radio conversations: St. Paul was not a Christian; 5 Questions; Jews & Jesus

recently heard on public radio:

=-=-=-= Science and the Search for Meaning: Five Questions
http://ttbook.org/book/science-and-search-meaning [5 part series]

1.What is Life? >Scientists can now explain virtually every stage of the evolutionary process. But there's a basic question that still mystifies even the best scientists: How did life first begin on Earth?
2. What Does Evolution Want? >Is the evolution of intelligent life inevitable, or a biological accident? We explore the question "What does evolution want?"
3. Does the Soul Still Matter? >Is the soul real or is it just an outdated myth? Some think it can be explained away by new insights from neuroscience and evolutionary biology.
4. Can Islam and Science Coexist? >Islamic culture was once the center of the scientific world. Today the Islamic world lags far behind the West in science and technology. What happened?
5. Can Science Be Sacred? >There's a growing movement of secular scientists who revel in the awe and wonder of nature. In fact, many consider this a religious experience – without God.

=-=-=-= Interfaith Voices, http://www.interfaithradio.org/ >>>Listen to the full interview

Jews, Jesus and the Stain of Deicide

In early March, the Pope published a book renouncing the idea that the Jewish people are responsible for the death of Christ. Though the story has been officially rejected by the Catholic Church since the 1960s, it never quite went away. Much of the myth derives from one line in the Gospel of Matthew, attributed to the Jewish crowd at the trial of Jesus: "Let his blood be on us and on our children." For those who read the Bible literally, it casts a stain of deicide — of killing a god — on Jews for all eternity.
To explore the roots of this story, and its consequences, we turn to James Carroll. He's one of the world's leading scholars on anti-Semitism and he has written the definitive book on the topic. Our story first aired in March 2011.
>>> James Carroll, author of "Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History" and "Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World"

Paul the Jew

Begins at 22 min 30 sec

Many people trace the roots of anti-Semitism back to a single moment: St. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. That's when, according to traditional teachings, Paul rejected his Judaism for the new, improved version: Christianity. Bible scholar Pamela Eisenbaum says this interpretation of Paul is not only wrong, it's dangerous. She spoke to Laura Kwerel in October 2009.

>>> Pamela Eisenbaum, author of "Paul Was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle"

Project Conversion: Muslim Edition

Begins at 31 min 36 sec

Becoming an honorary Muslim - during Ramadan no less - was a hard at first. No food and drink during a heat wave in his hometown of North Carolina. Praying fives times a day. And growing out a beard - despite the objections of his wife- to follow the example of Muhammad. But he also experienced a profound, radically different understanding of what it means to be Muslim in America.

>>> Andrew Bowen, creator of Project Conversion

invocation, sanctuary, and other frames to focus our attention

Invocation at the Worship Service (but also the opening prayer at Tuesday Men's Bible study) is not so much to call God to the gathering, but the reverse;  to call ourselves to be present in the moment and to hearken to the abiding presence of God. In other words we address ourselves to God, but in fact it is we who need addressing; thus the calls are to our fellow worshippers and theirs to us.
     Similarly, the space for praise and prayer has no inherent supernatural mystery or capacity to bridge our workaday lives to the world of the divine. Instead that bridge is built with the gathering of the believers and those wanting-to-believe. The material trapping and arrangement of color,  symbols, textures and substances, sound and light may well frame or support the flesh and blood components of the undertaking, but these physical "props" are just that --place holders that point us in the right direction. Polytheists may well say the same of idols: these are not immanently divine. They are visual devices to hold the attention of the aspirant. What is the creative and living force cannot be set in stone or metals.

social sea changes - fatherhood fast forward

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a four-term U.S. Senator, had some very provocative thoughts when it came to fatherhood:  "From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: a community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families ... never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future – that community asks for and gets chaos." [my emphasis added]

Thinking about the asynchronous, anywhere anytime mobile lifestyle of our Internet times, the old boundaries about who to communicate with, where, when and how are dissolving. What then remains firmly fixed? If family definition is fluid and social obligations and supports likewise are fluid and flexible, then does the observation above merely compound and magnify the effects? Is the age of "easy come, easy go" and "whatever" drowning our dignity and humanity, substituting new rudeness for old humility, and swapping new shockvalue for old humor?

fcc 19 July men's Bible study

The "living God" comes up at NT Matthew 16. Is this different to "Word made flesh" and (living) "Word of God"?

Disciples as formative to who Jesus-on-earth turned out to be? In other words, did He need them as much as they needed Him? Or was the (public) ministry of Jesus fore-ordained so that it did not much matter that there were 12 or that they were "dropouts" from the hustle and bustle of the time? If the parables and miracles were rehearsed with them, then perhaps this shaped the choice of words and images subsequently used?

Worship service of Sunday morning, July 17: which segments are directed to God, which focus on minister, musician, liturgist and so on?

-prelude [music to hear]--musician to God
-announcements & greetings =FELLOWSHIP, one to another
-call to worship <>GOD
-HYMN [music to sing] <>GOD
-Lord's Prayer <>GOD
-Prayer response [music to hear]--musician to God
-Children's story [story to hear]
-Lessons OT and NT [story to hear]
-Gloria Patria [music to sing] <>GOD
-Anthem [music to hear]--musician to God
-Sermon [story to hear]
-HYMN [music to sing] <>GOD
-Silent and Pastoral Prayer <>GOD
-Giving offering [music to hear]--musician to God
-Doxology [music to sing] and Prayer of dedication <>GOD
-Benediction <>GOD
-HYMN [music to sing] <>GOD
-Postlude [music to hear]--musician to God

Tuesday Bible study July 12

Connection of see (vision) do (actions): if we can visualize something, then it becomes possible to take steps in that direction.
Hence the request during this morning's closing prayer, "to open our eyes to see things before us as you would have us see them; not as we customarily see them."
 
 
The Disciples of Jesus today (us) vs. at the time, 100 generations ago:
Them: The Word of God as oral tradition (Old Testament + live, unfolding Gospel events within living memory)
Us: print, translation, splitting hairs and stumbling over the chapter/verse breaks in flow.
So maybe the printed Bible, ubiquitous as it is in so many variations, is an impediment to understanding God's way.
 
 
Jesus' rebuke (Matthew 15+ parable of Clean/Unclean)... "are you so dull?" he retorts to his disciples.
--is that the teaching style of a Rabbi of that day? Surely it is not the modern-sounding sarcasm that we hear.
 
 
The balance of comfortable routine and uncomfortable themes: while it is wrong to preoccupy yourself with externals like Worship Service Decorum and Appropriate Degree
of Churchiness (tone, texture, rhythm and pacing), it also is wrong to belittle such formalities because to depart too far from accustomed ways can be a distraction. There is
performance anxiety for those speaking and making music, as well as among those paying attention who may worry for those focal persons in case they should make a mistake or
misstep.
 
