I’m not going to blog about the Trinity even though this week’s text is about the Holy Spirit. It’s a foundational doctrine of the church that can’t be explained—which makes it curious why it’s foundational. Right now, questioning trinitarian theology tends to get us labeled as evil by traditionalists as well as by non-Christian monotheists who don’t understand the Christian explanations for it either. But I said, “I’m not going to blog about the Trinity,” so I’m not.

If you want some idea of what Martin Luther thought about the Holy Spirit, read it here: http://www.prayingthegospels.com/martin-luther-holy-spirit/.

Instead, I want to spend some time on the article of English grammar—the—that we put in front of the widely accepted third person. I think the article, the, directs our thinking to reinforce the fourth century doctrine rather than allowing the image to breathe (pneuma in Greek can mean “spirit” or “breath”).

Why does the New Testament always use the as an article in front of Holy Spirit and not an “a”? You see, Greek doesn’t have articles like “the” or “a.” Does it make a difference? Maybe.

One other question—why are holy and spirit, when they are together, always capitalized? These are ways of reinforcing theology.

One last translation explanation and then I’ll let you do the deciding. The Greek word for “holy” (hagios) means “worthy of veneration, awe, or praise.” So a holy spirit is a spirit that is worthy of awe or praise.

Here are some Bible verses with the hagios pneuma mentioned, and translators have decided for you and me that they point to the third person in the Trinity. Maybe they do.

I wonder if the inspired writers might simply have been suggesting something less theological? You have to decide for yourself.

“A” holy spirit is a spirit that is worthy of awe and praise. Substitute it with these Bible verses (NRSV) and see if the verse gains any meaning for you:

Luk 11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

1Th 4:8 Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his (this Greek word is also translated as “the same”) Holy Spirit to you.

Luk 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,

Act 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

 None of this is necessarily going to preach very well this Pentecost Sunday, when Christians will be reinforcing time-cemented theology rather than being filled themselves with a spirit that is worthy of awe and praise—a spirit of love and peace and hope and joy that comes from knowing that God is so good. Oh well.

John 14:23-29

     We have a young male cat at home that we call Teddy. He doesn’t need any catnip to enter into a new dimension of existence. He’s here one minute, and flipping out the next. We’re pretty sure he was the runt of the litter, but that only makes him think he’s tougher and more entitled. He’s two years old and might be about seven pounds dripping wet.

     When my son moved back from Colorado to Tennessee, we got to catsit for his twenty pound female cat for a couple of months. Her name was Lucille. She’s an only cat, not accustomed to being bothered, but relatively well-adjusted for being an only child.

     Our two cats saw this temporary boarder as a new playmate that we’d brought in for them to be entertained. Lucille wasn’t so sure she needed their attention and wasn’t cooperative. Anytime they got close to her she’d hiss and make an ugly face. Our cats would look at each other like, “What’s her problem?”  Sophie, our female cat, would simply say, “Get over it, girlfriend” and go find her spot for the day. But for Teddy, this was an adventure, a challenge.

      He’d get just close enough to make Lucille’s eyes widen and then he’d turn and run like the wind. That was too much for a hunter female cat to endure and she’d tear off and chase him through the living room. He’d run through places where a seven pounder could escape a twenty pounder.

     Other times, he’d get just close enough to get Lucille to look at him. And then he’d just stare at her like, “You want a piece of me?” Then his eyes must have done something like a kaleidoscope does, because she’d finally break and start chasing him again. She was a pretty good toy we’d brought into the house to entertain him. He’s like most men, it’s all about him.

     How can you find peace when the world keeps thinking you are there for its entertainment? You’re an object, dropped into a setting inhabited by immature children, to be pestered and used for their amusement. “Don’t bother me. Just give me some peace.”

     But maybe that’s our problem. We think someone has to “give” us space, “give” us credit, “give” us respect, “give” us peace, like these are all commodities to receive. Peace is always right there for our taking. It’s right there. You can take as much of it as you want. It makes me think of that theological tennis ball that believers bat around about grace. Grace is a gift from God, but you have to “open it” in order to receive it. I’m not sure I agree with that rationale. Grace is grace, given to the undeserving. I didn’t know it was wrapped up and you had to work to get into it.

     Jesus said, “I’m leaving you with a gift- peace of mind and heart. The world can’t give you that kind of peace I give you.” It’s right there, out in the open for you to take, not wrapped up or anything. So what kind of peace is that?

