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suemiclark@gmail.com wants to follow you. Accept?
by suemiclark＠gmail.com 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

Hi, Suemi Clark wants to follow you. ****** Is Suemi Clark you friend? ****** If Yes please follow the link below: http://invites.infoaxe.net/signup_e.html?fullname=Order+Ecumenical+Communit… If No please follow the link below: http://invites.infoaxe.net/signup_e_no.html?fullname=Order+Ecumenical+Commu… Follow the link below to unsubscribe from all emails from Flipora, 440 N.Wolfe Rd MS #153, Sunnyvale, CA. 94085 http://invites.infoaxe.net/unsubscribe.jsp?email=oe@wedgeblade.net&iid=24e7…

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2/21/13, Spong: The Birth of Jesus, Part X: Matthew Sources and the Hebrew Scriptures
by Ellie Stock 21 Feb '13

21 Feb '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR The Birth of Jesus, Part X: Matthew Sources and the Hebrew Scriptures Reading the Bible with any real comprehension in the 21st century is not an easy task. The gospels are a product of the 1st century, a dramatically different time, and they reflect a vastly different culture. They do not translate easily. Most Christians do not realize that Christianity itself was born in the womb of first-century Judaism and it did not leave that womb until some 50-60 years after the crucifixion of Jesus or, to say it another way, the Christian movement did not separate itself from the synagogue until late in the ninth decade of the Christian era. This means that the gospels of Mark, Matthew and probably Luke were all written while Christianity was still a movement within the synagogue, and that only John, the last gospel to be written, reflects a time after the synagogue and the church had separated. While the disciples of Jesus were still members of the synagogue they would have listened to the Hebrew Scriptures being read Sabbath by Sabbath and they would have searched within them for what they were certain were messianic clues, which they believed would help them process and understand the experience they had had with Jesus of Nazareth. That is, they looked to the Hebrew Scriptures to enable them to understand both his meaning and his appeal, and the gospels reflected the fact that they had wrapped the memory of Jesus inside their understanding of these Scriptures. As fellow members of the synagogue, they knew the stories of their Jewish past and would recognize when part of that tradition was being used first in preaching and later in gospel writing to illumine the Jesus experience. By the middle years of the second century of the Christian era, however, the followers of Jesus had become almost exclusively a Gentile movement. This meant that the Jewish knowledge necessary to understand the gospels, which had been products of the synagogue, had disappeared among the Gentile faithful. So it was that these Gentile Christians began to manifest profoundly ignorant attitudes toward the gospels, which resulted in both a tendency toward literalization and in a heightened sense of the supernatural and the miraculous. That distortion plagues the Christian Church to this day. These ideas, almost unknown among Jewish worshipers, became quite popular in Gentile Christian circles, even though they distorted badly the relationship of the story of Jesus to the Hebrew Scriptures and especially to the writings of the prophets. The historical reality is that among the disciples of Jesus, the process had actually been the other way around. Convinced as these followers were that Jesus was the promised messiah, they poured over the messianic expectations that permeated Jewish biblical thinking, especially after the time of the Babylonian exile in the first quarter of sixth century BCE, and then forced their memories of Jesus to conform to what they determined were scriptural prophetic expectations. Thus the “Servant” passages of II Isaiah (Is. 40-55) shaped many aspects of the first written version of the story of the cross and, in the process, Jesus was forced to look more and more like Isaiah’s “Servant.” The Shepherd King of II Zechariah (9-14) was also a determinative figure. The Shepherd King, who came riding to his people on a donkey only to be removed for thirty pieces of silver by those who bought and sold animals in the Temple, is a good illustration of how the process worked. In addition to this, narratives from the lives of the great figures of Jewish history were regularly magnified and then retold about Jesus of Nazareth, so that when we read the gospels, we should not be surprised to discover that events that occurred in the lives of former Jewish heroes – people like Moses, Samuel, Elijah and Elisha among others – were simply retrofitted by the gospel writers and then retold as if they had happened in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Matthew employed this technique over and over again in his story of Jesus’ birth. Everything that Matthew related as happening to Jesus during his infancy was in fact designed to place his life into what Matthew believed were the messianic expectations chronicled in the Hebrew Scriptures. Matthew was also writing apologetically, that is, he was seeking to defend Jesus and the Jesus movement against charges that were currently being leveled against them. There was