- Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

1/07/2021: Progressing Spirit, Toni Ann Reynolds: My Penny; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

My Penny#yiv1599012517 p{margin:10px 0;padding:0;}#yiv1599012517 table{border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv1599012517 h1, #yiv1599012517 h2, #yiv1599012517 h3, #yiv1599012517 h4, #yiv1599012517 h5, #yiv1599012517 h6{display:block;margin:0;padding:0;}#yiv1599012517 img, #yiv1599012517 a img{border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;}#yiv1599012517 body, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517bodyTable, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517bodyCell{min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnPreviewText{display:none !important;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517outlook a{padding:0;}#yiv1599012517 img{}#yiv1599012517 table{}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ReadMsgBody{width:100%;}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ExternalClass{width:100%;}#yiv1599012517 p, #yiv1599012517 a, #yiv1599012517 li, #yiv1599012517 td, #yiv1599012517 blockquote{}#yiv1599012517 a .filtered99999 , #yiv1599012517 a .filtered99999 {color:inherit;cursor:default;text-decoration:none;}#yiv1599012517 p, #yiv1599012517 a, #yiv1599012517 li, #yiv1599012517 td, #yiv1599012517 body, #yiv1599012517 table, #yiv1599012517 blockquote{}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ExternalClass, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ExternalClass p, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ExternalClass td, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ExternalClass div, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ExternalClass span, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517ExternalClass font{line-height:100%;}#yiv1599012517 a .filtered99999 {color:inherit !important;text-decoration:none !important;font-size:inherit !important;font-family:inherit !important;font-weight:inherit !important;line-height:inherit !important;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517bodyCell{padding:10px;}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517templateContainer{max-width:600px !important;border:5px solid #363232;}#yiv1599012517 a.yiv1599012517mcnButton{display:block;}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImage, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnRetinaImage{vertical-align:bottom;}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent{}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent img{height:auto !important;}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnDividerBlock{table-layout:fixed !important;}#yiv1599012517 body, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517bodyTable{}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517bodyCell{border-top:0;}#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517templateContainer{border:5px solid #363232;}#yiv1599012517 h1{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1599012517 h2{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1599012517 h3{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1599012517 h4{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader{background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent a, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p a{color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateHeader{background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:0;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateHeader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateHeader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateHeader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent a, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateHeader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p a{color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateBody{background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateBody .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateBody .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateBody .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent a, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateBody .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p a{color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateFooter{background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateFooter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateFooter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:center;}#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateFooter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent a, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateFooter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p a{color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;}@media only screen and (min-width:768px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517templateContainer{width:600px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 body, #yiv1599012517 table, #yiv1599012517 td, #yiv1599012517 p, #yiv1599012517 a, #yiv1599012517 li, #yiv1599012517 blockquote{}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 body{width:100% !important;min-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnRetinaImage{max-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImage{width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCartContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionTopContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnRecContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionBottomContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnTextContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnBoxedTextContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageGroupContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionRightTextContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionRightImageContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardRightTextContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardRightImageContentContainer{max-width:100% !important;width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnBoxedTextContentContainer{min-width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageGroupContent{padding:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionLeftContentOuter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionRightContentOuter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent{padding-top:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardTopImageContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionBottomContent:last-child .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionBottomImageContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionBlockInner .yiv1599012517mcnCaptionTopContent:last-child .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent{padding-top:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardBottomImageContent{padding-bottom:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageGroupBlockInner{padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageGroupBlockOuter{padding-top:9px !important;padding-bottom:9px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnImageCardRightImageContent{padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcpreview-image-uploader{display:none !important;width:100% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 h1{font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 h2{font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 h3{font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 .yiv1599012517mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templatePreheader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateHeader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateHeader .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateBody .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateBody .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateFooter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent, #yiv1599012517 #yiv1599012517templateFooter .yiv1599012517mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | My Penny Essay by Toni Anne Reynolds December 7, 2021 Disclaimer: I really wanted to write you a piece that was inspirational. I started several documents and all of them feel... bleh. The truth is that I just don’t have much to give right now. I feel a small bit like the woman who threw her last penny into the offering pot in the temple. This article is my penny, this column is the offering pot, the readership is the Temple. Because this is the most precious penny I have at the moment, I trust it will rattle with some power as it hits the sides of this offering pot. Regardless of the resonance this is all I have right now, so here I am to give it. ******************* I have an incredible group of friends from seminary. If everyone had the chance to transform under the witness of other souls who were also transforming, I think the world could very well change for the better. I learned the most about growth, community and the work of the Spirit by being in relationship with the folks I met during seminary. Among the many individual dynamics, there is a special group that is dear to my heart. We are five in total and we’ve moved from friendships into chosen-kinships. Each of us is friends with one another separately, and now something bigger-than-friends when we’re together. We met the first day of orientation in August 2011. Each one similarly eager and overwhelmed by the path we had just started down. Over the course of our three years in the MDiv program we learned so much about ourselves and one another. I’ve noticed that a common priority among us is that of humanity. We seem to ask a lot of questions like “How do I remain human under the pressure of life?” Or, “How do I keep my humanity intact and resolve this conflict with another person who has deeply hurt me?” And, “How do I keep track of myself and authentically honor the truth of this grief filled moment?” We were, and continue to be, full of questions; often it seems like none of them are easy to answer. With nothing to ponder but the nature of one’s soul, and how to efficiently wash laundry, buy groceries, and read all of the 15 assigned readings for Dr. Cone’s intro to Systematic Theology course, we found ourselves being squeezed into the tippy top portion of our scattered minds. Suddenly, one of the fiercest of us five was wise enough to notice this cerebral overload. I was stunned at her observation. I genuinely thought I was simply on a harsh learning curve that, if mastered, ended with success in the theological academy. If we could muscle through, find a way to rock with it, we’d be “successful”. But, because of the grace provided in community, I came to the conclusion that I was just trying to keep my head above the water in a sea that could drown the fiercest swimmer. And, I was no fierce swimmer. After one of our fellow colleagues had a nervous breakdown and took a leave of absence, I soon learned from second year, and PhD students that each incoming class had at least one causality, “it just seems to be the way it goes,” the veterans would say. Horrid. Yet, also kind of logical. So much of the reality of higher education is imbalanced and unwell. It made little sense that we were pulled to this program by spiritual means yet now we were becoming talking heads, just like the ones we were prompted to critique in our assignments. How did these authors make this work? Why, in the name of all things holy, were casualties needed for this path? Who the hell were we that someone should need to be sacrificed for the rest of us to “make it”? So much for “liberal theology”. ALL we did was think! Then, write, read, talk about what we read, re-read what we wrote, and pray that we could finish all the reading, and that no one would know when we didn’t. So, there we were, collectively suffering in our over analytical minds, hungry for practical spirituality, and the space to try it on for ourselves. The soon to be Dr. Knowles is a great friend of Wisdom Sophia, one whole facet of Sophia herself. In the throes of it all she suggested that we have a Movement Ceremony to attempt to bring ourselves into balance. She wrote to us saying something to the effect of “I need a sacred way to become embodied again. How about we dance together?” She decided on two themes and asked that we each send her songs that speak to the themes. She curated our submissions into a playlist. We gathered in a large room in McGiffert Hall (RIP McGiffert), lit some candles (sorry Mr. Maloney) and we danced. By the time the playlist ended some cried, some laughed, all stretched. We arrived back to ourselves, even if for just a moment. Then, we sat down to integrate this renewed sense of being and we had good fun guessing who sent which song. It was everything we didn’t know we needed. The gift of Dr. Knowles was so great that this group of five has kept the Movement Ceremony alive all these years. When any of us is feeling that we’re past due for this sacred space, we write to the group and initiate the planning for the next Ceremony. These are the best worship services I have ever been to. We don’t know who sent in what song, we just know that of all the songs in all the music libraries, this is the most important one to someone in this circle. A sacred song, something set apart, an arrow to point us back to the roots of our feet to practice being balanced humans again. We get to accept one another’s medicine. We get to see how each of us has changed, or stayed the same. We get to witness group dynamics evolve and stretch. Each time we gather a miracle of some kind takes place. Our last Movement Ceremony was no different. We gathered in November 2020 with the help of the Zoom gods. Another one of the fiercest in our circle submitted a song entitled “Get Free” by the artist Mereba (I invite you to search for this song on whatever platform you find your music). It has become the prayer I pray over myself and the one I pray for others. Typically, I begin the month of January by reflecting on the previous year and getting clear about what I want to focus on in the new one. I find it wildly challenging to do that in 2021. My mind is full. I’ve got grief on back log. I, like many others, am living on Zoom and use so much hand sanitizer that I’m pretty sure my blood alcohol content remains just shy of the legal limit despite the fact that I haven’t imbibed once since Rona arrived. What I’m getting at here is that I feel a deep, deep need to find my body in this time. To come down from the colorful conspiracy theories that plague my social media timelines. To tap out of the stream of trending words and catchy tiktoks. To get back to the roots of my feet and find the heart level for connecting again. To leave you, I invite you to “go ahead and get free”. Movement Ceremonies have been a space of getting free for us. I invite you to try it for yourself. Here are the steps: 1. Invite a few beloved and open-hearted people in your life to a Movement Ceremony (a designated time to dance, stretch, lay still, do sun salutations, be in your body authentically-uninterrupted). 