     The kind of peace Jesus offered was freedom from needing anything more than him. Detachment from worldly things. If you don’t think you need a big house, you won’t have to work so hard to pay for one. If you don’t think you need the newest car like your neighbor or coworker, you won’t need to work as hard to make as high of car payments. If you don’t think you need lots of stuff to look better to people around you or to make you happy, you can spend your time doing things that are meaningful and creative and more in line with the gifts God has given to you…you know, those things that make you unique and one of a kind. If you didn’t care so much about what other people were doing or what they might be thinking about you, you’d have a lot more peace of mind and heart.

     As it is, peace takes a vacation when your emotions get stirred. Your emotions are like red flags. They alert you to the things that support what you are attached to or they alert you to things that threaten what you are attached to. You’re happy when what makes you feel secure is supported and you get angry when there’s a threat to things that make you feel secure.

     Take for instance, if you’re a Republican, you might listen to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly because they inflame your happy emotions when they say things that support what makes sense to you, and they inflame your anger when they point out how the opinions of the “other side” are a danger to those things. If you’re a Democrat, you might listen to Howard Stern or Stephen Colbert who push the opposite buttons. These media entertainers make money inflaming your emotions and stealing your peace of mind. They are going to the bank because you keep tuning them in for fear that you won’t know what to fear from the other side.

     Jesus said, “Do not be troubled or afraid.” How do you do that?

     If you’re a mature cat in a new environment, you just close your eyes and ignore the pesky, immature cats who are trying to inflame your emotions. Peace is detaching from material things so that the red flags lie limp in the breeze.

Today and Tuesday, April 29 & 30, three of my ebooks will be available for FREE download to any ereader or computer that has a Kindle app. The links are identified below. Here’s some information that may help you to decide whether to try them out or not.

In Living Color: The Lord’s Prayer is a fresh look at the Lord’s Prayer as it has been interpreted from the Aramaic translation. Based on the ratings and reviews (On Amazon: 8 five-stars/1 four-star/4 one-stars) and (On Goodreads: 4 five-stars/1 four-star/1 one-star), if you lean toward an evolving Christianity and are open to new ways of understanding things like Father, heaven, forgiveness, evil, etc., you’ll like it. If you are someone who prefers things to stay the way they’ve been, you probably won’t like it even though it’s free. Some of the material would help formulate a sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer. You can download it FREE here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00835VPN0

O Taste and See: Discovering God Through Imaginative Meditations is a book of thirty meditations based on the meditative practice of Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises. It engages the five physical senses to enter stories with Jesus. I added a step that helps eliminate any lingering fear of the Father. This ebook is very new and has very few reviews. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AXUE2HO

Be the Light: Overcoming Evil with Good is a quick-read response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut and is appropriate for every event in which evil is demonstrated, including the Boston Marathon bombings. I think it’s how Jesus asks us to respond to evil.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291421

(This can be downloaded to any ereader; it doesn’t need the Kindle app – and it’s always free at this site.)

And I’m putting Praying the Gospels with Martin Luther: Finding Freedom in Love on sale for $2.99. Martin Luther’s scholastic writings provided the theological foundation for change in the institutional church. Now his sermons reveal that love lies at the heart of biblical interpretation and application. Get the details here – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007KP5A76

I hope you take this opportunity to read these books. The price is right! I would greatly appreciate feedback and short reviews/comments, too.

John 13:31-35

Love one another.  When Jesus gave this “new” command to his disciples, it really wasn’t a NEW command.  The Greek word for “new” doesn’t mean this is a different command.  It means a qualitatively better commandment – an improvement of a former command. Maybe Jesus refocused this command because we often don’t think of those who are in our families or in our churches as our neighbors.

Biblical Greek concordances say agape love is the kind of love that is grounded in esteem, appreciation, and respect. Love’s foundation comes from what you and I think or feel about the other person. Some synonyms are these: to accept, to consent, to submit with agreement, and to cherish with reverence. It sounds like positive inner feelings are needed to call it love.

The other kind of love in the Bible (brotherly love) is the kind of love that has more to do with emotion and affection. This is closer to friendship. You like someone, and maybe want to spend a little more of your time with them. Jesus didn’t command friendship kind of love. He instructed that we should esteem, respect, accept, agree, consent, submit with approval, cherish with reverence one another. And the same command is given to love our neighbor, and our enemies in this way. Esteem, respect, accept, cherish with reverence are part of love.

St. Paul defines biblical love like this: (1 Corinthians 13:4-6)  “Love suffers long and [still] is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; love does not behave rudely, love does not seek its own [benefit], love thinks no evil…” How do we love like that?

What might be helpful is to remember St. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians, “Do you not know that Christ is within you?” (13:5). You and I ought to be treating each other with the same respect and acceptance that we would treat Jesus himself. Not just respect, but esteem, acceptance for who we are, cherishing with reverence. I think Mother Teresa had it right. She didn’t care what the poor in Calcutta believed about God or about her. She didn’t place any conditions on why they deserved her attention. She accepted them as human beings created by God. She saw Jesus in each one of them. And she loved them.

