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9/17/20, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer: A White Man Makes the Case for Reparations, Part 2; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateBody .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent, #yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateBody .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateFooter .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent, #yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateFooter .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A White Man Makes the Case for Reparations, Part 2 | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer September 17, 2020“Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world, and the high priest called Pope, and in his name the King and Queen Doña Juana our lords, in his place, as superiors and lords and kings of these islands and this Tierra-firme. If you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command.” These words, written by both the Pontiff in Rome and the King of Spain and enforceable by their conquering armies, would be among the very first words spoken by European settlers to indigenous peoples in the New World. They come from an official document that would have been carried by a conquering explorer to the Americas. The document was entitled The Requerimiento. It was an amalgamation of both religious and royal power that argued that from the time of Peter, God intended for the Church and its titular head, namely the Pope, to rule over the Earth, all lands and all peoples. The document begins by stating that the Pope owns the land upon which the document is now being read. It tells of other lands newly conquered, and within them the conversion of inhabitants who were proselytized by Roman priests and who converted to Christianity. It says they willingly ceded control of those lands to the Pope and his designees, the King and Queen of Spain. Having shared news of other lands and inhabitants acquiescing with immediacy, it demands that the peoples of this new land do the same. The words I quoted above come at the end of this document. Imagine if you will a native people, having spent millennia in that place without encounters of any kind from European conquerors, one day seeing this new tribe. The complexion is odd. The language unrecognizable. And yet, in a language that sounded like gibberish, they would be told to convert “with immediacy”, cede ownership and control of the land to the rightful owner the Pope, or prepare to be at war with the church. This war would end up with the justifiable enslavement of all – including wives and children. THAT is how white Europeans entered these shores. When I write as a white man about calling for reparations, this is the source and origin of the damages for which we bear responsibility and for which we seek repair. The question I want to ask in this essay is this: how far removed from that source are we. Is it a distant relic of the past from which we are now utterly disconnected? Or is there a lingering thread through time that ties us intimately not only to its worldview but to the hubris and arrogance necessary to believe it is justifiable? There has never been a time after we whites occupied these shores when both white religious authority and white political power failed to conspire to instantiate white power, white privilege, and white supremacy. Yes, there would be voices of resistance (even white ones) to this ideology from the start – but they would never be sufficient to slow its progress, much less end its power. This second essay will use but a very few (of countless thousands) examples of how that ideology persists and evolves, taking ever new forms; how that ideology created not merely racism but systemic racism that eventually even white people lost the ability (and desire) to see or mitigate; and how those conditions undermine the argument that whites today do not benefit from nor are they responsible for the sins of the past. This is a mere sampling of the moral and legal claims made by whites that began with first contact and continue to this day. Damage has been done. We whites today are both responsible for and beneficiaries of that damage; and the act of repairing that damage – of making reparations – falls to us. Why us? Because none before us has taken up the responsibility of repairing the damage. That repair is crucial to the emergence of equity, restoration, and reconciliation. I can’t provide deep context for the documents or public statements I reference in this short essay. I will simply record them as given with minimal commentary and let them speak for themselves. As you read this, ask yourself at what point in our history was fair distribution of wealth and power between the races actuated? We have already seen the language of the Requerimiento – a legal and theological document that gave whites sole right to possess land and enslave anyone refusing to worship Jesus. Let us move forward now through our history. Louisiana revised their slave codes in 1852, and the new code included these provisions: “no slave can possess anything in his own right, or dispose in any way of the produce of his industry, without the consent of his master;” “slaves shall always be reputed and considered real estate;” “no slave shall be permitted to buy, sell, negotiate, trade or exchange any kind of goods or effects…under penalty of forfeiting the whole;” “all persons who shall teach, or permit or cause to be taught, any slave in this State to read or write, shall, on conviction,…be imprisoned.” In 1705 Virginia passed a slave code establishing that any runaway slave could be dismembered. >From the Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court: “In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants (italics added for emphasis), …were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.” A little further on: “The legislation of the different colonies furnishes positive and indisputable proof of this fact. It would be tedious, in this opinion, to enumerate the various laws they passed on this subject.” I only cited two examples of such laws. Judge Taney wrote in his opinion to the court in this landmark case that they were too numerous to cite. Every one of those laws written by then two centuries before and since were sufficient to perpetuate white skin privilege by law and be upheld by the highest court in the land. >From the Requerimiento to the colonies to the state constitutions to the Supreme Court, now over three hundred years of legal precedence conspired to deprive blacks of voting rights, property ownership, commerce, and education. We continue with post-civil war rhetoric and legislation. Here we simply need to demonstrate that the Emancipation Proclamation did not change the economic outlook even if some of the laws were rewritten. In 1901, political leaders from Alabama gathered for a Constitutional Convention of the State of Alabama. The Journal that recorded the proceedings notes the following argument put forth: “…there is no higher duty resting upon us…than that which requires us to embody in the fundamental law such provisions as will enable us to protect the sanctity of the ballot in every portion of the state.” A voting rights act in 1965 attempted to end what had become rampant, overt and legal disenfranchisement of black voters. But since 1965 legal means like gerrymandering, closing polls or having fewer voting booths in heavily black districts, along with mass incarceration have rendered that bill useless. And then there is this: “They want three and a half billion dollars, for the Post Office. Now they need that money to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these million and millions of ballots. But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.” This was spoken just days ago by the President of our country – an admission that he will choke the Postal Services of money needed to count and collect ballots cast during a global pandemic. The continual and methodical subjugation of the black vote is a primary care and concern for white men in power. Black voters scare the hell out of white men in power. What Donald Trump said in his press conference about dismantling the Post Office is eerily reminiscent of the white Alabama politician saying “…there is no higher duty…. than to protect the sanctity of the ballot.” Mr. Trump is only doing what white men have conspired to do for and with one another from the founding of this country. Until 1968, white resistance to black empowerment included creating housing regulations that forbade or prohibited the sale of property to black families. The first known such covenant was written in Minneapolis in 1910 and read this way: “…the premises shall not at any time be conveyed, mortgaged or leased to any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian, of African blood or descent.” From there, one Henry Scott would become the president of the Seven Oaks Corp. in Minneapolis and would put that same language into thousands of deeds across the city. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 was an attempt to stop this discrimination. Housing discrimination was a means of prohibiting black laborers from accruing wealth over a lifetime commensurate with their sweat, talent, and abilities. It was legally enforced discrimination that had a profound effect on how wealth could be accrued and transferred to future generations. After the act passed, it was proven to have very little effect. Very few violations were ever investigated and even fewer were prosecuted. In order to get enough votes to pass, the Dirksen amendment was written into the bill that greatly weakened the enforcement power of the federal government. Former HUD Secretary Patricia Harris once said of the Act that HUD was reduced to “asking the discovered lawbreaker whether he wants to discuss the matter.” (US Congress, 1978). Those who would successfully prove and prosecute wrongdoing could only be awarded $1,000 recompense for damages. By 1980, only five plaintiffs received awards in excess of $3,500. There is a footnote to this. In July of 2012 the Federal Government reached settlement with Wells Fargo bank, forcing them to pay a penalty of $184.3 million in relief to homeowners to resolve fair lending claims. It was discovered that from 2004-2009 they practiced wholesale discrimination in lending practices involving black and Hispanic borrowers. Having been denied prime lending rates ONLY BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE (it was proven), when the market collapsed their homes were foreclosed on at rates much higher than their white counterparts. This was not the slave era, dear reader. This was ten years ago. This has been anything but comprehensive. It is a mere tip of the iceberg in terms of legally defended and morally repulsive tactics used from the founding of this country to the present day to compromise the voting power and earning potential of black Americans by whites in power, who used that legally enforced discrimination to maintain control over wealth and its distribution. The damage we are seeking to repair when we talk about white power, white privilege, and white supremacy isn’t just about slavery. Yes, slavery is a part of the legacy of forced disenfranchisement and legalized wealth disempowerment. But it didn’t begin with slavery and it didn’t end there. America has always let whites be educated differently, given whites unfair access to property, favored white voters, paid whites different salaries, while denying people of color access to education, depriving them of the right to vote, and writing laws that prevented them from their full earning potential and property ownership. There is not a time in America when the actions of whites in power failed to compromise the earning power and potential of the black race. Reparations are owed. Damage has been done and repairs need to be made. If you are white in America today – you owe reparations. You have benefited from the system whether you actively constructed the system or not. In every election cycle, we whites have held fairly or unfairly a majority and ensured that the leaders we elect and the laws they write will fail to level the playing field. That is not an accident. Reparations is not a question of if, but of how and when. That is what I will talk about in my third installment of this series.~ Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer Read online here About the Author Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer was granted a Doctoral Degree in White Privilege Studies in 2007 from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH. He also has degrees in Theology and Philosophy. He is the author of two published books, Beyond Resistance: the Institutional Church Meets the Postmodern World and Steeplejacking: How the Christian Right Hijacked Mainstream Religion. He is a recipient of Eden Seminary's "Shalom Award," given by the student body for a lifetime of committed work for peace and justice. John was ordained as a Christian minister in 1988. He currently serves as the 9th General Minister of the United Church of Christ, one of the USA's most progressive faiths, whose vision is "A Just World for All." He is a frequent speaker on the subject of white privilege, and is especially committed to engaging white audiences to come to deeper understandings of the privilege. He is particularly interested in how whites manifest privilege every day and how it impacts people of color, two things whites remain largely either ignorant of or in denial about. He has been devoted to his bride Mimi for over 36 years, and they have parented three children - a composer/musician, an author/painter, and a poet. John and Mimi have two grandchildren they dote on constantly. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By David Does God have to heal all the people who ask me to pray for them? A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear David,If God were like us, with an ego, I would say, “God doesn’t have to do anything,” but this has not been my experience of God. In the world around me, I see God in the Life that is happening in you and in me, and in every living thing. Our creation is God, generating life and learning and possibility every single moment. Along the way, we get hurt, mistakes happen, events take place in ways we don’t like. Prayers for healing are some of the best prayers we can pray. It is never wrong to pray for a miracle or for a cure, but prayers for healing create space for outcomes we might not be able to see initially. Healing is a space where any number of things may happen, and all of them are movements toward wholeness. I pray for the health and wholeness of all beings each time I remember to -- and especially when I am struggling with the enormity of injustice or heart-break or another hardship that feels so, so wrong. When we pray for the healing of others (and for ourselves), we are asking for God – the source of unfathomable Love – to bring us into wholeness with that love. I don’t believe these prayers are ever “wasted,” because each one reminds us of our own intention to strive toward this sense of love and wholeness in our own life, and in our walk with others. I hope you will keep praying healing prayers, when you’re requested to do so. Life and Love are ancient and wise. In ways we understand, and in ways we do not, they are always conspiring to bring us into divine wholeness.