A Tale of Two Translations

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48 New American Bible

48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” Matthew 5:48 The Message

The first translation is technically correct but largely meaningless. What does it mean to be perfect as God is perfect. Even if I had some conception of what that means, it is clearly impossible and thus irrelevant to my everyday life. The second translation seeks to get at the meaning--the message if you will--of the passage so that it can have meaning in my life. While obviously still difficult, at least the notion of "living generously and graciously toward others" is understandable and thus more likely to become part of my life.

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Location:Charissa Run,Rochester,United States

Proof may be over rated.

As the crowd swelled, he took a fresh tack: “The mood of this age is all wrong. Everybody’s looking for proof, but you’re looking for the wrong kind. All you’re looking for is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. But the only proof you’re going to get is the Jonah-proof given to the Ninevites, which looks like no proof at all. What Jonah was to Nineveh, the Son of Man is to this age.s the crowd swelled, he took a fresh tack: “The mood of this age is all wrong. Everybody’s looking for proof, but you’re looking for the wrong kind. All you’re looking for is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. But the only proof you’re going to get is the Jonah-proof given to the Ninevites, which looks like no proof at all. What Jonah was to Nineveh, the Son of Man is to this age. Luke 11:29-30

We all wish we had proof of faith, of our belief. It would make it so much easier to deal with our inevitable and normal questions as well as the doubts and challenges of others. Luke here recounts Jesus dealing with this issue in his ministry. Miracles are not the point. We read accounts of Jesus healing miracles which had little impact on the acceptance of his message by the crowds and their leaders. What was the answer? Perform more miracles? Hardly.

Faith came from hearing the Word of the Divine and acting on it. One could almost think that the believing and the doing were simultaneous. Faith comes not from proof or wonder working. It comes from the action of the Divine in me. I am most likely to be aware of that action and to respond to it when I experience people who hear the Word of the Divine One, act on it in their everyday lives, and preach it through words and example. All that the king and people of Nineveh needed was to hear the Word of God preached as a call to repentance by Jonah. Why do we think that we need more than that?

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Help me be a sheep, not a goat

“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:37-40

This translation of these familiar verses from the Gospel of Matthew comes from The Message. This Bible translation intends to provide the words of Scripture in an idiom that is more accessible to everyday speech and understanding. This is a good example. "The least of these" takes on enhanced relevance when we read it as those "overlooked or ignored." Perhaps we could add "forgotten."

Think of all those people who are in need but who are not part of my everyday life. It is all too easy to forget about them. And yet it is these very people that Jesus says are him. Think of a group of people who are despised, forgotten, held of little account. These are exactly the people who are Jesus. These are exactly the people we are called to pay attention to so that they are not forgotten.
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Location:Charissa Run,Rochester,United States

Lenten Fast Pleasing to God

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! Isaiah 58:8-9a

How easy it is for me to focus on myself! A Lenten fast means that I am to give up something and that somehow will bring me closer to the Divine and thus closer to the Reign of the Divine Become Human. The ancient wisdom of Isaiah calls us to a deeper understanding. Our lives are to be lives that work against the oppression of the weak by the strong, both intentional and unintended oppression.
During the cold winter months, providing shelter and sustenance to the homeless is particularly relevant. However good it might be for me to give up something and thus try to break the grip of our cultural and economic addiction to self gratification, that is of little meaning or significance unless it leads to action to liberate those ground down by that very culture and economy, what St. Paul would call "the world."
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Location:Main St,Mount Morris,United States

Pick up a cross daily

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Luke 9:23-25

This is from the readings for the day after Ash Wednesday. We begin to hear the rather stark and challenging message of the Divine One become human. To follow Jesus is not about believing certain dogmas, not about engaging in specific religious actions. It is not even about doing good works. It is about letting go of our sense of control of our lives and letting Jesus be in charge...just as he had to relinquish control of his own life and let the Father's will be done.

My very identity is at stake. Who am I really? Am I to be defined by the addictive self gratifications that often seem to control my life? Or am I to be who I am really am...an incarnation of the Divine Spirit in a way uniquely my own and yet the same as every living being? Lent is time to enter into that reality and to live from that deepest identity.

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Location:Charissa Run,Rochester,United States