 
Imagine a real-time instrument to see how many Christian followers at any given moment are dwelling on externalities and not on the temperment or tone of their hearts. Time and
time again Jesus says not to dwell on the formalities of the Old Religion, but to fulfill the spirit of that law and thereby draw closer to God. Suppose, for example, that only 5% of the
aggregate Christians at a peak moment are able to dispense with distractions and focus well and deeply on the heart of Karitas. The same question could be scaled to the personal level, as well: during a weekly or annual cycle, how well are YOU focused on your heart and following the commandment to Care for One Another (love thy neighbor as thyself).

Reflecting on the July 10, 2011 early worship service

1. Aramaic: seek out online (audio) clips of Bible passages or sayings spoken in the text, grammar and rhythm of the original Jesus speak. Audio is often easiest to search at altavista.com and archive.org

 

 

2. Life is like music: at the moment of performance it fills up the space and has real presence, but once it stops, there is little that endures. The same of Shakespeare's imagery "All the world is a stage…." Therein lies the paradox: so very compelling and strong, yet so fragile and impermanent.

 

 

3. Week by week the sermons hold up the mirror to our faulty paths and the many ways a person falls short of Loving God; Loving one's Neighbor as oneself. So imagine a real-time indicator of the empirical situation: at any given moment how many people are ON TRACK with God's wishes; or how many are aware of the shortfall and are actively seeking ways to get back on track again? Scaled to the individual level, what moments in a person's life come closest to matching the ideal mindfulness of God-filled living and working? In what ways does this look different to the person's ways before reaching that peak performance?

 

 

4. Pray without words, phrases, intonations (theme or rheme); but instead proffer images or directional flow (praise upward, request flow of right alignment and constant focus)

 

 

5. Imagery for earnestly seeking answers in worship and fellowship inside and outside the church and surrounding town: headlamps beaming into the dark to find the path and chose the best fork in the roads. However, rather than moving together as a herd and only the front guides actively searching, instead this front position should rotate to all involved.

 

 

6. Letter to the church at Ephesus (Ephesians 3:14-19), about how to pray well:

-..he may strengthen you… >>POWER/authorized to go forth in co-mmision
-..He may dwell in your hearts; grounded; roots… >>ABIDING Presence
-…We may hold on tightly… >>TOTAL Commitment 360
-…Filled to the measure… >>DIRECT Line/undiluted

on July 5 - Mens Bible Study

<> Sea change of the fast paced, morning commuter traffic on the streets leading to the church parking lot, on the one hand, and passing through the open door leading to the assembled small group of men gathered around the table with coffee and treats, ready to hear God’s Word and to connect this to each of our understandings of the meanings. How rare a feeling to know that each week at this place and time the 2,000 year old message can be heard and known. And even though in the quiet and supporting space of that weekly get-together we talk about the modern-day meanings to us and sometimes also the (unstated) implications of those meanings, still it is hard to hold on to those ideas after leaving the circle and disbanding to our separate paths outside.

<> Accounting for the best human efforts to follow the example of Jesus in the world: as far as anyone can tell, what was the Golden Age among Jews; that is, if ever there was a time when a sizeable proportion of believers actually hungered after God’s Will and carried out the 10 commandments, and so on, then what differences in human society followed from this? After the coming of Rabbi Jesus and the core of His message circulated widely, is there a time or place when a sizeable proportion of followers actually succeeded in holding Him in the front of their minds, or preoccupied themselves with the idea of “What Would Jesus Do”? As a result of attaining some degree of Heaven On Earth, what differences in human society followed from this? On the other hand, if this question only makes sense at the level of individual relationship to God, rather than at the society-wide scale, then what real-life examples (especially of our time) are there to examine and see what difference in the person’s deeds, words, viewpoint and attitude follows from this? In short, making the supreme effort to actually fulfill God’s Word, what difference does it (empirically) make? Or is this the wrong question to be asking?

<> Does Faith displace Fear (mutually exclusive); does Good displace Evil? Or can there be instead a sliding scale of overlap (like the Yin-Yang image) whereby the mixture tips at a given moment from a preponderance of the one or the other?

<> Peter calls, “Lord, if it is you, call me to come to you on the water.” The group took a few things from this episode and choice of words: (1) that any expression of Faith should be connected to Jesus/God/Holy Ghost (not a solitary, solo experience of one’s own volition), (2) that it is prudent to seek evidence that God is the one leading one’s heart (not another motive or source) by requesting Him to call us.

<> Translation theory: from time to time the group wants to know the source word or phrase of the Greek. Early translations were formal or literal, but the opposite approach seeks “dynamic equivalence” and permits idiomatic and conversational rhythms of spoken (educated, college or at least 9th grade level, American) English. An example of this is Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message. And yet the facts of translation remain, translating across scores of decades; across ethnic differences and material conditions of living; across language structures and senses (ethnopoetics and grammar boundaries; connotation and denotation shifts). The upshot is that Original Language (such as the Q’uran, frozen in 7th century written-style Arabic) becomes harder and harder for moderns to grasp beyond the surface level. And the Bible’s approach of allowing vulgates into all human languages, even those lacking a writing system, means that deeper, older, stranger meanings are dropped, out of focus or streamlined to fit the particular language style and flow. Either way the result is the same: a gap grows between each new generation and the fixed source texts. Readers impose surplus meaning by projecting modern experiences onto the original words, or the words of today simplify and flatten out the rich flavor and depth of the original, turning parts of the text from Technicolor to sepia; turning parts from three-dimensions to cardboard cut-outs. Expert editorial processing gives smooth reading to modern ears, but mischaracterizes some of the source. What is the remedy –short of bundling a hodge-podge of original texts into a folder, learning to read each century and genre on its own terms, and calling the resulting packet The Bible? Surely the smart people of past generations and the software wielding scholars of today have come to conclusions about how big or small this fact of translation is to knowing the Bible and seeking the meaning of God’s actions and declarations as recorded in the miscellany of writings we now call The Bible. [I wonder when that term came into common usage? New Oxford English Dictionary gives no date found in written materials, but shows the roots of the word itself: Middle English from Old French from Greek from semitic.]

grace in a cup of cold water on a hot day

Notes based on the 8:30 a.m. summertime service  26 June 2011 
 

(1) Hard times is when we sorely FEEL our need for God.

But in good times, too, the need is great but this is hard to feel.

 

(2) Cover illustration of the church bulletin is a pen-and-ink drawing of a New England clapboard church with a rising sun with prominent rays and a small group of silhouetted people moving toward the front doors. My mixed impression: Great Intentions and High Hopes, but very little follow-through or fulfilled actions when heading home again a few hours hence. In other words, words and music raise us up, but it is up to the individuals to provoke, invite, then encourage and support to make any results of those good intentions.

 
(3) The essence of Grace: Matthew chapter10 tells about "offering a cold cup of water" to a person.
 

