Meditation for Worship: March 30, 2008

My name is Thomas, “twin.”
How fitting, for within me grow twin traits:
Faith and doubt.
I want to believe, but I don’t want to be a fool.
I want to trust, but trusting can be fatal.

I hear them crying, “Jesus is alive! The doors were all locked and suddenly he stood there among us! He talked to us!"

Alive?
Jesus, my Lord, alive?

I saw it happen once before, with Lazarus…
But Lazarus rose only because Jesus was there to bid him rise.
Who stands outside of Jesus’ tomb now, to shout in a loud voice, “Jesus, come out!”

And yet, all that talk about seeds and eternal life…could it possibly be…?

No. NO! My heart cannot accept it. Too much is at stake.
Don’t be a fool.
Unless I lock the door of my heart, and protect it with tough words, it will break in two.

Any more false hope will be fatal!

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands

and put my finger into the nail marks

and put my hand into his side,

I will not believe.”

And then He comes in.
"Peace be with you."
Through my fright-fastened doors,
"Put your finger here: see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side."
Rolling away the stone of my soul, sealed with its skepticism,
"Stop doubting and believe."

He makes my finger the key
With which He opens the gates of heaven
My Lord and my God!

Anne Rice: "My Trust in the Lord"

from the Washington Post "On Faith" column

Look: I believe in Him. It’s that simple and that complex. I believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the God Man who came to earth, born as a tiny baby and then lived over thirty years in our midst. I believe in what we celebrate this week: the scandal of the cross and the miracle of the Resurrection. My belief is total. And I know that I cannot convince anyone of it by reason, anymore than an atheist can convince me, by reason, that there is no God.

A long life of historical study and biblical research led me to my belief, and when faith returned to me, the return was total. It transformed my existence completely; it changed the direction of the journey I was traveling through the world. Within a few years of my return to Christ, I dedicated my work to Him, vowing to write for Him and Him alone. My study of Scripture deepened; my study of New Testament scholarship became a daily commitment. My prayers and my meditation were centered on Christ.

And my writing for Him became a vocation that eclipsed my profession as a writer that had existed before.

Why did faith come back to me? I don’t claim to know the answer. But what I want to talk about right now is trust. Faith for me was intimately involved with love for God and trust in Him, and that trust in Him was as transformative as the love.

Right now as I write this, our nation seems to be in some sort of religious delirium. Anti-God books dominate the bestseller lists; people claim to deconstruct the Son of Man with facile historical treatments of what we know and don’t know about Jesus Christ who lived in First Century Judea. Candidates for public office have to declare their faith on television. Christians quarrel with one another publicly about the message of Christ.

Before my consecration to Christ, I became familiar with a whole range of arguments against the Savior to whom I committed my life. In the end I didn’t find the skeptics particularly convincing, while at the same time the power of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John swept me off my feet.

And above all, when I began to talk to Jesus Christ again it was with trust.

On the afternoon in 1998 when faith returned, I experienced a sense of the limitless power and majesty of God that left me convinced that He knew all the answers to the theological and sociological questions that had tormented me for years. I saw, in one enduring moment, that the God who could make the Double Helix and the snow flake, the God who could make the Black holes in space, and the lilies of the field, could do absolutely anything and must know everything --- even why good people suffer, why genocide and war plague our planet, and why Christians have lost, in America and in other lands, so much credibility as people who know how to love. I felt a trust in this all-knowing God; I felt a sudden release of all my doubts. Indeed, my questions became petty in the face of the greatness I beheld. I felt a deep and irreversible assurance that God knew and understood every single moment of every life that had ever been lived, or would be lived on Earth. I saw the universe as an immense and intricate tapestry, and I perceived that the Maker of the tapestry saw interwoven in that tapestry all our experiences in a way that we could not hope, on this Earth, to understand.

This was not a joyful moment for me. It wasn’t an easy moment. It was an admission that I loved and believed in God, and that my old atheism was a façade. I knew it was going to be difficult to return to the Maker, to give over my life to Him, and become a member of a huge quarreling religion that had broken into many denominations and factions and cults worldwide. But I knew that the Lord was going to help me with this return to Him. I trusted that He would help me. And that trust is what under girds my faith to this day.

Within days of my return to Christ, I also became aware of something very important: that the first temptation we face as returning Christians is to criticize another Christian and his or her way of approaching Jesus Christ. I perceived that I had to resist that temptation, that I had to seek in my faith and in my love for God a complete certainty that He knew all about these factions and disputes, and that He knew who was right or who was wrong, and He would handle how and when He approached every single soul.

Why do I talk so much about this trust now? Because I think perhaps that with many Christians it is lacking, and in saying this I’m yielding to the temptation I just described. But let me speak my peace not critically so much as with an exhortation. Trust in Him. If you believe in Him, then trust Him. Trust what He says in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and trust what He says about having conquered evil; trust that He has won.

Don’t ever succumb to the fear that evil is winning in this world, no matter how bad things may appear. Don’t ever succumb to the fear that He does not witness our struggles, that He is not with every single soul.

The Sermon on the Mount is the portion of the New Testament to which I return again and again. I return to the simple command: “Love your enemies.” And each day brings me closer to understanding that in this message lies the blueprint for bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth. The Sermon on the Mount is the full blueprint. And it is not impossible to love our enemies and our neighbors, but it may be the hardest thing we have ever been asked to do.

But we can’t doubt the possibility of it. We must return to Jesus Christ again and again, after our failures, and seek in Him --- in His awesome majesty and power -- the creative solutions to the problems we face. We must retain our commitment to Him, and our belief in a world in which, conceivably, human beings could lay down their arms, and stretch out their arms to one another, clasping hands, and bring about a total worldwide peace.

If this is not inconceivable, then it is possible. And perhaps we are, in our own broken and often blind fashion, moving towards such a moment. If we can conceive of it and dedicate ourselves to it, then this peace on earth, this peace in Christ, can come.

