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Let your yes be yes

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Translation Matthew 5:33-37

33 Again, you heard that it was said to the ancients, “Do not break your oath, but fulfill your oaths to the Lord. 34 But, I am telling you not swear at all; neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God, 35 nor by the earth, because it is the footstool for his feet, nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king, 36 nor should you swear by your head, because you are unable to make one hair white or black. 37 Instead, let your word be “Yes, yes, no, no.” Indeed, more than this is from the evil one.[1]

Reflections:

  1. One of our main tendencies when seeing the words of Christ in places like this is to try to find ways out or exceptions to the rule.
  2. This instinct can be dangerous as it can be simply a way of getting out of what Jesus said.
  3. This instinct can be very wise because it is important to fully understand a command before obeying it or to understand an ideal prior to pursuing it. “Jump.” “How high, on what, when?”
  4. In this case, there are good reasons to ask, “Are there times Christians can take vows?” For instance, Paul takes a vow in Acts (it’s why he cuts his hair in Acts 18:18). The ancient Christians had baptismal/confirmation vows. Similarly, Jesus speaks highly of marriage and never proscribes it, but marriage is a covenant with vows/oaths.
  5. So, what vows is Jesus prohibiting? I think that Jesus is prohibiting vows which endear the speaker to the hearers as a sign of honor. “I swear by the temple that I’ll do thus and such…” Jesus is essentially telling his disciples that while the ancients rightly said, “don’t break oaths, I’m telling you just don’t take them. Instead let your word (yes/no) be enough because it’s based on goodness.”
  6. The reason I feel comfortable interpreting things that way is that I think that Glen Stassen’s triadic structure of the Sermon on the Mount makes the most sense. Each teaching is a three-part block with the emphasis on the third part which is a transforming initiative:
    1. Traditional piety
    2. Cycle of judgment
    3. Transforming initiative
  7. The instruction about the futility of oaths and the reasons for avoiding them is not the actual imperative in the passage, but rather a description of the way things are. The command is “let your word be yes and no.”
  8. The point here is very similar to the point made in chapter six. We’re supposed to do things because we see them as God’s will/the right thing to do, not as a way of advertising our piety to others. Our relationship with God is public insofar as it leads us to do good works. But it is to be hidden insofar as public displays of piety tend to be a part of the world of attention seeking rather than the world of virtue and interior transformation.
  9. So ultimately, the point is simple: let what you say reflect what you’re going to do and then do it or not. Don’t embellish what you say to gain religious honor (which is a silly kind of honor, anyhow).

References

[1] Kurt Aland et al., Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012), Mt 5:33–37, “33 Πάλιν ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη τοῖς ἀρχαίοις· οὐκ ἐπιορκήσεις,* ἀποδώσεις δὲ τῷ κυρίῳ τοὺς ὅρκους σου. 34 ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν μὴ ὀμόσαι ὅλως· μήτε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὅτι θρόνος ἐστὶν τοῦ θεοῦ, 35 μήτε ἐν τῇ γῇ, ὅτι ὑποπόδιόν ἐστιν τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ, μήτε εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, ὅτι πόλις ἐστὶν τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως,* 36 μήτε ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ σου ὀμόσῃς, ὅτι οὐ δύνασαι ⸂μίαν τρίχα λευκὴν ποιῆσαι ἢ μέλαιναν⸃.* 37 ⸀ἔστω δὲ ὁ λόγος ὑμῶν ⸂ναὶ ναί,⸃ οὒ οὔ· τὸ δὲ περισσὸν τούτων ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἐστιν.*”

Will our technology kill us? or Music Monday: Go Robot

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The recent Chili Peppers album is very very good. This song is one of many catchy experiments.

But this line caused me to reflect on other issues:

“I want to thank you and spank you on your silver skin, robots don’t care where I’ve been.”

Now, when Anthony Kiedis writes lyrics, it’s nearly impossible to pin down an objective meaning. But the connotation is sexual.

