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Parliament of Religions next October
by via Dialogue 08 Oct '14

08 Oct '14

Would it be helpful for O:E/ICA to have a table at this convention next year as the "secular religious"? http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/index.cfm?n=35&sn=1?mc_cid=b639ed8500&… Jann McGuire

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Fwd: GMCA Update Oct 04-05
by David Zahrt via Dialogue 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

*SAT OCT 04** St Clarence RC Church, North Olmstead to Unitarian Universalist Church, Cleveland Heights, OH* I find myself continuing to wake up at 5:30 am even though we’ve had the Autumnal Equinox and dawn doesn’t come until 7am or later. My routine is that I pack up my sleeping gear and get it out to the Gear truck to avoid the ‘rush’ that comes after breakfast. The weather looked favorable so I rode my bike. The first 16 miles of the ride was NE on Loraine Rd. It was a cool 50º! The Unitarian church where we will be staying two days was hosting the evening potluck. I got a call from Jane McWilliams indicating she had a package from Camarillo for me. She said that she would bring it to the potluck. Rachel, the woman who offered me a Home-stay, arrived and took me to her house to get me settled in to the guest-room in the basement. She and her husband, Peter, had a dinner engagement so they took me back to the church for the potluck and went on to their engagement. After the dinner we went to the sanctuary for a meeting with all the attendees. I noticed that there was a collection of the 18 to 24 year old Marchers still downstairs in the auditorium. They were interested in their own meeting, I guess. Liz led the conversation. One of the local persons stated that Fracking was the major issue in northern Ohio. It is causing monumental pollution to air, earth, and water that affects the physical health of the communities. It produces natural gas that delivers more pollution than coal. It requires more financial investment and therefore ties the industry to the process regardless of its pollution. As Liz was going around the circle she asked me to comment. I broke down in tears as I said that I have been demonstrating all my life that we need to respect Mother Earth, that I saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and that we don’t know what difference the Climate March will make. But we didn’t know what difference MLK’s March would make until after the fact. So we must do the March and look for its outcome. I personally am committed to recruiting Dave Finnegan’s course *Climate Change Is Elementary *across the nation, and hopefully, children will hold their parents accountable for reducing the Consume-and-Throw-Away lifestyle that we, in the US, are practicing. It was right around 8 pm when I finished my response that Rachel arrived to pick me up. I grabbed my box that Heidi had sent and went with her and Peter. I settled into a real bed and soon went to sleep. *SUN Oct 5* I slept in. Rachel had done my laundry. I took a shower and went up for breakfast. The thermometer hanging outside the kitchen window read 40º--nice to have a bed inside. Rachel went on a walk with friends and took Cocoa, her dog. I spent some time catching up on my email. Rachel returned and served chicken soup for lunch. Rachel and Peter joined some friends for an afternoon bike ride. They spent the whole afternoon away and contacted another host, Anne, to shuttle me to the Grog Shop where there was scheduled to be a meeting. Anne was hosting Mack and Sean and invited me to dinner at her house. I willingly accepted because I suspected that all that would be available at the Grog Shop was grog. We had a leisurely meal. I had a chance to explain Dave Finnegan’s program < climatechangeiselementary.org>. After dinner Anne shuttled me back to Rachel and Peter’s and on the way she, a retired elementary school teacher, indicated that she’d like to get involved in the program. When she dropped me off I immediately emailed Dave to let him know he had a recruit. -- Peace, David

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Gobal Buzz October
by ICA International via Dialogue 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICA International website Please click the link below for the October issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: October 2014 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://ica-international.org/buzz/7dayreport-14/2014-10-01.php ICAI Communications

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this week in Chicago
by Terry Bergdall via Dialogue 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

As most of you know, last week was a very big one for us in Chicago attracting a lot of media attention. Though they focused on only small part of our work, largely by-passing our community activities, they do provide a visual update on what we're doing. Though most of these have appeared on Facebook, etc, here are some in case you missed them. Depending upon your time constraints, you might click on a link or two. Channel 2 interview with Terry Bergdall (2 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x591-44U5Ck Channel 2 interview with Seva Gandhi (2 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyKL66MNnlQ Vince Gerasole Channel 2 interview with Lesley Showers (2 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c5ev57liHs WGN helicopter report on the day of the ribbon cutting (1 minute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co2e_QM5aG8 Channel 11 feature on Solar at GreenRise (10 minutes) http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2014/10/01/solar-power-city PDF of short print story:

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Fwd: GMCA Update Oct 02-03
by David Zahrt via Dialogue 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