As we experience Easter week, we celebrate the crucifixion that changed the world. We celebrate the Resurrection that sent Christ’s apostles throughout the Roman Empire to declare the Good News. We celebrate one of the greatest love stories the world has ever known: that of a God who would come down here to live and breathe with us in a human body, who would experience human death for us, and then rise to remind us that He was, and is, both Human and Divine. We celebrate the greatest inversion the world has ever recorded: that of the Maker dying on a Roman cross.

Let us celebrate as well that throughout this troubled world in which we live, billions believe in this 2,000-year-old love story and in this great inversion -- and billions seek to trust the Maker to bring us to one another in love as He brings us to Himself.

Anne Rice is the best-selling author of 27 books, including "The Vampire Chronicles" and "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt." Read an excerpt of her latest book, "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana."

Both-and thinking

It's finally happening. Protestants are beginning to acknowledge that the "either/or" thinking of the solas is insufficient for faithfully following Jesus Christ. I encountered it again today, reading Scot McKnight's review of Anthony Thisleton's The Hermeneutics of Doctrine:

This dense summary of Thiselton's argument implies that both Paul and James got it right, and that confessing a creed is an affirmation that we not only speak, but one we perform. Thus, belief in evangelical statements of faith today involves our entire being as we join others to look after not only what we confess, but also how we perform our confession. In fact, one of the more fascinating elements of seeing belief as disposition is that the one who believes is also one who defends a doctrine when denied. A disposition of belief involves defending one's beliefs. Some don't need to be told this today; many do. Belief involves "taking a stand" for someone and something and doing so with others as we, the people of God, take a stand for the gospel in a world that doesn't embrace that gospel. But our defense is not just words; it is dispositional in that it too is performed.

Louis Bouyer was affirming this over fifty years ago...and Thomas Aquinas was affirming it nearly a thousand years ago, and before them, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Intellectual virtue without moral virtue is lame;
moral virtue without intellectual virtue is blind.

Today, "Emergents" are on to something big. If only they would realize that they don't have to reinvent the wheel! Intellectual virtue, the foundation for both-and thinking, depends on hitting the mean between the extremes of ratio and intellectus. As I have written before, modernists idolize ratio; postmodernists idolize intellectus. By claiming their intellectual and moral heritage, emergents have a chance to save time and energy, and display a disposition for authentic moral and intellectual humility. Will they do so? Or will they become so preoccupied with their journeys that they forget there is a Jerusalem?

Simone Weil put it succinctly:

"To always be relevant, you must say things that are eternal."

And not just say them. We must be and do them.

Please join us in prayer...

A couple of weeks ago our daughter Susan, a senior at Seattle Pacific University, got good news: she had won the American Graduate Scholarship, which pays $50,000 a year for the first two years of graduate studies in the humanities, contingent upon being accepted to one of 25 internationally respected institutions.

Then she got the bad news: neither Princeton nor Cornell accepted her. She asked for her application to be reconsidered. Princeton flatly refused, Cornell thought about it but had to say no. Apparently they had made their first offers and didn't want to upset the delicate balance. Then came the clincher: the University of Toronto, from which she was still awaiting word, wasn't on their top 25 list.

Upon hearing this, a dear friend wrote:

"Oh, what difficult news! But what wonderful grace! God has promised to direct our paths, and He will. Watch and see."

Well, He does seem to be up to something. Today Susan heard that she has been accepted by the University of Toronto for their MA program in Classics, with strong encouragment to consider continuing on in their Ph.D program. Funding is available for the second year, but she needs to pay for the first year.

Please join us in praying that perhaps the AGS might reconsider their preferred institutions, on the basis of the following:

The Times Top 50 Universities for Arts and Humanities, 2007

1. Harvard University US 100.0
2 University of California, Berkeley US 96.5
3 University of Oxford UK 94.4
4 University of Cambridge UK 92.3
5 Yale University US 84.3
6 Columbia University US 83.3
7 Princeton University US 80.1
8 University of Toronto Canada 79.5
9 University of Chicago US 77.6
10 Australian National University Australia 75.9
11 Stanford University US 74.7
12 McGill University Canada 71.3
13 University of California, Los Angeles US 68.4
14 University of British Columbia Canada 67.2
15 University of Sydney Australia 66.6
16 Cornell University US 64.4
17 University of Melbourne Australia 63.9
18 Peking University China 61.2
19 University of Michigan US 60.3
20 Duke University US 58.6
21= National University of Singapore Singapore 57.6
21= Johns Hopkins University US 57.6
23 New York University US 56.7
24 University of Tokyo Japan 54.7
25 Massachusetts Institute of Technology US 54.4

(etc)

Humor: Soviet posters, baptized

Humor via Brad:


Team TomintheBox News Network presents:

Pro-reformation posters

Anti-Calvinist posters

Easter with A .and H.

Sunday, after the joy of celebrating Christ's resurrection through worship and our traditional congregational Easter dinner, several of us went over to visit A. and H.

As I have written earlier, A is recovering from her gallbladder surgery and the news that her abdomen is inflamed, and filled with liquid. She is awaiting results of a biopsy, but her enzyme count seems to indicate a return of cancer. She has been extremely depressed, so I thought it might be good for some of us to stop by, to bring her a lily and our love.

J, ML and CS came, and CS's dear little son, E., who is only a month or so older than A's son, M. They had gone trick or treating together last Halloween. But M. has been sensing the tension and so has been reticent to engage with people. He did, however, enjoy the Easter basket we brought, as well as the chunky preschooler's Bible that CS gave him.

We gathered around A. to sing and pray. Mamma B and Mamma D. remained in their chairs, but H. joined right in, "adding his energy." That really took a lot of courage on his part, to enter into a circle of Christians, in front of his mother, a devout Muslim married to a sayed! A. was distant, indifferent. She gave us perfunctory thanks and retreated back into her pain.

The other VCC folks left, but Steve and I remained a bit longer, seated on either side of the sofa, with A. between us. While her family conversed together in Farsi, A. confessed to us in a flat voice that she felt she had lost her faith. I noticed that she was no longer wearing the gold cross H. had given her a year ago, upon her baptism. Her eyes were fixed and empty.

