“ Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord “ Psalm 119:1
Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the Bible. There are 150 of these poems in the Old Testament, and they make up a Jewish/Christian devotional book . I know it is the longest because I had to write out by the vice-principal of my public school, after I was caught throwing snowballs in the schoolyard in grade 5. It has 176 verses in it. It goes through the Hebrew alphabet with 22 stanzas, starting each one with a different Hebrew letter. It goes from A to Z . It repeats the words statutes, ways, laws and precepts many times. It is 176 reflections upon the Law.
I have a fascination with the US Supreme Court. Recently, a member of the Court resigned, and so they are in the process of selecting another member. There are nine members in the Court, so that they will never have a tie, when they are deciding on a certain case. There will always be a decision. US politics is very divided at this point, so the media says that this newest member, if selected, will make a big difference for the next thirty years. Supreme Court justices are named for life, unless they resign themselves. The nominee this time is Brent Kavanaugh.
Yesterday, Kavanaugh was interviewed for over 11 hours, and said almost nothing. He kept saying that he cannot answer any hypothetical questions, and that he is not biased one way or another. Really !!?? He will interpret the Law, if selected, without taking into consideration any of his personal opinions ? Really ?? If you are a human being, how can you not bring your own biases into any situation. I would invite him to be honest.
Mr. Kavanaugh has talked a lot about the Constitution. He speaks as if he knows what the original writers meant by every word that they wrote in the late 1700’s . He will not deviate from those words. And the law today is influenced by the previous decisions made by the Court over many years. He calls it precedent. This is how the Court makes decisions , except for if the Court was wrong with one of its previous decisions. Really ? Then, there is no precedent. There is no history ?
This is what we do in the church with the Bible all the time. We sometimes say we are following the original words of the Old Testament. And we have made some decisions up to date, but then we might say that we have been wrong all along. We go by the long tradition of the precedents that we have make over time. Mennonites have changed their confessions of faith many times over their history because they have emphasized some things over other things.
In Leviticus ( an Old Testament book of laws ), it says you should not plant two kinds of seed in the same field, nor wear clothing made of wool and linen. What do these laws mean ? For Judge Kavanaugh, how does he interpret the carrying of weapons ( the Second Amendment ) and or other things from the late 1700’s . It has to be about interpretation.
We cannot go back to the Bible ( or Constitution ) and say “ this is how it is” . We read, we interpret, we cajole, we argue, we live in the present and we want to be faithful today.
Fred Redekop
Ponder Anew 