At the end of World War II, the Southern novelist, short story author and Biblical commentator Flannery O'Connor became very popular. One day she was preparing an essay for "The Catholic Review" and hit a translation quandary. She was translating John 8:32 "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" from Biblical Greek into English when another approach seemed to be a better translation in union with John 15:19, "You are in the world but not of the world."
She lived close to the Univerity of the South and School of Theology where her close friend, Rev. Guy Lytle, was on the staff at the seminary. They put their heads together and concurred that another English word was preferable to what was in the present text. John 8:32 could read, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."
Freedom comes when we are in step with the vision of God and not always trying to conform to societal influences. Odd is freedom, plus it actively includes an ever-growing creative relationship with God and a willingness to change our habits and ways to conform to the fertile vision of God's hope for us.
I must confess that I am intrigued by their commentary. I realized that I spent a lot of time, especially during the teen years and into young adulthood, trying to avoid being called "odd." I can also claim that, when some of my long-held beliefs and life experiences are accurately challenged, I can adapt to a new truth. Most of the time my long-held beliefs are enhanced and not diminished as the years pass.
For example, our spiritual ancestors believed that the world was flat and, if you traveled by boat or on foot, you could reach a point where you would fall off into an abyss. Theologically, this was related to the assertion "that we are born, we live and we die."
The presence of God in a relationship with us was expressed through covenants such as The Rainbow Covenant. Whenever we see a rainbow, we are to remember the love of God for us and all of creation. The problem with the rainbow symbol is that it is a semicircle and has a beginning, a middle and an end. Covenants with God do not end.
Our generations, thanks to our astronauts that took pictures from space of dark thunderstorms and brilliant round rainbows, there is not an end to a rainbow. There is not an end to God's love and compassionate and merciful relationship with us.
In a few weeks, we will experience the season of Lent that begins with the pronouncement of our mortality: "You are dust and to dust you shall return." We then walk with Jesus Christ as disciples in this world but not of this world. The truth can make us odd, with God's help. And maybe we can embrace a new paradigm. Not the paradigm of St. Thomas, "If I see it, I will believe it," but the paradigm of God's rainbow and Easter resurrection. No horizon can then block the view from our hearts of round rainbows as symbols of God's never failing love.
Auroa James wrote: "Even though there are a lot of dark things going on in the world, a lot of beautiful, magical things are brewing under the surface."
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Ken Parks is the former rector of St. Theodore's Episcopal Church in Bella Vista. He can be reached by email to [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Religion on 02/20/2019