T
TucsonJim
Guest
This is somewhat of a vague question, but it is in fact easy to sin by accident.
When you’re stopped for speeding (or photographed), does not knowing the speed limit prevent you from getting a ticket? Why? Because you should have known (it doesn’t matter if you didn’t).
This is the main theme of all Shakespearean plays. In Richard the III, Lady Anne hates Richard for killing her husband, father, and father-in-law, an yet she cannot resist him. Her seduction is Richard’s first success and it powers the rest of all his evil. It confirms that he is right to have set out on the evil journey he has undertaken. Why does Anne so suddenly capitulate? It seems she has given into Richard’s flattery and perhaps sex appeal (she tells us later in the play that she had grown grossly captive to his honeyed words). There is no force involved here, other than the force of Richard’s personality. Admittedly his tactics are brilliant (and very dangerous to him personally since he risks death). But he judges her weakness superbly and brings her, not simply to the edge of an emotional collapse, but to be his wife.
Also early in the play, Richard plots the killing of Clarence. When the murderers arrive at the prison where Clarence is held, they present their pass to the head officer of the prison, Brackenbury, who has just shared an intensely moving scene with Clarence in which the latter has made clear to all the intense suffering he is going through. Brackenbury is now faced with a choice: Should he let the murderers in to kill Clarence or not? His answer is significant. He says, as he reads over the commission, “I will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless of the meaning." Clarence dies and Richard enjoys another success, which again confirms his strategy (proof is in the pudding, right?). Brackenbury may think this evasion makes him innocent; quite clearly it does not. Richard’s successful murder of Clarence and what follows thus stem to a large extent from Brackenbury failure to act (and Anne’s failure to just walk away).
Eve was not given responsibility for “original sin” for eating the forbidden fruit of Eden for as younger and less experienced of the two she had been seduced by Satan’s naturally powerful sweet talking (the Bible says Satan is full of wisdom, most handsome, and given an unusually beautiful voice… the perfect salesman) – it was given to Adam who stood nearby with full use of his facilities and did nothing. Through one MAN did sin enter the world. Inaction (I’m do’n nut’n) is usually the greatest sin. If perhaps Adam had interrupted to remind Eve he was someone she could trust and he had noted she was about to sin (even if he had not stopped her but only resulted in Eve snapping back she was only sinning because of low self-esteem and Adam shouldn’t make a big deal about it) that Adam wouldn’t have gotten the greatest blame. First and primary responsibility for evil is to say “I see you.”
Elijah (Hebrew) or Elias (Greek) is a name evoked in many Jewish customs as a generic term for prophets who are or will be an “opening act” for some greater revelation (just as Washington has come to refer to a government which the man “opened”). Typically, prophets were nearly all ignored and persecuted while at the same time preparing us (just like great artists). Such judges were different from kings (who created a world where death and taxes are assumed). A lot of Christians claim to be good at encouragement, but most remind me of the Peanuts comic strips in which Linus and Charlie Brown are all bundled up on a snowy, wintry day. They spot Snoopy shivering in the cold. Desiring to comfort him, they walk over to him. Linus speaks first, “Be of good cheer, Snoopy.” Charlie Brown adds, “Yes, be of good cheer.” With Snoopy left still shivering, they turn and walk away. Proper encouragement carries us beyond words to deeds. The exhortational communication gift of encouragement (often grouped with Prophecy and Teaching), when real, is a critical healing check against getting off course and uses good social skills (like active listening) and the wisdom to prescribe practical step-by-step plans to help others mature in Christ (using personal experiences amplified by scripture) based on being able to discern (the spiritual gift required of every Christian who wishes to follow God) the growth needs of others as well as the spiritual gifts they may be slow to recognize. The gift means recognizing and successfully providing admonishments to believers (as in I Thessalonians 5:12) who have strayed from their faith.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13, God explains when His children are tempted, He always provides a means of escape. One with the gift of encouragement must thusly provide His means of escape in order to replace someone’s wrong behavior with right behavior. To live for ideas and not the underlying ideals leaves us with what Maslow called a Mediocrity Personality Disorder. I believe we are all called to a universal Elijah-hood, working to virally help others “open” their own Elijah-hood. Doing otherwise, we are just as guilty as Lady Anne, Brackenbury, and Adam for sin in the world. It is not called the “Good” commission, we are called to be great. And, one can’t be great by accident. I often hear people say they will pray on someone and let it go at that, but the real answer is always, “OK, go do it.”
