to understand God, know God and most of all, serve God, no matter how imperfectly. When one faithfully loves and knows God, good behavior is a natural outflow of serving God.
Here is where people who still have some trouble with what I am explaining raise the following (bogus but understandable) comparison. "Yes," they say, "But you say pagans sacrifice to false gods out of fear of their moodiness and capriciousness based on their power over humans. So why does the true God 'make' people sacrifice to him, as in the Old Testament?"
Ah, but if you read the passages in Genesis about sacrifice (many of which I have keyed into this blog and commented on), each of the earliest sacrifices (starting with the first documented by Cain and Abel) were not done for fear of God, but to celebrate "giving back" part of their harvests. Sacrifice to God is not idolatry but the first form of tithing, of returning to God a part of what God has given to people in the first place. Each and every subsequent building of an altar and an offering of sacrifice to God commemorated gratitude for a significant event. Abraham was and remains the model for understanding the true purpose of building an altar and offering a sacrifice, so do read the passages where he does so and you'll better understand what I mean.
When God codified the requirements of sacrifice through Moses (where he made formal ritual and requirements for sacrifice) he did so thousands of years after people had already been behaving in godly ways in service to him and had been sacrificing in honor and tithing to God. God made more formal requirements for two reasons (and notice none of them are to "make people behave better.") The first reason is that when people did commit sin they needed a consistency in paying a penalty to God. So the people as a whole were expected to do the same thing upon the same occasions for the same reason that if one of your children lies you make them do without dessert while if the other child lies you beat them, that would be a gross inconsistency. Humans have enough trouble with understanding the All Knowingness and All Power of God, and humans are notoriously bad at determining the price of "other people's" "sin." Imagine if God had not regulated sacrifice how if the person who caught the envy of someone in power would suffer odious requirements for "penance," while for the same "sin" the buddy of the chief would get off with sacrificing an old shoe or something. So God required a constancy and consistency of sacrifice when humans had reached the point where they would be tempted to use God's "forgiveness" in self serving ways.
The second reason that Laws and accompanying sacrifice and other rituals became codified by God is so that people would not have to imagine, rightly or wrongly, what was "all right" or "OK" to do to serve God and what was not. Remember, God has chosen his people, the Israelites, so they were already his, as he led them through Moses out of slavery. Now God is telling them how to serve him, not "how to behave good." Serving God is the first and utmost requirement and it is no coincidence that the Commandments are ordered accordingly. If one truly honors the name of God, fears God, loves God and keeps one's self sanctified to him, one then does not really want to murder, steal, lie and covet.
It's not like the Israelites were all running around in the desert robbing banks or something, and so God puts His foot down and says, "They need some laws to behave right." No, God explained to them how to serve God, and that is the job that they were failing miserably at (all the backsliding into idolatry even as God is right there with them, for example), not lawlessness or bad behavior. In the later books in the Bible, those before and during the captivity to Babylon, you read about the lawlessness and bad behavior in all those conventional ways (rich extorting the poor, etc) but that was because they had already abandoned so much of their service to God in their hearts. Bad behavior is an outflow of not sanctifying one's self to God's service. That is why a person could commit a million "good deeds" to "help fellow humanity" and yet still not be saved because it is serving God that earns one heaven, which is unmerited grace, not "works" or "good behavior."
Notice that Jesus Christ in preaching the Beatitudes, his first great (mega-) sermon to the crowds, that he starts not with a list of "good behavior" or don'ts, but in comforting those who were doing without through no fault of their own the goodness of life's joys.
Matthew 5:1-12
And seeing the crowds, he went up the mountain. And when he was seated, his disciple came to him. And opening his mouth he taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men reproach you, and persecute you, and speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you, for my sake.
Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets who were before you.
If you truly read and examine the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, you will notice, just as in the Old Testament, how little is "do's" and "don'ts" of good behavior. It is ALL about serving God and thus goodness is the outflow from what comes first, knowing, honoring and fearing God (read my series on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to understand how the path to sanctity in service to God is scripturally explained).
