Choppin' It Off (Romans 2)

Since we've all worshiped the empire at some point in our lifetimes, we have no excuse for judging other people. As Jews, we've already spit in God's face enough times to owe a lifetime of unconditional grace to every person we encounter.

Not only that, but you guys in Rome have gone so far out in your whole God narrative that it doesn't look much different than the toxins seeping out of the capitol.

By your own creation of the "God who demands sacrifice," you're setting yourselves up for disaster. No wonder you're trying to please Caesar. He's a hell of a lot easier to please than the god you've created for yourselves.

Secretly, you go around judging everyone who's not part of your clan, yet you're in an even worse position - on the fence. One moment it's Caesar and the next it's the God of Israel.

How do you think you'll escape the judgment you've written up for yourselves? Are you so enthralled by the posh lifestyle of Rome's rich and famous that you're blind to the obvious riches of the God you once knew so well?

How can you be so arrogant to think that you - as the author of this bogus narrative - are exempt from your own standards of pleasing God? Don't you realize that you're bypassing your own rulebook by joining in with the cronies of the empire?

You even say that God will render to each person according to their deeds, yet not one of you has qualified as an A student. You're failing big time as you hum your way to the temple to throw some more sacrifices on the altar.

We all know that trouble comes for every human being who does bad things; likewise, good comes for those who do good things. But please, quit teaching people that their good or bad provokes God. God doesn't operate on the human system of morality. That's for us. God doesn't show favoritism the way we humans do in our everyday affairs.

Everyone dies eventually. If you're living by the code of conduct stated in the Jewish scriptures, you have your own set of guidelines you find your judgment in. If you're living outside of the code of conduct of the Jewish scriptures, you also have your own set of guidelines you'll find your judgment in. And besides, wholeness doesn't come from simply hearing or talking about it, but it comes from practicing the principles behind it.

When people outside of your tradition (who, by the way, live by a different set of principles that are just as good) look as if they're following the same handbook, it's because it's another reminder that your way of seeking wholeness is not the only way. They're able to listen to their own conscious even though they don't have the scriptures. What you've got to understand is this: everyone has the fundamentals written on their hearts and minds. Everyone has access to the still, small voice inside them that directs them where to go. We have no business trying to figure out everyone else's secrets, and we really have no business assuming how spiritual or nonspiritual anyone else is. That's God's job. And, I believe that if you want to see a good picture of what God's judgment looks like, take a good look at the grace that Jesus put on display for the world to see.

Now this last part is strictly for my Jewish friends. If you call yourself a Jew and rely on your rulebook just like a good Jew does, and then go out with this holier than thou attitude, do you not break the law?

Or, if you're convinced that you're this superhuman guide for the blind and this savior-type superhero, are you not breaking your own lawbook?

Or, if you're convinced that you're an instructor of the simple-minded and a teacher of all the neighborhood children because you just know everything, are you also not breaking your own lawbook?

Think about it! Do you actually think you have nothing to learn but only information to impart on “those lowly people”? And you preach the law as if you've mastered it, but aren't you stealing from your contemporaries the ability to contribute to the same conversation? Or, are you so close-minded and ignorant that you have nothing else to learn?

And, you scream about not committing adultery, but take a quick look inside your fabricated temples and you'll see the worst form of adultery – the kind that worships both God and Caesar. Not to mention, how many kickbacks are you getting from the temple sacrifices? Making a good living off of those? It looks like the bogus narrative you've created for yourselves sets you up financially as long as the poor keep getting brainwashed by your antics.

As much good as I've heard about the manifestations of your faith throughout the Roman world, I've heard a lot of bad as well. I'm hearing all sides. A lot of non-Jews aren't liking what you're giving them.

And that brings us to circumcision, or, if you prefer, rite of passage into what you think is your little clan.

Circumcision has no value to anyone except those who believe in it. You're so gung ho about circumcision that you're forgotten the symbolism behind it. It's lost its meaning. Circumcision is a symbol of the heart – the cutting away of that hard, dead center of your being. Circumcision (or baptism, or the Lord's Prayer, or fasting, or communion, or any of the rites of passage that we all know so well) isn't this magical, exclusive thing that keeps some people in God's love and some people out. It's simply a symbol for the Jews.

This may piss you off even more, but I'll take it a step further. There are thousands (possibly millions) of non-Jews out there who are doing a pretty good job of staying in step with the Creator. So, what are you gonna do? Go out and circumcise them? No! They'll have none of that. They don't care about rites of passage. They just want to experience God in whatever ways they can, and the manifestations of that look very similar to that of the Jew who lives by the lawbook.

If you keep trying to force good, spiritual people to adhere to your rules, they're gonna retaliate eventually. People don't like getting their toes stepped on over and over.

One last thing: you aren't Jewish because of what you've chopped off. You're Jewish because of what's in your heart. You have stories. You've heard about your ancestors and what they had to go through in order to finally get it right. Don't follow their footsteps. Get it right the first time. Believe me it'll save you a ton of mistakes.

Religious rites – mainly, circumcision, is a matter of the heart and the spirit. It's not about a bunch of stuff written in a book, but about the deep, real desire to tap into the power of God that's whispering and moving and redeeming and saving and rescuing. That's where you'll find the reality of God's uncompromising and relentless work of restoration.