Now A. takes the Bible very seriously (probably because as a Muslim she was trained to take the Koran very seriously.) So Steve responded to her disclosure by pointing out, "The Bible says that even if we are faithless, God cannot be." We then observed how Jesus felt deserted on the cross; how that even HE felt like God wasn't with him at that time of his greatest suffering. So, if A. was feeling afraid and abandoned, that is exactly what Jesus experienced, as well. But the good news is that Jesus also experienced resurrection, so we can experience it, too.

A. sat motionless, for a long time silently weighing our words. Then she turned to Steve with great resolution and whispered: "Pastor I want to testify. When I die I want to be buried here, in U.S. like a Christian. I want the carpet [a carpet her mom brought from Iran, with the image of Christ and the cross woven in it] laid over me. I not want my mother to wear black longer than seven days [Persian custom dictates mourning for two years.] I want my brother to go ahead and get married after 40 days."

"Lord I believe: help my unbelief. "

Somehow, the Spirit had worked through this conversation to bring A. to the point of actually speaking about her death. This was a milestone, as she has been under pressure to act her role according to the Iranian cultural script which prohibits telling anyone they are mortally ill. Moreover, H. has constantly been pushing her to "think positive thoughts," in other words, not to acknowledge death as a real possibility. This explains why they have both vehemently rejected any talk about Hospice.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."

Steve told A. about his mom's funeral and how it was held at church, with singing and witness to her resurrection in Christ. A. was enthusiastic about that idea. So we began a brief conversation about the things each of us would like to have at our funerals... the music, the scripture, and other little details. I think that calmed her, to see that Christians can talk about death and not be afraid, because our hope is in Christ. What better time than Easter to remember that no grave can contain Him or those who trust Him!

"Now that that is done," I said when I sensed she had finished speaking, "let's think about the life we have been given right now." A. then opened a card CS had left, and another one that we had invited everyone who was at the church Easter dinner to sign. She brightened, and smiled. M. ran up to H's mother waving his new Bible and calling for her to read it to him. Who knows how the Lord will work through all this?

S.A., H's father, then shuffled into the room. I was greatly encouraged to see him even able to walk, and talk, after his stroke. Mercifully, he and Mamma B. had been able to fly back to Eugene from Utah on a commercial airline direct flight. Poor H.! He is being squeezed on all sides, what with A's cancer, his father's stroke, and his own health and financial problems. Who knows how the Lord is working through all this?

Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."

Even on Easter Sunday.

Just Wondering: Covenant blogs...

So Covenant Blogs was up for a while and now its down again. I wonder if it might not be in everyone's interest to have it taken under the aegis of Covenant Communications. Is that even possible? Or could something similar be constructed as part of the denominational website?

Just wondering.

Meditation: Easter

Christ is Risen!

Christ is risen! He has burst open the gates of hell and let the dead go free; He has renewed the earth though the members of his Church now born again in baptism, and has made it blossom afresh with men brought back to life. His Holy Spirit has unlocked the doors of heaven, which stand wide open to received those who rise up from earth. Because of Christ's resurrection the thief ascends to paradise, the bodies of the blessed enter the holy city, and the dead are restored to the company of the living. There is an upward movement in the whole of creation, each element raising itself to something higher. We see hell restoring its victims to the upper regions, earth sending its buried dead to heaven, and heaven presenting the new arrivals to the Lord. In one and the same movement, our Savior's passion raises men from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights.

Christ is risen! His rising brings life to the dead, forgiveness to sinners, and glory to the saints. And so David the prophet summons all creation to join in celebrating the Easter festival: Rejoice and be glad, he cries, on this day which the Lord has made.

The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night. Christ is this day, says the Apostle; such is the meaning of his words: Night is almost over; day is at hand. He tells us that night is almost over, not that it is about to fall. By this we are meant to understand that the coming of Christ's light puts Satan’s darkness to flight, leaving no place for any shadow of sin. His everlasting radiance dispels the dark clouds of the past and checks the hidden growth of vice.

The Son is that day to whom the day, which is the Father, communicates the mystery of his divinity. He is the day who says through the mouth of Solomon: I have caused an unfailing light to rise in heaven. And as in heaven no night can follow day, so no sin can overshadow the justice of Christ. The celestial day is perpetually bright and shining with brilliant light; clouds can never darken its skies. In the same way, the light of Christ is eternally glowing with luminous radiance and can never be extinguished by the darkness of sin. This is why John the Evangelist says: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to overpower it.

St. Maximus of Turin (early 5th century)

Meditation: Holy Saturday

He Descended to the Dead

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory. At the sight of Him, Adam, the first man He had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.

”I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by My own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell.

Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in My image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in Me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

"See on My face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in My image. On My back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See My hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

”I slept on the cross and a sword pierced My side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced Me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

”Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.”

From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday

A's Descent

It is ironic that A. should tell me, on this Holy Saturday, that her enzyme count has skyrocketed from 21 to 360. (37 is normal). She is like the living dead. Her voice is dull. She cannot/(will not?) move. She has descended into her own Hades. My prayer is that she will discover that Someone has made it there before her, and waits to lift her out:
“Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.

Creedal Christianity

Is there any place for "creedal Christianity in the post-Christendom, late modern world of the West?" This is a question our adult Sunday school will be entertaining in another week, as we study what happened "after Acts." It is also the question Jaroslav Pelikan entertained in the eighth decade of his life. Krista Tippett writes, "Pelikan, who died on May 13, 2006, was a scholar who devoted his life to exploring the vitality of ancient theology and creeds. He insisted that even modern pluralists need strong statements of belief."

This is a controversial position. Much of postmodern theology, with its re-discovery of "intellectus," an immediate, non-discursive way of knowing, is apt to dismiss creedal Christianity as "stiff" if not "dead." Indeed, the biggest criticisms might be summarized this way:

1) Creeds are power plays, which marginalize minority opinion.

2) Creeds, as unchanging, are no longer suitable to match the diversity and change of life in the 21st century.

2) Creeds, as propositional, violate the mystery of God and Christian experience.

