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Christian though experiment: what if when Jesus said in John 5 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life” he was indicting our sense of Holy History-writing?
Memorization and recitation of scripture in 1st century Judaism wasn’t so much a moral exercise as it was one of practicing corporate identity. It was a community task of agreeing on a common past. It was seeking consistent retellings of our forebears’ stories.
It was not as prescriptive or therapeutic as Modern Christianity treats it...scripture was treated as a yearbook and almanac and atlas that would bear witness to how to be a nation without land (most of Hebrew scripture was oral until the years of exile)
So...what if Jesus is saying “your history, your legends, your myths, your retrospective grandeur; none of that will save you. Don’t be comforted by your glossy past viewed with tinted lenses. What is in the rear view mirror IS NOT as close or as clear as what it seems.”
So American church: to be the Church you have to drop the “American”. Your tea parties, your documents, your bill of rights, your cherry trees and rebellions and D-Days and moon landings...they will not save you. Seek them all you want, but if you hold them at all, do so lightly.
Those events can be what they were *without* being spiritualized, without necessitating a divine mandate/hand/approval. We are covered in innocent blood from 1607 until now and we cannot “Out, Damned Spot” it away to make our past more righteous.
And the story of David desiring to build the Temple shows us that bloody hands cannot build holy places.
Until we make ourselves poor in spirit, and until we endure pain for the sake of justice, we cannot claim the Kingdom of Heaven. Until we mourn, we cannot be comforted. Until we are meek, we cannot inherit anything good (let alone the earth).
Until we hunger and thirst for justice, we cannot be filled. Until we are merciful, we cannot be shown mercy. Until we are pure at heart, we cannot see God. Until we make peace, we cannot be called by others or ourselves “children of God”.
*heavy sigh*
I had a typo on literally the second word of the thread.... my apologies
I had a typo on literally the second word of the thread.... my apologies