Not premeditated, not calculated for self-glory, not a big expense of time or money or discomfort.
Substitute a kind word, a knowing smile or an understanding look in a person's eye for similar effect.
Fulfilling the teachings is a fluid and quenching thing like the Cup of Water; it's not Rule Conformity.
It is direct, personal and mindful; not impersonal and business-like, indirect or conceptual, or unthinking.
As such this expression of oneself into the path of another person is dialogic (not one-way communication) and includes the possibility or risk of oneself being changed as a result, too. It may work like a "peak experience," a formative moment, or function something like the temporary "imprinting" stage of hatchlings when they truly open their eyes for the first time and what they see before them becomes the most important thing to pay attention to. In sum, the image of offering a Cup of Water to a person embodies what Grace (karitas) is: Love for another person, expressed in a direct and personal way –nothing more, nothing less.

 

(4) Early worship service on week 1 and 2 numbered about 30 in the vast worship hall, but now in week 3 only a scant dozen spread themselves here and there among the church pews. As such it was impossible to "blend in" or proceed in praise "on autopilot." Worship with such small numbers made the whole undertaking more deliberate and fresh, maybe like the small numbers of Christians in venerable but mostly empty houses of worship in Western, Central and Eastern Europe; or in the house churches of China. In short the separation blurred between worship leaders "on stage" and those spectators respectfully sitting in quiet attention. With such small numbers the experience was personal and every voice was heard and every person was felt.

 

(5) What is the culture of Christianity?
Thinking about a definition of a culture, the main elements go from the material environment to the social structures and manner of talking, as well as the intangible matters of style, ideals and mental categories or felt connections between things. In a word, culture is what shapes our lives. It defines what does and does not matter. To speak of Christian culture could mean the ideas, customary relationships and actions during the day, year and lives that are Christ-like. But as creatures of our historical horizon and national environment it is easy to blur what is American and what is modern life what is Christian. To be clear, though, some of the things we see and do and imagine as belonging to the Bible, the relationship to our Creator and Word Made Flesh are not exclusively Christian; there are values and customs that may overlap or intersect Christ's Ways. Filtering out our modernism and our Americanism gives a truer grasp of the things in our traditions that do belong to The Son of Man.

 

 Nowadays: Are the teachings of Christ and the relationship to God background to we as protagonists living out the lifestory we have? Or instead is it God's Will that is the active force and we who are the background to that story; we who conform, react and respond to The Way in order to fit in its wake? To "be" a Christian under these circumstances involves filtering out the many distractions and glut of material wealth that floods our attention and stewardship instincts. Somehow individual persons become placeholders, 2-dimensional cardboard cutout tokens, or less urgent a call on our minds than bills, deadlines, paperwork, online hotlinks and voicemail messages.

 

Civil War aftermath (c1870-1890): Mass consumption and production of the industrial infrastructure and its connected markets. Perhaps the preoccupation of people professing and pursuing Christianity was, like today, divided between those concerned with the Show (looking proper and reproducing the outward appearance of A Christian Life) and those concerned with the Tell (disregarding outward appearances in favor of hearing God's Voice and Speaking His Will). In other words, there were Mainline Churches run like corporate bodies with officers, minutes and committees. But there were also searching souls alone or together who did not cleave to the Mainline Church routines and benchmarks. Lots of great hymns date from these days, as well. So the shared experience of worship under a roof or at a revival tent must have been powerful enough for the Vale of Tears then.  To "be" a Christian under those circumstances would be a struggle between The Word powerfully brought to life by skillful speakers and the visual pomp of Polite Society that many took to be the mark of Respectability in God's eyes and in one's Neighbor's eyes.

 

Frontier times west of the Mississippi (c 1885-1920): Small habitations and so many uncertainties (hostile and aggravated Native Americans, distant federal services and fashions; weather and growing animals or plants for sale, multiple ailments and ways to meet early death) may have made families, strangers and individual souls feel less cultural padding or comfort to separate themselves from The Creator. To "be" a Christian under those circumstances must have involved a degree of "make do" resourcefulness; do it yourself Rites and readings, and so on.

 

Nonconformity times of the Puritans and others (c.1610-1670): Similar to frontier times, uncertainty and death were common companions. So daily intercession of God would be keenly felt and responded to. For non-believers there were distractions and self-medications of the day. To "be" a Christian under those circumstances could be a life-threatening thing since the Act of Worship was prescribed in manner, time and place and authorized edition of the Bible.

"drawing closer to God" (prayer phrase)

1. We (start and) end the weekly Bible Study with prayer and among the phrases that sometimes arise is "...may we draw closer to God."
So I asked what does this mean if real life: exactly how far CAN a person draw close to God without actually being God?
Put another way: What does it look like when a person is close to God or in daily and hourly relationship with God?
Is this quantity (number of minutes per day when one's mind is filled with such things) or quality (depth, breadth, flavor); or maybe both?
 
Answer emerging from that conversation: much like the difference between "knowing" (in your head) about a matter versus knowing the same thing (by dint of experience, not just book knowledge), so too the God community is not just distinctions, connections, terminology but has to involve experience; knowing in this second, bodily way.
Drawing ever closer to God means, then, to identify in His world; His kingdom; His works and tasks for we His hands and His feet. And yet how seldom we actually glimpse our own identities at a given moment, let along over the process of growth and change. Self-awareness of identity sticks out when one is out of the taken for granted routines and comfortable, convenient environment. Identity is shaped by experience, not by head-knowledge alone; adversity and responding to it is another influence (adversity tests one's true character; "a friend in need is a friend indeed").
 
2. I reflect on the parable channel of Jesus' teaching and the rabbinic mode of Midrash (overstate a case in order to see it more clearly as it truly is).
Although the stories are persuasive by logic and emotion and example/deeds, still the message exceeds our finite minds. So it is sort of ironic that syntax and words and teaching is conveyed by logic and yet the subject of Faith by its essential character is without boundaries, definition or fixed shape and patterns of logic. It is a matter of the heart - sort of like the story, "The Little Prince" [Le Petit Prince by Antoine St. Exupery]: "It is only with the heart that one can truly see" [or ...that one can see truth].

bible study 5.31.2011 - unity? diversity?

Continuing in parallel with the lectionary (Matthew's Gospel), we came to the point of confrontation between Pharisees and Jesus, who is healing the lame man's hands On The Sabbath. The discussion came up: why are the (schooled/achievement-based expertise) Pharisees so reactionary (hereditary Saducces were learned and held religious special status, but they are not reported in confrontation with Jesus in the same way that Pharisees do)? The solution seems to be that the Pharisees were a relatively recent group at the time of Jesus' life. They rose much in reaction to the encroachment of economic and cultural dominance of the Romans. So while the heyday for classical Greece was around 400 B.C.E. for the Romans the rise to prowess began with the Punic wars in the 200s BCE. That's when the Palestine (Levant) encroachments began and the Pharisee tradition arose.
 