Love is the inner reason for why we perform an action that brings good to others. We can be on a mission of love and might not be following the command to love the way Jesus meant it. I read a story about a teen-aged boy who came home and told his father about the wonderful service project that the church youth group was going to carry out. They were going to hand out blankets to the homeless. Excited, he said, “We’re passing out blankets so that we can tell them about Jesus!” His father said, “Wait a minute. We don’t give blankets to the homeless to tell them about Jesus. We give blankets to the homeless because they are cold.”^[1] Love’s agenda is to make them warm, not to convert them to believe what you believe.

Love does not seek its own benefit. If we are motivated by the idea that we’re going to make our church a bigger church, our love is false. Our action may be good, but the world can pick up quickly that our motivations are more about putting another notch on our Bibles for ourselves or for Christianity.

Today’s gospel is powerful because Jesus showed us how it’s possible to love someone within your own close-knit religious family who is at odds with you. He gave us the ultimate example of love for each other when he demonstrated esteem for Judas who was planning to betray him. In the story before our gospel reading, Jesus is shown accepting Judas for the person he was. Even though he was a traitor, he did not treat Judas any different from the other disciples. He didn’t kick Judas out of the room for being a hypocrite, or a liar, or for planning harm to him. Jesus submitted, as a Servant, and washed Judas’ feet with the rest. Then he continued to welcome him into communal relationship with him. “Come, eat at my table.”

Jesus didn’t make a spectacle of Judas. He didn’t openly bring dishonor to Judas. Judas brought dishonor to himself. Jesus continued treating Judas with reverence to the bitter end. I don’t like to think of any of us as a Judas. But anytime you or I do not esteem, respect, or cherish with reverence our brother and sister in Christ, we betray Jesus and his new command. The world cannot see Christ in a church embroiled in internal warfare. To act contrary to love is to betray the love that Jesus lived and taught.

After Judas left the room, Jesus claimed that what he had just done had glorified himself. “To glorify” means to give importance, praise, or honor. Jesus brought honor to himself by showing love for a brother who meant him harm; and he brought honor to God in showing love for a flawed disciple. This incredible display of love, washing Judas’s feet and welcoming the one who was planning to betray him to eat with him, brings honor to Jesus. And it brings honor to the heavenly Father.

Through Jesus, God is shown to be a God who accepts and serves sinners and continues to welcome all of us to his table even though we betray him. We betray Jesus so clearly when we say we will follow him but then turn around and refuse to love each other as he loved us. God knows we do this every week. And yet, the invitation remains open to come to his table of grace.

By spending time together at the communion table, at the tables in fellowship hall, sharing life stories and breaking bread together, we begin to understand where each person has come from and why each person believes what they believe. Only through this kind of fellowship can we ever hope to respect, esteem, and cherish each other as we do Christ who dwells within each of us.

Why is it important that we love one another? Jesus told us why – because the world will know – by the way we interact with each other – that we are his disciples. Jesus did not say the world will know we are his disciples if we do miraculous things. He said the outside world will be amazed when they see large communities of people interacting with each other in love and humility and compassion.

The true nature of God is revealed in Jesus Christ. If St. Paul is correct and Christ is within us, the image of God lies dormant until we begin to love. God will never fail to accept us, wash our feet, or prepare a table for us. God will never stop loving us, because God is love.

John 10:22-30

The bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday was horrific, perpetrated by a person or persons who were evil. That’s widely accepted as truth by people who encourage peace. In my recent ebook, Be the Light: Overcoming Evil with Good (free for all ereaders at Smashwords or 99 cents at Amazon), I redefine evil as it comes out of Hebrew and Aramaic—the languages of Jesus.

“The Hebrew word for evil (ra’) means several things, ranging from the opinion that something is (1) bad, like fruit that has rotted or meat that has putrefied; (2) displeasing, as a woman might be in the eyes of her patriarchal husband; or (3) harmful, like wild beasts, poisonous berries, or disease. In a general sense, evil refers to anything that causes pain, unhappiness, or misery. In the Bible, a man whose heart is evil could vary from being sorrowful to vicious, depending upon the context.”

The Aramaic word for evil (bisha) help us to imagine a deeper origin for the behavior. It refers to a sense of being unripe, undeveloped, or inappropriate. The roots of bisha point to those things that distract you from moving forward. They express what is not ready or is out of rhythm with what is harmonious. An inappropriate action that comes from a person who is not in rhythm or who is not whole or fully developed could be regarded as evil.

