{"id":27388,"date":"2026-07-29T09:25:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27388"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:53:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:53:41","slug":"27388","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27388","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Mercy, Not Sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"They&#039;ll know we are Christians by our love | with lyrics\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t-W5HEVPJT8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Wednesday, July 29, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dr. Richard Beck acknowledges the temptation to oversimplify our reading of the Bible, but urges us to stay with the tensions it raises:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We find ourselves, as readers [of the Bible], in between competing visions and values, which creates a different set of challenges for us as interpreters of Scripture. A \u201cbook, chapter, and verse\u201d approach to reading the Bible is simplistic and inadequate, \u00adbecause <strong>other books, chapters, and verses sit in tension with the passages we like to share on social media. Quoting isolated Bible verses will inevitably produce lopsided and distorted readings of Scripture\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How, then, are we to engage with the tensions we find in Scripture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me suggest we <strong>emulate how Jesus read the Bible.<\/strong> Let\u2019s imitate how he resolved the tensions in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the debates between Jesus and the Pharisees concerned the tensions \u2026 between the Torah and the prophets. You see this especially in Jesus\u2019s Sabbath observance and his welcoming of sinners. Over and over again in\u00ad these cases, the <strong>Pharisees pick Leviticus over the prophets<\/strong>. Ritual purity was chosen over \u00adhuman compassion. Jesus, by contrast, privileges the prophets. <strong>For Jesus, alleviating human suffering takes priority over Levitical prohibition. Overcoming social marginalization is preferred to religious purity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-wciya-dkgktyktu-j\/\"><em>Mark 2:23\u201328<\/em><\/a><em>, Jesus defends his disciples against criticism from the Pharisees for plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath. Beck explains:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hermeneutic Jesus deploys \u00adhere is stunning. Torah observance<strong> is intended to promote \u00adhuman flourishing. The Sabbath is for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath<\/strong>. According to Jesus, whenever Torah observance interferes with or inhibits \u00adhuman flourishing it can be set aside. Let me underline the point if you are missing how Jesus is reading the Torah: Jesus sets aside&nbsp;<em>one of the Ten Commandments<\/em>&nbsp;to extend&nbsp;<em>compassion<\/em>&nbsp;in letting his hungry followers eat. This is a regular theme in the gospels, how <strong>Jesus consistently sides with the prophetic concern over\u00ad human suffering against Levitical demands for religious observance<\/strong>\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This line from Hosea 6:6\u2014<strong><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00ad\u201cmercy, not sacrifice<\/span><\/em><\/strong>\u201d\u2014is a concise summary of how Jesus read the Torah, the hermeneutical key Jesus deployed to resolve the tensions between the Law and the prophets. Where the Pharisees promoted social distancing and moral quarantine to maintain Levitical purity, Jesus cited the prophetic tradition as justification for his practices of inclusive \u00adtable fellowship. <strong>When found in conflict, mercy is to be privileged over sacrifice. In the choice between \u00adhuman flourishing or Levitical purity, between the weightier matters of the law or fastidious religious observance, mercy must win out.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>J<strong>esus shows us how to read the Bible as the Book of Love<\/strong>. Yes,\u00ad there are a lot of strange and confusing commandments in the Bible. But the Bible itself provides us with a hermeneutical rule whenever we find prohibitions, even one of the Ten Commandments, interfering with \u00adhuman flourishing and our compassionate response to \u00adhuman suffering. <strong>Whenever you face a hermeneutical fork in the road and must decide upon a reading of Scripture, read the Bible like Jesus did. Choose mercy over sacrifice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>====================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/app-link\/post?publication_id=2894235&amp;post_id=208897161&amp;utm_source=post-email-title&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=2dkj2&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozOTkyMzY2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoyMDg4OTcxNjEsImlhdCI6MTc4NTI3OTA4MywiZXhwIjoxNzg3ODcxMDgzLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjg5NDIzNSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.a0NZGQIYMTQsXP8si9irzpZ2VgEykz_ANtFKhR2hwks\">Change the World?<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Our task is far more modest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@brianzahnd\">BRIAN ZAHND<\/a>.    