Scripture Reflections Seeking Understanding

Well... if you thought that Luke's version of the beatitudes last Sunday was challenging this Sunday's Gospel is going to make you very uncomfortable. I know that is how it makes me feel. I mean, turn the other cheek, let those that take from you get away with it, love the one who insults you.  Don't get me wrong, on an abstract level I agree wholeheartedly with Jesus on this one. Turning the other cheek makes sense. Responding to violence with violence can have no other effect than to escalate the situation. As Dr Martin Luther King so eloquently put it, 'Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.'   And when my children argue - and boy do they give it a crack - I can still see the sense in both Jesus' and Dr King's exhortation. 'Don't listen to her,' I say. 'Don't come back at him. Just walk away. You're only making things worse.'  All things I've said, just...

This Sunday we hear the alternate version of the Beatitudes from Luke’s Gospel. In Matthew’s account the meek, the just, and the merciful are blessed; a term that links these dispositions to the covenant of the Old Testament, where each of the commandments is couched as a blessing, in that God has given us a detailed guide of how to remain in a right relationship with God.  Luke on the other hand speaks first about the poor, the hungry and those that weep, and calls them happy.  Happy?   In their suffering?   How?  And what about the rich that Jesus condemns? Given the popular wisdom that if you have food in a fridge, a roof over your head and a place to sleep that you are wealthier than three-quarters of the world’s population, and given that on a global scale, poverty and wealth are primarily accidents of birth, what on earth is going on here? Are we saying that one in four of God's people are destined for suffering in eternal life? And that the rest...

 Recently I saw a reel on social media in which a woman at a golf driving range is given unsolicited advice about her swing by a man at the adjacent tee. What the man doesn't realise is that the woman he has decided needs his help is a professional golfer. Respectfully, she tells him that she doesn't need his help, then drives the ball all the way to the end of the range with perfect form - no doubt also fueled by frustration.  In this Sunday's Gospel, we hear the story of Jesus calling Simon (Peter) to discipleship. Simon is a fisherman. Not one who is out with his mates on the weekend seeing what they can get. He is a  professional  fisherman. He has his own boat and crew. He lives in a fishing town. He knows what he's doing, and he has just had one of those long, frustrating nights on the water where not much goes right.  Then along comes Jesus. This tradie turned rabbi hops into his boat and starts giving fishing advice. And with a crowd listening on the sho...