*No Man Is an Island* Conscience [and Pentecost]

Instead of going on and on about each chapter as I go, I'm changing my method... I'll pick one, maybe two things and instead of me discussing it at length, offer it up as food for thought for both myself and you...

.

"Conscience is the face of the soul... and the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives" (30-31). --Merton

.

Our conscience is what drives our doing... it drives our actions... the Holy Spirit is the fire that sets spark to our conscience. God's will for our life is discovered through our discernment before and in the presence of God. We are all called to action in other people's lives, in our own lives and on the behalf of the voiceless.... but we do not know that will of God without prayer... without the Holy Spirit. Today is Pentecost... the day the Holy Spirit swept through the masses creating a bewildering phenomena. Some say that day started the church as we know it today, but while we know community was God's idea from the get-go, we can understand Pentecost as a day in which our fires are ignited once again. A day in which our hearts are burning to hear the truth of the Gospel... the truth of freedom... the truth of liberation. Our hearts are liberated and turned to hear what God wills for our lives. Read the face of your soul... interpret the will of God in your life.

.

What is God calling you to this day?

How has the Holy Spirit moved you?

What does Pentecost mean to you?

.

*No Man Is an Island* Hope

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" according to Hebrews 11, right? Well, let me ask first, what do you hope for? Or rather, what IS hope?

.

Protestant Christians cannot be Christians without hope, right? It is the resurrection that binds us together with a hope for something more... with the hope that death will not have the last word... with the hope that "Thy Kingdom will come"... So again, I ask, what is hope?

.

"By hope we possess God without feeling God's presence" and "without hope, our faith gives us only an acquaintance with God" (15). So we need hope to really KNOW God... which seems paradoxical considering how much we will ever know about God... but we also "hope in God knowing that God loves us" completely and entirely. We are always loved by God even though we don't recognize it sometimes, which means then, that this hope Merton is talking about, brings us closer to feeling loved by God. Merton also says that "all sin is rooted in the failure of love" which makes sense because if we participate in an act of sin, we are surely denying how much we love God. If we love God so purely, we would not sin against God because we would be dedicated through love to God. An absence of hope, therefore, leads to sin and death.

.

The most prophetic thing Merton says in this chapter is as follows: "The supreme expression of God's justice is to forgive those whom no one else would ever have forgiven. That is why God is, above all, the God of those who can hope when there is no hope" (21). Words escape me to follow this, so I will leave it there.

.

What is your hope rooted in?

Why do you hope?

What about being a Christian leads you to hope?

For what do you hope?

*No Man Is an Island* Love

Ponder the title of this chapter first: "Love can be kept only by being given away."

.

In this workshop I was in the past two days, we talked about non violent communication, in which the underlying factor is natural giving... this idea of giving so completely of ourselves. Merton tells us that we are called to love selflessly... while (paradoxically) loving ourselves, as well. We are to love with a love that knows no boundaries; knows no good or evil. "If I am to love my brother [or sister], I must somehow enter deep into the mystery of God's love for him" (7).

.

What does this mean to "enter deep into the mystery of God's love"? What does that look like? Could it mean loving someone so much, you love the hate right out of them? Could it mean just loving someone because they need to be loved? Could it mean loving someone with only the kind of love that God has? I don't know what kind of love that is... selfless love, sure. But we are called to take care of ourselves as well. Jesus entered into the world to be in relationship with people. {tangent coming} Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourself. Merton also reflects that we must love ourselves and tell ourselves the truth if we want to love others and tell the truth about God to others. God came to earth in flesh to help the common people understand what God's love is really like. God came for relationship. We are made for relationships. Jesus did not come out of obligation... it was not God's will to send Jesus into the world with the purpose of dying. That doesn't work... It doesn't work because then what does that say about God's natural giving? What does that say about grace? It isn't a gift. God HAS to do it just because God has to. No, God freely gives grace because God wants to... it is a gift. Jesus was a gift to us to help us understand. Jesus was not obligatory. I refuse to believe in a God that wills death and predetermines/predestines people for failure. {tangent over, i think}

.

We have to be careful though. We can love freely... but we cannot love just for the sake of loving... Merton claims that creates hatred. To love blindly is to love selfishly because then we are loving for our own satisfaction, not because we find value in people or in our relationship with them through the Holy Spirit. "To love another is to will what is really good for him [or her]" (5) and Merton goes on to claim that this love must be rooted in truth... the truth of God's love.

.

If we are truly loving with God's love, we know no limits... we are attentive to the truth... we are aware of the movement of the Holy Spirit. God infuses our relationships... God is the core of our relationships. "For it is in God we live and move and have our being."-- Acts 17:28

.

How much of your love is selfless?

Who is the hardest to love in your life?

What sort of truth telling do you need to do?

Is your love rooted in what is really good for the other?

