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Global Buzz reminder for January 2021
by ICA International 28 Dec '20

28 Dec '20

Reminder for entries This reminder is for the Global Buzz that will be published January 5th. 2021 (Please send your entries at least a day or more ahead) Please send all your entries by regular e-mail to: inform(a)ica-international.org with your entry as an attatchment. Send details of news items, training programmes, your peer to peer connections with other ICAs, any concerns you may have and of any events that are coming up at your location. Your report can be long or short, but remember that all other ICAs would really like to know about the things that matter where you are, and what you are doing as an ICA. Peter, for ICAI Communications Pour les entrées de rappel Ce rappel est à la Global Buzz qui sera publié le 5 janvier 2021 (S'il vous plaît envoyez vos entrées au moins un jour à l'avance) Veuillez envoyer toutes vos entrées maintenant par courriel ordinaire à : inform(a)ica-international.org avec votre entrée comme un attatchment. Envoyer les détails des articles de nouvelles, des programmes de formation, vos connexions peer to peer avec d'autres CIAS, de toute préoccupation que vous pourriez avoir et de tous les événements qui sont à venir à votre emplacement. Votre rapport peut être longue ou courte, mais rappelez-vous que toutes les autres CIAS aimerait vraiment savoir à propos de choses qui importe où vous êtes et ce que vous faites comme une ICA. Recordatorio de las entradas Este aviso es para el Global Buzz que se publicarán 5 enero 2021 (Favor de enviar sus entradas al menos con un día de antelación) Por favor envíe todos sus entradas ahora por correo electrónico a: inform(a)ica-international.org con su entrada como un archivo adjunto. Enviar detalles de noticias, programas de capacitación, el peer to peer las conexiones con otros convenios o acuerdos internacionales, las preocupaciones que usted pueda tener y de los eventos que se aproximan en su ubicación. El informe puede ser a corto o largo, pero hay que recordar que todos los demás convenios quisiera saber realmente sobre lo que realmente importa, y lo que están haciendo una ICA.

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

24 Dec '20

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

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Season'Greetigs
by Judi White 21 Dec '20

21 Dec '20

A Solstice Greeting from Judi White www.anandasmantra.wordpress.com

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May You Feel Blessed in This Holiday Season
by Karen Snyder 21 Dec '20

21 Dec '20

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

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Join us to study TEN LESSONS FOR A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD by Fareed Zakaria
by James Wiegel 21 Dec '20

21 Dec '20

Excerpt from the attached review: "Oh, no, not a book about the pandemicjust a few months into Covid-19. Not another series of snapshotsovertaken by tomorrow’s events. FareedZakaria, aCNN host with a Ph.D. from Harvard, does not fall into this trap.Wisely, he stays away from the dailybattles over masks and lockdowns. Nor is doom-mongering his business.Instead “Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World” employs a widelens, drawing on governance, economics and culture. Call it “appliedhistory.” What insights does it offer during a catastrophe thatevokes the Spanish flu after World War I, which claimed 50 million —some reckon 100 million — lives?"We are planning to start January 4 at 7-8 pm Central Standard Time (Chicago time) We will probably use Zoom as a way to connect. Send word if you are interested. Jim Wiegel Theunknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com <Ten LESSONS REVIEW.docx>

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12/17/2020, Progressing Spirit: Rev Lauren Van Ham: Getting Beyond the Usual: Giving Birth to Jesus in the 2020s; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 17 Dec '20

