Bend it like...Jesus?

Well, the LA soccer team finally got their new superstar, David Beckham, onto the field during a game the other day. And he did pretty well--a goal and two assists. But the team lost--again. I don't think they've won a game since recruiting this phenom! But the stadium has been full--even at away games! After all, this is Beckham we're talking about. He even has a movie tangentially about him called "Bend it Like Beckham," which refers to his way of kicking the ball in a curve past the goalie and into the net on free kicks.

In next Sunday's gospel, Jesus "bends" the sabbath codes of his day in order to heal a sick woman right away. This isn't an isolated incident though--he was as adept at it as Beckham is with the soccer ball. There are incidents in the gospels with Jesus healing others on the sabbath, with the disciples plucking grain to eat (a no-no!) on a sabbath. Each one a chance for Jesus to bend the law a bit more.

Only, if you think he's bending the laws to get around them--you're mistaken. Jesus bends it like Beckham to bring the law back into alignment with its intended purpose. Not as a guidebook to heaven, but as a way of ordering society and the mirror that reveals our inability to keep law perfectly. That which throws us on God's mercy.

Jesus pointed out how hypocritical it was to NOT heal her that minute--hang the law. Laws are made to help people, not hurt them (not that we get that right in our own law-making).

Think for awhile on this: where does our own misreading of the law--our own attempts to earn God's favor through regulation of behavior--get in the way of people's desperate needs? Maybe in our penchant for the meticulous and precise understanding of doctrines? We argue points of minutia at the Assemblies while people starve in the world! There's more, I'll wager.

It seems to me that part of your spiritual discipline this week is to Bend it Like Jesus. I will and will let you know about the experience in a later blog entry.

Until then--Go Galaxy!

Bending it,
Pastor Tom