Comments on: a paradigm parable

By: SteveK

SteveK — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:56:57 +0000

I agree, Greg. Inasmuch as there is a criteria– and there must, or else Jesus wouldn’t make such a point that the Pharisees were excluded– it is Jesus who determines that criteria, and he says little that fits into our modern theological categories. This is why I generally agree with the post. We tend to exclude ourselves from Jesus when we look to denominations, theologies or cultural biases to speak Jesus’ mind for Him.

Steve K

By: greg

greg — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:31:31 +0000

Steve,

When I wrote the piece I had just finished dealing with two trolls on my own blog who felt perfectly free to exclude everyone who did not meet their own self-determined criteria. I think it’s always been the way of the kingdom to be open only to those who understand the kind of peace/openness that Jesus embodied. It’s not that God wants to exclude; it’s that we do so naturally, based on cognitive dissonance, prejudice, etc. Even as an ex-Christian I resonate with the anabaptist understanding of kingdom. The exclusivity of anabaptism has always been predicated on openness to the kingdom, which is to say, all who are willing can come, but there is a politic to the kingdom. (Yes, I read way too much Yoder in grad school.) But they understand the exclusivity to be necessary to the grammar of the kingdom, because to force a different socially embodied ethic on top of the kingdom, makes it a kingdom of the world with the simulacra of the kingdom of God.

By: SteveK

SteveK — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:33:36 +0000

Excellent post and poem, though, I must say.

By: SteveK

SteveK — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:32:30 +0000

So, even in this story, the only ones who can take communion with Jesus are the ones who will accept His kind of peace. They exclude themselves by determining what kind of Jesus they want, which is different than who He is. I know that’s not exactly what you intended when you posted this, but isn’t art in the eye of the beholder?

Steve K

By: Lora

Lora — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:42:18 +0000

Jon, thanks for sharing that.

By: Jon A

Jon A — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:39:04 +0000

That reminds me of a poem introduced to me by Larry A. Bell, a wonderful teacher and powerful, powerful person:

The Cold Within
by James Patrick Kinney

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In dark and bitter cold
Each possessed a stick of wood–
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,
But the first one held hers back,
For, of the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.

The next one looked cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And could not bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes
He gave his coat a hitch,
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of wealth he had in store,
And keeping all that he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For he saw in his stick of wood
A chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain,
Giving just to those who gave
Was how he played the game,

Their sticks held tight in death’s stilled hands
Was proof enough of sin;
They did not die from cold without–
They died from cold within.