*THU OCT 02** Edison Woodland Preserve, New Berlin to Peace Community Church, Oberlin, OH* Ever since we reached Ohio the evenings have spread heavy dew overnight. Those setting up the Taj Mahal last night did an inadequate job: the tent delivered dew inside. We had to pack wet gear. We circled up and headed off to Oberlin. The Marching route was zigzagged but I didn’t have a state map so I followed the route directions. It was only 18-miles! I got to the Church and it wasn’t open so I went to the local library for a while. When I got back, the pastor arrived and I helped him get the auditorium set up for the evening potluck. There were 2 churches hosting us, and the 2nd one was capable of keeping my bike inside so I moved it over there. Then I set up my sleeping gear in the Peace Community Church, in the children’s room. Approximately 15 Oberlin College students and 10 local activists attended the potluck. Kat directed a conversation at the end of dinner that drew upon the experience and action of the local people—Fracking regulations in NE Ohio was the main topic. The conversation concluded at 7:45 pm and the local folks continued to use the auditorium for another one of their ‘action’ meetings. They are a serious group. *FRI OCT 03 ** Peace Community Church, Oberlin to St Clarence RC Church, North Olmstead, OH* I got up, packed my bedding, went over to the other Church, had breakfast and packed my lunch. It was confusing to be scattered out in 2 Churches. It wasn’t possible to tell who was up and who wasn’t. I decided to head out on my bike. The sky was filled with scattered clouds but the sun was visible. The first 7 miles were on a trail. That was nice until the trail ended and dumped me into suburbia. Then there were periodic rain showers, which continued all the way to the Church—another 10 miles. The pastor, Father Neil, showed us where we could camp inside. We were very thankful because it continued to rain during the afternoon and evening. Some of it was heavy. A small group met to discuss strategies for the week in DC after we arrive there on Nov 1. The church provided the main dish for the potluck—vegan mozzarella and baked chicken. Our 'kitchen' crew added side dishes and fruit for the meal. None of the church members stayed for dinner. Dinner was late so there was no meeting afterwards. We sat around in small groups talking with each other before bed. -- Peace, David