17 Dec '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3052404033 #yiv3052404033templateBody .yiv3052404033mcnTextContent, #yiv3052404033 #yiv3052404033templateBody .yiv3052404033mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3052404033 #yiv3052404033templateFooter .yiv3052404033mcnTextContent, #yiv3052404033 #yiv3052404033templateFooter .yiv3052404033mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Getting Beyond the Usual: Giving Birth to Jesus in the 2020s | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham December 17, 2020 ABOUT THIS ARTICLE: It’s my delight to co-author this article with one of my favorite teachers and respected colleagues, Lee Van Ham, who happens to be my Dad. There are 3 parts of Jesus’s birth story that we want to open here, like gifts. There are many parts of this story that, once unwrapped, hold great truth and importance including dreams, angels and what was going on for Joseph. But we’re exercising restraint and talking only about a radical genealogy, a surprise economist, and behaving unusually. If you’d like to learn more, please consider reading Lee’s book which was reviewed here. LEE: The prevailing story of America includes phrases like “land of opportunity” and “living the American Dream.” But increasingly we’re coming to understand that this country was born in the genocide of people who already lived here. They loved this land. The economy was built on enslaving Africans forcibly trafficked to this country. First Nations peoples and Chinese immigrants were also forced into servitude. The true story of America is male and white dominated; women have to fight for similar status; the same goes for Latinx. Religion has more often reinforced the prevailing story and continues to do so. But the story we’re about to get into challenges it with an alternative narrative of life. The story of America is generically true of all the superpowers of history. Rome’s story in the first century spoke of the “glory that is Rome” and the “Pax Romana” or Roman Peace. It was a peace that kept the Mediterranean world controlled in law and order. But slavery prevailed. Women could not vote or hold office. Seething resentment of many Jews toward Rome erupted in open warfare throughout the first century until Rome’s army finally went into Jerusalem and ruthlessly obliterated it in 70C.E. The vaunted Roman Peace was acquiescence forced by military might. It was not a peace of goodwill for all. LAUREN: Does any of this sound familiar? LEE: These superpower stories provide the living contrast for what Matthew and Luke have given us. They wrote around 85C.E. about the contrast societies, or churches, created by followers of Jesus. Throughout the Roman Empire, these groups formed with people who felt called out of superpower ways. Women and men were liberated, so too slaves and slaveholders; and it mattered not whether you were Jew or Greek. A whole different story was being lived by these people right in the middle of the superpower. Where did this story come from? The answer to that question lies in the stories of Jesus as told by Matthew and Luke, beginning with the birth stories. Matthew starts right off with a genealogy of this birth that echoes the many genealogies in the book of Genesis and its creation story. Matthew tells us of a new creation—one radically different from what Rome had created. He begins with an abbreviated genealogy that boldly breaks precedent by including four women—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba. All are outsiders, meaning not Jews. All use their erotic power to subvert the forces of patriarchy, male dominance, and superpower ways. I’m guessing, Lauren, that many of our readers may well have thought the first 17 verses of Matthew were a boring list of names. It’s easy to miss how revolutionary they are, and how they set the stage for a birth that’s all about liberation from superpower living. The women set the stage for Mary and Joseph as they break the strong social norms that would have put Mary on the street in order for Joseph to preserve his image. This is the story we need today, not because we can change the superpower story. But for a much better reason. We can live a better alternative to it, one that an oppressed Earth and her oppressed people cry out for and die for. This alternative has a really different economy from the endless growth economy that dominates economic orthodoxy today. The “economist” in Luke’s story comes as a surprise. LAUREN: It’s Mary! Mary (another woman who was in a scandalous, erotic relationship with a man, Joseph) is oppressed by Rome’s culture and power… until she is freed by a visit with Spirit where she receives a life-changing download, and a new economic manifesto. So infused is Mary, with this new worldview, that she simply gestates (yes) for a time until it is word ripe. Have you experienced this in your spiritual evolution – a moment when something True rearranged you and needed time to find its voice? With phrases reserved to address the Roman Emperor like, “Mighty One,” Mary describes her role within God’s creation. She speaks poetically of how Creation insists upon sharing, reciprocity, equality, and enough-ness: He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors to Abraham and to his descendants forever. (Luke 1:52-54, NRSV) There’s a reason why artists and musicians have lifted up Mary’s words as the “Magnificat.” Right now, as we ponder a “Just Recovery” from the pandemic, and ask Congress for a “Just Transition” away from fossil fuel addiction toward renewable energy, as we march for Reparations, Police Reform, and Land Return, Mary’s economic instructions define “justice,” “generosity,” “inclusion.” LEE: Turning toward Mary’s economics means we need to recognize that it differs from growth economics, but also that such turning is toward justice for all beings of the planet. And it seems to me that now Earth is requiring this kind of turning from us, even though mainstream systems are still largely resisting such turning. LAUREN: It’s true. But we know this didn’t bother Jesus much, nor Matthew or Luke. When we look closely, we begin to see many (MANY!) examples of Mary’s economy that thrive and even support our communities today. In what ways will we center our personal economies in these alternative spaces -- the ones that create Mary’s economy? Together, Jesus, Mary and Joseph created the (un)holy family which was, perhaps, not so different from the families we’re all participating in now -- work-arounds and detours, included. When work-arounds are born from love and inclusion, and when detours are the result of resisting dominant hierarchies, we begin to recognize when, how and which Spirit is infusing our lives. Lee, share some more about the Spirit. LEE: Luke, a Gentile, like his Jewish contemporary Matthew, lets us know from the start that he’s writing about the new creation being practiced in the contrast societies, or churches. But instead of genealogy, Luke introduces the Holy Spirit as an energy with enormous power to change society’s usual ways into the unusual. Zechariah, the priest, and Elizabeth, his wife — devout people in the respected, usual ways — experienced this special Spirit. Zechariah was told this Spirit would be upon his son even in Elizabeth’s womb. Then, six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, her cousin Mary arrives at her house. Immediately, Elizabeth greets her, not in her usual voice, but with an unusually, Spirit-filled, loud cry followed by poetic words about her babe leaping in her womb. Whereupon, Mary – as Lauren just referenced – breaks into some more unusual poetic speech about what the babe in her womb will accomplish in life. Later, Zechariah and Elizabeth break society’s norms in their son’s naming ceremony, and soon after Zechariah breaks into words about the unusual mission their son will have. Luke’s opening chapter has one incident of Holy Spirit after another. Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary all experience their usual being overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, upon which their lives become filled with the unusual. New creation is happening by the same Spirit that brooded over the chaos in Genesis 1 and brought forth an amazing creation. LAUREN: What role do we play now in bringing forth a story that embraces creation instead of acquiescing, normalizing or perpetuating our flawed and unjust systems? I think it’s really important that we recognize ourselves in the lives and experiences of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph. Like us, they were going about their lives, in varying states of comfort and despair, until they were visited by, in Lee’s words, the unusual. The same Spirit can and wants to visit us today. This is not the spirit of our institutions, nations or advertising – those spirits are real and hugely occupying, but Luke wants us to welcome the Spirit that keeps nudging us. Are we open to it? In many instances, our tools of perception have grown dull – we write something off as a “coincidence;” we ignore the ache in our stomach, or we silence the Truth that’s on the tip or our tongue. Our over-reliance on screens, news and technology depletes our ability to perceive with our souls and other senses. But this Spirit is determined to break us into the New Creation. Luke and Matthew urge us to leave the “usual,” and to show up differently. 