|
Why Would Jesus Say
That?
Daily Reflections
for Lent
Author:
United Church Publishing House
Reviewer:
Katharina Manassis
|
 |
Why would Jesus say that? The implicit assumption of this title is that
Jesus actually said the things the bible attributes to him. That’s quite an
assumption 2000 years after the fact! It is also one of several problems
with this year’s Lenten reflections.
Perhaps a more appropriate title for the volume would be “Quoting Jesus out
of context”. The short snippets of text discussed each day are rarely placed
in their biblical or cultural context, no mention is made of the possibility
that some things might have been lost in translation, and the likelihood
that Jesus actually did or did not say the phrase in question is never
examined. Given that many people in the United Church are now familiar with
these aspects of New Testament scholarship (for example, having heard of the
work of the Jesus Seminar), this seems naïve, and a bit disrespectful to the
subject (Jesus). Thus, I often found myself wondering: What would Jesus
think of these reflections?
Lack of scholarship is not a terrible thing if one acknowledges it, and
clearly indicates that the goal of each reflection is to describe what
thoughts, feelings, and actions the text inspired in the writer, regardless
of the text’s veracity. We do something like this in the Week of Guided
Prayer, where we read a passage repeatedly, pray on it, and then together
ponder what it might mean for our lives or for our understanding of God. We
don’t pretend to know everything about the passage, but we can appreciate
what it evokes in us as, for example, one can appreciate a work of art
without knowing how to paint. Some writers in the volume do take this
approach and these are, in my opinion, the most helpful reflections. Other
writers, unfortunately, do not.
Besides the variable quality of the individual reflections, I also missed
something in the volume as a whole: a certain coherence and depth. In past
years, the focus of the reflections has often been a spiritual metaphor (for
example, water, home) and that metaphor became a unifying theme for the
volume and for Lent. By reflecting on different aspects of the same metaphor
and its possible relevance to our faith, the reader was drawn into a daily
contemplative practice that became increasingly familiar and thus
increasingly calming and centering over the weeks. Nothing like that was
possible with this year’s reflections. There was no unifying theme, and the
two- to five-word pithy little snippets of Jesus’ sayings made him sound
more like a smart-ass than a spiritual teacher.
I know the United Church has recently tried to draw people in by being
provocative, and some of that has been fun to watch, but there’s a time and
a place for it. I’m not sure that the annual Lenten reflections are that
time and that place. There are other, more meaningful aspects to Lent worth
celebrating. On the other hand, we are probably one of the few denominations
where members like me can feel free to write critically about its
publications. What a privilege!
