tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20410234217612383272024-02-06T22:26:55.672-08:00Sermon and JiveThe sermons of John ShuckJohn Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.comBlogger340125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-34048792137918843362017-03-24T00:42:00.001-07:002017-03-24T00:44:13.455-07:00Theology As Art March 5, 2017<iframe frameborder="0" height="286px" src="https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=80AC2C6B7512243D&resid=80AC2C6B7512243D%21717&authkey=AG4WKgDM1ErPNGM&em=2&wdAr=1.3333333333333333" width="350px">This is an embedded <a target='_blank' href='https://office.com'>Microsoft Office</a> presentation, powered by <a target='_blank' href='https://office.com/webapps'>Office Online</a>.</iframe>John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-33601760366330691992016-12-30T09:12:00.001-08:002016-12-30T09:12:08.531-08:00<iframe src='https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=80AC2C6B7512243D&resid=80AC2C6B7512243D%21712&authkey=ALRtaxJor6S2Uqc&em=2&wdAr=1.3333333333333333' width='350px' height='286px' frameborder='0'>This is an embedded <a target='_blank' href='https://office.com'>Microsoft Office</a> presentation, powered by <a target='_blank' href='https://office.com/webapps'>Office Online</a>.</iframe>John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-36266953389048254022016-11-09T09:29:00.001-08:002016-11-09T09:29:08.515-08:002016 JSOR, Beaverton, OR: Christianity, God, and the Future of Religion<a href="https://www.westarinstitute.org/membership/westar-fellows/fellows-directory/joseph-a-bessler/">Joseph Bessler</a> and <a href="https://www.westarinstitute.org/membership/westar-fellows/fellows-directory/david-galston/">David Galston</a> presented at our Jesus Seminar on the Road, November 4-5, 2016. Both scholars were generous in allowing me permission to post their powerpoint presentations and accompanying audio. <br />
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The event was entitled, <a href="https://www.westarinstitute.org/upcoming-events-calendar/beaverton-2016/">Christianity, God, and the Future of Religion</a>.<br />
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Here is more information about <a href="https://www.westarinstitute.org/">Westar "Home of the Jesus Seminar."</a><br />
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Friday Night Session: David Galston, "Introducing the Historical Jesus"<br />
<a href="http://sermonandjive.blogspot.com/2016/11/jsor-2016-beaverton-david-galston.html">Powerpoint</a> <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-05T13_04_02-07_00">Audio</a><br />
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Saturday 9:30 am Session: Joseph Bessler, "How Jesus Became Plato and God a Platonist"<br />
<a href="http://sermonandjive.blogspot.com/2016/11/jsor-2016-beaverton-joseph-bessler-how.html">Powerpoint</a> <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-08T16_56_33-08_00">Audio</a><br />
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Saturday 11 am Session: Joseph Bessler, "The Historical Jesus and the Rise of Modern Civil Society"<br />
<a href="http://sermonandjive.blogspot.com/2016/11/joe-bessler-historical-jesus-and-rise.html">Powerpoint</a> <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-08T17_27_25-08_00">Audio</a><br />
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Saturday 1:30 pm Session: David Galston, "Trajectories for God's Human Future"<br />
<a href="http://sermonandjive.blogspot.com/2016/11/jsor-2016-beaverton-david-galston_8.html">Powerpoint</a> <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-09T08_14_49-08_00">Audio</a><br />
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<i><b>You might also be interested in their books:</b></i><br />
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<b>David Galston</b>, <a href="http://westarinstitute.org/store/embracing-the-human-jesus/">Embracing the Human Jesus: A Wisdom Path for Contemporary Christianity</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/progressivespirit/episodes/2012-12-31T13_58_18-08_00">Interview with David about this book</a> on Religion For Life<br />
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<b>David Galston</b>, <a href="https://www.westarinstitute.org/store/gods-human-future/">God's Human Future: The Struggle to Define Theology Today</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/progressivespirit/episodes/2016-10-23T12_02_38-07_00">Interview with David about this book</a> on Progressive Spirit<br />
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<b>Joseph Bessler</b>, <a href="https://www.westarinstitute.org/store/a-scandalous-jesus/">A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better</a><br />
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Two-part interview with Joseph about this book on Religion For Life. <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/progressivespirit/episodes/2013-08-20T11_21_12-07_00">Part One</a> & <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/progressivespirit/episodes/2013-08-27T09_22_28-07_00">Part Two</a><br />
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<br />John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-49759101122684617932016-11-08T17:22:00.002-08:002016-11-09T08:38:30.268-08:00JSOR 2016, Beaverton, David Galston, Trajectories for God's Human FutureFor many both in and outside the Church, traditional Christianity has faltered. It no longer addresses the important questions of life. In place of the tradition there have arisen new ways to consider religion, Christianity, and the value of God in human experience. This session seeks to open a conversation on God's human future. <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-09T08_14_49-08_00">Here is the audio that accompanies the powerpoint</a>. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pTlIh5TzGtFN7ALiWVF1DunZ7OWyfAD5k5sulxl43qA/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe>John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-57933592980749857472016-11-08T17:18:00.000-08:002016-11-08T17:51:35.092-08:00JSOR 2016, Beaverton, Joe Bessler, The Historical Jesus and the Rise of Modern Civil SocietyInterest in the historical Jesus returned with the modern period and new debates over the control of modern civil society. As established churches began to lose their status and control, they closed the door on secular reasoning and historical Jesus scholarship. How wise was that decision? <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-08T17_27_25-08_00">Here is the audio that accompanies the powerpoint</a>. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="389" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/103D2U-CUYc8U66Acb-MwSze3b166KDUcvCDAJVYZ6gc/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe>John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-18305572631147832372016-11-08T17:12:00.000-08:002016-11-08T17:25:45.659-08:00JSOR 2016, Beaverton: Joseph Bessler, How Jesus Became Plato and God a PlatonistAfter the earliest period of pluralism, Christianity took the form of Christian orthodoxy. This form is found in the Nicene Creed and still remains the basic expression of Christianity today. Problematically, this form of Christianity is not based on the teaching of Jesus but hte philosophy of Plato. How did Jesus become Plato and God a Platonist? <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-08T16_56_33-08_00">Here is the audio.</a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="389" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/103D2U-CUYc8U66Acb-MwSze3b166KDUcvCDAJVYZ6gc/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"><br /></span>John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-34728542745887718232016-11-08T16:49:00.000-08:002016-11-08T16:51:26.389-08:00JSOR 2016 Beaverton. David Galston, "Introducing the Historical Jesus"Here is the powerpoint from David Galston's Friday night lecture.
The Christian gospels express beliefs about Jesus. They do not reflect what the Jesus of history had to say. But, fortunately, they do preserve traces of what he really did say. In this opening session, David Galston will distinguish biblical theologies about a divine Jesus from the theology of the human Jesus.<br />
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<a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonandjive/episodes/2016-11-05T13_04_02-07_00">Here is the audio.</a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12znGJtfMw0KrG-YQY4UEz7fQPzrs8xZd0ugJmpBezgg/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<br />John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-72853498104446255322016-03-01T00:39:00.002-08:002016-03-01T00:39:21.966-08:00New Location for SermonsAudio and text of my sermons are now on <a href="http://www.southmin.org/multimedia/">Southminster's web page</a>. Please bookmark it and add it to your favorites! Thank you for listening and reading!John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-78724882917761596842016-02-02T17:49:00.000-08:002016-02-02T17:49:12.982-08:00Awake (1/31/2016)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Awake<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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January 31, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the Dona Suttra, there is a story about the Buddha that
has an enticing parallel with Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the gospel, Jesus has just finished doing some miracles
and is walking along with his disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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“Who do people say that I am?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">28And they answered
him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the
prophets.’ 29He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him,
‘You are the Messiah.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>30And he sternly
ordered them not to tell anyone about him.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">31 Then he began to
teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by
the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three
days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him.</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #646464; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"> </span>33</sup>But turning and looking at his disciples, he
rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind
not on divine things but on human things.’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">34 He called
the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my
followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. <sup>35</sup>For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,</i><a href="file:///javascript/void(0)%3B"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup>*</sup></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> will save it.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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This is a central text for the Gospel of Mark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is central in that it occurs in the middle
of the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gospel of Mark has 16
chapters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is in chapter 8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is that center of the text that we hear
the centrality of the author’s message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is who Jesus is, what it means to follow him, and thus the meaning,
purpose, and goal of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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It starts out being about Jesus and ends being about you
and me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus says, cryptically, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup>35</sup>For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel [the good news], will save it.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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That is tough to get your head around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter doesn’t get it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The messiah suffers, is crucified, rises
again?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That doesn’t make sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus never affirms who is he is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter calls him the ‘messiah’ and in response
Jesus says don’t tell anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Messiah, in Greek christos, or christ, literally means
anointed, that is someone who has been anointed or ordained to do some task,
usually a heroic task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David was
anointed to lead the kingdom of Israel, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We all have a longing for a hero or heroine to come and make things
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Politicians bank on this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll make America great again, yada
yada.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a common longing to
wait for someone to come and fix it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the time of Jesus, someone to come, defeat the Romans, make Israel
great again, yada yada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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When Peter says that Jesus is the messiah or the christ,
Jesus doesn’t say yes or no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says
don’t tell anyone. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is as if Jesus is
saying don’t call me a messiah because you don’t know what it means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he uses a different phrase “Son of Man”
which maybe is a synonym for messiah or maybe just means what it is literally,
a child of the Adam, in other words, a human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
human being, the messiah, will suffer, be rejected, crucified, then after three
days rise again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Peter says that that’s not a good answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That doesn’t fit his plot of how things need
to shake out, or as they say now, Peter doesn’t like how that narrative is
taking shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus pushes back and
says “Get behind me, Satan!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we
should bracket later Christian mythology around the term Satan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Satan is not the fallen angel, but the
tempter or tester, the being within God’s court who goes around and tests
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Peter, in Jesus’s mind is taking up the role of the satan
by saying, you don’t have to do that hard stuff, crosses and suffering,
no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus is saying, “Don’t tempt me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t let me lose my focus.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think that is what is being said there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Then Jesus puts it to all of them, his disciples and the
crowd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to follow me, you,
too, must take up the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
want to save your life, you will lose it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you lose it for my sake and the gospel, that is for this path, this
path of the cross, you will save it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is a cryptic passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is hard to get our heads around it, but even harder to actually do.
What does it mean to take up your cross?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We know it means something important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What are we really supposed to do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is it literal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
metaphorical? Half and half?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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And what about this business of rising again in three
days?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this literal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it metaphorical?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Half and half?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does just the messiah, son of man, Jesus do
that, or those who follow will do it, too?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>People have been dying on crosses and other means for a long time, they
aren’t rising. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this some future thing in another 14 billion
years, or after your dead?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you have
to die on a cross first?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or do we just
believe that Jesus did and then your bases are covered?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t find this stuff particularly easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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As I say that, my detractors will say, that is because you
are a false teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You aren’t saved
and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, maybe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also think that many preachers and
theologians are a bunch of snake oil peddlers, selling superstition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t know anymore than you or
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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They say you have to believe this or that to get to heaven
or whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think a lot of it is a
bunch of theological gobbledygook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This gobbledygook keeps people feeling bad about themselves because they
have doubts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It serves to keep people
passive and obedient, doubting themselves and their own creativity and
questioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These religious experts
take one verse here and another there and make a theological system that it my
opinion tortures the text at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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It think this text in Mark 8 is a fascinating piece of
literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is compelling and it has
a pull but I am not sure what it means intellectually, and more importantly,
what it means for me personally, but I know I can’t let it go, and I know that
it has a hold of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Haunting words, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Take up your cross
and follow me…lose your life to save it…”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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I am going to let it sit, and dabble in some
Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then come back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Dona Suttra tells the story of encounter with the
Buddha or the Blessed One.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this
story the Buddha like Jesus is walking along the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And a brahman, a holy person, is following
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he sees in the Buddha’s
footprints “wheels with 1,000 spokes, together with rims and hubs, complete in
all their features.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says this
cannot be a human being!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Both Buddha and Jesus were probably historical figures who
had layers of legend attached to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I doubt that the historical Buddha made these footprints. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I doubt that the historical Jesus walked on
water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do think that both figures had
a gravitational pull that attracted people to their message or way of living
that resulted in attaching miracles to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Whether you believe in supernatural miracles or not is not important, I
don’t think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think what they taught
and did was important and that was attractive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus miracle stories were
attached to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyway in the story, Dona, the brahman follows the tracks
and finds Buddha sitting tranquilly under a tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is chilling, doing his Buddha thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The text says that Buddha was<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…confident,
inspiring confidence, his senses calmed, his mind calmed, having attained the
utmost control & tranquility, tamed, guarded, his senses restrained…”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dona goes up to him
and asks him:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"Master, are
you a deva?"<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"No, brahman, I
am not a deva."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"Are you a
gandhabba?"<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"No..."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"... a
yakkha?"<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"No..."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"... a human
being?"<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"No, brahman, I
am not a human being."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
Deva, gandhabba, and yakkha, are different kinds of divine
beings, or mortals with super powers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddha, says no, he is not any of those
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also says no to whether or
not he is a human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Dona, the brahman, asks him,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What kind of being are you?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buddha says in paraphrase, if I were any of those things,
I would be subject to future arising, for example, reincarnation, but these
ways have been abandoned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One life to
another to human to deva he has cut off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is not identified with anything.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then Buddha says: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"Just like a
red, blue, or white lotus — born in the water, grown in the water, rising up
above the water — stands unsmeared by the water, in the same way I — born in
the world, grown in the world, having overcome the world — live unsmeared by
the world. Remember me, brahman, as 'awakened.</i>'<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then he goes on…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"The
fermentations by which I would go<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to a deva-state,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or become a
gandhabba in the sky,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or go to a
yakkha-state & human-state:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Those have been destroyed by me,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>ruined, their stems removed.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Like a blue lotus,
rising up,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsmeared by water,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsmeared am I by
the world,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and so, brahman,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I'm awake."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
Another passage tough to get our heads around and perhaps
even harder to live out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddha is not
identified with any category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has transcended all of these identities,
not because he is magic, or divine, but because he is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awake</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
The invitation from Buddha to us is to become
awakened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
The invitation from Jesus to us is to lose our lives to
find them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Are these invitations similar or different?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they complementary or contrasting? Do we
take up a cross?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we become a
lotus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or both?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Must one be right the other wrong?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does one path inform the other?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I leave the questions open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I do find it helpful to find wisdom wherever it may be found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that the religious quest or the
spiritual quest for those who have trouble with the word religion is to take
what we can and then ask, to what is this invitation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Personally, I want to follow Jesus and I want to be
awake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am probably neither, but I
still have this day and maybe even more to give it a go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Religion, in my opinion, and that is all it is, take it
for what it is worth, my opinion, is a beautiful magnificent thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At its best it invites us <o:p></o:p></div>
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to redefine ourselves, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
to challenge all self-definitions, <o:p></o:p></div>
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to engage in an exciting quest, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
to live with depth, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
to recognize illusions, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
to awaken, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
to not cling to a version of self that is destructive, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
but like a snake to shed the skin and be reborn, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
and to contribute to this wild, amazing human existence on
this beautiful planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
And we have whatever time we have to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
I find it personally tedious to worry about what others
think I should do or believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I deal
with the tedium by making light of it, like a lotus, rise above it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find it actually abusive to try to
manipulate people into thinking or believing in things in order to get some
reward or avoid punishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Religion is too important for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is too important to be left to the
zealots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
The symbols of religion play with one another, and cross
paths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it is fruitful to take a
religious text and compare it with one from another tradition and see what is
produced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
To pick up a cross like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to be awake
like Thich Nhat Hahn, yes, yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
that we have to be those people or think we have to be something great, but to
live the life we have with wakefulness, with not clinging, with experiencing
the suffering in a way that acknowledges it and transcends it, to pick up the cross
and to rise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
Our religious stories are not about things that happened
or things that must be believed, but about ways of happening in the
present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
I think these stories, Mark chapter 8 about Jesus and the
Dona Suttra about Buddha have fascinating parallels and points of
intersection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They contrast as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddha does not want to rise again, Jesus
does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does rising mean for each of
them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus picks up the cross to
engage suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddha meditates to
transcend suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet both are of
the world but not defined by it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who
are they? They both refuse definition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lose your life to save it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be
awake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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As a lovely irony I chose the text where Jesus is about to
be arrested to complete the task he spoke of, to suffer and be crucified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He prays and he tells his disciples to be
awake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can take that story at face value, that
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But with the insights from the Buddha story, I play with
the idea that Jesus is inviting the disciples to be awake in the Buddhist
sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To transcend all identities put
upon us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why? Why would you do
that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You do that to live freely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So you can be present to what is at hand and
to who is at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be awake, carrying
the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Living a life that is
engaged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a lotus, unencumbered, so
that one can be with, be present to, feel with, in other words live compassion,
which is likely the highest value for both Jesus and Buddha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I am going to close with one more story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is an illustration of both following the
cross and being awake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is from
another tradition, the Jewish tradition, from the Talmud as told by Henri
Nouwen in his book Wounded Healer:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Rabbi asked
Elijah, “When will the Messiah come?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elijah replied, “Go
and ask him yourself.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
“Where is he?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
“Sitting at the gates of the city.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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“How shall I know him?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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“He is sitting among the poor covered with wounds. The others unbind all
their wounds at the same time and then bind them up again. But he unbinds
one at a time and binds it up again, saying to himself, “Perhaps I shall be
needed; if so I must always be ready so as not to delay for a moment.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Awake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lose to save.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-84895195591512448852016-01-24T14:16:00.003-08:002016-01-24T14:16:47.949-08:00Our Church's Photo Album (1/24/16)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Our Church’s Photo
Album<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
January 23, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[Special thanks to
Rev. Fran Hayes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is the pastor of
Littlefield Presbyterian Church in Dearborn, Michigan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I borrowed a lot of great information from
her for this sermon!]<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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Today we are dedicating our new hymnal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First a quiz:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finish the lines of these hymns:<o:p></o:p></div>
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God of the Sparrow, God of [the whale]<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here I am Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
I, Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[I have heard you calling in
the night]<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m Gonna Live so<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>[God can use me]<o:p></o:p></div>
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Morning Has Broken<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>[Like the first morning]<o:p></o:p></div>
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You did pretty well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These songs and many others are part of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may be “heart songs” -- songs that have
found a place in our hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is
the deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of those hymns plus many
others were unfamiliar to Presbyterian congregations before the 1990
hymnal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the songs that were
new to us in 1990 are now favorites—heart songs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why do we need a new
hymnal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the matter with the old
one?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Nothing of course. There is nothing wrong with the old
hymnal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It served us for a
generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing more wrong
with the 1990 hymnal than there is wrong with the photo album you put together
in 1990 of your family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a great
photo album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is great looking
through the pictures of the family from 25 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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But since 1990, the family looks a little different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The existing members have become a bit more
mature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are not there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There may some new family members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good thing we didn’t stop taking pictures
twenty-five years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have tended to
grow fond of some of these new family members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we ought to take their picture with our
cell phones and load them on our computerized photo album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was something we didn’t do in 1990.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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My mother has stacks of photo albums of photos she took <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from the 1950s up until a few years before she
died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She also inherited albums from her mother and
her husband’s mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I made a
family history book about 15 years ago, I took many of those old photos and
reproduced them as well as new photos and made a new album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to be selective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
doing so I was creating our family’s story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is probably time to do that again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In a similar way, the church’s hymnal of our larger
Presbyterian family gets updated about once per generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We look different that we did 25 years
ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have grown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our photo album, our hymnal reflects that
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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There is nothing wrong with our old hymnal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is something right about a living
vibrant tradition that continues to re-create itself. Many of the hymns have
become like our theology, less focused on beliefs and more metaphorical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More hymns reflect our multi-cultural
reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More inclusive in
language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More hymns focus on social
justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These have been added over the
years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Singing has been part of our religious and spiritual
practice since well the beginning of religion and spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the oldest texts in the Hebrew
Scriptures is a song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Miriam, the
sister of Moses, sang a victory song after crossing the sea escaping from the
Egyptians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Psalms are a collection
of songs for worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Likewise, music has been part of Christian worship since the
church began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my favorite Bible
stories is of Paul and Silas singing hymns in jail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
have inspired more than one protest movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Throughout the medieval period, the Gregorian Chant was the music that shaped
worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mostly sung by
choristers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Martin Luther gave the church an upgrade, in part by
enlivening the music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took popular
tavern tunes and put theological words to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When you think of it, you can imagine singing loudly “A Mighty Fortress
Is Our God” while waving your beer stein.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Luther realized that people would learn their theology
through music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote many
congregational songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Luther
would allow any text to be sung in worship unless he deemed it unbiblical,
Calvin was a bit more stern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only
scriptural texts put to music were good for him, such as the Psalms put to
