This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

AI WEIWEI ACCUSED OF CRIMES BY CHINESE STATE

Hong Kong Pavement art-"Who's afraid of Ai Weiwei?"

Jeremiah 26:1-16

26At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came from the Lord: 2Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord; speak to them all the words that I command you; do not hold back a word. 3It may be that they will listen, all of them, and will turn from their evil way, that I may change my mind about the disaster that I intend to bring on them because of their evil doings. 4You shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, 5and to heed the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently—though you have not heeded— 6then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

7 The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, ‘You shall die! 9Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, “This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant”?’ And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

10 When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ‘This man deserves the sentence of death because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.’

12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, ‘It is the Lord who sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. 13Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will change his mind about the disaster that he has pronounced against you. 14But as for me, here I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.’

16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, ‘This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’

The dissident uses imagination against mere conformity

It’s likely that many of Jeremiah’s contemporaries shared his faith or would have claimed to do so but only he took faith in God’s covenant seriously enough to work out the consequences of breaking it. Others perhaps thought that he shouldn’t take the concept so literally-after all God is not human and probably would not seek redress as human beings would. Jeremiah however had entered into the drama of faith which is nothing unless the actors play their parts with absolute seriousness. We can say that God is faithful to his people’s imagination of him, not by confirming their images of him, but by using them and transcending them. In the end of the day the people recognise the drama and identify the voice of God. They accept Jeremiah as a true prophet. It’s good to see that they were not only convinced by the content of the message but as much or more by Jeremiah’s total commitment to it. God speaks not merely through but also in his prophet. This may also be true of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei arrested as a dissident.

JOHN 9 23- 39

It was winter, 23and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ 25Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30The Father and I are one.’

31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ 33The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’ 34Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, you are gods”? 35If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods”—and the scripture cannot be annulled— 36can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? 37If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. 38But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ 39Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.

Jesus’ imagination –if we are to speak humanly about him as the gospel insists we should-is that he is the son in God’s household. We have been trained by the birth stories in Matthew and Luke to think of this in almost “biological” terms, so it’s important to note that such a view is far from John’s gospel, in which “birth not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of a man, but of God” is attributed first of all (John 1) to those who receive the Word of God in the flesh rather than to Jesus himself. Certainly Jesus is the “only begotten” son, making a distinction in kind between Jesus and his brothers and sisters. Still, if we are not going to attribute this  theology to Jesus’ followers, we must find its origin in Jesus’ experience of God and in his imagination of himself: he is the beloved son in God’s household.

The beloved son

The Son, for Jesus, is the one who perfectly does the will of the Father. He challenges his opponents to enter into this great drama of God’s mission in his Son, to examine his deeds and know them for God’s work, to share his trust in the Father. It’s important for us to attribute Jesus’ view of his identity to faith working through imagination because this gives us a clue as to how we are meant to understand ourselves as God’s children: trusting Jesus and the Father, we imagine God’s household as ours, our household as God’s. In Christian theology dogmatism has too often taken the place of creative imagination and thereby stifled it. John depicts the authorities reacting dogmatically against Jesus and trying to stifle him.