SOME THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW 5:20

Matthew 5:20 “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

This passage really stuck out to me today.  It stuck out for two reasons.  First, because of what it does not say.  And secondly, the ambiguity it leaves open for interpretation.

The Pharisees were known to be strict adherents to the Judaic law.  This would lead one to believe that the Pharisees would rank high on the ladder of righteousness.  Therefore, it would be hard to surpass their righteousness.  Of course, one could make the argument that Jesus was being sarcastic and downplaying the importance of the Law.  Yet, if we go back to verse 17 we find that Jesus states the following: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Interesting that with the “Law” Jesus mentions the “Prophets” as well.  The Prophets who perpetually spoke out against injustices and perhaps this is what the Pharisees were missing. Because of the Pharisees’ myopic view of the law that strives to have everything on the surface look as it should, while neglecting the deeper issue of injustice that surrounded them they lacked righteousness. 

This takes us back to what first stuck out to me with this passage—what it does not say.  I think many in our church today would more expect this passage to say, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the poor who are too lazy to get a job, the prostitute that whores herself, the drug addict that refuses to turn his life around, the rapists and murderers that steal life from others, and the terrorists who blow up buildings, people and themselves, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  For many of us this sets an easy standard to make it to heaven or for what it means to live righteously.  Ironically, however, it is those listed in the re-quote that Christ came for—he came for all, but if you read the scriptures closely it is apparent they are for who he came for the most.  It was Shane Claiborne who pointed out that much of early Christianity grew because a former terrorist and Pharisee by the name of Paul recognized his acts of injustice, repented and started following the One he persecuted.

RAISED RIGHT IS RIGHT ON

Waterbrook Multnomah has been graciously providing me with books free for more than a year now.  The only stipulation is that I provide them with a fair and honest review of each book.  Alisa Harris’s Raised Right How I Untangled My Faith From Politics is the most recent.  I have put off writing this review for several weeks now because I am conflicted about what I have to say about it. 

All of the books that I request from Waterbrook are non-fiction and many of them tend to lean politically left or right.  When this is the case I have noticed a pattern with my reviews.  Since I tend to lean left, the books that lean left get a good review and the books that lean right get a negative review.  This is far from objective and the lack of objectivity troubles me.  So there you have somewhat of a disclaimer—because the book leans left the review will be favorable. 

With all of that said, I am looking forward to the book that leans left that I do not like and the book that leans right that I absolutely love just to be able to show that I can, in fact, be objective.  Raised Right, despite the irony with the title, however, is not that book.

Raised Right is Harris’s memoir—something quite strange or unique for someone who, from what I can gather, has yet to begin her thirties!  Despite being young, Harris spews forth wisdom that many twice her age lack. 

The story depicts Alisa’s life growing up in a family that was both religiously conservative and politically active.  “I had been picketing since before I could walk.  Before my parents moved to Oregon from New Mexico, they had bundled me into a carrier twice a week and hauled me and their signs to the local abortion clinic, where they paced the road across the street, praying as pregnant women walked in and empty women walked out.” (p. 13) Then the story moves on to Alisa’s college life and ends shortly after college. 

Through the transitions from home to college to post-college life Alisa weaves a narrative that demonstrates a gentle and graceful transition or reinterpretation of the conservative values that she was taught as child.

While I did not grow up in a religious home I did grow up in a conservative one.  Alisa’s story truly resonates with me.  I did not become a follower of Christ until my first year of college and my conservative upbringing certainly influenced my worldview and how I viewed my relationship with God.  At some point, like Alisa, I became disgusted with lack of love, mercy, grace and compassion as well as the hubristic adherence to religious dogma so often displayed from the religiously conservative right.  And again, like Alisa, this caused me to begin re-evaluating what it means to be a follower of Christ.

I believe that Alisa and I are both in similar places and I believe that is why I loved this book so much—it helped me feel like I am not alone.  Moreover, it reinforced the notion that it is okay, good in fact, to challenge the status quo.

For anyone raised in a religiously conservative home who struggles with its ideology I highly recommend this book!

