Do not trade freedom for captivity ...



εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

“Have we not all the one father? Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with one another, violating the covenant of our fathers?”


θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

The Prophet’s words are blunt, clear and sharp. In an era of Israel’s history when all dimensions of life were beginning anew following the Babylonian Captivity, some destructive attitudes gripped the populace. While the people of Jerusalem celebrated an initial burst of enthusiasm for their newly experienced freedom, a malaise took hold and began to infect and to corrupt society as well as worship. Sacrifice was done out of obligation without any concern of its connection to one’s heart. Apathy was the ‘rule’ of the day and those who knew better did little to correct the situation. Even the Temple priests cooperated in the lame and heartless worship that undermined the spiritual life of the covenant. Malachi’s description of the priests as “contemptible and base before all the people (Malachi 2:9)” captured the state of life and worship was rendered empty and devoid of power to transform the heart.

What caused such a changed in Israel’s life? While scholars differ on a ‘timeline’ of events in Malachi and Israel’s life following the Babylonian Captivity, it is apparent that the people traded one captivity for another: captivity in Babylon gave way to the captivity of apathy in Jerusalem AND it occurred in a rather short span of time. Sacrifices were impure, worship empty, charity among people gone and corrective instruction silent. The Covenant - with its blessings and stipulations - no longer grounded life and consequently Israel’s life drifted aimlessly from one whim to another.

Insightfully, the holy and scholarly wisdom of Rabbi Abraham Heschel timely assists us to accept the challenge of God’s Word sounded this week by the Prophet, Malachi. Heschel often quipped that Israel’s greatest sin in the desert of journey from slavery to freedom was ‘forgetting the great and mighty deeds of the Lord.’ When something went wrong while being lead from Egypt to the Promised Land, Israel’s eyes focused not on the God-Who-Frees but on how their strength and ingenuity would transform the situation. They learned quickly that it did not work that way. As the various limit situations engulfed Israel, she realized that true freedom and transformation rest in a child-like dependency on God Who hears the cry of the poor. In those saving Divine actions, Israel had “to remember” the great and mighty deeds of God.

It is important to grasp what it means biblically and theologically “to remember.” The Hebrew zakar and later its Greek rendering anamnesis, while translated variously “to remember,” means much more than an intellectual recall of a fact forgotten. When one ‘biblically forgets,’ one experiences a growing disconnect from God, others, the true self and all creation. As the disconnect increases, attitudes of entitlement and individual grandiosity naturally increase. Since one experiences more and more isolation from the true grounding of life, entitlement and grandiosity become more and more entrenched and one becomes increasingly blind, deaf and dumb to life and the actions of others as gift. Biblical remembering then becomes an act of re-joining, re-connected, re-membering oneself to the body or the community. Zakar requires the twofold work of God’s merciful initiative and the humble recognition and sorrow on our part that we have sinned and fractured the body. No wonder Jesus commanded His disciples at His Last Supper, “Do this in memory of Me.” The celebration of the Lord’s Supper was never intended to be a mindful recollection of what He did, but a response to connect to Him sacrificially and lovingly.

One might argue that Israel’s plight as addressed by the Prophet Malachi was forgetting Who made freedom from captivity possible. Yes, human history recorded the benevolent ruler Cyrus and how his defeat of the Babylonians paved the way for Israel’s return home. Yet Israel also knew deep in her religious consciousness that everything fundamentally is made possible by the Hand of God. No matter how liberating or joyous an event may be, when it is not received and celebrated as gift, life will quickly distort. In such an arena, people vie for positions and titles of honor and make their authority felt through oppression. The oppressed become the new oppressors fueled by entitlement and grandiosity. Titles once expressive of service to the community become self-demanded acclamations that do nothing to promote growth but sow seeds of apathy. In such a climate, blessings become a curse and as Malachi saw, we break faith (relationship) with God and each other. Jesus’ admonitions are the community’s necessary antidote for and defense against entitlement and grandiosity. Remember (zakar): 1 teacher, 1 Father, and 1 Master. Those who have roles within the community to teach, to father and to guide do so as gift and because she or he is called to do so. The titles shape and form a consciousness of service that are always acted in charitable service for the good others.