*No Man Is an Island* Prologue

The first book on my summer reading/blogging list is "No Man Is an Island" by Thomas Merton (1915-1968), the incredible Trappist Monk. He was really ahead of his time, considering this book was written in 1955, and his discussions on spirituality and religion are rich and full of wisdom for us today and will be for ages to come. The title of this book is taken from the John Donne poem of the same title in which he says, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." (We're just going to have to get past the sexist language...)

.

So, in the prologue, Merton sort of lays out his premise for the entire book. There's a whole lot to think about in these few short pages, which means I can only imagine what the rest of the book has in store for us. Anyway, a lot of what he has to say stems from the idea that we are all connected through God... through Christ... and through the Holy Spirit. We could pull out 1 Corinthians 12 or Ephesians 4 here, and he calls those passages out later on, but first, these words may be the most important for us to understand where he's coming from: "We learn to live by living together with others, and by living like them-- a process which has disadvantages as well as blessings" (xii). We must discover who we are, who we are in relation to God and who we are in relation to others. If you know me well, you know that I love everything about community. It is an important part of the Christian faith and an important part of who we are as humans. This idea is summed up in three verses, Merton says: "If any man would save his life, he must lose it," and, "Love one another as I have loved you," and, "We are all members one of another." And, in order to do/realize all of these commandments, we must realize "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:19).

.

In order to find ourselves, to discover who we are, we must forget ourselves in order to understand ourselves because who we truly are is Christ embodied. The love we give, the actions we carry out, the things we say are not our own but of God. "Love your neighbor as yourself" implies that you actually love yourself. We can't get carried away with loving ourself, though because then we become selfish. We must "love ourselves in order to be able to love others... we must find ourselves by giving ourselves to them.... This is not merely a helpful suggestion, it is the fundamental law of human existence" (xix). It is damn shame they didn't put this in the constitution, that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, oh Christian forefathers... Had that been a law, perhaps our world would be in better shape.

.

Sure we all have our weak spots and our bright spots, but because the body of Christ is made up of so many people, we compensate for each others "spots." So then, how do we love ourselves properly, knowing all of this about ourselves and about each other? "First of all, desiring to live, accepting life as a very great gift and a great good, not because of what it gives us, but because of what it enables us to give to others" (xx). This life is not about how far we can get in our own lives or how we can serve ourselves best... it is about embodying the love of Christ and the extravagant welcome of the Holy Spirit every moment of every day. Whatever we accomplish, whatever we gain, whatever we do is not for ourselves or for others, but for God and God alone.

.

"I cannot discover God in myself and myself in [God] unless I have the courage to face myself exactly as I am, with all my limitations, and to accept others as they are with all their limitations" (xvi).

.

What are your limitations?

What limitations of others are keeping you from being like Christ to them?

How much love are you willing to give?

.

Other quotes from him that are striking:

"...Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. It is the fruit of unanswered questions... One of the moral diseases we communicate to one another in society comes from huddling together in the pale light of an insufficient answer to a question we are afraid to ask" (xiii).

"But neither do I intend to accept points of that tradition blindly, and without understanding, and without making them really my own" (xiv). --> We too are called to do this w/in our own traditions.

"Every Christian is part of my own body, because we are members of Christ" (xxii).

+Again and again+

I heard this song in my car the other day ("With a smile like that" by Jon Troast)and I think it could very well be a song from us to God. If we look at it like that, it personifies God quite a bit, but sometimes, I don't think there's too much wrong with that... especially when it's of this nature... The end of the song is what really grabbed me... Think about it yourself too...

.

I got a feelin

You light up a lot of rooms

with a smile like that

yours is a welcome face

so good to see you here

I was feelin alone

you're the city on the hill

you're a lighthouse in a storm

leading me to the shore

I crossed an empty sea

got lost in a crowded street

then I find you here

Nobody told me where

It's like it was meant to be

I don't know what that means

you are a destinations door

you're my favorite place to go

you always feel like home.

If I lose my way again and again

If I lose my way again and again

If I lose my way again and again and again

Would you guide me home again and again

Would you guide me home again and again

Would you guide me home again and again and again

Cause I'd come back to you again and again

I'd come back to you again and again

I'd come back to you again and again... again and again and again

.

If I lose my way, would you guide me home? I'd come back to you.

.

I know I've lost my way again and again and I typically try to rely on myself to find my way back... to... wherever I was. Next time I lose my way, God needs to be my guide home...

.

Well also you know, I think for our purposes, it would be better if the lyrics went in this order... "If I lose my way, I'd come back to you... would you guide me home?"

.

It's a plea. God, I've lost my way and I don't know what to do... But I realize I need to rely on you... guide me home?

.

It's not about having God guide us home and then saying well thanks, I suppose I can rely on you again... No, it's about realizing our need for God and then having God guide us back to wherever we came.

