Our’s is an era which has witnessed a great increase in the number of people who subscribe to literalism and fundamentalism in religious and political realms. They seek an impossibly simplistic and black-and-white world which never was and never will be. They seem to fear nuance, “others,” and anything unfamiliar. They fear almost anything they do not effectively understand, and they understand relatively little. That’s too bad, because to read the sacred scriptures “literally” when metaphors are a much used and significant literary tool in the text sadly greatly reduces the insight of divine revelation. Today’s lectionary texts are effective examples of how metaphor was one of the chief tools of conveying divine revelation in the Bible. Indeed, God was always very poetic.

Moses’ exhortations that his people wear the Word of God bracelets or pendants, were supporting exhortations, metaphors of a serious tone by which to “Take these words of mine into your heart and soul.” In other words, they proposed that the very Word of God be the jewelry or decoration of the whole human believer, not merely of the believer’s body. While many Orthodox Jewish men still bind small Hebrew texts onto the wrists and foreheads of in small leather boxes, many see in this religious practice an example of missing the point! God’s Word was (and is) a message of faithful salvation, unfailing presence, constant companionship, and infinite love, mercy and affection for the believer. God asked, through Moses, for some behavioral sign from the Chosen People that they were aware of the unbounded divine presence and faithfulness God had offered. The fundamental response of the Chosen People was to worship this God alone, excluding all and any other gods (of which there were perceived to be many in the days and location of Moses). Everything in the Torah which amounted to “sin” or “transgression of the Law” was essentially a sin against fidelity to the One God of Israel and of practical ingratitude by the Israelites toward God. All the other commandments, statutes or rules were both subordinate to this religious fidelity and subsequent to it (and thus temporary or circumstantial). Whether the commandment was to prohibit certain foods or specific social behaviors, they were important only to the extent that they supported the community’s and the individuals’ fidelity to the God who had saved them collectively and individually in ways effective to the era and location then current. To engage some of the practices of the ancient Gentiles was often seen to be unfaithful to the God of Salvation because of either overt or implied worship of those other divinities. Likewise, today, 21^st Century Christian believers are asked by our life circumstances to metaphorically worship numerous other relatively minor metaphorical “divinities” or powers which exert influence over our lives. For some, money has become a god and the object of worship since its management seems to successfully demand the possessor’s full attention. For others, professional team sports (witness the frenetic activity for the Super Bowl in the USA or for the World Cup for much of the rest of the planet) substitutes for or at least impedes regular worship of the God of life and salvation. Indeed, children today are sometimes encouraged to admire and imitate celebrity athletes more than the saints of the Church. But, today’s exhortation by Moses that the Israelites respond to their saving God with intelligent fidelity and conscientiousness is the point which must not be lost on us. To perform religious practices forgetful of why those very practices are important risks reducing religious faith to superstition. According to the sacred text, God had saved the Israelites from Egyptian slavery only a few months before the Torah was bestowed upon them as a gift at Mount Sinai. As Moses advanced in age, he instructed and encouraged the people to remain faithful and to be ever-mindful of God’s salvation each and every day as a matter of gratitude for the past and hope for the future. Fidelity to the God who had saved them seemed such a reasonable and small price to pay for freedom, justice and security. Likewise, we are beneficiaries of God’s dynamic Salvation. Are we sufficiently aware of how and from what that Salvation has saved us?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivered a series of good sense exhortations by means of metaphors. Yet, how many simply neglect to listen, engage, and remember. The metaphor was for Jesus a literary tool of choice, one which took some intellectual sophistication to appreciate and understand. The sage advice to build on a solid foundation ought to go without saying, and yet, how often in history has a poor foundation been the fundamental flaw in an edifice both literally and metaphorically. The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is a famous example. But, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, is a city built beneath the water level of the Mississippi River which runs next to the city, hardly a solid and safe location as recent weather has demonstrated. People in many places around the globe build cities and villages on coastal flood plains even when they tend to be in areas known to be prone to hurricanes, tidal flooding, and the recent rise in sea levels. People dwell in and build in earthquake prone areas, on the slopes of volcanoes, and in the downhill shadow of dams. Perhaps we need not abandon so many of the generally desirable geographic areas merely because of the statistical likelihood of natural calamity, but we must build appropriately and with conscientious awareness of what might very well happen. We must also beware of whining when the likely disaster occurs! Jesus peached to a fairly unsophisticated population who had not the benefit of modern engineering insight or building safety codes to protect them. The best for which they could hope was a high level of the good sense for their era and location. A foundation which appeared solid to the eye was a good beginning from their experience. So ought it be for us, but the metaphor of a rock solid foundation is much more complicated today than it was in Jesus’ day. We are concerned with many more forces and powers than merely wind and rain. We might go so far as to be concerned even about the “carbon footprint” our lives leave and so work towards sustainable, affordable, aesthetically pleasing, comfortable and practical “green” structures using all the modern building insights which good science and engineering can provide. Likewise, this idea of building on rock as metaphor ought to carry over into all aspects of our lives: politics and the legislative process, morality and moral education, business and commerce, social policy and public health, religious faith and practice in connection to sound 21^st Century scientific knowledge and good sense . . . all these ought to be effected by the Gospel if intelligent, believing Christians are to be effective and contributing citizens in a free and stable modern democracy. Jesus’ Gospel expects us to be appropriately sophisticated and responsible for our particular age, location and level of wealth and freedom. To do otherwise, either by accident of design, amounts to neglect or pretense or superstition.

St. Paul was an apostle and evangelist who was adroit at using, and effective at appreciating, metaphors. He could also be clear and succinct even without them. In today’s somewhat truncated second reading, Paul asserted that with the announcement of the Christian Gospel, the bounds described by the Torah (i.e., the Law of Moses) do not limit God’s mercy. Rather, God’s own love, described by the redeeming Paschal Mystery (i.e., Jesus’ loving and freely made self-sacrifice of his own life) was now bestowed as a free gift upon all. Indeed, as he would write elsewhere, it was God’s Will that Salvation be universal, i.e., Salvation was offered to the entire world, without exception. This idea of Universal Salvation irritates more than a few believing Christians, but in Paul’s own words, “the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law...” In other words, the Torah ceased to be a part of life for those who embrace and engage the Gospel of Christ and his New Covenant. To find oneself irritated by God’s generosity hints that the one irritated is somewhat “self-righteous,” i.e., one who tries to arrogate to oneself control over God’s office as judge. That is a serious and laughable burden to take up on one’s own. Such a person’s idea of God is simply too small and too narrow, and made too much in their own small and petty image and likeness, to be wise, just, compassionate and true. Let us profess to be made in the image and likeness of the One, Infinite and Mysterious God of Love, Peace, Truth and Justice, rather than re-making God into our inadequate image.

Let our image of God be lavishly and generously grand so that any and all can find forgiveness, redemption, salvation and sanctification. Let there be none lost to God’s eternal Kingdom because of our narrowness. The idea of God’s largess is so great that it requires metaphors to describe it. Thus, we too must become competent in metaphors. We must become – like God – poetic!