On the other side of the coin, the Aramaic word for good is taba. It means “ripe” or indicates something is ready for its purpose. Good is what is done at the right time and place. Its roots point to something that maintains its integrity and health by inner growth in harmony with what surrounds it. When I think of “ripe,” I think of a fruit that is fully matured, or an action that comes out of maturity or wholeness.

In John 10:11, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” I am a mature shepherd. I do the right things. I lead my sheep to do the right things, and in doing so, I bring life to my sheep. Abundant life. Eternal life.

“They hear my voice.” They understand who it is that is speaking among all the other voices around them. They can discern what I say because my actions back up what comes out of my mouth. I’m a man of peace, not of violence. When people curse me, I forgive them. When people hurt me, I forgive them. Like a mature parent deals with young children, I understand that they are undeveloped, unripe—they can’t help themselves.

Martin Luther said sheep have the responsibility to choose who they will follow. There are two prayers in Praying the Gospels with Martin Luther (sermons for John 10:1-11 and John 10:11-16) that focus on the Shepherd and the sheep. Luther said Christ is not bound to Moses’ law. Some of Moses’ instructions didn’t help people ripen or become fully actualized in the image of God. Moses wasn’t a fully actualized shepherd like Jesus. Yet he was a shepherd. But it begs the question: which shepherd will you follow? You can’t follow both.

I think one main point of Jesus in this passage is found when he says, “I give them eternal life and in no way will they perish.” Those who follow the teachings and actions of the ripe, fully developed Shepherd will experience the kind of life only God can provide—an energized life that has meaning and purpose; and in no way will they be diminished or destroyed by the immature actions of those around them. Evil will not overcome them. They will be a force that stops the cycle of pain because they follow his teachings and his actions.

Returning to the evil we have witnessed in Boston this week, how do you think the Mature Shepherd would recommend we respond to that act of violence?

I’ll quote Jesus, replacing some of the words with newer meanings:

Do not repay immature actions  (actions that are out of rhythm with harmony and unity), with the same unripeness; but respond with maturity, with ripe actions that restore health and harmony.

As I said in Be the Light, darkness has never gotten rid of darkness. Only light can get rid of darkness. You can’t make an immature tree produce ripe fruit any other way than giving it adequate sunlight, warmth, water, and nourishment. When you help a tree to secure what it needs to reach its full potential, only then can it produce good fruits. Sunshine and warmth start with mature people shining on the immature with acts of kindness.

For me, this means that we must deal with the root of the problem. We must find ways to help people develop completely into mature, beautiful creatures—made in the image of God. We cannot do this simply by pointing to our Good Shepherd and saying “Follow him”, especially if we are not following everything he taught.

We must become mature first. We must become the beautify, self-giving image of God, sheep that are following their shepherd. We must take the log out of our own eye. We must stop the cycle of evil (immaturity, unripeness) by acting like adults, fully actualized and whole, rather than acting like reactionary, undeveloped children who follow an unripe shepherd.

We must follow a Shepherd of Goodness, Mercy, Forgiveness, Love—he will lead you in paths of righteousness and beside still waters.

This is my contribution to a blogchain that invites bloggers to weigh in on a monthly topic for discussion. This month’s topic asks the question: WHAT IF some or all of the Bible narrative is not necessarily true history, but is myth of one sort or another. What sort of effect would that knowledge have on your faith? What effect might it have on the larger church? How would it change you? Would it change you and how you view the world?

Myth as World View

Myth. If you speak of it in relation to religion, many people run. Why? At the heart, they fear it may threaten the foundation of their faith in the Bible. If the foundation they stand on is shown to be shaky, that brings uncertainty into the picture and they might have to stand on faith instead of stories. Imagine that.

First, let’s de-mythologize the word “myth.” Look it up in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary and you’ll see it’s given two opposing meanings. One is the common belief that a myth is an unfounded or false notion. Yet the other definition says a myth can be this:

“a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.”

When scholarly Biblicists use the word “myth,” this is usually what they mean.

If some of the Bible narratives are myths in this scholarly and italicized sense – then the Old Testament and New Testament are entirely myth. The stories explain both the Judaic world view about God and the Christian world view about God. Myth is a perfect description of any story that comes out of tradition, from your own family stories to a nation’s story about itself. Myth explains why we believe what we believe and do what we do as people of faith. There’s nothing to fear when you understand myth in this sense.

Myth as Fabricated Story

With that said, I presume the question being asked assumes the definition of myth to be an unfounded or fabricated story. What if some of the stories in the Bible are not totally accurate or inerrant – how would it impact your faith?

Having resolved in my mind that the words translated from Aramaic to Greek to English in the Bible may not be the meaning the biblical writers intended for their audiences, I am able to live my life on faith in the goodness of God rather than on the printed words.