.

Have you lost your way?

Who are you relying on to return you home?

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Giggling for God

Think about it: how often to we find laughter in the Bible?

\\

Well, it is one of the first things we experience in Genesis when God tells Abraham and Sarah they are going to bear a child. I mean, it isn't like God told them as a joke, but it would be funny. People would laugh at that today, too. So then we ask the question, did Jesus laugh? Well, we're positive he must have, right? I mean, I'm sure when his mother held him when he was a baby and she made a funny face or something he laughed... and I'm sure when he was playing with neighborhood kids they laughed... and I would even bet that someone told him joke or he even told jokes and they just didn't make it into the gospels... right? I mean, it must have happened... We don't have biblical proof for a lot of things, but this is one I can bet to say is true.

\\

Laughter is something that doesn't necessarily cross cultural or language boundaries... for example, were I to say a pun, or something that is typical of Americans, someone from New Zealand or England, might not get it, even though we speak the same language.... and someone from Russia just wouldn't get it because they don't speak English.. so it is doubtful Jesus joked with the Samaritans or Syrophonecians... or any other person that wasn't from his area. This kind of 'in-humor" makes it tricky...

\\

One author suggests that of course there must be humor, because that would go along with the purpose of the gospel-- to give believers life and life to the fullest. We cannot live life without laughter, so it must have happened... Maybe it is our job to read humor into the gospel appropriately. Humor in itself is holy, I believe. Maya Angelou once said:

.

Laugh as often as possible. You must. Because the world will offer you every reason to weep. So as often as possible, you laugh. That, I think, is part of the Great Love.

\\

I think she's spot on. "I have come that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete" (John 15:11).

**Jesse Jackson**

So, tonight I heard THE Rev. Jesse Jackson speak at Elmhurst... MY COLLEGE! It was a short lecture, but so powerful. Below are the quotes and thoughts i wrote down from the lecture.

--

Be careful how you treat at-risk children. Jesus was an at-risk baby.

--

Why is it we have an even playing field for football... baseball... basketball... But in the world, we don't have an even playing field. We don't have fair rules... just officials... not everyone has jerseys. Why is it different?

--

Our character is measured by how we treat the least of these.

--

How could we host the olympics if we don't offer an olympic education?

--

We don't know if the good samaritan was gay or straight... had a green card or not.. but it doesn't matter because he stopped and helped the victim.

--

He was a hero because he stepped to the plate when it mattered.

--

None of us are safe until all of us are safe.

--

Last year, we lost $106 million to absenteeism in schools, but they don't go to school because they're afraid of gun violence.

--

Peace: the presence of justice, not just the absence of noise. You can be be quiet and still be at war within yourself.

--

Fun fact of the day: There's not a black gun manufacturer in the world."

**On another side note**

Check out this article entitled "How do Christians become conservative?" It speaks truth to all that I write about. It brings up that which I have failed to explain eloquently or bluntly. It explains what I believe to be true and describes why I am a Christian. I think some progressive people reject [their] Christianity because they see the poor suffering all around the world... but I embrace my Christianity because there are people suffering and they need the love of Christ as shown through me... and through you.

Go the Huffington Post Article

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Righteous Indignation

Let's do a little defining...

If righteous means virtuous, ethical, and legitimate, it also means: Justified... Justice, if you will.

If indignation means resentment and displeasure, it also means: anger.

So we're going to be figuring out how Jesus reacted to situations with Righteous Indignation.... Justified Anger

\\

This topic calls out something I've been thinking for a long time. Some people don't think Jesus could have ever been mad (probably the same people who were thinking that Jesus was undernourished as well!). My first response to that is always, "Sure, what about that time he turned over tables in the temple!" It isn't that hard... if you read scripture, you can see that Jesus was angry a few times. I mean, when he told Peter: "Satan get behind me!" he wasn't exactly calm. It's a human trait, but it's also a divine trait, right? God was angry with the Hebrew people way back when on a few occasions, so anger is nothing new. Besides, that anger is always coupled with unconditional love, and that's what matters.

\\

That's what happened in the temple. Jesus scolded them and told them to get out of the house of prayer because they were practicing unjust economics. Not only were animals to be sacrifice priced too high for some, but the rate at which money was managed was unfair. Have you seen the bumper sticker that says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!" ? I finally get it. This is exactly what that bumper sticker is talking about... "To do nothing, to remain calm in the face of this iniquity would be to condone the discriminatory practices" (116). It's about standing up in the face of injustice. I think it was Bonhoeffer who said, "Not to act is to act." By not doing something about injustice, we are being bystanders... and bystanders are what allowed the Holocaust to happen. We cannot take refrain from expressing outrage because that means we are in agreement with those who allowed it to happen in the first place.

