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Update on Dan Tuecke
by Lee Early 09 Dec '12

09 Dec '12

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

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

07 Dec '12

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

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

06 Dec '12

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

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

04 Dec '12

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

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

04 Dec '12

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

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Harry Wainwright
by Lynda Cock 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

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

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

01 Dec '12

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

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

01 Dec '12

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

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11/29/12, Spong: The Birth of Jesus, Part III. The Testimony of Mark, the Earliest Gospel
by Ellie Stock 29 Nov '12

29 Nov '12

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR The Birth of Jesus, Part III. The Testimony of Mark, the Earliest Gospel The first gospel to be written, the one we call Mark, was composed in the early years of the 8th decade (70-72). It contains no story of and no reference to the birth of Jesus. To explain this omission, there are only two possibilities: Either the author of Mark had never heard about the birth tradition because it had not yet been created or he knew about it and deemed it unworthy of inclusion. For a number of reasons the first of these two alternatives is generally agreed to be the overwhelming probability. First of all, it is not just an argument from silence. There are a number of episodes in the corpus of Mark’s gospel that would have been either impossible or incomprehensible, if he had been aware of a miraculous birth tradition. I will look at three of them. In the first chapter of this gospel we find the familiar story of Jesus coming to John the Baptist to be baptized. The preamble to this episode is not a birth story or a childhood story, but a reference to the fact that Jesus was believed to be the fulfillment of the hopes and the writings of the prophets. Mark builds this case by quoting Malachi 3:1 and II Isaiah 40:3, although he only acknowledges his dependence on Isaiah in the text. Then he launches into a description of John the Baptist that is developed in such a way as to identify him with the prophet Elijah. Mark describes John the Baptist as wearing the clothing of Elijah, a man of the desert, and portrays him as eating Elijah’s diet of locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:6-7 and II Kings1:8). By turning John the Baptist into an Elijah-like figure, Mark was playing to the messianic images that suggested that Elijah must come first to prepare the way for the messiah. John the Baptist has thus been co-opted by Mark to play this role in the first gospel to appear in writing. This is not history. This is interpretive portrait painting, but the synagogue audience for which Mark was writing would immediately understand the symbols he was employing. Next, in the first act that Mark attributes to Jesus, he is baptized by John in the Jordan River. There is nothing about this gospel’s first mention of Jesus to suggest that he was different or supernatural because of some aspect of his birth. He was pictured simply as an adult, a fully human male. Mark employed the custom of that day, by introducing Jesus by name followed by his home town. If any further identification was needed, Mark would have said, “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of _____ ” and then named his father. That was not deemed necessary for Mark’s introduction. Indeed, the father of Jesus, whether human or divine, is never mentioned in this gospel. It is only in this account of his baptism that the first supernatural references are mentioned by this writer. First, he said, the heavens opened. The sky was thought of as a dome that separated the realm of God above from the realm of human life below. In the creation story, which would have been quite familiar to Mark’s Jewish audience (Genesis 1:6), the sky was called “the firmament” and was supposed to have served to separate “the waters above from the waters below.” The heavenly waters that fell from the sky as rain formed the earthly waters that became the oceans, rivers and streams. In time, that heavenly water came to be identified with the Holy Spirit. So in this narrative the heavens opened to the dwelling place of God and the Spirit descended from God to fall on Jesus like a dove. Then a voice from heaven rang out across the earth proclaiming Jesus to be God’s “beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Once again in the use of these words, texts from the Hebrew Scriptures were in the mind of the writer of this gospel. II Isaiah (Isa. 40-55) had God refer to the “suffering servant” of his narrative as “My chosen in whom my soul delights” (Is. 42:1) and the Psalter has God refer to the Lord’s anointed as, “You are my son, today have I begotten you” (Ps. 7:2). The Spirit does not come on Jesus just for a season, but has come to dwell on him permanently, so that he becomes a God-infused human life. The Holy Spirit was not the male agent in conception as the later birth narratives would assert. The Holy Spirit dropped from heaven on the fully human adult Jesus at this baptism to indwell him in an ongoing manner. This was Mark’s way of explaining the source of the divine presence that was found in Jesus. Had he known about the virgin birth tradition, Mark’s explanation of the coming of the Spirit to dwell permanently in him would not have been necessary. The later developing supernatural story of Jesus’ miraculous birth had clearly not yet been thought of or composed by anyone. The second Marcan episode that reveals that he had never heard of the story of the virgin birth comes in chapter 3. Jesus, we are told, has broken onto the public scene in a series of rapid-fire activities. He had chosen some disciples; astonished a congregation at Capernaum with his teaching in a synagogue; healed a man with an “unclean spirit,” who then with supernatural insight, recognized Jesus’ divine presence; healed Peter’s mother-in-law; cast out demons and healed the sick of an entire city; cleansed a leper; healed a paralytic; called Levi from his tax collecting trade into discipleship; distinguished himself from John the Baptist; violated the Sabbath by picking and eating grain in the fields; proclaimed himself “Lord of the Sabbath,” and, finally, in the synagogue on the Sabbath healed a man with a withered hand (see chapters 2 and 3). This Sabbath healing was not an emergency act, which would have made it legitimate, since the hand would still be withered on the day after the Sabbath, so it was a calculated Sabbath violation. All of these provocative acts brought immediate public notice. Then Jesus went home to Nazareth and his family began to hear of these things. They were not pleased, Mark says, “They went out to seize him, for all the people were saying, ‘He is beside himself’” (Mark 3:20-21). This is the first biblical mention of the family of Jesus, other than Paul’s reference to James as “the brother of the Lord” in Galatians. It is not, however, until the end of this chapter that the family of Jesus is defined. Thinking him mentally disturbed, which is what the words “beside