Lent 4 C
Monday, March 8, 2010
Luke 15:1-32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Leaving the Yes Yes/ No
No Behind
A lot of scholastic ink has been spilled over what exactly Paul meant by this “according to the flesh” business.
“kata sarka” Translating it “human” is problematic, since we tend to want to drag in a whole harmartology of species-guilt to explain ourselves as we explain God. At the least, that's a lot of trouble – and will probably degenerate into partisan arguing. You can find one particularly interesting take on kata sarka in Earl Doherty's "Dancing with Katie Sarka Under the Moon."
To appreciate the 'new creation' in this text, the beautifully symphonic conclusion, it would be good to understand something of the old business we are leaving behind. I like a thing Paul does in 2 Corinthians 1:17ff where he is trying to explain to the Corinthian folk why he didn't and isn't coming to visit them. This is a strained relationship to be sure. He writes:
'Do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been "Yes and No." (NRSV 1:17b-18).
The NRSV's “according to ordinary human standards” is our old friend kata sarkain the flesh. What we have here is a “Yes Yes No No” monster. We are all too familiar with the beast Paul is alluding to. I hear it talking every time I try to tune in on the current national health care debate. Or some unctuous economist explaining to the teeming masses for the umpteenth time the alchemy of greed as virtue. Or Caiaphas making his argument that his people have got to kill this guy so they can continue living out their religious half-life. Or war-hawks giving tea parties. Yes Yes No No. Affirmability and deniability. Truth plundered in the obfuscations of self interest. Such a pity when there are so many real things to be interested in.
To play this out, then, we'll give this kata sarka character one line: “Yes Yes No No.” Everywhere this character walks through the door, he leaves the room in shambles. Along the highways, wherever this dude engages the populace with his "Yes Yes No No", he always seems to leave in his wake unexploded ordinance and confused villagers. New walls go up. The eyes of children grow dull. Litter blows across the town commons, now the domain of users and dealers of new brands of proprietary substances out of control.
This “Yes Yes No No” has nothing to do with honest dialogical conversation, by the way. It is cynical. Survivalist. It is a component of our species – our person – that, by the grace of Christ, is invited to die. We will never receive a more honorable invitation. God has given us the inside track on something that is coming down: this trashed and alienated landscape, this violated flesh, is about to be raised up as a new creation where all the old dissimulations will whither away in the light of reconcilliation on a cosmic scale. Yeah, that's a mouthful! By God, we can taste it as we speak it.
Paul writes as an aside something that's worth a conclusion: “we have learned Christ kata sarka." (2 Cor. 5:16b) Paul says we don't do that anymore - we've upgraded to an all-spirit Christ I suppose - but I'm not so sure. Looking at kata sarka without the script, there is nothing wrong with blood, dirt, sex, koalas, quarks, and all the basic elements of creation. However we might know Jesus Christ now, God knew what he was doing from the beginning. Every day of that first week was a “thumbs up” on the common soil of planet Earth and all who live there. If there were complications, it was still an unqualified “Yes.” Our view of Jesus remains a part of that gritty "Yes".
© 2010 Andy Gay