Think about this carefully because Jesus is the "beginning" of Christianity. How much of what Jesus preached is codifying "laws" for Christian "good behavior?" This is an easy question to get wrong because Jesus is the model of good Christian behavior, but not because he set forth more or less do's and don'ts. Thus no one can read the Gospel and say that people "made it up" in order to "make people behave good." Christianity is so obviously not invented with the purpose of making more ordered, law abiding, good behaved people. Christianity is the heralding of the New Covenant with the already well understood God, and in the New Covenant of serving God by understanding Jesus to be Lord and Savior (the Messiah), good behavior is the natural outflow of genuine sanctification in God's sight by emulating and following Jesus as he actually was, not how he was imagined or caricatured.
You understand a man or woman by where he or she places their priorities in life. We all know people who care the most about their jobs, or their children, their health or their addictions, etc. Whenever you get a little lost about understanding the divine and human complexity of Jesus, read Matthew 5:1-12 over and over, and think of this. Of all the things he could have stated in the opening of his first, great mega-sermon, he chose to list the comforts, including seeing God, that those who genuinely lack in the joys of life today will receive. He did not start with a list of admonishments of bad behavior. Jesus' priority was to turn those who were poor, unhappy and suffering due to shortages in life toward God's nearness, and not in chastising those who have any part in causing deprivation or suffering. Why? Because Jesus came in order to show the people the face of God via the human form of Jesus and draw people nearer to God, not to regulate their behavior.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
Jesus does not have to list all the ways that people have dirty hearts and then tell them not to do it and chastise them, reminding them of certain punishment. If Christianity were "invented" so that people "behaved better," then this would be the starting place to list all the problems, loopholes, errors and bad thinking, but 1) that has already be covered in abundance throughout the Old Testament and 2) God is comforting those on the right path, that of service to and trusting in God, the Father.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
Jesus does not have to list all the "bad" wars, and explain "good conflict" from "inappropriate conflict." Again, if you serve God honestly and with a whole heart it becomes rather obvious who is a peacemaker and who is not. Jesus is reaching out God's comfort to those who already are on the path to being children of God because they have their hearts open to Jesus' message and they need his comfort.
So, to wrap up this posting and give you time to think about what I've touched upon here, do not fall into the trap of agreeing with something that sounds "logical" and "obvious" but does not, if you pause even briefly, stand up to any scrutiny or proof. It seems so "logical" that religions were "invented" so that people "behave good," yet the history of each religion shows that this is not at all what/why and "how" religions were "developed" at all! It's amazing how in these modern generations such errors are repeated over and over. If you asked one hundred years ago any person "why religion" "existed," he or she would have answered "to know God." It's only recently that it seems that everything people used to understand has been removed from their brains, willfully, and replaced with agenda and phoniness. Modern control freaks think that their ancestors were control freaks, and it just was not so and the proof is in the actual writings of each faith. True faiths, even those based on some error, all stem from a genuine attempt to reach and commune with God in understanding and good will. False faiths are those who do not connect authentically with the Holy Spirit, and those that attempt to diminish the all power and control of the one true God into a flawed human model. But even the most false of the faiths (the Greek and Roman pantheon of so called gods) did not arise because some author was trying to "get the people to be good." Har, har, ha ha, some models those were, if so. No, it was from those people's misunderstanding that divinity must be flawed like humans, of trying to pull the presumed dwellers of the firmament down to earth to be "like humans" but with "godly powers." So even the falsest of the well known "religions" of modern times did not spring from the presumed agenda based ambitions of someone with the intention of "thinking up some religion to make people be good." Sometimes the facts are just ridiculously obvious, but one must not be bum rushed into believing something that sounds so "logical," yet withstands absolutely no real scrutiny.
(Hi young people, miss you....) thinking of you as always and hoping that you in particular find this helpful. Someday some of you must tell me just what they ARE exactly teaching in schools, if not facts and logic? Hmm.