2021 is asking this of us, too! LEE: Notice how Luke contrasts the powers of Holy Spirit with what is happening under Jewish and Roman rule during the reign of Herod. The story he is about to tell, Luke emphasizes, happened while Herod, the great dark lord of Judea, was king. Imagine the spirit of the land under Herod’s rule. It was like the rule of dark lords today that oppress us and suppress truth, science, women, and basic help for those who hurt the most — even while these dark lords claim narratives of greatness and high-mindedness. In such circumstances, our spirits are drained from our lives, and all the while the spirit of the powers moves across the populace and destroys the ecology of our land. Luke’s story boldly proclaims that into this hurt, chaos and fragmentation comes a mighty Spirit from the cosmos. She dwarfs the powers of all other spirits, mighty though they seem, depressing as they are. People utter speech that is unusual by society’s standards, babes are born through unusual circumstances. The narrative that the powers have insisted upon as historical truth is burst apart with a creation born in the cosmos and delivered by the Spirit! How can this Spirit be called anything other than holy? She is sacred. She is whole. And where other spirits have split and splintered the world, she delivers a oneness that reaffirms the interdependence of all beings — a treasure smeared throughout our cosmos and the new creation our Earth yearns for. LAUREN: And THIS is the liberation that comes through the birth of Jesus – a liberation empowering us to address the crises of today. It is only liberating, though, if we allow ourselves to live it out. In the words of Meister Eckhart (1260-1328): We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us. Thank you, Lee, for sharing with me in these thoughts and ideas. Let’s all be on the look-out for the unusual. And let’s embrace the new creation in this new year!! ~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read online here About the Authors Rev. Lauren Van Ham 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 and corporate settings. 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. 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. Lee Van Ham directs a U.S.-Mexico nonprofit, Jubilee Economics, focused in OneEarth living. Born to a bilingual, tenant-farming family in Iowa, he pastored in the Midwest for 32 years before switching to work explicitly on the interplay between ecology, spirituality, and economics. He and his spouse, Juanita relocated from Chicago to San Diego in 2002, where they live within ten minutes of their grandchildren, who are a big part of their lives. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Jennie How do we really know what Jesus said? They get so much wrong. Is it not a house of cards? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Jennie, It is not easy to determine what Jesus actually said or did, but I believe it is more substantial than a house of cards. Probably the reason traditional Catholics and evangelical Protestant fundamentalists try to literalize the Bible is that they recognize how fragile their grasp on truth really is and, unable to be secure in that fragility, they make incredible claims for the literal words of scripture or for the teaching authority of the church. Literalism in any form is little more than pious hysteria. The problems are that we have nothing in writing from the time Jesus lived. The earliest material in the New Testament would be Paul's Epistles, written 20-34 years after the crucifixion and by a man who did not know the human Jesus. Paul's conversion is dated some one to six years after the crucifixion. From Paul we learn that Jesus was crucified, that he introduced the Lord's Supper and that he was perceived as alive in some way following the crucifixion and little more. The gospels are written between 70 at the earliest (Mark) and 100 at the latest (John). Yet all four gospels reveal the impact of this Jesus on a variety of people. The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar spent more than a decade going over everything that the four gospels record Jesus as ever having said. When they completed this study, they determined that no more than 16% of the sayings of Jesus are authentic to the man Jesus which, of course, means that some 84% of the sayings attributed to Jesus are not historically accurate. The Seminar did not find a single word attributed to Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (John) to be authentic. The Jesus of John's gospel speaks to the concerns of the Christian Church near the end of the first century, not the literal words of a man of history. I think I can demonstrate that all four of the gospel writers knew they were not writing either history or biography. Each was interpreting Jesus in the context of their relationship with the Synagogue and their time in history, most especially following the Jewish-Roman War when in 70 CE the city of Jerusalem was leveled by the Roman invaders. If we looked at the gospels as portraits of Jesus painted by the second or even third generation of Christians and not as photographs or tape recordings capturing his exact deeds and words, I think we would be closer to the truth. I believe the gospels give us insight into the impact of a man of history and they open the doors for an exploration into the mystery and wonders of God. That is why I treasure them. ~ John Shelby Spong December 11, 2008 Read and share online here | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Thank God for Religious Diversity Thursday marked the beginning of the Hanukkah, the Jewish celebration of the rededication of the Temple after the Maccabean revolt. Christmas and Hanukkah are just two of many religious celebrations that occur this time of year. For Progressive Christians, the diversity of religious celebrations is a great reminder of our respect for other religious traditions. In fact, at ProgressiveChristianity.org we have 8 points—or values—that help to define what it means to be a Progressive Christian. Point 2 reads: Affirm that the teachings of Jesus provide but one of many ways to experience “God,” the Sacredness, Oneness and Unity of life, and that we can draw from diverse sources of wisdom, including Earth, in our spiritual journey. At Progressing Spirit, we believe that there is value in all faith traditions and that by respecting those traditions and learning from them, we are able to live more fully into our own. If you too believe in a Christianity that appreciates other faith traditions, we invite you to consider making a gift this holiday season to ProgressiveChristianity.org, the parent company that brings your Progressing Spirit Weekly Newsletter. Thank you for your generosity! Progressing Spirit and ProgressiveChristianity.org are doing their best to continue the important work of sharing resources that support the growth of the progressive Christian movement and continue to build our international community. We simply can't do this without you - please donate today. Thank you from your friends at Progressing Spirit/ProgressiveChristianity.org! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part XXI: Introducing the Gospel of Matthew Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong April 29, 2010 The second gospel to be written is called Matthew. It made its debut into the world a decade or so after Mark, which would date it in the 82-85 CE range. Matthew’s gospel was heavily dependent on Mark; indeed he incorporated about 90% of Mark into his text with many of these quotations being verbatim. A revealing insight into the mind of this second gospel writer can be gained by analyzing the parts of Mark that Matthew omitted, but that is beyond the scope of this study. One only has to read a book called Gospel Parallels published by Thomas Nelson Co., to become aware of exactly what these omissions are. It is clear that Matthew bends Mark’s message toward a more traditional Jewish perspective. Who was Matthew? The early church tradition that linked this gospel with Levi Matthew, the tax collector, is today generally discredited. This gospel was written originally in Greek, indeed a better Greek than that which appears in Mark. A Jewish follower who sold his services as a tax collector to the unclean Gentiles would hardly have been expected to have the educational and scriptural background that is revealed in this book. This gospel also displays a rather sophisticated theological perspective, probably only second to that of John among the gospel writers. We have no