Voting for country, not party; voting 'God is Love'

 

Only 1 in 50 or fewer front yards are displaying election signs in fall 2020. This one differs to the others because it seems to interject candidate Jesus of Nazareth among the other contenders for state, local, and federal positions that now are contested.

Two weeks ago a radio segment with someone from a Catholic organization offered to interpret how the many varieties of Christians can justify in their own minds the need to support one party or its opposite. When pro-life (anti-abortinn) is the overriding issue, then Trump's promises make his candidacy the one to support, despite the rest of his life, business, and use of these past 3.5 years in the office of President for the wealthiest country on average. But when abortion is less prominent than social justice, then the conclusion is to align against Trump and vote for the democratic challengers. In this way, "people of the book" can be diametrically opposed with each other and still be guided by Christian teachings.

Where words intersect, fields of meaning do, too - 3 examples

 Rescue. Self-righteous. Knowing (God's grace). During today's weekly "Tuesday Men's Bible Study" (online video meeting during the pandemic) we wrapped up 2 Timothy starting from chapter 3, verse 10.

Wikipedia for 2 Timothy, (screenshot)

Rescue: save, salve, salvation, salvage. All these words overlap in some ways. While the Greek of Paul becomes "rescues me" in the New International Version (English), perhaps the original choice of wording in Greek had a different set of intersecting family of words and their fields of meaning different to this lexical string that resonates in English. In any case, when reading or hearing 2 Timothy from chapter 3 to the end, "rescue" does seem to convey a little from all these differing meanings since there is an aspect of being salvaged, saved, and and salved when the moment of rescue comes (unexpectedly).

Self-righteous: self-centered, self-serving, selfish, and the family of "idio" words to mean 'self' (idiosyncracy, idiotic, idiopathic, the Id). Maybe this one rose up from the discussion, rather directly from the text. Since "servant's heart" and "love your neighbor..." are prominently foundational in the Gospels and epistles, SELF (and getting over one's self fascination and anxieties) necessarily is meant to be minimized in order to make space in one's eye and heart for concerns of others. So the several facets distinguished in each of the members of this family of words shed light on dangers of foregrounding "self" and thereby blocking out "other" from one's awareness and care.

Knowing God: know about, know of, by known as, knowledgeable in. English is hobbled by the conflation of 'knowing' a person or place or subject intimately and 'knowing' about the facts pertaining to a subject or person or place. Others of the Indo-European languages make this difference clear by using different verbs according to the situation: knowing a person's name or profile is not the same as knowing that person all one's life. With God, too, there are people who seek "the facts" of God more than seeking to KNOW the creator as a dear friend, parent-figure, and giver of infinite grace and abundant life. So when the NIV footnote for 2 Timothy points out that 1/2 of the humans ever created happen to be breathing during the 21st century, but most of them do not KNOW God or the promise of salvation and other vivid teachings, the emphasis of the footnote writer seems to be "the facts" rather than the personal relationship of a person to God.

Each of these illustrations that came out of this morning's conversation point to the way that meanings overlap and make indirect meanings that echo or ripple out from the initial source. This property of words - that they belong to families of related words, but that meanings and emphasis in one expresses a significant distinction - is a kind of demonstration of the glory of creation: it has so many facets that may at first seem unrelated to each other, but upon further reflection important intersections can be traced so that hidden connections and family resemblances can be revealed.

Outsider religious way versus seat of power

 The roots of the Jesus Movement to fulfill the teachings of YHWH center on houses of worshipers meeting secretly, since neither the Establishment of Jewish leaders, nor by extension the Roman occupiers wanted to see something that did not conform to peaceful social order and status quo. Later, the early church spread along the trade and transportation routes around the Mediterranean basin and attracted not only Jews far from Jerusalem's sway, but other God-fearers, as well as pagans - citizens of Rome, its slaves, and those from inside and outside the Empire.

The status of outlaw sect of Judaism changed overnight with the declaration by Constantine at the beginning of the 4th century C.E. that Christianity would be the State Religion of the Empire and that he would be its champion in the wide world (the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire). His pledge to do this if YHWH would allow military victory thus was fulfilled after defeating the attackers at the battle of Milvian Bridge.

From now on the followers of The Way could own property, govern themselves openly, establish schools of learning and all the things that make a group of people an organization and perpetuate it until at last becoming a self-sustaining institution. Hierarchies grew, buildings were endowed, traditions of knowledge expanded, and doctrinal hairs were split ever more finely. With power comes corruption. Reforms came and sometimes gained traction. Sects splintered and power in the World grew bigger and bigger.

Importantly, Jesus answered Pilate by saying "my kingdom is not of this world." And a good deal of the meaning behind the phrase of the Lord's Prayer, "...Thy will be done; on Earth as in Heaven," is about one's own heart. That is, the Kingdom is not something standing on the surface of the planet, but instead dwells within each practitioner's own heart: the person's attitudes, habits of talking, strength of relationships, daily exercise of care for others, expressions of humility and also unshakeable faith, and so on. Therefore, the watershed begun with Constantine the Great to bring Christ-followers into the light of the world to freely worship and evangelize, is a mixed blessing and curse. The blessing is the reduction in persecution. The curse is the accumulating power, generation by generation, that imposes temptation and corruption.

Given the choice of fringe religion and mainstream institution, perhaps most would opt for today's model. But maybe there is a third way, neither institutionalized rigidity nor small-time desperation. Perhaps the sweetest form of The Way is to be in the World but not of the World; blessed by the material well-being and physical abundance that may be put to good use, but not redirected from stewardship of God's creation and distracted by stewardship of "stuff" bought or bequeathed from the faithful.

The question remains: can it still be Christianity when there is wealth and power and prominence involved?

Us versus Them restated as "we together"

Early August 2020 the guest on the weekly radio show, "On Being," was the poet Marilyn Nelson, in a rebroadcast of the original 2017 conversation with host Krista Tippett. She compares God seekers who expect to find God and God-at-work somewhere outside themselves ("magic mentality") to the people who see God at work in all places and times, including in their own selves ("alliance mentality").

Image search result for 'Marilyn Nelson poet' (8/2020)

Quoting the interview (full text link appended, below), she says:

I think people who have a “magic mentality” believe that God is something out there that we have to find to connect with and people who have an “alliance mentality” know that God is inside of us and in our connections with each other and with the world, that God exists within and between, not exterior to us, but within us and between us. I think that’s what he was trying to say... There is no separation. We are a part of God. That’s — isn’t that the ecstatic experience? We recognize that. And some people know that just naturally. Other people have to learn it. [emphasis added]

Other authors and thinkers from the Stewards of Earth tradition in Abrahamic religions have said something similar with regard to perceptions in public about "nature" versus society, or  "the natural world" ---as if the definition of "nature" consists of everything apart from human lives. Whereas industrialized, Western societies have cultivated an imaginary separation of human (cultural and technologically mediated) environment from all of the land and waters that people require to live, other societies have viewed the human/non-human boundary as much blurrier and movable. One instance of the "nature" concept being cut-off from human life comes from the translation into Japanese from the English concept of "nature." There was no exact pre-existing Japanese word, so a new one was coined, ShiZen (the kanji character 'shi' means "of itself" and 'zen' means something like "wild vitality").

