Laws, Logs and Love

Written on January 30, 2009 in thought

prostituteunp0512_468x312 Jesus, in the face of a centralized hostility towards outsiders, foreigners and the unclean, spoke a message of decentralization, inclusion and the reconciliation of all things. He resisted the official representatives of an exclusive elitism, an insular ideology, a segregational salvation, and a divisive dogma. The people with their leaders had dismally failed in their mission to be a light to the whole world. The early church believed Jesus to be that light that ended the tyranny of darkness over all people and ushered in the new age of the all-embracing God. Paul’s journeys emphasize the universal scope of this love. It was precisely Jesus’ attempts to demolish the traditional and established strongholds of his religion that got him killed. Same with Paul and the Roman world with their pantheon of gods and the Caesars.

It seems to me that our preoccupation with private and personal sins misses the forest for the trees. We are so obsessed with the splinters that float in every one else’s eyes that we are blinded by the log lodged in our own. And, again, I don’t think that log is our personal or private sin, but precisely our compulsive need to make sure others measure up, settle up, line up, buck up, and straighten up. How are we any different than the CEO-s and their lawyers in the gospels? Do we, like they, really think we are doing the right thing by studiously discerning what is and isn’t sin and then sadistically discriminating against those who fail to meet the standards we’ve so soberly determined? Isn’t it possible that Jesus, when he ate and drank with prostitutes, drunkards, tax-collectors, soldiers, gluttons, criminals and foreigners, was living truthfully? Surely he wasn’t just acting symbolically or analogously, a sort of in-living-color demonstration that this is how God would act if he were here. Neither do I think he lived with them as an outreach. I think he was with them because they were his friends who constituted his kingdom. He told the religious that prostitutes were going into the kingdom ahead of them… no mention of reformed prostitutes… just prostitutes! Is it possible that we still don’t get it?

26 Comments - Leave a comment!

http://www.crackedvirtue.com Brianmpei

The simple truth is that the way you are describing is much harder David. It requires more of me and of us and costs me my comfort, preferences and neat and orderly life. It forces me to confront my own stuff instead of hiding it and it makes me my brother’s bloody keeper. Rules, on the other hand, and what we’ve come to call holiness, keeps my world clean, makes the guidelines simple and makes everyone responsible for their own stuff. I can say I love you without ever having to actually engage the mess of your life or ever letting you see the mess in mine. Love, after all, just might get you killed.
http://nakedpastor.com nakedpastor

it is so much simpler that way.
http://societyvs.wordpress.com/ societyvs

Great message David – my applause alone on this subject is deafening.
ian

True true…we need to do far more of living out oru love than talking about it. No question.

But I think much of the debate here has been about what happens WITHIN the Christian community. Surely Jesus didn’t go around randomly selecting his disciples at a whim. They were asked to make a choice, he also held them to a different standard then those he came across in other settings. I think that a community of believers is a difrent environment with clear guidelines when compared with the dinner shared with the non-believing neighbor, or the loving hand given to those in need. That also doesn’t mean that love and grace for non-believers should stop at the churches front doors either.

IOW, we need to do more of what we preach, talk, and pray about in churches OUTSIDE of churches, and leave those fancy buildings as a place for believers and seekers to learn and fellowhip in Christ. When did churches become a one-stop-shop that makes it convinient for us to lead our christian lives safe within its womb, and then tuck it in our bibles during the week?

If this doesn’t apply to you…GREAT! Congratulations, because you’re in the extreme minority. This is what much of the church (big c and little c) has become. And though I think Davids words are true, we must still recognize that it’s okay to be a little different with our church family, as we are at home, work, or at play. I just think that it needs to be opposite to what ‘usually’ happens: we do our ‘Christ walking’ in church, when it’s the world that needs it the most.
http://expressandperspective.blogspot.com MistiPearl

David – this is superbly written and expressed!
…Here’s to looking at others through the eyes of God and not though our own!
Smiles and blessings,
~mp:)
http://existentialpunk.com Existential Punk

Thanks for a thought-provoking piece. i have been thinking and saying similar things of late in my interactions with people who lambast me with scripture.

Pax,

EP
http://nakedpastor.com nakedpastor

thanks EP
fishon

For the sake of community—-I WILL STAY OUT OF THIS ONE.
peace,
fishon
Boethius

NP: We are not all preoccupied about sin. You blogged about behavior and, as you stated yourself, there are many theologians who interpret the Scriptures differently. Like it or not, the Scriptures deal with sin.

We are to love the Lord with all our heart (emotion), mind (intellect), soul (spirit) and strength (body). You can not withhold even one of these things. Emotions do not take precedent over the intellect and vice versa. The same can be stated for all four parts of the self. The Lord desires them all.

We must all live a combination of the contemplative life (prayer, studying the Scriptures) and the active life (feeding/clothing the poor, sharing the Gospel, etc.). Let’s all go live it in the most authentic way possible using what knowledge we have and will gain from studying more of who God is and what He requires of us.

