[Oe List ...] 5/11/2023, Progressing Spirit: Dr. Carl Krieg: Blood and Bananas; Spong revisited

Thu May 11 05:53:35 PDT 2023

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5587244534 #yiv5587244534templateBody .yiv5587244534mcnTextContent, #yiv5587244534 #yiv5587244534templateBody .yiv5587244534mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5587244534 #yiv5587244534templateFooter .yiv5587244534mcnTextContent, #yiv5587244534 #yiv5587244534templateFooter .yiv5587244534mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} Dr. Carl Krieg  
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Blood and Bananas
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|  Essay by Dr. Carl Krieg
May 11, 2023I went to the hospital the other day. Off and on throughout my life, I have had a few irregular heartbeats, and the latest round was sufficiently disconcerting that I thought it was time to talk with my doctor. She ordered some blood tests, and lo and behold, one number stood out. When The thyroid number should have been above 4.5, my number was .06, way low, a huge change from just one year ago and a possible cause of increased premature atrial contractions. We’ll know in six weeks.Change. Often referred to as the only certainty in life. From year to year, day to day, hour to hour. And it happens everywhere, all the time, one state of affairs transforming into another. It particularly struck me because I was in the hospital, and it was the part of me I call “my” body that had changed and was continuing to change. But it goes beyond bodily change. Our consciousness is also being steadily transformed. There may not be a sudden new awareness, but our ideas progress or regress, as the case may be. Our mind today is not what it was last year, or even yesterday.But the changing goes way beyond the personal level. On whatever scale we choose to examine our relationships with other people they are continually in flux, often not noticeable on a daily basis, but happening nonetheless. And then, one day, we consciously realize that things are not the same, be it at home, at work, or in school, and our relationship is on a different level.Even as a species, and not only as an individual, nothing remains the same. The COVID pandemic reminds us that life is continually evolving, in this case, a virus adapting to new environments. And homo is no exception. Preceded by perhaps a half dozen other species of homo [Neanderthal and Denisovan being the latest], Homo Sapiens is the last remaining manifestation of the species. Lest we fool ourselves into believing that we, therefore, are the top of the pile, let us remember that evolution continues, whether we want it to or not. What we are today is not what we will be 10,000 years from now, should we survive that long. This is especially so as AI encroaches on our “humanity,” inevitably transforming our very nature.Earth as well is continually changing. Once upon a time, all the land mass was together in one location, and then the tectonic plates began to drift apart, a process that continues today and most likely will continue until the earth is no more. And that ending is on the horizon. In about four billion years the sun will transmogrify into a red giant star, engulfing and incinerating our lovely home. But, no worries, that will not happen because in half that time, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will have collided, destroying Earth forever. Change, the ultimate.The universe itself is no different. There was once a time, not that long ago, when cosmologists thought that we lived in a static universe, wherein what is, is what was, is what will be. Then the star-gazing and the mathematics exhibited a universe more dynamic than one could imagine. Theoretically, it had a beginning in space and time and has been expanding ever since. Not static at all, the galaxies that surround us are continually in motion, changing within themselves and growing more apart from one another. Hubble and now Webb show a universal creativity beyond imagination, cosmic dust coalescing to form the stars that are in turn drawn into galaxies, which are then in turn gathered into clusters, a never-ending process of creativity. A long way from a trip to the hospital, but it’s all happening, now.There was a second, almost irrelevant abnormality in the blood test, and that was a high potassium level. That was no worry, however, and easily explained. I had had a banana for lunch just two hours earlier, and asparagus for dinner the night before, both high in potassium. This comes as no surprise to anyone knowledgeable about nutrients, but it is a reminder that things impact things, that everything is interconnected with everything else, and, further, it’s not just a matter of food and health.We have heard that a butterfly flapping its wings can create a typhoon. Literally true or not, it points to the impact that even the smallest of elements can have on the greater area. Literally unimaginably, particle entanglement shows this to be true. Imagine a particle, perhaps an electron or proton, that is split in two. There are properties of these two particles that interact with one another, such that if you change one of the particles, the other is automatically changed as well, regardless of how far apart the particles may be, even if separated by the ends of the universe. This has been demonstrated in the lab at close range and mathematically shown to be true universally. Changing one, automatically and inevitably, without any causality, changes the other. Unbelievable. Cosmic connection without touching.Another demonstration of this cosmic interconnectedness is grounded in the creation of the universe. Beginning with hydrogen atoms, the intense energy of the Big Bang fused hydrogen into helium, which, when attracted and combined under the force of gravity, began to form stars. Inside those stars, the accumulation process continues, forming all the known elements that comprise the universe. All of the carbon and nitrogen and oxygen and…, i.e., all the stuff of the universe, was created in the stars. We- and everything around us- are all stardust. We are one, and all is one.This oneness of all is elegantly described in John Donne’s poem, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” It was customary in his time to ring the village bell when someone died, and so he writes:

No man is an island, Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

We live in a world defined by the cheapness of human life, indeed, all life. Migrants and refugees are treated no better than the Amazon rainforest. And yet, as entanglement shows us and as the tolling bell reminds us, all is One. How is it possible that we cannot see this? Painfully felt in combat, the killing of another is a killing of oneself. In turning away the refugee, we turn on ourselves, drawing boundaries where there are no boundaries.But such we do, and in so doing, we deny the reality both of change and of the interconnectedness of all creation, the denial of reality itself. Buddhism realizes that impermanence is the nature of everything, just as a sand mandala meticulously created by the monks is ceremoniously thrown into the river. So-called religions of the book [Christianity, Islam and Judaism], on the other hand, can reject change by absolutizing holy writ. Fundamentalist wings of these religions go so far as to absolutize their scriptures, identifying them as the word of god “himself”. But it is not only religion that absolutizes the static and denies change and interconnection. It is also any group of human beings who believe that they are special, beyond changeability and interconnection. In the US, these would be white nationalists who deny the stardust nature of their existence, some of whom also claim god in their image.In addition to the religious and political realms, economics also tends to instigate forgetfulness of change and connection. Concentration of wealth in the hands of the few is a blatant denial of interconnectivity, and it is founded on the false belief that riches are everlasting, which they are not. As surely as the universe expands, the rich and powerful will be brought low and made humble. As surely as we are born of the same stardust, the poverty of even one is a loss to all, regardless of power and wealth. Ignoring the plight of others lessens our own being.One might ask: is nothing, then, eternal? is there anything that transcends change? is there something that continues even as the continuum moves along? I believe there is, and I believe that something is love. Love in this sense is not a denial of change, but an undergirding of change that is good. This is a love grounded in the interconnectedness of all that is, not apart from the One, but manifest in it. This love is a cosmic embrace, supporting the All even as the current embodiment of this One is created anew in each moment.~ Dr. Carl Krieg
Read online here

About the Author
Dr. Carl Krieg received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith,   The Void and the Vision and  The New Matrix: How the World We Live In Impacts Our Thinking About Self and God. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT.  |

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Question & Answer

Q: By Joseph

With the co-opting of the term Christianity by those who act very un-Christian like, is it time to rethink the name Progressive Christianity?

A: By Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin
 Dear Joseph,I hear you loud and clear. I have struggled with this very issue for years now. Frankly, because of what the word has come to represent to many folks, there are times I don't even like the way it feels in my mouth, “Christian.” Seeing the hateful ways some of the loudest Christians treat others even make it feel like a curse word to me at times. Because of it, I spent many years being reluctant to call myself a “Christian” in public.

I tried coming up with other terms that might work, “People of the Way,” “Originist” (as in following the original meaning of Jesus' teachings), ”Jesus Followers,” and many others. They were all too wordy or just a bit unclear without an explanation. I realized that the concept I was trying to relay, “follower of Jesus” or even “little Jesus,” already had a word  – Christian.

After even more thought and consideration, I am inclined to take our cues from the LGBTQAI+ community. Their work to take back the words “gay” and “queer” that were so frequently used as a pejorative is nothing short of inspiring! I believe we need to do the same for “Christianity.” WE need to reclaim the name from those who are using it to manipulate, marginalize, and maltreat others for the sake of their own power, profit, and prestige.