first what came to be called “the scandal of the cross.” Jesus had been crucified, a fact that seemed to violate all messianic expectations. The passion stories in both Paul and the gospels speak to this issue. When critics in the 9th decade of the Common Era began to question Jesus’ paternity, something that might be called “the scandal of the crib” arose, and Matthew, who was the first author to introduce a narrative about the birth of Jesus, responded directly in that narrative to those charges. Today we move this series of columns into this arena. First, we need to be aware, as Matthew surely was, of the deep, historic division in Jewish history between the tribe of Judah and the ten other tribes, who came to be called the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Judah was ruled by the House of David. The Northern Kingdom never established a long term ruling family, but identified its people as the descendants of Joseph, the favorite son of the patriarch Jacob, who, after wrestling with an angel, had his name changed to Israel. If Jesus was truly to be messiah, his first task was to bring together the Judah traditions in Hebrew history with the Joseph traditions of Hebrew history. Matthew did this first in the genealogy by going from Abraham through Judah to David and Solomon and then through the royal house of David, which ruled Judah from 1000 BCE to 586 BCE. The Judah root of Jesus’ life was thus clear. Next he introduced into his story an earthly father, whose role it was to protect and to legitimize Jesus and gave to him the name Joseph. To make his readers certain of his purpose, he then developed the biographical details of this Joseph character right out of the Hebrew Scriptures. Please be aware that no father of Jesus had ever been mentioned anywhere prior to the writing of Matthew. There are no references to Joseph in any of the epistles of Paul (51-64) and none in Mark, the first gospel to be written (ca.70-72). There are some who argue that both the Q document and the Gospel of Thomas also antedate Mark. I do not agree with that, but I simply note that, even if that were to be proved to be true, there is no reference to Joseph in either of those sources. Matthew appears to be the one who chose the name of Joseph for the character he would create as the “earthly” father of Jesus. This Joseph was then assigned a primary role in Matthew’s story of the virgin birth. In that patriarchal society, someone had to be the guardian of this vulnerable, pregnant woman and eventually of her infant and presumed illegitimate, son. Matthew made those the duties of Joseph, the earthly father. Once this character became part of his story Matthew then had to flesh out his creation with content. It should come as no surprise that he would draw that content from the story of the patriarch Joseph in Genesis (37-50). In this Genesis story, one discovers three primary identifying marks associated with the patriarch Joseph. First, he has a father named Jacob. Second, he is associated again and again with dreams. In the Genesis story, the young Joseph is always dreaming about how important he will become. In his adult life while in prison, he becomes the interpreter of the dreams of two people hauled into prison by Pharaoh. One was the Pharaoh’s butler and the other was the Pharaoh’s baker. Joseph’s interpretations of these two men’s dreams come true. Then he becomes the interpreter of the Pharaoh’s dreams and he rides on his ability to interpret dreams into political power in Egypt. The Genesis patriarch, Joseph, is overwhelmingly identified with dreams. Third this Joseph is also given the task in Jewish history of saving the “people of the covenant” from death. This threat of death to the Hebrew people came at that time in the form of a famine in which starvation was real. How did Joseph save them? He took them down into the land of Egypt where food was still plentiful. Now look closely at the character of Joseph as drawn by Matthew in his birth narrative that opens his story of Jesus. Matthew makes three claims for this Joseph. First, he tells us that Joseph had a father named Jacob. Second, Matthew portrays his Joseph, just like the patriarch Joseph, as being constantly associated with dreams. God never speaks to him except through a dream. In a dream God, or the “angel of the Lord,” instructs Joseph to take Mary to himself assuring him that the child she is having is “of the Holy Spirit.” In a dream, Joseph is instructed to flee from death at the hands of Herod. In a dream, Joseph is directed to return to their Bethlehem home following the death of Herod and then in a dream, Joseph is told to seek the safety of a town in Galilee called Nazareth, so that the child might grow up in relative security. Finally, just as the role of Joseph in the book of Genesis was to save “the people of the covenant” from death by fleeing to Egypt, so now Matthew’s Joseph will save the messianic figure of Jesus from death by fleeing with him down to Egypt. No, this is not literal history. Joseph is a literary creation, not a person of history and the “flight to Egypt” was a literary device to link Jesus to Moses. This Joseph then disappears from the biblical story as soon as the birth narratives are complete and is never portrayed again in any context. Jewish readers would recognize Matthew’s sources. Later Gentile readers would not and because they did not understand would proceed to assume that they were reading history. At every point in Matthew’s story, the symbols, drawn out of the Hebrew Scriptures, are not just present, but they have been incorporated into the memory of Jesus. When this series continues, we will examine those quoted passages. They come from Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Hosea and a final mysterious source. Matthew’s message is clear. He has interpreted Jesus as the fulfillment of the expectations found in the Jewish Scriptures. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Nelson via the Internet, writes: Question: I am an avid reader of your columns and books and I feel much the same way you do regarding faith, theology and church. I have studied theology at both undergraduate and graduate levels at a Catholic university and earned an MA degree in Liturgical Studies. I currently worship as a Catholic and work full-time as music and worship director for a large Catholic parish but, in the climate of the Catholic Church, as a progressive I no longer feel welcome or comfortable as a Catholic anymore. Obviously, to keep my job, I have to at least act like I toe the line, even if I disagree with teachings on contraception and ordination for example I was raised in an ecumenical household; my father’s side of the family is mostly Catholic while my mother’s side is Lutheran-ELCA. I feel very comfortable worshiping with the ELCA, but I also enjoy Episcopal liturgy (the Anglo-Catholic variety anyway) and find both denominations’ liturgies more spiritually fulfilling than the Catholic liturgy, especially with our new text changes. Of course, to convert I would also have to find a new job, but that is a discussion for another day. I have long felt a desire or “calling” to be in ordained ministry, a priest, a pastor or a minister, not a deacon) but being married that is not an option for me in the Catholic Church. I realize that questions regarding vocation are best discussed with a spiritual director, but, more generally, I do value your opinion on this. With what you say about Christianity, that it must change or die, would it be advisable to become a minister of a mainline Protestant church such as Lutheran-ELCA or EC-USA? I would love to “bring a new church into being” (to paraphrase S. Delores Dufner) as a pastor and challenge people to move beyond outdated beliefs and bad theology to a new wholeness. I’m curious what you think the Church requires more now: well-educated lay people pushing for change or well-educated pastors and ministers being and doing that change. Neither seems welcome in the Catholic Church by the hierarchy so again I speak in the context of main line Protestant and Episcopal Churches. I realize this might not fit the subject matter of the weekly Q&A column but I hope you will answer it anyway. Answer: Dear Nelson, Thank you for your letter. Much of it, as you suggest, needs to be discussed in depth with someone whose judgment and insight you trust. You are at the point of making both a career change and a faith transition and such steps should never be made hastily or without seeking competent counsel. So, to the question you ask, as to whether the church needs well-educated lay people to push for change or well-educated pastors being and doing the change, sets up what I believe is a false dichotomy. The church obviously needs both and the way life works out both are essential if any change is to be effective. Lay people will work with and support clergy leadership. Indeed, they will even call that clergyperson as a change-agent into being. Rare, however, is the lay person who will remain in an unresponsive church with an unresponsive pastor too long. Frustrated, they will vote with their feet, seeking another congregation or exiting the life of organized religion altogether. On the other hand, clergy, who have no lay leadership supporting transformation, get discouraged quickly. I think you can play a role in either capacity, but if you are debating between the two you should remain a layperson. No one should ever seek ordination unless that person is compelled to do so out of a driving sense that this is something that he or she must do. That is what vocation is all about. It is not a “higher calling” as we once said, but it is a compelling calling. I think it is always better to work for change within the context of the church in which you were raised. If, however, that church is not open to change, you have to decide the best way for you to go. My best, John Shelby Spong Announcements This months eBulletin from ProgressiveChristianity.org highlighted our Liturgy Project with some of our featured Lenten resources. If you missed it, check it out here: Celebrating Progressive Liturgies with a Focus on our Lent Resources for Your Faith Community. Also, each month ProgressiveChristianity.org sends out a free eBulletin full of articles, reviews, books, liturgies, and more. If this interests you click on this sign up button: Thank you for your interest and your support! Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 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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Hijacked emails
by Timothy Wegner 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

