Kashrut

 

"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matthew 9:13. New American Standard.

"We are not saints." page 60. Alcoholics Anonymous.

I have a fried who loves going to drag shows. It's something that brings him life, helps him to breathe, and I imagine drag shows do for him what a binge watching of Game of Thrones does for me.

And one night, a group of friends and I got to join him at one of these drag shows. I had never been to one, but my preconceived notions told me they were to be avoided at all costs. I imagined a room full of people having a gay orgy. I had all the mental stereotypes that a recovering Baptist should have. Drag shows were nothing but a bunch of sin happening in a confined area.

But, there were two reasons why I wanted to join my friend in this endeavor. First, I wanted to be concerned about what he was concerned about, so he would know that I didn't think whatever he did was wrong. And second, I wanted to find out for myself what exactly happened at drag shows so I could have my preconceived notions smashed and replaced with first-hand experience.

The thing about the preconceived notions was, they were a bunch of rules engrained in my head since the day I was a child. And this set of rules happened to be about gay people and sexual immorality. I had a choice to make. I could either uphold my preconceived notions and sacrifice the drag show, dishonoring the commitment I'd made to my friend, or I could suspend my preconceived notions and attend the drag show, letting my friend know I was in solidarity with him.

Obviously, I chose the latter, and I'm glad I did. I saw a side of my friend that I'd never seen before. He came alive. He was happy. He didn't have a care in the world. And, it changed our friendship for the better. Besides that, I got to see some hairy men put on girl clothes and do some pretty amazing dances! Now that's entertainment!

In the passage above, Jesus is found eating dinner with tax collectors and prostitutes. That's a no-no if you're a good Jew, and there are consequences.

When the religious leaders find out about Jesus' heretical behaviors, they threaten him. 

Jesus responds with, "Who did I come to call? The righteous or the sinner? It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."  

As usual, Jesus puts some spin on a passage from the Torah that everyone would've been pretty black and white about. 

Jesus has figured out that if he's to live out his beliefs, then he's gonna be hanging out with some pretty unusual people. And in his belief, God desired compassion over sacrifice. Now, there could be some arguments about what kind of sacrifice this entails, but I'm gonna define it as conviction.

Compassion over conviction.

And sharing dinner with someone had all sorts of religious rules surrounding it. But, while there were all sorts of rules about what kind of food should be eaten and how that food should be prepared, there weren't any rules about who got to come over for dinner. It was open to everybody, Jewish or not.

And the religious leaders who caught Jesus in the act of Kashrut with non-Jewish sinners, assumed that Jesus must have been breaking every rule in the book. But Jesus was a good Jew. It was the fallacy of "guilt by association."

Jesus made a very important statement when the Jewish leaders confronted him. He basically told them, "There are gonna be times when your convictions and your compassion enter into conflict. Choose compassion always."

While I'm not suggesting that everybody needs to go check out a drag show when they get the chance, I am saying that more times than not, our convictions conflict with our compassion.

There are times when I have to make a decision that compromises one or the other. And Jesus would say to err on the side of compassion. My beliefs are good up to the point that they start hurting or dishonoring somebody else. After that, they're invalid and useless. They hold no bearing except an intense need for self-preservation at all costs.

And I will say that I struggle with this concept more than any other. I can't understand why people believe certain things. I can't understand why some people believe women shouldn't be in leadership. I can't understand why some people believe that Jesus literally rose from the dead. I can't understand why some people believe that they're going to a mansion in the sky after they die. And so, in an effort to make myself feel better about how I believe, I'll use my beliefs as ammunition and self-defense. Sometimes, I'll go into attack mode without any provocation besides what's in my head.

It goes both ways. It's easy for me to go to show solidarity with gay people but it's not easy for me to show solidarity with biblical literalists and republicans. Why? Because the latter doesn't fit into my ideology box. In order to find solidarity, I would need to choose compassion over conviction.

If I want to put the teachings of Jesus on display in my own life, yes, I should be open to hanging with the folks society deems worthless. But, I also need to be open to hanging with the folks who are in the mainstream, and believe differently than I do about social issues, politics, and theology.

The the religion that I'm most familiar with, which is Christianity, there have been tons of rules created - much like Jewish traditions - that tell us where to go, who to hang out with, and how to do so. But, most of these rules are divisive and create wholesale segregation within our society (and that includes church society). The rules naturally separate one group from another group prevent the groups from becoming intertwined.

The one that comes to mind is, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers."

Without getting into hermeneutics (which no one does anyways), this is a rule that pervades our society. Taken literally, it is used as an attempt to separate Christians and non-Christians in the realm of marriage. But, this rule (if taken out of context) has the potential of being not only divisive but destructive when it comes to relationships. In this case like many others, conviction wins out over compassion, and no one benefits except the convicted party who's caught in the trap of unquenchable self-preservation.

What kind of rules am I following that place conviction over compassion? If I pay attention throughout the day, I'm sure I'll find some of them because they have to do with people. They have to do with being human, and I'm about as human as they come.

And maybe I'll find that the only way to grow spiritually is to let go of some of these rules that I've been following unconsciously. Maybe I need to have some coffee with someone I would normally not associate with. Maybe I need to strike up a conversation with someone I normally don't want to talk with.