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Like most of us when caught naked, even with our clothes on,
the woman’s immediate response is to seek cover. And there is no better place to hide than in
the vast ambiguous realm of religion. It provides practically limitless array
of diversions, the juicy bones to chew on which easily deflect our eye from the pain of excruciatingly
personal exposure. She throws one at Jesus:
Oh, I see you are a prophet! Well, then explain this to me: Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that Jerusalem is the only place where men ought to worship. So, which is it?
If you are from God, why don't you solve your big-God problems. Take the perennial Us vs. the Them conundrum. The here and the There. God might be present in name only. Kind of God-In-Absentia. Where worship is a performance but God is not the audience.
The best place to hide is in plain sight, using God – or whatever we mean under that three-letter-word - as a smoke-screen.
Take it a step further, zoom out a bit, and you find this us-them conflict escalating and leading to human blood splattered all over the pages of history and the cover pages of your daily newspaper. The ubiquitous justification of unimaginable evil done by men… women… to men…women...
...End justifying the means. …Covering up ‘the lesser evil’.in the name of some higher good. In the name of God. Allah. In the name... of Christ?
While all along the Cross still stands – undisturbed at the center stage - with Christ – God-with-us, God-in-the-woundable-killable-body - just like yours and mine... still bleeding….
… still offering this bloody cover…
...still offering life…
...to the villain and the victim …
... if only they would come…
...naked and
...empty-handed...
... to Him!
Oh, I see you are a prophet! Well, then explain this to me: Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that Jerusalem is the only place where men ought to worship. So, which is it?
If you are from God, why don't you solve your big-God problems. Take the perennial Us vs. the Them conundrum. The here and the There. God might be present in name only. Kind of God-In-Absentia. Where worship is a performance but God is not the audience.
The best place to hide is in plain sight, using God – or whatever we mean under that three-letter-word - as a smoke-screen.
Take it a step further, zoom out a bit, and you find this us-them conflict escalating and leading to human blood splattered all over the pages of history and the cover pages of your daily newspaper. The ubiquitous justification of unimaginable evil done by men… women… to men…women...
...End justifying the means. …Covering up ‘the lesser evil’.in the name of some higher good. In the name of God. Allah. In the name... of Christ?
While all along the Cross still stands – undisturbed at the center stage - with Christ – God-with-us, God-in-the-woundable-killable-body - just like yours and mine... still bleeding….
… still offering this bloody cover…...still offering life…
...to the villain and the victim …
... if only they would come…
...naked and
...empty-handed...
... to Him!
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