JUL 28<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@brianzahnd\"><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/d3a96d2e-e9e5-4c72-84de-3618d603dcb1?j=eyJ1IjoiMmRrajIifQ.ND0qR5RKsmVnltuWgIlyr3BY7uwq2Kt9ZzX29UJK4cg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!4gHh!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F272d168f-1260-422a-a98a-c49a3d926a6e_3024x3102.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>St Mary\u2019s Church on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, UK<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Change the world!<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;In the church we love that kind of brash rhetoric.&nbsp;<em>What are we gonna to do? We\u2019re gonna to change the world!<\/em>&nbsp;It\u2019s a sermon title, a song lyric, a conference theme, a youth rally battle cry, a motto for a movement.&nbsp;<em>We\u2019re important people! We\u2019re world-changers! We\u2019re history-makers!<\/em>&nbsp;I understand the appeal. But I also insist that as far as the church is concerned, the assumption that it is our task to \u201cchange the world\u201d is mistaken and wrongheaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not our job to change the world. Jesus is the Savior of the world, not us. (The buoyant hope that sustains me in dark days is my conviction that the world really&nbsp;<em>will<\/em>&nbsp;be saved because Jesus really&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>&nbsp;the Savior of the world<strong><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">. Apokatastasis, baby!)<\/span><\/em><\/strong> Changing (or saving) the world is a task belonging to the Son of God. Our task is far more modest:&nbsp;<strong>To simply be that part of the world already changed by Christ.<\/strong>&nbsp;As Yves Congar said, \u201cThe church is the world as believing in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clarifying our task is important. When we think it is the task of the church to&nbsp;<em>directly<\/em>&nbsp;change the world, <strong>we find the lure of political power impossible to resist. <\/strong>When we assume&nbsp;<em>we<\/em>&nbsp;are the ones to change the world, we reach for what we imagine to be the most immediate means of effecting change\u2014political power. We\u2019re the good guys, so we should control the sword of Caesar, right? We\u2019re the ethical ones, so we should control legislation, right? We\u2019re the trustworthy ones, so we should be entrusted with coercive political power, right?&nbsp;<em>Wrong!<\/em>&nbsp;<strong>When the church (as an institution) sets out to change the world by political power, it does not change the world,&nbsp;<em>it becomes the world<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stanley Hauerwas has said it a million times: \u201cThe first task of the church is to make the world the world.\u201d <strong>To be a faithful church we must be something&nbsp;<em>other<\/em>&nbsp;than the world.<\/strong> We must be fundamentally&nbsp;<em>different<\/em>&nbsp;from the world. But there is n<strong>othing more worldly than coveting political power. <\/strong>A church prioritizing political power becomes just another religious iteration of the world as it is. Nothing really changes. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The church is given the keys of binding and loosing forgiveness, not the coercive sword of political power. When Constantine offered political power to the church by making it the state-sponsored church of the empire, the church willingly embraced the offer. It seemed too good to be true. (It was.) Church collusion with the apparatus of the state was probably an inevitable mistake in the fourth century, but it has been our bane ever since. <strong>There are always strings attached to Caesar\u2019s gifts.<\/strong> For a seat at the table of political privilege and a hand upon the sword of political power, the<strong> emperor expects a kind of allegiance that can only lead to compromise.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christ is ever and always a challenge to the aspirations of empire, but when we get too cozy with Caesar our willingness to take a prophetic stand quickly evaporates. This is true for both elephants and donkeys. Christians who play for the elephant team and Christians who play for the donkey team both agree that political power is essential, they just disagree on what to do with it. But I\u2019m suspicious of the whole project. Whether offered by Constantine or Charlemagne or Donald Trump, we keep thinking that <strong>political power is a gift instead of realizing that it is a poison that will eventually corrupt us. <\/strong>We are like the valiant but tragic Boromir in&nbsp;<em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em>&nbsp;who thought the One Ring was a gift that could be used for good. In Boromir\u2019s fateful words I hear the church\u2019s recurring justification for the pursuit of political power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>True-hearted Men, they will not be corrupted. And behold! in our hour of need chance brings to light the Ring of Power. It is a gift, I say.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>But Boromir\u2019s pragmatic justification for taking possession of the Ring of Power led to his betrayal of the Fellowship. We don\u2019t need Caesar\u2019s sword as the Ring of Power. <strong>By the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the church is given the power of co-suffering love, not co-regency with Caesar.