music with no accompaniment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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There are songs from our new hymnal from the Genevan Psalter
of 1551, such as number #330, “Our Help Is In the Name of God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Presbyterians moved to Scotland they
formed their psalter, the Scottish Psalter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An example is on page 168 “Within Your Shelter Loving God.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Presbyterians sang metered songs from the Psalter until the
early to mid 1800s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some branches still
sing only metered psalms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other
traditions were a bit more creative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
have a number of hymns in our hymnbook created by Isaac Watts, the “Father of
English Hymnody.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>#32 “I Sing the
Mighty Power of God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Presbyterians have since allowed Methodist heresy to make it
in to our hymnals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my heart
hymns is by Charles Wesley, “Love Divine:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All Loves Excelling” is in our hymnal #366.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Second Great Awakening led to gospel songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fanny Crosby and others made music for
revivals and camp meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We sing
some of those such as “Blessed Assurance”,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“To God Be the Glory” and “Open My Eyes that I Might See.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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There have been seven hymnals in our stream of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The first was in 1831.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was
the church’s first move away from singing only psalms in worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The next hymnal came in 1874 when the new school and the old
school reunited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The next was a hymnal published during the heat of the
fundamentalist-modernist controversy in 1911.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The next was the green hymnal published in 1933.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1955 the red hymnal was published following World War Two
and the height of the Cold War about the time Southminster started. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1972, Presbyterians came out with the blueish gray
Worshipbook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was about the time Jim
Peterson arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jim was here for over a generation and the
hymnal we have just finished using was published when he was here in 1990.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
hymnal came out when I was in seminary and was the hymnal that nurtured by own
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Since 1911, it has been about every 20 years or so, a
generation, that the church feels the call to revise our “photo album.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is only so much room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need to add new pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What to do with the old ones?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are keepers that you never want to
lose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some were interesting for a time
but they can be replaced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When our
Presbyterian family needs to update its “photo album” of hymns it wrestles with
what hymns are our “heart songs,” that have been with us, what hymns are we as
a new generation singing, and how do we put it together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The formation of this committee for the new hymnal began in
2004.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new hymnal was published in
September 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of the members of
this committee, not one, is completely happy with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What that means is that no individual person
agreed with all of the decisions of what hymns to include and what to leave
behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of us would do better for
our own selves in choosing our own favorite hymns!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This congregation could not create a hymnal
for itself that everyone would like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, it isn’t about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
about the breadth of songs that speak to our hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t so important that I always sing my
favorite heart song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is of more
importance that I am in community with the person next to me who knows and
loves <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>different heart songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we each learn each other’s songs our
hearts might be touched even more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This new hymnal has about 800 hymns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Half of them are new, that is, that have not
been in previous Presbyterian hymnals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>About 60% of the 600 hymns in the 1990 hymnal are in this new one. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The order of the hymnal is such that the saga of the
Christian story is seen in its fullness, so as we sing the hymns we sing the
theology of the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Some songs will be new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>People write hymns every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some will be from the global church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are hymns from different cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These will have different rhythms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will help us recognize that we all are
neighbors.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first two hymns in our mini-hymn sing are from that 19<sup>th</sup>
century American gospel tradition, “I Love to Tell the Story” and “Leaning on
the Everlasting Arms.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sang them growing up Baptist. You may have
known them as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” has been made popular by
Iris Dement and Alan Jackson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
bring a little of the American South to the Pacific Northwest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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For the rest of the worship service we are going to have a
mix of hymn singing and a few poems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
will make a brief introduction of the hymns as we get to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get our your hymnal and let’s sing!<o:p></o:p></div>
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====================<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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[Part 2]<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here are three new songs for our photo album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Our theology changes as we change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the huge changes that have happened
in the last 25 years is theological language for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our metaphors for God reflect the variety of
the human experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas Troeger’s
hymn, Source and Sovereign, Rock and Cloud, uses a variety of images for
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These images shine a different hue
on the traditional metaphor of the Trinity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Glory to God is the title of the hymnal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This hymn may be the hymnals’ signature
song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These words are the words of the
angels to the shepherds sung to a Peruvian tune.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This third song, Give us Light, Give us Life, Give us Peace,
is a beautiful song from India.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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====================<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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[Part 3]<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Inclusivity is a major theme of the new hymnal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the committee was intentional about
including hymns that celebrated diversity and inclusion <o:p></o:p></div>
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The words to the hymn “For Everyone Born, A Place at the
Table” were written by Shirley Erena Murray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hymn was ‘evoked’ as she put
it “by the UN Declaration of Human Rights” and her involvement with Amnesty
Internationsl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said “it should be
sung at a spirited pace.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The second song, When Hands Reach Out and Fingers Trace” was
written by Presbyterian minister Carolyn Winfrey GilletteThis hymn celebrates
the breadth of human diversity and the variety of gifts and abilities through
which God’s people serve the church and world. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The tune, O WALY WALY is a traditional English melody
associated with the song "O Waly, Waly, gin love be bony.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also well known in the Appalachian
region of the United States.<o:p></o:p></div>
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==================<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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[Part 4]<o:p></o:p></div>
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We take a final peek at our photo album with more new hymns.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“He Came Down” is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Christmas song celebrating the incarnation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a traditional Cameroon piece. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“As the Wind Song Through the Trees” is another beautiful
song by Shirley Erena Murray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The music
was composed by Lim Swee Hong <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of
Singapore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is the author of the book “Giving
Voice to Asian Christians.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Heleluyan, We Are
Singing” is a Muscogee hymn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Heleluyan”
is the Muscogee (Creek) word for “Alleluia.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This Muscogee hymn is a Trail of Tears song, a testimony that their
Christian faith was more powerful than their mistreatment by those who took
away their ancestral homelands. Revered and cherished, it remains the most
popular Muscogee hymn sung in churches in Oklahoma.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The closing hymn, “Siyahamba” is Zulu for “We are Marching”
or “We are Walking.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This hymn from
South Africa has been popular since the 1990s and now in the new Presbyterian
hymnal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-7267365945331694532016-01-18T20:02:00.002-08:002016-01-18T20:02:35.362-08:00Fierce Love (1/17/2016)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Fierce Love<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Southminster
Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Beaverton, Oregon<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
January 17, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Martin Luther King<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When I speak of love I
am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that
force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying
principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to
ultimate reality.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>--Martin Luther King <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The arc of the moral
universe is long but it bends toward justice.” <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That powerful statement of hope has been attributed to Martin
Luther King. But when King said it he was quoting someone
else. That someone else was Rev. Theodore Parker. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Theodore Parker was a Unitarian
minister. He was a Transcendentalist in the school of thought
of Ralph Waldo Emerson. A graduate of Harvard College and
Harvard Divinity School, he embraced higher criticism of the
Bible. He dismissed orthodox Christianity including the
Trinity and the divinity of Christ. He rejected the miracles,
realized the Bible was filled with errors, and he thought that religion should
be located in personal experience. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He believed in the immortality of the soul. He
was a theist. He believed that God was known through personal
experience and intuition. He was also a
universalist. He believed that God would lose no
one. He said that Calvinist Theology was “cruel and
unreasonable.” Most pulpits in Boston would not let him
preach. They didn’t consider him a Christian and his views lost him
many friends. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nevertheless he found his voice and a place to share it. In
1845 his supporters formed the Congregational Society of Boston and installed
Parker as minister. His congregation included such notables as
Louisa May Alcott, William Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe, and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton. It grew to 7000. He died at the age of fifty
from Tuberculosis just before the beginning of the Civil War. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Parker was involved in almost every reform movement you
could name. An early biographer of Parker’s provided a
list: "peace, temperance, education, the condition of women,
penal legislation, prison discipline, the moral and mental destitution of the
rich, [and] the physical destitution of the poor." He denounced
the Mexican War and urged his fellow Bostonians to protest the war. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No reform issue was more pressing for him than the abolition
of slavery. He urged people to violate the Fugitive Slave Law
passed in 1850 that required the return of escaped slaves to their
owners. Many fugitive slaves were part of his congregation. He hid
slaves in his own home. He walked the talk. He
supported abolitionist John Brown who many had considered a
terrorist. He supplied money for munitions to the free states in the
battle for Kansas. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the time he died in 1860 the abolition of slavery was in
no way assured. Yet he held on to hope and wrote:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe;
the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the
curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by
conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is the original quote. Over one
hundred years later when our nation seethed with inequality and hatred, when
African-Americans faced daily humiliation and injustice in a violent,
segregated society, 100 years after a Civil War that was fought over slavery,
another preacher, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reframed Rev. Theodore
Parker’s hope in one simple sentence:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends
toward justice.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Martin Luther King never thought the civil rights movement
was about him. He never pretended to have started it or to have
birthed the theology that instructed it, or created the rhetoric that inspired
it. King knew and stated that he stood on the shoulders
of those before him. His speeches and sermons are filled with
the wisdom of the ages. Much of that wisdom came from
the Bible. Much of it came from thinkers and activists from a wide
variety of traditions, including Theodore Parker.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think King would be ambivalent about a national holiday
that bears his name. He would be in favor of a day, one day
better than none, that calls our focus and attention to the struggle, the
ongoing struggle for dignity, for racial equality, for nonviolent resistance to
all forms of oppression, for the demolition of the military industrial complex,
and for the reorienting of priorities toward the poorest of our citizens as
opposed to the welfare of the wealthiest corporate elite. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is a lot to do in one day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
King might be in favor of at least one day of the 365
devoted to the incarnation of love. This is not a sentimental
love or an ivory tower theological love. This is a feet on the
street love, a pen to paper or finger to keyboard love, a chained to a bulldozer
love, a fingerprinted and mugshot-framed love. This is a
standing up to bullets and bullies love. This is a love that won’t
take “sorry, this is just the way it is” for an answer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a love that knows the mocking and derision by those
in power. Love knows that arrogant
smirk. Love knows and feels the rage of injustice and Love knows the
desire to lash out, to return evil with evil. Love knows
it. Love feels it. Love feels the pain of rejection and
humiliation. Love hears the name-calling. Love
understands that hopeless, small feeling. Love knows that
self-doubt. Love feels the burn of shame. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Love knows something else. Love knows something
far more powerful than the so-called powerful. Love
knows that it will last at the end of things. Love knows as
Martin Luther King put it that the choice is not between violence and
non-violence. The choice is between non-violence and
non-existence. Love knows that if the human species, this
evolutionary experiment, is to survive for even another century it will only be
because of Love. Love is the energy of gut-wrenching
rage at injustice transformed into actions of justice and
reconciliation. It is not Love unless and until it includes the
enemy. Love is a miracle. Love is the miracle
of the desire, in fact, even the justice for revenge, melted down and reshaped
into a new creation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Martin Luther King didn’t invent this love. He
did bear witness to it. But he wasn’t the only one by any
means. Of course. He would be ambivalent to
have his face, his name, and his birthday be the focus of something that is so
much larger than him. Yes, we need to know the history
of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. We need to
know the events, and the dates, and people and places and to teach them to our
children. But this history is much more than what happened
from 1954 to 1968. We need to know that we are not today
recollecting a series of past events. This history is an
ongoing story. It is the ongoing witness and practice of
scarred Love.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Love is not pretty. It is not a red Valentine’s
Day heart with a naked Cupid shooting his arrow. Love is not a
sentimental wish on a Hallmark Card. Love is not soft music
and a white light of escape. Love is not a saccharine niceness that
says, “Bless your heart” to your face then gossips behind your
back. Love is not a big church sign that says, “Everyone
is welcome.” Then when you go in you learn the unwritten
rule. You are welcome unless you are Black or Gay or
welcome only if you are Theologically Correct or Politically Connected or
Dressed for Success or whatever else you are not. Love
is none of that phony stuff. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Love is a scar. The central
symbol of Love in the Christian tradition is the crucified
Christ. Despite many of its misrepresentations, it is the most
powerful symbol I know of scarred Love. The
crucified and risen Christ symbolizes the truth of pain, injustice, hatred,
violence, and humiliation, transformed into hope, dignity, new life, renewed
relationships, joy, and possibility. The image of the
risen Christ bearing the scars of the cross is not there to beat up on us for
our sins or to be morbid. It shows us that the deepest
pain and humiliation and hopelessness is not beyond
hope. Love is larger than any one life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scarred Love is seen anytime a person is able to take their
pain and allow it to be transformed into a gift. It is
counter-intuitive. You can’t tell people to do it. It is
not a commandment. It is only Love when it is freely
entered. When a person could by all means keep and hold the pain and
anger for a lifetime and by all rights never would be blamed for doing so,
nevertheless, when she or he chooses and allows that pain and mistreatment to
become something else, something reconciling, that is scarred Love. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Emmett Till was a fourteen year-old boy. He lived
up north in Chicago and was visiting his cousins in Money,
Mississippi. The year was 1955. He didn’t know the ways
of the South and the unwritten rules that had been in place for
generations. He didn’t know that his place as an African-American was to
be silent. He didn’t know about the importance of downcast eyes and
moving to the side when a white person approached. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He didn’t know it was more than a joke one day in a
drugstore to act on a dare and talk fresh to a white
woman. “Bye Baby” he said to her on his way
outside. I am sure he thought that at most he would receive a
stern reprimand for speaking disrespectfully to an adult. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He had no idea that two white men would come to his uncle’s
house, to the home of Mose Wright, and demand at gunpoint that he come with
them for a ride. He had no idea that getting in the car with them
would be the last ride he would ever take. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When they found his body at the bottom of the Tallahatchie
River, scarred, beaten, and shot through the head, it was so disfigured that he
was unrecognizable save for his ring. In fact, one of the lame
arguments of the defense was that his body was so disfigured it couldn’t be
proved that it was Emmett Till. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His mother, Mamie Till, decided to have an open casket
funeral. Photos were taken of his body in the coffin and they
appeared in Jet Magazine. She wanted the world to see what they had
done to her boy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the trial an all-white jury found the defendants not
guilty. Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till, said she hadn’t expected anything
different. It was the way it was in 1955 in
Mississippi. In 1956, protected by double jeopardy, in a
magazine article, the two white men who had been found not guilty, admitted to
killing Emmett Till.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Mamie Till said something else on national
television. She said that while nothing could be done for her baby
that maybe if the world knew and if change could come, her boy wouldn’t have
died in vain. The murder of Emmett Till, and the injustice of
the trial was another spark for the civil rights
movement. She travelled the country telling the
story of her boy. The story of scarred Love.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her pain and the scarred body of her son could have been the
end of that family’s story. No one would or could blame her
for that. It could have been a quiet funeral. She
could have stayed away from the cameras. She could have in her grief
refused talk about her son, refused the hostile questions asked by the white
press. She didn’t. You couldn’t command her
to do what she did. You couldn’t expect her to do what she
did. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHvqq1Dv3HTGi0oSeztX-CkYR-QJRonDHvf_UhdfPrfiV5NVxGQIkNfkRBlUQgtEtgfffyKjm05Zd_fQw4FmoP5XNPFa8i3qiRHpv6089rQZox5TnyI9382_vI0_uWnc77dvOYoxvz98/s1600/Mamie-Till-Mobley-2-004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHvqq1Dv3HTGi0oSeztX-CkYR-QJRonDHvf_UhdfPrfiV5NVxGQIkNfkRBlUQgtEtgfffyKjm05Zd_fQw4FmoP5XNPFa8i3qiRHpv6089rQZox5TnyI9382_vI0_uWnc77dvOYoxvz98/s320/Mamie-Till-Mobley-2-004.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scarred love is not sentimental. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scarred love is fierce love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is longer and larger than any one life,
but it knows every life. Love requires the greatest of
courage. Love is the power to tell our experience, to show our
scars, and to trust that the scars are not the last word but an entrance to the
eternal word. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a word that rings true and will ring
true. In the midst of all the pain, love will endure. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-68763956100061880402016-01-12T18:38:00.002-08:002016-01-12T18:39:23.135-08:00Fire and Spirit (1/10/16)<div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
January 10, 2016<br />
Baptism of the Lord Sunday</div>
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<i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ Luke 3:15-17, 21-22</span></span></i></blockquote>
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Several years ago a friend wrote on my blog that she was going to be baptized. I told her it was dangerous business. Look what happened to Jesus. I am serious. I told her that once you are baptized, truth, justice, compassion, peace (Jesus kind of stuff) will make demands on you and gnaw at your conscience until you are dead.</div>
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This is point eight of the <a href="http://progressivechristianity.org/the-8-points/" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">eight points of progressive Christianity</a>:</div>
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Recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege.</div>
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That to me is a pretty good definition of baptism. You may have been baptized as a baby or as a teenager or even an adult. You can even join a community, and never think a thing about it.</div>
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That is until one day you are reminded that baptism has something to do with how you will live your life. It is just a sprinkle of water on the head. There is no compulsion.</div>
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But, you know.</div>
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When there is injustice in the world and you want to turn and look the other way, you know that you have been baptized.</div>
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When you are given the choice between deception and truth, you can choose the deception, but you will know.</div>
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Baptism is a reminder that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege.</div>
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There is a liturgical tradition that I haven’t had much luck in implementing. I think the flower industry is too powerful. This tradition relates to funerals. It involves placing a white pall over the casket and nothing else. No flowers, pictures, ribbons, or bows. The white pall is a symbol that one’s baptism is complete in death.</div>
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I realize that I won’t have much say in the matter. But if any of you are around when I am dead, and my remains are placed in some box, just drape it if you would with a white sheet. It will signify that I have finished making trouble, and that my baptism is complete.</div>
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Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday. The baptism of Jesus is recounted in the four gospels. Historical Jesus scholars say that amidst all the legends about Jesus in the gospels he likely was really baptized by John the Baptist.</div>
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The reason is because it was embarrassing. As the tradition develops about Jesus and he becomes more and more divine like and sin-free the story that he was baptized for forgiveness of sins became troublesome. Why would Jesus the sinless, perfect, son of God, need to be baptized?</div>
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Another problem is that if John baptized Jesus, then John was the leader and Jesus the follower. Historical Jesus scholars also suggest that Jesus was originally a follower of John the Baptist, then broke away and started his own movement.</div>
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The gospel writers covered over that tradition by attempting to explain away this baptism.</div>
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Scholars call this the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterion_of_embarrassment" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Criterion of Embarrassment</a>. It doesn’t make sense that Jesus would be baptized by John. That would make Jesus a follower of John and a person who needs a baptism for forgiveness of sin. It doesn’t fit the developing theology about Jesus.</div>
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Therefore, it likely was an historical event that was known and had to be spun, so to speak.</div>
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A plausible historical reconstruction is that Jesus, a human being like every one else, heard John’s preaching, wanted a baptism for forgiveness of sins and became a follower of John the Baptist. Later Jesus broke away from John and started his own movement.</div>
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When we finally get to the gospel accounts of Jesus, each goes to great lengths to explain away this embarrassing situation by having John the Baptist be a precursor, a subordinate, to Jesus.</div>
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We should take a moment and recall what happened to John the Baptist. He lost his head. He called out empire and its minions in regards to justice. John’s movement was about justice.</div>
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Jesus learned from John. He was infused with John’s passion. He took John’s baptism seriously and in his own movement, he felt the weight of that passion. I don’t think John’s baptism was just a baptism for forgiveness of sin, some kind of pious I am so miserable act. It was an act of passion and commitment.</div>
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Later, the gospel of Mark recounts this interesting scene:</div>
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James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’</div>
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Here baptism means more than being baptized by water or baptized for forgiveness. Mark, and I think this reflects the historical Jesus introduces something new about the meaning of baptism. Jesus uses this conversation to explain baptism.</div>
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When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’</div>
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Baptism has a danger associated with it. For Jesus, according to Mark, baptism is associated with giving one’s life. It is being different than the nations – the Gentiles. In the Jesus community, power is different. In the world as it is power is power over. You know how Caesar runs the world. In my world, says Jesus, things are different. Power is power shared.</div>
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Jesus says in effect, “Listen folks, if you want to hang out with me, you need to be baptized and drink the cup I drink. It isn’t about getting to heaven. It isn’t about getting privileges of membership. It isn’t about bossing others around.”</div>
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Baptism and the cup are symbols of danger. They are symbols of risk.</div>
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You want to be baptized? You may end up dead for it. I would advise against it.</div>
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Baptism is dangerous business.</div>
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It is not about assenting to creeds or to some sort of metaphysical philosophy. It is not a ticket to the afterlife or an expression of Christian superiority. None of that.</div>
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Baptism is first a sign that we are embraced and loved by Spirit, by Life, by God without conditions. I learned this from Presbyterians.</div>
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We spend our lives trying to justify our existence, to prove our worth, if we believe in God, to seek God’s favor. Presbyterians taught me this important truth:</div>
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There is nothing we can do to make God love us more.<br />
There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.</div>
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Baptism is a sign of radical grace. The Divine Mystery that pervades the universe is within each of us. It is the humble recognition that before we know ourselves, we are known. If we forget that, we remember our baptism. That is the sign of that truth.</div>
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All religious traditions have a way of expressing that truth in some form. Baptism is the Christian way. It is not a symbol that separates us from other human beings, but connects us. It is the Christian way of saying we all belong. We all belong to each other, regardless of our religion, ethnicity, politics, status, whatever. When I remember my baptism I remember that I am a brother to every human being. Likewise, every human being is my brother or sister.</div>
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Secondly, it is a sign to live into that radical grace. As the eighth point of progressive Christianity states,</div>
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“…being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege.”</div>
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Mary Oliver has an important poem that I have included in our communion liturgy for today. She concludes her poem with this line:</div>
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Love yourself. Then forget it. Then love the world.</div>
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I don’t know if she is Presbyterian, but that is good Reformed Theology. Baptism calls our attention away from ourselves so we don’t have to fret if we are good enough or cool enough or lovable enough. Yes. Love yourself.</div>
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The dove has landed. The dove has landed on you and the voice has pronounced the truth from the heavens:</div>
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“You are loved and lovable. You are the beloved.”</div>
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Now, get on with it. Accept it and love the world with passion and risk.</div>
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As I noted on my blog to the woman who was being baptized this Sunday that once you are baptized, truth, justice, compassion, peace (Jesus kind of stuff) will make demands on you and gnaw at your conscience until you are dead.</div>
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It was his baptism that led Martin Luther King to resist racism, poverty, and militarism with his mind, strength, and ultimately, his life.</div>
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It was baptism, that compelled Dietrich Bonhoeffer to return to his homeland in Germany and resist the Nazis, resist to his own execution.</div>
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It was baptism that compelled <a href="http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rachel Corrie</a>, a young Presbyterian woman to stand in front on an Israeli tank bulldozing Palestinian homes, and to lose her own life.</div>
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It was baptism that each day comforts the sick, feeds the hungry, offers a word and a compassionate embrace, cares for Earth, speaks up for the bullied, is grateful, laughs, weeps, seeks a deeper meaning, loves the world.</div>
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This baptism isn’t just a Christian thing. It is a Christian symbol for a human thing. It is a spirit of courage despite fear that infects people of conscience. Jew, Christian, Muslim, Humanist, whatever, catch the spirit of baptism when they allow their consciences to be raised and realize that they are being summoned to risk. To risk love.</div>
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Because of my baptism, I cannot look at the situation in Gaza and say it is not my problem. My baptism will not allow me to excuse myself from the violence by saying they are always fighting over there. I can’t get away with trite analogies or lame explanations that lay the blame on someone else. My baptism requires that I look into my own complicity. I have to ask to what extent do I as a citizen of the United States contribute to this situation of apartheid and the violence and injustice that apartheid inevitably produces? I must ask to what extent this apartheid contributes to my privilege.</div>
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While I cannot claim that my baptism gives me the answers, it compels me to ask the hard questions. My baptism calls me to seek and to speak the truth. More importantly, it calls me to hear the truth when I would rather find comfort in my illusions. Ultimately, it is a call to action. It is a call to incarnate in our own lives compassion, justice, peace, and love.</div>
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Amen.</div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-21267641673488194892016-01-12T18:35:00.002-08:002016-01-12T18:35:30.914-08:00Sacred Suns of God (1/3/16)<div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