2. Suggest a theme for the song submissions and have your people reply only to you with their song choice(s). This makes room for the fun guessing game after should you so choose to engage in that part. Some themes we have used are: - “Vision for the future” - “Inspiration to make it through the unknown” - “Exploration of the old and new” 3. Gather the songs on a platform of your choice, be sure that everyone will have access to the list. Spotify is a great option if anyone in your group has a subscription, you don’t need an account to listen to the playlist once it’s made (when in doubt about the best way, ask Dr. Google or Nurse YouTube). 4. Schedule the Movement Ceremony, join the video chat to enjoy the playlist together, or just to meet up after and debrief, whatever feels best. 5. Get free (move). Whatever you have left to give to others right now, even if it’s nothing, is the perfect amount. Do what you can to stay in your body, it’s precious. Take good care of yourself and the people you’re close to. ~ Toni Anne Reynolds Read online here About the AuthorMinister 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. | | | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader I was on a Zoom social with a few friends recently. They are of various races, but mostly black. I am white and good friends with them all. I used the n-word, repeating what one of my black friends said. I was told I was wrong for using it. My black friends use it a lot and around us all. Why was I wrong for using it? A: By Rev. Irene Monroe Dear Reader,The language we use in our daily lives has a direct impact on how we interact with others. This is especially true with the words we use for race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, etc. In this political climate hate speech is becoming common use. And, there has been an uptick of the use of the n-word, even from the mouths of people one would not expect. For example, when the word slips from the mouths of race conscious allies like Bill Maher -comedian, political commentator of HBO political talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher” in 2017 - a lot of shock and hurt was felt. When responding to his guest Senator Ben Saase of Nebraska’s question,“ Would you like to come work in the field with us?” Maher mockingly replied, “Work in the fields? Senator, I am a house n—er.” Nowadays it’s often difficult to discern in some instances if the n-word is being used as an epithet or a term of endearment. The confusion illustrates what happens when an epithet like the n-word, once hurled at African-Americans in this country and banned from polite conversation, now has a broad-based cultural acceptance in our society. The notion that it is acceptable for African Americans to use the n-word with each other yet it is considered racist for others outside the race to use it unquestionably sets up a double standard. And, because language is a public enterprise, the notion that one ethnic group has property rights to the term is an absurdly narrow argument. Moreover, the fact that African Americans have appropriated the n-word does not negate our long history of internalized self-hatred. Shortly after Maher dropped the word many on Twitter chimed in defending him stating he used a modified n-word, meaning it ended in an “a” rather than a “r.” Many today argue the meaning of the n-word is all in how ones spell it. By dropping the “er’ ending and replacing it with either an “a” or ‘ah” ending the term morphs into a term of endearment. However, I contest you cannot conjugate the n-word because it is firmly embedded in the lexicon of racist language that was and still is used to disparage African Americans. Moreover, many slaveholders pronounced the n-word with the “a’ ending, and in the 1920’s many African Americans use the “a’ ending as a pejorative term to denote class difference among themselves. In my opinion, our use of the n-word speaks less about our rights to free speech and more about how we as a people - both white and black Americans - have become anesthetized to the damaging and destructive use of epithets. Reclaiming racist words like the n-word neither eradicate its historical baggage nor its existing racial relations among us. Rather, it keeps the hate and hurt alive. ~ 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. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org relies heavily on the good will of donors. We want to continue to bring you the messages of progressive Christians via our Progressing Spirit Newsletter; however, the fact is, the cost of a subscription goes towards paying our authors. We therefore rely your generosity - specifically, if you are in a position to contribute to our efforts, we would be grateful for your donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | Bishop Spong Revisited Origins of the New Testament, Part XXIII: Matthew and the Liturgical Year of the Synagogue Bishop John Shelby Spong May 13, 2010 In one of my earlier columns on the gospel of Mark, I sought to demonstrate that it was the liturgical life of the synagogue that formed the organizing principle in the first gospel to be written. What Mark had done was to provide Jesus stories appropriate to the synagogue celebrations from Rosh Hashanah (the John the Baptist story) to Passover (the crucifixion story). Rosh Hashanah, however, comes in the mid fall of the year and Passover comes in the early spring, so the gospel of Mark only covered six and a half months of the twelve month year, leaving out the five and a half months that separate Passover from Rosh Hashanah. There was, therefore, a desire after Mark’s gospel appeared to fill in that blank space with additional Jesus material, which soon became an imperative need. Within about a decade, Matthew wrote the first expansion of Mark and aimed his story at the disciples of Jesus who worshipped in rather traditional Jewish synagogues. Luke wrote the second expansion of Mark and he aimed his story at the community of Jesus’ disciples who worshipped at synagogues that were made up of dispersed Jews and those Gentile proselytes, who were beginning to be drawn into the synagogue community. Recall once again that the split between the church and the synagogue would not occur until near the end of the ninth decade, so when Mark and Matthew were written, and maybe even Luke, Christians were still synagogue worshipers calling themselves “the followers of the Way.” If one has ever wondered why Mark is so much shorter than the other two shortest of the gospels, the answer is quite simply that he wrote a Jesus narrative to provide material only from Rosh Hashanah (in October) to Passover (in April), or for just six and a half months of the calendar year. Matthew and Luke were longer because they both stretched Mark to cover a full year.When Matthew, like Mark, correlates the crucifixion with the Passover (Matt. 26-27), he signals that the core of Mark will remain intact in his gospel. Like Mark, Matthew has also correlated the transfiguration with the festival of Dedication (Matt. 17:1-8), the harvest stories, including the Parable of the Sower, with the festival of Sukkoth or Tabernacles (Matt. 13), and Jesus’ teaching on fasting, cleansing demons and curing sicknesses with Yom Kippur (Matthew 12). When, however, Matthew comes to Mark’s correlation of John the Baptist with Rosh Hashanah, he has a problem. The baptism of Jesus by John was the first event in Jesus’ ministry according to Mark, but Matthew must cover five and a half months of Jesus’ story before he comes to Rosh Hashanah. In Mark the baptism of Jesus had inaugurated his ministry, but Matthew could not save that story for five and a half months. How Matthew managed this dilemma is fascinating.Matthew follows Mark by having the baptism of Jesus come as the first event in Jesus’ adult life so he uses this material early in his story. He begins his gospel with a genealogy and the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth, which fills chapters one and two. Then he uses the John the Baptist story in chapter three, which means it had to come long before the seventh Jewish month of Tishri, where Rosh Hashanah is celebrated on Tishri 1. So when he gets to Rosh Hashanah in late September or early October, the baptism narrative material that Mark used as his Rosh Hashanah story has already been related. So what does he do? He uses a trick that has been frequently employed by the motion picture industry (think of Cecil B. DeMille!) and employs a “flashback.”In chapter 11 of his gospel, at the time when Rosh Hashanah rolls around, Matthew reintroduces John the Baptist, who is now in prison, by having him send a messenger to Jesus. “Are you the one who is to come (that is the messiah) or do we look for another?” the messenger inquires. Jesus does not answer directly, but refers him to a passage in Isaiah 35, a passage regularly used in the synagogue at the observance of Rosh Hashanah. “How will we know when the Kingdom of God is about to dawn?” the prophet is asked. To this query, Isaiah responds: The signs will be that the blind will see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the mute sing. To this litany of signs Jesus adds other things that demonstrate his messianic claims: “the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” It is the Jewish Rosh Hashanah, or New Year theme. Then Jesus moves on to speak about John the Baptist in glowing terms. It is a perfect Jesus story to be used in the observance of Rosh Hashanah.There is one other Jewish festival that Mark, with his truncated six and a half month format, had simply ignored. Fifty days after the Passover, the Jews celebrated Shavuot or Pentecost, as they called it, a name that simply means “fifty days.” On this day, which would usually fall each year in late May or early June, the Jews celebrated the moment in their history at which time God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Shavuot was normally observed with a 24-hour vigil. The longest psalm in the Psalter, Psalm 119, was written to be used at this vigil. It is both a hymn to the beauty and power of the law and it is long enough to provide material for the entire vigil. Psalm 119 opens with an eight verse introduction, the first two verses of which begin with the word “Blessed.” Then there are eight segments of three stanzas each, designed for use at each of the eight three-hour sections of the 24-hour vigil. To provide an appropriate Jesus story that demonstrates the theme of Shavuot was the agenda that Matthew faced. Look now at how he did it.At exactly the right time in the year, assuming that Matthew was stretching Mark’s six and a half months out to twelve, we find in Matthew’s gospel three chapters, 5, 6 and 7, what we call “The Sermon on the Mount.” Here, Matthew portrays Jesus as the new Moses going up to a new mountain to deliver a new interpretation of the Torah. Matthew patterns this sermon after the Shavuot Psalm 119. He opens with an eight-verse introduction in which each verse, not just the first two, begin with the word “blessed.” We now call these eight “blesseds” the Beatitudes. Then in the rest of the sermon, Matthew provides a commentary on each of these beatitudes, in reverse order from eight to one, which in effect supplies the Christian content for the eight three-hour segments of this 24-houor vigil. It is a perfect fit.In the body of the sermon the contrast is between Moses and Jesus with the Ten Commandments a major part of the focus. “You have heard that it was said by men of old — You shall not kill.” Jesus is quoting Moses since this is the sixth commandment. Then, to set the contrast, he says, “But I say unto you” and sets himself as the interpreter of Moses by driving the law from external behavior to internal motivation. Murder finds its genesis in human anger and human insults, he says, so to stop murder one has to deal with the anger that precedes it. Jesus does the same thing with commandment number seven. Adultery, he says, starts in the lust of desire that grows out of our insecurity, and until that is addressed, adultery is all but inevitable. Jesus then takes the summary of the law, which commands us to love our neighbor and he drives it so deeply into life by defining our neighbor as including even our enemies. Matthew constructs the Sermon on the Mount in such a way as to drive the Torah to a new level of inward motivation. When the Sermon on the Mount was over (7:22-23), Matthew said “the crowds were astonished at his teaching.” His authority was confirmed. It was authentic, that is it was not the secondary type of authority that came by quoting the scriptures, which was the method employed by the Scribes.Covering Shavuot also completed the last festival of the synagogue year. To provide Jesus material to carry the worshippers from Passover, where Mark had told the story of the crucifixion, to Rosh Hashanah, where he had told the story of Jesus’ baptism, Matthew had to front end load Mark. Look again at exactly how he did it. Matthew added the genealogy and the birth story to fill up chapters one and two. He used the story of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus to introduce Jesus to the public as Mark has done, but he has expanded that story by including some of the content of John’s preaching. In chapter four, he has taken Mark’s two verse account of the temptations in the wilderness and included in it the content and full descriptions of the three temptations and indeed of exactly how Jesus responded to each. Then he adds the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5-7. When Matthew gets to chapter 13, he has finally caught up with where Mark was in chapter 4. From that point on, the two gospels track very closely together.Matthew has expanded Mark’s content to give the worshipping disciples a sufficient supply of Jesus stories to enable them to cover the entire year. Now when we read it closely, we begin to discern another Matthean interpretive tool. He has woven his Jesus story around the biography of Moses, the greatest hero in the Jewish world view and clearly Matthew’s model. Next we will pull the analogy of Moses out of Matthew’s text and raise to our consciousness his editorial genius. From the story of the wicked king who tried to destroy the great deliverer at birth to likening the crucifixion of Jesus to a new exodus not from physical slavery, but to the slavery to sin, Moses is clearly in the background of Matthew’s Jesus story. The New Testament is quite exciting as soon as you dismiss a literal meaning and begin to discover the interpretive meaning that each gospel writer sought to convey. ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Compassionate Integrity Training Compassionate Integrity Training is a resiliency-informed program that cultivates human values as skills, so we can thrive as individuals and a society within a healthy environment. Stating January 12th online for 10 weeks. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

