TRAITORS INCLUDED (13)
Scripture: John 13:1-17, John 13:31-35
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Traitors Included (13)
Lectionary, Year C, Maundy Thursday
Christopher B. Harbin
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Traitors, turncoats, double-crossers do not sit well with us. We have harsh language all too ready to wield against those would would turn their backs on us, on our cause, on a beloved institution, on a heritage, on a way of living or understanding the world. Meanwhile, who gets to define betrayal is a whole other discussion. Is offering a critique betrayal, or is leaving a former way of understanding to stand alongside us something other than betrayal or treason? If one has betrayed a cause or group, are they worthy of living alongside us, even sharing our own cause?
I grew up in a conflicted tradition in which exclusion was the rule of the day, even as we went out of our way to invite people into our faith community. The highest priority in our religious life was to welcome a new convert into the family of faith. Meanwhile, we worried over who needed to be excluded, who was unworthy to participate fully, who did not deserve God's blessings, who had become unworthy to bear the name Christian. Perhaps the most ludicrous part was that we felt we could speak for God on curtailing the reach of grace. We readily sang about greace being greater than our sin, but it was a stretch to extend that same grace to the sin of others who made us uncomfortable. It was one thing to invoke grace for the conversion of a sinner, but extending grace to those who had experienced it and then fallen from a pedestal seemed another thing entirely.
It's rather than old trope that grace for me and mine is always resonable. Grace for you, well, that's another matter entirely. Suddenly it depends on how much I actually care about you, about those people, about whomever it is we are discussing. On the other hand, when we feel betrayed by another's actions, we may be completely unwilling to look for grace until the personal insult or injury to ourselves has been resolved.
On the ...
Lectionary, Year C, Maundy Thursday
Christopher B. Harbin
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Traitors, turncoats, double-crossers do not sit well with us. We have harsh language all too ready to wield against those would would turn their backs on us, on our cause, on a beloved institution, on a heritage, on a way of living or understanding the world. Meanwhile, who gets to define betrayal is a whole other discussion. Is offering a critique betrayal, or is leaving a former way of understanding to stand alongside us something other than betrayal or treason? If one has betrayed a cause or group, are they worthy of living alongside us, even sharing our own cause?
I grew up in a conflicted tradition in which exclusion was the rule of the day, even as we went out of our way to invite people into our faith community. The highest priority in our religious life was to welcome a new convert into the family of faith. Meanwhile, we worried over who needed to be excluded, who was unworthy to participate fully, who did not deserve God's blessings, who had become unworthy to bear the name Christian. Perhaps the most ludicrous part was that we felt we could speak for God on curtailing the reach of grace. We readily sang about greace being greater than our sin, but it was a stretch to extend that same grace to the sin of others who made us uncomfortable. It was one thing to invoke grace for the conversion of a sinner, but extending grace to those who had experienced it and then fallen from a pedestal seemed another thing entirely.
It's rather than old trope that grace for me and mine is always resonable. Grace for you, well, that's another matter entirely. Suddenly it depends on how much I actually care about you, about those people, about whomever it is we are discussing. On the other hand, when we feel betrayed by another's actions, we may be completely unwilling to look for grace until the personal insult or injury to ourselves has been resolved.
On the ...
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