Searching for God Knows What
Back again. Just finished Donald Miller's awesome book, Searching for God Knows What.
What moved me the most was being transported back to elementary school. Miller reminds me of those values clarification exercises. He describes them as "learning how to become a snob." In one classic "clarification" the class is asked to imagine a lifeboat. Look inside the boat. There's a male lawyer, a female doctor, a crippled child, a trash collector and a stay-at-home mom. Unfortunately, the lifeboat cannot hold all of them. One person must be tossed overboard for the others to survive. Teacher, "Class, you must decided who gets thrown overboard."
Miller says he can't remember who the class decided to toss out of the lifeboat. He thinks the lawyer. [Don't tell my 8th grade daughter who just scored a 99% on the aptitude test for lawyer.] Anyway, Miller says that no one thought to challenge the question. No one thought to create another solution. No one said, "Everyone is equal; everyone has value."
Later, he talks about standing in line at the coffee shop. Someone cuts in line ahead of another customer. The "victim" of the line cut sticks his hands in his pockets and glares in fury at the line cutter. Miller says, "It cost him two minutes." But from his point of view the "victim" felt like he'd been tossed out of the lifeboat- devalued, trashed, disrespected.
The lifeboat image got me to thinking about the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday from Mark 1. A leper approaches Jesus, "If you want to, you can make me clean." Look up 1:41 in your Bible. Most translations will say, "Jesus was filled with compassion- or pity- or felt sorry for the leper. Then he touched him. And the leprosy disappeared." But sometimes there will be a note. You go down to the bottom of the page. And it says, "some ancient manuscripts suggest that Jesus was angry with the leper."
I held a vote tonight. How many think Jesus had compassion on the leper? How many think Jesus was angry with the leper? 100% votes for compassion!
But think about it. Lepers were supposed to keep their distance from the "clean." If someone came too close they were supposed to shout, "Unclean! Unclean!" Because the "clean" could become contaminated by the "unclean." And here this leper not only refuses to shout "unclean!". He runs right up to Jesus and kneels before him. 99.99% of the rabbis of that time would be ticked off. This dirty leper was threatening their "cleanness".
So I'm thinking about this lifeboat. The leper is trash. He gets tossed out of the boat. Stunningly, Jesus touches the man, saying, "I choose to heal you. Be made clean." By touching him, Jesus is in solidarity with human "trash." And he heals the man.
In the Gospels Jesus challenges the system where people are trashed or tossed out of the lifeboat. The Pharisees and chief priests and lawyers and Sadducees all buy into the system where some people are trash and other people are precious. They disagree on the details, but they agree with the principle. Not surprisingly, there is conflict between Jesus and these religious leaders. Eventually, they will trash Jesus, butchering our Lord on the cross. They believe that the "values clarification system" survives with Jesus' death. But on the third day Christ rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit.
Through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension Jesus defeated the system that trashes people. Let's invite the church to repent from how we have recreated the very same system Jesus came to abolish.
Do I hear an "Amen!"?
The Lord be with you, Duh-sciple Tim
What moved me the most was being transported back to elementary school. Miller reminds me of those values clarification exercises. He describes them as "learning how to become a snob." In one classic "clarification" the class is asked to imagine a lifeboat. Look inside the boat. There's a male lawyer, a female doctor, a crippled child, a trash collector and a stay-at-home mom. Unfortunately, the lifeboat cannot hold all of them. One person must be tossed overboard for the others to survive. Teacher, "Class, you must decided who gets thrown overboard."
Miller says he can't remember who the class decided to toss out of the lifeboat. He thinks the lawyer. [Don't tell my 8th grade daughter who just scored a 99% on the aptitude test for lawyer.] Anyway, Miller says that no one thought to challenge the question. No one thought to create another solution. No one said, "Everyone is equal; everyone has value."
Later, he talks about standing in line at the coffee shop. Someone cuts in line ahead of another customer. The "victim" of the line cut sticks his hands in his pockets and glares in fury at the line cutter. Miller says, "It cost him two minutes." But from his point of view the "victim" felt like he'd been tossed out of the lifeboat- devalued, trashed, disrespected.
The lifeboat image got me to thinking about the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday from Mark 1. A leper approaches Jesus, "If you want to, you can make me clean." Look up 1:41 in your Bible. Most translations will say, "Jesus was filled with compassion- or pity- or felt sorry for the leper. Then he touched him. And the leprosy disappeared." But sometimes there will be a note. You go down to the bottom of the page. And it says, "some ancient manuscripts suggest that Jesus was angry with the leper."
I held a vote tonight. How many think Jesus had compassion on the leper? How many think Jesus was angry with the leper? 100% votes for compassion!
But think about it. Lepers were supposed to keep their distance from the "clean." If someone came too close they were supposed to shout, "Unclean! Unclean!" Because the "clean" could become contaminated by the "unclean." And here this leper not only refuses to shout "unclean!". He runs right up to Jesus and kneels before him. 99.99% of the rabbis of that time would be ticked off. This dirty leper was threatening their "cleanness".
So I'm thinking about this lifeboat. The leper is trash. He gets tossed out of the boat. Stunningly, Jesus touches the man, saying, "I choose to heal you. Be made clean." By touching him, Jesus is in solidarity with human "trash." And he heals the man.
In the Gospels Jesus challenges the system where people are trashed or tossed out of the lifeboat. The Pharisees and chief priests and lawyers and Sadducees all buy into the system where some people are trash and other people are precious. They disagree on the details, but they agree with the principle. Not surprisingly, there is conflict between Jesus and these religious leaders. Eventually, they will trash Jesus, butchering our Lord on the cross. They believe that the "values clarification system" survives with Jesus' death. But on the third day Christ rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit.
Through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension Jesus defeated the system that trashes people. Let's invite the church to repent from how we have recreated the very same system Jesus came to abolish.
Do I hear an "Amen!"?
The Lord be with you, Duh-sciple Tim
posted by Duh-sciple Tim at 6:32 PM
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