In the particular phrase, above, "We are a part of God," there is a poetic double-meaning, or perhaps it is best described as ironic reflection. One meaning is "a part" or one of many pieces that all together contributes to the whole. Another meaning, this time a clever pun, is "apart" or separated from the rest. Taking the spoken word and transcribing it as "We are a part of God" means that we cannot be separated from God since we are integral to what and who and why God is. But taking the spoken word and transcribing it as "We are apart of God" means that we stand outside of God's ways and spend our waking hours seeking a way back in.

[from https://onbeing.org/programs/marilyn-nelson-communal-pondering-in-a-noisy-world/#transcript ]

Jesus as the model, St. Paul as the coach

So much of the 2nd (New) Testament seems to be comprised of letters from Paul to the various congregations and synagogues around the Mediterranean who knew him. He offers encouragement, admonition or correction, and instruction to guide them, either in reply to things they brought to him, or in his circular, general teaching letters. While there were many things in common between both men, clearly they play different parts, both then and now, for those who follow the Way, narrow though it is.

Authors in many decades have lined up the words and meanings of each teacher to see if the message from Jesus and the demonstration of God's love by Jesus somehow is filtered in particular ways, due to Paul's own biographical pattern and life themes.Their formative experiences were not so far apart in time, although Paul (Saul) is from Tarsus to the north of today's Israel, while Jesus is from Nazareth, still within the orbit of greater Jerusalem. Saul had privileges in education and refinements of life, while Jesus grew up with modest means. Maybe most striking of all is the fact that Paul persecuted the Jesus followers at every turn until the point of his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus. Jesus and those who came after his time and public ministry were the object of punishment for officials like Saul.

For those early congregations that Paul fostered, he was regarded as the nearest thing to the flesh and blood Lord and Savior; lamb of God. And so it is natural that they would model themselves on Paul's example in his person, as much as they would aspire to be like Jesus in the stories passed down. So instead of comparing and contrasting the Jesus message in the lens of Paul versus in the lens of Jesus as committed to print in centuries after Paul's time, perhaps it makes more sense to separate their functions: Jesus as model for each person to look to like a homing beacon, Paul as Paraclete - one who walks alongside a person to encourage and share what burdens there may be.

"Be like Jesus," or "follow Paul's advice about what to seek after (positive examples) and what to avoid (negative examples)" may be heard. But inundated by consumer culture and the urge for "liberty," "low maintenance," "convenience" or fun, "path of least resistance," and "least restrictive environment," modern minds can easily be distracted from Paul's guidance or Jesus' example. The surrounding society invites us to search for our identity, find out who we are, or just "be yourself."

Going back to the imagery of the Bible, we are meant to be God's person, not our own impression of what might be interesting or likely to attract peer accolades. To be God's person means to produce "good fruit"; Fruits of the Spirit come from a particular tree. These attributes that grow from such a Jesus-rooted tree will not appear on other trees. We grow into the person God wants us to be; fulfilling our fully integrated ("you are the branches, I am the vine"), God-fearing and loving selves. We incline always to seek to be closer to God and to be loving of neighbor as also of ourselves.

The modern currents, flows, and undertows swirling around us may pull us toward the easiest, most pleasant, or least uncomfortable path, but whether the way is convenient or it carries friction, that is incidental to being God's person in the wide World. Sometimes the modern society and God's way may happen to run together; other times they may intersect as the paths cross, or the roads may be diametrically opposed (mutually exclusive) to each other. No matter what the surrounding society may urge, it should first be God's way that we seek and if it happens to coincide with the society's culture and language, so be it. Where the two ways differ so be it. also.

Ephesians 5:3-10, being warry of self-satisfaction

In the weekly Men's Bible Study we heard the list of old habits that the recipients of Paul's letter were wont to do. This is followed by reference to living in the light and not wallowing in the dark.

³ But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. ⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.^{[a] 6} Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷ Therefore do not be partners with them.
⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord.  [source at Bible Gateway.com from NIV]

The distinction of light and darkness reminds me of Barbara Brown Taylor's book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, about all the important developments noted in the Bible that *do* require dark. Elsewhere in the Bible there is reference to darkness and light being identical in God's knowing: there is little  difference since all is known to God, with or without photons to stimulate one's visual cortex.

Continuing on the theme of light, visibility, seeing-as-knowing (at least among mortals), it seems that perfect vision leads a person to believe that everything has been grasped; to see is to know. And yet there is much the eyeball misses: the old guy searching in vain for something right in front of him, the person disregarding pandemic preventative measures because the virus is invisible to the naked eye, the edges of the visible light spectrum that are just beyond human capacity (but which dogs can see; and the things that birds can 'see' but not with light to perceive the Earth's magnetic lines). The line from St. Exupery's book, The Little Prince, sums up the limitations of the visual senses that lead a person to assess and judge in confidence the appearances that present themselves: "It is only with the heart that one can truly see."

By extension, also the book of James emphasizes deeds over words. This form of engaging others can change one's heart as a side-effect, but rote good deeds do not "make merit" or improve one's Godliness, since only by grace (not by works) is a person forgiven and salvation advanced. A person who is preoccupied with doing good deeds can easily be lead to the sense of achievement and rest: that all efforts are completed and all duties are fulfilled; vigilance can be relaxed, and the awareness of opportunities to lend a hand can dim.

A third instance for a person to be led to believe that a goal has been accomplished is with knowledge; it could be the Gnostic game of "secret knowledge" (if only I knew the key Bible passage, mysterious number, or symbolic meaning, then my spiritual growth can reach perfection), or it could be more pedestrian knowledge gained by memorizing, reading commentators, taking part in seminars, and so on. All three of these instances - seeing in the light, accomplishing tangible results in one's deeds, and adding to one's store of knowledge - have some value as a process that leads to something else, but can also be a danger in leading the person to self-satisfaction, perceiving the goal has been attained and therefore that no further (self) examination is needed.

In the end, the premise upon which God knows all the creatures, including each person, is love; or maybe a better translation is something Buddhism's Loving-kindess, an agape basis for caring for self and others. Once a person accepts this fundamental relationship of belongingness, then strangers are not really strangers, but instead are in the same family of God that everyone and everything belongs to. There is the instruction to strive to move one's heart and being ever closer to God's ways and will; and to take Jesus as a flesh-and-blood role model. But knowing that Jesus is infinitely closer to God's ways than we are, or could be, a better first step would be to see among one's peers some examples of habits, routines, phrases and aspirations that are closer to our own - ideally a step or two ahead of our own condition, but not in the pinnacle position of Rabbi Jesus. Even when it is not immediately clear how to be more like Jesus, at least there are many temptations and distractions to discard and disallow: knowing how NOT to be like Jesus reduces the universe of possible ways to be. Then the remaining alternatives in this narrowed field come into sharper focus.