Next question: when did a universal church rise up (compared to the ancient, primitive house-churches that Paul tends over with their diverse contexts and cultural baggage)?
Answer: it arose in coincidence with Constantine III declaring the empire to support and follow Christianity. Since Rome was the cultural capital, it was natural to expect prominence equally among religions: the biggest and best also would be in Rome. And yet forever --primitive times and since then to now today (include E/W schism, reformation "separated bretheren), there has been discord and disagreement, as well as variance in interpreting the scriptures.
 

book, Jerusalem Jerusalem

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/03/08/james-carrolls-jerusalem-jerusalem-the-earthly-and-the-heavenily-the-mundane-and-the-imagined

[radio interview show; excerpt follows, sample passage from book also posted there]

For years before the Arab uprising, author James Carroll has been studying Jerusalem. Not just the city today and its divisions and tensions. But the city over thousands of years, as a symbol and locus of the sacred, the sublime, and the violent. As a spark point for modernity, and a portal to antiquity.

new view of world; bible study Feb 22 - more Beatitudes

Wrestling with the "everlasting Word of life," as Quaker founder Geo. Fox called the good book, we at the Bible study seem to be aligning ourselves with the worldview promoted therein: have faith to mingle with all members of society great and small, actively do good in your world, go forth in meekness with an open heart listening intently for God's direction.

_________________________________
We got through the part where the O.T. commandments are recapped ("You have heard it said: thou shalt not kill...") and read the Lord's Prayer version of Matthew (a little different to Luke 11 version). We wondered how come we say the version "forgive us our sins" [until the 1970s we used Debts]. We noted that this model prayer has the praise part to begin and the "give us" part afterwards. But many people skip the first part...

Getting back to the "you have heard it said..." discussion, we looked for the common denominator in all those statements. In other words, by taking things to that full (spirit of the commands, not just going through the motions/behaviors of the commands) meaning, what is Jesus really getting at in terms of the Right Attitude and Relationship between us and our God. One clue comes from the scene when Jesus is asked "what is the greatest commandment": love God and love your neighbor as yourself. By doing that master command, then all the rest of the commands/behaviors are mere details. When love for the creator and for fellow person is overflowing, then the sins/commandments will take care of themselves.

[listing the beatitudes alongside the reward/result of each illustration, a pattern emerges]

poor in spirit ->searching out/inside
those who mourn ->paused from rut
the gentle/meek ->power voluntary
hunger/thirst ->righteousness urgent; singlemnded
merciful ->forgive yield to bigger/higher
pure in heart ->open, not cluttered
the peacemakers ->vision of good
persecuted for righteousness->undaunted
reproached/persecuted/say evil of you for my sake ->foregrounded, searching out/inside

in summary, one's heart should be:
-paused from rut, routine or knee-jerk responses
-voluntary spirit
-urgent, single-minded
-forgive yield to bigger/higher
-open, not cluttered or distracted
-vision of the good
-undaunted by obstacles or threats
-foregrounded

beatitudes, Letter of THE LAW vs the Spirit of the Law

Matthew 5:17 talks about "fulfilling the Law, not abolishing it."

The Beatitudes include a series of statements about "you have heard it said" [insert Old Testament/Ten Commandments list]. In each case the point is that what is stated pertains to external, observable actions against The Law. However, in each case we hear that this is only the visible "tip of the iceberg" and that the spirit of the law is what matters. In other words, by making your heart/outlook/intentionality Righteous, then the external behaviors will naturally follow [cf. Book of James in which there is the statement about black hearts are indicated by black words: what is on the inside comes out].

 

During our Tuesday Bible Study discussion the experience of leading worship and study in prison yielded this insight: because the church experience there is not institutionalized (no building or hierarchy), there is more latitude for the Christian Experience to focus on the spirit of the teachings, not its trappings. The structured society of prison gives enough institutional inertia, so that church matters can be dispensed with. An analogy could be to the Bible itself: during the time of Jesus there was no bound version with red lettering or gilt edges. So the Word was not objectified or institutionalized. Instead the emphasis was on the spirit or content of the Word. Paradoxically the published and bound volume can be a compact gateway (not endpoint or final destination) and yet for the false sense of finiteness this leads to a false belief that it holds power or sanctity as an object alone. Therefore, while it can be an entry to God's Word, it can also be a stumbling block.

Men's bible study, Feb. 1

Beatitudes, Matthew 5:
-That the list of how to go through life is about relating to God and God to each person. It is BE-attitude, in which attitude or perspective is the connective tissue between what you know in your head (knowledge; what is right) and how you act in the world (seizing opportunities now that you can see them right in front of you)

-Human weakness makes us scale our ambitions, expectations, and sense of insult or irritation in relative terms ("at least I'm better than..." or "at least I'm not as much of a sinner as..."). However, in God's eyes, such mortal preoccupations is just like "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." In other words, there are much, much bigger things than the puny jockeying relative to one's neighbors. When it comes to God's working and relating to each person, that is an absolute (not relative) thing. So much of our experiences are relativistic that it is counter-intuitive to our lived experience to perceive differences with our fellow children-of-God and accept that we are equally sinful, blessed and loved.

-Just as life experience allows us to actually understand the significance of things like disability, children's care, in-laws, mortality and so forth, the same is true of the Beatitudes: by moving from head-knowledge (logic; logos) to heart-knowledge, the full meaning hits home. It becomes part of who we are; our identity; what we claim as our own. As such, we carry it out in daily decisions and actions.
Lived experience, both the sweet and the bitter, does make things come alive for us; makes the concepts real. As such, the things that surround us (opportunities, temptations, obligations) suddenly become visible. They were there all the time, but somehow we never could "see" them. God's grace is there; His righteousness is there; joy, mystery, glory and power for ever and ever are there. But until we are prepared to see this, no matter how many times to go to places to see God, we won't really see Him.

-Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is not only a "pull" (positive attraction), but also a "push" (negative repulsion): we resonate with being Righteous (but not Self-righteous) much like a radio that moves from out-of-tune into clear tuning, but we also rankle at being un-righteous. There is pleasure in being Right with the Lord at the same time that there is pain in being not-Right with the Lord.

-Just as "People don't care what you know until they know that you care," so too, for people to accept that God's Word is relevant and hunger for this, first of all they need to feel that God cares.

=-= Why does it matter to seek more knowledge, then incorporate into one's working understanding and vision, and finally to act in consonance with that improved stature?
Take the example of reading an owner's manual versus just trial-and-error. For having wrestled with the word, then applying this to one's working method the resulting improvement in vision (acuity, finer distinctions, ability to make connections that were not apparent before) means that you can see farther, wider and deeper when faced with the same circumstances than ever you could before. Whereas the trial-and-error or lucky-guess person bumps into all sorts of troubles, the person with the Big Picture or map can navigate the intermediate obstacles to most readily reach the point they seek.

knowledge - attitude/belief - behaviors

know (in isolation or in connection to) feel (owning an idea or action as one's own/one's self) action (behavior standard met, in isolation or connected to belief and knowledge)
 
e.g. xianity; cross-cultural differences; c2L2

hokey holiday busyness

The annual coming of Christmas Day is a reminder of the "mission statement" that an infant is a gift from the creator, no matter if born in animal quarters and surrounded in poverty, too. I have many thoughts and feelings of this season or hustle and bustle, high expectations and obligatory retail excess.
 