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10/02/14, Spong: Part XXX Matthew - The Canaanite Woman: Matthew's Icon of Prejudice
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Part XXX Matthew The Canaanite Woman: Matthew's Icon of Prejudice In Mark’s gospel she was a Syro-Phoenician woman. Matthew has changed her into being a Canaanite woman. That shift is significant because the term “Canaanite” carried so much more emotional baggage than did the term Syro-Phoenician. Canaanites first come into the Jewish story during the time of Joshua, Moses’ immediate successor. He was the military leader who led the Hebrew people into what came to be called “The Conquest of Canaan.” The Canaanites were not respected as worthy friends or foes by the Hebrews. In fact the book of Joshua suggested that the Canaanites were only fit to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water” (Josh 9:24). They were relegated by the Hebrew people to the bottom of the social ladder, well below the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites and the Phoenicians. All of these attitudes came into play, causing Matthew to change this woman’s identification from that of Syro-Phoenician, as she was in his source, the gospel of Mark, into being a “Canaanite woman” in Matthew’s text. With that pejorative definition set in his hearer’s minds, Matthew begins to develop his story. It is one of the most difficult and poignant stories in the entire New Testament. Matthew tells it on one of the Sabbaths between the Celebration of the Harvest and the celebration that comes in the depth of winter that we call Dedication. This Canaanite woman, says Matthew, had a daughter who was grievously ill. Matthew suggests that her diagnosis was that of being possessed by evil spirits. In biblical times, that could have meant almost any malady from epilepsy to various forms of mental illness. She comes to Jesus carrying this heavy burden in her heart. Her child, the fruit of her body, was distorted and apparently beyond the power of curing. She wants, she needs, she is desperate for help from any source. A mother’s anguish for her child may be among life’s deepest hurts. The cultural stereotype portrayed a Canaanite woman as a person possessing no virtue. Matthew’s portrait of a caring mother, however, challenged that stereotype, setting up an immediate emotional conflict. Human prejudice becomes most cruel and even brutal when the culture parrots and reinforces the distorted stereotypes that individuals carry in their heads. This woman crosses Jesus’ path as he was journeying in the district of Tyre and Sidon. This was in Gentile territory. She makes it impossible for anyone to ignore her. Addressing him with the messianic title, “Son of David,” she screams “Have mercy on me, my daughter is severely possessed by a demon” (Matt. 15:22). Somehow, even this Canaanite woman with no connections to messianic thinking has come to believe that Jesus could bring her daughter to wholeness. The text, however, does not have Jesus encourage her. Jesus, says Matthew’s gospel, “did not answer her a word” Matt. 15:23). It was a strange, even a rejecting response from Jesus. The disciples noting his response were emboldened in their own prejudice; that is the way it works. Those who are looked to as leaders can and do, by their attitudes or even by their silence, give their followers permission to be their worst selves. So the disciples say to Jesus, “Send her away, for she is crying after us” (Matt. 15:23). She is a bother we do not need. Jesus appears to respond in kind to his disciples’ negativity, for Matthew records Jesus as saying to the woman: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). She, it appears, does not qualify for his help for she is an alien and, as such, apparently has no intrinsic worth! The woman, desperate for help is not put off so easily. She hurls herself at Jesus’ feet assuming the position of a beggar, “Lord, help me,” she implores (Matt. 15:25). Apparently still in a mood that is both rejecting and insulting, Jesus responds: “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and to throw it to the dogs” (Matt. 15:26)”. One feels pain in the pit of the stomach when this response is heard. We want to return to the text to see if we have read this correctly. Is this really Jesus speaking? The woman, however, picks up on Jesus’ seemingly insulting language and appears to accept his definition of her, responding: “Yes, Lord, yet the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table” (Matt. 15:27). It was a breathtaking response. Whatever hostility had been there before this moment seems to disappear immediately. Jesus responds, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” Her daughter, says the text, was cured instantly. Was this simply a strange miracle story? I do not think so. In Matthew’s gospel, it serves as a transitional moment as he turns his story in a new direction. We enter that story looking for clues. First, we note that Matthew has earlier used Gentile women, judged by Jewish society to be sinful and of little worth, to carry his narrative. In the genealogy opening Matthew’s gospel, four rejected and “sinful” Gentile women are included among the ancestral “mothers” of Jesus. One of them was guilty of incest, one of prostitution, one of seduction and one of adultery. That is not insignificant. We looked at these women earlier in this series. Second, Matthew is clear that this Canaanite woman has no claim on the promises to Israel. That was the common wisdom among the Jews. She lived outside the boundaries in which the Jewish God was believed to operate. So Matthew is allowing Jesus to challenge these Jewish limits. The question Matthew is raising in this episode is: How far will the love of God stretch? How universal is the Christ story? In typical fashion, the disciples want to send her away. That is a familiar tactic that human beings use when dealing with their prejudices. The disciples had also wanted to send the hungry crowd away before Jesus fed them with loaves and fish. One does not have to deal with human prejudices if one can keep the objects of our prejudices out of sight. That is why we ghettoize Jews and redline blacks in our society. That is why Jews historically were expelled from many European nations. That is why plans were made to send African slaves back to Africa after the Civil War. Out of sight, out of mind! If victims of our prejudice must remain visible, then oppressive laws are always passed that will limit their mobility. They must not be allowed to vote, to gain economic status or political power. Their visibility must be blunted. Perhaps by making the rhetoric of this story so harsh, Matthew has captured accurately the beliefs the people held. He was allowing Jesus to express the feeling that Canaanites elicited in the minds of the Jews. Security in human beings frequently lies in never having to cross the boundaries that we have erected in our quest for tribal identity. Matthew’s Jesus refused to live within those boundaries. The love of God must be unbounded! So in this episode Matthew once again raises the theme of universalism. In his gospel it is a recurring theme. Matthew announced God’s universal call in his story of Jesus’ birth. His arrival on earth was heralded by a star. A star knows no national boundary. Its light shines for the entire world to see. That star, Matthew said, had the power to draw Gentile magi into the presence of Jesus. In Matthew’s quest for universality, however, he did not minimize or ignore the role the Jews must play in this drama of salvation. Remember that the wise men ultimately did not find the Christ Child just by following the star; they also had to consult the Hebrew Scriptures. It was the prophet Micah, Matthew said, whose words sent those Gentiles to Bethlehem. Matthew was surely aware that all religious systems draw lines that exclude. The saved, human religions say, must be circumcised or baptized, or be members of the “one