January 3rd, 2016<br />Epiphany</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars – mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">— Richard Feynman</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Isaiah 60:1-6</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arise, shine; for your light has come,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For darkness shall cover the earth,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and thick darkness the peoples;</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but the Lord will arise upon you,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and his glory will appear over you.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nations shall come to your light,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and kings to the brightness of your dawn.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lift up your eyes and look around;</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">they all gather together, they come to you;</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">your sons shall come from far away,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Then you shall see and be radiant;</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">your heart shall thrill and rejoice,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the wealth of the nations shall come to you.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A multitude of camels shall cover you,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the young camels of Midian and Ephah;</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">all those from Sheba shall come.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">They shall bring gold and frankincense,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lawrence Krauss</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the most poetic facts I know about the universe is that essentially every atom in your body was once inside a star that exploded. Moreover, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than did those in your right. We are all, literally, star children, and our bodies made of stardust….</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">….essentially no nuclei—beyond lithium, the third lightest nucleus in nature—formed during the primeval fireball that was the Big Bang….</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">….While lithium is important for some people, far more important to the rest of us are all the heavier nuclei like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, and so on. These were not made in the Big Bang. The only place they can be made is in the fiery cores of stars. And the only way they could get into your body today is if these stars were kind enough to have exploded, spewing their products into the cosmos so they could one day coalesce in and around a small blue planet located near the star we call the Sun. Over the course of the history of our galaxy, about 200 million stars have exploded. These myriad stars sacrificed themselves, if you wish, so that one day you could be born. I suppose that qualifies them as much as anything else for the role of saviors.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Qur’an 2:115</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To God belongs the East and the West.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wherever you turn, there is the face of God.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Albert Einstein</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The most beautiful and deepest experience [someone] can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as of all serious endeavor in art and science. One who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all there is.”</em></div>
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We spent Autumn in the Dark Wood. The Dark Wood a metaphor for the via negativa, the way of letting be and letting go. It is the path in which we recognize the sacred and the holy in the “not obvious” or “the not easily seen” or through the “hard knocks.” Rather than see the dark as evil or sinful or bad or something to avoid, the path through the dark is a path of growth.</div>
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The light is reborn at Winter Solstice. The reason for the season is the tilt of Earth’s Axis. The sun appears to us to be lower in the sky. But now through summer solstice, the sun will appear to move higher and the days will become longer. It happens every year.</div>
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Our ancestors recognized this as a sacred time and celebrated the return of the Sun long before Jesus or ancient Israel. If you imagine a time before electricity, you can see how important this celebration would be. From four thirty in the afternoon until 7:30 in the morning is a long time to be dark and cold.</div>
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Winter Solstice meant that the sun would not leave us forever, but would return. At the darkest point, the sun will rise. Each day there will be more light after the long, long dark nights.</div>
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The first evidence that Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus the Christ on December 25 comes from a Roman almanac in the mid 4th century. It is an almanac that records the death dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date listed, December 25, is marked: “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.”</div>
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Another date was also celebrated for his birth in the eastern church, January 6th. While it seems that these dates correspond with earlier festivals regarding winter solstice, it appears that the date of December 25 and January 6 were related to the Jewish calendar. The death of Jesus was established early as at Passover, 14 Nisan, or in the Gregorian calendar, March 25.</div>
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March 25th began to be celebrated as the annunciation to Mary from the angel and the conception of Jesus. Nine months later, December 25th. Jesus was believed to have been conceived and executed on the same date, March 25th. In the Eastern church, working from a slightly different calculation, the crucifixion and conception was April 6th with the birth of Jesus January 6th. December 25th won the day for the birth of Jesus although some eastern churches celebrate his birth on January 6th. In the west, January 6th was given to the date of the arrival of the magi, the astrologers, or Epiphany. From December 25th through January 6th are the twelve days of Christmas.</div>
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Once Christianity became recognized and then the official religion of the Roman Empire, the date of December 25th became helpful for conversion. The church actively Christianized ancient pagan celebrations. Borrowing and legend building added to the stories and the theology around the birth of Jesus. The son of God s-o-n is also the s-u-n both rising from the east and returning. One can imagine the ease of connecting Christian myth and theology with natural events.</div>
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So it is probably not the case that December 25th was chosen for the birth of Jesus because of winter solstice celebrations. It was connected to the death/conception of Jesus. Christians didn’t care about the birth of Jesus until much later. It happened that the date December 25th worked out rather nicely with winter solstice and so the church capitalized on it.</div>
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I recommend Andrew McGowan’s article, <a href="http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Why December 25th became Christmas.”</a></div>
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Religious myth, and when I say myth I am not being dismissive but descriptive, connects our senses, our emotions, our unconscious way of knowing with what we observe. We don’t need to take it literally, we just need to splash in it. All of these myths and stories are our psyches displayed on a big screen. When we learn the history and the science of how these stories came to be, I don’t think it ruins it or takes the magic away, but adds to it. Hence the quote at the top of the bulletin by physicist, Richard Feynman:</div>
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“Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars – mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?”</div>
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I am not sure if all poets actually say that, but we see his point. He can feel, too. Even though he understands the physics of stars, more than virtually every human being who has ever lived, nonetheless on a desert night, he can “feel” the stars as well as know them. Knowing doesn’t take away the feeling.</div>
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That is such an important lesson. Understanding the science that explores the working of Earth and Heaven does not take away its beauty. It enriches it. The same way is true for understanding our religious texts and our theology from an historical point of view. Understanding how the biblical texts came to be and how our theological doctrines developed doesn’t take away their feeling or their truth. It does change the way we see, but in the words of Richard Feynman, “do we see less or more?”</div>
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Now that you have hung in there with me for a year, you are probably getting my angle on how I approach our faith heritage and teach and preach about it. It is behind and underneath the texts that we get a glimpse of the people who told these stories and what was at stake for them. That is our connecting point. We have similar things at stake.</div>
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We don’t need to affirm or deny or believe or not believe what was said in these books and what was formulated in the creeds. That is not their gift to us. Their gift is that they did it, and we can do it as well. We can enter into these stories and feel with them and we can learn from historians and scientists who show unveil for us a little bit more of how the world works. Not either/or but both/and.</div>
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Isaiah chapter 60 is known as third Isaiah. Three different authors from three time periods in one book. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah talk about the time before the exile, chapters 40-55 are from the time in exile, and the latter part 55 to 66 as the return.</div>
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This reading from chapter 60 was used to tell in part the Christmas story. It is glorious, happy, hopeful poetry about the end of their suffering at the hands of the Babylonians and a new start. The future is bright according to the poet.</div>
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I would like to disavow any notion that the Hebrew prophets predicted Jesus. It was the other way around. The Christian storytellers looked back on their scriptures, the Hebrew Scriptures, and borrowed stories to tell the Jesus story. When Isaiah talks about bringing gold and frankincense, he is not predicting the wise men from the east. The tellers of that story in Matthew borrowed from Isaiah those images in creating the story of the wise men. That same author borrowed from the birth story of Moses to tell the birth story of Jesus. So why?</div>
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Those stories resonated with this new experience and new hope amidst the darkness of their recent past. After the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem in the Jewish War of 66-70, how possibly could Isaiah 60 be true? How could the God of Moses still be present after the entire city is razed, every messiah crucified, children destroyed by violence, war, and complete humiliation.</div>
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How does hope continue amidst the crush of Rome’s empire?</div>
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The gospel writers were offering hope and possibility. Isaiah 60 is still true and it is finding its expression in the life and vision of the rabbi Jesus. The stories attached to Jesus were a way of preserving and reinterpreting the promise of the tradition.</div>
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The message is clear: God has not abandoned us. God was not defeated. This suffering is temporary. The light shines again as sure as the sun will return at solstice. When you can say that in the midst of so much violence, death, destruction, and dashed hopes, you have faith.</div>
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When you can say, I will rise after falling so far, you have faith.</div>
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That is the Christmas/Epiphany story.</div>
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We look to our ancestors for inspiration of how to survive the rough times. That is the power and hope of our traditions. They are the imaginative stories of those who survived to tell the story. They include the rough stuff. They include the self-doubt, the self-defeating behavior, the mistakes, the grief, the hopelessness.</div>
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They tell yet amidst it, amidst the “thick darkness” writes Isaiah, amidst the paranoia and ruthlessness of Herod as Matthew tells it, of the light of hope and of possibility. Of rescue. Of a new start. A new birth. The sun will return.</div>
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When I was a teenager I used to enjoy going out at night when it was pitch dark and see the Montana stars. They may not be the brightest stars on the planet, but brighter than many places. A big black canopy on fire with stars too numerous to count. Beautiful, even if I know little about them.</div>
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Now that I know that they are suns, sacred holy suns, as ours, source of heat and light to other planets, possibly other life, that is amazing. The stars have life cycles I have learned. They explode and from theses explosions new suns are born and new planets. Every atom in our body comes from the material of exploding stars.</div>
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What are my problems in light of that?</div>
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I have them. They are real. But really. This magnificent experience is before me as I lay on a haystack just five miles south of Whitehall, Montana in the dark moonless and star-filled night sky.</div>
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“What are we, that you are mindful of us?’ says the psalmist who also might have been gazing at the stars from a desert sky. And yet we matter. We matter to each other, to ourselves, to the experience of life itself.</div>
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We need to reminded of a bigger picture every now and then. We need to be reminded that as stars have their life cycles, so do we. One day we will not be. But now we are. It is amazing to be alive. There is suffering. There is darkness.</div>
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But there is light. We can laugh again. We can be brave again. We can embrace. We can wipe the tears away and go outside and breathe deeply. Whatever changes happen, and they will happen, we can know that our ancestors experienced them too.</div>
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And yet they said,</div>
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“Your heart shall thrill and rejoice<br />because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you.”</div>
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From the opening words of the Gospel of John,</div>
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“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not over come it.”</div>
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We honor the light this season. As each day becomes brighter, we honor creativity, new life, new possibility, new hope.</div>
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Arise, shine; for your light has come.</div>
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Amen.</div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-65191608567168760352016-01-12T18:33:00.002-08:002016-01-12T18:36:00.049-08:00Rachel's Tears (12/27/15)<div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
December 27, 2015<br />
First Sunday After Christmas</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You see, the real issues about peace are, in fact, religious. And religious voices must not be silenced by the ‘realism’ of policymakers, because now the real issue is what is happening to our humanness and what will happen when we have a new generation of young people who are incapable of blushing over the inhumanity. But Jeremiah’s contemporaries called him traitor because they were cut off from noticing and feeling and caring and being transformed.</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">–Walter Brueggemann</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">After the astrologers had departed, a messenger of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I give you instructions. You see, Herod is determined to hunt the child down and destroy him.”</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother under cover of night and set out for Egypt. There they remained until Herod’s death. This happened in order to fulfill the prediction of the Lord spoken through the prophet:</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I called my son out of Egypt.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When Herod realized he had been duped by the astrologers, he was outraged. He then issued orders to kill all the children two years old and younger in Bethlehem and the surrounding region. This corresponded to the time (of the star) that he had learned from the astrologers. Then the prediction spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In Ramah the sound of mourning</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And bitter grieving was heard:</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rachel weeping for her children.</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She refused to be consoled</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Because they were no more.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">After Herod’s death, a messenger of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel; those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.”</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. He heard that Archelaus was the king of Judea in the place of his father Herod; as a consequence, he was afraid to go there. He was instructed n a dream to go to galilee. So he went there and settled in a town called Nazareth, in order to fulfill the prediction of the prophets that he will be called a Nazorean.</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Matthew 2:13-23 (Scholars’ Version)</em></div>
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This is the lectionary text for the first Sunday after Christmas, Year A. It is a story, for obvious reasons, that is not emphasized at Christmas. If it is read at all it is read once every three years on “low Sunday” where low means low attendance, the Sunday after Christmas when fewer people attend worship than usual.</div>
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The story is referred to as the Flight to Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocents.</div>
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On <a href="http://www.southmin.org/multimedia-archive/order-for-christmas-eve-2015-11-pm/" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Christmas Eve</a> I shared some stories about the birth of Jesus from the later tradition. One such collection is from <a href="http://gnosis.org/library/psudomat.htm" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior</em></a>. Today it is referred to as the Gospel of Psuedo-Matthew. It was written around 600 CE.</div>
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The Flight to Egypt gets some attention in that legend. Just before Herod slaughters all the male children two years and under, an angel tells Joseph in a dream to go to Egypt through the desert.</div>
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While in the desert on the journey Mary, Joseph, Jesus and family come across dragons, lions, panthers, and wolves and at the command of the infant Jesus they bow down to him and help the family on the journey. Madeleine L’Engle has created a wonderful children’s book based on this story called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Desert-Madeleine-LEngle/dp/0374416842" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dance in the Desert</em></a>. It is a beautiful story with enchanting illustrations. I highly recommend it.</div>
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On the third day of the journey, Mary is fatigued. She sees a palm tree and asks Joseph to stop and get some fruit. Joseph quibbles with her saying that the fruit is too high and that water is more necessary. The infant Jesus commands the tree to lower its branches to Mary so she can pick the fruit. He commands a vein of water to be opened in the earth.</div>
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The palm tree story also inspired the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cherry-Tree_Carol" style="color: #3b41bf; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cherry Tree Carol</a>. In this carol the fruit are cherries and in the carol Mary is pregnant and Joseph is angry and doubting Mary. He says in anger, “Let the father of the child get you cherries.” From the womb, Jesus commands the branch to lower itself to Mary.</div>
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A version of this story is in the Qur’an. God speaks and Mary becomes pregnant. She is alone and she is afraid and when she is about to give birth she is under a palm tree. From the womb, Jesus tells her to shake the palm and get dates and provides water for her as well. She gives birth and when she brings the child to the community, they accuse her of having a child out of wedlock, but Baby Jesus himself speaks and sets them straight.</div>
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Back to the Gospel of Psuedo-Matthew. As the holy family continues the journey, Joseph still concerned for water asks Baby Jesus if it would be a good idea to leave the desert and journey along the shore so they could rest in the cities along the coast. Jesus has a better idea. Jesus says:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fear not, Joseph; I will shorten the way for you, so that what you would have taken thirty days to go over, you shall accomplish in this one day. And while they were thus speaking, behold, they looked forward, and began to see the mountains and cities of Egypt.</em></div>
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He teleports the family to Egypt.</div>
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One might think, he could have done that at day one. The miracles keep on coming. While in Egypt, they go into a temple in the city of Sotinen. There are 355 gods in the temple and at the sight of the Blessed Mary and Jesus the idols fall down prostrate and shatter.</div>
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The governor of the city hears that the gods have shattered and brings his army to the temple. When he sees what has happened and sees the Blessed Mary and Jesus he adores them and commands his army and the whole city to worship Jesus or else he fears they will face destruction that Pharaoh and his army faced back in the day with Moses. As we know, Pharaoh and his army were drowned in the sea because they didn’t believe. And the text says:</div>
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Then all the people of that same city believed in the Lord God through Jesus Christ.</div>
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Thus the journey to Egypt ends. The text continues:</div>
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After no long time the angel said to Joseph: Return to the land of Judah, for they are dead who sought the child’s life.</div>
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One could at this point ask an impertinent question. If Jesus could tame dragons and wild beasts, command palm trees to obey, find water in the desert, teleport the family to Egypt, force idols to bow down and shatter, couldn’t he have stopped Herod from slaughtering the children? That question is not even asked let alone answered.</div>
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Once we ask that question, we have entered the realm of theodicy, which is a fancy word that attempts to defend the indefensible. Why is there suffering and evil if God is all good and all powerful? If God or Jesus can do miracles there, why not here?</div>
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Theodicy is an attempt to make excuses for the theory of an all powerful, all good God. Those excuses range from God has a bigger plan, to God is teaching you a lesson, to God is punishing you, to God would have healed you, too, if you prayed more or believed in the right religion, to God is waiting for you to get your act together, and so on. I find none of those answers satisfying. I also find them to be insulting and harmful and dismissive of the actual experience of human beings.</div>
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On the question of theodicy, I cheat. I bypass the whole thing. I say there is no all powerful and all good God. So no defense of such a being is necessary. There is suffering, illness, and death. It is part of life. Our task is to make the best of it and to provide comfort along the journey to ourselves and to others. Life is a cup of tears and a cup of joy. We do well to know we must drink of both.</div>
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There are Herods in this world and their behavior is rightly called evil. With courage and compassion our task is to draw from the well of goodness and do what we can to stop people from hurting others, to advocate for and to comfort victims, to seek justice on their behalf, and to take care that we do not escalate the spiral of violence and become what we hate. If there is anything worthy of the name God, perhaps it is that well of goodness from which we might draw.</div>
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The one who draws from it is the hero. That is Matthew’s story. Matthew’s tale is also a legend. The slaughter of the innocents is a fiction. Now Herod the Great was an historical figure. History records that he was a ruthless rascal. He reported had members of his own family slaughtered to further his ambitions and paranoia.</div>
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But the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem likely did not happen. It is a story found only in Matthew’s gospel as part of the miraculous birth narrative. It is a story drawn from the Exodus story when Moses escapes Pharoah’s death sentence upon the Hebrew children. Pharaoh sees the Hebrews growing in population and wants to thin them out a bit. He has all the male children thrown into the Nile. Moses escapes in a basket in the bulrushes.</div>
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This is a common legend. It is the story of the destined child that we find throughout literature. From Moses to Jesus to Superman to Luke Skywalker to Harry Potter to Katniss Everdeen, the hero is chosen and destined for a purpose. In this case, as Moses grew up and saved the Hebrews from slavery, Jesus grew up and saved the people from sin. A legend is born.</div>
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Legends are wonderful. Over the break we watched the latest Star Wars film. I doubt I will give away secrets by saying that the Force takes on the Dark Side in this one. Christianity is no different. It just thinks it is. Part of the delusion of organized religion is that each thinks its stories are unique, special, and true. The others? Not so much. As I see it, while the characters change, and the plots are modified, the stories are essentially the same. The Force vs. the Dark Side.</div>
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The hero is born of humble beginnings, usually, but not always. He or she is chosen and destined to bring freedom or justice or enlightenment. She often resists the call, goes through a period of purging and self-discovery, struggles with weakness, finds in the weakness a hidden strength, draws from the well-spring of goodness and talent, and in the nick of time, fulfills the destiny, often at great cost to self.</div>
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What do you do with these heroic legends? You can externalize them. That is declare that the story is factual, and that the task is to worship the hero and make a religion about him. It is a passive approach. The hero does it for us. This is a common way in which the story of Jesus Christ is presented.</div>
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But another way to experience it, is to see the story as inspiration. The reason the legend of the hero’s quest is common and crosses cultures is because it touches a human longing and a human need. We might think we need a hero. What we really need is to be a hero.</div>
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Life is itself a hero’s quest. We are born and thrown into the task of self-discovery. We are taught language, meaning, place, and task. As we grow, we question it and we wrestle with what it is we are to be doing with our lives. Who am I? What is my quest? Where is the suffering, the hurt, and the evil that I need to confront? It could be within, and likely is, and also without. Where are Rachel’s tears? How do I respond to those tears, my own, and those of others?</div>
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As I look at you, I see heroes. Everyone of you. Each of you has a well of goodness. Each has a weakness that can become a strength. Each of you struggles with self-discovery, with disappointment, with loss, grief, and yet there is a task. Some of you know it, some may not. It isn’t necessarily the same task all of your life. There are times we need to discern and revisit what that task is, and reinvent who we are to be. Religion which is made up of stories, practices, and communities, is a place from which we draw inspiration. But at the end of the day, you are the hero.</div>
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The legend of Jesus Christ is the legend of love. Legends are true in the most important way. Jesus Christ who breaks the bond of sin is a story that is very true. I define sin as the inability or the unwillingness to love, and sometimes it is hard to tell between the two, that is inability or unwillingness. If sin is the failure to love, then breaking the bond of sin is breaking the barriers to love.</div>
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The legend of Jesus Christ when we internalize it is our hero’s quest to love. We give birth to love. We die to ways of being that are not loving, and we are resurrected to love anew. We continue the process throughout our lives, growing deeper in ways of love. We love in the presence of grief and tears. We love in response to evil and violence. We love in response to death. We love in response to joy. It is not the only hero’s quest available to us, but it is a good one.</div>
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I find that series of five lines regarding Rachel prominent this year for all of us. Rachel of course is the wife of Jacob who he loved most. If Jacob is the patriarch of Israel, in Genesis we find the story of Jacob’s name being changed by YHWH to Israel, then Rachel is the matriarch.</div>
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The children for whom she weeps are all the descendants killed in violence and who are victims of injustice. It is a poetic way of describing grief at its most intense. The grief of a mother over her dying children.</div>
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I am glad this story that we often skip over is present in the birth legends of Jesus. As we look back this year to the mass shootings in San Bernardino, Chattanooga, Charleston, Paris, and close to home Umpqua Community College, these five lines are real and true.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In Ramah the sound of mourning</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And bitter grieving was heard:</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rachel weeping for her children.</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She refused to be consoled</em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Because they were no more.</em></div>
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How true is this story today for refugees fleeing violence from the crazed, paranoid, and ruthless in Syria. They are the faces of the of the Holy Family fleeing Herod today. I am glad that Egypt didn’t refuse Mary, Joseph, and Jesus out of fear they might be terrorists.</div>
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There is a validation in Rachel’s tears. If love, known through the legend of Jesus Christ is to be true, it must not hurry over or cover over or wish away or ignore or get over or move beyond this. It must acknowledge and know Rachel’s tears and ours.</div>
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In a way that is hard to explain, I find comfort and meaning in the Jesus story, both the historical Jesus and in the legend of Jesus Christ. It is a story that continues to ring true.</div>
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I have a need for the legend of love as expressed in the story of Jesus Christ. I feel a danger of losing the capacity for love. I worry, I fear that my own grief may harden me, make me unable to care, or in the words regarding Rachel, make me permanently inconsolable.</div>
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I feel the danger that so much violence may cause us to be numb and callous. We may lose our capacity to lament. We may in the words of Walter Brueggemann, become “incapable of blushing over the inhumanity.”</div>
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There may be yet a birth, death, and rebirth ahead, a breaking of the bonds that hold back love. That will only happen when we recall Rachel’s tears and weep with her through our own bitter grieving. The first prophetic act is to weep. Weep enough tears to fill a well.</div>
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The second act is to draw from the well, yes, the well of our own tears transformed into a well of compassion, a well of goodness, a well of courage, that when we drink as a hero drinks, we will transform our lives and this world.</div>
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This, this, is the hope of Christmas.</div>
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Of God being born within and among us.</div>
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Amen.</div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-66646865059049931162015-12-26T18:17:00.000-08:002015-12-26T18:17:03.172-08:00Baby Jesus (Christmas Eve 2015)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Baby Jesus<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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Southminster
Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beaverton, Oregon<o:p></o:p></div>
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Christmas Eve 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gospel of Jesus<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Jesus was a
descendant of Abraham. Jesus’ parents were named Joseph and
Mary. Jesus was born when Herod was king. Eight days
later, when the time came to circumcise him, they gave him the name
Jesus. Many in Jesus’ hometown asked, “This is the carpenter, isn’t
it? Isn’t he Mary’s son? And who are his brothers, if not
James and Judas and Simon? And who are his sisters, if not our
neighbors? Phillip tells Nathanael, “We have found Jesus,
Joseph’s son, from Nazareth. “From Nazareth?” Nathanael said to
him. “Can anything good come from that place?”</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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And that is all we know about the birth and family of the
historical Jesus. Those few sentences scattered throughout the
gospels are all that is plausible about his parentage, family, and
hometown. <o:p></o:p></div>
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How then did we get to Christmas with virgin births, stars,
angels, wise men, and December 25<sup>th</sup>?<o:p></o:p></div>
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We begin with two separate legends. One
found in Matthew and the other in Luke. When I use the word
“legend” I am not being dismissive, as if it is “only a legend,” therefore
ignore it. I am being descriptive. Stories of
miraculous births whether they are about the birth of Jesus, Moses, Augustus
Caesar, or of any gods or divinely blessed mortals, are told through legend. They
are not history as we understand history. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The ancient writers were not writing
history. They were writing mystery. They told
stories to capture the character and the meaning of the
person. When you told a story about the significance of
someone’s life in the ancient world, old stories were
best. You imitated stories that were well-known and with
creativity adapted them to fit the person you were
celebrating. The gospel writers were not interested in the
facts about Jesus as we might be. They were interested in the meaning
of Jesus as they interpreted it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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How did they use symbols, tropes, plots, and metaphors to
tell their story and what story were they telling? Before we
ask that question, we have to ask a more basic one: why did they
need a story of Jesus (whose name by way, means savior)
anyway? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Jews were under occupation. When Jesus
was born the occupying power was Rome. When the gospels were
created, perhaps as many as 80 to 100 years or more after his birth, Jerusalem
had been burned and their temple destroyed by the Romans. The Jews
were in conflict literally and theologically with Rome. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In Roman Imperial Theology here is how the divine powers
worked. You went to war. You were
victorious. There was peace. This is not
unlike imperial theologies throughout history including in our own
time. God blesses the victor. Who was the
victor? Augustus Caesar. He was announced divine at
birth. According to legend his father was a
god. Because of his military victories and for bringing peace
to Rome and quiet to the provinces, he was raised to divine
status. Coins bore the inscription that he was son of
god. He earned the title by victory in war. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What about the Jews? Obviously, in this
theological system, they were not favored by the gods. To the victor
goes true religion. But the Jews and the early Jewish
movements that centered around Jesus did not accept Roman religion. They
had a different vision of God. The God of the Jews and of
Jesus said you get peace through justice in which justice means enough for
everyone. You don’t get lasting peace through war and victory,
but through non-violence and justice. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus was a Jew. The earliest sayings and actions
associated with him show him to be a wisdom teacher and social
prophet. His vision was in direct conflict with Roman
theology. Instead of war to victory to peace, his vision
looked to non-violence to justice to peace. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He articulated a vision that was already present even if at
times hidden in his own tradition. It would be a vision that
would be both present and hidden again in the traditions and centuries that
followed him. His vision captured the imaginations and the
hopes of those who heard him and who believed that it might be possible for
everyone to have enough, to live in harmony with Earth, to enjoy the fruits of
their labor, and thus to live in peace. To live metaphorically
