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September is here with a choice of study, conversation and training.
If you missed the inspiring “Miyawaki Approach to Reforestation” presentation hosted by Mary and Cyprian D’Souza, here is the link that will give you access to the recording:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yorr1nklVs-wac9ZRtS9gJnhnWvnzx3A/view?usp=… <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.goog…>.
For SEPTEMBER, click on this link: https://icaglobalarchives.org/social-research-center-events/. <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ficaglobala…>to see three types of events: studies, significant conversation and training.
There are five events posted:
* two book studies, Courage To Lead- Fall Series,and Doughnut Economics - 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist
* an eight week training with Common Earth; September 16th Sarah Patterson will give an introduction to this series; and
* High Tea with Judy and Ellen continuing the "Dialogue on Aging".
The plan is to send monthly reminders to check in and sign up for events that appeal to you. You may have noticed that the ICA USA Facebook page is beginning to announce events ten days before they occur. Please check the website for upcoming events and times during the month.
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The Behind the Scenes Team of the
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Alan Gammel, Seattle, USA ~ Robyn Hutchinson, Australia ~ Virginia Kanyogonya, Toronto, Canada ~ Jan Sanders, Toronto, Canada ~ Karen Snyder, Chicago, USA ~ Sunny Walker, Denver, USA
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The Global Schedule team is working with the ICAI Global Communications team, recently re-established by the ICAI General Assembly (GA) in July. This team focus includes: ICAI website, Winds and Waves, the Global Buzz, ICA/OE list serves, and specific language groups and social media. We look forward to developing the best possible user friendly ways of sharing our stories, achievements and challenges, via these platforms.
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9/02/2021, Progressing Spirit: Dr. Carl Krieg: Mystery: Beyond Understanding; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 02 Sep '21
by Ellie Stock 02 Sep '21
02 Sep '21
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Mystery: Beyond Understanding
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| Essay by Dr. Carl Krieg
September 2, 2021In our technological world, it may be difficult to believe that reason has its limits. Not that the accumulation of knowledge is limited or even limitable, but by definition there is that which is unknowable. Sometimes, the deeper we dig, the more profoundly aware we become that at the center of reality are dimensions that defy linear and logical analysis. Whether it be in the realm of science, quantum or cosmic, or in the realm of metaphysics, oftentimes mystery is the ultimate order of the day. Leaving science to the scientists, I would like to here consider two theological questions that defy logical analysis, one aspect of the nature of the biblical God [hereafter shortened to simply God, with a capital G] and one aspect of the nature of human beings.
We are all familiar with the concept of god as a person. Such a god, male or female, exists some place in the universe and exhibits human characteristics, such as love, and perhaps anger. The deists thought that god created the universe and then retreated to somewhere to do something else. Such a god is not a god one relates to, but the image is there of one who exists as a person. So too for the god people pray to or turn to in daily devotion or non-daily disaster, sometimes asking for help, sometimes giving thanks. God is personal, loving and caring. That implies, of course, that god is involved with our lives, unlike the deist god who is absent. There is definitely an attraction to believing that god is a person with whom I can relate personally and individually. Such a god may be omnipotent or not, performing miracles and creating disasters or not, but at least a person to whom I can relate. The problem is that locating this god is difficult. The old man sitting on a throne seems a bit infantile. But where might this god be?
On the other hand, one could believe that god is not a person, but rather the sum total of the universe. Not that the stuff of this world is god in a purely pantheistic sense, but that god inheres in reality and is the Ground of all that is. In distinction from deism and theism, the word panentheism is used to describe a divinity that can be personal but not a person. How that works is never really described convincingly, most likely because it can’t. Tillich tried in his “Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality” but whether he succeeded or not is debatable.
The question remains: how does one attribute the concepts of love and caring to Being? Is god a person or being? If god is a person, where is this god located? Or, if god is a dimension of what is, how does one relate personally to this deity? The dilemma must resolve as dialectic, which is to say that we must say both truths, which is to say that we have moved on from linear logic to imponderable mystery. The reality of God as both person and as being transcends our ability to comprehend. That’s just how it is.
The second issue pertains to human nature, and it comes in two parts. The first part pertains to how we got to be the way we are, and the second part deals with how we can escape the way we are. There are at least two approaches to these questions. St Augustine, followed by Luther and Calvin, was of the conviction that all of humanity suffered from a common disease. Taking the Yahwist story of the Garden literally, and thereby misinterpreting the meaning of the myth, Augustine concluded that all human beings had inherited from Adam and Eve original sin, a disease that was inescapable, universal, and damnable. Baptism washed the slate clean, and there was some special dispensation for those outside the influence of the Christian church who never got the opportunity to be baptized, but the problem was universal. Why we are the way we are, for Augustine, is a linear sequence. Adam was free, chose to eat the fruit, was cursed by God, and we suffer the consequences. That was not the Yahwist’s intent in writing the story, but it’s what we got. There really is no sense of mystery here. The cause of sin is logically explained.
Continuing, we ask whether a person, by sheer force of will, is able to escape this original sin? As you might expect, the answers fall into two categories, yes and no, and the history of Western theology is replete with the arguments back and forth. Calvin was one who answered in the negative and brought this line of thinking to its logical conclusion: God predetermines who will receive grace and thereby escape eternal damnation. This is hardly a point of view that would challenge a person to live a more loving life, except that you never know if you are among the elect, so you better keep trying. Some escaped that uncertainty by arguing that God favored the elect with financial success, which, of course, put a knowing smirk on the face of the wealthy. On the other hand, those who argued in the affirmative, asserting that all persons do have the power to escape original sin, have a tough time explaining why the world is in such a mess. And on a personal level, we can probably all agree that all too often we do not live up to our best intentions. The problem with Augustine’s framing of the situation is that the problem is described in a linear and logical fashion, and therefore the solution to our problem is described linearly as well. The choice is either grace or free will.
Setting aside the concept of original sin, there is another way to frame the question. I have written often describing how our human nature matures. [See The Void and the Vision.] Briefly, we come into the world bombarded with sensation and we must make some sense out of it. Our brain begins to organize and categorize the sensory input coming our way, building a structure of interpretation, and voila, we all create our own world. We see reality with our own special spectacles. That process seems pretty much agreed upon, but there is more. Given that we relate to other people, and given that those other people have created their own little world just as I have, we have two ways to relate. I can either assume that I am right and everyone else is at least mostly wrong, or I can realize my own narrow-minded limitations and try to learn from others, thereby slowly overcoming my self-contained world and rounding out my own perception of reality. Given those two choices, one might assume that a certain percentage of us would go one way and the remainder would go the other, all things being equal. But that is not what happens. We all choose the same outcome. We all apparently have an egocentricity problem, and by that I mean that we proceed along a personal natural process by which we are enabled to make sense out of the external reality. At some level, we all absolutize the little world we have created, unable to understand and accept that other folks perceive and think differently. And that’s the puzzle: what’s wrong with us? There is no requirement that we develop in a self-contained fashion and thereby diminish our perception, but it happens to everyone. There is no necessity that this process should be inevitable. Why this is so transcends our understanding, but there it is.
Given this universality of world-creation, the next question pertains to whether or not we have the power to escape or to not absolutize one’s world? Or does one need God’s help to accomplish that? There are plenty of folks who believe that we do have the power to escape our world and overcome our self containment. My own personal answer is to say that we need God’s help, and that this help comes in those moments of self-transcendence, moments in which we are temporarily liberated from our confinement. [Again, see my book, The Void and the Vision.] But even there, as the moments come, there must be some dimension of our being that is open to receive them. And thereby mystery re-enters the situation. We need God’s help, and we must be open and accepting. Both are necessary. There is no logical explanation. That’s just the way it is.
Taking this all together, in the original sin model, a linear description of the problem produces linear answers, and we are forced to choose between free will and grace. One or the other. In the brain development model, although we don’t inherit a disease, we do come into the world with a neuronal sequence that mysteriously and inevitably leads to the development of a private and self-contained worldview, escape from which involves an interaction of personal will and divine grace. Not either/or, but both/and.
With respect to the two issues we have considered, divine nature and human nature, we conclude then that both are a mystery. At the most basic level, both we and God defy logical analysis, and we must rest content in that knowledge, or lack thereof. Resting content implies a certain quiet and peace, suggesting that perhaps the best way to relate to the mystery is simply to acknowledge it and be still.~ Dr. Carl Krieg
Read online here
About the Author
Dr. Carl Krieg received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC and PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith and The Void and the Vision. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT. |
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Question & Answer
Q: By A Reader
Do you believe in the power of prayer?
A: By Rev. Deshna Shine
Dear Reader,I believe in energy. I believe in the physics theory that no energy is ever lost in the universe. I believe thoughts are energy, and even more so, that words are energy. Science has discovered that all human matter and physiology are made up of energy.
What I am certain of is prayer changes the person praying. Our thoughts in prayer (or anything we spend time focusing our brains on) become written into the neural connections of our brains. As Bruce Lipton, a biologist, writes, “The cells in your body react to everything that your mind says.” (1)
When we pray, the frontal lobes of our brain are activated and the parietal lobes go dormant. This is the area of our brain that takes our sensory information and creates a sense of self, orienting that self in the world. When that part goes dormant, we can lose a sense of self. If we are praying and connecting with what we feel to be God, or Spirit, during that time we can feel a sense of sacred oneness, a blurring of the lines between self and other. (2)
There are also many scientific studies that show words have energy and can affect living beings being spoken to. Plants exposed to kind words grow more and are healthier than ones who experience silence or negative words.
A Japanese scientist and water researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto studied the effects on water from sound vibrations and specifically human emotional sound vibrations. Using high speed photography, he found that words of love and gratitude formed beautiful geometric shapes in the water crystals and that negative words on the same water in another sample destroyed the shapes and formed broken, smashed crystals. (3)
Who knows if God hears our prayers… I certainly have no idea. But god within me certainly does and the life around me certainly does and for that reason prayer remains a powerful way to shift the energy both in and around us.~ Rev. Deshna Shine
Read and share online here
About the Author
Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens.
1 https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/FINDING-MY-RELIGION-Bruce-Lipton-cell-3… https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1043104433 https://dailytimes.com.pk/291794/the-science-behind-power-of-words/ |
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
Examining the Story of the Cross, Part V:
Barabbas – Another Interpretive Figure
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
April 7, 2011In Mark’s original story of the Passion of Jesus, he introduces for the first time in any written Christian record the figure of Barabbas. In this story we are told two things: First, it was a Roman custom to release a prisoner at the feast of the Passover, one whose freedom the people desired. Second, the Roman authorities were holding a prisoner whose name was Barabbas, who had been part of an insurrection in which a murder had been carried out. In occupied Judah an insurrection might be an act of terror against the oppressive rule of Rome where Roman soldiers and Jews who collaborated with the Romans were regarded as targets for death. It does not have quite the same meaning that we might have in our society when a person is designated a murderer. In Mark’s narrative, nonetheless, the crowd asks to have Barabbas not Jesus released to them. When Pilate asked what then should he do with Jesus of Nazareth, the response of the crowd was “Crucify him! Crucify him!
The first hint I had that this story might be something other than history came when I decided to research this supposed custom of the Romans freeing a prisoner at the Passover. I could find no reference to such a custom anywhere in either in Roman records or Jewish records. This Marcan narrative appears to be the only place where such a “custom” was mentioned. One-time customs are always a bit suspicious.