true church” or be made to confess Jesus as “my personal savior.” Religious systems always use pious formulas to define who is in and who is out, to make our prejudices look like virtues. The great battle that Paul fought in the early years of Christianity was about whether the Gentiles could also be included in God’s promises. Matthew will end his gospel by placing a message of universalism into the mouth of the raised Christ calling people into a new community of oneness. “Go into all the world” the Christ will say. Go to those who are the objects of your prejudices. Go to those you have rejected as unclean or unfit and proclaim to them the gospel, which is nothing other than the infinite love of God. The Great Commission was never a command to convert the heathen as we have tended to hear it over the centuries. It is a call to walk into a barrier-free humanity. The Canaanite Woman is the icon, who stands at the gate through which we must walk to hear this call to universality. At other times in Christian history, this Canaanite woman is the Jew, whom we Christians ghettoized, violated and, in the Holocaust, sought to eliminate. Later, she becomes the Muslim against whom we Christians unleashed the murderous Crusades. Still later, she is the African whom we Christians enslaved, segregated, lynched, prohibited from voting and suppressed economically. She is the woman who until the 20th century, we Christians did not allow to be professionally educated, to enter the work force, to practice law or medicine, to be ordained, to sit on the Supreme Court or to seek the presidency of our nation. The Canaanite woman is also the member of the lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual community, each of whom was defined by the Christian Church as deviant, abnormal, sinister, perverted and evil. We can see the Canaanite woman in the faces of all of our victims of prejudice. We have deluded ourselves until we felt quite justified in our rejection. Feeling justified we have said in word and deed that those the Canaanite woman represents are somehow outside the boundaries of God’s love and concern. We have acted as if to be different is to be evil. The Canaanite woman, however, will always confront us until the walls of prejudice fall and we fling open the doors of our hearts to all those we have victimized. When they do, we become whole people. Matthew understands the meaning of this Christ quite well. Would to God the Christian Church could learn it also. John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Dr. Warren Soeteber of Sheboygan, Wisconsin writes: Question: Though Mary Magdalene followed him around, I find no mention in the Bible that Jesus was married. Men of his age usually were. Further, he surrounded himself with a group of men; one of them particularly appeared to be his favorite. It is recorded that Jesus said repeatedly, “Do you love me?” Is it possible that Jesus was a homosexual? What do you think? Also what about the apostle Paul? Answer: Dear Warren, You are not the first to make these speculations or to ask these questions. I do not know any way that one can speak definitively about the sexual orientation of figures of history. We can, however, look at the data available to us in the scriptures and seek to make sense of it. I have done that on both of the questions you raise. In regard to Jesus and his relationship with Mary Magdalene, the literature of the ages is available so we can read the speculations of others. In the modern opera Jesus Christ Superstar there is a suggestion about their romantic involvement. Remember that Magdalene sings the song, “I don’t know how to love him,” about Jesus. The Middle Ages are replete with love letters supposedly shared between Jesus and Magdalene. No factual speculation can be based on any of these. What we know from the gospels is this. Mary Magdalene is portrayed as the head of the group of women that followed Jesus; her name is always listed first. She was thus thought of as the chief woman in the Jesus movement and is portrayed as the chief mourner at his tomb. Out of what historical data does that tradition flow? You are correct, it would be rare in Jewish society for a grown man not to be married, so rare indeed that it would probably merit comment. The fact that no text in the Bible claims either that Jesus was or was not married may be an argument that he was against an argument that he was not. John’s gospel gives us some other hints. He suggests that Magdalene was not only the chief mourner, but the only mourner at his tomb. John has Mary Magdalene demand access to the deceased body of Jesus, something that would be appropriate only to the nearest of kin. He has Mary Magdalene address him as “Rabboni,” a title of great affection appropriate for a wife to use about her rabbi husband. There is also some question about the meaning of Magdalene. The popular explanation is that it comes from what is supposed to be her home, Magdala, a village on the Sea of Galilee. There is however, no historical or archeological data that validates that there was such a village at the time of Jesus. There is a village of that name there today, but it was built much later to catch the tourist trade, which indeed it does. Another possibility is that Magdalene comes from the Hebrew word “migdal”, the consonants mgdl would be the same. Migdal originally meant a tower, but it came to mean large or great. If Mary’s name Magdalene meant Mary the Great or the Great Mary and if the other Mary was Jesus’ mother, could calling her Magdalene be a claim that she, as Jesus’ wife, had a greater position than that of his mother Mary? I hope he was married. I hope he had the joy of sharing his life deeply and constantly with one who stood at the center of his affections. I hold married love to be the deepest and sweetest of human relationships. I spelled out my thinking on Jesus being married in my book, Born of a Woman: A Bishop Re-Thinks the Virgin Birth and the Place of Women in a Male- Dominated Church. For further clarification I refer you to the chapter in that book entitled, “Was Jesus Married?” I see little reason to think that Jesus was gay. The story of the “disciple whom Jesus loved” is told only in the Fourth Gospel written 65-70 years after the crucifixion and I believe that the “Beloved Disciple” is nothing more than a Johannine symbol for the ideal believer who would accompany Jesus not only to the cross, but also to an empty tomb where faith is born. I spell that out in detail in the 25th chapter of my book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. Jesus’ question three times to Peter: “Do you love me?” occurs only in the epilogue to John’s gospel and is generally regarded as a later addition to the Fourth gospel. It seems to me not to be history, but a response to the three times that Peter was said to have denied Jesus. When it comes to Paul, there is much more data available since we have at least seven epistles which Paul himself wrote and there is much autobiographical material in these epistles. I believe Paul might well have been a deeply repressed, self-hating gay man. He describes the war that goes on between “the law of my body” and the “law of my mind.” He finds himself controlled by a passion from which he cannot free himself. He says things like, “sin dwells in my members.” He expresses self-loathing in the words, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?” He argues in Romans 1 that God will punish those who do not worship God properly by turning their affections toward people of their own gender. Paul then tells us about his frantic attempt to obey every requirement said to be in the law. I made a case for the possibility that Paul was gay in my book, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism and again in Jesus for the Non-Religious. I cannot prove it, but I can speculate on it and I do. Thank you for writing, John Shelby Spong Announcements All of the books mentioned in Jack Spong's Answer above are available here!