on God’s mountain where no one will hurt or destroy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus was executed by the Romans with the assistance of
local religious authorities. But his vision did not die with
him. Stories about him were told. Sayings were
collected. Some events remembered. Many
stories and sayings were created. All these stories eventually made
their way into theological narratives or gospels. These
narratives were not history but mystery. They were stories of his
meaning for those who told them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Paul was one such meaning maker. He didn’t know
the historical Jesus. The Apostle Paul turned Jesus into a cosmic
savior, a cosmic Christ, saving us from sin and even death
itself. This theology influenced the
gospels. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Two gospels in the New Testament tell of his
birth. Matthew imitated the story of the birth of Moses,
also a legend. Both Moses and Jesus are saved from ruthless
leaders (Pharaoh and Herod, respectively) who slaughter innocent children in
failed attempts to kill these destined heroes. Moses
grows up to lead the people from bondage in Egypt. Jesus
is like Moses. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In Luke, the good news of the birth of Augustus and Roman
Imperial Theology is turned on its head. The language that
belonged to Caesar inscribed on imperial coins and stone temples, “the savior
who brings peace to the world,” is applied to Jesus whose birth announcement is
given to shepherds, the bottom of the economic, social, and political
ladder. The choice is clear. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-dominic-crossan/the-challenge-of-christma_b_1129931.html">Does
peace come through war and victory or through non-violence and justice?</a> Which
god will we serve? Which god will save us? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet even within Luke and Matthew, the meaning and
significance of Jesus is being shaped by other theological
needs. He is becoming more of a god than a human being and his
significance is becoming more cosmic than
practical. Influenced by Paul’s theology, Jesus is the
cosmic Christ who comes to die for the sins of the world. The birth
stories of Jesus both preserve his vision and move beyond it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By the time we get to the second century, the Jesus movement
has separated itself from its Jewish roots altogether. Jesus
is nearly fully god by now. He is divine and sinless, thus Mary’s virginity and
her purity are emphasized. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Tonight we will hear portions of two other legends. The
first is <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/infancyjames-hock.html"><i>The</i> <i>Infancy
Gospel of James</i></a><i>.</i> It was composed in the middle
of the second century. It tells about Mary’s childhood, a
birth also by the Holy Spirit. Mary has parents, Joachim and
Anna, and stories are told about them. Joseph is an old man
because it would be unseemly for Mary to have any relations with
him. We find that Mary is a teenager when she gives
birth. Jesus’s brothers and sisters become step-siblings. They
become children of Joseph born long before Jesus is born. Meanwhile Mary
is well on the way to becoming a perpetual virgin. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is in the <i>Infancy Gospel of James</i> that
we learn some interesting details that have become part of the tradition. For
instance, Mary rides a donkey to Bethlehem. We also discover the
tradition of Jesus being born in a cave and the magic of the silent night, when
everything stops moving and becomes perfectly still at the moment of his birth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Around the year 600, the stories of Jesus’ birth and early
childhood are collected into a work called <a href="http://gnosis.org/library/psudomat.htm"><i>The Book About the Origin of
the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior</i></a><i>.</i> In
this marvelous collection of legends, Jesus exerts divine powers from the
moment he is born. We will hear a couple of those
stories tonight. It is in this text that we learn an ox and an ass
are present at the birth. The ox and ass are in nativity
scenes and featured in Christmas carols. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On the flight to Egypt, the infant Jesus causes a palm tree
to deliver fruit to his mother. You will find a version of
this story in the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book. The Cherry Tree
Carol is based on this story and tells it a bit differently. We
will hear that song tonight, too. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Also during the flight to Egypt, the first family confronts
dragons, lions, and panthers. The Baby Jesus is not
afraid. He commands them to obey and of course, they
do. He is the king of creation even at birth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is <a href="http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/">much
debate regarding the date of his birth, December25th</a>. One
theory is that the date is borrowed from various solstice celebrations. But
it could be that it was based on a calculation regarding Passover, the time the
gospels record his execution. Tertullian
around the year 200 calculated that the crucifixion occurred on the 14th of
Nisan, based on his reading of the Gospel of John. In the Roman
calendar that would be, March 25<sup>th</sup>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This same date, March 25<sup>th</sup>, was later recognized
as the Feast of the Annunciation, or Jesus’ conception. In
other words he was believed to have been conceived on the same date that he was
crucified. Nine months following March 25<sup>th</sup> is
December 25<sup>th</sup>, the date of his birth. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is of course all legend based on
theology. One medieval painting has the Baby Jesus coming down from
heaven carrying his cross. The theological structure is
about Jesus Christ whose purpose is to die on the cross to save humanity from
sin and thus offer eternal life on a new heaven and a new
earth. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We’ve come a long way from the historical Jesus. It is a
challenge to discover how legends and theological traditions originate, but
like Velcro balls, they pick up whatever is in their path. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Tonight we celebrate the legends surrounding
Jesus. It is Christmas. We embrace the
magic. We delight in the mythology. We contemplate
the theology. We pause to honor this holy night. We open
our mind and heart to the virgin, the angels, and the adoring
shepherds. We welcome Jesus Christ: the Divine Son,
Light from Light, Very God of Very God, King of Heaven and Earth. Yes,
yes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Amidst it all, I would like to light one candle for the real
person buried underneath the layers of legend and theology. I
light a candle for the vision of Jesus of Nazareth, the vision of a human being
who had a hope and a conviction that there could be a lasting peace in this world,
if we could be humble, wise, and courageous enough to seek justice for
everyone.<o:p></o:p></div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-33689798403291287812015-12-22T17:55:00.003-08:002015-12-22T17:55:55.723-08:00I Will Light Candles (12/21/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
I Will Light Candles <o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Southminster
Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Beaverton, Oregon<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Longest Night/Tidings
of Comfort<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
December 21, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lamentations 2:28 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cry aloud to the Lord!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>O wall of daughter Zion!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Let tears stream down
like a torrent<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>day and night!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Give yourself no rest,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>your eyes no respite! <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lamentations 3:55-57<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I called on your name,
O Lord,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from the depths of the pit; <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you heard my plea, ‘Do
not close your ear<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to my cry for help, but give me relief!’ <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You came near when I
called on you;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you said, ‘Do not fear!’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERJLzgPsJAVhgzyjM4eZC7mmhHpdErF5JvnbgBm3ZGR0OzeueiQqkK8TmwK0NOLgaJST7WNlOtbB4ddOe6T1e3TXkK1U7NMllceg_QB00xlE9cvPLIiLdxTP-Ww5FZoBwvnNOnPnUs6g/s1600/0e1412307_service-of-the-longest-night-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERJLzgPsJAVhgzyjM4eZC7mmhHpdErF5JvnbgBm3ZGR0OzeueiQqkK8TmwK0NOLgaJST7WNlOtbB4ddOe6T1e3TXkK1U7NMllceg_QB00xlE9cvPLIiLdxTP-Ww5FZoBwvnNOnPnUs6g/s320/0e1412307_service-of-the-longest-night-header.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
C. S. Lewis in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Grief Observed</i> that he wrote after the death of his wife begins this way:<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No one ever told me
that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being
afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning.
I keep on swallowing. At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or
concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I
find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it
in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the
moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not
to me. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It is so uninteresting.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is the sentence that stuck out for me when I re-read
that paragraph as I was preparing this message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After we lost our son, Zach, that is what it
felt like to me, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been
interested in so many things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had
many causes, many concerns, many opinions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But after his death I really had none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nothing was particularly interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That may be one of the most terrifying things about grief
and loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may fear that we won’t be
interested in anything again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
used to think that people who grieve can move through it if they get involved
in some new project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it’s
true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looks healthy from the
outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“You look like you are doing so much better!” an observer
may comment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not so sure anymore about that or a lot of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not convinced that being interested and
involved in new things is the only way to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes we get involved and interested because we are afraid of not
being interested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are afraid of our
grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we keep busy we don’t have to
think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is good reason to be afraid of grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t particularly socially
engaging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who wants a sad sack
around?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all know that, so we know
how to pretend or leave early or not talk about our loss or loved one or
whatever it might be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a song by the Beatles that I heard anew after my
son died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never really heard the
lyrics until then:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Here I stand head in
hand<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Turn my face to the
wall<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If she's gone I can't
go on<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Feeling two-foot small<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Everywhere people
stare<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Each and every day<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I can see them laugh
at me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And I hear them say<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hey you've got to hide
your love away<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How can I even try<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I can never win<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hearing them, seeing
them<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In the state I'm in<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How could she say to
me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love will find a way<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gather round all you
clowns<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Let me hear you say<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hey you've got to hide
your love away<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It has been said that the pain of grief is proportional to
the love for the one we have lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is painful, embarrassing, and uncomfortable to watch another’s love/grief
.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hide it away is said in various ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is the world in which we live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we are becoming more open about
acknowledging the importance of sharing and expressing feelings associated with
loss whatever they may be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, still,
we who have gone through that particular dark wood know that for much of the
time, most of the time, our love/grief must be hidden away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We may come to fear our grief because of the social
cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hoping it won’t spill out and
embarrass us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do what we can to keep
it down, to be cheerful even if not, to put on the game face, to pretend to be
interested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be especially
challenging at Christmas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But there is another cost if we do not acknowledge grief and
sadness and allow it its place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only
when we express it can we release it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
we bury it, it remains and eats at us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is why I think that the canonical authorities included
the book of Lamentations in the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a book of grief over the loss of their nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is raw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cry aloud to the Lord!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>O wall of daughter Zion!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Let tears stream down
like a torrent<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>day and night!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Give yourself no rest,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>your eyes no respite! <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am convinced that had it not been for Lamentations, had
they not given one another permission as it were to “let the tears stream down
like a torrent,” that they would not have ever found anything to be interested in
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would never have had recovered.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The biblical authors tell one another to weep in front of
the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it is an ancient way
of making lamentation a sacred act—a holy act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a way to express our love for the lost and it is done through
grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is done openly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is why there is a service for The Longest Night or
Tidings of Comfort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a way to
gather to express and to name our own feelings of sadness with others who
understand because they are in the dark wood too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a way to acknowledge grief in the open
without any strings.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We need a place and we need regular rituals and we need
conversation partners and friends from whom we do not have to hide our
love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need a place to say and to hear the name of
what or who we have lost and how it still hurts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I went to a counselor after I lost my son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was one of the healthiest things I did for
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the strange things
about grief at least for me was the concern that I was doing it correctly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Am I normal?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Of course you are not normal, you are you,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Who wants to be normal?” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He told me that we are not in a fetal position 24/7, that
life is like it was much of the time, except when it isn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can allow that feeling to be whatever it
is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To notice it , acknowledge it, give
ourselves a break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is tough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are times when we go back to when the pain seems as
intense as when we first experienced the loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are other times when I need to take
time to remember him with that mix of laughter and tears and laughter again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It is so uninteresting,” wrote CS Lewis.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And yet, I find anyway, that when I let myself express it
rather than fight it or be down on myself that I am not over it, as if my son
were an “it”, when I allow myself time to reflect or sit or pour over old
photos or whatever I need to do, to say his name, that it does feel lighter and
I can do what I must do next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a plus side to loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t necessarily miss all the things I
was interested in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I no longer fear that
I won’t be interested in anything again. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a bit more selective in my
interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have discovered some gifts in this dark
wood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I included another set of verses from Lamentations:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I called on your name,
O Lord,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from the depths of the pit; <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you heard my plea, ‘Do
not close your ear<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to my cry for help, but give me relief!’ <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You came near when I
called on you;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you said, ‘Do not fear!’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, an ancient way, as I see it, of the power of
expression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Calling out our grief is a
courageous act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an act of a big
heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Courage and heart share the same root word, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cor</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It took a big heart for you to be here tonight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am glad you are here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The road is not so lonely and frightening when we walk it
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Howard Thurman is my favorite Christmas poet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He recognizes more than most that the depth
of joy is also related to the depth of sadness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I particularly enjoy this prayer of courage,
“I will light candles this Christmas.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I will light candles
this Christmas;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candles of joy despite
all sadness,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candles of hope where
despair keeps watch,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candles of courage for
fears ever present,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candles of peace for
tempest-tossed days,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candles of grace to
ease heavy burdens,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candles of love to
inspire all my living,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candles that will burn
all the year long</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-41916848675746616902015-12-22T17:54:00.001-08:002015-12-22T17:54:15.781-08:00Pregnant With God (12/20/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Pregnant With God<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Southminster
Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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December 20, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fourth Sunday of
Advent<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Metaphors<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 2.0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sylvia Plath<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m a riddle in nine syllables,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An elephant, a ponderous house,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A melon strolling on two tendrils.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Money's new-minted in this fat purse.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I've eaten a bag of green apples,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boarded the train there's no getting off.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Meister Eckhart<b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We are all meant to be mothers
of God, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for God is always needing to be born.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Qur’an 19:1-36 (3)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
reminder of the Mercy of thy Lord unto His servant, Zachariah, when he cried
out to his Lord with a secret cry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
said, “My Lord! Verily my bones have grown feeble, and my head glistens with
white hair. And in calling upon </span></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thee, my Lord, I have never been wretched. Truly I fear my relatives
after me, and my wife is barren. So grant me from Thy Presence an heir who will
inherit from me and inherit from the House of Jacob. And make him, my Lord,
well-pleasing.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“O
Zachariah! Truly We bring thee glad tidings of a boy whose name is John; <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We have not given this as a name to any before
him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “My Lord! How shall I
have a boy, when my wife is barren, and I have grown decrepit with old
age?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “Thus shall it be. Thy
Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me! I had created thee before, when thou wast
nothing!’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “My Lord! Appoint
for me a sign.” He said</span></i>, <i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Thy
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>sign shall be that thou shalt not
speak with men for three nights, [while thou art] sound.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
he came forth from the sanctuary unto his people, and signaled to them that
they should glorify morning and evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“O John! Take the Book with strength!” And We gave him judgment as a
child, and a tenderness from Our Presence, and purity; and he was reverent, and
dutiful toward his parents. He was not domineering, rebellious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peace be upon him the day he was born, and
the day he dies, and the day he is raised alive.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And remember Mary in the Book, when she withdrew from her family to an
eastern place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she veiled herself
from them. Then We sent unto her Our Spirit, and it assumed for her the
likeness of a perfect man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said, “I
seek refuge from thee in the Compassionate, if you are reverent!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “I am but a messenger of thy Lord,
to bestow upon thee a pure boy.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
said, “How shall I have a boy when no man has touched me, nor have I been un-chaste?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “Thus shall it be. Thy Lord says,
‘It is easy for Me.’” And [it is thus] that We might make him a sign unto
mankind, and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter decreed.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So she conceived him and withdrew with him to
a place far off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the pangs of
childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date palm. She said, “Would that I had
died before this and was a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he called out to her from below her,
“Grieve not! Thy Lord has placed a rivulet beneath thee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And shake toward thyself the trunk of the
date palm; fresh, ripe dates shall fall upon thee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So eat and drink and cool thine eye. And if
thou seest any human being, say, ‘Verily I have vowed a fast unto the Compassionate,
so I shall not speak this day to any man.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then she came with him unto her people, carrying him. They said, “O
Mary! Thou hast brought an amazing thing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not an evil man, nor was thy mother
unchaste.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then she pointed to him. They
said, “How shall we speak to one who is yet a child in the cradle?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
said, “Truly I am a servant of God. He has given me the Book and made me a
prophet</span></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">He has made me blessed wheresoever I may be,
and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I live, and [has made
me] dutiful toward my mother. And He has not made me domineering,
wretched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peace be upon me the day I was
born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">That is Jesus son of Mary—a statement of the
truth, which they doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not for
God to take a child. Glory be to Him! When He decrees a thing, He only says to
it, “Be!” and it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Truly God is my
Lord and your Lord; so worship Him. This is a straight path.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO82phoy7N5diwqwykxhHfbJ3_N9ToFAH1-1acBdCHoTeD4Ledsb_s4LDUNKY9gShj7wNk00gQgiMANi1Z0eFjQDxH26IN_dkYGcu0XYobrnBs5_8s0Wq2FLMCoWMABsGmuX4Dd6NIRrY/s1600/Mariam_and_Isa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO82phoy7N5diwqwykxhHfbJ3_N9ToFAH1-1acBdCHoTeD4Ledsb_s4LDUNKY9gShj7wNk00gQgiMANi1Z0eFjQDxH26IN_dkYGcu0XYobrnBs5_8s0Wq2FLMCoWMABsGmuX4Dd6NIRrY/s320/Mariam_and_Isa.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are in the home stretch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is the Fourth Sunday of Advent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Christmas is coming up fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We’ve boarded the train, there’s no getting off,” writes
Sylvia Plath in her poem, Metaphors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Fourth Sunday of Advent lectionary texts feature Mary in
some way in all three years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either the
announcement from Gabriel to Mary, the angel’s announcement to Joseph about
Mary, Mary’s visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, or her song, known as “the
Magnificat” are read on this Sunday or a combination of the above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We will honor that tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The final hymn will be the Song of Mary based
on her own song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We will honor Mary in a slightly different way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just heard the story of Mary giving birth
to Jesus from the Qur’an.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is Mary
or Maryam (peace be upon her) in the Muslim tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope it will whet your appetite for the
Sunday Starter class next year on Jesus (peace be upon him) in the Muslim
tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mary is highly revered by Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All Muslims, including scholars, regard
Maryam as the most pious woman and an example of faith. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is regarded as the holiest woman who ever
lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A minority of Muslim scholars even
regard Maryam as a prophet, the only female prophet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prophets are the most important people and were especially
chosen by God to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>teach the faith of
Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adam, Noah, Abraham are all
Muslims according to the Qur’an. The beliefs of charity, prayer, pilgrimage,
worship of God and fasting are believed to have been taught by every prophet
who has ever lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mohammad (peace be upon him) is the seal of the
prophets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As-Shahada is the creed of Islam:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There is no god but
God. Muhammad is the messenger of God.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus, known as Issa, in the Qur’an is a prophet of
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is not the son of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first words of Jesus as an infant in the
cradle are <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I am a servant of
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has given me the book and made
me a prophet.” <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Qur’an is clear that Issa or Jesus (peace be upon him)
is a prophet like the other prophets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The section on Mary and Jesus concludes:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That is Jesus son of
Mary—a statement of the truth, which they doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not for God to take a child. Glory be
to Him! When He decrees a thing, He only says to it, “Be!” and it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This last line is regarded to be from Jesus:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Truly God is my Lord
and your Lord; so worship Him. This is a straight path.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The “they that doubt” refer to Jews and Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jews from the Qur’an’s point of view are in
error because they do not regard Jesus as a prophet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christians are wrong because they call Jesus
divine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase “it is not for God
to take a child” is found throughout the Qur’an to say that there is no son of
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no one begotten of God,
all are made by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, that is
a direct rebuttal of the Christian Nicene Creed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This Surah or chapter sets the record straight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is a servant of God, a prophet, a
messenger and his message is the same as all the prophets, the truth of Islam.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“This is a straight
path.” </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are some marvelous ironies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is believed to have had a miraculous
birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is a prophet who performed
miracles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will be the one to be he
judge on the final day by the law of the Qur’an.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those are some similarities with orthodox
Christian views of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The irony is that many, not all, but many progressive
Christians do not regard Jesus as divine and regard the miracles and claims
about Jesus as son of God and so forth as metaphor or legend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Muslims believe more supernatural things about Jesus than do
progressive Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another interesting irony is that many contemporary Muslim
scholars appreciate the work of the Jesus Seminar, that is the study of the
historical Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, most Muslim
scholars reject Western historical-critical methods when it comes to the
Qur’an.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Qur’an is not like the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Qur’an theologically is the Word of God,
spoken by God through Mohammad, a perfect revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For orthodox Christians, Jesus is the Word
of God, a perfect revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus in
Christianity is like the Qur’an in Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><br />
<br />
That is how important the Qur’an is for Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is like saying Jesus is the Word of God
for Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is what is at
stake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Muslims there is a
devotional relationship to the Qur’an.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You memorize the Qur’an in Arabic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You are close to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It lives
within you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the first words you
hear when you are born and the last you hear when you die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Qur’an is only the Qur’an in Arabic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An English translation is not the Qur’an but
a translation of the Qur’an.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Qur’an is God speaking to you, addressing you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is almost like Christians who have a personal
relationship with Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Muslims have
a personal relationship with God through the Qur’an and of course <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>respond through the five pillars of Islam:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->as-shahada or the creed, There is one God and
Mohammad is his prophet<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->prayer,, five times a day<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->almsgiving, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->fasting, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->and the Hajj or the pilgrimage to Mecca.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Western scholars to ask of Muslims to use Western
Historical-Critical methods to find the historical Mohammad or to evaluate the
Qur’an as a human book would be like asking Christians to give up on Jesus as
Divine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can you be a Christian if you do
that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most Christians don’t think of Christians
who do that as Christian for that very reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is what is at stake and that is why there is much resistance by
Muslim scholars to go that way to regard the Qur’an as a human book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you go there are you Muslim any longer?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Interesting ironies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For those of us who are heretics in every tradition,
foolishly we tread to evaluate sacred texts and traditions from a human point
of view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I read this beautiful
story of Mary by the palm tree and a voice from below calls out to Mary, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Grieve not! Thy Lord
has placed a rivulet beneath thee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
shake toward thyself the trunk of the date palm; fresh, ripe dates shall fall
upon thee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So eat and drink and cool thine
eye.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That sounds like the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or the
Infancy Gospel of Matthew. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are going
to read from that Gospel on Christmas Eve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are stories of the birth of
Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this story written several
centuries after the birth of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus are on
their way to Egypt to escape Herod.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here
is the story:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And it came to pass on
the third day of their journey, while they were walking, that the blessed Mary
was fatigued by the excessive heat of the sun in the desert; and seeing a palm
tree, she said to Joseph: Let me rest a little under the shade of this tree.