reason to believe that any of the twelve were educated or learned men and this would certainly be true of one called Levi-Matthew. >From internal evidence we can discern that the author appears to be the leader of a synagogue, which followed the liturgical patterns and observed the high holy days of the ongoing Jewish tradition. Whoever the author was he had a deep knowledge of and appreciation for the Jewish Scriptures as well as the historic Jewish expectation that the messiah would come to and for the Jews. When we analyze the editing of the text of Mark’s gospel, from which he copies so freely, we discover that he is prone to remove from Mark things that might offend the Jews. Some scholars have even suggested that he wrote an autobiographical note into his text when he told the brief parable of the householder (Mark 13:51-52). Here he wrote: “Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Matthew was clearly dedicated to preserving what was old. Matthew at the same time adds a number of things to the developing Christian tradition. Most people do not know the gospels well enough to distinguish what parts of the Jesus story are added by each gospel writer. To make us aware of Matthew’s unique contributions, we need to note that this is the first gospel to introduce a genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:1-17) that begins with Abraham and journeys through the high points of Jewish history to King David, then through the kings of the House of David to the Babylonian Exile and finally to the life of Jesus. Luke, writing 10-15 years after Matthew, also gives us a genealogy but he goes backward from Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, all the way to Adam, the father of all human life. In many details we need to note that these two biblical genealogies are very different and cannot be reconciled. They differ first on who Joseph’s father was. Was it Jacob, as Matthew asserts, or Heli (Eli) as Luke contends? Did Jesus’ line flow through the royal house of kings from David to Solomon to Rehoboam as Matthew states or did it avoid royalty altogether by going from King David to Nathan and skipping all of the Judean kings as Luke states? Luke’s genealogy also includes many more generations than Matthew. They cannot both be accurate. The consensus of the scholars is that neither is accurate. There are other distinctions between the two ancestral lists, but that is enough to make the point of their radical incompatibility. Biblical literalists generally simply ignore these differences hoping that no one will notice. Matthew is also the first person to introduce any account of Jesus’ miraculous birth into the developing traditions. Once again, Luke, writing 10-15 years after Matthew, also tells us a virgin birth story, but it is quite different from the one in Matthew. Only in Matthew do we have an account of a star in the east and magi who followed that star bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child. Only Matthew involves King Herod in the birth narrative, both by having him give the magi directions to Bethlehem, and later developing the account of Herod sending his soldiers to slaughter all the Jewish boy babies in a vain attempt to wipe out the presumed threat to his throne. Only Matthew has the holy family flee to Egypt to escape this murderous wrath of Herod and then to return to their home in Bethlehem after Herod’s death. Later, God was said to have warned Joseph in a dream about the continuing danger represented by Herod’s son, who was now on the throne, and directed him to take the child to the safety of Galilee in order for Jesus to grow up in the village of Nazareth. In each of these episodes in Matthew’s birth story, he makes the claim that these maneuvers occurred “in order to fulfill the scriptures,” by which he always meant the messianic expectations of the Jewish scriptures. Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Matthew says it was to fulfill the expectations of Micah (5:2) that the messiah must be born in the city of David’s birth in order to demonstrate that he was the direct heir to David’s throne. Why was Jesus born of a virgin? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill a text from Isaiah (7:14), which interestingly enough does not have the word virgin in it. Why did Herod slaughter the male babies of Bethlehem? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill a text in Jeremiah (31:15) that spoke of Rachel weeping for her children who were lost. Why did Mary, Joseph and the child flee to Egypt? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill the words of Hosea (11:1) that “out of Egypt have I called my son.” Why did Jesus move to and grow up in Nazareth? It was, says Matthew, to fulfill a prophecy that he would be called a Nazarene, but we have no idea which prophetic text it was to which Matthew was referring! Were any of these particular texts being properly used by this author? If we are speaking literally, not one of them was! Indeed they are not even close! Micah was referring to a Davidic messiah coming out of Bethlehem who would restore the fortunes of the Jews. In all probability Jesus was born in Nazareth. The first gospel, Mark, assumes that. In Isaiah 7:14, the prophet was referring to a birth in the royal family that would be a sign that Jerusalem would not fall to the foreign armies of Kings Pekah and Resin that were surrounding the holy city as Isaiah wrote. He was certainly not referring to an event 700 years in the future. Jeremiah was referring to Rachel, the tribal mother of the Northern Kingdom, weeping for her children who were lost to the Assyrians when they conquered the Northern Kingdom in 721 BCE. Hosea was referring to the Exodus in which God called his people out of slavery in Egypt, not to a trip of safety engineered by Joseph for Jesus centuries later. Finally, we know of no expectation that messiah will be related to Nazareth. The fact is that Matthew quoted scripture in a fast and loose way. Matthew was also the first gospel writer to give content to the story of the temptations in the wilderness. Mark had only said that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days being tempted. Matthew spells out the content of each of the three temptations and recorded Jesus’ response to each. To the surprise of many when they first hear it said, Matthew is the only gospel to record Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount. Luke scatters some of the Sermon on the Mount material throughout his gospel, but only Matthew pulls it together in the form that we know best. Parables unique to Matthew include the parable of the weeds (13:24-30) and its interpretation (13:36-43); the parable of the hidden treasure and the “pearl of great price” (13:44-46); the parable of the net (13:47-50); the parable of the unmerciful servant (18:23-25); the parable of the wise and foolish maidens (25:1-13), and the parable of the Judgment where the sheep are separated from the goats (25:31-46). When we come to the narrative of the final events in Jesus’ life, Matthew adds the unique notes that the betrayal by Judas was for thirty pieces of silver and that Judas hurled that money back into the Temple when he repented of his deed. Matthew alone tells us that Judas then went and hanged himself. Matthew is also the first gospel writer to portray Jesus as appearing to the disciples in Galilee following the resurrection. He said this appearance occurred on a mountain top and in this narrative we have the first occasion that the risen Jesus was quoted as saying anything to anyone. Those words you may recall are what we now call the “Great Commission.” Go into all the world. There is no Pentecost moment in Matthew, but only the promise that Jesus is “Emmanuel” which means “God with us,” “Lo, I am with you always” is as close to the coming of the Holy Spirit as Matthew gets. I believe it is necessary to absorb these special Matthean touches before we can begin to put this gospel into an interpretive context. For now, I ask you simply to embrace these special Matthew contributions to the developing Christian story. Try to isolate Matthew’s point of view as it is revealed in his additions to the story. Then we will begin the process of penetrating the mind of this writer of the second gospel in order to discern just how he perceived Jesus. To that story we will turn next. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Learn to Read Hebrew You want to read the Torah and the prayers in the original Hebrew but the language seems complicated. In 7 online sessions, Judaic Scholars Ronit Scheyer & Rabbi Brian will have you reading sacred texts in the original Hebrew. Come learn with others live online for a community-type experience that teaches you how to read one of the world’s oldest living languages. Get it done in 7 weeks for only $108 - starting January 3rd, 2021. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Lessons learned from the Pandemic. Contextual quote
by Lynda C 16 Dec '20