~ 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. | | | | | | | | 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 our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part VIII: The Corinthian Letters Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong December 10, 2009 Paul was a complicated mixture of many things. He was a missionary who traveled hundreds of miles by foot and by boat to tell his story. He was, as we noted last week when examining the letter to the Galatians, an intense zealot who would fight vigorously to defend his understanding of the gospel. He was a theologian who sought to put his experience of God into rational thought forms so that they could be passed on. Perhaps above all things, however, Paul was a pastor who sought to smooth out disputes, confront evil and ease hurt feelings in the congregations that he founded and served. When we examine his correspondence with the church in Corinth, it is this pastoral side that dominates. Even when he discusses issues like the resurrection, his discussion is pastorally oriented as he seeks to ease in the people of the Corinthian church their anxiety connected with mortality. The first thing to note about the two Corinthian letters is that they appear to be composites of a more extensive correspondence that perhaps reached a total of four or even five Pauline letters. By a careful analysis of our two remaining epistles to the Corinthians, scholars have come to the conclusion that these “lost letters,” to which Paul actually refers in the epistles that we do have, have been included, at least in part, in what we call II Corinthians. These scholars point to such passages as II Cor.6:1-7:1, II Cor.10-13 and even in the extraneous verses in Cor.11:32-33 that appear to be inserts into the texts that actually break the flow of Paul’s argument. Despite this strange construction, however, scholars find no evidence to suggest that all of II Corinthians is the authentic work of Paul. We need to remember that preserving letters in the first century was an inexact and costly procedure of hand copying, and that no one had yet assigned the status of “Holy Scripture” to the writings of Paul. Maybe that is why they preserved only what they believed was most important. When we turn to the content of these two Corinthian epistles themselves, we find Paul, the pastor, dealing with human beings who are acting like human beings. Paul knows what every pastor knows, namely, that congregations are not made up of angels. At the same time congregations learn very quickly that ordination does not bestow perfection on their ordained leader. Pastoral care is the sensitive attempt to bring wholeness out of an exchange between human passion and human insecurity. It is a delicately nuanced balancing act, the job of which is to enhance the humanity of all who are involved. If we need a text to describe the goal of all pastoral activity, it would be the Fourth Gospel’s definition of Jesus’ purpose: “I have come,” John’s Jesus says, “that they might have life and have it abundantly.” That is finally both the mission of the Christian Church and the hoped-for outcome in every pastoral situation. Abundant life, please note, does not always mean happiness or even the easing of pain. Many people seek wholeness in quite destructive ways, with addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex and even success being just a few of them. Sometimes abundant life becomes possible only in confrontation and brokenness. Real pastoral care is not about making it feel good; it is about helping wholeness to be created. Paul understood that and every pastor must learn it sooner or later. Wholeness is seen in the freedom to be, in the ability to escape the survival mentality that inevitably locks us into self-centeredness. Wholeness is found in the maturity of being able to live for another by giving our love away. It will be through the lens of that understanding of pastoral care that I will seek to explore the issues found in the epistles to the Corinthians. The Corinthian congregation appears to have had more than its share of pastoral needs and even to have exasperated Paul on more than one occasion. Some of the issues to which he refers are party lines and divisions among the people. Some claimed loyalty to Paul, some to Apollos and still others to Peter. Beyond that their rowdy behavior had begun to distort the worship of the people. In that early part of Christian history the Eucharist was begun with a community meal called “The Agape Feast.” The Corinthians, however, had turned this common meal into a gluttonous orgy that left some of the poor hungry. Then they had turned the Eucharistic wine into an occasion of public drunkenness. Paul obviously needed to speak to this behavior. There was also a dispute in the congregation about the meat served at this “Agape Feast.” It had been bought at a local butcher shop where, in this pagan society, it had been slaughtered in ceremonial offerings to the idols of the people. Could Christians eat meat that had been offered to idols? Some Corinthian followers of Jesus were offended by this idea. Still others had become enamored with Paul’s message of salvation as the ultimate expression of God’s grace and the conviction that this grace, so abundantly and freely given, was not dependent on their personal behavior. This meant that they had now become what the church came to call “anti-nomianism,” that is, some were suggesting that the more they sinned, the more God’s grace abounded. This stance appeared to render any sense of personal ethical responsibility completely meaningless. Still others seemed to have a hierarchy of value associated with certain activities of the synagogue. Prophets who shared their prophetic words with the congregation were deemed to be of less value than those who claimed the gift of “glossolalia” or “speaking in tongues,” that is, the ability to utter words that only God could understand. This was, they seemed to think, the highest gift of all and thus the most to be honored. If this were not enough for one pastor to deal with, there was also a gender dispute going on. Some Corinthian women seemed to take seriously Paul’s words, in his earlier letter to the Galatians, that “in Christ there is neither male nor female, but all are one.” This new freedom and equality for women obviously challenged the patriarchal value system of that ancient world. Some women, quite clearly, pushed these boundaries well beyond even Paul’s comfort level. No one, not even Paul, escapes his or her cultural prejudices completely. The extent of this boundary pushing becomes obvious when Paul asserts his threatened male authority by saying, “I forbid a woman to have authority over a man!” Since no one forbids what has never happened, these women were overtly claiming authority over men in the life of the church. While Paul’s prejudiced humanity is in full display in this last conflict, on most of the others he rises to the pastoral challenge. Paul begins by telling them that Christ alone is their foundation and that any division of loyalties among the followers of various leaders was based on the inability to understand that these leaders were simply “servants through which you believed — I planted, Apollos watered, but only God gave the increase.” In regard to the Eucharist, Paul upbraids the members of this congregation for eating and drinking in such a way that some are hungry and some are drunk. He urges them to eat and drink in their own homes and to recognize that the act of breaking bread and drinking wine in the Eucharistic feast is “a participation in the body of Christ” and what his life of love and sacrifice was all about. The Eucharist, he proclaims, is a liturgical way in which they participate in Christ’s wholeness. Paul takes anti-nomianism on directly, reminding them of their mutual responsibility to one another. He suggests that immorality, at its heart, was to treat another human being as a thing to be used rather than as a person to be loved. He defuses the debate about meat offered to idols by saying that since idols are nothing, meat offered to idols is meat offered to nothing, so there is no prohibition as to its use. He continues, however, by stating that this stance misses the point of this dispute. “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful but not all things build up.” It was a subtle, but powerful, distinction. The evil in this debate, he continues, is the lack of sensitivity on the part of some to the feelings of others. Candy is not evil, but to offer candy to one battling with obesity is not loving. It does not build up the person or fulfill the goal of Christ. Finally, Paul gets to the debate on spiritual gifts. There is no hierarchy of gifts, he argues, for all gifts are in the service of the same spirit and are expressions of the same God who inspires us all. The gifts of the people offered in worship are necessary to the building up of all, he suggests. Every gift is for the benefit of the whole community that he calls the body of Christ. Following that analogy of the body, he moves on to suggest that their bickering as to whose gift is the most important makes as much sense as a debate between the eye, the ear, the hand and the foot as to which part of the body has the higher value. This sets the stage for Paul’s writing of what is surely the most beautiful, the most memorable and the most quoted passage in the entire Pauline corpus. After describing the body in which the various organ and parts work together for the good of the whole, Paul says, “I will show you a more excellent way.” Then he begins his famous ode to love. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” He continues by defining love as patient, kind, not boastful or jealous and never ending. He recognized that all human knowledge is partial. No one sees God face to face. We all see “through a glass darkly.” He urges the Corinthians to put away childish things and to grow up. Finally, he concludes “that faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” It is Paul at his insightful best.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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9/10/20, Progressing Spirit, Lauren Van Ham: When Everything Becomes Sacred; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 10 Sep '20

10 Sep '20

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateBody .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent, #yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateBody .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateFooter .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent, #yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateFooter .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | When Everything Becomes Sacred | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham September 10, 2020 And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Hebrew Scriptures, Micah 6:8 The flower is always the bud’s undoing. Let go then. Step into the river lean into the wind let the strength of the earth rise through you. Watch your fingertips burst into bloom. - Pavithra K Mehta At Progressing Spirit, we get nudged and inspired to walk Jesus’s talk. In the last few weeks alone, we’ve looked at making reparations, exercising our humility, using our prophetic imagination, learning from each apocalypse and taking lessons on engagement from the late Congressman John Lewis. Thank you, Authors, Scholars, Teachers and Pastors! These weekly reads provide reassurance and stimulation – a steady reminder that we are able, that the time for engaging is now, and that we are part of a good community, caring and struggling together. In a phone call not long before his transition to the next world, American filmmaker Ava DuVernay asked Representative John Lewis what she should do. She was feeling pulled in many directions and every issue felt important. “Ava,” he responded, “Do Everything.” At first glance it’s comical, right? And completely unrealistic. Or borderline abusive? Thomas Merton, another non-violent peace activist wrote, “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.” But when held in a different way, I feel a powerful Zen koan in Lewis’s words. Perhaps this mantra, “Do Everything,” is interchangeable with “Be Everything.” I’m thinking about the Living System, of which we’re a part. Imagine a forest, miles and miles of prairie grass roots, the mycelial web, a bee hive. In any of these there is the organism itself, and there is the larger network. The tree is itself, and it is also every other tree, as it sends messages and aid in one moment, and receives messages and support in another. There is an incredible willingness on the part of the trees, grasses, fungi, bees, to participate in the larger picture. Then again, if they sever communal ties, life will be much harder, and quite short. In the Living System, we observe how Life reveres Life. In the colonizing or extractive system, we feel the lack of reverence. Not only is there incredible disregard for the larger network, there is fear. An unwillingness to be curious, to be expanded, to develop intimacy. My friends and teachers at Movement Generation, an Ecology & Justice project based in Oakland, CA put it like this: Story + Land = Place Story + Land + Sacredness = Home And then they add: The colonial mind is homeless There is an incredible willingness on the part of the trees, grasses, fungi, bees, to participate in the larger picture. Then again, if they sever communal ties, life will be much harder, and quite short. In the Living System, we observe how Life reveres Life. In the colonizing or extractive system, we feel the lack of reverence. Not only is there incredible disregard for the larger network, there is fear. An unwillingness to be curious, to be expanded, to develop intimacy. But when held in a different way, I feel a powerful Zen koan in Lewis’s words. Perhaps this mantra, “Do Everything,” is interchangeable with “Be Everything.” I’m thinking about the Living System, of which we’re a part. Imagine a forest, miles and miles of prairie grass roots, the mycelial web, a bee hive. In any of these there is the organism itself, and there is the larger network. The tree is itself, and it is also every other tree, as it sends messages and aid in one moment, and receives messages and support in another. In a phone call not long before his transition to the next world, American filmmaker Ava DuVernay asked Representative John Lewis what she should do. She was feeling pulled in many directions and every issue felt important. “Ava,” he responded, “Do Everything.” At first glance it’s comical, right? And completely unrealistic. Or borderline abusive? Thomas Merton, another non-violent peace activist wrote, “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.” In the Living System “everything” and “everyone” is biodiversity. Biodiversity is our best defense, and it’s regenerative! While the extractive system mines and mono-crops the minerals and much needed microbes from healthy soil in order to do one thing, a biodiverse system uses the complexity of “everything” to fulfill a variety of needs like replenishing oxygen, sequestering carbon in forests, pollinating crops, and creating compost from waste. In Hebrew scripture, the prophets arrive on the scene to disrupt the colonizing system, the extractive system. Their words call out hypocrisy and point to corruption. This was hard work then, and it’s especially hard work now, as most of us have experienced how our prophetic voice only gets us so far before we see ourselves also complicit in a very tangled system. It’s been designed that way; but it doesn’t mean we should go back to sleep. Instead, we need to return to what’s sacred. The regenerative system puts sacredness at the center. It recognizes relationships and the labor of living as valuable. The labor of living? Yes, the energy we (humans, birds, vegetables, algae, all