Praise & Thanks --vs-- Peace and Justice

How does the experience of participating in the varieties of Protestantism differ to that of Anabaptists like the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Amish or followers of Menno Simons (Mennonites), to name some of the more widely known groups? Take Congregationalism: worship each week normally gives attention to both Old and New Testament readings and interpretation. Private or small group Bible study may take place during the week. There is belief in the Trinity aspect of God, combining both the human manifestation in Jesus of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit, along with God the Creator of all. Watchwords are "praise and giving thanks" when engaging in worship of God each Sunday morning, or when praying alone or with others.

By comparison, the watchword for Mennonites and Quakers seems to be "peace [on earth] and social justice." So the attention and efforts are focused on doing the example shown by Jesus. The Praise/Thanksgiving element is not absent or anathema, but the emphasis is on right thinking and right actions; being mindful in the choices to act or intentionally not to (re)act. So the Kingdom of God is in one's own heart, but also in one's actions. The Old Testament God is not very evident, nor is the Jewishness of Jesus and those related teachings. Experiences of God by Quakers, according to one online video by the Watford (England) Friends, describes how each person understands the Creator in individual terms, images and meanings which change over the course of one's lifetime of growth and direction. As a worshiping group, it is not important to define God for all to follow. Instead the power of shared worship is mutual support, aid, respect and hearkening to the Inner Light as something of the Holy Spirit to lead one's life.

In conclusion, are these two ways of understanding God's story, presence and direction contradictory or mutually exclusive of the other? Surely they connect to one another, but the point of emphasis and the number of things to juggle when trying to understand the whole matter and then resolve to respond is different. With the Quakers and Mennonites, the emphasis is on action and individual understanding of the Word of God; it is forward directed. With the mainline Protestants (northern Europe's roots for Lutheran, Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, perhaps Baptist –if not allied instead with the Anabaptist roots) the emphasis is divided between understanding God of the OT and God-on-Earth of the NT. Order of Worship, familiar music making, and the Church Year go round and round giving comfort and repeating structure to worshipers across their lifetimes as their interest and capacity for faith waxes and wanes. The church body rather than the individual seems to be the main subject among the Protestants, compared to the Anabaptists. As a result the group members come and go, but the organization sails along with a feeling of unchanging equilibrium.

Christmas season 2011, Gospel John's angle

Men's Bible study circle this morning at 7 totaled 10. That's a lot for a 4 person round table! After last week's run-up to Jesus in Luke, and the week before in Matthew, we took John's perspective. The big words and subtle meanings seem to speak to a specialized and knowledgeable audience, probably ones able to read and write.

On the subject of literacy, among the disciples probably only Matthew (tax agent) and Thomas would be most educated and literate. Of course, too, Jesus was considered a rabbi, whether formally credentialed in the Old Testament, or not.

Whereas the synoptic gospels of M, M, L are descriptive of the events, John goes beyond this to weigh the significance of those events and interpret what they may mean to those who come later. So much of the annual cycle of church events dwells on the advent of the christ (Christmas season) and then the closing chapter (Easter season; passover/pesach), that the smooth flow of events before His time and after His time is out of focus. Yet this is when John is writing: very likely the religious and governmental authorities will have considered the hubbub disposed of with the execution of The Nazarene, but events continued to develop with followers of this rabbi growing in the hinterlands and in Jerusalem itself the Zealots were becoming bolder against the Roman authorities. Finally, the insurrection culminating with the massacre at Masada and the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 resulted in the end of Temple Judaism and rise of synagogue worship instead. So those Pharisees and Sagicees from the days of Jesus will have lost their prominence in the civil society of the time. In this setting John composed his gospel for learned readers and listeners.

worshipping outside one's routine church

Tuesday before Thanksgiving a neighboring church was this year's host to the annual Community Thanksgiving Worship Service.
Even though it is mainstream Protestant like the place I normally attend, the differences in music style, the order of service, and the community-pitched style (ecumenical) caused me to pause and briefly examine each novel element to the service.
 