16 Dec '20

Jim. Add the Cocks to this list. Lynda and John. Midwives of the Soul<https://www.facebook.com/midwivesofthesoul/?__cft__%5b0%5d=AZUuu-sPDsBBdFl4…> DeteSncauecmbetrd 1Sp0 oamtSigt 5:nhsSons48ff AorSeMooed<https://www.facebook.com/> · from Facebook postings of Blasé Sands Academy of the New Earth Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it. -- Arundhati Roy

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Burbidge book
by JB Webster 15 Dec '20

15 Dec '20

I've ordered it through Barnes & Noble since I'm "down" on Amazon. Looking forward to reading it.

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John Burbidge's book
by Timothy Wegner 14 Dec '20

14 Dec '20

John Burbidge asked me to post this blurb about his new book on the mailing lists. Here it is: ************************************* Dear colleagues and friends, I’m delighted to announce the publication of my latest book, *MORE THAN HALFWAY TO SOMEWHERE*, a collection of 12 stories inspired by my travels to 15 countries. In it you’ll meet some of the most remarkable people I’ve encountered and share in some of the more challenging moments I’ve faced, many from my time with the ICA. Initial reader responses have been most encouraging. As one person put it: *This is not a travel book. It’s an encounter with life at its depths, lived with an open heart and mind and great sensitivity.* This is my first attempt at self-publishing under the imprint of Wordswallah Publishing. The book is available as a print-on-demand paperback and an e-book from retailers worldwide via the distributor IngramSpark. US residents can obtain signed copies from me if desired. Details about the book and how to order it are on my new author website www.wordswallah.com, best viewed on desktop, laptop or tablet. Check it out. Happy reading! John

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12/10/2020, Progressing Spirit, Rev. Gretta Vosper: Except for God… freedom never kneels; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

