Parables, Greek Myths, Fables & Fairy Tales

Scot McKnight has been blogging about Klyne Snodgrass' book on Parables at Jesus Creed. Scot's series is entitled, "Imagine a World."

Some thoughts came to mind, today, about where we dwell mentally and how those beliefs affect our interactions with others. Do we dwell among the people who populate Jesus' parables or among those who populate the semi-magical, often base and vindictive, partially human, partially divine characters of mythology, fairy tales, fables, stereotypes and archetypes?

The other day I was listening to an NPR story while I was driving about some day camps thematically centered on a series of novels by Rick Riordan. The novels are founded in Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, the gods are distorted reflections of humans with inhuman powers. They are replete with human frailties and are endowed with abnormal or non-human appearances and powers. They react out of petty and base desires as well as magical aspects of a pseudo-divinity. As I listened, I appreciated the focus on learning about mythology, yet simultaneously I wondered what these children may be absorbing about the identities of gods and humans.

I suspect that the reason such myths are "so enduring", as NPR's Margot Adler described it, is because they tell truths about where we naturally dwell. That very reason can also be the problem because people are never fully human and the gods are never fully divine in myths and archetypes. The gods are brought down to our base level, and the gods never demand that we rise above our own interests. The risk there is that we see others through the distorted lenses of caricature, where humanity isn't fully human. It's much easier to demean a caricature than it is to face someone such as ourselves. (Have you ever tried, politely, to catch the eye of a rude driver? Have you ever tried to correct someone else's false beliefs about you or anyone else? [Consider Obama & the conspiracy theories about his religion, citizenship by birth, etc.!]) Furthermore, when we dwell too long among the inhumans, what is human within us and within others may be swept away in the alienation that grows and spreads between us like the mountainside chasms that form from rushing flood waters.

The gods of myths and fables, the archetypes and stereotypes of literature and psychology become categories into which humans may be slotted and behind which the doors can be locked. Those gods too often justify and serve our selfish interests, choices and ambitions. The false worship and idolatry described in the Bible resides where we refuse to face truth about ourselves, the reality of the world around us, the humanity we share, the outcomes & affects of our choices, and the call to be genuinely human with every single person we encounter. The "white-washed sepulchers" of today may be those who've wrapped themselves in the pretentious garments of professional accomplishment, education, wealth, status, gender, race, "religion", ethnicity, family, titles and circles of influence to distance themselves from the "others" – the poor, the oppressed, the small, the weak, the enemies, or the ones whom they despise or disdain for any reason. Sometimes they may say the right things, but we've been warned, "do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach." (Matt. 23:3-12)

Parables differ from myths, fables and stereotypes in that, as Scot puts it, they imagine a world where God is, where Jesus is, where the reign of God exists in the fullness of shalom – a completeness of love, safety, peace, justice and forgiveness. People in the parables are fully human, loving, hateful, wonderful, flawed, glorious, imperfect, generous, selfish, angry, injured, arrogant, repentant, broken, yet also healing and being healed. The parables' God lovingly reaches out to unlock the doors with love, forgiveness, justice, grace and mercy. The doors are many: of debt (Matt. 18), of physical injury and xenophobia (Luke 10), of foolishness and self-righteousness (Luke 15), of humility and arrogance (Luke 18), among others. Every one of us is locked in and judged by others were it not for God's freeing touch. The parables truthfully expose the humanity in ourselves and others – while we may recognize others, we should also see ourselves in each of them. We never become caricatures imprisoned by God's judgment, but we always remain truly, honestly human, with sinfulness and hopefulness, meanness and generosity. God's mercy and grace are always extended to us with the power to set us free. This God judges every person with justice, not out of fickle and selfish motives, but with true justice that knows the depth of our hearts. Jesus describes the Father who yearns to teach us how to be humbly & lovingly "I-Thou" (cf. Martin Buber) to one another. It's tough love! Scot considers Klyne's thoughts on the parable of the debtors: "God stunningly forgives us of staggering debt, and God disapproves of those who fail to live out graciousness and forgiveness toward others. …As Klyne Snodgrass puts it: 'The kingdom comes with limitless grace in the midst of an evil world, but with it comes limitless demand.' (72)."

The parables call us to leave the masks behind which so many of us hide and the caricatures we make of our enemies. The parables encourage us to risk being honest, vulnerable, flawed, loving and always reaching for better than this present condition. "Limitless demand" is a tall order, but God did not leave us without grace and strength to make that journey.