1. Double vision: yes, there is lots of feel-good from the cozy music, treats, reunions and traveling about. But all that is _maya_ (illusion as the Buddhists say), like the dew on the grass or smoke on the wind soon gone. The more valuable view is the restatement and glorifying of the Jesus story: born in flesh amid poverty to save one and all, literally 'God with us' (Emmanu-el, EL dennoting the old name for the creator God). So let's not feel bad about the feel-good shineyness, but let's remember that it matters little, and even distracts a lot from the main story about God in your face, on the ground, amid daily living.
 
2. What would the world look like if the Jesus story and God oriented society were global and normalized: not in the sense of Official, state policy like the dopa or soma for the masses, but rather in the true, open-ended and vigilent spirit of the human-God relationship: listening for God's will, but ever inquiring. Never blind obedience, but always 'wrestling with the Word' (literally, Israe-el; where EL is the old name for the creator God). Perhaps then it would be normal to speak God's name and consult God's will or remain open to the Holy Spirit. There would be no 'cordon sanitaire' between Church and State, since all creation would be touched by God. And yet there would be no mortal glibly justifying self-righteousness for her or his personal actions and gains.
 
3. So much of the Church year and familiar routines have little connection to the basic Jesus story and personal relationship to God. Image if all the hoopla were discarded and just the central message(s) were the basis of all activity and discussion.
 
4. It seems so human-centric to insist that God privileges homo sapiens sapiens of all his creatures, and further for us to embody his power in the human form of the Christ. But as a useful life exercise, it is all right to ante up and get in the game, and to use the pieces we have been handed down by tradition and history to help us to fumble around and engage in relationship to our creator and the created world we briefly inhabit.

doubts of the season

Pageants, concerts, TV programming, carols, fancy dress in green and red themes, street and shop decorations, sweet treats and added effort of hustling for cards, postage, gifts and wrapping. It is all a much of a muchness, similar to other years and best characterized is lots of light, but little real heat: a verisimilitude or proxy of imagined well-being, or in Tiny Tim's words from A Christmas Carol, "God Bless Us, everyone." What is to doubt of the season: the haste, the preoccupation, the anxieties all distract and detract from the message. What is the message, anyway? In a word, the message is Emmanuel, God With Us. That message is the point; it should be sufficient to celebrate. So away with the rest of the dross - bah, Humbug to the busyness. Let us be still and calm, give thanks and finish with praise.

Although this tinge of gloominess has been spreading the past 2 weeks, it came into focus during the annual ballet production of The Promise yesterday: some familiar and bigger than life music to accompany the youth company production. Technically impressive, narratively recognizable of The Christmas Story, occasionally artistically in perfect synthesis of performers moving as one and focused on telling the story, rather than merely going through the motions on synch. But between gorgeous costumes, amplified music, awesome lighting changes and audience clapping intermittently for dancers' well executed points, the message for Christmas was ironically in the distant background, even as it figures as the subject of the production.

Researching World Christianity: [a database of]

Subject: [xpost H-Asia]: [a database of] Doctoral Dissertations on Mission Since 1900
URL http://resources.library.yale.edu/dissertations/ 
Yale University Library & Yale Divinity School, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

---Self-description:
"This database incorporates compilations of missions-related
dissertations published in the July 1983, July 1993, and July 2003
issues of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research
[http://www.internationalbulletin.org/], and has been expanded in its
scope. First, it includes English-language doctoral dissertations
without regard to country of origin. Secondly, rather than focusing
narrowly on missions, it also includes dissertations dealing with
Christianity outside the West. Excluded are dissertations about
Christianity in Europe, Australasia, and North America, with the
exception of aboriginal missions in those areas. Thirdly, it expands
the chronological scope to include dissertations presented since
1900. Fourth, the earlier compilations were limited to 'research'
doctorates, understood to include the Th.D. and the Ph.D.; the
present compilation includes all doctoral level dissertations and
theses that we could identify, including the D.Min. and D.Miss.

Finally, we consulted many more sources to identify theses and
dissertations than did the predecessor compilations, including
websites and published bibliographies (a bibliography of sources
consulted will be included with the database). As a result, the
number of titles identified increased from 2,371 in its three
predecessors to nearly 5,193. Updates to the database have increased
the number of titles to 6,113 as of April 2010. The creation of this
database was undertaken in collaboration with the International
Bulletin of Missionary Research, and made possible by the support of
the Overseas Ministries Study Center [http://www.omsc.org/], New
Haven, Conn.."

Site contents
[examples of keyword searches]

# MALAYSIA - details [Title, Author, Degree, Institution, Date,
Abstract, DAI Number, Country of Origin, Subject 1, Subject 2,
Subject 3, Subject 4] of the 21 located dissertations, including:
...[21] Church Structure Issues in Asian Ecumenical Thought: With
Particular Reference to Malaysia and Singapore. Yap, Kim Hao. Boston University.

# KOREA - details of the 143 located dissertations, including:
[1] The Anglican Church's missionary work in Korea 1890--1910 as
revealed in its missionary magazine 'Morning Calm' Ahn, J.M.
University of Wales.
...[5] A Historical Study of the Role of Pioneer Korean Christians in
Beginning the Indigenous Presbyterian Church and in Bible
Translation, 1876--1912. Bang, Dong Sub. Reformed Theological
Seminary.

# JAPAN - details of the 89 located dissertations, including:
[3] Social Evangel as Nationalism: A Study of the Salvation Army in Japan, 1895--1940. Baggs, Albert Edward. State University of New York
at Buffalo.
[4] Between idolatry and infidelity: The Christian missionary in Japan, 1874--1912: A case study of cross-cultural encounter with
special reference to the activities of British missionaries in Japan. Ballhatchet, H.J. University of London.
[5] Education in early Meiji Japan, 1868--1890. Bonnallie, Dorothy A. Claremont Graduate University.

two brothers - the case for & against God

Hitchens Brothers Agree To Disagree Over God
Journalist Christopher Hitchens is an atheist, who says the world would be better off without religion. His brother Peter is a conservative Anglican, who believes goodness is impossible without religious faith. The brothers have publicly argued over faith for years. But now that Christopher has been diagnosed with cancer, the theoretical argument is real.

[npr.org Relgion 13 Oct 2010]

3rd John

9/21/2010 fccsj men's bible study

3rd John (a chapter only 1/2 page in length)
<> Local leader lording over group of believers >Follow Paul's instructions: go first to confront alone, then with a witness, and as a last resort in front of whole church. It is the intent of calling a person's actions into question that matters. Doing so for status quo or institutional comfort is wrong. The process of engagement should be equally painful for both parties to be an honest one, guided by prayer and The Word, not by personalities or emotional responses.