Showing posts with label altar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label altar. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Thoughts about the altar in churches - part 2/2 or 3
"Part 2/2 or 3" is a little wry humor by me :-) Since I write these ad hoc as I think of them, I might finish a thought in part 2 and realize that I haven't covered the topic enough and need to go on to a part 3! Even though these blogs are often serious topics, with a lot of scolding, even then I try to keep them conversational, and thus segment them accordingly. When I've talked myself out (or figured you've heard enough, LOL), and it's not fun anymore, then I do save material for later posts.
I set the foundation for what I wanted to speak about in the first part by citing what is Catholic Church thought, and thus doctrine, about altars. I then provided scripture citation regarding Abraham's building of an altar whenever he and his family, his tribe, relocated.
Whenever one discusses faith history or a sacred subject, one has to go back to the very beginning, in the Bible, and trace the origins and development of that topic such as, in this case, altars. Why? First, let me accuse the modern people of having a "let's do the minimum amount that we need to do" attitude, which is misleading. For example, many children try to get away with the least amount of homework and study possible, ("just enough to get by"), or the least amount of practice possible, even when it is something that they love, such as music or sports. Unfortunately, it is the same regarding God. Too many ministers-and their flocks-want to just flip the Bible open and "see what Paul says we have to do about altars." Who cares what Abraham did, right? Um, deny that if you dare, but you know that I am correct. Rather than plumbing the depths, of loving God so much that you want to know all there is about him, and to please him and serve his will, too many of you just hope that Paul "tells you" the bare minimum that you "must" do. But is that really enough? And does it supersede what Jesus himself said and did?
You must bare open to yourselves your own heart and motivations, since, after all, God knows them all already, even before you have them, and he knows them all far more than you ever will (since God knows what is hidden, both conscious and unconscious). Are you motivated to love and to serve God, to be sanctified, and thus you do not have to worry about a "salvation checklist?" No where in scripture does Jesus say that one should not seek to better love, know and serve God, since he, Jesus, is "enough." In other words, Jesus does not put up a barrier and say that you no longer need to read scripture (in fact, Jesus often quotes scripture from those "old" times) nor that you must understand God's will.
For example, when Jesus is asked about what to do to be saved, Jesus mentions the Commandments. It goes without saying that Jesus assumes that his followers would not only know the Commandments, but they would also read all the associated scripture! By reading the scripture you enrich and make more accurate your understanding of the fullness of God's relationship with you individually and his church collectively.
This is why I am very keen to have people think most seriously about God's expectations and God's attitude toward the most solemn sign of his presence on earth, which is his altar.
Again, I am anticipating a modern problem that I encounter all the time, particularly among many Protestant denominations and nondenominational churches. Many try to cut this line of thought off at the very beginning, with the somewhat snooty and snotty observation that altars are not "needed" because "don't you know that God is everywhere?" Um, duh, yeah, I kind of know that God is everywhere (which is why I constantly have to remind all of you that when we say God is all knowing we mean he is all knowing, including what you think, have thought and will think in the future). Obviously God is everywhere. That is not the point of an altar, to have a superstitious belief that God is "only" there. Do you not realize that God was "everywhere" during the time of Abraham too? Abraham built altars not to "bring God along."
You want to think most seriously about altars and what they mean to GOD, and not what they mean to you.
An altar is where God has made a commitment to his people to be present. For example, think of the room in your home where you receive guests, such as your living room or a reception room. An altar is the place where God, who is of course present in that room and any and every room, has committed himself to being seated, even though you cannot see him. God knows that you cannot see him, and God knows that you know he is everywhere, though you often forget that he is, of course. God therefore has from the very beginning, since his relationship with Adam and Eve and onward, committed to be present at the place of the altar, even though he cannot be seen.
How do we know this goes so far back in time, even to Adam and Eve?
Genesis 4:3-5
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
Most with fundamental knowledge of their faith know that the first children of Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel, and that Cain committed the first murder, killing his brother because he envied that the Lord God approved of Abel's offering more than Cain's.
