Gonna give this a rest for a bit. Sort of talked out, at least when it comes to religion, and I can’t think of anything else that really interests me right now. Or at least, that I think anyone would be interested in hearing my opinions on. I tried putting the blog to bed, but a couple of you (might be all of you, for all I know) have requested that I keep this up on the web, so I will. And if you have something to say, then go on ahead. Conversing can still be fun.
So, at the sacred Seder supper that Yeshua bar Yosef (Jesus of Nazareth) shared with his close Jewish friends he dared to suggest they replace the traditional offerings, meant to remind the Jews of their salvation from Egypt, with something new; bread and wine, to be shared from that time forward in honor of him. Pretty radical. Pretty scandalous, actually. Definitely heretical.
But what was his purpose? Did he want to toss out one religious custom, replacing it with another? Was the broken bread to be primarily a poetic reminder of his body broken on the cross? Was the red wine a really a metaphor for the spilled blood of the “lamb of God”? Was this last meal meant to be a symbolic representation of the personal offering God would require of Yeshua, the “perfect” sacrifice made so that we Christian believers might be home free?
Is that all we are to get out of the symbolism of bread and wine? - a reminder that we have been ’saved’. But then what does it mean to drink from Yeshua’s cup – why is this such a challenge for us?
Holy Communion is not just a mystical or symbolic meal -a sacrament (though it can be that as well). It is a reminder of what we are to do if we are to follow Jesus: to sacrifice our lives and and, if necessary, die. Not for Jesus (Yeshua). Not for God. But for other people. Even our enemies. Just as he did.
He wasn’t laying down a new religious tradition -creating a new ritual. He was proposing a new course of action, one that required no religion.
Boy, did we blow it.
The only unforgiveable sin.
(At least the police in some states give a damn about this. They don’t in Maryland.)
Because then I’ll lose my chance to gloat.
In keeping with the spirit of the season I will once again post my “Ghost Story”.
My wife and daughter share a casual interest in accounts of the supernatural. They love to watch those ghost shows on the cable channels, the ones where the paranormal investigators check out allegedly haunted houses. Although they are not in the least way obsessed with the idea of supernatural contact, they both find it entertaining and have adopted a “who knows?” attitude. As for myself, I am a born skeptic and have little time for these ‘reality’ TV programs.
Last Sunday Bev and I took out our 19 year old daughter, Dot, and her best friend Bekah , for afternoon drive in countryside. It was autumn’s peak – a classic fall day with brisk wind pushing gunmetal clouds across a blue sky. The sunlight had that watery feel to it, softening the bright colors of the leaves. Later in the afternoon we ended up in an old town that is famous for being at the center of a Civil War battle. Dot mentioned that the town was considered a favorite haunt for many ghosts, apparently due to the thousands of violent deaths suffered in the battle.
Since the weather was so nice and the trees so beautiful we were surprised that so few restaurants in town were open, but we found a busy place on the square. Most of the buildings in town looked quite old yet well maintained, and this one was no exception. There was a 20 minute wait for a table so I took my pager outside and sat on a bench. My wife ran into an antique store to check out their advertised “dental artifacts” while the girls ran up to the lady’s room, on the second floor.
Ten minutes later they burst out through the front door, laughing and giggling. When I asked them what was so funny Dot held out her phone to me. “Listen” she said.
The traffic noise was loud on the square but I could just make out Dot’s voice saying; “Is there anyone with us today? If you’re here we would like to talk to you.” There was a long pause full of static, then Dot saying; “You can talk to me (garbled)?” Pause. “ You don’t have to be afraid of us. You can talk to me. My name is Dot. Pause. Allright, bye- bye.” The recording ended with the sounds of both girls giggling. .
I knew what they had been up to. Recently we watched the movie “White Noise” on DVD. In it, Michael Keaton is contacted by souls who have gone over to the ‘other side’. They reached him by laying their voices down on magnetic recording tape. Upon playback these spectral voices could be heard for the first time. Called EVP – Electronic Voice Phenomena- it is taken very seriously by some people, the foremost experts being Lisa and Tom Butler of AAEVP, consultants on the film. [ http://www.aaevp.com/ ] I thought it was a fair movie, but like most ‘scary’ movies you need to suspend your disbelief for a couple of hours. My disbelief in the paranormal returned before the credits were running.
I smiled and handed the phone back. I was never surprise at what Dot might come up with. Just as Bev was walking up the restaurant pager went off. We went in and had an enjoyable meal and within a few hours we were back home. That night, in the quiet of our living room, Dot listened to the recording again. Excited, she had us listen to it as well.
