Bible, Improvisation, and New Community

"If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others" (Phil 2:1-4). As I write these words, I am watching the Impeachment debate prior to the historic vote to impeach Donald Trump as president. I know many of my friends on the left are convinced that this is the right thing to do. I also know that many Christians on the right solemnly believe this impeachment is a travesty of justice. As I watch the proceedings I am struck by how each side is simply making the same points over and over again, speaking to their respective constituencies, but not speaking to one another. Regardless of what happens tonight, over the next w...

For some of us, especially those who have experienced loss, stress, or trauma, the holidays can trigger lots of emotions. Some of us may be aware of our triggers. A few of us may even have diagnosed PTSD. When Jesus talks about the bonds in his community as among friends who are willing to lay down their lives for another, I hear him speaking in terms that those who have experienced trauma can understand. Whether they be veterans, victims of violence, or survivors of recent tragedies, there are those among us who may be able to translate what a bond like this actually means, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. As you prepare for the holiday season, are you aware of those around you who are grieving, or have experienced profound loss? Are you aware of your own anxieties and those triggers, especially when you come together in sometimes fraught family settings? As you celebrate the holidays, do you remember bonds with friends and loved ones who have sacrificed, perhaps giving eve...

Scholars of the Fourth Gospel often point to the dualism that is expressed in it. In John, we find a stark contrast between children of the light, and those of the world who reject the light. Throughout the narrative, we find stories that emphasize that you either get it, and accept Jesus, or, for whatever reasons, reject Jesus. As the Gospel comes to a close, Jesus gathers his closest disciples and offers a long testimony that is directed not only at them, but likely also at the author's community, and many generations of those that follow. With the dualistic motifs of light/darkness, acceptance/rejection, God/world, etc. the Fourth Gospel presents a clear delineation between the in group of those who understand and accept Jesus as the Incarnate Word, and out group of those who will continue to misunderstand and reject him. The language of friendship, as we discussed yesterday, creates very much an in group. Unfortunately for the intended audience of the Fourth Gospel, this clearl...

In John (15:13) Jesus claims that there is no greater display of friendship than when one lays down one's life for another. This too is not a phrase unique to Jesus. We find similar friendship sayings in Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, and elsewhere among Greco-Roman thinkers. Generally, the kind of friendship that called upon a person to die for another was considered to be part of the experience of war. Soldiers and veterans knew that sacrificing one's life for another was the bravest and most powerful expression of friendship. Another variation on the theme is sharing the "same struggle," a phrase we find in a cluster of friendship idioms at the end of the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians (1:30). As you think beyond your family and tight social networks, is there anyone you would be willing to die for? Is there anyone who would gladly die for you? What kinds of shared experiences bond people so tightly that they would be willing to engage in this k...

True reconciliation is hard. The past few days I have been talking about Jesus' friendship notions as illustrated by his parable of the Good Samaritan. One of the possibilities I have touched on is that engaging in friendships may be one of the ways in which we bring healing and reconciliation to our racially divided communities. Peter Slade, in his book, Open Friendship in a Closed Society,  studies how the work of Mission Mississippi  (see yesterday's Advent reflection ) encourages racial reconciliation through the formation of friendships in twice weekly prayer breakfasts. He uses the concept of the embrace, developed by the theologian, Miroslav Volf. If you look at the painting of the Good Samaritan by Vincent Van Gogh, you can see the Samaritan helping the wounded wayfarer onto his pack animal. If you look more closely, you can see the wayfarer embracing the Samaritan. In this painting we see an illustration of Volf's concept of the embrace. Reconciliation is har...

I have found it depressing these past weeks to watch the House impeachment hearings. Neither side seems to listen to the other. Some of the lawmakers ask questions, but they don't seriously expect the other side to answer. And then there's all that shouting, and mansplaining, the tone deaf lecturing. It has been exhausting and sad to watch. Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) in response to just such a challenge, a rhetorical question from a lawyer who asks, without any real desire to listen to the answer, "who is my neighbor?" The popular interpretation of this parable usually sets up the Samaritan as the moral exemplar. He is the one, even though he was the one looked down upon by Jewish society, who helped the stranger in need, when religious authorities from the traveler's own tribe went out of their way to avoid him. Pastors often exhort us to embrace the kind of boundary crossing generosity of the Samaritan--and that's fine. ...

I live in Albemarle, North Carolina, a small mill town that has lost most of its manufacturing base, has an aging population, with one of the largest opiod addiction problems in the state. It is probably one of the most racially divided places I have ever lived. Can Jesus' friendship notions address issues of racial division in the contemporary North American context? One of Jesus' most famous parables is that of the Good Samaritan, a story in which the Samaritan comes to the aid of a man who has been wounded and left for dead by robbers on a lonely wilderness road (Luke 10:25-37). The man was not aided by a Levite, or by a priest, who both pass him by. The text is typically interpreted to accentuate the virtue of the Samaritan who helped his neighbor, even though Samaritans were not generally friendly to the Jews. I have a different take about the meaning of the parable, but more about that on a later date... What would it take for us to befriend people who are different tha...