Did you read the book or see the movie, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis? The king of beasts, Aslan, bargained to exchange his own life for Edmund’s. Is this story fact or a fabricated fable? It’s definitely not fact. Yet it’s not an unfounded story either. It has a strong allegorical point to make – God is good. God is self-sacrificial for the sake of others.

If you think it’s just a cartoon presented for entertainment alone, you won’t receive anything other than momentary pleasure. If you believe the underlying notion that points to a God of goodness and love, you can live with greater peace about the afterlife than those who don’t believe it. Non-historical stories like this help children to believe goodness is stronger than evil.

Aesop’s Fables are non-factual stories written to help people live moral and decent lives. They are fabricated stories told for a purpose. Jesus’s parables are not “historical fact.” They are myths, fabricated stories, to teach important notions about God. They are founded in truth without being historical.

Judaic and Christian World Views

My issue with some stories in the Old Testament is that they describe a God who is not always loving. They represent the world view of a nation who had never encountered a representative image of God. If they were correct in their perception of the Creator, it would be inconsistent with their theology that Yahweh would offer his own son on behalf of sinners. This might be why many Jews did not convert to Christianity.

In the Hebrew Testament, the people of Israel explained their understanding of God and natural phenomena in a way that made sense to them. There’s nothing wrong with that. People of all faith traditions do this when bad things happen to decent people. Yet, it seems many Christians of this century assume they must believe everything that the ancestors before Jesus believed was true about God and the world.

The New Testament indicates Jesus came to reveal the truth about God. This does not require us to believe everything the people before Jesus believed about a God they hadn’t seen, touched, or heard.

Religion based solely on the historical truth of its writings requires faith in nothing more than the authors of those writings. If you learn a little about translation and word definitions, you recognize that words can have different meanings – like the word “myth.” Meaning depends upon the one who speaks/writes the words. It also means that translators can choose definitions to fit their own conceptions about God.

Jesus said things that opposed what Moses said. Who are you going to believe? You have to make a choice as to which person was speaking truth.

Jesus is the foundation, the rock, on which Christianity stands rather than the whole of the explanations (factual and/or projected) of the nation from which he arose and the witnesses to his life. You can’t combine a Jewish perspective of God and a Christian perspective of God and get them to match. The foundations are different.

Maybe that’s one of the problems in Christianity today. We stand with one foot in the Old Testament and one foot in the New Testament. Some have made a choice to stand on Christ alone. In doing that, we don’t negate or throw out the Hebrew Scriptures. There is too much wisdom and guidance in them. They are the stories of a people and their understanding of God’s intervention in their lives. They use their Scriptures in an attempt to become better people. God bless them for it.

The Church’s World View

What effect might it have on the larger church if the Bible contains stories that recognized as honest human perception rather than the “word of the Lord?” Personally, I think the church would be set free to become more like Christ and less like the Pharisees who promoted ritual and Mosaic law.

The Bible (in English) as unmitigated fact is the closest thing to idolatry we have today. The degree of idolatry isn’t as great as Islam’s worship of the Qur’an, but worship of “the words” in the Bible above compassion for the living is still idolatry. The day I stopped paying homage to the Bible and started honoring the goodness of God revealed in Christ was the day I became a disciple of Christ and turned my focus to feeding His lambs.

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Jesus revealed the goodness of God as reported by eye witnesses in the stories (myths – in the scholarly sense) of the New Testament.

The website where others are responding to this topic is http://synchroblog.wordpress.com/ .

Other blogs on this topic:

• K.W. Leslie – When People Believe Christianity Is A Myth
• Jeremy Myers – What If The Bible Is a Myth?
• David Derbyshire – What If Genesis Is A Creation Myth?
• Bud Brown – What if Paul was wrong about the life of Christ living in me?
• Chris Jefferies – What If … Creation Was A Myth?
• Paul W. Meier – Is The Bible A Myth?
• Phil Lancaster – What If the Bible Were A Myth
• Carol Kuniholm – What If Newness Was The Norm

1.  Turn off the #!*@(#!  news. It’s biased, opinionated, negative, and keeps you perpetually angry. The media giants are in the business of making money, not truthtelling,. They steal your security and keep you coming back by stoking your fears. It’s your worst addiction. You are what you feed your mind. You don’t have to know what others think is going to happen if Congress can’t work together. They take your eyes off the blessings that surround you.

2.  Turn off your cellphone. Let it take a message.

3.  Go outside. Take a walk. Plant a garden. 

4.  Throw some steaks, chicken, brats, salmon, or vegetables on the grill.

5.  Sit in a comfortable chair. Be one with nature. Stare at a tree and let it teach you the lessons of life.

It’s easier than you think to have peace in your lifetime.

