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December 2007 Newsletter

John C Holbert, Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, provides this month's reflection with timely words for the season.

 What Does Jabez Have To Do With Jesus?

 Some years ago a small book appeared that quite unexpectedly became a publishing sensation, selling millions of copies. It was titled, The Prayer of Jabez, and was based on a tiny section of the obscure Old Testament book of I Chronicles. The text may be found at 4:9-10. In short, the author of the popular book suggested that praying a prayer like this one would be helpful for anyone who was anxious to have his/her desires fulfilled by the gifts of God.

 The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible translates the tenth verse as follows:

 Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 'Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm.' And God granted what he asked.

 Let me offer another translation:

 Jabez called to the God of Israel, "If you will fully bless me, and enlarge my territory, and give your hand to me,  and take evil from me painlessly..." So God gave him what he asked.

 The text of the prayer is decidedly odd; in fact, the conclusion of the "if" clause is clearly missing. The prayer, as it stands, appears to be a bargain with God. I am reminded of the self-serving prayer of Jacob, found at Genesis 28:20-21, a prayer he prayed to God right after he has tricked his brother, Esau, out of the rights of the firstborn and the ancestral blessing as well as his dying blind father out of the patriarchal blessing, a blessing belonging rightly to the eldest son, Esau. After all that trickery, one might expect God to reprimand the thief with stern words of anger. Instead, God freely blesses the wretch with promises of continual divine gifts and protection (Gen.28:13-15). In response, Jacob has the gall to bargain with this gracious God in a prayer that announces that IF God will in fact do all the promised things for Jacob, THEN God can be Jacob's God. Well, thank you very much!

The prayer of Jabez seems to come from the same cloth. This unknown man bargains that if God will do all these things for him, will bless him, enlarge his territory, extend him the divine hand, and make his life free from pain and evil, then God can be his divine lapdog. Jabez, like Jacob before him, is nothing less than a member of the church of great prosperity. God gives all things to those who pray for them: land, money, fame, power, and on and on and on.

 However attractive such a prayer may be in a culture consumed with consumption, it cannot serve as a model prayer for our Christian lives. As the great feast of conspicuous consumption approaches, that holy celebration of the credit card and the tinseled mall, let me suggest a far more familiar prayer, the one many of us say every week at least once. This is the prayer that Jesus offered as a model for all of our praying. In Matthew's version, 6: 9-13, we are to ask for three things.

 First, we ask for the reign of God to come to us. That is, we ask for God finally to rule in our lives, the God of justice and peace, not some demon god of power and war. Second, we ask that God's will be done here and now, rather than some will of our own for more of this and more of that. Third, we ask for the bread we need, not the gorging feasts we crave, wherein the only thing that enlarges is our stomach and not our righteousness. The Lord's Prayer is the prayer we need, not the individualistic, narcissistic, consumerist prayer of Jabez.

 I do not doubt that Jabez' unashamed request for more will be heard throughout the land over the next weeks, drowning out the Lord's Prayer. This is doubly ironic since it is the latter prayer that will be on countless lips publicly. It could be said that while Jesus' prayer is being repeated again and again that Jabez' prayer is in fact the one being hurled, however silently, toward the God of the heavens, or more likely Santa of the melting North Pole. As usual, we are confronted with a choice: Jabez or Jesus? However obvious such a choice may appear, in truth it is has been a most difficult choice indeed. It is fair to say that Jabez has been a clear winner in this race. It is my prayer that the unknown prayer from wherever he comes, even the once-named Jabez, will return to his well-deserved obscurity, and that this Christmas Jesus' prayer for justice  and peace, and enough for all will not only be spoken but acted in the hearts and lives of all who claim him as their brother and friend.

 The Children of Abraham

"[Christian Zionists are] literalists when it comes to some issues and very much ignoring other issues. For example, they say that the Jewish people were promised the holy land from God through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They neglect to mention that the Arabs descended from, or believe they descended from, one of the children of Abraham, Ishmael. And that that land was twice promised. It was promised to Jews and promised to Arabs. Why to two? So that we could become a model of how to reconcile."

 Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine and author of The Left Hand of God, on "Bill Moyers Journal, October 5, 2007.

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