Next I looked at the name ‘Barabbas.’ I am not fluent in either Hebrew or Aramaic, but I do know the meaning of many Hebrew and Aramaic words. Barabbas contains the familiar term for God – Abba. It was the name Jesus, somewhat uniquely, was said to use for God. It is a name that has an intimate, deeply personal connotation about it. So the last half of Barabbas’ name turns out to be nothing less than the word for God. Turning then to the first part of the name we discover that “bar” is also a familiar Jewish word. It means “son.” Jesus says to Peter at Caesarea Philippi, “Blessed are you Simon, bar Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed these things to you.” Bar-Jonah means son of Jonah. The name “Bartimaeus,” in the account of the restoring of sight to Bartimaeus, means the son of Timaeus. So the name Barabbas literally means “son of God.” So Mark was telling us in his story of the passion of Jesus that at the time of the crucifixion, there were two figures, not just one, about whom the “son of God” claim was being made, one was Jesus and the other was Barabbas, so the intrigue builds. As this passion drama played out one son of God, namely Jesus, was killed, while the other son of God, Barabbas, was set free. With this distinction now clearly worked out, my mind began to roam over the Jewish liturgical terrain against which I now was beginning to understand that the story of the crucifixion was written, and new possibilities began to open that a literal reading of these texts would never be imagined. Let me develop a few of these possibilities.
Jesus was called in the early days of the Christian movement “The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” In Jewish worship tradition, two holy days required the sacrifice of an animal, normally a lamb. One was Passover where the blood of the paschal lamb was placed on the doorposts of Jewish homes in order to repel the power of death. We have already observed in this series on the passion of Jesus the way in which the Passover shaped the story of the cross. There was, however, another Jewish holy day in which another animal, again normally a lamb, was sacrificed for the sins of the people. It was called Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, which came on the tenth day of the Jewish month of Tishri, which would place it in October in our calendar. It is that liturgical observance that I want to examine in this study.
In the traditional observance of Yom Kippur, two animals are brought to the High Priest. They could be lambs or goats, but as the tradition developed it tended to be one of each. These animals in this liturgy represented what human beings yearned to be. The people felt a need to come into to God’s presence, but considered themselves unworthy to do so. So they developed a liturgical act which employed a symbol of the perfection they felt they lacked. That is why this lamb had to be physically perfect, with no scratches, scars or broken bones, and since the lamb was thought to live below the level of human freedom and could not, therefore, choose to do evil, it was also assumed to be morally perfect. So on the Day of Atonement the people came to God through the symbol of the perfect Lamb of God.
As this liturgical act developed the first of these animals was taken by the High Priest and slaughtered as a sacrifice. Then armed with the blood of the perfect Lamb of God, the High Priest would enter the part of the Temple known as the Holy of Holies, where God was believed to dwell. The throne of God inside the Holy of Holies was called the Mercy Seat. The High Priest would proceed to smear the blood of this lamb onto the Mercy Seat. The understanding was that sinful people could now come into the presence of God “through the blood of the Lamb of God.” Atonement was achieved at least liturgically and estrangement was overcome.
Next, the other animal, normally a goat, was brought to the High Priest. Bowing over the goat with his hands on the goat’s horns, the High Priest would begin to confess the sins of the people. The symbolism here was that all of the sins of the people came out of the people and landed on the head and back of the goat, making the goat the “sin bearer,” thus leaving the people sinless and again at one with God. Then as the bearer of the people’s sins, the goat was thought to be so evil and unworthy of continued life that the gathered worshipers pronounced curses on it and called for its death. The goat, however, was not put to death, but was set free and driven into the wilderness taking the sins of the people with it. The goat was called the “scapegoat” in the Bible because it had to pay the price and suffer the affliction due to others for their sins.
So in the Yom Kippur liturgy there were two animals representing the deepest aspirations of the human race for oneness with God. One was killed and its blood placed between God and sinful human lives. One was set free, carrying with it the sins of the people. Is it possible that in Mark’s original story of the crucifixion that he wrote into his narrative quite deliberately the symbols of Yom Kippur and used them to interpret the death of Jesus? In Mark’s passion story two people called the son of God are present, Jesus of Nazareth and the fictional Barabbas. As such they matched the two animals of Yom Kippur in that one was sacrificed and the other set free. The blood of the first was said to be the means whereby sinful people could have their sins covered by passing through the blood of the lamb of God. The other animal by being set free became the sin bearer, who carried the sins of the people away.
Both aspects of Yom Kippur were seen by Mark to be part of the meaning of Jesus. The story line he is following seems to suggest this. In the Yom Kippur liturgy the sin bearer was cursed by the people and they called for its death. Is this not reflected in Mark’s story when Jesus is condemned to die and is made to hear the curses of the people and the calls: “Crucify him, Crucify him!
If that analysis rings true, it would be one more indication that Mark, who wrote this first version of the crucifixion in the eighth decade of the Christian era knew that he was not writing history and it never occurred to him that anyone would ever read these words literally. He was interpreting the death of Jesus under the recognized symbols of Jewish worship. Jewish people attending the synagogue would recognize what he was doing and would hear and understand his words as Mark intended them to be heard and understood. Passover clearly was used to interpret the death of Jesus while Yom Kippur provided the background to the symbolic language which the gospel writer employed. Barabbas was thus a symbol not a person.
This interpretive process worked well so long as most of the Christian readers of the gospels were Jewish and were thus familiar with Jewish liturgy. By the middle of the second century of the Common Era, however, the Christian Church had become predominantly Gentile. They did not know, understand or even care to learn about the Jewish symbols of worship. When Gentiles began to read the gospels they assumed that Mark was writing literal history. Over the centuries, their literalized understandings of the story of the cross were expressed in their hymns, creeds, doctrines, art and particularly in the” Stations of the Cross.” Without a Jewish background they knew of no other way to read them. With the advent of critical biblical scholarship in the early years of the 19th century, doubts began to be raised about their literal and historical accuracy. That was when creeds and faith began to wobble. How, people wondered, does the death of Jesus free us from our sins today? Is that not the claim that literal reading Christians still try to make? Does not this assertion, however, transform God into a punishing ogre, the ultimate child abuser who kills the divine son in order to forgive our sins? Does this make logical sense? Armed with this new insight we can now look anew at all of the symbols in the crucifixion story. Was there really darkness at noon on the day of the crucifixion? Did the veil in the Temple really split from top to bottom between the holy place and the Holy of Holies when Jesus died? Did Jesus really quote from Psalm 22 from the cross?
Literalizing the story destroys the meaning of every detail. If one is not able to believe these literalized symbols, the only alternative here is to give up the story altogether. So mindless fundamentalism and secular humanism become the only two possibilities. What a shallow treatment of this magnificent Jewish portrait this is. The Passion story is much more than that.~ John Shelby Spong |
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8/26/2021, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Deshna Shine: It is Time for Compassionate Nuanced Conversations, Part 1; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 26 Aug '21
by Ellie Stock 26 Aug '21
26 Aug '21
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It is Time for Compassionate
Nuanced Conversations, Part 1
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| Essay by Rev. Deshna Shine
August 26, 2021Humans have lost the art of nuance.Critical thinking has been reduced to memes and tweets.And I am f#*king exhausted.Okay, maybe it isn’t that extreme. Here I am wanting to discuss the complex topic of nuance and I am starting this column with zero shades of grey. And not even those shades of grey. Sigh.I have always been a middle path kind of gal. But these times in the United States and the world in general are arching ever more toward extremes. Blue or Red. Vaxxer or Anti-Vaxxer. Black or White. Evangelical or Progressive. Right or Left. You know this list is innumerable.It’s easy, even for this middle of the road walker, to get pulled into an epic rivalry of us versus them. I mean… they are just so ignorant!I see bold statements of belief splattered all over social media. I see mass shaming and name calling. Each side of every issue is a breeding ground for narcissism, white guilt, and over identification.Our teenage daughter shares at the dinner table that teens these days don’t get to be in the middle. That it feels there are literally only two sides to every topic. You love that star or you think she is a horrible person. You support that author or you boycott her. You love that music or you cancel that musician.When did we lose the right to be flawed, learning human beings that will never always get it right?Emboldened by a veil of anonymousness, social media platforms are the stage for every ego-centered extremist… and the rest of us, their cheerleaders who follow them, share their posts, applaud with our hearts and emojis, and constantly re-elect them as mayors of our beliefs and likes.This is who I am, we scream, with our fake photos and our two-second shares.Have we lost the art of compassionate nuanced conversation?Ironically, even those of us who are defending the right to nuanced gender and personal identifications get stuck in the cyclic whirlpool of mirroring beliefs and extremism.We grossly debate things we don’t understand. We skim the post sharing an article that we don’t take the time to read, we affirm internally our beliefs we have done little to no research on, and then we publicly declare which side we are on.In reality, the world around us is an infinite rainbow of nuance, complexity, and brilliance! Unlike other animals and living creatures, people are as unique as there are infinite shades of colors in this world. More so, even. We come with these spirits full of experiences and lessons, we come with unique fingerprints, DNA, personalities, likes and dislikes, smells and textures, skin tones, sexualities, body types, talents, and ideas.Our dreams are a waterfall cascade of magical and terrifying psychedelic adventures and narratives which show the diversity of our thoughts and imaginations. And yet… an issue becomes centered publicly and we often revert to just two sides. Again and again. Over and over.Exhausted by the trauma we experience as well as the trauma we subject ourselves to by trolling and scrolling, we have little energy for compassion or patience. We certainly can’t imagine having the energy for a compassionate nuanced conversation with, say, a right wing fundamentalist, or the ex-husband who is spewing anti-vax misinformation to anyone who will listen. I should say something to them, we think, and then, ugh, I just don’t have the energy for a conversation though. And so we scroll some more. Or we pour a glass of wine and start a Netflix binge.But are there really just two sides to most public controversies? Or do we only see those two sides on the media and social media that we begin to believe only those two exist? Are the vast majority of us somewhere in the middle?What about topics like racism which our daughter and her friends have proclaimed, is one of those topics which there is only one way or the other. Is there nuance to discuss there?Of course there is. Within the extremes of racism being, let’s say: bad or good, there is a cacophony of complex history, brainwashing, culture, economics, trauma and more. These all being interwoven with every other issue — climate change, economics, the housing market, religion, culture…Sure, we can agree, most of us reading this newsletter, there are moral values that are simply wrong or right. Racism is wrong.But is the racist bad? Not always! Can we teach them to be better? Yes, but it takes vulnerable conversation and a desire to understand the complexity of the situation… the nuance, let’s say.The toxic patriarchal conception of whiteness is harmful and destructive and has been historically oppressive, violent and racist.. But are white people bad? Not usually. Can white people learn to be anti-racist, non patriarchal allies willing to give up their comfort and their safety for the sake of their human siblings? Yes.Minds will never change when we are just shouting across the field at each other, aiming our weapons and firing.Minds will only change when we come face to face, ask questions, and share vulnerably with a willingness to understand each other and the nuance of the topic. And it's not always about changing minds. More often than not, it is about nudging (rather than shoving) people to consider alternatives, to act more justly, to find more empathy. On social media we shove. In real life, we can practice the nuance of the nudge.Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, shares his experience that one-on-one conversations with friends, family and colleagues are the most effective way of changing minds. “These are the real discussions I have been having with friends and colleagues and I know winning over people in this last camp may be the most difficult of all, because it does involve conversation – possibly a series of ongoing conversations – with loved ones, friends and perhaps a personal physician or trusted pastor, who can talk to the hesitant or reluctant person in a way that resonates with them personally. And victory will be hard won, measured one person at a time.”Tayo Rockson, on Medium, writes, “Growing up in two dictatorships, I saw how governments used these types of binary thinking to advance a message or policy to promote propaganda. It’s how colonialism and slavery grew — divide people into groups and label them enemies before even knowing them or giving them a chance to connect.”Nuance is necessary for conversation and a fuller understanding of an issue. And therein lies our biggest threat to compassionate nuanced conversations. We think we are having conversations on social media. We aren’t. We are in full on battle mode. We are having debates and wars. And texts, comments, likes or dislikes, or posts are not conversations. They just aren’t. They are, as John Herman, of the New York Times describes, performance, announcements, tokens, all of which are limited by the structure of social media which are “conflict machines.”And while we think we are having these conversations and making a difference, in reality we are just traumatizing ourselves further and getting more and more exhausted. Our emotional and energetic reserves are emptied. Borrowed, even, from future reserves.We need to reclaim the fullness of our humanity and our ability to be vulnerable and start talking to real humans, face to face again. We need to have real conversations and for real conversations we need compassion and nuance.To be clear, I am not saying we shouldn’t take a stand on such issues like racism, vaccines, theology, or queer rights. I am not calling for being a so-so person, a safe-in-the-middle-maybe person, a silent majority, a peaceful- avoiding conflict - kind of people. No. I am asking us to be brave and start having real face to face, compassionate, open minded and open hearted conversations again. And again. And… again.The problem is the middle is often too silent. Those of us complaining about the lost nuance have also lost the desire to have nuanced conversations. How many of us just sit here “watching the show” with trepidation?Fundamentalism leaves no space for nuance. But Jesus spent his life as a Rabbi teacher, speaking in and using nuance. Consider the story of the woman at the well, which holds so much nuance and complexity! More on that in Part 2. As progressives, we have to be willing to see things outside the boxes, to ask questions, and to challenge even our own beliefs.Will more shaming or judging open minds? Will closed doors?I fully recognize that some doors need to remain closed and I encourage closing doors and setting boundaries when needed with certain people. Boundaries are a very vital part of healing from trauma, self care, and self love. God willing, those people have others in their lives who are willing to have compassionate nuanced conversations.It takes a lot more time and energy, but I am committing myself to careful research, bravery in conversations, seeking to understand the nuance in any given topic by asking questions and listening with an open mind, and a desire to learn new things and grow. I am committed to making room at the table so conversations can happen.Fatigue makes it hard for us to remember nuance and self compassion. So maybe we can start there. Prioritize rest, self care, and healing. Fill our cups until they flow over. Get off social media. Stop watching the news before bed. Get out of the house and into nature. Exercise, breathe, laugh, dance, sing, make love, receive love, fill our bodies with nourishing food. Rest some more. And then pause.Consider, is my cup full enough to spend energy on that conversation I have been putting off? If you feel a yes, well then by all means call ‘em up. Meet them for tea. Ask questions and be curious. Listen with an open mind and heart. If they are able to listen as well, share only what you know about. Share without name calling, without shaming, without the need to be right. Then go home, sage yourself and your space, drink a big glass of water, shake it off and let it go. Nap some more.It will take many of these small steps but it’s the only way forward.~ Rev. Deshna Shine
Read online here
About the Author
Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens. |
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Question & Answer
Q: By A Reader
My husband of 38 years is a quiet fundamentalist. Everyday he listens to podcasts by J. Vernon Magee and Alastair Begg, two Bible literalists. He subscribes to Charles Stanley literature. I am a progressive Christian, although when I use the word “Christian” it carries a nuance with it that I’m not comfortable with. Whenever we have tried to discuss our beliefs I get attacked. I’ve also been told I’m going to Hell because I do not have a “personal relationship with Jesus” whatever that really means. I think all religions have merit and I can’t stand the “us” against “them” mentality that goes along with being “saved”. I have read many books that have opened my eyes about dogmatic religion and he refuses to read anything but fundamentalist articles.
My question is: How do I not perceive my loving husband as ignorant? He’s so intelligent otherwise that I don’t understand how he can believe in the Bible as a literal history.
A: By Brian D. McLaren
Dear Reader,Thanks for this question. I think many people will feel a resonance with similar situations in their own families, whether with a spouse, a parent, or a child.Before I try to respond to your question, I can’t help but mention a tension within it. You called your husband “loving” and “intelligent otherwise.” But your husband also “attacks” and tells you that you’re going to hell. That is an incongruity many people experience, I think. Their partner, parent, or child is loving in general, but becomes the least loving when religious beliefs are the subject of discussion.The idea of multiple belonging helps me understand your husband’s behavior. Your husband “belongs” to your marriage, but he also belongs to the community of fundamentalist Christianity. He demonstrates his loyalty to that community by the teachers he chooses - and the influences he rejects. Being married to you is, in a sense, out of sync with his membership in that community, and to avoid conflict with you, he is usually “quiet” about his membership.Whenever you criticize his beliefs, he feels an acute conflict of loyalty. He is loyal to you, and to fundamentalist community. So he defends his community and its beliefs against what must feel to him like attacks by you … attacks on his community, which is part of his identity, which is part of him.So, here’s what I’d recommend, put very briefly in three steps. First, try to feel some empathy with your husband and especially with his predicament of multiple belonging. This should be easier when you realize you experience this tension too. You belong to progressive Christian (and other) circles whose beliefs are in conflict with your husband’s beliefs. That tension causes you pain.Second, once you feel that empathy, stop criticizing your husband’s beliefs. Understand that every criticism will feel like an attack, and every attack will engender a defensive or offensive response.
Third, after cultivating empathy and desisting from criticism, try to show genuine curiosity. That doesn’t meaning asking, “How can an intelligent person like you believe such ridiculous things?” It means asking, “Tell me how it used to feel for you when I used to criticize some of your deeply held beliefs. I’m curious. I really want to understand.” If you want to talk about beliefs (again, only after spending significant time in the first two steps), stay away from argument. Instead, show sincere curiosity, “Tell me how you first came to believe in literal six-day creationism. Tell me what benefits it brings you. Tell me how your life would change if you lost this belief.” Again, this can’t be as a gotcha set-up, where he is vulnerable and you pounce.Through this process, I think you’ll come to understand that your husband isn’t ignorant. He’s human, and his beliefs are framed less by reason than by belonging to groups in which those beliefs are essential. If you’re interested in more on this subject, you might find the first six episodes of my podcast Learning How to See to be helpful.~ Brian D. McLaren
Read and share online here
About the Author
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent book is Faith After Doubt. He is the author of the illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story, The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Brian is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs. |
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
Examining the Meaning of the Cross, Part IV:
The Symbols of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Crucifixion
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
March 24, 2011The first narrative account of Jesus’ crucifixion in the Bible is found in the gospel of Mark written some 40-43 years, or approximately two generations, after the events it purports to describe. You may read it in Mark 14:17-15:47. It does not claim to be an eye witness account. Indeed it draws most of its details not from anyone’s memory, but from the Hebrew Scriptures. It is clearly an interpretive account designed to see the death of Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish messianic hopes.
The two major sources from which Mark has crafted his story of the crucifixion are Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. We are generally familiar with these details primarily because we are familiar with Mark’s passion story. Our awareness of the original sources, however, is generally quite limited. From Psalm 22, Mark draws the only words that he claims Jesus spoke from the cross. Psalm 22:1 says: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22 then goes on to say in verses 7 and 8, “All that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out their lips and they shake their heads saying, ‘He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him.’” Compare these words with Mark 15:29, “They that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘Ah, thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross….He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel come down from the cross that we may see and believe’.”
Psalm 22 continues with these words, “I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint…My tongue cleaveth to my jaws…They pierced my hands and feet…I may tell all my bones.” All of these images and ideas are written into Mark’s story of the cross and they grow in form through the other synoptic accounts. When John writes his version of the crucifixion almost thirty-five years after Mark, he has Jesus cry, “I thirst” and he attests to the fact that none of his bones were broken.
Psalm 22 goes on to say (v. 18) “They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.” Mark writes in 15:24: “And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them what every man should take.” No, Jesus did not miraculously fulfill the “predictions” of the Hebrew Scriptures in some predestined way, as I was once taught in my fundamentalist Sunday school, the gospels rather were written with the Hebrew Scriptures open and the gospel writers conformed their memory of Jesus to fit the expectations of those scriptures, which enabled them to interpret him in the light of these Jewish expectations. Mark’s original passion narrative is thus not the report of an eye witness to the crucifixion at all. It is, rather, an example of how the disciples of Jesus searched the Jewish scriptures for clues that they could use to prove that Jesus was in fact the expected messiah. We are not dealing with history in the story of Jesus’ passion, but with interpretive material drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures.
The other favorite passage from the Old Testament that was used to illumine the entire Jesus experience in general, but the story of the crucifixion in particular, was what we now call “the servant passages” from II Isaiah (40-55). Much of that text is also familiar to us not because we have read Isaiah, but because George Frederick Handel drew from it as the basis of his magnificent oratorio known as “Messiah.” The best known images from this section of Isaiah’s servant passages are found in chapter 53. Mark’s narrative of the crucifixion shows a deep compatibility with this part of II Isaiah’s work. “He was wounded for our transgressions…by his stripes we are healed.” These are among the familiar words from Isaiah 53. “He was despised, rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” are also words said of the “servant”, but they have been applied so deeply to Jesus that most of us think these words were actually written about Jesus. II Isaiah says of the Servant that he was “numbered with the transgressors.” I am convinced that it was from this reference that the story of Jesus being crucified between two thieves or malefactors was derived. It is interesting to watch the story of these two thieves develop. In Mark their presence is noted, but they are not quoted as having said anything. In Matthew, a decade later, both of them revile Jesus and pour out hostility on him. By the time we come to Luke, perhaps a decade later, only one thief reviles him while the other in penitence is made to say to Jesus: “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Later in Isaiah 53, we are told that the servant “made his grave with a rich man.” From this reference, I believe, came the developed story of Joseph of Arimathea who was said to be a ruler of the Jews and thus a rich man. To portray Jesus as having been buried in Joseph’s tomb served two purposes. First, it “fulfilled the scriptures” and second it covered the embarrassment of the apostolic abandonment, which was so real it could not have been denied, with a proper burial.
Another indication that we are not dealing with eye witness history in this narrative comes a bit earlier in Mark’s text when he announces that when Jesus was arrested, “all of his disciples forsook him and fled.” Please note the text of Mark says “all” not “some.” It is hard even today, but necessary if we are to engage the Jesus story honestly, to face the high probability that Jesus died alone. There was no eye witness tradition that the gospel writers could draw on about the crucifixion because there were no eyewitnesses.
The final evidence that this first narrative of the cross was not history comes from a deeper analysis of Mark’s whole passion story. It is divided into eight three-hour segments. The hours are marked and are meant to be noted. It is written in a twenty-four hour format. Let me trace it.
In 14:17 Mark notes that “when evening came they were gathered in one place” for the Passover meal. The phrase “when evening came” means that Mark was telling us that it was approximately 6 p.m. on the day we now call Maundy Thursday. We know from other Jewish sources that the Passover meal normally included the extended family and it lasted about three hours. That measure of time included games, the meal itself and the recitation of Israel’s historical beginnings, usually told by the male patriarch in response to the question, “Father, why is this night different from all other nights?” asked by the youngest male child. The Passover ended with a hymn and the gathered family members then left for their own homes.
Mark tells us in this first segment of the passion of Jesus, that at the end of the meal they sang a hymn and departed into the night. It is thus now 9 p.m. We are then told that Jesus and his disciples went into the Garden of Gethsemane, where it was said that Jesus took three of his disciples to “watch” with him while he prayed. They were, however, unable to perform this duty without falling asleep. Indeed they could not watch with him one, two or three hours. The second segment of the twenty-four hours was thus over.
