by Dr. Lani Wilson

Good day, prayer and fasting warriors. Amazing what a difference a day can make, isn’t it?

There is but one God, reigning supreme
and one Son whose name is Christ Jesus.
And we are His children.

We must fast and pray now like our lives and our children’s and grandchildren’s lives depend on it - because they do.

The word is list. See, this word was given to me three weeks ago, but I wasn’t able to put anything down on paper. A lot going on…However, I have learned that even if I don’t prepare this little message with the given word, that word sticks until I do sit down to offer something, anything from The LORD. It just sticks. So why list?

Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear how many charges they are bringing against you?” But he did not answer even one accusation, so that the governor was quite amazed.
Mathew 27:13-14 (NET)

Pilate asked again, "Aren’t you going to answer anything? That’s quite a list of accusations." Still, he said nothing. Pilate was impressed, really impressed.
Mark 15:4-5 (TMB)

I have often found Jesus’ silence quizzical, if not sometimes infuriating. I mean, they never told us exactly what was on that list of accusations, but we can imagine, right?

 

o King of some kingdom
o Riot instigator
o Arrogant healer
o Silent plotter
o Movement organizer
o Non-violent protestor
o Legal rule flaunter
o Social mores violator
o Befriender of social pariahs
o Jewish peasant of no social standing

 

There were more, to be sure. What was infuriating to me was that He never answered. Not a word. Surely, He had something wise to say to His accusers, something that would amaze even Pilate and give him something to consider. But Jesus said nothing.

The other notable definitions and uses of the word list besides “a number of connected items or names written or printed consecutively, typically one below the other” are a noun, as in a battle area or as a verb, as in leaning to one side of a ship.

(lists) noun historical barriers enclosing an area for a jousting tournament.• the scene of a contest or combat.

verb [ no obj. ] (of a ship) lean to one side, typically because of a leak or unbalanced cargo. Compare with heel².
Apple Online Dictionary

We have three uses of the word: The obvious numerical counting of items; battle area; a ship leaning to one side. Out of pure convenience we are most familiar with the first, numerical counting. It seems that humans are often focused on the quantity of things and that somehow translates into automatic quality. The American economy is driven by the need for more. The more we have of something, the better off we must be whether it be social engagements, technological gadgets or the number of widgets or widgets in a gadget, shoes, suits, appliances, cars, and just about anything that can be reproduced.

US Economy driven by consumers
Myles Udland, Business Insider
October 1, 2015

The chart shows the effect of The Great Recession on consumerism and the author in the same article says

American manufacturing looks like it's in recession. That's the bad news. But here's the good news: The US economy's most important growth driver is still booming.
Ibid.

We weren’t making as much stuff anymore and we weren’t consuming as much stuff because no one had the money. It wasn’t an issue of having more stuff to keep a list of because we couldn’t buy more stuff. That created a new problem, albeit strange one.

People in the U.S. spent less in April than they did in March, according to the latest data from the Commerce Department. It's hardly a new trend. Americans have been hesitant to buy much at the store or elsewhere for months. Instead, they have been increasing their savings. The annual savings rate, now 5.6%, is higher than it was a year ago, and significantly higher than the pre-recession norm of around 3%, according to the Federal Reserve. "Americans barely pried open their wallets in April," Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. That's important because American spenders make up the majority -- about 70% -- of economic activity in the country. If people don't spend, the economy doesn't grow. Americans are savers now. It’s a problem for the economy.

Patrick Gillespie, CNN Money
June 1, 2015

Because of the severe financial contraction during The Great Recession, people started saving more and that threatened the stability of the American economy. If you can’t list ornaments of American success - be they an accumulation or a surfeit of - requiring constant purging, you are not middle class. And how can we know this? Check the storage locker business.

Business is booming for companies that lease out storage units to consumers. Rents are rising, most units are occupied, and competition is tame due to limited new construction in the wake of the financial crisis, storage executives and analysts say. Investors are bidding up the shares of industry leaders such as Extra Space Storage Inc., whose stock is up 33% through Monday in a year when many other commercial real-estate firms have been hit hard and the broader S&P 500 is down 2%. Need to store that? Booming self-storage industry says no problem.

