The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
The Ashes of Our Living
February 15, 2021
Funny how all religions have these strange dramas. Some wail and beat chests, some interrupt the day kneeling in a certain direction, others smear their faces with burnt leaves, all making a spectacle of themselves in flaunting how good and holy they are supposed to be. But take an inside peak into their palaces of piety, and you don’t have to be some kind of deity to know it’s all a sham. Give it up please, or at least stay home and out of sight.
Funny but that’s what Jesus said, too. He definitely was not in favor of ostentatious displays and public relation ploys to show how righteous one was. He even recommended praying in a closet alone, away and out of sight. What’s more, he got a little crazy about it saying don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. (Try doing that for a little mental workout.) And if you decide to donate to a good cause, keep it between you and God. (Maybe the IRS should know but that’s on your conscience, not mine.)
You mention the shams of religion. God knows there’s a multitude out there who has benefited from it. Celebrities and politicians get a lot of mileage there. Preachers have become rock stars and are experts at whipping up a congregation to Amens and hands raised. You’d think you were at a music festival or a Superbowl. And let’s face it, it’s often a good show. That’s what we live for, right?
So why was Jesus so adamant about keeping the disciplines of faith under cover? “Give your gifts in secret…pray to your Father secretly…fast, comb your hair, wash your face.” If God is the only one who knows about it, then only you and God know what it’s for.
So, what is it for? Reducing your tax liability, getting on the good side of God, losing weight? How come people are supposed to do this, and what do the ashes prove anyway?
Not to deny these things won’t happen, but it’s really about You, you alone and you collectively. It’s a time of deliberation about what is really important, where your dependencies lie, what you think you have to have that needs to be relinquished to God. It’s more than sacrificing chocolate until the Easter basket has a big brown bunny in it. Ultimately, it’s the right to oneself giving way to sacrifice. That sacrifice could lead to reward, not the good life we all desire, but good life for what should be.
Need a suggestion? How’s your lifestyle these days? If you live in this present time in the United States of America, even if you live on the streets, you’ve got it pretty good compared to third world countries when it comes to a measure of wealth and basic health. While the coronavirus vaccine isn’t being distributed fast enough for us, other parts of the world may not see it for many months, even into the next year or two. The point is our lifestyles, health, needs take precedent over the rest of the world, and too bad for them.
How’s that? Take those chocolate bunny’s ears you’re ready to bite off. Look into where much of our chocolate comes from. Follow the money. Modern day slavery utilizes very young children, some stolen or sold into servitude, to harvest cocoa beans. Yep. What is a treat for our children is born of tragedy for others.
But we treat people in this country not much differently. Consider the fracas over a $15.00 minimum wage. You can work forty hours a week for that much and make $600 (before taxes, of course.) Watch your coins and you’ll get through. It’s called a living
wage though. Yet the resistance comes not from those who are living on the margins. It’s from businesses that profit and claim they can’t afford to pay wages at that level. People, like all of us, want to keep our expenses low. But again follow it through. By keeping wages low, those who have more wealth still benefit and thus oppress those who are caught in the system. Granted, if all wages were at that level, products and services would cost more, but the benefit of changing a system would raise the standard of living for all.
Since we’re at it, let’s get into the controversy of the century: mask wearing. Masks drastically inhibit the spread of the pandemic. What’s the problem? Not so much the masks as telling people what they have to do. In short, the right to one’s choice of lifestyle collides with health risks and pandemic mortality.
So where’s that leave us with God? Honestly, do you really think God cares if you give up some kind of food for six and a half weeks? None of it would make a big difference in relationship with your neighbor, let alone God. What does get to God is how we live our lives and expect the world to revolve around us. To examine these issues, to make or advocate for change in our lives and community that upholds justice and love of neighbor is what God desires. The old ways become ashes, what is given up and sacrificed for the purposes of heaven.
And you can believe it that God does take notice of how you give, pray and fast. For when we make choices that are like treasure stored in heaven, we are blessed because our world is changed.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The Trouble with Jesus: His scandalous rhetoric doesn’t permit domestication of lifestyle covered with a veneer of religion.
This reads like Jesus is being attacked for healing on the Sabbath. It's more than that which brings big trouble. Jesus was breaking Sabbath by breaking perceptions of what the social and religious structure of the world should be, wreaking and crumbling the caste system of the entire religious culture.
You know what, Jesus? This makes you certified dangerous. So you’re going to bring fire, division and family dysfunction? Like we need your divine help on this one. Incendiary talk won’t get you votes on making our world better. More like, arrested and put away for good. Yeah, you ask for it.
Jesus. We need help. No, make that, you need help. Whatever. You spin this talk about treasure in heaven and then getting robbed. About being the revered master and then acting like you’re the slave. Come on here. Say what you mean and quit making it so hard for us to get it.
It’s not the accumulation of wealth that’s the problem. You’re right though, Jesus had a lot to say about money. In some places he talks about it more than prayer. In the end, that being this blog and your life, it would pay for you to listen up to this story of The Rich Fool.
Relationship is what God wants out of prayers and this is how God wants it understood. God and you have this thing going. You two need to talk. What follows is a structure to this particular prayer, the Lord's Prayer, but each part is a prayer unto itself. Talk it over with God where you are in it.
Jesus, on this one we have to give it to you. You didn’t send Mary back to the kitchen just because she was a woman....Well, thanks, but not so fast. If you are assuming this is some kind of feminist liberation call, you’re two steps behind and five miles ahead. Jesus didn’t go around saying that kind of thing...
Jesus’ stories knock around in the soul with his aim of reversing, redirecting, twisting what one has been taught to believe.
It’s been another one of those weeks. We used to say all hell broke loose, but now it seems hell just hangs around and has taken up residence. People are fighting, accusing, demanding their own way. Consensus is a forgotten concept. You just can’t get away from it...So hell burns, and no one puts out the fire.
As if we needed any other example of how you’re so dangerous, this one may seal the deal....Blind allegiance to a leader is the first sign of a cult, an ideology, totalitarian brain washing and overthrow. You’re speaking it now. Thanks for the warning...
