Weekly Recap for Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States - What creation story do you believe? This and more in our Free Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week.
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Unleashing America’s Shadow
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee stands for “hatred of immigrants, racial superiority, a sneering disregard of the basic civility that binds a society” and his supporters love him for “telling it like it is.”
READ ON ...
"Unleashing America’s Shadow" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
“With media complicity, Trump has unleashed the beast that has long resided not far from the American hearth, from those who started a Civil War to preserve the right to enslave a fellow human to the Know-Nothing mobs who burned Irish-Catholic churches out of fear of immigrants.” This observation is from Timothy Egan’s excellent article “The Beast Is Us” in The New York Times. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee stands for “hatred of immigrants, racial superiority, a sneering disregard of the basic civility that binds a society” and his supporters love him for “telling it like it is.”
Those who are backing Trump are as angry as he is and that is why they cheer him on when he advocates torture of supposed enemies of America, when he quotes the Fascist Benito Mussolini, or when he attacks free speech by suggesting he’d like to expand the use of libel laws. No wonder the German magazine Der Spiegel has called him “the world’s most dangerous man.”
It would be very easy for us to condemn Trump and his followers for their outrageous positions that go against longstanding American policies and values. But instead of dismissing these far-Right activists, we can use this fear and tension drenched moment to affirm and reflect upon the importance of the spiritual practice of shadow. Anthony Stevens has written:
“At this very moment in the history of humankind, evolution has put us on the spot. There is an urgent biological imperative to make the shadow conscious. The moral burden of this immense task is greater than any previous generation could have even conceived: the destiny of the planet and our entire solar system. Only by coming to terms with our nature — and the nature of the Shadow — can we hope to avert total catastrophe.”
Trump and his supporters have helped us to see the cumulative fallout of events in American history we’d like to keep hidden from examination: the genocide of Native Americans, the witch hunts, the slave trade, economic imperialism, global militarism, McCarthyism, and rampant environmental destruction. These shadowy behaviors have been saluted and efficiently carried out by our leaders in the name of patriotism, idealism, and progress. And these goals reveal the dark capacities of our own human nature. As citizens of the 21st century, we must now take personal responsibility for the dire consequences of our unacknowledged and unbridled darker side.
Trump and company have given us a sacred teaching moment: they have made it possible for us to witness the denied parts of our selfishness, bigotry, greed, and entitlement as we ponder the possible perilous impact of our national shadow. We bless the wisdom of writer Henry Miller who wrote: “The full and joyful acceptance of the worst in oneself may be the only sure way of transforming it.”
To accept the mystery and paradox of shadow is to unleash a love and respect for others. In many spiritual traditions, shadow work leads to heart work. We accept the imperfection of ourselves and others as we experience a fuller and richer sense of our common humanity.
Originally published here on Spirituality & Practice …
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A Religious Utopia Turned Nightmare
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee stands for “hatred of immigrants, racial superiority, a sneering disregard of the basic civility that binds a society” and his supporters love him for “telling it like it is.”
READ ON ...
"Unleashing America’s Shadow" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
“With media complicity, Trump has unleashed the beast that has long resided not far from the American hearth, from those who started a Civil War to preserve the right to enslave a fellow human to the Know-Nothing mobs who burned Irish-Catholic churches out of fear of immigrants.” This observation is from Timothy Egan’s excellent article “The Beast Is Us” in The New York Times. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee stands for “hatred of immigrants, racial superiority, a sneering disregard of the basic civility that binds a society” and his supporters love him for “telling it like it is.”
Those who are backing Trump are as angry as he is and that is why they cheer him on when he advocates torture of supposed enemies of America, when he quotes the Fascist Benito Mussolini, or when he attacks free speech by suggesting he’d like to expand the use of libel laws. No wonder the German magazine Der Spiegel has called him “the world’s most dangerous man.”
It would be very easy for us to condemn Trump and his followers for their outrageous positions that go against longstanding American policies and values. But instead of dismissing these far-Right activists, we can use this fear and tension drenched moment to affirm and reflect upon the importance of the spiritual practice of shadow. Anthony Stevens has written:
“At this very moment in the history of humankind, evolution has put us on the spot. There is an urgent biological imperative to make the shadow conscious. The moral burden of this immense task is greater than any previous generation could have even conceived: the destiny of the planet and our entire solar system. Only by coming to terms with our nature — and the nature of the Shadow — can we hope to avert total catastrophe.”
Trump and his supporters have helped us to see the cumulative fallout of events in American history we’d like to keep hidden from examination: the genocide of Native Americans, the witch hunts, the slave trade, economic imperialism, global militarism, McCarthyism, and rampant environmental destruction. These shadowy behaviors have been saluted and efficiently carried out by our leaders in the name of patriotism, idealism, and progress. And these goals reveal the dark capacities of our own human nature. As citizens of the 21st century, we must now take personal responsibility for the dire consequences of our unacknowledged and unbridled darker side.
Trump and company have given us a sacred teaching moment: they have made it possible for us to witness the denied parts of our selfishness, bigotry, greed, and entitlement as we ponder the possible perilous impact of our national shadow. We bless the wisdom of writer Henry Miller who wrote: “The full and joyful acceptance of the worst in oneself may be the only sure way of transforming it.”
To accept the mystery and paradox of shadow is to unleash a love and respect for others. In many spiritual traditions, shadow work leads to heart work. We accept the imperfection of ourselves and others as we experience a fuller and richer sense of our common humanity.
Originally published here on Spirituality & Practice …
---------------------
A Religious Utopia Turned Nightmare
Irene Monroe
The widening wealth gap between blacks, whites and Latinos, coupled with the downward mobility of the black middle class, only amplifies the role of religion in black life.
READ ON ...
"A Religious Utopia Turned Nightmare" by Irene Monroe
“Their emigration to Jonestown in Guyana, South American represents another leg of the African Diaspora, but this time black bodies are stolen and killed not by the hands of white slave hunters, but rather by a religious rhetoric that pimps and profits on the racial, economic, and gendered disenfranchised.”
The last time an African American lesbian was the protagonist in a novel was in Ann Allen Shockley’s 1982 “Say Jesus and Come to Me.” What shocked and awed readers about this main character is that she is also an itinerant minister. While crusading against street vice in Nashville the Reverend Myrtle Black meets world-famous R&B songstress Travis Lee who joins the crusade. Their girl crushes on each other are both profoundly spiritual and powerfully sexual that neither can ignore. And neither could readers ignore the author’s apt and scathing critique of the Black Church’s misogyny and homophobia. For decades Shockley’s novel was every black lesbians Bible – myself included.
But the book leaves you with the following queries to do more than merely pray about: Should the Black Church continue to have such a central role in the lives of African Americans given its very toxic androcentric ecclesiastical paradigm that systematically still bars many of us-straight or LGBTQ-ascendency to the pulpit? Can African Americans find liberation in the ever present accommodationist phase of the black church that sells out its social gospel message of justice for conservative faith-based initiative dollars?
Whereas Shockley’s fictional tale gives – especially African American LGBTQs-unproved reasons and unfed hope to stay in the Black Church, other than its familiarity, Sikivu Hutchinson’s historical gothic novel “White Nights, Black Paradise” gives us all reason to leave religion entirely.
For centuries, the paradigm of leadership in the African-American community has been the Black Church with its homophobic and sexist yet charismatic gay preacher, (i.e., Bishop Eddie Long). Hutchinson’s novel disturbingly shows the complexity of a repackaged and unexamined black religious idealism espoused from the mouth of a white megalomaniacal messiah alongside the harsh reality of a supposed utopia. Based on the true and horrifying story of the charismatic Reverend Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple and Jonestown massacre, Hutchinson novel is both a reckoning and remembering of the lives lost -the largest religious murder-suicide in American history.
Over 900 members of the People’s Temple, an African American multiracial church with Pentecostal roots, died in the Jonestown massacre in 1978. Approximately, 75 percent of Peoples Temple congregants were African American, 20 percent were white and 5 percent were Asian, Latino and Native American. The majority of its black congregants were women, while its core leadership was predominantly white as too is the historical records and visual optics of the event. And as in the Black Church, black women were “the backbone” of Peoples Temple. Sadly, the majority of Jonestown’s victims were African American women, too. And the haunting question is why did so many black women die?
“Unpacking why so many black women died in Jonestown requires taking a critical look back at the racial underbelly of the Jonestown age. It demands confronting hard truths about the dangerously gendered seductions of organized religion, particularly given the global appeal that 24/7 prayer movements and charismatic Pentecostalism have for women of color,” Hutchinson said.
“The widening wealth gap between blacks, whites and Latinos, coupled with the downward mobility of the black middle class, only amplifies the role of religion in black life. Because charismatic faith movements thrive in the presence of socioeconomic and political turbulence black religiosity is flourishing.”
The title “White Nights, Black Paradise” is drawn from two metaphors. The phrase “White Night” signified a state of siege and persecution Jonestown rallied around to protect itself from white racist attacks, and “Black Paradise” refers to Jonestown settlement as a kind of “Promised Land,” and racial utopia.
The characters in the novel are a cross-section of the American populace – “queer, lesbian, bisexual, trans, straight, African American, Latino, multiracial, white, age/class diverse and all over the map in terms of spiritual belief, “ Hutchinson explains.
Whereas one of Shockley’s main protagonist, Reverend Myrtle Black, is a lesbian and Christian, raising eyebrows for many in the African American community, one of Hutchinson’s main characters, Taryn Strayer, is an atheist, and her sister Hy Strayer, is an agnostic – both causing a disruption and dis-ease in how African Americans have seen, read, accepted, and envisioned themselves in the African American literary canon.
The sisters’ religious beliefs are born from too many unanswered prayers.
“In third grade she learned the unreliability of the Lord. She called on him to annihilate the cackling, drooling pinheads who wanted to see her fuck up. What was the Lord God Almighty good for if he couldn’t pull off a small favor after a week’s worth of goodness from her?, ” narrator’s voice referring to Taryn.
The book opens with the sisters’ migration to their surprise segregated San Francisco from the Midwest, conjuring up for me Isabel Wilkerson’s groundbreaking and 2010 historical bestseller “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.”
Wilkerson’s book is about the migratory patterns—The Great Migration between 1910 -1930 and Second Great Migration between 1941-1970—of African Americans from the South to all points the hell out of it. To the Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1915 and 1970, which the sister’s journey is one of many stories.
Their emigration to Jonestown in Guyana, South American represents another leg of the African Diaspora, but this time black bodies are stolen and killed not by the hands of white slave hunters, but rather by a religious rhetoric that pimps and profits on the racial, economic, and gendered disenfranchised.
We know how the Jonestown massacre happened. “White Nights, Black Paradise” seeks to answer the “Why?” and ask “Could it happen again”?
As I read Hutchinson’s book I thought of “Those Bones Are Not My Child,” a fictional rendering of the 1979-1981 Atlanta child murders. Toni Cade’s magnum opus that Toni Morrison depicts as a “novel that leaves us with an enduring and revelatory chronicle of an American nightmare.” Similarly, Hutchson’s novel does, too. Sadly, however, Bambara’s book, in my opinion, went away from the public eye as swiftly as it came.
But Hutchinson’s won’t because for those who dare to remember the Jonestown massacre these questions still linger:
“But why is it that the African American community then and now, refuse to stand still and acknowledge the gravity of what took place that fateful day? Why aren’t African American ministers of the cloth, churches and communities not setting this day aside to remember the tragedy that was the People’s Temple?”
Defiantly, many are still waiting for a response.
---------------------
Affirmations and Confessions of a Progressive Christian Layman – And God Created…
The widening wealth gap between blacks, whites and Latinos, coupled with the downward mobility of the black middle class, only amplifies the role of religion in black life.
READ ON ...
"A Religious Utopia Turned Nightmare" by Irene Monroe
“Their emigration to Jonestown in Guyana, South American represents another leg of the African Diaspora, but this time black bodies are stolen and killed not by the hands of white slave hunters, but rather by a religious rhetoric that pimps and profits on the racial, economic, and gendered disenfranchised.”
The last time an African American lesbian was the protagonist in a novel was in Ann Allen Shockley’s 1982 “Say Jesus and Come to Me.” What shocked and awed readers about this main character is that she is also an itinerant minister. While crusading against street vice in Nashville the Reverend Myrtle Black meets world-famous R&B songstress Travis Lee who joins the crusade. Their girl crushes on each other are both profoundly spiritual and powerfully sexual that neither can ignore. And neither could readers ignore the author’s apt and scathing critique of the Black Church’s misogyny and homophobia. For decades Shockley’s novel was every black lesbians Bible – myself included.
But the book leaves you with the following queries to do more than merely pray about: Should the Black Church continue to have such a central role in the lives of African Americans given its very toxic androcentric ecclesiastical paradigm that systematically still bars many of us-straight or LGBTQ-ascendency to the pulpit? Can African Americans find liberation in the ever present accommodationist phase of the black church that sells out its social gospel message of justice for conservative faith-based initiative dollars?
Whereas Shockley’s fictional tale gives – especially African American LGBTQs-unproved reasons and unfed hope to stay in the Black Church, other than its familiarity, Sikivu Hutchinson’s historical gothic novel “White Nights, Black Paradise” gives us all reason to leave religion entirely.
For centuries, the paradigm of leadership in the African-American community has been the Black Church with its homophobic and sexist yet charismatic gay preacher, (i.e., Bishop Eddie Long). Hutchinson’s novel disturbingly shows the complexity of a repackaged and unexamined black religious idealism espoused from the mouth of a white megalomaniacal messiah alongside the harsh reality of a supposed utopia. Based on the true and horrifying story of the charismatic Reverend Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple and Jonestown massacre, Hutchinson novel is both a reckoning and remembering of the lives lost -the largest religious murder-suicide in American history.
Over 900 members of the People’s Temple, an African American multiracial church with Pentecostal roots, died in the Jonestown massacre in 1978. Approximately, 75 percent of Peoples Temple congregants were African American, 20 percent were white and 5 percent were Asian, Latino and Native American. The majority of its black congregants were women, while its core leadership was predominantly white as too is the historical records and visual optics of the event. And as in the Black Church, black women were “the backbone” of Peoples Temple. Sadly, the majority of Jonestown’s victims were African American women, too. And the haunting question is why did so many black women die?
“Unpacking why so many black women died in Jonestown requires taking a critical look back at the racial underbelly of the Jonestown age. It demands confronting hard truths about the dangerously gendered seductions of organized religion, particularly given the global appeal that 24/7 prayer movements and charismatic Pentecostalism have for women of color,” Hutchinson said.
