There is a blues technique called 'call and response', where a singer and an instrumentalist echo the same musical phrase. It happens in life as well.
I have now been on call for most of the last 6 days, two of which I have slept in the hospital. This accounts for the still-intermittent posts. Yesterday, while having lunch, a devout Christian cardiologist sat down with me. He wanted me to join his Bible study group. He is friends with my partner, who goes to the same Bible study group, and with whom I have spoken extensively about religion. My call experiences and that conversation prompt these thoughts.
Jesus preached to the poor and outcasts of his community. He had hard words for those observant of ritual and law but cruel in their dealings with people. Jesus' teachings throughout the gospels provide, at least to me ear, hope, acceptance and redemption for the ritually unclean, those who could not afford offerings, the lame, the blind.
We have conflicting words on observance of the law. Without question, technical observance without compassion for others is rejected. However, on the one hand, Jesus says he has not come to obliterate the law but to fulfill it. He says 'not one stroke or dot of the law will be overturned'. On the other hand, he himself violates the law not infrequently. He and his disciples eat grain, picking it on the sabbath, using David's disobedience as a precedent. On other occasions, Jesus does not wash his hands before eating, and of course he opposes the formal system of ritual money and offerings.
Do we then conclude that Jesus is for or against the law? Besides issues of sanctimonious observance, the 'violations' are generally in the name of practicality or necessity, not personal convenience or to 'dodge' the law. This would be consistent with his attention to the poor and ritually unclean.
This is where I make a connection with call. I have slept little, shaved and bathed only twice in three and a half days, and eaten repeatedly at restaurants, meaning high calorie, high fat, high salt meals. My temper is short, and I'm touchy. I'm in green pajamas, my perpetual work clothes. I am not well dressed, not well cleaned, and have not followed my diet or sleeping patterns. I have not done these things because I'm on a 'binge' but because I am working, doing physical and intellectual work.
So it was, and is, for so many ritually unclean individuals. It is petty and sanctimonious to tell a butcher, a subsistence farmer, an undertaker, a woman with menstrual spotting, that they cannot come before God. These people are doing their best to serve their communities, to sustain their flesh and to deal with infirmities that are not their own fault. As Jesus points out with crushing parables and stories, these ritually dirty people may be first in the eyes of God, not the pompous, wealthy, clean people. The dirty ones are doing what they must; the clean ones are not doing what they can and ought.
In listening to the cardiologist, he cites John's text 'I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me', as evidence that belief in Jesus is necessary for a relationship with God, and forgiveness of sins. Is this not just a different version of the ritual based cleanliness of observant jews- a formal type of redemption without consideration of the individual's needs or situation? Instead of having to be ritually pure, and offer a perfect lamb or bird with clean money, the observant one has to believe in Jesus as the only portal to God, and the only means of salvation and forgiveness of sins.
This strikes me as a theological conflict with the Old Testament. I am aware that some feel the New Testament has superseded the Old. If that is the case, then why is the Old in the Bible? Why is it read? If Jesus is the only way of forgiveness and godly access, what happened to jews before him? Were all of them condemned for breaking the law? What about Elijah being taken into heaven? Did he get before God without the mediation of Jesus? Samuel, David?
It seems to me that God forgave and accepted people before Jesus. The insight, the revelation, of Jesus' ministry was that you could be unclean, poor and sick and still come before God and be forgiven. Except for John, Jesus does not go about telling people to believe in him, but healing and forgiving if they believe. Romans, Samaritans and the unclean are all given favor for their modesty, their belief and their efforts, not for their confession of Jesus as the only way to forgiveness, God and salvation.
Perhaps all of us in the middle of difficult call weekends should be in clean, pressed street clothes, eating healthful, nutritious meals and being 'good'. We do the best we can under demanding conditions. So it is for all of us. The demands upon us are not always obvious, but they are always there. Jesus pointed out that the burdened could find relief, the weary rest, the sad, ill and filthy comfort. It has always been for me that I find comfort just in reading his teachings. Like the man blind form birth, I don't know if he was the son of God, but I do know that I revere his teachings and his example, and that I find comfort in contemplating him.
It may be that Jesus is the Son of God, and that he indeed is the privileged one to mediate blessings. If so, I hope I will be forgiven my skepticism, taking refuge in his saying that slander against the son will be forgiven, but against the Holy Spirit it will never be forgiven. I am quite exceptionally in need of not only rest, but of forgiveness and acceptance.
Ted
I have now been on call for most of the last 6 days, two of which I have slept in the hospital. This accounts for the still-intermittent posts. Yesterday, while having lunch, a devout Christian cardiologist sat down with me. He wanted me to join his Bible study group. He is friends with my partner, who goes to the same Bible study group, and with whom I have spoken extensively about religion. My call experiences and that conversation prompt these thoughts.
