Again, I must thank anyone who reads these. I know that sometimes what I read and then what I write seems to not deal with everyday life. But this last week of Alison's writing have really moved me to look again at our blossoming way of life as followers of Jesus. So we continue:
Jesus then goes on to show clearly that righteousness cannot be defined by the law, but the roots of righteousness must be found at the level of desire. He reveals the evil of human desire to be much more drastic than the law could fathom and righteousness as having to do with a transformation of that desire: so anger is the same as murder, a lustful look the same as adultery, being caught up in the stumbling blocks of desire much worse than any form of physical defect, not one of which can exclude from heaven.
I will once again add onto this quote in the following days. As for now, we are taking a deep look at what it is that becomes that which we see. Those 'desires' that no one can see unless we unveil them. We can see people murder one another and there are laws to try to keep that under control. But as Alison notes, the law does not define righteousness. No one see anger - at least not all of it. Anger wears many masks. I would suggest it can even wear the mask of love. We love our own - we allow our anger at other - not our own - to be expressed from anything from murder - to lesser violence - to avoidance - to working behind the scenes to trip up others. All of it is shaped by our desires and only "murder" get the bad rap. Think of racism - an ugly aspect of a broken humanity - and the many ways we have incorporated that hate-filled part of our lives into the very fabric of our society. Our desire to have the world as we like to see it and have it produces living patterns and social actions that quite literally seek the destruction of people of color (though we would never say that) so that 'they' will not interrupt the world as we want it and desire it. There is so much stuff sitting deep beneath the surface of what can be seen and yet we most often only attempt to deal with the most visible aspect of our brokenness while thinking everything else is just fine.
Connection: It becomes quite difficult to judge others when we learn to accept the fact that we are usually participants in that which we are trying to judge.Jesus' opening up of the commandments is like throwing out a net. We all get caught - we all fall down. So, in the meantime, why let our judgment of others rule our lives and create greater and greater divisions. How do we live when we are in the same boat as 'them?' Maybe it is with forgiveness deeply a part of every part of our life together.
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