When you’re stopped for speeding (or photographed), does not knowing the speed limit prevent you from getting a ticket? Why? Because you should have known (it doesn’t matter if you didn’t).
This is the main theme of all Shakespearean plays. In Richard the III, Lady Anne hates Richard for killing her husband, father, and father-in-law, an yet she cannot resist him. Her seduction is Richard’s first success and it powers the rest of all his evil. It confirms that he is right to have set out on the evil journey he has undertaken. Why does Anne so suddenly capitulate? It seems she has given into Richard’s flattery and perhaps sex appeal (she tells us later in the play that she had grown grossly captive to his honeyed words). There is no force involved here, other than the force of Richard’s personality. Admittedly his tactics are brilliant (and very dangerous to him personally since he risks death). But he judges her weakness superbly and brings her, not simply to the edge of an emotional collapse, but to be his wife.
Also early in the play, Richard plots the killing of Clarence. When the murderers arrive at the prison where Clarence is held, they present their pass to the head officer of the prison, Brackenbury, who has just shared an intensely moving scene with Clarence in which the latter has made clear to all the intense suffering he is going through. Brackenbury is now faced with a choice: Should he let the murderers in to kill Clarence or not? His answer is significant. He says, as he reads over the commission, “I will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless of the meaning." Clarence dies and Richard enjoys another success, which again confirms his strategy (proof is in the pudding, right?). Brackenbury may think this evasion makes him innocent; quite clearly it does not. Richard’s successful murder of Clarence and what follows thus stem to a large extent from Brackenbury failure to act (and Anne’s failure to just walk away).
Eve was not given responsibility for “original sin” for eating the forbidden fruit of Eden for as younger and less experienced of the two she had been seduced by Satan’s naturally powerful sweet talking (the Bible says Satan is full of wisdom, most handsome, and given an unusually beautiful voice… the perfect salesman) – it was given to Adam who stood nearby with full use of his facilities and did nothing. Through one MAN did sin enter the world. Inaction (I’m do’n nut’n) is usually the greatest sin. If perhaps Adam had interrupted to remind Eve he was someone she could trust and he had noted she was about to sin (even if he had not stopped her but only resulted in Eve snapping back she was only sinning because of low self-esteem and Adam shouldn’t make a big deal about it) that Adam wouldn’t have gotten the greatest blame. First and primary responsibility for evil is to say “I see you.”
Elijah (Hebrew) or Elias (Greek) is a name evoked in many Jewish customs as a generic term for prophets who are or will be an “opening act” for some greater revelation (just as Washington has come to refer to a government which the man “opened”). Typically, prophets were nearly all ignored and persecuted while at the same time preparing us (just like great artists). Such judges were different from kings (who created a world where death and taxes are assumed). A lot of Christians claim to be good at encouragement, but most remind me of the Peanuts comic strips in which Linus and Charlie Brown are all bundled up on a snowy, wintry day. They spot Snoopy shivering in the cold. Desiring to comfort him, they walk over to him. Linus speaks first, “Be of good cheer, Snoopy.” Charlie Brown adds, “Yes, be of good cheer.” With Snoopy left still shivering, they turn and walk away. Proper encouragement carries us beyond words to deeds. The exhortational communication gift of encouragement (often grouped with Prophecy and Teaching), when real, is a critical healing check against getting off course and uses good social skills (like active listening) and the wisdom to prescribe practical step-by-step plans to help others mature in Christ (using personal experiences amplified by scripture) based on being able to discern (the spiritual gift required of every Christian who wishes to follow God) the growth needs of others as well as the spiritual gifts they may be slow to recognize. The gift means recognizing and successfully providing admonishments to believers (as in I Thessalonians 5:12) who have strayed from their faith.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13, God explains when His children are tempted, He always provides a means of escape. One with the gift of encouragement must thusly provide His means of escape in order to replace someone’s wrong behavior with right behavior. To live for ideas and not the underlying ideals leaves us with what Maslow called a Mediocrity Personality Disorder. I believe we are all called to a universal Elijah-hood, working to virally help others “open” their own Elijah-hood. Doing otherwise, we are just as guilty as Lady Anne, Brackenbury, and Adam for sin in the world. It is not called the “Good” commission, we are called to be great. And, one can’t be great by accident. I often hear people say they will pray on someone and let it go at that, but the real answer is always, “OK, go do it.”