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Gretta Vosper December 10, 2020 It has been a burdensome year and it is likely to get worse before it is over. I begin this article on the morning after the convicted felon and twenty-four- day National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, recently pardoned by the United States’ sitting-in-a-golf-cart President, called upon that President to invoke martial law as a means to take back the country from the results of its most recent democratic election. I needn’t go into the details of that election and its aftermath; the whole world has been watching and, in the weeks to come, may see its outcome responded to with more than rude and vocal civic unrest. I hope that is not so, but those with significant platforms, like Flynn and the President of the United States of America, are tossing seeds of sedition on ground made fertile by the anger of those who see themselves as the dispossessed. It may result in a harvest that has always cost human community much throughout the many times and civilizations into which it has been sown, not one of which was brought in or put down without the spilling of innocent blood. What’s Up with the Evangelical Fervor? Do you remember coughing up your morning coffee when, way back in 2016, videos of Donald Trump bragging about grabbing pussy hit mainstream media? I do. And I’m not even American. But my coffee splurt was punctuated with a smirk of incredulity, so sure was I that no one in America could possibly take Trump seriously, and even if some of them did, there was no way he’d ever make it to the White House. A few weeks later, that smirk was proverbially wiped off my face. And seriously, I haven’t smirked since. Indeed, I may never smirk at anything that comes out of an American election campaign again. As evangelical Christians flocked to support the most egregiously disrespectful and crude president America had seen since Lyndon Johnson, those of us in the liberal wing of the institution stared in disbelief. How could people who call themselves Christian support the likes of Donald Trump? Don’t bother answering that. In an article published by Christian Headlines, columnist Scott Slayton includes as the third thing Christians need to know about Donald Trump’s faith (right before the fourth thing which is that Trump seems to have changed his mind about forgiveness…) the fact that the man has the “Vocal and Public Support of Several Prominent Evangelical Leaders”. Small point, I know, but that doesn’t actually say anything about Donald Trump’s faith as the article’s title promised. What it does say is everything about the desire of Several Prominent Evangelical Leaders for power in the White House, a power with considerably more real-time real-world impact than the otherworldly god in whom they profess belief. ...........Several of the leaders have trumpeted Trump as one of the best ...........friends evangelicals have ever had in the White House. Jerry ...........Falwell, Jr. said that in Trump “evangelicals have found their ...........dream president, adding that “I’ve never seen a White House ...........have such a close relationship with faith leaders than this one (sic).”[1] Still, the 2020 election result suggests that Public Religion Research Institute CEO Robert P. Jones was right when he argued The End of White Christian America [2] is nigh. What’s God Got to Do with It? When Michael Flynn tweeted out the We the People Convention press release[3] calling for martial law with the phrase “Freedom never kneels except for God” in the body of his tweet, my reaction was to be expected. My physical reaction, that is. I can chart the course of anger as it parades across my brain affecting my heart rhythm, my breathing, and the dull presage of a headache. It’s not that I’m angry at Flynn. He may be lamentably and dangerously stupid, but I’m not angry at him. I’m angry at the easy availability of the word “God” to punctuate patriotism, to rally a call to arms, to ennoble any position, no matter how irresponsibly reckless it may be. Haven’t we done that enough already? The truth is that many of us have learned and so we usually read tweets like Flynn’s and blow them off. We know better than to use God for our own purposes; it is easy to dismiss those who do. Our side of the tradition has learned how problematic self-justification in the faith is. We hobble ourselves with the academic deconstruction of traditional texts and the beliefs built upon them, remind ourselves that there is no ultimate power that can show us the way or the truth, humble our blind arrogance with the stories of those who took up the shield of faith blindly and arrogantly before us, and challenge our truths over and again until there is little left of them other than the belief that they must never be taken as truths. We have been taught, and taught others, that god is love, that faith is the cost of that love, and that we must always explore our intention, our personal investment, our prejudice, and our privilege as we seek to live out that love. It has not been simple. Quite the contrary. It’s been a bitch. Which is why my body heads toward that classic stress response when I read stuff like Flynn’s tweet. But not just stuff like Flynn’s tweet. Anything that uses the word “God” as though it is an umbrella term for something everyone will understand makes my heart lurch to attention. What does the being we have given the name God, in whom most liberals and progressives do not literally believe, have to do with it the things we must deal with in the here and now? In two words: E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. and N.O.T.H.I.N.G.: Every purpose to which it is attached that has a human desire behind it, none of which results can be directly attributed to the actions of such a fictional being. We who identify as liberals or progressives must stop supporting the illusion that we give credence to this charade. We can only do so by refusing any non-expletive-use of the word “god”. The risks that have caused us to maintain the illusion of our belief are no longer relevant. There are bigger concerns at hand. Tillich: Having Our God and Eat It, Too When in theological college, I hated Tillich. I think it had something to do with being a single parent struggling with regular migraines and an inability to retain auditory learning a.k.a. lectures. Or maybe it was just that Tillich didn’t make any sense to me, no matter how I laboured over his work. Who knows? Over time, I’ve come to appreciate what he was trying to do, however, and can say that I truly admire his fortitude in that undertaking. But I’m seriously pissed that he managed to pull it off. Because he’s the reason anyone can call on the god called God to underscore any endeavour they want to promote for whatever reason they might want to promote it, most of which has nothing to do with the god Tillich was so creatively reconstructing. Tillich laboured long and hard to give us our god and let us eat it, too. In The Faith of a Heretic, the late German-American philosopher and poet, Walter Kaufman, considered Tillich’s enduring work. Recognizing that Tillich’s definitions of theists and atheists seem to reverse standard understandings, that is, those who believe in the traditional “ancient beliefs of Christendom, the Apostles’ Creed, or Luther’s articles of faith may well be lacking faith, while the man who doubts all these beliefs but is sufficiently concerned to lie awake nights worrying about it is a paragon of faith,”[4] Kaufman effectively exposes Tillich’s purpose: to provide a faith for those who have explored beyond the boundaries of literal faith while preserving the dignity of those who have not had the opportunity or courage to do so. ...........Taken literally, Tillich considers the Christian myths untenable; ...........but “the natural stage of literalism is that in which the mythical ...........and the literal are indistinguishable,” and this is characteristic of ...........“the primitive period of individuals and groups. … This stage has ...........a full right of its own and should not be disturbed, either in ...........individuals or in groups, up to the moment when man’s ...........questioning mind breaks the natural acceptance of the ...........mythological versions as literal.”