It's hard to remember exactly how much I like the Gospel of Luke until I get back into it. It has been a couple of years, and frankly, much of my memories of Luke are overshadowed by the brilliant writings of Paul. However, after not having read Luke for a couple of years, and then having just read Matthew and Mark, I remember now how wonderful is Luke's gospel. (Personally, I dread reading through John, although so much of Christianity seems to quote from this text)
Regardless of my personal preferences, though, today's NT reading (Luke 2:1-35) seems to offer a rational description of an irrational occurrence. Again, I am reminded of this theme that seems to continually present through the Bible. It's one thing to hear John's rambling, apparently semi-literate, and sometimes incoherent (to me, at least) description of God's seeming irrationality. His descriptive style seems to fit the content. But to hear Luke rationally describe the irrational acts invites one into the push/pull aspect of Christian spirituality.
Why did God, in Jesus, come to us in the most unlikely and irrational of places, a pauper in a manger? Why did the angels reveal themselves to shepherds, the lowest social order at the time? Yet here these events are, described in remarkable clarity by Luke. The jarring admixture of coherent presentation of irrational content opens one's mind to the rationality of the irrational, or the spiritual irrationality of our supposed human "rationality." It's that facet which seems to undermine all attempts at legalistic interpretation of Christianity, and give ammunition to those who would reform frozen legalistic abuse of "Church" traditionalists.
And we see this interpretation immediately after we read the OT section which describes the value of killing people who corrupt our religious purity (Numbers 25:10-13), which seemingly defends legalism up to the point of killing non-legalists who violate religious purity laws. It is this baffling dichotomy of God, "What is God up to?" that, to me, gives the Judeo-Christian religion such purchase on our world. It makes no sense, yet it makes total sense.
Well, today, I was simply struck with how much I like reading Luke. And how much I will miss reading him in a few weeks. I will enjoy it while I can.
About Me
- Philip
- Since becoming a Christian, I have struggled with the interplay between legalistic interpretations of biblical text, post-modern literary theory, accountability, and the shape of divine moral authority. I have never been comfortable with any belief system that uses its internal tenets to justify its own validity. (Q: Why must you believe the Bible? A: Because the Bible says so..... has never worked for me.) But yet, I have a fundamental faith in the validity of Christianity, the authority of the Bible, and the divinity (and humanity) of Christ. For 2010, our pastor has challenged us to have a spiritual practice as we read the One Year Bible. My practice will be this blog, keeping in the forefront these struggles. The lesson of Romans 14 is that we are not acting in love if we cause other Christians to stumble by the expression of our faith. This exercise is my journey to spiritual change for myself. If these opinions give offense, I apologize, because that is not my intent. However, if these writings cause someone to contemplate Christ for a moment when otherwise they would not have, then to me, that is a success.
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