\\

Another instance when Jesus showed righteous indignation was when the lawyers "load[ed] men with intolerable burdens" but would not help them lift the load (Luke 11:46). Jesus did not show them a kind, don't do it again, kind of attitude... instead he became a "scathing advocate for the marginalized and persecuted, exposing the unquestioned cant and privilege of their oppressors" (118). Well said, John Bell, well said.

\\

Indifference is not an option in the face of injustice.

\\

It wasn't only these kinds of instances Jesus got angry, though. On a more personal level, Jesus got angry with people who KNEW better... particularly the disciples...

--"How little faith you have!" (Matthew 8)

--"How long shall i be with you? How long must I endure you?" (Matthew 17)

--"When Jesus saw it he was indignant. (Mark 10)

--"He turned and rebuked [the disciples]." (Luke 9)

Jesus showed exasperation to some people who he thought should know better... as far as I can tell, he simply spoke the truth in love... because Jesus' anger seems to be rooted in justice and/or love.... ALWAYS. And as said before, if this is true for God, we must model this as well.

\\

"Anger is not the opposite of love, just as doubt is not the opposite of faith. Indifference in both instances is the real enemy" (121).

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Business Lunches

Definitely my favorite chapter so far. There are all of these images and ideas that Jesus was undernourished. Why? Why do people think that? I feel like we always talk about how food and meals were so important in the gospels, yet we still picture Jesus as thin and slender, not to his own choosing. However, what we know about Jewish hospitality tells us that most likely, whenever Jesus went to someone's house for anything (and especially if he was curing people), it wouldn't take long before he would be offered a meal. Bell lists at least 20 occasions when Jesus would have potentially eaten food-- anything from the wedding feast at Cana (John 2) to the breakfast barbecue on the beach (John 21). At this point it would be easy to say that he was well-fed.

\\

Let's debunk some myths for as to why Jesus would be slender.

1. Jesus walked a lot.|| We have no idea whether or not he traveled more than anyone else at the time.

2. People were undernourished in those days in general.|| Archaeologists have figured that Jesus' daily intake would have been about 1800 calories a day.

3. Jesus must have been an ascetic since he was holy.|| Jesus never alluded to this. (Although I can see Jesus saying that you need not over-indulge... but still.)

4. "He was known as a 'man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, an object from which people turn away their eyes.'" || Nope. That comes from Isaiah 53.. not the gospels. It was a prediction.

5. He is always pictured that way.|| "This is absolutely true, but that doesn't make it right" (99).

6. We need a skinny savior.|| We always picture our heroic figures standing in solidarity with the oppressed by being frugal. Gandhi, yes. Mandela and Tutu, not so much. People have a complex about this

\\

So food plays an important role in Jesus' life and it should play an important role in ours too. Bell lists 16 parables (from the synoptics) and 10 phrases from Luke's Gospel alone that refer to food. There are several good reasons for eating...

1. Meals bring people to the same level.|| This is why eating with the marginalized was so important... doing something they do with them was important. (And is an important rule for us today too.)

2. Meals are where children could join the adults. || We always get caught up in this kid issue. But it feels wrong whenever the kids have to sit at a different table for Christmas or Thanksgiving. When they can eat with the adults, they feel special... like they fit in.

3. Meals are times of giving and receiving.|| "In all this, [Jesus] allows people to give to him their experiences, their secrets, their stories; for he has come to people to know that God relies on them" (104).

4. "Hospitality is a cardinal virtue... not an optional extra" (105). || God models hospitality for us (Psalm 23:5) and so therefore we should model it as well.

5. Food is a justice issue.|| Luke 12: 13-21, Luke 16:19-31, Matthew 25:31-46---- the rich man who fills his barns with corn, irrespective of other people... the rich mans who fails to alleviate the plight of a poor beggar at the gate.... those who fail to feed the hungry are damned on the day of judgment. "It is present in the contrast between the rich world, where 10-20% of a household income is spent on food, and the poor world, where it is up to 70%. Food is a justice issue" (107).

6. Food is meant for all to enjoy.|| It just is.

\\

So here we are... Jesus attended lots of business lunches. And ate a lot of food. Because food was important. Meals are important. That fellowship is unbelievably important to church life and communal life.

\\

Be intentional about meals.

Share fellowship frequently.

Be in community with others at a table.

\\

For surely if they took away our cross, the table would be the first symbol to go up.

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Talking to Strangers

One of my favorite people in the world is one who LOVES stories. She always wants to know where people came from and how they got here and what they do... Always curious. She is just incredibly interested in people and these kinds of conversations come naturally to her. Well, this is the kind of thing Bell is talking about... talking to strangers. Jesus was constantly engaged with people who didn't share his nationality, faith or culture. It is certainly Jesus-like when you can converse with someone just for the heck of it.

