2012.03.14 MIdrash as a Spiritual Practice

Midrash is a Jewish way of interpreting scripture. Put simply, midrash, meaning to seek or search, is a story about the biblical story, plummeting the text for deepening and multiple meanings over time.

Midrashic process means the ancient story continues to evolve because each generation tells its own stories about the biblical story and so its meaning expands and grows. Midrash also enable individuals to tie parts of their own stories into the biblical story.

You could say that writing or telling midrash is a way to access your connection with holy writ, find your spiritual voice, and discover your own holiness within.

At a writer’s workshop led by Madeleine L’Engle in the 90s she suggested to participants that we write a story about someone in scripture who might be angry. I wrote about the snake in the garden of Eden myth. Old and on her last skin, she grouses to her Creator about being cast in shame as the cosmic scapegoat for the wholly messy “apple” affair in the garden of Eden. The old snake at last hears a Word.

But of course I was writing my own story and listening for God in my own anger and womanly shame.

With that little story I began my practice of writing midrash stories about many biblical situations that seemed close to my own. I found my own ground, God’s compassion, and astounding spiritual insights through the process

My snake’s story “The Asp’s Lament” ended up in my first book Spiritual Lemons: Biblical Women, Irreverent Laughter and Righteous Rage. It’s a favorite of many women one of whom shed tears over the possibility of grace for the snake, and another of whom is translating it into Spanish. The little snake, grinning and beribboned, made the cover of the Italian translation of Lemons.

AND, to my delight, the Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sought me out at a diocesan clergy gathering to tell me how much she loved the snake story.

Snakes may slither and hiss but they travel far and fast—gliding with grace.

On Sat. March 24 I’m leading a quiet day of prayer at Miramar Retreat Center in Duxbury, MA. from 10-3, includes lunch. Topic: “Spiritual Lemons: Writing Midrash as a Spiritual Practice”. If you’re free come join me for prayer and fun in a meditative setting. Call Ann at 781-585-2460 to register.

2011.09.21 No Peaceful Religion

Watching the old movie called The Message about the history and development of Islam I saw how similar the themes and patterns of development are in all religions.

All of them start in violence and often resort to it, to defend the God they love who counsels otherwise. Is this a guy thing?

Why do we fight over that which we most value? Sad and crazy.

There are no peaceful religions although all of them preach peace till they’re blue or die trying.

There are no peaceful religions only passionate religions, petri dishes for zealotry for a God who wants love and faithfulness, not death and war. Often in the Bible violence is put into God’s own mouth and onto God’s will. There are two strands of tradition at work as theology evolves: the warlike vengeful God and the One whose steadfast love and mercy abounds.

Christianity, and other religions too, tried to choose the latter but then human “ingenuity” crucified it. And we still do.

How ironic that God’s name is taken in vain to defend God. But God through new voices calls us back to the way of compassion for all.

We have a choice about our own interpretations and theologies. That’s why I love midrash, the Jewish ongoing process of interpreting and re-interpreting the Word of God for each generation.

I do not take scripture literally. Sometimes it re-creates God in our own image. But it is part of our ongoing struggle to understand the mystery we can not.

My favorite midrashic reframe is on the story of the Exodus. The Israelites have crossed the miraculously parted Red Sea and are ecstatically safe on the other side as the sea waters close over the enemy Egyptian army. They all drown. As the Israelites thank God and cheer about their own freedom they spot an angel weeping by the shore. Revealing the enormity of their spiritual naiveté, they ask the angel, “Your people are free, so why do you weep? The angel of God answers: “Because some of my people are dead at the bottom of the sea.”

You see how mixed it all is. But I choose to believe the God whose Word keeps speaking to correct our errant thinking and reinstate Divine Love.

The Woman Who Named God by Charlotte Gordon

I recommend HIGHLY a book by Charlotte Gordon. The Woman Who Named God. It is biblical scholarship at its best and also story at its best—a rare combination.

Gordon blends exegesis ( biblical text analysis and interpretation,) narrative (just plain story and literary analysis,) and midrash ( a Jewish method of using creative imagination to plum a biblical story for its hidden meanings, its emotional nuances and its spiritual and theological significance, often buried in the words themselves.) The author weaves these three approaches together seamlessly with beauty and skill.

I love this book and plan to read it again. Of course the Bible is my thing. I love it for its wisdom and its story. The Old Testament is a particular favorite, not just because of my partial Jewish heritage, but because you’ll never find better more complex lusty stories than these. Probably every human experience ever visited on humanity is there and all of it is sacred.

The invitation to and definition of my professional pastoral counseling and spiritual direction practice is: “All Human Experience is Sacred.” The Bible tells me so. I give my heart to that truth and try as much as I’m able to live it as if I believed it.

Gordon’s vision and what she attempts to do, and I think does, is to make this book an instrument of peace. The book shows that there is no scriptural justification in the Hebrew texts for Jewish/Christian/Muslim animosity or warring. Quite a remarkable achievement I think.

Charlotte Gordon lives in Gloucester, MA. She grew up as an Episcopalian. Her dad was Jewish and converted. As an adult Charlotte became fascinated by the Jewish faith and converted. (See how we all are one!) Gordon learned Hebrew and Aramaic just to do this book. I'm impressed with her commitment, patience and zeal, to say nothing of her intelligence. She is also a lovely speaker, talking with wisdom and piercing clarity about her passion for the Bible and for religious peace.

The chapters and not long or ponderous and they are titled. Notes expand on certain texts for the nosey or diligent among us. The prose has an easy but not unsophisticated flow. There's even a chapter on Jesus coming for dinner in the desert! The book follows the ancient call and vocation of Abraham, no easy faith his. The woman who names God is Hagar. The Abrahamic family dynamic is the psychological lens through which scripture works out the nuances of overt animosity and comes to peace. God is a character in the story, an active player on the stage.

Gordon’s style is light, humorous, her prose not polemical or with "attitude." This book is clothed in compassion and has the potential to convert even the most stubbornly partisan to a more wholistic inclusive but spiritually grounded point of view.

Which reminds me of a quote I heard and know not from whence it comes. Something like, I know the voice of God in my head because it is the voice which is abundantly compassionate to everyone concerned. That is one way to describe this book.