I-YOUniverse

Tuesday March 25th, 2008

 Dueling Sacrifices

 Out of the wilderness Elijah the prophet appeared, declaring jihad against the priests of Baal, and for three and a half years he turned Israel into a dust bowl. Then, he challenged the king and his stylish queen and their 950 prophets to dueling sacrifices. “How long will you go limping between two opinions?” he asked Israel. (1 Kings 18.11)

They agreed, “The God who answers by fire is God.” Americans, of course, would take a poll.

All day long, the priests of Baal hopped about the altar like so many Easter bunnies, crying out, gashing themselves in their frenzy. “Maybe your god’s napping,” Elijah said. “Maybe he’s relieving himself.”

At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah prepared the altar, pouring copious amounts of water on it-perhaps symbolizing repentance (1 Samuel 7.6)-and simply called on God. Fire fell from heaven, consuming offering, altar stones, and water. Elijah then led in slaughtering all the infidel priests; the long drought in Israel ended.

Drought of Doubt

But a drought of spirit began for Elijah. He fled the furious queen for fear of his life. At Mt. Horeb he spent the night in a cave; experienced wind, earthquake, fire-God not in any of them. What a letdown for a guy who pronounced drought and summoned a lightning strike from the blue.

In the sound of silence that came after, there was God. Elijah came to the mouth of the cave, and God asked, “What are you doing here?”

Elijah whined, “I’m the only one left who worships you, and they’re out to get me.”

Doubt = double-crossing, doublespeak

“Doubt” and “double” have the same root. Doubting is hesitating, being torn between two lovers, hopping between two gods. Jesus said, you can’t serve two masters. You’ll love the one and hate the other,  be devoted to one and despise the other. (Matt 6.24)

A double-dealing person is deceitful, underhanded; double crossing someone is betraying them, like Judas did. Your doppelganger is your shadow self, in psychology more positive than in pop culture. Mr. Hyde was Dr. Jekyll’s vicious doppelganger. In his novel 1984 George Orwell coined the term “doublespeak,” personal, political or business equivocation.

The National Council of Teachers of English bestow a Doublespeak Award each year. The 2007 winner was Alberto Gonzales, whose Senate testimony was evasive and confusing in the extreme. In response to questioning by Senator Edward Kennedy, Mr. Gonzales said, “Senator, I have in my mind a recollection as to knowing as to some of these United States attorneys. There are two that I do not recall knowing in my mind what I understood to be the reasons for the removal.”

Gonzales’ boss George W. Bush won in 2006 for his speech in New Orleans on September 15, 2006, calling for an end to deep, persistent poverty with roots in racial discrimination. However, a week before the President’s speech, he signed an executive order suspending the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, thereby allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.

Does W  stand for double-dealing, double speaking?

You’ll find more about the NCTE Doublespeak Awards at http://www.ncte.org/about/awards/council/other/106868.htm

Double-minded 

James says, “The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. James 1:6-7 (NRSV)

Doubt is Thomas’s Domain 

In the New Testament the doubt domain belongs to Thomas the Twin. He certainly was two-faced. He could say, “Let’s go die with Jesus,” (John 11.16); but, faced with the witness of Jesus’ resurrection, he replied, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25 (NRSV).

When the Risen Christ bared his wounds for Thomas’ touch, he didn’t need to touch to know for sure, answering instead, “My Lord and my God!”

Sometimes I throwback to the cave dweller, sniffing to myself, “I’m the only one who…” You fill in the blank. Other times my brave avowals of bearing the cross with Jesus are so much doublespeak. I confess that I’m even double-minded on occasion.

“If only I could see Jesus, like Thomas,” the seducer whispers, “it’d be easy to follow Jesus.”

Let us be One

Martin Buber in “The Way of Man” wrote,

“The man with the divided, complicated, contradictory soul is not helpless: the core of his soul, the divine force in its depths, is capable of acting upon it, changing it, binding the conflicting forces together, amalgamating the diverging elements - is capable of unifying it.” (Pendle Hill pamphlet #106, p. 18) http://www.pendlehill.org/resources/files/pdf%20files/php106.pdf

The fire of God’s love can meld us into one, one with self, one with others, one with creation, one with God. Let it begin in me.