I’m taking some time to follow along through the Christian year using the new Mosaic Bible. This week’s readings for Pentecost Week 25: Nehemiah 9:5-37, Psalm 13, Romans 13:8-14, John 21:15-19, Romans 8:31-39.
An extended speech we start with in Nehemiah is yet another god-smites-when-you’re-bad remake, this time by the lead priests who may be the ones who wrote and then “discovered” Deuteronomy, convincing King Josiah to convert the country to what was probably it’s first real historical commitment to monotheistic worship of Yahweh, lest Yahweh punish them with conquest, exile and/or slavery yet again. No more worship of Ahserah back in the hill country for these guys! But is every week’s Hebrew Bible reading going to be “YAHWEH SMASH!!” I’m weary of the threats to fly right or get clobbered. Whatever happened to time out?
The Psalmist has the honesty to complain about unanswered prayer—how many evangelical ministers have the courage to do that from the pulpit?—and ends by offering God an improved reputation if he answers the psalmist’s prayer. He’s trying to bribe God!
The first Romans passage is a nice, quick summary of the Sermon on the Mount. I’ve read more than one scholar say that Paul exhibits a general ignorance of the story of Jesus’ life (as opposed to just Good Friday and Easter), but this passage looks like he at least knows some of his teachings. It closes with “and don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.” It’s a nice summary of Matthew 5:21-30, if a fare bit tamer than the original. And unlike so much of the pietist spirituality I grew up with, it acknowledges the inevitability of “evil desires;” the choice available isn’t whether or not to have them but whether or not to dwell on them.
John shows us Jesus’ enigmatic, repeated questioning of Peter: “Do you love me?” Peter answers as you’d expect. Jesus replies, “Then feed my sheep.” Karen Armstrong repeatedly points out the connection all the great religions insist upon between genuine spirituality and acts of practical compassion; here the connection couldn’t be clearer. But let’s not go around calling people sheep, eh?
The second Romans selection starts off with “if God is for us, who can be against us?” then immediately moves to God giving up his son. Woah! Is that the model for being for us or against us, having to march to a cross? But of course the point is that God gave up his son for us, not that God being for you ends with us crawling our way up a cross. (Though we can find that point made elsewhere in the Bible.) And depending on what Paul means by “us,” this passage is as clear a statement of biblical universalism as your going to get—“not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love” and “nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God.” I left out the Jesus language in that last quote, but you still get the point.
The week’s artwork is a delight, showing us a non-white Jesus joyfully blessing two children. Wish I could find it online.
A passage by Albert the Great opens with this wonderful clause: “It is clear therefore that nothing is greater, and nothing better than to enter into the inner secret place of the mind…” How very Zen! In fact, with some translation, the whole passage could be Buddhist! Whey don’t we hear more about Christian mysticism’s sometimes Zen-like tendencies?
Then there’s the requisite nod to John 3:16. Ugh. Lest I forget evangelicals put this study Bible together. I guess I should be grateful it’s not on every damn page. I think some evangelicals think the whole Bible is John 3:16.
The contemporary reading’s meditation on God’s hesed—Heberw for loving-kindness—notes that as she saw people practicing love of neighbor and enemy, her hope for peace grew. And as she stayed with her spiritual practices even when they didn’t seem to take, she encountered a sense of hesed herself. It’s religion is as religion does, not religion is as religion says. Can’t we do religion simply because it’s a good thing to do, not because God will bitch slap us otherwise?
Next week’s theme? Righteous judgment. Help!
