MYANMAR/BURMA OPENS NEW PARLIAMENT

monks demand adult politics

Enslavement is always in the interest of oppressive forces, as we‘ve seen in the history of Burma. Even the experience of the minimal adulthood offered by this parliament may make change inevitable.
This blog provides a meditation on the revised Common Lectionary along with a headline from world news.
Birth day of Samuel Shoemaker
Galatians 4:1-11
4My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; 2but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. 3So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. 6And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ 7So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. 9Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? 10You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years. 11I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.
………………………………………….
This is the heart of Paul’s gospel. Until the coming of Jesus, he says, the Jewish people had been as children requiring a minder, really no better than slaves. By implication he identifies Jewish slavery to the Torah with Gentile slavery to “elemental spirits”, that is, the powerful spiritual forces of the world. Now both forms of childminding slavery are abolished by God’s gift of the spirit of his Son Jesus, through whom all people can become adult children of God, able to call him Abba, dear Father. The Galatians desire for legalistic ceremonial is criticised by Paul as a retreat from adulthood into childishness, from faith back into religion. There is nothing more delightful to secular culture than spurious religiosity: bells, crystals, Celtic spirituality, Christian yoga, transcendental meditation; refusals to grow up.

Mark 7:24-37
24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 28But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ 30So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ 35And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’
……………………………………………………………….
This is THE story of the incarnation. Jesus, a proud Jewish man, refused help to a Gentile woman, telling her that his gifts were first of all for Jews. Mark reports him as using the casually abusive term “dogs” for the woman and her daughter. No wonder scholars have tried their best to interpret this as some kind of test of the woman’s faith, for otherwise we would have to see that Jesus was learning from her. What a disgrace for the Son of God to learn from anyone! But then we have to ask: did he not have to learn like other human beings? Was he able to walk from birth? More importantly, did he have a “Son of God” implant in his brain which told him everything, or did he have to learn scripture, faith, and goodness, as he lived? For me the perfection of Jesus, Son of God, is his openness to people and to God. He tells the woman she is a dog but when she acts the part of a dog, he is immediately open to her as a person and meets her need. He has been reminded that the time of Messiah is the time when Gentiles may approach Israel’s God.
It’s interesting that Mark follows up his story of Jesus being opened to a gentile woman with a story in which Jesus commands a deaf man to be opened. The miraculous aspects of these stories is witness that in the presence of Jesus, God’s goodness is present and active. Meister Eckhart, theologian of the 13th century, said, “God is where we left him: it’s we who have wandered out of the house.” But being open is not easy even for those who are touched by God’s love. Rev. Samuel Shoemaker is remembered as one of those who contributed to the original twelve-step programme of A.A. These steps are not ways of earning salvation or sobriety but of remaining open to the goodness of God/ “Higher power”. They are an equivalent of Jesus’ command, “Be open!”