“The widening wealth gap between blacks, whites and Latinos, coupled with the downward mobility of the black middle class, only amplifies the role of religion in black life. Because charismatic faith movements thrive in the presence of socioeconomic and political turbulence black religiosity is flourishing.”
The title “White Nights, Black Paradise” is drawn from two metaphors. The phrase “White Night” signified a state of siege and persecution Jonestown rallied around to protect itself from white racist attacks, and “Black Paradise” refers to Jonestown settlement as a kind of “Promised Land,” and racial utopia.
The characters in the novel are a cross-section of the American populace – “queer, lesbian, bisexual, trans, straight, African American, Latino, multiracial, white, age/class diverse and all over the map in terms of spiritual belief, “ Hutchinson explains.
Whereas one of Shockley’s main protagonist, Reverend Myrtle Black, is a lesbian and Christian, raising eyebrows for many in the African American community, one of Hutchinson’s main characters, Taryn Strayer, is an atheist, and her sister Hy Strayer, is an agnostic – both causing a disruption and dis-ease in how African Americans have seen, read, accepted, and envisioned themselves in the African American literary canon.
The sisters’ religious beliefs are born from too many unanswered prayers.
“In third grade she learned the unreliability of the Lord. She called on him to annihilate the cackling, drooling pinheads who wanted to see her fuck up. What was the Lord God Almighty good for if he couldn’t pull off a small favor after a week’s worth of goodness from her?, ” narrator’s voice referring to Taryn.
The book opens with the sisters’ migration to their surprise segregated San Francisco from the Midwest, conjuring up for me Isabel Wilkerson’s groundbreaking and 2010 historical bestseller “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.”
Wilkerson’s book is about the migratory patterns—The Great Migration between 1910 -1930 and Second Great Migration between 1941-1970—of African Americans from the South to all points the hell out of it. To the Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1915 and 1970, which the sister’s journey is one of many stories.
Their emigration to Jonestown in Guyana, South American represents another leg of the African Diaspora, but this time black bodies are stolen and killed not by the hands of white slave hunters, but rather by a religious rhetoric that pimps and profits on the racial, economic, and gendered disenfranchised.
We know how the Jonestown massacre happened. “White Nights, Black Paradise” seeks to answer the “Why?” and ask “Could it happen again”?
As I read Hutchinson’s book I thought of “Those Bones Are Not My Child,” a fictional rendering of the 1979-1981 Atlanta child murders. Toni Cade’s magnum opus that Toni Morrison depicts as a “novel that leaves us with an enduring and revelatory chronicle of an American nightmare.” Similarly, Hutchson’s novel does, too. Sadly, however, Bambara’s book, in my opinion, went away from the public eye as swiftly as it came.
But Hutchinson’s won’t because for those who dare to remember the Jonestown massacre these questions still linger:
“But why is it that the African American community then and now, refuse to stand still and acknowledge the gravity of what took place that fateful day? Why aren’t African American ministers of the cloth, churches and communities not setting this day aside to remember the tragedy that was the People’s Temple?”
Defiantly, many are still waiting for a response.
---------------------
Affirmations and Confessions of a Progressive Christian Layman – And God Created…
Ed Taylor
The most important things about the creation stories are God and created. I believe God is still creating and those creations are evolving.
READ ON ...
"Affirmations and Confessions of a Progressive Christian Layman – And God Created…" by Ed Taylor
And God Created…
Genesis opens the Hebrew Bible with two conflicting and irreconcilable creation stories. Obviously neither of these creation myths reported actual events. Even so, there are people who believe that the universe was created exactly as described there simply because this is what the Bible says, so it is fact. Those people despise the Darwinian evolution theory, so they stubbornly grasp for an alternative and end up with literalism or Creationism that demands unquestioning acceptance.
I do not believe that creation was an accident. I agree with a biologist quoted by Leslie Weatherhead in The Christian Agnostic who said: “The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.” It is inconceivable that the universe just happened.
Let us examine the two versions of creation in Genesis.
The Elohim or Priestly Version of Creation: Genesis 1:1-2:4
Even though this creation story appears first in Genesis, scholars have concluded that it was written in approximately the 6th century BCE – four hundred years after the Yahweh version. It was written after Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and during their Babylonian exile. The author of this creation story is known to scholars as “P,” because he or she wrote from a much more “priestly” perspective than the Yahweh account. The author used the name “Elohim” (pronounced e-lo-HEEM) for the creator. Elohim is a plural word that is translated “the powerful ones.” The use of the plural “Elohim” (rather than the singular “Eloha”) might be due to the polytheistic religions that the Jews were exposed to during their exile in Babylon.
In the Elohim account, Elohim created everything in six days (scholars speculate that this version was modeled on a Babylonian story in which the world was created in a specific number of days):
• Day 1: Elohim created the heavens and a formless void called earth; darkness covered everything, but a wind “swept over the” waters” (so the waters already existed? the Rûach, which means “wind, spirit, breath,” moved over the face of the deep and elohim can mean “great” as well as “God,” so the ruach elohim may therefore mean the “wind or breath of God”); Elohim commanded “Let there be light;” (I don’t like repeating Elohim over and over, but I don’t want to use a pronoun that would suggest that God has a gender) Elohim separated light from dark and called the light day and the darkness night; Elohim creates by speaking which suggests that Eolhim is being compared to a King, who only has to speak for things to happen; I don’t like the idea that Elohim is outside creation and speaks it into existence from afar;
• Day 2: Elohim commanded “a dome in the midst of the waters” that would “separate the waters from the waters;” the dome separated the waters “that were under the dome” from the ones above the dome (what are the waters above the sky? rain?); Elohim called the dome the sky; the firmament or sky may be interpreted as a solid dome which separates the earth below from the heavens and their waters above, as in Egyptian and Mesopotamian belief of the same time; in Babylonian myth the heavens were made of various precious stones with the stars engraved in their surface;
• Day 3: Elohim commanded the earthly waters to be gathered together in one place so dry land could appear; Elohim called the dry land “earth” (it is interesting that “earth” is a feminine noun in Hebrew; sort of like the “mother earth” concept) and the waters were called “seas;” Then Elohim commanded that the earth sprout vegetation – plants and fruit bearing trees of every kind (all the plants and trees have seeds);
• Day 4: Next Elohim commanded that there “be lights” to separate day from night; they were also “for signs and for seasons and for days and years;” so Elohim created the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night; then the stars were created (the stars were created after the earth in this Genesis story, but Job 38:4-7 claims the earth was created after the stars); Elohim set these creations in the sky to illuminate the earth;
• Day 5: And Elohim commanded the waters to swarm with living creatures (including “great sea monsters”) and the sky to fill with flying birds of every kind; Elohim blessed them and told them to “be fruitful and multiply”
• Day 6: Elohim commanded the earth to “bring forth” every kind of living creature – cattle, creeping things and wild animals; then Elohim said “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” (When God says “Let us make man”, the Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:26 is adam; in this form it is a generic noun, “mankind,” and is not gender specific; after this first mention, the word always appears as ha-adam, “the man,” but Genesis 1:27 shows, “Elohim created man… male and female created he them;” the man and the woman were made instantaneously, both in “our image;” the author used plural phrasing in the Elohim’s creation of humankind: “let us,” “our image” and “according to our likeness” as if there is more than one god; the first people in this account do not have names); they were given dominion over the fish, birds, cattle, all wild animals and creeping things (from an ecological perspective, this has become a problem; too many people think “dominion” means they can slaughter without restraint); Elohim blessed the humans and ordered them to “be fruitful, to multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it” (another ecological problem; in the beginning, the earth needed to be populated, but currently overpopulation is a very real problem; subduing the earth does not mean raping it and its resources without regard for earth’s future health); In verse 30, Elohim says, “I have given every green plant for food,” so initially creation was to be vegetarian only after the Flood was man given permission to eat meat;
• Day 7: Elohim’s work was done, so “he rested” and “blessed the seventh day” (scholars tell us that the first chapter of the Torah, this priestly version of creation, was a revision of the Yahweh version to make the Jewish observance of the Sabbath the original rule and defining mark of Judaism).
Each day ended with “And there was evening and morning.” Since the Jewish day began at sundown, creation’s days also began with evening.
Elohim also reexamines what was created each day and pronounces it “good.” At the end of the sixth day, Elohim saw everything that had been made and proclaimed it “very good.”
On day one, God or Elohim created light and separated it from dark, but it wasn’t until the fourth day that the lights (sun and moon) were created to separate day from night. The stars were also created on day four. How can light exist without the sun? Don’t the sun’s rays cause daylight? When the sun sets, it becomes dark. It seems logical that there had to be a source for light on day one.
The Yahweh or Jahwistic Version of Creation: Genesis 2:4-25
The author of this creation story is known to scholars as “J,” because the creator was referred to as Yahweh (“YHVH” in ancient Hebrew; “Jahweh” in German; in most modern translations Yahweh is translated “the LORD God”). Scholars’ analysis of style and content has led them to estimate that the Yahweh creation story was written about the 10th century BCE or approximately during King Solomon’s reign. Scholars consider the Yahweh version the more primitive or more rural of the two creation stories. Some others characterize the author of this version as a poet rather than a priest. Whoever the author was, he or she is most likely writing down oral traditions. The Yahweh version is a more human story of temptation and punishment. The humans are referred to as “Adam” and “Eve” Adham is a Hebrew word meaning “humankind” and is usually translated “man;” Eve is not a proper name in Hebrew, but means “mother of all living.” However, this creation story claims that “man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all who live.”
In this creation story, individual days are not specified and the sequence is very different from the Elohim version:
• Yahweh made earth and the heavens;
• A spring or stream rose from the earth to water the ground; the King James Version of Genesis 2:6 translated this as “mist,” but since the mid-20th century Hebrew scholars have generally agreed that the real meaning is “spring of underground water;”
• Yahweh fashioned man from dust and breathed into him the breath of life; the word used in Genesis 1 for God’s activity is bara, translated as “created;” in Genesis 2 the word used when Yahweh creates man is yatsar, meaning “fashioned,” a word used in contexts such as a potter fashioning a pot from clay; Yahweh breathes his own breath into the dust or clay and it becomes nephesh, a word meaning “life,” “vitality,” “the living personality;” man shares nephesh with all creatures, but the text describes this life-giving act by Yahweh only in relation to humans; in the first Genesis creation story, God was distant, but in this one, God is near and stoops to fashion man from the dirt (I like the idea of God being near rather than distant);
• Yahweh planted a garden in Eden; the word “Eden” comes from a root meaning “fertility;” this is the only place in the Bible where Eden is a geographic location; otherwise, notably in Ezekiel 28, it is a mythological place located on the holy Mountain of God;
• Yahweh put man in the garden which included every tree that is pleasant to see and that bears good fruit; also in the garden was the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; the Tree of Life is similar to one in the Mesopotamian myth, The Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the hero is given a plant whose name is “man becomes young in old age,” but a serpent steals the plant from him; in another Mesopotamian myth, the king is placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life; there has been a great deal of discussion about the type of knowledge given by the second tree, including human qualities, sexual consciousness, ethical knowledge, or universal knowledge; universal knowledge is the most widely accepted;
• A river flows out of Eden to water the garden; it divides into four branches: Pishon, Gihon (the Gihon was a spring outside Jerusalem, perhaps the spring that watered Eden);, Tigris, and Euphrates; according to an ancient Near Eastern concept, the river in Eden divides into four rivers that run from the four corners of the earth towards its center;
• Yahweh told man to till and keep the garden, (I dislike repeating Yahweh so much, but I am avoiding the pronoun “he;” I do not believe God has a gender) but Yahweh commanded man to eat freely from all the trees in the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil; if man disobeys, death will be the result (in Gen. 2:17, Yahweh warns man if he eats from the forbidden tree he will die, but according to Gen. 5:5, Adam lived several hundred years after eating the forbidden fruit); “good and evil” is a merism, meaning “everything;” when Yahweh forbids eating from the tree of knowledge, Yahweh says if he does he will die; the Hebrew word used is the same as the one for issuing a death sentence;
• Yahweh decided that it is not good for man to be alone, so Yahweh created “him a helper as his partner;” Yahweh doesn’t appear to be the all-knowing deity when he creates the animals and birds in an attempt to find a satisfactory helper; whatever man called “every animal of the field and every bird of the air” became its name; no helper was found;
• Yahweh caused man to fall asleep and removed a rib to form woman; no names yet (the first mention of the name “Eve” is in 3:20 and the first mention of “Adam” is 4:25); woman was created to be ezer kenegdo to man (kenegdo means “alongside, a counterpart to him” and ezer means active intervention on behalf of the other person); the female is called ishah, “woman,” with an explanation that this is because she was taken from ish, meaning “man” but the two words are not actually connected; after the story of the Garden is complete, in Genesis 3:20, the woman receives a name: havah (Eve), but it was not really a name, it means “living thing” in Hebrew; the word traditionally translated “rib” can also mean “side,” “chamber,” or “beam;” we get the man’s name from Genesis 4:25, but “ha-adam” (no caps) does not mean “Adam,” it means “the earthling” or “human being.”
• Next comes a line that is a part of many wedding ceremonies: “Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (notice that it does not say that the woman leaves her father and mother);
• Man and his wife were not ashamed of their nakedness.
The most obvious contradictions between the two creation stories are: in the Elohim version, humans were created after the other animals, while in the Yahweh version they were created before and man named them. In the Elohim version, man and woman were created simultaneously, while in the Yahweh version, man was created first, the animals next, and then the female was created from man’s rib.
Bill McKenzie asked several people, “How do you interpret the Genesis creation story?” Their answers appeared in a blog of the Dallas News in 2011. The following are a few of their edited replies.
Baptist theologian, Jim Denison, said, “Scripture tells us everything we need to know, not everything we want to know… I believe the Bible is its own best interpreter.” Therefore, he does not question the conflicting creation stories in Genesis. However, he did say that the six days of creation “were not necessarily 24-hour days.” They could be “six creative acts separated by eons of time or six separate ages.” He believes that Adam and Eve were historical figures. He said that the most important belief about creation is “that God did it.” Everything else is not “essential for living in God’s will.”
Larry Bethune, a Baptist pastor, said, “Genesis is religious literature. It communicates theology. It is not modern science. Making it fit modern science ignores the original context and detracts from the primary meaning of what the text wants to say… Genesis is about God’s relationship to creation, not about geological epochs and string theory.” He also believes that making these stories “fit current scientific theories… is like making airline pilots fly by Columbus’ maps. It is bad science and bad theology.”