himself” mean, Mark tells us that “Jesus’ mother and his brothers came to where he was.” Standing outside the crowd, they sent a message to him asking him to come out. When informed of their presence, Jesus not only declined to accede to their wishes, but he also redefined his kinship to them. Whoever does “the will of God, he said, “is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). Note first that the mother of Jesus thinks him mentally disturbed. That is not the behavior of one to whom an angel might have appeared to tell her she would be the mother of the messiah. One does not receive that divine message prior to a child’s birth and then think he has gone out of his mind when he reaches his adult life. No, when Mark wrote this gospel he had not heard of the tradition that Jesus had a supernatural birth because it had not yet been created. The final Marcan episode that makes it clear that the birth narrative of Jesus was not part of the original Christian tradition, but a late-developing addition to the story, comes in the sixth chapter of Mark. Jesus had returned to his home in Nazareth from a series of adventures described in chapters 4 and 5, which included casting the legion of demons out of a demented man and allowing these demons to enter a herd of swine, causing a stampede that resulted in the drowning of that herd in the Sea of Galilee; raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, and healing the woman with the chronic menstrual flow. The author of this gospel clearly meant to suggest that the people were talking of his power and wondering about its source. At this point, Mark says, Jesus entered his synagogue and created astonishment at his teaching. The people, who had been his neighbors, could not believe what they were hearing. So Mark had an anonymous member of that crowd ask this question: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon and are not his sisters here with us” (Mark 6:3-4)? Please note the following things about this passage. First, this is the first time in the Christian story that the role of the carpenter has been mentioned and it is Jesus who is the carpenter, not Joseph, who is cast in that role. That will change when we come to Matthew a decade later when the shift is made. Second, this is also the first and only time in Mark that we hear that “Mary” is the name of Jesus’ mother. Third, there is no mention of a father in this family. In addition to his mother four brothers are named and the plural word “sisters” is used, indicating that there was more than one. Finally, be aware that for an anonymous voice in the crowd to call a grown man named Jesus, “the son of Mary,” was pejorative in Jewish society. One did not call a mature man the “son of a woman” unless his paternity was suspect. This phrase meant that his father was unknown. It thus suggested that Jesus was “base born” or illegitimate. Rumors to this effect were clearly beginning to swirl around Jesus and echoes of these charges can be found in the other gospels. These rumors would in time create the necessity for developing the virgin birth tradition, but that time had not yet come It is thus clear that the first gospel writer, Mark, had never heard of the virgin birth. When Mark was written over forty years had passed since the crucifixion and some seventy years had passed since the birth of Jesus. Mythological traditions build slowly. The story of the virgin birth of Jesus is one of these mythological traditions. We will pursue this study in subsequent weeks as this series continues. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Ann Tansey Virginia Beach, Va. Question: You have been a blessing to me as I have struggled all my life with the teachings of mainstream Christianity. I once wondered if I was Jewish because I just could not feel connected to the traditional Jesus. I also couldn’t grasp at all the “stories” about miracles, virgin birth, resurrection, etc. I am now reading Jesus for the Non-Religious and have sent a copy to my 35-year old daughter who has been struggling as well. I do have some questions I would like to ask you. Praying with words is difficult for me. How do I pray and does it work? Why did Jesus have to die to get his message across? What do you think of Baptism and Eucharist? I wish I could spend a day with you to get more clarity on my unsettled-ness but I have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to listen to you through your books! I hope you do not mind if I contact you now and again with a question or two to help clarify some things. Thank you for speaking out and helping so many people who find the teachings of the established Church hard to believe and a roadblock to an understanding of the REAL Jesus. Answer: Dear Ann, Thank you for your letter and for your kind words. Several years ago I did a series of lectures at Eastern Shore Chapel in Virginia Beach. That experience makes me aware that you are not alone in your response. The questions you ask are all worthy, but they are far too complex to be reduced to a few lines in a question and answer column. The subject of prayer is one that almost always comes up first when people begin to raise their consciousness about whether or not the portrait of God as a heavenly parent figure or even a punishing judge begins to be challenged. It is not prayer that is usually the problem, but rather our infantile understanding of it. In regard to the death of Jesus, the way you ask the question indicates that you are still in the power of that old adage that somehow the only way God could forgive us was for Jesus to die. “Jesus died for my sins” has become an almost irrational mantra that we repeat as if it still makes sense. It doesn’t. In my book to which you have referred, Jesus for the Non-Religious, I offer a very different perspective and in sufficient detail that so brief a response through this “question fore mat” could never match. Baptism and Eucharist were originally a version of the Jewish Ceremonial Bath and the Passover simply transformed for Christian use. Baptism was the rite of institution that brought the person officially into the Christian community and the Eucharist was the common meal of the community which was thought to renew and sustain each member’s identity. Throughout Christian history, a variety of interpretations has been laid on both of these rites, some of which violated everything we know about Jesus. (The unbaptized child is doomed said the Church during parts of its history. “Come unto me all ye!” said the Jesus of the Gospel) The Eucharist has been interpreted in some eras of history as if it is a cannibalistic rite in which the flesh of Jesus is literally eaten and his blood literally drunk. I don’t believe it is possible to be fully human alone and being Christian is about being fully human. So I welcome these rites that bind me to my community of faith. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements ProgressiveChristianity.org is in the process of creating A Joyful Path, Year Two- Progressive Christian Spiritual Children's Curriculum. 38 lessons broken down into 8 sections all about the foundations of Progressive Christianity. Click here or on the image below for more information. "I endorse it whole-heartedly!" Bishop Spong Please consider donating now to keep this project going. A Joyful Path, Year Two will be available to pre-order in the Spring of 2013. For information on A Joyful Path, Year One, which is available now, click here. Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2012 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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Dorothy Day and Joe Mathews on the Same Track
by R Williams 29 Nov '12