Folks, just to let you know that when I see an email from a list member that is obviously spam (we have had several today), I take action by turning on their moderation flag so they can't post without my approval. I will of course approve any posting that is really from them (usually it's obvious), and if some time goes by with no more problems, I will turn off their moderation flag. I trust by now everyone knows not to blindly click on links in emails even if they are from someone you know, especially emails consisting of little more than a link. If you you think I have missed someone because you see multiple suspect emails from the same person, let me know by private email. Of course I can't stop the first message. Please don't respond to the list on these sorts of issues, so we can keep the noise level low and the list on topic. Tim Wegner (your hard working administrator)

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Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Question
by R Williams 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

Terry, I am clear that A77 is not copying or replicating the process from Wheatley, which is why I said A77 "draws from a process articulated in" the book, by which I meant to imply, not directly from the book itself. Hope no one thinks I was suggesting that the ICA was just aping Wheatley. That certainly was not my intent. It is strange and wondrous that when truth emerges it shows up in many places and many forms and is used in different ways by different assortments of people. As I stated in the email and have said often in other places, where this wisdom first appeared for me was in Hawken's Blessed Unrest. But it wasn't until Walk Out Walk On, or actually in a paper by Wheatley and Frieze that preceded the book, that I was able to articulate for myself more clearly the value of and how to use Hawken's, and Senge's, insights. Randy "The sustainability revolution is nothing less than a rethinking and remaking of our role in the natural world." -David Orr ________________________________ From: Terry Bergdall <bergdall(a)gmail.com> To: R Williams <rcwmbw(a)yahoo.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 8:15 AM Subject: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Question Randy, I first read Walk Out Walk On at the ToP annual meeting in Sacramento in January 2012 when it was the subject of a charting exercise over 4 mornings. What I find interesting is that the 4 steps of Accelerate 77 is not something that came DIRECTLY from her book (we were promoting these four steps for most of 2011). Rather, it is an example of INDIRECT wisdom garnered from kindred spirits. These are the words, phrases, and insights that become a reinforcing piece of our "image" or the world. The important matter is our operating image, not the source of the messages that created it. I heard Wheatley talk at the annual conference of the International Association of Facilitator (IAF) in April of 2010. She was probably then in the thick of writing Walk Out Walk On. While I can't remember anything specific she said, I'm sure her presentation made a deep impression on me that eventually influenced the creation of Accelerate 77. I have a clearer memory about the "collegium" on Accelerate 77 when we solidified our four steps for inclusion in a printed program description for potential supporters. The 4 steps were simply pulled out of our collective wisdom about what we were trying to do and why. One of our volunteers, Vito Greco, was the most articulate that morning that led us to our collective "ah-ha" on Identify, Connect, Engage, and Accelerate. It is shocking to see how close our four steps are with Wheatley's. Maybe "fascinating" is a better word. I'm referring to the relatively UNCONSCIOUS relationship between them. I'm reminded of that quote that says something like "you know you are successful in playing a catalytic role when people with whom you've worked accomplish something and they say 'we did this ourselves!'" Terry The ICA-USA's Accelerate 77 program draws from a process articulated in Walk Out Walk On. Wheatley and Frieze posit that everything that needs to happen in local community is already underway and there's no need to spend time initiating anything new. What is needed is to (their 4-step process) identify, connect, nurture and expand what is already going on. (ICA called step 4 "accelerate.") By so doing, the isolated efforts emerge into networks of relationships which evolve into communities of practice, and these communities of practice, over time, change the world.

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FW: OE list
by Rosemary Albright 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

hey OE list keep this to urself keep this to urself http://www.cnbc.com-feb-13-story.net/ maybe you feel the same way get back to me

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Re: [Oe List ...] the end of an era
by LAURELCG＠aol.com 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

Our local Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican churches are all close to death. No full time pastors, and can't afford their retirement payments. Jann McGuire in Lindsay, CA In a message dated 2/19/2013 11:34:29 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, synergi(a)yahoo.com writes: _http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/national-council-of-churches-move- to-dc_n_2684882.html?utm_hp_ref=religion_ (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/national-council-of-churches-move-… ligion) Not exactly sure what to make of this, but this unravelling may be a sign of the beginning of the end of the institutionalization of ecumenism in the USA. Mr. Rockefeller's vision was to keep all these agencies together in the God Box. BTW I used to work there. Marshall _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Re: [Oe List ...] (no subject)
by Al Lingo 19 Feb '13

19 Feb '13

Whats up this is for your eyes only this is for your eyes only http://www.cnbc.com-2-2013-story.net/ dont show this to anyone see ya later

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Re: [Oe List ...] Question
by LAURELCG＠aol.com 19 Feb '13