Now, where exactly do you think these offerings would have been made, since they had been banished from the Garden of Eden, which is where God used to walk with their parents, Adam and Eve? These offerings would have been made on an altar to God.
I have to remind people who worry when we "assume" and "put things into the Bible that are not written there" that THEY need to better know their scripture, not I. Who wrote the first five books of the Bible? Moses. Where were offerings made to God during the time of Moses. On altars. Moses would not have to state that these offerings were made on altars "just to get it formally in writing in the scripture" because it never would have occurred to him otherwise.
Here is a modern example. "Sally left the house and drove to John's place." Oh no! We cannot understand the meaning of that phrase, because the author did not say that Sally drove "in a car!" I mean, in old English to "drove" also means to herd cattle. Might not the author have meant that Sally left the house and herded some cattle over to John's place? LOL. Do you see what I mean that far from "putting something into the Bible that isn't there," genuine lovers and scholars of the Bible always recall the context in which it is written, and they trust the divinely inspired authors to place what is need within. One does not stop using one's brain and power of deduction when one reads the Bible.
So we know for a fact that immediately after the fall of man through Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the garden that at least one altar was built and offerings made to the Lord by their children Cain and Abel.
Cain was a farmer and Abel was a herdsman (Genesis 4:2). Thus Cain brought "an offering" "from the fruit of the soil while Abel" "brought one of his best firstlings of his flock." This means that Cain brought average produce from what he farmed while Abel brought one of the best of the first born animals. So Cain basically sampled out of what he was growing anyway some to offer to the Lord, while Abel selected one of his very best to give up to the Lord.
Think again of that guest arriving in your living room or reception room. Cain would have the guest sit in any of the regular chairs that were available in the conference room, for example. Abel would have brought into the room the best chair for the guest, taking it from himself if that was the one that he usually sat in. Now, I'm mixing into one image with this analogy both the altar itself and the offerings placed upon it, but there is a reason I am doing so, so just bear with me and don't split hairs over it ;-)
The next mention of an altar is when God sent the flood to destroy the wickedness of man, saving only Noah, who had built an ark according to God's instruction. After the earth had dried and it was safe to emerge:
Genesis 8:20-21
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar. When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever strike down all living beings, as I have done."
By the way, how do we know what God was thinking, since he did not speak aloud that thought? Again, because he told Moses, who is the author of Genesis and the four books of the Bible that follow.
So when Noah leaves the ark he promptly builds an altar and offers up sacrifice, even though he knows, I mean, duh, that God is "everywhere," since God spoke to him and helped him build the ark all along.
The altar is the place where humans have a committed meeting with God. It has been so from the very beginning and it pleases God. It also provides a stability of relationship and perspective between human beings and God. It is like the difference between knowing that your human visitor is alive, is planning to come, knows what you are doing, and perhaps is even texting you or speaking to you on the phone, and the guest actually being in the room and being handed a chair by you. Just because your guest "exists" does not mean it is not important to give him or her respect, full attention, and a place to sit when they are in your actual presence. The earliest of faith forefathers, starting obviously with Cain and Abel, understood that, and were not prompted by God to do so (otherwise that would be in the scripture). Humans as much as God desired that altars be built to define and formalize the committed presence of God in that place.
We next read about altars as they are built by Abraham, as I have already cited previously.
So that is what I think about whenever I enter a church. I immediately look for the altar. Now, can you imagine my reaction and why I have that when I do not see an altar at all? I do not care if one calls it an altar or the "Lord's table" (referring to Jesus Christ at the Last Supper). I do not understand how one feels "at home with God" in a church that does not have either an altar or the Lord's table. Next, imagine how I feel when there is something but it is either very lame or it is used for glorification the congregation, like a microphone stand or something. Yikes, can you repeat after me "Um, that's missing the whole point of an altar!"
