Matthew 15:21-28

          If I only had a brain...

      In todays reading from Matthew, Jesus says "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Yet, in responding to reasoning and the pleadings of a faithful Gentile woman, he responds favorably and heals her daughter.

       I bristle every time I hear a conservative evangelical or muslim radical expound on how they know the way of truth and God's will. They often quote  select sentences or words of holy scripture from the Bible or the Qur'an. It amazes me how ignorant they sound and the words coming out of their mouths sounds false and un-enlightened. I find this true of their words on many subjects, from the role of woman, archaic laws, blaming natural disasters on 'God's will' and of course, closest to my heart, that Gays are 'an abomb-nation!' 

      If these so called holy people used the brain God gave them instead of burying their heads in tradition and mean spirited translations, they would find strong need to apologize and repent. I suspect that they will in fact be the one's going to hell in a hand basket. Of course that's not my call.

      The gist of this meditation / rant is that our intellect is a gift from God just as much as holy scripture is. I believe God wants us to use our brains. We should not stagnate in an evolving and vibrant world. Otherwise, we'd believe we lived on a round disc with a dome over us with no reference to the universe as we know it. We'd believe incest, slavery, having multiple spouses, concubines and even terrorism is just fine and dandy because they all can be found in holy scripture - Christian scripture!

      I thinks this may sum it up best. When the Dalai Lama was asked what the main method of fostering inner awareness was, he replied, "introspection and reasoning is more efficient for this purpose than meditation and prayer." Not that prayer and meditation are not important, of course they are very important, but there is import to us using the brains and intellect God gave us as well.

       God gave us the world that we must care for, it leads us to Him. God gave us many sacred texts as well as intellect, use the intellect, it will lead us to Him also.