"the kings have commited fornication with her..."

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

BERLUSCONI-UNDERMINED BY ECONOMIC CRISIS

Revelation 18:1-8

18After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendour. 2He called out with a mighty voice,

‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!

It has become a dwelling-place of demons,

a haunt of every foul spirit,

a haunt of every foul bird,

a haunt of every foul and hateful beast.

3 For all the nations have drunk

of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,

and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her,

and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury.’

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,

‘Come out of her, my people,

so that you do not take part in her sins,

and so that you do not share in her plagues;

5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven,

and God has remembered her iniquities.

6 Render to her as she herself has rendered,

and repay her double for her deeds;

mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed.

7 As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously,

so give her a like measure of torment and grief.

Since in her heart she says,

“I rule as a queen;

I am no widow,

and I will never see grief”,

8 therefore her plagues will come in a single day—

pestilence and mourning and famine—

and she will be burned with fire;

for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.’

the foot of power

If I were a member of an apocalyptic Christian cult I would seize joyfully on this passage and claim that it was specifically designed for this day when the world economies are tottering. I would prophesy that the whole economic system was under judgment and would soon be destroyed, while encouraging Christian believers to separate themselves from their corrupt societies and to await their salvation in prayer.

I’m not that sort of believer, however, and am sceptical of all such prophecies. My guess is that our unjust and exploitative economies will survive well enough, because nobody has any clear proposals about what might be put in their place.

Still the rhetoric of this vision is full of good things, which describe all arrogant and oppressive societies:

1. They are full of evil spirits. A look at our crime rates and acts of official violence should confirm this
2. Kings and business men have fornicated with the ruling power. The almost sexual attraction of the most powerful nations for political and economic elites round the world is evident
3. Self-glorification and arrogance are characteristic of oppressive societies. Ten minutes reading of official pronouncements of the Chinese government will confirm this. But if you can’t get them, UK or US material will do.
4. Even such powerful societies will eventually be destroyed.

Matthew 15:1-20

15Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’ 3He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4For God said, “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 5But you say that whoever tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God”, then that person need not honour the father. 6So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

8 “This people honours me with their lips,

"their hearts are far from me.."

but their hearts are far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.” ’

10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: 11it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ 12Then the disciples approached and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees took offence when they heard what you said?’ 13He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.’ 15But Peter said to him, ‘Explain this parable to us.’ 16Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? 17Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

When religion goes bad it elevates “religious duties” above good and evil. Jesus points this out with reference to the kind of Pharasaism practiced by the religious establishment of his time. He claims the precedent of the prophets of his own people who railed against those who upheld the cultic practices of their faith while ignoring matters of integrity and justice. Jesus’ parable (Matthew sees it a mashal, an enigmatic saying) “it’s not what goes into you that defiles but what comes out” is a robust criticism of food laws and those who fuss about them. He is pointing out what one of my college professors, Iain Henderson, used to describe as the “nuttiness coefficient” in religion. It’s hard to become a leader out of your personal goodness; much easier to become an expert on the substitutionary nature of the atonement, the correct number of orphreys on a chasuble, or the alleged unacceptability of homosexual persons to God. Jesus reminds his hearers that real defilement comes from evil intentions which are translated into evil deeds.