Of course God is "everywhere." Believe you me, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah and Abraham sure know that more than you today know and believe that! The altar is the place of committed meeting between God and the faithful. Jesus Christ, far from removing it, confirmed that and, further, placed himself on the altar on behalf of all humans. The altar in the church (non Catholic) where I frequently attend services (as a visitor and faith family member, like an "in-law" LOL) has a simple altar but with the words in gold "Do this in remembrance of me." Now, there is much that I wish they would do differently about the altar as the presence of God in that church, but I am not going to critique those who at least have a worthy altar in their church.
I think I will wrap part 2 here because, as I thought in the beginning, a part 3 where we look at what Jesus said and did in this context is really needed. But even if I wrapped up my thoughts here, which is the whole point, I think I leave you in a good place to better understand that the altar is not "just" the "old fashioned place" where the "Jews burned offerings" and "we don't need to do that kind of thing." That's forgetting that the altar became the committed meeting place of God and humans after humans had gone and lost the Garden of Eden for everyone, where God had walked in person among Adam and Eve and the animals (thanks a lot, hmm?) Scripture shows that God did not order the building of altars nor specify the sacrifices until the time of the formation of the Israelites as they left Egypt under Moses. Altars were built immediately by humans as soon as they had lost, through the sin of Adam and Eve, their day to day contact with the Lord God. There they had committed encounter with the Lord, and there they made offering to him.
I hope that you have found this helpful and has given you a deeper perspective about not only a very important and sacred topic, altars, but also better understanding God's ongoing relationship with his faithful, in all its forms and depths.
I set the foundation for what I wanted to speak about in the first part by citing what is Catholic Church thought, and thus doctrine, about altars. I then provided scripture citation regarding Abraham's building of an altar whenever he and his family, his tribe, relocated.
Whenever one discusses faith history or a sacred subject, one has to go back to the very beginning, in the Bible, and trace the origins and development of that topic such as, in this case, altars. Why? First, let me accuse the modern people of having a "let's do the minimum amount that we need to do" attitude, which is misleading. For example, many children try to get away with the least amount of homework and study possible, ("just enough to get by"), or the least amount of practice possible, even when it is something that they love, such as music or sports. Unfortunately, it is the same regarding God. Too many ministers-and their flocks-want to just flip the Bible open and "see what Paul says we have to do about altars." Who cares what Abraham did, right? Um, deny that if you dare, but you know that I am correct. Rather than plumbing the depths, of loving God so much that you want to know all there is about him, and to please him and serve his will, too many of you just hope that Paul "tells you" the bare minimum that you "must" do. But is that really enough? And does it supersede what Jesus himself said and did?
You must bare open to yourselves your own heart and motivations, since, after all, God knows them all already, even before you have them, and he knows them all far more than you ever will (since God knows what is hidden, both conscious and unconscious). Are you motivated to love and to serve God, to be sanctified, and thus you do not have to worry about a "salvation checklist?" No where in scripture does Jesus say that one should not seek to better love, know and serve God, since he, Jesus, is "enough." In other words, Jesus does not put up a barrier and say that you no longer need to read scripture (in fact, Jesus often quotes scripture from those "old" times) nor that you must understand God's will.
For example, when Jesus is asked about what to do to be saved, Jesus mentions the Commandments. It goes without saying that Jesus assumes that his followers would not only know the Commandments, but they would also read all the associated scripture! By reading the scripture you enrich and make more accurate your understanding of the fullness of God's relationship with you individually and his church collectively.
This is why I am very keen to have people think most seriously about God's expectations and God's attitude toward the most solemn sign of his presence on earth, which is his altar.
Again, I am anticipating a modern problem that I encounter all the time, particularly among many Protestant denominations and nondenominational churches. Many try to cut this line of thought off at the very beginning, with the somewhat snooty and snotty observation that altars are not "needed" because "don't you know that God is everywhere?" Um, duh, yeah, I kind of know that God is everywhere (which is why I constantly have to remind all of you that when we say God is all knowing we mean he is all knowing, including what you think, have thought and will think in the future). Obviously God is everywhere. That is not the point of an altar, to have a superstitious belief that God is "only" there. Do you not realize that God was "everywhere" during the time of Abraham too? Abraham built altars not to "bring God along."