Matt. 15:19

     When I was researching material for my second book, In Living Color: The Lord’s Prayer, I was introduced to a new way of understanding evil. The seventh petition of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples seeks God to deliver us from evil. In that context, the Aramaic translation of the English word “evil” suggested it was more like an obstacle preventing us from achieving our true potential.

     When developing my latest ebook, Be the Light: Overcoming Evil with Good, another word in Aramaic is translated into “evil” in the sense of evil spirits. This kind of evil is more like being undeveloped, unripe, not ready or past due – rotten, something that is not done at the right time. Other English words that might describe evil in this way are immature, childish, impatient, procrastinating, incomplete, or undeveloped.

By the way, Be the Light is permanently free at Smashwords and can be downloaded to all brands of ereaders. If you’ll go to the Amazon site here, I’d appreciate you informing them that you found another site where the book is listed at a lower price. I’ve been waiting for them to price-match the Smashwords site, but I don’t think anyone has notified them. Amazon has a link for you to do this right below the “Amazon best sellers rank.” This is the hyperlink that you’ll need to report to them where it is free:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291421.

Once they price-match it, then it will be free on Amazon, too. Oh yes, you can get it directly from the Kobo site for free, too.

     Back to evil. I think we have a paradigm of evil that places the cart before the horse. Jesus had it right when he said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matt. 15:19).

     What erupts from the foundational core (heart) of the person turns into actions that are hurtful, insensitive, immature, divisive, and is oppositional to harmony.

     When the foundational core of a person is good (ripe, well-developed, mature), good works erupt. If the core of a person is not developed or if obstacles have been set in place to that person being able to move forward in their mental development, hurtful actions come forth. It’s the heart that leads the actions.

     To fix evil in the world, we’ve got to start working on the horse (heart/core) rather than trying to fix the cart (actions).

     Commandments and condemnation and threats are the tools we use in religion to try to fix the cart. The secular way to deal with evil is prison bars, bombs, or drones. They have never worked to reduce the evil in the world. Why? Because it’s the horse that’s sick and the cart follows the horse.

     How does the heart get diseased? Divide the word “diseased” into its component parts.

     “Dis” means “not.”

     “Ease” means “at peace.”

     Hearts that are not at ease are dis-eased, without peace, not at rest. From a diseased heart comes murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

     Hurtful actions come from a foundational core that is not at ease – and that’s what makes early childhood and elementary education so very important. It’s what makes counseling so important in later years.

     Yet, what’s one of the first things that takes a hit when money gets tight and the threat of higher taxes looms? Education – the foundational training centers of our nation. We actually need more foundational training centers for young parents in how to help their little ones mature.

     Look what’s going on in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other undeveloped countries – educational training is only for males, and the type of training they receive is misinformation.

     The more we limit the development of our children, the more evil/immature/undeveloped/ diseased the future of our nation will become. We will become just like the undeveloped minds of those who commit harmful acts if we don’t start acting maturely – putting time and money into the development of our children.

     And teaching them, from early on, that you can only overcome evil (immaturity) with good (maturity.) If people want to get rid of evil in the world, they’re going to have to pay for it…not through defense but through education.

John 12:1-8

You can tell a lot about a person just by the state of his or her hair. You can tell how people are feeling, how they are feeling about themselves, whether they got up in time to do their hair the way they wanted, and more.

The Bible has a few things to say about hair. In ancient Israel, cutting the hair was a disgrace for both men and women. Hair is the crown and ornament of the head. The Song of Songs is a love letter of a poet to his beloved. In it, he praises the loose hair of his beloved in the highest terms, with an image that expresses dynamism, fullness, and wild power:  “Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead” (Song 6:5)

The billy goat was called “the hairy” in Hebrew. It was a symbol of great vitality. So if anyone says your hair is like a flock of goats moving down the slopes, you should take that as a compliment.

Yet, there is destructive power in that kind of vitality, and people recognized it. Sometimes the vitality of someone’s hair led others astray and was referred to as the goat demon. The symbolism of the demonic also became associated with human hair. Hair could be a divine sign or a demonic symbol – long strong hair was (and is) symbolic of one’s life-force, eroticism, a figure of the untamable, and of protest.

One segment in the movie, Jason and the Argonauts, dealt with getting the head of Medusa. In Greek mythology, her hair was exaggerated and demonized in the form of snakes. If you looked upon her face and hair, it was so mesmerizing (symbolic of the destructive power of eroticism) that it turned people into stone.

Of course, by the time of Jesus, it must have been more commonplace for men to have short hair. Why else would the apostle Paul write in his letter to the Corinthians, that it is unnatural for a man to have long hair? (1 Cor. 11:3-16). Is it any wonder that the Beatles brought fear to the traditionalists and conformists in the 1960’s with their hairstyle?

