Rainbows in Jesus' Teachings

(No, Jesus does not reference the story of Noah... but on a side note I did watch Evan Almighty the other day... funny movie!)

Now I don't normally come home and blog immediately after church, I like to eat breakfast first. But I am doing this as a special favor to Suzanne, with whom I had this conversation, and for Scott, who preached this morning which prompted the conversation with the former. (P.S. Great job Scott! I hope you enjoy my reply).

This week's Gospel reading was from Mark 10:17-22, which is the story of the Rich Man who asks Jesus how he can obtain salvation and Jesus tells him to sell all of his possessions and the man leaves distressed because he has so much. Scott did an excellent job of relating this story to the questions of "What" and "How". The man is asking the postmodern scientific questions of the 21st century American mindset (mind you in 1st century Palestine... wow was he ahead of the times!?).

I had ranted in a previous blog about the black and white v. grey areas. Black and white referring to the hard sciences (like physics and chemistry), the "What" and "How" and the grey referring to the soft sciences (like psychology, but in the case of the former blog it was Pastoral Care). But what I realized this morning is there is another element... COLOR! (Yikes! Cower and hide!)-- Note: I am going to adjust the definitions from the former blog. Pastoral Care is colorful, not grey... which then makes much more sense if you keep reading!

Scott and myself come from the mindset of black and white. It is amazing how we ended up in religion, which is VERY colorful. (Mom, this may be the subconscious reason as to why I like wearing black, white, grey, and brown... Just in case you were wondering!) I am realizing that the reason I am drawn to Bible (and Scott may be also) is because it tends to black and white. It is written down. We can use the historical critical, literary critical, source, and socio-anthropological methods to figure out what is really going on in the text. We are okay with the text becoming grey in some areas because it makes for more interesting scholarly debate. (Yes, I know I am a nerd but moving on...)

People like myself tend to shy away from color. It is too much for us to grasp. It is easier to deal with different shades of grey (because they are all lighter forms of black or darker forms of white it you think about it). But some scholars, like Suzanne, are able to take these forms of grey in the text and give them color through forms like narrative criticism. It makes the text come more alive and opens up the debate significantly. The question that I would associate with the colors is not "What" or "How" but "WHY?"

A good scholar can take their box of 64 Crayola crayons and color the answers to that question. Now me, I am not ready for that... I like the box of 3 that comes free from Buffalo Wild Wings with the kids menu, Red, Blue, and Green. Maybe eventually I will be able to move to the box of 4 from Perkins, and then to the box of 8 sold by Crayola.

What I am trying to say is that some people are colorful. The black and white does not interest them... or maybe they could never do a grey-scale picture. Then there are the others who prefer the grey-scale and hide under blankets when presented with the 64 Crayolas. (I think colors are worse than the boogie-man.... and by the way, why do kids need that many colors? A Macaroni and Cheese crayon? Really?)

But anyways, the question of "Why", this color that we are presented with is important. Like Scott says, Jesus is not telling the man a black and white answer. Jesus is trying to remove the power that this man's wealth has given him so that he can see that Jesus, his salvation is right in front of him. (I wish that Mark would have followed up so we can hear the end of the story, but that is beyond the point). Jesus' answer was colorful when the man wanted it to be black and white. That is probably why he was distressed when he left Jesus' sight.

In the same way, I prefer to hear the black and white answer. Slowly I am introducing color into my scholarship. It is uncomfortable for me, but not everything is black and white. And, color does make life and scholarship a lot prettier.