You want to think most seriously about altars and what they mean to GOD, and not what they mean to you.
An altar is where God has made a commitment to his people to be present. For example, think of the room in your home where you receive guests, such as your living room or a reception room. An altar is the place where God, who is of course present in that room and any and every room, has committed himself to being seated, even though you cannot see him. God knows that you cannot see him, and God knows that you know he is everywhere, though you often forget that he is, of course. God therefore has from the very beginning, since his relationship with Adam and Eve and onward, committed to be present at the place of the altar, even though he cannot be seen.
How do we know this goes so far back in time, even to Adam and Eve?
Genesis 4:3-5
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
Most with fundamental knowledge of their faith know that the first children of Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel, and that Cain committed the first murder, killing his brother because he envied that the Lord God approved of Abel's offering more than Cain's.
Now, where exactly do you think these offerings would have been made, since they had been banished from the Garden of Eden, which is where God used to walk with their parents, Adam and Eve? These offerings would have been made on an altar to God.
I have to remind people who worry when we "assume" and "put things into the Bible that are not written there" that THEY need to better know their scripture, not I. Who wrote the first five books of the Bible? Moses. Where were offerings made to God during the time of Moses. On altars. Moses would not have to state that these offerings were made on altars "just to get it formally in writing in the scripture" because it never would have occurred to him otherwise.
Here is a modern example. "Sally left the house and drove to John's place." Oh no! We cannot understand the meaning of that phrase, because the author did not say that Sally drove "in a car!" I mean, in old English to "drove" also means to herd cattle. Might not the author have meant that Sally left the house and herded some cattle over to John's place? LOL. Do you see what I mean that far from "putting something into the Bible that isn't there," genuine lovers and scholars of the Bible always recall the context in which it is written, and they trust the divinely inspired authors to place what is need within. One does not stop using one's brain and power of deduction when one reads the Bible.
So we know for a fact that immediately after the fall of man through Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the garden that at least one altar was built and offerings made to the Lord by their children Cain and Abel.
Cain was a farmer and Abel was a herdsman (Genesis 4:2). Thus Cain brought "an offering" "from the fruit of the soil while Abel" "brought one of his best firstlings of his flock." This means that Cain brought average produce from what he farmed while Abel brought one of the best of the first born animals. So Cain basically sampled out of what he was growing anyway some to offer to the Lord, while Abel selected one of his very best to give up to the Lord.
Think again of that guest arriving in your living room or reception room. Cain would have the guest sit in any of the regular chairs that were available in the conference room, for example. Abel would have brought into the room the best chair for the guest, taking it from himself if that was the one that he usually sat in. Now, I'm mixing into one image with this analogy both the altar itself and the offerings placed upon it, but there is a reason I am doing so, so just bear with me and don't split hairs over it ;-)
The next mention of an altar is when God sent the flood to destroy the wickedness of man, saving only Noah, who had built an ark according to God's instruction. After the earth had dried and it was safe to emerge:
Genesis 8:20-21
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar. When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever strike down all living beings, as I have done."
By the way, how do we know what God was thinking, since he did not speak aloud that thought? Again, because he told Moses, who is the author of Genesis and the four books of the Bible that follow.
So when Noah leaves the ark he promptly builds an altar and offers up sacrifice, even though he knows, I mean, duh, that God is "everywhere," since God spoke to him and helped him build the ark all along.
