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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Drama and stories </FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman">"rich in metaphor on the spiritual journey of the
writers" </FONT><FONT face=Arial>rather than facts/historical happening
the way we usually think of them today: these are important distinctions
for thinking Christians. And you wrote about these distinctions so well in
this column! I passed this on to the lively adult forum in my
church. My church delights me with its willingness to entertain
questions and the imaginative variety of ministries, especially to the low
income folks who live in its immediate neighborhood. Thanks much,
Jaime!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Janice Ulangca</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=svesjaime@aol.com href="mailto:svesjaime@aol.com">Jaime R Vergara</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=oe@wedgeblade.net
href="mailto:oe@wedgeblade.net">oe@wedgeblade.net</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, March 24, 2013 1:32
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd
Tuesday</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT color=black size=3
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><BR><BR>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both">j'aime la vie
<DIV style="COLOR: black"><BR></DIV>
<DIV><I style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: white"><FONT color=#000080><B>Yesterday,
appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all,
Celebrate!</B></FONT></I></DIV></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: helvetica,arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-----Original
Message-----<BR>From: Jaime R Vergara <<A
href="mailto:jrvergarajr2031@aol.com">jrvergarajr2031@aol.com</A>><BR>To:
jayvee_vallejera <<A
href="mailto:jayvee_vallejera@saipantribune.com">jayvee_vallejera@saipantribune.com</A>>;
mark_rabago <<A
href="mailto:mark_rabago@saipantribune.com">mark_rabago@saipantribune.com</A>>;
editor <<A
href="mailto:editor@saipantribune.com">editor@saipantribune.com</A>><BR>Sent:
Sun, Mar 24, 2013 1:26 pm<BR>Subject: OpEd Tuesday<BR><BR>
<DIV id=AOLMsgPart_1_eb749663-a4b0-4d6a-8c6f-2746d9b38edb><FONT color=black
size=4 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<DIV class=MsoNormal><B><FONT size=4>Tuesday's Temple Tour</FONT></B></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><B></B> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">Raised in mainline Reformation tradition of
Christendom, steep in Biblical scholarship where we became clear that the
paper idolatry reflected in the “Bible says” syndrome is an aberration rather
than the rule, we were spared the literalism that bedevils many of fellow
wayfarers on the footsteps of the carpenter from Galilee.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>I
will assume that the reader has a healthy appreciation of the Biblical stories
but is in no way attached to the nit-picking, verse-quoting, authority-seeking
user of holy writ. As far as the </FONT><I
style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">Biblos </I><FONT size=4>(literally, many books) is
concerned, the writings took more than a century to accomplish covering more
than two centuries of memory, meant to be rich in metaphor on the spiritual
journey of the writers, but not in today’s sense of accounts of events.
Nor is it similar to a document that showed up mysteriously in the hands
of the Prophet Mohammed as told by some about the Koran, or of the Book of
Mormons of Joseph Smith in upstate New York before his colleagues took off for
Missouri and Utah.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>The
Gospels of the New Testament are four of possible 50 gospel writingsabout
Jesus, decided to be canonical 300 years after the fact. The earliest
account we have of Mark was written two generations after the event, seen from
the perspective of a defeated people after the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD
72.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>The
dramaturgy evolved from the </FONT><I
style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">incarnate</I><FONT size=4> baby Jesus in a manger
(Matthew and Luke) through the </FONT><I
style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">transcendent</I><FONT size=4> perspective of humans
distancing themselves from the demands of their bodies (we now observe a
40-day fast called Lent from the Medieval age), to the full engagement of the
blessed chosen person into the plain of </FONT><I
style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">history</I><FONT size=4> we call the Holy (wholesome)
Week; from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the victory of the empty
tomb, preceded by the earthiness of a common meal and a wrenching Friday
afternoon crucifixion affirming a resurrection back to Galilee and on to
glory. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT
size=4><BR></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>These
are language of drama, not history. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: large">We do not always</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: large"> remember that the "nevertheless" story between