[5] We have had these arguments reiterated by scholars such as the late Marcus Borg who spoke of pre- and post-critical naivete. Heading back into the literature and language of faith with a post-critical naivete rooted in scholarship and a scientific worldview, we encounter a rich environment for metaphor and interpretation. Progressives everywhere, eager to retain the community, elegance, liturgy, and meaning of their Christian tradition, revel in it. It allows us to have our cake and eat it, too. Is this what we want? Is this what we need RIGHT NOW? To keep the waters of faith literally undisturbed? To hold onto the privileges of a religious tradition no matter what it might cost or how it might play out at the hands of others? Every time liberal and progressive Christians, particularly leaders, use the word God when our beliefs do not align with the ancient, traditional Christian beliefs about God still held by others to be true, or that do not meet the definitions hammered out in the creeds and articles of faith of our traditions, many still recited with the formal dignities of former generations, whenever we call upon the god called God in services of worship or public gatherings, or use words of faith metaphorically, we swallow the truth of what we believe so that we and others might not choke on it. I know how important those in the pews are to those who lead them. But the world’s concerns are bigger than those of the people in the pews and there are many ways to be pastoral. Miscreants who use a pre-scientific idea of God to serve themselves at the peril of the world, its people, its life, its future, must not be encouraged. Liberal and progressive leaders in congregations around the world who refuse to believe in the god of ancient creeds, the god Tillich refused, must refuse the words that keep such a god alive. If not God, then what? Perhaps it is helpful to explore god, as did Tillich, as a concept. Most progressives and liberals do so already, but we don’t often think about the implications of that. Concepts have no power to act except through those who hold them. Freedom is a concept. Without someone acting on behalf of that concept, freedom is only so many words on a page. Animate it, and it can be one of our most beautiful and powerful ideals. Let’s return to Flynn’s tweet “Freedom never kneels except for God.” A powerful and dangerous statement because the explication of what God wants is always up for grabs. You don’t need to honor the outcome of a democratic election; oil your gun and call on your God’s support for martial law. You don’t need to wear a mask in the midst of a pandemic; if you perish or cause someone else to, you’re uncompromised: it was your God’s plan. You don’t need to stand up for the rights of those who look, speak, or love differently than you; your God gives you the privilege to ignore their plight. You don’t need to be celibate even if no woman will sleep with you: your God gave you that penis and the right to use it. Yes. It can quickly get obscene. That’s my point. There is no need to call out God in front of your friends or congregations. There is no need to declare war on the word or chastise those who use it differently than do you. There is a simple way to be a person of faith without denying the gods in which others believe: refuse to use the word. Every time it would flow from your lips (which, for progressives, is almost exclusively in church), exercise your brain in pursuit of some new way to say what you mean. Speak about the actions you feel compelled to undertake. Speak about the rights you feel compelled to protect. Speak about the people you refuse to neglect. Speak about the future you will die trying to save. Speak about your truth. Speak only about your truth. When we do, we find there are many things to which our freedom might bow, the most poignant of which, for me, is the future I create but will never see: the air I will never breathe, the rain I will never watch fall; the forests through which I will never walk. My everything (my “god” were I to use the term) is what comes next and the choices I make that will impact the world I leave to future generations. For that, I will freely and willingly take a knee. What will it be for you? ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read online here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. Visit her website here. [1] Scott Slayton, “5 Things Christians Should Know about the Faith of Donald Trump.” Christian Headlines, November 29, 2019. https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/scott-slayton/things-christ…, accessed December 3, 2020. (Punctuation, grammar as published.)[2] Robert P. Jones, The End of White Christian America, Simon and Schuster, 2016.[3] Please forgive me for not linking you to the We the People Convention page. It’s bad enough that I’ve even mentioned them…[4] Walter Kaufman, The Faith of a Heretic: What can I believe? How should I live? What do I hope? (Anchor Books: New York, 1963) p. 118. Quoting Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith, (Harper: New York, 1957), p. 52f.[5] Ibid. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Martin I am officially a Roman Catholic. Over the past 10 years I have suffered a number of adverse life experiences which have seriously weakened the aforementioned faith. Basically I am still sort of Christian. What I believe is that the very early church i.e. “Gnostics” got it right as regards such things as having to subscribe to a detailed set of beliefs, variations in human sexuality. I was taught that the Emperor Constantine “saved Christianity “. I believe that he changed it from a group of “seekers after truth” to a bunch of “yes men”. I believe that what we have in “mainstream” Christianity today is what Bishop Spong described as the “winning side” rather than the “right side”. I’m old. I’m not as incapacitated as some people of my age. But, strangely enough, I still care about what I believe in. Please Help ! A: By Kevin G. Thew Forrester, PhD Dear Martin, I am wondering about what you have suffered over these past ten years and its impact upon your heart, mind, and body. I’m also aware of the ageism that plagues our culture and its assumption that with age inevitably comes incapacity, rather than perspective, generosity, and a graceful latitude. What I hear arising from your words is possibly an awakening of the heart that also carries within it a sense of loss. I am curious about your understanding of personal evolution with “weakened…faith.” I am impressed by the courage to question the assumed belief-set of your formative years. Clearly, the life of your soul, as expressed in your inquisitive mind and your heart of care, has not remained static. I hear words of someone who has been willing to allow their experience of suffering to school their soul and grow even if it has meant leaving behind the security of once held doctrine (and perhaps relationships). It would seem that pursuing truth is more important to you than conformity to hollow beliefs. If so, that is a blessing. If this impression is accurate, then my sense is that while your “belief” in antiquated teachings is diminishing, at the same time your authentic faith is maturing. And maturation, whenever and however it occurs, involves “loss” of what we have previously taken ourselves to be. A final observation: One of the gifts of the internet is discovering kindred souls on life’s spiritual journey. I would encourage you to avail yourself of this “great cloud of witnesses” – courageous and creative people who can listen, converse, and be of support. ~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, PhD Read and share online here About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest, a student of the Diamond Approach for over a decade, as well as a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including I Have Called You Friends, Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms, and My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You and Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland. Visit Kevin’s Blog: Essential Living: For The Soul’s Journey. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part XX: Seeing the Crucifixion as Related Liturgically to the Passover Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong April 15, 2010 The first narrative of Jesus’ crucifixion to be written achieved its shape and form in Mark’s gospel, specifically in 14:17-15:47. Prior to this, all the Christians had in writing was one line from Paul: “Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.” Not a single narrative detail was given by Paul. Perhaps there were no narrative details to be given since Mark’s gospel is quite specific in 14:50 that, when Jesus was arrested, “They all took flight and fled.” This would mean that Jesus died alone without any eye witnesses. That would be a shattering insight to many since we have literalized the details we have in Mark’s gospel down to recording not just what Jesus said from the cross, but what Jesus and the high priest said to each other, and even what Jesus and the crowd said to each other. One might wonder who was present to record all of these words of conversation. The overwhelming probability is that the familiar details of the cross are not the result of historic memory at all, but are rather liturgical interpretations of who it was who died on the cross and what his death meant. A quick analysis of the details from this narrative reveals that they were drawn not from the memory of eye witnesses, but from the scriptures of the Jewish people, primarily from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. So even the central story of the final events in Jesus’ life now looks more like the work of an interpretative imagination than it does the work of a historian. >From Psalm 22, Mark drew many of the familiar elements of his story, including first the cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” with which that psalm opens. Next Mark refers to the attitude of the mocking crowd, “shaking their heads” and stating that, “since he trusted in God, let God deliver him,” which Mark has incorporated almost