February 2023 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

From The New Yorker: Not Fooling Anyone
by James Wiegel 12 Feb '23

12 Feb '23

This article about imposter phenomenon seems to document the discovery of one of the states of being in the other world in the midst of this world — either 8 total exposure or 13 essential dubiety. Mathew’s frequently referenced this state of being with his descriptions of running to the toilet to vomit. Read it. Am I deluded? Not Fooling Anyone https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/the-dubious-rise-of-impostor-… Get the writers you love, plus your favorite cartoons, on your phone or tablet. Download The New Yorker Today. https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1081530898?pt=45076&ct=App%20Sha… Jim Wiegel “…the long work of turning their lives into a celebration is not easy. Come and let us talk“. The Sunflowers. Mary Oliver

4 3

2/09/2-23, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz: Rising Above the Darkness of These Times; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 09 Feb '23

09 Feb '23

Rising Above the Darkness of These Times#yiv1428665525 p{margin:10px 0;padding:0;}#yiv1428665525 table{border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv1428665525 h1, #yiv1428665525 h2, #yiv1428665525 h3, #yiv1428665525 h4, #yiv1428665525 h5, #yiv1428665525 h6{display:block;margin:0;padding:0;}#yiv1428665525 img, #yiv1428665525 a img{border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;}#yiv1428665525 body, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525bodyTable, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525bodyCell{min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnPreviewText{display:none !important;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525outlook a{padding:0;}#yiv1428665525 img{}#yiv1428665525 table{}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ReadMsgBody{width:100%;}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ExternalClass{width:100%;}#yiv1428665525 p, #yiv1428665525 a, #yiv1428665525 li, #yiv1428665525 td, #yiv1428665525 blockquote{}#yiv1428665525 a .yiv1428665525filtered99999 , #yiv1428665525 a .yiv1428665525filtered99999 {color:inherit;cursor:default;text-decoration:none;}#yiv1428665525 p, #yiv1428665525 a, #yiv1428665525 li, #yiv1428665525 td, #yiv1428665525 body, #yiv1428665525 table, #yiv1428665525 blockquote{}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ExternalClass, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ExternalClass p, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ExternalClass td, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ExternalClass div, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ExternalClass span, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525ExternalClass font{line-height:100%;}#yiv1428665525 a .yiv1428665525filtered99999 {color:inherit !important;text-decoration:none !important;font-size:inherit !important;font-family:inherit !important;font-weight:inherit !important;line-height:inherit !important;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525bodyCell{padding:10px;}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525templateContainer{max-width:600px !important;border:5px solid #363232;}#yiv1428665525 a.yiv1428665525mcnButton{display:block;}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImage, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnRetinaImage{vertical-align:bottom;}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent{}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent img{height:auto !important;}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnDividerBlock{table-layout:fixed !important;}#yiv1428665525 body, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525bodyTable{}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525bodyCell{border-top:0;}#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525templateContainer{border:5px solid #363232;}#yiv1428665525 h1{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1428665525 h2{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1428665525 h3{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1428665525 h4{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader{background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent a, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p a{color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateHeader{background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:0;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateHeader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateHeader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateHeader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent a, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateHeader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p a{color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateBody{background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateBody .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateBody .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateBody .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent a, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateBody .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p a{color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateFooter{background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateFooter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateFooter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:center;}#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateFooter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent a, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateFooter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p a{color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}@media only screen and (min-width:768px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525templateContainer{width:600px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 body, #yiv1428665525 table, #yiv1428665525 td, #yiv1428665525 p, #yiv1428665525 a, #yiv1428665525 li, #yiv1428665525 blockquote{}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 body{width:100% !important;min-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnRetinaImage{max-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImage{width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCartContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionTopContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnRecContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionBottomContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnTextContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnBoxedTextContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageGroupContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionRightTextContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionRightImageContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardRightTextContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardRightImageContentContainer{max-width:100% !important;width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnBoxedTextContentContainer{min-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageGroupContent{padding:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionLeftContentOuter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionRightContentOuter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent{padding-top:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardTopImageContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionBottomContent:last-child .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionBottomImageContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionBlockInner .yiv1428665525mcnCaptionTopContent:last-child .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent{padding-top:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardBottomImageContent{padding-bottom:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageGroupBlockInner{padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageGroupBlockOuter{padding-top:9px !important;padding-bottom:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnImageCardRightImageContent{padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcpreview-image-uploader{display:none !important;width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 h1{font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 h2{font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 h3{font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 .yiv1428665525mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templatePreheader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateHeader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateHeader .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateBody .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateBody .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateFooter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent, #yiv1428665525 #yiv1428665525templateFooter .yiv1428665525mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rising Above the Darkness of These Times | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz February 9, 2023 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near ... . Mark 1:14-15 In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12 I don't know about you, but in recent times, I can hardly bear to watch the news. It's simply too depressing. Gun violence continues to spin out of control with scant hope of any sensible resolution in sight. Putin's unprovoked, unjust war with Ukraine makes our hearts ache for the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Then, in our nation's capital, we have a rogue Supreme Court, totally out of touch with the American people; and the 118th congress, which, with dauntless ease, sold its soul to the devil on the way to nominating a new Speaker of the House. This new Republican-majority congress has already made their agenda for the next two years abundantly clear: to practice grievance politics wherever they can, making life as miserable as possible for the Biden White House and for Democrats everywhere. Indeed, it’s not exactly a wonderful day in Mr. Roberts' neighborhood. How did we get here?The Founding Fathers and the malignant narcissism of Donald Trump. How we got here is, of course, complicated. To begin with, our Founding Fathers did not anticipate someone with Donald Trump's narcissistic tendencies ever occupying the oval office. If indeed, there are codes of conduct for U.S. Presidents (and I think there are), he