From "Pretend-Knowledge" to Living Prophecy

Religion certainly is a big hit these days! Turn on the TV and there it is. Turn on the radio and it’s the buzz. Breeze through some blogs on the Internet and religion will likely show up on at least two out of five. You’d think, me being a professional holy person, that I’d be thrilled at all this exposure religion is getting. I wish I could say that I am, but that would not be honest.

From my perspective, religion is a gift from God to help guide us into becoming more noble and humble human beings. Today I feel that religion and the Bible are being manipulated by unscrupulous people for their own gain. When religion is wielded like a club, I get nervous.

The Christian Right is waging war against a whole group of human beings simply because they were born with the “wrong” sexual orientation. Women’s rights are being suppressed because the Bible tells us so (just consult the household codes in Ephesians or Corinthians--the man is the head of the household, you know). And poor Darwin never had it so rough! If the Christian Right has its way, then supernatural speculation will replace empirical study in science classrooms across America. Could this be the start of another dark age?

Lalla, the 15th century poetess from Kashmir, once wrote:

Unconscious people read the scriptures
like parrots saying Ram, Ram,
in their cages.
 
It’s all pretend-knowledge.

Read rather, with me, every
living moment as prophecy.

Let’s be perfectly honest about scripture: It lays down some absolutely barbaric, horrendous, and awful laws! It contains the deep and dark shadow side of humanity. Yet we cannot let that overshadow the pure light that scripture also offers humanity. Scripture is both a collection of laws and a spiritual guide to living beyond our warring animal natures.

There are plenty of religious parrots about these days. Merely reading scripture is simple. The real challenge scripture offers you and me is living it, moment to moment. The pinnacle of scripture, according to Jesus, is the Great Commandment: Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. In Matthew, Jesus says that the rest of scripture “hangs” from these two rules.

We have a choice. We can squawk about scripture and religion all we want. Ram! Ram! (From what I’ve seen from squawkers about religion and the Bible, what they offer is really no more than “pretend-knowledge.”)

Or we can dare to be living scripture, giving flesh and breath to our religion.  Love! Love!

As our church-year ends in the month of June, carry this challenge with you into the summer: Take into your heart what it means to love with your total being, to love so completely that you cannot help but love others. Then you will read each moment of your day as a prophecy and as living scripture.

Joel t