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9/25/14, Spong: Part XXIX Matthew: Did Jesus Really Walk on Water? Of Course Not!
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Part XXIX Matthew Did Jesus Really Walk on Water? Of Course Not! Sandwiched between Matthew’s two stories of Jesus feeding the multitude is another popular tale in the gospels. It is the account of Jesus walking on the water. Interestingly enough, in each of the four gospels this walking on the water story is coupled with the feeding of the multitudes. All of the gospel writers will treat these two stories as a pair. That is the first clue to their meaning. It is clear that among the early followers of Jesus these stories were deeply linked. If the feeding of the multitude accounts reflects an updated version of Moses providing manna in the wilderness to the Children of Israel, is it possible that the walking on the water story is an updated version of Moses splitting the Red Sea? I think that this is highly probable and it is exactly this connection, which opens the story of Jesus walking on the water to its original Jewish meaning. It is a narrative that was never meant to be read literally. These two Jesus stories correspond then to the two great events in Moses’ life. Earlier in this Matthew series we saw how the baptism of Jesus was made to re-enact Moses’ Red Sea experience. We then noted that the account of Jesus’ forty days of being tempted in the wilderness was paralleled with Moses’ forty years in the wilderness, indeed the crises Moses faced were almost identical with the temptations that Jesus faced. In the folklore of the Jewish people, the power of Moses over water was clearly and regularly established. Jesus, if he was to fulfill the messianic image of being the “New Moses,” needed to have a similar story in which power over water was attributed to him. The ability to walk on water served that purpose very well. The close connection of Jesus feeding the multitudes and walking on water with Moses sending “mamma” in the wilderness and splitting the “Red Sea” screams at us to open our eyes to their original Jewish meaning. For Matthew, neither the feeding of the multitude nor Jesus walking on the water was meant to be read as a miracle story. They were Moses stories. Only later Gentiles, unaware of their Jewish meaning, would ever have thought of either one as a supernatural act that had actually taken place in real history. Jesus refused, time after time, to provide a “sign” to his critics. Indeed that kind of activity was overtly rejected in Matthew’s temptation narrative. Being the messiah does not mean putting God to the test with daring acts of supernatural power, like hurling ones self off the pinnacle of the Temple. The walking on the water story is itself memorable. Like few biblical tales, it has insinuated itself into the life of our culture. Even those who never go to church will know this story. There are thousands of golf jokes that turn on Jesus’ or God’s ability to walk on water. Most clergy have heard them all! My favorite walking on the water story comes, however, not out of golf, but out of baseball. It involves people deep in the history of the New York Yankees, a team to which I am more than just a little bit devoted. This story happened some time ago when the owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner, was still alive and at the height of his power. The Yankees had acquired from the Kansas City Royals in a trade a promising outfielder named Lou Piniella. Arriving in the Bronx to join his new team, Piniella appeared with long hair and a heavy beard. When he was told that it was Yankee policy for players to have their hair short and to restrict facial hair to a neat moustache, Piniella objected. He was then told that he would have to speak to Mr. Steinbrenner about that, since only the owner could exempt a player from this team policy. So a time was set for this long-haired, bearded Piniella to talk with Yankee owner, George Steinbrenner. It would be their first meeting. “I don’t see why I have to cut my hair and shave my beard just to play for the Yankees,” Piniella told the owner. Then, trying to strengthen his case, Piniella added, “Jesus Christ, the greatest person who ever lived, had long hair and a beard.” George Steinbrenner invited his balky left-fielder to go with him outside Yankee Stadium to where the East River was flowing lazily through New York City. Then Mr. Steinbrenner spoke and said, “Lou, Jesus Christ could walk on water. Now if you can walk on the top of this river, then you can keep your hair and your beard!” Piniella went to the barber for a shave and a haircut and then he went on to become a crucial part of Yankee success for years, finally finishing his career as one of baseball’s finest managers in New York, Cincinnati, Seattle, Tamps Bay and Chicago. While the story of Jesus walking on the water has become part of our cultural landscape, is there any reason to believe that it ever happened? I do not think so. Those like Matthew, who were familiar with the Jewish Scriptures and with the Jewish story-telling tradition, recognized this narrative for what it was, an interpretive Moses story. Moses had power over water. He could split the Red Sea. To portray Jesus as walking on the water would assert that Jesus also had power over water. That was the purpose of this narrative. To be more specific, the story of Jesus walking on the water was a Red Sea story magnified and repeated about Jesus. It comes in Matthew’s gospel between the feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 4000. When the first feeding story was complete, Matthew had Jesus send the disciples in a boat across the lake ahead of him while he dispersed the crowds. Then Matthew says that Jesus “went up the mountain alone to pray.” By this time the boat, carrying the disciples, was “many furlongs from the land” (Matt. 14:24). Their boat, however, had encountered a storm and it was being beaten by the waves. The wind was also against it. So, “in the fourth watch of the night” (that would be between 3:00 and 6:00 am) Matthew says, “Jesus came to them walking on the water” (Matt 14:25). Matthew’s clear message to the church of his day was that Jesus always comes when life’s struggles are the hardest. The disciples seeing him, however, thought they were seeing a ghost. Is this a hint of their later Easter experience? Possibly. Jesus speaks, identifying himself, telling them not to fear. Then Matthew adds a wrinkle to his story, found nowhere else in any New Testament book. Peter seeks further identification of this ghost-like figure. Peter is always in a struggle to understand Jesus in this gospel. He believes and then he does not believe. He confesses that Jesus is the Christ and then he completely misunderstands what the Christ function is. He pledges his undying loyalty and then when his life is at risk he denies ever knowing Jesus. So Peter in this Matthean episode steps forward to test his senses and his perception. “Lord, if it is you,” he is clearly not convinced, “bid me to come to you on the water.” That would be a good proof of identification. Jesus bids him to come; Peter steps out of the boat and he too walks upon the water! The power of Jesus can be the power of the disciples. That is the message and it was a timely one when Matthew was writing and Jesus’ followers were under the great pressure of persecution. As soon as Peter saw the waves and felt the wind, however, he became afraid and began to sink. “Lord, save me!” he cried out. Jesus extended his hand to Peter, held him up and said: “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” Then they both got into the boat and at that moment the winds ceased. Matthew added to his text the story’s purpose, namely that those in the boat now “worshiped him” and confessed him to be “the Son of God” (Matt: 14:33). Once again, just like the feeding stories, this is a parable, not a literal event. No one defies nature and gravity to walk on water or to enable five loaves to feed a multitude. Matthew’s readers knew that. So what he is doing is portraying Jesus as possessing Moses-like power. Moses had the power to split the water so that he could form a path through it on dry land. Jesus’ power was even greater. He could navigate the water by walking on its surface. In this story the message was that the disciples saw God in Jesus in a new and powerful way. They then did what Jews would do only to God: They worshiped him, thus acknowledging him to be part of who God is. Jesus’ divine nature was so apparent, Matthew was suggesting, that the people sought just to be in his presence in a crisis and to see a vision of him coming to them when they were in distress. Matthew was describing the disciples’ faith in Jesus, not an event that actually happened. Remember, that when we put this story into its literal history, Jesus was yet to be betrayed, to be denied and to be abandoned by the members of the Twelve. Matthew was rather portraying the growing faith of the Christians at the time he was writing some 55 years after the crucifixion. The idea of messiah as a “God presence” was still evolving. As the post-Jesus Christian community endured the storms of life and their times of trial, sometimes their confidence disappeared. Like children stepping out from the security of their parents’ home, they were not sure they could make it without Jesus being physically present. Matthew assures us, however that they will reach the security of the shore. When they do arrive there, however, they find the Pharisees and the Scribes have descended to a new level of religious trivia. Their chief worry concerned why the disciples were abandoning the religious traditions: they did not wash their hands before eating nor honor their elders. Jesus and his disciples, they charged, were making “void” the literal word of God. Jesus is then made to call his critics hypocrites. He talks about the difference between external religious forms and internal religious faith. Peter, above all, still doesn’t get it. Nothing seems to work for Peter. Even seeing Moses’ power in Jesus was not sufficient. Those who cling to religious rules for their meaning will never know a change of heart. The story then moves on to one of the great iconic figures in this gospel’s narrative. She