violated them again and again. The most serious violation, of course, was his denial of the 2020 Presidential election results. No losing presidential candidate had ever done this before. His stubborn unwillingness to accept the results caught most Americans off guard. But it didn't stop there. On January 6, 2021, he fomented a failed coup of our democratic government. Can we even begin to get our minds around this? Just think about this in light of the World Wars we have fought and won in defense of our freedom as a republic. Our national cemeteries are filled with fallen heroes who died for this freedom. As all of this played out, by the time of the 2020 Presidential election, it became clear that Trump and MAGA Republicans posed the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War and the greatest threat to our Constitution ever. Meanwhile, coupled with this, we have the rise of the Trump personality cult kneeling at the feet of Trump's messaging strategy of endless lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news. The strategy is to repeat the lies--over and over and over--until, eventually, the lies and misinformation begin to sound like the truth. This is the sinister side of untruthfulness. Over time, listeners hear the falsehoods so often they begin to think there must be something to them. The evil of lying (and this is magnified when the lying is incessant) is that it introduces a distortive element into our relationships; and these distortions breed chaos that often overflows into anger, unrest, and even violence. Race relations. Now, add to this the long and sordid history of race relations in America. In trying to get a handle on this, it's helpful to look at Isabel Wilkerson's excellent book, Caste. Caste offers a fresh explanation for the rising polarization of these times--particularly since the ascendance of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States some fourteen years ago. According to Wilkerson, the backlash to "the Obama phenomenon" became visibly more strident and pointed after Donald Trump entered the White House. Part of the backlash is related to the symbolism of the year 2042 for white America. 2042 is the year after which the majority of Americans will be non-white. In any event, in the aftermath of the 2008 Presidential election, millions of white people woke up to a country where blacks were rising up and browns were coming in and they freaked out--particularly the men. This demographic shift--particularly with the reminder of what 2042 symbolized--sent deep fissures of anxiety and distrust across huge swaths of white America. In the caste system of America, there is a hierarchy of humanity, global in nature. In this hierarchy, the upper rung are the descendants from Europe, with English Protestants at the very top. The ranking continues downward, through Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans, down to the very bottom--Africans brought over to build the New World. Wilkerson shows how caste involves the "granting or withholding" of status, privilege, honor, respect, or resources based on one's perceived ranking in the hierarchy. Central to the reality of this caste system is the maintenance of your own ranking by making sure those beneath you in the hierarchy are "kept in their place." In summation, as we seek to better understand our current state of affairs as a nation, where do we turn? How do we move forward? Indeed, how do we make it through this long night of discontent? How do we work through this? Rediscovering our common humanity. Amidst the current polarization of our country, there are no easy answers. However, to rise above the darkness of these days, as a nation, we're going to need inspired leadership--leadership that can lift us to the best that is in our spirit; leadership that lifts us to the spiritual high ground where we discover, together, the best of our common humanity. For some time now--certainly going back at least to 2016--the divisions in our country have been widening. Both sides of the divide have increasingly looked at the other with antipathy and disdain: Democrats and Republicans, progressives and conservatives. Often, it seems to be at a boiling point where we cannot co-exist. More and more, our hearts become hardened and our minds more closed. Together, we must uncover ways to stop this spiraling downturn. We must find the size of spirit to start looking at each other through different eyes--eyes that acknowledge our common humanity. Again, we need inspired leadership to challenge us and lead the way. Indeed, for all of humanity the spiritual high ground beckons. It beckons with the humble greeting, namaste (from Hindu sanskrit), often announced at the beginning and end of yoga class: May the divine in me bow to the divine in you! This sacred greeting, namaste, acknowledges how the light in me recognizes the light in you. It is a greeting of mutual love, peace, and unity. Namaste affirms the spiritual high ground that reminds us how we are all in this life together; indeed, all bound together as brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God announced by Jesus: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near." Mark 1:14-15 Indeed, the Kingdom of God comes near when we affirm the common humanity in one another. It comes near when we seek to treat others the way we want to be treated ourselves. In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12 Truth be told, we're going to have to find ways of relating to people whom we don't trust or respect and perhaps even do not like. And in the process, we'll be challenged to look for the divine in them, as the namaste greeting suggests, and hope they do the same to us. Together, we need a strong infusion of namaste--an infusion that brings healing on both sides and rising hope for a shared, more conciliatory future. In working through this, the darkness will only be dimmed when the light of our shared humanity shines with a brightness that cannot be put out. ~ Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz Read online here About the Author The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz is a retired United Church of Christ minister. He had long-term pastorates in San Diego County and in Miami Lakes, Florida. His service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in the late sixties spurred his commitment to social justice ministries and to a spirit of ecumenism as a local church pastor. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Pacific School of Religion. He is the author of The Bible You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In and his just-published book: The God You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In. Dr. Frantz and his wife, Yvette, are now retired and living in Florida. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Roy I have seen Catholics praying to the Virgin Mary and saints, kissing and honoring statues, using rosary beads, and observing many rituals that they say are a part of Christianity. When I remind these people that being a Christian means living by the message Jesus preached about being kind, loving, and accepting of others, they become judgmental towards me. I wonder how have Christians have drifted away from the true meaning of being a Christian and instead embraced meaningless rituals and beliefs. A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear Roy,Within the tradition of Christianity, there are many interpretations of what the teachings mean as well as various understandings of which aspects of Jesus’s life are to be emphasized or ritualized to best follow his example. It is not accurate to say that Catholic Christians have drifted away from the true meaning of being a Christian, nor is it fair to point to Catholic practices and worship as meaningless. Some Christians are strongly moved by baptism, while others emphasize the Last Supper and communion. Some stress the importance of prayer and quiet, while others take to the streets to feed the hungry and advocate for justice. When Jesus modeled the importance of being kind, loving and accepting of others, he often did so by reaching across societal assumptions to be in relationship with people who were making different life choices, some out of desperation and others simply because of the customs practiced where they were born. Jesus modeled relationship by taking time to ask questions or to share a meal. We all have examples of rituals we have attended that felt empty or compulsory. But it is also true that most of us create and participate in all sorts of “everyday rituals,” because they help us appreciate the gift of being alive – a walk at sunset, a hot mug in the morning, expressing gratitude at the dinner table. When rituals – formal or spontaneous – coax us away from life’s busyness and into sacred time, we are connecting with the holy. Whatever our practice – quiet or ecstatic, still or animated, solitary or with others -- when it comes with our intention to become more aware, more kind, more loving, then we are exercising much of what Jesus wanted for everyone. Given the many ways to pursue a Christian path, it is good to bring our curiosity to situations that feel new or different. If visiting a Catholic parish is a new experience for you (or maybe it has been a long time), I hope you will consider attending a mass or evening vespers sometime soon. God has a wonderful way of stretching us, surprising us, and showing up in places we could not have imagined.~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA, was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest. Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care) and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit rely heavily on the good will of our donors to help us continue to bring individuals and churches the messages of progressive Christians, Weekly Newsletters, along with the many other resources we provide. For years, the majority of our fundraising came at the end of the year. Looking at various ways to create a more reasonable amount of cash flow we decided rather than having a BIG ask at the end of each year, our more frequent asks give folks a chance to contribute when their funds are more flexible. We think that's a win for everyone. We also want to highlight the opportunity to become a sustaining supporter. If you are looking for the best way to help us continue to provide progressive Christian resources, become a sustaining supporter by choosing Recurring Donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podbean | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Part II: The Gospel of Matthew. Exploring the Shadow of Moses in Matthew's Portrait of Jesus Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong September 12, 2013I return to Matthew’s gospel today to lay out the case for its basic Jewishness. As I suggested in the opening column in this series last week, we must see all the books of the New Testament as Jewish writings before we can properly begin to understand them. Matthew is by every measure the most Jewish of the four gospels. He was also writing this gospel to a community of Jesus’ followers who were themselves Jewish. That is why he could and did use in his narrative the symbols of his Jewish faith story and illustrations drawn from his Jewish world view. He wrote in the confidence that his readers would both understand these symbols and interpret them correctly. In the first decades of the Christian movement this primary meaning of Matthew’s gospel was universally understood. No one at that time could have or would have pretended that Matthew was writing literal history or recording as an eye-witness an event that actually happened. That misunderstanding, however, would arise near the middle of the 2nd century, by which time Christianity had become primarily a Gentile movement. Because they were now Gentile Christians meant that they were no longer conversant with the Jewish past or with Jewish symbols. They did not read the Jewish Scriptures, thinking that they had been superseded by the Christian writings. They no longer worshipped in synagogues. They were thus blind to the Jewish meanings incorporated into the text of this gospel. In addition to that their blindness had a second focus. By this time in Christian history, these Gentile Christians were so deeply infected with a virulent anti- Semitism, that they had no desire to understand anything Jewish. So the real and original meaning of this gospel was lost to them. Christianity had entered what I call its “Gentile Captivity,” which was destined to last until well into the 20th century when the first cracks in it began to appear. Having no other way to understand this gospel, they almost inevitably began to read Matthew as if it were a literally true biography of Jesus and they began to assume that Matthew’s narrative was intended to be read as literal history. That was when they made assumptions about this gospel that neither its author nor its original reading audience would ever have made. They suggested, for example, that there really was a star that traveled so slowly across the sky that wise men could keep up with it. They assumed that this star led the magi to find Jesus in Bethlehem. They assumed that since the sky was the roof separating heaven from earth, the way for God to send the Holy Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism was to open a hole in the roof to allow this divine invasion. They assumed that God literally spoke from beyond that sky to proclaim Jesus as his son, not recognizing that the divine words were actually lifted from Isaiah 42. They assumed that Jesus was literally tempted in a literal wilderness by a literal devil and that Jesus literally preached the Sermon on the Mount. None of these assumptions would ever have occurred to the original Jewish readers of Matthew’s gospel for they knew the Jewish background revealed in all of these narratives. My task in this series will be to open the minds of my readers to this background. In doing so I hope to make it clear that biblical fundamentalism is a Gentile Heresy! It was created out of Gentile ignorance about Jewish sacred writings. The fundamentalism with which the Christian church is plagued in the 21st century rises from the same source. Gentile literalism and biblical fundamentalism are not benign, they are deeply destructive of Christianity. That is a strong, but accurate charge and it cries out to be documented. In this column and throughout this series that will be my primary agenda. So let me begin with lesson one. The greatest hero in the Jewish faith story was Moses, so it should not be surprising that the life of Moses would be the template against which Jewish writers would tell the story of Jesus, and would thus serve as their primary clue in interpreting the life of Jesus. Surprisingly the name of Moses is not mentioned in Matthew until the 8th chapter of this gospel, but the shadow of Moses is present in every Jesus story. Moses makes his first silent appearance in the Matthean text in the birth narrative with which Matthew opens his gospel. Here Matthew tells us that when Jesus was born, a wicked king named Herod tried to kill him. The wise men had come to Herod’s palace seeking knowledge as to the birthplace of the one they called “the King of the Jews.” A child born with such a title in the land of the Jews would be a direct threat to Herod’s throne, so Herod was not pleased. Herod conferred with his scribes and wise men as to where the new Jewish king was expected to be born and they discovered in the book of Micah what they believed was a prediction that the messiah must come out of Bethlehem, for he must be of the house of David. Herod then deputized the magi to return to him with a report of this new king’s identity and location: “so that I too might come and worship him.” Then Herod sent them on their way. The wise men in this story, however, were warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod and so they departed by another route. Herod was angered when he discovered that he had been duped and so he directed his solders to go to Bethlehem and there to kill all the boy babies up to two years of age in an attempt to destroy God’s new “promised deliverer.” Did any of this really happen? Of course not! That is a Moses story being retold about Jesus. When Moses was born, another wicked king named Pharaoh also moved to destroy all the Jewish boy babies, this time in Egypt, in a vain attempt to destroy God’s “promised deliverer.” Moses, that story tells us, was saved when his mother put him in a basket in the Nile River where he was later found by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who raised him as her son. The baby Jesus, like Moses, was also saved from his fate, when his father, Joseph, took him down to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. This is not history, it is an interpretive narrative in the Jewish storytelling tradition. All of Matthew’s original Jewish readers would have recognized this fact when they heard this text read to them for they would have listened with Jewish ears and Jewish understanding. They recognized Matthew’s Jewish style of writing. Later, Gentile readers, devoid of this ability, began to treat the stories as if they were literally true. That is how fundamentalism was born. As Matthew’s story continued to unfold those who knew the Jewish Scriptures could still see Moses silently present in the background. Next Matthew told the story of Jesus’ baptism by bringing Jesus to the edge of the River Jordan. God’s power over water had long been a major theme of the Old Testament writers. That theme was illustrated most dramatically in the Exodus story where Moses was able to part the waters of the Red Sea so that the Jews could escape slavery in Egypt by walking across that sea on dry land. The tradition of splitting waters then became a recurring theme in the Old Testament. It was repeated in the life of Joshua, Moses’ successor, who split the waters of the flooded Jordan River so that the Jews could cross over on dry land and thus conquer the country that they claimed had been bequeathed to their ancestor Abraham. Later in the biblical narrative both Elijah and Elisha split the waters of the Jordan River so that they too could walk across on dry land. All of these traditions were in the mind of the author of Matthew’s gospel and of its first readers and that is why they recognized what Matthew was trying to communicate when he told this story. Look now at the details of the story of Jesus’ baptism with Jewish eyes. Matthew first took Jesus to the edge of the Jordan River. In this story Matthew was trying to communicate his conviction, and the convictions of his audience, that in Jesus there was a God-presence like unto none other, not even to the God presence in the greatest heroes of their faith story: Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha. How did Matthew do this? Read his gospel! When Jesus stepped into the waters of the Jordan River, he did not split those waters. Anyone could do that! That had happened several times before. So Matthew’s Jesus does not split the waters of the Jordan, he splits the heavens! What were the heavens to the Jews? The creation story tells us that the sky, which that story calls the “firmament,” was originally designed to separate the waters above from the waters below. So Jesus is portrayed as stepping into the Jordan, but splitting the heavenly waters, which then flowed down on him as the Holy Spirit. “Living water” is always a Jewish synonym for the Holy Spirit. Matthew was saying that Jesus split the boundary between heaven and earth, between the human and the divine, and a voice from heaven then designated Jesus as God’s “unique” son. Here the divine is experienced in the human. Is this a literal account of the baptism of Jesus? Of course not! It is an interpretation of Jesus as the one in whom God was as uniquely present beyond any God presence the Jewish people had ever known. Both Matthew and his Jewish audience would have understood this message. No one would have been tempted to view this story as literal history. Only uninformed Gentiles, reading this story a few generations later, would begin to think this was a literal story. The shadow of Moses in Matthew’s story of Jesus does not end there, so, I will continue next week to probe Matthew’s gospel as he wrote it and as his first readers understood it. No one in the time when this gospel was written read or viewed it as literal history because they knew it wasn’t. Fundamentalism is the interpretive ignorance of those who do not understand that Matthew’s gospel was never meant to be a biography. It was designed to be an interpretive portrait painted by a Jewish artist to enable the meaning of Jesus to be grasped by his Jewish audience. As this story unfolds over subsequent weeks that will become abundantly clear.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Hosted by Thomas Jay Oord, Jonathan Foster, and Brian Felushko This two-day, online event features seventeen hours of theological discussion on recently published books in open and relational theology. Sessions are live February 10-11, but recordings will also be available as audio files thereafter. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