1 0

Global Buzz for January 2021
by ICA International 06 Jan '21

06 Jan '21

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: January 2021 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-21/2021-01-01.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

1 0

Fwd: Happy New Year
by Lawrence Philbrook 06 Jan '21

06 Jan '21

No Problem With respect, Larry Lawrence Philbrook, CTF CPF Director ICA Taiwan 886228713150 Skype icalarry > > Hi Larry, > I seem to have trouble successfully post things to EI/OE list-serves. Would you mind posting for Lis? > See you this evening. > Cheers Robyn > > From: Elisabeth Banks <elisabeth.a.banks(a)icloud.com <mailto:elisabeth.a.banks@icloud.com>> > Sent: Tuesday, 5 January 2021 8:58 PM > To: rjhutchinson48(a)gmail.com <mailto:rjhutchinson48@gmail.com> > Subject: Hi Robyn, happy New Year to you and John. Below you will find my letter… > > Hi Robyn, happy New Year to you and John. Below you will find my letter to OE. > > > > Hello to all colleagues old and new and especially to those Garnet and I worked with in the 60s 70s 80s and 90s. I hope that you all had a joyful Christmas and that we will all have a healthier New Year. > > It is very sad to see the suffering in the US in the emergency wards and the ICUs. Here in the state of Victoria in Australia we have had awful deaths in the aged care homes and then the lockdown and curfew were not pleasant to get COVID 19 into some kind of control but were necessary. > > So much water has passed under the bridge especially over the last 20 years .I look back on our years in Chicago with great memories Of fifthcity And cook county hospital,also working in the HDPs, and ScandinaviaI. I have not written for some time because I was paralysed after a vaccine 16 years ago – it was the chickenpox vaccine,which is an excellent vaccine but rare serious complications can occur in my case one in about 2 million. For years was unable to write but was able to get back to work finally In general practice and in public health in which I specialised. Garnet was a marvellous nurse but then he became ill and died two years and a half years ago. All your communications went to Garnet‘s computer which somehow got put away and not viewed when trying to look after him. I have missed all your communications very much and it was great that Robyn Hutchinson hooked me up again. I particularly enjoyed Jack Gillis’s and Jim weigel’s Discussion on the article in the New Yorker On G-O-D. > > Well happy New Year everyone and hope that somehow COVID 19 Will be brought under some sort of control, although I doubt we will ever go back to normal – it will be the new normal and with that > Cheers Lis Banks > elisabth.a.banks(a)gmail.com <mailto:elisabth.a.banks@gmail.com> > > > Sent from my iPhone

1 0

Nelson Family Letter
by Jo Nelson 04 Jan '21

04 Jan '21

I’ve just sent out my family letter of 2020 – if anyone would like to get it, please email me directly at jo.r.nelson(a)gmail.com<mailto:jo.r.nelson@gmail.com> and I will send it to you. I’m separating my work and personal email slowly….. Take care, Jo -- Jo Nelson, CPF Emeritus, CTF <jnelson(a)ica-associates.ca> Certified Professional Facilitator and ICA Certified ToP™ Facilitator ICA Associates, Inc. 401 Richmond Street West, Suite #405, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5V 3A8 Ph. 1 416-691-2316, x2230 Toll-free 1 877-691-1422 Fax 1 416-691-2491 Website http://ica-associates.ca Cellphone 647 233 6910 [IAF Certified Professional Facilitator Emeritus] “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R. Buckminster Fuller

1 0

Study of TEN LESSONS FOR A POST PANDEMIC WORLD
by James Wiegel 02 Jan '21

02 Jan '21

32 of you have signed up to study Fareed Zakaria's TEN LESSONS FOR A POST PANDEMIC WORLD. Our first session (via ZOOM) is a week away -- Monday, January 4, 2021. 7:00-8:30 pm CST (Chicago time)12 weeks. 1/4/2021 to 3/22/2021 Intro, Ten Lessons, Conclusion Join us if you have interest. For those of you who have signed up, do you have the book? Is it paper? digital? audio? 1. We are looking for 1 or 2 of you who know Zoom to work with David Rebstock on set up and helping folks get connected. 2. We need 5 small group guides for break outs during the sessions3. We need volunteers to take each of the chapters, go through it in advance and do a 10-15 minute walk through of the chapter. Here is the last paragraph of the book:CONCLUSION: NOTHING IS WRITTEN 233 Inhis own way, Dwight Eisenhower was making a similar point to WalterCronkite as they sat overlooking the rows of graves in Normandy. Thesoldiers who died during World War II gave us all a chance to build abetter and more peaceful world. So, too, in our times, this uglypandemic has created the possibility for change and reform. It hasopened up a path to a new world. It’s ours to take that opportunityor squander it. Nothing is written. Jim Wiegel Theunknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com

6 7

New/old pronouncement
by James Wiegel 01 Jan '21

01 Jan '21

You and I are living in a moment in which a brand new world — that we didn’t ask for and we don’t know how to manipulate is emerging. And the question of the deeps of humanity today is how can I mix the stuff of my being, how can I mix who I am — significantly — with this new world? What must I do? Jim Wiegel “A revolution is on the horizon: a wholesale transformation of the world economy and the way people live.” Fred Krupp

4 5

12/31/2020, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Irene Monroe: Where Do We Go from Here, Redux; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