Brad has an important link here, to help deal with those criticisms.

"Jaroslav Pelikan understood what a difficult thing unchanging creeds can be for modern people. He knew as well as anyone that historically creeds were employed in part to consolidate power — both of church authority and of Christian empire. But he insisted on capturing a sense of the profound and positive reasons Christianity, alone among the major traditions, seemed to require creeds. The global spread of Christianity and of the translation of the Bible into now more than 2000 languages, as Pelikan described it, "is the history of how one sought in a new setting not to speak the same thing but to say the same thing."

"And creeds, he believed, also meet a deep human need — one that is not diminished but intensified by pluralism. Pluralism, he reiterates during this conversation, is not the same as relativism; the singing of a creed, in fact, is a way of indicating a universality of the faith across space and time. Pelikan's own generous sense of space and time, I think, helped him internalize the original impulse of creeds and communicate their meaning to the rest of us. Every time he recited or sang the creeds, he tangibly experienced the fact that these same words were sung in the Philippines that same morning and recited by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century and Thomas Aquinas in the 13th and intoned by his own grandfather in the 20th century. I have been struck by the number and diversity of people who have told me over the years that this program touched them in a special way. Among them have been more than a few Unitarians, whose faith tradition was formed in part in reaction against the very idea of creeds.

"Attempts to make creeds modern and contemporary often seem to sacrifice something in depth and grace. Jaroslav Pelikan compared this, interestingly, to the language of love. We can try to be creative and unconventional but there aren't terribly many ways to say "I love you." Again and again most of us fall back on well-worn words and find that they more than suffice.

"Having noted that, in one of the most poignant moments of this program, Jaroslav Pelikan recites one of the newest creeds he discovered — a creed written by the Maasai people of Africa. In 1960, they took the bare-bones summaries the great creeds represent, and enlivened them with the vocabulary of their lives. Pelikan reads this Maasai creed, which includes mention of hyenas and safari, with reverent passion and an almost child-like delight.

"And isn't religion at heart about mystery, I had to ask Jaroslav Pelikan, that can never be captured in words? Can creeds ever be sufficient as a statement of faith? He left me with a wonderful statement of St. Augustine, who apparently struggled with this same question in his own theologizing as well. We resolve to speak of these things nevertheless, Augustine concluded — inspiring Jaroslav Pelikan centuries later — not in order to say something, but in order not to remain altogether silent.

I am not Augustinian enough to fully agree that we are not saying anything while not remaining silent. Neither am I Reformed enough to affirm that all we ever can (and must ) do is speak. For Christians, religion is not at heart about mystery. Neither is it at heart about complete comprehnsion. It is about knowing and loving the God Who is Three in One, who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, and invites us into His infinite, endless life of love, truth and beauty.

But I think Pelikan is on to something here. Creeds are not sufficient, but they are necessary. Belief matters. "For as (a person) thinks within himself, so he is." (Proverbs 23:7)

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Mediation: Good Friday

Agnus Dei
Francisco de Zurburán (1598-1664)
Museo Nacional del Prado Madrid

Christ Our Passover is Sacrificed for Us

He was led forth like a lamb; He was slaughtered like a sheep. He ransomed us from our servitude to the world, as He had ransomed Israel from the hand of Egypt; He freed us from our slavery to the devil, as He had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. He sealed our souls with His own Spirit, and the members of our body with His own blood.

He is the One who covered death with shame and cast the devil into mourning, as Moses cast Pharaoh into mourning. He is the One who smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring, as Moses robbed the Egyptians of their offspring. He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into an eternal kingdom; who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be His own for ever. He is the Passover that is our salvation.

It is He who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed Him. In Abel He was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonoured in the prophets.

It is He who was made man of the Virgin, He who was hung on the tree; it is He who was buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and taken up to the heights of heaven. He is the mute lamb, the slain lamb, the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. He was seized from the flock, dragged off to be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night. On the tree no bone of His was broken; in the earth His body knew no decay. He is the One who rose from the dead, and who raised man from the depths of the tomb....

The Lord, though He was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, He was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but He rose from the dead, and cried aloud: “Who will contend with me? Let him confront me. I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves. Who has anything to say against Me? I, He said, am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the heights of heaven: I am the Christ.

”Come, then, all you nations of men, receive forgiveness for the sins that defile you. I am your forgiveness. I am the Passover that brings salvation. I am the lamb who was immolated for you. I am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, I am your salvation and your king. I will bring you to the heights of heaven. With My own right hand I will raise you up, and I will show you the eternal Father.”

Melito of Sardis (2nd century), Easter homily (c. 165)

Meditation: Maundy Thursday

image by Leszek Forczek


THE WASHING OF FEET

What could be stranger than this?
What more awesome?

He who is clothed with light as with a garment (Ps. 104:2)
is girded with a towel.

He who binds up the waters in His clouds (Job 26:8),
who sealed the abyss by His fearful Name,
is bound with a girdle.

He who gathers together
the waters of the sea as in a vessel (Ps. 33:7)
now pours water in to a basin.

He who covers the tops of the heavens with water (Ps. 104:3)
washes in water the feet of His disciples.

He who has weighed the heavens with His palm
and the earth with three fingers (Is. 40:12)
now wipes with undefiled palms
the soles of His servants’ feet.

He before whom every knees should bow,
of those that are in heaven,
on earth and under the earth (Phil.2:10)
now kneels before His servants.

Cyril of Alexandria (375-444)

Meditation: Holy Wednesday

The Cross of Christ, the Cosmic Tree

This Tree is my eternal salvation. It is my nourishment and my banquet. Amidst its roots I cast my own roots deep: beneath its boughs I grow and expand, revelling in its sigh as in the wind itself. Flying from the burning heat, I have pitched my tent in its shadow, and have found a resting-place of dewy freshness. I flower with its flowers; its fruits bring perfect joy - fruits which have been preserved for me since time's beginning, and which now I freely eat.