Oh, and don’t forget, Jesus ate with, fellowshipped with, and travelled with Judas and we all know how it ended for him. Just because Jesus reaches out to someone does not mean that person reaches back.
http://societyvs.wordpress.com/ societyvs

“For the sake of community—-I WILL STAY OUT OF THIS ONE.” (Fishon)

I don’t think David is mis-representing Jesus in his story here though – do you? I see a Jesus who loved people with problems (and seemed to know it) and he stayed with them (including drunks and prostitutes). Most of Jesus’ problems in his day are with people that think they have it figured out – who in all honesty likely ignore the people in need of it…making themselves ‘salt with no flavor’ (thus that line coming into existence). Nothing wrong with hanging with people who can use it.
fishon

societyvs said,
“For the sake of community—-I WILL STAY OUT OF THIS ONE.” (Fishon)

I don’t think David is mis-representing Jesus in his story here though – do you?

———Goodness, gracious, what’s a guy to do??? Some would have me be quite–and others would have me speak.

I am solid as a rock–I will remain silent with my opinions on this one. I shall not be moved. Societyvs, you old sneak, you are testing me, but I am resolved to remain in control of my tongue, at least for a short time.
fishon
http://picasaweb.google.com/mrmagoos57/DropBox?authkey=7536gREd6yo&feat=directlink faithlessinfatima

I have a question: The inclusive Jesus shines thru the layers of the gospel tradition…how do we interpret exclusive Paul?
Fred

What a great post, np. One of the best!
http://yesuvia.blogspot.com zefi

He told the religious that prostitutes were going into the kingdom ahead of them… no mention of reformed prostitutes… just prostitutes! Is it possible that we still don’t get it?

And all of a sudden, in this post, theology and interpretation of scriptures became easy and straightforward.
http://yesuvia.blogspot.com zefi

———Goodness, gracious, what’s a guy to do??? Some would have me be quite–and others would have me speak.

You need to be more tactful. You need to choose your words and structure your sentences correctly so as to give an illusion of inoffensiveness and gentleness and ever-smiling cherub-ness.
Boethius

Fishon:

You should comment. This is a safe place where anyone can just be themselves. Be yourself. It is okay to be different here.
http://poserorprophet.wordpress.com dan

Hey Naked Pastor,

While I sympathise with what you’re saying in this post (and on this blog in general), I want to very quickly point out that it was not the “strongholds of… religion” that got Jesus and Paul killed. Rather, it was the politico-economic-religious Powers who killed both Jesus and Paul (whose deaths, at the time of their occurrences, were not primarily understood as religious but as political). A proper understanding of the entwined nature of the religious and the politico-economic in the Roman Empire in the first century is absolutely crucial for our understanding of Jesus and Paul and, given that I’m writing a thesis on matters related to this point, I had to point this out.

Further, it is particularly important to remember this overlap of the religious and the politico-economic, given your reference to prostitution (surely an excellent example of how, in our day and age, the spiritual and political continue to overlap, as prostitutes are (a) politically oppressed; (b) economically exploited; and (c) condemned by religious people as ‘sinners’).

Also, given that you’ve drawn the sort of conclusions mentioned in this post, I’m curious (as a person who has spent the last ten years working with and journeying alongside of sex workers in various capacities) about how you and your community are actually embodying your rhetoric. I mean, it’s all well and good to make this point about the prostitutes Jesus mentions (and its not an uncommon point in certain circles) but how are you and your congregation embodying this rhetoric (i.e. do you know any sex workers?). Sorry if that comes across as harsh, I hope it doesn’t, but I feel that it is a question that needs to be asked. Given that so few are engaging (appropriately!) with sex workers, I’d almost prefer that people dropped the rhetoric if they’re not going to do anything concrete in response to it (lest we confuse rhetoric for real action).
http://nakedpastor.com nakedpastor

I hear you dan. all good points.
http://yesuvia.blogspot.com zefi

28But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.

29He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.

30And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.

31Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

32For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

By saying reformed, I hope you didn’t mean repent…

Cheers.
http://www.nofluff.ca Semety

dan.. I knew a sex worker. she was my friend, but she was trouble. She lived too far away for me to help her. And I was only 15 I think, so I couldn’t do much. A lot of people nowadays are basically slaves, so it’s not even their fault.

np. repent, repent, yes they do have to repent, that’s part of being saved.
http://poserorprophet.wordpress.com dan

Semety et al., regarding repentance,

The absolutely crucial point is that in Jesus’ engagement with the poor and the marginalised, the act of repentance comes after Jesus’ proclamation of forgiveness. It is this that we have gotten exactly backwards. We tend to go to the poor and marginalised and say, “Repent so that you can be forgiven and accepted by God (and by us)” when Jesus was saying, “You already are forgiven and accepted by God (and by myself and the community of my followers) so now you can live a life of repentance.” It is forgiveness that enables repentance, not vice versa.
Della

WOW, I thought I was alone in this. AMAZING. I just got done telling a friend that I had been treated better at the Temple and Mosque than I was in any christain church. Thanks, I don’t feel like such a freak anyone.
http://yesuvia.blogspot.com zefi

WOW, I thought I was alone in this. AMAZING. I just got done telling a friend that I had been treated better at the Temple and Mosque than I was in any christain church. Thanks, I don’t feel like such a freak anyone.

Yeah, people should thank Christianity.

We’ve been doing everybody a favour by keeping all the bad people in the church. Never mind the damage the church as a whole is causing the world. It could’ve been worse.
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http://verveandverse.blogspot.com/ steven hamilton

…it’s just more of the feeding frenzy on the forbidden fruit…
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