\\

I think it is about ridding yourself of pride and selfishness and realizing that God loves everyone and because of that, we should be able to be in conversation with everyone. Israelites had it rough whenever they got on their high horse about being the "chosen" people. They thought it gave them room to be hateful to others who were not the "chosen" people. Even when it came to interracial marriages. We know they were looked down upon way back when, but remember our conversation about Jesus' genealogy? We are reminded in that, that the four women mentioned were not Israelites. Jesus comes from what was considered a flawed genealogy. For that matter, we all come from "flawed" genealogies and for that we should respect one another because none of us are chosen. (Here is where we could enter into a conversation about liberation theology, but I think we'll save that for another day.)

\\

Jesus isn't speaking broadly when he calls for people to get along and "go... to all nations" (Matt. 28). He is specific. For example, the Samaritans are particularly special to Jesus. Not only does he use them in one of his most beloved parable but he also has the longest recorded exchange with a Samaritan woman as well. He does not let the cultural and religious walls get in the way of making conversation with her or about them. Then there was the woman at the well (who we also discussed in a previous blog) who became the first evangelist. However, Bell says, her "success in not in converting others but in leading them to Jesus who enables conversion within them" (88). Jesus, through his friendly conversation and charming skills is able to bring conversion to people.

\\

The trick to Jesus' story about the Samaritan is not that we should be like the Samaritan and be nice for the question was asking "who is my neighbor?" Your neighbor is the Samaritan. Your neighbor is "the person, irrespective of their race [or religion], who does good to others" (92). Well that surely opens up the spectrum, huh? Our society is increasingly multicultural. This means when people of different faiths or different nationalities do good for society, they too are our neighbors. We are linked in our common bond to do good. Jesus came to "recognize and to indicate that God was the ground of all goodness, the quality of which manifests in people of all religions and of none" (93).

\\

Be challenged.

Do Good.

Appreciate the good of others.

Accept others.

Love others.

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Feminine Faces

So, again, I find myself fairly progressive in the midst of reading this book. An entire chapter devoted to the fact that women played a huge role in the life and teachings of Jesus. I conclude yet again that this book points out "radical" things that we just haven't thought about before. Nonetheless, women are important.

\\

Bell did an exercise with a group of people. He divided the room in half... had one side name the 12 disciples and three things about them.... had the other side do the same with the women in the gospels. The group attempting the disciples found it difficult while the group figuring out women determined much about all the women they could find. I could go through and list all the women they talked about, but you could also dig deeper into the gospels and figure it out yourself :) Or look on pages 76-77 of this book to get a list. There are about 20 women who in some way either admired Jesus or followed Jesus. Somehow, we get caught up in male activity of the gospels and fail to see the richness of femininity.

\\

Here are four things you may not have realized about Jesus and women:

1. Jesus never tells a woman off nor does he ever speak to her as an inferior (c.f. Matthew 16:23- he does it to men)

2. It is more common in women than in men that he found examples of faithful living (c.f. Matthew 8:5-10)

3. Jesus talkes illustrations from women's experience (c.f. Matthew 9:16-17, 13:31-33, Luke 15:4-10)

4. Jesus' compassion for women is often contrasted with the disdain of other men (c.f. Mark 12:41-44, Mark 10:13-15, Luke 13:10-17).

\\

So, Jesus respected women. John Bell suggests that if Jesus was here today, perhaps he would have even pulled statistics in order to stand up for women, saying: "Women make up half the world's population, do two-thirds of the world's productive work, own ten percent of the world's wealth, and one percent of the world's land" (81). It was important for Jesus to recognize women in a world where men were seen as superior and dominant. Oh wait, they still are...

\\

This means, then that it is all of our jobs to realize and make known the importance of women in the gospel and in the world. Most of the time the disciples didn't get what Jesus was trying to say, but women, for the most part, understood and went beyond the surface of what Jesus was trying to say... He commended them for their faithfulness while condemning the disciples for their thoughtlessness.

\\

Women, stand up and be heard.

You are strong beyond your belief.

You are loved and are a beloved child of God.

Be empowered and encouraged for you are powerful.

**on a side note**

I am overwhelmed by people's capacity to love.

=

I am overwhelmed by how many people I love.

=

Graduating is such a double-edged sword.

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| The religious reprobate

Jesus was continually up against the religious establishment of the day since it always seemed at odds with the intentions of the Kingdom of God. He subscribed to the former while trying to proclaim the latter. It was a continuous struggle. To start this off, I think John Bell says it best:

\\

"Where does his loyalty lie? With the institution of religion that has formed him, cradled the scriptures, nurtured generations of teachers and scholars, and wishes to remain unshaken? Or is he called to speak to and for those who are usually absent from the palaces of religion, whose experience of life is more of social injustice than spiritual security?" (63).