Liam Pleven. Wall Street Journal
October 13, 2015

So what we have is the perfect storm of consumer drought; then consumer frugality; then consumer fright resulting in the booming storage business for all the stuff we are afraid to get rid of because we might not be able to get it back. And the latest capitalist stratagem is the market in reselling our list of stuff: Local5, Let It Go are just two of the newest consumer reselling sites after arcane giants, eBay and Craigslist. At some point, someone should yell, “STOP,” but that wouldn’t make money and well….we just saw how the American economy really works. Listing what we own is as American as shopping; they go hand-in-hand. In Jesus’ time, no one except the wealthy and their conspirators had anything material worth listing. And Pilate’s inquiry to Jesus about the list of accusations against Him didn’t seem to faze Him, even if they could be exonerated one-by-one. Apparently, the length of the list itself astounded Pilate. Yet, Jesus didn’t say a word. In the Marcan version of this story, “Pilate was impressed, really impressed.”

The other definition and use of this word that might be of interest is the nautical use: A ship that tilts to one side or lists due to a leak or unbalanced weight. A ship dangerously leans in the water because of an imbalance of water or cargo. The greater the weight, the greater the lean and ergo, the greater the danger. If you’ve ever been in a small boat, your understanding of this is visceral if it has ever tipped due to uneven weight or a leak. So it must have been for the disciples in the story of the boat on the Sea of Galilee in the midst of that terrible storm.

One day he and his disciples got in a boat. "Let’s cross the lake," he said. And off they went. It was smooth sailing, and he fell asleep. A terrific storm came up suddenly on the lake. Water poured in, and they were about to capsize. They woke Jesus: "Master, Master, we’re going to drown!" Getting to his feet, he told the wind, "Silence!" and the waves, "Quiet down!" They did it. The lake became smooth as glass.
Luke 8:22-24 (TMB)

The “water poured in.” Capsize. They were terrified and rightly so: There is no mention of any of the disciples being able to swim, fisherman or not. In 1986 a hull of a fishing boat found in the lakebed in the Sea of Galilee became known as the “Jesus Boat” because it was radio carbon dated to between 120 BC and 40 AD.

The remains of the so-called Jesus Boat were found in the muddy lakebed (the Sea of Galilee is actually a freshwater inland lake) during a time of severe drought. The remains were 8.3 metres (27 feet) long, 2.3 metres (7.5 feet) wide and 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) high. This size would have enabled it to carry up to 15 people.
seetheholyland.net
Jesus Boat

There is no evidence that the boat was one that Jesus ever used but its origins are enticing in nature because it was found about 1.5km from the town of Migdal, the hometown of Mary Magdalene. Certainly, it was probably like fishing boats of that time. A frightened group of grown men (as far as the story is told, they were all men), panicking in the midst of a sudden storm would be enough to make a boat of that size and weight list and ultimately, capsize. As the story goes, most translations just state that Jesus rebuked the waves and the wind, but religious lore has it that He said, “Peace. Be Still.” Whatever He said, the stormy conditions immediately stopped and it was calm again.

The fish is an early symbol of Christianity from the Greek. The Greek word for fish is "ichthys." As early as the first century, Christians made an acrostic from this word: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. The fish has plenty of other theological overtones as well, for Christ fed the 5,000 with 2 fishes and 5 loaves (a meal recapitulated in Christian love-feasts) and called his disciples "fishers of men." Water baptism, practiced by immersion in the early church, created a parallel between fish and converts. Second- century theologian Tertullian put it this way: "we, little fishes, after the image of our Ichthys, Jesus Christ, are born in the water."
What is the origin of the Christian fish symbol?