Joseph therefore made haste, and led her to the palm, and made her come down
from her beast. And as the blessed Mary was sitting there, she looked up to the
foliage of the palm, and saw it full of fruit, and said to Joseph: I wish it
were possible to get some of the fruit of this palm. And Joseph said to her: I
wonder that thou sayest this, when thou seest how high the palm tree is; and
that thou thinkest of eating of its fruit. I am thinking more of the want of
water, because the skins are now empty, and we have none wherewith to refresh
ourselves and our cattle. Then the child Jesus, with a joyful countenance,
reposing in the bosom of His mother, said to the palm: O tree, bend thy
branches, and refresh my mother with thy fruit. And immediately at these words
the palm bent its top down to the very feet of the blessed Mary; and they
gathered from it fruit, with which they were all refreshed.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This story was inspiration for the Cherry Tree Carol which
you will also hear on Christmas Eve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can see from a literary point of view the
sharing of that story with the story in the Qur’an.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christians who enjoy battling with Muslims love to point
this out in an attempt to “prove” that the Muslims are wrong and they are
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversely, Christians don’t like
it pointed out that virtually every story about Jesus has a literary parallel
in the Hebrew scriptures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance,
Jesus escaping Herod’s sword is likely a fiction based on Moses escaping
Pharoah’s sword.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can go on-line and
watch the two groups battle it out in chat rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This brings up a challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How do we have a respectful conversation, build important bridges,
accept another’s point of view and yet speak our own truth as well?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is the same challenge within our faith traditions as it
is between them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably, if we can
help it, we don’t start with the sharpest disagreements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might start with the things with which we
share in common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we discover another’s sacred text,
tradition, or belief we try to hear it from their point of view and see what is
beautiful, good, and true in it, even as we may approach things differently.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A helpful way for Christians to approach the Qur’an is to
read a respected translation and commentary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New Study Qur’an </i>has now
been published by Harper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the
translation I used in the bulletin today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had a chance to interview the general editor, Joseph Lumbard about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am doing a series of shows on Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the commentary on this chapter it notes that the word
Compassionate is used for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
third of all references to God in the Qur’an as “the Compassionate” occur in
this chapter. Of the ninety-nine names for God in Islam “the Compassionate” is
featured in this Surah about Mary and Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sixteen times in this Surah, God is called “the Compassionate.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In both Hebrew and Arabic the root word for womb is Rechem
in Hebrew or Raham in Arabic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the
same as that for compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
compassion a mother has for her child is womb-love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mercy,
compassion, a name for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The stories themselves reveal the character of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this story in the Qur’an, Mary goes away to a deserted
place and a veil a hijab is placed between her and her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This what prophets do, including Mohammad,
to be set apart to receive a revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maryam’s hijab or veil symbolizes her holiness, her set apart time, her
closeness to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While she apart in a holy, sacred place, the spirit of God
comes to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This spirit in human form,
believed to be Gabriel speaks to her<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>that she will have a pure boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She is astonished as she is in the gospels, “How can I when I am chaste
and been with no man.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The angel says
that God just says it and it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She becomes pregnant and while under a date palm goes into
labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She cries out in aguish which is
the anguish of prophets who have an important task given to them by God that
will also put them at risk with other human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Maryam’s case it is giving birth without a
husband.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the prophets have
something to bear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a personal
cost in receiving a revelation and being charged to deliver it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maryam witnesses to “the Compassionate” by
giving birth to a witness, Issa, or Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While she is in distress a voice tells her to “Grieve
not.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this voice the angel or is it Jesus
newly born?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The text is not clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Commentators differ about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the instruction is that there is a river
and date palms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shake the tree, he says
to Maryam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is refreshed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Cool thine eye” is a phrase meaning to be
refreshed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He then tells her to take a vow of silence so she won’t have
to defend herself to her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
sees them with her boy, and they raise an eyebrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Hey Maryam, what
gives?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your father wasn’t evil and your
mother was chaste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is up with you?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maryam points to Jesus and he speaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Truly I am a servant
of God. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has made me blessed wheresoever I may be,
and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I live, and [has made
me] dutiful toward my mother. And He has not made me domineering,
wretched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peace be upon me the day I was
born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other words, I am a prophet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t mess with me and don’t mess with my
mama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I take away from this story is that Compassion is the link
between Jesus and thus Christians and Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Born of compassion is Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Womb-love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever we mean when
we think of God, compassion is God’s character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That character is revealed at the birth of
Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mary’s womb is the place where the compassionate prophet is
revealed, and thus a name for God also revealed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 13<sup>th</sup> century mystic, Meister Eckhart
said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We are all meant to be mothers of God, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for God is always needing to be born.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I take this story from the Qur’an as revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless of how we conceptually think of
God, or how we interpret our religious beliefs, we can take away the truth that
humans have the capacity to discover and even give birth to compassion and
nurture compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps we are most human when we are compassionate or most
reflect the divine image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Islam when
it is true to itself and Christianity when it is true to itself are faiths that
embody compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is easy to see the faults and distortions of our
respective religions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What unites us and what our gift is to the
world is the hope that we can live with compassion and mercy with one
another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People often want to talk about the true meaning of
Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we can look to the
Qur’an as much as we look to the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Christmas is where compassion and mercy shine in the darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is refreshment like date palms and a
pure stream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
May you receive the light and refreshment of compassion and
share it with others.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-19563034842442685532015-12-13T16:28:00.002-08:002015-12-13T16:28:32.113-08:00Misfits (12/13/15)<div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joy is a marvelous increasing of what exists, a pure addition out of nothingness.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">— Rainer Maria Rilke</em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Making the journey with a few wise companions by your side can keep you from getting lost and make the journey less lonely, even fun. Fun especially when we discover that we may also be of help to our companions as they strive to find their place in the world</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">–Eric Elnes</em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ever since Happiness heard your name,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It has been running through the streets</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trying to find you.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And several times in the last week,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">God Herself has come to my door—</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So sweetly asking for your address,</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wanting the beautiful warmth of your heart’s fire.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">–Hafiz</em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Luke 6:20-21 (Scholars’ Version)</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Congratulations, you poor! God’s domain belongs to you!</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Congratulations, you hungry! You will have a feast!.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Congratulations, you who weep now! You will laugh!</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">–Jesus</em></div>
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The theme for the Third Sunday of Advent is Joy. It is important to make room in our longing hearts for the immediate experience of joy. Joy sneaks up on us. We are unaware of its presence until it forces a smile. Our immediate reaction is to cover it. Did I do that? Did someone see? A slight reddening of the cheeks. Too late. Joy surprised you anyway.</div>
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We may object that is not mete and right to be joyful in the midst of so much sadness in the world.</div>
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Mete, spelled M- E-T-E is that wonderful old sounding word that means just. In the 1559 Anglican Book of Common Prayer we hear:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is very mete, right, and our bounden duety that we should at al times, and in all places, geve thanckes to the, O Lord holy father, almighty everlasting God.</em></div>
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Because of course gratitude is married to joy. They are lovers. They are “bounden.” Once gratitude slips out, not a cursory ‘thank you’ but a gushing expression that just leaves you like a belch, you can’t help it, gratitude bubbles out and with it a smile, joy. Thanks, I needed that. We say with a giggle. Is it right? Is it mete?</div>
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Yes, say all the wise ones. Don’t postpone joy. Don’t keep it at bay. Don’t say, “Come back another time.” If you make a place in your heart for sadness, you can make a place for joy. They will get along just fine. They will, in fact, enrich each other and tell bawdy jokes.</div>
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It is OK. More than OK, It is mete and right, even in the midst of grief to allow yourself to embraced and kissed on the lips by joy.</div>
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Thus, Jesus, that happy misfit, had the audacity to declare to those whose hearts were torn out, whose bellies were empty, their accounts in debt,</div>
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Congratulations!</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Congratulations, you poor! God’s domain belongs to you!</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Congratulations, you hungry! You will have a feast!.</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Congratulations, you who weep now! You will laugh!</em></div>
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It is the language of pronouncement. In thus saying, he declares it so.</div>
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That collection of sayings was voted Christmas red by the Jesus Seminar. That is most certainly our man, Jesus, they said. Going around congratulating the poor, the hungry, and the grieving. Too weird a thing for any normal person to do. Must be Jesus.</div>
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It is natural to object. There is something unjust about joy.</div>
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I lost my lover. I lost my child. I lost my parent. Is it just for their sakes that I experience joy? Mustn’t I carry the banner of grief for their sakes, for their memory, for their honor? How can I let joy sit at the table when they will be absent?</div>
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That’s real. Whether we come out and say it, that is there. We are betraying our lost love if we are happy. Only sadness is noble enough to keep them alive in our hearts.</div>
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So we turn away joy at the gate. Not today. Come back tomorrow. Or better yet. Don’t come back until I call you.</div>
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Joy understands. Joy knows you need your space, as they say. Joy understands but joy does not obey. Joy resorts to trickery. Joy sneaks in through the back door and jumps on you like a puppy. Joy, like Clarence the clownish angel in “It’s a Wonderful Life” jumps off the bridge before sad and guilt-ridden George Bailey can, and of course, George saves Clarence and now it’s too late for George. Joy has him.</div>
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Joy is sneaky. Joy is persistent. Joy won’t give up. Not until you sm-i-i-le.</div>
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Joy is mete and right.</div>
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We have been walking through the Dark Wood during autumn. I have been borrowing that metaphor from Eric Elnes, a minister who wrote, Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics (and Other Wanderers). I have been basing my sermons on the seven gifts he names that come upon us unexpectedly. We may not think of them as gifts, but they turn out to be that.</div>
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Those gifts are the gifts of<br />Uncertainty<br />Emptiness<br />Being Thunderstruck<br />Getting Lost<br />Temptation<br />Disappearing<br />And finally the Gift of Misfits.</div>
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The Dark Wood is the place where it is possible to be moved and transformed. In the Dark Wood we are able to find a direction, discover our voice, earn some wisdom, or whatever it is we need.</div>
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We enter the Dark Wood because we struggle. Eric Elnes says that is the only requirement, that we struggle. We don’t have to be smart or holy or beautiful or even above average. We just need to be struggling.</div>
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The final gift of the Dark Wood are other travelers or misfits. Those who have gone before or who are going with us in the present and those who have just entered and we may be the misfit for them.</div>
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Eric calls these fellow Dark Wood travelers misfits because in many respects, Dark Wood wanderers are a bit of a strange lot. Most religious institutions don’t want people to enter the Dark Wood. They want people to be certain, to be full, to follow the rules, to believe correctly, and so forth.</div>
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If there is sadness and grief, well move through it quickly. If not, we might think you are lacking faith and you are making the rest of us uncomfortable. In contrast to that, the misfits who travel the Dark Wood allow for the sadness. They allow for you to be you.</div>
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The misfits, our fellow band of rogues, are our source of joy, not because they want to drive the sadness out of us, but because they have experienced the depths of it and have discovered they can laugh at themselves. They, too, have been surprised by the stealthiness of joy.</div>
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Advent and Christmas is a bit of a challenge for me. I am not whining about it, just being honest about it. We were Christmas central for many years, for the past 30 really, mostly because I did Christmas Eve and my wife’s sisters and later their husbands and families would come to our place. Of course, our children were with us.</div>
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After we lost Zach, Christmas has been a Dark Wood time for sure. His memory is most vivid. It isn’t hard during this time of year for tears to fall like Portland rain.</div>
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He was just so funny. So much joy those Christmases past. The children were really insubordinate. The family Christmas television special was Christmas Time in South Park with Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo and Cartman singing O Holy Night.</div>
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It is true that grief is the measure of love for the one lost.</div>
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And yet, my grief is not the only thing that holds him to me. It will always be there. Nicholas Wolterstorff lost his 25 year-old son in a hiking accident. He wrote a book in response called, Lament for A Son. He wrote:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“It’s the neverness that is so painful. Never again to be here with us – never to sit with us at the table…. All the rest of our lives we must live without him. Only our death can stop the pain of his death.”</em></div>
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Yes. No sure sugarcoating that. That is the truth.</div>
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But that pain is not the only thing that holds him to me. Even as it is more sharp at certain times of the year, and Christmas the time leading up to Christmas, likes to draw it out, nonetheless, nonetheless, Joy pokes me in the ribs, makes a funny face, and I have to giggle.</div>
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Is that mete and right?</div>
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Yes, it is. And it is thanks to misfits, other Dark Wood travelers who travel with their own sadness and who have found surprises. They point them out. Never giving advice, never saying what others should do or think. Just telling their own experience and not afraid, not worrying about what to say or what not to say, because it is all natural and we know without even speaking, but we speak anyway.</div>
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Then we bust a gut. Laughter pours out.</div>
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Thank Joy for fellow misfits.</div>
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Amen.</div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-32310883066077326852015-12-06T13:06:00.001-08:002015-12-06T13:06:56.719-08:00Disappearing (12/6/2015)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Disappearing<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Southminster
Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beaverton, Oregon<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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December 6, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second Sunday of
Advent<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dark Wood gift of
disappearing helps us maintain a healthy distance from self-conceptions that
are either built upon a grand house of cards or upon a meager image pulled from
the swamps of shame. More than most, this gift provides us a certain
spaciousness and grace to move about life freely, following those sweet-spot
moments that mark our path even when significant obstacles are placed before
us. Few of us, however, claim this gift or use it skillfully.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">--Eric Elnes, Gifts of
the Dark Wood<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When they heard this,
all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the
town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so
that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them
and went on his way.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">--Luke 4:30<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Art of
Disappearing<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Naomi Shihab Nye <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When they say Don't I
know you?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">say no.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When they invite you
to the party<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">remember what parties
are like <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before answering.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Someone telling you in
a loud voice<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they once wrote a
poem.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Greasy sausage balls
on a paper plate.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then reply.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If they say We should
get together<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">say why?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It's not that you
don't love them anymore.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You're trying to
remember something<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">too important to
forget.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trees. The monastery
bell at twilight.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tell them you have a
new project.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It will never be
finished.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When someone
recognizes you in a grocery store<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nod briefly and become
a cabbage.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When someone you
haven't seen in ten years<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appears at the door,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don't start singing
him all your new songs.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You will never catch
up.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Walk around feeling
like a leaf.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Know you could tumble
any second.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then decide what to do
with your time.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Have you ever wanted to “just disappear?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We use that phrase or something like it at times of
embarrassment for ourselves and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Also during times when our social anxiety ratchets itself up a notch.