<> Reference to the local pagans >these worship local dieties, rather than the non-Jew "God Fearers" who were seeking God's favor.

<> Church >while the original Jesus follower's included early leaders who countenanced and coached local gatherings as a recognizable (if persecuted, secret) Body of Believers; i.e., Church, there was no formal authority to issue any charter to define and recognize a particular collection of people to be "a church," at least to begin with. Similarly of Apostles (those given a mission), Disciples (students/followers of...), or Brothers (and Sisters). One could become these things unilaterally? Or would some leaders dub a person to be any or all of these statuses?

Being Christian? Doing Christian?

 We can begin from the New Testament idea that being righteous and striving to be holy is all about one's relationship with the Creator and ultimately concerns what is in one's intentionality and in one's heart.

 

If that is true, then one never attains perfection in any static, finished sense. No matter how you may dress, walk, talk in such as way that expresses the extra effort and intention to excel and rise about the murkiness of daily hustle and bustle, what really matters is not what it looks like on the outside, but what you are striving for on the inside.

Using the same inside/outside logic as a measuring tool, one can size up the greats: the disciples and the Christ, but also the people called saints in hindsight, and those among us living today who may accomplish a lot of good in the world and who may or may not be doing this fully mindful of God's place in their lives.

Using the same inside/outside logic as a measuring tool, one can also observe those among us living today who may NOT (visibly) accomplish much good in the world and who may or may not be doing this fully mindful of God's place in their lives.

On balance what is the difference between those doing good things, and those who are not producing good results? Using the inside/outside logic, what matters is the person's heart primarily, then what joy or succor they bring to their fellows secondarily.

The "fruit and the vine" image says the same thing: stay in the game, stay connected to The Word (Jesus as the Word made flesh) and results will grow: both the relationship to God inside one's heart AND the material good one accomplishes among fellow creatures.

 

In sum, when our times consist of fragmented spaces and lives, filled with disconnected messages, interactions, obligations and aspiration, perhaps the greatest thing to ask for is the fullness of life: being able to see oneself and others in the life course big picture that holds all those pieces together in one frame as they ripen, mature, produce and decay. What matters, then, is to strive to understand God's word and presence and authorized with his commission to each one of us, to go forth as His hands and feet; doing his work and knowing that we are cherished, that we belong to Him (love in many facets) and that that condition will never end.

Stated in terms of advice to trial-and-error, seeking Christians: (1) use all avenues to understand who/what God is in order to see His presence and works [i.e., firstly, Love God - mindfulness], and (2) knowing Him, then fulfill his work among one's fellows [i.e., Love your neighbor as yourself -usefulness].

So in a word: be mindful and be useful. Do good works, and do them mindfully (or prayerfully). To play the game, you need to show up in the first place (get off the bench and play).

Prayerbook impressions, Siddur Sim Shalom

Here follow selected parts of the introductory remarks, commentaries and supplemental readings and hymns from the 2001 sixth printing of the Prayerbook from The Rabbinical Assembly, The Utd Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (NYC).

viii [morning b'rakhot] ...celebrate the renewal of life with each new day. These b'rakhot express an awareness of human mortality and gratitude -- for God's fits of body and soul, for compassion, for the Torah, and for our covenant with Adonai... [Passages of Song, P'sukei D'zimra] Proper concentration while reciting the words of these sections can help us to approach the core of our worship in the proper spirit, with an informed heart --freely, openly, and gladly.The basic component of this section consists of Psalms 145 through 150.

xii [Kaddish] ...The Kaddish, in any form, is recited only in the presence of a minyan [10 adult Jews], since it is an act of praising God in public.

xiii [On the Liturgy of the Conservative Movement] ...these same liturgical formulations in addressing our Creator, confronting challenges of faith, and expressing gratitude and praise... One of its [this edition] aims was "to endow the traditional Jewish service with all the beauty and dignity befitting it."

xiv ...to praise God for having created each individual in the image of the Divine, as a free person, and as a Jew, rather than the traditional version, which expresses gratitude for not having been created a woman, a slave, or a non-Jew.

xvii [translations] ...English usage has undergone many changes. The most obvious example is the way we have begun speaking about God. As our society has grown more egalitarian and inclusive, a new sensitivity has emerged to the God-language we have always used, with its excessive dependence on masculine imagery... "Adonai" may be only a pious substitute for the original revealed name of God...

xviii ...used the active form, "who RULES the universe," indicating that our praise of God is for the act of guiding our world and making us holy through mitzvot... [Kaddish word choice for 'God'] thus signifying that God wishes His name to be exalted in the world that He created, but that only we have the ability to make that happen.

xxi [book title Sim Shalom (Grant Peace)] appropriate as a symbol of our people's eternal longing for peace.

374 [from Ecclesiastes (Kohelet)] ..There is not one righteous person on earth; who does only good and never sins.>Eat your bread in gladness and drink your wine in joy; for God as already approved of your action::Enjoy life with the one you love all the fleeting days of your life that have been granted you under the sun.>Do with all your might what ever you are able to do.There is no activity, no thought, no wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.

jpg392 I am a Jew (adapted from Edmund Fleg)
jpg393 Facing life changes (Debbie Perlman)
jpg357 One Thing I ask of God (Harold Kushner)

expressions digitally

as seen in the Religion pages of the Grand Rapids, Michigan Press, www.grpress.com

www.driveinchurch.org
www.hnrc.org [podcasts and streaming video]
www.frcgr.sermonaudio.com

Weekly column of grpress.com to feature one person's religious experience in capsule form:
<> name, age, occupation(s), place of worship
<> important books (apart from sacred texts)
<> important art or artists
<> role models for one's own faith
<> favorite faith practice
<> what I'm working on in my faith life

thinking back - Bible in 90 Days

...I did a speed Bible reading course at church, too (The Bible in 90 Days: 12 pages per day for 88 days).
The companion DVD has a choice of two experts talking about the Old Testament, but only one for NT.
Going over every printed word rapidly doesn't help it to sink in, but at least you start to know "the neighborhood" (where everything lives).
 
Seems like the upshot of the OT is that God loves us and all his creation more generally and our job in return is the commandment to Love God with all your soul and strength (including to love your neighbor as yourself). So many things come along to separate us from that sense of belonging. For the NT the point seems to be that WE are God's hand, feet, eyes and ears and mouth. So we are given the authority to act on His behalf to minister to one another, following the human example of Jesus in the day to day world we occupy in a lifetime (and with the support and direction of the Holy Spirit).
 
In other words, how ever you may feel moved or called, go ahead in confidence knowing God is there, even when you can't see or understand everything you enter into.

list of seven churches for Paul's letters

reference list: Colosse - Corinth - Ephesus - Galatia - Phillipi - Rome - Thessalonika

jewels of living from essay series, "This, I Believe"

Many of the world's religions teach the importance of caring for each other, whether it's tending to a close family member or showing compassion for a complete stranger. Click the links below to read how these essayists explore the simple acts of kindness that can enrich our own humanity.

