Yesterday I was having a conversation about the moving "The Invention of Lying". The premise is that no one can lie - no one has thought of it - until one man discovers he can and it changes his life. The person I was talking to has seen the movie - I have not - but what fascinated me was that the world and characters he was describing to me sounded very much like the world we have with lying - just changed a bit.
I wondered whether that could be the case - In a world where we were honest with each other and, more importantly, with ourselves - could there be poverty and greed. After all, honesty with ourselves would lead us to a position of only taking what we need and not amassing and collecting like we do. This needs based world might look like a kind of Utopia or it might seem rather tame and Stepford like as we all glided happily by each other in some sort of harmony.
A world with no lies would necessarily be very different - but how?
Today's Gospel is about giving things up - and we often limit its scope to things - to making sure we can comfortable chip away at the edge of our material existence - or in some cases dig deeper into money or status. But what about giving up the lack of truth which so often surrounds us - what about trying to give up lying, to see the world as it is and not as we want to make it.
We tell ourselves that something is "nothing to do with us" or "does not matter". Is that true - in a post-incarnation world, where we are now a part of the interaction between God and humanty, is there anything which is not really our business and our calling.
I like comedy and I am sure I will find the movie very funny when I see it - perhaps it asks deeper questions - but my question to all of us remains - what would a world look like if no one could hide from God, from themselves or from each other - and no one tried. It is our invention of God in the image of ourselves, a God who will maintain and promote the place where we find ourselves, that seems to be one of the most damaging lies which we can tell outselves.
Whilst we may be upset when people poke fun at the practice of religion (and I am led to believe that this movie does) what greater damage so we ourselves do to Jesus when we refuse to enter into the sort of truth which we are called to - a truth which demands justice and mercy. WE are called not to the invention of truth but its perception and then its instigation in the real world, un-obscured by lies of personality and culture.
I wondered whether that could be the case - In a world where we were honest with each other and, more importantly, with ourselves - could there be poverty and greed. After all, honesty with ourselves would lead us to a position of only taking what we need and not amassing and collecting like we do. This needs based world might look like a kind of Utopia or it might seem rather tame and Stepford like as we all glided happily by each other in some sort of harmony.
A world with no lies would necessarily be very different - but how?
Today's Gospel is about giving things up - and we often limit its scope to things - to making sure we can comfortable chip away at the edge of our material existence - or in some cases dig deeper into money or status. But what about giving up the lack of truth which so often surrounds us - what about trying to give up lying, to see the world as it is and not as we want to make it.
We tell ourselves that something is "nothing to do with us" or "does not matter". Is that true - in a post-incarnation world, where we are now a part of the interaction between God and humanty, is there anything which is not really our business and our calling.
I like comedy and I am sure I will find the movie very funny when I see it - perhaps it asks deeper questions - but my question to all of us remains - what would a world look like if no one could hide from God, from themselves or from each other - and no one tried. It is our invention of God in the image of ourselves, a God who will maintain and promote the place where we find ourselves, that seems to be one of the most damaging lies which we can tell outselves.
Whilst we may be upset when people poke fun at the practice of religion (and I am led to believe that this movie does) what greater damage so we ourselves do to Jesus when we refuse to enter into the sort of truth which we are called to - a truth which demands justice and mercy. WE are called not to the invention of truth but its perception and then its instigation in the real world, un-obscured by lies of personality and culture.
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