WEDNESDAY MARCH 17, 2021

 WEDNESDAY MARCH 17, 2021

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to off of us - : Tis a fine day to be Irish!!!  (And, on St. Patrick’s Day, we are all Irish!!!)

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Biases.  Sorry, I don’t have biases!!  I’m the most unbiased person in the world.  I love everybody, I don’t show any favoritism because everybody is my favorite!!!

(If you believed that paragraph, you really don’t know me.  Like all people, I have biases.  And, mine might be worse than a lot of yours!!!)  

BUT - we are going to look at a better source.

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Okay, the Biblical book of James - chapter 2:

“My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him?  But you dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?  Aren’t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name[c] you bear?

Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law.

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Okay - that REALLY SPELLS IT OUT!!  “NO FAVORITISM”!!!

If I see two men - one in a suit, shined shoes, tie, neatly shaven, and one in tattered (and dirty) blue jeans, a frayed shirt, and dirty tennis shoes, my bias would be to be nice to the one in the nicer clothes.  

From the last two days, my biases can go fairly deep.  But, it seems like I can’t have biases.  I can’t play favorites.

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But, the Bible is very full of favorites.  Technically Ishmael was the firstborn son of Abraham, but Isaac is the one of the promise.  Issac and Rebecca have twins - Issac favored Esau, but Rebecca likes Jacob.  Jacob had twelve sons, but he favored Joseph (with a coat of many colors) and that Joseph was born of Rachel - Jacob’s favorite wife!!  

How about when God tells the prophet Samuel to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be kind - but he passes over six sons until he picks David - just a kid.  

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From the Center for Action and Contemplation we have:

“Most of political and church history has been controlled and written by people on the Right, because they, more than those on the Left, have the access, the power, and the education to write books and get them published. One of the few subversive texts in history, believe it or not, is the Bible! The Bible is most extraordinary because it repeatedly and invariably legitimizes the people on the bottom and not the people on the top. The rejected son, the barren woman, the sinner, the leper, or the outsider is always the one chosen by God! 

Https://cac.org/the-bible-is-biased-2015-02-24/

(By-the-way- this center for Action and Contemplation seems to be a legitimate site - Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM is one of the writers who some of my friends really like)

That paragraph says the Bible is a subversive text.  Shepherds?  (smelly, dirty, out in the pastures wading through sheep dung).  Fishermen?  (also smelly, dirty, their language “might” be “colorful”.  Tax Collectors?  Prostitutes?  A woman in an adulterous situation.  A woman who has been married and divorced several times.  Dealing with the ‘unorthodox’ Samaritans.  And, the Jesus rabbi that I follow talked about the religious establishment as “white-washed tombs”.

As that paragraph says “legitimizes the people on the bottom and not the people on the top.”  And, yet, who do my biases favor?  The well educated, the people with some money?  (Never the homeless and downtrodden). Actually, as I have left my nice house in the suburbs and live in an apartment building, I don’t think any of my neighbors have doctoral degrees.  There is a difference between the ‘have’ and the ‘have-nots’ and the philosophy I seem to follow is to love everybody - rich or poor.  

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God’s bias toward the little ones, the powerless, and those on the bottom has been rediscovered by those who learn to see deeply and with compassion

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One more Biblical story: ““Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18)

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So, three days looking at biases (so far).  (And, squirming a little in my chair - because I do have biases).  

I am learning humility (and at times, I don’t like it).  But, I’m also finding friends (as Garth Brooks sings) in “Low Places”.  

LOVE WINS (and I still have a long ways to go!!!)

HUGS!!

Karen