#yiv9732030778 p{ margin:10px 0;padding:0;} #yiv9732030778 table{ border-collapse:collapse;} #yiv9732030778 h1, #yiv9732030778 h2, #yiv9732030778 h3, #yiv9732030778 h4, #yiv9732030778 h5, #yiv9732030778 h6{ display:block;margin:0;padding:0;} #yiv9732030778 img, #yiv9732030778 a img{ border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;} #yiv9732030778 body, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778bodyTable, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778bodyCell{ min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;} #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778outlook a{ padding:0;} #yiv9732030778 img{ } #yiv9732030778 table{ } #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ReadMsgBody{ width:100%;} #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ExternalClass{ width:100%;} #yiv9732030778 p, #yiv9732030778 a, #yiv9732030778 li, #yiv9732030778 td, #yiv9732030778 blockquote{ } #yiv9732030778 a .filtered99999 , #yiv9732030778 a .filtered99999 { color:inherit;cursor:default;text-decoration:none;} #yiv9732030778 p, #yiv9732030778 a, #yiv9732030778 li, #yiv9732030778 td, #yiv9732030778 body, #yiv9732030778 table, #yiv9732030778 blockquote{ } #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ExternalClass, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ExternalClass p, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ExternalClass td, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ExternalClass div, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ExternalClass span, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%;} #yiv9732030778 a .filtered99999 { color:inherit !important;text-decoration:none !important;font-size:inherit !important;font-family:inherit !important;font-weight:inherit !important;line-height:inherit !important;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778bodyCell{ padding:10px;} #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778templateContainer{ max-width:600px !important;border:5px solid #363232;} #yiv9732030778 a.yiv9732030778mcnButton{ display:block;} #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImage, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnRetinaImage{ vertical-align:bottom;} #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent{ } #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent img{ height:auto !important;} #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnDividerBlock{ !important;} #yiv9732030778 body, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778bodyTable{ } #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778bodyCell{ border-top:0;} #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778templateContainer{ border:5px solid #363232;} #yiv9732030778 h1{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv9732030778 h2{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv9732030778 h3{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv9732030778 h4{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader{ background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent a, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p a{ color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateHeader{ background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:0;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateHeader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateHeader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateHeader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent a, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateHeader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p a{ color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateBody{ background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateBody .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateBody .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateBody .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent a, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateBody .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p a{ color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateFooter{ background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateFooter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateFooter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:center;} #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateFooter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent a, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateFooter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p a{ color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} @media only screen and (min-width:768px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778templateContainer{ width:600px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 body, #yiv9732030778 table, #yiv9732030778 td, #yiv9732030778 p, #yiv9732030778 a, #yiv9732030778 li, #yiv9732030778 blockquote{ } }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 body{ width:100% !important;min-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnRetinaImage{ max-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImage{ width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCartContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionTopContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnRecContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionBottomContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnTextContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnBoxedTextContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageGroupContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionRightTextContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionRightImageContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardRightTextContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardRightImageContentContainer{ max-width:100% !important;width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnBoxedTextContentContainer{ min-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageGroupContent{ padding:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionLeftContentOuter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionRightContentOuter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent{ padding-top:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardTopImageContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionBottomContent:last-child .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionBottomImageContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionBlockInner .yiv9732030778mcnCaptionTopContent:last-child .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent{ padding-top:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardBottomImageContent{ padding-bottom:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageGroupBlockInner{ padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageGroupBlockOuter{ padding-top:9px !important;padding-bottom:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important;width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 h1{ font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 h2{ font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 h3{ font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 h4{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 .yiv9732030778mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader{ display:block !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templatePreheader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateHeader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateHeader .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateBody .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateBody .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateFooter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent, #yiv9732030778 #yiv9732030778templateFooter .yiv9732030778mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Where Do We Go from Here, Redux | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Irene Monroe December 31, 2020 The year 2020 has been a stressful one. With George Floyd's death as an inflection point about race and racism in America, an unprecedented presidential election, and social unrest during an ongoing pandemic with a rising death toll, something is deeply broken in America's body politic. America has been divided and broken before: The American Civil War and the 1960's Civil Rights Movement. However, is America so broken now we can't turn back? Do we want to turn back? The daunting question as we approach 2021 is, "Where do we go from here?" invoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. We have revisited this question several times in American history, but have resisted the work and change needed to be done - individually, collectively, and systematically. The long, hot summer of 1967 is when Martin Luther King wrote the book Where do we go from here? It was King's fourth and final tome before his assassination a year later. King wrote the book because in that summer of 1967, there were 159 race riots across America. Many wondered, with the rage and frustrations of young black America, if the government could extinguish the conflagration. Sadly, what caught the nation's attention was not the protesters' plight but rather the violence. "Everyone is worrying about the long hot summer with its threat of riots. We had a long cold winter when little was done about the conditions that create riots" King stated that summer at a luncheon in his honor. The riots were the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, quality education, health care, voting rights, and to end mass incarceration and police brutality. In other words, it was a clarion call to end systemic racism. However, the more things appear to change on the surface for people of color through the years, the more they remain the same systemically. This year proved it. Consequently, the summer of 2020 was a long hot summer, too. According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), "between 26 May, the day after Floyd's death, and 22 August, ACLED records over 7,750 demonstrations linked to the BLM movement across more than 2,440 locations in all 50 states and Washington, DC." The protestors consisted of not only blacks but the entire face of America from all walks of life. Ninety- five percent of the protests were nonviolent. This year's demonstrations were the same old same old as 1967: the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, quality education, health care, voting rights, and to end mass incarceration and police brutality. This time the clarion call is to end systemic racism, now! In order to know "where do we go from here?", we must honestly look at where we are now. While the Christian Right needs to talk to the right Christians, it doesn't excuse those who think they are the right Christians from looking at themselves, too. While many of the right Christians would not think of themselves as racist, the distinction must be recognized that being racist differs from being “anti-racist." White supremacy is an ideology and belief system. It is not the province of solely white people; there are black white supremacists, too. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Dr. Ben Carson are examples. They uphold a white heteronormative and nationalist government that has power shaping policy impacting us all - LGBTQ, women, and POC. The five pillars of white supremacy create dysfunctional notions of entitlement in the following ways: 1. Racial privilege in terms of internalizing beliefs in superiority. 2. Culturally in terms of relinquishing their actual cultural/ethnic/national identities to "become white." 3. Economically in terms of creating allegiance to an economic system that disempowers most whites, too. 4. Politically in terms of supporting public policy that is against their best interests. 5. Spiritually in terms of ritualizing white supremacist thought with dogma, creeds, theology, and liturgy. In Romans 12:2 Apostle Paul talks about the renewing of our mind. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." White supremacy is in the DNA of America. Clinging to it for as long as America has is precisely where we are today as a broken nation. The question "where do we go from here" means problems have not been solved. While the Covid vaccine will eventually stop the spread of the pandemic, sadly, the pandemic of racism will persist. Americans cannot be blamed for the misinformation we have been taught and have absorbed from our society and culture. However, we must be held responsible for repeating misinformation, unexamined racism and privileges in ourselves after we have learned otherwise. George Floyd's death, a cis-gendered male, symbolizes the new face of anti-black violence, as Matthew Shepard's face came to symbolize homophobic violence after his murder in 1998. His death forces us to look at what's broken in America as well as ourselves. But his death can also be an opportunity for reconciliation and healing the sacred in all of us, recognizing our shared humanity. It starts by calling out and addressing racists, whether they are well-intentioned white liberals or ill-intentioned white nationalists, because both erase our lived reality of a multiracial society. In the end, we cannot think that white supremacy and white privilege exist outside ourselves. Rather, it must be assumed. With that assumption, democracy can fully begin for those on the margin to experience what others take for granted. Otherwise, we won't be united as a country. Divided, we will continue to be petty people. ~ Rev. Irene Monroe Read 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. | | | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Susan I have been an on and off member of a Assemblies of God church 15 years - the pastor is more liberal in his style of message giving. They can’t and don’t speak to the issues of gayness and they would say that Jesus is the only way to God. This pastor has meant so much to me. He introduced me to the person of Jesus, which has led to my graduate studies in theology. Problem is, I am much more progressive than they are. I’ve had a troubled childhood, so my journey to God has been fraught with questions, which theology school is helping me to investigate. I also have a child who dislikes Sunday school at this church, which makes me sad. I want her to feel excited about knowing God, but the language they use sometimes is a bit unapproachable–even reading the Bible to a kid with words like “righteous” means nothing–even to me. I was going to try the Universalist Unitarian church, but it seems to denounce God and lessen Jesus. I want to be a Christian and I want to show my daughter who God is and can be, but I’m at a loss. Do I stay where I am or do I join a less Christian church? Either way I will feel like an outsider. A: By Rev. Jim Burklo Dear Susan, You are in excellent company in your quandary, and in your quest to find your way into a faith community that serves the souls of you and your dear daughter. I pray that you won’t despair, and that you will find the church home that is right for you. Your story resonates with my own. Jesus captured my heart in a conversion experience when I was sixteen years old. But I was that kid who asked questions that the youth leaders and pastor could not answer. Finally, the pastor told me: “If you keep asking all these questions, you’re going to argue your way into seminary!” And that's exactly what happened. What a relief it was to arrive at seminary and find other progressive Christians who valued the questions even more than dogmatic answers! It took a long time for me to “find my people”, but I’m grateful I did. And I really hope that happens for you and your daughter. Good news! In your area there are many wonderful progressive Christian churches: open-hearted, open-minded, Jesus-loving communities. Look them up here. And if you otherwise appreciate what you find in the Unitarian community, you might also explore the network of Christian UUA’s. UUA congregations differ substantially: some lift up their Christian heritage, others do not. As you “church shop”, ask about the curricula in Sunday Schools. A Joyful Path is the wonderful new curriculum produced by ProgressiveChristianity.org, used in many churches in our network. Some otherwise progressive churches continue to use denominational Sunday School curricula that are not in “synch” with what is preached and taught to adults, so it’s important to inquire about the details. I urge you to abandon shyness about asking hard questions about the churches you visit. It will save you a lot of time and heartache! Many churches seem “cool” because they have rock bands and the preachers wear designer street wear. But upon further examination, they turn out to be fundamentalists in skinny jeans! More and more evangelical churches make a big deal about welcoming gay and lesbian people, but in fact they do not affirm their sexuality and do not celebrate same-sex marriages. Before suffering disappointment, it’s good to discover reality up-front. Here’s a “cheat sheet” of questions, to get you started as you visit a congregation: 1. Can I make great new friends there? 