The altar is the place where humans have a committed meeting with God. It has been so from the very beginning and it pleases God. It also provides a stability of relationship and perspective between human beings and God. It is like the difference between knowing that your human visitor is alive, is planning to come, knows what you are doing, and perhaps is even texting you or speaking to you on the phone, and the guest actually being in the room and being handed a chair by you. Just because your guest "exists" does not mean it is not important to give him or her respect, full attention, and a place to sit when they are in your actual presence. The earliest of faith forefathers, starting obviously with Cain and Abel, understood that, and were not prompted by God to do so (otherwise that would be in the scripture). Humans as much as God desired that altars be built to define and formalize the committed presence of God in that place.
We next read about altars as they are built by Abraham, as I have already cited previously.
So that is what I think about whenever I enter a church. I immediately look for the altar. Now, can you imagine my reaction and why I have that when I do not see an altar at all? I do not care if one calls it an altar or the "Lord's table" (referring to Jesus Christ at the Last Supper). I do not understand how one feels "at home with God" in a church that does not have either an altar or the Lord's table. Next, imagine how I feel when there is something but it is either very lame or it is used for glorification the congregation, like a microphone stand or something. Yikes, can you repeat after me "Um, that's missing the whole point of an altar!"
Of course God is "everywhere." Believe you me, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah and Abraham sure know that more than you today know and believe that! The altar is the place of committed meeting between God and the faithful. Jesus Christ, far from removing it, confirmed that and, further, placed himself on the altar on behalf of all humans. The altar in the church (non Catholic) where I frequently attend services (as a visitor and faith family member, like an "in-law" LOL) has a simple altar but with the words in gold "Do this in remembrance of me." Now, there is much that I wish they would do differently about the altar as the presence of God in that church, but I am not going to critique those who at least have a worthy altar in their church.
I think I will wrap part 2 here because, as I thought in the beginning, a part 3 where we look at what Jesus said and did in this context is really needed. But even if I wrapped up my thoughts here, which is the whole point, I think I leave you in a good place to better understand that the altar is not "just" the "old fashioned place" where the "Jews burned offerings" and "we don't need to do that kind of thing." That's forgetting that the altar became the committed meeting place of God and humans after humans had gone and lost the Garden of Eden for everyone, where God had walked in person among Adam and Eve and the animals (thanks a lot, hmm?) Scripture shows that God did not order the building of altars nor specify the sacrifices until the time of the formation of the Israelites as they left Egypt under Moses. Altars were built immediately by humans as soon as they had lost, through the sin of Adam and Eve, their day to day contact with the Lord God. There they had committed encounter with the Lord, and there they made offering to him.
I hope that you have found this helpful and has given you a deeper perspective about not only a very important and sacred topic, altars, but also better understanding God's ongoing relationship with his faithful, in all its forms and depths.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Thoughts about the altar in churches - part 1/2
I want to write a reflection about what an altar in a church means to me. I'm determined, however, not to stay up late tonight blogging! So I will write this in two parts, saving my reflection and some scripture references for the second part, and for context and background, copy here four paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church about altars.
1181 A church, "a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved, where the faithful assemble, and where is worshipped the presence of the Son of God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the help and consolation of the faithful-this house ought to be in good taste and a worthy place for prayer and sacred ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth and the harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present and active in this place.
1182 The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, from which the sacraments of the Paschal mystery flow. On the altar, which is the center of the church, the sacrifice of the Cross is made present under sacramental signs. The altar is also the table of the Lord, to which the People of God are invited. In certain Eastern liturgies, the altar is also the symbol of the tomb (Christ truly died and is truly risen).
1383 The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us. "For what is the altar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?" asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, "The altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of Christ is on the altar." The liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus the Roman Church prays in its anaphora:
We entreat you, almighty God,
that by the hands of your holy Angel
this offering may be borne to your altar in heaven
in the sight of your divine majesty,
so that as we receive in communion at this altar
the most holy Body and Blood of your Son,
we may be filled with every heavenly blessing and grace.
2570 When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord told him"; Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled. Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God.
***
Just to reassure you of the scriptural basis, here are the references for the statement that Abraham built altars.
Genesis 12:7-9
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So Abram build an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He build an altar there to the Lord and invoked the Lord by name. Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.
