There's an old story of a rabbi asking his students to write down the questions they have about a particular text. When they each produced just a handful, the rabbi slammed his hand down on his stand and said, "How dare you dishonor Torah with so few questions!"
Rather than a didactic, constitutional approach to the scriptures, allow yourself to sit at the feet of a master artist, one confident that, in your communal trust and humility, will get at at least a few of the many layers to all that has been written.
On the wall in the atrium, a few words of Christ have been captured within frames. Discuss their content, the way they are presented, and how our own perspectives and experiences shape how we hear them- and what we do with them. Key in on certain words or imagery, and ask why Jesus may have used them instead of something else. Allow contradiction to be considered. Ask if the thrust of it changes if Jesus says it smiling. Ask if being poor or rich or male or female or from a peace-filled, whole upbringing or a broken, desperate one, changes how these phrases sit in our minds.
Imagine there are 70 angles.
Imagine that getting it "right" isn't the Artist's chief concern.
Imagine this is all a discussion we can have as we all view and entrust ourselves to he who sits at the center, with our without our comprehension!
Matthew 5:43-44
Matthew 7:21
Matthew 13:33
John 14:13-14
Matthew 9:13
Matthew 26:52
No comments:
Post a Comment