Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Daily Office, Year One, Proper 4, Tuesday
Today's Readings:
The word of the day seems to fall between "Purging" and "Cleansing". As a rule, I try not to view the miracles as factual events. Miracles are things like being stranded on a dark road with no lights in an unfamiliar city and a stranger pulls over, calls AAA on their cell phone, and waits with you until help arrives. That's a miracle. Maybe I'm just stuck in a post-modern worldview, but so many of Jesus' miracles are indistiguishable from magic. But the story of Luke, and the healing of the lepers, is read allegorically with no problems, only options. The real point that I read is that true healing is done through faith. Which one of the lepers thought up the notion that they should go to Jesus and get healed? Probably not the one who stayed and praised God. It was probably one of the other nine who saw a way out of their painful lives and used Jesus. Only one stayed. Jesus talked a lot about the good existing with the bad, and a time when the bad would be taken away, but he also taught us to lead by example. When Jesus did talk about the judgement, the cleansing of the earth of iniquity, I believe he didn't mean some far off future, he meant during his lifetime. I don't believe he expected to die in his thirties. He probably would have lived to see teh destruction of the Temple. In some way, the destruction of the Temple was the end of the world, and the wicked were destroyed. The Jewish people had to die and resurrect, the rule that applied to each of us as individuals also applied to Israel. It happened before, it's a cycle. It raises the question: Did Jesus think that the death and resurrection of Israel would be the final death and resurrection? Maybe not. It requires more research. ¶ 11:38 AM
- Deuteronomy 12:1-12
- 2 Corinthians 6:3-7:1
- Luke 17:11-19
The word of the day seems to fall between "Purging" and "Cleansing". As a rule, I try not to view the miracles as factual events. Miracles are things like being stranded on a dark road with no lights in an unfamiliar city and a stranger pulls over, calls AAA on their cell phone, and waits with you until help arrives. That's a miracle. Maybe I'm just stuck in a post-modern worldview, but so many of Jesus' miracles are indistiguishable from magic. But the story of Luke, and the healing of the lepers, is read allegorically with no problems, only options. The real point that I read is that true healing is done through faith. Which one of the lepers thought up the notion that they should go to Jesus and get healed? Probably not the one who stayed and praised God. It was probably one of the other nine who saw a way out of their painful lives and used Jesus. Only one stayed. Jesus talked a lot about the good existing with the bad, and a time when the bad would be taken away, but he also taught us to lead by example. When Jesus did talk about the judgement, the cleansing of the earth of iniquity, I believe he didn't mean some far off future, he meant during his lifetime. I don't believe he expected to die in his thirties. He probably would have lived to see teh destruction of the Temple. In some way, the destruction of the Temple was the end of the world, and the wicked were destroyed. The Jewish people had to die and resurrect, the rule that applied to each of us as individuals also applied to Israel. It happened before, it's a cycle. It raises the question: Did Jesus think that the death and resurrection of Israel would be the final death and resurrection? Maybe not. It requires more research. ¶ 11:38 AM
