Definitive knowledge?

       In the autumn of 1970 I had a hippyish teacher who drove around in a red corvette. His teaching methods were totally out of the box from the good Sisters that had taught me previously. I still cherish and hold several good lessons and practises for living that he imparted, not usual of most English teachers. One of the most important things he somehow drummed into me was a quote. " Knowing what, one knows not, is in a sense omniscience".  

        Have you ever come across someone who feels they know everything? It could be a religious person, a secular person. Invariably they are incredibly boring and and they in fact do not know everything. Quite often they are avoided like the plague at parties and as friends. No one likes a know it all because no one does know it all, save God herself. The best way to be is realize how infinitesimally small our knowledge really is and strive to learn as much as we can. 

         There are perhaps no more problematic area in this regard than there is in religion.  Scriptures are quoted right and left with full authority, arrogance and celestial might. There is little respect for others opinions on the matter. Case in point is the religious right and homosexuality.  There is much to know and learn on the subject. Enough evidence exists to indicate we should not rush to judgment in any form.  God's good creation yields enormous evidence to diversity. Holy Scriptures are translations of translations of translations and even in original text falls short by virtue of it's human translation or contamination. Original texts even if literal, do not take into account the movement of the Spirit that Jesus promised and is very much alive in the world.  People clamor for the good old days and a return to biblical marriage. Sadly, the evidence we have indicates, polygamy, concubines, incest, rape, slavery and a whole host of unholy practises that we have since come to realize as anathema to human living. I wouldn't be too quick to judge a loving same sex couple.

         We have amassed volumes of knowledge, Zettabytes and Yottabytes and yet, there are volumes we do not know. We should be less arrogant and more humbled, seeking truth and wisdom more than anything. In religion and life, what truly counts is the arbiter we call love.  Call that Jesus, call that the Word, call it love but do not claim to know it all.

John 7:14-31

 About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished at it, saying, ‘How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?’ Then Jesus answered them, ‘My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.

 ‘Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?’ The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?’ Jesus answered them, ‘I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the sabbath? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.’

 Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiahcomes, no one will know where he is from.’ Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’ Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, ‘When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?’