Jesus then comes out of the garden to meet Judas and the contingent of solders from the Temple guard. It is midnight. The darkest deed in human history is to take place at the darkest hour of the night. Jesus is then taken to the Sanhedrin for interrogation. This interrogation takes us from midnight to 3 a.m. The third segment of the vigil is complete.
The period of the night between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. was called “Cockcrow.” Into this segment, Mark has installed the story of Peter’s threefold denial before the “cock crowed,” presumably one denial for each hour. Then right on cue, Mark says, “When morning came,” which means it is now 6 a.m. Here Mark tells us the details of the trial before Pilate; the introduction of Barabbas; the torture, and the mocking purple robe and crown of thorns.
Mark then says “it was at the third hour” or 9 a.m., when they crucified him. At the sixth hour or 12 noon Mark says “darkness covered the whole earth.” It lasted, not surprisingly, for three hours. At 3 p.m. Jesus uttered, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and died or as the Elizabethan translation we call the King James Version says, “He gave up the ghost.”
>From 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. we hear of the negotiations of Joseph of Arimathea to bury him in his tomb, a task that is completed before the sun goes down to mark the beginning of the Sabbath, the day of rest.
Two things become obvious in this study. First, most of the familiar details of the crucifixion story are not eye witness accounts of things that actually happened. They are rather interpretive accounts based upon the Hebrew Scriptures in which Jesus is seen, despite the fact that he had been crucified, as the anticipated messiah. Second, they were not written to describe what actually happened, but to lead worshippers to new insights through a twenty-four hour liturgical vigil. Just as the Jews had marked the beginning of their life as the people of God with a three-hour liturgical celebration known to us as “The Passover,” so Christians decided to mark the beginning of their life as a distinct people called to a new relationship with God in which they found salvation with a matching liturgical act. In the process they stretched the three hour Passover into a twenty-four hour vigil. What we are reading as Mark’s story of Jesus’ passion is a liturgical rite in which they could relive the last events in the life of one they believed was messiah and through whom they were convinced that they saw God in a dramatically new way.
We have been blinded to the holiest moments in our faith story by our failure to grasp the fact that the story of the cross is not literal, but interpretive. Its purpose was not to tell us how Jesus died, but who Jesus was and how his death revealed that. Armed with this clue, we can enter an entirely new dimension of the Bible itself.~ John Shelby Spong |
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Announcements
Pathway to Awareness Acceptance and Compassion
Online August 30th - October 4th
Life is a mixed bag of challenge, dissatisfaction, loss, joy, and contentment. Contrary to this reality, we have a strong desire to experience that which is comforting, convenient and pleasurable. So we suffer because of the gap between our desires and the reality of daily living. How can we cope with this? READ ON ... |
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8/19/2021, Brian McClaren: Progressive Christianity and the Preferential Option for the Young; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 19 Aug '21
by Ellie Stock 19 Aug '21
19 Aug '21
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Progressive Christianity and
the Preferential Option for the Young
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| Essay by Brian McLaren
August 19, 2021Many people who identify as progressive Christians also identify as Mainline Protestants. Many draw from the lineage of liberal Christianity that goes from Luther and Calvin to Schleiermacher and Rauschenbusch to Fosdick and Niebuhr to Coffin and Borg to Diana Butler Bass and Catherine Keller today. Interwoven with this lineage have been feminist theologians like Rita Nakashima Brock and Katherine Tanner, and queer theologians Dale Martin and Marcella Althous-Reid. Some trace their lineage through various strains of the Radical Reformation, whether Mennonite or Quaker, drawing from the work of Rufus Jones, Elton Trueblood, and John Howard Yoder. Still others are rooted in Black theology - in a lineage that includes Howard Thurman, Kwame Bediako, James Cone, and Wil Gafney.Increasingly over the last twenty years, Progressive Catholics have also become part of this conversation, especially through liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutierrez, Jon Sobrino, and Leonardo Bosch, and theologians drawing from the mystical and monastic traditions like Richard Rohr and Ilia Delio. Progressive or Post-Evangelicals are also bringing their gifts an energies into this progressive community, having been exiled from an Evangelicalism that sold out to the Religious Right and Trumpism.This convergence and cross-pollination, to me, are truly hopeful signs. Another hopeful sign: the decades-long decline of Mainline Protestantism seems to have hit bottom in the US, at least temporarily, after a long slide. (See https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/nothing-is-as-it-was.) In fact, Mainline Protestants have once again surpassed Evangelicals as a percentage of population, after decades in second place. (See https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/10/opinions/american-evangelicals-protestantism….) However, before progressive Christians breathe a sigh of relief and use this data as a permission slip for complacency, I must raise a yellow flag of caution, if not a red flag of emergency.Mainline Protestants, by and large, are perched on a demographic cliff, with an average age of 54 and climbing. Like Catholics and Evangelicals, their retention rates of the young are unsustainably low, with more of their young in each generation joining the ranks of the religious nones. (See https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/18/mainline-protestants-make-….) On top of those statistics, for many, the “e-word” (evangelism) is taboo, which means that recruitment is off-limits, which means continuing decline is inevitable.If you believe, as I do, that the world needs a vital alternative to regressive and right-wing Christianity, then you should join me in raising the alarm — and calling for radical action among forward-leaning Christians. I call this mandate a preferential option for the young. This call is not intended as a rejection of the older term, a preferential option for the poor, derived from Catholic social teaching. It is, instead, intended as a double challenge. How will progressive Christians who are disproportionately prosperous, well-educated, and old … become a movement characterized by partnerships across generations, races, and social classes? Be assured, few of the young, and virtually none of the unco-opted young, want to perpetuate the racial, gender, and class-based hegemonies of the past. To empower the young is to empower racial, gender, and socio-economic diversity.The original Christian movement demonstrated this preferential option for the young. Obviously, it reflected the ethos of its thirty year-old founder who was dead by thirty-three, and who understood that his message would create tension between generations (see Matthew 10:34-36).The first generation of young disciples who weren’t martyred eventually grew old, and special honor was understandably given to the senior leaders of the movement. Within a century, the youthful vigor of the original movement became harder to detect, with internal turf wars, power struggles, and belief-policing replacing the founder’s original outward vision of speaking truth to power, proclaiming liberation to the oppressed, and deploying nonviolent peacemakers willing to suffer and die as witnesses to peace. That outward vision would gradually become the exception rather than the rule, and a preferential option for the old became the new norm.Thankfully, new vitality occasionally flared up in young reformers like Francis of Assisi, who began his ministry in his early twenties.Claie joined him when she was only eighteen, and soon was leading her parallel movement. St. Teresa of Avila ran away from home at twenty to begin her visionary work, and St. John of the Cross joined her movement when he was twenty-five. Among Protestants, Martin Luther was thirty-three when he nailed his ninety-five theses to the Wittenberg door (as the story goes). John Calvin was nineteen when he began writing his Institutes of the Christian Religion, and twenty-six when the first edition was published.The Christian movement, at its most vital, has been a youth movement. The Christian movement, at its most depressing, has been a gerontocracy.That’s why I say that wisest thing older generations of white Christians could do starting now would be to invest unprecedented trust, money, opportunity, and coaching (without control) in rising younger generations, women and men, straight and gay, of diverse racial and economic backgrounds, listening to them, learning from them, trusting the Spirit to be alive in them, and then getting behind them. The old white boys’ club of the religious gerontocracy has reached its expiration date.And not just in religion. In politics, business, education, and other professions, the same pattern predominates: older generations holding onto power, too seldom investing in the future beyond their own retirement. There will be no new day without new, young faces.Yes, we need true elders as much as ever, if not more. Instead of hoarding their power and wisdom, we need them to empower and equip younger leaders, especially leaders from groups that have been historically marginalized.But the sad truth is that conventional Christianity — both liberal and conservative, progressive and regressive — currently depresses, disillusions, drains, and drives away many of its brightest and best by the time they hit thirty. Those with seniority status occupy leadership positions, sometimes because they embody the spirit and vision of our founder, but often, because the system rewards compliance and suppresses creativity.This transformation goes far beyond mere inclusion. No young person wants to be included to be consumed as an organization’s fuel for self-propagation. The answer at all levels of the Christian system, as far as I can tell, will involve going beyond inclusion to true partnership and true investment … investing in young people who are more concerned about the urgent realities of climate justice, racial justice, and economic justice than they are about nostalgic doctrinal debates, power struggles, and liturgical policing.It is especially for the young that I have just finished writing a book called Do I Stay Christian? (It will be available in August 2022.) I would never want to induct new generations of the young into a gerontocracy whose rocking chair is one rock away from tipping over a cliff. But I can imagine no greater opportunity than for younger generations to engage with the good news of Jesus, a radically progressive message, and to let it inspire a new youth movement for these pivotal times. I can imagine no greater honor for people my age and older than to become the advocates and supporters for these young visionaries.To all of my peers and seniors, then, I issue this challenge: what will you do to invest your wisdom, wealth, and energies in a preferential option for the young?The only alternative, of course, is for aging Christians to spend their remaining years “micro-managing their own decline,” as a sage Lutheran pastor once put it. That’s expensive. It’s depressing. And it’s inevitable, unless we wake up fast, before tipping over the demographic cliff.~ Brian D. McLaren
Read online here
About the Author
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent book is Faith After Doubt. He is the author of the illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story, The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Brian is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs. |
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Question & Answer
Q: By A Reader
What have we learned and can apply today from the Nag Hammadi Scriptures?
A: By Toni Anne Reynolds
Dear Reader,As you can imagine, the Nag Hammadi Scriptures are full of many relevant lessons for life today. Despite being thousands of years late to the biblical literature game, this group of books is a well spring of lessons. What I love most about your question is that we need not dive into any particular book to find a powerful lesson to apply to today. The mere fact that an entire corpus of sacred writings was found not even 80 years ago tells us that we don’t know as much about ourselves as we think we do.
Along with poetic repetitions of familiar lessons about God, the Nag Hammadi texts are precious to people for different reasons. Friends with more monastic persuasions live with the Gospel of Thomas, slowly chewing on each saying over the course of several weeks. At least five artistic friends are using Thunder: Perfect Mind as the framework for originally composed songs, opera, and performance art. I am partial The Secret Revelation of John and the ways it points to a connection with Kemetic/Afrikan cosmology. In short form, the Nag Hammadi Scriptures are as diverse as the experiences each of us is having with the Divine.
Similar to the way people have found out long hidden truths about their family lineage, the general Christian history has been incomplete without this special group of holy texts. Now that the long lost relative of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures has been introduced to the wider family, the sacred work of reorienting our identity can begin. Soon enough, it is a reorienting that we will get to do as more texts are unearthed and translated from the ancient world. Namely, the continuous discoveries made at Oxyrhynchus. We simply have no idea how nuanced and intricate the early Christian understandings of God were. Nor do we have a vast sense of how those understandings influenced practical applications of belief outside of canonized spaces.
To my mind, the most important lesson to be learned from this collection of texts is: there will always be more to learn about where we come from, stay flexible.~ Toni Anne Reynolds
Read and share online here
About the Author
Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality. |
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited\
Examining the Story of the Cross, Part III:
There Never Were “Seven Last Words” From the Cross
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
March 17, 2011One of the most dramatic services of Holy Week for me has always been the Good Friday “Three Hour Service.” It was designed to enable Christian worshipers in some dramatic way to watch by the cross as their Lord died. The traditional content of that three-hour service traditionally consisted of sermons or meditations on what were called “The Seven Last Words,” which were supposedly the words spoken by Jesus from the cross as he died.