is a Canaanite woman. The boundaries of religion are about to be expanded anew. Stay tuned. John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Ed Branthaver, via the Internet, writes: Question: In November I will be 76 years old. I grew up in one of the historic Peace churches – the Church of the Brethren, which I attended from childhood through my adult years. The congregations I attended were conservative, but not of the “Literalist” bent. Even during my college years and beyond I was unable to understand the gospels. None of my considerable studies proved to be of significant help. Not until I accidentally found your book: Why Christianity Must Change or Die? did I find a ray of light and an individual who wrote in a fashion that I could understand. Since then, I have purchased almost everything you have written and I subscribe to your weekly e-messages. You have helped me immeasurably to make sense of what has been a mystery to me for a long time. Thank you. In your article “Christ and the Body of Christ” in the 2000 issue of “The Once and Future Jesus,” you write “God is real for me, a mythical, indefinable presence which I can experience but never explain.” Further in THE FUTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION (“Beyond Theism but not Beyond God”) you identify God with the real and present “life force” in the universe (love). My very good friend, a former fundamentalist Christian turned atheist, claims that because you do not define God as a deity or Supreme Being, you are in fact an atheist (according to the dictionary definition) even though you said you could accept the label Christian Humanist. Could you explain to me and to my atheist friend how you can maintain your status as a Christian while at the same time meet the “dictionary definition” of an atheist? Answer: Dear Ed, Thank you for your letter and congratulations on 76 years. I am happy to respond to your inquiry. For me it is simple: the dictionary definition of the word “atheist” is wrong. An atheist is not literally one who says there is no God. An atheist is one who says there is no God who can be defined in theistic terms! That is a crucial difference. Theism is not God; Theism is a human definition of God, one which defines God as a “being, supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere outside the world and capable of invading human history in miraculous ways.” It is this theistic deity who died in the intellectual revolution that began with Copernicus and Galileo, who were the first to introduce us to the dimensions of space and, in the process, destroyed the idea of a three-tiered universe in which the theistic God was conceived. God’s dwelling place outside this world was simply removed. Next the work of Isaac Newton showed us how the laws of the universe operated with such mathematical precision that the realm in which the theistic God was thought to operate began to shrink perceptibly. The things we once called miracles and magic are now explained without reference to supernatural causes. The weather and human sickness were both demystified and we understood the causes of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and drought on one side and coronary occlusions, strokes, cancer and infections on the other. The prayers for rain and for sickness, which grew out of a theistic definition of God, were dropped and replaced. Instead of praying for rain we now consult the meteorologists. Instead of asking God to heal us or our loved ones we turn to antibiotics, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. In time, Charles Darwin taught us about the origins of both the universe and life and his insights challenged the way Christians once postulated their primary way of telling the Christian story. That traditional story involved us in asserting that there was an original perfection, followed by a fall into sin, which then required the need for a rescuing act of redemption, which was presumably accomplished in Jesus. Jesus thus became the incarnation of the theistic deity. It was a fascinating way to tell the Jesus story, but it was quite pre-modern. That kind of religious language no longer translates into reality for us, but most Christians never learned that there was any other language that we could use. Freud and Einstein then added their unique insights to our expanding knowledge and all of these things together meant that the human definition of God that we call “theism” became irrelevant to our educated minds. The question then is does God die when theism dies? I don’t think so. The theistic definition of God is a human construct and all human constructs ultimately die. It also means that, much more than we once thought, claims once believed to be absolutely necessary to religion, will also inevitably die. I refer to such irrational ideas as the concept of infallible Popes and inerrant scriptures and whether or not there is “one true faith” and “one true church.” It means we have to recognize that the human mind can never define or contain the ultimate mystery to which human beings refer when they say the word “God.” It means that our God language will become less concrete and more mystical. It will mean, inevitably, that we will be less certain and, shall I say, “vaguer” in the God language we use. It means that concepts like “Christian atheist” or “believing non-theist” will not be seen as oxymorons. Ultimately it means that the death of the theistic definition of God will not mean the death of God. Today, theologians speak of God as a human symbol pointing to a reality that words cannot capture. They will say things like “God is dead” and still be drawn in worship. They look at Jesus, but not in the way that causes us to think that Jesus is related to God in the same way that Clark Kent is related to superman. Divinity becomes an aspect of humanity and is found in Jesus because his was a human life that escaped the boundaries of the human and thus reflected and channeled the reality of God to us and for us. It is a fermenting, frightening, creative time in the theological world. A new explanation is underway. I believe I can experience God, but I can no longer define God in theistic terms. That makes me a non-theist believer, but not one who denies the reality of God. I pursue God inside the parameters of Christianity because that has always been my doorway, but not because I am convinced it is the only doorway. This makes me a Christian by my definition, but I do not believe Christianity itself can contain the wonder of God and my journey will always lead me beyond the boundaries of Christianity. Into what I do not yet know, but it will be a step into a new dimension of reality for which I do not have words. Christianity has always been evolving. This will simply be the next, but not the last stage in that evolution. I claim my role in this evolution, specifically as a Christian. This kind of radical reformation of our faith story has happened before, but perhaps in not so total a way. Christianity was born in a Jewish world and then had to translate itself into a Platonic-thinking Greek world in order to survive. A man named Augustine, the bishop of Hippo did that for us in the Fourth century. When Aristotle’s thought replaced Plato’s in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as the dominant way of perceiving truth then Western theology once more had to adapt. Christianity did so by translating itself anew into Aristotelian terms. A man named Thomas Aquinas did that for us. When the age of the Enlightenment emerged, there was a great need for Christianity to be translated into the categories of new scientific learning and into the emerging new humanism. The Protestant Reformation sought to accomplish that. The jury is still out on how successful that was. Today, the knowledge on which the modern world is based, both its intellectual knowledge and its technological knowledge, cries out for what I have called “A New Christianity for a New World.” Developing that “New Christianity” is an ongoing work in progress. There are some who believe that Christianity will die if it has to change and adapt and so they resist change and entrench themselves in the formulas of yesterday. We call them fundamentalists and they come in both a Catholic and Protestant variety. There are also some who think that Christianity in none of its forms will ever be able to live in this modern world and so they abandon it altogether. We call them secular humanists. I call myself “A Believer in Exile.” Both words are important. I am a believer. God is infinitely real to me even though I cannot define that reality. I am also in exile from the traditional understanding of my religious past. I will never abandon my Christian roots, but I do see Christianity as an evolving force and I want to be part of that evolution. So I gather with my community of faith in worship each week. I sing the hymns that reflect our journey through history. I listen to and pray prayers that are still largely addressed to a theistic understanding of God. I listen to sermons that help me explore a new interior reality. I participate in educational activities that force me into a dialogue between faith and knowledge. In my own way, I see my life as a journey into the mystery of God. In that journey, I am not able to pursue or even to contemplate that journey’s end, but I believe I walk in God and with God and that God lives in me and through me. Perhaps I am delusional, but I don’t think so. Perhaps God is the journey and not the destination. It is from this perspective that I write not only my books, but this weekly column and because so many seem to be willing to walk with me, I never feel that I walk alone. Thank you for your letter. John Shelby Spong Announcements This month, at ProgressiveChristianity.org, we continued our discussion on Sacred Community as we delved into the topic of Teaching and Preaching. Read It Here! Sign up for our free monthly eBulletin here. Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 253-507-8678. Copyright © 2014 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at johnshelbyspong.com. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 708 Broadway Suite 105 Tacoma, WA 98402 Add us to your address book If you are a paying subscriber, you may login and cancel your account.