Dean Brian Schmisek, School of Ministry at the University of Dallas, said, “The stories were written to convey theology rather than history.” Those theological truths include “God is good. God is a creator. Creation is good. Humanity (male and female) is made in the image and likeness of God. We are to be stewards of the earth.” The author(s) “wrote the text from their own point of view, consistent with ‘scientific’ knowledge of their time.” The Catholic Church believes that “science and theology are complementary rather than contradictory.” Schmisek also said that Catholics believe that Sacred Scripture, when it pertains to human salvation, is without error.
Presbyterian minister, Joe Clifford, responded, “Genesis was never intended to be a science book, nor a history book for that matter… It is a sacred text. As such, it speaks to the deepest questions of life, to the whos and the whys of life, not simply to the whens and the hows.” He said we should not impose scientific methods on understanding texts that were never written to address such questions. If they are examined for scientific evidence, people conclude that the stories are “false” and become atheists. Conversely, fundamentalists defend their historical truth with zealousness. Beyond true or false, “they reveal who God is, who we are in relationship to God and with one another, and who we are called to be.”
Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis says, “the first two chapters of Bereshit are not a scientific treatise… it is foremost a literary artifact.” He further explains that the creation stories were meant as a monotheistic response “to the pagan Mesopotamian creation myths, especially the ‘Creation as cosmic battle’ myth of Marduk vs. the sea monster Tiamat found in the collection known as Enuma Elish.” He also says that its use of “merisms, alliteration, word counting point to a moral appeal rather than a scientific argument.” He points out that the first word, “bereshit,” does not mean “In the beginning,” but is best translated “At the time of God’s creation.” He also believes that the author or authors of Genesis were “relating a mythic story, not history.”
Unitarian minister, Daniel Kanter, says “Genesis is a metaphorical story written by people trying to make sense of their lives.” The problem starts when we “literalize these creation stories as human history.” Despite our ability to ignore it, “within us is a seed that reminds us that we are inherently good, not evil.”
Dean William Lawrence, Perkins School of Theology, said, “There is no such thing as ‘the Genesis creation story.’ There are actually two creation stories in the book of Genesis.” These two creation narratives “are theological testimonies rather than geological, biological, or historical evidence.” The two very different creation stories in Genesis are “a spiritual way to give testimony to the relationship among God, humanity, and the environment.”
I agree wholeheartedly with Dean Lawrence that “evolution is not a threat to the faith but a fellow-traveler with the faith.” I believe God is capable of anything, including creating heaven, earth, the universe, and all life, but, for me, the word “creating” does not preclude evolution.
Some people question if evolution is true, why don’t we see evidence of it today? Evolution is a very slow process – what we know about evolution today took thousands or tens of thousands of years, far more than can be detected in one’s lifetime.
As an example of a rather quick evolution, the Tibetans who live at extremely high altitudes where oxygen is far less plentiful than at sea level do not experience mountain sickness. Chinese biologist found that at least thirty genes underwent evolutionary change as these Tibetans adapted to life on a high plateau.
Otherwise, the most recent change was among northern Europeans about seven-and-a-half thousand years ago when adults developed the ability to digest milk, i.e. they became lactose tolerant.
In his book Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg wrote that contemporary biblical scholarship does not accept the creation stories “as historical factual accounts,” but “as ancient Israel’s stories of the world’s beginnings.” He claims they are “profoundly true” if they are read in a historical-metaphorical context.
Borg quoted early church theologian, Origen, who wrote:
What intelligent person can imagine that there was a first day, then a second and third day, evening and morning, without the sun, the moon, and the stars?…And that the first day – if it makes sense to call it such – existed even without a sky?…Who is foolish enough to believe that, like a human gardener, God planted a garden in Eden in the East and placed in it a tree of life, visible and physical, so that by biting into its fruit one would obtain life? And that by eating from another tree, one would come to know good and evil? And when it is said that God walked in the garden in the evening and that Adam hid himself behind a tree, I cannot imagine that anyone will doubt that these details point symbolically to spiritual meanings by using a historical narrative which did not literally happen.
The biggest problem of creation might be that Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. They wanted to know everything that God knew. According to Genesis 3:5, God knew that when they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge their eyes would be opened and they would know good and evil, which apparently made them like God. Actually, that may be the biggest problem of humanity as a whole – we want to be like God or we want to actually be God.
The most important things about the creation stories are God and created. I believe God is still creating and those creations are evolving. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, so if God ever created anything, then God is currently capable of creating – which includes those creations evolving over the eons of time or springing up almost instantaneously if that is God’s will. Personally, I believe God’s creation is a continuing process. Evolution does not bother me, because I see God’s creative process as being a part of evolution.
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Weekly Liturgy
The most important things about the creation stories are God and created. I believe God is still creating and those creations are evolving.
READ ON ...
"Affirmations and Confessions of a Progressive Christian Layman – And God Created…" by Ed Taylor
And God Created…
Genesis opens the Hebrew Bible with two conflicting and irreconcilable creation stories. Obviously neither of these creation myths reported actual events. Even so, there are people who believe that the universe was created exactly as described there simply because this is what the Bible says, so it is fact. Those people despise the Darwinian evolution theory, so they stubbornly grasp for an alternative and end up with literalism or Creationism that demands unquestioning acceptance.
I do not believe that creation was an accident. I agree with a biologist quoted by Leslie Weatherhead in The Christian Agnostic who said: “The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.” It is inconceivable that the universe just happened.
Let us examine the two versions of creation in Genesis.
The Elohim or Priestly Version of Creation: Genesis 1:1-2:4
Even though this creation story appears first in Genesis, scholars have concluded that it was written in approximately the 6th century BCE – four hundred years after the Yahweh version. It was written after Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and during their Babylonian exile. The author of this creation story is known to scholars as “P,” because he or she wrote from a much more “priestly” perspective than the Yahweh account. The author used the name “Elohim” (pronounced e-lo-HEEM) for the creator. Elohim is a plural word that is translated “the powerful ones.” The use of the plural “Elohim” (rather than the singular “Eloha”) might be due to the polytheistic religions that the Jews were exposed to during their exile in Babylon.
In the Elohim account, Elohim created everything in six days (scholars speculate that this version was modeled on a Babylonian story in which the world was created in a specific number of days):
• Day 1: Elohim created the heavens and a formless void called earth; darkness covered everything, but a wind “swept over the” waters” (so the waters already existed? the Rûach, which means “wind, spirit, breath,” moved over the face of the deep and elohim can mean “great” as well as “God,” so the ruach elohim may therefore mean the “wind or breath of God”); Elohim commanded “Let there be light;” (I don’t like repeating Elohim over and over, but I don’t want to use a pronoun that would suggest that God has a gender) Elohim separated light from dark and called the light day and the darkness night; Elohim creates by speaking which suggests that Eolhim is being compared to a King, who only has to speak for things to happen; I don’t like the idea that Elohim is outside creation and speaks it into existence from afar;
• Day 2: Elohim commanded “a dome in the midst of the waters” that would “separate the waters from the waters;” the dome separated the waters “that were under the dome” from the ones above the dome (what are the waters above the sky? rain?); Elohim called the dome the sky; the firmament or sky may be interpreted as a solid dome which separates the earth below from the heavens and their waters above, as in Egyptian and Mesopotamian belief of the same time; in Babylonian myth the heavens were made of various precious stones with the stars engraved in their surface;
• Day 3: Elohim commanded the earthly waters to be gathered together in one place so dry land could appear; Elohim called the dry land “earth” (it is interesting that “earth” is a feminine noun in Hebrew; sort of like the “mother earth” concept) and the waters were called “seas;” Then Elohim commanded that the earth sprout vegetation – plants and fruit bearing trees of every kind (all the plants and trees have seeds);
• Day 4: Next Elohim commanded that there “be lights” to separate day from night; they were also “for signs and for seasons and for days and years;” so Elohim created the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night; then the stars were created (the stars were created after the earth in this Genesis story, but Job 38:4-7 claims the earth was created after the stars); Elohim set these creations in the sky to illuminate the earth;
• Day 5: And Elohim commanded the waters to swarm with living creatures (including “great sea monsters”) and the sky to fill with flying birds of every kind; Elohim blessed them and told them to “be fruitful and multiply”
• Day 6: Elohim commanded the earth to “bring forth” every kind of living creature – cattle, creeping things and wild animals; then Elohim said “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” (When God says “Let us make man”, the Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:26 is adam; in this form it is a generic noun, “mankind,” and is not gender specific; after this first mention, the word always appears as ha-adam, “the man,” but Genesis 1:27 shows, “Elohim created man… male and female created he them;” the man and the woman were made instantaneously, both in “our image;” the author used plural phrasing in the Elohim’s creation of humankind: “let us,” “our image” and “according to our likeness” as if there is more than one god; the first people in this account do not have names); they were given dominion over the fish, birds, cattle, all wild animals and creeping things (from an ecological perspective, this has become a problem; too many people think “dominion” means they can slaughter without restraint); Elohim blessed the humans and ordered them to “be fruitful, to multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it” (another ecological problem; in the beginning, the earth needed to be populated, but currently overpopulation is a very real problem; subduing the earth does not mean raping it and its resources without regard for earth’s future health); In verse 30, Elohim says, “I have given every green plant for food,” so initially creation was to be vegetarian only after the Flood was man given permission to eat meat;
• Day 7: Elohim’s work was done, so “he rested” and “blessed the seventh day” (scholars tell us that the first chapter of the Torah, this priestly version of creation, was a revision of the Yahweh version to make the Jewish observance of the Sabbath the original rule and defining mark of Judaism).
Each day ended with “And there was evening and morning.” Since the Jewish day began at sundown, creation’s days also began with evening.
Elohim also reexamines what was created each day and pronounces it “good.” At the end of the sixth day, Elohim saw everything that had been made and proclaimed it “very good.”
On day one, God or Elohim created light and separated it from dark, but it wasn’t until the fourth day that the lights (sun and moon) were created to separate day from night. The stars were also created on day four. How can light exist without the sun? Don’t the sun’s rays cause daylight? When the sun sets, it becomes dark. It seems logical that there had to be a source for light on day one.
The Yahweh or Jahwistic Version of Creation: Genesis 2:4-25
The author of this creation story is known to scholars as “J,” because the creator was referred to as Yahweh (“YHVH” in ancient Hebrew; “Jahweh” in German; in most modern translations Yahweh is translated “the LORD God”). Scholars’ analysis of style and content has led them to estimate that the Yahweh creation story was written about the 10th century BCE or approximately during King Solomon’s reign. Scholars consider the Yahweh version the more primitive or more rural of the two creation stories. Some others characterize the author of this version as a poet rather than a priest. Whoever the author was, he or she is most likely writing down oral traditions. The Yahweh version is a more human story of temptation and punishment. The humans are referred to as “Adam” and “Eve” Adham is a Hebrew word meaning “humankind” and is usually translated “man;” Eve is not a proper name in Hebrew, but means “mother of all living.” However, this creation story claims that “man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all who live.”
In this creation story, individual days are not specified and the sequence is very different from the Elohim version:
• Yahweh made earth and the heavens;
• A spring or stream rose from the earth to water the ground; the King James Version of Genesis 2:6 translated this as “mist,” but since the mid-20th century Hebrew scholars have generally agreed that the real meaning is “spring of underground water;”
• Yahweh fashioned man from dust and breathed into him the breath of life; the word used in Genesis 1 for God’s activity is bara, translated as “created;” in Genesis 2 the word used when Yahweh creates man is yatsar, meaning “fashioned,” a word used in contexts such as a potter fashioning a pot from clay; Yahweh breathes his own breath into the dust or clay and it becomes nephesh, a word meaning “life,” “vitality,” “the living personality;” man shares nephesh with all creatures, but the text describes this life-giving act by Yahweh only in relation to humans; in the first Genesis creation story, God was distant, but in this one, God is near and stoops to fashion man from the dirt (I like the idea of God being near rather than distant);
• Yahweh planted a garden in Eden; the word “Eden” comes from a root meaning “fertility;” this is the only place in the Bible where Eden is a geographic location; otherwise, notably in Ezekiel 28, it is a mythological place located on the holy Mountain of God;
• Yahweh put man in the garden which included every tree that is pleasant to see and that bears good fruit; also in the garden was the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; the Tree of Life is similar to one in the Mesopotamian myth, The Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the hero is given a plant whose name is “man becomes young in old age,” but a serpent steals the plant from him; in another Mesopotamian myth, the king is placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life; there has been a great deal of discussion about the type of knowledge given by the second tree, including human qualities, sexual consciousness, ethical knowledge, or universal knowledge; universal knowledge is the most widely accepted;
• A river flows out of Eden to water the garden; it divides into four branches: Pishon, Gihon (the Gihon was a spring outside Jerusalem, perhaps the spring that watered Eden);, Tigris, and Euphrates; according to an ancient Near Eastern concept, the river in Eden divides into four rivers that run from the four corners of the earth towards its center;
• Yahweh told man to till and keep the garden, (I dislike repeating Yahweh so much, but I am avoiding the pronoun “he;” I do not believe God has a gender) but Yahweh commanded man to eat freely from all the trees in the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil; if man disobeys, death will be the result (in Gen. 2:17, Yahweh warns man if he eats from the forbidden tree he will die, but according to Gen. 5:5, Adam lived several hundred years after eating the forbidden fruit); “good and evil” is a merism, meaning “everything;” when Yahweh forbids eating from the tree of knowledge, Yahweh says if he does he will die; the Hebrew word used is the same as the one for issuing a death sentence;
• Yahweh decided that it is not good for man to be alone, so Yahweh created “him a helper as his partner;” Yahweh doesn’t appear to be the all-knowing deity when he creates the animals and birds in an attempt to find a satisfactory helper; whatever man called “every animal of the field and every bird of the air” became its name; no helper was found;
• Yahweh caused man to fall asleep and removed a rib to form woman; no names yet (the first mention of the name “Eve” is in 3:20 and the first mention of “Adam” is 4:25); woman was created to be ezer kenegdo to man (kenegdo means “alongside, a counterpart to him” and ezer means active intervention on behalf of the other person); the female is called ishah, “woman,” with an explanation that this is because she was taken from ish, meaning “man” but the two words are not actually connected; after the story of the Garden is complete, in Genesis 3:20, the woman receives a name: havah (Eve), but it was not really a name, it means “living thing” in Hebrew; the word traditionally translated “rib” can also mean “side,” “chamber,” or “beam;” we get the man’s name from Genesis 4:25, but “ha-adam” (no caps) does not mean “Adam,” it means “the earthling” or “human being.”