2. Does it have meaningful worship? 3. Does it offer Bible study? 4. Will it help me grow in my relationship with Jesus? 5. Does it practice meditative prayer? 6. Can it help to get me involved in activism for service and social justice? 7. Do its members take the Bible seriously without having to take it literally? 8. Does it take scientific and intellectual exploration seriously - for example, does it accept the validity of the theory of evolution? 9. Are women given the same opportunities for leadership positions in the church as men? 10. Does it fully affirm LGBTQI sexuality, and celebrate same-sex marriage? 11. Does it teach that how we treat others is the true test of our faith, rather than belief in a fixed doctrine? 12. Does it respect and celebrate other faiths? Does it teach that other religions might be as good for others as Christianity is for us? 13. Does it teach that because God is love, nobody is going to hell? If “yes” is the answer to all of these questions, you’ve probably found a solid progressive church. Here’s a “next-level” set of questions to pose to pastors and lay leaders of the churches you are exploring: 1. Who or what do you mean by the word "God"? Do you experience God? If you say you believe in God, what do you mean by "belief"? (For a list of different understandings of God, see my blog article, "Varieties of God".) 2. Is the Bible the Word of God to humans, or is it humans' words about God? What is your relationship to the Bible? How literally do you take its miracle stories (walking on water, physical resurrection, etc), if at all? (See my “musings” blog entry on "How to Read the Bible" to explore this topic.) 3. Who was Jesus? Who/what is the Christ? What is your relationship to Jesus and/or the Christ? 4. Can people be "saved" without Christ or Christianity? Are there ways to experience God/Ultimate Reality outside of Christ or Christianity? Can other religions possibly be as good for other people as Christianity is for us? 5. Do you think it is okay for LGBTQ people to have sex? Under what circumstances? Do you support same-sex marriage? 6. Do you support women as leaders in all roles in church and society? Do you support a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion? 7. Does your faith lead you to take political action for economic justice and peace? (Lots more on such issues at ProgessiveChristiansUniting.org .) 8. What other questions should I be asking? Let me know when you find the church home you’ve been yearning to discover! ~ Rev. Jim Burklo jtburklo(a)yahoo.com Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Jim Burklo is the Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California. An ordained United Church of Christ minister, he formerly served as a community organizer, director of a homeless services agency, church pastor, and campus minister. He is a member of the board of directors of ProgressiveChristiansUniting.org and an honorary advisor for ProgressiveChristianity.org. Jim is the author of seven published books on progressive Christianity, including TENDERLY CALLING: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus, which will be in print in early 2021. His weekly blog, “musings”, has a global readership. | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Howard Thurman reminded us that the work of Christmas goes far beyond a single day or even a season. The work of Christmas — social justice that lies at the heart of the Gospel — is absolutely central to how we must live year-round. As we prepare for a New Year, we need your help to do continue the work of Progressive Christianity in 2021. ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit strive to live authentically at the intersection of faith, reason, and justice. We strive to be a bold witness for the work of Christmas that Thurman described. If you have not yet made a donation to ProgressiveChristianity.org, but believe in the work that we are doing, we hope that you’ll consider making a year-end donation. Your gift makes an enormous impact and helps to ensure that a progressive Christian voice is amplified. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you from your friends at ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of New Testament, Part XXII: The Figure of Moses as the Interpretive Secret in Matthew Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong May 6, 2010 Matthew’s gospel has always fascinated me more than the others. It is not the most profound of the gospels, but it does open interpretive eyes for me more widely than the others. The doorway into this perception is found in the process of being able to ask the right questions. Matthew is the “Jewish Gospel,” par excellence, and if one does not understand what it means to be a Jewish Gospel, one will never understand this book. Two biblical characters are taken by Matthew from the Jewish scriptures and used as symbols around which he weaves his story of Jesus. Today I will look at both of them in an effort to illustrate that Matthew is deeply dependent on his audience having a sufficient understanding of Judaism to recognize his allusions both to Jewish history and to Jewish scripture. The first of these Jewish characters is Joseph, the patriarch whose story is told in Genesis 37-50. This is the Joseph of the coat of many colors, the first born son to Jacob by his favorite wife Rachel. In our earlier trek through the Old Testament, we noted the deep and historic division between Judah, the dominant tribe in the south and the Northern Kingdom of which Joseph was the principle ancestor. Recall that the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, both sons of this same Joseph, were the dominant tribes in that separate part of the Hebrew nation. You may also recall our earlier discussion of how it was that the tribe of Judah not only produced King David but also produced the Yahwist version of the Hebrew scriptures, while the Joseph tribes in the North produced the Elohist version of the same scriptures, and how these two strands of Jewish history were later put together by an interpreter to form a major step in the production of the Torah. One agenda that drove Matthew’s gospel was to present Jesus as the messianic life who was capable of binding up this deep historic division that had long divided the Jewish people. When we read Matthew knowing this background, we can watch just how he does it. Matthew opens his gospel with a seventeen verse genealogy in which he traces the lineage of Jesus through King David and the kings of the Jewish world that centered in Jerusalem. In this passage he clearly roots Jesus in the tribe of Judah, which was the tribe to which David and his royal house belonged. Jesus was clearly the son of Judah. Then Matthew introduced into the developing tradition the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth and, in the process, confronts us with a new character who is also going to be portrayed as Jesus’ father. His name is Joseph and he has never before been mentioned anywhere in Christian writing. In the new story of Jesus’ birth to a “virgin,” there is a clear need for someone to play the role of “earthly father” and to give the child the protection that only a man could give in that fiercely patriarchal society. By having Joseph name this child, thus claiming him as his own, Matthew sought to dampen the rumors of illegitimacy that were swirling around from the ninth decade critics of the Christian movement. In this manner, Joseph, the name of the other major patriarch of Jewish history enters the story as this child’s protector and defender. In this manner, Matthew has bound Jewish history together in the person of Jesus. Next look at the portrait of Joseph as Matthew painted him. Everything we know about Matthew’s character Joseph we learn in Matthew’s birth narrative. Joseph never appears in any part of the gospel tradition except in the birth narratives. From Matthew’s account we learn three things about Joseph. First, he has a father named Jacob (Matt. 1:16). Second, God only speaks to him in dreams (Matt. 1:20, 2:13, 2:19, and 2:22). Third, his role in the drama of salvation is to save the child of promise from death by taking him down to Egypt (2:13-16). Now go back to the story of the patriarch Joseph in the book of Genesis (37-50) and read that narrative. There you will discover three things about the patriarch Joseph. First, he has a father named Jacob (Gen.37:2). Second, he is constantly associated with dreams (Gen. 37:5-11) and was even called the dreamer by his brothers (Gen. 37:19). As the story of his life unfolds he is noted primarily as the interpreter of dreams (Gen. 40:1-19), and even rides into political power in Egypt based on that gift (Gen. 41). Third, his role in the drama of salvation is to save the people of the covenant from death by taking them down to Egypt (Gen. 46). Is this simply coincidence or are we beginning to discern how the Jewish Scriptures were used to interpret the Jesus experience? Matthew was not writing a biography of Jesus, he was interpreting Jesus in the light of the Jewish scriptures. Literalism is not the way to read a Jewish story. Literalism is, in fact, a late-developing Gentile heresy. To make Jesus simultaneously the son of Judah and the son of Joseph was something Matthew’s Jewish readers would understand. The second shadowy figure from the Hebrew Scriptures around which Matthew weaves the story of Jesus is Moses. Moses was the founder of the Jewish nation, the giver of the Law, or Torah, and the ultimate hero of Judaism. Moses makes his first appearance in Matthew’s birth narrative in the account of the wicked King Herod, who slaughtered the male babies in Bethlehem in a vain attempt to wipe out this threat to his throne (Matt. 2:16-18). Every Jewish reader of Matthew’s gospel would have recognized that story as a Moses story. When Moses was born, a wicked King Pharaoh decreed that all the Jewish boy babies were to be destroyed so that his power would not be threatened (Ex. 1:8-22). To save their son from this fate, Moses’ parents put him in a basket on the River Nile where, according to that story, he was rescued by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Matthew in these opening verses of his gospel is signaling to his readers that he was interpreting Jesus under the popular messianic image of the New Moses. This theme is picked up later in the birth narrative when Matthew quotes Hosea as saying, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.” This was once again a clear reference to Moses but used by Matthew to mark Jesus’ return from his flight to Egypt to which he had fled to avoid Herod. Matthew next interprets the baptism of Jesus in such a way as to frame it as an analogy to Moses’ crossing of the Red Sea, by separating the waters so that the people could walk through the sea on dry land. Once again Jewish readers would recognize this theme for splitting the waters was a regular theme in the Jewish Scriptures. Moses did it at the Red Sea; Joshua did it at the Jordan River. Both Elijah and Elisha also split the waters of the Jordan River on their way to and from the place of Elijah’s departure in a fiery chariot. Now Matthew brings Jesus in the first story of his adult life to the Jordan River for baptism. In this narrative, he was clearly seeking to say that the God presence we have met in Jesus is even greater than the God presence our ancestors met in Moses. It was a stunning claim. How did he develop this theme? At the baptism, Jesus steps into the waters of the Jordan River, but he does not split these waters. That had been done so many times that it represented nothing special. Jesus rather splits the heavens that we are told in the creation story was “the firmament” that separates the waters above from the waters below (Gen.1:7). Jesus thus splits the heavenly waters, which then fall on him as the Holy Spirit, for that is what “living water” means in the Hebrew Scriptures (see Zech.14:8). What did Moses do after his “baptism” in the Red Sea? The Torah says he wandered in the wilderness for forty years trying to determine what it meant to be the “chosen people.” What did Matthew have Jesus do after his “Red Sea” experience in the Jordan River? He wandered in the wilderness for forty days trying to determine what it means to be the chosen messiah. While Moses was in the wilderness he had three critical experiences. The first involved the shortage of food and it was solved with manna from heaven. The second was when the shortage of water forced Moses to “put God to the test” by striking a rock and demanding that water flow from it. The third occurred when his people in his absence turned away from God and began to worship a golden calf as “the god who brought them out of Egypt.” Matthew, as noted previously, is the first gospel writer to give content to the temptations, which Jesus had to endure in the wilderness. Examine that content. The first temptation involved the shortage of food. “Turn these stones into bread, Jesus.” The second had to do with putting God to the test. “Cast yourself off the pinnacle of the Temple, Jesus. He will give his angels charge over you.” The third temptation had to do with worshiping something other than God. “Bow down before me, Jesus, and I will give you all the kingdoms of this world.” Once more, do you think this is coincidental? Or are you beginning to see Matthew’s gospel as interpretive writing designed to show that Jesus relived the messianic image of being the new Moses by having Moses’ stories from the Hebrew Scriptures wrapped around him. Matthew’s Jewish audience would immediately have understood the interpretive tools he was employing. Western, non-Jewish, literalists still do not comprehend. The most distinguishing marks of Matthew’s gospel begin to form a pattern. The baptism story with the heavens parting is a Red Sea story. The temptations are shaped by the Moses narrative. Then comes the powerful Matthean portrait of Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount. No other gospel in the New Testament includes the Sermon on the Mount. It is Matthew’s special creation because it enables him to portray Jesus as the new Moses on a new mountain, giving a new interpretation of the Torah. In this sermon, Matthew has Jesus compare Moses with him: “You have heard it said of old—-but I say unto you.” He reinterprets Moses driving the external Law of Moses toward the internal level of motivation. Moses is quite clearly one of the great interpretive clues to Matthew’s gospel. One has to read this book with Jewish eyes. ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | Contemplative Writing and Listening Starting January 3rd for 12 months - $299 Spirituality & Practice is excited to offer a year-long experiment in writing alone and listening together, facilitated by Judith Favor, a seasoned spiritual guide. This Practice Group will covenant together to form a community. We will ask participants to commit to regularly posting in the Practice Group and attending monthly Zoom listening sessions. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Facebook | | | | Twitter | | | | Website | | | | Email | | | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | |

1 0

12/24/2020, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Jim Burklo: Just Looking at Christmas; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 24 Dec '20

24 Dec '20

#yiv2427070595 p{ margin:10px 0;padding:0;} #yiv2427070595 table{ border-collapse:collapse;} #yiv2427070595 h1, #yiv2427070595 h2, #yiv2427070595 h3, #yiv2427070595 h4, #yiv2427070595 h5, #yiv2427070595 h6{ display:block;margin:0;padding:0;} #yiv2427070595 img, #yiv2427070595 a img{ border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;} #yiv2427070595 body, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595bodyTable, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595bodyCell{ min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;} #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595outlook a{ padding:0;} #yiv2427070595 img{ } #yiv2427070595 table{ } #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ReadMsgBody{ width:100%;} #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ExternalClass{ width:100%;} #yiv2427070595 p, #yiv2427070595 a, #yiv2427070595 li, #yiv2427070595 td, #yiv2427070595 blockquote{ } #yiv2427070595 a .filtered99999 , #yiv2427070595 a .filtered99999 { color:inherit;cursor:default;text-decoration:none;} #yiv2427070595 p, #yiv2427070595 a, #yiv2427070595 li, #yiv2427070595 td, #yiv2427070595 body, #yiv2427070595 table, #yiv2427070595 blockquote{ } #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ExternalClass, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ExternalClass p, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ExternalClass td, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ExternalClass div, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ExternalClass span, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%;} #yiv2427070595 a .filtered99999 { color:inherit !important;text-decoration:none !important;font-size:inherit !important;font-family:inherit !important;font-weight:inherit !important;line-height:inherit !important;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595bodyCell{ padding:10px;} #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595templateContainer{ max-width:600px !important;border:5px solid #363232;} #yiv2427070595 a.yiv2427070595mcnButton{ display:block;} #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImage, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnRetinaImage{ vertical-align:bottom;} #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent{ } #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent img{ height:auto !important;} #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnDividerBlock{ !important;} #yiv2427070595 body, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595bodyTable{ } #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595bodyCell{ border-top:0;} #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595templateContainer{ border:5px solid #363232;} #yiv2427070595 h1{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv2427070595 h2{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv2427070595 h3{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv2427070595 h4{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader{ background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent a, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p a{ color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateHeader{ background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:0;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateHeader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateHeader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateHeader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent a, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateHeader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p a{ color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateBody{ background-color:#FFFFFF;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateBody .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateBody .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateBody .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent a, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateBody .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p a{ color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateFooter{ background-color:#FAFAFA;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateFooter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateFooter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ color:#656565;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;line-height:150%;text-align:center;} #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateFooter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent a, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateFooter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p a{ color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;} @media only screen and (min-width:768px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595templateContainer{ width:600px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 body, #yiv2427070595 table, #yiv2427070595 td, #yiv2427070595 p, #yiv2427070595 a, #yiv2427070595 li, #yiv2427070595 blockquote{ } }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 body{ width:100% !important;min-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnRetinaImage{ max-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImage{ width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCartContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionTopContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnRecContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionBottomContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnTextContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnBoxedTextContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageGroupContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionRightTextContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionRightImageContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardLeftTextContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardRightTextContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardLeftImageContentContainer, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardRightImageContentContainer{ max-width:100% !important;width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnBoxedTextContentContainer{ min-width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageGroupContent{ padding:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionLeftContentOuter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionRightContentOuter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent{ padding-top:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardTopImageContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionBottomContent:last-child .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionBottomImageContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionBlockInner .yiv2427070595mcnCaptionTopContent:last-child .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent{ padding-top:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardBottomImageContent{ padding-bottom:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageGroupBlockInner{ padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageGroupBlockOuter{ padding-top:9px !important;padding-bottom:9px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important;width:100% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 h1{ font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 h2{ font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 h3{ font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 h4{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 .yiv2427070595mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader{ display:block !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templatePreheader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateHeader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateHeader .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateBody .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateBody .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateFooter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent, #yiv2427070595 #yiv2427070595templateFooter .yiv2427070595mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Just Looking at Christmas | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Jim Burklo December 24, 2020 Our granddaughter Rumi and I have a Christmas tradition of doing arty projects together. Among them are making Christmas crèches out of wood and tin. We put them on the fireplace mantel at Advent. Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, and wise men gaze at the baby Jesus in the manger. You could hardly call them “action figures”. You could call them “looking figures”. Not just "looking", but "just looking". My daily contemplative prayer practice aims at this experience. Most of the time, if I'm looking at all, I'm looking for something. Looking up something. Looking into something. Most of my looking has agendas, preconditions, prejudices, assumptions. There's something I want, and I'm using my senses to find it. Looking without preconditions, looking without the intention of seeing any particular thing in a certain way, looking only for the sake of looking - now, that's a very different experience. Every day I take a long walk up a hill, with the intention of being as mindful as possible, aiming to take a God's-eye-view of all that is present within and around me. I love rocks, fossils, native plants, grand vistas. I find myself looking for these things along the trail. And that quest has its own charms and satisfactions. But far greater and deeper is the satisfaction of looking at this impulse to "look for", letting it go, and then practicing "just looking". Looking without any purpose or goal or aim. Just observing what is, as it is, in the moment that it is, then moving on and just looking at what is next, as it is, in the moment that it is. Without naming or describing or presuming anything about what is. And then being aware that the One Who Just Is is doing the looking. And that One is beyond observation, time, judgment, opinion, evaluation, or description. This kind of looking leads to awe and wonder and discovery. It is the wellspring of creativity. It makes it possible to see the needs of other people that might otherwise escape attention. After a while of practicing this divine way of looking, I begin to appreciate what I am seeing on its own terms, not just my own. Such is the looking at the figures in the crèche scene at the birth of Jesus. The crèche is a window into the eternal quality of the now, an icon of the divine point of view. It is the slack-jawed, timeless, aimless, free, worshipful Awe that is Love that is God. Maybe the wise men came to Bethlehem looking for the newborn King. But when they got there, and laid down their gifts, I like to think that they ended that quest and just looked at a little baby lying in the hay. Without believing anything about him, without assuming anything about him, without defining him. Just looking with full attention, total presence, and pure love. So, too, the shepherds looked. They had been "keeping watch" over their sheep. Then they were "keeping watch" over Jesus. Just looking. So it was with the angels in the myth of Christmas. The biblical Greek word for angel means "messenger". Somebody who reports on what is, as it is. Not on what is supposed to be. Not on what we wish it was. Angels "watch over": they just look, and then report what they see. The Greek word for "gospel" is related: "euangelion" or "good message". The gospel is not just a set of writings in the New Testament. It is the way of seeing the world that was born at Christmas. It is what we see when we just look at what is, as it is, when and where it is, without filters or interpretations or preconceptions. Abba Bessarion, one of the early Christian “desert fathers” who spent their lives in contemplative prayer in the wilderness, offered up this admonition on his deathbed: “The monk should be all eye, like the cherubim and seraphim.” The Cloud of Unknowing is a profound text of Christian contemplative mysticism by from the 14th century. Its anonymous author wrote that unlike humans, angels “are unable to waste time.” I aspire to this quality of angelic nature. When angels are doing nothing but hovering close and watching, they are doing something purposeful, useful, and priceless. In the depths of our souls, each of us wants to be known and seen as we really are. Sometimes just staying close and watching silently, with an open heart and mind, is the greatest gift we can offer another person - more precious than any tangible gift that can be wrapped and laid under a tree. It's an epiphany - the biblical Greek word for a sudden appearance or manifestation - to discover the difference between "looking for" and "just looking". When I'm "just looking", I can see divine incarnations that I might miss when I'm "looking for". And that kind is the seeing that we celebrate at Christmas. I imagine one of the wise men, while “just looking” at the newborn Christ, meditating this way: What wisdom I have Awakens me to my blindness. I cannot see light itself: What I know of light Is only an alluring shadow Of what it is and does. >From billions of years away in space-time, Through darkness intervening, At its inconceivable speed The light of an exploding star passes Through the dark seas of my eyes, Illuminating the dark curves of their retinas. But I cannot see the glow of their cells: I can only perceive the messages they send To my brain, and from there to my soul. Thus Hope passes, Unseen and undetected, Through this dark world. What retina receives and translates it Into Joy and Wonder? An eye comes into the world: A retina I cannot perceive That will see for me, Beyond my dark despair. A star in the East! This eye tells me To follow it All the way to the Source Of the truer Wisdom That is Love. ~ Rev. Jim Burklo Read online here. About the Author Rev. Jim Burklo is the Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California. An ordained United Church of Christ minister, he formerly served as a community organizer, director of a homeless services agency, church pastor, and campus minister. He is a member of the board of directors of ProgressiveChristiansUniting.org and an honorary advisor for Progressive Christianity.org. Jim is the author of seven published books on progressive Christianity, including TENDERLY CALLING: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus, which will be in print in early 2021. His weekly blog, “musings”, has a global readership. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Raymond I find the notion of human sacrifice abhorrent, and yet the whole dogma of the church is based on the crucifixion of Jesus. The cross wasn’t even used as a symbol for a hundred years AD, and yet we have it used in church today. I love the Lord, and I know my sins are forgiven, but worship in church is a problem. How do I cope? A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear Raymond, It’s true that some expressions of Christianity and different denominations lean more heavily on the crucifixion and Jesus’s death. Jesus, we know however, spoke for life and creation. Jesus looked for ways to include, to affirm and to love all beings, especially the ones who have been tossed aside. Jesus offered instruction, through teaching and acts of healing, that invited everyone listening to do their inner work and to find more and more ways to love publicly, generously, and inclusively so as to dismantle all forms of oppression and injustice. Jesus’s death - literal or symbolic - is important, but Jesus’s life and what the resurrection invites for His followers, is where Christian practice and community become engaging! If your current experience of church feels more connected with death than life, it might be an interesting experiment to notice and explore the places and spaces where you feel the life-affirming teachings of Jesus – is it in conversation with a dear friend? Prayer? In nature? Particular songs or pieces of art? Worship happens in many ways. Give yourself permission to discover what works well for you. Perhaps another piece is to expand the associations some of us hold with the cross. The late Angeles Arrien, a cultural anthropologist, researched 5 shapes that have appeared throughout the span of humanity, and across cultures and geography. The cross is one of the five, and regardless of the time in history or the geography in which it appears, interpreters agree that the cross speaks to relationship. Isn’t that interesting? In Dr Angeles’ words, the cross “symbolizes the process of relationship and integration. [It is a symbol] connected to a creative project, to another person or to oneself and it demonstrates balanced connection… Most societies see the symbol of the cross as two parts merging to create a greater whole.” (p.39)[i] In no way do I offer this as a distraction from how the cross was used at the time of public crucifixions. As you said, human sacrifice is abhorrent, and the public ritual that was Jesus’s torture and subsequent death evokes horror, grief, rage and disbelief because it should! But as you observe the cross in your church and in other spaces, perhaps there is additional wisdom in holding this multi-cultural understanding of the cross, as well? Jesus most certainly looked for and invited integration, balance and relationships that sought out the greater whole. Thank you for this provocative question! May there be some food for thought in the suggestions I’ve shared. ~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. [i] Arrien, Angeles. Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them, Tarcher/Putnam. 1992 | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As we approach the season of Christmas this perspective on Christmas is profoundly needed. Peace on Earth. Good will. Bringing that vision into being. ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit have long been a key voice in working to bring that vision into being. The resources we provide help us all have a better understanding of who it is that the words of Jesus and the stories of the Bible call us to be. Builders of peace. Bearers of good will. Bringers of that vision to the world. As a non-profit organization, we rely heavily on the good will of donors, most years we basically hope to break even. During these tough times, that's harder than ever to do. We want to not only continue to bring you messages of Peace on Earth, along with many of the tools needed to be bringers of that vision, but we also hope to expand those tools and resources to provide an even more robust offering for progressive Christians. The simple fact of the matter is, that in order to do it we need you. Specifically, if you are in a financial position to contribute to our efforts, we would be grateful for your donations. At this crucial time of the year, it's more important for us than ever. So, thank you for your consideration and, if you are able, thank you for your donation. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Looking at Christmas Through a Rear-View Window Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong January 7, 2009 It still has magic power. Across the Western world hearts beat lighter during the Christmas season, generosity expands and romance overflows its normal boundaries. Of course, there is a minority of the population for whom this is never true. For them the Christmas season is a cruel reminder of their plight. The picture of family members smiling around the decorated tree exacerbates the loneliness of those who have no families. The warmth of the burning fireplace seems insensitive to those who are cold. Yet, despite these hard reminders that Christmas joy is never universal, it is nonetheless true that the Christmas season grabs and warms the Western consciousness as does no other time of the year. These are data that beg the question why? Why is this the season of good cheer and romance? What is there about this season that brings dreams of peace and hope of good will so powerfully into focus? Part of the answer to this query is surely that in the Northern hemisphere the Christmas season comes at the darkest time of the year, when human beings yearn for the return of the sun that will inevitably hurl back this winter darkness. Perhaps we are still in touch, at least subliminally, with those elemental anxieties that marked our ancient ancestors, who feared each winter that the sun might be disappearing permanently and who were thus gripped by a deep sense of insecurity or angst. We do frame the Christmas story as one in which the darkness is penetrated first by a bright star in the East and later by an angelic chorus that opens the night sky to sing its heavenly message to hillside shepherds. We explain the power of Christmas through the symbol of light breaking darkness. Symbols, however, are tricky. We are always tempted to literalize them. Yet, increasingly, men and women today dismiss the literal understanding of the biblical Christmas myths. Only the biologically naïve still argue that a virgin can conceive. Only the astronomically challenged believe that a star can announce a human event or wander through the sky so slowly that wise men can actually keep up with it. Only the historically inept can still pretend that a decree was issued to all the descendants of King David ordering them to return to their ancestral home in Bethlehem to be enrolled. The time between King David and Jesus was about 1000 years, or some 50 generations. King David had multiple wives and numerous children. Stories about this family echo through the books of I and II Samuel. If this king had 50 direct heirs in his generation, which would represent a very conservative number for a royal figure in that polygamous and patriarchal age, try to imagine the number of direct heirs there would be 50 generations later. At the end of five generations the number would be approximately 30,000. Ten generations later that number would have expanded to more than 40 million and, by the twelfth generation, it would have passed the one billion number. Fifty generations would produce hundreds of billions of direct heirs. Can you imagine a real king issuing such a decree designed to reach all of the descendants of one who lived a thousand years ago, or that they would obey it? If that were literally true it should surprise no one that there was no room at the inn at Bethlehem, a village of less than 500 people! The myths are beautiful and appealing but they were never meant to be taken literally. Nonetheless, they have been read as the “Word of God,” placed into hymns, liturgies, pageants and repeated so often that most people grow up thinking of them as history. While no one with any scholarly background today regards them as literally true, their power is still undiminished. At pageants, we love to see that manger, listen to the angels sing and watch the wise men journey to Bethlehem. Something is powerfully real underneath even our non-literal symbols. Pious believers do not like to be confronted with facts. In the world of our experience, however, virgins do not conceive, stars do not wander, wise men do not leave their homes in search of a newborn king, angels do not sing and shepherds do not search for a baby lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Beyond that, it is an established fact that the birth stories do not appear in the Christian tradition until the ninth decade. Paul, who wrote from 51-64 CE, obviously had never heard of this tradition. Mark, the earliest gospel writer, portrays the mother of Jesus as thinking he was “beside himself,” that is, out of his mind, a kind of family embarrassment that must be put away by the time he was grown. That is not the response one would anticipate from the Jewish maiden to whom angels had made the annunciation and the promise that she would be the bearer of the “Son of the Highest.” Of course, Mark had never heard of the miraculous tales of Jesus’ birth because they had not been formulated when Mark wrote his gospel. It was in the 9th decade when Matthew first introduced this tradition to the Christian community. He did so, we now believe, to counter rampant rumors about Jesus’ questionable paternity that were being circulated by the enemies of the Christian movement. These rumors are stated quite overtly by Matthew in verse 18 of his opening chapter: “When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child…. And Joseph resolved to divorce her quietly.” Then Matthew tells us that Joseph learned from angelic sources that the child was holy and not illegitimate. Matthew explains this by saying that the miraculous birth of Jesus was predicted by the prophets and cites Isaiah 7:14 to buttress his case, but we now know that he mistranslated his proof text. Matthew said that this verse read, “Behold a virgin will conceive.” That text, however, announces only that “a woman is with child.” That is quite a difference. Matthew surely knew that and perhaps that is why in his seventeen-verse introduction to this narrative of Jesus’ miraculous birth he describes the strange genealogical line that he claims led to Jesus of Nazareth. The DNA that produced Jesus traveled, said Matthew, through some dark and sexually compromised waters. One of Jesus’ ancestors, he tells us, was born through an incestuous relationship between Tamar and her father in law, Judah. Others were born to the prostitute Rehab, through an act of seduction performed by Ruth and through the adultery of Bathsheba. That is quite a way to introduce a narrative of Jesus’ miraculous birth, but that is exactly how Matthew does it. About a decade after Matthew, Luke wrote his version of Jesus’ birth. He disagrees with Matthew on many details. Matthew says that the family of Jesus lived in Bethlehem, while Luke asserts that they lived in Nazareth. Only Matthew tells the story of a star and wise men, while only Luke has an account of angels and shepherds. Matthew has the holy family flee to Egypt, later return to their home in Bethlehem and finally make an angel driven retreat to settle in Galilee and Nazareth. Luke has this family remain in the Jerusalem area until the child is presented in the Temple on the fortieth day of his life before returning home to Nazareth in a leisurely fashion. When we come to the Fourth Gospel the birth stories, about which John must have known, simply disappear. John calls Jesus “the son of Joseph” twice, suggesting that his birth was quite natural. In this gospel it is not one’s natural birth that is significant, but one’s spiritual birth. That, John argued, was what made Jesus who he was. There is nothing even controversial about these data in the academic world where all birth stories are regarded as interpretive myths. That, however, does not diminish these myths’ power. Mythological truth is of a different order from either literalism or history. The purpose of the biblical stories of Jesus’ birth is to introduce us to this order. Hidden beneath these myths are expressions of the human hope that even in the darkness of winter we are not alone in this universe. There is within all human life a yearning to know that the realm of the spirit does enter and indeed does permeate the earthly realm that we inhabit. In our imagination we always tended to locate that spiritual realm above the sky. So our myths speak of mysterious signs in the skies of heaven all of which serve to announce that the Christ Child is the one life in whom God is experienced as fully present in the human realm. These symbols remind us that this planet earth is not just a tiny clod related to minor star located about two-thirds of the way toward the edge of our galaxy, but rather makes the claim that on this earth we bask in the direct gaze of the God, who is the source of the life that fills the universe. We further claim that it is within this life itself that we find meaning and purpose and that is how we know that we are not alone. That is the Christmas claim and its appeal is a very powerful one. That is also why we cling to our interpretive myths so tenaciously. No myth is literally true. It is the nature of myth to point to a truth that limited words cannot embrace. That is what the biblical stories of Jesus’ birth do and that is why we love them passionately and respect them so deeply. Our assertion in these stories is that there is a place in this world where God and human life come together. We call it Bethlehem, but it is not an external town located on a map, but a place deep within each of us. There is a manger at the end of the human journey where each of us lies in the crib of God, but to find it we must go deep within ourselves. There is a hunger in the human heart that only God can fill and so we tell of wise men and shepherds who take their journey in hope. That is why the search for God is always identical with and part of the search for ourselves. These meanings in the Christmas narratives never emerge until we surrender our need for truth to be literal. Perhaps that means that literal religion must die before God can be known. That idea grows on me the older I get. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Contemplative Writing and Listening Spirituality & Practice is excited to offer a year-long experiment in writing alone and listening together, facilitated by Judith Favor, a seasoned spiritual guide. Starting January 3rd, each Sunday you will receive an email from Judith Favor with a focus word and writing prompts. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