Jesus preached to the poor and outcasts of his community. He had hard words for those observant of ritual and law but cruel in their dealings with people. Jesus' teachings throughout the gospels provide, at least to me ear, hope, acceptance and redemption for the ritually unclean, those who could not afford offerings, the lame, the blind.
We have conflicting words on observance of the law. Without question, technical observance without compassion for others is rejected. However, on the one hand, Jesus says he has not come to obliterate the law but to fulfill it. He says 'not one stroke or dot of the law will be overturned'. On the other hand, he himself violates the law not infrequently. He and his disciples eat grain, picking it on the sabbath, using David's disobedience as a precedent. On other occasions, Jesus does not wash his hands before eating, and of course he opposes the formal system of ritual money and offerings.
Do we then conclude that Jesus is for or against the law? Besides issues of sanctimonious observance, the 'violations' are generally in the name of practicality or necessity, not personal convenience or to 'dodge' the law. This would be consistent with his attention to the poor and ritually unclean.
This is where I make a connection with call. I have slept little, shaved and bathed only twice in three and a half days, and eaten repeatedly at restaurants, meaning high calorie, high fat, high salt meals. My temper is short, and I'm touchy. I'm in green pajamas, my perpetual work clothes. I am not well dressed, not well cleaned, and have not followed my diet or sleeping patterns. I have not done these things because I'm on a 'binge' but because I am working, doing physical and intellectual work.
So it was, and is, for so many ritually unclean individuals. It is petty and sanctimonious to tell a butcher, a subsistence farmer, an undertaker, a woman with menstrual spotting, that they cannot come before God. These people are doing their best to serve their communities, to sustain their flesh and to deal with infirmities that are not their own fault. As Jesus points out with crushing parables and stories, these ritually dirty people may be first in the eyes of God, not the pompous, wealthy, clean people. The dirty ones are doing what they must; the clean ones are not doing what they can and ought.
In listening to the cardiologist, he cites John's text 'I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me', as evidence that belief in Jesus is necessary for a relationship with God, and forgiveness of sins. Is this not just a different version of the ritual based cleanliness of observant jews- a formal type of redemption without consideration of the individual's needs or situation? Instead of having to be ritually pure, and offer a perfect lamb or bird with clean money, the observant one has to believe in Jesus as the only portal to God, and the only means of salvation and forgiveness of sins.
This strikes me as a theological conflict with the Old Testament. I am aware that some feel the New Testament has superseded the Old. If that is the case, then why is the Old in the Bible? Why is it read? If Jesus is the only way of forgiveness and godly access, what happened to jews before him? Were all of them condemned for breaking the law? What about Elijah being taken into heaven? Did he get before God without the mediation of Jesus? Samuel, David?
It seems to me that God forgave and accepted people before Jesus. The insight, the revelation, of Jesus' ministry was that you could be unclean, poor and sick and still come before God and be forgiven. Except for John, Jesus does not go about telling people to believe in him, but healing and forgiving if they believe. Romans, Samaritans and the unclean are all given favor for their modesty, their belief and their efforts, not for their confession of Jesus as the only way to forgiveness, God and salvation.
Perhaps all of us in the middle of difficult call weekends should be in clean, pressed street clothes, eating healthful, nutritious meals and being 'good'. We do the best we can under demanding conditions. So it is for all of us. The demands upon us are not always obvious, but they are always there. Jesus pointed out that the burdened could find relief, the weary rest, the sad, ill and filthy comfort. It has always been for me that I find comfort just in reading his teachings. Like the man blind form birth, I don't know if he was the son of God, but I do know that I revere his teachings and his example, and that I find comfort in contemplating him.
It may be that Jesus is the Son of God, and that he indeed is the privileged one to mediate blessings. If so, I hope I will be forgiven my skepticism, taking refuge in his saying that slander against the son will be forgiven, but against the Holy Spirit it will never be forgiven. I am quite exceptionally in need of not only rest, but of forgiveness and acceptance.
Ted
Beautiful and so true....you always seem to hit the nail on the head! Again, I wish I could write and express myself as you can. I can't therefore I read your posts!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree, it is a beautiful post, and as many have been it is full of difficult, probing questions. Believers and unbelievers alike have wrestled with such dilemmas for millenia with no end in sight. It is for God to decide about those who either refuse to accept, are skeptical of, or even who struggle with who Jesus is (any believer who denies that they've been there is not being truthful in my opinion). But the Scriptures make it clear that servanthood is at the heart of living a life of obedience that pleases God, and no amount of ritual observance in and of itself will do. Hope you get some rest soon. And, by the way, you're in good company when it comes to needing forgiveness and acceptance!
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