• Next comes a line that is a part of many wedding ceremonies: “Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (notice that it does not say that the woman leaves her father and mother);
• Man and his wife were not ashamed of their nakedness.
The most obvious contradictions between the two creation stories are: in the Elohim version, humans were created after the other animals, while in the Yahweh version they were created before and man named them. In the Elohim version, man and woman were created simultaneously, while in the Yahweh version, man was created first, the animals next, and then the female was created from man’s rib.
Bill McKenzie asked several people, “How do you interpret the Genesis creation story?” Their answers appeared in a blog of the Dallas News in 2011. The following are a few of their edited replies.
Baptist theologian, Jim Denison, said, “Scripture tells us everything we need to know, not everything we want to know… I believe the Bible is its own best interpreter.” Therefore, he does not question the conflicting creation stories in Genesis. However, he did say that the six days of creation “were not necessarily 24-hour days.” They could be “six creative acts separated by eons of time or six separate ages.” He believes that Adam and Eve were historical figures. He said that the most important belief about creation is “that God did it.” Everything else is not “essential for living in God’s will.”
Larry Bethune, a Baptist pastor, said, “Genesis is religious literature. It communicates theology. It is not modern science. Making it fit modern science ignores the original context and detracts from the primary meaning of what the text wants to say… Genesis is about God’s relationship to creation, not about geological epochs and string theory.” He also believes that making these stories “fit current scientific theories… is like making airline pilots fly by Columbus’ maps. It is bad science and bad theology.”
Dean Brian Schmisek, School of Ministry at the University of Dallas, said, “The stories were written to convey theology rather than history.” Those theological truths include “God is good. God is a creator. Creation is good. Humanity (male and female) is made in the image and likeness of God. We are to be stewards of the earth.” The author(s) “wrote the text from their own point of view, consistent with ‘scientific’ knowledge of their time.” The Catholic Church believes that “science and theology are complementary rather than contradictory.” Schmisek also said that Catholics believe that Sacred Scripture, when it pertains to human salvation, is without error.
Presbyterian minister, Joe Clifford, responded, “Genesis was never intended to be a science book, nor a history book for that matter… It is a sacred text. As such, it speaks to the deepest questions of life, to the whos and the whys of life, not simply to the whens and the hows.” He said we should not impose scientific methods on understanding texts that were never written to address such questions. If they are examined for scientific evidence, people conclude that the stories are “false” and become atheists. Conversely, fundamentalists defend their historical truth with zealousness. Beyond true or false, “they reveal who God is, who we are in relationship to God and with one another, and who we are called to be.”
Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis says, “the first two chapters of Bereshit are not a scientific treatise… it is foremost a literary artifact.” He further explains that the creation stories were meant as a monotheistic response “to the pagan Mesopotamian creation myths, especially the ‘Creation as cosmic battle’ myth of Marduk vs. the sea monster Tiamat found in the collection known as Enuma Elish.” He also says that its use of “merisms, alliteration, word counting point to a moral appeal rather than a scientific argument.” He points out that the first word, “bereshit,” does not mean “In the beginning,” but is best translated “At the time of God’s creation.” He also believes that the author or authors of Genesis were “relating a mythic story, not history.”
Unitarian minister, Daniel Kanter, says “Genesis is a metaphorical story written by people trying to make sense of their lives.” The problem starts when we “literalize these creation stories as human history.” Despite our ability to ignore it, “within us is a seed that reminds us that we are inherently good, not evil.”
Dean William Lawrence, Perkins School of Theology, said, “There is no such thing as ‘the Genesis creation story.’ There are actually two creation stories in the book of Genesis.” These two creation narratives “are theological testimonies rather than geological, biological, or historical evidence.” The two very different creation stories in Genesis are “a spiritual way to give testimony to the relationship among God, humanity, and the environment.”
I agree wholeheartedly with Dean Lawrence that “evolution is not a threat to the faith but a fellow-traveler with the faith.” I believe God is capable of anything, including creating heaven, earth, the universe, and all life, but, for me, the word “creating” does not preclude evolution.
Some people question if evolution is true, why don’t we see evidence of it today? Evolution is a very slow process – what we know about evolution today took thousands or tens of thousands of years, far more than can be detected in one’s lifetime.
As an example of a rather quick evolution, the Tibetans who live at extremely high altitudes where oxygen is far less plentiful than at sea level do not experience mountain sickness. Chinese biologist found that at least thirty genes underwent evolutionary change as these Tibetans adapted to life on a high plateau.
Otherwise, the most recent change was among northern Europeans about seven-and-a-half thousand years ago when adults developed the ability to digest milk, i.e. they became lactose tolerant.
In his book Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg wrote that contemporary biblical scholarship does not accept the creation stories “as historical factual accounts,” but “as ancient Israel’s stories of the world’s beginnings.” He claims they are “profoundly true” if they are read in a historical-metaphorical context.
Borg quoted early church theologian, Origen, who wrote:
What intelligent person can imagine that there was a first day, then a second and third day, evening and morning, without the sun, the moon, and the stars?…And that the first day – if it makes sense to call it such – existed even without a sky?…Who is foolish enough to believe that, like a human gardener, God planted a garden in Eden in the East and placed in it a tree of life, visible and physical, so that by biting into its fruit one would obtain life? And that by eating from another tree, one would come to know good and evil? And when it is said that God walked in the garden in the evening and that Adam hid himself behind a tree, I cannot imagine that anyone will doubt that these details point symbolically to spiritual meanings by using a historical narrative which did not literally happen.
The biggest problem of creation might be that Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. They wanted to know everything that God knew. According to Genesis 3:5, God knew that when they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge their eyes would be opened and they would know good and evil, which apparently made them like God. Actually, that may be the biggest problem of humanity as a whole – we want to be like God or we want to actually be God.
The most important things about the creation stories are God and created. I believe God is still creating and those creations are evolving. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, so if God ever created anything, then God is currently capable of creating – which includes those creations evolving over the eons of time or springing up almost instantaneously if that is God’s will. Personally, I believe God’s creation is a continuing process. Evolution does not bother me, because I see God’s creative process as being a part of evolution.
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Weekly Liturgy
Week of: March 6, 2016
Re-imagining Holy Week
We’ve heard the story of Holy Week so many times that we’ve come to think there couldn’t possibly be another way to tell it.
READ ON ...
Re-imagining Holy Week
Week of March 6, 2016
We’ve heard the story of Holy Week so many times that we’ve come to think there couldn’t possibly be another way to tell it. But whether it’s imaginatively brought into the present and re-interpreted in modern terms, or whether we reach back into history for alternative liturgies that didn’t make it into the canon, there are some surprisingly fresh perspectives out there. Each perspective adds to our understanding of the ancient story.
Re-imagining Holy Week
We’ve heard the story of Holy Week so many times that we’ve come to think there couldn’t possibly be another way to tell it.
READ ON ...
Re-imagining Holy Week
Week of March 6, 2016
We’ve heard the story of Holy Week so many times that we’ve come to think there couldn’t possibly be another way to tell it. But whether it’s imaginatively brought into the present and re-interpreted in modern terms, or whether we reach back into history for alternative liturgies that didn’t make it into the canon, there are some surprisingly fresh perspectives out there. Each perspective adds to our understanding of the ancient story.
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Round Dance of the Cross: A Maundy Thursday Service
Written by Rev. Irene Laudeman
by Polly Moore
This service is appropriate for a small congregation of 20-60 people. The service is conducted in two settings: The first is a fellowship hall or other area in which tables are set up for dinner. The second part in a sanctuary area with circular seating. The service is supported by one staff person or community leader for every 6 attendees and by at least one member of the choir in each group.
The service is an alternative Holy Week service that lifts up aspects of Holy Week that are not traditionally lifted up and that also lifts up Holy Week practices from early Christian communities that represented a different traditions. Will close with an extemporaneous blessing, and an invitation to sing.
Song: Gather Us O God. Body, Spirit, soul and mind
Gather Us O God. One in union now with You.
Reading: While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Sermon: Short sermon about canonical and non-canonical traditions of Eucharist and finding meaning in a shared meal.
Song: O God hear our prayer, O God hear our prayer, when we call answer us.
O God hear our prayer, O God hear our prayer, come and listen to us.
The pastor and table leaders will then say an invocation of the Holy Spirit that is largely taken from the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. Table leaders and attendees remain seated.
Table leaders: Come, perfect compassion. Come, she that knows the mysteries. Come, she that brings forth the hidden things. Come, holy dove. Come, hidden mother. Come, she that is manifest in her deeds and gives joy and rest to those who are bound to you. Come and communicate with us in this Eucharist which we celebrate in your name and in the love-feast for which we are gathered together at your calling.
Song: Holy Spirit come to us. Kindle in us the fire of your love.
Holy Spirit come to us, Holy Spirit come to us.
Table leaders will together bless the bread and cup with a blessing adapted from the Didache.
Table Leaders:
Hold up the loaf of bread, tear it into two pieces, spread hands apart and then hold the pieces together while saying
As the broken bread was scattered over the hills and then gathered together to become one, so gather us from the ends of the earth into this community of life, gathered in your name and fed by your presence.
Raise the cup, while saying
As the first fruit of the vine was crushed and gathered up into the chalice of life, so gather us into this community of the spirit that we may be poured out in service to you.
Song: Amen
Table leaders model communion for the table. Tears off a piece of bread, dips it into the juice and eats it and then offers bread and juice to the people on their right. Song is sung until all in the room have received bread and juice
Song: Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.
Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.
The pastor will rise and ask people to remain seated while we serve a simple dinner of soup, bread, cheese and fruit. We share our dinner in the spirit of holy company: we practice a single conversation, so during dinner we ask that only one person speak at a time at each table. There will be slips of paper with passages and questions to help start conversation (ex: What has Holy Week meant to you as a child and as an adult? Does communion have a particular meaning for you?)
Music Minister starts the songs to be sung while dinner is served.
Songs: Come and fill our hearts with your peace, you alone O God are Holy.
Songs: Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas Deus ibi est
When dinner is over the pastor will rise and invite all to stand, explain that the dishes are to be left as you are our honored guests and that we will all walk to the other room while the choir sings for us. The room will have seating for about 35 placed in a circle. In the middle of the circle of chairs the floor will be marked with a circle large enough to hold 12 people. Those who will participate in the center will stand outside the circle of chairs while people are seated. The lighting is low and includes many candles.
In the following song “Lord” is changed to “leader” in the interest of inclusive language
Song:
I danced in the morning when the world was young
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced for the scribes and the Pharisees
They wouldn’t dance, they wouldn’t follow me
I danced for the fishermen James and John
They came with me so the dance went on
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame
They ripped, they stripped, they hung me high
Left me there on the cross to die
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced on a Friday when the world turned black
It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body, they thought I was gone
But I am the dance, and the dance goes on
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that will never, never die
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me
I am the Leader of the dance, said he
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
Sermon: A short sermon about alternative traditions of early Christianity and the background for the Hymn of Jesus…..”Where the Eucharist is a holy mystery using the symbols of bread and wine, the Hymn of Jesus is a holy mystery using the symbols of lamp, mirror, door, and way.”
Prior rehearsal with the 14 people and the drummers is advised. Hand drums begin with slow tempo. The 13 who will be in the center walk in and form a circle of 12 with the leader (Voice One) in the center and Voice Two standing outside of the circle.
Drums stop
Voice One: We will start with the words that Jesus spoke: Before I am delivered up to them let us sing a hymn to God, and so go forth to that which lies before us. Therefore make as it were a circle, holding one another’s hands.
The 12 in the circle join hands
Answer to me Amen. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory to you God. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory be to you, Word. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory be to you, Grace. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory be to you, Spirit. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory to you, Holy One. 12:Amen
Voice Two: Glory to your Glory. 12: Amen
Voice One: We praise you, O God; we give thanks to you, O Light, wherein dwells no Darkness. 12: Amen
Drums start with slow tempo and 12 in the circle begin to walk clockwise
Voice One: For what we give thanks I say: I would be saved
Voice Two: And I would save. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be loosed
Voice Two: And I would loose. 12: Amen
Voice One: I would be pierced
Voice Two: And I would pierce. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be begotten
Voice Two: And I would beget. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would eat
Voice Two: And I would be eaten. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would hear
Voice Two: And I would be heard. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would understand
Voice Two: And I would be understood. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be washed
Voice Two: And I would wash. 12:Amen
Voice One: Grace leads the dance
Drums to medium tempo
Voice One: I would pipe
Voice Two: Dance you all. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would play a dirge
Voice Two: Lament you all. 12: Amen
Voice One: The eight play among us. 12:Amen
Voice Two: The twelve on high lead the dance. 12:Amen
Voice One: Yes, and we all dance the dance. You who dance not, know not what is being done. 12: Amen
Drums to fast tempo
Voice One: I would flee,
Voice Two: And I would stay. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would adorn
Voice Two: And I would be adorned. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be united
Voice Two: And I would unite. 12: Amen
Voice One: I have no dwelling
Voice Two: And I have dwellings. 12:Amen
Voice One: I have no place
Voice Two: And I have places. 12:Amen
Voice One: I have no Temple
Voice Two: And I have Temples. 12:Amen
Drums stop
Voice One: I am a lamp to you who behold me. 12: Amen
Reading 1: “When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness.” Gospel of Philip
Voice One: I am a mirror to you who understand me. 12:Amen
Reading 2: “But you saw something of that place, and you became those things. You saw the Spirit, you became Spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw the Father, you became Father. So in this place you see everything and do not see yourself, but in that place you do see yourself – and what you see you will become.” Gospel of Philip
Voice One: I am a door to thee who knock at me. 12:Amen
Reading 3: “And I opened the doors which were closed. And I shattered the bars of iron, for my own shackles had grown hot and melted before me. And nothing appeared closed to me, because I was the opening of everything. And I went toward all my bound ones in order to free them; that I might not leave anyone bound. And I gave my knowledge generously, and my resurrection through my love.” Odes of Solomon
Voice One: I am a way to you, a wayfarer. 12:Amen
Reading 4: “Is not the whole world a cross? When you dwell only in the extremities you are not joined together but remain a fragment, scattered and lost. But when you gather yourself into the center you become whole. In becoming whole, you become the world. And being the world, you will redeem it.” Anon prayer
Voice One: See yourself in me who speak. And seeing what I do keep silence on my mysteries. In me know the word of wisdom.