\\

People of faith are just as much about defying God as anyone else. Jesus' understanding of faith brings us to a place that encompasses our entire being-- spiritual, moral, intellectual and economic. Our being must be "laid open to the gracious amendment of God. Anything less is a partial faith for disintegrated people" (71).

\\

Where does your loyalty lie? Are you so caught up in the church because you feel safe and protected there? Is that where you have always been and you can't bear to leave because it will bring you out of your comfort zone? Are you surrounded by people that bring you down because they aren't fulfilling the Kingdom of God the way you think Jesus is calling us to? Is your religious establishment (not your church) taking the easy way out?

OR

have you stepped outside those four walls and attempted with every ounce of your being to fulfill the kingdom of God? Are you encouraging people, despite what others say, to stick with their faith and stick with God because you know the transformative power that God has in our lives? Are you exposing your entire being for the one who exposed his entire being for you?

\\

Are you going to be a part of "that which bears witness to the Savior of the world or that which indicates the continuing need of the world to be saved?" (61).

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Christian Family Values?

So, this could get all political and we could talk about Republicans and Conservatives.. or we could just stick to the Bible... Sound good? First, though, list the Christian Family Values you can think of... Now, figure out when Jesus talked about them..

\\

John Bell did a little experiment during one of his workshops as an attempt to discover Christian Family Values in the Bible. One group looked up values that Jesus looked towards that were of the patriarchs and ancestors. Another group looked to Jesus and his own family to see what was displayed there. The third group looked at what Jesus had to say about family values.

\\

Group 1 (Ancestral): Found things like David who had 700 wives and 300 concubines... Jacob who tricked his father into giving him his blessing... Abraham passed off his wife for his sister... Joseph, whose story is crammed with issues of jealousy...Moses who was a murderer and fugitive had a poor relationship with his wife... Well, it looks to me like we don't have many good examples in Jesus' ancestry to show what Christian family values really are...

Group 2 (Jesus' Family): First of all, there isn't much evidence in this section because the Gospels aren't so much a biography of his family life, so that already proves to be unhelpful. But let's look anyway. Joseph is (according to Matthew) a descendant of Abraham which could tell us why Joseph was so inclined to be a helpful caretaker to Jesus even when he almost divorced Mary for suddenly being pregnant. He was invited to be taken out of his comfort zone... as were so many of his ancestors. His relationship with his mom, Mary, was not ideal. I mean, when he snuck off to the temple his parents were worried but they were upset. He also turned on his mom at the wedding a Cana in a fit of exasperation. Someone comes to him (Luke 11:27b) to say, "Happy is the womb that carried you and the breasts that suckled you!" and Jesus is like, "That has nothing to do with it." So, what we see here isn't convincing that his family modeled the ideal family life.

Group 3 (Jesus' sayings): So, even if his ancestors and his family didn't model these values we're looking for, perhaps Jesus said something that was helpful to this conversation. (I'll give it to them anyway, they were all Jewish......... :]) In at least four instances, Jesus tells people that they will and should be rejected by their family if they follow him for nothing else should matter besides their following him (Matthew 10:21-22, Matthew 10:34-37, Mark 10:29-30). So does Jesus not value family responsibility? Not quite... I mean he asks the rich young man whether or not he honors his parents (Luke 18:20), and he warns against child abuse (Mark 9:42), AND he encourages honest confrontation and forgiveness (Luke 17:3)... So here are three values I suppose. He also enjoys being IN households, right? Lazarus, Susana, Joanna, Peter, etc. He likes being in community, and if a family is supposed to be a community, well then, there you have it. (Besides, family units were way different back then and there were several people in a house.) Jesus says nothing about relationships between same sex couples, male or female, but he does have a word to say about divorce... This is ONLY because someone asked him about marriage. Jesus tells them that a man cannot divorce his wife for any reason, but must be proven adultery. (And I would also say abuse, but women (most times) don't abuse their husbands, and the person asking asked about a man divorcing his wife... stupid superiority complex.) So, we don't really see anything of much value (no pun intended) here in Jesus' sayings.

\\

So then where do these values come from? Well, it doesn't help that a family in first century Palestine was much different from twenty-first century America. If we're going to take the Bible literally, then one-parent families would be the norm because the death rate there called for the average age of death to be 30. With this is mind, Jesus was not so concerned with all of these issues, but rather created a "family unit" of belonging. Jesus was continually inviting people into "a larger family that is defined by commitment to the Kingdom of God rather than bondage to ancestral tradition" (56). I think he would have been a proponent of the notion "it takes a village to raise a child." We are to be loved by our families, but are also to be in community with others. Marriage nor family life can be mandatory for all people... God calls us to different things.

