Jude 1:10-13
These people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah’s rebellion. These are blemishes on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.
Well, okay then, that was an interesting reading, wasn’t it?
The next up in our series of “letters not written by Paul or by Paul-pretenders” is this strange missive from someone named Jude. When I turned to my commentaries to see what folks had to say about Jude I laughed out loud at the understatement in Marcus Borg’s opening sentence to his chapter on this odd letter: Jude is perhaps the strangest document in the New Testament. I have no argument to make with that.
It is another in our recent series of we don’t know who wrote it, or when it was written, or to whom it was written, letters. The author identifies himself as a servant of Jesus and brother to James. Since both James and Jude were extremely common names at this time, this doesn’t tell us much.
In Mark’s gospel, it is mentioned once that Jesus had a brother named Jude, and since the James who was the leader of the church in Jerusalem was also identified as a brother of Jesus, the early church jumped to the conclusion that this Jude was, indeed, Jesus’ brother. However, all the external evidence points to this document having been written somewhere after the year 100, when any sibling to Jesus would have been around 100 years old himself. So just who this “Jude” is, is unknown.
We have no idea to whom it was written, but we do know why. Strangers – intruders – dare I say aliens – have come into this community with different ideas. Jude is by far the most tribal document in the New Testament.
Borg, while conceding that no one knows for certain, suspects the name-calling and conflict was about antinomianism. It would take at least an entire sermon to adequately explain what that is, but it was a “thing” in the new church at that time – one of the many conflicts as Christianity developed.
It is basically an argument for argument’s sake that comes back to faith or works? Does grace release us from all requirement to follow the laws? Does it matter what our actions are once we’ve been saved by grace? A thoroughly idiotic argument in my opinion, but one that has been fought again and again down through the centuries – and probably is still being argued somewhere today. If you even have to ask the question, you have missed the boat entirely.
Anyway – let’s go back to the last couple of verses of today’s reading as the letter writer describes these intruders:
Pot, meet kettle. Anyone who writes that long, florid sentence from the reading has no business calling anyone else bombastic.
This entire letter, a mere one and a half pages, seethes with tribalism – These people are coming in and they are not like us – they don’t share our values. There is no coming together and sharing ideas to perhaps grow our understanding – there is only us and them. Does any of this language sound familiar?
My tribe is right, therefore yours must be wrong. We’ve always done it this way. No, YOU’VE always done it that way but you aren’t everyone. You talk funny. We’ve always been here. Umm, no you haven’t. This is a country for white people. Your group is lazy. Your group is greedy. My religion is right and yours is wrong.
We could go on and on and on. If we learn anything from Jude’s letter it is simply that tribalism has existed forever and probably always will if we refuse to get our acts together – but the one thing that is perfectly clear is that tribalism is not the way of the Kingdom of God! All those tribalistic sayings I quoted a minute ago are found nowhere in Jesus’ teachings.
Day by day it seems we divide ourselves further and further from each other, finding new and different ways to segregate ourselves. That is, that’s true if you believe the talking heads on TV. This is what they want us to believe. But is it? Really?
Are we really so divided? Yes, a great many people are – and in the ugliest possible ways. But more of us are not. Most of us are not. We are not tribes – we are people of God.
While our congress pushes through bills that the 1% wants and revoke rights protections for “other” tribes, immense swaths of the country stand against them. We may lose some of the battles right now, but our hearts do not change and the pendulum will swing back again. Mixed neighborhoods continue to thrive and neighbors work and play together. Total strangers join together to help out folks in need. Church communities from different faiths work together for the betterment of those around them.
Does this mean then that we can just sit back and do nothing? Of course not. We must continue the fight for basic decency and shared goodness, because every time we do we move a little more forward. And every time we speak out and say ‘this is wrong’ the chorus of protest grows a little louder. And when we listen to each other and hear the voices in agreement, we all grow a little stronger.
The tribalists shout and make a lot of noise. The rest of us quietly speak truth and value everyone and feed the hungry and work to get out the vote and haul out our boats and rescue people in floods and we march in the streets and say ‘no, your policies are wrong and we won’t stand for them’ and we drive long miles to take food to disaster victims – total strangers – who just need help. And we go on, building the kingdom of God, here and now – where there is no “us” and “them” because we are all one family – the family of God.
