Saturday, February 27, 2016

My 2016 Lenten Journey--Day 16


February 25, 2016 ~ Day 16
My 2016 Lenten Journey: Exploring the Gospels to discover what following Jesus and becoming more like him would look like? ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32 NRSV).
Matthew: 6:22-24 ~ The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.” Garbage in/garbage out? Maybe. But, what is a healthy eye or an unhealthy eye? And does the relative health of my outlook change reality? Again, “we see through a glass darkly.”
I did a quick reading in about a dozen English versions, and the word translated here as “healthy” (NRSV and several others) is translated in other versions, “good” or “sound.” The word, in the original language, is “ἁπλοῦς” (pronounced “ah – ploos”), and only the oldest versions, (KJV, Darby, ASV, et. Al.) translate it literally, “single” or “simple,” implying honesty and integrity, the opposite of duplicitous (“two-faced,” “double-dealing,” “deceitful,” etc.).
Thus, “if you see with integrity, your whole body will be full of light; but if you see with a double standard, your whole body will be full of darkness.” The contrast is the crux of this section, which began with, Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. And the call for singularity extends through the concluding remarks, No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
So much for a “prosperity gospel;” however, the word “wealth”, like the word "healthy" is more directly and accurately translated in the older versions, “mammon.” It refers to virtually anything related to this physical world.
William Wordsworth captured the spirit of these closing words:
The world is too much with us, late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
If I am to be a slave, at least if I follow Jesus, I can choose my master.us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9 NRSV)
‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32 NRSV).

That's the way it looks through the flawed glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,
Jim


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