1 0

A new book about the spirit journey by a member of the League
by David Dunn 08 Feb '23

08 Feb '23

Dear colleagues. I’d like to introduce my personal friend, colleague and spiritual director, Fr. Len Schreiner. Len has just published a new book, A Soul’s Journey into Interspiritual Space. "Interspiritual Space” includes what we’ve called the "spirit movement" and "spirit journey.” It resonates deeply with my journey. Fr. Len’s journey in the peace and justice movement in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s feels like a mirror of our own. He grew beyond the strictures of the Roman Catholic Church while we were outgrowing the confines of the conserving, mostly white Protestant denominations. A Soul’s Journey into Interspiritual Space is a deeply personal annotation of my own life. The Contents (below) reflects Len’s spirit journey and our own; the book's three parts point to a dynamic of becoming: Awaken, Evaluate, Embrace. Some of us, like Burna Dunn and many of you, are voracious readers. Others, like me, depend on colleagues sharing what they’re reading and discovering. A Soul’s Journey is the heartfelt report of a voracious reader and gifted writer. This book models Ken Wilber’s practice for lifelong growth. Len writes, transcending and including "…is essentially reconciling what once appeared to be separate with all we now see within the whole.” Each chapter asks and addresses an existential question, e.g., “Am I living within the expansiveness of my soul, or on some narrow bordered highway?” Each concludes with questions that draw us into the heart of that question in our own life. It is a great, life-giving read. A Soul’s Journey into Interspiritual Space is available at this link <https://www.amazon.com/Souls-Journey-into-Interspiritual-Space/dp/195806111…> on Amazon. You can also search for the book title or <Fr. Len Schreiner> on Amazon.com. And mention A Soul’s Journey to friends who might be interested. David Dunn Len Schreiner and Nancy Trottner — "Mystery, possibility, and the power to choose" David Dunn 740 S Alton Way 9B Denver, CO 80247 720-314-5991 dmdunn1(a)gmail.com

