February 12, 2023

Apparently there’s an Isle of Discussion in Scotland – where arguing members of a certain clan were sent to stay, with cheese and whiskey, until their disputes were resolved. Wow, talk about new hope for world peace!

A theme for today’s readings might be: God says that we are falling short, or we’re not measuring up to God’s standards – we’re sinners. At least that’s the surface impression of what we heard. And while it might behoove us to think about such things ten days before Lent, let’s see what else we can find here.

Take our first reading from Sirach, for example, which resembles a passage from Deuteronomy 30 (v19) – in fact that was the other option for a first reading, so we couldn’t escape this message. The reading as is sounds rather harsh or perhaps too black and white. But looking at the earlier parts of Sirach chapter 15 we find much softer and gentler sections. We are told that whoever holds to the law will obtain wisdom, and I quote: “She will come to meet him like a mother … She will feed him with the bread of learning … He will lean on her and not fall … She is far from arrogance …” (v 1-8). These are lovely images of God’s Wisdom Spirit as a loving mother ready to help us find our way. Then there’s a warning in the next few verses: “Do not say, ‘It was the Lord’s doing that I fell away’ … Do not say, ‘It was he who led me astray … ‘It was [God] who created humankind … and [God] left them in the power of their own free choice” (v 11-14). So, when we heard today that ‘if you choose you can keep the commandments … choose fire or water … choose life or death’ it would have been good to know the context of those earlier verses – that God’s Spirit of Wisdom comes to those who seek her, and she will protect them from harm like a good mother. Wisdom, our spiritual mother, knows that we are vulnerable to error, and can easily make mistakes in our choices. So long as we’re humble enough to seek God’s wisdom, though, we’ll be cared for regardless of any wrong choices we might make at times.

Moving to the epistle from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we see Paul admonishing them like a frustrated human father, when he says: “I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still in the flesh.” Oh dear, Paul sounds angry for sure. But here’s an ongoing observation made about Paul’s writings: that some of his words often sound like flesh/spirit dualism. And by flesh he often also means ‘the world’ – if we’re still in the flesh, we’re still too much in the ways of the world. I think that overall Paul has some great wisdom and theology; but these flesh=bad and spirit=good passages leave a lot to be desired. What many faithful Christians have found throughout history is that living in the flesh in the world is how the Creator made us – so it’s not a bad thing. If the Creator wished for us to live fully in the spirit, why create earthlings at all? Why not just leave them as souls permanently dwelling in heaven? Thankfully a central focus of Anglicanism is INCARNATION. We believe in Genesis 1:27 that God created us in God’s image – male & female earthlings – since God is both male & female. Is God then nonbinary? I don’t know, but I do know that God made us in God’s image in the flesh.

Skipping ahead now to our wonderfully provocative gospel, we have Jesus seemingly warning us that even to insult our brothers and sisters is like murder. Oh, oh, I better not keep calling last year’s anti-vaxx truck convoy a Free-DUMB convoy. As to being angry with a brother or sister, after the Church of England voted in favour of blessing same-sex unions a few days ago on February 9th -- many African bishops in particular, are very angry and have sent thinly-veiled threats about walking away from the Anglican communion with their 60 million members. They feel quite strongly that blessing same-sex couples is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ – this, despite the fact that Jesus never once mentioned anything against homosexuality, although it was well known in the ancient world, long before he walked the earth. They claim that with a move like this the CofE has become unbiblical. And yet, one does not see many people who take the Bible literally in Africa, America or elsewhere -- having plucked out their eyes or cut off their hands as Jesus literally says to do in verse 29 & 30 … if a man so much as looks at a woman lustfully, or has other sinful thoughts or deeds.

Of course, there are highly praised biblical patriarchs like Kind David and King Solomon, who are reported as having many wives and concubines, or even many hundreds of them in Solomon’s case. So, we see that the so-called biblical model of marriage -- is far from clear. It’s often said that Jesus was exaggerating with some of these points, but not with others. Who gets to decide which are which? Many people use Jesus’ lines about divorce here as an ongoing prohibition – even though divorce was easy for men to get in those days, often leaving their wives homeless & destitute. It’s entirely possible that within that context, Jesus was mostly trying to protect women from great harm, since a woman could neither initiate a divorce nor withstand her husband’s decision to divorce her.

So, dear friends in Christ, what can we take away from today’s challenging readings? Many possibilities, I think. When Sirach or Deuteronomy tell us to choose life, there is not just one set way to do that. And there’s no need to live in fear of failure if we do some things that later appear to have been unwise. We are forgiven, and Mother Wisdom spreads out her arms to love and comfort us. When Jesus says, cut out your eye or hand if they cause you to sin, he’s exaggerating to help get our attention about ways in which our ego or psyche can send us problem messages. As we prepare to enter the Lenten season, we rejoice that Mother Wisdom beckons us into her loving care, as we further discern the best path forward, on our journeys of discipleship, Amen.