This Tree is a food, sweet food, for my hunger, and a fountain for my thirst; it is a clothing for my nakedness; its leaves are the breath of life. Away with the fig-tree, from this time on! If I fear God, this is my protection; if I stumble, this is my support; it is the prize for which I fight and the reward of my victory. This is my straitened path, my narrow way; this is the stairway of Jacob, where angels pass up and down, and where the Lord in very truth standing at the head.

This Tree, vast as heaven itself, rises from earth to the skies, a plant immortal, set firm in the midst of heaven and earth, base of all that is, foundation of the universe, support of this world of men, binding-force of all creation, holding within itself all the- mysterious essence of man. Secured with the unseen clamps of the spirit, so that, adjusted to the Divine, it may never bend or warp, with foot resting firm on earth it towers to the topmost skies, and spans with its allembracing arms the boundless gulf of space between.

He was All, and in all, filling it with himself....

0 Thou who art alone among the alone, and all in all! Let the heavens hold thy Godhead; and paradise, thy soul; and earth, thy blood ... For the Indivisible has become divided, so that all might be saved, and that the world below might not remain ignorant of the coming of God...

We beseech thee now, Lord God, Christ, eternal King of souls: stretch forth thy mighty hands over thy sacred Church, and over a holy people for ever thine.

--Pseudo-Chrysostom (5th century)

Covenant blogs....?

Hello!

Anybody out there?

....if you are....what's happened to the site?

How Relevant can be more relevant, and all of us more faithful to Jesus Christ

Dan Whitmarsh is pastor of LakeBay Community Church in Lakebay, WA. I read his blog regularly. Today this came across my screen. What Dan has written is so important that I am reproducing it here, for my own edification and yours. I can't think of anything I've read recently that is more countercultural and relevant than this blog entry.

Amen and amen, Dan!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A Case Study in the Power of Language

"Over the weekend, Seattle's Mars Hill Church opened up their newest location, in a former downtown bar. Personally, I think that's kind of cool. There's a huge metaphor here. This bar was notorious for the violence and mayhem it attracted. Many in the community were fed up with all the antics going on there. The Seattle Police Department was regularly called to break up fights among the drunken patrons.

Now, that place of darkness has been transformed into an outpost for the Kingdom of God. The Light has shined in the darkness, and the darkness has fled. This is what the Kingdom is supposed to look like: ground once held by the darkness taken and restored for the Kingdom of Light. I wish we would see more of this happening all over the city, all over the world.

However, that's not the purpose of today's post. I simply wanted to begin with some kudos so you don't think this is another Bash Mars Hill post. You can find those all over the internet, and I don't particularly want to join in. (That's not to say I don't have my own disagreements with the MH way of doing ministry, which I have blogged about in the past; just that I don't want you to think I'm a hater or anything). (By the By - if you have the stomach for it, and want to understand the way many people up here in the NW view MH and Christianity in general, just follow the link to the article, and then read the comments at the end. It's. . .frightening)

Here's what I want to focus on today. Tim Gaydos, the pastor of this particular branch, had this to say about the newest MH edition:

"We're all about Jesus," said Gaydos, a 33-year-old Seattle native. "We're not about religion. Religion sucks. ... And this is not your mom's or grandma's church."

This is a theme you hear quite often from a certain segment of Christianity. People who have decided that the Church has become irrelevant and musty and a little, well, nerdy. People who think we need to reshape and reframe the church in order to reach a new generation for Christ. People who have read Donald Miller and Erwin McManus and Brian McLaren and Rob Bell (note: I don't think any of those men would necessarily be represented by where I am about to go with this blog; they just ask some questions that then allow a second contingent to make less-than-profound statements such as the one above). The last time I picked up Relevant Magazine, I read this statement and many variations on it: "We're the NEW Church! We're Cool! We're Hip! We're Relevant! We're not like that old person's church anymore!"

I think there are at least three reasons why we need to cut this kind of language out of any conversation regarding the Church.

1) This language, and the thought behind it, is stolen directly from the Marketing Machine that drives American Consumerism. And the primary tool of that Marketing Machine is the Divide-and Conquer approach. Divide society up into niche markets, then sell your product to that niche market. And make it painfully obvious that anybody who doesn't identify with that niche is a nerd, a loser, an old person (horrors!), somebody to be laughed at and avoided at all costs. Come Be Like Us! Be Cool! Be Appreciated! Show Everybody How Cool You Are For Buying Our Product! Show Everybody That You Aren't A Loser Like Those Other People!

2) Which makes the next obvious point: the product is always sold over and against something else. We're cool because we're Not Like Them! Or we used to be like them, but now we're cool because we've discovered this new product. I used to be a loser; now I shave with Afta and all the hot girls pay attention to me. I used to be a loser, but then I bought the new Nicky Hilton line of clothing, and now I'm cool. The Church used to be a bunch of losers, but now we've rebranded, dumped that boring religion of all those Old People, and now we're cool. Come check us out!

3) All of which goes against the Biblical Call for the Unity of the Body. You see, one of The Primary biblical messages is that there is one church, and that we only reflect Christ when we live out that Unity in the Church. Jesus said the world would know we are his disciples by the way we love each other. Paul spoke powerfully of Christ tearing down dividing walls to create One New Humanity. Paul blasted Peter when Peter chose to stop dining with Gentiles. The Church is the Bride of Christ, and it is beautiful. Derek Webb attempts to speak for Jesus in singing "And you cannot care for me if you've no regard for her/If you love me, you will love the Church."

Therefore, it is wrong bordering on sinful to define ourselves over and against other churches, especially against the saints that have gone on before us. It is a cheap shot to make ourselves more attractive by demeaning our "mom's or grandma's" church. This kind of statement is demeaning, divisive, and the exact WRONG way to attract people into the Kingdom. In fact, we should be doing all we can to portray to the world that we are lovers, that we cherish our ancestors, that we honor those who have gone before; if anything, we honor all outposts of the Kingdom of God, regardless if they are "cool" or not. Sara Miles, in her "Take This Bread," states that one of the tougher things about becoming a Christian was realizing she had to be in the same family as a bunch of people she vehemently disagrees with. Yet, she says, it's God's family, so she'll do her part to get along and honor those who, outside of the Body, she would never have befriended. In other words, because we are all One in Christ, we respect one another, even if we don't particularly like, say, the music somebody else listens to.