1 0

SAVE THE DATE: February 16 Eco Film: EXTINCTION, flyer; link to registration
by Ellie Stock 07 Feb '23

07 Feb '23

Dear Friends, SAVE THE DATE. YOU ARE INVITED! The Ferguson Eco Team will be hosting its next environmental film EXTINCTION, The Facts, via ZOOM, Thursday, February 16, 7:00 PM Central Time. Film length 58 minutes, conversation to follow. TO REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FET16Feb2023 Also see attached flyer. Share with your friends. With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all. EXTINCTION: The Facts is a 2020 documentary film by the natural historian David Attenborough which aired on the BBC. Attenborough and academic experts comment on the sixth mass extinction, caused by humans, and the consequences of biodiversity loss and climate change. Humans are causing an animal and plant extinction rate roughly 100 times faster than has previously occurred. One million out of eight million species on the planet are at risk of extinction. It also suggests positive action which can be taken to halt or reverse these effects. Conversation to follow the filmTO REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FET16Feb2023For more information: (314) 521-8418, carletonstock(a)aol.com #yiv8429434320 filtered {}#yiv8429434320 filtered {}#yiv8429434320 filtered {}#yiv8429434320 p.yiv8429434320MsoNormal, #yiv8429434320 li.yiv8429434320MsoNormal, #yiv8429434320 div.yiv8429434320MsoNormal {margin:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv8429434320 a:link, #yiv8429434320 span.yiv8429434320MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv8429434320 span.yiv8429434320EmailStyle19 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv8429434320 .yiv8429434320MsoChpDefault {font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv8429434320 filtered {}#yiv8429434320 div.yiv8429434320WordSection1 {}

1 0

Available now - audiobook of A Compassionate Civilization
by Robertson Work 04 Feb '23

04 Feb '23

Dear colleagues, Some of you have asked for an audiobook of A Compassionate Civilization. It was released yesterday and is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Here is the URL for the book on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0BTRYLPTR?ref=a_fb_metrics#_=_ Please consider leaving a review. If you would like a free copy to review, please email me, and I will send you a promo code. Hope you enjoy listening to Caeri Bertrand's beautiful, meaning-filled voice. [https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KR9SyhlvL._SL10_UR1600,800_CR200,50,1…]<https://www.audible.com/pd/B0BTRYLPTR?ref=a_fb_metrics#_=_> A Compassionate Civilization<https://www.audible.com/pd/B0BTRYLPTR?ref=a_fb_metrics#_=_> Check out this great listen on Audible.com. We are at a turning point in the history of civilization. Anyone watching the news can understand why. Our generation faces the challenges of global warming, misogyny, racism, systemic poverty, oligarchy, and more. Some believe that this will lead to a k... www.audible.com Best wishes, Rob Robertson Work Ecological-social activist and nonfiction author Books and bio: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF

1 0

2/2/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 02 Feb '23

02 Feb '23

PRETTY PLEASE!

1 0

2/02/2023, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Lauren Van Ham: Over the Hills and Everywhere; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 02 Feb '23