Introverts may be more inclined to wish to disappear than extroverts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But ask any <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>eighth grader who has to, OMG, be stuck in
public with parents if disappearing would be a good option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ll tell you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of us know that feeling of exposure, of
being too much in the spotlight, of wishing to fade away, to dissolve, to become
part of the backdrop, to disappear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This past March when we first had our protesters and the
piece I had written about not believing in God went all over the place, I tried
to keep a cool façade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inside I wanted
to disappear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A little too much exposure
too soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Disappearing is about not wanting to be seen in a certain
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is related to shame and
vulnerability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We protect ourselves
with our identities, with our self-definitions, with our cool façade because we
are afraid of what might be revealed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If they see me as I am, I won’t be loved or accepted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will be rejected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least we think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When our façade is cracked and more of our
Self leaks out, so to speak, it can be frightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We desire to disappear, to not be seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t want ‘them’ to see me like this.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This Fall I have based my sermons on the book by Eric Elnes,
Gifts of the Dark Wood:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seven Blessings
for Soulful Skeptics and Other Wanderers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Dark Wood is a metaphor for a place or a state of being
in which we are open for growth, for understanding, for revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may seem to be an uncomfortable
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Darkness is often a metaphor for
something sinister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You want to get out
of the Darkness and into the Light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
it is in the darkness that we may find many gifts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Dark Wood of failure or grief or mortality or loss are
places in which if we allow ourselves to be open and receptive, places of grace
and growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Eric wrote that disappearing is a gift of the Dark
Wood, I was thinking he was talking about wanting to disappear in response to
feeling exposed or vulnerable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think
he is to an extent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is more
than a desire to disappear in response to shame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is just the beginning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is an art to disappearing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are a mixed bag of identities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have those that arise out of shame, of
being too much exposed, vulnerable, and therefore subject to rejection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I am a bad person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am not good at such and so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am fill in
the blank. “<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We pick up these self-conceptions from living in the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spend a lot of time trying
to hide them because we don’t want them to be seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we think they are seen and judged we
wish to disappear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We also have identities that are grandiose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may create an identity that if we admit
it causes us to think we are bit superior in some way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may see this in others more than we do in
ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gift of the shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
gift of the shadow I think is related to the gift of disappearing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will talk more about that later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My point is this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>all
of us are a mix of identities created from shame or grandiosity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are our identities that we have
cobbled together in order to survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have done so unconsciously, certainly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our arsenal of identities provide a shield
and a sword for battling through the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Disappearing is more than a desire to disappear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also an art, a skill, and a gift of the
Dark Wood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a gift of discovery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I chose this passage in Luke about Jesus’s first sermon for
today’s text for reflection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According
to the Jesus Seminar, this story is a creation of the author of Luke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The historical Jesus probably did speak in
synagogues and he possibly was rejected in his home town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He may have been some kind of magician or
healer as were many in that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is not likely that he could read or write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Very few people, and hardly any <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the peasant class could do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was a teller of parables, versed in the
oral tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story reflects Luke’s theology throughout Luke and Acts,
of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah Jesus and God’s inclusion of the
Gentiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luke and Acts for all of its
merits has been a defining narrative of supposed Christian superiority to
Judaism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The reason I chose this story for today’s topic is the last
verse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It likely didn’t happen, it is a
creation of Luke, but it does speak of the gift and the art of
disappearing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The crowd who at first marveled at the hometown boy who has
done good, now wants to throw him off a cliff because he has pressed their
buttons and exposed their shortcomings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have to admit that the hometown boy did not use a great deal of tact
in delivering his message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus tells
them in a nutshell, that God likes the Gentiles more than you Jews, so
there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then the text:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When they heard this,
all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the
town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so
that they might hurl him off the cliff. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">But
he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, none of this happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luke tells similar stories throughout the
rest of the gospel and in Acts of the supposed violent Jews over against the
followers of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The supposed good
guys are saved by last minute miracles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We can’t ignore that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can’t in good conscience preach on texts of the Bible and not point
out what I think are their shortcomings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Otherwise we continue uncritically to foster the legacy of anti-semitism
in our sacred texts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we can step away from Luke’s anti-Jewish polemic and
regard Jesus as obviously a Jew and a Jewish prophet, speaking to fellow Jews
about expanding their vision, there is an important message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all need our vision expanded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is the irony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus, that is the historical Jesus, was a Jew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wasn’t an unusual Jew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was like other Jewish prophets and Jewish
wisdom teachers inviting people to expand their vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an important message to anyone at
anytime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Move beyond your
tribalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Move beyond identity
politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See the other not as other.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The irony is that within a few decades, a century at most, a
new tribe was formed and turned the Jewish prophet into a god for
Gentiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The prophet who encouraged
people to expand their vision, was turned into a figure that was used to
exclude others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only Christians can be
saved, yada yada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Expand your vision” was Jesus’s message that Luke kind of
gets and then distorts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the purposes of today’s sermon, it is the last verse
that is interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mob is going
to throw the prophet off the cliff “but he passed through the midst of them and
went on his way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He disappeared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the art of disappearing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is as if Jesus is saying, “You can’t touch
this.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To disappear is not to be defined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to the story, the crowd hears Jesus’s message loud
and clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they don’t like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one likes it when we hear it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We resist it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We resist the messenger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
resist being the messenger as well and telling that truth for the fear of being
thrown off cliffs, literally or metaphorically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No one likes to have her or his prejudices exposed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one wants to hear that their self-image is
not what others see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Calls to expand vision are seen as
insults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“How dare you call me
homophobic or racist!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we may bristle,
even though no one may have even used those words.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact is that we all have shadows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The shadow is a term in Jungian psychology
that refers to that aspect of ourselves that leaves a shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The good thing about us, nonetheless leaves
a shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The very qualities that
attract you to your lover are the qualities that bug you as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example, being proud of our heritage, whatever it might
be, is a good thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its shadow is that
our heritage is superior to another’s or needs to be privileged over
another’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything that is
virtuous about us has its shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is the human condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The gift, even though it doesn’t feel like a gift, it feels painful,
is when we recognize our shadow and rid ourselves of the illusion that we don’t
have one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is so important I need to say it again:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The gift, even though it doesn’t feel like a gift, it feels
painful, is when we recognize our shadow and rid ourselves of the illusion that
we don’t have one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have a shadow
and we can see it in others more easily than we can see it in ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We often cannot see it at all until it is
pointed out to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When it is pointed
out to us, how do we react?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the story in Luke, the folks
attempt to throw the messenger off the cliff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They resist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
lash out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well why do we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps shame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exposure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I really am this bad thing and I don’t want to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We react with loathing toward<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ourselves or toward others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, what is the art of disappearing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am bringing it home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is
the bottom line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The art of disappearing is recognizing that we have a
shadow, but we are not our shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We learn that we have a shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not harbor the illusion that we do not
have a shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disappearing is the next
step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We recognize that we have a
shadow, but are not our shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
don’t beat up on ourselves, but learn about ourselves. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The image of Jesus passing through the midst of them,
disappearing so to speak, is a metaphor for the art of creating distance from
our self-conceptions or the conceptions of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The art of disappearing is when we are confronted with our
shadow to allow it to speak to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
resist it, not deny it and on the other hand not be shamed by it or defined by
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have a shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
are not the shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The art of
disappearing as Eric Elnes points in this really profound chapter,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“helps us maintain a
healthy distance from self-conceptions that are either built upon a grand house
of cards or upon a meager image pulled from the swamps of shame.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is being able to dispassionately examine all the
conceptions we have about ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
disappear is not to cling to an illusion about who we think we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The art of disappearing allows us space to
re-create ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can do that as
individuals, as a community, as a religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It requires a great deal of humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It requires of us not to be defensive, but to
examine openly ourselves and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Dark Wood is being confronted by our shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t feel good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notice it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Recognize that it is a shadow of a virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not our shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we disappear, that is allow our illusions
about ourselves whether shaming or grandiose, fade, then we have space, an
emptiness, for growth and re-creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am thinking about all of this in light<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or in dark of the tensions over our
identities as human beings, as Americans, perhaps as Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being American is a good thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being Christian is a good thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being Muslim is a good thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But allidentities have their shadows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is coming to a head as we try to
understand violence in Syria and of course most recently in California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are forces from many sides that want us to see this as
a conflict, a war, between Islam and America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Good vs. evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These forces want
us to paint with a broad bush, blame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is an opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is an opportunity to face our own shadows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not for the purposes of shame or blame, but
for the purpose of honesty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now more
than ever we need to expand our vision, be self-critical, practice the art of
disappearing,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One way to do that is to keep all lines of communication
open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do we like from another’s
point of view?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can we truly hear
from the “other?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most importantly, how can we in the midst of differences be
the hands, feet, and voice of peace.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Amen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-51674035359140894702015-11-29T13:35:00.002-08:002015-11-29T13:35:49.105-08:00Temptation (11/29/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Temptation<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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Southminster Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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November 29, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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First Sunday of Advent<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Luke 4:1-13 </i><br />
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<i>Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. </i><br />
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<i>The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ </i><br />
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<i>Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’ </i><br />
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<i>Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ </i><br />
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<i>Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’ </i><br />
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<i>Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ </i><br />
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<i>Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” </i><br />
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<i>When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
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<i>Hope Abides </i></div>
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<i>Sri Chimney Ghose </i></div>
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<i> Hope abides; therefore I abide. </i></div>
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<i>Countless frustrations have not cowed me. </i></div>
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<i>I am still alive, vibrant with life. </i></div>
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<i>The black cloud will disappear, </i></div>
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<i>The morning sun will appear once again </i></div>
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<i>In all its supernal glory.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcWB4fyG_yO_pyk3MK2Fsd04VQ0l0weLf08HSi9Mk1fn30giGuXyW0EihZQ2pkYOQI6ZeoXlQOg289hRh7EaiqsX-P1DejUiyNvAKttffSFVuQF69VoonMaTTvJ55DbM-w74EY44SDA8/s1600/hope-hand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcWB4fyG_yO_pyk3MK2Fsd04VQ0l0weLf08HSi9Mk1fn30giGuXyW0EihZQ2pkYOQI6ZeoXlQOg289hRh7EaiqsX-P1DejUiyNvAKttffSFVuQF69VoonMaTTvJ55DbM-w74EY44SDA8/s320/hope-hand.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Today is the First Sunday of Advent. <br />
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It is the beginning of the church liturgical year. It is the first Sunday of the Christmas cycle. Four Sundays of Advent then Christmas. Advent looks to Christmas, the first coming of Christ. It also looks to the second coming of Christ and to “the end” as it were. It looks back and ahead. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The season comes from a pre-modern time, in a three-tiered-universe with heaven above and earth below and the pit of hell, the lake of fire, beneath the earth. Christ is on the right hand of the Father but will come again, that is return from heaven above to earth below and make a new heaven and a new earth. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One could imagine this happening quite literally. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Today an eight year old after watching an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy could tell you that Earth is 4.5 billion years old and is probably only half-way through its life-cycle. There are billions of galaxies with more billions of stars and planets. Is Jesus going to return to each planet and set up a new kingdom there and here?<o:p></o:p></div>
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As we began to realize that this picture of the universe and the Christian future didn’t quite square with the universe unfolding before us through science, two options were left. The first was to reject the Christian view altogether as pre-modern and outdated. The second was to cling ever harder to the pre-modern Christian vision and try to squeeze modern knowledge into the biblical world-view. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the popular movements that found its home in option two was the Adventist movement. It was a product of the Great Awakening in the early 1800s. Characterized by revival preaching, the message was to get saved before the Second Advent of Christ, or the Second Coming of Christ. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Christ is coming soon. Look busy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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William Miller in New York State calculated the end as some time between March 21<sup>st</sup> 1843 and March 21<sup>st</sup> 1844. When the long expected Jesus failed to keep his appointment, they set another date and another and finally gave up on date setting. That is some did for a while. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Different religious sects were formed with many different theories including the development of the rapture when believers would be swooped up to heaven.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You might remember Harold Camping in 2011 predicted the rapture on May 21<sup>st</sup>, 2011. He was a Christian radio broadcaster and his radio company Family Radio spent a lot of money advertising the rapture. Billboards went up all over the country predicting the date of Christ’s return. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Every now and then a date comes up and then goes away. True believers hold that date predicting is a bad idea for obvious reasons but can’t resist pointing to signs of the end times and that Jesus will be making his Advent soon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The point I want to make is that as the modern world made this doctrine of “the end” more impossible to believe, the doctrine became even more popular. Any Christian bookstore will have plenty of books about the end. Much of it centers around the tensions in the Holy Land and in particular the fate of the Temple Mount upon which sits the Dome of the Rock, the second holiest site for Muslims. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If global warming doesn’t get us the fires flamed by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim fundamentalists trying to bring on the end will. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here we are. Mild-mannered, modern Presbyterians, lighting the Advent candle and singing “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” What are we doing? For what are we singing? <o:p></o:p></div>
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If option one is rejection of the Christian narrative whole cloth and option two is fundamentalism what is a progressive Presbyterian to do? <o:p></o:p></div>
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What we are in the process of doing is raking through the ashes of Christendom to see if we can’t find anything there that is worthy of use. We are asking what wisdom of our forebears outlasts the worldview in which it was constructed? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Since we still light the candle we say there is still something there worth keeping. Even this strange season of Advent may find a place in the faith we are constructing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We know if asked that Advent, the first or second coming of Jesus, is not about date-setting or signs of the end or Jesus coming on the clouds. When I sing that beautiful Advent hymn, “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus” I translate it in my mind. I know the era it comes from but I have no illusions that Jesus is ever going to return any more than George Washington or Elvis will return. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus did his work. He reimagined for us, like all the smart Jews of his time, a world in which humans live true to their better natures. He imagined a world in which we learn that the person we were supposed to hate is our saving grace. He taught us that warring siblings can be reconciled, that unjust authorities have weaknesses, and that courageous seekers will find what they seek. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus did his work. He offered a vision. It is up to us to carry on. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is hard keeping the dream alive. At times it is easier to be cynical. Ask anyone who works for anything worthwhile. By definition, if it is worth working for, it is hard. It is hard making a marriage work. It is hard raising children. It is hard building a church community. It is hard participating in democracy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Habitat for Humanity’s vision statement is ten words long:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>A world where everyone has a decent place to live.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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It is only ten words but it is a pretty big vision. Everyone on the planet with a decent place to live? What is the target date for that? When is the end time for that vision? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Bread for the World’s vision statement is no less modest:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nations’ decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The end of hunger. A decent place to live for everyone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is no wonder end times weirdness develops. Real life is too hard. Real goals seem impossible. It is easier to resort to superstition and fantasy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“Rapture me, Jesus, so I don’t have to build homes or end hunger.” <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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That isn’t the assignment. The assignment is a houseless stranger and a hungry child. Yes it is hard. Yes there is opposition. Yes there is disagreement about how to go about it. So what? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is option three.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Advent is about keeping the dream alive. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We light a candle not because it is easy, but because it is hard, and because the dream is compelling and demanding and bigger than any of us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Today we lit the candle of hope. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What are our hopes? Advent is a time to name them. To bring them to the surface and to offer ourselves to hope’s work. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Augustine, the fourth century theologian, was definitely pre-modern. He thought Jesus was literally coming again in the clouds, too. But he also had timeless wisdom about hope. He said,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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We light a candle at Advent to ignite our anger and our courage, to keep the dream alive. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the Northern Hemisphere the season of Advent gets progressively darker as it moves toward the Winter Solstice. It is a <i>via negativa</i> season, a Dark Wood season, to use the metaphor by Eric Elnes and his book <i>Gifts of the Dark Wood</i>. I am basing my sermons this Fall on the seven gifts he describes in his book.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The gift today is temptation. The text I used is the temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness. That text is normally used for the First of Sunday of Lent. As I see it Christmas and Easter are really about the same thing, keeping the dream alive. It is the same for Islam and Judaism, too. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Why do Jews have so many festivals and what do they mean? Here is the answer in three sentences.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>They tried to kill us.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>They didn’t.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Let’s eat.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Islam, Judaism, Christianity, all the religions, I think, as well as plain old-fashioned humanism are about keeping the dream alive. They have different ways of symbolizing it, but if you boil it down, human beings have far more in common than we might think. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is the temptation. As Eric points out in his book, the temptation is not a temptation to do evil. It is not to do sexy naughty things as we commonly think of the word temptation. Temptation is about doing the good that is not ours to do. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My spin on this, is that the temptation for Christianity is to allow the work that needs to be done by us to be projected onto a divine being. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So Jesus in the wilderness. This is not a story about the historical human Jesus. This is about superpower Jesus. Jesus could, the story assumes, do these things, turn rocks to bread, control the planet, jump off buildings unscathed. Those would be good things. Jesus could feed the hungry. If he controlled the planet, he could make people enact his vision. If he did a big fancy miracle in the public square like jumping off a building, everyone would be impressed and listen to him. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus says no to the adversary, not because these are bad things, but because they are not his to do. As the legends of Jesus over time began to accrue and he took on super powers, people asked as children ask, why didn’t Jesus use his magic to make things all better? These stories like the temptation of Jesus by the adversary are read back into the tradition to offer an explanation. The explanation was that he could but chose not to do so. He could have done the good things: turn stones to bread, make the world a better place, jump off buildings unscathed, but that wasn’t his job. He could do all that son of God stuff. But no, he said. His job was to be a human being. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Christian story has its own corrective. The temptation is to resort to the supernatural, that Superpower Jesus will make it all right. Yet even the story of Superpower Jesus tempted in the wilderness is really a human story. Amidst all of the pressure all of the temptation to turn Jesus into a supernatural figure, a temptation that the church has given into time and time again, within that tradition is the story of Jesus himself saying no to that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Whatever is going to happen on Earth, whether we find a way to live in peace, to house the houseless, feed the hungry, make peace with justice, tall orders all, they will be done or not be done by human beings working together. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I light this Advent candle not because I think or put my hope in magical solutions that Jesus will come again and make it all better. He has come. He did his work. He inspired us with a vision. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now the task is courageously, against all odds, to articulate this vision and to live it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now that I am coming up on my first anniversary with you, I do see something perhaps emerging in the way of an identity for our congregation. Housing justice is a term that seems to cover what this congregation has done in many ways, through Rebuilding Together and Habitat for Humanity, for instance. There is a broad need for housing justice in our own county. It requires advocacy as well as hands-on work and thoughtfulness. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This congregation took on LGBT justice issues and we will continue certainly with that, but now I would like to engage with you about housing. I put my cards out there that I am interested in exploring this and will be talking more about this and listening to you about possibilities for Southminster.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A decent place for everyone to live. That is an Advent hope I can believe in.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Amen. </div>
<br />John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-70316506137558441952015-11-22T12:27:00.000-08:002015-11-22T12:27:29.876-08:00The Art of Losing (11/22/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The Art of Losing<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Southminster
Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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November 22, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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Reign of Christ
Sunday <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Lost and alone on some forgotten highway<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Travelled by many
remembered by few<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lookin’ for
something that I can believe in<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lookin’ for something
that I’d like to do with my life<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s nothin’
behind me and nothin’ that ties me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To somethin’ that
might have been true yesterday<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tomorrow is open
and right now it seems to be more<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Than enough to
just be here today<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I don’t know
what the future is holdin’ in store<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know where
I’m goin’, I’m not sure where I’ve been<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a spirit
that guides me, a light that shines for me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My life is worth
the livin’, I don’t need to see the end<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweet, sweet surrender<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Live, live without
care<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a fish in the
water<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a bird in the
air <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>--John
Denver<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who find
and live into their calling rarely do so without getting lost first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet since there are no straight or clear
paths in the Dark Wood of life, they do not cease to get lost after once being
found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, those who embrace life in
the Dark Wood gradually learn that the regular experience of getting lost is
one of the most important gifts we can receive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>--Eric
Elnes <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Wendell Berry<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be that
when we no longer know what to do, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we have come to
our real work <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and when we no
longer know which way to go, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we have begun our
real journey.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>One Art<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth Bishop<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The art of losing
isn't hard to master; <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so many things
seem filled with the intent<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to be lost that
their loss is no disaster,</i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lose something
every day. Accept the fluster<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The art of losing isn't hard to master.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then practice
losing farther, losing faster:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>places, and
names, and where it was you meant<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to travel. None of
these will bring disaster.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lost my
mother's watch. And look! my last, or<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>next-to-last, of
three loved houses went.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The art of losing
isn't hard to master.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lost two
cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>some realms I
owned, two rivers, a continent.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I miss them, but
it wasn't a disaster.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Even losing you
(the joking voice, a gesture<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love) I shan't
have lied. It's evident<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the art of
losing's not too hard to master<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>though it may
look like (Write it!) like disaster.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Matthew 2:1-2<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the time of King
Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to
Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For
we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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For those keeping track of the church liturgical year you
