Thursday April 6, 2023
“How do you guard an idea?” Donald Schmidt asked in his book, Easter for Progressive Christians.
The question had never occurred to me before. I know how to defend a place. Obviously, with security cameras. Fences. Armed sentries.
Medieval rulers surrounded their castles with moats.
The U.S. builds barriers along its border with Mexico, and mutters about doing the same with Canada.
But you can’t do those things with an idea.
The context of Schmidt’s question implies that he was thinking about how religious leaders 2,000 years ago wanted to squelch the idea that Jesus had risen from his tomb. It wasn’t to protect the idea of resurrection; it was to protect against it.
So they posted soldiers at the tomb, to keep Jesus’ followers away.
It didn’t work, according to the Bible – one of the few things all four gospels agree on.
Rome usually dealt with threats by killing the leader. But how could they kill a leader they had already killed?
Subversive ideas
And now there was a new idea circulating, the idea that a real live human had been put to death, but wasn’t dead. The temple authorities posted a conspiracy theory on the social media of the time, to counter the excitement.
But the story wouldn’t go away. More than a dozen people had seen him. Talked with him. Walked with him. Eaten with him.
So how do you guard that idea? To keep it from getting distorted? Diluted?
It seems to me that there are several obvious ways.
One would be to close the doors. Keep it secret, known only to a chosen few, who could be trusted to retrain the idea’s purity, word for word.
That would be the approach of secret societies. Where new recruits pledge not to reveal to the world the rules and rituals that bind them together.
Another way to guard the idea might be to write it down. And then declare the text holy, sacred, untouchable.
That has been the Christian tactic for 20 centuries. Monks copied the Bible, word for word, even including mistakes made by previous copiers, because this was (drum roll please!) the Word of God.
Except that it was no longer the original Word of God. The original Aramaic had been translated into Greek. And Greek into Latin. And eventually, Latin into English.
Each new translation introduced the translator’s own interpretations into the text.
Which is why Islam requires reading the Qur’an in its original Arabic.
Into public domain
A third – and almost unthinkable – option would throw the idea open. To anyone. Public domain. It’s about as radical as posting your passwords and account numbers on the internet.
But that’s how the early church grew. It gave away the story.
You didn’t have to memorize it, You didn’t have to pass exams on it. Youi didn’t have to get it right before you could be trusted with it.
Yes, there’s a huge risk. Some people will misunderstand. Will bend the story to suit their own purposes. Will get it wrong. Or won’t get it at all.
And they did.
Yet the story is still around, twenty centuries later. The unguarded story has had far more effect than all the attempts to control it.
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Copyright © 2023 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
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YOUR TURN
Last week’s column was not about sex – although one writer who shall remain nameless told me, “Jim, you need to get laid!”
Judy Lochhead got the point, and expressed it well: “We seem to be afraid to allow sensual/sexual experiences out from behind closed doors. It seems to me that topic is parked somewhere near the death/end-of-life discussions. Both could be given some space for better understanding.”
Then Judy went on to share some thoughts about spring on the prairies: “Nice to know you have new grown emerging from the earth. We are hopeful for the same, however here in Manitoba we still have at least a meter of snow in the yard and expect another 15-20 cm tomorrow. We have just come off a March that averaged 3 degrees colder than normal and had zero days above zero. My husband says ‘So much for global warming’. Even those of us who embrace winter for its seasonal activities have had enough of this one.”
Clare Neufeld: “Methinks, at some point in history, the Christian church, (and other religions possibly?), may have been influenced by an illiterate approach to ancient wisdom warning against pursuit of sensuality.
“Eventually a misguided perception of how to prevent temptations evolved into a ‘rule of law’, which resulted in multiple generations failing to learn the art of knowing, understanding, managing, exploring, and enjoying the subtleties of our (human) exquisitely complex relational dynamics on all levels.
“Why such beauty, of the most potent & lively drive, would be denigrated to the shadows is beyond me. I wish it weren’t so. I feel impoverished as a result.”
