This story has floated around for a long time. Perhaps the pastor wore the wrong robes. Or forgot to use the Lord’s Prayer. Or even told a slightly off-colour joke. 
Anyway, an irate parishioner accosted the pastor at the door, fuming: “That was disgraceful! If Jesus was still alive, he’d be turning over in his grave!”
Ignoring the speaker’s lack of logic, I don’t think Jesus would. Because over and over, he celebrated people who  took the risk of disgracing themselves. 
Remember, this was a tribal society. If you broke social norms, you disgraced not only yourself but your extended family. The same mindset still leads to honour killings today -- right or wrong matters less than the reputation of the family.. 

Disgraceful exposure
Think about the story of Zaccheus climbing a tree. It’s usually interpreted as a scoundrel repenting his misdeeds. But think about how Zaccheus got up into that tree. You simply cannot climb trees in long Middle-Eastern robes.
Once, when I was a child and feeling proud of my growing abilities, I bragged that I could now run faster than my mother. “Really?” she replied, “I’ll race you to the house.”
I accepted the challenge. She hoisted up her long skirts, and beat me handily.
I expect that Zaccheus similarly had to hoist up his long robes to climb that tree. It would be undignified, at best. At worst, he would have exposed his undergarments. If he was wearing any, that is.
Disgraceful!
In the parable that we call “The Prodigal Son,” the loving father ran to meet his straying son. Ran! In that society, heads of households did not run. And he too would have had to hoist up those long robes to be able to run at all. 
The woman in Samaria who came to the well alone was already a disgrace. The other women wouldn’t associate with her because she slept around. So she had to come by herself. In the heat of the afternoon, instead of the cool morning. And then -- horrors! -- she compounded her disgrace by taking the liberty of talking with a man. A stranger. A Jewish stranger. How awful!

Breaking social codes
By the standards of the time, the Good Samaritan shouldn’t have helped a Jewish man at all. Samaritans and Jews were traditional enemies. By the standards of his society, he should have ignored the victim. He’d probably have been praised for kicking him over the cliff. But instead the Samaritan broke the code, and helped his “neighbour”.
Speaking of breaking social codes, imagine the scorn heaped upon the father of the bride who would invited drunks and beggars to his formal wedding banquet!
And don’t forget that Jesus himself would be considered a disgrace. His own family wanted to have him committed. He broke all the taboos by associating with prostitutes and tax collectors, with gentiles and lepers and smelly fishermen. 
And nothing could be more disgraceful than being crucified by the Romans. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul described the crucifixion as “a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to gentiles.”
The key, I think Jesus would have said to the irate parishioner, is not what you do, but why you do it.
*****************************************
Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
*****************************************

YOUR TURN

Isabel Gibson called last week’s column about social effervescence “An interesting metaphor. What strikes me about effervescent joy is how trivial it can be.  The joy of the big win becomes ‘who won that game?’ too quickly, because it doesn't matter in my life.
“By contrast, I treasure the slow-moving swells of joy -- their power and their staying power. Not to dismiss the value of "social lubricants" at the community level; just to doubt their personal value.”


Tom Watson wrote, “Your column is a most welcome oasis in this morning's gloomy desert. Last night when I went to bed it seemed entirely possible that Donald Trump would be elected the 45th President of the United States...this morning it's a clear reality. Sure need some good news as I'm not sensing much effervescence around.”

By contrast, Miryam Hammond took an optimistic view: “You may be ignoring our election but this column gets right to the heart of the matter -- you will see a lot of effervescence spilling out all over our country to overcome the results of the election here. I don't believe that the vast majority of those who ‘lost’ are going to sit by quietly and let the ‘winner’ have a ‘free reign.’
“God is still God, the sun will still shine, and we will show that the true American spirit will prevail.  Oh yes, I am an eternal optimist!”

Cliff Boldt reminded me that my listing of seasonal sports, overlapping with each other, had left out basketball. 

James Russell re-sent a letter about the previous week’s column, on each of us having many minds: “Personally, I've always found myself much more a parliament than a dictatorship.  That guy who is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul seems rather absent, though most days there seems to be a committee chair... who may be on break at the moment.
“It's one of the reasons why I tend to see Libertarians as mentally ill:  they just don't seem to be able to realize we are not fully independent and competing monads but quasi-autonomous parts of a distributed whole.”

*******************************************
PSALM PARAPHRASES

The lectionary doesn’t prescribe a psalm for this Sunday. Rather, it calls for Zechariah’s song, Luke 1:68-79. It parallels, with variations, Mary’s Magnificat and Hannah’s song in Samuel 1. I can’t help wondering if a Palestinian family, somewhere in the West Bank or Gaza, might be crooning something like this to their newborn baby, too:

Allah is great!
Allah has seen his people’s suffering, and has acted to save them.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given,
who will be the saviour of His people.
The words of Allah came to Mohammed:
We will be saved from our enemies; 
Those who occupy our birthright will be displaced;
We will be restored to our ancestors’ heritage,
so that we can worship Allah without fear.
This he promised to his Prophet.
And you, child, will be successor to the Prophet of the Most High.
You will stand before the Almighty
to hear His voice and declare His will.
Our lack of faith will not be held against us. 
A new light will dawn on our people;
We will shrug off the darkness that has cloaked us for generations,
and take our rightful place in the sun.
Allah is great!


For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

*******************************************

YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
• Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
• Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
• Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
• Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
• Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

*****************************************

TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to jimt@quixotic.ca. Or you can subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message or subject line) to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at softedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.
Unfortunately, my webpage, http://edges.Canadahomepage.net, has been hijacked, and I haven’t been able to get it back yet. For the time being, therefore, there is no online archive of columns. If there’s a special column you want, write me; I can send it to you from my own records.
I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

********************************************