Normally, the three hours were divided into a series of eight mini-services of twenty minutes or so in duration. After one introductory sermon setting the stage for the day, each segment thereafter in this liturgy would usually consist of a reading from the gospel that included the quoted word from the cross; perhaps a Passiontide hymn like “Go to dark Gethsemane” or “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”, some prayers, which were characteristically of a penitential nature, and perhaps some silence for meditation. There was opportunity for worshipers to come and go after each of the “words.” A few, as the final act of their Lenten discipline, would stay for the whole three hours. Sometimes these services would be ecumenical with clergy from various traditions taking one of the “words.” Sometimes a number of churches would join in the observance and an outsider would be brought in to preach on each of the “Seven Last Words,” a pattern that would at least give consistency to the overall message. Sometimes the local pastor would himself or herself do the entire three-hour service that, in my experience, would either be a work of supererogation for which the preacher would feel profoundly virtuous, or an intensely moving personal experience. In my career I have participated in each of these formats; I have been one of many in a community service; I have done the entire service in the church I was serving; I have been the guest who did the “Words” in another city, and I have sat in the pews and listened to another for the entire three hours. The three most memorable three-hour services that I can personally recall are first, when I was invited to be the Good Friday preacher at St. Peter’s Church, Charlotte, the downtown Episcopal church in which I had been raised as a child; second, listening to a priest of my Diocese, David Hegg, in my present parish church, St. Peter’s, Morristown, New Jersey, preach on the death of Jesus on Good Friday, after he had experienced the death of his 27 year old daughter in an automobile accident just six days earlier, and, third, during the year that I had the privilege of teaching at Harvard I spent Good Friday listening to Dr. Peter Gomes, the senior minister of Memorial Church in the Harvard Yard and one of the great preachers of our time, do each of the seven words.
That three hour Good Friday liturgical pattern has, however, fallen into general disuse and for two major reasons I think. First, churches located in the heart of business districts in the cities of this land have given way since World War II to churches located in the suburbs. A noon to three p.m. service in the suburbs might not have a critical mass of people in the homes who might attend a midday service. A city-center church where business people and shoppers could drop by for a convenient part of the three hours was the final expression of this tradition. In recent years even in city-center churches this traditional Good Friday observance has thus been replaced with some lesser version, perhaps a one-hour services or, at best, one and a half hour services with perhaps a service toward the end of the three hours dedicated to the children, designed, I felt, to perpetuate the illusion of yesterday’s tradition. In many churches preaching has been replaced with liturgical music appropriate to the day.
The second reason for the demise of the Good Friday three hour service was, I believe, the fact that critical biblical scholarship has over the past 200 years demythologized, to use the word Rudolf Bultmann made famous, the way we understand the Bible. The literal manner in which we once read the New Testament is simply no longer possible. One of the casualties of that critical study is that we now recognize that Jesus did not actually say any of the supposed “seven last words” from the cross. In order to reach the number seven people had simply collapsed the four gospels into a single blended collage, as if we could create from these separate sources a single historical and accurate narrative. In our pre-literate biblical days we also did this with Christmas pageants, which were almost uniformly designed to blend Matthew’s story of Jesus’ nativity, which was the earliest of the birth accounts, with Luke’s story which was both the other and the latest. The two stories are radically incompatible in many details, but that did not stop pageant producers from putting them together so that Matthew’s star in the east leading the magi to Bethlehem became the last scene in the story following Luke’s account of the angels’ visit to the shepherds and their journey to the manger in search of the baby. Most people, influenced by too many pageants, still today think of these two stories as a single whole.
The “Seven Last Words” has had a similar history. In the first two gospels, Mark written in the early 70’s and Matthew, composed about a decade later, the only “word” Jesus was said to have spoken from the cross was what came to be called, the “Cry of Dereliction,” which is “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This intensely human cry, however, became an increasingly difficult “word” to attribute to Jesus as Christian history moved and the humanity of Jesus was increasingly replaced by various claims of his divinity. Scholars also noted that this cry, while attributed to Jesus, was actually the first verse of Psalm 22, a psalm that clearly was used early in Christian history to interpret the crucifixion. I will look at the influence of that psalm in the story of the crucifixion later in this series.
When the third gospel, Luke, was written, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” disappeared from his story and instead Luke created three brand new “words” from the cross that no one had ever heard before. The mythical figure developed in II Isaiah (40-55), called the “Suffering Servant,” had clearly been influential in shaping Luke’s story of the cross. The “Servant” was said to have made intercession for his oppressors so Luke had Jesus do the same, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they have done” was the result. In Luke, for the first time, one of the two thieves crucified with Jesus was said to have become “penitent.” In the earlier gospels both thieves were said to have reviled him. In his penitent state he was said to have begged Jesus to “remember him” when he came into his kingdom. To this plea, Luke has Jesus promise, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Finally, instead of the final word from the cross at the moment of death being a fearful cry of forsakenness Luke has Jesus replace it with a note of triumph: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
When we come to the Fourth Gospel, written near the end of the tenth decade, the author omits everything that Mark, Matthew and Luke have all proposed that Jesus spoke from the cross and he creates three entirely new sayings designed to satisfy his understanding of the death of Jesus. The first was: “I thirst,” a note that also has its roots in Psalm 22. The second was: “Woman, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother,” which helped the author to develop the character of the one he called “the beloved disciple.” It is also noteworthy that only in this final gospel is there any reference to the presence of the mother of Jesus at the cross. Lastly, John suggests as Jesus’ final word from the cross: “It is finished,” which catches up one of the Fourth Gospel’s unique interpretations of Jesus as the author of the new creation.
The fact is that in all probability Jesus never said any of these words from the cross and they certainly do not present a complete and harmonious story, since the “seven words” never appear together in any book of the Bible.
Despite the loss of this homiletical trick of preaching on the “Seven Last Words,” I still think there is a place for a three-hour Good Friday service. I believe it should be an offering to the community everywhere a church is located in a business setting to which commuters flow in and out each day and where Easter shoppers are present in abundance. I would, however, like to give “The Seven Last Words” an appropriate burial as the format of this Good Friday liturgy. In their place I would suggest that the three-hour service be dedicated to understanding the unique way in which the passion story is interpreted by each gospel writer. One year, for example, this Good Friday service would be based on the passion story according to Mark. The next year Matthew’s passion narrative would form the content. Luke’s story of the cross would be the emphasis for the third year. Finally, in a fourth year to complete the cycle, John’s gospel account of Jesus death would be examined in depth. The clergy conducting these services would themselves in their preparation be forced to embrace the perspective of each gospel writer in order to lead their congregations into the way each gospel writer interpreted the death of Jesus. Both clergy and their congregations would then be able to experience and to embrace the unique ways in which the story was originally told, to see how each gospel writer added new details, to observe the ways in which the story grew through the years and finally to engage the interpretive task in the quest to understand why the various additions were made. Above all, this approach would help people know that, while the fact of the crucifixion is history, the interpretive details of each gospel writer are not. Good Friday would be transformed into a day of entering the interpretive process that might serve to draw us more closely to this Jesus, instead of being used, as is the case so often with Good Friday preaching, as a means of eliciting guilt for what we did to Jesus. I have never known guilt to help us grow into wholeness. Such a tradition might help us recover the Jesus of history and the meaning of the cross itself.~ John Shelby Spong |
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Announcements
Ritual Leader Training
August 26th - 29th, in Redwood City, CA
Do you want to be a successful Ritual Leader but aren’t really sure how to do it? There are many secrets to creating successful rituals and infusing them with spiritual magic and heart. READ ON ... |
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8/12/2021, Progressing Spirit, Toni Anne Reynolds: Don’t Pay Them No Mind; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 13 Aug '21
by Ellie Stock 13 Aug '21
13 Aug '21
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Don’t Pay Them No Mind
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| Essay by Toni Anne Reynolds
August 12, 2021
I have been in the midst of several transitions over the past few weeks. A dear friend called to check in with me about how things were going. I shared with her what was on my mind, nothing too intense. I’m settling into the new spaces well enough, but that day I shared about some anxiety that was coming up around a potentially problematic dynamic with a new character in my life. My friend happens to know this person, too, quite a bit better than I do. She simply mentioned that this character can invite complications from time to time but ultimately there’s nothing to stress about. We moved on to other topics and eventually began to approached the end of our conversation. As we briefly recapped the topics we covered, wishing each other well on the most pressing issues, I heard my friend mention this new character and say, “…don’t pay them no mind”. I giggled to myself. It was great advice, a simple way to say “chill out, Toni.” What made me laugh is that I hadn’t heard that phrase since my aunt passed away years ago. In general, I’m not sure I’ve heard many peers use the saying. In my mind it’s one of those wisdom gems that elders typically gift to young ones. My aunt was one of those elders who shared the treasure of this phrase. She was the champion of not paying “them” any mind, keeping herself focused and free of unnecessary worry.
The gravity of the phrase intensified a few days later. I was talking with yet another friend about life these days. We explored a whole separate set of topics, life is vast, after all. And still, I heard friend number two offer, “don’t pay them no mind”. I had to laugh again. I talk to these friends often. They have heard two too many anxious reports from me as I pretend to be an adult, but never have I heard them say this particular phrase to me. Now, here it was popping up twice in three days.
Hearing the phrase again helped me get clear about why it’s such a precious piece of advice. Suddenly it was the word “pay” that helped me sink into the impact this phrase can have. My partner and I have been using the word a lot lately. “Did you pay the electric bill?” “Want to replace the couch when we finally pay off the credit card?” It’s always relative to money, obviously, but I think that’s why I heard it differently in this saying. Instead of talking about dollars that become precious because they are hard earned, my friends, and aunt, were talking about precious attention.
“Don’t pay them no mind.”
It’s been an interesting experiment to consider my attention as a form of currency. Though I’m not exactly thrilled with the capitalist framework, I’ve benefited from considering my focus as a resource, and my general head space as a bank of its own. How I “spend” from it matters not just for myself, but also for the people around me.
It is not the idea of the mind as a resource that is novel for me. It’s the truth that experientially, the mind is in some sense always turned on. It functions as one of the lamps with which we make sense of our walk in this world. Its finite nature as well as the real-time decisions we make about it can be missed. Just like we can pay attention to our habits with our financial resources, attention to our mental faculties, and what we focus it on is important. However, doing the latter takes a bit more “stepping back”; the kind that is afforded us during those “Eureka” moments wherein seemingly common, old and mundane pieces of advice – like this one – take on a new life.
Two major questions arose for me in this lightbulb moment that I want to re-emphasize for us, since they will not be new to many. We know we have choice about our mental exertions to some extent. But, how much do we remain in awareness of that? Especially in the moments when we can actually make decisions about them. How much do we remain in enough awareness to make the choice? And, what are we doing to address any deficit therein?
The other question, which seems to have more to do with our power of living life and learning is this: How much power do we actually have to make the choice about what we ‘pay mind to’? Just as life circumstances can take away the power, we have to make decisions about our financial resources, how does this same life, especially the aspects that have to do with our inner health, our spiritual growth and our relational well-being, also dictate what our mind must be paid to? In what cases does resisting such calls of nature lead us to more harm than good? In what cases are we supposed to push back at the wheel of life for better sanity? The specifics of these answers will differ for each person, their needs and their spiritual make-up. But it is definitely worth further exploring – there may be more eureka moments adding flesh and deeper meaning to the mundane answers that have been dangling before our faces.