I should say that I do admire the missional aspect of MH; I understand the crowd they are trying to reach and I love that they reach people my church probably never will. I applaud them for taking the Kingdom of God out onto the Highways and Byways, and that they get into the broken, stained, sinful lives of hurting people. They have faced a lot of opposition, and continue to thrive. May they continue to do so.

But it is time we all recognize that we dare not market the Church, nor even speak about the Body, in the divisive and destructive terms laid down by Madison Avenue. The strongest message we can send to the world is We're not like you - in fact, the message we bring is a lot better than anything you'll get out there. All that stuff being sold to you will only leave you empty. But here, life is different. We get along with people who aren't like us. Old people are actually kind of popular around here. And so are young people. But God loves us all, so we pretty much all love each other. And isn't that better than the empty loneliness you're trying to fill with aftershave?"

--Posted by Dan at 10:36 AM

Meditation: Holy Tuesday

The Glory of the Cross

The cross used to denote punishment but it has now become a focus of glory. It was formerly a symbol of condemnation but it is now seen as a principle of salvation. For it has now become the source of innumerable blessings: it has delivered us from error, enlightened our darkness, and reconciled us to God; we had become God’s enemies and were foreigners afar off, and it has given us his friendship and brought us close to him. For us it has become the destruction of enmity, the token of peace, the treasury of a thousand blessings.

Thanks to the cross we are no longer wandering in the wilderness, because we know the right road; we are no longer outside the royal palace, because we have found the way in; we are not afraid of the devil’s fiery darts, because we have discovered the fountain. Thanks to the cross we are no longer in a state of widowhood, for we are reunited to the Bridegroom; we are not afraid of the wolf, because we have the good shepherd: “I am the good shepherd,” he said. Thanks to the cross we dread no usurper, since we are sitting beside the King.

That is why we keep festival as we celebrate the memory of the cross. St. Paul himself invites us to this festival in honor of the cross: “Let us celebrate the feast not with the old leaven, that of corruption and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” And he tells us why, saying: “Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed.”

Now do you see why he appoints a festival in honor of the cross? It is because Christ was immolated on the cross. And where he was sacrificed, there is found abolition of sins and reconciliation with the Lord; and there, too, festivity and happiness are found: “Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed.”... The altar of this sacrifice is a new one because the sacrifice himself is new and extraordinary. For he is at one and the same time both victim and priest; victim according to the flesh and priest according to the spirit.

This sacrifice was offered outside the camp to teach us that it is a universal sacrifice, for the offering was made for the whole world; and to teach us that it effected a general purification and not just that of Jews. God commanded the Jews to leave the rest of the world and to offer their prayers and sacrifices in one particular place; because all the rest of the world was soiled by the smoke and smell of all the impurities of pagan sacrifices. But for us, since Christ has now come and purified the whole world, every place has become an oratory.

from a homily of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople [407]

The Slip by Wendell Barry

The river takes the land, and leaves nothing.
Where the great slip gave way in the bank
and an acre disappeared, all human plans
dissolve. An awful clarification occurs
where a place was. Its memory breaks
from what is known now, begins to drift.
Where cattle grazed and trees stood, emptiness
widens the air for birdflight, wind, and rain.
As before the beginning, nothing is there.
Human wrong is in the cause, human
ruin in the effect--but no matter;
all will be lost, no matter the reason.
Nothing, having arrived, will stay.
The earth, even, is like a flower, so soon
passeth it away. And yet this nothing
is the seed of all--the clear eye
of Heaven, where all the worlds appear.
Where the imperfect has departed, the perfect
begins its struggle to return. The good gift
begins again its descent. The maker moves
in the unmade, stirring the water until
it clouds, dark beneath the surface,
stirring and darkening the soul until pain
perceives new possibility. There is nothing
to do but learn and wait, return to work
on what remains. Seed will sprout in the scar.
Though death is in the healing, it will heal.


Christian Century, June 5, 2002 by Wendell Berry

Meditation: Holy Monday

The Resurrection of the Just

Br. Claude Lane, OSB

We Gave Christ the Power to Die, He Gives Us the Power to Live.
Who is Christ if not the Word of God: in the beginning was the Word, and the Words was with God, and the Word was God? This Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. He had no power of Himself to die for us: He had to take from us our mortal flesh. This was the way in which, though immortal, He was able to die; the way in which He chose to give life to mortal men: He would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him. Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did He of Himself have the power to die.
Accordingly, He effected a wonderful exchange with us: we gave Him the power to die, He will give us the power to live.
The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory. In taking upon Himself the death that He found in us, He has most faithfully promised to give us life in Him, such as we cannot have of ourselves.
He loved us so much that, sinless Himself, He suffered for us sinners the punishment we deserved for our sins. How then can He fail to give us the reward we deserve for our righteousness, for He is the source of righteousness? How can He, whose promises are true, fail to reward the saints when He bore the punishment of sinners, though without sin Himself?
Brethren, let us then fearlessly acknowledge, and even openly proclaim, that Christ was crucified for us; let us confess it, not in fear but in joy, not in shame but in glory.
The apostle Paul saw Christ, and extolled His claim to glory. He had many great and inspired things to say about Christ, but he did not say that he boasted in Christ’s wonderful works: in creating the world, since He was God with the Father, or in ruling the world, though He was also a man like us. Rather, he said: Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Meditation for Palm Sunday

Jan Wood has linked me with the Gauthiers, and I will be passing on their excellent meditations for Holy week.



The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem

Jesus Mafa Collection, Cameroon (1977)

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the King of Israel.

Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem. He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise his voice to make it heard in the streets. He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity.

Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.

In his humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself. And even though we are told that he has now ascended above the highest heavens – the proof, surely, of his power and godhead – his love for man will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven.

So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptised into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.

--St. Andrew of Crete (669-740)

Calling all Philosophy majors...

this information is a bit dated, but I still find it comforting... now if only people knew...