Voice One: Say to me again: Glory to you O God. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory to you Word. 12:Amen
Voice One: Glory to you Holy Spirit. 12:Amen
Voice One: I am the Logos who did dance all things. It was I who leaped and danced.
Glory to you, O God.
12: Amen, Amen, Amen
All drop hands and file out of the circle and take seats
Reading 5: Mark 14: 26-35 “When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter said to him, “Even though all become deserters, I will not.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” But he said vehemently, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And all of them said the same. They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.”
Vigil
Pastor: We will continue with chants and you are invited to remain here in prayer and meditation for as long as you wish.
Song: Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray, watch and pray.
Song: Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire that never dies away,
never dies away.
Silence
Note: this service includes the liturgy called the Round Dance of the Cross, recorded in the Acts of John dating from the second century.
Round Dance of the Cross: A Maundy Thursday Service
Written by Rev. Irene Laudeman
by Polly Moore
This service is appropriate for a small congregation of 20-60 people. The service is conducted in two settings: The first is a fellowship hall or other area in which tables are set up for dinner. The second part in a sanctuary area with circular seating. The service is supported by one staff person or community leader for every 6 attendees and by at least one member of the choir in each group.
The service is an alternative Holy Week service that lifts up aspects of Holy Week that are not traditionally lifted up and that also lifts up Holy Week practices from early Christian communities that represented a different traditions. Will close with an extemporaneous blessing, and an invitation to sing.
Song: Gather Us O God. Body, Spirit, soul and mind
Gather Us O God. One in union now with You.
Reading: While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Sermon: Short sermon about canonical and non-canonical traditions of Eucharist and finding meaning in a shared meal.
Song: O God hear our prayer, O God hear our prayer, when we call answer us.
O God hear our prayer, O God hear our prayer, come and listen to us.
The pastor and table leaders will then say an invocation of the Holy Spirit that is largely taken from the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. Table leaders and attendees remain seated.
Table leaders: Come, perfect compassion. Come, she that knows the mysteries. Come, she that brings forth the hidden things. Come, holy dove. Come, hidden mother. Come, she that is manifest in her deeds and gives joy and rest to those who are bound to you. Come and communicate with us in this Eucharist which we celebrate in your name and in the love-feast for which we are gathered together at your calling.
Song: Holy Spirit come to us. Kindle in us the fire of your love.
Holy Spirit come to us, Holy Spirit come to us.
Table leaders will together bless the bread and cup with a blessing adapted from the Didache.
Table Leaders:
Hold up the loaf of bread, tear it into two pieces, spread hands apart and then hold the pieces together while saying
As the broken bread was scattered over the hills and then gathered together to become one, so gather us from the ends of the earth into this community of life, gathered in your name and fed by your presence.
Raise the cup, while saying
As the first fruit of the vine was crushed and gathered up into the chalice of life, so gather us into this community of the spirit that we may be poured out in service to you.
Song: Amen
Table leaders model communion for the table. Tears off a piece of bread, dips it into the juice and eats it and then offers bread and juice to the people on their right. Song is sung until all in the room have received bread and juice
Song: Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.
Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.
The pastor will rise and ask people to remain seated while we serve a simple dinner of soup, bread, cheese and fruit. We share our dinner in the spirit of holy company: we practice a single conversation, so during dinner we ask that only one person speak at a time at each table. There will be slips of paper with passages and questions to help start conversation (ex: What has Holy Week meant to you as a child and as an adult? Does communion have a particular meaning for you?)
Music Minister starts the songs to be sung while dinner is served.
Songs: Come and fill our hearts with your peace, you alone O God are Holy.
Songs: Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas Deus ibi est
When dinner is over the pastor will rise and invite all to stand, explain that the dishes are to be left as you are our honored guests and that we will all walk to the other room while the choir sings for us. The room will have seating for about 35 placed in a circle. In the middle of the circle of chairs the floor will be marked with a circle large enough to hold 12 people. Those who will participate in the center will stand outside the circle of chairs while people are seated. The lighting is low and includes many candles.
In the following song “Lord” is changed to “leader” in the interest of inclusive language
Song:
I danced in the morning when the world was young
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced for the scribes and the Pharisees
They wouldn’t dance, they wouldn’t follow me
I danced for the fishermen James and John
They came with me so the dance went on
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame
They ripped, they stripped, they hung me high
Left me there on the cross to die
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced on a Friday when the world turned black
It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body, they thought I was gone
But I am the dance, and the dance goes on
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that will never, never die
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me
I am the Leader of the dance, said he
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the leader of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
Sermon: A short sermon about alternative traditions of early Christianity and the background for the Hymn of Jesus…..”Where the Eucharist is a holy mystery using the symbols of bread and wine, the Hymn of Jesus is a holy mystery using the symbols of lamp, mirror, door, and way.”
Prior rehearsal with the 14 people and the drummers is advised. Hand drums begin with slow tempo. The 13 who will be in the center walk in and form a circle of 12 with the leader (Voice One) in the center and Voice Two standing outside of the circle.
Drums stop
Voice One: We will start with the words that Jesus spoke: Before I am delivered up to them let us sing a hymn to God, and so go forth to that which lies before us. Therefore make as it were a circle, holding one another’s hands.
The 12 in the circle join hands
Answer to me Amen. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory to you God. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory be to you, Word. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory be to you, Grace. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory be to you, Spirit. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory to you, Holy One. 12:Amen
Voice Two: Glory to your Glory. 12: Amen
Voice One: We praise you, O God; we give thanks to you, O Light, wherein dwells no Darkness. 12: Amen
Drums start with slow tempo and 12 in the circle begin to walk clockwise
Voice One: For what we give thanks I say: I would be saved
Voice Two: And I would save. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be loosed
Voice Two: And I would loose. 12: Amen
Voice One: I would be pierced
Voice Two: And I would pierce. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be begotten
Voice Two: And I would beget. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would eat
Voice Two: And I would be eaten. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would hear
Voice Two: And I would be heard. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would understand
Voice Two: And I would be understood. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be washed
Voice Two: And I would wash. 12:Amen
Voice One: Grace leads the dance
Drums to medium tempo
Voice One: I would pipe
Voice Two: Dance you all. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would play a dirge
Voice Two: Lament you all. 12: Amen
Voice One: The eight play among us. 12:Amen
Voice Two: The twelve on high lead the dance. 12:Amen
Voice One: Yes, and we all dance the dance. You who dance not, know not what is being done. 12: Amen
Drums to fast tempo
Voice One: I would flee,
Voice Two: And I would stay. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would adorn
Voice Two: And I would be adorned. 12:Amen
Voice One: I would be united
Voice Two: And I would unite. 12: Amen
Voice One: I have no dwelling
Voice Two: And I have dwellings. 12:Amen
Voice One: I have no place
Voice Two: And I have places. 12:Amen
Voice One: I have no Temple
Voice Two: And I have Temples. 12:Amen
Drums stop
Voice One: I am a lamp to you who behold me. 12: Amen
Reading 1: “When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness.” Gospel of Philip
Voice One: I am a mirror to you who understand me. 12:Amen
Reading 2: “But you saw something of that place, and you became those things. You saw the Spirit, you became Spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw the Father, you became Father. So in this place you see everything and do not see yourself, but in that place you do see yourself – and what you see you will become.” Gospel of Philip
Voice One: I am a door to thee who knock at me. 12:Amen
Reading 3: “And I opened the doors which were closed. And I shattered the bars of iron, for my own shackles had grown hot and melted before me. And nothing appeared closed to me, because I was the opening of everything. And I went toward all my bound ones in order to free them; that I might not leave anyone bound. And I gave my knowledge generously, and my resurrection through my love.” Odes of Solomon
Voice One: I am a way to you, a wayfarer. 12:Amen
Reading 4: “Is not the whole world a cross? When you dwell only in the extremities you are not joined together but remain a fragment, scattered and lost. But when you gather yourself into the center you become whole. In becoming whole, you become the world. And being the world, you will redeem it.” Anon prayer
Voice One: See yourself in me who speak. And seeing what I do keep silence on my mysteries. In me know the word of wisdom.
Voice One: Say to me again: Glory to you O God. 12: Amen
Voice One: Glory to you Word. 12:Amen
Voice One: Glory to you Holy Spirit. 12:Amen
Voice One: I am the Logos who did dance all things. It was I who leaped and danced.
Glory to you, O God.
12: Amen, Amen, Amen
All drop hands and file out of the circle and take seats
Reading 5: Mark 14: 26-35 “When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter said to him, “Even though all become deserters, I will not.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” But he said vehemently, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And all of them said the same. They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.”
Vigil
Pastor: We will continue with chants and you are invited to remain here in prayer and meditation for as long as you wish.
Song: Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray, watch and pray.
Song: Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire that never dies away,
never dies away.
Silence
Note: this service includes the liturgy called the Round Dance of the Cross, recorded in the Acts of John dating from the second century.
---------------------
Stations of the Cross
by Jim Burklo
STATIONS of the CROSS
Via Dolorosa — Via Crucis — Way of the Cross
The practice of creating Stations of the Cross for meditative reflection on the final hours of Jesus’ life is a very old one. To this day, many Catholic and other churches have gardens or sanctuaries in which the stations are situated. Each of the stations marks a point along the way to Jesus’ death. Some of the stations refer to moments recorded in the gospels, but others, such as the falls of Jesus and the wiping of his face by Veronica, are legends that developed much later in Christian tradition.
Here, the Stations of the Cross are interpreted in ways that connect each station with the universal human experiences of condemnation and suffering, grace and mercy. To walk these stations and contemplate them actively is to retrace the steps that lead to destruction of ourselves and others. It is also a chance for us to see that at every station, we could take a different turn, choosing life instead of death. The stations are a confrontation with the very worst of our human nature, but in squarely facing suffering and evil within and among ourselves, we can transcend it, and experience the life on the other side of the cross.
Using both words and visuals offer multiple entry points to the meditations.
The Stations of the Cross
Jesus is condemned to death
The cross is laid upon him
His first fall
He meets his mother Mary
Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross
Jesus’ face is wiped by Veronica
His second fall
He meets the women of Jerusalem
His third fall
He is stripped of his garments
He is crucified
He dies on the cross
His body is taken down from the cross
His body is laid in the tomb
Jesus is condemned to death
In words and in attitudes, we “point the finger” at each other, blaming each other for our own problems. The Romans condemned Jesus to death as a “rabble-rouser”, a supposed threat to the “Pax Romana”, but all it did was to reveal to everyone how much their rule over Palestine was based on brute force alone. They condemned Jesus, but in doing so they condemned their own occupation of Jesus’ homeland. Likewise, when we “point the finger” at others, we condemn ourselves, revealing our own weaknesses that are displayed by our need to blame others.
MEDITATION: Whom do you blame for the ways in which you suffer? In what ways does your blaming and condemnation of others make you suffer more, as well as to cause them hurt and harm?
ART: picture of a hand with finger pointing outward
The cross is laid upon him
“We each have our own cross to bear.” This common phrase has some truth to it. Suffering is the universal condition of humankind. The Christian religion makes this point by making the cross its most central image. Buddhism, too, begins with this recognition. The Buddha’s first “station” on his path to enlightenment was to recognize that all life is suffering. But for Jesus, according to the legends that shaped the medieval Stations of the Cross, the cross was unbearable. It was too heavy for him to carry, after being whipped and scourged by the Romans. And for us, too, there are times when our crosses are too heavy to bear.
MEDITATION: What cross do you carry through life? When has it become too heavy for you to bear? Have you asked for help in removing it — from God and from others?
ART: various crosses made from different objects (one of play money, one of pills, one of cords and cables)
His first fall
According to the Stations legends, Jesus fell three times as he was marched to Golgotha to be crucified. Each of us will fall at some point in life, by tripping on rock: a life crisis, an illness,or just old age. To fall down is an injury to one’s dignity as well as to one’s body. Yet Jesus said (Matthew 21:42-44) that the stone of stumbling would become the cornerstone — the most important stone in the building of the new Kingdom of Heaven. We all fall down — and while this is painful for us, it is also what “levels” us all, rich and poor, strong and weak, famous and unknown, and puts us in our place. And there is the promise that our stone of stumbling can be transformed into the cornerstone of the new life on the other side of the cross.
MEDITATION: What is the stone that makes you stumble and fall? What is it like — to be humbled in front of other people as well as in front of God? How can your stumbling stone be transformed into the foundation of a new and better life for you and others?
ART: large rock
He meets his mother Mary
Jesus and Mary endured one of the greatest trials that confronts human beings. The son had to endure humilation in front of his mother, and the mother had to witness the destruction of her son. Being a parent and being a child — these are relationships that are incredibly beautiful. But being a parent, and being a child, can also be incredibly painful. Each of us has given our parents and/or our children both joy and pain. Jesus and Mary tasted both.
MEDITATION: What unfinished business do you have with your parents and/or with your children? If this was your last chance to communicate, what would you say to your parent/child?
ART: picture of a family in silhouette, parents and children
Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross
Jesus was too weak to carry his own cross, according to the Stations legends. A man named Simon, who came to Jerusalem from his home in Cyrene, in North Africa, to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem, was picked, apparently at random, to carry Jesus’ cross. Sometimes we are asked to carry burdens for other people. They need our help, and we are called to make sacrifices for them. But sometimes we feel that by doing so, we are participating in their own destruction. When is it right to take on the burdens of others? And when should we let them suffer on their own? But in the end, we each are called to bear the sufferings of others, and others are asked to bear our own. Jesus carried the cross out of love for the people around him, and Simon carried it for Jesus.
MEDITATION: What crosses are you asked to carry for others? Do you do so willingly or grudgingly? Does taking up their crosses help them or hurt them even more? Who carries the cross for you — friends, family, co-workers, others?
ART: picture of field workers, stooped over picking vegetables
Jesus’ face is wiped by Veronica
According to the Stations legends, Veronica was one of the women of Jerusalem who followed Jesus to the cross. She wiped his face to offer comfort, and his image remained on the cloth. The cloth became a relic that had healing powers. The name “Veronica” probably means “true image” — the true image of the Christ, which can be found in every human being.
MEDITATION: Look in the mirror– do you see the true image of the Christ in your own image? Do you see the suffering of the Christ, and also the one for whom the Christ is willing to suffer?