19 Feb '13

Thanks for posting Joyce's review, Ken. Jann McGuire In a message dated 2/19/2013 4:34:41 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, hkf232(a)gmail.com writes: So Far From Home Lost and Found in our Brave New World by Margaret J. Wheatley Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012 Here's a review of that book written by Joyce Marshall. It appears in the latest issue of the Realistic Living Journal, November 2012. I have not read anything with which I resonate more strongly than this book. Drawing on her work with systems, Wheatley lays out the elements of the world we now live in – robber barons, millions oppressed, ideological dumbing down, manufactured selves, consumerism, distraction, etc. – and how these elements interact, resulting in humanity being Lost. The first step toward being Found is to recognize how profoundly we are Lost. To motivate ourselves by the outcomes we hope to achieve is not appropriate. That kind of hope is the flip side of fear. But there is a different kind of hope – that we will BE hope, be warriors of the spirit. This requires looking directly into the darkness of our times and being brave and decent human beings who face deeply challenging circumstances. As Wendell Berry put it: “No matter how bad things get, a person of good will and some ability can always do something to make it a little better.” Maybe our work won’t be different from what we are now doing, but the context shifts. Expectations and attitudes shift. One aspect of that spirit is avoiding getting caught up in outrage and righteous anger. The truer feeling is being overwhelmed with grief. Allowing ourselves to experience our grief will leave us with greater clarity about how to respond. Wheatley, articulating what I have been sensing for some years now, clarifies a context that I have fuzzily tried to talk about. Her mentors are Chogyam Trungpa and Pema Chodron, and though they are Buddhist, I am happy to follow her call to arms and become a Christian spirit warrior. I would like for all my friends and colleagues who are vocated to serving the world to read this book – yesterday. Joyce Marshall On 2013-02-18, at 7:53 PM, Shelley Hahn wrote: Hi Mom & All, I did a quick search and came across this which may have been the reference that spurred you to buy the book (?): Suggest the reading of Meg Wheatley's latest book So Far From Home. Great statement of the hope beyond hope, in the sense in which Kaz spoke of hope as the greatest temptation. Randy Don't know if that helps. Shelley On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 11:21 AM, Doris Hahn <_dshahn31(a)gmail.com_ (mailto:dshahn31@gmail.com) > wrote: After I read the little dialogue in which Randy and Jack suggested that Meg Wheatley's book would address the issue, I did a really uncharacteristic thing (at about 9:30 p.m.). I immediately went to Amazon and ordered the book. Now that I have read (and appreciate) it, I want to remember what the issue was to which the book was the answer. Can you refresh my memory--only on this one issue--I won't ask you to do a sweeping job on my memory<330.gif>. I do think Meg Wheatley does a good job, and I certainly believe her answers may be helpful, though I think the spirit work we did is far more sweeping and with more depth. What she has that we didn't is today's world with current issues. Actually, I never did like the "warrior" image, because it is so masculine. However, it now carries a lot of other baggage for me, including the personal (hate, anger, etc) along with the outward destructiveness of war. Maybe this is good archive work if we haven't already done it. In any case, it is a current conversation worth having. Of course, we used war images all the time, but surely there are other current ones that could be motivating. What would we drag out of our corporate memory or current innovation that could lead the way in today's world? Doris Hahn _______________________________________________ OE mailing list _OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net_ (mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net) _http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net_ (http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net) _______________________________________________ OE mailing list _OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net_ (mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net) http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net = _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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the end of an era
by W. J. 19 Feb '13

19 Feb '13

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/national-council-of-churches-move-… Not exactly sure what to make of this, but this unravelling may be a sign of the beginning of the end of the institutionalization of ecumenism in the USA. Mr. Rockefeller's vision was to keep all these agencies together in the God Box. BTW I used to work there. Marshall

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Question
by Doris Hahn 19 Feb '13

19 Feb '13

After I read the little dialogue in which Randy and Jack suggested that Meg Wheatley's book would address the issue, I did a really uncharacteristic thing (at about 9:30 p.m.). I immediately went to Amazon and ordered the book. Now that I have read (and appreciate) it, I want to remember what the issue was to which the book was the answer. Can you refresh my memory--only on this one issue--I won't ask you to do a sweeping job on my memory[?]. I do think Meg Wheatley does a good job, and I certainly believe her answers may be helpful, though I think the spirit work we did is far more sweeping and with more depth. What she has that we didn't is today's world with current issues. Actually, I never did like the "warrior" image, because it is so masculine. However, it now carries a lot of other baggage for me, including the personal (hate, anger, etc) along with the outward destructiveness of war. Maybe this is good archive work if we haven't already done it. In any case, it is a current conversation worth having. Of course, we used war images all the time, but surely there are other current ones that could be motivating. What would we drag out of our corporate memory or current innovation that could lead the way in today's world? Doris Hahn

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