And lately two trends have been coming together that don’t bode well for the world:

  1. People staying out of the gene pool (or marriage/long term relationships all together). A good book on this trend and some of its cultural and even legal antecedents is Helen Smith’s Men on Strike. Over all, the risk/reward calculation for most men appears to make relationships unappealing in comparison to videogames, money, or one night stands.
  2. The invention of virtual reality porn/sex robots. The technology media will have an article about lifelike sex robots, boyfriend/girlfriend emulator programs, and sex-VR about once a month now.

A pastor once said to a group of young college guys, “sure, you can have lots of sex, but there’s always a woman attached.” The point was to use disarming language to remind people that sex involves a person. The invention of internet porn made that only true for the actors. Now, it seems, that it won’t require anybody but programmers and designers. This is a plus for people who want the pleasures of sex, but no responsibilities. The problem is that the pleasures of sex are pretty clearly meant to make us turn a blind eye to the risks and responsibilities. It appears that our technology may be about run way ahead of our biology.

So, enjoy the song, it’s pretty awesome. But stay away from romance robots. Honestly, they’re probably skynet.

 

Leadership and Soul Care

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  1. The Vision
    The ultimate vision for you as a Christian leader is that those in your care flourish in both natural and theological virtue by means of the particular field in which you lead them. This vision comes from Scripture and is refined and expressed and focused on in many ways throughout the great traditions of the church.
  2. Stewards of the Vision
    And all of us here are not merely recipients who are to live in this vision, but we are ourselves ministers and teachers of this vision.

    1. Act 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
    2. 1Ti 4:15-16 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.  (16)  Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
    3. Here I see three responsibilities for leaders regarding their relationship to God and those for whom they care:
      1. Personal soul care
      2. Soul care of your charges
      3. Care for the culture/curriculum.
  1. Curriculum/Culture
    In 1 Timothy, Paul speaks of “the teaching.” Here he means, ‘the gospel message and the traditions and character that go with it.’ To apply this to any form of Christian leadership, think of the field in which you lead and think of what knowledge, habits, and processes you must help people to understand and how Christian character, knowledge of the gospel, and knowledge of the best Biblical and extra-Biblical wisdom can help them.
    Curriculum or culture is more than just the content of our seminars, text books, manuals, meetings, and or tests. It’s also the spiritual tenor, organization, demeanor, assessment style, ‘put togetherness’ of organizational processes, and individual interactions with students, employees, and one another in front of the those you lead. While people cultivate culture, culture cultivates people as well and our curriculum is our culture. It’s important that we recognize our responsibility for the student experience as a whole. This aspect of what we do is, of course, a matter of constant review.
  2. Soul care of those you lead
    How do we “pay careful attention” to our students? In this case I think that there is a lot we can learn from Gregory the Great’s Book of Pastoral Care:
    “Indeed, long before us, Gregory of Nazianzus of blessed memory taugh that one and the same exhortation is not suited for everyone because not everyone shares the same quality of character. For example, what often helps some people will cause harm in others, just as herbs that are nutritious to some animals will kill others or the way that gentle hiss will calm a horse but excite a puppy. Likewise, the medicine that cures one disease will spur another, and the bread that fortifies a grown man can kill a young child. Therefore, the discourse of the teacher should be adapted to the character of his audience so that it can address the specific needs of each individual and yet never shrink from the art of communal edification. For, if I may say so, what are the minds of an attentive audience if not the taut strings of a harp, which a skillful musician plays with multiple techniques so as to produce a beautiful sound? And it is for this reason that the strings produce a melody, because even though they are played with one pick, they are not played with one type of stroke. And so, every teacher, in order to edify all by the single virtue of charity, ought to touch the hearts of his audience with the same common doctrine but by distinct exhortations.”[1]
  3. Lead from a full cup
    Jesus tells us that one of the results of walking with the Holy Spirit is that “rivers of living water” will flow from us. But he never says that this is automatic, instant, or a guarantee for those who go to church once a week. What Jesus does say that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks[2]” and “the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.[3]” In other words, for us to be people of Christ-like virtue, we must seek to be internally transformed with reference to our goals, intentions, thoughts, feelings, and habits.  This process  is called sanctification, spiritual formation, or discipleship. I challenge you to be consistently, actively, and intelligently involved in your own discipleship along with and in conjunction with your professional growth as a teacher. Here is some Biblical advice about having a full cup with reference to Spiritual growth:

    1. Practice the presence of God
      Psa 16:8-9 I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  (9)  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. Dallas Willard called this discipline “the fundamental secret of caring for our souls.”
      The most important way to do this is to call the sayings and scenes of the gospels to mind throughout the day. Jesus promised to be with us always, but we often do not experience “shared attention” with him in the sense of recognizing his mysterious presence with the concrete revelations of given to us in Scripture.  This discipline, of course, assisted by memorizing Scripture. It will feel like a weird thing at first if you’ve never done this
    2. Stay on top of the “externals” in your life
      Proverbs tells the story of a man who came upon the vineyard of a sluggard and it was all overgrown with nettles and weeds, and the walls were coming down (Proverbs 24:30-34). The nagging feeling of having unfinished tasks at home or work, unpaid debts, or unreconciled relationships can rob us of our joy and even create anxiety about a future that could be easily secured by spending time on our responsibilities.
    3. Cultivate silence and solitude
      In Scripture many of our heroes do this: Isaac, Moses, David, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and so-on. And indeed, many of the most creative figures in history found that extended periods of solitude and walking in nature stimulated, focused, and clarified their thoughts. Such a discipline of extended times of silence and solitude for prayer, study of Scripture, reading spiritual classics, writing in a journal, self-examination and meditation may not be possible every day, but should be a routine part of our lives if we wish to experience growth in the grace of God, as the author of Hebrews reminds us, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” In my own experience, I would say that I didn’t learn to be an adult until I learned to be alone without feeling lonely. Henry Nouwen’s thoughts on this are quite powerful:
      “In solitude I get rid of my scaffolding: no friends to talk with, no telephone calls to make, no meetings to attend, no music to entertain, no books to distract, just me-naked vulnerable, weak, sinful, deprived, broken-nothing. It is this nothingness that I have to face in my solitude, a nothingness so dreadful that everything in my wants to run to my friends, my work, and my distractions so that I can forget my nothingness and make myself believe that I am worth something. But that is not all. As soon as I decide to stay in my solitude, confusing ideas, disturbing images, wild fantasies, and weird associations jump about in my mind like monkeys in a banana tree. Anger and greed begin to show their ugly faces. I give long hostile speeches to my enemies and dream lustful dreams in which I am wealthy, influential, and very attractive- or poor, ugly, and in need of immediate consolation. Thus I try again to run from the dark abyss of my nothingness and restore my false self in all its vainglory.”
    4. Wisely use productive introspection
      Here are some questions for introspection that seem especially fitting for teachers:

      1. What have my main temptations been?
      2. How did/could I have overcome them?
      3. Have I anybody to whom I should apologize?
      4. What has the Lord taught me this week?
      5. For what do I have cause to show gratitude to the Lord?
      6. For what and for whom do I need to pray?

References

[1] George E. Demacopoulos, The Book of Pastoral Rule, vol. 34 (St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007), 88-89 (Book III Prologue).

[2]. Matthew 12:34

[3]. Luke 6:45

Marcus Aurelius, Dallas Willard, and New Testament Salvation

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Text

Σωτηρία βίου ἕκαστον δἰὅλου αὐτὸ τί ἐστιν ὁρᾶν, τί μὲν αὐτοῦ τὸὑλικόν, τί δὲ τὸ αἰτιῶδες˙ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς τὰ δίκαια ποιεῖν καὶ τἀληθῆ λέγειν. τί λοιπὸν ἢἀπολαύειν τοῦ ζῆν συνάπτοντα ἄλλο ἐπ ἄλλῳἀγαθόν, ὥστε μηδὲ τὸ βραχύτατον διάστημα ἀπολείπειν;[1]