ART: mirror
His second fall
Jesus, weakened by beatings, fell again on his way to Golgotha. It is more likely that we will fall when we are already beaten down by illness or other disasters in life. Insults get added to injuries. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. When we are weakened by one disaster, we are made more vulnerable to others. Life isn’t fair! But each time we have a choice: whether to stay down, or whether to stand up for life again, even if it means facing the chance of falling once more.
MEDITATION: What hurts have you experienced, both physically and emotionally, that leave you more vulnerable to more hurt? Have you chosen to hide or excessively protect yourself from further suffering, or have you chosen to take the chance of being hurt again?
ART: crutch
He meets the women of Jerusalem
Jesus encountered a group of women who were his followers, who wailed about his impending death. He told them to wail not for him, but instead for themselves and for Jerusalem, which he predicted would one day be destroyed. Indeed, about 7o years later, the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and the people of Israel were driven out of the country, not to return until this past century. Sometimes we lack perspective: we act as if our troubles are just our own. But none of us lives in a vacuum: each of us is a part of a larger history, a longer and bigger human drama. Understanding our place in history is both a comfort and a curse.
MEDITATION: What is your place in history? What is your role in the bigger human drama of destruction and redemption? How do you, and how can you, make a difference in the unfolding of human destiny?
ART: timeline of human history
His third fall
Jesus fell a third time on his way to crucifixion, according to the Stations legends. He had lost his strength, his power, his reputation: many of his followers had abandoned him, and now he faced the ultimate humiliation. Not only did he lose everything, he was tormented with the knowledge of his loss as he approached Golgotha.
MEDITATION: What have you lost along life’s way? In what way are you cursed by these losses, and in what ways are you liberated? If you could have anything back that you have lost, what would it be, and what would you do with it if you had that second chance? What do you have to lose now — dignity, pride, position — and what would it be like to lose it? Is there anything positive that has come from your losses?
ART: completed jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing
He is stripped of his garments
In Jesus’ time, it was extremely humiliating to be stripped naked…. even moreso than it is today. Jesus was completely exposed — there was nothing hidden anymore. His robe or cloak was taken by the Roman soldiers, who drew lots to see which of them would get it.
MEDITATION: Throw the dice: whatever number comes up, open the box with that number to see if you “won” Jesus’ garment. If you could wear that garment, what would it hide? What part of your life do you want to keep “under cover”? What would it be like to wear the cloak of the Christ — to “walk a mile in his moccasins”? And in what ways have you made light, downplayed, or disrespected the sufferings of yourself and others?
ART: length of dark fabric and one die
He is crucified
His last words were “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This was the moment of Jesus’ worst suffering, but it was also the pivotal moment of the gospel legend — the precise moment when God and human beings are closest together, the precise moment when divine salvation comes to humanity. Only through this moment is the door to the other side of the cross opened.
MEDITATION: When have you lost God? And when have you been closest to God? Has there ever been a time when both were true, at the same moment?
ART: crucifix
He dies on the cross
Jesus really died …. no matter how you read the story, whether literally or figuratively, the Jesus who lived before the crucifixion was different than the Christ who was resurrected. The gospel stories in the Bible show that the resurrected Christ was substantially different after his death that he was before the crucifixion. Jesus was neverquite the same after his death! And so it is with us: we experience little deaths that change us forever. We really aren’t the same people, exactly, that we were when we were children, nor will we be exactly the same people in years to come. Each major passage of life — childhood to adolescence, adolescence to adulthood, parenthood to grandparenthood — leaves us changed forever, makes us different people than we were before.
MEDITATION: What part of you has died? What part of you is dying? What new life is emerging from these deaths?
ART: picture of a single fern leaf growing out of an old tree stump
His body is taken down from the cross
The gospels tell us that one of the rulers of Israel, a man named Joseph of Arimathea, secretly admired Jesus and asked to remove and bury his body after his crucifixion. Quietly, Joseph took on this sad and thankless task, which surely must have exposed him to danger from the Romans as well as the other members of the Jewish Sanhedrin. According to medieval legends, Joseph later came to England to establish the Christian church there, and in England he placed the Holy Grail – the cup used by Jesus in the Last Supper – in a well at Glastonbury.
MEDITATION: When have you been served profoundly by people who have helped you in secret, with no thought of reward or even thanks? What thankless, hard tasks are you asked to do for the sake of others? Are you willing to do them without recognition or reward? When is it appropriate to expect thanks and reward for your good work, and when does public acknowledgement just get in the way of being of service?
ART: chalice
His body is laid in the tomb
Jesus’ death was shameful, but he was buried respectfully and honorably. Joseph of Arimathea wrapped his body in a shroud and placed it in a new tomb with herbs and spices, in the traditional manner. So often we treat a person one way in life, and quite another way after their death. Can we celebrate each others’ lives while we are still alive, at least as much as we celebrate each others’ lives after death? The tomb was the cocoon, the womb, in which the story of Jesus the historical person of first-century Palestine gestated and was transformed into the universal and eternal Christ. Each of the three days in the tomb was a “trimester” in that gestation period…. ending with the resurrection we celebrate at Easter.
MEDITATION: What part of your life is entombed — on hold, unseen, dead to the world and to yourself? What would happen if that part of your life was transformed, and brought back to life in a new way? Are you ready for this kind of resurrection?
ART: picture taken from inside a cave looking out to a beach and ocean and sunshine
Stations of the Cross
by Jim Burklo
STATIONS of the CROSS
Via Dolorosa — Via Crucis — Way of the Cross
The practice of creating Stations of the Cross for meditative reflection on the final hours of Jesus’ life is a very old one. To this day, many Catholic and other churches have gardens or sanctuaries in which the stations are situated. Each of the stations marks a point along the way to Jesus’ death. Some of the stations refer to moments recorded in the gospels, but others, such as the falls of Jesus and the wiping of his face by Veronica, are legends that developed much later in Christian tradition.
Here, the Stations of the Cross are interpreted in ways that connect each station with the universal human experiences of condemnation and suffering, grace and mercy. To walk these stations and contemplate them actively is to retrace the steps that lead to destruction of ourselves and others. It is also a chance for us to see that at every station, we could take a different turn, choosing life instead of death. The stations are a confrontation with the very worst of our human nature, but in squarely facing suffering and evil within and among ourselves, we can transcend it, and experience the life on the other side of the cross.
Using both words and visuals offer multiple entry points to the meditations.
The Stations of the Cross
Jesus is condemned to death
The cross is laid upon him
His first fall
He meets his mother Mary
Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross
Jesus’ face is wiped by Veronica
His second fall
He meets the women of Jerusalem
His third fall
He is stripped of his garments
He is crucified
He dies on the cross
His body is taken down from the cross
His body is laid in the tomb
Jesus is condemned to death
In words and in attitudes, we “point the finger” at each other, blaming each other for our own problems. The Romans condemned Jesus to death as a “rabble-rouser”, a supposed threat to the “Pax Romana”, but all it did was to reveal to everyone how much their rule over Palestine was based on brute force alone. They condemned Jesus, but in doing so they condemned their own occupation of Jesus’ homeland. Likewise, when we “point the finger” at others, we condemn ourselves, revealing our own weaknesses that are displayed by our need to blame others.
MEDITATION: Whom do you blame for the ways in which you suffer? In what ways does your blaming and condemnation of others make you suffer more, as well as to cause them hurt and harm?
ART: picture of a hand with finger pointing outward
The cross is laid upon him
“We each have our own cross to bear.” This common phrase has some truth to it. Suffering is the universal condition of humankind. The Christian religion makes this point by making the cross its most central image. Buddhism, too, begins with this recognition. The Buddha’s first “station” on his path to enlightenment was to recognize that all life is suffering. But for Jesus, according to the legends that shaped the medieval Stations of the Cross, the cross was unbearable. It was too heavy for him to carry, after being whipped and scourged by the Romans. And for us, too, there are times when our crosses are too heavy to bear.
MEDITATION: What cross do you carry through life? When has it become too heavy for you to bear? Have you asked for help in removing it — from God and from others?
ART: various crosses made from different objects (one of play money, one of pills, one of cords and cables)
His first fall
According to the Stations legends, Jesus fell three times as he was marched to Golgotha to be crucified. Each of us will fall at some point in life, by tripping on rock: a life crisis, an illness,or just old age. To fall down is an injury to one’s dignity as well as to one’s body. Yet Jesus said (Matthew 21:42-44) that the stone of stumbling would become the cornerstone — the most important stone in the building of the new Kingdom of Heaven. We all fall down — and while this is painful for us, it is also what “levels” us all, rich and poor, strong and weak, famous and unknown, and puts us in our place. And there is the promise that our stone of stumbling can be transformed into the cornerstone of the new life on the other side of the cross.
MEDITATION: What is the stone that makes you stumble and fall? What is it like — to be humbled in front of other people as well as in front of God? How can your stumbling stone be transformed into the foundation of a new and better life for you and others?
ART: large rock
He meets his mother Mary
Jesus and Mary endured one of the greatest trials that confronts human beings. The son had to endure humilation in front of his mother, and the mother had to witness the destruction of her son. Being a parent and being a child — these are relationships that are incredibly beautiful. But being a parent, and being a child, can also be incredibly painful. Each of us has given our parents and/or our children both joy and pain. Jesus and Mary tasted both.
MEDITATION: What unfinished business do you have with your parents and/or with your children? If this was your last chance to communicate, what would you say to your parent/child?
ART: picture of a family in silhouette, parents and children
Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross
Jesus was too weak to carry his own cross, according to the Stations legends. A man named Simon, who came to Jerusalem from his home in Cyrene, in North Africa, to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem, was picked, apparently at random, to carry Jesus’ cross. Sometimes we are asked to carry burdens for other people. They need our help, and we are called to make sacrifices for them. But sometimes we feel that by doing so, we are participating in their own destruction. When is it right to take on the burdens of others? And when should we let them suffer on their own? But in the end, we each are called to bear the sufferings of others, and others are asked to bear our own. Jesus carried the cross out of love for the people around him, and Simon carried it for Jesus.
MEDITATION: What crosses are you asked to carry for others? Do you do so willingly or grudgingly? Does taking up their crosses help them or hurt them even more? Who carries the cross for you — friends, family, co-workers, others?
ART: picture of field workers, stooped over picking vegetables
Jesus’ face is wiped by Veronica
According to the Stations legends, Veronica was one of the women of Jerusalem who followed Jesus to the cross. She wiped his face to offer comfort, and his image remained on the cloth. The cloth became a relic that had healing powers. The name “Veronica” probably means “true image” — the true image of the Christ, which can be found in every human being.
MEDITATION: Look in the mirror– do you see the true image of the Christ in your own image? Do you see the suffering of the Christ, and also the one for whom the Christ is willing to suffer?
ART: mirror
His second fall
Jesus, weakened by beatings, fell again on his way to Golgotha. It is more likely that we will fall when we are already beaten down by illness or other disasters in life. Insults get added to injuries. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. When we are weakened by one disaster, we are made more vulnerable to others. Life isn’t fair! But each time we have a choice: whether to stay down, or whether to stand up for life again, even if it means facing the chance of falling once more.
MEDITATION: What hurts have you experienced, both physically and emotionally, that leave you more vulnerable to more hurt? Have you chosen to hide or excessively protect yourself from further suffering, or have you chosen to take the chance of being hurt again?
ART: crutch
He meets the women of Jerusalem
Jesus encountered a group of women who were his followers, who wailed about his impending death. He told them to wail not for him, but instead for themselves and for Jerusalem, which he predicted would one day be destroyed. Indeed, about 7o years later, the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and the people of Israel were driven out of the country, not to return until this past century. Sometimes we lack perspective: we act as if our troubles are just our own. But none of us lives in a vacuum: each of us is a part of a larger history, a longer and bigger human drama. Understanding our place in history is both a comfort and a curse.
MEDITATION: What is your place in history? What is your role in the bigger human drama of destruction and redemption? How do you, and how can you, make a difference in the unfolding of human destiny?
ART: timeline of human history
His third fall
Jesus fell a third time on his way to crucifixion, according to the Stations legends. He had lost his strength, his power, his reputation: many of his followers had abandoned him, and now he faced the ultimate humiliation. Not only did he lose everything, he was tormented with the knowledge of his loss as he approached Golgotha.
MEDITATION: What have you lost along life’s way? In what way are you cursed by these losses, and in what ways are you liberated? If you could have anything back that you have lost, what would it be, and what would you do with it if you had that second chance? What do you have to lose now — dignity, pride, position — and what would it be like to lose it? Is there anything positive that has come from your losses?
ART: completed jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing
He is stripped of his garments
In Jesus’ time, it was extremely humiliating to be stripped naked…. even moreso than it is today. Jesus was completely exposed — there was nothing hidden anymore. His robe or cloak was taken by the Roman soldiers, who drew lots to see which of them would get it.
MEDITATION: Throw the dice: whatever number comes up, open the box with that number to see if you “won” Jesus’ garment. If you could wear that garment, what would it hide? What part of your life do you want to keep “under cover”? What would it be like to wear the cloak of the Christ — to “walk a mile in his moccasins”? And in what ways have you made light, downplayed, or disrespected the sufferings of yourself and others?
ART: length of dark fabric and one die
He is crucified
His last words were “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This was the moment of Jesus’ worst suffering, but it was also the pivotal moment of the gospel legend — the precise moment when God and human beings are closest together, the precise moment when divine salvation comes to humanity. Only through this moment is the door to the other side of the cross opened.
MEDITATION: When have you lost God? And when have you been closest to God? Has there ever been a time when both were true, at the same moment?
ART: crucifix
He dies on the cross
Jesus really died …. no matter how you read the story, whether literally or figuratively, the Jesus who lived before the crucifixion was different than the Christ who was resurrected. The gospel stories in the Bible show that the resurrected Christ was substantially different after his death that he was before the crucifixion. Jesus was neverquite the same after his death! And so it is with us: we experience little deaths that change us forever. We really aren’t the same people, exactly, that we were when we were children, nor will we be exactly the same people in years to come. Each major passage of life — childhood to adolescence, adolescence to adulthood, parenthood to grandparenthood — leaves us changed forever, makes us different people than we were before.
MEDITATION: What part of you has died? What part of you is dying? What new life is emerging from these deaths?
