A buddy of mine from seminary is a magician. I never saw him saw somebody in half, but dang if he can't do a mean card trick... how did he set my watch to the hour of the card I had picked... Anyway, I've often given thought to the magic and myth of religion and the power it has over and above the truth of the Gospel of Jesus.
Peter's letter seems to ponder the same point. How much of the dreadfully long debates of seminary were working out cleverly devised myths? How much of the same was actually helping us to come to understand the Good News of God in Jesus Christ?
It is something I am working through especially these days as I come to grips with having "magic hands" anointed as they were at my ordination that allows me now to pronounce blessing, pronounce absolution, and celebrate the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. We joke in our house that the laser beams installed at the service are dangerous, but really it is a dangerous thing. Balancing the myth and magic with the reality of the meaning of those actions will take a long time I think.
Still, I hope to approach the faith life as Peter does, not with cleverly devised myths, but with the Spirit of Christ Jesus.
1 comment:
Laser beams at the service? That sounds cool. But I hear you on the confusion inherent with myth and magic versus religious belief. I've been tempted to bless a lot of things, but coming to some sense of what I should be investing with that meaning, and more importantly what I shouldn't be, is still a work in progress.
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