God of Abraham in the Internet Age

Two subjects come to mind during the Covid-19 pandemic. One is rapid reliance on the video conferencing service called Zoom. Since middle March many churches and their small groups and discussion circles have been using Zoom Meetings to interact online, following the directive for "stay home, stay safe" that the Governor of Michigan issued, and which she extended a few days ago with legislature approval until April 30.

After the Easter Sunday worship and well-wishes, along with prayers at certain points in the Order of Worship, a few reflections on the on-screen experience came to mind:

<>Briefly seeing and hearing church friends is very positive.

<>Perhaps (virtual) coffee hour, small group (book), or prayer would work to similar effect?

<>Music adds zest and ?intimacy (shyly vulnerable from feelings of Performance  Anxiety), thereby inviting us to be players not spectators.

<>The kernel of the sermon, to know that God is there when times are uncertain, speaks loud and clear. It seems to be the Incarnation of what faith means, to go forward, even when uncomfortable or unsure. 

The other subject is the presence of Christian-signifying words and images in the mostly secular Social Media.

This screenshot from the day after 2020 Easter shows the resurrection message: heavy stone rolled away from the tomb. The scene and story are familiar, but it seems out of place to see this on Facebook in the midst of the advertisEMENT, inane op/ed darts expressed by some postings, and the mix of business, non-profit, and personal photos and experiences. Following the old thought-provoker, "What Would Jesus Do" (wwjd), it is possible to see Jesus going to places where is people can be found. In the Internet Era, the place where many of his people can be found is online. So, yes, it should not feel incongruous or dissonant when a religious representation appears in the middle of the other things. It should not, yes, but nevertheless, it does stand out; if for no other reason than because of the historical and cultural clash of sandal-clad rabbi contrasting the shiny young stars that can be seen showcased on social media.

To catch a fish - reflecting on the path of spiritual maturity

Tuesday Men's Bible Study bowed to the Covid-19 social distancing imperative in Michigan and put to use the ZOOM online meeting service. We wrapped up Ecclesiastes and settled on the next book, Ephesians, to begin next week. Part of the conversation sparked by chapter 11 onward was the stages of development as one matures spiritually - not by chance, but with some effort on one's own part.

One image that came to mind was the way that there is something in common for a total beginner ("the heart of a child") and a person with considerable experience or expertise in any field of endeavor, including spiritual growth, in this case. For both points along the trajectory the experience is highly personal or personalized. Using the illustration of fishing, one of our leaders described the progression in one's development. First the object is to catch a fish, any fish. Next the goal is to catch lots of fish. After that the challenge is to get the biggest one. Anglers with a lot of experience may try more difficult styles (fly-fishing), or more difficult fish, or circumstances that call for a lot of skill. Possibly the next higher step will be to go after a specific fish that resides in a particular place and may even have a name given it by the fisher. In other words, for the beginner the sensation of hooking a living creature produces a very personal encounter. Later stages include increased knowledge and pool of experience, perhaps more analytical (or software apps) relationship to the outing. At the highest level here, though, the person with the fishing tackle is taking things personally: pitting self against one particular fish, matching wits. Maybe there is an even higher level, when the angler achieves satisfaction purely by approaching the water and replaying the hundreds of experiences and hours on the water - no fishing gear involved; the outing is almost entirely conceptual. It is a state of being present at that time and place, fully immersed in that world.

display case, Grand Rapids Public Museum, grpm.org 9/2019

Transferring the fishing example to Spiritual Development, perhaps there is a similar unity between newcomer/beginner and the person with very deep wells of experience and vision. For the beginner it is easy to get lost in detail, so they seek direct, personal experience to connect to the worship process. For the very mature seeker after God's way, too, there is an appetite for direct, personal experience: less teaching and analytical precision and more of the holistic synthesis of the overarching glory. Each relationship, decision point, and interaction in a day turns into intensely (God-filled) personal moments of precious value. Interestingly of the fishing analogy and the spiritual growth situation, all that is real and what matters to the beginner and the master can be found in the same place: that same stream or lake (fishing place), or that same social interaction or pause to pray (seeking God). What has changed is not the setting but the way that it is viewed and therefore engaged in.

The other rich analogy that came up was of sailing, emphasis ING; the process, the gerund for that verb. (1) Recreational sailors may have a particular destination to aim for and as the wind shifts, the person must adjust the sails, read the puffs of air hitting the water ahead as a precursor to hitting the sailcloth, and turn the tiller as the boat deviates from the aim. In other words the process is in flux, dynamic rather that firmly set in place. This illustrates the way to seek after God's will: as one is buffeted and pushed off course, so long as the person firmly holds the destination in sight, the it is possible to make corrections as needed to line-up with the goal. (2) In contrast to the recreational sailor, there is the "straight-line sailor" who does not hesitate to furl the sails and turn the ignition on the auxilliary motor in order to traverse in the shortest distance (straight line), expediently getting to the destination. So if the paramount value is arriving quickly, there is logic in motoring/sailing to get there. But if the goal is gett+ING there (i.e. the experience produced along the way), the GETT+ing there (as in, objective attained), then the straight-line control and impatience will minimize the time and exercise of tactics and skill that sail+ING makes possible. This illustrates the way to seek after God's will: as one strives to know God more and more, "getting there" (as in final epiphany and omniscience) is not as meaningful as "getting... there" (the days and hours and events of one's life along the path). 

In both analogies - fishing as a process of growing capacities & sailing as a dynamic environment that is all about the experience of covering distance (not simply seeking expedient arrival) - the way to get closer to God and know personally one's creator is a long, patient process involving intention and effort in which much of the reward comes in the doing and being, rather than deriving from any sort of finish line, final project, or ultimate understanding.

Cain and Able in tension; intention

Men's Bible Study is taking up Ecclesiastes after a long couple of years. The line about "chasing after the wind" and futility in trying to build one's tower of earthly or worldly achievements is always fresh and relevant, especially in immigrant societies, where identity of self and in the eyes of others comes from "what you DO" and not "who you ARE" (your relatives and line of family trophies from the ages). And during the age of consumerism, where status can be staged or posed by material goods accumulated, the Ecclesiastes message that all that striving is meaningless does rebuke the myriad day-dreams of what to buy, what to build next.

in tension? intention? [clipart.com royalty free]

Interestingly, one of the Bible Study guys keeps a copy of the multi-lingual Bible open and found that the source word for 'meaningless' is the name of Able, the one whose sacrifices pleased God and whom brother Cain murdered. Playing with the words that intersect with 'meaningless' casts a little light on this advice about not confusing one's worldly glory with spiritual glory: meaning, intention, purpose, goal, target. Contrasting this is 'sin' -- as in the technical or literal/visual sense of "missing the target" or getting off the track when aiming to seek God's Will. In other words, Sin misses the goal; sin gets off track from the purpose, sin is the absence or the fouling of meaning. Thus "sin" and "meaning" are in opposition; they are in_tension (wordplay - at least for English - for 'intention' or the thing one is aiming for). The provisional conclusion, then, is that the tension between sin and righteousness is a basis for intention, and by extension also, meaning.