ART: picture of a single fern leaf growing out of an old tree stump
His body is taken down from the cross
The gospels tell us that one of the rulers of Israel, a man named Joseph of Arimathea, secretly admired Jesus and asked to remove and bury his body after his crucifixion. Quietly, Joseph took on this sad and thankless task, which surely must have exposed him to danger from the Romans as well as the other members of the Jewish Sanhedrin. According to medieval legends, Joseph later came to England to establish the Christian church there, and in England he placed the Holy Grail – the cup used by Jesus in the Last Supper – in a well at Glastonbury.
MEDITATION: When have you been served profoundly by people who have helped you in secret, with no thought of reward or even thanks? What thankless, hard tasks are you asked to do for the sake of others? Are you willing to do them without recognition or reward? When is it appropriate to expect thanks and reward for your good work, and when does public acknowledgement just get in the way of being of service?
ART: chalice
His body is laid in the tomb
Jesus’ death was shameful, but he was buried respectfully and honorably. Joseph of Arimathea wrapped his body in a shroud and placed it in a new tomb with herbs and spices, in the traditional manner. So often we treat a person one way in life, and quite another way after their death. Can we celebrate each others’ lives while we are still alive, at least as much as we celebrate each others’ lives after death? The tomb was the cocoon, the womb, in which the story of Jesus the historical person of first-century Palestine gestated and was transformed into the universal and eternal Christ. Each of the three days in the tomb was a “trimester” in that gestation period…. ending with the resurrection we celebrate at Easter.
MEDITATION: What part of your life is entombed — on hold, unseen, dead to the world and to yourself? What would happen if that part of your life was transformed, and brought back to life in a new way? Are you ready for this kind of resurrection?
ART: picture taken from inside a cave looking out to a beach and ocean and sunshine
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What Else Could I Have Done? A Maundy Thursday or Good Friday Reading
by Fred Plumer
Narrator
Pilate’s Wife
Roman Soldier
Simon of Cyrene
Judas
Mary
Peter
Mary Magdalene
Chief Priest
Joseph of Arimathea
Pilate
Centurion
Narrator: This is the Passion story. The story of Jesus’ betrayal and his death. Come and walk with the people that were with him during that time.
Judas: I am Judas from the village of Kerioth. I loved the land God had given to my people. I believed Jesus of Nazareth was God’s answer to Israel’s prayer for release from Roman tyranny. What amazing power he wielded over death’s seeming finality! Surely he was the Messiah whose advent had been foretold by our prophets. What an invincible leader he would be in our battle against Rome’s predators! He demonstrated abler leadership than Israel’s great King David. But as I witnessed his gentle ministry to needy peasant and blind beggars, I became impatient for him to demonstrate his leadership by marshalling Israel’s warriors in battle. It was maddening for me to listen to him talk about loving one’s enemies when I wanted him to mount a campaign to eradicate Israel’s enemies. Why did he waste time healing beggars and feeding hungry peasants?
Roman Soldier: I am a Roman soldier. We were in our troop, with all of our armor and equipment on. We were a fierce, cruel band of men?murderers, actually, and we didn’t care. It was our job, just like any other. We were paid for obeying orders, whatever they might be. That night, though, was special. We were out to get our man, Jesus of Nazareth. We got a tip as to where he was, and we came armed to capture him. I’ll never forget it. We came to capture a criminal.
Peter: I was there that night. My name is Peter, and we, the disciples, were in the garden with our Lord while he was praying. It’s hard to imagine the horrendous fear and hatred that came over me when I saw the soldiers. I loved Jesus so much that I had to do something. I had to do something to show my loyalty and my fierce devotion, so I raised my sword in my anger and aimed, and missed my mark! I cut off an ear of one of the soldiers, but I meant to do so much more! I wanted to protect him because I loved him so much, but I was wrong. Jesus does not condone violence; and there, amidst the cruelty that was facing him, he healed one of his enemies. My fear was overwhelming. It’s hard to imagine what it is like to fear for your life, but I loved him.
Roman Soldier: Jesus surrendered boldly with a courage I have never seen. This man was no ordinary man. There was something about him I couldn’t understand. He carried no weapons, but when he came toward us we became terrified. A troop of armed soldiers could become paralyzed with fear because of him, one man. I shrank back in fear of him. I wanted to leave and run when I saw him, but what else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Judas: I began to wonder if he needed an opportunity to demonstrate his divine power. Perhaps I could arrange such an opportunity which would allow him to reveal his invincible power. I conceived a plan which would demonstrate Jesus’ superiority over Caesar. I would offer to lead Roman soldiers to overtake the Master while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. In this showdown he would summon legions of angels to disable Caesar’s soldiers. I could not believe that Jesus would allow himself to be taken prisoner, but he did! Everything fell apart before my eyes! I was sickened by the realization that I had betrayed God’s son to his enemies. I was desperate. I couldn’t undo what I had started. I had betrayed my Lord who loved me. I had returned his love with betrayal. I didn’t deserve to live. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Narrator: After Jesus was arrested that night, he was given six trials, all without witnesses and all at night. They were brutal and cruel to him. Long before he even went to the cross, Jesus was humiliated and beaten. He was all alone. His disciples were nowhere to be seen. (Blow out candle and leave.)
Peter: I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I promised him I wouldn’t deny him, but that night I denied him three times. I bitterly wept because of it, and I was deeply sorry. But I, we, all of us were so scared! We fled and didn’t know what to do. We were in constant fear.
Chief Priest: I am a chief priest of the Jews. I am a man of prestige and importance. I know hundreds of rules concerning how to please God and I was, until quite recently, convinced that God approved of our rules. But then someone came into my life abruptly and started to break our rules. That someone was Jesus of Nazareth. It made us so angry and jealous, we wanted to get rid of him. He healed people, helped people, and said he was the son of man. We hated him. We couldn’t do the things he did. I couldn’t help but notice that he never defended himself or tried to get revenge. It seemed as though he was always demanding honesty in his relationships with us. Honesty was not really what I was interested in, but I couldn’t help wondering who he was, if he was not God’s truth. As he stayed with us, I heard his voice, which had depth and power to it. Even if I were blind I would recognize that voice. Perhaps I knew in my heart that he was a man of God, but I didn’t want to admit it. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Pilate: I am Pontius Pilate. I personally had nothing against him, although he was known as a troublemaker among his own people and the Romans. Certainly, as a Roman ruler, I didn’t care whether he lived or died. I was curious to hear him, though. He seemed to have a depth and a power about him. I must admit I came to think of him as a man of truth. Why was he to die? I felt very reluctant to let this man go, and I’m not sure why. There was something so very unusual about him. But I had my job to consider.
Pilate’s Wife: I am a very beautiful woman, am I not? Pontius Pilate is my husband, a very powerful and influential man, and I am a very important woman. Something happened to me, though, that scared me to the inner depths of my being. God spoke to me about Jesus. He did it in a dream, at night, and from then on I tried to warn my husband about Jesus. Besides that, something about his eyes bothered me. They were not the eyes of mortal man. I wanted my husband to leave him alone and release him. I didn’t feel he was someone we should be dealing with. But what else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Pilate: I was bothered by my wife. She seldom was upset, but this time she pleaded with me. I was bothered by Jesus himself, what there was of him. You see, by the time he got to me he was so beaten physically that it was hard to recognize him. I was vexed knowing that I could lose my job if I didn’t have him crucified, and then I would lose face and be embarrassed in front of all the people. What bothered me was that this Jesus actually seemed to care about me. And although I didn’t want to admit it, I didn’t want his death to be my responsibility. So in front of the screaming, shouting mob I washed my hands of the situation. What else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Simon of Cyrene: My name is Simon of Cyrene. You don’t know me, and I didn’t really understand what the situation was. I was just a bystander and I was requested to carry the cross of this Jesus to Golgotha. Who is he, anyway? I was near to him, and there was a strange peacefulness about him, even though he was about to face death. I didn’t want him to die. I did all that I could. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Mary: I loved him from the moment he was born. He was never an easy son, but I loved him. We had our differences, certainly, but this was my greatest fear from the very beginning of his activities. Why did he have to do it so differently? He could have lived in Galilee, had a family, been like other sons. I think he just cared too much. He loved too much. He wanted justice for everyone. I must admit, I am proud of him. I wanted him to know I’m proud of him, that I loved him. That’s why I was there, to be with him one last time. It was hard, harder than I could have imagined. I felt every wound that was inflicted upon him. I would have done anything to have taken his place.
Mary Magdalene: I’m Mary Magdalene. I was proud to be one of Jesus’ disciples. It’s a rare thing for a man in our world to treat me with such equality and respect. I came to know Jesus when he healed my illness, but I discovered later he had healed more; he had healed my soul. It was a strange day for me when I realized how much I had come to love him. Clearly, this man spoke the truth. I did what I could do with my financial and moral support, but it was not enough. I now know that every moment I spent with him was a gift from God. He made me realize that I had lived my life in fear, instead of love. And where there is love, there is no fear. Maybe that’s why I had the courage to be at his feet when they crucified him.
Joseph of Arimathea: I am Joseph of Arimathea. I am a very important, prominent man and member of the Sanhedrin. I’m not a terribly brave person, but after Jesus died, I gathered up my courage and asked for his body because I wanted him to be buried in my own tomb. I was frightened to do it. If someone had found out, I would lose my position. I am a wealthy man, and I knew I was doing this at great risk. But I wanted him to have my burial tomb; somehow I knew that such a holy man should not be thrown into a pit. He had changed my life. He had taught me the truth. When I gave him my tomb, I realized how much that truth had changed my life. That is the way love is. It transforms people to do things for love of truth, rather than from fear. What else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Centurion: I am a centurion. I saw Jesus die. I just happened to be a bystander, one of the Roman guards assigned to Golgotha. I saw many crucifixions, saw many people die. You get used to it. Besides, it’s our job and we are hardened people. However, this Jesus changed me. There was something about the way he died. An inner peace, in spite of the pain. There was something about his willingness to forgive. This man changed me. Now I wish I had known more about him. I do think he was special. Maybe even a son of God. I will always feel badly about his death. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
*****Hymn*****
Peter: What can I say, how can I ever make this up to him? He must know that I loved him with all of my heart. What more could I have done? Will I be willing to risk my life for his truth? Will I be able to still call him my Lord? Will I be able to face the others after my cowardice? I know that he was the truth. Now I must learn to live it. What else can I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Mary: I know I have been given a gift. A gift of love that is so great, that I would gladly give my life for the sake of my child. Maybe there are things that I could have done differently, but I could not have loved him more. (Blow out candle and leave.)
Mary Magdalene: I’ll always wonder if there was more that I could have done. I was surprised when I realized that none of the twelve were there when he was killed. How strange it is that the same men who were arguing about who would be first were absent, gone in his last hours on this earth. I hope he knew when he looked at me how much I loved him. I will never leave him. I will never betray his truth. Maybe that’s what love is. (Blow out candle and leave.)
A note on the script:
It would be a good idea to read the whole script when you have a few minutes.
The overlying theme of the readings is, “What else could I have done?” Every character ends their reading with that line (or a variation of it). However, the characters are vastly different, and they don’t all mean the same thing when they say that line. For example, perhaps the Roman Soldier is defensive. Perhaps Pilate is full of regret. Perhaps Simon of Cyrene is thoughtful, trying to literally think of something else he could have done. Maybe another character is angry, another is heartbroken, etc., etc. Think about your character for a bit, and where they’re coming from when they say that line.
And have fun with it! All of the characters are interesting and thought-provoking.
What Else Could I Have Done? A Maundy Thursday or Good Friday Reading
by Fred Plumer
Narrator
Pilate’s Wife
Roman Soldier
Simon of Cyrene
Judas
Mary
Peter
Mary Magdalene
Chief Priest
Joseph of Arimathea
Pilate
Centurion
Narrator: This is the Passion story. The story of Jesus’ betrayal and his death. Come and walk with the people that were with him during that time.
Judas: I am Judas from the village of Kerioth. I loved the land God had given to my people. I believed Jesus of Nazareth was God’s answer to Israel’s prayer for release from Roman tyranny. What amazing power he wielded over death’s seeming finality! Surely he was the Messiah whose advent had been foretold by our prophets. What an invincible leader he would be in our battle against Rome’s predators! He demonstrated abler leadership than Israel’s great King David. But as I witnessed his gentle ministry to needy peasant and blind beggars, I became impatient for him to demonstrate his leadership by marshalling Israel’s warriors in battle. It was maddening for me to listen to him talk about loving one’s enemies when I wanted him to mount a campaign to eradicate Israel’s enemies. Why did he waste time healing beggars and feeding hungry peasants?
Roman Soldier: I am a Roman soldier. We were in our troop, with all of our armor and equipment on. We were a fierce, cruel band of men?murderers, actually, and we didn’t care. It was our job, just like any other. We were paid for obeying orders, whatever they might be. That night, though, was special. We were out to get our man, Jesus of Nazareth. We got a tip as to where he was, and we came armed to capture him. I’ll never forget it. We came to capture a criminal.
Peter: I was there that night. My name is Peter, and we, the disciples, were in the garden with our Lord while he was praying. It’s hard to imagine the horrendous fear and hatred that came over me when I saw the soldiers. I loved Jesus so much that I had to do something. I had to do something to show my loyalty and my fierce devotion, so I raised my sword in my anger and aimed, and missed my mark! I cut off an ear of one of the soldiers, but I meant to do so much more! I wanted to protect him because I loved him so much, but I was wrong. Jesus does not condone violence; and there, amidst the cruelty that was facing him, he healed one of his enemies. My fear was overwhelming. It’s hard to imagine what it is like to fear for your life, but I loved him.
Roman Soldier: Jesus surrendered boldly with a courage I have never seen. This man was no ordinary man. There was something about him I couldn’t understand. He carried no weapons, but when he came toward us we became terrified. A troop of armed soldiers could become paralyzed with fear because of him, one man. I shrank back in fear of him. I wanted to leave and run when I saw him, but what else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Judas: I began to wonder if he needed an opportunity to demonstrate his divine power. Perhaps I could arrange such an opportunity which would allow him to reveal his invincible power. I conceived a plan which would demonstrate Jesus’ superiority over Caesar. I would offer to lead Roman soldiers to overtake the Master while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. In this showdown he would summon legions of angels to disable Caesar’s soldiers. I could not believe that Jesus would allow himself to be taken prisoner, but he did! Everything fell apart before my eyes! I was sickened by the realization that I had betrayed God’s son to his enemies. I was desperate. I couldn’t undo what I had started. I had betrayed my Lord who loved me. I had returned his love with betrayal. I didn’t deserve to live. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Narrator: After Jesus was arrested that night, he was given six trials, all without witnesses and all at night. They were brutal and cruel to him. Long before he even went to the cross, Jesus was humiliated and beaten. He was all alone. His disciples were nowhere to be seen. (Blow out candle and leave.)
