Opus 2026-481: Unused Levels

I knew a man in Boston who had immigrated from the Cape Islands.  He had a great attitude, a warm personality, and if anything, he was just too willing to help.  And all the time I knew him, he never worked anything better than entry-level jobs.  In spite of that, he bought an old rundown house in the ghetto of Boston moved into the bottom floor, and started renovating.  As far as I can remember, the upper two stories went unused.  When he had the first level fixed, he moved his family up to the second level and rented out the bottom floor.  He proceeded this way until he was finished.

Too often we do the reverse of that in our Bible study and we never get past the first floor.  Most of the time what we do is we find a verse we like, one that seemed to support our preconceived suppositions, and we lay that down in concrete as if it’s the final word.  There may be a few times where that is good enough.  Most of the time it’s simply us avoiding the deeper truth that we might find

This tendency is, naturally, mostly obvious to me in other people.  Although I intellectually accept the fact that I do the same thing, I know even in my heart it is not that simple.

This is one of the reasons why I tend to question everything.  It is so easy just to accept what someone says.  Recently the pastor was preaching and he got off on the word “heresy” in the King James Bible.  He never got into what Paul was talking about when he declared them heresies, but he went on a rant against the Catholic Church.  Much of what he said was true, even if it wasn’t the kindest way to put it across.  What offended me was when he took the Catholic view of communion and transubstantiation, and declared that a horrible heresy.  Maybe he used the word pernicious instead of horrible, I can’t remember exactly.  He declared the idea that when you took communion, you were actually taking the body in blood of Christ as heresy.  I’m sorry, that doesn’t qualify.

To be clear, I am not a Catholic.  I do not believe that a priest, lifting up a wafer and ringing a bell transforms the bread into the body of Christ..  To me it seems superstitious mumbo-jumbo

I can, however, understand where they get that.  It doesn’t take much reading.  

1Co 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 
1Co 11:25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 

While I emphasize the aspect of “remembrance” I can see that Jesus clearly said, “This is my body.”  I am also aware of this,

(Joh 6:51 KJV)  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The way his listeners understood it was very Roman Catholic,

(Joh 6:52 KJV)  The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

And it goes on into even more detail.

Don’t label people heretics just because they disagree with you.  Look to see where they get it.  Make sure that you are not the one who is the heretic.  Study.  Don’t be satisfied with the superficial.

homo unius libri