Let us dwell among those who encourage us to love others as God loves us, looking to the interests of others as does the God of the parables, and not among the false gods of the stereotypes, myths and fables. This true God loves humanity steadfastly, in the Word full of grace & truth. Let us leave behind our self-deceptions, demonizations & objectification of others, and seek the shalom of all. When we use twisted methods to justify and perpetuate our false beliefs, self-serving interests, lies and harm, we break shalom. As Scot wrote about David in Psalm 28, "David's enemies are those who say they want peace (shalom) but what they really want is evil (which means the shattering of shalom)."
"So, let us learn to re-imagine our world and learn to re-imagine it as a world shaped and governed by a good God, the Father, who loves us, who cares for us, and wants to provide for us. Let us go to that God." ~ Scot McKnight

Final Note: As I was writing this blog, Jay Phelan posted his. If I'm not as clear about my thoughts as could be, his words may be clearer!

Alienation, Reconciliation and Power in Gender Relationships

Every time that I see a discussion on the issue of homosexuality, the Bible and the Church, I can't help but wince. (The latest discussion I read was on Scot McKnight's blog, http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/ ) The appropriate expression of human sexuality is a tremendously polarizing subject. A couple of months ago I heard a presentation by a Princeton professor which effectively reduced the difficulty men have forming close friendships with one another to homophobia; he drew heavily on Freudian theory. Although the professor heavily nuanced his thoughts with intellectual language, sexual fears and expression were central. In talking with men I know, their response to this thesis was similar to mine. "Not!"

Generally, from my observations of working in male-dominated fields of economics and finance, and from conversations with thoughtful and insightful men I know with backgrounds in diverse cultures and continents, the major barrier to intimacy between us is abuse of power. Sexual power is one aspect of power, but it is by no means the only one.

IMHO, the Princeton professor cannot escape his environment; the majority of his students are unattached, young men and women with rampant hormones. Most of them have yet to experience the realities of the non-academic world, where men and women work side by side in businesses, corporations, and bureaucracies. The practice of their sexuality features centrally in their imagination and/or lives. Furthermore, an academic practices being in his/her mind, and intellectuals may get completely detached from the rough and tumble realities of the world.

Having worked in economics, government bond market, and asset-backed securities while I was putting myself through college, I experienced what, at times, felt to be parallel universes. The academic theory of neoclassical economics has underlying assumptions that just don't line up with the realities I experienced while working at the Federal Reserve Bank, or in Wall Street firms. By the time I graduated with a double major in Government and Economics, some of what I'd learned seemed laughably naive. For instance, the basic principle underlying neoclassical economics is that "people make rational decisions." The problem with that principle is obvious to any post or pre-modernist. What constitutes "rational"? Is there a universal set of "rational decisions"? Is what is "rational" to an American equally rational in Asia, or Africa, or Europe? Is what is "rational" gender-specific? family heritage specific? How do so-called "irrational" emotions such as fear, or groundless euphoria figure into the behavior of financial markets? Can they be accounted for? (short answer, "No!") Alan Greenspan's errors stem, at least in part, from his great intellect which overlooked the way things really worked on Wall Street!

Although sexual relationships were certainly abused by colleagues in the financial firms, other components of power such as money, status, position, influence, information, and personal connections figured more broadly. As a matter of fact, sexual abuse is a subset of some other power imbalance. Acquiring money and position drove most people, and the means were subject to the end. I was frankly told that women didn't get ahead in "this" business environment unless they were witches (use a "b") or promiscuous with people who "counted." (crude expression omitted) Gender discrimination was the norm. Money, powerful friends, and positions ranked higher in calculations of personal value. Sexual favors might be solicited because of one's comparatively greater power in a corporate structure, but using sex to "get ahead" was only the ploy of the less powerful.

When I left investment banking, I chose another field altogether. I worked as the financial director of a non-profit organization, a shelter for battered women and their children. All our employees were women dedicated to the prevention and reduction of violence against women. Physical, verbal and positional violence against women is endemic to every nation, culture, race, and religion of the world.