Sure, we still might need to add “not that kind of Christian” from time to time as we reclaim the moniker, but I for one believe that it is time to reclaim the name until it becomes most clearly defined by its love, inclusivity, and tireless work for justice.~ Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin
Read and share online here

About the Author
Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Mark also serves as the President and Co-executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.”  Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. His Podcast The Moonshine Jesus Show is on Mondays at 4:30pm ET. Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin.  |

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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited

Part XV- Matthew:
Understanding the Sermon on the Mount: Conclusion

Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
February 27, 2014Jesus never preached the Sermon on the Mount! That needs to be said again and again until it is embraced as a fact. The Sermon on the Mount was composed by the author of Matthew’s gospel in order to fill out his interpretive portrait of Jesus, not only as the messiah, but also as the expected prophet of whom Moses spoke and even one who was thought to have relived the life of Moses. This suggestion will be startling to some, which is why I have been so deliberate in developing the background material. Biblical ignorance is not a virtue, especially when the background material that I have cited has been known in the world of biblical scholarship for at least the last 200 years.

The facts supporting these ideas are plentiful. Nowhere else in the New Testament was Jesus ever said to have preached the Sermon on the Mount. If, as Matthew suggests, it was such a climactic moment in Jesus’ life, does it not seem strange that this event did not make an indelible impression on anyone else in the developing Christian tradition? Paul, Mark, Luke and John never mention it. In fairness, let me say that some of the material included in Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount is also included in Luke as part of Jesus’ preaching on the plains, but it is not nearly so beautifully set forth or dramatic. Luke’s Beatitudes, for example, are shortened to four and are accompanied by a series of four woes, portraying neither the grandeur nor the depth of Matthew’s sermon. Indeed, it appears to be derivative.

Some scholars adhere to what is known as “the Q hypothesis.” They believe that both Luke and Matthew had an additional, now lost, common source other than Mark, which they have called “Quella,” the German word for “source,” which was quickly abbreviated to Q. Q, they argue, contained a number of the sayings of Jesus and is used to explain the similarities between Matthew and Luke that are not derived from Mark. Other scholars who deny the Q hypothesis, and I am increasingly one of them, argue that what has been called “the Q material” is really Matthew’s midrashic adaptations written on the text of Mark, and that Luke had both Mark and Matthew before him when he wrote his gospel. Thus Luke incorporated into his gospel some of Matthew’s adaptations and additions to Mark. This, rather than a speculative, now lost document, would account for the sometimes almost identical non-Marcan passages found in both Matthew and Luke. This would mean that Q is nothing but Matthew’s adaptations to Mark, which were then incorporated into Luke.

The Q hypothesis has been a standard assumption of New Testament scholars for at least the last 150 years, but I find a theory based on a lost document to be a rather weak argument and I am delighted to see confidence in the Q hypothesis begin to wane, although that waning is more obvious among scholars in the United Kingdom than it is among scholars in the United States. In the Jesus Seminar, a scholarly think tank made up primarily of American scripture scholars, the Q hypothesis has achieved the status of an almost unchallenged dogma. In that body I was a lonely voice of one, who was never convinced of the accuracy of the Q hypothesis despite the complete confidence of the Seminar’s other fellows in it.

My reasons for this skepticism are located in the Jewishness of the gospels in general and the Jewishness of Matthew’s gospel in particular. The Sermon on the Mount is the cornerstone of my dismissal of the Q hypothesis The more one understands that the organizing principle behind each of the three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) is not the remembered life of Jesus, but the pattern of synagogue worship in which the Jesus story was told and retold during the first two to three generations of Christianity’s life, the less need one has for the existence of a lost source called Q. As we look at the Sermon on the Mount from a Jewish perspective, the more this Jewish liturgical background becomes both apparent and appealing. Indeed the relationship between the Sermon on the Mount and the festival observance of Shavuot is only the first of these connections, which I will set opposite one another as we walk through the rest of Matthew’s gospel. It is on these connections that in my mind the necessity for the Q hypothesis disappears. What the Sermon on the Mount is to Shavuot the crucifixion will be to Passover, and between those two great celebrations Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, and Dedication will all be related to significant and appropriate Jesus stories. In this analysis, literalism as a viable way of reading the gospels will quite simply die and we will begin to see new dimensions in the Christ portrayal, which will enable us to lay a new claim on our faith story. To begin this process we must make sure that the connection between the Sermon on the Mount and the celebration of Shavuot is clear. If you notice that I am repeating some ideas from the column last week, be assured that it is on purpose. New ideas have to be repeated until they find permanent lodging in our minds.