<\/strong> The church is not to covet a share in the coercive power of the imperial sword. If Caesar offers it, we must refuse it. We don\u2019t need an invitation to Palatine Hill or the White House. <strong>Breakfast with Caesar is always a bad idea<\/strong>\u2014that kind of proximity to worldly power is too great a temptation. <strong>We cannot flirt with political power and not be corrupted by it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My critique of both the Christian Right and the Christian Left is the same. (<em>Caveat: I acknowledge that in the present moment there is no moral equivalency between the two, at least in my view. Nevertheless my critique remains.<\/em>) My critique is this:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With both the Christian Right and Left, Christian is reduced to adjective duty in service to the all-important political noun. What really matters is Right or Left&nbsp;<em>politics<\/em>, while Christian is tacked on as a nice religious accoutrement. When some faction of the church becomes the&nbsp;<em>de facto<\/em>&nbsp;religious wing of a political party, <strong>Jesus is reduced to a mascot who is trotted out on stage to meekly utter his endorsement.&nbsp;<em>I am Jesus Christ and I approve this message.&nbsp;<\/em>God f<\/strong>orbid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The kingdom of Christ is its own politics, and as such<strong> it will never neatly align with any of the political parties of this world. <\/strong>The prime imperative of a political party is to win. But \u201cwinning\u201d is not an imperative in the kingdom of God. Partisan political winning too often gets in the way of Christlike love. By their very nature the politics of this world are incapable of embodying the kingdom of heaven. When it comes to the politics of this age Christians need the saving grace of modest expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor here we have no enduring polis, but we are looking for the polis to come.\u201d \u2013Hebrews 13:14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The church is to be a present and visible anticipation of the polis to come. And I believe it can be. Do you think I\u2019m a romantic idealist? Perhaps I am, but I do see real-life glimmers of kingdom-come day-after-day in the church I\u2019ve been a part of for forty-five years. In actual lived reality the poor are provided for, the rich are taught how to share their wealth responsibly, the immigrants are welcomed and protected, the overlooked are given recognition, the ostracized are given dignity, the losers are lifted up, the winners are taught humility, the addicted are invited into a community of recovery, the grieving are wept with, and sinners of every stripe are given the good news of God\u2019s grace. This is not na\u00efve abstraction or wishful fantasy, this is on the ground justice, this is grace made visible. It\u2019s not a perfect church, but it is a church where mercy and justice have kissed, and where kindness is a culture. If you doubt it,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/09e2ebb0-e8e8-48d7-8f48-5f7bd9930d26?j=eyJ1IjoiMmRrajIifQ.ND0qR5RKsmVnltuWgIlyr3BY7uwq2Kt9ZzX29UJK4cg\">come and see.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I\u2019m describing is the yeast of the kingdom of God hidden in three measures of flour. It\u2019s not the glory of triumphant political power, it\u2019s yeast. It doesn\u2019t effect change by coercive force but through the quiet miracle of fermentation. It\u2019s not loud or ostentatious; it\u2019s not fearmongering, and it doesn\u2019t hand out voter guides. But the bread still rises, the water still turns to wine. It\u2019s very local, very proximate, very personal, and mostly quiet. It won\u2019t make headlines\u2014it\u2019s too pedestrian for that. And if you say, \u201cThat\u2019s how we change the world!\u201d I say, \u201cShh! Don\u2019t say it out loud! It\u2019s a secret! It\u2019s yeast hidden in the dough. It\u2019s our hidden treasure.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We\u2019re not trying to change the world. We\u2019re content to be one tiny corner of the world being slowly, quietly, patiently transformed by Jesus. Blessed be the name of the Lord.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BZ<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>P.S. This is a hastily dashed-off foray into political theology\u2014the most fraught of all theological territories. And whenever I dare to venture into that tricky territory, I hear my own,&nbsp;<em>Yeah, but\u2026<\/em>&nbsp;What this piece needs is ten-thousand words of nuance, but I\u2019m not going to do that here. To tell the truth, when I engage in political theology, I agree with about eighty percent of what I say. So if you found something in this piece you disagree with, there\u2019s a twenty percent chance that I disagree with it too. Keep that in mind before you get too mean in the comments. Mercy triumphs over judgement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday, July 29, 2026 Dr. Richard Beck acknowledges the temptation to oversimplify our reading of the Bible, but urges us to stay with the tensions it raises: We find ourselves, as readers [of the Bible], in between competing visions and values, which creates a different set of challenges for us as interpreters of Scripture. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27388"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27395,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27388\/revisions\/27395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}