In the middle of the second pause of scratchy white noise what sounded like woman’s low voice could be heard whispering something like “Kitty, kitty’s dead”, followed by a very soft chuckle (or sobbing?). I immediately suspected a prank but Dot quickly convinced me of their innocence. I know my daughter, and that’s not her style. She insisted that they were completely alone in the ladies room (she would never have attempted this stunt in public) You can hear the recording by going to the following link:
I searched for more information on Google and found this:
In 2001 this restaurant burned down to the ground and it had since been rebuilt to the original specifications. During the reconstruction the body of a recently murdered woman had been discovered at the building site, where she reportedly had been left to die. (I have yet to find any other information). The restaurant staff says that the ghost of this woman haunts the building, open and closing doors and windows , with most of the activity taking place in the kitchen and in the ladies room!
OK. I can’t explain it. Is this some elaborate hoax being perpetrated by the operators of this restaurant? It’s not as if they promoted any haunting – it was not easy finding the story of the dead woman’s body. Could it be the tortured soul of someone named Kitty is somehow trapped in this house? Or, as my daughter suspects, was the spirit mocking Dot, comparing her to someone who casually calls for a pet, not knowing what they are really dealing with? Is Kitty someone we should be praying for?
At one time I would never have taken this kind of stuff seriously. But for over the past 5 years I have been very interested in spirituality. Who knows?
What do you think? Does anyone have a ghost story to share?
An interesting conversation is happening over on at Debs’ blog about the problems with capital punishment. The consensus seems to be that even though it is possible to condemn innocent people to death and that it has happened before and is likely to happen again, there is no need to be hasty. Generally speaking, capital punishment works.
One commenter, more or less opposed to capital punishment, agreed, saying:
…we should not throw out the system, until there is more evidence that it is not working. There are very few instances where the individual was found to be innocent after they we executed. It has happened however, so we need to keep improving our judicial review process. It will never likely be perfect.
And if it can never be perfect, if the system can and will execute innocent people, how much different than this is murder? Sure it’s a mistake, but unlike negligent homicide, here the intent of the state is always to kill the accused. The state now becomes an ipso facto murderer.
So here’s my solution: keep the death penalty, because some people certainly deserve to die for their crimes and at the very least should not be allowed to harm others (including inmates). And maybe, just maybe, there is an effective deterrent working here (though I personally doubt it). But….whenever an innocent man is executed, then execute the judge and the prosecuting attorney. For murder.
Can’t fail to work. Deterrence. Won’t know unless we try it.
Jesus was notorious for surrounding himself with the ordinary, the lowly and the unsophisticated, people that we might think of as ‘losers’. This shows Christians that God’s love is not reserved for the beautiful, the wealthy, the powerful – the world’s winners- but that God loves everyone. However, as Christians focus on Jesus as God we tend to forget that he was a rabbi, a teacher, who’s simple message was difficult for many people to grasp. It seemed that the more someone was schooled in religion, the more powerful or affluent, the more thick headed that person was likely to be.
At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
But for the worn out, the tired –the ones looked down upon as stupid and infantile – Jesus’ message seemed to click with them. Somehow the “losers” got it.
‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
Why did Jesus’ message seem to resonate with the lower classes and not with the intelligentsia? Was it simply because they were suffering and desired relief? Was it because they were victims of a collaboration between religion and empire, ready for social change? Or was there more to it than that?
And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’
What was Jesus saying here? That he hung out with “sinners” because they needed his healing grace but not with the Pharisees because they already had their act together? Doubtful. More likely he was being sarcastic, pointing out that these ‘simple’ sinners, unencumbered with years of scholarship, lofty ideals and the belief that they owned special knowledge, were open to his teachings. Their minds were not cluttered and weighted own with heavy doctrines and dogmas. After all, they weren’t paid to think.
Unlike their righteous rulers, who understood how the world worked, the ignorant common man suspected that something was not quite right with their lives, that something needed fixing. Today we know that it was the righteous who probably needed fixing the most. So, why didn’t Jesus spend more time with them?
Maybe because he knew it would be a waste of his time. Those who already “know” all the answers are just too hard headed, too rigid, and too afraid to consider many counter intuitive messages. Instead he spent his time with the common people and from them he called his apostles, his best students. Maybe it was harder for an educated, successful man to follow Jesus than it was for that camel to thread the needle.
For that matter, how do we know that Jesus only called those twelve men? Maybe they were the only ones who initially heard his call, hearing something of value in it. Maybe they were the only ones who understood enough of it to teach it. Later, they too became Masters, like Jesus. They proved this with their willingness to sacrifice their own lives rather than lose the Way.