So, how does this connect to the issue of homosexuality and the use of Scripture? We read Scripture, naturally, as a series of "laws" because we are legal beings. We read our own perspective and power into Scripture because we cannot escape our bodies. There is no "detached mind" available to any one of us. There is no "disembodied law" accessible to our intellect, which is subject to who we are. Our Savior needed to be God incarnate, God enfleshed, that we may know how corrupted we are, how alienated we are from God and from one another.

It was not unusual for women to become practicing lesbians after experiencing one or more instances of serious, physical abuse by a man. (85-95% of victims of domestic violence are women.)

Instead of speaking of sexual expression as indicative (or not) of personal identity, as law-breaking or law-abiding, Scripture helps to reorient this conversation. From Genesis, we understand that we are fundamentally alienated, as humanity from God, and primarily as male and female, from one another. Every other alienation seems to be subsequent to those. In Christ Jesus these alienations are overcome; we have been reconciled in the death of Christ to God and to one another. (cf. Eph. 2:13-14) If one's "body" dies, is denied, is crucified with Christ, then the legal and deadly gender differences are gone. Yet, both male and female are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), so there are God-created differences which reflect God together. Without the other gender, there is an intrinsic alone-ness to and incompletion in our fleshly existence (Gen. 2).

As Christians, we affirm that our identity is founded in God's creation. Our alienation from God and each other originates in our sin which is embodied; i.e., the only way out of "this body of death" is the death of flesh and resurrection in the new life of Christ. (cf. Romans 7:21-ff.)

Fallen creatures usurp power - from God (impossible, but an imaginative product of our self-delusion), and from one another (possible, because we are all deluded). Our power builds human kingdoms of this world: kingdoms of money, of status, of physical strength, of domination and control. Simplistically, human responses to human power are to seek to overpower another's power (verbally, physically, influentially), to subject oneself to another's dominance, to hook oneself to the other's power trip, or to try to escape alien and/or destructive exercises of power.

All of these responses omit the exercising of appropriate dominion, truth, justice, mercy, and reconciliation to God and each other.

If the church is to BE the Body of Christ, and we are to be conformed to Christ, then we are to reveal the power of God in the foolishness of the cross to one another and to the world. We are they who are to be reconciled and reconciling, "ambassadors of reconciliation" proclaiming the good news of God in Christ to the world. Marriage is the reflection that man and woman are "flesh of my flesh" to one another, together reflecting the image of God, being reconciled through the power of God in Christ, serving one another, looking to the best interests of the other, and creating new life together. The only role we ever model to one another is that of Christ Jesus, who emptied himself, and who came to serve (Matt. 20:24-28, Luke 22:24-27).

It is my humble conviction that the issue of homosexuality in the church is so destructive exactly because there have been so many centuries of hypocrisy, of the inappropriate rule of one sex, of one gender demeaning the other, undermining or lording it over the other within the Church universal. Appropriate Christian rule, whether of a man or a woman, is always serving of, and always building up every person created in God's image - male and female. Homosexuality merely reflects the power imbalances and alienation present in our fallen world from humanity's first power grab. In Christ, we are to enact reconciliation, dying to our flesh, emptying ourselves, having the same mind-will-purpose as Christ, living to reveal Christ through our lives individually, familially, and corporately. When Paul spoke of there being no longer "Jew or Greek... slave or free... male or female" (Gal. 3, Col. 3) he spoke of the reconciliation that is ours in Christ Jesus; it is not reconciliation enforced by the law!

As churches, as families, as married men and women, we need to embody the reconciliation of Christ to one another in word and deed. "Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding." (Rom. 14:17) Men and women have severely wounded one another throughout human history. Although the historical preponderance of the damage seems to have been done by men against women, women should not deny how they have rejected, humiliated and debased men when women have abused any positions of power they've had in themselves. (It's not coincidental that Paul used the word for authority, authentein, in 1 Timothy 2 in the context of Adam and Eve's story. Eve's authority was not from the Author of all who is God the Creator of all, but in and of herself. The root of authentein is the personal pronoun, autos.) Our broken sexual problems and expressions, heterosexual or homosexual, are fundamentally based in the abuse of power which disables true intimacy and reconciliation. The only way out is to seek first the reign of God, to be crucified with Christ, and to live forgiving and forgiven lives, full of grace, and giving of grace to one another. Men and women will not "know" reconciliation until we do the humbling work of being reconciled to one another, of confessing and forgiving, and being restored in Christ. "...but [God] disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled." (Heb. 12:10-15)