of us) take from the sun, and turn into flowers… or flight… or answering emails, making soup, running a marathon, singing a lullaby, facilitating a group discussion, you get the idea. The labor of living is what all of us do, and all of it holds value in the larger system. But which system? If we are feeling stuck in place and utterly homeless, it’s a good indication that we’re in the colonizing system (Story + Land = Place). And if you’re feeling it, you’re not alone. I’m feeling it too. In my conversations with people living around the world, the unifying theme is how vital it has become to protect the Living System, to regard the sacredness of all life and to care for one another and all species in a way that reflects how deeply we need one another. Reflecting on a protected natural space near her home, author Jenny Odell describes it this way, Our fates are linked, to each other, to the places where we are, and everyone and everything that lives in them. …It’s scary, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. That same relationship to the richness of place lets me partake of it too, allowing me to shape-shift like the flock of birds, to flow inland and out to sea, to rise and fall, to breathe. It’s a vital reminder that as a human, I am heir to this complexity - that I was born, not engineered. That’s why, when I worry about the estuary’s diversity, I am also worrying about my own diversity - about having the best, most alive parts of myself paved over by a ruthless logic of use. When I worry about the birds, I am also worrying about watching all my possible selves go extinct. And when I worry that no one will see the value of these murky waters, it is also a worry that I will be stripped of my own unusable parts, my own mysteries and my own depths.Humans made the extractive system, and humans can un-make it. We need to contest our current systems of power and return to one where sacredness is at the center. When sacredness is the measurement of value, “everything” is not too much, but rather wonderfully, and necessarily diverse, supporting of all parts of the Living System. Like that hive of bees, we each participate in “everything” so that everyone is supported. Let’s do everything so that one day – not too far away – we are living and working in an economy that has been designed for the ones who are most excluded (the “least of these,” Matthew 25:40), so that sufficiency and generosity holds us all. Let’s do everything so that one day – this one feels more distant – we have learned how to navigate hurt and harm without prisons and police so that there can be no more prisons and police.Both of these examples might magnify the grief of the moment. And it’s very true that jumping to solutions too quickly is a form of denial, so let’s, please be honest and gentle with our grief and our anger. And then, just like the tree, sending and receiving aid and support for every other tree, let’s accept the invitation to lean in and embody what the Hebrew prophets, Jesus and many other brave change-makers have modeled. Let’s do everything!~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings 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. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader I was really inspired by Rep. Alexia Ocasio-Cortez’s response to the insults of Rep. Ted Yoho, but I was equally disappointed by Yoho’s pseudo-apology. What makes a good apology? A: By Brian D. McLaren Dear Reader,First, for those who haven’t seen or read AOC’s eloquent, firm, and gracious response, you can find it here. And if you haven’t seen Rep. Yoho’s apology, you can find it here.Rep. Yoho’s apology really is a case study in what not to do, and I winced when I saw it, remembering times I’ve made the same tired old mistakes.He begins by touting his virtue: “I am a man of my word.” He avoids addressing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez directly, thereby increasing the dehumanization. Instead he says, perfunctorily and with no specificity, “I arise to apologize…” He minimizes the gravity of his offense, as if “abrupt manner” was the offense, and as if the offense would not have been as grave if he had called her a “disgusting f*cking b*tch” less abruptly. Then he mentions being married with two daughters and “being very cognizant of my language,” a common ploy used by men of weak character to hide behind the women in their families. He admits to “offensive language” but minimizes it by saying these words “were attributed to me by the press,” as if the whole problem is the press’s fault, and then further exonerates himself by saying his words “were never spoken to my colleagues,” and apologizes for those who misconstrued them that way — a clever but obvious dodge of the real issue, not to mention a classic act of blame-shifting.He then recalls being on food stamps when he was young, and then becomes teary in empathy for… himself! The final insult of his non-apology comes when he claims the moral high ground: “I cannot apologize for my passion, or for loving my God, my family, and my country.” Having hid behind women and poverty, he then hides behind religion, family, and the flag to defend himself. It was a truly reprehensible performance that reflects mistakes many of us have made in apologizing authentically.The best guidelines I’ve ever encountered for a legitimate apology come from V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), author of The Vagina Monologues. She recommends a four-step process for apology in her powerful book The Apology and in her TED talk, “The Profound Power of an Authentic Apology”:1. Say what, in detail, you did.2. Tell the story of what made you capable of doing what you did, not as an excuse, but as an explanation. In so doing, you show that you have done some inner work of reflection so you can address the deeper roots of your action, which makes you less likely to repeat it in the future.3. Feel what your victim felt.4. Take responsibility and make amends.So, I humbly offer this fix for Rep. Yoho, inserting numbers for the different parts of the apology, in thanks to V:I need to publicly apology to this House, and especially to my esteemed colleague, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 1) I recently called Rep. Ocasio-Cortez a filthy and dehumanizing name. There is no excuse for my action. Then, when caught, I denied it, another inexcusable failure of character. 2) I have examined myself about how I came to this place. I realize that I am an arrogant man and when I encounter a strong and intelligent woman who disagrees with me or my ideology, I want to bring her down in some way. I have never admitted or adequately addressed this toxic masculinity in myself. Now I must. 3) I can only imagine how many other arrogant and childish men my gifted colleague has had to face to get to where she is today, and I feel deep regret about adding to her pain, and the pain of other women. In addition, I regret setting a terrible example for other men, and I must change going forward. 4) I take full responsibility for my actions, and I would like to ask my colleague what it will take to make appropriate amends so I can grow as a human being and a member of Congress, and so that together, we can work for a better Congress, a better country, and a better world. I failed my colleague, this Congress, and my responsibility as a leader to set a positive example, and I am sorry.We can only imagine what a difference an apology like this could have made. May we all have the courage and wisdom to apologize authentically the next time we do wrong and cause someone harm.~ Brian D. McLaren Read and share online here About the Author Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. He is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. A leader in the Convergence Network he also works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent joint project is an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story. Other recent books include: The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World). | | | | | | | | 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 our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part VII: Paul's Early Epistles, I Thessalonians and Galatians Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong December 3, 2009In our Origins of the New Testament series, I now turn to the epistles of Paul since he was the first author to write any part of the New Testament. My plan is to divide the authentic writings of Paul into three broad categories. There is what I call “the early Paul,” best seen through his first two epistles, I Thessalonians and Galatians; then there is what I call “the middle Paul,” best illustrated through his most familiar works, I and II Corinthians and Romans; and, finally there is “the late Paul,” best observed through the epistles known as Philemon and Philippians. Please note that these seven epistles constitute what scholars all but universally agree are the authentic letters of Paul. I will examine Paul in his various roles as pastor and as theologian. This Pauline segment of our larger task of examining the origins and makeup of the New Testament will then conclude with a brief analysis of the disputed epistles, the dispute being whether or not they are the authentic works of Paul. That list includes Colossians and II Thessalonians, which very few scholars still contend are Pauline. Then we move on to those about which there is almost no dispute at all, since these letters appear to have been written well after Paul’s death. In this category we locate Ephesians, I and II Timothy and Titus. Most Christians are unable to discern any differences in voice, tone or content in the entire body of work that we now call the epistles, whether written by Paul or not. That is probably because we never read them as a whole and thus never get a sense of Paul’s specific thinking. We tend to hear them instead only in small snatches being read as lessons in church and with no context. My hope is that through these columns I will be able to provide my readers with sufficient knowledge of the distinctiveness of each epistle that the differences between them become obvious. It might even be exciting to enable people to become biblically literate, which would place them among the minority of Christians who are conversant with Paul’s thinking. The first epistle that Paul wrote, most scholars agree, was I Thessalonians. It is, however, placed sixth in the epistle section of the Bible because these letters were put into the canon of scripture according to their length. Romans, Paul’s longest letter, is first, and Philemon, Paul’s shortest letter, is last. If they had been listed chronologically I Thessalonians would be first, Galatians second, I and II Corinthians third and fourth, Romans fifth, Philemon sixth and Philippians seventh. So we begin our study of Paul’s content with his first two works. Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia and Galatia was in central Asia Minor. The book of Acts tells us that Paul visited both of these towns on his early missionary journeys. He wrote these two epistles in the first few years of the sixth decade, probably between the years 51 and 53. At this time the followers of Jesus were still members of the synagogue. Paul came to each town as a traveling evangelist who also happened to be a rabbi. The venue for his words was thus the Sabbath service in the synagogue, though we need to recognize that in those two towns the synagogues were far removed in both miles and strictness from Judea. Members of these synagogues were Greek-speaking Hellenized Jews, who lived as members of the Jewish Diaspora. The synagogue was thus not only a worship center for them, it was also their cultic and cultural center. Diaspora synagogues had by this time begun to attract Gentile worshipers. It was a time of great religious ferment in the Greek-speaking Roman Empire. The gods of Olympus had lost most of their appeal. The mystery cults seemed too bizarre and had not yet become established. This meant that the synagogue was more and more a place to which serious worshipers of many varieties turned. In the synagogue there was a firm conviction that God was one. The Torah of the Jews portrayed this one God as concerned about life and ethics, as well as about patterns of worship. As the Jews moved further away from their homeland many of them began to shed the more rigid aspects of their religion, and Judaism for them became more abstract, more spiritual, and less definably Jewish. Gentile worshipers were not drawn to the cultic aspects of Judaism, like kosher dietary rules, circumcision and Sabbath day observance, so these changes made it even more attractive to them. Paul, as a Greek-thinking Hellenized Jew, was thus frequently more appealing to these modernizing Jews and the Gentile visitors than he was to the stricter Jewish members of the audience, who viewed the synagogue as their last attachment to their ancestry. In Thessalonica Paul had clearly emphasized in his preaching the messianic claim for Jesus. That role had many connotations for the Jews, but among the most compelling was that the messiah, when he came, would establish God’s eternal kingdom and inaugurate God’s earthly rule. In the service of this idea the early disciples of Jesus had been consumed with the task of connecting the life of Jesus to the messianic promises found in their scriptures. They thus searched their sacred writings for hints and clues to prove that Jesus was the expected messiah. Sometimes they stretched these texts beyond the breaking point. At the heart of the Jesus message was the claim that death had been conquered and that his followers would be transported into eternal life very soon. The Gentile visitors to the synagogue had bought this message and had formed themselves into a separate community of believers within the synagogue. They still attended Sabbath day services, but they also gathered on the first day of the week for the Christian liturgy they called “the breaking of the bread,” at which time they prayed “thy kingdom come.” The obvious desire by Gentiles to be in the synagogue, but not of the synagogue, was more than some traditional Orthodox Jews could tolerate, so Paul and his teaching became a source of divisiveness in the various synagogues of the empire. The Orthodox Jewish believers began to attack Paul’s credentials and his reputation. The Gentile worshipers had turned from idols to the one God of the Jews, but Paul had located this God in the life of Jesus and so deeply convinced them of this that they had begun to wait for Jesus’ promised return from heaven. Clearly this was the message they had heard from Paul. As time passed, however, the Kingdom did not arrive and they began to waver. When Thessalonian family members began to die, their despair increased. Something was clearly wrong if they died before the kingdom arrived. The bulk of Paul’s message in his first epistle was designed to assure these troubled worshippers that the dead would rejoin the living when that second coming arrived. No one knows, he assured them, either the time or the season when that second coming will occur. Paul, the pastor, thus urged them to be vigilant, to keep awake, to be sober and to put on “the armor of God,” an image that he would expand in later works. In Galatia, the pastoral issue was a little different. The content of Paul’s message in this second epistle was that in Christ alone their salvation was assured. This had caused those who responded to that message to move dramatically away from the law of the Jews. Keeping the cultic rules of Judaism lost its urgency in Paul’s proclamation of the infinite love of God that he believed had been