December 2012 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Re: [Oe List ...] The Global Film
by David Walters 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

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Update on Dan Tuecke
by Lee Early 09 Dec '12

09 Dec '12

Just a quick note about Dan. Dan returned home early last week after 61 days in the hospital following back surgery and treatment for serious blood clots in his leg. He returned to the ER yesterday after severe pain in his lower belly. His gall bladder was infected. The doctor cannot operate until the infection goes down and his blood is thicker. The thicker blood raises other issues rather quickly. Surgery is scheduled for Monday if the infection and blood issues can be dealt with this weekend. Your thoughts, candles, phone calls and emails are significant to Pat and Dan. Thanks, Lee Lee Early 19230 Forest Park Dr. NE, A102 Lake Forest Park, WA 98155 Home: (206) 922-3182 Lee's mobile: (425) 212-7997

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Re: [Oe List ...] End of Year Donations
by George Holcombe 07 Dec '12

07 Dec '12

Wanda and I sit down in early December and go over our end of year donations, as many of you do, I'm sure. I hope, besides your monthly donation to ICA, you consider making an end of year one. This has been a good year at 4750, as most of us know, and it has a new name, Green Rise. I like that. We've also had some great 50 year celebrations. Terry came to ours in Austin and it was a great evening, not just remembering but looking to the future. Wanda participated in the Global Human Development Conference in Nepal came back glowing and filled with hope. ICA (www.ica-usa.org) continues to Bend History. I bet all of us have some outstanding or favorite memories of ICA this year, and I hope you'll share it with us and send an end of year donation to ICA. George Holcombe 14900 Yellowleaf Tr. Austin, TX 78728 Mobile 512/252-2756 geowanda(a)earthlink.net Hope appeareth, but it is not your Hope—you do not have anything to do with it. It just appeareth. It comes as a stranger, as an alien—it just appeareth! You do not even know why you hope. How in the world could you hope when there is absolutely nothing to justify any hope? ~Joseph W. Mathews

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12/06/12, Spong: The Birth of Jesus, Part IV. The Two Versions of the Birth Story
by Ellie Stock 06 Dec '12