Mary-Margaret Boone felt that blaming our reluctance to acknowledge our sensuality the church was wrong: “It is not just church! It is our White Anglo Saxon heritage that evolved and came to this country and this continent. I recently read the Orenda by Joseph Boyden and was ready to go back to my early days of rejecting organized religion; also read Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead and have used kids stories at church like And Tango Makes Three. As I explore the history of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, I am amazed at how dense we have been in looking at the real world around us. I am also extremely saddened by what we have put people through whom Jesus would have recognized as 'other' and as marginalized. We have certainly lost or evaded the Gospel message when it comes to people who are different from the mainstream.
“Incidentally, who created the mainstream?”
Ruth Shaver remembered “the first time I taught an adult Bible study group about the euphemism ‘she uncovered his feet’ in the Book of Ruth. (Bear in mind that I was at least 30 years younger than the youngest of my students.) One of them, forever unknown to me, quipped ‘Is that what they're calling it these days? In my day it was a trip to the submarine races.’ That was immediately followed in another unidentifiable voice by, ‘Thanks for the inspiration, Dr. Ruth.’ I don't think I've laughed so hard in any class I've taught since.”
JT: If Ruth’s reference baffles you, you should know that the Bible often used “feet” to mean “genitals.” Even the Bible was hesitant about being too explicit!
Clare Neufeld: Methinks, at some point in history, the church, (and other religions possibly?), may have been influenced by an illiterate approach to ancient wisdom warning against a certain level of pursuit of sensuality.
Eventually a misguided perception of how to prevent temptations the “wisdom” devolved into imposition of “rule of law”, (read: behavioural heresy), which resulted in multiple generations failing to learn the art of knowing, understanding, managing, exploring, enjoying the subtleties of our (human) exquisitely complex relational dynamics on all levels.
Our forebears “forgot”, and descendants never learned to be healthy in adding goodness to their faith, knowledge to their goodness, etc.
I have no scientific proof - only lamenting intuition - and whimsical conceptualization supporting this concept.
Why such beauty, of the most potent & lively drive would be denigrated and relegated to the shadows is beyond me.
I wish it weren’t so. I feel impoverished as a result, whenever I reflect on this historic problem.
Jim Hoffman summarized: “Sexual union allows us to be whole with another human being. From that wholeness, it's possible to create a whole new human being. Creation is a wonderful act and expression of our love and sexuality. It needs to be celebrated.”
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Psalm paraphrase
The lectionary prescribes Psalm 118 for Easter Sunday – the same psalm as last Sunday, although it was conveying a different impression then. Anyway, here goes.
1 God, you give to life its goodness;
our cup overflows.
2 You renew our confidence in you.
14 When you are with us, we can face anything.
15 We have no fears when we can feel your presence among us.
16 A whisper of doubt disturbs the back corners of sceptics’ minds:
"Did this, could this, really happen?
What then of our reasoned rebuttals?”
17 But I am not obsessed with beating anyone;
Winning or losing, living or dying,
I want to be with you, God;
I want to celebrate your goodness to me, to all of us.
18 God has put me through hell.
But God has never abandoned me.
19 Now I have the confidence to go anywhere, to try anything.
20 Whatever it takes, I know I'm worth it.
21 Once, I had no confidence in myself;
I had no confidence in you.
I quivered with insecurities;
I was a raw wound, flinching from every pain.
22 Now the ugly duckling has become the golden egg.
You hold me in your hands, God, and I shine.
23 Only you could do this.
24 A new day has dawned for me, a new life has begun.
Is it any wonder that I overflow with joy?
Update – there are still about 60 copies of my book of psalm paraphrases in stock at Wood Lake Publishing. The book includes paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary. So you can still order a print copy of Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com, or 1-800-663-2775. But, I’m told, there will no further reprints. If you don’t already have a copy of Everyday Psalms, get one while they last.