revealed in the life of Jesus. This seemed to Orthodox Jews to be nothing less than a prescription for moral anarchy and the obliteration of the Torah itself. So they struck back at Paul and were supported by the heavy guns of the more traditional Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, including Peter and James, the Lord’s brother. This tension erupted into the first major division in Christian history. Was the Christ figure merely a new chapter in Judaism? Was he another prophet in a long line of Jewish prophets waiting to be incorporated into the ongoing Jewish story? Did believers in Jesus have to come through the rituals and rites of Judaism in order to be Christians? This was the position that Peter and James took and defended. For Paul that stance was a violation of everything his Christian experience had taught him. Paul had found in Jesus a love sufficient to embrace him just as he was. Paul had tried the other way. By his own confession he had sought to obey every commandment of the law in order to win salvation. That had not proved to be a path that led him toward wholeness. Religious observance never is. It was and is just another form of human slavery, another attempt to win divine favor, to manipulate the deity with good behavior. At best that approach produced religious self-centeredness, not the glorious liberty of the children of God. For Paul the battle he was fighting in this epistle was for the heart of what he believed was the Christ experience. In defense of his understanding of Christ he mounted a strong counterattack, dismissing Peter’s behavior as unworthy of the gospel and expressing a strong dislike for James, the Lord’s brother. He berated those in the congregation in Galatia who had so quickly abandoned his gospel for this new religious bondage. Galatians reveals Paul not only at his most passionate, but also at his angriest and his most human. Defending his claim to be an apostle, Paul tells us more in this epistle than anywhere else about his conversion experience, and the meaning he found in Jesus that had been the source of his conversion. When the smoke of battle cleared, Paul stood victorious and the book of Acts would later relate the story of Peter’s conversion (see Acts 10). It is also in Galatians that Paul first articulates the unity that he finds in Christ, who obliterates the human security boundaries between Jews and Gentiles, males and females, bond and free. All are one in Christ, he asserts. Paul, as we noted earlier in this series, felt himself loved beyond anything he had imagined possible and he refused to allow that single message to be compromised. He won this battle, but it would be one that Christians would fight again and again throughout history. Perhaps it was that this message of unqualified love was simply too good to be true. Imagine a God who knows the secrets of our hearts, but who loves us anyway. That is, however, the meaning of the Christ story for Paul and, as such, it would represent a major step into what it means to be human.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements The Book of Awakening: having the life you want by being present to the life you have. Sept 18th - 19th Have you ever taken a personal retreat at home? If not, then doing so will be something worthwhile for you. With more than a million copies sold, The Book of Awakening by New York Times #1 bestseller Mark Nepo, has been the go-to guide for navigating the path to joy and freedom in the face of illness and hardship. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Re: [Dialogue] RS 101: On Becoming a Practical Theologian (OBaPT) (Pamphlet and Addendum)
by Dawn Collins 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

Hi again, friends and colleagues, The question I'm left with is: Do y'all think an early try-out of this course is virtual worthy? I think the OBaPT weekend construct is adaptable. Yet, the ideal for me is waiting patiently for the face-to-face RS1 model. Beret, I welcome your feedback and hope to chat with you this week...Remember the point of this OBaPT offering was to speak to the issue of leading the way to care for oneself on the journey with affirming like-minded folks; and which takes place with facilitation after the last section of RS1. Am looking forward to the RS1 materials you're sending as a must-have to my library. I welcome the present struggle in our community with theological language taking place in the books we're reading and the breakthroughs we're sharing. I also find The Message Bible by Peterson a hospitable companion. Kindfully yours,dawn We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first.- 1 John 4:19 On Monday, September 7, 2020, 10:30:22 AM MDT, Dawn Collins <collinsdawn747(a)yahoo.com> wrote: Dear colleagues and friends, Whence goeth the path of the traditional and progressive church? Here are 2 LINKs below (compliments to Wendell Refior and the Global Archives) to be offered in a weekend program (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) for your church of choice based on RS1. Now that the Archives are called the Social Research Center, these two pieces are filed under Academy RS1 and one other place...Also, be sure to check with Karen Snyder in SRC for a digitized copy of the RS1 Enablement Manual. This 5 section mini-session is designed to engage participants in working through their individual/corporate faith stance, in contemporary contextual language grasping the relevance of their conclusions to our changing world. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you wish to add to this effort of the spirit. Should you desire to accept this mission, I would appreciate your feedback. Kindfully yours,dawn https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets//21011pdf (for the 5 sections 15-page OBaPT pamphlet) https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/21013pdf (for the 25 questions Addendum) We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first.- 1John 4:19

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Links to Recording of the Celebration of Life for David Zahrt
by Jo Nelson 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

Hi, all, Linda Zahrt is having trouble sending the links to the recordings of Saturday’s Celebration of Life, so she asked me to share them here to reach as many people as possible in a timely way. We deeply appreciated seeing so many colleagues that we haven’t seen for a very long time, and appreciated the wide variety of stories. It was a fitting celebration that shared so many facets and gifts of David and his life. Thank you for participating! (And I apologize to those who couldn’t get into the session – I discovered too late that my Zoom account only allows 100 people at once, and that there were more than 100 who wanted to participate!) Here are the links to the two files: Video recording: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7uwjzy739l27spc/zoom_David%20Z%20Celeb.mp4?dl=0 Chat: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ee9kx6pj27a3nt/chat%20David%20Z%20Celeb.txt?dl=0 You will need a video player on your device to see the recording. The chat is text only. With deep gratitude, Jo -- Jo Nelson, CPF, 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 Skype "jofacilitator" Vendor of Record: Government of Ontario Learning and Training Services #OSS-00154215 Vendor of Record: Public Works and Government Services Canada E60BQ-01ISSA/353/ST, Organizational Management. Pre-qualified Vendor, Alberta Education Resource List “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

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RS 101: On Becoming a Practical Theologian (OBaPT) (Pamphlet and Addendum)
by Dawn Collins 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

Dear colleagues and friends, Whence goeth the path of the traditional and progressive church? Here are 2 LINKs below (compliments to Wendell Refior and the Global Archives) to be offered in a weekend program (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) for your church of choice based on RS1. Now that the Archives are called the Social Research Center, these two pieces are filed under Academy RS1 and one other place...Also, be sure to check with Karen Snyder in SRC for a digitized copy of the RS1 Enablement Manual. This 5 section mini-session is designed to engage participants in working through their individual/corporate faith stance, in contemporary contextual language grasping the relevance of their conclusions to our changing world. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you wish to add to this effort of the spirit. Should you desire to accept this mission, I would appreciate your feedback. Kindfully yours,dawn https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets//21011pdf (for the 5 sections 15-page OBaPT pamphlet) https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/21013pdf (for the 25 questions Addendum) We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first.- 1John 4:19

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Global Buzz for September
by ICA International 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '20

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: September 2020 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-20/2020-09-01.php Read the latest ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine brought to you now on Medium.com See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves ICAI Communications

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9/03/20, Progressing Spirit: Brian McLaren: So… if we care, what do we say?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateBody .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent, #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateBody .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateFooter .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent, #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateFooter .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | So… if we care, what do we say? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Brian D. McLaren September 3, 2020 Recently, I received an email from a reader who asked, “Hi Brian. I would love to know your thoughts on speaking with close family members who are active or retired police officers during this time. I’m seeing so many black activists and white allies calling for the police force to be defunded and dismantled. I’m seeing hundreds of videos of police violence against peaceful protestors. I’m angry and sad and don’t know what to say to those who have served faithfully and made police work their life’s work. Any help you can give is appreciated. Your work has meant so much to me through the last few years and I so appreciate your pastoral voice.” I was struck by the spirit of the question: this person cares about the violence being done to Black lives and this person also cares about the well-being of honest police officers who see themselves as public servants. That wide aperture of empathy is such a good place to begin. So… if we care, what do we say? Christians in different times and in different places would answer this question very differently. In the earliest centuries of Christianity, for example, to be a Christian meant to be a nonviolent peacemaker, which made the bearing of arms unthinkable. For example, in the Second Century, Hippolytus said, “A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate must resign or be rejected. If a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God” (On Idolatry Chapter 19: Concerning Military Service). In our context in the U.S., when nearly all of us can close our eyes and replay the video of a white police officer with his knee on the neck of a black man, we are in a moment of profound reckoning. On the one hand, how do we take seriously the deep-seated white supremacy that is so embedded in all facets of our government, including police departments? On the other hand, how do we appreciate and support active and retired police officers in our families, neighborhoods, and congregations who want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem? Here is a line of pastoral conversation that I can recommend. I’m not saying this is the only way to respond, but it is a way that could lead people beyond defensiveness into a space of curiosity and desire to understand. 1. Lead with empathy. Say something like, “I can imagine this hasn’t been an easy time to be a police officer. How has it been for you?” Then, listen with empathy. And use active listening skills - with responses like, “That must be frustrating… frightening… discouraging,” etc. If you set the stage with sincere empathy, you create space for real communication — and even communion — to occur. Without empathy, you’ll probably just end up in an argument, increasing defensiveness and distrust. 2. Show curiosity. Ask specific questions like these: “How was it for you being a police officer before George Floyd’s killing and the recent protests? How has it changed since the protests began? How did you get interested in being an officer? What have been the hardest and most rewarding things about your career as an officer? How do you think things can get better? In what ways can you empathize with African-Americans who are afraid of the police? Have you seen things on the inside that concern you?” Your curiosity allows you to become even more empathetic and understanding. Already, that’s a win. 3. Go deeper. If you feel it’s appropriate, you might ask a question with sincere curiosity — and without setting a “gotcha” trap, something like, “I’m curious: How do you feel about the Black Lives Matter movement and the call to defund police?” Ask clarifying questions. Seek to understand how and why they feel as they do. Try to translate your own reactivity into curiosity… seeking to understand before seeking to be understood. 4. Make an offer. If you think your conversation partner is misinformed, rather than pushing back in a way that will instantly make them defensive and even combative, make an offer, saying something like, “I see that differently. If you’d be interested, I’ll be glad to explain how I understand the problem. Then I’d be interested in how you would respond.” Or if you don’t feel prepared to offer a better understanding, offer to do some research. “You’ve got me thinking. I’d like to do some research into this problem. Would you be open to me getting back in touch with you about it? I value your perspective as an officer yourself, and I value our relationship.” 