Worshiping with others - 2020 annual Worship Symposium

Something happens when a worship space fills with people who mostly don't know each other, but who all come with some sort of prior Christian worship experience and now are willing to try to fit into the general order of service that may well be unfamiliar or possibly contradict or at least contrast their own worship habits at a home church. It is a kind of affirmation that seems to emerge from this experience of not being in control; not knowing how things are supposed to (or may be expected to) go. Everyone seems committed to going with the general flow of events and not judge or criticize or compare or condemn. So with nothing to defend, the overall experience is fluid. Those attending are guests of the hosting worship leaders and can let go of any worries, responsibilities, or performance anxiety. Instead, the main purpose is to be a gracious guest and accept what has been prepared and now is being presented, inviting participation as much as one is able or comfortable to do so.

This photo collage comes from the opening worship in the campus chapel of Calvin University as part of their Thursday-Friday-Saturday Worship Symposium at the end January every year since 1997. It shows the miraculous transformation from pre-worship space mostly empty, to the seats filled and voices raised (complete service online), to the assembled worshipers departing the chapel.
[click the photo for larger view]

Thursday, January 30, 2020 at the Calvin University chapel

 People come to the annual event from all over North America and many countries overseas. So only a few of the repeat attendees will know each other by face, and fewer still by name. Probably for most of those worshiping this morning the experience is a peculiar mix of familiarity (yes, this Bible is one that is identical or at least bears a family resemblance to one's own) and strangeness (order of worship, styles of music, customs of greeting one another). When one almost exclusively worships with the same people, same place, same weekly time/day, then any worship outside of that seems slightly unfaithful in a double sense (being absent from one's familiar co-worshipers; but also being present among strangers in a strange place and acting in ways unfamiliar). Somehow, the space is filled with fellow worshipers who have possibly similar mixed feelings and despite that, the overall experience together does flow, does teach, does inspire, does ring true to the God one seeks after.

When I pray; Precious Jesus

etymology online for "prayer" click for larger display

Personal statements differ from more distanced, 3rd person descriptions. Here is a flash of insight from Barbara Brown Taylor's chapter on experiences praying,

...my sense that there are real things I can do, both in my body and in my mind, to put myself in the presence of God. God is not obliged to show up, but if God does, then I will be ready. At the same time, I am aware that prayer is more than something I do. The longer I practice prayer, the more I think it is something that is always happening, like a radio wave that carries music through the air whether I tune in to it or not.
     An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, page 190

My own process of aging and wondering at things around me included a time near the start of middle age when I started going to a weekly 7 a.m. Men's Bible Study. Most of the other 5 or 6 guys were older than me and had been meeting to read, chew on, and reflect on the Bible a few lines at a time, going from the start to the end of any given chapter, sometimes taking months to complete one chapter before polling everyone to pick another one. One guy in particular has a powerful way of directly engaging God and the Word of God that included the phrase "precious Jesus." At first I doubted the genuineness of what seemed on the surface to be a cliche or set-phrase. But little by little I learned to see how deeply this meaning was for him. It was personal and he was not shy about professing it before the others sitting around the table.

That feeling of confidence and lack of performance anxiety in putting something very personal in plain view is what helped me to do something similar; treating prayer as a direct expression of what can be articulated or sometimes is too big or small to fit properly into words, but at least can be hinted as. As a result, a few times I have paused at restaurants or other public eateries to say a brief, usually silent prayer ahead of rushing to the plate. And at family gatherings when asked to pray before mealtime, I don't feel too shy either.

Each week at the Men's Bible Study there is an opening and a closing prayer that is pretty open-ended, but normally includes at least one element of praise for God, and one element of thanks to God. Otherwise there is a mix of supplications for people named in the circle, for our own hearts, and for fellow believers. What seems to matter most, though, about getting accustomed to praying to punctuate events, but also when anxious, afraid, uncertain, or even when full of hope, is that by pausing long enough to collect some calm and to quiet one's heart something important seems to happen. Rather than to trust in one's own powers and direction, the posture of prayer demonstrates to self and others that answers lie outside of one's control, wishes, or power. Furthermore, the certainties of a hard heart also loosen up by the habit of prayer as one can see the shortcomings of people, including oneself. In other words, the more one prays, to better one hears and the more carefully one listens to one's own heart, and listens also to the people in one's life at work or at home.

Like any habit, it develops and emerges over time and through frequent use. At first that might take the form of collective, unison (printed or memorized) prayers. Later there might be opportunities to pray by improvisation, without great rehearsal. When the circle is small, there is a blanket of trust to support the awkward first steps. A bigger, more public setting may overwhelm, by comparison. But with more and more experience, even a prominent speaking role is within one's abilities to engage in.

Looking back, there is a lot of worth (worth-ship; worship) in the phrase "precious Jesus" and I am thankful to my fellow seeker for that.

Rough and tumble? Consumerism vs. Christ'ism

image search "coupon" collage shows full color wares to buy

How best to follow Jesus when descriptions show him challenging the status quo of Pharisees and the strong language and actions he metes out to his all-too-humanly-frail disciples? He demonstrates infinite love and patience in many ways, but also insistence and impatience about fools and foolishness.

Ever since the "single use" disposable approach to mass production, distribution, consumption, and landfilling, the worldview of consumerism and advertising has almost completely dominated our societies: to spend (therefore to earn) is to live. That seems to leave little time to reflect and seek relationship with God, all of creation, and one's neighbor. So the iconoclasm we read of in the Bible by Christ's example seems to be less Pharisees (although the legalism, head-smart but heart dumb, bull-headed self-assuredness can be seen today in pulpits and lay leaders and followers, too) and more a problem on consumerism that blinds us from seeing each other. Perhaps in our time to "be in the World but not of the World" means to reject the many incentives and rewards of buying more and more. And it means not to measure self-worth or the success of others by brand of clothing or personal automobile. So long as we consist of flesh and blood, the body will be blessing and curse at the same time; something that shapes our engagement with all that is around us and thereby a source of being prey to temptations. And yet, when eternal life or else damnation is at stake, the present moment of living is no time to obsess about 'being a nice person' if that separates you from God and God's will, or it separates you from one another as a wedge instead of a bridge. In the end, following the Jesus example, is to "speak truth to the power" that so dominates our minds and times: consumerism and reducing and simplifying the world of experiences into "maximizing utility" as an economic animal.

