Leapin' Lizards!

Well, actually, walking on water lizards. This photo, courtesy of Cynthia Gould, is of a Costa Rican Basilisk Lizard, aka, the Jesus Christ lizard. The lizard walks on water! Click here to see a great National Geographic video of the lizard in action.

Jesus walked on water in today's gospel lesson which sparked all kinds of conversation about how we understand and explore our Biblical tradition - what truth is, how we engage the Biblical text, and how we come to know more about ourselves as God's beloved people. Here is a wonderful story that encourages me, and I hope you too, to think beyond mere acceptance and move toward a deeper, more engaged and playful intersection with our sacred stories.

One day the German [writer Bichsel] asked a Balinese [Hindu] whether
he believed the history of Prince Rama - one of the holy books of the
Hindus - is true.
Without hesitation the Balinese answered 'Yes.'
'So you believe that the Prince Rama lived somewhere and somewhen?'
'I do not know if he lived,' he said.
'Then it is a story.'
'Yes, it is a story.'
'Then someone wrote this story - I mean: a human being wrote it?'
'Certainly some human being wrote it,' he said.
'Then some human being could also have invented it.' The German felt
that he had triumphed, and thought that he had convinced the
Indonesian.'
But the Balinese said: 'It is quite possible that somebody invented
this story. But true it is in any case.'
'Then it is the case that Prince Rama did not live on this earth.'
'What is it that you want to know?' the Balinese asked. 'Do you want
to know whether the story is true, or merely whether it
occurred?'
R.S. Sugirtharajah, Postcolonial Refigurations: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology (London: SCM Press, 2003), 90.