A Calling We Should Heed  |  Being My Brother's Keeper  |  Only a Little Less than Angels

A Journey Across America  |  Kindness Equals Survival

 

 

 

...and from the original essay project in the 1950s (re-created from people in 2005):

fifty thoughtful and inspiring statements of belief by
Harry S. Truman  |  Helen Keller  |  Jackie Robinson  |  Margaret Mead  |  James Michener
Eleanor Roosevelt  ...among others

dis-Grace vs Grace; Social Justice

Consider the terms disgrace; disgraced; disgraceful. While the root is Grace, somehow there is an imbalance. Grace is about goodness and unconditional love that cannot be earned or compelled. Disgrace is just a Worldly issue of shame or guilt in the eyes of one's peers or even in front of strangers, where the ideal or expected propriety is deliberately or inadvertantly violated. So while grace may touch both worldly and spiritual chords, dis-grace is purely a worldly matter.
 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Intent is (almost) Everything: what is in your heart is connected to what comes out of your mouth. Yet intention is not enough since "The Road to Hell [or perdition] is paved with good [but beknighted or misguided] intentions."

Social justice, yes; but legislated, no. Once "love your neighbor as yourself" becomes compulsory and on an institutional scale, then it becomes faceless (no-longer a personal act for Doing God's Will) and the interpersonal accountability of social contact (contract) is broken. So let's make our social life better, but not by government-designed programs, except as a last resort when no heart-derived outreach and social justice is forthcoming locally.

Entitlement receiving or obligatory giving differs from voluntary giving or receiving (birthday; Christmas; greeting card company calendar event); cf. murder 1st-2nd-3rd degree v. manslaughter (victim is equally dead in either case, but deed differs by intent).

Dangers of extreme Left or Rightwing political position or religious group: by taking a position then the process of engaging with the Living Word is foreclosed and the individual or the organization is working under its own direction, rather than to remain open to the Will of God. Compare also how the Living Word is sapped of life when church life is routinized or institutionalized (rationalized for maximum efficiency or convenience). The Board & Committee structure create a status quo stability. By contrast the Ministry Team approach puts decisions and consequences into the hands of those present who are engaged (instead of a consumer model of picking and choosing what one finds appealing, now you are the author of the actions and results - a producer model).

questions for themed reading of Bible

When wrestling with God's word and our response to The World, our group looked at instances of the Holy Spirit during the end of 2009.
Here is a run-down of topics people suggested for the next and future gatherings.
 
<> fear: when faced with something we don't want; want to do; want to know (surprise)
<> social justice: Do My Work in the World, ...(may) Thy Kingdom Come
<> active part of society, community, public forums
<> marriage: examples that characterize the many faces of relationship; the work to do
<> prayer: how to, typology, examples, translating into our times/terms
<> evil's function and structure - why so much Satan in NT rather than Old
<> hell on $5 a day (instances of this topos)
 
OTHER IDEAS
<> core Christianity: holding up Congregationalism and other denominations against the basics
 
<> great missionary episodes past and present (stories passed down; histories; people, places, things)
 
<> care and feeding of your Christian self: an "owner's manual" for scheduled maintenance over the lifetime of your earthly self, kind of a set of object lessons or case studies wherein a problem comes up and the person responds well or not so well. By swimming in the pool of stories and role models, it instructs us about options when faced with hardship or joy, and ordinary times in-between. Many of us around the table live moment to moment, sometimes self-aware about making what we think is a Christian response, but I suspect few of us make a 90 day plan or 2 year plan for growth goals in our relationship to God and one another. So to scrutinize the landmarks one can use to guide one's purposeful growth should make for rich discussion.

Holy Spirit

Reflections for continuing in the guided groups of readings during the Tuesday morning Bible Study to reveal something of the nature and character of the OT God and NT Father - Son - Holy Spirit:

1. The Christ refers to himself as "fulfilled Jew," still within the Chosen People, but carrying out the intent or spirit of the Laws (OT covenant between God and the people) to underline to key message: love your God, love your neighbor as yourself. So the OT lessons about serving and loving God still apply under the New Covenant, but the focus is not maintaining or manipulating Laws, but instead in deed and in heart acting in good faith and from love/charitas.

2. Mere mortals seek to define, delineate, delimit things analytically; but also to establish an emotional response to God. So the distinction of God's various forms and functions is an exercise we are preoccupied with. Yet perhaps for God, there is little sense in making distinctions between the three and one.

3. Looking at the logistical details of the Chosen People multiplying to fill the define boundaries of the Promised Land, there is a kind of organizational logic or efficiency in shifting over the course of the Bible from the portable Tabernacle (God's presence signaled by a pilar of cloud during the day and fire by night), to the permanent installation of the First Temple (Solomon's genius), then fragmentation after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans after the 70 A.D. uprising which led to local "cells" (the synogogue scale of worship), and then the promise of Jesus to reside individually in each person's heart, authorizing each follower to act on behalf of God to do His work.

reading Bible in 90 Days (program/materials)

12 weeks from the series "Bible in 90 Days," www.biblein90days.org/support or email, zreview@zondervan.com
Reading cover to cover the New International Version, NIV, about 12 pages per day for 88 days; including lectures on DVD that accompany the materials.

Abbreviations: OT, NT (old testment, new testament)

Week 1: Genesis tells of God making a place where he will dwell (Adam/Eve aren't the main point). Ten Commandments in Exodus reveals something about the lawgiver: "I am Holy; you are meant to be holy, too."
[read: Genesis, Exodus]

Week 2: As transliterated LORD instead of lord, the translation sets this usage apart as a name; not just a title or formality. But modern US citizens are not used to thinking of another person or deity as hierarchical sincethe social pattern is flatter: no one is supposed to be more valuable than another. Exceptions or examples of hierarchy might include words like "boss" or the formal pyramid of military life.
[read: Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy]

Week 3: dvd points out- narrative parts of the OT reveal something about the kind of God we have, just as exchanging personal stories help others to define you. So we need to look beyond the instruction or entertainment value of these stories and use these to get to know our God.
[read Joshua, Judges, Ruth, begin 1 Samuel]

Week 4: Prophets appear and call kings to account of the Lord. Prophets are not so much future tellers as accountability experts: some kings help establish God's relationships/wisdom, while others hinder or obstruct that process.
[read 2 Samuel, Kings 1 & 2]

Week 5: In contrast to the master theme of doom and exile in Kings, the replay in Chronicles is the theme of hope.
[read Chronicles 1 & 2, Ezra, Nehemiah]

Week 6: Job's trials show us not to ask "WHY me, why this" (about cause/effect and fairness), but instead to ask "WHAT FOR this" (future purpose; wisdom unfolding or revealed). Psalms are either LAMENTING, or PRAISING.
[read Esther, Job, Psalms to #89]

Week 7: "Wisdom Books" say the foundation for wisdom is Fear of the Lord (putting you in your small place in the universe and filled with awe). There are some important differences when describing Understanding (wide-angle, big-picture view of all the parts working together), Wisdom (applying knowledge to a specific situation), and Discernment (recognize value or dangers)
[read Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs]

Week 8:

Week 9:

Week 10:

Week 11:

Week 12:

December notes, Men's Bible Study

Tues. Men's Bible Study, 12.22.2009

*What to do when disillusioned or loss of taste for the Jesus & God story?
-Stay in the game: show up; routines
-Go back to the raw wonder
-Doubt is flipside of Belief; fear not
-
-
-

*Must one read to access the message of the church? Or is spoken word sufficient? Before mass literacy and printing of household Bibles, were those people missing part of the fullness of the Jesus story and the books that came before him?

