Today’s Scripture Reading (January 5,
2013): 2 Samuel 4
World views
are mysterious things. They form the glasses through which we see the world.
And we depend on them. We try to pretend that we are objective, but the truth
is that like a severely vision handicapped person we need help to make sense of
the blur that is all around us. So we put on our glasses and each one of us
thinks that what it is that we see through our glasses is what the world really
looks like. And when we meet someone with a different set of cultural glasses on,
we wonder how it is that they do not see the world the same way that we do.
Some
soldiers snuck into the house of the King, Ish-Bosheth. For them, Ish-Bosheth represented
two things.
First he was David’s opposition to the throne of Israel. It seemed
that as long as Ish-Bosheth lived, David could not fulfill his destiny as king over
the entire nation. But Ish-Bosheth was also the son of Saul, David’s enemy, and
therefore he deserved to die, at least that was the way that that the soldiers
viewed the world.
So it came
as quite a surprise to the soldiers that David was not wearing the same
cultural glasses that they were. David could not see Saul as his enemy – and his
actions had clearly testified to that fact. Saul had been the king of Israel,
and in David’s mind that was the way that he would be remembered. And
Ish-Bosheth had never been his opposition. Instead, he had been and always
would be the younger brother of his best friend, Jonathan – and Ish-Bosheth was
also David’s brother-in-law. Sometimes family does some stupid things, but they
are still family.
Maybe one of
the best (and hardest) exercises that we can do is to try to see our world as
others see it. We need to be able to find the cultural glasses that belong to
those around us, and to put them on our own faces. It is the only way that we
can really come to understand each other – and the only path to a lasting peace
between us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2
Samuel 5
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