Boarding a train shortly for the San Diego Comic-Con, so updates (if any) will probably be sporadic until Monday.  You can find me at the Christian Comic Arts Society table (N06 in the small press area).  Also, I’ll be on the Christian Comics: The Word in Pictures panel from 10:00-11:00 Sunday in the Santa Rosa Room, Marriott Hotel and Marina.

Old Testament Joseph doesn’t get the mad love he deserves.

In a very real sense, the Bible begins with him.

Oh, yeah, sure, there’s a lotta stuff before him, like the creation of the world, Adam & Eve, the flood, Noah’s ark, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc., etc., and of course, etc., but truth be told, none of the folks who preceded Joseph were particularly moral.  They were, by and large, a selfish lot, and if they didn’t lie, cheat, steal, and murder it was only because they were looking out for their own self-interests by not doing anything that would bring the wrath of God down on ‘em.

They behaved themselves because they were afraid of being punished, not because they believed it was right.

Joseph is the first Christ-like figure in the Bible, Christ-like in that he allowed himself to be offered up on faith as a sacrifice to save his family and Egypt from famine.

His family = his 10 brothers who beat him up, stripped him, threw him in a pit, sold him to slave traders, then faked his death so their father wouldn’t go looking for him.

But unlike almost everyone who preceded him, Joseph did not return evil for evil (the other patriarchs didn’t initiate violence against their neighbors so long as their neighbors let ‘em be, but were quick to draw swords and blood at the slightest offence).

Because of this, Joseph gradually rose to a position of power and responsibility in Egypt, putting him in the right place at the right time to save his brothers from starvation.

Read the story (Genesis 37, 39 – 50).  Pay special attention to chapter 42, verses 7 – 24.  Joseph is clearly tempted to give his brothers a hard time, and one suspects that if they had not demonstrated at least the tiny bit of remorse that they did, Joseph would have let ‘em have it.

But Joseph could not, would not bear animosity towards them.  He saw that even though he had to suffer, ultimately God had blessed him and rewarded him far beyond what he would have received as a scabby sheep herder in Canaan.

But God didn’t tell him this in advance!  God didn’t give him a dream to tell him how it would all work out, God just ran him through the wringer and expected him to stand fast.

And he did.

We go through the wringer all the time.  We don’t know how it’s going to turn out.

Do we stand fast?

Science Comics #3 (April 1939).

“If you’re just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television’s electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall.  See what blows, and how far.  Just an idea.” — Stephen King

A short while ago I received this e-mail from “Bobby Winter”*, a pastor I know, over my Good Samaritan paraphrase:

Why don’t you insert ‘pedophile’ or ‘murderer’ or ‘rapist’ or ‘bomb-wearing suicide bomber’ or ‘Adolph Hitler’ in place of Samaritan?

I think you are missing the unique relationship of Samaritans to Jews in Jesus’ day – the Jews did not consider the Samaritans inferior to them spiritually because of their ‘actions’ but because of their historical lineage (they had intermarried with local non-Jews and had split away from Judah and Jerusalem when Solomon died)

Be careful – a good paraphrase helps people grasp the truths of scripture (just look at The Message by Eugene Peterson) – but you can’t substitute just any old ‘unpopular type of character or nationality’ when you come to an ancient people group in Scripture

I will grant you that some homosexuals today exhibit great kindness toward others and do love others as Jesus has commanded all of us to do – at times they may even be more loving and ‘Godly’ than Bible-toting, church-attending born-again-types

But our righteousness is not dependent on OUR actions but on our faith in JESUS’ action – and Jesus invites all of humanity to confess our sins and repent (or turn away from them) – certainly many of us fail at doing that, but we nonetheless admit that we need to be turning away from what it is that we are doing that is wrong – if a person sins but will not admit that what they are doing is sinful nor will they turn away from doing what is sinful, it will hamper their relationship with God – there is no sinful behavior that can break off our relationship with God, but it can certainly weaken it

My response:

I selected “homosexual” as my Samaritan substitute for a number of reasons.  For one thing, it’s a passive descriptor:  It refers to their sexual orientation, not what they might/might not be doing (as opposed to “practicing homosexual”**).

It’s also a group that is defined not through any conscious choice they have made.  Whatever the cause of homosexual orientation, it does not appear to be the result of someone making a deliberate decision based on a rational comparison of the pros and cons of being gay.

Conversely, one has to make a conscious choice to become a murderer or a rapist.  Further, homosexual behavior has no direct impact on anyone other than the people engaging in the activity, whereas murder, rape, and suicide-bombings whole intent is to have an impact — a horrible, painful, eternal, tragic impact.

An active pedophile definitely has a negative impact on others, but a person who has the inclination but makes a moral choice to avoid the behavior is harmless.  Likewise Adolf Hitler sure couldn’t avoid being born Adolf Hitler, but it was his choice to march on Stalingrad.

I selected “homosexual” as opposed to “gay” because I wanted a more formal, more clinical neutral descriptor.  “Gay” carries a certain lifestyle implication; exaggerated comparisons would be “cholo” to “Hispanic” or “cracker” to “Southerner” or “narcissist” to “Los Angelino”.  As Samaritans were judged by the Jews not for what they did but for who they were, I felt homosexuals were also judged negatively by many people as a group, not for any specific behavior.

Homosexuals may not be an ethnic group, but unlike other groups, homosexuals find animosity to them transcends race/color/class/religious barriers:  They will find people who don’t like ‘em in every other group.  As such, it makes them more a better, more universal substitute for my paraphrase than other group.

At the risk of making what may sound like a sophomoric argument***, it could be pointed out that we humans do need to take an action in order to obtain salvation:  We must choose to accept Christ as our savior and make a conscious choice to live in as Christ-like a manner as possible.

And as “Bobby Winter” points out above, we should be extremely cautious about saying a practicing sinner of any stripe is not assured of Christ’s salvation.  This is not to give a blank check for every sin and shortcoming, but (a) if all sins are equal in the eyes of God then (b) you**** better be blessed well perfect before you accuse anyone else of not being a genuine Christian just because their sin of preference is different from yours.

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*  Pseudonym requested

**  Which I presume means they haven’t gotten it right yet.

***  Like this ever slowed me down in the past…

**** Rhetorical

Boody Roger’s Sparky Watts

Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was ambushed by robbers who  stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and left him half dead.  A best selling Christian author happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So did a popular talk show host; when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side.  But when a homosexual saw the man, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, applying antiseptics.  Then he put the man in his car, took him to a hospital, and put the bill on his credit card, telling the hospital, ‘Look after him, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

“Go and do likewise.”

Motto of the town of Burano, Venice, Italy.

“‘Ey, wake up.  It’sa time for church.”

“I’m not going to church.”

“You gotta go to church.  Now get up and get dressed.”

“No!  I don’t want to!  Nobody likes me there.”

“What?  You crazy?  They like you.”

“No, they don’t!  The people are always saying mean things about me behind my back.”

“Who told you that?  They like you.”

“The nuns don’t like me.”

“Da nuns love you.”

“The priests all hate me.”

“Da priests doan hate nobody.  Now, come on.  Quit foolin’ around.  You gotta get ready for church.”

“Baloney!  Give me one good reason why I should go to church!”

“You da pope.”