Shavuot, as noted previously, is a festival coming 50 days after Passover and observed in the synagogue with a 24 hour vigil. For this vigil Psalm 119, the longest Psalm in the Psalter was specifically written. Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is modeled on that psalm. Psalm 119 provides a psalm reading for the eight segments of the 24 hour vigil. Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount reflects this psalm in many ways. It too is divided into eight segments. In Matthew’s introduction to the Sermon on the Mount he frames eight verses in such a way that each begins with the word “Blessed,” causing these verses to be named “the Beatitudes.” In the introduction to Psalm 119 two of the eight verses begin with the word “Blessed.”

Matthew’s sermon is then made up of eight commentaries on each of the eight Beatitudes, but he will do these commentaries in reverse order; that is, his first commentary is on the eighth Beatitude and his last commentary is on the first Beatitude. Psalm 119 in its entirety is a hymn to the beauty and wonder of the Law, the Torah. Among its words are these: “Blessed are those who walk in the law (the Torah) of the Lord.” “Let me not wander from your commandments (your Torah).” “Blessed are thou, O Lord; teach me your statutes (your Torah).” “I am a sojourner on earth; hide not your commandments (your Torah) from me.” “I will run in the way of your commandments (Torah) when you enlarge my understanding.” We could continue this kind of quotation with many, many references out of that Psalm’s text.

Psalm 119 was clearly created to serve the liturgical needs of the synagogue during Shavuot’s 24 hour vigil. Both Matthew and his readers would know this and would recognize that the Sermon on the Mount was patterned after Psalm 119, the psalm of Shavuot.

It was not a foreign practice for the Jews at the great celebrations of their liturgical life to read the biblical passages that tell the story behind the celebration each year. Liturgy is, after all, the act of recalling the historical moments in a nation’s sacred history. The book of Esther had been written to be read at the Feast of Purim, to celebrate the deliverance of the Jews from genocide in the days of the Persians. The book of Lamentations had been written for the Ninth of Ab, the day when the Jews recalled the destruction of the Temple at the hands of the Babylonians. The basis of the celebration of Shavuot would be the Sinai story from the book of Exodus in which the Torah was given to Moses, so this was the Torah lesson that was always read at this celebration.

Before we can understand the Sermon on the Mount we must understand its Jewish antecedents. The Torah began with the Ten Commandments and Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount touches on each of the Ten, some quite overtly, but not missing any of them. Matthew’s readers would also recognize how the Sermon on the Mount was modeled on Psalm 119, the Psalm of Shavuot. That was how they understood Matthew’s gospel. From about 150 CE on, however, the Christian Church became a Gentile movement, so the Jewish background to the gospel’s Jesus stories was unknown. More than that there was an active and virulent anti-Jewish prejudice that was operating in this Gentile Church. So it was that the Jewish meaning behind the gospel stories was lost. That meant that for the next 2000 or so years of Christian history the only people who read, studied, taught or wrote commentaries on the gospels were Gentiles who were ignorant of and prejudiced against their original Jewish frame of reference. In that process symbolic Jewish stories were read as if they were literal history. Biblical literalism is at its heart a Gentile heresy, born in the ignorance of the Jewish background to the gospels. To recover the essential meaning of our own gospels we must learn to read them through a Jewish lens or with Jewish eyes. We must understand the Jewish context in which and for which the various segments of the synoptic gospels were written. We must be able to identify what I call the “Gentile Captivity of the Christian Story.” It was in the service of Gentile ignorance that Christians were taught first that the Bible must be understood literally; later it was the 4th century Christians were taught that the creeds had to be believed literally, and finally in the 13th century Christians were taught that worship forms were handed down from on high and were, therefore, not subject to change. The future of Christianity depends on breaking this stranglehold of imposed literalism, based on Gentile ignorance of Christianity’s Jewish roots and origins. I seek to counter the ignorance of literalism week by week in this study of Matthew’s Gospel. It is the celebration of Shavuot that makes the Sermon on the Mount what it is– deeply true, but not literal history.
Stay tuned! The narrative becomes more and more exciting as its organizing secret is revealed.~  John Shelby Spong  |

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