GOING BENEATH THE SURFACE WITH MATTHEW'S GENEALOGY

Most of us who read or have read the bible at some point complain to someone about the genealogies.  I have done this on numerous occasions.  However, the more time I spend reading the bible and the more I pay attention to details the more things just come to life.  Today I started reading Matthew and I was stunned by the language of its genealogy in the first chapter--two verses in particular:

vs5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, vs6 and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

Of course, I am no bible scholar, but wow!  It is rare that women particularly mothers are mentioned in genealogies and here we have three mentioned in two short verses.  The first is a prostitute, Rahab, that hid Hebrew spies; the second is a Moabite woman, Ruth, who demonstrates endearing loyalty to her mother-in-law after her husband dies. 

Interestingly, the genealogy mentions both Rahab and Ruth by name yet Bathsheeba is not mentioned by name.  Rather, the genealogy states, “David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.”  This language completely draws the reader to David’s sins of not just adultery but to Uriah’s murder which David arranged.  And all of this is to show the genealogical line that Jesus comes from—a genealogical line that is far from perfect—a genealogical with questionable a past to say the least, with perhaps the exception of Ruth.  However, Ruth could still be considered an outsider being a Moabite woman.  Moabites were excluded from the assembly of worshippers being descendants of an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his eldest daughters.

Writing this reminds me of the Steve Taylor song, “Jesus Is For Losers”.  I remember buying the album and seeing the song title and being offended.  Then I listened to the song and said to myself, “Man, this is brilliant!”  I leave you with the last couple of versus:

Just as you are
Just a wretch like me
Jesus is for losers
Grace from the blood of a tree

Just as we are
At a total loss
Jesus is for losers
Broken at the foot of the cross

Just as I am
Pass the compass, please
Jesus is for losers
I'm off about a hundred degrees

Just as I am
In a desert crawl
Lord, I'm so thirsty
Take me to the waterfall

WHERE I WILL BE TOMORROW

My wife has some pretty funny stories.  One of my favorites is a particularly bad date that she went on some years before we met.  If I recall correctly the guy was someone she met at work who was genuinely nice.  However, he was somewhat boring and seemed to lack passion for just about anything.  They were struggling for conversation during their date so Helene asked him if he had any hobbies.  He said, “Oh yeah, I really like to bike.”  Helene responded, “Really?  So tell me what kind of bike do you have and what kind of riding do you enjoy?”  Her date’s response: “Oh, I don’t own a bike.”

Last week I framed an entry on this blog about immigration with a conversation I had at a wedding about what I am passionate about besides kayaking.  I stated in that conversation that I was passionate about justice and went on to demonstrate that much like Helene’s date from years ago, I merely pay lip service to my passion for justice while I live out my passion for kayaking—something that I am not incredibly proud of.

Well, I am also passionate about the environment and tomorrow gives me an opportunity to demonstrate that passion.  In all honesty it is somewhat of a struggle not to serve myself and my other passion of kayaking tomorrow and go to the river on what will be a beautiful day.  And part of me writing this is to hold myself accountable for something that is bigger and much more important than me going to the river to burn a few calories and have fun.

The proposed 1,661 mile Tar Sands Pipeline is scheduled to cross many rivers including the Yellowstone in Montana, the Ogallala Aquifer and the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills in Nebraska. Moreover, the pipeline requires a presidential permit because it crosses the US-Canada border.  I am opposed to this project because of the risk that this pipeline puts on incredible natural resources and our country's stubborn reliance on oil and lack of effort to seriously consider alternative energy sources.  Tomorrow there is a planned protest at the Whitehouse that I will be a part of.  I am proud to be saying yes to something that is bigger, much bigger, than me just having a good time on the water. 

For those interested in joining you can find more information here. And I hope to see you there!

A THOUGHT ON IMMIGRATION

I was recently at a wedding where a friend of mine who knows I am passionate about kayaking asked, “What else I am passionate about?”  The question left me speechless for a several moments—it was a great question, some might even say a loaded question.   My delayed response after some serious, introspective thought was, “Justice.”  While I believe that answer was honest, I must begrudgingly admit that while I may be passionate about justice it is an embarrassingly distant second to kayaking. 

There is a little irony that I am writing this shortly after spending my 100^th day of the year on the water in a kayak of some shape or form.

If you know me and my wife at all you are aware the she and I recently purchased our first home together.  The mixed feelings about actually buying a house are another topic that I may delve into at some point, but not here.  This blog entry however, could not occur if Helene and I did not make that decision.

