Daily Excerpt: An Afternoon's Dictation (Greenebaum) - Part One, Call to Interfaith, Chapter Four
Today's book excerpt comes from An Afternoon's Dictation by Steven Greenebaum. This book has been in the Amazon top 100 among interfaith and ecumenical books on many occasions.
PART ONE: THE CALL TO INTERFAITH
CHAPTER FOUR
The call of Interfaith in no way rejects religion. It is a
call to realize that our spiritual traditions are living, breathing entities
that change over time, as does all of life. Still, “Seek truth in the
commonality of religions, which are but the languages of speaking to Me. Worship
not the grammar” took some living with.
I began to imagine a sacred mountain for humanity. At the
mountaintop dwelt the call of the sacred, the commonality that would hold the
truths to living a meaningful life to which all of our sacred traditions seek
to point us. Our differing spiritual traditions would be diverse paths up this
sacred mountain that our differing eras and cultures had found helpful.
The “grammar,” then, is the particular ritual and practice
that formed the glue of our differing paths. Grammar is indeed relevant because
it helps to put structure and definition to the paths we walk. That said, for
me what calls us to the mountaintop is the sacred truth that dwells there and
not the grammar of the particular path we walk. What’s important, then, is to get
to the mountaintop. There have been and still are a multitude of paths to get
there, and to my core I believe we are free to choose the path that feels best
to us. But whatever path we take, we are called to walk that path with
integrity and with our eyes and hearts fixed on that mountaintop where the
sacred dwells. Proclaiming our path is not enough. We need to walk it.
So, what is this truth to be found in “the commonality of
religions” that dwelt at the mountaintop? To see that meant looking at our multitude
of paths without judging. That’s hard enough, but I believe it also means
something else. I believe there is no single truth that comprises the sacred. I
deeply believe that we are not called to seek “the” truth in the
commonality of religions. Rather, when we believe we have grasped a meaningful truth,
we should test it by looking for it in spiritual paths that are not our own.
For me, the great calling that bound me to Judaism was the
call of justice. With the reminder that I’m just one person and cannot speak
for Judaism as I studied Judaism as child and then a youth, what bound me to
this path of my heritage was the call of justice. I not only believed in acting
with justice but also that the call of justice was the call to which I owed my
allegiance. I believed in a God of justice. This informed every aspect of my
life. Indeed, it was when I saw so much injustice around me that I experienced
my spiritual crisis in 1999.
A quick caveat as I explore the four aspects to living a
meaningful life that I found at the mountaintop. These are not submitted
as the only way of interpreting the truths available to us. Rather, these are
the components of justice that have called to me all my life and call to me
still. These are the truths that I cleave to and that I hope and believe have
led me to be a better human being.
Three of these aspects came from the individual who is
admittedly my favorite of the prophets: Micah. From Micah 6:4, “And what does
Lord require of thee? Only this: to act justly, love compassion, and walk
humbly with your God.” (A reminder that Hebrew scripture did not come to
us in English! This is a translation, and, as with all translations, it is an
interpretation. More about a particular translation shortly.)
For
me, these three things are all crucial, and I realized as I studied what Micah
said, that they were not three separate things. They were three crucial
components of one thing: living a life of justice. First, we are to ACT justly.
Proclaiming how much we value justice falls way short if we will not act justly,
but living a life of justice is much more than acting with justice.
We are called to love compassion. Let’s be honest here. The
word that is usually used in English is “mercy,” not compassion, but for me,
“mercy” is arrogant compassion. “I’m better than you, bigger than you, and
stronger than you, but I will show mercy. Aren’t I swell?” No, thanks.
Compassion is mercy without arrogance. To love compassion is to realize that we
are all in this together and should treat one another like family. This is a
crucial part of living a just life.
Finally, we are called to walk humbly with our God. This was first explained to me as God is so great we must be humbled in God’s presence. I didn’t and don’t buy that. I believe and interpret this as a call to walk hand in hand with the sacred while living a life of humility. I should be humble not only in the presence of God but also in the presence of my human family. Indeed, I should walk humbly in the presence of Mother Nature and every stick, stone, flower, and creature on Earth. I deeply believe that there can be no justice without humility. Humility calls on us to treat each other with respect. That, for me, is a crucial aspect of acting with justic
Still, as important as the words of Micah were and are to me, I found them sharpened and made clearer by another great teacher, Rabbi Shimon, the son of Rabbi Gamaliel. He is reported to have said, “The world stands on three things: on justice, on truth, and on peace.” Yes! How can we possibly live with justice, truth, and in peace if we will not treat each other with justice, truth, and peace? And that means community. Our world, then, stands (or falls) on how we value community.
For me, these are the four great aspects of living a just life in harmony with the sacred:
1) Act with justice toward all.
2) Love compassion, and embrace (not “tolerate”) community. My
life is about us, not me.
3) Embrace compassion as way of interacting with all our
human family. Truly, this is to embrace peace. There can be no peace without
community. There can be no community without peace. This means peace brought
about by the fist is only an illusion of peace. True community comes from
oneness, not submission.
4) Walk with humility. Eschew arrogance. When we do well,
rejoice! When we falter, resolve to do better. But always, always walk with
humility.
These were the four aspects of justice that called to me.
But again, the revelation asked me to “Seek truth in the commonality of
religions.” So my task was to see if these were considered truths in spiritual
traditions that were not Jewish.
Having served as the choir director in a Methodist church,
as well as having taken “The Bible as Literature” from a minister as an
undergraduate in college, I was very much aware of the pivotal position of love,
compassion and justice in Christianity. As but one example, from Ephesians 4:25,
“Therefore, putting away falsehood, let everyone speak the truth with his
neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
As I went looking, there it was in the scripture of the Sikh
(the Adi Granth): “All humanity shall live in peace with one another, under a
shield of justice.” In the Qur’an of Islam: “Stand firmly for justice, as
witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your family.” And with the
Buddhists, the Baha’i, indeed, everywhere I looked, justice and its components—love,
compassion, and humility—were not just apparent in our own spiritual
traditions; the call to it was repeated over and over again. Which, I must
admit, led me to what I call the “vegetable theory of scripture.”
When we were children, how often did our parents have to
say, “Eat your dessert!”? As adults with children of our own, how often have we
had to demand, “Finish your dessert!”? It wasn’t “eat your dessert” that we had
to repeat over and over, as there was very little need. What was repeated over,
and over, and over again was “Eat your vegetables!” Why? Because kids don’t eat
their vegetables. As adults, we have the same problem. I like to call this the
“vegetable syndrome.”
What does this have to do scripture and our spiritual
traditions? If we are called, over and over and over again, to act with justice
toward one another, to be loving and compassionate toward one another, and to
be humble in our interactions, it’s because aren’t doing it. As with the call
to eat our vegetables, we are being “nagged” to be loving and compassionate and
to act with justice and humility because humanity remains reluctant to this
very day.
Book Description:
Indies Today runner-up
Firebird Book Awards honorable mention
Pacific Book Award finalist (runner-up)
American Legacy Book Awards finalist
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