Gosh Darnit!
A few days back, one of the 3 or 4 loyal readers of Parables sent me this email. With his permission, here's the question:
Raffi,
we have not met -- but I am a fan of your blog.
dont remember how i originally came to your blog, but I connect with it and your way of thinking...
if i remember correctly you commented on swearing on a post about George Carlin a while back.
anyway, I got the email below from someone & (if you have time) - i would appreciate your advice on how to respond.
i swear sometimes when i speak. honestly, i don't even notice it most of the time - because i do that in normal conversations at times also.
i just dont think it is that big of a deal -- but someone who was listening to me did.
anyway, this might seem kind of random -- but any input would be appreciated.
peace,
greg
That "email from someone" was also sent, but since I'm not sure how the questioner would feel about posting his question/comments, I'll just summarize by saying it was a gracious and loving communication, essentially acknowledging that the issue of swearing is nowhere on the map when compared to the issue of loving God and others; acknowledging further that he (the sender of the email) is so far off when it comes to that issue (loving God and others) that he is almost ashamed to send the communication; and honestly and lovingly communicating that he was troubled by Greg's use of "foul language" within the context of a teaching session.
I am honored and humbled by the question posed to me, but let me start off by saying that I don't have the answer.
I went back and read the Carlin post, and I guess my position on the issue is essentially the same...at the most general of levels:
"...because I don’t think God is concerned very much about curse words. I believe He is very much concerned about the anger in our hearts that brings about those words and which works to block out the presence of His spirit that, at that very moment, is telling us to communicate love and forgiveness to the person at whom we are instead cursing. Unless my exegesis is completely off, isn't that exactly what Jesus was saying in Mat. 5:21-22?"
Of course, there's more to say about the subject. A lot more. In the context of a church-teaching session, I might very well consciously refrain from using foul language, or consciously sprinkle it around to make a point, if I had that kind of courage, which I often don't, which is why I do my preaching/teaching (to the extent that anything I say can be characterized as that) from a keyboard addressed to people I'll probably never meet.
Segue.
My grandfather died a few days ago. He was a kind and simple man. I remember how fond he was of me when I was a child. He loved his family very much. He knew nothing else.
I hadn't seen or spoken to him in about five years. I won't be attending his funeral.
These last two facts are due simply and tragically to the effects of the fallen kingdom of this world, of which I am a card-carrying member. They are due to human sin and fear, primarily my own, but also that of all humankind throughout all history, passed along quietly and naturally from generation to generation to generation, causing disastrous consequences in lives, families, communities and humanity, quietly and naturally, from generation to generation to generation.
They are caused by precisely the things that Jesus highlighted, confronted, defeated, and thereby planted the seeds of a people, a body, a kingdom to carry forward that project, to, with His Father's help and His Spirit's guidance, carry it to its glorious fruition.
I've signed on for that project, to be part of that people, that body, that kingdom.
And I've done a miserable job so far.
There might be those more culpable than I for causing my grandfather and I to not have spoken, to not have hugged each other, to not have laughed together for the last five years of his life, for causing me not to be able to attend his funeral without turning it into a circus side-show. But that's not the point. For the most part, they haven't signed on to carry forward the project that will save this whole show by doing things that don't make sense in/to this world, things like loving one's enemies to the point of dying in their stead.
I have. HA!!
My spirit/soul/heart wants to do it, but my flesh can't/won't. In other words, I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. And inasmuch as I continue on that path, that little part of creation where God has placed me will continue to suffer, to hurt, to be torn asunder at various seams.
And I will pass that on to my children.
And they to their's.
Gosh Darnit! FUCK!!!!
Pray for me.
Rest in peace, Grandpa. I love you, though you would never have known it.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
Raffi,
we have not met -- but I am a fan of your blog.
dont remember how i originally came to your blog, but I connect with it and your way of thinking...
if i remember correctly you commented on swearing on a post about George Carlin a while back.
anyway, I got the email below from someone & (if you have time) - i would appreciate your advice on how to respond.
i swear sometimes when i speak. honestly, i don't even notice it most of the time - because i do that in normal conversations at times also.
i just dont think it is that big of a deal -- but someone who was listening to me did.
anyway, this might seem kind of random -- but any input would be appreciated.
peace,
greg
That "email from someone" was also sent, but since I'm not sure how the questioner would feel about posting his question/comments, I'll just summarize by saying it was a gracious and loving communication, essentially acknowledging that the issue of swearing is nowhere on the map when compared to the issue of loving God and others; acknowledging further that he (the sender of the email) is so far off when it comes to that issue (loving God and others) that he is almost ashamed to send the communication; and honestly and lovingly communicating that he was troubled by Greg's use of "foul language" within the context of a teaching session.
I am honored and humbled by the question posed to me, but let me start off by saying that I don't have the answer.
I went back and read the Carlin post, and I guess my position on the issue is essentially the same...at the most general of levels:
"...because I don’t think God is concerned very much about curse words. I believe He is very much concerned about the anger in our hearts that brings about those words and which works to block out the presence of His spirit that, at that very moment, is telling us to communicate love and forgiveness to the person at whom we are instead cursing. Unless my exegesis is completely off, isn't that exactly what Jesus was saying in Mat. 5:21-22?"
Of course, there's more to say about the subject. A lot more. In the context of a church-teaching session, I might very well consciously refrain from using foul language, or consciously sprinkle it around to make a point, if I had that kind of courage, which I often don't, which is why I do my preaching/teaching (to the extent that anything I say can be characterized as that) from a keyboard addressed to people I'll probably never meet.
Segue.
My grandfather died a few days ago. He was a kind and simple man. I remember how fond he was of me when I was a child. He loved his family very much. He knew nothing else.
I hadn't seen or spoken to him in about five years. I won't be attending his funeral.
These last two facts are due simply and tragically to the effects of the fallen kingdom of this world, of which I am a card-carrying member. They are due to human sin and fear, primarily my own, but also that of all humankind throughout all history, passed along quietly and naturally from generation to generation to generation, causing disastrous consequences in lives, families, communities and humanity, quietly and naturally, from generation to generation to generation.
They are caused by precisely the things that Jesus highlighted, confronted, defeated, and thereby planted the seeds of a people, a body, a kingdom to carry forward that project, to, with His Father's help and His Spirit's guidance, carry it to its glorious fruition.
I've signed on for that project, to be part of that people, that body, that kingdom.
And I've done a miserable job so far.
There might be those more culpable than I for causing my grandfather and I to not have spoken, to not have hugged each other, to not have laughed together for the last five years of his life, for causing me not to be able to attend his funeral without turning it into a circus side-show. But that's not the point. For the most part, they haven't signed on to carry forward the project that will save this whole show by doing things that don't make sense in/to this world, things like loving one's enemies to the point of dying in their stead.
I have. HA!!
My spirit/soul/heart wants to do it, but my flesh can't/won't. In other words, I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. And inasmuch as I continue on that path, that little part of creation where God has placed me will continue to suffer, to hurt, to be torn asunder at various seams.
And I will pass that on to my children.
And they to their's.
Pray for me.
Rest in peace, Grandpa. I love you, though you would never have known it.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
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