This week I did some reading on the lectionary, and even led a discussion on Wednesday, but due to work on some new book releases I never had time to write.  There is one theme that came to mind when I was looking at the two liturgies--palms and passion.

In teaching Bible study I like to use a couple of key stories.  The first is the story of Jonah and what I call "the Jonah problem."  Now this doesn't refer to the possibility of large fish swallowing people whole and said people surviving for days, then being spit up on shore.  That's an interesting point to discuss, but even more important is the issue that comes up at the end.

Jonah, whose preaching has been wildly successful, beyond the dreams of any evangelist that I know, is discouraged.  Down and out.  Suicidal even!  Why?  Because the story seems to him to have come to an end, and the end isn't what he wanted.

We often think that Jonah's big problem with going to Nineveh was fear of the Ninevites.  I imagine he was afraid.  The Assyrians were not known by their foes as nice people.  But more importantly, I think, Jonah didn't like the Ninevites.  He'd really have preferred to see them all consumed.  He ran away primarily because if the Ninevites didn't hear the message, they wouldn't respond, and they'd all be dead.  To Jonah, this was a good thing.  (Now before you go condemning him, think of your worst enemies, no, not the guy who taunts you at work.  Perhaps a serial killer.)

So Jonah gets the wrong ending, which incidentally isn't the actual end, as in the end the Ninevites get wiped out and it was many centuries before the site was even identified again.

Jonah expected and was looking for one ending, and he got another.  He didn't recognize what God was doing, because God didn't do what he expected.

The disciples have a similar problem.  To them, Palm Sunday should have been an end, or at least the beginning of one.  It should have been the end of them being the down-and-out, scum from Galilee, Jews of a lower class under the domination of Rome.  Palm Sunday was the thing that was supposed to happen.

But in Mark 11:1-11, which is our gospel passage for the liturgy of the Palms, Jesus goes into Jerusalem to the temple, looks around, and then leaves.  It all falls flat.  Nothing comes of it.

But the real climax was coming soon--the cross.  Of course, even though they had been told about it many times.  It just didn't sink in. It didn't become real to them.

I had the experience of talking to a Sunday School class once immediately after what might have been a controversial sermon.  The interesting thing was that the minister had spoken against religious pluralism and in favor of salvation by grace.  The class members tended to think one got into heaven by being good enough, that the benefit of Christianity over other religions was that Jesus gave us a better example of how to live.

But they liked the sermon anyhow.  They thought the pastor had said just what they thought.  Now I had heard the same sermon, and he said no such thing.  I talked to him and confirmed it.  He intended to say, and said, what I thought I had heard.  I know I'm perfectly capable of error in hearing, so I checked this carefully.

During the class, however, I tried to explain what I thought he had said, and heard the same line repeated.  It was as though the actual message simply couldn't penetrate.

I think that's where the disciples were.  Since the message of the cross made no sense at all, they had to try to interpret their way around it and come to understand it as meaning something other than it was.  So they thought Palm Sunday should be the beginning of the end, followed, of course, by Jesus taking the throne and driving out the Romans, whereas Jesus knew that the cross was coming.

Now on Easter Sunday we get another high--the resurrection.  But have you noticed that again, the ending isn't really quite there yet?  Oh yes, Jesus has paid the price and salvation is ours.  But that coming kingdom is both now and not yet.  The structure of the Christian year points that out to us, if we will pay attention.

Good Friday must come before Easter.  Being the body of Christ here comes before the rest of heaven.  The apparent end of the story, isn't really the end.

There are so many ideas that come from reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.  The worst is the notion that many foolish human notions are actually divine wisdom.  Paul doesn't tell us any such thing.  Certainly human wisdom falls far short of God's wisdom, and we may have some very foolish ideas that we mistake for wisdom, but at the same time there are still very foolish human ideas, and we must, as we are told in Proverbs 2:1-8, seek wisdom.

Now there are a number of things that will turn whatever wisdom one has into foolishness.  It is said that a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing.  But actually, a little knowledge can be a very good thing.  Where the problem comes in is when one overestimates one's knowledge.  If I accurately understand who I am and what I am capable of doing, then my little knowledge can be valuable.

It's critical to understand just what "little" means.  As one learns more, one may either become puffed up by the new knowledge, or one can continue to realize one's limitations.  I know, for example, that I can repair an old style circuit with components soldered in using various sockets and connection devices.  But many years ago such circuits were largely replaced by circuit boards.  My knowledge of circuit boards is much too limited, and I am often not steady enough to work safely with a soldering iron.  I could burn up the entire board.  So I limit my activities.  Overestimating my skill could be very, very expensive.

When we apply this specifically to knowledge, any insight can look fairly primitive and stupid when looked at from a much broader context.  Much of the advance of science has gone that way.  Ideas that worked within a more limited body of knowledge become much less workable in a larger context.  I am told by various friends who are physicists that Newton's ideas are not so much wrong as limited.  Within the proper constraints, Newton can be quite useful even today.  Einstein brought theories that explain much more data, but still don't explain many things, especially at the subatomic level.

When we consider that all human knowledge is confined to a finite, and indeed very small, perspective, we might understand how the wisdom of the world looks like foolishness from God's infinite point of view.  It always will!

But here's where we make a mistake.  When we think that it's OK to stop thinking, to stop learning, to stop growing because we're limited, then we are going to stop living, and we will be in great danger.  Einstein may not have given the last word on explaining the universe, but his ideas produced many more that were valuable.  The only foolish thing would be to think that there would never be another advance and that all was now explained.

One might even say that limited wisdom + unlimited arrogance = foolishness.

Limited knowledge is also not necessarily a bad thing.  When I was in school I found that I could force my way through just about any subject I chose and get a good grade.  How much stuck with me was another matter.  But I could make it happen.  Math was more work for me than social science, but I could get there. The first necessity was for me to recognize that even though I might be able to choose anything I wanted, I was very, very limited, and couldn't choose everything within my lifetime.  The temptation to push a number of different fields was very great.  But then I realized that I could get limited knowledge in certain areas and then rely on others.

Often we don't want to rely on others.  We privilege information we collect for ourselves.  But we are all reliant on others for so many things, and that is not a bad thing.  My limited knowledge helps me sort through the many voices in each area and decide what range of voices I have time to study.  I took nearly a minor (3 quarter hours short) in political science.  That doesn't make me a political scientist, but it help me identify real hacks when I hear them, and look for those people with challenging ideas on which they have done their homework.

One of the dangers of post-modern thinking as it's practiced on the street is that people will decide that there is no point going after better information because they have determined that they will never get perfect information.

There was an arrogance about 20th century thinking in which people felt they could get a completely objective view of various topics.  That arrogance required some correction.  But many post-modern people conclude that because perfect objectivity is impossible, they shouldn't pursue knowledge at all.  That is also a dangerous view.  I do note, however, as I did here, that there are still those who seem to think such objectivity is attainable, so we have both errors active in the 21st century.

Not all ideas are equal; within our limited sphere, some ideas work better than others.  Climbing down the cliff with a rope tested for the roper weight, for example, is much better than the idea of jumping, or of climbing down using a piece of light string.  There are better things and worse.\

So let's seek divine wisdom.  Let's recognize our foolishness.  But let's always look for the better way, even when it seems distant and unattainable.