So once again I’m taking something good on for Lent – continuing my series on “Jesus and Godel”. To get started, I want to talk a little about the approaches that Jesus and Paul take to conflict.
Jesus reassures us a lot – he frequently tells us not to be afraid or to worry. But he also says that he’s here to divide people from each other. Paul, in contrast, is an authoritarian: most of the rules that make up modern Christianity come from Paul – yet he admonishes us not to separate into factions.
These messages are actually complementary. Jesus is the messenger of truth, which on the one hand is nothing to be afraid of – but can cause conflict when people do not agree on the truth. Paul, on the other hand, suggests that we should not separate into factions because of our disagreements.
Jesus taught with authority, but Paul admits that sometimes he’s speaking for himself – and both suggest that we should be peacemakers. We are fallible, which means that we can be wrong, and the people we interact with can be wrong – which can lead to division, as we stand up for what’s true; but that fallibility means we cannot rely on our own authority, but must instead turn together towards Jesus.
I think these ideas are worth unpacking further – but, in the spirit of “drawing every day” and “blogging every day”, I did not want the quest for perfection to get in the way of starting on the path towards it.
-the Centaur