The previous owners had done some work to the kitchen before we put our offer in that was just really bad.  I won’t get into the details, but there was a lot of stuff that we decided to have fixed and improved on.  Since we cook a lot we decided that we really want/need a range that has an outside duct.  We had this work done yesterday.  One person came and did most of the work—the only thing that needed to be done was some drywall-finish work.  I agreed with the contractor to have his drywall finish guy, Carlos, come to do the work.

Dave, our contractor, said that Carlos was on another job and would come as soon as he was done.  Dave also asked me if I spoke Spanish.  Needless to say, I was a little concerned that I would lack the skills to communicate with Carlos despite knowing un pequito Espanol.

Carlos a tall guy with drywall-mud-splotched clothes, a pony-tail and quite a few bracelets showed up around 7:00.  Even though his English was better than anticipated it was not fluent.  Watching Carlos work his magic with drywall mud while having a great conversation would be the highlight of my week, yet bittersweet.

You see, Carlos is an illegal alien from Central America.  Amazingly, Carlos was very forthcoming when I asked right out whether he was here legally or not?  His wife is here legally and they have a child that is a US citizen because of being born here.  When asked if he was worried about being deported his answer was that yes he does worry about having to go back to his country but that he focuses on living in the moment and enjoying the time that he is here.   He also said that he loves doing drywall-finish work, which was apparent from the enthusiasm he put into the work that he was doing on our kitchen--work that he was doing after a long day on another job.

Of course this got me thinking about one of the hot-button issues of our day, illegal immigration.  When asked why Carlos decided to come to the US and about the journey to get here I got a pretty amazing story.  Naturally, Carlos wanted to be with his wife.  However, you would think that a person with three years of studying law in his home country would have a promising future there.  However, Carlos told me that work is hard to come by even with a law degree, due in large part to a civil war that has been going on for the past 12 years.   He stated that even doctors have hard time finding work--he even has a sister who still lives in his country who is a dentist and because of the civil war really only practices with family and friends.  Carlos essentially risked his life to come here, walking much of the way and crossing borders that could have easily got him arrested and even killed.

So, Carlos is passionate about his work, supporting his wife and seven year old son and bracelets, while I am passionate about kayaking.  This makes me think about the freedom I have been given.  I was born in a country that I that I did not choose to be born in, yet gives me the choice to be passionate about kayaking.

In fact, there is not one person that was born in the US that made that choice with their own volition.  Yet somehow so many of us, me included, think that being born here gives us rights that others not born here should not have: the right to live in peace, the right to create a good life--the right to the “Pursuit of happiness".  Moreover, when one wants to think about it, while England made it legal for people from their country come and settle in the “New World”, it is very apparent that the Natives of this land could look on us exactly like we look on those that are currently here illegally.

Being passionate about kayaking makes me aware of something in my life.  I am a US citizen who is just a spoiled rotten child. 

Our current unemployment rate has hovered just above 9% for the past several years and the common complaint is that illegal aliens play a big part in this because they are taking our jobs.  Well perhaps, just perhaps, part of that high unemployment rate is because of the fact that we are a spoiled nation.  Illegals do the work that we consider below us and refuse to take.  Moreover, when we make statements like, “They are taking our jobs” it is essentially saying that we are better than they are.  Again, being born here was not our choice but it somehow makes us more deserving of having a living wage than it does for someone who is here illegally?

Sadly, I do not have the solution to our immigration problem.  However, I do not have an argument against someone coming here to escape a civil war and wanting to make a better life for their family and doing work that so many of us find beneath us.

RELIGION IS DANGEROUS

This is precisely why, in a recent book review, I stated that I agree with atheists Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris when they say that religion is dangerous!  Christians are also not immune from this hatred and lunacy.  If you pray--please join me in prayer for this Christian Pastor as well as a change of heart for his persecutors!

WEIRD REVELATION

So, planning raft trips are just like running a marathon only anachronistic.

The training for a marathon is actually kind of fun.  However, about 3/4 of the way through you start cussing at yourself, "What the f*%# was I thinking? I ain't never doing this sh*t again!"  Then you cross the finish line and an hour later you start telling yourself, "I have to do another one."

With the raft trip the cussing comes first, "How I am going to pull this f*%#ing thing off? I ain't never doing this sh*t again!" But then the raft trip is really fun, the weekend ends, and you start telling yourself, "Man, I need to plan another one of these!"