Christianity Today
Elesha Campbell, August 2008

Whether to enumerate items or describe the tilt of a sea vessel, the word list has meanings beyond its simplistic spelling. Certainly, when we introduce The Christ into the dialogue, the meanings become holographic; quite literally, three-dimensionality “formed by the interference of light beams from a laser or other coherent light source” (Apple Online Dictionary). Jesus never answered when the violations were thrown at Him by Pilate, His surrogate accuser. Our first instinct is to defend ourselves when accused, guilty or not. But His silence was revelatory to Pilate. “Such control. Such calm. Such mastery,” Pilate may have thought. But to Jesus? We can guess and project that it was all part of The Plan for Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, but that is all we can do. It would have taken nothing away from God’s ultimate agenda if He answered Pilate with aplomb and wisdom, adding to the mystery. But Jesus said nothing.

In doing so, He ultimately tilted Pilate toward His innocence, Pilate impressed that Jesus did not beg for His life, defend Himself against His own people. The weight of Jesus’ silence didn’t keep Him from the cross, but it did set The Plan in motion. The Romans and His own Jewish people would conspire toward a complex set of illegal, abhorrent, deliberative, and self-destructive devices that would destroy the Jerusalem temple for the second time and ultimately, the pagan Roman Empire. If anything, Jesus must have reveled in the list of accusations brought against Him. Time and testimony would prove them all lies and Jesus must have known that all along. The weight of those accusations tilted the universe toward the Ultimate Sacrifice and those of us who follow Him, are in that side of the boat with Him.

"Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut-make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law-cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me. "If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.
Mathew 10:34-39 (TMB)

We seem to be at that moment in time - again - when our Christian mettle is challenged. Which “Christians” are we? The ones who celebrate leadership that raises the culture wars to nuclear status and Def Con 1 (Defense Readiness Condition)? Or are we the ones who pick and choose which artifacts of the culture wars we will defend? LGBT+ rights? A woman’s right to choose? Immigrants’ rights? Workers’ rights? Human rights? African-American civil rights? Which “Christian” shibboleth of the list do we defend, stand for, fight for? The list is now all inclusive and while millions of Christian Evangelicals are thanking God for the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election, millions more are preparing for an unexpected and hopefully not, unholy battle. And we all call ourselves “Christians.” So where do we think Jesus would be in this particular list or battle arena? Righteously standing with the new leadership about to descend with vengeance on those who thought they were gaining at least a modicum of parity with other citizens? Or would He be arming those who have been oppressed and their defenders with His presence, His assurance, and power? Do we get to choose from that list because of culture and our innate humanity or do we let The Nazarene, that First-Century Palestinian Jew, God Incarnate lead us in the fight for all human beings? Which is it, Allen Temple? As Richard Pryor pointed out, are we fighting for justice or just-us? Are we fighting at all? Are we going to tepidly tiptoe around the next 24 to 48 months (mid-terms and the next POTUS election cycle) or are we going to mount up and fight as the Body of Christ, not in committee?

As Mathew 10 tells us, The Christ did not come to make our lives cozy or comfortable. That is the superficial whitewash (no pun intended) that we offer new Christians: Peace, calm, an ethereal pillow that buffers us from life’s alarms. Hogwash. He came to tear it down, stir it up, throw oil on the fire, light up and illuminate the bedraggled, the lives torn apart by life. If we thought we were going to be comfy in our self-proclaimed, socially-just church body, surprise! As the young people say, we just got woke. I can just hear Jesus hoopin’,

How ya like Me now, Allen Temple?!?

LORD Jesus, Master of All, you saw all of this coming. You warned us, but we just couldn’t conceive of evil so real. We come now, whipped and beaten, demoralized, watching as the empire falls. Please, God, give us more of You because we have exhausted our human condition. We are laid bare, no more nice-nice-oops problems. It’s life and death in the flesh in 90 days. Just bind our wounds, wipe away our superficial bandages, and make us one in You so we can gather in Your name, Your honor for all the earth. Bring down Your enemies and make the battle plan Yours. Let those forces from beyond hear Your thundering armies, regardless of our number. Remind us that the fight is Yours and keep us close in rank, under Your banner, cloistering the weak and reviving the fallen. Make us one; give us courage; grant us wisdom so that we may rise and fight again…and again…and again…and again.

We are soldiers in the army
We have to fight although we have to cry
We have to hold up the blood-stained banner
We have to hold it up until we die!
Anonymous

Until we die!

Amen.