I’m part of a very blessed clergy group here in Columbia
I leave there each month with at least a nugget or two of some practical idea, some wise advice, or some profound thought. We met today, and I have again departed from that holy place and time with something worth remembering!
Remember yesterday’s Gospel reading was from the Gospel of John… Jesus uses his otherworldly power to bring sight to a man born blind. Not a bad thing, to perform a miracle! “He’s a man of God!” However the juxtaposition here comes from the perspective of those following the traditional Jewish practices... in this case observing the Sabbath. Jesus heals the man on a Sabbath. He has broken a rule! Rules are there to help us make sense of life, of God. They bring order to our lives for sure, in many ways. Therefore, at least from this perspective: “He’s a sinner!”
Now the Jewish tradition honors the Sabbath… it’s holy. It’s ostensibly a time of rest, of centeredness, of remembering your place before God and the world. Thus the idea behind the rule that any thing and any activity that distracts us from that which helps us recognize the presence of the divine is to be avoided. In our action-packed, electronic-gadget-filled, e-mail-twitter-Facebook world, this honestly doesn’t seem like a bad thing to avoid… at least ONE day a week!
So, to be honest, observing the Sabbath is not a bad thing! Well, this has historically entailed not working. What exactly “not working” means has been up for interpretation over the years and among the people. But evidently the ones who seemed the most critical of Jesus, at least in this Gospel, seemed to be ones that had a very high regard for order and rules. Now to be honest, to the Jewish people, there is something to be said for being clear about their identity. In the history of the Israelites, they’d lived among and around many different peoples, with such disparate customs and practices… and the fear (and in some Jewish circles still remains) was that they might lose their distinctiveness… unless they made some effort to live their beliefs – beliefs that were often quite different from the panoply of choices out there.
In the Gospel story, the “Pharisees” are very angry at Jesus (again), for seeming to flaunt the rules, for dismissing a practice that, among others, made them part of the Hebrew people. Today- what makes you a Jew is how you live your life… belief is not a far second, but a second none-the-less. Orthopraxy (right action - basically how you live your faith) trumps orthodoxy (right belief - or, what you believe). I'd probably even go so far as to say that, as a Jew, it’s through orthopraxy that one can demonstrate one’s orthodoxy.
Jesus was not living into the practices of his ancestors – at least not in this story! He was not honoring that which made them Hebrew! And in a world with a tenuous hold on stability… in a world where the Romans ruled, and could do what they willed, when they willed, Jesus was certainly threatening their corner of the world they lived in.
Today, in our discussion, I was reminded how threatening Jesus’ actions may have been to some. Did they not like that he healed people? Did they not respect that a rabbi was able to bring sight to a blind person? I have to think it obviously wasn’t that simple. Jesus couldn't have been to ONLY one that had different thoughts or beliefs? He couldn't have been the ONLY one that interpreted his faith differently?
They were afraid of change! They were afraid change would change them… and in a world of potential political, economic and religious change… this was a threat!
We live in a world like that! In our world of activity and constant motion, and economic change, and insecurities of various kinds… we’re more prone to hold on to whatever ideas and ideologies are important to us in times of change. It’s hard for us to risk in times of change. We want to hold on to our beliefs and customs because they offer the stability we crave. “This, at least, doesn’t change!” – Whatever “this” is.
Got me to thinking… what belief, what ideology, what doctrine (personal, religious, political, or otherwise) has become so important to us… that it has become an inadvertent obstacle to God’s presence and action in our lives? It’s easy to look at those terrible, close-minded Pharisees and point fingers at them – “they didn’t get it!” – but not even question our own assumptions.
How are we “Pharisees”? This is in no way an original question! I’m not making any new statements here for sure… just an invitation for us, during this time of Lent, to hold up our “sacred cows” in full light of day and see if we’re missing the boat in part or in whole... and perhaps offer them up as gourmet burgers.
Bon appetite!
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