Hallo all! Slept until 11am, and am coming up for air. We went to a shop in a plaza today for some balsa wood and, just after we found what we needed, the fire alarm went off, so we had to evacuate the shop. Turns out it was an issue in a different shop. So we did another errand and came back and all was resolved by then. Strange feeling to it, though. It's in the 80's here now and we have high hazy sunshine due to wildfires in western Canada. Between that an the record breaking rain last month, we wonder if we'll go broke using solar!
I had a strange thought. You know Acts 3:1-2 where Peter cures the man who has been lame from birth, where he says, "Silver and gold have I none but what I have I will give you."
I just did a quiz on the life of Peter and now am reading the quiz maker's explanation and discussion. He's very enthusiastic about this incident, saying:
" The crippled beggar had only one thought on his mind when he saw Peter and John: he wanted money. Verse 3 states the man asked the two disciples for money and they responded by looking "straight at him" and asked the man to look at them. Verse 5 goes on to state: "So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them." The beggar, however, would receive something much more valuable than money. He would soon be able to walk for the first time in his life."
It suddenly struck me to wonder about this valuation. The beggar asked for money and needed money. He was in fact making his living that day. He did not ask to be cured. This situation is not comparable to the paralytic who was brought to Jesus to be cured, the one's whose friends had such faith that they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down to Our Lord. When Our Lord said to him, "Thy faith hath made thee whole. Arise, take up thy pallet and walk," this was a cause for great rejoicing. But the beggar at the gate had no such faith or desire. And it occurred to me to wonder what became of him.
Sure, he could walk. So what? He had no trade, no means of earning his living. And as an able bodied adult, he probably wouldn't have been allowed to continue begging. I don't know what the laws and regulations were, but it seems likely to me that the authorities probably discouraged able bodied adults, especially men, from begging. So, what did Peter actually give him? What did Peter actually do for him? Did him out of a livelihood, basically, and gave him nothing to replace it.
True, he was initially delighted and praised God, but I wonder how long that elation lasted? Probably just as long as it took him to realize he had no coin with which to buy his supper and no prospect of having any coin until such time as he could learn a trade. And, he was over forty years of age, hardly young even by today's standards, and borderline elderly in those days. Peter's faith healed him, not his own, and Peter got a lot out of the incident, but what did the man who was healed gain in practical terms? It's rather a disturbing thought.
That's a good thought, but it's important to remember the "job" and "trade" are not equivalent terms. Especially in those days, when most work was unskilled manual labor, which the former beggar was now capable of doing. Whether that was better than begging I don't know.
You are not the first to wonder about this, Cat, and it's a worthy question. I have taken the story to indicate that we are often given good things that we neither deserve nor want, and how we will then use our abilities will depend upon our character. In some ways, the gift he was given was dignity…at least easy dignity, his inabilities no longer being so easy to spot. You might appreciate the rendition of this in the movie Jesus of Nazareth. The blind man fights being healed, but is healed anyway because it was his brokenness that made him fight against being healed. Once healed, he does marvel and want to say thanks. He goes from being brusque to being grateful.
Good point, Bill. I didn't think of that. I feel easier in my mind. I mean, the thought of the man's plight really did trouble me.
Listener, you're right. How an unmerited gift is received depends on the person (the personality). And, now I think of it, you could expand the example to Grace itself.Some people embrace it as an unexpected gift and some grumble and grouse and even reject it. Thank you for showing me the broader perspective.
I am reminded of an official in a Democratic administration--I don't remember which one--who went along with the US presidential party to the USSR/Russia. He was a quadraplegic; one of his early sociopolitical accomplishments was getting the City of Berkeley to install curb cuts for the disabled. He had a high-ranking job related (pardon me, I don't recall the details) to disability issues. His motorized conveyance attracted a huge amount of attention, as did he himself, when he went about in Russia. Someone promised to pray for him, and he asked them, whatever they did, not to cure him--because then he would be out of a job! Same thought.
I would comment that it is very well to say that we should do good and avoid doing evil--but the problem is that we can't reliably distinguish them, just as you recognized in this story. So if our salvation (or equivalent) requires doing good and not evil, we are doomed. That's where what is freely given to us, without consideration of whether we deserve it or not, comes in--whether one calls it the Grace of God or something else that makes sense within a different frame of reference.
We can express our gratitude to the Universe or God or Truth or however we wish to think of it, using a physical representation of some sort if that makes it easier for us, without asking for more. Gratitude can be a very powerful psychological and religious motivator--it can reform people. And it includes gratitude for evil, just as President Obama and the folks at the AME church in Charleston realized. I forget which one it is, but I recall hearing there is a Mass for a particular holy day that begins "Oh, most necessary sin of Adam..." It certainly bears thinking about. And living.
Those guys are almost as lovely as Howard!!