Genesis 13:18
Abram moved his tents and went on to settle near the terebinth of Mamre, which is at Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.
Here is an interesting aside. Abraham made a peace pact with Abimelech, king of Gerar (these were Philistines). You can read the reasons why they came to respect Abraham's God and to make peace in Genesis 20-21. The place where they made their peace pact was Beer-sheba. Read what Abraham did to mark that place.
Genesis 21:33-4
Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and there he invoked by name the Lord, God the Eternal. Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for many years.
A tamarisk is a tree.
This is an example where careful readers can discern information about what is appropriate in the worship of God, and what is not, not only by what is stated, but also observing the role modeling of the Patriarchs and the Prophets. Abraham demonstrated faith to God by building altars and invoking God's name as Abraham traveled and relocated. Abraham also showed that one can commemorate a profound occasion (such as the pact with the Philistines) through a mundane object (such as planting a tree) and the invocation of God's name to bless the event. This is much as we do today, when we build a building, plant a garden, erect a plaque or some other commemorative device, and then bless it with the name of God.
Another comment and then I will wait until writing part two for my commentary about altars. Just to further mutual Christian and Muslim understanding, this is for Christians. The Muslims understand that Abraham created altars and other commemorative locations throughout the region, and one of the early endeavors by the Muslim people was to determine which of those locations still existed in their place and could be identified as such. This is the origin of some of the locations that Muslims consider very holy.
1181 A church, "a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved, where the faithful assemble, and where is worshipped the presence of the Son of God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the help and consolation of the faithful-this house ought to be in good taste and a worthy place for prayer and sacred ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth and the harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present and active in this place.
1182 The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, from which the sacraments of the Paschal mystery flow. On the altar, which is the center of the church, the sacrifice of the Cross is made present under sacramental signs. The altar is also the table of the Lord, to which the People of God are invited. In certain Eastern liturgies, the altar is also the symbol of the tomb (Christ truly died and is truly risen).
1383 The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us. "For what is the altar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?" asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, "The altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of Christ is on the altar." The liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus the Roman Church prays in its anaphora:
We entreat you, almighty God,
that by the hands of your holy Angel
this offering may be borne to your altar in heaven
in the sight of your divine majesty,
so that as we receive in communion at this altar
the most holy Body and Blood of your Son,
we may be filled with every heavenly blessing and grace.
2570 When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord told him"; Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled. Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God.
***
Just to reassure you of the scriptural basis, here are the references for the statement that Abraham built altars.
Genesis 12:7-9
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So Abram build an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He build an altar there to the Lord and invoked the Lord by name. Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.
Genesis 13:18
Abram moved his tents and went on to settle near the terebinth of Mamre, which is at Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.
Here is an interesting aside. Abraham made a peace pact with Abimelech, king of Gerar (these were Philistines). You can read the reasons why they came to respect Abraham's God and to make peace in Genesis 20-21. The place where they made their peace pact was Beer-sheba. Read what Abraham did to mark that place.
Genesis 21:33-4
Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and there he invoked by name the Lord, God the Eternal. Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for many years.
A tamarisk is a tree.
This is an example where careful readers can discern information about what is appropriate in the worship of God, and what is not, not only by what is stated, but also observing the role modeling of the Patriarchs and the Prophets. Abraham demonstrated faith to God by building altars and invoking God's name as Abraham traveled and relocated. Abraham also showed that one can commemorate a profound occasion (such as the pact with the Philistines) through a mundane object (such as planting a tree) and the invocation of God's name to bless the event. This is much as we do today, when we build a building, plant a garden, erect a plaque or some other commemorative device, and then bless it with the name of God.
Another comment and then I will wait until writing part two for my commentary about altars. Just to further mutual Christian and Muslim understanding, this is for Christians. The Muslims understand that Abraham created altars and other commemorative locations throughout the region, and one of the early endeavors by the Muslim people was to determine which of those locations still existed in their place and could be identified as such. This is the origin of some of the locations that Muslims consider very holy.
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