5. Be constructive. In the presence of disagreement, position yourself not as an antagonist, but as a peacemaker. If you hit an impasse, you have at least three options. .....A. You might ask an imaginative question like this: “How do you think officers like you and citizens like me can work together to address the racism that is still part of our society? How can we get to a place that is better for everybody — for police officers and for people who are worried they might be the next victim of police misconduct?” Sometimes, getting people engaged in imagining solutions is the best way to cure their misdiagnosis of the problem. .....B. You might simply achieve disagreement by restating one another’s positions fairly. You could say, “Wow. I think I see that differently. Let me see if I can put where you’re coming from in my own words… Is that it?” Or, “Could you try to put my perspective into your own words?” This habit puts you “on the same side” in trying to understand one another — a very different posture than trying to conquer the other. .....C. You might offer a non-directive felt response. You might say, “Wow. That concerns me,” or “I see what you’re saying, even though it worries me,” or, “Wow, I feel your anger and hurt. I see the situation very differently.” You shift the focus from an argument to a human-to-human communication of feeling. This entire strategy is based on years of making well-intentioned mistakes that led me to do some research on bias and why it’s so hard for people to change their minds (see Why Don’t They Get It? available here: https://brianmclaren.net/store/) If I were to summarize in a couple of sentences, I’d say first, that people can’t see what they can’t see unless someone helps them, and second, that people usually come to truth through relationship. A caring and non-aggressive conversation partner can be the bridge to help others to see things in a new way, and can be an agent of healing where there have been misunderstanding and wounds. And that’s not just true for others. It’s true for me too. And you. ~ Brian D. McLaren Read online here About the Author Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent joint project is an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story. Other recent books include: The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World). Brian is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings – across the US and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, he has appeared on All Things Considered, Larry King Live, Nightline, On Being, and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. His work has also been covered in Time, New York Times, Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com, and many other print and online media. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader I have been an on and off member of a church for 15 years. The church is Assemblies of God, but 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. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft Dear Reader, Thank you for sharing your heart and your journey. Your questions and processing are all part of what it means to be a person of Faith. One thing I always remind myself is that there is no perfect church. In the same way, there is no perfect denomination. That being said, it may help you to spend some time thinking about what some non-negotiables are for you. Is preaching that Jesus is the only way to God a deal-breaker? Or is that okay as long as you can create opportunities and space for your thoughts around that in other areas? Is Sunday School for your child a deal-breaker? Is lessening Jesus a deal breaker? Another helpful reminder is that the dogma, doctrine, Sunday School, or even one leader at a church doesn't make up the entirety of the place. The church is the people! By virtue of you bringing yourself and YOUR beliefs and questions to the space, the Church is - or at least should be - fluid. If you're happy with many aspects of a Church but want to push for change or question some aspects, it's your place to do just that. If your pushing leads to a rub with one of your non-negotiables, then maybe it's time to look around. My prayer for you is that you don't feel like an outsider wherever you land, but rather that the person of Jesus and the promises of God allow for you to feel right inside God's dreams. ~ Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft is an activist, organizer, Baptist minister, and mother of five-year-old twins Zane and Levi and four-year-old Skyler. She is the Executive Minister for Justice and Movement Building at Middle Collegiate Church and the founder of Raising Imagination, a platform that examines social change at the intersections of faith, parenting and politics. Her activism has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal, Refinery29, and Bust and she is a regular writer and inaugural board member of The Resistance Prays. She and her family live in the East Village of Manhattan and fight the patriarchy and examine their racism and spirituality together, one cheerio at a time. | | | | | | | | 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 our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited A Church Tower in a Shopping Center! A Restaurant in a Church! Is This Evolving Christianity? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 26, 2009 I have just completed a whirlwind tour of the United Kingdom — nine lectures in eight days in places as far east as Colchester, as far north as Edinburgh, as far west as Exeter and as far south as London. This tour was under the auspices of a group called the Progressive Christian Network of the United Kingdom, or PCN-UK, which is chaired by Hugh Dawes, a remarkable Anglican priest. These lectures, attended by just under 2,000 people, tapped into a religious yearning that is clearly a growing presence in this deeply secular nation. The content of each lecture was some aspect of the subject of life after death and whether the concept of eternal life can still be held with integrity by modern men and women. I returned home with a new hopefulness about the Anglican Communion in the UK. The PCN has formed some 35-plus study cells in various towns and cities throughout the UK that meet regularly, mostly monthly, but a few weekly. Attendance at each group averages between 20 and 25 people, drawn from current and lapsed Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Methodists and the United Reformed Church, a combination of Presbyterians and Congregationalists. In Colchester, the lecture was held in the Lion’s Walk United Reformed Church. This church was originally a large stone structure near the center of the city. As the city grew it became surrounded by a variety of shops, but very few homes, and slowly the value of the property rose as a commercial site. When the repairs on the old structure began to drain the church of its life and assets, a decision was made to tear it down and to take advantage of its value by allowing the site to be developed for commercial purposes. The congregation, however, saw the value of continuing to worship in that same location and the shopping center also wanted the church to be part of its new venture. This mutual desire produced a remarkable new thing. The church building was razed to the ground except for the proud tower, its primary identifying mark. The tower was then restored and it stands today in the middle of the site, rising high above the shops as this center’s most recognizable feature. This ecclesiastical landmark, drawing people to it, provides the shopping center with a sign of permanence. At the eye level of shoppers is a glass case in the tower that enumerates the continuing Sunday and weekly activities of this URC congregation. Hundreds of people pass these announcements each day. Near this tower are large glass doors directing people to the church. Inside, potential worshippers have the choice of navigating two flights of stairs or of entering an elevator. Both lead to the church itself, which is now located above the shops. The new worship space is large and octagonal, with the familiar stained glass windows from the old church setting a tone of reverence and continuity in this new environment. It seats perhaps three hundred, yet it still projects a sense of intimacy. Offices, washrooms, Sunday school rooms, activity rooms and a kitchen complete the church’s “upper room” facilities, providing far more modern and usable space than this congregation had ever previously enjoyed. Parking is no problem for the members of this congregation on Sunday or for those attending evening activities, for adequate parking is provided by the shopping center. Today this congregation is vital, alive, engaged and led by a newly installed pastor who is a Scottish Presbyterian. Included in the congregation are people of remarkable ability. There is Norman Hart, a retired journalist, who has spent a good part of his life working in various countries in Africa training young African journalists to take their places in the Africa of the future; his wife, Linda Hart, sings with the London Choral Society, for which she takes the train up to London once a week to attend rehearsals. Together she and Norman anchor the church choir. Then there is Linda Harrison, who is the congregation’s liaison to the national Progressive Christian Network and the organizer of the nationwide study cells. The benefits of the new arrangement with the shopping center have placed this congregation on a firm financial footing, and it is now busy about the task of transforming its life and doing its ministry. The members of this congregation are eager to engage the contemporary world in all of its complexity, not to hide from it or to become a ghetto of irrelevant evangelical fervor within it. I was deeply impressed with their vision. Two other churches on the tour have long been the power centers of a progressive Christianity in England. One is St. James’ in Piccadilly Circus in London, which from the days of its former rectors, Donald Reeves and Charles Headley, has become a major place of interfaith activity in Great Britain. The other was St. Mark’s in the Broomhill section of Sheffield, which is the center of England’s steel industry some three hours north of London in the Midlands. This church was served for over 20 years by Adrian Alker, an incredibly gifted priest. As part of his ministry he started an organization called “The Center for Radical Christianity.” Through the years he nurtured this congregation into a new understanding of Christianity, regularly introducing the members to frontier scholars of the Christian faith and so building this church into a center of intellectual exploration. Naturally, he frightened local ecclesiastical authorities, which seems to have been the response of religious leaders from the time of Jesus on, when anyone dares to step outside the box of conventional thinking. While the authorities quaked in their boots and sought to marginalize this priest, his congregation grew and thrived. English bishops seem content to watch churches in their dioceses die of boredom all the while fearing that they might be disturbed by controversy. I was fascinated to learn on this tour that the authorities in several of the dioceses near the locations of the various lectures had refused to publish notices of the PCN-sponsored lecture tour for fear that some of “the faithful” might come and be upset by ideas about which they had never heard, even though these ideas have been abroad in academic Christian circles for at least the last two hundred years! St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Edinburgh with its rector, John Ames, was another remarkable church on this tour. It was packed for the lecture and had to close its doors and allow no more people to attend under the fire code of the city that limits the number of people that can safely be in each public building at any one time. I had the honor of being introduced on this stop by a man I regard as the most creative bishop in the Anglican Communion today. His name is Richard Holloway, the former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Referring to my book Eternal Life: A New Vision, Bishop Holloway announced that they had worked out a special price with the publisher Harper/Collins to make this book available at the price of ten pounds, “a price below that of Amazon,” he said Then he asked, “Where else can you buy Eternal Life for ten quid?” If that were literally true it would indeed be a bargain, well below the cost of indulgences once sold to gain the same end. When I got to St. Luke’s, Holloway, in North London, I discovered that this church had turned its worship space into a series of candlelit tables and chairs around which the people drank wine as they listened to the lecture. Their priest is Dave Tomlinson, whose book describing new understandings of Christianity has been a topic of much conversation in the Anglican Communion. Moving on to St. Faith’s Church, Dulwich, in South London, I looked out on a rainbow congregation of multiple ethnicities. There were also in the congregation on that Sunday a number of retired priests; a young Scottish infectious-disease doctor and his social worker wife who hailed from California; a Harvard Divinity School graduate who chose not to be ordained; and many other fascinating people. The Sunday school was made up of primarily African, Indian and Asian children who reflected the mix of the neighborhood. Hugh Dawes, the head of PCN, was the vicar here and he has led this church in his gentle but stretching style for well over twenty years. The hymns that Sunday were contemporary, not the dirges of the English hymnal whose title is “Hymns: Ancient and Modern” but which seems really to mean “ancient hymns and not-quite-so-ancient hymns.” They used a contemporary creed that was not bound to the three-tiered universe of a pre-Galileo mentality, but still touched the essentials of the Christian story. Hugh also included those traditions that longtime Anglicans would feel related them to their past: familiar vestments, incense and other trappings of English Christianity. The lecture tour then moved west to another refurbished United Reformed Church adjacent to another shopping center in Exeter that is served by a gay pastor, Iain McDonald, who lives openly with his partner of some years. This congregation’s enthusiastic embrace of the gifts of this pastor demonstrates new levels of consciousness. Then we moved on to Hereford, where the lecture tour concluded in a downtown, liturgically conservative Anglican Church named All Saints. This church had earlier been marked by its bishop for closure since there were no longer any people living near its commercial location. Instead, however, a creative rector named Andrew Mottim decided to turn half of this church’s building, including the balcony, into a vegetarian restaurant that today serves mid-morning coffee and “biscuits” and afternoon tea and “sponge” to shoppers. In addition it serves an average of four hundred vegetarian lunches each day. This vegetarian restaurant is set in full view of the church’s altar and chapel where the Eucharist is celebrated regularly. Both kinds of eating, lunch and the Eucharist, are in this place deemed to be holy. These were some of the signs of hope, creativity and new life that I saw everywhere I went. These churches formed the background against which a new Christianity for a new world is emerging in secular Great Britain. I have renewed hope. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements My Resources for Churches (and everyone else!) Every so often, I put out a “musing” that is a guide to my writings and videos. It’s that time when churches make plans for their program year, so this is a good moment to share links to my materials for worship, study, and spiritual practice. Use freely. All I ask is attribution! ~ Rev. Jim Burklo Read On... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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8/27/20, Progressing Spirit, Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft: Can Imagination Save Us?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1728418305 #yiv1728418305templateBody .yiv1728418305mcnTextContent, #yiv1728418305 #yiv1728418305templateBody .yiv1728418305mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1728418305 #yiv1728418305templateFooter .yiv1728418305mcnTextContent, #yiv1728418305 #yiv1728418305templateFooter .yiv1728418305mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Can Imagination Save Us? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft August 27, 2020 I’m thinking a lot about this moment. Under 70 days until the most important Presidential Election arguably of all time, close to six months into an unprecedented global pandemic, increasing racial uprisings, increasing inequalities, anxieties, looming questions, delayed and potent grief. As an ordained Minister, my job is to help people remain hopeful no matter the circumstance. I’m not unlike many other clergy who, in this moment, feel exhausted and often at a loss for words. Does our Holy Book have a word for us, even now? Is there something there within that might move us differently than hope? Can we extract something new from the tried and true promises of peace, comfort, and love, that – for those of us raised in the Christian tradition – gird our psyches? Is there anything there within that might offer a word for the living of these particular days? I’ve always loved the prophets and was recently drawn to an oft-not talked about passage from Jeremiah chapter 4. 23 I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. 24 I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. 25 I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. 26 I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before the Lord’s fierce anger. 27 For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. This passage in Jeremiah’s passage is pretty depressing. God is speaking to the people of Israel – warning them – over and over again about their looming demise. I looked on the Earth and it was waste and void – a harken to the creation story in Genesis giving us the illusion that in this moment, creation is literally being UNmade. No light. No sun. No birds. Food is scarce. Cities – once full of habitation and social life – now gone. Commerce, governance, civility as we know it is gone. The cause? God’s divine anger in response to a people who’ve lost their ability to do good. God’s anger in response to a country on the way to destroying herself by infidelity to what is Holy. We find ourselves in this text right in the middle of the desolation, to hear and feel the weeping of the Earth. Shhhh… can you hear it? - The destruction of the United States Postal Service? - The corruption of power? - The erosion of natural resources? - The rumbling of bellies of those without enough food? - The weeping of teachers, parents & students at the onset of a year of COVID school? - A people who would rather fill the promises of Wall Street and white supremacy – Christian nationalism and heteronormativity - than to be faithful to that which is Holy and Just? Shhhh… can you hear it? A global pandemic heightening our already weeping world? I can hear it. In fact, it’s quite loud. Biblical scholars, including Walter Brueggemann, offer suggestions as to why this depressing passage made it into the Holy book. It isn’t some scare tactic or lame theological exercise to win devotion, but rather that it’s a rhetorical attempt to engage a numb, unaware community in an imaginative embrace of what is happening, so that we might catalyze change. We’re quick and incorrect to skip over this passage. We are numb. We need to be called to an imaginative embrace of what is happening right now. In fact, imagination may be the medicine to tend to our increasing ails. Imagination is often siloed to children and fantasy, so we’re quick to infantilize it as fluff and fantasia. But Imagination, the kind that passages like this one in Jeremiah harken, is anything but whimsical. It’s bold, courageous, intentional and tough. Jurgen Moltmann reminds us that imagination doesn’t point to another world with lofty, unchecked dreams, but that it’s focused on the redemption of THIS world. This VERY WORLD you and I are living and breathing in right now. Facing this weeping world is HARD! We need an active imaginative embrace to face it. When we become numb we’re robbed of our potential to be fully human, but imagination, we’re reminded in Jeremiah, has the power to move us towards human and societal transformation because it alters how we view ourselves and our place in the world. But it’s not that easy, of course. How do we continue to be people of imagination in the face of a widely weeping world? How do we continue to be people of imagination when our culture praises quick solutions, narrow formulas for success, beauty, and education, and provides binary options – at best – for the living of these days? Work full time from home with children who also now need instruction in the home full time; OR, send your children to school where neither they nor the administration, teachers or building staff are safe? Shut down the USPS or save democracy? Pay your rent or lose your home? Stay awake in the front seat of your car after a long day or be killed by the police? Risk your life by continuing to work a low paying job without proper protection from Covid-19, or lose your job? Trump OR Biden? Progressive or Conservative? Our culture doesn’t leave much room for imagination, and thus utilizing imagination as a means for living is our prophetic work and our prophetic call. We, who everyone one of us, by virtue of being made in the image and PROMISES of God, are ordained to be people of imagination and hope. Walter Brueggemann, who writes prolifically about imagination in his book “Prophetic Imagination” reminds us that, “The prophet engages in futuring fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing. The same royal consciousness that makes it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger.” So we ask again: How do we continue to be people of imagination in the face of a culture quick to imagine nothing? Barbara Love’s Liberatory Consciousness has a word for us here. Liberatory Consciousness is an intentional way of living that calls us to maintain an awareness of the dynamics of oppression all around and within us without giving into despair and hopelessness… all the while working to change the system and ourselves in order to create greater equity. I think that’s what Jeremiah was doing here. I think this is what cultivating an imaginative embrace means. God helps the people of Israel become intentionally aware of the oppressive system, their oppressive selves - so that they might analyze, take action, and move towards collective liberation. We were on the F train several years ago when my son Zane, then two, asked what that bad smell was. (You and I know that kids have impeccable timing). I explained to Zane that the smell was coming from someone living without a home nor the ability to clean himself. Zane was satisfied with my answer at the time but I revisited it with him later that day. What did you think about that person we saw who doesn’t have a home? I asked, hoping to begin a toddler sized conversation about the right to housing and inequality. Zane thought for a bit... I think, he said, that he has a magic wand he uses to make a beautiful home for himself. Boom. Imagination isn’t wimpy. It’s damn smart. It’s bold. It’s prophetic. It’s speaking a vision of what could be, what might be - what is totally different - into the world. It’s rooted in the cross, close to our pain, close to our weeping, CLOSE TO THE STENCH OF INEQUALITY – so that we may never be numb to that which is real and here. It’s rooted in the stench to make the possibility that much more beautiful. Every.single.one.of.us. is a prophet of imagination. We are all called to put forth a bold vision of God’s Kin-dom on Earth, without asking if the vision can be implemented. We are ALL called to envision a more liberated tomorrow. And we can do that by getting close enough to the stench. Close enough to the weeping. Close enough to the PROMISES. Close enough to the prophets around us – be they activists occupying Louisville to bring justice for Breonna Taylor, volunteers passing out Census information, a Church community funding Black Lives Matter initiatives and doing reparations, a parent chairing the COVID reopening committee for their child’s school, or a two year old riding the Subway. When we listen to the prophets all around us, we’ll stop only hearing despair. We’ll hear echoes of imagination, and each note will carry us forward. At least for today, this Minister is riding on imagination. What about you? ~ Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft Read online here About the Author Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft is an activist, organizer, Baptist minister, and mother of five-year-old twins Zane and Levi and four-year-old Skyler. She is the Executive Minister for Justice and Movement Building at Middle Collegiate Church and the founder of Raising Imagination, a platform that examines social change at the intersections of faith, parenting and politics. She has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal, Refinery29, and Bust, and she is a regular writer and inaugural board member of The Resistance Prays. She and her family live in the East Village of Manhattan and fight the patriarchy and examine their racism and spirituality together, one cheerio at a time. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader I work in an Episcopal church with Holy Eucharist at the majority of services. The liturgy includes phrases such as “this is holy food” and “come to the feast” when there actually might be five or ten calories in a congregant’s tiny wafer and nip of wine. Following the service, there is usually a coffee hour with sweet snacks and cheese, hundreds of calories per person! Ignoring any theological implications that the bread and wine might literally transubstantiate into flesh and blood — which I fervently disbelieve — why do churches continue to use such language when people obviously know this is no “feast” and at best a liturgical ritual? I cannot imagine this is an ideal way to attract youth and outsiders to worship. A: By Rev. Brandan Robertson Dear Reader, This is a very fun and reasonable question. In short, the earliest Christian celebrations of the Eucharist were in the form of full meals. “Agape Feasts”, as noted by Ignatius of Antioch, were literal meals where Christians would gather together both to remember the example of Jesus and to create community with one another. However, within a few hundred years after the establishment of this ritual by Jesus, we begin to see Church Fathers writing about how Christians were utilizing these meals as a time for gluttony and drunkenness, as well as excluding others from full participation. Whereas this feast was meant to be a solemn time of remembrance, community building, and opportunity to share with the poor, they became indistinguishable from pagan feasts that were exclusive and usually for the purpose of drunkenness. By the time Augustine arrives on the scene, we see him writing very harshly against such practices and advocating for a more ritualized form of the Eucharist - one in which much less food and drink was offered, and it was done in an environment that would more or less resemble a liturgy of worship. >From this point onward, the evolution of the Eucharist ritual continued until it became what we have today, in most traditions, as a symbol of the Passover feast that Jesus instituted. A piece of bread and sip of wine is done to remember Christ, to the exclusion of the other reasons that the early church practiced the Agape Feast- namely, to build community. In the modern era, many churches have attempted to return to the Agape Feast model of the Eucharist - dinner churches such as St. Lydia’s in Brooklyn, New York embodies the spirit and theology of those early meals in such a profoundly beautiful way. The entirety of their “liturgy” is to gather around a table with diverse people, share a meal, reflect on the way of Jesus, and go out into the world to serve and love. This is what the celebration of the Eucharist and Christian life was meant to look like at its best. Still, many other traditions have continued to see great value in the symbolic ritual of taking a wafer of bread and a sip of wine to transport us back to the moment when Jesus shared that sacred moment with his closest friends. The expectation is, at least in my church, that when we participate in this simple ritual that we will do so as a rededication and recommitment to everything it embodies - namely, being a community, sharing meals with others, serving the poor, and living in the sacrificial way of Jesus. When this is the posture we take, even with a silly little wafer and a squirt of wine, then I believe that this ritual truly does serve us well. ~ Rev. Brandan Robertson Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Brandan Robertson is a noted spiritual thought-leader, contemplative activist, and commentator, working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal and the author of Nomad: A Spirituality For Travelling Light and writes regularly for Patheos, Beliefnet, and The Huffington Post. He has published countless articles in respected outlets such as TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Dallas Morning News. As sought out commentator of faith, culture, and public life, he is a regular contributor to national media outlets and has been interviewed by outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, SiriusXM, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Associated Press. | | | | | | | | 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 our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part VI: Paul's Thorn in the Flesh Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 12, 2009 Have you ever wondered what Paul's deepest secret was? Surely he had one. If you listen to his words, an agony of spirit is easily recognized, perhaps even a deep strain of self-hatred. How else can we read these words, "I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me". He goes on to say of himself, "I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate". Having thus indicted himself, he offers a rather self-serving explanation, which is little more than a feeble attempt at exoneration. "It is no longer that I do it", he says, seeking a satisfying explanation, "but sin that dwells in me". Don't blame me, he is arguing, blame sin! It is like one saying, "It is not my fault, the devil made me do it!" Next he offers what might be a clue. "Nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh", he says. What do you suppose it is that tortures Paul? It is clearly something inside him. Once Paul spoke of "fightings without and fears within", but while he described the external threats, he never identified the "fears within". Now he seems to locate those fears "in my flesh", and clearly he believes that they have power over him to the point that he feels powerless against them. "I can will what is right", he laments, "but I cannot do it". Once more he tries to find something outside himself to blame and so he repeats his previous idea, "If I do what I do not want (to do), it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me". Still writing introspectively he states, "I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin, which dwells in my members". The word translated as "member" is a strange word, at least as Paul uses it. The Greek word for "members" is "melos", which literally means a bodily appendage - like arms and legs. How could sin dwell in one's arms and legs? How could one's arms and legs be in warfare against one's mind? Males, however, have another appendage, called euphemistically "the male organ". It is clearly an appendage, but it is also a gland that does not always obey the mind of the person to whom it belongs. This gland is stimulated on some occasions when it is quite inconvenient. On other occasions, it is not stimulated when one desires it to be. If that were not so there would be no market for Viagra or Cialis! Since Paul is constantly suggesting that evil sin dwells in his flesh, can we not conclude that whatever disturbs him so deeply is somehow connected to his sexuality? It seems apparent that such a connection is real, for he winds up