Grace is similar to Mercy in that it is given, no matter if merited, earned, or paid for. But it differs in that grace makes whole, holy, completed. By contrast, mercy is granted in place of expected punishment or debt that is owed; it does not by itself create wholeness or completed relationship (repair). And grace differs to righteousness, too. Righteousness means being attuned to God's word and desires, in tune with God by direct and correct relationship. Grace repairs and fills the gap that separates self from the Creator. And so with respect to Jesus' example of himself disregarding The World in order to keep in constant prayer and communion with Father/Mother God, this idea of grace is central, because it fills any gap or separation or shortcoming.

With something like 1 in 4 residents in the USA defined by income as impoverished --this in the wealthiest and most resource-wasting society on the planet-- Jesus would surely engage directly and persistently with people struggling to survive. Again and again the ones with ears to hear and eyes to see are the ones he meets at the margins of society, the edge of the road, or the outer part of gatherings. People who are ill, or who are impoverished, or who have been humbled by circumstance (or possibly by their own disciplined habit) are most primed to embrace the message of love that is abundant and unending, without conditions and status.

Yardsticks to measure your past life, now, or to sketch what is next

THINKING ABOUT WHAT COUNTS

 There are many ways to shape your life, leaving aside the factors outside of your control like nature (what you are born with) and nurture (how the events and people around you affect things). For example, you can identify some things about influential people in your life or ones you hear about in books, news media and entertainment, or figures from the Bible. Either consciously or in ways you are less aware of, these personalities offer a model or sometimes a pathway to lead you toward the person you become and continue to come to be.

The thirst for meaningfulness (in God's eyes, in peer's eyes, in your own eyes) can be expressed by achievements that are visible or may be intangible and not readily visible to others; kindnesses done for other living things along the road of life, for instance. Dreams or aspirations of one's own or inspired by others may include meaningfulness as the fruit of the efforts as well as costs for that undertaking.

Another major form that people may use to measure success, or its lack, is worldly acumen and rewards produced: the more stuff (or less tangibly, the more experiences) gathered equates the the more achievement. Worldly measures might include consumer victories: satisfaction from bargaining for a good price, avoiding costly monetary liability, freedom from debts, and so on. Or the trophies might fit the bumper sticker, "The person who dies with the most stuff wins."

Doubtless there are many other ways to estimate one's own value among the living, but from the Rabbi Jesus example, perhaps relationships and lives touched by one's efforts - either adding net positive things to those lives, or by lessening the negative parts of those others' lives - are the best yardstick for knowing your measure.

Analytically, the motivators of meaningfulness, material shrewdness, or building relationships of depth and breadth can be discussed independent of each other, but going about one's day or lifetime these all work together, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. And yet, even if it is artificial to separate these from each other, doing so helps to make clear which mindset leads the others at any moment: is your decision based on maximizing utility (homo economicus) and pressing the levers of political economy, or is the main organizing principle for why you are driving your life in a particular direction mainly about meaningfulness, something that resonates as the main point which positions all else in secondary or dependent roles. Or maybe the lens through which you see the world and view your own self, as well, is concerned with quality of relationships, the ways that one person helps another to bridge difficulties, grow into a bigger person, do the right thing, and pay forward or pay back blessings they have known. Of course this same discussion of individual lives can also be broadly projected on the various zeitgeist of a certain generation or century; or indeed upon a whole culture, language, or society - what is primary and what is regarded as secondary in lifetime worth?

No matter which current flows strongest in your life at a given stage, the others will be also be present because even the holiest aspirations and intentionality takes place in a world of gravity, calories, hungers and thirsts. So material circumstances cannot simply be dispensed with. Nor can the deep-rooted desire to express and recognize meaningful words and deeds. As for living and loving relationships, there must necessarily be good days and bad days; not forever frozen and unchanging in tone and texture.

Having a yardstick, or at least being aware of the one you most often turn to, is an important step in assessing, estimating, comparing and discussing earlier situations and also for planning the future use of time and energies that give shape to the life that you now live and the one that you want to live in days to come.

Christians for risk: in love, in faith, in relationships

leaping fish heads up the ladder, unknowing what follows this next step - 49503 Z.I.P. code

The the right of center this freeze-frame taken from fall equinox at the Grand Rapids, Michigan fish ladder shows a coho salmon heading upstream during the annual spawning season. It makes a good illustration of the "theme music" for Christianity: risk, pressing beyond what is familiar and possibly free of conflict or uncertainties. The quotation about the duty of newspapers has also been adopted by leaders of church communities, as well, "To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable" (attributed to Finley Peter Dunne, 1902). But what does it mean to own this shaky side of Jesus-following?

strangers and friends sometimes swap places - but Jesus was friend to all

Faith is one of the pillars for spiritual growth, along with Hope and Love (charity; karitas). What all these have in common is the opportunity, or perhaps requirement, to step beyond the things that one is certain about, to take chances in being disappointed, injured, or worse. Stated inversely, without some risk to yourself and your beliefs can the faith, or hope, or love be true and authentic. By extension of the life told of the rabbi from Nazareth, if his divinity was a secret super-power and nothing was ever risked in the Temptation by Satan, or in the many public ministries, then can we truly say he was one of us mortals? Loving truly involves the risk of being hurt. Exercising faith truly involves the risk of being hurt or confused or daunted. Hoping truly involves the risk of your heart being broken. In this same spirit of chancing failure (in human eyes; not God's eyes, since forever and all ways you are loved), there is a delicate touch required when growing spiritually: not gripping too hard on the parts of The Way that you know best, but being willing to let go or let slip those things that first seemed to be absolute, tidy, streamlined verities. For as soon as you congratulated yourself for having things figured out, comprehending the wholeness of a teaching or commandment, that is the time that you have boxed yourself in. Understanding something infinite is too big for one person's experience to encompass. So the best way to develop spiritually is to seize upon bigger and better comprehension, but all the while remain vigilant and seeking after more and better ways to engage with Creation and the Creator.

Spiritual but not religious

Pew surveys of the society and its changes use the term "spiritual but not religious" to mean that the person considers him or herself to be not affiliated in an organized, established body of believers and yet does remain receptive and maybe responsive to something bigger than human powers; something worthy of respect and seeking after (worth-ship or worship); and accepts some point of reference to remind her or himself of humbleness and human dignity.

There are clergy, ordained or lay, who also make a distinction between Christianity and Church-ianity (or Church-inanity). That is to say, overzealous of rituals can redirect one's attention and love from the Spirit of the Law to the Letter of the Law, similar to the imagery in the Bible to describe "white-washed tombs" that are righteously bright and bold on the surface, but which contain only death on the inside. In other words, organized religions of any civilization can blur the lines between the form but lose sight of the intention and heart of the teachings and the way of living that the particular body of belief and believers aim to embody day in and day out.