I truly didn’t think I had been giving a lot of mental attention to the things I shared with my friend. But when pressed to stop myself from paying with my mind that’s the sneaky, and equally powerful, aspect about our minds - there’s always something going on. Without careful attention to observe the mind, to learn how it prefers to wander and what it likes to stick to, we can go a full day paying attention to things that either 1) don’t deserve our attention or, 2) we don’t truly desire to invest in. As was the case with me, I didn’t even realize I was pointing that much of my headspace in a direction that was inconsequential.
I don’t enjoy pointing out problems or concerns without finding practical means to address them. Even if the practical options are inadequate, making some movement toward balance is important. In the realm of this issue of “paying mind” I’m reminded of the Christian practice of reading the Psalms. My dad reads one psalm every day for a week before he leaves for work, and the same one before he goes to sleep. I recently learned this about him, and I respect the practice. Not as a way of evading any issues, but as a way of settling the mind, making space for new understandings. A more recent practice of my own has been to do morning pages as suggested by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. Being able to read previous entries helps me see undercurrents to my mental patterns that I just don’t catch the same way with meditation. There are so many paths to peace of mind, these are just a few I know to work for myself or loved ones. Whatever your preferred method is, I hope it helps you to spend your attention with the most return on investment.
~ Toni Anne Reynolds
Read online here
About the Author
Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality.
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Question & Answer
Q: By A Reader
How can mainstream churches be more inclusive of Rewilding?
A: By Rev. Matthew Syrdal
Dear Reader,
As a pastor of a mainline church and as a nature-based human development guide and founder of a Wild Church, I ask myself that question everyday.
In part, your question depends on what you (we) mean by “Rewilding”? There is the sort of “conservation language” sense of rewilding — protecting wild places and letting the land return to its original, undomesticated state. There is also a human developmental sense of Rewilding, which is to say cultivating deeper authenticity and wholeness as individuals and communities, including renewing a deeper connection with the land itself that moves beyond classical “stewardship” of the Creation (still rooted in a separation or split of humanity from nature) toward something like a “participation with” the Creation.
>From my own experience with Seminary of the Wild as an edge-walker and bridge between institutional religion and new, emerging visions of eco-spirituality, faith and action, there are many layers of support that can contribute to the larger work of Rewilding.
The first is the conservation layer, or “Creation care” — stopping destructive practices to the ecosystem through education, awareness and advocacy work. This is a really important layer. Many churches never learned (and faith leaders never equipped) or had the language to connect our theology with the greater ecology in a way that produces deep and sustainable change in our congregations and communities - not just change in theology and practice, but a comprehensive change of consciousness. Unfortunately seminaries are still largely geared toward engaging the mind (rather than the body, emotions, natural world, and psyche) to effect change which is really the very upper layer. Mainstream congregations need to create a container of leadership to explore what “rewilding” really means, how to translate it to the congregation in a way that speaks broadly to both conservative and liberal elements, and why it is the greatest and most urgent act of Christian love in our times. From the perspective of Scripture, how is “rewilding” core to the gospel (i.e. Romans chapters 8 and 12), how is it exemplified in Christ and part of the “new wineskins” needed to contain this new consciousness?
The second layer of “rewilding” is how we experience the Self, God and Earth in the first place. This “rewilding” work is deeper than education, sustainability and conservation practices. It is moving into what Norwegian philosopher Arne Ness calls, Deep Ecology. It entails a rewilding of the Self through community and practices that can get at the underlying psycho-spiritual structures while cultivating greater wholeness, aliveness, and leadership capacities. Again, in a mainline church, a small group of thoughtful and dedicated individuals might be tasked with exploring a growing number of organizations that already do this work and plan how to introduce a viable vision to the leadership of the church.
~ Rev. Matthew Syrdal
Read and share online here
About the Author
Rev. Matthew Syrdal MDiv. lives in the front range of Colorado with his beautiful family. Matt is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian church (USA), founder and lead guide of WilderSoul and Church of Lost Walls and co-founder of Seminary of the Wild. Matt speaks at conferences and guides immersive nature-based experiences around the country. In his years of studying ancient Christian Rites of Initiation, world religions, anthropology, rites-of-passage and eco- psychology, Matt seeks to re-wild what it means to be human. His work weaves in myth and ceremony in nature as a way for people to enter into conversation with the storied world in which they are a part. Matt’s passion is guiding others in the discovery of “treasure hidden in the field” of their deepest lives cultivating deep wholeness and re-enchantment of the natural world to apprentice fully and dangerously to the kingdom of god. Matt is a coach and a certified Wild Mind nature-based human development guide through the Animas Valley Institute and is currently training to become a soul initiation guide through the SAIP program.
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| 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! |
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
Examining the Story of the Cross, Part II:
Did the Crucifixion of Jesus Occur at Passover?
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
March 9, 2011
It is a common assumption that the crucifixion of Jesus took place in the context of the Jewish observance of Passover. That is certainly the point of view developed in each of the four gospels. Mark portrays the journey of Jesus and his followers to Jerusalem, which eventuated in the crucifixion, to have been for the sole purpose of celebrating the Passover. Matthew and Luke leaning on this Marcan source repeated that tradition and thus together they tended to set this connection in stone. Mark later portrays Jesus in Jerusalem as making elaborate preparations for eating the Passover with his disciples. From the time of the Deuteronomic reforms in the latter years of the seventh century BCE to the time of Jesus, Jerusalem has been the setting in which the Passover was traditionally to be observed. Each of the first three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) goes to great lengths to identify the last supper with the Passover meal, making this assumption to be an almost unchallenged one in Christian history. Recent scholarship has, however, begun to loosen this connection and to raise lots of questions about this tradition.
The first biblical detail that raised a challenge was found in the Fourth Gospel. John separates himself from the conclusions of the earlier gospels by stating quite plainly that the last supper was not a Passover meal. It was in this gospel alone a Kibburah meal, that is, a fellowship meal observed in anticipation of the Passover. John suggests that the Passover meal that year came not on the night before the crucifixion, but on the evening of the day in which the crucifixion occurred. In this way, John was able to identify the death of Jesus more closely with the killing of the Paschal Lamb, since both executions took place on what came to be called Good Friday. This was only a slight shift in John, but it was the first destabilizing observation.
When we go back and read Paul’s story of the institution of the last supper (I Cor.11), we note that Paul dates this meal only with the words, “On the night in which he was handed over.” We have read Paul for so long through the lens of the later gospels that we have simply made the assumption that the “handing over” of Jesus was done at the time of the Passover. Yet nowhere does Paul make that identification. Perhaps the time has come for us to follow the historical order and to read the gospels through the lens of Paul and not the other way around.
Paul, in this same epistle, does identify Jesus with the Lamb of Passover (I Cor. 5:7) when he says that “Christ, our new Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.” That seems, however, to be more of a homiletical device than it was a liturgical practice. It was clear that by the time of Paul the death of Jesus had been identified by the Jewish followers of Jesus in terms of the two lambs that were put to death as important elements in Jewish worship. One of these lambs was the Paschal Lamb of Passover, whose blood protected the Israelites from death in Egypt when the last plague, the death of the first born in every household, was carried out in God’s plan to free the Hebrews from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. The second was the animal (normally a lamb without scratch, bruise or broken bone, i.e. physically perfect) sacrificed to take away the sins of the people in the liturgy they called Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. These theological identifications with the death of Jesus appear to have been made early, but that original interpretive process did not imply or even suggest that the crucifixion occurred in the context of either the Passover celebration or Yom Kippur. It also doesn’t rule it out, I might add, it only loosens the connection and leads us to search for additional clues.
We look for those clues beginning in Mark’s gospel which was the first place in which the story of the crucifixion was told in the context of the Passover celebration. In this Marcan narrative a couple of details quickly grab our imagination. First, Mark suggests that a triumphal procession into Jerusalem occurred on the Sunday before the crucifixion took place on Friday. As part of that procession, Mark tells us that the crowd waved “leafy branches” as they walked. Passover, however, was celebrated on the 14th and 15th days of the month of Nissan, which would place it on our calendars somewhere between late March and early April. This means that if this triumphal procession was historical it would have occurred a week earlier, which would run the date of the procession back deeper into March at the earliest and earlier in April at the latest. Where at that time of year did these followers get leafy branches? There are no leafy branches that early in the year in the Middle East where Jerusalem is located, so the date of Jesus’ crucifixion and its connection with the Passover begins to wobble visibly.
When Matthew incorporated Mark’s story into his own gospel about a decade later, he omitted the word “leafy” from his text. Perhaps Matthew recognized that the presence of leafy branches in late March was a problem, so he has the disciples all wave only branches, not leafy branches. Sticks, however, don’t wave. It is only the leaves that give one the wavy sensation.
About a decade after Matthew, Luke wrote his gospel. Once again, like Matthew, he had Mark in front of him and he too seemed to recognize that leafy branches in late March were a problem. So he omitted not just the leaves but also the branches, telling the story only of the people laying down their garments on the path in front of Jesus. Even that detail, however, probably assumes a warmer climate than would be normal in late March in Jerusalem, People do not shed their outer garments in cold weather.
It is interesting to note that only when we reach John, who wrote his gospel between 95-100, which makes it a late tenth decade piece of writing, do these branches become palm branches with evergreen leaves. That was John’s way of solving the problem. So, our first clue is that at least in this detail, the original passion story suggests that the date of the crucifixion might have been different from a Passover setting in the late winter to early spring.
A deeper search of Mark reveals that he gives us yet another clue. It is found in a strange narrative that Mark places on the day after the triumphal procession of Jesus into Jerusalem. In Mark’s story this Sunday procession went to the Temple where Jesus only looked around at the money changers and then he and his disciples went to Bethany, a couple of miles outside Jerusalem to spend the night. Bethany is identified elsewhere in the New Testament as the home of Mary and Martha, so perhaps they spent the night there. The next morning Mark says that Jesus and his followers returned to Jerusalem. This was to be, Mark proceeds to tell us, the day of the “Cleansing of the Temple” when Jesus drove out the money changers. On his way to the city Mark says that Jesus was hungry and, seeing a fig tree in the distance, he went to it in search of fruit. The fig tree, however, was bare. Fig trees in the northern hemisphere do not bear fruit in late March. Disappointed that his hunger was not satisfied Mark says that Jesus laid a curse on the fig tree. When they returned to Bethany that evening following the cleansing of the Temple episode, they noted that the fig tree had in fact shriveled up and died. To say the least this is a strange story and for Jesus to lay a curse on the fig tree for not producing fruit in March is quite un-Jesus like. Is it possible that that this story was originally located in the fall season when figs should appear on fig trees, but as the crucifixion was brought liturgically into being observed at the time of the Passover, this story was dragged along with the crucifixion story creating this strange anomaly? We file that clue and press on.
Next, we examine a Jewish celebration about which most Christians are uninformed, but which seems to be reflected in the Palm Sunday account in the gospels. The Jews observed in the fall of the year a festival called Sukkoth or Tabernacles. It was an eight-day harvest celebration marked by a liturgical procession to and around the Temple. The people in the procession normally carried in their right hands something called a lulab that they waved as they walked. This lulab was a group of branches tied together, made of willow, myrtle and palm. These fall branches were leafy and they waved. As these worshipers marched, they recited Psalm 118 that says “Hosanna – Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” It is clear that the Palm Sunday story, as we have received it, is closely associated with and draws some of its content from Sukkoth, a harvest festival celebrated in the fall of the year when fig trees do bear fruit.