"Philosophy Rocks the Graduate Record Exam!"

"Want a major that will prepare you very broadly for whatever kind of challenge you might face later in life? All things considered, averaging the rank order in each of the areas of the GRE, Philosophy does better than any other major of the fifty listed. Tell that to your Mom and Dad, when they ask what good a philosophy major is!"

Johnny Cash and Philosophy

It's finally published!
(This not a joke.)

I couldn't be prouder. Steve's article, "Beer for Breakfast: The Role of Suffering in Character Formation" is included in Johnny Cash and Philosophy: The Burning Ring of Truth, edited by John Huss and David Werther. It's a volume in the Open Court Popular Culture and Philosophers series....you know, the one that includes:

Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (2000)

The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer (2001)

The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (2003)

The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (2003)

Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box (2004)

The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am (2004)

Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy is Wrong? (2004)

Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004)

Mel Gibson's Passion and Philosophy: The Cross, the Questions, the Controversy (2004)

More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded (2005)

Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine (2005)

Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way (2005)

The Atkins Diet and Philosophy: Chewing the Fat with Kant and Nietzsche (2005)

The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview (2005)

Hip Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason (2005)

Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Thinking) (2006)

Harley-Davidson and Philosophy: Full-Throttle Aristotle (2006)

Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think! (2006)

Poker and Philosophy: Pocket Rockets and Philosopher Kings (2006)

U2 and Philosophy: How to Decipher an Atomic Band (2006)

The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless (2006)

James Bond and Philosophy: Questions Are Forever (2006)

Bullshit and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Get Perfect Results Every Time (2006)

The Beatles and Philosophy: Nothing You Can Think That Can't Be Thunk (2006)

South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating (2007)

Hitchcock and Philosophy: Dial M for Metaphysics (2007)

The Grateful Dead and Philosophy: Getting High Minded about Love and Haight (2007)

Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy: How to Philosophize with a Pair of Pliers and a Blowtorch (2007)

Pink Floyd and Philosophy: Careful with that Axiom, Eugene! (2007)

Johnny Cash and Philosophy (forthcoming 2008)

Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy (forthcoming 2008)

Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy (forthcoming 2008)

You can read Open Court's blurb about Johnny Cash and Philosophy here.

Will Easter ever come?

This sure has been a long Lent.

In fact, it feels like Lent has been going on for a couple of years now.

The latest:

1) A's father-in-law, S.A., has been here with his wife, Momma B., for a month now. A few days ago they took off to visit a cousin in Utah. Yesterday S.A. suffered a stroke out there. His speech is improving, but that is all we know. H., A's husband, is having a routine colonoscopy this morning. Then tomorrow he is going to fly to Utah.

2) A is having gall bladder trouble, and is scheduled to have it removed March 20. A scan also showed that her abdomen is filling with fluid, possibly a sign that the cancer is active again. She is in constant, incredible pain, but her doctor (in whom she has total faith) has made her go cold turkey off her oxycontin, on the grounds that "she is addicted." Dependent, yes, but how can anyone consider a terminally ill patient addicted? She and H. refuse to consider hospice care, believing (against all my efforts) that it is equivalent to dying. Her doctor is an oncological surgeon, who really has no interest in palliative care. A. refuses to consider any other medical advice but his.

3) The good news: our daughter Susan was named as one of two recipients of a scholarship that would pay $50,000 a year for two years so she could pursue doctoral studies in classics. It is contingent upon her acceptance into one of 23 "approved schools."

The bad news: Princeton and Cornell have declined her application, and the other schools she applied to (Univ. of Toronto, University of Washington) are not on the approved list. Oh, she was accepted to the second B.A. program at Downing College, Cambridge, but they don't offer financial aid to Americans; and the scholarship she won is good only for doctoral studies.

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Ripe and rotting, but hoping not to be rotten

Today I give thanks to God and celebrate 54 years of life.

I share my birthday with:

1714 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach German composer, son of JS Bach
1841 Oliver Wendell Holmes Massachusetts, 59th Supreme Court justice (1902-32)
1857 Ruggiero Leoncavallo Italian composer (I pagliacci/Zaza) 1859 Kenneth Grahame author (The Wind, Willows)
1911 Alan Hovhaness Somerville MA, composer (Lousadzak, Ukiyo)
1943 Lynn Redgrave London England, actress (Georgie Girl) Weight-Watcher
1945 Mickey Dolenz Los Angeles CA, actor (Circus Boy) singer (Monkees)
1959 Aidan Quinn Chicago IL, actor (Legends of the Fall, Michael Collins, Benny & Joon, Reackless)
1963 Kathy Ireland model/actress (Alien From LA, Side Out)

This day we commemorate

St. John of God, patron saint of booksellers (is that neat, or what?)

Edward King (1829-1910)
O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant Edward to be a bishop and pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

These folks died on March 8:

1869 Louis Hector Berlioz French composer (Symphony Fantastic), dies at 65
1874 Millard Fillmore 13th President (1850-53), dies of at 74
1917 Ferdinand von Zeppelin Dutch count/air pioneer, dies at 78
1961 Thomas Beecham English conductor (Last Night of the Prom), dies at 81
1983 William T Walton English composer (Belhazzar's feast), dies at 80

On this Day:

1618 Johann Kepler discovers the third Law of Planetary Motion.
1702 Queen Anne becomes the monarch of England upon the death of William III.
1790 George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address.
1858 Leoncavallo's opera "I Pagliacci" is produced (Naples)
1862 Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" launched
1880 U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes declared that the United States would have jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmus of Panama.
1898 Richard Straus' "Don Quixote" premieres in Keulen
1902 1st performance of Jean Sibelius' 2nd Symphony
1913 Internal Revenue Service begins to levy & collect income taxes
1930 Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India 1934 Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars
1952 - Ronald Reagan marries Nancy Davis
1959 Groucho, Chico & Harpo's final TV appearance together
1966 Casey Stengel elected to Hall of Fame
1972 1st flight of the Goodyear blimp
1974 Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris France

These are the readings for Morning Prayer from the Daily Office.
How wonderful that they should include some of my favorite texts:

Reading (nrsv) Exodus 2:23-3:15
One of my favorite Scripture passages: God reveals his Proper Name: I Am. This is big stuff for Thomists!

