Conventional Wisdom?

As I pondered the observations of Paul to his readers in Corinth, I was haunted by the story of a five year old boy and his mother’s parchment lamp shade. I don’t know why.

She was very proud of that lampshade. I guess they were all the rage. The boy was too young to understand that. All he knew was how the shade sort of hid the light. He wondered if poking a hole in the lampshade would allow more light to come through.

As it happened, ther was a sharp pin near by that would probably do the trick. Quicker than it takes to tell it, he poked the hole in the shade. The result was promising. A bright dot of light showed through the shade. With that kind of success he thought a second hole would let out more light.

Actually what he really thought was that one hole looked like an accident. A whole ring of holes around the shade would like like it was supposed to be there! And he proceeded to punch holes in the shade all the way around the shade.

It was a success. Sort of uneven in spots, but no matter. Nothing’s perfect in this world, is it? And with his experiment in interior decorating done, he went off in search of other interesting things to do, and forgot all about it.

When his mother discovered the desecration to her lampshade, she had no difficulty figuring out what had happened, and who had done the deed. She confronted the boy with the typical parental question. "Why did you poke holes in my parchment lampshade?" No "Did you do it?" Why waste time with the obvious.

Now parents always ask dumb questions like that. "Why?" Well, so nobody’d notice it. Of course, that reason was off the table. And with no back up excuse handy, he simply looked blank faced, like "Huh?" Maybe if he looked really dumb he could slip out of it.

His mother wasn’t buying it, and he had to endure a lecture about respecting other people’s property, as well as a recital of his sins to his father and anyone else who would listen to his mother’s wailing.

"I swear I don’t understand that boy. What was he thinking of? He’s always doing things like that. I mean, if he’d just poked one hole in it, I could understand that. Anyone can make a mistake like that. But he poked holes all the way around the shade!"

What does this story have to do with St. Paul? I told you, I don’t know. I think it has something to do with the feeling I get when I read this portion of his letter to the Corinthians. How do I explain this thing called faith to you? How can I make you understand?

You see, he was writing to a sophisticated group of people well trained in philosophy and ethical discourse. They had Plato and Aristotle for their teachers. Socrates had been their mentor. How do you talk about something as elusive as faith? It reminds me of a treatise I attempted to read once, a scientific formula of the concept of love - a sixty-three page essay so abstruse and convoluted I can’t remember a single word of it.

And if the Greeks weren’t a hard enough sell, any Jews in the audience were even more bewildered. They were of the "black is black and white is white" mentality. It’s in the Law, stupid!

Centuries of repetition of the Law of Moses with its many gradations of meaning had been dinned into their heads. They knew precisely how many steps they could take from their land without breaking the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. They could speak to a neighbor through the window, if they did not lean into the window, or the neighbor leaned out of it.

What is this faith business?

Lest we look down on these people for their lack of sophistication, think of how many of us derive reassurance by thinking "if it’s in the Bible, it must be all right". Well, there are a lot of things in the Bible including incest, child sacrifice, execution by stoning, etc, that we would hardly condone today. Adultery may be popular, but we’re still pretty uncomfortable with David’s cavorting with Bathsheba - especially when he arranged for her husband to be killed so he could marry her.

But it’s in the Bible. And for the real purist, it’s even in the King James Bible - an important distinction to many who seem to believe God not only wrote the Bible himself, he did so with all those "thee’s" and "thou’s" and "begats" thrown in.

Yes, we like to have it all down in black and white. Clear-cut, pat, logical. Our entire nation is in the grip of the Ayn Rand mind set that glories in reminding us that "A is A", with no room for nuances or subtleties. For her, the first premise of respectable discourse is the supremacy of the rational mind. "I do not believe in God" her heroes proclaim, to which her heroines reply "Thank God!"

This is the audience Paul addresses, and to whom he must endeavor to explain why they should listen to a man who fell off a donkey, saw a blinding light - no doubt caused by an epileptic seizure - and not only gave up his mission to arrest and execute Jewish heretics in Damascus, but changed his name and proselytized the whole of Asia Minor on behalf of Jesus Christ.

"The just shall live by faith", that is his mantra. For those who have lived this message all their lives, it is easy to miss how radical it must have sounded at the time. We live in a culture dubbed "Judeo-Christian" which I personally think is rather unfortunate. Perhaps it’s true but it assumes we know what we’re talking about when I doubt we do. In a land where everyone’s "Christian" the very concept loses its meaning.

We started out as "followers of the Way", a fluid concept where each step was into the unknown. It’s rather like that inspired scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where his ultimate test is to step out unto thin air with no idea how he can keep from falling into an abyss. An apt metaphor for the true Christian way. And insanity of course to the rest of the world.

Paul experienced grace. Paul experienced transformation. Paul experienced a burning zeal of sharing this good news, this gospel, to all who would listen. And he combined it with a scathing scorn for the old, rational, parsing of the Law that had been the rule.

How do you explain that? Especially when it came to dealing with ultimate things like the will and grace of God? For this was not about intellectual discourse and speculation. This was about seeking the good will of almighty God. One needed to get that right or risk spending eternity in hell.

I was facing the equivalent of that kind of wrath when my mother confronted me with the hideous crime I had committed against her beloved parchment lamp shade. I was up against the law, and this was no time to seek a revision, a possible addenda that could mitigate the punishment I had earned and richly deserved.

How does Paul help me out then?

Well, in fact he does. Without minimizing the nature of my crime, he points me to God’s mercy upon which I can rely, if I will accept it. As exasperated as my mother may have been, it was clear that her love was not conditional. She was not about to bar me from her embrace for this unforgivable sin. While she no doubt would have preferred I keep my hands off lampshades, she considered her child more important than the appearance of the lamp.

(You will no doubt be gratified, as she was, to learn I made no further experiments with the furniture decorating. At least, not intentionally!)

I risk trivializing the supremacy of faith by this example, and for that I beg forgiveness of Paul and you. However, I do think restoration, redemption, salvation, call it what you will, takes on resonance and meaning most effectively when it is communicated to us in the flesh.

In our Gospel reading this morning, , Jesus speaks of tearing down the Temple and rebuilding it in three days. Clearly this is nonsense and his hearers were right to be outraged." Paul tells the Corinthians - "Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

Explain that? Make sense of that? Good luck. The life of faith breaks all the rules of conventional wisdom. Thank God. Amen.

March 11, 2012

The Quilt of My Life

As I faced my Maker at last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with the other souls as we prepared the quilts of our lives. However, as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult; the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. The largest holes of all were the hardships I had endured.

I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and all the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty like binding air.

Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed and held up to the light. My angel looked upon me and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes. I had love and laughter...but there had also been trials of illness, death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it.

I had to start over with my life many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, but was able to summon the strength to pick up and begin again. I had spent many lonely nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance.

And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it had been. I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with eyes wide open.

I looked upon the tapestry before me; light flooded the many holes and had created an image. The Face of Christ appeared before me, with love and warmth in his eyes. He said, “Every time you gave your life over to me, it became my life, my hardships, and my struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let me shine through...Until there was more of me than there was of you.”

(Author unknown)