Perhaps these bits of data suggest that the crucifixion of Jesus actually occurred in the fall of the year at the time of the harvest and not at the time of the Passover in the early spring. When, however, the death of Jesus began to be interpreted in terms of the death of the Paschal Lamb then the two events were slowly drawn together until the crucifixion of Jesus came to be interpreted as having occurred in the context of the observance of the Passover itself. This connection certainly heightened the identification of the crucifixion of Jesus with the slaughter of the Paschal Lamb. Both deaths were said to have had the power to hurl back death itself. So we entertain the possibility that the Passover originally might not actually have been the historical setting of the crucifixion, but rather that over time, the Passover became the focus through which the crucifixion was interpreted. This would mean that the connection between the two was liturgical rather than historical. This might further suggest that if we wanted to read the passion story properly we should interpret it as liturgy seeking its meaning, rather than as history, which would lead us to speculate on whether or not it actually happened the way it is described. That opens us to all kinds of new possibilities. It is a theory worthy of consideration. We will press this inquiry even deeper as this series continues.
~ John Shelby Spong
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Announcements
“Building Human Solidarity in the Light of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter, Fratelli Tutti “
Online + Free - August 19, 2021 - August 21, 2021Global Ministries University is collaborating with the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue and Islamic Studies (IRDIS) and State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Indonesia in the “Building Human Solidarity in the Light of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter, Fratelli Tutti ” international interfaith conference. READ ON ... |
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11 Aug '21
You are invited to participate in a unique conversation and study of Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth. After reviewing book chapters and related websites, we will design new images to think like a 21st economist, answering: How to change economic goals? See the big picture? Nurture human nature? Get savvy with systems thinking? Focus on distribution and regenerative systems instead of growth? In each session the focus will be on local economics in your household, community, city or state. We will review the book for the depth of her ideas. You can also participate by reviewing related TED talks and many articles on Doughnut Economics websites.
Kate challenges us to new economic thinking by drawing the change you want to see in the world: “By combining the well-known power of verbal framing with the hidden power of visual framing, we can give ourselves a far better chance of writing a new economic story - the one that we so desperately need for a safe and just 21st century. It’s easy to get started. Just pick up a pencil and draw."
Facilitated by Jan Sanders and Karen Snyder, the sessions will be held September: 7, 14, 21, 28 from 8-9:30 PM Eastern time.
If you are interested in participating, send an email to: icaglobalschedule(a)gmail.com <mailto:icaglobalschedule@gmail.com>
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Enjoy catching up with what is happening
in ICAs across the globe....
And please click the link below for the
latest issue of the Global Buzz
Global Buzz Report: August 2021
or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar
http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-21/2021-08-01.php
Read the latest
ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine
brought to you now on Medium.com
See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves
ICAI Communications
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“Study the past if you would define the future.” Confucius
We have just completed 20 days of intensive immersion in the RELIGIOUS (7), CULTURAL (7) and METHODS (12) CURRICULUM that seeded the Academies, International Training Institutes, Human Development Training Schools, and ToP. We long to take into the future past wisdom like:
· rehearsing the Word in our lives of personal acceptance, standing before all that is, and seeing the past as approved and future open;
· wondering how the ur images understanding of the gifts of each culture can be a resource to address racism today;
· remembering the power of global experiences, from one-month Global Odysseys to living in other cultures, and wanting that for others today; or
· feeling gratitude for how griding helps hold complexity and wondering how it could be a tool for others today.
Since our report last week, ready for Thomas to scan are New Testament (thanks MaryAnn), Old Testament (thanks Kay), The Global Odyssey and other religious courses (thanks Laura) and seven culture courses (thanks Debra - who gets the prize for most courses prepped!). We reduced forty file drawers to ten. Remaining tasks are scanning, emailing PDFs to Wendell Refior to become website links, and finally uploading to website. You can see the curriculum resources grow at: https://icaglobalarchives.org/collections/spiritmovement/academy/ <https://icaglobalarchives.org/collections/spiritmovement/academy/> .
From her librarian perspective, Laura challenged us to recognize that finishing the work of the Global Archives is urgent. The time is now to retrieve past gems to be reinvented for the future. Consider participating in helping us in this task by doing onsite work at ICA or working from home (i.e., making your files PDFS or doing website editing). For the remainder of 2021, the fourth week of each month will be focused in Chicago on Archive work (August 21-29, September 25-October 3, October 23-31, and November 25-December 5). Join for any length of time.
The July 16-August 3 Archives Dream Team:
Ed Feldmanis, Laura Grover, Debra Harris, MaryAnn Heard, Thomas Moncrief, Kay Nixon, Karen Snyder
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8/05/2021, Progressing Spirit, Rev Matthew Syrdal: When Beliefs Kill Cultures; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 05 Aug '21
by Ellie Stock 05 Aug '21
05 Aug '21
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When Beliefs Kill Cultures
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| Essay by Rev. Matthew Syrdal
August 5, 2021
Are our beliefs killing us?
Beliefs are a funny thing to try to pin down. If we are honest, they are slippery and largely unconscious. When enough of them get mixed together in a large enough group they build up force like a gathering storm. It makes you wonder, are any beliefs actually rational? Perhaps. But they are also bound together with some powerfully energetic emotions. We have seen, quite horrifically, how our beliefs kill others. The horror of Indigenous genocide as countless unmarked graves are unearthed near boarding schools. Beliefs quickly shape-shift into things like attitudes, actions and behaviors. And when enough of them meet together in the back-rooms they can become things like policies and laws. Things like Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery. Bigger shadowy beliefs can activate and manipulate smaller, more visible and energized beliefs. We think we have them, but sometimes I wonder if they have us.
In this age of reckoning and apocalypse, when everything buried under the layers of time is revealed with the melting of surface appearance, I find myself experiencing numbness at the sheer overwhelm of it all, the magnitude of suffering of the more-than-human world, whole communities of color, pervasive gender inequity, the discovery of the countless graves of indigenous children forcibly removed from their homes and tribes. I am tired of all the words, weighed down by the beliefs layer on the surface.
As a white man who was raised Christian, I move between feeling numb and a deep and pervasive grief that never seems to go away. Awakening to my own complicity on so many levels with many others over the astounding magnitude of an entire history of beliefs and practices in the Western World—and so the Church—that has functioned largely as tools for cultural appropriation, forced assimilation and strategies like the Interpretatio Christiana (the adaptation of non-Cristian aspects of culture and history—even the landscape itself—into the worldview of Christianity) that has led, or is leading, to the utter destruction of entire cultures.
“Wild” is a term that touches a deep place in a growing number of us in the Western world. Wild is more than a trending meme, it is a symbol of both a longing and an urgency in the present nightmare of our modern Western industrial culture. Even the word “culture” is a bit of a misnomer, pitted as it has become against life enhancing ways and Earth-based rhythms of indigenous wisdom. First used by ancient Roman orator Cicero in the context of the cultivation of the soul, or “cultura animi”, perhaps more importantly it offered an agricultural image for the development of the soul, the highest possible ideal for human development. For thousands of years men (sic) of philosophy, of religion, and of Empire understood “culture” from a teleological perspective, that it could move us toward attaining a perfection of virtue and overcome our original barbarism, and only then might we become fully human.
We have seen the end of that fantasy today. Signs of cultural regression across the globe and a resurgence of what Riane Eisler calls “androcracy.” Escalation of violence, climate emergency, reactionary and oppressive patriarchal values of Church and State, the poison of white supremacy, and systemic racism. We have seen through the veneer of these stories of “progress”, of human or cultural achievement, down to a bone truth at a deep structural level: systemic racism, poverty, and climate catastrophe all point to our severance from Earth, our original wound as a species — a complete disconnection from “the wild” in nature and the human soul.
“Wild” comes from the Old English wilde, meaning the natural state, uncultivated, undomesticated and untamed — something like the born world (and Self) in its primordial state. It shares a root with an older Germanic word wald (from which we get wield) meaning to reign, govern, possess, especially in the sense of self-willed or self-ruled, to be self-possessed. The nature-based root, wald, originated in high lands covered with woods, forest.
When my colleagues and I birthed Seminary of the Wild, the big questions we began to ask ourselves were: what kind of liminal space in community is needed in our times to hold people as their old story unravels, when a new story has not yet been birthed? How can we offer a space of healing for the poison of Western industrial culture to slowly become extracted from the soils of the soul? “Seminary” comes from an old word that means literally, a wild seed bed. We began to ask ourselves what life ways might help us heal our deep split from Earth? What is needed to rewild the Self, what new wineskins might hold the good wine? How might we sift through the debris of our decomposing god-images to discover new seeds of possibility? Is it even possible to rewild Western culture, or has all been lost?
Is human culture necessarily at odds with wildness? Wildness perhaps defined as s life-enhancing way of relating to our own diverse and precious species, and the fragile and powerful beauty of the more-than-human world? Can we reclaim, or rewild “culture?” Culture originally meant the place we are called to care for, to till, and to serve, to worship, as in the root “cultus,” from where we get the religious depth in humanity. In the second creation myth in Genesis, we discover the Human One whom Adonai Elohim in-breathed with nephesh (breath, soul) — along with all the other beings in the animate world — and placed in the Garden, planted in the Ground, the very depths of soul. It his here Adam received his name, from the ground. Adamah. It is here that Eve becomes the Mother of Life. Many indigenous peoples across continents remember the stories of their ancestors who emerged from under the Earth. This myth forms the basis of the original archetype of vocation for the Israelites, to till and to serve the Ground, the source of all Life. Myth returns the story of culture to its original roots in nature, and this re-binding is the religious function.
I do not believe that politics will save us. Our institutions are crumbling. There is no ‘mana’ left in our religious systems. The tyranny of the ‘thinking man,’ the legacy of the age of reason — cogito ergo sum — must topple over like a statue. Beliefs cannot get us there. The only hope we have in a possible future is a comprehensive change in consciousness, a rewilding of culture — that is to say, a return to the ground.
This return is, in a sense, a re-membrance. A holy re-membrance, that is to say a mystery. And so I have been musing about the old ways of Sacrament, the old sense of living in ceremony, with the seasons, cycles, powers — with holy Earth. I wonder about the Word made flesh, the flesh of the world in which we are embedded, in which we belong in this mystery of entangled reciprocity.
The poet and prophet Isaiah speaks to a sense of divine action, inter-being and sacred reciprocity:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Perhaps we have lost the sense that we are food as well as eater. That death itself is a mystery that opens like a door from the halls of life. It seems to me that if there is any hope for rewilding culture, reconnecting culture with nature, then we need to revisit the sacraments.
What I call Wild Sacrament is a return to the sacredness of bodies. Human bodies. Bodies of color. Sensual, sexual and reproductive bodies. Bodies of astonishing biodiversity and staggering beauty. Bodies of land, of bioregion. Ocean and sky bodies. Sacrament trusts the wisdom of the body of Earth and the deeper divinity that undergirds emotion and even reason. Sacrament is not only a recovery of mystery, but of intimacy.
Irish poet John O Donohue writes, “The body is a sacrament… a visible sign of invisible grace. In that definition there is a fine acknowledgement of how the unseen world comes to expression in the visible world. This desire for expression lies deep at the heart of the invisible world. All our inner life and intimacy of soul longs to find an outer mirror. It longs for a form in which it can be seen, felt, and touched. The body is the mirror where the secret world of the soul comes to expression. The body is a sacred threshold.”