Another teacher, who lived 3000 miles away and 500 years earlier, spoke in ways that pre-echo Jesus’ teachings.
My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you’ll fail.
My teachings are older than the world.
How can you grasp their meaning?
If you want to know me,
look inside your heart.
Not-knowing is true knowledge.
Presuming to know is a disease.
First realize that you are sick;
then you can move toward health.
The Master is her own physician.
She has healed herself of all knowing.
Thus she is truly whole.
Perhaps this has some bearing on why Paul and Timothy were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.” Could it have been because the word – the Good News about a way of living with and in God – was already being spoken there?
The kingdom of God is available to you in the here and the now. But the question is whether you are available to the kingdom. Our practice is to make ourselves ready for the kingdom so that it can manifest in the here and the now. You don’t need to die in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, you have to be truly alive in order to do so.
Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even soldiers. Some army generals, for example, conduct their operations in ways that avoid killing innocent people; this is a kind of nonviolence. To help soldiers move in the nonviolent direction, we have to be in touch with them. If we divide reality into two camps – the violent and the nonviolent – and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never have peace. We will always blame and condemn those we feel are responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing the degree of violence in ourselves. We must work on ourselves and also with those we condemn if we want to have a real impact.
It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some people as enemies, even those who act violently. We have to approach them with love in our hearts and do our best to help them move in a direction of nonviolence. If we work for peace out of anger, we will never succeed. Peace is not an end. It can never come about through non-peaceful means.
When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you
don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not
doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or
less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have
problems with our friends or family, we blame the other
person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will
grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive
effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason
and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no
reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you
understand, and you show that you understand, you can
love, and the situation will change
The problem is whether we are determined to go in the direction of compassion or not. If we are, then can we reduce the suffering to a minimum? If I lose my direction, I have to look for the North Star, and I go to the north. That does not mean I expect to arrive at the North Star. I just want to go in that direction.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Gotta thank Theopoet for this scoop. I find it funny – no, actually it’s sad – that so many of these mixed up people belong to communities called “Grace”. They don’t have any idea what the word means.
On October 31, Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina will celebrate Halloween by burning Bibles. Here’s the description of this upcoming shindig:
Come celebrate Halloween by burning Satan’s bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect. These are perversions of God’s Word the King James Bible.
We will also be burning Satan’s music such as country, rap, rock, pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel, contempory Christian, jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.
We will also be burning Satan’s popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort, Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll, John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham, Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa, The Pope, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.
We are not burning Bibles written in other languages that are based on the TR. We are not burning the Wycliffe, Tyndale, Genevia or other translations that are based on the TR.
More here from Waco’s KWTX.com
According to the church website, BBQ and Fried Chicken complete with all sides will be served at the event.
Influences include Billy Sunday, A.W. Tozer, Bob Jones Sr., J. Frank Norris and R.G. Lee.
There have been some (tongue in cheek?) comments on Theo’s site saying, to the effect, that this type of behavior won’t land these folks in hell, but it sure reflects badly on Christians. And that it does. But though burning books may not send someone to a mythical place called ‘Hell’ it is a good sign that these people are already living there. Because hell is surely a place without grace, no matter what you call it.
Delaware 1st grader has 45-day suspension lifted
By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer Ben Nuckols, Associated Press Writer
BEAR, Del. – A Delaware first-grader who was facing 45 days in an alternative school as punishment for taking his favorite camping utensil to school can return to class after the school board made a hasty change granting him a reprieve….
Zachary Christie, 6, had faced 45 days in an alternative school for troublemakers after he took the utensil — a combination folding knife, fork and spoon — to school to eat lunch last month….
The punishment given to Zachary was one of several in recent years that have prompted national debate on whether schools have gone too far with zero-tolerance policies.
It was not the first such case in the Christina School District, Delaware’s largest with more than 17,000 students, which includes parts of the city of Wilmington and its suburbs. Last year, a fifth-grade girl was ordered expelled after she brought a birthday cake to school and a serrated knife to cut it with….
School board member John Mackenzie told The Associated Press before the meeting that he was surprised school officials did not use common sense and disregard the policy in Zachary’s case. The need for common sense to prevail over the letter of the law was a recurring theme among the boy’s supporters and school safety experts….
Not everyone believed the school district was out of line.
Jill Kneisley, who runs the special education programs at Jennie Smith Elementary in Newark, said schools need to be vigilant about protecting students. If Zachary or another student had been hurt by the knife, she said, the district would have taken the blame.
“If we can’t punish him, then what about kids that did bring (a weapon) for bad things?” Kneisley said. “There’s more to the school’s side than just us being mean and not taking this child’s interests into account.”