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Winds and Waves December Issue - This is your invitation to contribute
by Robyn Hutchinson via Dialogue 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

To read in your browser click here Dear ICA and many other colleagues around the world, We have had quite a lot of exciting feedback from the Back to the Future edition of Wind and Waves. We hope you saw it, and other previous issues (see here) We are constantly exploring how we can make this magazine more user friendly and accessible to as wide an audience as possible, and are always delighted to have your suggestions. Now we prepare for the December issue. ICA's PLEASE FOWARD THIS INVITATION, or similar, TO ALL YOUR MEMBERS, for their contribution, and that of their networks, as appropriate. "Image shift through coaching and mentoring" The Wind and Waves team invites submission of articles for the next edition of Wind and Waves Magazine. We hope that each ICA would take responsibility for sourcing relevant articles from members and non-members for each edition. December WW Theme working title is: "Image shift through coaching and mentoring Sharing a wide range of practice in the field of coaching and mentoring across the globe stories and examples of processes and practices help to change peoples lives please see attachment for more ideas and aspects of mentoring and coaching that you might like to consider writing about. See here Winds and Waves format: 1. In-depth leading topic article 2. Supporting articles on theme 3. Other theme related items 4. Reports, stories, events, works in progress (Guidelines see here) For the December edition featuring COACHING and MENTORING, we are looking for items from: * those involved in this work, in a paid or voluntary capacity, and its impact * personal stories from colleagues around the world who have experienced life change through practical application of these processes and methods, and the future potential * anyone involved in other exciting human development works in progress Contributions could include reports, poems, images, songs, and stories about the people and organisations that you are working with, the breakthroughs that you have had, your learnings and insights, and your thoughts on future directions. We also want to include reports and notices from ICAs and other organisations of initiatives, programs, significant events and dialogues taking place anywhere in the globe. Does your ICA, individual members, or someone you know have a story to share? Please forward an invitation as appropriate to your networks. TIME FRAME for WIND AND WAVES - December edition Leading Topic: Image Shift Coaching and mentoring Indication of article to be sent: by Friday, October 3 (send to Isabel, Peter, Robyn) Finished article deadline: Friday, October 24, 2014 (send to Isabel, Peter, Robyn) Publication: December, 2014 By October 3, Please let us know these details on the article you / other person plans to write: 1. Title - subject line: story proposal........ 2. In the email body: 2 SIMPLE sentences not "paragraph-sentences" a. The story to share is about: .......... b. The point of the story for the reader is:....... 3. Estimated length............ 4. The number of photos, diagrams, images, that will accompany the article.... 5. Your name and author's name....email addresses for both Please send the above information to Isabel, Robyn and Peter Ellins, by October 3. Some guideline tips for your attention, include: - avoiding jargon; remembering that this is a public magazine; - audience is ICA and many others - Items can be in English and Spanish. With many thanks in anticipation, Robyn Hutchinson: hutchinsonsydney13(a)gmail.com Isabel de la Maza: isadelamaza(a)vtr.net Contributions Coordinators, for the W&W team Please send cc to Peter Ellins, peter(a)icai-members.org If you did not receive a copy or notice of the last edition of the magazine, please contact: Peter Ellins: Email: peter(a)icai-members.org; or Robyn Hutchinson: Email: hutchinsonsydney13(a)gmail.com