~ Rev. Matthew Syrdal
Read online here
About the Author
Rev. Matthew Syrdal MDiv. lives in the front range of Colorado with his beautiful family. Matt is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian church (USA), founder and lead guide of WilderSoul and Church of Lost Walls and co-founder of Seminary of the Wild. Matt speaks at conferences and guides immersive nature-based experiences around the country. In his years of studying ancient Christian Rites of Initiation, world religions, anthropology, rites-of-passage and eco- psychology, Matt seeks to re-wild what it means to be human. His work weaves in myth and ceremony in nature as a way for people to enter into conversation with the storied world in which they are a part. Matt’s passion is guiding others in the discovery of “treasure hidden in the field” of their deepest lives cultivating deep wholeness and re-enchantment of the natural world to apprentice fully and dangerously to the kingdom of god. Matt is a coach and a certified Wild Mind nature-based human development guide through the Animas Valley Institute and is currently training to become a soul initiation guide through the SAIP program.
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Question & Answer
Q: By A Reader
If Jesus did not die on a cross to cover our sin, then what was the purpose of him dying? What was the purpose of his life? Was it to show us how to simply be "good people?"
A: By Rev. Irene Monroe
Dear Reader,
As a figure that has dominated Western culture and Christianity for over 2,000 years, too little attention is paid to Jesus' death. As Christians, we move swiftly from Good Friday to Easter/Resurrection Sunday. If more focus were spent on the reasons for his death and the systems of oppression that brought about his demise, violence against marginalized people would cease to exist. However, without the contextualization and accountability of the violence enacted upon Jesus, the cycle of violence continues.
In the year 33 A.D., Jesus was unquestionably a religious threat to conservative Jews because of his unorthodox views and practice of Jewish Law. He was viewed as a political threat to the Roman government simply because he was a Jew.
As an instrument for execution by Roman officials during Jesus' time, the cross's symbolic nature and its symbolic value can both be seen as the valorization of suffering and abuse, especially in the lives of the oppressed.
For those of us on the margins, a Christology mounted on the belief that "Jesus died on the cross for our sins" instead of "Jesus died on the cross because of our sins" not only exalts Jesus as the suffering servant, but it also ritualizes suffering as redemptive. While suffering points to the need for redemption, suffering in and of itself is not redemptive, and it does not always correlate to one's sinfulness. For example, the belief that undeserved suffering is endured by faith, and that it has a morally educative component makes the powerful insensitive to the plight of others, and it forces the less powerful to be complacent to their suffering – therefore, maintaining the status quo.
The cross is the locus of redemption insofar as it serves as a lens to critically examine and make the connections between the abuses of power and institutions of domination that brought about the suffering Jesus endured during his time - to the abuses of power and institutions of domination that brings about the suffering which women, people of color and sexual minorities are enduring in our present day.
When suffering is understood as an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted for, we can then begin to see its manifestation in systems of racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, to name a few, in our everyday lives. With a new understanding of suffering and how it victimizes the innocent and its aborts the Christian mission of inclusiveness, Jesus' death at Calvary invites a different hermeneutic than its classically held one.
When the Christian community looks to the cross, we must see not only Jesus but also the many other faces of God crucified as God's people today. In so doing, we see the image of God in ourselves, the image of God as ourselves, and the image of God in each other. We then deepen the church's solidarity with all who suffer -those who are Christ in our midst.
~ Rev. Irene Monroe
Read and share online here
About the Author
The Reverend Monroe does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on NPR's WGBH (89.7 FM). She is a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS. Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists. A Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist; her columns appear the Boston LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and the Boston Globe.
Monroe states that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As a religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website.
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
Examining the Story of the Cross
Part I: Analyzing the Details of the Crucifixion
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
March 3, 2011
The story of the cross is clearly the focal point of the New Testament with the last week of Jesus’ life taking up about a third of the content in each of the four gospels. Next to the birth narratives, which are contained only in Matthew and Luke, the account of the Passion of Jesus is the most familiar part of the New Testament to Christian people. That familiarity is, however, not very well informed. To put new understanding into this well-known narrative is the thing I will seek to do in a series of columns that will carry us up until Easter.
The final week in Jesus’ life begins with what we now call the Palm Sunday procession. It then moves toward the Maundy Thursday “Last Supper,” the betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the trial before the Sanhedrin, the trial before Pilate, the introduction of the character we call Barabbas, the purple robe, the crown of thorns and finally the story of the crucifixion itself. The first observation we need to make when we look at this material, is that what most people think they know is far more a blending and a smoothing over of real differences that mark the original separate biblical accounts. This means that most readers have not yet embraced the fact that the story of Jesus’ passion is not literal history at all, but a pious interpretation in which even the familiar story of the end of Jesus’ life shows evidence of growth and development over the years as each successive writer began to fill in the blanks in imaginative ways and with the judicious use of the Hebrew Scriptures. Today, in the first in this series of columns, I will seek to pull this seemingly foundational story apart and show how it was actually constructed over a period of about half a century in the writings of the New Testament.
Let me begin by stating clearly that, while I am convinced that there is literal historical memory at the core of this story, the details are not history at all, but legendary and interpretive accretions. I will seek in this and subsequent columns to demonstrate both of these observations.
The central historical fact, which I find indisputable, is that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified during the reign and by the action of the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, who served in this office by appointment of the Caesar from 26-36 CE. Beyond that central fact, however, all eye witness details seem to disappear to be replaced by the strategy of forcing the story of the crucifixion into the mold of messianic expectations through a study of the Hebrew Scriptures. Let me now lay out the various details found in the story of the Passion of Jesus in the order that each was developed from the Jewish biblical sources available to the followers of Jesus.
Paul is the first writer of any part of the New Testament. He wrote all of his authentic epistles within a span of years between 51 CE at the earliest and 64 CE at the latest. The initial fact that we need to embrace in this study is that the work of Paul is as close to the events of Holy Week as we can get in written materials. If Jesus was crucified around 30 CE, as most New Testament scholars now agree, then it was twenty-one years, or a full generation, before any words about the crucifixion that we still possess were written down. Twenty-one years is a long time to pass down any recollection by word of mouth and have it be rendered accurately.
Paul refers to the cross of Jesus on seven occasions in his epistles and he uses the word “crucified” in reference to Jesus on ten other occasions. In none of these accounts, however, does he give any narrative details. In I Corinthians: 11, for the first time Paul makes a reference to the institution of the last supper and to Jesus being “handed over,” a word that later was translated “betrayed.” That is the entire origin of the traitor story. He does not, however, suggest either that the last supper was identical or even associated with the Passover or that the betrayal was at the hands of one of the twelve. The name Judas, for example, never appears in the Pauline corpus.
About the crucifixion Paul says only that “he died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.” No other details are mentioned: no Garden of Gethsemane, no apostolic desertion, no arrest; no Pilate, no trial, no torture, no denial by Peter, no thieves, no words from the Cross and no darkness. About the burial Paul says only, “He was buried.” There is no mention in the writings of Paul of a tomb, no Joseph of Arimathea and no preparation of the body for burial. About the Easter event, Paul says only this: “On the third day he was raised in accordance with the scriptures.” There is no account in Paul of angels, no stone to roll back, no women carrying spices and no story of a dawn visit. Paul does go on then to list those to whom Jesus was said to have “appeared.” Cephas (Peter) was first, next the Twelve (note Judas is still included) and then he mentions an appearance to 500 brethren at once, about which we know nothing. Paul continues this list by saying that Jesus next appeared to James, but he does not say which James and there are three in the New Testament story: James, the son of Zebedee, James, the son of Alphaeus and James, the brother of the Lord. The consensus among scholars today is that it is the last mentioned James to whom Paul is making reference. Then, continues Paul, Jesus appeared to the Apostles. Who are they? He has already mentioned the Twelve. This seems like another group. Paul ends his list by saying that “last of all he appeared to me,” that is, to Paul, and this appearance, he argues, was in no way different from the others except that he was last. Paul’s conversion is set between one year after the crucifixion at the earliest and six years at the latest, so this appearance could hardly have been that of a physically-resuscitated body that walked out of the grave, making it a safe assumption that however Paul had conceived of the resurrection, it was not the resuscitation of a physically-deceased body. Finally, we need to embrace the fact that these scant details are all the Christian community possessed about this climactic story of the end of Jesus’ life until the 8th decade of the Christian era.
Mark, writing somewhere between 70-73, is the creator of most of what has become the familiar story that surround the crucifixion. Judas Iscariot, for example, makes his first appearance in Mark. Mark is also the first New Testament source to identify the Last Supper with the Passover, the first to introduce the Garden of Gethsemane, to give us details of the trial, to relate the account of Peter’s denial, to mention Barabbas and the first to record the story of the torture. He is the first to put words into the mouth of the dying Jesus, suggesting that he said only one thing from the cross and that was what we now call the cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark was also the first to suggest that on the day of the crucifixion darkness covered the land from noon to three p.m., and the first to give content to the burial story, including the introduction of Joseph of Arimathea.
Matthew writing in the 9th decade, somewhere between 83-85, essentially copied Mark’s story, but then added some other fascinating details. It is from Matthew alone that we are told that the price Judas received for his act of betrayal was thirty pieces of silver, or that Judas repented, hurled the silver back into the Temple and went and hanged himself. Matthew is also the first to suggest that an earthquake accompanied the death of Jesus or to tell us that a Temple guard was placed around the tomb of Jesus by the high priest.
Luke, writing near the end of the 9th decade or perhaps even in the first years of the 10th decade (89-93), expands the story in a still further direction. For example, only in Luke is Jesus portrayed as praying for his tormentors, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Only in Luke does one of the thieves become penitent and asks Jesus to remember him. Only in Luke does Jesus tell Peter that he will pray for him since Satan has desired him. Only in Luke is Jesus tried separately before Herod. In Luke Pilate becomes more and more a sympathetic figure and Judas a more sinister one. Finally, Luke dismisses the cry from the cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me” and has Jesus say at the moment of his death, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” That is, I submit, a very different “final word.” Despair has been vanquished in victory.
When we come to John, written in the final years of the 10th decade (95-100), new details are added. Only in John does the mother of Jesus appear at the foot of the cross. That fact should surprise both Mel Gibson and the creators of what are called “the Stations of the Cross.” John’s Jesus says three things from the cross, none of which have we ever heard of before in the earlier gospels. They are, “I thirst,” “Woman behold your son, son behold your mother” and, as Jesus’ final word, John has him say: “It is finished.” John alone tells the story of the breaking of the legs of the thieves to hasten their deaths, a procedure which, he says, Jesus was spared since he was already dead. John alone then adds the story of the spear being hurled into Jesus’ side, which makes this detail a 10th decade addition. Its details are drawn from II Zechariah. John concludes this episode by noting that from that wound flowed both water and blood. Finally, John mentions a character called Nicodemus, who appears in no other gospel. In John Nicodemus is first introduced in chapter three and then re-introduced in the burial story, joining Joseph of Arimathea and together, we are told, they used 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus’ body for burial.
That is, in the briefest possible form, the way the story of the cross grew in detail from Paul in the 50’s to John in the late 90’s. In future columns I will seek to put these changing and sometimes conflicting details into an interpretive framework. I trust it will be a worthy and provocative study.
~ John Shelby Spong
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Announcements
Do Christianity and Buddhism have Shamanic Roots?
In this Teach-In on August 13th and 14th, Matthew Fox and Isa Gucciardi discuss the roots of shamanic practice in Christian and Buddhist thought through the lens of the visionary experiences that are essential to shamanic practice. Saturday morning will be highly experiential. Students will have the opportunity to engage in the shamanic journey, an ancient practice used to establish contact with the unseen forces of nature, and will also participate in a practice that brings the Cosmic Christ alive in one’s Self. READ ON ... |
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