will know that today is the last Sunday of the church year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A new church year begins next week with the
First Sunday of Advent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Advent
literally means “coming” as in Jesus is coming again to return in the clouds
and usher in the end times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When this marvelous theory was created the earth was viewed
as the center of the universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Orbiting
Earth in the first heaven was the Moon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then outside of that, Mercury, Mars, and then the Sun was in fourth
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Sun like the other heavenly
bodies also orbited Earth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In continuing concentric circles of orbit were Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seven heavenly
spheres.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The music of the spheres. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i>musica universalis</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pythagorus proposed that each heavenly body,
each planet, emitted its own special hum or resonance based on its orbital
revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The quality of life on
Earth reflects the tenor of these celestial sounds which are imperceptible to
the human ear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything in order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything in its place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything harmonious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No heavenly body lost in space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Outside of the seventh heavenly sphere were the fixed stars
and then at the top, whatever high god people believed started the whole thing
and now administrates the system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Christianity’s case, the king of heaven was Jesus the Christ, who according to
the creed “sitteth at the right hand of the Father. “<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But things aren’t totally harmonious on Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Children die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ruffians rule the streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Demons
cause sickness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sin still lurks like a
lion at the door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hope, the promise is that Christ on his
throne will return to Earth in the clouds and establish the heavenly kingdom on
Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heaven will come down to Earth
like a bridegroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The music of the
spheres will then sound in every believer’s heart. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now we pray for this to come soon, “your kingdom come on
Earth as it is in heaven.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In heaven,
things are going fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Earth we still
have death and taxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But one day, when
Christ returns all that will vanish, the wicked will be punished eternally and
the righteous will sit on their own thrones forever and ever, Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At least it was Christianity for the past 1900 years and still is for
the vast majority of Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
wasn’t until the moon landing when photos came back to Earth of the Earth
rising over the surface of the Moon did it begin to sink in our consciences
that Earth is itself a heavenly body or that Moon was as earthy as Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now we teach our children that Earth is a pale blue dot in
the suburbs of one galaxy among billions, and you know all that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nevertheless, vestiges of the old system of thought
remain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we teach our children that
Christ and Christmas are coming and that Jesus reigns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We sing with or without irony, “Come, Thou
Long Expected Jesus.” What do we mean by that now?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This last Sunday of the church year is called Christ the
King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or since we are sensitive to
inclusive language, Reign of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
it means the same thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus, the
eternal Word enfleshed in the life of a lowly peasant has ascended into heaven
and taken the place of the gods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, there are no more gods but God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the
holy mystery of the blessed Trinity. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the trumpet sounds, like the Sun rising each morning in
the East, God the Son, Jesus the long-awaited Messiah, will come from the East
for Judgment Day. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is beautiful and poetic and impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When did we stop believing this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it was when we changed how we buried
the dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realized this in my first church
in upstate New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I visited the
cemetery where Daniel Nash was buried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Daniel Nash preached and prayed at my first congregation, The First
Presbyterian Church of Lowville, New York back in the 1820s during the Second
Great Awakening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Charles Finney is the famous figure identified with that
time period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would preach and preach
to the sinners on the sinners’ bench for their hearts to melt and receive the
good news of their fallen state and the redemption at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was an urgency to his preaching because
Christ would be coming soon, any day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finney preached up and down and all around Western New York
State, even making it up to northern New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He called Western New York the burned over district because the area had
been so heavily evangelized that there was no fuel that is no unconverted
people left to burn or convert. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finney
worked himself out of a job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Charles Finney had a partner, Daniel Nash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were a team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finney would preach and Nash would pray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nash would pray for a long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would pray the devil out of the hearts of
sinners so there would be room for Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Daniel Nash is buried in the cemetery connected with that
early Presbyterian community just up the road from the church. On his
gravestone is written “Laborer with Finney:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mighty in Prayer.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHViKsUeKVZf-9EB85LUm44PLwuwa_StV5MWl72HycYSeM3m7CnuDzWNIdQtIRaiSol-1ZQiZbhbCCycb6Ygd7OfvwrIAUzhvLGpjFIjPKTO5ZxFgxZ9_ZxgGT9wZ1Jpq7Ew__LnBeBM/s1600/Daniel-Nash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHViKsUeKVZf-9EB85LUm44PLwuwa_StV5MWl72HycYSeM3m7CnuDzWNIdQtIRaiSol-1ZQiZbhbCCycb6Ygd7OfvwrIAUzhvLGpjFIjPKTO5ZxFgxZ9_ZxgGT9wZ1Jpq7Ew__LnBeBM/s320/Daniel-Nash.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nash’s gravestone, like all of the Christian ones in the 19<sup>th</sup>
century, face East.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the trumpet
sounds and that roll is called up yonder, the dead in Christ will rise first as
the scriptures say and face the Lord as he comes from the East like the rising
sun.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The gravestones often have scripture verses inscribed on
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When did we stop believing this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stopped believing this when we stopped
facing gravestones to the east and writing scripture verses on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now gravestones for those who even bother to
have them anymore face whatever direction the cemetery architects find
aesthetically pleasing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of
scripture verses we find inscribed etchings of boats or golf clubs or other
things that were of interest to the deceased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead of funeral services that preach of the urgency of Christ’s
return and the need to get right with the Lord, we have celebration of life
services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I say “we” I mean modern secular society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christian fundamentalists are part of this
society as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They resist it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They think this is a bad thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are losing faith according to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I often hear the phrase “theological drift”
to describe this secularizing trend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even those of us still religious, who attend worship and hear the
stories and mull over them and celebrate Advent and Christmas do so in a
metaphorical way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Southminster’s
website under the link called theology is written:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“We do not espouse a
literal interpretation of the stories of the Bible…”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other words, we don’t espouse the theory that Jesus
Christ is literally in heaven and will literally return to Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Questions might arise such as what do we
espouse?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And is there anything regarding
Christianity about which we are literal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is it all metaphor?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What then
does that mean for us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we bring
these questions that are within us to the surface and admit them we may feel a
sense of loss and of being lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
do I believe?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do I hold onto?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What holds us together?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also may feel a sense of liberation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More on that later.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am speaking in the Christian context, but a similar thing
is going on with Islam and Judaism and of course, all religious traditions
formed in a pre-modern era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all
have run into an overwhelming force, modernism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modernism or the scientific method has over
the centuries changed the way we see how things work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While the response for many has been to reflect,
accommodate, and change pre-modern religious doctrines to fit the modern world,
for many others the response has been resistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are witnessing now, in my view violent
resistance to this crash of worlds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is for both Christianity and Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are many other factors that are fueling violence in the name of Islam to name
an example, but the crash of worldviews is one, and it is a big one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I think it is something we, that is we
religious secularists, if you will allow me to say that, can address.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think we address it by looking at our own tradition
critically without flinching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we
can’t handle it how can we expect ISIS to handle it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we are afraid or uncomfortable about
examining our religious tradition critically how can ever hope to say anything
to a world that is dominated by religious extremism?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The popular face of Christianity, Islam, and
Judaism is fundamentalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only
way we can legitimately say, “You should take your religion less literally,” is
for us to do it ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today is Christ the King Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you think Christ the King sounds to a
Jew?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does Christ the King sound to a
Muslim?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now add the phrase Christ the King to a nation
that is predominantly and historically culturally Christian that uses 25% of
the world’s resources and makes up only 5% of the world’s population, that has
10,000 nuclear weapons and has used them in war and has military bases in
virtually every country on Earth including countries with overwhelming Muslim
populations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christ the King has meant both for Americans and
non-Americans dominance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is simple
logic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christ is King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Muslims it goes like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is one God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abraham, Jesus and Mohammad were his prophets
and were Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We Muslims are thus
chosen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The faithful of both
traditions think they are chosen, destined, and for good measure persecuted and
they believe all this literally. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
greater reward than to be a soldier for your faith and be martyred on the
battlefield?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christ the King is an idea whose time has come to end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It isn’t true literally and it is dangerous socially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How do we revisit our stories?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we, like the sages from the East,
search for the one born king of the Jews, when kings are really bad ideas?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who will we find in that stable?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
is the heart and soul of our religious tradition that needs liberation from
centuries of superstition and violence?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A simple way to begin is to look at our stories from an
historical perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The earliest
followers of Jesus gave titles to Jesus that were grandiose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were in a sense spoofing the dominant
religious system of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By calling
Jesus son of god, messiah, king, and attributing to him miracle stories, rising
from the dead, ascending to heaven, they were spoofing Caesar, who called
himself son of god.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scandal of these early followers of Jesus is not that
Jesus is son of god in some metaphysical sense, but that Jesus, the
non-violent, justice-seeking peasant with an attitude was son of god in an
honorific sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This particular Jesus
was Caesar’s replacement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were
advocating a society based on peace through justice not peace through
violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How should the world work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through dominance and power or through
justice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What has happened over the centuries is that we forgot it
was a spoof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we literalized all
these terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we turned Jesus into a
Caesar figure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The same for Mohammad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mohammad was a prophet of social justice. Again the tradition
literalized all the superstitious parts like the Qur’an magically coming from
God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we really want to follow Jesus and Mohammad, we need to
lose our religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our religions have
become toxic and they need an upgrade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That feels like a loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loss is an art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We get better at it as we do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we lose all metaphysics we make room
for what is life-giving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus, Amos,
Moses, Mohammad, Buddha, Krishna were about peace within and without.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether these figures were fictional or real
they represented the miracle and hope, if you will, of transformed lives and
societies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If there is a place for Advent or Christ the King in our
religious lives, we Christians must be willing to say Mohammad the King and the
Advent of Buddha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t about the
figure, but the spirit of that figure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The spirit of all the great ones was pretty much the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we live in peace with ourselves and with
justice with our neighbor?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we
honestly search for that we search for a liberating and flourishing faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-25954151669051146492015-11-15T11:56:00.000-08:002015-11-15T12:03:47.148-08:00Under the Thunder (11/15/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Under the Thunder<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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Southminster Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beaverton, Oregon<o:p></o:p></div>
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November 15, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Eric Elnes, Gifts of the Dark Wood<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>According to the ancients, you don’t need to be a saint or spiritual master to experience profound awakening. You don’t even have to be “above average”. All you really need to be is struggling.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>I Kings 19:11-13 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Earth, Wind, and Fire, Hearts of Fire<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Hearts of fire creates love desire<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Take you high and higher to the world you belong<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Hearts of fire creates love desire<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> High and higher to your place on the throne<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>We come together on this special day<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Sing our message loud and clear<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Looking back, we've touched on sorrowful days,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Future pass, they disappear<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> You will find peace of mind<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> If you look way down in your heart and soul<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Don't hesitate 'cause the world seems cold<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Stay young at heart, 'cause you're never, never old<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> That's the way of the world,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Plant your flower and you grow a pearl<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Child is born with a heart of gold<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Way of the world makes his heart so cold<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Hearts of fire create love desire take you<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> High and higher to the world you belong<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ9gMwUwCKo59jCjm83H1T3UUgfeWI081uh_T80TzVCjbDFbk1AmG-ykD-srcgEilZx9Ki-ioQcexvVNgB5zWtMH5MaFX8F3bxY7-pUXBBoSBm-Evj_AzOIo27TbjNUtzEUMO-rPZ7ol0/s1600/elijah-cave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ9gMwUwCKo59jCjm83H1T3UUgfeWI081uh_T80TzVCjbDFbk1AmG-ykD-srcgEilZx9Ki-ioQcexvVNgB5zWtMH5MaFX8F3bxY7-pUXBBoSBm-Evj_AzOIo27TbjNUtzEUMO-rPZ7ol0/s320/elijah-cave.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I have always enjoyed this scene from the Bible of Elijah in the cave. The Bible is a very strange book. I don’t say that by way of mocking or dismissing it. The great 20<sup>th</sup> century theologian, Karl Barth, loved the Bible a great deal, in fact created a huge set of books about it called <i>Church Dogmatics</i>. As the name, <i>Church Dogmatics</i>, indicates, they are imposing thick books with black covers. Before the dogmatics, Karl Barth wrote a little book entitled, The Word of God and the Word of Man. The second chapter of this book he named, “The Strange New World Within the Bible.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Barth’s theology was shaped in the crucible of German philosophy and politics between the two world wars. He rejected the German Christian church and its acquiescence to German nationalism. He was the primary force behind the Delcaration of Barmen that Presbyterians have in our Book of Confessions. Written in 1934 it was a condemnation of the German church and of any theology that would allow itself to be co-opted by it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Barth determined that revelation trumps reason. God comes to us from the outside in the revelation of Jesus as the Christ. The Bible for Barth is strange, in a sense, not of this world. It provided an alternative world, an alternative way of being in the world. For Barth, the Bible and God were “other.” For Barth, God and God’s Word, the Bible, come to us from the outside, from revelation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I resonate with his contemporary, Paul Tillich more than Barth. Tillich also opposed the Nazis, of course. But Tillich sought to correlate theological symbols with natural philosophy, with science and reason. Barth would have none of that. He wanted theology protected from any naturalistic philosophy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Barth did resist Nazi ideology. Barth did have a great deal of influence on several generations of preachers, particularly Presbyterians. At the time, his Christ-centered theology that comes exclusively from the outside provided an important voice. I don’t think his approach has staying power. We must ultimately converse with science, other religious traditions, historical criticism and so forth, and not just stay in the Bible. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That said, there is a sense in which I can suspend my disbelief in the Bible and Christ as the sole revelation and with Barth enter this strange, new world of the Bible now and then. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The scene of Elijah in the cave is one of those times. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is certainly a “God as other” text. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Elijah is metaphorically within the Dark Wood, and literally, within a dark cave. He is hiding out. He is on the run. According to the tale, Elijah had finished his contest with the prophets of Baal. Remember that story? Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal have a contest to see whose god is the real thing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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They set up two altars, one for the prophets of Baal and one for Elijah the prophet of YHWH. They each kill a bull and put it on the altar. The contest will be to see which god can light the fire. The prophets of Baal do their thing. They dance and shout and cut themselves and bleed from morning to noon, but no fire. Elijah mocks them. “Maybe Baal has gone out relieve himself,” he says laughing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When the prophets of Baal can’t get the job done, Elijah tells the people watching to come close. He digs a big trench around the altar and fills it with water and pours water all over the bull and the wood. Then Elijah prays that YHWH would do his thing and show who’s boss. A fire comes down, burns up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and “even licked up the water in the trench.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then the part we mostly skip over in the children’s version, Elijah has the prophets of Baal seized and he personally executes all 450 of them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Since the prophets of Baal were Jezebel’s prophets, she is not pleased and vows to kill this “disturber of the people.” Elijah runs. After a day he stops by a “solitary broom tree.” He is despairing. He asks YHWH to take his life. “I am no better than my ancestors,” he says. He goes to sleep and an angel wakes him up and sitting on a hot stone is a cake freshly baked and a jar of water. The angel says, “Eat up.” He does and goes back to sleep. Later the angel wakes him. More hot cakes and water. “Eat up. You will need your strength.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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On the strength of that food he journeys for forty days and forty nights and makes his way to Mount Horeb where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments. There he finds a cave and spends the night. YHWH comes to him and asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Elijah says, “I have been very zealous for YHWH, the god of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then we get to the text we read for today. YHWH tells Elijah to go out to the entrance of the cave and wait for YHWH to pass by. Again, the text:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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My question is why? Why all the earth, wind, and fire stuff? What is the storyteller trying to convey with this strange scene? After the big show, YHWH asks Elijah the same thing, “What are you doing here?” Elijah gives the same answer he gave previously. They are after me and they want to kill me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then, YHWH gives Elijah his next instructions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why this scene? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Why the wind, earthquake, fire, and silence? <o:p></o:p></div>
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How is it that Elijah knows that YHWH is not in the earthquake, fire, and wind? <o:p></o:p></div>
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How does Elijah hear sheer silence? <o:p></o:p></div>
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How does he know that YHWH is there?<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is beautiful stuff.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is what I mean about the strange, new world of the Bible. This is where the text gets strange and holy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is sometimes hard to read the Bible because it is filled with a lot of fanciful tales and if we don’t take the time, we can easily dismiss it. I suggest that there is some wisdom here that can be surprising. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Let me put it this way: <o:p></o:p></div>
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Have you ever heard the sound of sheer silence? <o:p></o:p></div>
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What does the sound of sheer silence sound like?<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can’t hear sheer silence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can’t see absolute darkness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can’t touch no thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can’t smell no odor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can’t taste tastelessness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What does absolute darkness look like?<br />
What does no thing feel like?<br />
What is the smell of odorlessness?<br />
How does tastelessness taste?<o:p></o:p></div>
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How does Elijah hear the sound of sheer silence?<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is the heart of the <i>via negativa</i>. This is the path of no thing. Absolute absence. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Have you ever heard the sound of sheer silence? <o:p></o:p></div>
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I can’t really talk about the sound of sheer silence. Not because I am not skilled. No, it is because it isn’t possible. We can talk around it. We can talk perhaps about the effects on us. We can’t really describe it, though. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is the words we want to say when there are no words. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sometimes I confess, I wonder what church is about. What is the point of this thing we do at ten o’clock on Sunday morning? What is this worship? We kind of stumble about. We don’t do it right or so we say. We have judgments: we like this, we don’t like that. We can splash around in the shallow end of the pool and offer a critique of the form.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But what is it?<br />
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What are you doing here?<o:p></o:p></div>
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“What are you doing here, Elijah?” says the Lord.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the Dark Wood we hear the sound of sheer silence. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is a place of revelation. I give a nod to Karl Barth. There is an otherness to life. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Not in the usual ways we might think. The ancients thought the thunder, earthquakes, fire and lightning were communications from the gods. How do we know? How did Elijah know that YHWH was not in the earthquake, wind, and fire? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The same way you know when you are able to listen. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It comes. It directs. It summons. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sometimes it is when we are at the bottom. When perhaps like Elijah, we don’t even know why we are alive. All the answers that we have relied on in the past sound hollow. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is not a matter of being mystical or spiritual or prayerful. As Eric Elnes put it in his book, The Gift of the Dark Wood:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>According to the ancients, you don’t need to be a saint or spiritual master to experience profound awakening. You don’t even have to be “above average”. All you really need to be is struggling.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Then we may hear the sound of sheer silence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some call it an “Aha” moment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A lightless light, a touchless touch, a soundless sound.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Corporate worship is that, when it is that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What are you doing here we ask ourselves. In the sheer silence we are named. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We know then to wrap our faces in our mantles and walk out of the dark cave into the world, the cold world that is filled with uncertainty and violence. We go out nonetheless because the sheer silence beckons us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There we are named. There we are asked to name our experience in that holy silence. As we name it in the presence of the holy, we are freed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Freed to be. Freed to serve. Free to carry on.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Amen.</div>
<br />John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-90392702885178543702015-11-08T22:30:00.000-08:002015-11-09T06:39:28.269-08:00The Gift of Emptiness (11/8/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The Gift of Emptiness<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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Southminster Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beaverton, Oregon<o:p></o:p></div>
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November 8, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>--Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, p. 2 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“The Dark Wood gift of emptiness brings us straight to this place beyond notions of wrongdoing and rightdoing. It’s not a place beyond morality. Rather, it’s where our fractured humanity finds its most intimate connection to divinity and an astonishing fullness is discovered within our deepest emptiness.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>--Eric Elnes, Gifts of the Dark Wood, p. 42 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>--Don Cupitt , Emptiness and Brightness, p. 63<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“Anyone who tries to do creative work finds that her best ideas are gifts that come to her with no giver.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Leonard Cohen, Poems and Songs, p. 188 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Ring the bells that still can ring.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Forget your perfect offering.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>There is a crack in everything.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>That’s how the light gets in.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, p. 532-3 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>If we affirm one single moment, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>we thus affirm not only ourselves but all existence. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>For nothing is self-sufficient, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>neither in us ourselves nor in things; <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>and if our soul has trembled with happiness and sounded like a harp string just once, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>all eternity was needed to produce this one event—<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>and in this single moment of affirmation all eternity was called good,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>redeemed, justified, and affirmed.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Gospel of Thomas 97 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Jesus said,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The Empire [of God] is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking along a distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her along the road. She didn’t know it; she hadn’t noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put down the jar and discovered that it was empty.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Don Cupitt , Emptiness and Brightness, p. 58<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“…it is now even possible to venture the view that nihilism is a friendly doctrine. Nihilism is (in the Buddhist sense) ‘Empty’ radical humanism; nihilism is pure religious freedom in a world in which nothing is ‘absolute’ and everything can be reimagined; nihilism is our own anti-discrimination; and finally, what Nietzsche calls the advent of nihilism is pretty much the same event that an earlier teacher described as the coming of the Kingdom of God. It calls upon us to live in radical freedom as if at the End of the World.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsS5-HJqh2P_3N53FJmnjl0S10neKKkKbYIxl2KmEoxI55cW3rbuxW4IYV0yCKn-ErHiq62iLzG1mZunV6ZKucT1AjpZC-lH_EqqxKg1KSsNH1MHwohT5tUc3HHr1YIc1euWp_aQcoR5o/s1600/morton-salt-girl-pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsS5-HJqh2P_3N53FJmnjl0S10neKKkKbYIxl2KmEoxI55cW3rbuxW4IYV0yCKn-ErHiq62iLzG1mZunV6ZKucT1AjpZC-lH_EqqxKg1KSsNH1MHwohT5tUc3HHr1YIc1euWp_aQcoR5o/s320/morton-salt-girl-pic.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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On the bulletin cover is the image of the Morton Salt girl. In 1911 Morton Salt came up with a process that would prevent salt from clumping. They added magnesium carbonate as an absorbing agent. Now they use calcium silicate. This absorbing agent allowed the salt to pour freely even in damp weather. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Thus was born the Morton Salt girl. The one image that is now iconic shows a girl in a yellow dress holding an umbrella in one hand and a canister of Morton Salt in the other. She walks along while the salt pours out from behind her. The caption reads, “When it rains, it pours.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Piece of trivia. In 2013 the Timbers Army, the fan club for the Portland Timbers used the image of the Morton Salt girl on t-shirts and on a huge banner to support the Timbers when they kicked off the 2013 season against the New York Red Bulls. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Morton Salt girl is in the Madison Avenue advertising Hall of Fame. She is a part of American culture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But that isn’t why I put the image of the Morton Salt girl on the bulletin cover.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I didn’t choose it because of salt even as Jesus does talk about salt, as in, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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That saying of Jesus received a collective pink vote from the Jesus Seminar as in yes, likely authentic. Perhaps it might inspire us not to lose our saltiness, not to lose our taste, not to clump up even in rainy weather. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But that isn’t why I chose the Morton salt girl. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I chose her image because of another parable of Jesus that really has nothing to do with salt. This parable also received a pinkish vote from the Jesus Seminar. The seminar was a bit divided on this one. Some thinking it was the result of a later Gnosticizing of the sayings of Jesus. Others said it reflected the original voiceprint of Jesus but wasn’t picked up by the canonical gospels perhaps because of its disconcerting message. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is a parable that is not found in the canonical gospels. It is likely that you haven’t heard of it unless you’re into strange sayings of Jesus that didn’t make it into the Bible. The parable found in the fairly recently discovered <i>Gospel of Thomas</i>, a sayings gospel of Jesus, is a bit odd. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Jesus said,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The Empire [of God] is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking along a distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her along the road. She didn’t know it; she hadn’t noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put down the jar and discovered that it was empty. Thomas 97<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Like the Morton Salt girl who is oblivious to the salt pouring out of her canister as she walks along in the rain, so is our woman carrying a jar full of meal in a broken jar. Oblivious to her loss she walks all the way home only to discover her jar empty. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Like someone pointed out to me last week as I was oblivious to the coffee dribbling out of my travel mug and onto my foot. My response is that I was exhibiting the kingdom of God. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus’s parables were these weird little stories in which he would throw metaphors alongside each other. Parable comes from the Latin words para and bole or throw alongside. So Jesus throws this phrase kingdom or empire of God alongside a story or aphorism. The content of Jesus’s preaching was “the kingdom of God.” What is the kingdom of God? Well, it is like this, a woman was carrying a jar full of meal, the handle broke the meal poured out behind her. She didn’t notice it. She gets home and the jar is empty. Ponder that, Grasshopper.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s why they killed him. He was just so annoying. Give us the answer! No, he wouldn’t do that. Just tell quirky stories and make them guess. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s a good thing. It keeps us preachers employed. We can just make up stuff in trying to explain what he meant. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Let’s play with this a little bit. It isn’t a happy story, is it? Anymore than pouring coffee on my foot is pleasant. In her case, we could imagine it would be disastrous. This could be and likely was her food source for the next several days. It is more than pouring out some salt. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The kingdom of God, if anything, should be good news not bad news. One would think. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Robert Bly wrote about Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology. Jung came up with all of that cool stuff like archetypes, collective unconscious, the complex and so forth. Robert Bly said this of Jung: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>"It is said that whenever a friend reported enthusiastically, 'I have just been promoted!' Jung would say, 'I'm very sorry to hear that; but if we all stick together, I think we will get through it.' If a friend arrived depressed and ashamed, saying, 'I've just been fired,' Jung would say, 'Let's open a bottle of wine; this is wonderful news; something good will happen now.'"<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Ponder that, Grasshopper.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When we moved from my first church to my second, from Lowville, New York to Billings, Montana, our daughter Katy was a Sophomore in high school. The following summer she invited a couple of her friends from back in New York State to visit. We drove them around. Took them to action spots like Roundup and Two Dot. <o:p></o:p></div>