Canticle 12
Daniel 3:52-90 (not available in Protestant Bibles)
What a wonderful song--all creation, from angels to elements to animals to humanity to the People of God glorify the Lord. I wish I could paint a picture befitting this vision.

Reading (nrsv) 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 kjv
Another one of my favorite texts:
"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."

Reading (nrsv) Mark 9:14-29
"This kind can come out only through prayer." How many times have I come to this conclusion....

The Orthodox Study Bible

This alert comes from the Gauthiers, friends of my friends, the Woods:

The Orthodox Study Bible, created by The Orthodox Study Bible Old Testament Project and published by Thomas Nelson, is now available from Conciliar Press. It uses the New King James Version of the Bible as the basis for a fresh translation of the Septuagint text. The Septuagint is the Greek version of the Bible used by Christ, the Apostles, and the early church.

The new Orthodox Study Bible contains the entire Old Testament of the Orthodox Church, including the "Deuterocanonical" books. Although based on the New King James Version, it offers a fresh translation from the Greek text of the Septuagint.

The Orthodox Study Bible also includes:
New Testament from the New King James Version
Commentary drawn from the early Church Christians
Easy-to-Locate liturgical readings
Book Introductions and Outlines
Subject Index
Full-color Icons
Full-color Maps

Be sure to check out the sample pages. As might be expected, the note on Genesis 1:2 makes it clear that the Spirit of God proceeds from the Father. Period. (!) Actually, I'm quite excited about this Bible. It may be a godsend for those of us who are interested in Trinitarian theology, and see it as the way to heal our divided churches. I'm going to tell A.J. at Onyx House about it right away.

Rehabilitating Luther

From The Times March 6, 2008

That Martin Luther? He wasn’t so bad, says Pope

Richard Owen in Rome

Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices.

Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the move would help to promote ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. It is also designed to counteract the impact of July's papal statement describing the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as defective and “not proper Churches”.

The move to re-evaluate Luther is part of a drive to soften Pope Benedict's image as an arch conservative hardliner as he approaches the third anniversary of his election next month. This week it emerged that the Vatican is planning to erect a statue of Galileo, who also faced a heresy trial, to mark the 400th anniversary next year of his discovery of the telescope.

Related Links
Vatican recants with a statue of Galileo
Pope rewrites prayer for 'conversion' of the Jews
The Pope has also reached out to the Muslim world to mend fences after his 2006 speech at Regensburg University in which he appeared to describe Islam as inherently violent and irrational. This week Muslim scholars and Vatican officials met at the pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue in Rome to begin laying the groundwork for a meeting between the Pope and leading Muslims, also expected to be held at Castelgandolfo.

Cardinal Kasper said: “We have much to learn from Luther, beginning with the importance he attached to the word of God.” It was time for a “more positive” view of Luther, whose reforms had aroused papal ire at the time but could now be seen as having “anticipated aspects of reform which the Church has adopted over time”.

The Castelgandolfo seminar will in part focus on the question of apostolic succession, through which the apostles passed on the authority they received from Jesus to the first bishops. After the Reformation Protestants took the view that “succession” referred only to God's Word and not to church hierarchies but some German scholars have suggested Luther himself did not intend this.

Luther challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the sole source of religious authority and made it accessible to ordinary people by translating it into the vernacular. He became convinced that the Church had lost sight of the “central truths of Christianity”, and was appalled on a visit to Rome in 1510 by the power, wealth and corruption of the papacy.

In 1517 he protested publicly against the sale of papal indulgences for the remission of sins in his “95 Theses”, nailing a copy to the door of a Wittenberg church. Some theologians argue that Luther did not intend to confront the papacy “in a doctrinaire way” but only to raise legitimate questions - a view Pope Benedict apparently shares.

Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X, who dismissed him initially as “a drunken German who will change his mind when sober”.

Your Divine Art

Here's a site worth visiting: Your Divine Art


I especially like this work, by Ann Fawssett-Atkin's piece 'Female Chaffinch'. She says: "Amongst the clouds is a large figure of the dove (now at rest) after 'The Baptism of Christ' scene by Piero della Francesca."

Jonathan Sacks on Multiculturalism

U.K. chief rabbi: Multiculturalism is a threat to liberal democracy

By The Associated Press

Multiculturalism promotes segregation, stifles free speech and threatens liberal democracy, Britain's top Jewish official warned in extracts from his book published Saturday.

Jonathan Sacks, Britain's chief rabbi, defined multiculturalism as an attempt to affirm Britain's diverse communities and make ethnic and religious minorities more appreciated and respected. But in his book, "The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society," he said the movement had run its course.

"Multiculturalism has led not to integration but to segregation," Sacks wrote in his book, an extract of which was published in the Times of London.
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"Liberal democracy is in danger," Sacks said, adding later: "The politics of freedom risks descending into the politics of fear."

Sacks said Britain's politics had been poisoned by the rise of identity
politics, as minorities and aggrieved groups jockeyed first for rights, then for special treatment.

The process, he said, began with Jews, before being taken up by blacks, women and gays. He said the effect had been inexorably divisive.

"A culture of victimhood sets group against group, each claiming that its
pain, injury, oppression, humiliation is greater than that of others," he
said.

In an interview with the Times, Sacks said he wanted his book to be extremely politically incorrect. But Sacks defended his strong support for Jewish schools in Britain, saying the promotion of Jewish education was compatible with integration.

Photogenic and outspoken, Sacks is highly regarded in Britain and makes
frequent appearances on television, radio and in the national press.

His reputation among Britain's 260,000-strong Jewish community is more varied.

Ultra-Orthodox believers were dismayed by the suggestion in Sacks' earlier book, "The Dignity of Difference," that the faith did not contain the absolute truth, according to The Times.

Sacks also raised hackles when, in 2002, he said in an interview that there were many things that happened in Israel that made him very uncomfortable as a Jew.