Posts
What if Jesus talked like a post-modern Anglican?
by Scott Gilbreath ~ November 12th, 2008
If our Lord spoke like a post-modern Anglican, his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well might have gone something like this.
Exhausted from global warming in oppressed Palestine, Jesus chilled at Jacob’s Well in the realm of “the other” called Samaria.
Jesus’ cohort left him to buy organic at the nearest kiosk.
A Samaritan woman-”the other to the second power”-approached the community’s gathering space, carrying the symbol of her status in a harsh patriarchal culture.
Jesus said, “Water is good. Water is to be shared. Water is life. May we share in a drink of water together?” He lit two candles, too, symbolizing the two flames of life at the well.
[…]
“Cool,” said the woman, “You give me hope as a worshiper of G-d. I thought you Jews had a corner on G-d and we Samaritans were outside the centered set where G-d lives.”“Oh no, no, ” Jesus demured, “that is so wrong! No one owns G-d. G-d is not definable. G-d is the ineffable mystery. All our language about G-d only conceals G-d; constructing propositions does not reveal G-d. Let it go. Even more, all we have received about G-d as true has been shaped by alliances with power. Be suspicious. Yet know that I am emergent. I am come to speak truth to power. You have to dismiss some of your received thinking. Let me unpack this for you. G-d is accessed communally, not individually, and however the community defines G-d that is true G-d for that particular tribe. There is no one true ‘G-d’ for all people.”
Many contemporary Anglican leaders would consider that deep theological insight.
h/t: Michael Kruse
Print This Post