[lbo-talk] Query

Kenneth MacKendrick kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca
Tue Dec 16 06:40:20 PST 2003


-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of kelley at pulpculture.org


> "What is Luke 16:11?"

"If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?" Luke 16:12 "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

I'd love to go into the historiography of this passage but I left my annotated Gospel Parallels at work. Funny that the question is "What is Luke 16:11" rather than "Who is Luke?" I'm more interested in the Lukean community - which is probably an offshoot of a workers union running olive oil south of Sepphoris after the urban renewal projects hit the area. Lucky dogs. They might have even escaped the wrath of the Galilean scribes who were pissed when the imperial guard turned them into functionaries of the state, from prophets to bean counters. No wonder Jesus was a star - he became the local hero of an infuriated scribal class, nothing like writing a good story. He was the toast of the town, a Mediterranean cynic with the insider knowledge of a Rabbi... a composite of several communities actually. So, "Who is Luke?" is my question, followed by an interest in the stratification of Q.

From: lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Philion


> exciting local activism

I teach. There is a lot of that going on in the Winnipeg area. The classrooms tend to be a bit warmer than the -35 outside. An Instructor has an 18 hour week. With 3 hours of prep for each hour of contact that's ... ummm.... let me see... carry the 3... 72. 72 hours of activism each week. Plus I ride my bike - I consider that activism too: "You are my elected city official, and you should know that I am a cyclist. Canada census data shows that 1.4% of the Winnipeg commuters bicycle to work. I expect to see an equal proportion of the transportation budget used for improving the city for cyclists. "I bicycle, and I vote!" That's another 10 hours. And I cook and clean. Cooking is activism, cleaning is what I need to do after I cook. That's 12 hours (I usually spend Saturday reducing a brown sauce). I deplore "fast food" (grocery shopping takes place in the twilight of cycling, teaching, and cooking). Since staying healthy is one of the best forms of revenge, and since I consider sleeping part of staying healthy, I work for 7 hours a night: 49 hours of passive activism. That leaves me with 13 hours a week. I must admit to some guilty pleasures... I have sex while watching "What not to wear," "Survivor," "Bargain Hunt," and "Good Eats." I consider sex activism, but because the TV is usually on the act is defiled and not true activism (you know you like it dirty too). Everyone else in Winnipeg is either a teacher or a student, except the for poor (who are always with us). The rest are driving SUVs and actively trying to kill the cyclists 24-7. As it turns out - too many cyclists and pedestrians were being killed by automobile traffic, so they upped the fines on jay-walking and made riding on the sidewalk illegal. I don't quite understand that, but a survey simultaneously showed that biking with a helmet doesn't visibly appear to reduce car-bike fatalities. Dammit - I just KNOW they're trying to kill us.

Oh yeah, I lie to pollsters. I consider that activism.

ken "friendly manitoba" (cars are coffins!)



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