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Fwd: GMCA Update Oct 01
by David Zahrt via Dialogue 05 Oct '14

05 Oct '14

*WED OCT 01* *Bellevue to Edison Woodland Preserve, New Berlin, OH* The first day of October! Seven months on the March; only one month left! Overnight was a reminder that fall is here. The overnight temperature must have gotten down into the 50’s. The morning sky was covered with clouds; no way to see the sun. I saw a sign at 10:30am that registered the temperature at 68º. Today was a 23-mile day. I did get Sarah’s directions by email but found the route directions confusing and so probably did 28 miles of riding. There was a town along the way that was Thomas Edison’s birthplace. I probably could have spent an afternoon there. I had the long-sleeved Camarillo CERT shirt on under the maroon long-sleeved knit shirt that Heidi sent me. It kept me warm but when I got to camp the CERT shirt was soaking wet with sweat. During my ride I had a brainstorm about all the things that must change if we’re to have a livable future. I came up with something the March could do: Start Dave Finnegan’s program *Climate Change Is Elementary* <climatechangeiselementary.org> across the nation—North/South/East/West. It would mean gridding the nation and training facilitators for each section. It would put an enormous burden on Dave, but it would spread the program across the nation. We are staying in a 1,300-acre preserve that was once slated to be a site of a nuclear power plant. Because it was such a long March day, and I got to camp before those Marching, Kai asked me to help get the vegetables chopped for stir fry, and set up the stoves in the amphitheater. It’s been a long time since I was asked to work in the ‘kitchen’. The afternoon cools off and the sun starts to set earlier. Dinnertime went into dusk. There were a string of Christmas lights across part of the amphitheater. Someone plugged them in and JJ put up a tablet of newsprint and started a presentation on Extinction. He lectured from his Laptop computer. The amphitheater was crowded because we have had new people join us. I wasn’t able hear or see the presentation. Someone had erected the Taj Mahal tent. I put my sleeping gear in the tent and went to bed. -- Peace, David

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Very Brief Ferguson Update from Saturday/Sunday 10/4-5: check out Powell Hall Concert demonstration.
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 05 Oct '14

05 Oct '14

Below are brief Ferguson updates from Saturday and Sunday. Check out the link to the Powell Hall Concert demonstration. Saturday, October 4: Three Abrahamic traditions today: Christian Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Jewish Yom Kippur, and Islamic Holy Day Eid al-Adha--the day of Sacrifice at the end of the Hajj Pilgrimage. After returning from a meeting around 9:30pm, we saw on TV that there had been a "flash mob" of about 50 people who staged a demonstration in Powell Hall at the end of the evening concert's intermission just before the orchestra was to begin a Brahms Requiem. One person stood up and started singing and then others gradually joined the revised spiritual: "Which side are you on, friends? Which side are you on? Justice for Mike Brown friends, justice for us all. Three banners were hung over the rail from the balcony: a picture of Michael Brown, "Black Lives Matter" and "Requiem for Michael Brown". Paper hearts with Requiem for Michael Brown written on them were also thrown over the balcony rail. After about 5 minutes of singing, the protestors, who had paid for their tickets, left, chanting "Black lives matter." The Requiem banner was left hanging, the other two taken by the singers. Some members of the audience, orchestra. and concert choir applauded. Then, after that brief delay, the Brahms Requiem began--with perhaps a new meaning? The demonstration was musical, creative, solemn, coordinated with the requiem theme, peaceful, tasteful, interracial, and didn't interrupt music already in progress. Michael Brown Protest Interrupts Orchestra in St. Louis [VIDEO] mashable.com/2014/10/05/michael-brown-protest-orchestra/ 7 hours ago ... The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was getting ready to resume its show on Saturday night at Powell Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, when ... Michael Brown supporters interrupt orchestra performance with ... thegrio.com/2014/.../michael-brown-supporters-orchestra-flash-mob/ 15 hours ago ... ... slain Missouri teen Michael Brown launched a peaceful protest during a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performance at Powell Symphony Hall... ... of Michael Brown on August 9 in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missour Ferguson protesters interrupt St. Louis Symphony with their ... www.dailydot.com/news/ferguson-protesters-st-louis-symphony/ 6 hours ago ... "Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all." ... Ferguson protesters interrupted a performance Saturday night at Powell Hall in St. Louis, Missouri. ... According to a spokesperson for the St. Louis Symphony, the Mike Sunday, October 5: At Sunday Forum, the pastor gave an update on the 10/10-13 Weekend of Resistance. Google: fergusonoctober . She also shared how she and a lawyer helped to get protesters out of jail who had been arrested and double fined by the Ferguson police last Thursday night. Protesters said they had followed Highway patrol officer Ron Johnson's instructions re where to stand on the sidewalk. After this incident, the County Police took over protestor security from the Ferguson police. Plant for Peace participants planted 500 trees in the St. Louis area, a peaceful response to Michael Brown's death.

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