this series of self-accusatory phrases with an outburst that demands some explanation, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" In other parts of Paul's epistles, he says, "What return did you get for the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death". Paul seems to feel that his life is lived under the sentence of death. He has a deep-seated sense of shame. Paul also reveals that he has a hidden aspect to his life. He calls himself "an imposter who yearns to be true", one who is unknown "who yearns to be known and one who "though dying yearns to be alive". Paul is also a religious zealot, perhaps a fanatic. He was a strict adherent of the Torah in which he had obviously bound himself tightly. He describes himself as one who obeyed every requirement of the law. I was, he says, "Circumcised on the 8th day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless!" He even says of himself, "I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age, so extremely zealous was I for the tradition of my fathers". Given that self-description, one must ask what was there about the Jesus movement that threatened Paul so deeply that he was moved to try to stamp it out. Religious zealotry always says more about the zealot than it does about the cause. Again, he says of himself, "I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it". One does not attack Muslims in the Crusades unless something about Islam itself is seen as an imminent danger to the Christian claims that are being made. One does not burn heretics at the stake unless the lives of the heretics threaten something deep within their persecutors. One does not oppress and murder Jews, as Christians have done through the centuries, unless the very existence of the Jews caused that which was basic to Christianity to collapse. One does not fly airplanes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon to "kill the infidels" unless those infidels call into question the truth by which Islamic fundamentalists live. That is the nature of religious persecution. Paul was a persecutor of the Christians, so we need to ask what there was about the Christian movement that caused him to believe that if the Christian movement survived, he would not. That is the question that fanaticism in any form asks. So our search continues. Another autobiographical detail appears in his epistles when Paul counsels those who are not married "to remain as I am", that is, single. So we know that Paul was not married. He also counselled those who could not control their sexual desires to marry, since as he stated, "it is better to marry than to burn with passion". Paul, however, never sought to alleviate his internal pressures by following his own advice. Paul actually seemed to have negativity toward women. Women do not like him to this day, especially women priests. He warned his readers against even touching a woman, yet he seemed to have a peculiar attraction for a woman's hair, about which he made overt references. Paul also shared with his readers that he possessed a "thorn in his flesh", which he never defines, but which he had prayed for God to take away. It appears that the removal of this thorn was beyond God's power. There is finally one other revealing passage in the Pauline corpus that for me pulls this investigation together. In the first chapter of Romans, a text frequently cited to uphold the deep prejudice in the Christian Church against homosexuality, Paul suggests that homosexuality is actually a punishment inflicted by God on those who do not worship God properly. That is, Paul argues, that God, in punishment for not paying attention to the intimate details of worship, confuses human sexuality so that men are attracted to men and women to women. It was and is a strange argument, but one perhaps understandable to a religious person who feels driven to obey every jot and tittle of the law. Some years ago, while studying at Yale Divinity School, I came across a 1930's book written by Arthur Nock in which this author raised for me for the first time the possibility that Paul might have been a deeply repressed gay man. As such he would have been taught by his religion that being homosexual placed him under a death sentence according to the law of God as recorded in Leviticus 18 and 20. Paul would also have been aware of the books of the Maccabees, which were very popular among Jews in Paul's time. IV Maccabees stated that if one worshiped God properly and with consuming intensity "all desire can be overcome". When I put all of these things together a pattern appears. Paul was a zealot who tried with all his might to worship God properly. He bound his unacceptable (to him) desires so tightly within the law of the Jews that he was able at least partially to suppress the desires that he found natural within him but deeply troubling and intensely negative. This was the internal pressure that caused Paul to view his body quite negatively. The promise of death, said the Torah, was the end result of the sin, which he felt sure lived in his uncontrollable "member". He experienced the Christian movement to be one that relativized the power of the law to control evil desires in the name of something the Christians called "grace", which they defined as the infinite and undeserved gift of love. He heard Christians telling people that they did not have to struggle as he had struggled to be righteous, but they had only to trust this divine love that accepted them "just as I am", or as each person was. Freedom always frightens people who are hiding from themselves inside a rigid religious practice. So it was that Paul appears to have determined that if Christianity succeeded, his security system built on years of binding repression would fall apart. That is what led to him to persecute. That is also what led Paul to exclaim after his conversion, that now I know that "nothing can separate me from the love of God", not even, as he said, "my own nakedness". Was his thorn in the flesh his deeply repressed homosexuality? Other theories have been offered: epilepsy, a chronic eye disease, perhaps even an abusive and distorting childhood sexual experience. None, however, fit the details we know of Paul's life so totally as the suggestion that he was a gay man. Christians could not listen to this possibility so long as they were in the power of a definition of homosexuality as something evil. That definition, however, has died under the influence of modern science and medicine. So the idea of Paul gay and a good Jew are not now incompatible. Imagine rather the power of the realization that we Christians have received our primary definition of grace from a gay man who accepted his world's judgment and condemnation until he was embraced by the Jesus experience and came to the realization that nothing any of us can say, do or be can place us outside the love of God. Paul, a deeply repressed gay man, is the one who made that message clear. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Choosing to Love – 2020 August 31st - September 25th In the videos for this online retreat, Br. David Steindl-Rast bubbles over with poetry and insights born from years of contemplation and compassionate action. In the spirit of true religion — which literally means “to tie again” bonds which have been broken — he takes us on a healing journey that helps reconnect us “with all the plants and the animals and the whole cosmos, the stars and galaxies and everything.” READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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8/20/2020, Brandan Robertson: Progressing Spirit,Humility: The Key To Our Salvation; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 20 Aug '20

20 Aug '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv8404491503 #yiv8404491503templateBody .yiv8404491503mcnTextContent, #yiv8404491503 #yiv8404491503templateBody .yiv8404491503mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv8404491503 #yiv8404491503templateFooter .yiv8404491503mcnTextContent, #yiv8404491503 #yiv8404491503templateFooter .yiv8404491503mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Humility: The Key To Our Salvation | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Brandan Robertson August 20, 2020 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much…” Job 38:34 (New Living Translation) One of the most fundamental postures of any mature spirituality is that of humility, and yet on both the left and the right it seems that humility is always in short supply. Throughout human history we have craved to know the answers to the big questions that seem to endlessly loom above us: Why are we here? Who are we? Where are we going? Is there a purpose to any of this? Many philosophers and sages have risen on the scene seeking to provide answers, some of them even claiming to have gained access to the absolute and eternal truth. Humans flock towards such an offer - what could we desire more, in a world of constant turbulence and insecurity than the answers to the deepest existential longings within us. While absolute religious, scientific, and philosophical answers can, for a moment, soothe the raging waves of anxiety within our souls, it doesn’t take very long for us to realize that the answers are ultimately insufficient. Perhaps a tragedy strikes that causes us to question how a loving God could actually be in control of the world. Maybe a miracle happens that makes us wonder if the naturalistic and scientific way of understanding reality is missing something significant. Maybe we just start to sense that the answers that we’re clinging to just don’t feel complete - and so we begin to experience moments of doubt. Whenever these moments happen, we are faced with two choices: Either we can give in to our curiosity and suspicions and begin to explore outside of the rigid worldviews that we have embraced, or we can double down, either quelling our doubts by reciting the fundamental claims of our life philosophy, or by simply denying the existence of the very thing that has led us into doubt in the first place. The first response invites us to humility - we become opened to the possibility that perhaps we are wrong, which may prove to be a costly realization, but also is the very fuel to propel us forward on our journey. The second response unleashes an arrogance within us, rooted in the fear that if our system of belief is wrong, we will be cast once again into the stormy seas of existential doubt and insecurity. And that fear is well placed. Every human that has ever walked the face of the earth has lived in the tension between the uncertainty about this whole experience called life and absolute certainty about the purpose and aim of everything that exists. Not one person has ever unlocked the “answer” to the conundrum we find ourselves in - not even those people that we laud as prophets and gods. Even Jesus experienced profound doubt, fear, and insecurity – and they appear in the pages of the very texts that are seeking to prove that he is God. In the face of this realization, we can either hunker down in our narrow worldviews (again, I mean both progressive worldviews and conservative ones) in order to soothe ourselves, or we can take that brave and risky path - the one of humble awe. Humility is born out of coming to terms with our finitude and the absurdity of the circumstances we find ourselves in. No system can accurately describe just how strange and beautiful it is to be experiencing life. The more we learn about the nature of reality and the workings of our universe, the more we find ourselves dumbfounded. Things we believed were mere supernatural fantasies, beliefs of simple-minded ancestors, are turning out to be profoundly true. Our basic assumptions about who we are as human beings are continually called into question, and in turn, so are our fundamental beliefs about God (or the lack thereof). When we bravely gaze up into the night sky, with the modesty of intellect to admit that we are but specks of stardust floating in the grandeur of the eternal, what can we do but allow ourselves to be humbled? There is no other reasonable choice. What can we do but be filled with gratitude to be here, in this moment, whoever we are, wherever we may be? What can we do but remain open to the reality of the most fantastic thoughts and dreams our minds can conjure up, while also remaining deeply skeptical and curious about everything? In the modern world, we have been conditioned to eschew such openness. We have been lulled into believing that either science or faith can give us ultimate answers. We have been enticed by those who can speak with such passion and confidence, and the result has been an era of unprecedented smugness towards anyone who dares to think differently than us. This has given birth to extreme polarization and division, which in turn create a new reason to be uncertain and anxious - that we may bring about the worst possible destruction and judgement upon ourselves. The answer, of course, is not to stop thinking, exploring, or probing the depths of our understanding in search of truth. It’s not to stop experimenting, challenging, and debating our best ideas. It’s not to keep striving to create the more ethical and just world that humans have dreamed of since the dawn of time. No, the answer is to season our exploration with courageous humility, rooted in the realization of our smallness and our seeming inability to ever grasp a hold of the fullness of truth. Our enemy is not the person who views the world differently than us - even if they believe the most outlandish claims about reality. Our enemy is certainty. It’s the hubris that it takes to believe that you’ve even gotten close to the Ultimate Truth of reality. That’s what brings war, division, and polarization. Certainty is the surest sign of spiritual and intellectual immaturity. While it is not an unreasonable desire, in the least, it is perhaps the one and only impossible desire for humanity. As Voltaire once wrote, “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.” In our present age, each of us would do well to examine our own minds and souls for where we might have allowed the root of proud certainty to flourish. Wherever we find it, maybe do the brave work of surrendering it - allowing our hearts and minds to be opened to the curiosity at the perspectives and experiences of others, and the wondrous possibilities that exist in this wild adventure we call life. When we become a people, who value humble curiosity over the illusion of certainty, then we might just cross the threshold that at last opens us up to Ultimate Truth. ~ Rev. Brandan Robertson Read online here About the Author Rev. Brandan Robertson is a noted spiritual thought-leader, contemplative activist, and commentator, working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal and the author of Nomad: A Spirituality For Travelling Light and writes regularly for Patheos, Beliefnet, and The Huffington Post. He has published countless articles in respected outlets such as TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Dallas Morning News. As sought out commentator of faith, culture, and public life, he is a regular contributor to national media outlets and has been interviewed by outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, SiriusXM, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Associated Press. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Marion One thing I fail to see addressed anywhere is the mayhem of blacks upon blacks in cities such as Chicago. Do black lives matter only when death is caused by a law enforcement officer? A: By Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer Dear Marion, The red herring of 'black on black' crime often gets cited when the Black Lives Matter movement gains a foothold. I call it a red herring largely because it's raised exclusively by whites as a way to resist exploring the source and origin of racial bias in law enforcement in general, and more specifically the ongoing epidemic of white police officers murdering unarmed black and brown detainees. It wants to deflect attention away from this very serious matter by focusing on something else. Doubt can be cast on the ethical capabilities of the black community writ large by reinforcing the notion of black on black crime. Whites don't really care about 'black on black' crime except as a trope they can use to perpetuate the larger narrative of the black man as savage beast. The simple utterance of 'black on black' crime is intended to remind white audiences that the black male is an animal who cannot control his rage. This is intended to create a context in which the violence perpetrated by white police officers against unarmed black bodies is justified. For white police officers who are sworn to serve and protect, the order to shoot to kill is mandated when they feel that a detainee or suspect is a real and present danger to the police officer or the community. By perpetuating tropes and narratives that consistently reinforce white fear of black bodies, whites - police or otherwise - have a long conditioned and internal fear of black skin. The black skin itself is perceived as threat. When on the job and calculating whether a real and present danger persists, the color of the skin itself factors into whatever calculus is used to determine the level of fear/danger. Black bodies are easily and often perceived as dangerous by white officers. Rehearsing narratives of black on black crime reinforces this. According to the 2018 Criminal Victimization report published by the Department of Justice, the offender in a violent crime was of the same race as they victim in 70% of violent incidents involving black victims and 62% of incidents involving whites. However, never do whites think about, talk about, ask about, show curiosity about white on white crime - even though it is almost as likely to be the case in the majority of violent crimes. What is ignored is that in far larger numbers, black voters favor stricter gun laws. The vast majority of gun deaths in the US are not homicides, but suicides - and over half of those are committed by white men. Whites are largely silent about this. In addition, over the last two decades the trauma of white on white mass shootings in schools and malls and churches has not garnered enough white support for gun control. Whites continue to focus more attention on the trope of 'black on black' crime than on the largely white violence of suicide, mass shootings, and police homicide of unarmed black suspects. Do blacks commit crimes against blacks? Yes. And those really interested in this pattern should read all they can about what sociologists, anthropologists, and criminologists have to say about the reasons for that. But if they are not AS interested in white on white crime, they should interrogate their motive for asking the question. When the question is offered as a defense for white police brutality that stems from racial profiling, the more profitable exploration should be the internal race bias behind the question itself. ~ Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer was granted a Doctoral Degree in White Privilege Studies in 2007 from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH. He also has degrees in Theology and Philosophy. He is the author of two published books, Beyond Resistance: the Institutional Church Meets the Postmodern World and Steeplejacking: How the Christian Right Hijacked Mainstream Religion. He is a recipient of Eden Seminary's "Shalom Award," given by the student body for a lifetime of committed work for peace and justice. John was ordained as a Christian minister in 1988. He currently serves as the 9th General Minister of the United Church of Christ, one of the USA's most progressive faiths, whose vision is "A Just World for All." He is a frequent speaker on the subject of white privilege, and is especially committed to engaging white audiences to come to deeper understandings of the privilege. He is particularly interested in how whites manifest privilege every day and how it impacts people of color, two things whites remain largely either ignorant of or in denial about. He has been devoted to his bride Mimi for over 36 years, and they have parented three children - a composer/musician, an author/painter, and a poet. John and Mimi have two grandchildren they dote on constantly. | | | | | | | | 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 our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part V: Interpreting the Life of Paul Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 5, 2009 The first person to crack the silence and write anything that we still possess about Jesus of Nazareth was the man known as Saul of Tarsus, who later changed his name to Paul. His conversion to being a believer in and a disciple of Jesus occurred, according to the work of the 20th Century Church Historian Adolf Harnack, between one and six years after Jesus’ crucifixion. If we adopt the generally accepted date of 30AD (CE) for the crucifixion, then Paul’s conversion would be located between the years 31 and 36. The story of that conversion, with which most people are familiar, is hardly history, since it was written by the author of the book of Acts more than thirty years after Paul’s death and perhaps sixty years after his conversion. I doubt if Paul would have recognized any of those details. In his own authentic writings Paul never refers to a life-changing experience on the road to Damascus. He never mentions the bright light that supposedly rendered him temporarily blind, or the vision he was supposed to have had, which involved a conversation with Jesus, or his baptism at the hands of Ananias. I suspect that the narrative in Acts was a fantasy created by Luke to give content to what Paul does say about his pre-Christian life. In his Epistle to the Galatians, written in the early 50s, Paul writes, “You have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it”. Perhaps the closest Paul ever comes to describing his conversion experience occurred when writing to the church in Corinth: “I know a man in Christ”, he said, “who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter”. Whenever there is a conflict between an account of Paul’s activity as recorded in the Book of Acts and the authentic writings of Paul himself, the weight of scholarship always comes down on the side of Paul’s own work. >From autobiographical notes found in his Epistles, we get the picture of Paul as a religiously zealous student, devoted to the Torah and proud of his Jewish heritage. He calls himself “a Hebrew of the Hebrews” and a “son of Abraham”. It was into this Jewish faith tradition that he was born and from which, in his mind he never left, since he saw Jesus as the fulfilment of both the law and the prophets. Paul says of himself, I was “circumcised on the eighth day”. He identifies himself as “a member of the tribe of Benjamin” and as “a Pharisee”. He calls himself “blameless under the law” and claims that he actually advanced far beyond his peers in the pursuit of holiness. He presents himself as the star pupil in the rabbinical school, so it should surprise no one that he came to understand Jesus by applying familiar Jewish symbols to him. By studying Paul carefully we can begin to regain the perspective that Paul had, namely that Jesus was a Jew, as were his disciples and all of the writers of the books that now constitute the New Testament. The followers of Jesus were at the time of Paul regular worshipers in the synagogue. That is indeed, as I have suggested in a previous Discussion (see 29th October – “The Origins of the New Testament – Part IV: The Oral Period”) the setting in which the oral tradition developed. Christianity did not become a religion separate from Judaism until the latter years of the ninth decade, by which time we need to understand that at least the gospels of Mark and Matthew were written, and perhaps even Luke. John is thus the only gospel clearly written after the synagogue and the church had split. So during the years in which Paul was writing, the disciples of Jesus, known then as the “Followers of the Way“, were still members of the synagogue. Paul can thus only be properly understood when we hear his words in this Jewish context. In the epistle that we today call I Corinthians, Paul suggests that the two principle events in the life of Jesus, namely the crucifixion and the resurrection, happened “in accordance with the scriptures”. The only scriptures that existed at that time and thus the only thing to which he could have been referring were the books of what we now call the Old Testament. Paul had obviously used the Jewish sacred writings to help him interpret Jesus. The first layer of interpretation that was laid on the memory of Jesus was to see him as the fulfilment of these scriptures. The earliest interpreters of the meaning of Jesus were Jewish people who saw him as their expected messiah who would bring about the Kingdom of God. That was why they wrapped the images found in the Old Testament around him. Separating the person of history named Jesus from the interpretations applied to him by zealous followers based on the scriptures is not now and never has been easy. The death of Jesus was given purpose primarily under the influence of the writings of a prophet we call II Isaiah (Chapters 40-55 – see the discussion for 1st October 2008 – The Origins of the Bible, Part XIII: II Isaiah – The Figure of the “Servant”). This unnamed person, whose words were attached to the scroll of Isaiah, thus giving us his name II Isaiah, wrote after the devastation of the Babylonian Exile, to paint a new vocation for the people of Israel in their defeat. They could no longer aspire to greatness. II Isaiah thus drew a portrait of one he called the “Servant” and called the Jews to emulate this figure. The “Servant” found the meaning of his life not in victory or glory, but by absorbing the world’s pain, bearing the world’s hostility and even by enduring death handed out by the world and transforming it into life-giving love. It was the “Servant” vocation to draw negativity from the people of the world and to leave them whole. This understanding of the crucifixion to which Paul was alluding when he said that Jesus died “in accordance with the scriptures”, was destined to grow and to find an even fuller expression by the time the gospels were written. It was not just the scriptures, but the worship life of the synagogue that also shaped Paul’s understanding and interpretation of the life of Jesus. When Paul said that Jesus “died for our sins” he was quoting directly from the liturgical day in the Jewish liturgical year known as Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. In synagogue worship on that once-a-year holy day an innocent lamb, chosen for its physical perfection, was sacrificed “to atone for the sins of the people”. The blood of the animal would then be smeared on the mercy seat of God in the Holy of Holies, that part of the Temple where God was believed to live. The blood of the sacrificed animal was supposed to make it possible for the people to enter God’s presence for they travelled “through the blood of the Lamb” and thus had their sins covered by the lamb’s innocence. So far as we know from the available written records, it was with Paul that the death of Jesus came to be viewed through the lens of the sacrifice of Yom Kippur. When Catholic Christians say today that in the Eucharist “the sacrifice of the mass” is re-enacted, or when Protestant Christians say, “Jesus died for my sins”, they are both reflecting in a literalized form, this early identification of Jesus with the sacrificial lamb of the Day of Atonement. Paul has clearly made this identification in his epistles. By the time the gospels are composed, well after Paul’s death, the crucifixion has also become located inside another Jewish liturgical celebration that we call the Passover. Mark, Matthew and Luke have identified the Last Supper as a Passover meal. That was a post-Pauline development of which Paul was certainly not aware. Paul dates the institution of the Last Supper only with the words that it occurred on “the night in which he was handed over”. Later, in I Corinthians 5: 7, Paul calls Jesus the “new paschal lamb”. The gospels exploited that identification to locate the crucifixion in the season of Passover. Paul saw in the death of the Passover lamb, as well as in the death of Jesus, an action in which the power of death itself was broken. Recall that, according to the book of Exodus, it was when the people of Israel placed the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of their homes that the angel of death “passed over” and death was banished from their households. Paul was suggesting that long before the crucifixion story was identified with the Passover, in the death of Jesus the cross had become the doorpost of the world and the blood of the new paschal lamb on that cross also broke the power of death for all who came to God through the life of this Jesus. So in the writings of Paul we get the sense that the memory of Jesus was interpreted through the Jewish Scriptures and related to the synagogue’s liturgical cycle with its holy days like Yom Kippur and Passover. That identification will expand greatly by the time the gospels are written. Paul is thus the first window into this Jewish interpretative clue, but it will grow and develop as the New Testament and the Christian creeds come into being, well after Paul’s death. There is one other detail in Paul that we need to examine before we begin to look at his writings in more detail. It is found in his constant denigration of himself found throughout his epistles. I refer to such words as “O, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death …” (Romans 7: 24)”, or “I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate …” (Romans 7: 14-15). “I can will what is right but I cannot do it …” (Romans 7: 18) Do these words fit a pattern? If so, what do they reveal? We will look at that next week. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Find Courage & Inspiration in the Radical Wisdom of St. Francis of Assisi with James Twyman On Saturday, August 22, bestselling author and peace troubadour James Twyman will show you how to approach life as St. Francis did — and inspire a new renaissance today – in a free video event: Find Courage & Inspiration in the Radical Wisdom of St. Francis of Assisi: Timeless Teachings for Embodying a More Meaningful, Generous & Action-Led Life. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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FW: Marianna Bailey's Obituary to be posted to OE list
by Lynda C 18 Aug '20

18 Aug '20

OE and ICA Colleagues, At the request of the Bailey family, I’m posting Marianna’s attached obituary. A family graveside service is planned for a healthier time. With deep care to Marianna’s family, we celebrate the rich life and work of Marianna and Bill to our OE/EI/ICA community. Phrases from this song came to mind as I think of their incredible journey with us: Born to forge out of the darkest night, signs of abundant life…. Born to join in the long march with those who care for the common Earth, calling forth new birth… Go forth in love for the Mystery, beloved of history… Sign of faith, sign of hope, signal of love. Journey On, dear colleague! Lynda Cock

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