02 Feb '23

Over the Hills and Everywhere#yiv0570460839 p{margin:10px 0;padding:0;}#yiv0570460839 table{border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv0570460839 h1, #yiv0570460839 h2, #yiv0570460839 h3, #yiv0570460839 h4, #yiv0570460839 h5, #yiv0570460839 h6{display:block;margin:0;padding:0;}#yiv0570460839 img, #yiv0570460839 a img{border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;}#yiv0570460839 body, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839bodyTable, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839bodyCell{min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnPreviewText{display:none !important;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839outlook a{padding:0;}#yiv0570460839 img{}#yiv0570460839 table{}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ReadMsgBody{width:100%;}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ExternalClass{width:100%;}#yiv0570460839 p, #yiv0570460839 a, #yiv0570460839 li, #yiv0570460839 td, #yiv0570460839 blockquote{}#yiv0570460839 a .yiv0570460839filtered99999 , #yiv0570460839 a .yiv0570460839filtered99999 {color:inherit;cursor:default;text-decoration:none;}#yiv0570460839 p, #yiv0570460839 a, #yiv0570460839 li, #yiv0570460839 td, #yiv0570460839 body, #yiv0570460839 table, #yiv0570460839 blockquote{}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ExternalClass, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ExternalClass p, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ExternalClass td, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ExternalClass div, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ExternalClass span, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839ExternalClass font{line-height:100%;}#yiv0570460839 a .yiv0570460839filtered99999 {color:inherit !important;text-decoration:none !important;font-size:inherit !important;font-family:inherit !important;font-weight:inherit !important;line-height:inherit !important;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839bodyCell{padding:10px;}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839templateContainer{max-width:600px !important;border:5px solid #363232;}#yiv0570460839 a.yiv0570460839mcnButton{display:block;}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImage, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnRetinaImage{vertical-align:bottom;}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent{}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent img{height:auto !important;}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnDividerBlock{table-layout:fixed !important;}#yiv0570460839 body, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839bodyTable{}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839bodyCell{border-top:0;}#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839templateContainer{border:5px solid #363232;}#yiv0570460839 h1{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv0570460839 h2{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv0570460839 h3{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv0570460839 h4{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader{background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent a, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p a{color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateHeader{background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:0;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateHeader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateHeader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateHeader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent a, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateHeader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p a{color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateBody{background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateBody .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateBody .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateBody .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent a, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateBody .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p a{color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateFooter{background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateFooter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateFooter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:center;}#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateFooter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent a, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateFooter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p a{color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}@media only screen and (min-width:768px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839templateContainer{width:600px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 body, #yiv0570460839 table, #yiv0570460839 td, #yiv0570460839 p, #yiv0570460839 a, #yiv0570460839 li, #yiv0570460839 blockquote{}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 body{width:100% !important;min-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnRetinaImage{max-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImage{width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCartContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionTopContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnRecContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionBottomContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnTextContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnBoxedTextContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageGroupContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionRightTextContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionRightImageContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardRightTextContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardRightImageContentContainer{max-width:100% !important;width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnBoxedTextContentContainer{min-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageGroupContent{padding:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionLeftContentOuter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionRightContentOuter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent{padding-top:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardTopImageContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionBottomContent:last-child .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionBottomImageContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionBlockInner .yiv0570460839mcnCaptionTopContent:last-child .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent{padding-top:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardBottomImageContent{padding-bottom:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageGroupBlockInner{padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageGroupBlockOuter{padding-top:9px !important;padding-bottom:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnImageCardRightImageContent{padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcpreview-image-uploader{display:none !important;width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 h1{font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 h2{font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 h3{font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 .yiv0570460839mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templatePreheader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateHeader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateHeader .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateBody .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateBody .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateFooter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent, #yiv0570460839 #yiv0570460839templateFooter .yiv0570460839mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Lauren Van Ham | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | "Over the Hills and Everywhere" | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham February 2, 2023It was January, and the words were familiar, “Go! Tell it on the mountain.” The tune was especially fun when we got to sing, “and EVERYWHERE!” In the Sunday School of my childhood, “Go, tell it on the mountain” was a favorite hymn in the season of Epiphany. In these days since Christmas and before Ash Wednesday, the encouragement for us all is to get out there and share the good news that Jesus was born -- Christ’s light is available for everyone!What does this prompt mean for you and me right now, in 2023? What could it look like in our lives and church communities over the next 11 months?If you’re reading Progressing Spirit, I suspect that you are not necessarily someone who leads conversations with mentions of Jesus and scriptural references. You are, most definitely, a deep thinker, moved by mystery or faith and often wondering about the state of our world and how the teachings of Jesus and spirit-feeding community could bring insight and help to the distress so many of us are feeling. As the pain and destructive effects of isolation and division increase, we also continue to experience attrition and closure of many churches.In an article, “American Religion is Not Dead Yet,” from The Atlantic, the authors ask, “Where are Americans finding meaning in their lives? How are they marking the passing of sacred time? Where are they building pockets of vibrant communities? And what are they doing to answer the prophetic call, however it is that they hear it?”For such a long, long time, our church or spiritual community has been the place to which we turn for marking time with seasonal rituals and gatherings to celebrate or honor life’s cycles. We look to our community for a sense of belonging and support. Ideally, the teaching and formation being generated in these spaces