Blogging Towards Sunday
June 6, 2008
Karma Foundation Problems Jesus & Sharon Stone

Matthew 7:21-29
Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28

This week's gospel selection from Matthew's telling of the Jesus experience is the concluding words in one of the foundational teachings of Jesus (aka the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:1-7:29). Jesus ends his teaching with a warning to not just listen but to put what his audience hears into action. The crowds are astonished at the authority with which he teaches. He claims his own authority in terms of speaking, teaching and interpreting the Torah scriptures - and seems to practice what he preaches - as opposed to the traditional way of invoking the authoritative teaching of previous established teachers (as seen in the opening lines of the Pirqe Avot Chapter 1). Those gathered to listen to him and dialogue with him seem to hear a glimpse of God's own power and voice in his words.

Jesus embodies his words in verses 21-23. You can distinguish between a dependable, solid leader [prophet] and unwise ones by where they put their money. Do they work to ensure that the faith community they lead looks and acts like the kindgom of God? Do they practice what they preach? Do they show mercy & forgiveness or merely talk about it with beautiful prose and poetry? Jesus invites the audience crowd - and us by extension - to not just listen to the words, hearing them with our ears, but to pray them with our feet, hands and hearts.

Jesus ends this teaching by comparing those that obey, or practice his challenging words, to those that build houses on solid foundations and those that don't to folks that build a house upon the sand. I've heard this a million times and am struck by it this week. I've been talking with others about karma. Do we get what we deserve? Why do good things happen to bad people? Maybe you heard Sharon Stone talk about China and how they got what was coming to them via the earthquake for what they've done in Tibet. (If not see it below).

Is that what God is like? A friend was told by their doctor that the pain they were feeling was because of bad karma. Where did they guy go to medical school? It's easy for us to accept the common cultural saying that what goes around comes around. Yet Jesus isn't teaching that. He's saying more that in life $%&* happens! Storms comes and go for the good and the bad, the wise and the unwise, the builders on the sand and the stone. It's not about God's sense of justice, omnipotence or benevolence. Suffering - the storms - is a given part of human existence. Jesus challenges us to build our lives based upon truths that are foundational, that hold up. If we base our house on greed it will fall when the economic situation changes (think of all the sub-prime stuff). If we base our house on power it will collapse when the political climate shifts (think of the neo-cons). If we life for the moment in everything it will collapse when we're faced with the mystery of birth, deep suffering and death.

I don't think Jesus is challenging us to live some pleasure-denying puritanical fundamentalist monastic lifestyle, but rather to be fully engaged in life, culture, society and community with perspective, recognizing and claiming what is essential in life, basing our worldview, moral compass, ethical guidelines and community building upon the key teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. Maybe it's easier said than done. Yet it's what struck those that encountered Jesus. He had authority because he wasn't just a good orator, but an experiential prophet calling others to dialogue, participation and missional community.

Here's my concluding thoughts (at the moment on all of this):

"The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you." - Soren Kierkegaard.

and this video of a collapsing building in Nigeria.

I don't believe in Karma but I do believe in cause and effect. Good is not always rewarded (nor evil punished) but our actions, choices, relationships and words do change the universe and us as people

What do you think? Is it Karma, chance or something else that flows through our human existence?