Paul comes across as somewhat arrogant (I don’t think that is the reality) in Galatians with his ‘I got this revelation from no-one, but it came direct from heaven’, then does say he eventually went up to Jerusalem to make sure he was not ‘running in vain’. There he met those who had status(!) and one could certainly perceive that there were significant differences between them (maybe James in particular) and himself in their understanding of the Gospel, or at least in terms of the application of the Gospel. One was a ‘no law involved here’ and the other ‘obedience to the law’. It must have resulted in some interesting debates and discussions – maybe making the Old Perspective / New Perspective / Beyond the old and new perspectives look a little tamer than what was present in those earlier years of developing an understanding of the core elements of the Good News!
They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do (Gal. 2:10).
ONLY ONE THING… of all the things that could have been said… hence there is something so core here in keeping the Gospel pure. Referring back to the second dream I had on AI and my ‘opportunity’ (read ‘nightmare’!) of the debate at Oxford University on opposing the supposition that the new, and improved, humanity will be through following the path to singularity (basically chips implanted to increase the access to knowledge and wisdom into some key people). As I meditate on the dream I knew my defence had to be that the new humanity is only modelled in Jesus who was incarnated in Galilee of the Gentiles, the new humanity has to exhibit greater humility and be incarnated among the ‘poor’, disenfranchised and marginalised.
Defining the ‘poor’ is not so easy – even the two versions of the Beatitudes have ‘poor’ or ‘poor in spirit’, but there is a constant contrast between the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’ in Scripture. The difference between 10C prophets and the 8C prophets (BC/BCE) is marked – the rebuke to the rich (‘cows of Bashan’!!) comes through so strongly. And archaeology tells us the contrast in housing over those 200 years is very marked – signifying the increase of the divide between the wealthy and those who were on the margins; in Israel leading to the critique of those who were ‘at ease in Zion’.
The true fast, the essence of the Torah at the social level was to care for the homeless, the widow and orphan. I had a challenging Zoom call this morning with a good friend and we were ruminating on the above issue of ‘do not forget the poor’. Carl responded with there has been a shift in so many evangelicals, from being a blessing to the poor to being those who unconditionally support and bless Israel. The supply of weapons has so far accounted for the killing of 3% of the Christian population of Gaza… sobering, and if ever there was a manifestation of the poor Gaza is one such place.
Refusing to give unconditional support for the right of Israel is not to be anti-Semitic (and I have some Jewish blood in me according to my DNA test!) but is to ask what would a biblical prophet say at this time to the nation of Israel!
Hold on to your hat… these posts are perspectives. Part of the great unravelling that I see is the result of the shift (if ever we were centred there, so maybe not a shift involved at all) from ‘remember the poor’ to ‘those who bless Israel will be blessed’ – with a very narrow meaning applied to what blessing Israel entails.
In what we see unravel in many situations we will also be able to ‘follow the money’. Money does not mean blessing – Jesus hit that one on the head, provoking the disciples in the dialogue that we read in Matthew 19
“Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
Contrary to popular teaching there is NO evidence for a small gate in Jerusalem at the time called the ‘eye of the needle’ gate. So Jesus is using a pretty strong illustration in what he says. The disciples respond from the perspective of – if the rich (those blessed by God) are not saved there is no hope for anyone else! Two world views… Jesus did not forget the poor.
Ah well, a perspective I am ruminating over!
I think behind much of the corruption we see in the ‘gospel’ message is fear. I think often of how Jesus told people not to fear. Fear drives so much of our poor behaviour towards others. Greed is one of those behaviours. At the root of it is a fear of not getting enough.
I recently read some research that showed that people attracted to authoritarian types of government and movements have a larger amygdala (part of the brain) than those who are not. It is the amygdala that makes us alert to dangers (real or not) and generates fear (to get us moving or to fight back). So often politicians will lead with fear, that is, do everything they can to increase it in their base in order to motivate the behaviour they seek and to maintain power as the only person who can relieve the fear.
The fear is manifested is so many ways. I think of how schools in some places want to put the 10 commandments on the walls of classrooms. Why? They claim often it is to promote righteousness. But that isn’t right for a Christian. Jesus freed us from the law as he is the fulfillment of it. If we were living outside of fear we would want our children to learn the beatitudes instead. But why impose a law-based appearance of right behaviour? It is to install fear. Whether or not it works in a time of easy access to digital and social media is another question.
Fear is manifested in FOMO – fear of missing out. It drives the crazy tourism we see all over where people go some place just to take a selfie to show they were there. And then they move onto the next thing. No one wants to be seen as having missed out. So they are driven by fear and in seeking relief of that fear harm the planet and communities.
Presumably Christians have been freed from fear. But then why seek to control others? Why seek to control governments? If we want a ‘pure’ gospel then we need to confront and deal with the fear the underlies so much of what claims to be Christianity.