A woman’s glory and honor was her long hair, properly wrapped around her head when she was in public. Letting the hair down was for personal and private matters. To the male leaders of society, however, the women’s loose hair in public symbolized that the women themselves were loose from social constraints or expectations. They weren’t playing by the rules. Rebellious behavior was grounds to accused of possession by a god or demon.

So with all this symbolism associated with hair, let’s look at the gospel story where Mary – in public – unwraps her hair, anoints Jesus’s feet, and wipes them dry with her hair. Is this something that we are supposed to do – literally? And if she took the time to bring her expensive offering, why didn’t she bring a towel…what can you really dry with your hair?

Stranger still, is the fact that Mary anoints his feet rather than his head.

Footwashing is a practice done in some churches during the season of Lent to mimic Jesus’s washing the disciples’ feet. It’s a very intimate act to allow someone to touch and wash your feet. It’s both humbling and an act of trust (they could tickle your feet). And it’s also a sign from the foot washer of humble service.

Mary was strong enough to not let the expectations of culture, society, or religious regulations prevent her from serving her Lord. She let her hair down and was her own person in the service of the Anointed One. She gave up the honor and glory of her hair as a decoration for her own head, and used it to serve her Lord. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought. And she gave up her possessions, costly perfume worth a year’s wages.

If called to do so, how would you imitate Mary today? Literally, you can grow your hair long enough and then donate it to Locks of Love, or the Childhood Leukemia Foundation, or another agency set up to make wigs for those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Sometimes, when someone is raising money for charity, they offer to have their hair shaved off as the prize for reaching the goal. These are acts of sacrifice and service for the sake of others.

If you don’t have hair to give in this literal way, drying someone’s feet with your hair suggests intimate acts of service given to others. You see, to “uncover someone’s feet” was a euphemism in biblical writings for uncovering their private parts. It’s like in the Old Testament when Ruth uncovered Boaz’s feet – you’ll have to go to the book of Ruth to find out what happened. You can’t write those kinds of details where children might be able to read them.

But we aren’t supposed to think Mary’s act was a sexual act – only a spiritual child would interpret it in an immature and worldly way. Spiritual maturity would interpret Mary’s act as a divinely inspired, sacred act of caring for her Lord.

It makes me think of people who are willing to take care of the personal needs of others – surgery doctors and nurses and technicians who deal with patients in their most vulnerable states; hospital, nursing home, hospice nurses or techs or aides who deal with people daily who cannot care for themselves; family members – parents, wives, husbands, siblings, children who care for a family member who cannot care for himself or herself.

It’s often those family members who give up a year’s wages in order to care for their loved one. And the fragrance of their offering fills the house. The love and beauty of this act of kindness and love is sacred and it’s apparent to everyone who enters that place.

So I think there are many things we can learn from Mary’s outrageous actions in this story. One of them is that you may be led to care for someone in intimate ways, and in doing so, you will be serving Christ.

Blessed are those who anoint the feet of Jesus.

Luke 22:36-38

I talked to Jesus this morning about gun control. I told him I have a twelve gauge shotgun and a .22 rifle, both for hunting, which I haven’t used for at least ten years. I keep them “just in case” I have the opportunity and time to go hunting, and “just in case” anyone storms my house and tries to take it from me. Jesus said, “It is enough” (Luke 22:38).

I don’t know what he’d have said if I had an arsenal that included assault rifles. He may have said the same thing, maybe not. Let’s check out the context in which he said it was okay to possess a weapon of some kind.

After the Passover supper, Jesus was preparing his disciples for an impending unpleasant experience of confrontation. He reminded them, “When I sent you out without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Not a thing.”

“But now, if you have a money bag, take it. And a knapsack, take it. And he who has no sword, let him sell his outer cloak and buy one” (vs. 36-37).

I wonder why this incident never shows up in the lectionary for Sundays.

The disciples replied, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” He said, “It is enough” (vs. 38).

At least two disciples were packing! And I don’t think they were for hunting purposes. That kind of shocked me. What about you? And what are we to make of this?

Could there have been two swords hanging over the exit door to the room they rented for the Passover meal, and they were going to steal them or trade their outer cloaks for them? Yet if the gospel writer wanted to clear our minds of disciples packing weapons, he might have suggested where they came from.

Instead, Jesus said, “Two swords is enough.” Enough for what? For facing a lynch mob?

How would you like to go into a confrontation with thirty heavily armed professionals with a dozen men possessing two swords between them? That’s worse than leaving town with no money, no suitcase, no shoes. But, “It is enough.”