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They had never been west of the Mississippi. Montana was a different experience. Near the end of the visit, I asked them what they thought of Montana. One of the girls curled her lip, sighed and said, “Its empty.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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True enough. Eastern Montana, like Kansas, excels in minimalism. Empty. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What is the feeling of emptiness?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The let down after the holidays when we say our goodbyes; the relatives go home, the voices and sounds and energy are now memories. We wave as the car goes out of sight, turn back inside and realize that the house feels bigger than it was. The stillness is a relief, yes, but melancholy. Empty. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What is emptiness?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The project is finished. The season is over. The degree is earned. The deck is built. The law is passed. The vacation ends. Now what? Empty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When we experience emptiness, a first instinct is to fill the space. With noise, with actions, with thoughts, with plans, with people, with dreams. Why? Emptiness can be frightening. The void. Earth a pale blue dot in the midst of empty space. Empty of meaning. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We might say, <o:p></o:p></div>
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I feel empty. Empty of purpose. What do I do now? What is next for us? Do we have a five point plan? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then Jesus. The empty broken jar. The kingdom of God? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Buddhist holds up a glass. She says look at how beautiful this glass is. It is useful. I drink from it. I feel its smoothness. I am grateful for the energy, the work, the time of so many people to make this glass, for all the materials used for this glass from which I drink. But to truly appreciate the glass, I must know that one day this glass, this very glass I hold in my hand will be broken, shattered into a thousand pieces. I don’t know when or how. But one day, for sure, this glass will be no more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is the challenge. Do we think about that or not think about that? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Yesterday at the seminar we had at the church, one of the speakers said, quoting someone else, I think, and I am paraphrasing from memory. So who knows how authentic this is? But this is what I remember. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He said, “Church can be a place where we lose our faith together.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course that’s wrong. That is wrong as the kingdom of God being the discovery of an empty broken jar. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Church is where you build up faith. When that dark cloud of doubt lingers on the horizon, you shut it out, fight it off, say it isn’t so, believe harder, close your ears, cling to assurances, and if the doubt is overwhelming, you don’t tell anyone but you fade away, alone, outside, apostate, empty, once a believer, but now….<o:p></o:p></div>
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But what if we took up the challenge. What if, even if just for argument’s sake, we saw loss of faith as a gift of the kingdom of God? <o:p></o:p></div>
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You have lost your faith before. When you think about it, there are many things you no longer believe that you used to believe. Can any of you really say that everything you believed as a child you believe today? No, you lost faith. And it was a loss. It was wrenching. It was disconcerting. It might have caused feelings of sadness, anger at yourself, at others. You may have even felt betrayed. You may feel lost, empty, what possibly can you find now? <o:p></o:p></div>
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And yet, somehow you have managed. You don’t even think of it as a loss anymore, because, the loss opened a space for a new possibility. You couldn’t get there without the gift of being emptied. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So maybe we should lose our faith together in church. If we are going to lose faith anyway, how much better to lose it in community, with an openness about it as opposed to alone, outside. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Don Cupitt is a philosopher from the United Kingdom. He has written over 50 books. I have not read all of them, perhaps a dozen. His books are a progression of his own spiritual and intellectual journey. It is really fascinating. One of the things I admire about him is his courage to face it. What do I mean by “it”? Well, whatever <i>is</i>. To be honest and confident with what he really thinks, even if it takes him to a place that is not comfortable. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of his books is Emptiness and Brightness. In the introduction he offers recommendations to get started, to give it a go. As he put it, to democratize religion. To admit that the truth is fluid, not absolute, that is not top down, but emerges from within. He offers four recommendations to get started and here is the fourth one:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“Don’t forget that it is necessary to pass through a stage of complete loss, or nihilism, in order to reach the new world and way of thinking. By nihilism I mean the questioning and the loss of all the deep philosophical assumptions that have underpinned Western culture since Plato. People who try to think out a new position without first clearing their heads merely repeat all the errors of the past: hence the plethora of muddled New Age movements, alternative cults, and complementary therapies that infest our contemporary world. Have nothing to do with any of them. Instead, follow the Purgative Way and go for nihilism. No cross, no crown, as believers used to say.” P. 6.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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OK, what have we done here today?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am suggesting. That is all I do. I make suggestions and then you decide whatever you want to do about it. My suggestion is that emptiness whether it comes from an experience of loss or existential angst or when our belief system develops cracks or when we realize that we aren’t as young as we used to be or however this emptiness manifests itself, is perhaps as Jesus said, like the kingdom of God. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Not insisting, just play with that. Entertain that your emptiness, your no answer, your no thing, could be a gift. It is what it is. You could deny it or cry over it or blame others over it or try to fill it or fight it until you are exhausted. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Or you could take a breath and say, well, now what? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Maybe this is an opportunity to begin again. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Amen.</div>
John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-13450316402032948482015-10-25T12:00:00.002-07:002015-10-25T12:45:45.249-07:00A Reflection Quite Obscure (10/25/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
A Reflection Quite Obscure<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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Southminster Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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October 25, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>1 Corinthians 13:11-12 (Scholars’ Version) </i><br />
<i>when I was very young </i><br />
<i> I talked like a child </i><br />
<i> thought like a child </i><br />
<i> reasoned like a child </i><br />
<i> when I grew up </i><br />
<i> I put an end to childish ways </i><br />
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<i> now we look at a reflection quite obscure </i><br />
<i> then we’ll gaze face to face </i><br />
<i> now I know only bits and pieces </i><br />
<i> then I shall know as I am known </i><br />
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<i>Riveted Robyn Sarah </i><br />
<i>It is possible that things will not get better</i><br />
<i>than they are now, or have been known to be. </i><br />
<i> It is possible that we are past the middle now. </i><br />
<i> It is possible that we have crossed the great water </i><br />
<i>without knowing it, and stand now on the other side. </i><br />
<i>Yes: I think that we have crossed it. Now </i><br />
<i> we are being given tickets, and they are not </i><br />
<i> tickets to the show we had been thinking of, </i><br />
<i> but to a different show, clearly inferior. </i><br />
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<i> Check again: it is our own name on the envelope. </i><br />
<i> The tickets are to that other show. </i><br />
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<i> It is possible that we will walk out of the darkened hall </i><br />
<i> without waiting for the last act: people do. </i><br />
<i> Some people do. But it is probable </i><br />
<i> that we will stay seated in our narrow seats </i><br />
<i> all through the tedious dénouement </i><br />
<i> to the unsurprising end — riveted, as it were; </i><br />
<i> spellbound by our own imperfect lives </i><br />
<i> because they are lives, </i><br />
<i> and because they are ours.</i><br />
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During the Fall we are exploring the spiritual path called the via negativa. This is not about bad things or negative things. It is a recognition that the sacred, the holy, and the divine, can be discovered in paths that we might not normally choose. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Metaphors associated with this path are darkness and silence. It is a stripping away, a letting go and letting be. A Christian season associated with this path might be the season of Lent. It is a time to acknowledge and even befriend our mortality, “you are dust and to dust you shall return” says the worship leader on Ash Wednesday, as she carefully dips her thumb in the ashes and marks the sign of the cross on foreheads of the parishioners. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Advent can be a season to take the path of the via negativa as well as we acknowledge the wait, the not yet, the longing, and the brokenness of life. Advent can be that path when its silence is not drowned out by the noise of Christmas advertising. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I choose Fall as a season to reflect on this path in worship because the falling leaves tell me to do so. The trees are folding their bright colored clothes and putting them back in the closet. It is time for a little down time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This season doesn’t sell particularly well, because there is a great deal of pressure to be happy and upbeat 24/7. You won’t hear melancholy songs in the mall at Christmas. Happy upbeat songs inspire people to buy more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There can be a confusion that the via negativa is about being depressed or despairing. No, not anymore than curling up with a blanket and reading a book is depressing or despairing. The via negativa, the spiritual path itself is there to help us not fall into depression or despair. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This path is nuanced in the sense of seeing the sacred in the silence and in the simple acknowledgement that life is not upbeat 24/7 and it doesn’t have to be. It is a path that sees the holy, the revelatory, and the God presence in the Dark Wood. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The book that is framing my series of sermons is by Eric Elnes, Gifts of the Darkwood. One of the gifts Eric names is uncertainty. We don’t know. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know if that upcoming operation is going to be successful…<o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know if we are going to keep our job…<o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know if the big one, the big quake will hit in our lifetimes…<o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know if there will ever be peace in the Middle East…<o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know if we really believe what we think we are supposed to believe…<o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know if this sermon will ever end….<o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know. Life is not clear, we, in the words of Paul, “look at a reflection quite obscure” or in a more familiar translation “we see through a glass, darkly.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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That is life, and the via negativa, the spiritual path of the Dark Wood acknowledges that is the case. This path doesn’t pretend that we are certain when we aren’t because we don’t like being uncertain. The via negativa is an attempt to embrace the uncertainty. <o:p></o:p></div>
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People who sell certainty have a market. Guarantees, warranties, vows, promises, theological assurances are available. We gravitate toward them because we don’t like being unsure. Our hymns are filled with songs that promise certainty, “the church’s one foundation”, “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine” and so on. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Say the magic words, partake in the sacrament every week, remember your baptism and you will be saved, blessed, OK, better than average. Politicians offer promises, preachers give you the truth, generals offer the latest armaments, economists encourage us to have faith in the market, but if we are honest, we really don’t know much of anything. That is especially true for the big ticket items that affect us personally. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Buddhists call this angst the desire for permanence. Life is impermanent, life is change and we don’t like it. So we create little bubbles of permanence, of assurance, of guarantee. The bubbles are illusions, say the Buddhists. They pop and we are in anguish, frightened, and we desperately try to build another bubble. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The solution for the Buddhists is not to build a bubble. Life is impermanent and we need to practice that. All things pass. We can’t cling. Well we can, but we will be left holding air. The practice is to love what is as it is when it is, conscious that it won’t always be. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jesus said stuff like that, too. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“If you cling to your life you will lose it. If you lose your life, you will save it.” <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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That is a statement of impermanence if there ever was one. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The irony of course is that the institution based on Jesus built itself a fortress of certainty. Beliefs and doctrines and infallible Bibles and Popes. Even structures of many churches look like impenetrable castles. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“Uncertainty won’t get us in here!”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Not long after 9/11 there was a lot of debate regarding how to memorialize the twin towers in New York City. The best article I read said in essence, let’s not build a big monument or another skyscraper. Let’s build if anything, a small, fragile, structure that acknowledges our frailty, our interdependence, our uncertainty. But, of course, we didn’t. We built another skyscraper, another tower of Babel, so we could believe the illusion that we are safe, secure, and impenetrable. We didn’t learn a damn thing.<o:p></o:p><br />
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The Gift of the Dark Wood is not that uncertainty is a threat, a thing to avoid, to wall out, to fight. Treat uncertainty as a gift. Uncertainty is a sign of maturity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We know the passage from I Corinthians 13. Paul’s hymn of love. Scholars tussle with each other whether or not Paul actually wrote it himself or copied a poem that was well-loved. In either case, it is a beautiful piece of work. It takes some interesting turns. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Paul first talks about certainty and power. If I have all faith to move mountains, if I speak with tongues of angels, but don’t have love I am nothing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then he describes what love is. Love is kind. Not envious, not boastful. Love endures all things. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then he says all the certainties, what he calls prophesies will end. Knowledge will end. It is another clear statement of impermanence. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then he moves to talking about thinking like a child vs. thinking like an adult. I think he is moving here from childishness as the need for certainty to adulthood and maturity as living with uncertainty. His punchline:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Now we see through a glass, darkly. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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In the Scholars’ translation:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Now we look at a reflection quite obscure.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Now we live with uncertainty. Now we live with not knowing. Paul does hope that one day we will see clearly, face to face. But now uncertainty is life. How do we live it? Not necessarily with faith or hope. You can have faith so certain you can move a mountain but not get it, are nothing. Instead the greatest gift in this uncertain world is love.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The gift of the Dark Wood is uncertainty which in turn gives love. When we don’t know we have to cling to each other. When we admit that we are vulnerable, when we have bruises and scars, addictions, shortcomings, pain, loss, fears, when we can open our heart to another, and listen to the other’s heart, we are literally in love. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When I met with the Pastor nominating committee around this time last year, I thought I had better come as clean as I could with my sins. It is not necessarily stuff you lead with in an interview, but I told them about my alcohol addiction and that I have been in recovery for eight years now. I told them how crippling my son’s death had been, and that I had been changed and didn’t know how I was being changed or what that would mean. I told them to read all my stuff and blog posts and the stuff others wrote about me, that I am not a particularly good believer and have lots of doubt about religion and God and what all. Which is kind of weird for a minister, right? I told them I would be a person with wounds and baggage. They picked me anyway. The PNC was vulnerable, too, about the congregation and some of your struggles. It was a recognition of uncertainty from both sides, I suppose. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The reason I am saying all of this is because there is a gift here. I have received a gift. The gift of uncertainty is the gift not to have to pretend to be something you are not. We all have to do it to a certain degree. You do have to put on the game face now and again. But the gift is when you don’t have to do that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When we can say, this is who and what we are, and we have baggage, and we don’t really know what is going on, but can we be in this together? The gift is when shared uncertainty and vulnerability is a strength and not a weakness. Or as Paul said elsewhere, when God’s strength is manifest in weakness. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Dark Wood of uncertainty helps us recognize what we love. We recognize that we love. We recognize that we are loved. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There are times when I can go right back to the moment we received the phone call about Zach. Then I can feel the pain in the center of my chest. I realize though that my wife and I have grown closer than ever. We can communicate without speaking. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the old hymns that touched my heart was the one we are going to sing now. <i>O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go</i>. It contains some beautiful poetry. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“I trace the rainbow through the rain.” <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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We don’t know what the future holds. Life is precious and precarious. A gift I learned in the dark wood is that I can live with that. A friend I met in seminary who is a minister and who lives with diabetes and near blindness, said, “I am a day to day liv-er.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is a gift that comes from necessity. It is a good thing. It is a good gift to be a day to day liv-er. It is a gift. It is a gift of uncertainty. To love what is present and real. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote when he lost his son, that he had grown spiritually and what not. He wrote that he would choose to give all of those gains back if he could have his son back. But, of course, we cannot choose. What we can do is accept the gift as it is. The gift of the Dark Wood. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We see through a glass darkly. But we can live this day, ok, with not knowing. We can live this day in love with those on the path with us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Amen.</div>
<br />John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041023421761238327.post-63986400434803481542015-10-11T15:28:00.000-07:002015-10-11T15:28:24.439-07:00Entering the Dark Wood (10/11/15)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Entering the Dark Wood<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Shuck<o:p></o:p></div>
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Southminster Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></div>
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October 11, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><a href="http://www.shuckandjive.xyz/2015/10/gifts-of-dark-wood-worship-guide-for.html">Autumn Sermon Series: Dark Wood</a></o:p></div>
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<i>In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in a Dark Wood where the true way was wholly lost. </i></div>
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<i> -- Dante Alighieri<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Psalm 139:7-12 <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Where can I go from your spirit?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Or where can I flee from your presence? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> If I ascend to heaven, you are there;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> If I take the wings of the morning<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> even there your hand shall lead me,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> and your right hand shall hold me fast. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> and the light around me become night’, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> even the darkness is not dark to you;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> the night is as bright as the day,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> for darkness is as light to you.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening -- Robert Frost <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Whose woods these are I think I know. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> His house is in the village though; <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> He will not see me stopping here <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> To watch his woods fill up with snow. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> My little horse must think it queer <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> To stop without a farmhouse near <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Between the woods and frozen lake <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> The darkest evening of the year. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> He gives his harness bells a shake <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> To ask if there is some mistake. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> The only other sound’s the sweep <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Of easy wind and downy flake. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> The woods are lovely, dark and deep, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> But I have promises to keep, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> And miles to go before I sleep, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> And miles to go before I sleep. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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I do love the Pacific Northwest. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I love that we have two Springs. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Earlier this year around March, the grass begins to grow. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then it goes back to sleep for the summer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then with the Fall rains it greens and grows again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Two Springs even as the leaves color and fall.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,” writes Robert Frost. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t pay attention to the lovely woods all the time, but when I do, when my eyes catch my mind wandering aimlessly and bring it back to the redness now dotting my yard, when my skin feels the damp chill and my nose smells that distinct decay that tells me it is the Autumn of the year, when that happens, I am again present to the Dark Wood, the place where the magic happens.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fall is the season associated with the spiritual path of letting go and letting be. The Latin is the <i>via negativa</i>, literally the way of negation. As the cycle of the seasons requires the trees to let go their leaves and begin to prepare for Winter rest, so, too the spiritual season of the <i>via negativa</i> is a time to let go of the images, sounds, and certainties that fill our senses and our thoughts. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is a path of noticing that we need a fallow time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Emptiness, silence, darkness, are the companions of the Dark Wood, the <i>via negativa</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dark Wood is a metaphor that has caught my attention thanks to Eric Elnes. Eric is a minister in the United Church of Christ at Countryside Community Church in Omaha, Nebraska. He attended Princeton Seminary when I was there. He was a year ahead of me. I didn’t know him at the time, although I think I delivered the Trenton Times to him in one of my many odd jobs during my seminary years. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I interviewed Eric a couple of weeks ago at KBOO. That interview will be on near the end of the month. We talked about his new book, <i><a href="http://www.giftsofthedarkwood.com/">Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings For Soulful Skeptics (And Other Wanderers)</a></i>. Eric also hosts an interactive weekly webcast called <a href="http://darkwoodbrew.org/">Darkwood Brew</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What is the Dark Wood?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dante speaks of it in <i>The Divine Comedy</i>, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in a Dark Wood where the true way was wholly lost.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Dante describes the Dark Wood as “savage, dense, and harsh.” The Dark Wood is disorienting, confusing, frightening. We are lost. We have lost our bearings. We have lost our vision. We have lost our way. Dante wakes up in the middle of his life in the Dark Wood. The path he was on is no longer clear. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When we awake in the Dark Wood, the first reaction is panic. We don’t like it. We don’t want to be here. We want to find a way out and fast. We have a plan for our life and this Dark Wood is not it. The Dark Wood was not on the map. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Robert Frost is wrong. The Dark Wood is not lovely. It is dreary. The Dark Wood is the bad news of hurt, the awareness of mortality, the loss of faith, the loss of confidence. You name it. You know it. If you live very long, you will awaken in the Dark Wood at some point. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But…if we can suspend our panic and sit with what is, we may ask, “Now what?” In the asking we can open ourselves to what the Dark Wood teaches. Not everyone goes there. Not everyone can or will learn from the Dark Wood. For some it is only dark, only frightening, only despairing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But that isn’t you. It doesn’t have to be. The wise ones who have been in the Dark Wood before us invite us to ask what the Dark Wood might show us. Can we trust that the Dark Wood is not the end of the path? Can we trust that whatever we call the Divine, the Depth of Being, God, has not abandoned us in the wood but is present?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The psalmist, writing from the experience of darkness expresses this trust:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> and the light around me become night’, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> even the darkness is not dark to you;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> the night is as bright as the day,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> for darkness is as light to you.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The psalmist is not saying that the darkness is not so bad, just get over it. No it is bad. It is dark. It is real. It is painful, and no amount of sugarcoating or denial will change that. The psalmist admits to herself, however, that even as she might not see, the darkness is not absolute. It is a trust despite experience. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sometimes we just have to sit with it. Sometimes as the psalmist also says, we have to make our bed in Sheol for a little while. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One day a king was traveling with his retinue. They stopped along a pond for a rest. The king went over to the pond and looked down at his reflection. To his surprise and dismay, a jewel that had been embedded in his crown, loosened and fell into the pond. He started to panic. He began flailing in the pond in desperation for it but he couldn’t find it. He called for his servants and they searched at first trying to reach down then they went in the pond itself to feel around for it. They splashed around and made a big muddy mess.<o:p></o:p></div>
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About that time a guru stopped by. He asked the king what was wrong and the king told his tale. The guru told the king that he could help find the jewel. “Tell the servants to get out of the pond,” The king did so and looked to the guru anxious for help. The guru closed his eyes and sat under the shade of a tree. The king fretted and wandered back and forth, “Aren’t you going to find it!” The guru sat silently. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The king wandered back and forth muttering under his breath walking between the pond and the guru. The guru sat motionless and silent. Finally after hours, the guru opened his eyes. He went over to the pond and called the king, who had finally sat down, exhausted. The king went over to the pond, which in time had finally cleared, and there in the bottom almost completely covered by silt was the jewel. The king carefully reached down and gathered it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The parable is about meditation. We have a problem so we panic. Our emotions overwhelm us. We think we can solve the problem by sending thoughts after it and they do nothing but muddy the waters. Finally, we sit perhaps out of sheer exhaustion or perhaps out of intention and we allow the mind to clear. Then we find our jewel.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When in the Dark Wood, if we can avoid the impulse to panic and avoid trying to think our way out and instead sit with what is, we may at least come to a place of clarity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“The darkness is as light to you,” says the psalmist to the Holy One.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Wendell Berry speaks, I think, of the Dark Wood in his poem, “The Real Work:”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>It may be that when we no longer know what to do<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>we have come to our real work,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>and that when we no longer know which way to go<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>we have come to our real journey.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The mind that is not baffled is not employed.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The impeded stream is the one that sings.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Berry doesn’t solve the problem. He invites a sense of trust that while the Dark Wood may be as Dante says, “savage, dense, and harsh” it is also the place where the “real journey” begins. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For the season of Fall, we are going to explore this metaphor of the Dark Wood. I am going to follow the outline of Eric’s book, and talk about the gifts of the Dark Wood and the seven blessings we can find there. <o:p></o:p></div>
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uncertainty, <o:p></o:p></div>
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emptiness, <o:p></o:p></div>
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being thunderstruck, <o:p></o:p></div>
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getting lost, <o:p></o:p></div>
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temptation, <o:p></o:p></div>
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disappearing, and <o:p></o:p></div>
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misfits.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I will use his seven gifts as a starting point then spin off on my own. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Dark Wood, the <i>via negativa</i>, the dark night of the soul, the labyrinth, are all places of learning and growth. Eric calls the Dark Wood a place for “awareness and discovery.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is where we find depth. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Dark Wood is the invitation to discover your depth. Whatever that may be. No one can define it for you. It is your journey, your discovery. What others can do is to share the road. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We all awaken at one time or another in the Dark Wood. As Dante says:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in a Dark Wood where the true way was wholly lost…<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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But Robert Frost says something too:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Dark and deep. The Dark Wood can be lovely, too? I leave it as a question.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some have said that the last creative systematic theologian was Paul Tillich. We all have our favorites, I suppose. Tillich was good with depth and in offering us a way to relate it to the concept of God. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is from his collection of sermons called, <i>The Shaking of the Foundations</i>. This passage is from his sermon, “The Depth of Existence”:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God. That depth is what the word God means. And if that word has not much meaning for you, translate it, and speak of the depths of your life, of the source of your being, of your ultimate concern, of what you take seriously without any reservation. Perhaps, in order to do so, you must forget everything traditional that you have learned about God, perhaps even that word itself. For if you know that God means depth, you know much about [God]. You cannot then call yourself an atheist or unbeliever. For you cannot think or say: Life has no depth! Life itself is shallow. Being itself is surface only. If you could say this in complete seriousness, you would be an atheist; but otherwise you are not. [The person] who knows about depth knows about God.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The Dark Wood is a place of depth. It is a place, an experience, a life passage, where are foundations are shaken, where we “forget everything traditional that [we] have learned”, where certainties are stripped away, where trying to be perfect is not all its cracked up to be, and where we are made open, vulnerable to Divine Light. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Again, the psalmist speaking to Depth:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The darkness is as light to you.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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I will close with a stanza from Leonard Cohen’s song, Anthem: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Ring the bells that still can ring<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Forget your perfect offering<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>There is a crack, a crack in everything<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>That's how the light gets in<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Amen.</div>
<br />John Shuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00798753206614838161noreply@blogger.com0