\\

So Christian Family Values are a crock... right? The way we think of them today, yes. We all belong to each other and are called to take care of each other. Christ didn't have to say anything about specifics because it is enough to be living with and for each other, outside our family unites.

\\

"The encouragement that we receive from other people of faith should be a means by which our horizons are extended and the potentials unrecognized by our biological family are identified and affirmed" (57).

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Fully Equipped

So, the first chapter was about Jesus' genealogy, the second was about his birth... and in the life a Jewish boy, what comes next? Yes, that's right... circumcision. So this chapter was... well, I guess not so much about circumcision but about the fact that Jesus had genitalia, just like every other Palestinian boy. He was no different, and we know that because he was circumcised. For some people, this chapter would have been radical. Bringing up the idea that Jesus had a penis and the fact that he was a human, is just something people haven't ever really thought about. Since I would conclude that Jesus was "wholly divine and wholly human" I have no problem with this notion.

\\

However, let's think about this. We do not hear anything about Jesus' life from the time he is born until the time he is preaching in the temple (age 12ish) and then not again until his baptism (roughly 30ish). So, we don't know what he did... and people have assumed he became a buddhist and got his ego up to the point where he could just go and feel like he was the Messiah... others have assumed he was really BAD and that's why nothing is written in the Bible... others have written he was performing miracles when he was a teen... others have said he was out being a sexual being and a hormonal teen...

\\

Does it matter? This is one of those mysteries that I am fine to leave alone... We don't know what he did. I would assume he was a normal teenager. AND as discussed yesterday, no one knew he was coming into the world, so maybe they got the hype built up for his birth and then after that people sort of forgot about him, so then no one bothered to record his life. I can accept that answer. I don't know why it matters that we know what he did during those years. Since we can never know, we might as well not agonize over it, right? Maybe I'm just being pessimistic or "unscholarly" (funny, since I was just inducted into TAK, the National honors society for religion/theology yesterday....) But I really just don't feel like getting frustrated over it.

\\

Jesus was "fully equipped" and Jesus was a human and Jesus was wholly divine.

\\

Must we really know?

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| A birth, not a babyfest

Let's rethink Christmas shall we? Why do you like Christmas? What is it about Christmas that makes it Christmas? The songs? The giant creche? The pageants? the candles? What does it for you

\\

For most people, I think they would say the songs and the creche or maybe perhaps the candles and the calmness of the sanctuary at 11:58 when you have all finished silent night and are awaiting the blowing out of the candles. At least, that's what I would say. That calmness, to me, is the moment when I know God has been made present in the world. Well, John Bell thinks differently, and for good reason too.

\\

Before we go on, let me quote that which he says to help us understand first and foremost what Christmas is all about: "It is the time when the Creator of heaven and earth decides, out of love...to forgo the distance and safety of heaven in order to experience the risk and joy of life on earth in solidarity with humanity. This is God forgoing privilege... becoming one of the crowd and doing so in the person of a peasant girl's son" (27). I think this is something upon which we would all agree and do, to some extent, all recognize but can never put into words. With that said, let's carry on.

\\

Nativity plays: These are just calling for havoc, right? You have all of these kids participating in it running around as donkeys and sheep and angels and shepherds and magi and mary and joseph... But guess what? Kids probably weren't present at Jesus' birth... besides baby Jesus and teenage mother, Mary, no kids! Also, why is it that Elizabeth and Zecheriah, Ceasar, Herod, and Simeon and Anna rarely make it in the story? "Christmas is about old people. That is the Gospel truth" (26). God is doing amazing things in the lives of the older people, and here we are, in the 21st century, making it about kids. Besides, the Shepherds that were out at midnight tending the flock would have been men, not boys; and wise men in the ancient Middle-Eastern cultures considered wisdom not as something that comes with having piled-upon degrees, but "experience, reflection and longevity" (26). So, this story is not about kids.

\\

"Silent Night...": Yea, it totally wasn't. I mean, think about it... you have all of those animals lying around! No... those animals have been written in. Go read the birth narrative in Matthew or Luke... animals do not exist. The closest we get is the flocks over which the shepherds are tending in the Luke narrative, but sheep are dumb and most likely wouldn't have followed their shepherd. And most likely, the shepherds would not have brought ALL of their sheep with them... So back to this quiet situation that didn't exist. See, it was census time. People were coming and going, to and from various places. Bethlehem wasn't necessarily a town in the middle of nowhere. We hear of other people (in the Gospel) that were from Bethlehem. So, it wasn't the middle of nowhere. Besides, just because Jesus is Jesus doesn't mean he didn't cry... Thanks, "Away in the Manger", but no thanks. Plus, if the hotels in the area were so full Mary and Joseph couldn't get in, well, then that means even more people running around. Bell is sure to point out, also, that no one knew the Messiah was being born... Angels had to go TELL the shepherds... otherwise, no one would have ever known! It wasn't this grand production where Jesus was made the center of attention throughout ALL of Palestine, as we like to think... It was bustling with busyness... people didn't know. (Even in his baptism, people didn't recognize him...)

