Gospels

“It is what it is.”

Said John as he teased another thread from the mess of threads.

“But it’s not fair!”

Said Bill as he flung the whole mess across the room.

“It is what it is.”

Said John as he quietly collected the bundle and teased another thread from it.

“Two more years of THIS”, Jnana’s Red Barn

A lovely gentle reflective post which prompted that thought and this post.

Thank you Jnana.

The Gospels come to mind. This fella Jesus we love to read about, pore over, study every word, every inflection … This fella we love to teach and preach about … I wonder if his teachings can be summed as: “It is what it is.” This fella who needed only three letters … “I Am”.

That’s all.

Right now, there is much wailing and sorrow. But not from those grieving the death of a loved one – the noise is from those saying we are fed-up, we want to be free, we cannot handle being told to behave like an adult … Those who still think “me” rather than “we” … And who chant in every possible variant:

“It’s not fair!”

The Gospels come to mind. This fella Jesus again. Who plopped into a time and place when “fair” wasn’t part of any common currency. When might was right and death was cheap. When “it is what it is” was exactly how things were. Just the same as today – just the same as always: it is what it is. And yet he seemed to make the best of it. He walked in his safe place wherever he walked. He talked from his safe place with and to everyone. AND he avoided the obvious dangers of those who wished him harm – he journeyed away from danger in his safe place.

And all the while he lived the life he found – the life of it is what it is.

Right now we can all walk in our own safe place. A place we can choose to carry with us – to be us – to be at peace with all around. A place that avoids the obvious dangers not out of fear but out of love for ourselves and others.

A place that is of we rather than me.

And should that last another two years then it will still be what it is. And we can still choose to live in our safe place – or we can choose to call out how unfair this all is … How we should be free but are not – how we should be able to but are prevented from – how the government or the state should or shouldn’t – how we need a haircut – a restaurant dinner – our gym to keep fit – a coffee shop for our ~~poison~~ addiction – a club in which to dance …

All that “stuff” we can’t live without.

The Gospels come to mind. That fella Jesus. He had nothing. Yet WE make him the perfect role model. The one who died for OUR sins. The one who is grace FREELY given. The one who meets US where WE are. The one who set US free for all eternity. The one without whom WE are all screwed (for all eternity).

Yet this fella Jesus had none of this “stuff” we shout about – he shunned all the “stuff” we cannot live without … All the “stuff” we want back – all the “stuff” we cry has been taken from us … All this noise about how it’s all so unfair!

Doesn’t that strike anyone else as odd?

I don’t know about you, but I find the more I hear disparate (and angrily stated) points of view about politics, values or theology, the more I feel my heart and mind under spiritual attack.

The more I recall this country’s history, understand and see evidence of our division, the heavier my heart is. Still vivid in my memory from 24 years ago is the vicious beating of Rodney King, the subsequent, atrocious beating of Reginald Denny and the riots in Los Angeles. We have not come very far, and I cannot simply let go of the events of last week. I cannot simply forget and move on.

Speaking with a friend of mine early this week, I listened to stories of her upbringing in Mississippi. Her childhood memories still vivid of walking past black men swinging from trees on her way to school, she visits a different world when she travels back to see her mother who still lives there. She tells me,

“Signs on public bathrooms still say, ‘Colored’ and ‘Whites Only.’ And when you walk into a restaurant, it’s understood which section of the restaurant you can sit in. You might legislate integration, but you’ll never legislate the heart.”

This is when I must go back to basics. This is when I go back into the heart of the One who was lynched for all of us. This is when I reread the Gospels for the actual words of Jesus. As I do so, I keep in mind what I have learned in a wide variety of Bible interpretation classes, studies and books:

Recognize and appreciate the frame of reference – the history and the audience being addressed.
Understand the context; never read just a verse, read the entire paragraph or chapter.
Don’t rely on just one Bible version or translation; compare and read parallel versions.
Repeated statements are the significant principles requiring our attention.

I cannot read the Sermon on the Mount or the Parable of the Two Sons or the Allegory of the Sheep and the Goats without being reminded of the paradigm shift in thinking Jesus brought to us from our Father – the thinking we still seem hesitant to adopt.

Contained in these words are principles of humility, forgiveness, grace, generosity, compassion – and most of all love. This is the paradigm shift of which Jesus spoke, and He put His actions solidly behind His words. He did not raise a hand to anyone; He extended His hand in invitation and empathy.

I don’t know how long this series will span; I will follow where my heart leads and where the Spirit takes me. I just know I must lean in, dig in, and go all in; I must surround myself with His wisdom and surrender to His will. I must rediscover, not the whys, but the Who in all of this, and allow Him full access. I must acknowledge that I am His child, and so are we all.

“You, beloved, are worth so much more than a whole flock of sparrows. God knows everything about you, even the number of hairs on your head. So do not fear.” (Matthew 10:30-31)

Black parents across America have been having “the talk” with their children for quite a while. It’s a painful family discussion necessary to have about ways to act – and refrain from acting – if stopped by white police officers with a gun, about how to survive in America unlike Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. Maybe we all need to hear this to understand the fear and pain Black parents feel every time their children walk outside their homes.