Rag-doll Physics and the Bible...

One of the things that bothers me is how easy it is to fall into a comfort zone in the walk of faith.  I'm pretty sure this comfort zone is found by all forms and stripes of Christianity.  Liberal Christians can prove their point, Conservative Christians can do the same by grabbing a Bible and starting to spin the words and interpretations of those words to best fit the narrative that they are most comfortable with.

It's easy to find justification for all sorts of things in the Bible.  It's easy to cherry pick Old Testament scriptures to authorize bigotry and hatred, just like it's easy to lay claim to a new covenant in the New Testament as license.

In the case of the former we reserve the things that make us uncomfortable as relevant and the things we enjoy as given the green light by God when the new covenant went into effect.  It's pretty simple...

Leviticus 11:4–8 (NLT) — 4 You may not, however, eat the following animals that have split hooves or that chew the cud, but not both. The camel chews the cud but does not have split hooves, so it is ceremonially unclean for you. 5 The hyrax chews the cud but does not have split hooves, so it is unclean. 6 The hare chews the cud but does not have split hooves, so it is unclean. 7 The pig has evenly split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean. 8 You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses. They are ceremonially unclean for you.

I know a lot of people who love bacon...I know a lot of christian people who love bacon...I know a lot of conservative christian people who love bacon... and because of said love for bacon...this particular law is no longer relevant because that's old covenant stuff, and we live in the New Testament era...

Leviticus 18:22 (NLT) — 22 “Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.

Same book of the Bible, same law different new covenant...this one sticks the other one doesn't.  The logic is flawed but the real issue isn't about logic, it's about what I think is right or wrong and if I think it's wrong and I can find a scripture to back up that I think it's wrong that's all that matters, and if I find a scripture that says what I like is wrong, especially in the Old Testament I can throw that under the new covenant deal and justify my vice.

But this problem is much bigger than the whole homosexual debate that seems to be so all important to conservative and liberal believers.

Liberal Christians argue from silence, and original language, and context because that suits their point of view, it's  hard to argue with well-reasoned academic study of the issues, context, and time period and all of those things taken into account make things so much easier to believe and can bring a sense of pride in a study well done.

But there are some pesky passages that are hard to really pin down.

When I read Facebook rants from either side I feel like there has been no progress in the Christian Faith for years.

Matthew 22:34–36 (NLT) — 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

This is where I feel American Christianity is these days.  So let's do some 21 Century paraphrasing.

But when the Pastors heard that the board members didn't like what Jesus was telling them, they decided to set the record straight by ranting on Facebook, Twitter, and if given the opportunity Fox News.  They asked Jesus which sin God hated the most, which sin found in the Old Testament  Levitical law really mattered?

What I find most interesting in this whole exchange isn't the question that the leaders asked,  What I find so interesting is what Jesus said.

Matthew 22:37–40 (NLT) — 37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Let us again do some 21 Century paraphrasing:

Jesus looked at them, shook his head and said "you just don't get it, Love God Love People.  It's not about what sin is the worst, it's not about that at all, it's about Loving God and People so much that you see past their Sin, past their mess, past the things that bother you about them.  It's about loving God so much you want to please him, and loving people so much you will do whatever it takes to share God's love with them. Just like we're doing with this whole incarnation thing..."

Both sides of this whole debate miss the point, at least in my estimation they do.  In our desire to be right about this or a myriad of other issues, we have made God one of two things...angry and vengeful, or weak and disinterested.  We have taken God's word and twisted it to make our points, in doing so we have lost sight of what matters.  Loving God and Loving People.

We find words like whosoever and all in the new testament but we really don't believe them.

A better reading of those passages for American Christians would be...

"For God so loved the people I'm comfortable with, that he sent his one and only son that looks like I do, that as long as they affirm my personal beliefs and refuse to question what I'm comfortable with or what makes sense to my interpretation of scripture, they get in, no questions asked."

I could go on but I won't, mainly because it's exhausting.  The number of people I have hidden or just plain removed from the social media platforms I use based on Biblical arguments or Political agendas is growing every day.  Far from being a place for spirited debate, or genuine concern and a desire to understand the other persons positions, it becomes a soap box, to spout a particular point of view without any real need to understand the others position, to actually get to know the person behind the point of view.  It's great fun to find a group that will nod and smile, and affirm what you think and feel and believe, then load the cannons and shoot them toward the other side in hopes that the resultant explosion will blow some of them to your side and way of thinking like some rag-doll physics avatar in a first person shooter. (Not sure what I'm talking about search YouTube for halo matches you'll get what I'm saying.)