the hosanna palm fronds on the entry to Jerusalem to the common meal in the
Upper Room, into the third hour afternoon on Friday, have since been
symbolized in the High Mass as the Eucharist.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">Let’s recap. Incarnate is the
perspective of the “I”, of each of us born a free and winsome creative
individuals who are one out of two million sperms mysteriously chosen by an
ovum to create one, unique, unrepeatable gift of humanity of which, there was
none like it before, and there will never be another one like it ever
again. The “it” that “I” am, is somebody. So are
“you”!</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">Transcendence is the perspective of the
Greeks’ <I>“theos” </I>(God)<I> </I>from the heights of Mt. Olympus. In
our time, that would be from the farthest reaches of the Hubble
telescope. From that perspective, we are not even a pixel in the HDTV of
life. Our planet is but the third rock to the sun in a stellar solar
system minuscule in the Milky Way, shadowed by the Andromeda giant next door,
and we haven’t taken the trillion of light years perspective yet. “I” am
clearly a nobody in the universal scheme of things.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT
size=4>History is the “human” perspective. The somebody that is “I” and
the nobody that is “me” are merged in the historical “we” of which “I am” a
finite part. The human perspective, BTW, is recent, perhaps, no more
than 10,000 years in a planet that is 4.3 billion years old. This is
where the story of the Jesus the Christ journey fits. His story is
carried by a group of people who call themselves the “ecclesia”, the household
of God (the </FONT><I style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">theos, </I><FONT size=4>of the
transcendent view). We might want to get clear that the word “Christ” is
not the last name of Jesus; it is the role his disciples confessed he played,
and the one his followers are to play as well.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>My
Christian reflection today is the practical implication of this week’s
story, particularly on the account’s Tuesday of that Holy Week before the
nightmares of Gethsemane. The book of Luke quotes Jesus saying: “It is
written, my house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it ‘a den of
robbers’” (NIV light edition).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>Less
we take the easy way out, gloss over this part of the story by
piously going back to the portals of the temple and demonizing the
taxman, we might look at it from the perspective of 2013, and ask the
question: who in our time is demeaning persons just because of who they
are? Who is making the household of God a palace of perdition? In
the 60s, onward even today, they are the good folks who discriminate against
persons of color. The Civil Rights movement took a chunk of our energy
and awareness.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT
size=4>Today, members of the United Methodist Church of the Village in New
York City rally to remind the nation that the Supreme Court is reviewing a
case involving two ladies who vowed love and affection for each other 42 years
ago and remained constant in their fidelity. They solemnized their vows
in “marriage” in Canada later (there are now many places where the union is
legal) while living through the challenge of multiple sclerosis that took the
life of one of the parties. The surviving one inherited joint property
against which the IRS (yes, Mathilda, the taxman is still with us) is
levying a tax of more than $300 grand, a charge it would not make were the
relationship hetero. Homophobia is entrenched deep in the official
structures of our society, and into the recesses of our gentrified
souls!</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>The
United Methodist Church as a denomination is on record as being against
samesex unions, but individual Church members from Bishops to laity take the
other view, in spite of the official policy. We stoke the same
flames with our renegade sisters and brothers.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 18px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT size=4>Who
shall fling their bodies into the prejudicial barbwires of history?
Who dares march into the temple of our Jerusalems? My Nike shoes say,
Just Do It! I do.</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 18px"><A
style="FONT: lighter 10px Verdana, Arial; COLOR: #000000"><IMG border=0
align=absMiddle
src="http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031"></A> <FONT
color=black size=2 face=arial>j'aime la vie
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><I><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#ff0000><B>Yesterday, appreciate;
tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In
all, </B></FONT></I><I><FONT class=Apple-style-span
color=#ff0000><B>Celebrate!</B></FONT></I></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV><!-- end of AOLMsgPart_1_eb749663-a4b0-4d6a-8c6f-2746d9b38edb --></DIV></FONT>
<P>
<HR>
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