Today's readings: Ps 2, 146; Isa 49:13-23, 54:1-13; Matt 18:1-14
In its original Aramaic, the Lord’s Prayer contains verb tenses that don’t exist in English. Where we speak of this day’s daily bread, the Aramaic speaks of today’s needs and simultaneously of needs yet to be. A people with this language can comprehend multiple levels of meaning for the same words and texts. Torah scholars today juggle its many levels. This concept is difficult for most of us, but it can help us understand how yesterday in Psalm 145 the Lord was slow to anger, and today in Psalm 2 this same Lord is one whose wrath is quickly kindled. Where we see contradiction, the original authors saw complexity.
If we are uncomfortable with uncertainty, such highly nuanced reading may be difficult for us, because firm answers will elude us. Yet, if we are to read scripture well, should we at least try to understand the mindset of its authors? These attempts may pit literal readings against a more contextual understanding. Take for example the practice of reparative therapy—that is, the attempt to “change” gay and lesbian people into heterosexuals. Providers of such therapy may believe they are saving people’s souls, but evidence shows this therapy to be unsuccessful. To the contrary, it is more likely to cause frustration or despair when people “fail” the process. Its young victims, when forced to choose between an immutable identity and rigid dogma often leave the church . How does this outcome relate to Jesus’ words that “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matt 18:6)? If, in the interest of curing an immediate sin, we drive someone away from God entirely, what does that say about our relationship to God and creation?
Our relationship to the sins—real or perceived—of others is a deeply complex one. We are called simultaneously to accountability (Matt 18:15-20) and to unlimited forgiveness (Matt 18:21-22). Only by opening ourselves to the mystery of God’s complexity can we be led.
Comfort: You are not the only one who doesn’t understand it all.
Challenge: The next time someone sins against you, try juggling the ideas of holding someone accountable while forgiving them..
Prayer: God of Mystery, help me balance righteousness and mercy.
Evening reading: Ps 110, 111
Tomorrow's readings: Ps 96, 147:1-11; Isa 12:1-6; Rev 1:1-8; John 7:37-52
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