stretches us in ways so enriching that we come to new places of understanding in ourselves; and are moved to engage with the world in ways to bring more healing, justice, peace.For decades we have initiated and been part of inspiring success stories, opening our church doors for feeding, housing, educating. Today, church yards are becoming community gardens and outdoor classrooms, providing food and learning spaces for those who live nearby. Other houses of worship are becoming local energy grids with rooftop solar panel installations and battery back-up. All of this is a generous expression of Christ’s love and light for those in and around the building’s footprint and…societal isolation and division persist. Climate chaos, economic breakdown and congressional in-fighting foreshadows worsening difficulties ahead.So, what is our message now, exactly, and where do we share it?Here is the message: the “good news” has always been (and still is) good, and the mountains and hills have always known. They are, after all, among our best teachers and allies. Like the mountains and rivers, the message to be conveyed is ancient and steady, emergent and continuous. Continuously, this message reminds us that we are Life and that All Life is Sacred. When we come into communion with one another and all living creatures, we are better able to see what’s been broken, and to perceive the role we each have. Some of us are called to hospice that which is ending. Clear and good goodbyes are so important. Some of us are about restoring that which, with systemic disregard, has been desecrated. It may feel like too little, too late but it isn’t -- not for that child, not for that tree.When we share the message over the hills and everywhere, it is important to remember that sharing is reciprocal: we tell and we listen, give and receive. Our telling and listening, giving and receiving is needed throughout the larger ecosystems in which we and our church or spiritual community are a part. As integral, interdependent participants, healing and restoring or doing the hard work of reconciliation with the people, land, air, water and other creatures is an essential and rewarding way to right-size ourselves within Life’s goodness.Over the hills and everywhere means beyond the four walls of our buildings and beyond our conventional expressions of caring or outreach. As the church shrinks or evolves, our trust in the good and ancient message fuels our capacity to respond to the pain, disrepair and division in new and changing ways – like understanding our local food systems and waterways or partnering with the city’s urban planners to address increasing pollution concerns, or by expanding our imaginations to better practice healing and repair with the people or other creatures in the places most challenged by degradation or demoralization. If you and your community are interested in taking new leaps in this work during 2023, you might find the suggestions and stories in this guidebook to be useful.The Christ/Life/Love in you and me unites us with the cooperation and creativity that animates the cosmos. When we move from this source, holy epiphanies rush in providing support. It cannot be otherwise. Individually and collectively, this is the message we get to embody with our neighbors, among the hills and everywhere.~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA, was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest. Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care) and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Carolyn How do I talk with compassion to a neighbor who is afraid we are in the end times? She is a very conservative 80-year-old widow living alone whose daughters will sometimes belittle her faith. She is pleased that I am no stranger to the Bible, and will quote scripture, interpreting it in a drastic way - she is very frightened by the chaos and violence being reported every day, including the effects of climate change, and she takes it all as a sign that we are all doomed until the second coming. I have no interest in entering into a debate with her about scriptural interpretation. Instead, I would like to know how to talk with her gently in terms she will understand. A: By Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Dear Carolyn,Let me begin by acknowledging the compassion and kindness and respect your own words embody.Where I begin with anyone is the recognition that they are a sacred being on their own journey. I have no idea how their life, or mine, will evolve and unfold. There are no predetermined paths or shoulds to the unfolding of a life. In the wisdom of the Enneagram the only Holy Plan is the unfolding, moment-to-moment, of life.I’ve also discovered that the greater my awareness becomes that Boundless Love is Reality as such, I relax and receive another as they are. My agenda, whatever that might be, recedes in importance. When it does arise – which I can feel as a drivenness to change someone or do or say something – I breathe and bracket it; I don’t deny or suppress my desires, I simply and significantly set them aside. What matters is the life sitting across from me. My attention to them – which is kindness – communicates that they matter, here and now. For me, they are sacred as they are. Such kindness is healing.Fear has many faces, but its taproot almost always resolves into our survival drive. I encourage you to converse with compassion as you practice listening with your heart open and knowing that some days will go better than others. Love is the affirmation of the value of what is already present and arising. Explore with wonder – even the arising of fear. For me, this translates into not offering unsolicited information or advice. The most significant gift between the two of you is the field of trust that emerges as you hold one another in respect and mutually honor each other’s life’s journey.If your friend asks a question, it signifies that she is open to receiving from you. My guess is that what her soul seeks most is resonance, not information. Someone who beholds her as she is, with 80 years of life-experience, and does not belittle or dismiss her fears and beliefs. Beneath any presenting desire there is to know about things such as climate change and second coming (and I in no way dismiss the importance of scientific knowledge), is the soul’s deeper longing to rest in our own innate goodness; this awareness alone calm the heart’s fear. This awareness is hers alone to realize. You can walk beside her as she explores – an invaluable gift – but the journey is hers.~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Read and share online here About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D., an Episcopal Priest, works with students of all backgrounds to awaken to the truth of being holy mystery ceaselessly unfolding, which is to realize our Christ heart. His gentle and compassionate teaching is rooted in wonderment and exploration of the spiritual fecundity of the present moment, drawing upon meditation, body practice, and the enneagram. He has been a student of the Diamond Approach since 2006. He received Jukai from Shoken Winecoff of Ryumonji Soto Zen Buddhist Temple in May, 2004, and has been authorized by Senior Buddhist Teacher, Stephen Snyder, to explore use of the Brahma Viharas within the Christian tradition. Kevin is also an authorized Instructor of Diamond Body Practice and a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. As an Episcopal Priest for almost 30 years, he has helped found the Healing Arts Centers at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish in Portland, Oregon and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Marquette, Michigan. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Awakening as Holy Mystery: Realizing Christ Heart, as well as five previous books, Beyond My Wants, Beyond My Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland, I Have Called You Friends, Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms, and My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit rely heavily on the good will of our donors to help us continue to bring individuals and churches the messages of progressive Christians, Weekly Newsletters, along with the many other resources we provide. For years, the majority of our fundraising came at the end of the year. Looking at various ways to create a more reasonable amount of cash flow we decided rather than having a BIG ask at the end of each year, our more frequent asks give folks a chance to contribute when their funds are more flexible. We think that's a win for everyone. We also want to highlight the opportunity to become a sustaining supporter. If you are looking for the best way to help us continue to provide progressive Christian resources, become a sustaining supporter by choosing Recurring Donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podbean | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Introducing the Gospel of Matthew. Part I: The Gospels are Jewish Books Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong September 5, 2013The Bible is the Christian Church’s sacred text. We read from it at every worship service in almost every Christian tradition. It is apparently a rather popular volume for every year since the invention of the printing press it has been the world’s best-selling book. It might well be, however, the world’s least understood and probably is history’s most misused book.From the earliest Church fathers in the 2nd century of the Christian era to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 20th century, the Bible was quoted to justify a cruel anti-Semitism.In the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, the Bible was quoted to justify the Crusades and the relentless Christian attempt to kill “infidels,” who just happened to be the Muslims who occupied Christian holy places in the Middle East. In those Vatican-led Crusades, Western Christians, armed with quotations from what they called “the Word of God,” poured a hatred of Islam