The next up in our series of “letters not written by Paul or by Paul-pretenders” is this strange missive from someone named Jude. When I turned to my commentaries to see what folks had to say about Jude I laughed out loud at the understatement in Marcus Borg’s opening sentence to his chapter on this odd letter: Jude is perhaps the strangest document in the New Testament. I have no argument to make with that.
It is another in our recent series of we don’t know who wrote it, or when it was written, or to whom it was written, letters. The author identifies himself as a servant of Jesus and brother to James. Since both James and Jude were extremely common names at this time, this doesn’t tell us much.
In Mark’s gospel, it is mentioned once that Jesus had a brother named Jude, and since the James who was the leader of the church in Jerusalem was also identified as a brother of Jesus, the early church jumped to the conclusion that this Jude was, indeed, Jesus’ brother. However, all the external evidence points to this document having been written somewhere after the year 100, when any sibling to Jesus would have been around 100 years old himself. So just who this “Jude” is, is unknown.
We have no idea to whom it was written, but we do know why. Strangers – intruders – dare I say aliens – have come into this community with different ideas. Jude is by far the most tribal document in the New Testament.
Borg, while conceding that no one knows for certain, suspects the name-calling and conflict was about antinomianism. It would take at least an entire sermon to adequately explain what that is, but it was a “thing” in the new church at that time – one of the many conflicts as Christianity developed.
It is basically an argument for argument’s sake that comes back to faith or works? Does grace release us from all requirement to follow the laws? Does it matter what our actions are once we’ve been saved by grace? A thoroughly idiotic argument in my opinion, but one that has been fought again and again down through the centuries – and probably is still being argued somewhere today. If you even have to ask the question, you have missed the boat entirely.
Anyway – let’s go back to the last couple of verses of today’s reading as the letter writer describes these intruders:
- They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.
Pot, meet kettle. Anyone who writes that long, florid sentence from the reading has no business calling anyone else bombastic.
This entire letter, a mere one and a half pages, seethes with tribalism – These people are coming in and they are not like us – they don’t share our values. There is no coming together and sharing ideas to perhaps grow our understanding – there is only us and them. Does any of this language sound familiar?
My tribe is right, therefore yours must be wrong. We’ve always done it this way. No, YOU’VE always done it that way but you aren’t everyone. You talk funny. We’ve always been here. Umm, no you haven’t. This is a country for white people. Your group is lazy. Your group is greedy. My religion is right and yours is wrong.
We could go on and on and on. If we learn anything from Jude’s letter it is simply that tribalism has existed forever and probably always will if we refuse to get our acts together – but the one thing that is perfectly clear is that tribalism is not the way of the Kingdom of God! All those tribalistic sayings I quoted a minute ago are found nowhere in Jesus’ teachings.
Day by day it seems we divide ourselves further and further from each other, finding new and different ways to segregate ourselves. That is, that’s true if you believe the talking heads on TV. This is what they want us to believe. But is it? Really?
Are we really so divided? Yes, a great many people are – and in the ugliest possible ways. But more of us are not. Most of us are not. We are not tribes – we are people of God.
While our congress pushes through bills that the 1% wants and revoke rights protections for “other” tribes, immense swaths of the country stand against them. We may lose some of the battles right now, but our hearts do not change and the pendulum will swing back again. Mixed neighborhoods continue to thrive and neighbors work and play together. Total strangers join together to help out folks in need. Church communities from different faiths work together for the betterment of those around them.
Does this mean then that we can just sit back and do nothing? Of course not. We must continue the fight for basic decency and shared goodness, because every time we do we move a little more forward. And every time we speak out and say ‘this is wrong’ the chorus of protest grows a little louder. And when we listen to each other and hear the voices in agreement, we all grow a little stronger.
The tribalists shout and make a lot of noise. The rest of us quietly speak truth and value everyone and feed the hungry and work to get out the vote and haul out our boats and rescue people in floods and we march in the streets and say ‘no, your policies are wrong and we won’t stand for them’ and we drive long miles to take food to disaster victims – total strangers – who just need help. And we go on, building the kingdom of God, here and now – where there is no “us” and “them” because we are all one family – the family of God.
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