What would it look like if we decided to get to know the people we are so angry at, if we took time to actively listen to their side of things, instead of putting on the headphones of narrowhearedness and the sun glasses of only my viewpoint matters because I'm right. Jesus was right.  He was always right, and yet he didn't really worry about that so much when dealing with people who needed a touch from Him.  He worried more about talking to them, loving them, meeting them where they were, touching their needs, listening to what they had to say, and basically making the important people upset and frustrated because he was more concerned about the person than the problem, or the sin, or the struggle.

Think about it for a moment.  Samaritan Woman, Yep I'll reach her, Roman Centurion, I got this, short tax collector everyone hates, let's do lunch, lepers, I'll talk to them, beggar sure, demon possessed crazy guy running around the grave yard scaring everyone, lets help him out, woman caught in the act, compassion given.   The list can and does go on. Jesus modeled for us how we are supposed to live and move and have our being in the world.  He paid his taxes, talked to anyone, loved people who were supposed to be shunned, fed people, hung out with the wrong crowd, and even loved the guy that was going to betray him.

As I struggle with my faith, as I dig into scripture I'm finding that increasingly God wants to move me toward a different paradigm.  Please understand I'm not saying he's trying to move you dear reader, I would never presume to the voice and leading of the Spirit.  First I find myself digging deeper into things than I used to.  I've always wanted to know and advocated for a personal faith that goes beyond up-bringing, church affiliation, or any other number of factors.  What has been happening with me has been this desire to understand more than I used to.  Second, I'm more interested in the whole idea of loving God and loving People, than I am in Loving God and tolerating people.  Some people may think I've decided to be soft on "sin" or have compromised my upbringing or convictions...Gosh I hope so.  Here's why.  I'm not God.  Me being "soft" on sin doesn't mean I don't believe it exists, it doesn't mean I don't talk about what separates us from God, it doesn't mean I think that God has changed his mind on what sin is, what it means is I recognize that Matthew 7:1 and 2 gets skipped over way to quickly so christians can get to verse 6.  For some reason we like verse 6, it helps us justify our treatment of people that we don't like or we think are unable to really know who Jesus is or have a relationship with him.  Just so were all clear here's the first set of verses

7 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.

Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005. Print.

I like the way the message says it, but other translations are just as clear.  The harder I am on people who don't measure up to my standards the harder things are going to be for me.  As far as compromising my upbringing or convictions, that's something that we all do on a regular basis, what I mean is if we are actively working on our faith, if we are pushing into God and his word, we will by necessity find our upbringing and convictions in flux, mainly because being close to God, and studying the Bible will shake up what we always "knew" it will transform our lives in ways that we don't understand and just when we think that we've made it to the spot where everything is as it should be, God will show us something else that will start the whole process over again.  That's the thing about the Christian faith.  It's supposed to be an active part of who we are, and in my estimation the best way to keep it from being active and alive in my life is to declare that I've got it all figured out, that I know how God thinks, and reasons, and I can therefore dispense judgment and words of wisdom that are equal to his own.

I'm just not there, and never do I hope to be.  I just want to be able to live and move and walk and have my being in Jesus, I want to let him push and pull and stretch and ball up and start all over again.  I want to be able to stay open to where he leads and not hold so tightly to what I know is truth that I miss the Truth leading me into a deeper more robust relationship with the God I love and serve.  I have a feeling that the longer I walk this earth, the more what I have always believed will be challenged, what I do when that challenge occurs can mean the difference between being able to share my faith, and being relegated to a camp of angry religious people who should know better.

Doodling in the dirt...

John 8:1–11 (NLT) — 1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

 

Justice, tolerance, fairness, equality.  Words that we champion, and well we should, not as a possible shot in the arm for our churches, not because it's politically correct, not because doing so makes us feel good, but because they are at the heart of the one we serve.

When Jesus came on the scene, he forever altered the course of faith for the world.  The to do list shrank, the rule book that took pages and pages was boiled down to something very easy to understand..

Matthew 22:37–40 (NLT) — 37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

The story that we read in John 8:1-11 has all the makings of a big problem for Jesus.  Let's paraphrase,

A local group of ministers got together and decided that they didn't like what the new guy was doing, the crowds for his services were bigger, he was healing people on the sabbath, his followers were eating and drinking, they weren't as particular about washing their hands the way they were supposed to.  The teacher himself was known to eat with people who were different than what was acceptable for a person of his stature, a person of his origin to eat with.  He conversed with women, hung out with tax collectors, was friends with a zealot, healed indiscriminately.  Jesus was inclusive.  The pastors and churches of the day were not.  They set up stringent sets of rules and regulations, the price for getting in with God was to follow the prescribed teaches of any set of leaders.  Jews didn't associate with Samaritans, Samaritans didn't worship with Jews, Romans were the enemy even while the religious leaders cozied up to them because of the power they held.