29 Nov '12

Friends and Colleagues, One of Joe's quotes, I think from the RS-1 Church Lecture, which many of you may have used from time to time, as I have, to express your frustration with the church, was "The church is a whore but she's my mother." Dorothy Day, cofounder of the Catholic Worker Movement, would have been 115 years old this month. The Catholic Church is currently in the process of canonizing her. Today I ran across an article which she wrote and published in The Catholic Worker in January of 1967 entitled "In Peace Is My Bitterness Most Bitter." In this article she is chastising some of those in the church who, among other things, had called for a "total" U.S. victory in the Viet Nam War. In that article I discovered this quote from Dorothy Day. "As to the Church... Though she is a harlot at times, she is our Mother." (Joe may well have placed the comma after the word "harlot.") Having imagined all these years that this was one of the more brazen statements Joe Mathews ever uttered, I was amazed to run across the same statement, from about that same time, from a Catholic nun. I'm not sure why this struck me as such an interesting discovery. Perhaps it is that, as I continue in the midst of my life-long love/hate relationship with institutional Christianity, I found new justification that it is a struggle worth having. Whether Joe got the quote from Dorothy Day or vice versa, or whether it was a case of two great minds using the same analogy, I thought it worth sharing with you. If anyone knows more about the history of this statement, I would interested to hear. Be well, Randy "Whatever the problem, community is the answer. There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Margaret Wheatley

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