The illustration attached here comes from translate.google.com when typing 'spirit' on the English side and calling up the Hebrew words that cover each sense of the word. Clearly, there are many different words in Hebrew, and thus many distinctions or facets of meaning to mark with differing word roots and pools of meaning. This example of the many sides of 'spirit' suggests something about the "spiritual but not religious" phenomenon. Even before that expression came to be, perhaps there have always been people unwilling to commit to the forms of organized religion available in their society. Observers have said that it is the most skeptical people who take longest to come to a decision about their relationship to religious practices that come down the generations. Very often these are the people who turn out to be the strongest advocates for that religion if/when they do come around to it. By contrast, those who are born into the body of belief may take everything in like Mother's Milk, without giving the matter a lot of thought and who are satisfied with the sense of belonging and habit that comes from unexamined acceptance; without scrutiny.

Before the phrase "spiritual but not religious" was coined, those people would keep one ear open to the institutional religion and the other ear open to other sources of guidance, truth, and respect. They could see value and meaning and truth in much of what they heard in both of their ears, but would not grant exclusive truth value to one source or to the other. This makes sense from a logical or rational way of seeing things: how could Ultimate Truth be contained or comprehended by one exclusive set of words and ideas, one religion over another? Yet in order to speak the language of spiritual things, a fixed set of vocabulary and ideas has to be engaged with: it matters less the particular religious language that you adopt and gain fluency in than the fact that you do engage with some specific body of belief and not remain idle in limbo, paralyzed from making a commitment by the abundance of choices and possible truths.

As the long set of Hebrew nouns for 'spirit' suggests, there are many aspects of the spiritual world and spiritual maturation and development that connect with this topic. Being open, hearkening, and seeking after truths in the span of a single lifetime is a fundamental part of building a life of meaning and humanity. For many people there is advantage in clinging to an elaborated and established form of religious tradition or community of faithful people. But for many others there is self-criticism (I am not worthy enough or righteous enough), lack of trust (unable to rest in the truths), anxiety about committing to a single path and foreclosing other ways, or a distaste for the sense of exclusivism that draws boundaries between self and others. And so the category of self-identifying as "spiritual but not religious" continues to grow, while the organized, institutional religious shrink to a smaller but more committed core of purposeful followers of their own faith community's ways. The delicate balance remains a living thing: between grasping confidently and firmly one exclusive way to worship and grow, on the one hand, and yet loosen that grip to allow other things to come to hand, on the other hand. Put another way, it is important to speak confidently and in full trust in what is righteous, but at the same time to remain humble and openhearted, ready to listen and to care. In other words to go forward, one has to know the truths of all ages, and also not know things with any finality; to be certain but also uncertain. Definite but not foreclosing other views.

"...in life, in death, O Lord - Abide With Me"

Those much loved words of comfort and supplication from Abide with Me have risen to life at many memorial services and funerals since the 1847 lyrics of a man dying from tuberculosis met the melody of the composer in 1861, around the time of the U.S. Civil War.

How do wires connected to dead Sitka spruce relate to the hymn, "Abide with Me"?

Daily we walk the city streets where overhead lines bring telephone, electrical power, cable TV, and Internet to individual households. But only today did the illustration of the role of dearly departed friends and family come into sharp focus.

The strong upright tree trunk standing here long after its life has ended is something like a person loved by others who now lives no more. And yet the many relationships, memories, and other connections that touch on that person continue to live on. In other words, even the dead continue play a part in the lives of those left behind, much as this long-gone tree continues to connect the surrounding homes and businesses with services and survival: you don't have to be eternally present to exert a presence and provide meaning to others.

God is Love; but Love is God, too?

The rhetorical masters of ancient Greece listed all the persuasive moves and structures in a person's speaking. One of these is called Antimetabole, the flip-floping of word order to come up with a sometimes refreshing or sometimes startling inversion: God is Love; Love is God. (ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν)

The passage in 1 John 4:19 is what the Tuesday Men's Bible Study read and riffed on today. Instead of quoting the familiar KJV or NIV, though, here is BibleGateway.com where many versions of the text can be displayed side by side, or simply looked up individually. Looking at the HWP, Hawai'ian Pigin, currently only published for the New Testament gives an unfamiliar voice to these familiar words about "love is..." The spelling is phonetic (e.g. brudda =brother) and there are a few Polynesian words that might not be known to most English readers (e.g. ohana =community/family). But by sounding out (speaking aloud) the text, the passage will bring to mind John's words. Even though HWP will be inconvenient, requiring slow pace and careful sounding-out the words, there is a directness, raw and earthy embrace of the heart of the meaning that is worth the effort (click the image for full-size view):

1 Johns 4:19 from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numba+1+From+John+4&version=HWP

Love has so many senses in English. In the Greek of the New Testament there are the four distinct words (philial =brotherly love, eros =marital love, agape =community love or charitable, storge= family love). But in our consumer 2019 there is love of country, NASCAR, wood smoke, pristine snowfall, as well. Like so many other instances of physical experience in the material world, any given element or relationship structure can be perverted to misuse or abuse the thing, too. So there will be cases of false love; something that might resemble love at first blush, but --like the concept of Truthiness (seems like Truth, but in the end not so)-- these manifestations turn out to be mistaken, lacking the essential life that makes the love true in the "God is Love" sense of sincere, abiding, firm, and so on.

So with that caution about being vigilant to discern love from love-ish imposters, there is some merit is taking "God is Love" and turning it around to say that "Love is God," that is, in the small ways and big ways that one's day is peppered with situations the exhibit and express love between people at play, at work, fully immersed in creative effort or in a casual moment of joy or reflection; in all these glimpses of Love, there, too, is God. God is present when Love is present. Where there is Love, so, too, there is God. Looking at the world at hand today and the worlds seen in mass media far away or from times long ago, suddenly all the instances of love stand for God's place, side by side in those blessed times. Turning the argument upside down by acrobatic logical gymnastics and saying, "where there is no love, there is no God" ignores the idea of ever-present God, in good times and bad; in sickness and in health, in prosperity and in poverty.

In the end, despite the shortcomings of playing around with rhetoric and logical, linear verbiage, this "God is Love; Love is God" exercise does stimulate a fresh vision: that every time a feeling of affection, esteem, and connection arises, it can be a reminder of God's own basis for relating to the creatures of the Earth, whether the two-legged kind, or the many, many other kinds. Since most people grow accustomed to a certain manner of thinking, and routines of response, by flip-flopping the "God is Love" phrase there comes a chance to re-think, re-view, and re-embrace that foundational way of being in the world. Similarly, the unfamiliarity of a Bible translation like HWP can spur a person to re-think, re-view, and re-embrace one's relationship to The Word.

