The Gospel for Saturday, February 14, 2004
John 8:47-59
Whoever comes from God listens to the words of God; the reason why you do not listen is that you are not from God. The Jews replied, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and possessed by a devil?’ Jesus answered: I am not possessed; but I honour my Father, and you deny me honour. I do not seek my own glory; there is someone who does seek it and is the judge of it. In all truth I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death. The Jews said, ‘Now we know that you are possessed. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, and yet you say, “Whoever keeps my word will never know the taste of death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? The prophets are dead too. Who are you claiming to be?’ Jesus answered: If I were to seek my own glory my glory would be worth nothing; in fact, my glory is conferred by the Father, by the one of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ although you do not know him. But I know him, and if I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I should be a liar, as you yourselves are. But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day; he saw it and was glad. The Jews then said, ‘You are not fifty yet, and you have seen Abraham!’ Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, before Abraham ever was, I am. At this they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself and left the Temple. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The New Jerusalem Bible is one of the very best translations around. But sometimes even the best efforts of scholars don't make it ring true for every person, all the time. For example, when Jesus says "by the one of whom you say, 'He is our God,' although you do not know him, " the greek work for "know" ginosko, translates to "perceive," or "understand." When Jesus says of God, "I know him", he uses the greek word for "know" oikeios, which translates to "of the household," or "belonging to a family." A more literal translation would be " ... you do not know him. But I am of his household ...."
The King James Version has verse 55a as "Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him." There may be a Bible that translates the Greek the way that it makes the literal message above stand forward. Yet the many translations vary pretty wildly. Try a modern variant, The Message : "You haven’t recognized him in this. But I have." When read in a much broader context, it is possible to extract the gestalt of the author's message in any of the translations. Perhaps that is part of the message.
At any rate, Jesus is building toward a climax with this crowd of opponents, and he has to get their ire worked up to a fever. By telling them that he is of God's household and that Abraham has rejoiced to see Jesus come into the world and into his own, he has them at a slow boil. But he then pulls the trigger on their tempers by claiming to be God, existing before Abraham. With that perception of blasphemy, they started picking up fragments of the stone blocks being used to build the temple. But Jesus disappeared.
A Reflection
A hundred fifty years ago, a literalist expositor could wear a scarf knit from wool with linen threads pulled through for decoration. He could clutch his King James translation in his hand and wave it about defending slavery as "biblical."
Fifty years ago, wearing the same scarf, waving the same bible to a crowd of black, yellow, brown, and white people, he could denounce divorce as adultery. "It says so right here."
Today, wearing the same scarf, on his way to a pork barbecue with a shrimp cocktail appetizer, the rehearsal dinner he and his first wife are hosting for their child, he could wave that same bible and denounce homosexuals. "It's an abomination." His second wife would be looking on in admiration.
There's the tired joke about the greying priest found sobbing over an ancient manuscript in the Vatican archives: "Celebrate, it says, not celibate!"
Walter Brueggemann reminds us that reading scripture is supposed to make us better, to change us. The next time we come back to the scripture, we are changed persons, and so we will read the scripture differently.
In the 550 years or so that different authors actually wrote down the Hebrew Bible, from about 950 BC to about 400 BC, they recorded stories of creation, sin, judgment, repentance, and redemption. The book of Judges plays that tune, repeatedly. And on a macro-scale, the entire Hebrew Bible centers on that repeating theme.
When we consider God as the infinite loving intelligence who created our billion-years-old universe, the 3,000 or so years of recorded Judao-Christian scripture is not even a blink of God's eye. For us to consider him to be constantly changing, to adapt to us, is arrogant beyond measure. That leaves us the conclusion that we wrote the scripture to describe our reactions to God and what we consider our relationship with him to be, albeit with a plentiful measure of divine inspiration.
Thankfully, as my son says, we have many views of God through the many authors, editors, redactors, and translaters of the many books of the Bible. Each is a lens that gives us a slightly different though altogether beautiful view. And as we study the views over and over and over, we can each come to our own personal view of our own personal relationship with our Creator -- a view that responds and changes as we grow in faith.
Now, as then, He asks us to love Him and worship no other creator or creations, and to love each other. When we look through the different lenses the views change us.
I hope we are changing fast enough for Him!
7:18:22 AM 
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