Many miles to travel

MEDITATION

THE nature of human sexuality, research into the human embryo, end of life choices – there is no end to the complex moral conundrums which do not lend themselves to easy answers.

Traditionally, when Christians wrestle with these conundrums they turn to the Bible for guidance and direction, but, given that these and many other matters were not under discussion when the ancient writers of scripture were at work, it is not surprising that diferent people come away from the text with very diferent perspectives. For me, however, the most challenging thing about Scripture lies in those passages which are timeless and unambiguous, but which are avoided because they are too hard.

In my experience Christian correctness (if there is such a thing) is too often determined according to our reaction to particular texts which are open to interpretation, while we hold loosely to other texts which are as clear as the end of our nose. For me the toughest thing about Scripture is listening to what it has to say when it is unequivocal and where the modern day context hardly difers from the origfinal.

For instance, that bit about the rich man, the needle’s eye and the camel is just one of the many things Jesus has to say about our relationship with money. The love of ilthy lucre, he says, ‘is the root of all evil’, but we prefer to let that bit of the Bible slide past because investing in our future security and having a bit of money behfind us feels more right than wrong.

The American comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce used to say that a Christian who owned two coats in a world where most people had none must be a hypocrite, but Jesus’ words about this haven’t stopped most of us from having more than one coat.

The other Bible beauty that really disturbs me is the one about plain speaking. In this age of ‘spin’ what does it mean to: “let your Yea be Yea and your Nay be Nay”? Many of us have got to the stage where reading between the lines has become more important than reading on the lines.

I can’t remember when I last read an article by a politician or a pundit where I wasn’t aware that the story was being spun in one direction or the other. I even read the annual reports to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland listening for the silver tongue or looking for the layer of gloss painted over the bad news.

Who knows, there may even be people reading this article wondering what the author is really trying to say! Down this road lies a certain paranoia which is not altogether healthy.

I love Eugene H Peterson’s paraphrase of Matthew 5:33 – 37 in The Message: “Don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smokescreen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.”

“ For me, however, the most challenging thing about Scripture lies in those passages which are timeless and unambiguous, but which are avoided because they are too hard. ”

So, the next time you get yourself all worked up about some unprovable dogma or you find yourself in a row about what the Bible has to say on nuclear disarmament or gender reassignment – take a step back and relect on your relationship with money, your aluence in a poverty-stricken world and your honesty with words. When you do that; like me, you’ll discover that you’ve still got a lot of inner work to do and many miles to travel on your spiritual journey.

This article appears in the August 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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