It occurs to me now that the old question of Form versus Content is present here: while the experience of expressing praise and thanks to God should be the same anywhere, anytime, in fact our mortal minds dwell on the small things on of the surface details. Things like the meter and mode of music, the lighting of the worship space, how the mix of strangers and acquaintances are dressed and exhibit worhiping behaviors, the manner in which the clergy speak to the Word and to the congregants --all these things crowd the senses and distract from the purpose and the message. And so there is an good argument to be made for routine and familiarity that lets the mind concentrate instead on the message and work of expressing praise and thanks as unselfconsciously as possible. There is another interpretation of my estrangement experience in the flow of this ecumenical service in a space I've attended just a few times before. Instead of concluding that familiarity is a good thing; that Form should be subordinate to Content, the other lesson could be that it is precisely this comfortable routinization that we look for each Sunday. When things are routine, then we feel content and can refresh ourselves to face the next 6 days of the week. So which is it: we desire routine or we require routine in order to reach greater heights of spiritual wondering, growth and commitment? Perhaps both at the same time: comfort and challenge?

Bible study 25 Oct 2011

<> About the attitude when approaching the Word of God: is the object (ink and paper, gilt edges, red lettering for Jesus speech) something of awe? Should one hold one's heart in keen expectation and reverence, or just listen hard to the details translated to modern English, 80 generations from the New Testament events?

----The critical result should be living interpretation and engagement in the words found there, not in its packaging or other outward details. Yes, the form and content are tied closely together, so one should be warned of the surplus and deficit meaning that arises in the process of translation. But to coddle, or gild or encrust with precious stones does not accomplish the inner work of the heart the same way that wrestling with the stories and examples does. Likewise the hall of worship or Meeting Space: this is not holy of itself; rather, it is the act of worshippers gathering and praising that accomplishes this fact.

<> About the layers of practices, customary events and manner of conducting a service of worship, much of what we signal or express comes from the trappings and expectations of our civilization and its methods, including the dominance of the consumer model in place of the steward model. So by comparison to the Primitive Christian Church, whether Jews, God-fearers or Pagans who constitute it, those of us today are distracted by the details of our habits in the annual cycle of readings and activities. Very little of what we recognize for Christianity would be part of those early house churches living in the shadow of persecution. It would be worth excavating those roots to know what, if any, of our routines echo those original ways.

<> Revelatory exercise #1 to try: pull out not just the 'red letter' passages attributed to the Christ, but divide into narrower categories, too, in order to distill patterns:
- list of parables (and context of each)
- list of miracles (and context of each)
- list of actions (for us to emulate in our modern setting?)
- list of declarations or doxa about what is Godliness; holiness
- list of those he engages (sociological categories: women, men, children, lame, power holders, rich…)

<> Revelatory exercise #2 to try: column 1 for Jefferson Bible (just JC words), column 2 from The Message (conversational rendering of the Bible for those same passages).

<> dvd (2007, South Korea) Secret Sunshine includes a scene where young widow discovers Christianity and decides to confront the murder/kidnapper of her young son. But when she gets there he says that he is sorry and has repented to God, thus has been forgiven. She wants to forgive him, as well, but feels trumped by his reply. Emotions and ancient human responses can't fathom the ways of God.

Men's Bible Study, 6 Sept 2011

Imagine if Jesus (yeshua) were here in 2011 USA and specifically our town:
 
1. What personal habits, organizational life, and calendar of practices would he advocate in order to fulfill his (Jewish) relatioship to God the creator: to love God & one another?
 
2. Where is the balance of spend now, vs. build an endowment for ongoing perpetuation?
 
3. What do "poor in spirit" look like?
 
4. How best to strike a balance between worldly demands and opportunities on the one hand and spiritual exploration, expression and development on the other?

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.

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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