into the world’s bloodstream, the harvest of which we are reaping today in terror attacks, in 9/11, in the Boston Marathon bombing and in the political chaos that still marks the Middle East. The hostility of the Muslim world toward the West is so deep that we have been politically incapable of helping to direct into positive channels the human yearning for freedom manifested in what we once called “the Arab Spring.”In 1215 this book, the Bible, was quoted to justify the divine right of kings and to oppose the Magna Carta and the rise of democracy. That was one more time that the literally understood Bible was placed on the losing side of history.In the 17th and 18th centuries, this book was used to justify the enslavement of African people and when this slavery was ended on the battlefields of Antietam, Gettysburg and Appomattox, this book was then used to legitimize a dehumanizing segregation. Do not fail to notice that the part of this country in which slavery was practiced the longest and segregation was defended the most fiercely with the use of police dogs, fire hoses and church bombings was then and is still today known as “The Bible Belt.” I know it well; it is my home.This book, the Bible, was also used to deny women university educations, doorways into the professions, including the priesthood, and even the right to vote until the 20th century.Most recently, this book has been quoted to justify a culturally rampant homophobia, to deny gay and lesbian people justice under the law and equality in the recognition of their sacred commitments and solemn vows. Quotations, reflecting profound biblical ignorance, nonetheless ring out publicly as people try to make the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis, some verses from Leviticus and even Paul’s convoluted argument in Romans 1 justify their visceral prejudices. With all of these documented examples of cruelty and abuse based on the Bible, we nonetheless still solemnly proclaim at the end of readings from this book in public worship: “This is the Word of the Lord!” How can a book we call “The Word of God” be responsible for so much hurt, pain and oppression? How can a book that purports to be about the love of God create such carnage? I begin this series on Matthew’s Gospel today by addressing that question.First, some biblical facts. In the standard text of the Bible there are 66 books plus the Apocrypha. Thirty-nine of them are in what Christians call “The Old Testament,” twenty-seven of them form what Christians call “The New Testament.” These books were written between about 1000 BCE and about 140 CE. The oldest written part of the Old Testament appears to be that part of the Torah known as the Yahwist document, and the last part of the New Testament to be written appears to be II Peter. The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew, while the original language of the New Testament is Greek. Of note is that Jesus spoke Aramaic, a language related to but not identical with Hebrew. He probably could read Hebrew, but there is no evidence that Jesus either spoke or read Greek, beyond the few phrases that were required to do rudimentary business with a few Greek-speaking merchants.If we are to understand the Bible on any level, the first thing we need to embrace is that it is to its core a Jewish book. Every writer of every book in the Bible was a Jew. There is only debate about one of them. Most scholars now believe that Luke, the name assigned to the author of the gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts, which is literally volume two of that gospel, was a Gentile by birth. He later appears to have converted to Judaism as a “Gentile proselyte” and, through that doorway, he came into the Christian movement, possibly through the influence of Paul. So all of the writers of the books of the Bible were Jewish by birth, save for Luke and he was Jewish by conversion. We must embrace this seminal fact if we are to understand this holy book. The Bible needs to be viewed and read as a Jewish book, a deeply penetrating, profound piece of Jewish writing.This means that the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments alike, will inevitably reflect the world view of the Jewish mind. It is written in the vocabulary of Jewish people. It is steeped in the history of the Jewish nation. It espouses Jewish values. It is shaped by the experience of worship in the synagogue. The audiences for which the various books of the Bible were written were also predominantly Jewish. The authors of the books in the Bible could assume a common Jewish cultural knowledge that was present in their audiences, which they did not have to explain. These authors could thus use the familiar and recognizable Jewish story-telling techniques to communicate their message. They could describe the events in their current history by relating them to familiar Jewish events in their earlier history.When we look specifically at the gospels we discover that this Jewishness served the Christian community well so long as the church was made up primarily of Jewish people, which indeed the early church was. By the middle of the second century, however, the make-up of the Christian Church had changed dramatically. People of Jewish origin had all but disappeared from what had become an almost exclusively Gentile body. Christian congregations were made up almost entirely of people who not only did not know this Jewish background, but were taught by the prevailing culture to view anything Jewish with suspicion and distrust. Thus they were not able to recognize in their own Christian scriptures the Jewish symbols, the Jewish references or even the Jewish story-telling tradition. They could not make the assumptions that a Jewish audience would make when they heard the gospels being read. They did not understand how the gospel writers employed the Jewish Scriptures in their narratives. They did not understand its source when a gospel writer wrapped a tale out of the Jewish Scriptures around the memory of Jesus of Nazareth. So these Gentile readers began to make some assumptions about the gospels that the original Jewish audience would never have made. They assumed that the gospels were history or biography. They began to literalize individual verses in the gospels, and to use those verses in debate as if they were the court of last appeal.Next they began to defend the literal accuracy of the entire Bible. They did not recognize, for example, that the story of the wise men was based on a text from Isaiah 60 in which we are told that kings would come to the brightness of God’s rising, that they would come on camels, that they would come from Sheba and that they would bring gold and frankincense. They did not understand that the earthly father of Jesus, known to us as Joseph, was drawn on the pattern of Joseph, the patriarch from the book of Genesis (37-50). Note that both Josephs have fathers named Jacob. Both Josephs are identified with dreams. The patriarch Joseph was called “the dreamer.” He became famous as an interpreter of dreams, even rising into political power in Egypt as the interpreter of the Pharaoh’s dreams. They could not see the connection when in Matthew’s gospel God never spoke to Joseph except in a dream. This Joseph received the annunciation of Jesus’ birth in a dream. He fled Herod’s wrath in Bethlehem after being warned by God in a dream. He left Bethlehem for Galilee and settled in the town of Nazareth in response to a dream. Both were identified with dreams because Matthew patterned Jesus’ father after the patriarch by the same name. Finally, both Josephs played a primary role in preserving the covenant. The patriarch Joseph saved the chosen people from death by starvation in a time of famine by taking them down to Egypt. The earthly father of Jesus saved the messianic child from death at the hands of King Herod by taking him down to Egypt. The New Testament’s portrait of Jesus’ earthly father was a typical Jewish story-telling tradition on display. As long as the gospels were understood as Jewish books and were read primarily by Jewish audiences, these points were clear. When, however, the Christian Church became primarily Gentile by 150 CE, this interpretive key to the gospels was lost. So it was that Christians began to believe that the only proper way to read the gospels was to assume that the narratives were literally true and they began to defend a literal reading of these texts as the only way to read them. Fundamentalism is thus a Gentile heresy.Until the Christian Church can develop Jewish eyes or can begin to read the gospels through Jewish lenses, the wonder of our gospels will continue to be lost to us. Biblical fundamentalism, if not countered, will finally destroy Christianity. That will be the price we Christians pay for our ignorance and our anti-Semitism. The power of our own gospels will be lost to us. They are Jewish books and they must be read with Jewish eyes.The most Jewish of all the gospels is Matthew. Today, I am beginning a new series that will take you, my readers, deeply into the Gospel of Matthew. When this series is complete my hope is that both Matthew and the Bible will for you never be the same.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements A Tree’s View of History: A Conversation with Lacy M. Johnson On Feb 15th The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment and Orion Magazine present a conversation with Lacy M. Johnson on American history and the longleaf pine. Building off her recent essay on the longleaf pine’s integral role in the American slave trade, Johnson will discuss the ways in which trees bear witness to the evolution of culture and what they may be able to tell us about ourselves now. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

1 0

1/23/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 01 Feb '23

01 Feb '23

2 2

2/1/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 01 Feb '23

01 Feb '23

1 0

1/31/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 01 Feb '23

01 Feb '23

1 0