Hummingwolf at Home

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it today! Happy Sunday to those who don't! And Happy Monday to those in certain other time zones!

"The risen Jesus hasn't become the fearful agent of vengeance that some wanted him to be before his death, and some still want him to be now. The one who came among them as a servant still works among them by serving: the risen Lord cooks breakfast for his friends (John 21:1-14). Indeed, his friends seem to recognize him because the risen Jesus does what he has always done, calling them by name, breaking bread, breathing peace. When we recognize Christ's new life, we also recognize God's power. We finally understand that Jesus' unconditionally welcoming everyone to feast with him wasn't a way to pass the time until God came with power to set things right: it was the way God's power is revealed and the world's redemption takes place."

The problem with fundamentalists isn't that they take the Bible literally. Many of them are quite well aware that the scripture is full of symbols and metaphors and complex ideas and oblique references to other bits of scripture as well as ideas floating around in the air at the time of writing. The problem is that instead of reading the poetry they find there, they listen to bad poetry teachers. They think they know better than you, not because they have breathed in, drunk, eaten, digested the poetry and made it a part of their being; but because they've memorized the Cliff's Notes and you haven't.

Heard a reference to this on the radio and immediately went to find some text versions online. This reminds me of the discussions with some college friends about the books of Third Corinthians and First and Second Heresies:

A candidate for church membership was asked, "What part of the Bible do you like best?"

He said: "I like the New Testament best."

Then he was asked, "What Book in the New Testament is your favorite?"

He answered, the Book of the Parables, Sir."

The committee then asked him to relate one of the parables to the membership committee. And he recited the following narrative from the Book of Parables":

"Once upon a time a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves; and the thorns grew up and choked the man. And he went on and met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave that man, Sir, a thousand talents of silver, and a hundred changes of raiment. And he got in his chariot and drove furiously, and as he was driving along under a big tree, his hair got caught in a limb and left him hanging here! And he hung there many days and many nights. The ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink. And one night while he was hanging there asleep, his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair, and he fell on stoney ground. And it began to rain, and rained forty days and forty nights. And he hid himself in a cave. Later he went on and met a man who said, 'Come in and take supper with me.' But he said, 'I can't come in, for I have married a wife.' And the man went out into the highways and hedges and compelled him to come in! He then came to Jerusalem, and saw Queen Jezebel sitting high and lifted up in a window of the wall. When she saw him she laughed, and he said, 'Throw her down out of there,' and they threw her down. And he said 'Throw her down again,' and they threw her down seventy times seven. And the fragments, which they picked up, filled twelve baskets full! Now, whose wife will she be in the day of the Judgment?"