Heartology - the study of the (human) heart

intersecting moment

Many times the place where one's awareness resides is an intersection of heart (feeling or non-verbal awareness and responsiveness) and mind (verbal, sometimes logical or rational and rationalizing) and spirit/soul (something outside of narrow Ego prerogatives). Even though the words are spelled differently and stem from different etymological roots, they sometimes seem to touch a a shared something. Different languages can split analytical hairs and break apart experiences or feelings into named components, but the raw sensation or (re)cognition of something may be a single, monolithic thing, rather than fragmented component facets.

The time of the primitive or early eklesia of Jesus followers involved Greek speakers and Aramaic or Hebrew speakers, among many others. But the traditions of Greek thinkers tended to split things analytically, fracturing and producing insights and knowledge; sometimes also wisdom from that base of knowledge. In modern Japanese the word 'kokoro' combines heart/mind; emotional responses as well as presence of mind. Today in English there is a conceptual split in mind-body, as well as mind-heart. But in the time before these distinctions a person was a unitary presence; all these components were taken as inseparable.

Since so much of a person's spiritual growth is rooted in one's heart, it would seem to be fruitful to develop a science of the heart, or heartology; maybe some characteristics would come from creatures other than human, for that matter, too. A beginning point for any field of knowledge is vocabulary or nomenclature. Free-association for words containing 'heart' or whose meaning is adjacent or implied of heart includes these.

heartful . heartless . encourage . dishearten . hearty . heartful. heartening . heart-breaking . down-hearted  hard-hearted . cold-hearted . warm-hearted - big hearted - black hearted . discourage .  care . careful . uncaring . careless . cordial . haven't got the heart to . sacred heart . precious heart . heart of gold

These words will carry several common threads. One of the common strands is that the person is fully open and present to the other's condition; responsive to the joy or sorrow of the other, somehow joining in or mirroring/echoing that condition. Sometimes there are mixed feelings of misgiving, but hope; trepidation but fortitude, love and hate, respect but dislike, and so on. By looking more deeply at the pool of closely-related, as well as more indirectly-related terms it is possible to collect examples of situation when these are expressed, in addition to digging into the word roots for clues to the ground from which the words have grown across the centuries. Taken all together, the context of usage and of history, the broadest picture emerges of what a soft heart and a hard heart consists of, and of the importance of breaking and healing a heart; of self and others.

When you pray.... just think how it would be if...

After a few decades the weekly Men's Bible Study still opens and closes with shared prayer, whether 2 or 3 show up or a full table of 9 or 10 are present. Thinking about the range of topics that some of the men voiced during the preamble, "well, what should we pray about today," and reflecting on the words spoken in the course of bowed heads for the praying itself, there seemed to be a recurring intention or purpose that emerged sometimes. Underneath the petitions, praise, and thanks on matters of healing/health for bodies and for spirits, including specific persons and specific struggles, there was an overarching or underlying urgency that God please draw each person closer in stronger relationship and sweeter harmony; that hard hearts remain soft and open to being touched by events in one's own life, as well as in responding with feeling to the events in others lives, whether personally or professionally known or ones farther away whom we do not know closely.

In sum, the bottom line for all of these prayers and all of these decades might be a request to seek God's Will and do his bidding; to listen with care to the direction for one's decisions; to rely on one's heart when looking across the world and when weighing decisions that affect self or one's neighbor. In short, the prayers keep coming back to God is Love; we aspire to be more like God/Jesus and thus overflow in expressing (agape) love of others; and in achieving this posture and outlook in our engagement of the places we find ourselves, thereby to grow deeper connection and stronger feeling with God's Will.

Suppose for a moment that these recurring, ultimate intentions are carried out; that more and more people successfully navigate their lives and relationships by leading with their hearts, not greed, fear, (self) loathing, or some other strong force. How would household life differ; congregational aspirations change; wider community habits and responses to crisis or stress by altered; indeed, how would state and (inter)national decisions proceed differently to different purposes/outcomes to the way things run now with reference to GNP, quarterly profits for shareholders, and externalized costs that a company leaves for future generations to clean up.

Being foreign to this World - book of 1 Peter

screenshot from BibleGateway.com

Lots of wondering points came up in the weekly Bible reading of 1 Peter’s 2nd chapter. The list of bad behavior springing from who you are deep down reads like the reverse of “fruits of the spirit” that grow from seeking God’s Way. The NIV lists these terrible things as …” rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” And the Hawai’ian Pidgin verse gives …”No do no bad kine stuffs. No bulai nobody. No say one ting an do anodda. No get jealous. No talk stink notting.” Still another voice (E. Peterson’s The Message), …”Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk..” here is the link to those comparative verses at BibleGateway dotcom.

Since Peter’s letter is addressing house-churches far from Jerusalem with mixed congregations of Jews and Gentiles, perhaps some of those attending were in the habit of sorting their peers into who is more holy or righteous or closer to God than the others; for example, would it not be natural to project onto the Jews a bit more affinity to the legacies of Rabbi Jesus? How is this human habit addressed in the followers of The Way?

In languages spoken and written today, often there is a distinction between spoken and written version of the language, since the voice, face, and context all contribute to conversational interchange, but only punctuation marks and word order can speak on the written page. So the many iterations of Bible verses and also the letters circulated to early churches would have been the stiff style of written, not spoken teachings, right? And when the Greek source texts later went into Latin or all the vernacular languages, then this formal style was conserved, right? But to have lived in the presence and preaching, teaching, healing and blessing of Jesus or his nearest contemporaries and companions would have been all in the spoken voice; not the thundering cadences of KJV, for instance - beauteous though it was frames in the early 1600s. How ever could one go about reconstituting the conversational style of the teachings, parables, etc?

your heart check-up: tender or hardened?

The neighborhood church yard sign declared, "Your set-back might be a set-up for a come-back." That suggests that the things that disappoint or injure or side-track a person may frustrate original dreams and intentions, but that a bigger purpose could be the point: a change of one's heart, or sometimes breaking of one's heart. By focusing on the heart condition of Christians, the shape of one's congregational worship, the personal study and meditation, as well as the love for and service to one's neighbor all can be gauged in a new way that helps one to navigate daily and life-sized choices and aims.

The other day a radio report from Ethiopia included a sound snapshot from Christians lining up to face a holy relic from long ago. At first this seemed like a head-fake, an object of love and intention that memorializes a saint or sinner, rather than striving to know God and God's will. But on second thought (the literal meaning of respect is re+spectare, to Again See) and judged from this "heart-ology" perspective, perhaps the act of seeking to get near the relic and then to pour one's hopes and fears into that encounter may in fact function to soften or even break some hearts, thus making them subsequently open to those relationships one is part of. In other words, what may first seem a wrong path, in the end may lead to the same destination; in this case, a softened heart that is capable of touching both the harsh and gentle parts of a life well lived.

