Our passage from first Peter is a piece of a larger pericopy, which uses Jesus as an example of how to suffer. “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” I appreciate the condition, “If it is God’s will.” This implies that not all suffering, not even suffering for good, is always God’s will. Suffering for sufferings sake is not God’s will. No need to flagellate ourselves or suffer where it can be avoided. But if doing evil or suffering for doing good are our only two options, suffer for the good.
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” This commonly heard phrase implies Christ as sacrifice. Our understanding of this Christian doctrine is helped if we review the ancient understanding of blood as archetypal symbol. Edinger, in Ego and Archetype (p. 228) notes that blood “was considered to be the seat of life or soul… Since life ebbed away as one bled to death, the equation of blood and life was natural and inevitable…It was the most precious thing of which man could conceive. It carried suprapersonal connotations and was thought to belong only to God. Hence the ancient Hebrews were forbidden to eat blood."
…Since it carried these meanings, Edinger continues, "blood was the most appropriate gift to God, which accounts for the widespread practice of blood sacrifice."
Before Noah humanity had not been given permission to shed blood. This prerogative was not given by God in the Garden, but was taken by man through the killing of Abel by Cain. This mating of godly prerogative and power with human ego led to all sorts of evil. Sick of such grandiosity and narcissism, God washes the earth clean of all the blood that had been spilt inappropriately, along with those who spilt it.
In Genesis 9 God makes a covenant with Noah. The rainbow is symbolic for the hunting bow. For the first time, God permits Noah and his descendants to shed blood in order to eat the meat of animals.
After the flood, shedding of blood is permitted for Noah, but, God says, “you must not eat the meat with its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting.” Edinger again, “Because blood was a divine fluid it was a crime to spill it except in a sacrificial ritual dedicated to the gods…Any effort of the ego to manipulate, appropriate or destroy it for personal purposes provokes vengeance or retribution. Blood spilled requires more blood to pay the debt."
In exchange for the gift of blood from God in the form of descendants, many ancient cultures offered blood back to gods in the form of child sacrifice. We see a transition beyond this primitive practice in the story of Abraham (Gen. 17). Abraham thinks he hears God calling for the sacrifice of his first-born son Isaac and then at the last moment God provides a lamb. In addition, this second covenant with Yahweh, parental sacrifice of children's blood is given the symbolic substitute of shedding blood from whence comes the child, that is, cutting off the tip of the male penis in circumcision. Obviously this is a patriarchal ritual that leaves women out of the sanctified group. The third covenant with Moses has as its centerpiece the Sabbath, but also a set of other rules and taboos for the priestly cult dealing with the disposition of blood and laws to maintain the purity of the land. This covenant with Moses is celebrated through the sacrifice of an ox. Moses took half the blood and threw it on the altar, on God. Then he took the other half and threw it on the people. This blood baptism serves as a binding agent, uniting God with people.
Blood serves as a uniting or binding agent. The system of animal sacrifice bound people to God and it tied the people together by centralizing power around temple priests who controlled law, purity, judgement, and atoning sacrifice. Since people could never perfectly uphold the law, they were in constant need for atoning sacrifice. Indeed part of the law included sacrifice. Thus, he who controlled the divine fluid, blood, controlled the people.
From this perspective we can see how John the Baptist could have been viewed as a threat by the ruling elite. John offers atonement for sins, not with blood, but with water. Water is hard for a centralized authority to control. It is widely available; it literally falls from the sky, for free. The forgiveness received in baptism is literally free, a sign of God’s grace.
Jesus, a baptized disciple of John, upon John’s arrest, takes the evolution of our relationship with God a step further. In an ironic twist, God through Christ gives us blood for atonement for the human blood we shed. Righteous for unrighteous. Jesus becomes the last sacrifice so that our relationship with God is no longer dependent on blood or even water but spirit. This is the death penalty to end all death penalty. “Christ died for sins, once for all.” The embodiment of God in one person to end all containment of God by any one individual or group. Put to death in body but made alive in Spirit. Our proximity to God is no longer dependant on our ability to shed the blood of others, human or animal; no longer dependant on ethnic identification or law, but by our faithful receptiveness to the free flowing Spirit, represented by cleansing of water and the sharing of a meal. The powerful feature of baptism by water and communion through sharing bread and wine is that they are in fact not flesh and blood. We are reminded in them, that through the body and blood of Jesus, no more death is needed for the God’s sake. God is a God of life, not death. God demands justice, not sacrifice.
Though patriarchy limited the flow of expression, this switch from the gods drinking our blood to being fed God, returns to the divine feminine archetype. We are given birth through the waters of the womb and nourished from the body of our Creator.
I suppose it was inevitable that the Church would take the liberating good news of the inclusive once and for all-ness of the Gospel message and turn it into another way to capture God and control people. The message has been turned from "this is all you need " to "accept the exclusive god we have, shed blood in the way we say or die." Same as it ever was.
“He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago.” Thank God. I looked up a few sermons on this passage on the Internet and most that I looked at wanted to make sure to show that people weren’t let off the hook after they died. "No, this doesn’t mean," they say, "that Jesus went to liberate people from Hell. You have one chance in this life to accept Jesus as your Lord and if you don’t you burn in Hell for all eternity."
But let us set aside the chronological location of heaven and hell, and posit the possibility that eternity encompasses our place in History as well as the future. Let us imagine that heaven and hell, to some degree, are internalized within us. Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the good news.” And we will “Worship God not on this mountain or that, but in spirit and in truth.” It is right here before us, within us.
Has not the Church itself done these exact things that the Gospel offers to free us from? Has it not attempted to grasp for itself the knowledge of good and evil, murdered fellow humans, and given birth to a Christ of our own image? …A Christ who demands the blood of those we deem unworthy. A warrior Christ who demands the sacrifice of our soldier children. A Capitalist Jesus who will whisk our beautiful bodies from our SUVs up to his great mansion in the sky…A bare foot long haired Jesus who enjoys being attended to by angels so much that he never comes back from the wilderness to sacrifice his individual pleasure and peace for love and justice in Jerusalem.
Who does not have within themselves spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago? Who does not have within themselves a child who ate the forbidden fruit and feels cut off from mother and father? An aggressive, greedy part that lashed out against our brother or sister, a narcissistic part that thinks we can mate with gods and become giants like heroes of old? Is there not a part of us that lives with the hell of truth seen too late? And the fear of never seeing it at all?
What then would keep God from washing the earth clean of us? From leaving us to burn in our guilt and shame for all eternity?
The Gospel tells us that God will not be confined to the image we try to nail him to. Her Spirit will walk free from the shadowy tomb of History. She will go into the dark pits of our mind and preach the Good News. God owns time. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Who are we to put limits on God’s forgiveness? God has not given up on you. You are not a lost cause. It is not too late. You are forgiven. God turns the sea of death into a spring of living water. The imago dei, image of god, the Christ within us calls us forth to hope to repent and believe. Return no one evil for evil, but stand strong for love in the face of hate, for inclusive community in the face of exclusion and divisiveness. Love your enemy as yourself. “Whatever is noble, whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. To know our sin is hell. To know God forgives us now and forever is heaven. Repent and believe. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ.
“Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the Peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
David Burn
Once in a Lifetime
Same as it ever was!
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.
…Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...