Sure there is. The school’s intolerance is not driven by meanness or disdain for the children. It is driven by fear.
Remind you of anything? I’m sorry, I can’t help it. But legalism, whether found in the school district, the Office of Homeland Security or the local church, is always motivated by fear. It requires that we suspend common sense and put our minds on hold for supposedly higher ideals. And the end result is invariably self defeating. Fear is always intolerant. Fear speaks in absolute terms – everything is either black or white, good or bad. There are no areas in between worth considering. Fear is what drives those who commit senseless acts of violence because fear always drives out love.
Unlike many Christians, I can’t put my finger on the exact moment, day or even month when I became ‘saved’. I know it was about seven or eight years ago when God, through Jesus, became the focus of my life. I certainly thought that I was saved, or at least most of the time I did. Well, maybe some of the time. My new life was usually pretty good, certainly better than it had been, at least spiritually. I just kept praying it would get better.
I do remember the circumstances when God answered my prayers and things did begin to get better, much better. It was while reading “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennan Manning. Manning‘s relentless prose exposed me for the helpless legalist that I am and inspired me to begin trusting in God’s infinite and unquenchable grace. I now understand that there was no one moment when I became saved but that I was always in God’s good graces. I just needed to accept that God accepted me – exactly as I am.
Reading the book again, I was reminded how forcefully the following passages struck me:
“Yes, the gracious God enfleshed in Jesus Christ loves us.”
“Grace is the active expression of his love. The Christian lives by grace as Abba’s child, utterly rejecting the God who catches people by surprise in a moment of weakness—the God incapable of smiling at our awkward mistakes, the God who does not accept a seat at our human festivities, the God who says “You will pay for that,” the God incapable of understanding that children will always get dirty and be forgetful, the God always snooping around after sinners.”
“At the same time, the child of the Father rejects the pastel-colored patsy God who promises never to rain on our parade….
…the child of God knows that the graced life calls him or her to live on a cold and windy mountain, not on the flattened plain of reasonable, middle-of-the-road religion.”
“For at the heart of the gospel of grace, the sky darkens, the wind howls, a young man walks up another Moriah in obedience to a God who demands everything and stops at nothing. Unlike Abraham, he carries a cross on his back rather than sticks for the fire…like Abraham, listening to a wild and restless God who will have His way with us, no matter what the cost.”
“This is the God of the gospel of grace. A God who, out of love for us, sent the only Son He ever had wrapped in our skin. He learned how to walk, stumbled and fell, cried for His milk, sweated blood in the night, was lashed with a whip and showered with spit, was fixed to a cross, and died whispering forgiveness on us all.”
“The God of the legalistic Christian, on the other hand, is often unpredictable, erratic, and capable of all manner of prejudices. When we view God this way, we feel compelled to engage in some sort of magic to appease Him. Sunday worship becomes a superstitious insurance policy against His whims. This God expects people to be perfect and to be in perpetual control of their feelings and thoughts. When broken people with this concept of God fail—as inevitably they must—they usually expect punishment. So they persevere in religious practices as they struggle to maintain a hollow image of a perfect self. The struggle itself is exhausting. The legalists can never live up to the expectations they project on God.”
“A married woman in Atlanta with two small children told me recently she was certain that God was disappointed with her because she wasn’t “doing anything” for Him. She told me she felt called to a soup kitchen ministry but struggled with leaving her children in someone else’s care. She was shocked when I told her the call was not from God but from her own ingrained legalism. Being a good mother wasn’t enough for her; in her mind, neither was it good enough for God.”
“In similar fashion, a person who thinks of God as a loose cannon firing random broadsides to let us know who’s in charge will become fearful, slavish, and probably unbending in his or her expectations of others. If your God is an impersonal cosmic force, your religion will be noncommittal and vague. The image of God as an omnipotent thug who brooks no human intervention creates a rigid lifestyle ruled by puritanical laws and dominated by fear.”
“But trust in the God who loves consistently and faithfully nurtures confident, free disciples. A loving God fosters a loving people.” [Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel]
“Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free.” [Pat Buchanan, 1993]
“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war.” [Ann Coulter, 2001]
“In the coming years an endless struggle will be waged across five continents, a struggle in which either violence or dialogue will prevail. Granted, the former has a thousand times the chances of the latter. But I have always thought that if the man who places hope in the human condition is a fool, then he who gives up hope in the face of circumstances is a coward. Henceforth, the only honor will lie in obstinately holding to a formidable gamble: that words are stronger than bullets.” [Albert Camus, 1946]
“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” [Proverbs 15:1]
