Tuesday, September 20, 2011

DeKalb Ave. Theology III

Serious, very serious question: Was Jesus "attacking" the pharisees when he called them "a generation of vipers" or was he simply rendering a diagnosis similar to "you have cancer."

If we look at the following parable http://bible.cc/matthew/7-22.htm

it is obvious that the first group are like the demagogues of the television megaministries and they are CONVINCED that their salvation is guaranteed but Jesus calls them evil-doers; while a second group is convinced that they have done nothing worthy... SO convinced in fact that when Jesus welcomes them into the kingdom for feeding and clothing him, they ARGUE with him and ask "WHEN did we do all these things?"  Can you imagine someone standing before a fierce magistrate, exonerated, exculpated, and they ARGUE that they are in face GUILTY?

There is a wonderful INDIE movie , "Zentropa" , about a young, idealistic German-American man who decides to return to Germany during the post WWII occupation and help in the reconstruction. In an opening scene the youth meets an old German Catholic priest and asks "Since BOTH sides prayed to God for victory, but only one side can be right, how does God choose."   The priest quotes the verse which says http://bible.cc/revelation/3-16.htm "Since you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth."

The point the old priest is making is that there is not some absolute, black and white, right/wrong, good/evil... but rather, ones position, the side one takes, is subjective and contextual BUT the sincerity with which one pursues ones ideal is absolute and may be measured against the hypocrisy. There is grace for those who pay the price of the cost of discipleship and then there is "cheap grace" for those who seek to say Corban and escape paying the price of the cost of discipleship. http://bible.cc/mark/7-11.htm

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