Were the disciples not supposed to use their swords? Later, when the confrontation occurred (vs. 49), they asked Jesus, “Shall we strike with the sword?” No answer. Someone acted hastily and cut off the right ear of the servant of the high priest. And wouldn’t you know it, it was Peter, the future first pope who was packing and acted impulsively.

Jesus answered, “Permit even this” (meaning, don’t resist with your weapons), and he healed the ear.

In Luke, Jesus didn’t scold the disciple for improper use of the weapon. In Mark’s version, no scolding. In Matthew and John, he said, “Put the weapon away. I don’t need your protection. Stop thinking you have to defend me. If I wanted a different outcome, I could have more help than I need. Nevertheless, I have a job to do.”

So why the swords as weapons?

Because the disciples were human, full of fear in the face of insurmountable odds. A sword gives one the sense (illusion/delusion or real feeling) of having some degree of power, ability to fight back or fight off an attack, or to buy a few seconds to make a hasty retreat.

If Jesus wanted to overcome his attackers, he wouldn’t have said two swords were enough. If he wanted to defeat the enemy, he would have taken other measures. But he knew a couple of weapons would provide the needed reassurance to a few of his disciples in a world where confrontation is real and sometimes imminent.

I didn’t raise this topic to defend or refute gun rights. At a recent meeting of clergy, our bishop noted that his participation in the ELCA Conference of Bishops two weeks ago revealed mixed opinions on this subject. They were not all in agreement on what should be done. Imagine that. And yet they weren’t shooting each other down with hollow-point words fired to injure, maim, or kill. No one decided to leave the denomination because everybody is supposed to think alike.

We are a body of people with the single purpose of sharing God’s love in Christ, trying to live together in peace despite our disagreements. And that’s a good thing. Unity in purpose does not require having the same opinions.

I’ve decided that if someone needs to own a sword, a gun, a tank, a Stealth Bomber, it merely reveals the level of fear they possess. Fear of loss…of the twenty dollars they have in their purse, of their credit cards, of their automobiles, of their household possessions, and, of course, their lives.

I don’t fear losing those things, not even losing my life. What kind of Christian would I be if I feared going to heaven?

What a gun packing person needs to think about is this: what am I really trying to hold onto so tightly that I’d be willing to watch another human being release his or her last breath in my mind for the next twenty or forty years? And what if my perception of the danger was skewed by fear more than reality?

What I fear more is the thought of having to live the rest of my life knowing I pulled the trigger that ended someone’s life – someone who was hungry, cold, homeless, rejected, trying to feed their family, mentally impaired due to hopelessness – because some try to make me think those in poverty are all taking advantage of the system.

I can only imagine what killing another person would do to my enjoyment of Clint Eastwood movies, or other violence-dependent themes filling the television schedules. Even I have this macabre sense of justice when a bad guy gets blown away. Yet we rarely get to see the rest of the story about the impact killing another person has on the shooter’s life.

If people want to pack weapons to protect themselves and their stuff, I hope they’ve given thought to the damage they will inflict on the future of their own mental health if they ever have to use them. We already see the damage some of our military personnel suffer when they have defended their nation in the killing fields. Many return and live in hell until they end their own lives.

Killing goes against the human psyche, even in defense. God created us for relationship and our hearts know it.

And yet, there’s a place for swords and guns. In some cases, they are a deterrent. In some cases, they reduce fear because there’s some sense of equalization of power and they open a door for negotiation.

Guns are for people who have given A LOT of thought to the burden they will bear if they ever have to use it against another human being, someone’s father, brother, child.

Yet guns facilitate a kingdom of tears, pain, and sorrow.

I can’t say that I’m sorry people around me pack guns. One of them may preserve my life someday. Hopefully, he or she won’t destroy his/her own in protecting mine. “Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”

I just pray that people who feel the need to protect the world around them (1) know how to use their gun properly, (2) have given thought to what their life will be like should they ever use their weapon defending earthly stuff that will rust and rot away, and (3) if they ever have to use it, are able to remove fear and emotion from activating their trigger finger.

I don’t know why gun licensing and registration is a problem. You have to do that with your car, your occupation if you cut hair or sell insurance or provide medical services. You can’t buy certain medications for improving your health without the appropriate scrutiny. If I were a literalist, I’d quote Jesus: “Permit even this.” Require permits for all guns…and swords.

The debate about gun control is one of “where do we draw the line” about how much fire-power the average person should be able to possess. I leave that to the politicians. And I pray we can come to a common sense agreement rather than imitating the leaders of party politics who incite the flames of emotions and provoke us to use swords (and lethal words that terminate the unity of our nation) against each other.

I have a twelve gauge shotgun and a .22 rifle. For me, that is enough.