1 0

May You Feel Blessed in This Holiday Season
by Karen Snyder 22 Dec '20

22 Dec '20

The year 2021 brings dual celebrations of 100 years since the ICA GreenRise building was constructed and 50 years since the ICA moved into the building. The ICA is wrapping up 2020 with an End of the Year Funding Campaign to celebrate these milestones and position its service in 2021. In a challenging 2020, ICA staff strengthened the GreenRise programs, learned to facilitate online, hosted online global assemblies and more. Attached is a summary page highlighting 2020 programs with glimmering visions for 2021. We invite you to continue to support ICA by going online at https://www.ica-usa.org/donate.html <https://www.ica-usa.org/donate.html> or send a check to ICA Finance Office, 4750 N. Sheridan, Chicago, IL 60640. We welcome your feedback and visions for ICA service next year (email karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com <mailto:karen.snyder10@gmail.com>). We hope this message finds you healthy. And we wish you all the best in the approaching holy days and the year to come. Peace, Beret Griffith, for the ICA Board Karen Snyder, for the ICA Staff and Volunteers

11 14

Sigh . . .
by James Wiegel 21 Dec '20

21 Dec '20

An Advent Lament in the Pandemic | | | | | | | | | | | An Advent Lament in the Pandemic Michael Luo COVID-19 has held a mirror to Christianity, just as the epidemics of the past did. | | | Jim Wiegel Theunknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com

2 1