If this all looks familiar it's not surprising.  Look around us.  Without real effort on the part of leaders churches today are in the same place.  Worried more about playing to the base than reaching to the world.

The leaders in John 8, think they have found a loophole, a way to bring Jesus into line with the way things are supposed to be.  To put everyone back in their place...so they bring into the middle of their fight a woman they rip her from her situation, turn her into her sin and throw her at Jesus feet, then dare him to speak one word of Love, or acceptance, forgiveness.  They know they have him, they know that now he has to make a choice.  Following the law to the letter means that they must throw rocks at this poor soul until she dies,  ignoring the law removes any credibility Jesus has with the "faithful" that have gotten caught up in the mania that seemed to follow this prophet from Nazareth.

This happens in our world today far too much.  Churches, and denominations and communities draw lines.  You either condemn all or accept all, there is no place for growth, no place for dialog, or working and walking in the path of salvation that must be a daily occurrence.  We allow the media, twitter, and Facebook to write the narrative of how we deal with people that are different than we are.  We follow the path of least resistance, catering to the base.  The problem with this is that the person we claim to follow, the God that spoke the words whosoever, has called us to so much more.

Look at what Jesus does when the world around him, tells him how he is supposed to act, how he is supposed to treat someone that is different than he is.  He bends down and begins to write in the dirt.  Jesus starts doodling. He makes it clear to the loud angry group of people, that what they think and what they have to say really isn't all that important to him.  He is not going to be trapped...and they do what so many do.  They get louder, they may have brought in a few more people giving volume to their loudness, they force the issue, and it is here that we find Jesus showing us the best way to deal with so many of the issues we face in our communities of faith today.

He stands up for the woman, and in doing so brings each of those that would separate her from the community because of her issues, because of her failings, because of her choices by simply telling them fine... If you want to live by the letter of the laws that you claim to follow go for it...but...

That three letter word is one of the most important and powerful words in our language as Christ followers.  Jesus tells the to follow the law but only if they have never sinned, only if they have never had a problem, only if they have always lived perfectly, never thinking a bad thought, never doing something that was wrong.  I love what happens in the story, we all should.  It says that the people clambering for this womans blood, dropped their rocks and took off, one at a time beginning with the oldest until the only person left was Jesus and the woman.

I often times imagine Jesus standing up dusting his hands against his robes, and then reaching out to the woman that was the center of attention for no other reason but the fact that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was different, she made some bad choices and in doing so became a cause instead of person.  He looks at her and tells her she is loved, she is not condemned she is free, but he doesn't stop there, he also tells her to leave a changed person, to go and sin no more.  To stop making the choices that brought her to his feet in the first place.

We can find ourselves in each player of this story.  There are times we are the angry crowd, demanding to be heard demanding to be affirmed by God.  We want to be told we are right and all others are wrong.  When we are there we need to ask ourselves if Jesus is doodling in the dirt as we spout our case before him.

We can find ourselves in the woman thrown down at the feet of Jesus, shamed because of who we are or what we look like or the choices that we have made.  In those times we may feel shame, or injustice, or anger or bitterness more than any other moment but mostly we find ourselves experiencing fear.  At these times we need only to remember that Jesus was clear about the two commandments that were most important, those two commands are wrapped in Love and as we know Love casts out fear.

Finally there are times in our lives that we find ourselves in the shoes of the savior.  With the world around us demanding we choose a side, demanding we accept or condemn based on what society, or religion tells us we are supposed to do.  At these moments we would do well to remember that Jesus got down in the dirt next to the woman, he tuned out the noise and the demands of others, and was present with her where she was.

Today as we think about what has been happening across our nation, as we think of the divide that has opened up between communities, about the justifiable anger, the call to action the demand for justice. Let us all take a page from the one we follows play book.  Let us kneel down when people want us to choose a side because we are supposed to and write in the dirt.  In doing so we choose the side of Love, and grace, and mercy, a realization that we all have one thing in common, no matter who we are, where we were born or what we look like we all must have the grace of the savior applied to our lives, and then must love him and love others with all that is in us.  We must doodle in the dirt as it were, because in doing so we take the power away from the loud voices, demanding we be like them, feel like them.  Instead if we will doodle in the dirt we will be able to find a new way to bridge a gap that never should have been there in the first place in communities of faith.