06 Dec '12

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR The Birth of Jesus, Part IV. The Two Versions of the Birth Story The familiar stories of Jesus’ miraculous birth entered the Christian tradition in two different forms, separated by perhaps a decade. The original narrative was written by a man we have named Matthew somewhere between 82-85. The later narrative was written by a man we call Luke somewhere between 89-93. The second story is by far the more familiar one, primarily, I suspect, because it is dramatized annually in our Christmas pageants. The typical pageant follows the story line of Luke from the annunciation to Mary, to her visit to Elizabeth, to the journey to Bethlehem, to the inn in which no room was found, to the angels proclaiming the messiah’s birth to a group of hillside shepherds, who then go in search of this promised child. With this entire cast of pageant characters in place, usually portrayed around a stable, the pageants usually close by tacking on the visit of the wise men, a scene lifted out of Matthew’s gospel. This combination is so deeply rooted in the minds of most people that they are surprised to learn that the two biblical stories of the birth of Jesus are in deep conflict with each other on a variety of details. In Matthew there is a star in the East and a group of people called magi or wise men, who follow that star in search of its meaning. In Luke there is no mention of a star or of wise men. Instead, Luke tells us of a vision of angels appearing to hillside shepherds near the village of Bethlehem to inform them of the birth of the messiah. Armed with the only two clues that the angels provided, namely that the babe would be wrapped in swaddling clothes and that this child would be found laying in a feeding trough, called a manger, these shepherds went to seek out this child. Finding him miraculously, they made known abroad what had been told them by the angels. In Matthew, the magi go first to the palace of King Herod in Jerusalem to inquire of him where the new king of Israel is to be born. Troubled by this news, King Herod assembled the chief priests and scribes to determine where the messiah is to be born. They consult the Hebrew Scriptures and fasten on a text found in the prophet Micah, which suggests that Bethlehem, a village less than six miles from Jerusalem, was destined to be the messianic birthplace. The magi then resume their journey now to Bethlehem, led once again by the mysterious star that when the reach the exact location, appears to stop and to bathe the house in which this birth has occurred with its unearthly, bright light. Herod, having asked these complete strangers to act as his central intelligence agency and to report back to him when they have located this child, who is presented as a potential threat to his throne, waits, however, in vain for their return. The magi, having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, leave for their homes by a different route. Herod, miffed by their disobedience to his command, we are told, fell into a furious rage and dispatched his soldiers to Bethlehem with orders to kill all the boy babies up to two years of age. The tradition has called those baby boys “The Holy Innocents.” This presumed threat to the life of Jesus forces Joseph, who was also warned of this peril in a dream, to flee with the child and his mother to Egypt for safety. Not a single one of these narrative details is mentioned in Luke and no Christmas pageant ever portrays the killing of these babies. Even though it is in the Bible it is not regarded as a suitable story for the Christmas season! While Matthew has the holy family fleeing to Egypt, Luke portrays them as having the child circumcised on the eighth day and giving him the name Jesus. Next on the fortieth day, the day for the “presentation, Mary and Joseph take the infant Jesus to the Temple, presumably in Jerusalem, and in that setting Luke introduces the old priest named Simeon and a prophetess named Anna into the narrative. Only then do the members of the Holy Family make their way quite leisurely to their home in Nazareth of Galilee. Comparing the two narratives makes us aware of the differences between Matthew’s birth story and Luke’s. They are mutually contradictory. Matthew portrays Mary and Joseph as residents in the city of Bethlehem. They live there in a house where the baby is born and over which a star will shine. When this family flees from Herod, they are said to have fled to Egypt. When the threat is over, they are able to return to their home in Bethlehem. This location of the Holy Family in Bethlehem, however, presents Matthew with a problem. Surely, he knew that Jesus was referred to in his lifetime as “Jesus of Nazareth.” The Galilean origins of this man are deep in the tradition and so Matthew has to develop a story line that will get Jesus out of Bethlehem, the place of his birth, and into Nazareth, the place of his upbringing and identity. Matthew accomplishes this by suggesting that the threat Herod made on the life of the infant Jesus was still present in Herod’s son, Archelaus. Joseph, always cast in the role of Jesus’ protector, is thus warned to flee to Galilee. He does so and settles in the town of Nazareth. Matthew, who portrays every detail of Jesus’ infancy as the fulfillment of scripture’s expectations, asserts that moving to Nazareth fulfilled the prophetic expectation that Jesus would be called “a Nazarene.” That was a real stretch because no one can locate a text that includes such a designation. Perhaps it was a play on the word for a Hebrew holy man, known as a “nazirene,” one who did not drink wine or “strong drink” and did not cut his hair, as in the story of Samson. That designation, however, had nothing to do with living in the town of Nazareth. Another possibility is that he was referring to the idea that the messiah would be born out of the root of Jesse, who was the father of King David (Isaiah 11:10), since the Hebrew word for root is “nazir.” On the other hand, Luke assumed that Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. The annunciation to Mary occurred, according to Luke, in the town of Nazareth. Like Matthew, however, Luke wanted