Changing the Conversation

I am told that women can hold more than one conversation at a time when talking with each other. They can effortlessly slip between topics, without any signal as to the change in the topic. Men on the other hand, have to signal the subject in rather heavy handed and obvious ways, such as “To change the subject….” Or “Going back to what we were talking about earlier,…..”

I am told that a woman would regard such statements as totally unnecessary and you have to admit that the elimination of all these unnecessary signposts has a certain efficiency.

So it is no wonder that Jesus’ disciples, being all male, and other onlookers (mostly male) had such trouble on occasions in following his train of thought.

For example, Jesus and His disciples were at the temple at Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders asked Jesus what sign He would give them. Jesus said “Destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it” (John 2.19 – (click for link)  Now Jesus was referring to His own body and everyone else thought that He was talking about the temple building.

On another occasion, the disciples were hungry and had no bread. This was just after the feeding of the four thousand, and the Jewish leaders (Pharisees) were demanding a sign from Jesus. Jesus told his disciples to “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” Matthew 16.6 (click for link)

Once again there was confusion as to the subject of this statement, with the disciples thinking that this had something to do with food and Jesus, actually referring to the teaching of the Pharisees.

In John 4, Jesus was talking to a Samaritan woman and the disciples reminded Him to eat. Jesus tells them that He has food that they do not know about. They assume that he is talking about food (and why wouldn’t they?), when Jesus is talking about His relationship to God (“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me”). (verses 31 - 38)

Generally, Jesus became a bit annoyed with them, asking why they were discussing the fact that they had no bread.

On the other hand, you would have thought that the disciples would have become somewhat irritated at having Jesus change the subject. I would have been. After all, if they were talking about one thing, why did He have to change the subject or be so obtuse in his answer? I certainly would not have followed these conversations, and would have gone back to reading my newspaper.

It is one thing to tell parables and stories, so that some people “hearing, will not understand”, but it is another thing to confuse His own disciples.

Of course, I am assuming that it was deliberate and that He knew the effect it would have, but I don’t have any single good thought as to why He did this.

He was certainly single-minded. His passion was the Kingdom of God, to the exclusion of all else, and perhaps that is all He thought and spoke about. Not a lot of small talk here. He wouldn’t have been great dinner table company, if you had wanted to talk about the 2012 Olympics or if you did, He would no doubt turn the subject around.

He was not greatly concerned about the day to day things that concern and pre-occupy us (and me), nor was He greatly impressed by grand buildings and the earthly order of things.

Perhaps He was also trying to keep the thoughts of His disciples focussed. It could have been a type of rebuke. What was implied is “Why are you talking about these things? Why are you concerned about them?”

You would have thought that, with such a one track mind, and religion at that, he would have been the party bore, with people trying to avoid him. But the opposite seems to have the case. People were drawn and attached to him, whether for a good argument to defend the status quo or for people looking for alternative ideas to the poverty of the current religion practices, or just plain curious.

Would He have the same effect now if He were here or are people just indifferent to religion? With His one track mind, would He find a way to capture people’s interest?

But I have strayed into another subject, as usual. It’s time for me to close this blog and get something to eat.

 

A Christian Land

I think that it was the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, back in December 2011, reminded his listeners of the influence of this Book in the culture and laws of the land (“…. shaped our country….” and “… we are a Christian country…”)

More recently in one of my blogs, as an aside, I asked if my readers if they could remember the Ten Commandments and in particular, if you could remember their order. (Exodus 20 – link)

Without wishing to enter into the debate as to the accuracy of David Cameron’s words or have a debate on the nature of a Christian country, I thought that I would have a crack at looking at these commandments and seeing how they are practiced in the life of the country.

To get the positive side, you need to start in the second half of the Ten Commandments.

Commandments numbers 6, 8 and 9 are directly applicable. You shall not kill (No. 6); you shall not steal (No. 8) and you shall not bear false witness (No. 9). Perjury is still a criminal offence, even if it seems a somewhat strange commandment to have in your top ten.

So that is three out of ten. What about the rest. Let’s finish the lower part of this group of ten (Numbers 5 to 10).

There are two “family commandments”. Honour your mother and father (No. 5) and you shall not commit adultery (down at No. 7). I have no statistics on the first one. It is not enshrined in law or the culture in any way. Most people make efforts to maintain a close relationship with their parents, although I am not sure whether this has anything to do with “our being a Christian Country”. At least there are no laws saying that we should despise our parents, so 1/2 point for this one. 

No comment is necessary from me regarding Number 7, except to note that most people would regard a law criminalising or attaching any sort of blame to adultery, as being at the very least uncharitable and uncaring and quite possibly unchristian. The “I can do whatever I want to” culture that describes a large part of the English culture sits very comfortably with this.

I should try to deal with Number 10, which is about coveting, or rather “not coveting”. This is a slightly tough one, if only because it is not a word used very much these days. We are not supposed to covet or “wish longingly for” (per the American Heritage Dictionary) anything that belongs to our neighbour.

I am not sure that I have ever wanted to have the specific object that was currently owned by (say) my neighbour or a friend. I have been encouraged to think about acquiring something that I had not considered before. Actually taking it, covered by Number 8 (stealing) and taking your neighbours wife is already dealt with under Number 7 (Adultery).

But Commandment Number 10 here looks at the emotions of “wanting” something that we have seen elsewhere, and tells us that this is wrong.  It tells us to be satisfied with what we have. If that is the case (and I not sure that it is), then there is not much public data as to how much “coveting” goes on in England. It is said that we are “a consumerist society”, so I would assume that quite a lot of “coveting” goes on, so I am going to give us a zero for this one.

So we are left with this first four. This is unfortunate as they are all to do with God / Religion and England is not a very religious country. I will continue as I started and work backwards.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Number 4). I exaggerate the point when I say that this has been transformed to “The Sabbath shall a day of shopping”. For most people, Sunday is still a day when we do not have to go to work, and the buses do not all run on a Sunday, so maybe 1/2 a point for this one.

Number 3 reminds us not to take God’s name in vain. Definitely no points here. At least 80% of the population, who regularly use a variety of expletives, religious and secular to cover eventualities, such as hitting thumbs with hammers or missing a train or just as additional words to be used in normal everyday sentences. Furthermore, any laws to forbid and punish the use of such words would be regarded as laughable and probably an infringement of our civil liberties.

Number 2, “You shall not make a graven image (of God)…….” perhaps just does not apply. As most people in England have no particular belief in God, it is hard to see how they might make a graven image. I will assume that this applies mainly to those who recognise Commandment Number 1, “You shall have no other God besides me”).

The statistics on church-going show that England as a nation in slow but steady religious decline. What it does not tell us, is what people believe privately. The 2001 census in the U.K. indicated that just less that 50% of people believed in God. Presumably this means that nearly 50% of the population does believe in God. I think that this is good enough for half marks on numbers 1 and 2.

So all in all, that makes 4 ½  marks out of ten. Teacher says “England could do better, if he (or she) tried.”