*To know and love God it seems that we should follow ALL paths that can teach us, including writings not included in the current editions of the Bible such as minor prophets, but also the writing and thinking of Islam and Judaism.

*How to skim off the custom and clutter from the essential message(s)?-strip what is modern/unneeded-use the "WWJD?" seeing tool
-compare other denominations for underlying shared bedrock-personalize: own scale & options
-
-

church >people >God >church

Thinking about church-going and Bible reading, it occurs to me that while I find meaning in the printed words, it is the periodic worshipping with familiar faces and names that is even more meaningful to me. Abstracting from that I imagine that the institution and the outline that church building, order of service and programming all give to one's week and annual cycle is a "means," while it is the people thereby brought into relationship with each other that is the ends. Going further, though, you can say that those relationships with fellow sojourners of this life is, in turn, a means through which each of us gets into relationship with God; it allows us each in the ways we know best to make "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." So the institution is about the people, because working with and knowing the people IS expressing God's love.

The convolution of church is about people, but people is about God, and God is about church seems to return to the starting place; not gaining any ground. But still this exercise helps me to hold the parts of the equation up to the light to see what they are.

hearing versus only listening to the Bible

"leaps of association" 

Thinking about the Palm Sunday vesper service a few days ago here in urban Japan, I had the curious feeling of vaguely being able to follow the Order of Service and to recognize some of the phrases of familiar Bible passages. But later I got to thinking: I wonder how well the Aramaic worldview transfers to the Japanese language in general, and to the 21st century Japanese lives in particular? The next moment I began to wonder the same about English: just because the sentences seem crystal clear as written, perhaps we are missing something important. Then a few days later it dawned on me: the way language is wrapped in social habits and ways of seeing things works something like the following.

As with books, movies and song lyrics, so also perhaps with the Bible: we tend to identify with certain parts. We tend to hear the parts that reinforce what we already hold true, whether it is the "Good" parts (for Americans that might be scenes that demonstrate when a person is strong, independent and with a confident optimism about outcomes; for Japanese that might be the parts that demonstrate group solidarity, awareness of hierarchy and propriety), or it is the "Bad" parts that we accept as things not to condone or strive for (for Americans that might be damaging property or rights; for Japanese that might be inconveniencing others). So it seems our minds sift the episodes and parables of the Bible for the parts that "make sense" to our existing language/society. By extension we are culturally blind to the parts that seem inscrutable, nonsensical or strange and foreign to us.

If all this is true, then here is a powerful reformative exercise for one and all - in study groups tasked with separate incidents to grapple with, or as lone pilgrims wrestling with a set of "exercises." Start by sifting out all the parts that get quickly passed over, or seem plain odd or aberrant. Those represent one region of unknown terrain for which we have no clue or tools to begin to make sense of. Then form a subset of parts that are not exactly recognizable to our modern, culturally rooted minds, but we kind of understand the intent and consequence involved. These are the middle ground where our footing is not fully firm, but neither are we adrift: visually you can think of a marsh or wetland (not quicksand, mind you). After working through these sort-of-odd bits, then maybe it is possible to step a little further away from the warm dry land that we normally tread and work through the inconvenient parts that just don't resonate with us, and that we can't readily identify in.

French wedding photo, 2008 stone sanctuary

Looking at this photo from a the August wedding of friend's youngest child raised several questions in my mind. There is the stone church many centuries old; there are the nieces and nephews of the extended family, along with other children growing swiftly each on his or her own trajectory; there are the bright colors and festive hats worn by grown women, as well as the flowers and the Persian rug laid over the cool stone floor.

1. Is church experience mainly about the building and procedures lending continuity and persistence to the institution? How best to reconcile the core message of Christianity (love thy God; love thy neighbor as thyself) with the physical facts of maintaining the physical and social institution/infrastructure of the Religion? Do the material facts support or distract from these uppermost aims?

2. The transience of the wedding ceremony: at this frozen moment in time all is clear and happy, but the viccitudes of time, aging and death as well as birth contrast sharply with the appearance of unchangeability of the stone architecture.

sermon reflections 3 Feb 2008

MWOlson's sermon, "God Butts In" and examples of grace:

-Word roots (Latin, Greek, Hebrew) for grace?

-Old Testament instances of the word or concept? cf. 'blessing' (something that a person in power has the discretion to bestow)

-Related words (English): graceful, graceless, disgrace, (no) saving grace

-Related words (non-English): muchas gracias (Spanish for "many thanks given"), merci (French for "thanks bestowed")

-Related concepts: mercy, karitas (charity or Christian love), blessing

-Dynamic shifts in core and the connotated meanings as evidenced in key (English) texts of AD 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 2000?

-Expressions of grace compared for Father, for Son, for Holy Ghost (does grace pertain to each)?

-Grace evidenced for Big Figures: Moses, Isaiah, Paul, Jesus?

-Old Testament vs. New Testament instances of grace?

-Grace examples or references in Psalms? Proverbs? (Jewish) Laws?

bill moyers amazing grace (1990)

Amazing Grace With Bill Moyers Television show
http://tv.yahoo.com/amazing-grace-with-bill-moyers/show/2033

This unique program presents adaptations of an enduring hymn, from country music to gospel to folk, in one of PBS' highest-rated programs ever. Judy Collins sings in Columbia's St. Paul's Chapel, then recalls how "Amazing Grace" carried her past alcoholism. Jessye Norman sends "Amazing Grace" soaring across Manhattan Center footlights.

Watch video - 1 min 56 sec - www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3KpoQaJ8Ok

pbs tv 2007, Bill Moyers on Amish grace

October 5, 2007 (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/profile4.html)
October 2 marked the one-year anniversary of the shootings in an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania that left five girls dead and five wounded. Non-Amish observers have expressed surprise at the community's quickness to forgive the murderer — a sentiment the community reiterated in an anniversary statement, a statement which also stressed the community's wish for privacy: "The Amish do not wish publicity for doing what Jesus taught and want to make sure that glory is given to God for that witness...forgiveness is a journey... you need help from your community and from God...to make and hold on to a decision to not become a hostage to hostility. It is understood that hostility destroys community." -- read the full statement, (PDF) http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/statement.pdf

TRANSCRIPT, http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/transcript4.html

VIDEO, http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/watch4.html