to honor the tradition that the messiah, as an heir to the throne of David, had to be born in Bethlehem, the place of David’s birth, so Luke had to come up with a story line that would get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to make it possible for Jesus to be born there. His way of accomplishing this was to suggest that “a census” or “an enrollment” had been ordered by Caesar Augustus requiring everyone in the empire to be counted. Luke goes on to say this “enrollment” occurred “when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” It also carried the stipulation that everyone had to return for this census to his or her ancestral home, which meant for Joseph and presumably for Mary also, that they had to return to their family’s place of origin. Since Joseph was “of the house and lineage of David,” he had to return to Bethlehem with his “betrothed” who was, in the lovely language of the King James Bible, “great with child.” There are a number of problems with this story line. First, there is no evidence anywhere of a government program that required a return to one’s ancestral home. No one kept records that went back 1000 years, which was the approximate time between King David and the birth of Jesus. Second, secular records reveal that King Herod died in 4 BCE and that Quirinius did not become governor of Syria until the winter of 6-7 CE. So, if Jesus was born when Herod was king, which Luke asserts in chapter 1 (verse 5), he would have been ten or eleven by the time Quirinius became governor. Third, the Hebrew Scriptures indicate that King David had multiple wives; the exact number is not given but the guesses range up to 300. If you count a generation as twenty years, it was fifty generations from David to Jesus. In fifty generations the direct heirs of King David would have numbered more that a billion people. If all of David’s direct heirs had been required to journey to Bethlehem to be enrolled, there would certainly have been “no room in the inn”! Fourth, the distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem was approximately 94 miles and to navigate it by foot or on a donkey, which were the only two methods of transportation open to them, was a 7-10 day trip. If Mary had been “great with child,” as Luke suggests, it is safe to assume that she must have been in her eighth or ninth month of pregnancy. What man in his right mind would take his near term expectant wife on a 94 mile donkey ride, to be enrolled in some sort of census, especially in an age when women had no rights of citizenship and could note vote? One woman biblical scholar upon reading this account said that “only a man who had never had a baby could have written this story!” The literal accuracy of both narratives falls apart on close examination of the two radically inconsistent and contradictory texts. They cannot both be true. The probability is that neither is true. They are interpretive narratives designed to say that Jesus was the designated messiah from the moment of his birth. We will start there. When this series continues, we will examine in detail first the original birth story according to Matthew and then the second birth story, the familiar one, written by Luke. The deeper we go into these texts, the more fascinating they become. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Catherine Berry Stidsen, PhD Question: I wonder if you have ever thought abut producing a monthly homily for those of us weary to death of two hundred years of scripture scholarship being ignored in what we hear. Last week it was, “You are Peter...” and not one word about whether or not Jesus actually said it or even that the original building was to be of a polis. Some years ago I did this for some of my friends and posted them to me website at www.chartherineberrystidsen.org, but I do not have your expertise or pastoral experience. I’m a Catholic laywoman, now widowed, who took seriously the documents of Vatican II and trained to the PhD level to be one of those lay leaders who were to balance the clerical mind-set in decisions in my church. Of course, I have no forum to do so. Anyway, just a thought from a weary traveler in Christian country. Answer: Dear Catherine, No, I haven’t thought about producing a monthly homily. I write this column once a week and that is all I can manage. I also think a homily or a sermon is part of the life of a worshiping community and draws its strength and power from the common life of the worshipers. A sermon delivered by e-mail and read individually is not in my opinion an effective tool of communication. I certainly share with you a despair over much that passes as preaching. I will never forget listening to two dreadful sermons in a row from two different preachers during the Christmas season on the innkeeper from Luke’s gospel. One suggested that the innkeeper was sensitive to Mary’s need for privacy given her near term condition. The other said the innkeeper was like his mother for whom there was always room for one more around the dinner table. The thing of interest to me was that there is no innkeeper in Luke’s Christmas narrative or anywhere else in the Bible. The innkeeper is the creation of pageant directors and myth makers. I see this column largely in terms of being an online class in Bible study. My hope is that as biblical scholarship is improved, it will carry preaching with it. Thanks for writing. For what it is worth, I personally I love listening to sermons as a worshiper in my parish church, St. Peter’s in Morristown, New Jersey. We have a great rector, a great associate and a great congregation. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements New Calendar dates for 2013 are coming soon! We will keep you posted. We are very thankful for your support and interest! Please don't hesitate to contact us with any feedback, comments, concerns or questions. Also coming soon- a special deal for subscribers to give the gift of a one year subscription to a friend at a special price. Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2012 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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Fwd: OpEd Wednesday
by Jaime R Vergara 04 Dec '12