Christmas-ish in USA

Almost three years ago the gathering darkness near the winter solstice caught my eye when passing the inflatable lawn figures that have become so popular in the rotation of seasonal themes since 2005 as the prices from China dropped, the moving pieces grew more sophisticated, and the internal lighting became a standard feature. Seeing a similar display elsewhere this week triggered the observation that the spectacle nicely symbolizes the present moment of tension between the Jesus Story on the one hand and on the other hand, the consumers giving themselves permission to spend for themselves, others, and even for strangers sometimes.

First there is the relative size difference in secular and sacred figures in this 2015 photo; the 2018 display in a different city lacked the Mary/Joseph element altogether. Next there is the electrically powered, inflated hollowness of the brightly colored, computer-designed and trans-Pacific sourced factory products here.

Finally, there is "cheap and cheerful" philosophy of brightening up the neighborhood at little financial cost, and with nearly no social consideration or relationship involved. In other words, there is a "me, too" aspect of joining the consumers who seize the secular imagery, as if to say, "see everybody, I am a normal person, doing what Everybody does."

It is not too big a stretch to apply these observations to the social expressions now in transition in USA: secular take-over of formerly modest or subdued Kwanzaa, Hanukah, Christmas is electrically powers and inflated. Once unplugged the light goes out and the thing (both its physical space and its meaning) collapses. The bar for participation in popular (commerce-based) culture is low indeed, and it is relatively conducive to a nation of immigrants where possibly 10% of the census respondents speak a language at home other than English. When all you need is a few colorful tokens of an event like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter/springtime, then anybody with money and a bigbox importing store nearby can play along. By comparison, commitment to a religious community or faith tradition ancient or modern takes months and years to cultivate.

So the next time you see an inflatable, consider the symbolism; not of the figures depicted, but of their construction, distribution, and display. They are hollow, dependent on electricity, and have little mass or persisting meaning. And yet, even so, year by year there seem to be as many or more than the previous year. Perhaps the post-season deeply discounted sell-off of inventory is just too hard to ignore in the minds of cost-conscious consumers.

Daniel translates as "God is my Judge" (standard for measuring matters)

The book of Daniel (beyond the part in the Lions' den) has so many parallels to the present day. But then, so too, the rest of the Bible's 1st and 2nd testaments are also part of the Living Word; open to each generation's meanings and musings. 

(1) He is a stranger in a strange land, a foreigner living with others of Judea now among the Babylonians. He probably fits into the customs of clothing, common language of the city, and other routines and rules, but all the while he holds fast to the covenant with the LORD. The same could be said for God seekers today who are living among the consumer society's siren call and the currents that dominate the airwaves and many interpersonal conversations. 

(2) The experience of living away from one's original land and society magnifies certain things, making them stand out when before perhaps such realities were invisible or taken for granted. So, too, the love of God the Creator was perhaps taken for granted, but while in Babylon this love become ever more cherished than before. Likewise for people living in 2018, the predominance of God-free habits and way of seeing perhaps helps to heighten the value of seeking after God for those who listen for the Maker's voice and for the Creator's presence. 

(3) In times of difficulty and seemingly impossible conditions Daniel continued to  pray and ask for God's help. This, too, offers instruction for people today. 

(4) The powerful king, Nebuchadnezzar, and later his successor, Belshazzar, were quick to praise the might of YHWH but slow to embrace the complete and exclusive meaning. Instead they bowed to the superficial parts, not the full reality. Today there are many who cling to the outward elements of organized Abrahamic religion (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) without digging deeper to touch the roots.

Probably there are many other lessons from this book for readers and the "hands and feet of God" out in the world today. but these are a few that come out of the weekly Bible study of these pages today.

in and out of focus - Crucifex? Loving-kindness? Churchianity?

This image from flickr puts the celtic crosses of an Irish westcoast churchyard in focus against the distant Atlantic sky. So sharply are the facsimile Roman death machines in focus that the true meaning and aspirational quality of being a Christ follower and God seeker becomes blurry by comparison. They say the funeral and burial customs are for the living, rather than the dead. So then does this display primarily refer to a moment in time when the bereaved show their belonging and conformity and consent of the organized religion of the place? Or it is all relatively unimportant to those who dwell on the heart of Christ's example; that is, to engage in loving-kindness with strangers as with friends and enter into mutual aid and fellowship? If the living see that message as primary, then the formal elements of grave stones, Order of Worship (liturgy), and "Sunday Best" clothes when attending the events at the church building all become comparatively unimportant. But if one's relationship to God the Creator and all-knowing, loving parent is built of material, tactile things like expressing one's high respect for the sacred memory of the crucified Son of Man, Son of God then this scene of well-crafted stones and carefully expressed rituals and status will be uppermost in waking consciousness of the bereaved at the time of death and in the years that follow.

In summary, it is arrangement of bodies, memories, and markers mostly for the bodies of the deceased, the hearts of the bereaved, the eyes of one's peers, the consideration of the Almighty, or the tacit acknowledgement of the Organized Religious Structures? All these things may be true at the same time, but perhaps only one of those meanings is uppermost for people at the time, and perhaps the same also for people now many generations since the time of separation and burial.

What you are afeared of - awe versus fear

Two different senses in the "fear your God" phrase from the Bible.

Evangelism means the belief and promotion of the Good News (Gospel accounts) of Jesus' life and what followed among the Apostles, including the many letters of Paul of Tarsus. By extension Evangelical churches and their congregations also emphasize the New Testament (also sometimes called 2nd testament) over the Old (first) Testament. However, at the present moment in USA among news media reports online and broadcast the political goals attributed to "Evangelicals" are contradictory. Most often this label is attached to social conservativism, rather than the model that Jesus demonstrated by humbly engaging with sinners, rather than to disregard or persecute them. And yet there sometimes are stories that feature self-identified Evangelical churches who stand up in defense of immigrant rights, homeless people, and others struggling under the tides of consumerism and capitalism, sometimes called "affluenza" (affluence as a kind of sickness).

This term, Evangelicals, can have diametrically opposed meanings --one sense is reactive to the Worldly culture and social change; it is driven by fear of people different and somehow threatening to the congregation's understanding of righteousness. The other sense is proactive to the Worldly culture and social change; it is driven by hope for people different to the congregation. In the same double-meaning sort of way, the concept of "fear your Lord" has been taken to mean opposing meanings, one is reactive and one is proactive. One is filled with dread and the other is filled with numinous thrill. The roots of the word 'enthusiasm' are 'filled with God' and that is the kind of awe that the Bible teaches for relating to God.

Meanings can shift in tone or texture, or indeed their main usage, from one generation to another and from one translation to another. But surely the LORD is something wild and made of power and glory, light and life; not dread and cowardice, reactive and bottled up like a small and controllable thing. So the next time that "fear the LORD, your God" comes into view or into hearing, be sure that AWE is what you understand by it so that you can feel the courage to reach out to "the least of these" instead of running for a hiding place.