verbatim into his narrative (Ps. 22:8). The notion of disjointed bones (Ps. 22:14), the reality of thirst (Ps. 22:15) and the “piercing of his hands and feet” (Ps. 22:16) are notes also found in this psalm which Mark has clearly drawn into his portrait, as well as the reference to the soldier’s parting his garments and casting lots for his robe (Ps. 22:18). When it becomes obvious that the words used to describe the crucifixion are drawn from a work written at least 400 years before the events being described, then it is surely clear that this is not “eye-witness” reporting. >From Isaiah 53, which is part of a portrait that this author, called II Isaiah, paints of a figure he calls the “Servant,” or the “Suffering Servant” of the Lord, Mark incorporates into his account of the death of Jesus the picture of one “despised and rejected,” a “man of sorrows and one acquainted with grief (Is. 53:3),” to say nothing of the image of being “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities (Is. 53:5).” The “Servant” in Isaiah, like Jesus in Mark, “is silent before his accuser (Is. 53:7).” Of Isaiah’s “Servant” it was said, “with his stripes we are healed (Is. 53:5),” language that later informed the Christian idea of Jesus in the substitutionary theory of the atonement. This identification becomes even more exact when we read in Isaiah that the “Servant” will be numbered among the transgressors (Is. 53:12), which in time gave substance to the story introduced by Mark of Jesus being crucified between two thieves. Isaiah also stated that this “Servant” would, in his death, “make his grave with the rich (Is. 53:9),” which eventually led to Mark’s story of his being buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, who was “a ruler of the Jews” and thus a person of means. As much as this knowledge flies in the face of a familiar literalism, which has been carved in stone for us in such artifacts of our worship as the “Passion of Jesus” set to music by J. S. Bach, the traditional Good Friday liturgies of the church through the ages and in such ecclesiastical habits as sermons preached on the “seven last words” supposedly spoken by Jesus from the cross, the truth is that Mark’s story of the crucifixion is not the remembered history of an eye witness at all, but second generation interpretations of Jesus’ death shaped by biblical sources that had fed Jewish messianic expectations through the ages drawn, as they were, directly from the Hebrew Scriptures. So our first step in understanding the familiar story of the cross is to free our minds from any assumption that we are reading history. What we are reading is the interpretation of Jesus’ death as his Jewish disciples had come to understand it. The second step in this eye-opening process is to notice that this first narrative story of the cross was itself crafted by Mark to serve as a liturgical reenactment of the meaning of Jesus’ passion. Current studies of 1st century Judaism inform us that the Jews observed Passover in a family setting that usually consumed about three hours. Included in these three hours were the family gathering, various games played to enhance the holiday spirit, the meal itself which included feeding “on the body of the lamb of God,” as well as the use of the various symbols of their past like bitter herbs and unleavened bread, which reminded them of their life in slavery and their hasty exodus from Egypt. Following the meal the youngest boy in the family would say to the senior patriarch of the family, “Father, why is this night different from all other nights?” which would give the head of the household the chance to relate the story of the Exodus and thus to recount the moment of their birth as a nation. The meal would then conclude with the singing of a hymn, and the family members, who did not live in this house, would depart into the night for their own houses. Church historians and liturgical scholars have discovered some evidence that by the latter years of the second century CE, Christians were observing the passion of Jesus by stretching the three-hour Passover celebration of the Jews into a twenty-four hour vigil. The question is, when did that vigil practice begin? I think the evidence in Mark’s story of the Passion is that it began very early, certainly prior to the writing of this first gospel, for the outline of a twenty-four hour vigil is in the text of Mark itself. If we look at Mark’s story of the Passion (Mark 14:17-15:47) and if we study the text carefully we can see the outline of a twenty-four hour vigil. It is a twenty-four hour narrative that runs from sundown on what we now call Maundy Thursday to sundown on what we now call Good Friday. Let me point out the time markers that are in the text itself of Mark’s gospel. Mark 14:17 has Jesus arrive with the twelve at a house in Jerusalem for the Passover “in the evening,” that is at sundown or approximately 6 pm. Mark has earlier given us the details of the preparation the disciple band has undergone to ready a place for this night. The supper is then described and Mark says the evening ended with the singing of a hymn and Jesus and his disciples went into the night. It is thus now about 9 pm. Then they went to the Garden of Gethsemane where the disciples were not able, without falling asleep, to watch with him “one,” “two,” or “three” hours, which would carry the vigil to midnight. In 14:43 Mark then relates the act of betrayal at midnight, making the darkest deed in history occur at the darkest moment of the night. It is dramatically powerful, but hardly historically accurate. Following the arrest comes the trial before the high priest and the chief priest which is told from 14:53-65 and which carries us to 3 am. The watch of the night between 3 am and 6 am is called “cockcrow,” and into these three hours Mark has placed the story of Peter’s threefold denial (14:66-72), presumably one denial for each hour of that watch until the cock crows and the broken Peter is portrayed as weeping. Then the text says (15:1) that “when morning came,” which means it is now about 6 am, and this is the time to which Mark has assigned the trial before Pilate (15:1-14). The story of Barabbas and the torture by the soldiers, complete with purple robe and a crown of thorns, are also described in this segment. Mark then informs us (15:35) that it was the third hour when they crucified him, or 9 am. The drama of the cross reaches its crescendo when, in verse 33, the text says “when the sixth hour,” or noon, comes darkness covers the earth until the 9th hour, or 3 pm, when Jesus utters his cry of dereliction and dies. When we arrive at 15:42, we are told of his burial before “evening came,” or about 6 pm. For the Jews, Sabbath started at sundown on Friday, not at midnight. The fact that they did not have time to complete the burial process before the Sabbath began, is Mark’s segue to explain just why it was that the women had to come with embalming spices at dawn on the first day of the week and thus set the stage for the Easter story. Vestiges of the twenty-four hour vigil still exist in liturgical churches today. The climax of Holy Week begins with the Maundy Thursday service commemorating the establishment of the Eucharist. This is followed by a stripping of the altar until it is left bare and tomblike. The Sacrament is then placed into the ambry and worshipers are invited to keep watch through the night. Sometimes churches organize the vigil to make certain that some members are always present. On Good Friday, the elements are distributed from the Reserved Sacrament since the somberness of the day precludes a “celebration” of the Eucharist. Then comes the three-hour service with worshipers observing that time when darkness was covering the earth between 12 noon and 3 pm. Then Jesus’ rest in the tomb is marked on “holy Saturday” until the fires are lit that evening at the first “Mass of Easter.” The tradition is ancient. The Easter Vigil was observed, I am now convinced, before the first gospel was written. Mark did not create it; Mark observed it and wrote his gospel account of the Passion to help people act it out. It was thus the liturgical life of the synagogue, and not the remembered life of Jesus, that was the organizing principle in Mark’s first written gospel. He in turn set the example for Matthew and Luke to follow. As we turn to consider those two gospels, we will see how both expanded and lengthened Mark, but neither ever challenged his organizing principle, which was and is the annual cycle of the liturgical life of the synagogue. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | "With God there is always a dialogue of the heart... This means being personally committed to and involved in “the building of a better world”, the Pope says... commending charitable giving." ~ From Pope Francis' 2020 Message for Lent With only a few weeks left in 2020 we begin to wind down our Annual Fundraising Campaign with an appeal to our members to help keep Progressing Spirit a strong voice for the values Jesus taught: love, kindness and generosity. We are at 80% of reaching our goal to fund 2021, which will allow us to continue providing these valuable resources free of charge. 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