04 Dec '12

Someone asked about popular preaching not too long ago. I am sharing this article for the Saipan Tribune that I also shared with colleagues of the Realistic Living Symposium. The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend! j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate! -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031(a)aol.com> To: jrvergarajr2031 <jrvergarajr2031(a)aol.com> Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 12:00 pm Subject: Fwd: OpEd Wednesday My secular articulation of transcendence, immanence, and transparency; metaphorical translation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate! -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031(a)aol.com> To: jayvee_vallejera <jayvee_vallejera(a)saipantribune.com>; mark_rabago <mark_rabago(a)saipantribune.com>; editor <editor(a)saipantribune.com> Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 11:55 am Subject: OpEd Wednesday HERE ISTAND The oft-quote, "Here I stand, I can do noother," is attributed to the German monk Martin Luther when asked torecant his Wittenberg 95-thesis at the imperial Diet of Worms. The phrase now considered an editorialinsertion is nevertheless "faithful" to the religious reforms of the1500. We do not draw a dividing line in our class contextthough we start our 16-week journey with an exposition of three perspectives,used thoroughly and throughout the whole term of our Oral English classes. (We taught the same using a different set of metaphorsin Saipan not too long ago.) "Life, real life, is the subject of what we can talkabout in oral English," we begin. "Of this life, we view it from three perspectives." We then draw a couple of two-inch-widecircles, two feet apart, on the board. The first circle is the microscopic perspective. On individual lives, it is the small picture. It begins at the hour of conception when 200million sperms attempt to fertilize an egg. One sperm makes it and given the odds, is clearly a winner. On the other hand, the egg does not justallow the first arrival to penetrate her crust. An element of free choice is involved. Two cells then join to create in a nine-month period a very sophisticatedbio-organism complete with digestive and respiratory systems, muscle andskeletal structures, a neural nexus and a reproductive capability. Not yet born, it is already a winsome, free,and creative marvel. One is some body! The second circle is the telescopic perspective. On the level of an individual student's life,we telescope from one among 20k population at the University, a unit out of 8million in Shenyang, a creature out of 1.395 billion in China, and a humanbeing among more than 7 billion in the planet. The planet is but the third rock from the sun, which is a minor star inthe Milky Way, careening in a space of a billion universes, our own speculatedto be 14 billion years old. We are noteven a pixel in the HDTV of life! One is,quite literally, a no body nobody! By then, the part of the class who tends to be apologeticabout their lives and their humble beginnings hear that it is their birthrightto be somebody. On the other hand, thosewho are prone to air balloon their somebody-ness might hear the emptiness oftheir valued significance. In the bigpicture, we are just a bunch of nobodies. By this time, one may feel a silent awe-filled andawe-some current in the air. Stealthily, we return to our board work and mark an X onthe center, equidistant to the two circles. There is a third perspective, we declare. This one knows itself not absolutely asomebody, nor eternally a nobody. Itknows itself to be temporal but is full of moments, historical but not altogetherfleeting. It knows itself as one,unique, unrepeatable gift of life into human history. There has never been like it before, andthere will never be another one like it ever again. With all the drama I can muster, I solemnly declare:"I am this one," pointing to the X, and after a long pause, "andso are you!" The invitation todecisional confidence is laid bare. Letting the last line drop, we draw a large circle aroundthe two small ones with the X in the middle, and add a horizontal "S"intersecting with the X. The result is ahorizontal taiji, the figure of the yin-yang on the board. We are in China. The taijiwas banned as a religious symbol in 1949, surreptitiously revived as acultural oddity in the 80's. "A group of people", we continue, "havechosen to call themselves the people ofthe middle, Zhongguoren." Wetranslate Zhongguoren as"Chinese" in English, from Zhongguo,aka "China", the term the Persians called the Qin in the SilkRoad, "Sina" by Rome, "Chine" to Marco Polo, and "China"by England. While adopting the appellationof "China" in English, in Zhongwenand Putunghua, Chinese callthemselves privately and internally in China as Zhongguoren, the people of the middle. Though limited in their English, by now, through theboard drawings, and our body language, the members of our audience catches onto something significantly personal and meaningful being uttered. We conclude: "Face" is important in China. The face you wear so far shall be leftoutside the door of the classroom door. Itwill still be there when you leave the class. You can decide if you wish to continue wearing it. The language you are about to start using insists ongetting as close to the "real" as possible. It will want you to objectively narrate whatyou see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. It will encourage you to reflect and express your feelings, andarticulate and interpret your thoughts. It will ask that you rehearse in terms understandable to your peers thedirection, plans, decisions of your life. In short, we shall speak with authority on what is real and authentic tous. That created face is what we want tosee and hear. T'is temporal, t'ishistorical. That is the face we want tocreate in Oral English. By then, the students realize they had not come to astandard academic class. Thus, commencesa 16-week series of encounters, a journey of choice and creativity in eightclasses at Shenyang Aerospace University. It is, indeed, a season to be jolly. With the global gaze of human academé, andthe cosmic grace of the spheres, I encounter students who call themselves Zhongguoren, and with them, I say: herewe stand! In English! My Muslim colleague down the hall says, Amen! j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