\\

Now that we have debunked two of the greatest myths of Christmas... :] Bell says one more thing that really grabbed me, in terms of Christmas... It is about the incarnation... Emmanuel, God with us, in this world where we are imperfect beings, where we have denied God in so many ways... But God did it anyway. Perhaps December 25 is about allowing "ourselves to marvel at God's risk, trust and surprise" (34).

\\

Here is "O Little Town of Bethlehem" as switched up by John Bell to speak the truth:

--

O little town of Bethlehem,

how rowdy you appear

as homecome emigrants ar buoyed

by sentiment and beer.

The long-haried tearaway returns,

grandfatherly and grey,

and former glamour-pusses' pasts

emerge in all they say.

.

Who knows if Ned the publican,

whose rooms could take no more,

would pleasently or angrily

greet strangers at the door?

Who knows if he had cats and dogs

around his cattle shed,

or whether robins twittered on

or even Mrs. Ned?

.

But if he let his stable out

to be a labor room

for some expectant teenage mum

and her embarrassed groom,

the breath and stink of tethered beasts

would set the midwives wild

if keen to minimize the risk

to Mary and her child.

.

And would poor shepherds, when disturbed

from midnight peace and calm,

presume a newborn baby boy

would want to hold a lamb?

And if the Magi from the East did "enter in all three"

was it true they, in homage,

bent a single knee?

.

And did the baby never cry, and was the mother mild

when Herod sensed that he'd been duped

and let his men run wild>

And was the father pre-progremmed

to take the passive part

when one old man foretold the child

would break his mother's heart?

.

Christ was not born at Christmas time

invoked by practiced choirs,

embraced by plastic mangers

and fulfilling our desires.

No kindergarten was his home,

no drummer-boy his page,

no earth had frozen snow on snow

when God had come of age.

.

Instead, on the periphery,

eccentric through decree,

the power behind the universe

was born a refugee;

a refugee from heaven above

became the world's creator,

and chose an unknown peasant girl

as host and liberator.

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Skeletons in the Cupboard

New book time! I'll be reading "10 Things they never told me about Jesus" by John Bell. This book is an exploration of the personal life, relationships and ministry of Jesus that is seldom talked about in church. I would like to be relating this more to personal life... or at least talking more about the wider context rather than summarizing the book, so we'll see how that goes.

\\

Firstly, have you actually read the full genealogy of Jesus? You know, "The Begats" in Matthew 1? They're boring... for the majority of the time. Otherwise, they're incredibly intriguing. There is, for the most part, simply a list of "So and so begat so and so who was the father of so and so who begat so and so......" on... and on...

\\

BUT this is intersting because there are only FOUR women mentioned in this lineage.

Tamar: Dressed up as a whore to coerce her father in law into sex so that she could bear a child.

Rahab: A prostitute from Jericho who helped some Israelites after they helped to hide her.

Ruth: Daughter-in-law to Naomi who convinced Ruth to seduce Boaz, the owner a field and an older man.

Bathsheba: She had an affair with King David and became pregnant. They sent for Uriah (her current husband) to be killed in battle so he would not know of this and David and she could be married.

\\

So we see these women in the genealogy... but why these women? Bell gives suggestions, but I want to talk about the implications of one of the suggestions. So maybe they put this in there because they felt that if Jesus came from a long line of virtuous people, this whole idea of accepting him as human (as well as divine) would never happen. Bell says the flawed lineage of Christ is "about God immersing [Godself] in a deficient world and among fallible people because [God] knows that through impartial love all can be redeemed" (22).

\\

I would agree with this, but I hate the fact that the women are those pointed out as the "flawed" ones. I suppose that is what happens when you have these men writing the Bible. You just can't really get around that. More so than that, though, I think it's also about this impartial love of which Bell speaks. This love of God conquers all. This love of God is open-minded, if you will. Had they not spoke of these flawed characters in Jesus' past, there are prostitutes out there who may have never realized that they could be welcomed in church just as much as the next person. But then again, it isn't just about prostitutes. It's about all of us. We all have skeletons in the closet and we aren't proud of them. But God knows and wants us to know that we are loved... we are God's beloved. All of us. No matter who we are. Or what we do.

\\

That is the beauty of my denomination, the United Church of Christ. We understand that all people are welcome and while we may have a hard time getting to that point of accepting all people as they are, God's got it covered.

\\

All people are children of God, no matter what. Even Ruth... Even Bathsheba... Even Tamar... Even Rahab. We are all loved by our Creator and nothing can strip us of that.

\\

The UCC says, "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here" (and I would add) and you are loved always.