Translation

Salvation, which is a life,[2] is to examine each thing entirely [with the following questions]:

  1. What it is in itself?
  2. What is it made of?
  3. What is its purpose?

[It is also] from the whole soul to do righteousness and to speak the truth. What more is there except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even short intervals between? (Meditations XII, 29, my translation)

Thoughts

Dallas Willard regularly claimed that Christian salvation is a life that is entered into by faith. It is not merely a gift to be passively received but rather a sort of life one begins (eternal life) upon becoming a disciple of Jesus.

In terms of the overall theological meaning of salvation in Christian thought, this made perfect sense to me. But I’d never really considered that it could be the case in terms of the usage of σωτηρια in the New Testament era. But right here in the meditations, Marcus Aurelius (who is certainly not thinking of a future salvation or an intervention from a deity) speaks of salvation as a kind of life.

Btw, while the life Aurelius describes is not the Christian life, nothing in it is contrary to what Christ enjoins us to do and everything in it is Biblical. So even if you don’t read Dallas Willard, I hope you learned something from the meditations.

References

[1] Marcus Aurelius and Charles Reginald Haines, The communings with himself of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, emperor of Rome: together with his speeches and sayings (London; New York: W. Heinemann ; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916), 338

[2] I take the genitive to be an appositive or an epexegetical here.

Rhetorical Assumptions in the Sermons on the Mount and Plain

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In Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6 are the sermons on the Mount/Plain. There is a lot of debate about the relationship between these two sermons, but what interested me the other day when I was sitting in a waiting room (thankfully I took a legal pad) was what Matthew and Luke assumed would be interesting and would be known to the readers/listeners.*

Now I cannot have certainty about those things. But if we assume that like any piece of written rhetoric, the author had an audience who knew certain things in mind, then we can make some inferences. In all of this it’s important to remember that when we construct a speech, we appeal to what we think will interest people in order to help them find interest in what we think will benefit them (or get them to buy our product). But in an extended speech there might be several subaudiences to which we appeal.

Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount Assumptions

  1. The readers/hearers were interested in being happy in the sense of flourishing human life. The beatitudes start with the word “blessed” which probably means something more like “in an honored state” or “possessing the best/most desirable life.” In the Greek Old Testament that word seems to function like Aristotle’s word for happiness.
  2. They cared about putting the law of God into practice. Jesus tells the audience not to be afraid of the possibility of him doing away with Moses’ law.
  3. They at least know an oral version of the Old Testament, “You have heard…,” never “it is written.”
  4. They are in contact with the Pharisees (see chapter 6:1-13 especially) or have pharisaical tendencies.
  5. They want honor and rewards.
  6. They find it valuable to “see God.”
  7. They  want to be wise.
  8. They want to be part of God’s kingdom.
  9. Some of them felt spiritually destitute (poor in spirit).

Luke’s Sermon on the Mount Assumptions

  1. Luke’s audience similarly desired “blessedness” or “happiness.”
  2. They may have been more financially successful and willing to infer that they were living the blessed life with God as a consequence of their good fortune.
  3. They knew Jesus was a teacher, but were not themselves as familiar with the law of Moses.
  4. They really wanted to be good people whose lives bore good fruit.
  5. Strangely, in Luke, being like a ‘wise man’ is not a motivation. But the same simile of the builder who uses a firm foundation is used. In this case, the idea is simply of having a life that is not susceptible to the trials of the world. These people wanted unwavering or everlasting life.

I would be willing to say more about Luke’s audience over all, but I wanted to go simply by what we could find in the respective versions of the Sermon on the Mount.

What did I miss?

*I’m of the opinion that by and large these sermons, regardless of the process that lead to it happening, preserve a common public sermon Jesus preached about the kingdom of God before he shifted to primarily using parables before the public. So of course there will naturally be overlap between Matthew, Luke, and Jesus’ audiences desires, interests, and knowledge.