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Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] A poem, thanks to Joan Seacord
by coevolutionacademy＠juno.com 04 Dec '12

04 Dec '12

Happy Birthday Sarah! from Rose Anne ---------- Original Message ---------- From: "Sarah H. Buss" <shbuss(a)icloud.com> To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] A poem, thanks to Joan Seacord Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:15:11 -0600 How timely, Jim. Today is my 75th, whether I believe it or not!Sarah Sent from my iPad On Dec 3, 2012, at 1:42 PM, James Wiegel <jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com> wrote: Went through some old papers the other night. Ran across some research on Ageism that Joan Seacord did for the Women's Organization for Equality in Brussels. Joan was 66 back then. Found this poem: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THOSE OF US I've awakened to find that somehow I've slipped into the cloak of the 8th Decade and behold, it seems to fit! Still, I struggle and stretch my arms and reach to check the hem The seams neither bind nor rip. I find I am warmed by all the threads of this cloth, The woof and the warp purposely woven To my surprise, it is comfortable. It can be worn anywhere It matters not the occasion Whether it is formal or fantasy I am free, at least, of SELF-consciousness So unique a garment that it is unimportant that it has become wrinkled and faded by smiles, and tears and time All dressed up, laughing aloud With myself enjoying the music. Roberta Harper Roberts Broomstick, Nov-Dec 1982 Jim Wiegel "Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it.. You got to change with it." Woody Guthrie 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401 +1 623-363-3277 skype: jfredwiegel jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods Coming in February. Ask about an inhouse course ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday of every month Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details. _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net ____________________________________________________________ Woman is 53 But Looks 25 Mom reveals 1 simple wrinkle trick that has angered doctors... http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/50be3b7f863bc3b7f6db8st03vuc

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Harry Wainwright
by Lynda Cock 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Response from Mary Ann from Monday's inquiry attached to Wed's e-mail: Much gratitude for your care and prayers on Harry's behalf. I can see him getting stronger each day with his BP and pulse holding constant. The "pacer" must be doing its job! Peace, Mary Ann _____ From: Mary-Ann [mailto:ma-wainwright@charter.net] Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 6:59 PM To: Lynda Cock Subject: Re: Home? Harry has made great progress since the pace maker surgery on Monday morning. In fact, he came home today! However, his energy is greatly depleted since being mainly in bed with very little movement or exercise since Tuesday the 20th. Now our challenge is to keep him on his feet whenever he gets up! Many thanks for your messages of care and concern. Hope you have acquired a copy of "Recovering a Sense of the Sacred: Conversations with Thomas Berry", by Carolyn Toben. I have it on Kindle, but quickly realized I need a hard copy to underline and read again and again! It is truly amazing as it gives words and deep meaning to my life-long experiences of always being at one with my encounters in the natural world - "we are a communion of subjects, part of one single earth community that will live or die together". Peace, Mary Ann

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(2nd corrected link) "Journey Reflection" most read blog posts of November2012
by John Cock 01 Dec '12

01 Dec '12

(sorry for earlier e-mails with broken link-hope this one works) Hope you enjoy the most read November blog posts of "Journey Reflection" at this link, some of them with quotes and comments from colleagues: http://rejourney.blogspot.com/2012/11/journey-reflection-blog-review-novembe r.html We celebrate the great global Human Development Conference of ICA International held in Nepal recently. With care, Lynda (and John) Merry Christmas in advance!

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"Journey Reflection" most read blog posts of November2012 (corrected link, we hope)
by Lynda Cock 01 Dec '12

01 Dec '12

Hope you enjoy the most read November blog posts of "Journey Reflection" at this link, some of them with quotes and comments from colleagues: http://rejourney.blogspot.com/2012/11/journey-reflection-blog-review-novembe r.html We celebrate the great global Human Development Conference of ICA International held in Nepal recently. With care, Lynda (and John) Merry Christmas in advance!

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