SOME THOUGHTS

Some thoughts from My Literalist, Bible-believing Worldview:

On Labor, Minimum Wage and Immigrant Workers

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.

 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it,

for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you. (Deuteronomy  24: 14, 15)    

On Predatory Lending

If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.

If you ever take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.  (Exodus 22: 25-27)

On Entitlements

If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.   (Leviticus 25: 35)

On Community Service/ Unpaid Labor to Receive Charity

And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.  (Leviticus 25:39)

On Deference to the Rich and Special Protection for “Job Creators”

The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor;

Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire;

He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. (Psalm 10: 2-3)

He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, And he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty.  (Proverbs 22: 16)

The righteous considers the cause of the poor, But the wicked does not understand such knowledge. (Proverbs 29:7)

On Liberal, “Socialist” Activists

Defend the poor and fatherless;

Do justice to the afflicted and needy.

Deliver the poor and needy;

Free them from the hand of the wicked.  (Psalm 82: 3-4)

On Equal Rights for Women

Then came the daughters of Zelophehad …     And they stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying, “Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers.”

So Moses brought their case before the Lord.

 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right.”  (Numbers 27: 1, 2, 4-7 )

On the “Place” of ex-Criminals and Sinners

Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.  (Matthew 21: 31)

On Single Mothers and Children without an Active Father

You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.  If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry. (Exodus 22: 22-23)

On What We’ll Have to Answer for in Judgment

“For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.”

 Then they also will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?”

Then He will answer them, saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  (Matthew 25: 42-46)

 ---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116 

SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO GO THERE

I believe in Biblical morality.  I believe in Biblical values. 

Defining Biblcal values and morality though requires reading the Bible as a unit and comparing scriptures within and across Old & New Testaments.

And when I go back and forth and really hear the whole counsel of God, then whatever God tells me I have to do--- that's what I'm supposed to do, whether I like it or not.

Which is why I believe in Biblical values, but not necessarily in "traditional" values.

In the days of Jesus' earthly ministry, the good, right-worshipping, properly-pedigreed Jews in Judaea had a long-standing TRADITION of hating the Samaritans.   This was part of their Judeo-not-yet-Christian tradition.  The Jews perceived themselves as spiritually, politically, culturally, and in all other ways superior to the Samaritans across the border.

But the time Jesus walked the earth, hating Samaritans was an understood part of the Jews' traditional value system.    But it's not commanded in the Bible. 

The Bible talks about Samaria.  The Bible explains how Samaria got started and how the Samaritans got so far away from the culture of the other Jews.  But, the Bible never commanded the other Jews to hate, shun, or discriminate against the land that was once part of their land. 

The Bible doesn't sugar-coat the real sins committed by the Samaritans; but nowhere did God command the Jews to hate and oppose everything Samaritan.

That was part of the people's traditional values.

John 4: 1-4 says that Jesus was in the southern territory of Judaea getting ready to had back to Galilee which was on the other side of Samaria. 

“Good” Jews, true conservatives  walked around Samaria to get to Galilee lest their feet touch the hated soil.  John 4: 3, 4 says:

Jesus left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria.

NEEDED.

He must needs go throuh Samaria.

Jesus hadta go there.

Why? 

Just to meet one promiscuous lady at a well and tell her he was the Messiah?   Just to save one village of Samaritans who treated Him with more hospitality than the people of His own home town?  Just to have a back story for a parable explaining what it truly means to be someone’s neighbor?

All of the above. 

But also Jesus NEEDED to defy the traditional values of His people to fulfill all of the Biblical values of His Father.

Now as then, whenever Jesus’ people gauge what’s right and wrong by TRADITION rather than by the honest reading of the whole Bible, then disciples NEED to follow the Lord into areas where tradition won’t set foot.

Sometimes we havta go there. 

As I write this I realize that my more liberal readers will assume that my words are a strict endorsement of whatever contemporary social stance they hold.  

Slow your roll there.

Jesus didn’t endorsing the old Pharisaic tradition (of conservatism), but neither did He endorse the relatively new Samaritan traditions (of liberalism).   

Jesus told the Pharisees (conservatives),   “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. (Mark 7: 9)

Jesus told the Samaritans (liberals), You worship what you do not know. (John 4: 22)

The Bible does not support the conservative agenda.  The Bible does not endorse the liberal agenda. 

The Bible explains God’s agenda.  

God’s agenda will lead you off everybody else’s map.

But if we’re going to follow Jesus, we NEED to follow Him even into Samaria.

Sometimes, you just gotta go there.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

BIBLICAL RELIABILITY & THE MYTH OF SHAKESPEARE

On the bookshelf in my home office is a book titled The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.  This book claims to contain the word of a 16^th century British author.  However, the copyright date makes it abundantly clear that this book was published in 1980.  On top of that, further analysis shows that the book is the 3^rd edition, clearly a copy of a copy copied by an earlier scribe.

If my house was the main site of research into this alleged “Shakespeare,” and the third edition of his Complete Works was the only copy found in excavations, would we still believe in Shakespeare?

Would we conclude that since the oldest surviving copy was printed in 1980 then obviously its quotations were unreliable?    

Would professors of the Shakespearean mythos profess that our belief in Shakespeare as an author is far too literal since multiple editors writing hundreds of years after Shakespeare’s death had obviously added their own words to his plays?  

Would experts argue that the same man could not have written of honest witches in the book of Macbeth and of a peacemaking priest in the book of Romeo & Juliet? 

Would scholars applying critical literary analysis conclude that Shakespeare was a myth, that no one could have written that many plays in a time before laptops? 

Nah. 

Because obviously the copyright date doesn’t give the original date that a text was written.  It only tells when a particular company pressed another set of books.  Obviously finding a copy of an author’s words doesn’t tell us when his words were originally written down.  Obviously, finding copies made 100 years after the fact only proves that 100 years after the fact people were STILL making copies.  Obviously, a circa 1980 copy of Shakespeare’s words doesn’t mean that Shakespeare didn’t live and speak in the 1600’s.  It just proves that what he wrote was important enough for people to preserve it over hundreds of years as opposed to all the other things written during the same time period that have been ignored and lost to time.

Obviously.

Obviously?

Then why isn’t it obvious that the date of a copy of the gospels only tells you the date the previous copy was copied down?  It doesn’t tell us the date of the original eyewitness’s narrative.

Why isn’t it obvious that finding a 2^nd century copy of a copy of Jesus’ words doesn’t prove that Jesus was misquoted?  It just proves that Jesus’ words were important enough to keep repeating and sharing via the only printing method available----- hand scribed copies.

It’s obvious that only fool or a rabid conspiracy theorist would use my 1980 copy of Shakespeare to question the authenticity of the Bard of Avon?

However, if you use a single scrap of a single page which doesn’t even claim to be the original manuscript and just happened to not get lost with the millions of other undiscovered 1^st century scrolls  to claim that you know when the Bible was ORIGINALLY written down, you’re not a fool.  You’re not a rabid conspiracy theorist.   You’re a scholar and a theologian.

Obviously.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116