ReplyDeleteHallo all! Slept until 11am, and am coming up for air. We went to a shop in a plaza today for some balsa wood and, just after we found what we needed, the fire alarm went off, so we had to evacuate the shop. Turns out it was an issue in a different shop. So we did another errand and came back and all was resolved by then. Strange feeling to it, though. It's in the 80's here now and we have high hazy sunshine due to wildfires in western Canada. Between that an the record breaking rain last month, we wonder if we'll go broke using solar!
ReplyDeleteI had a strange thought. You know Acts 3:1-2 where Peter cures the man who has been lame from birth, where he says, "Silver and gold have I none but what I have I will give you."
ReplyDeleteI just did a quiz on the life of Peter and now am reading the quiz maker's explanation and discussion. He's very enthusiastic about this incident, saying:
" The crippled beggar had only one thought on his mind when he saw Peter and John: he wanted money. Verse 3 states the man asked the two disciples for money and they responded by looking "straight at him" and asked the man to look at them. Verse 5 goes on to state: "So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them." The beggar, however, would receive something much more valuable than money. He would soon be able to walk for the first time in his life."
It suddenly struck me to wonder about this valuation. The beggar asked for money and needed money. He was in fact making his living that day. He did not ask to be cured. This situation is not comparable to the paralytic who was brought to Jesus to be cured, the one's whose friends had such faith that they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down to Our Lord. When Our Lord said to him, "Thy faith hath made thee whole. Arise, take up thy pallet and walk," this was a cause for great rejoicing. But the beggar at the gate had no such faith or desire. And it occurred to me to wonder what became of him.
Sure, he could walk. So what? He had no trade, no means of earning his living. And as an able bodied adult, he probably wouldn't have been allowed to continue begging. I don't know what the laws and regulations were, but it seems likely to me that the authorities probably discouraged able bodied adults, especially men, from begging. So, what did Peter actually give him? What did Peter actually do for him? Did him out of a livelihood, basically, and gave him nothing to replace it.
True, he was initially delighted and praised God, but I wonder how long that elation lasted? Probably just as long as it took him to realize he had no coin with which to buy his supper and no prospect of having any coin until such time as he could learn a trade. And, he was over forty years of age, hardly young even by today's standards, and borderline elderly in those days. Peter's faith healed him, not his own, and Peter got a lot out of the incident, but what did the man who was healed gain in practical terms? It's rather a disturbing thought.
That's a good thought, but it's important to remember the "job" and "trade" are not equivalent terms. Especially in those days, when most work was unskilled manual labor, which the former beggar was now capable of doing. Whether that was better than begging I don't know.
DeleteYou are not the first to wonder about this, Cat, and it's a worthy question. I have taken the story to indicate that we are often given good things that we neither deserve nor want, and how we will then use our abilities will depend upon our character. In some ways, the gift he was given was dignity…at least easy dignity, his inabilities no longer being so easy to spot. You might appreciate the rendition of this in the movie Jesus of Nazareth. The blind man fights being healed, but is healed anyway because it was his brokenness that made him fight against being healed. Once healed, he does marvel and want to say thanks. He goes from being brusque to being grateful.
DeleteGood point, Bill. I didn't think of that. I feel easier in my mind. I mean, the thought of the man's plight really did trouble me.
DeleteListener, you're right. How an unmerited gift is received depends on the person (the personality). And, now I think of it, you could expand the example to Grace itself.Some people embrace it as an unexpected gift and some grumble and grouse and even reject it. Thank you for showing me the broader perspective.
I am reminded of an official in a Democratic administration--I don't remember which one--who went along with the US presidential party to the USSR/Russia. He was a quadraplegic; one of his early sociopolitical accomplishments was getting the City of Berkeley to install curb cuts for the disabled. He had a high-ranking job related (pardon me, I don't recall the details) to disability issues. His motorized conveyance attracted a huge amount of attention, as did he himself, when he went about in Russia. Someone promised to pray for him, and he asked them, whatever they did, not to cure him--because then he would be out of a job! Same thought.
DeleteI would comment that it is very well to say that we should do good and avoid doing evil--but the problem is that we can't reliably distinguish them, just as you recognized in this story. So if our salvation (or equivalent) requires doing good and not evil, we are doomed. That's where what is freely given to us, without consideration of whether we deserve it or not, comes in--whether one calls it the Grace of God or something else that makes sense within a different frame of reference.
--Alan
We can express our gratitude to the Universe or God or Truth or however we wish to think of it, using a physical representation of some sort if that makes it easier for us, without asking for more. Gratitude can be a very powerful psychological and religious motivator--it can reform people. And it includes gratitude for evil, just as President Obama and the folks at the AME church in Charleston realized. I forget which one it is, but I recall hearing there is a Mass for a particular holy day that begins "Oh, most necessary sin of Adam..." It certainly bears thinking about. And living.
Delete--alan
Front page photos are all set now through August 1st! :-)
ReplyDeleteWow! Efficient. Thanks, Listener.
Delete