This is a bit rambling, even by my standards.  Not sure what, if any, sense it makes! 

Today our readings are:

Psalm 119:9-16
Isaiah 43:8-13
2 Corinthians 3:4-11

The line that strikes me today comes from the 2 Corinthians reading, and it is a well known part-verse, 'the letter kills but the spirit gives life'.

This is one of those verses that we all think we understand, which probably means that we don't.  We all wrestle with the balance between legalism and licentiouness; between the minutiae of some aspect of OT prohibition and the intent of the sweep of scripture; between the contextual and the eternal; between societal norms and spiritual demands.

I have to confess to a degree of bewilderment yesterday when I heard on the news that the C of E and the RC felt that the UK government had a duty to help them maintain their cathedrals... cathedrals in which they foot-stampingly refuse to be told what to do.  It felt a bit like wanting a cake and eating it, like misunderstanding that choices have consequences and the why should HM government squander tax-payers money to maintain buildings which might well be lovely, but in which some tax-payers will be marginalised or excluded.  Hmmm.  Not entirely sure how this connects but it feels as if it ought to.

In my electronic version of the Bible on this computer, I have a couple of ancient commentaries.  One of them says the 'letter' means the OT and the 'spirit' means the Gospel; which feels like a move towards the Marcionite heresy of rejecting the OT.  Whilst some in our churches would happily join Marcion on this, I don't think that's helpful.  Another of the free commentaries suggests that the Law shows up that which is death-dealing whilst the Holy Spirit brings life.  That seems a bit better.  But it doesn't help us with those aspects we deem to be contextual or even over-ridden by later writings (e.g. food laws and hygiene laws).  Perhaps the simplest reading is the best - nit-picking legalism is destructive, timless prinicples are creative.  No rocket science here, this is the model used all the time in 'secular' understandings.  But not always in our churches where dogmatic legalism and dogmatic antinomianism are equally unhealthy.

Not sure I've got any further forward, just need to keep examining my own heart, my own motives, to see where either death-dealing pedantic legalism, or equally death-dealing antinomianism is growing.

God's Spirit lives to set us free - walk, walk in the light

To join our hearts in unity - walk, walk in the light...

Were it so, Lord, were it so

Were we able to see

Were we able to hear

Were we able to open ourselves

To your Spirit

Your Intent

Your Will

Your Way...

Teach me to love your Law

As Jesus loves it

Teach me to undertsand your Law

As Christ understands it

Teach me to live your Law

As your Spirit directs it

For your Law is

Love not hate

Life not death

Hope not despair

Freedom not chains

Teach we your ways, oh Lord, show me your paths...