Peter: I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I promised him I wouldn’t deny him, but that night I denied him three times. I bitterly wept because of it, and I was deeply sorry. But I, we, all of us were so scared! We fled and didn’t know what to do. We were in constant fear.
Chief Priest: I am a chief priest of the Jews. I am a man of prestige and importance. I know hundreds of rules concerning how to please God and I was, until quite recently, convinced that God approved of our rules. But then someone came into my life abruptly and started to break our rules. That someone was Jesus of Nazareth. It made us so angry and jealous, we wanted to get rid of him. He healed people, helped people, and said he was the son of man. We hated him. We couldn’t do the things he did. I couldn’t help but notice that he never defended himself or tried to get revenge. It seemed as though he was always demanding honesty in his relationships with us. Honesty was not really what I was interested in, but I couldn’t help wondering who he was, if he was not God’s truth. As he stayed with us, I heard his voice, which had depth and power to it. Even if I were blind I would recognize that voice. Perhaps I knew in my heart that he was a man of God, but I didn’t want to admit it. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Pilate: I am Pontius Pilate. I personally had nothing against him, although he was known as a troublemaker among his own people and the Romans. Certainly, as a Roman ruler, I didn’t care whether he lived or died. I was curious to hear him, though. He seemed to have a depth and a power about him. I must admit I came to think of him as a man of truth. Why was he to die? I felt very reluctant to let this man go, and I’m not sure why. There was something so very unusual about him. But I had my job to consider.
Pilate’s Wife: I am a very beautiful woman, am I not? Pontius Pilate is my husband, a very powerful and influential man, and I am a very important woman. Something happened to me, though, that scared me to the inner depths of my being. God spoke to me about Jesus. He did it in a dream, at night, and from then on I tried to warn my husband about Jesus. Besides that, something about his eyes bothered me. They were not the eyes of mortal man. I wanted my husband to leave him alone and release him. I didn’t feel he was someone we should be dealing with. But what else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Pilate: I was bothered by my wife. She seldom was upset, but this time she pleaded with me. I was bothered by Jesus himself, what there was of him. You see, by the time he got to me he was so beaten physically that it was hard to recognize him. I was vexed knowing that I could lose my job if I didn’t have him crucified, and then I would lose face and be embarrassed in front of all the people. What bothered me was that this Jesus actually seemed to care about me. And although I didn’t want to admit it, I didn’t want his death to be my responsibility. So in front of the screaming, shouting mob I washed my hands of the situation. What else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Simon of Cyrene: My name is Simon of Cyrene. You don’t know me, and I didn’t really understand what the situation was. I was just a bystander and I was requested to carry the cross of this Jesus to Golgotha. Who is he, anyway? I was near to him, and there was a strange peacefulness about him, even though he was about to face death. I didn’t want him to die. I did all that I could. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Mary: I loved him from the moment he was born. He was never an easy son, but I loved him. We had our differences, certainly, but this was my greatest fear from the very beginning of his activities. Why did he have to do it so differently? He could have lived in Galilee, had a family, been like other sons. I think he just cared too much. He loved too much. He wanted justice for everyone. I must admit, I am proud of him. I wanted him to know I’m proud of him, that I loved him. That’s why I was there, to be with him one last time. It was hard, harder than I could have imagined. I felt every wound that was inflicted upon him. I would have done anything to have taken his place.
Mary Magdalene: I’m Mary Magdalene. I was proud to be one of Jesus’ disciples. It’s a rare thing for a man in our world to treat me with such equality and respect. I came to know Jesus when he healed my illness, but I discovered later he had healed more; he had healed my soul. It was a strange day for me when I realized how much I had come to love him. Clearly, this man spoke the truth. I did what I could do with my financial and moral support, but it was not enough. I now know that every moment I spent with him was a gift from God. He made me realize that I had lived my life in fear, instead of love. And where there is love, there is no fear. Maybe that’s why I had the courage to be at his feet when they crucified him.
Joseph of Arimathea: I am Joseph of Arimathea. I am a very important, prominent man and member of the Sanhedrin. I’m not a terribly brave person, but after Jesus died, I gathered up my courage and asked for his body because I wanted him to be buried in my own tomb. I was frightened to do it. If someone had found out, I would lose my position. I am a wealthy man, and I knew I was doing this at great risk. But I wanted him to have my burial tomb; somehow I knew that such a holy man should not be thrown into a pit. He had changed my life. He had taught me the truth. When I gave him my tomb, I realized how much that truth had changed my life. That is the way love is. It transforms people to do things for love of truth, rather than from fear. What else could I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Centurion: I am a centurion. I saw Jesus die. I just happened to be a bystander, one of the Roman guards assigned to Golgotha. I saw many crucifixions, saw many people die. You get used to it. Besides, it’s our job and we are hardened people. However, this Jesus changed me. There was something about the way he died. An inner peace, in spite of the pain. There was something about his willingness to forgive. This man changed me. Now I wish I had known more about him. I do think he was special. Maybe even a son of God. I will always feel badly about his death. What else could I have done? (Blow out candle and leave.)
*****Hymn*****
Peter: What can I say, how can I ever make this up to him? He must know that I loved him with all of my heart. What more could I have done? Will I be willing to risk my life for his truth? Will I be able to still call him my Lord? Will I be able to face the others after my cowardice? I know that he was the truth. Now I must learn to live it. What else can I do? (Blow out candle and leave.)
Mary: I know I have been given a gift. A gift of love that is so great, that I would gladly give my life for the sake of my child. Maybe there are things that I could have done differently, but I could not have loved him more. (Blow out candle and leave.)
Mary Magdalene: I’ll always wonder if there was more that I could have done. I was surprised when I realized that none of the twelve were there when he was killed. How strange it is that the same men who were arguing about who would be first were absent, gone in his last hours on this earth. I hope he knew when he looked at me how much I loved him. I will never leave him. I will never betray his truth. Maybe that’s what love is. (Blow out candle and leave.)
A note on the script:
It would be a good idea to read the whole script when you have a few minutes.
The overlying theme of the readings is, “What else could I have done?” Every character ends their reading with that line (or a variation of it). However, the characters are vastly different, and they don’t all mean the same thing when they say that line. For example, perhaps the Roman Soldier is defensive. Perhaps Pilate is full of regret. Perhaps Simon of Cyrene is thoughtful, trying to literally think of something else he could have done. Maybe another character is angry, another is heartbroken, etc., etc. Think about your character for a bit, and where they’re coming from when they say that line.
And have fun with it! All of the characters are interesting and thought-provoking.
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Round Dance of the Cross: A Maundy Thursday Service
This service is appropriate for a small congregation of 20-60 people. The service is conducted in two settings:
read moreStations of the Cross
The practice of creating Stations of the Cross for meditative reflection on the final hours of Jesus’ life is a very old one. To this day, many Catholic and other churches have gardens or sanctuaries in which the stations are situated.
read moreWhat Else Could I Have Done? A Maundy Thursday or Good Friday Reading
This is the Passion story. The story of Jesus’ betrayal and his death. Come and walk with the people that were with him during that time.
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Events and Updates
“Stations of the Cosmic Christ” Book Debut
Join us at Grace Cathedral on March 19th, 2016 from 10:00am to 1:00pm for the world debut of Stations of the Cosmic Christ by Bishop Marc Andrus and spiritual theologian Matthew Fox.
READ ON ...
“Stations of the Cosmic Christ” Book Debut
Join us at Grace Cathedral on March 19th, 2016 from 10:00am to 1:00pm for the world debut of Stations of the Cosmic Christ by Bishop Marc Andrus and spiritual theologian Matthew Fox.
For those pre-ordering the Stations of the Cosmic Christ prior to March 10th, a special meeting, conversation, and books signing with Bishop Marc Andrus and bestselling author Matthew Fox. Additionally those who pre-order the book will be provided the Stations of the Cosmic Christ card set, as a free gift. The card set can be used to meditate or pray at home or on the road.
Images
Start:
March 19, 2016 10:00 AM
End:
March 19, 2016 01:00 PM
Location:
Grace Cathedral
1100 California Street
San Francisco CA
Website:
http://www.gracecathedral.org/visit/
Telephone:
415-749-6300
---------------------
Question & Answer for Thursday, 10 March 2016 - "Marriage and Divorce?" A New Christianity for a New World with Bishop John Shelby Spong on the News and Christian Fath
HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR
Question & Answer
Agathe Dupont from France writes:
Question:
I am French and Catholic. I agree with most all that you think, but and I do not speak good English. I have taught classics and am a Ph.D. in religious history, religious antiquity religious anthropology. I send you a text maybe you could understand it or know somebody who can help you. There is an error in the translation from Greek to Latin (and so in all the languages after) of an important verse about marriage and divorce in Matthew 5:32. Big consequences (indissolubility of marriage and so on). Even if I know myself that I can know what I do, it is important for other people to have an image less deformed of Jesus: there are many different levels and ways. I would like to meet you if you go in France, maybe with a group?
Thank you for your comments. Sorry for my bad English. I teach classics and I can read English. Tell me if you read French if I have to answer from you!
Answer:
Dear Agathe,
Thank you for your letter that I have printed as it was received. Your English is better than my French, so I appreciate it. I was in France for four days last June. Two of my books have now been translated into French and are available at bookstores from a publisher named Editions Karthala. They are Born of a Woman and Why Christianity Must Change or Die? We expect to be back in Paris this October by which time two others of my books, Resurrection: Myth or Reality? and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, will have made their entrances into the French publishing world. At that time I will be preaching and lecturing in the American Cathedral in Paris. I would love to meet you and others in your group. If you would contact Jeanne Raymond, who is my agent and contact (at Karthala@orange.fr (22-24 Boulevard Arago, 75013 Paris). She can apprise you of the exact times and places.
The verse you ask about is in the Sermon on the Mount. It makes adultery the sole justification for divorce; that is a Matthaen adaptation. The point in this text is the permanence of the marriage vows. They were meant to be incapable of being dissolved. In that society, however, a woman could not divorce her husband, only the husband could divorce the wife. Equality between the sexes was not yet an idea that had been born. Making it more difficult for the man to divorce his wife was the agenda. If Matthew had his way a man could only divorce his wife if she were guilty of adultery, and anyone who would marry a divorced and adulterous woman (for there should be no other kind) was participating in her ongoing adultery.
The sacredness of the marriage vows was and is an important asset in the stability of the whole society, but there are reasons today for allowing divorce that does not impugn the integrity of the divorcing partner. Should a woman be forced to live with an abusive husband? If the relationship has placed both partners into depression, should the relationship be forced to be continued? If a man in a mid-life crisis leaves his wife for a younger woman, is the abandoned wife doomed to live a single, loveless future? Life is so much more complicated than the laws of the past seemed to understand.
I am a remarried widower. My first wife died of cancer in 1988 and I married my second wife Christine in 1990. She was a single, divorced woman, who separated from her husband in 1982 and received a “No Fault” divorce in 1986. She and her first husband remain good friends to this day and they share the love and responsibilities of their two children, now grown up. I support, as an ideal, faithful monogamy and life enduring marriages. I think we do take our partners for better or worse, in sickness and in health, ‘til death us do part. When the ideal, however, proves not to be possible, the wholeness of one’s life in my mind takes priority over the rules of one’s religious tradition. That makes me a “liberal” I suppose. I think it makes me realistic about the complexities of modern life. I adore my wife. We have now been married for over 26 years. If we use biblical standards that one knows the goodness of the tree by the goodness of the fruit it produces, then I bear witness to the fact that my life is made whole in this marriage. I am expanded, I am a more loving, more patient, more caring and more giving person today than I have ever been before. I, therefore, do not hesitate to define my marriage as “of God” and I live in gratitude for the gifts my wife gives to me. I hope that I have helped to create in her the same responses.
The ultimate law of life is love. How love is worked out in the particular circumstances of life is not by keeping the rules, but by becoming more whole. It is a lot harder to do than people think, but the results are more blessed than rigid rule-following could ever produce.
I hope we meet someday.
John Shelby Spong
SHARE AND READ ONLINE HERE...
Announcements
Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@johnshelbyspong.com or 253-507-8678.
Join us at Grace Cathedral on March 19th, 2016 from 10:00am to 1:00pm for the world debut of Stations of the Cosmic Christ by Bishop Marc Andrus and spiritual theologian Matthew Fox.
For those pre-ordering the Stations of the Cosmic Christ prior to March 10th, a special meeting, conversation, and books signing with Bishop Marc Andrus and bestselling author Matthew Fox. Additionally those who pre-order the book will be provided the Stations of the Cosmic Christ card set, as a free gift. The card set can be used to meditate or pray at home or on the road.
Images
Start:
March 19, 2016 10:00 AM
End:
March 19, 2016 01:00 PM
Location:
Grace Cathedral
1100 California Street
San Francisco CA
Website:
http://www.gracecathedral.org/visit/
Telephone:
415-749-6300
---------------------
Question & Answer for Thursday, 10 March 2016 - "Marriage and Divorce?" A New Christianity for a New World with Bishop John Shelby Spong on the News and Christian Fath
HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR
Question & Answer
Agathe Dupont from France writes:
Question:
I am French and Catholic. I agree with most all that you think, but and I do not speak good English. I have taught classics and am a Ph.D. in religious history, religious antiquity religious anthropology. I send you a text maybe you could understand it or know somebody who can help you. There is an error in the translation from Greek to Latin (and so in all the languages after) of an important verse about marriage and divorce in Matthew 5:32. Big consequences (indissolubility of marriage and so on). Even if I know myself that I can know what I do, it is important for other people to have an image less deformed of Jesus: there are many different levels and ways. I would like to meet you if you go in France, maybe with a group?
Thank you for your comments. Sorry for my bad English. I teach classics and I can read English. Tell me if you read French if I have to answer from you!
Answer:
Dear Agathe,
Thank you for your letter that I have printed as it was received. Your English is better than my French, so I appreciate it. I was in France for four days last June. Two of my books have now been translated into French and are available at bookstores from a publisher named Editions Karthala. They are Born of a Woman and Why Christianity Must Change or Die? We expect to be back in Paris this October by which time two others of my books, Resurrection: Myth or Reality? and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, will have made their entrances into the French publishing world. At that time I will be preaching and lecturing in the American Cathedral in Paris. I would love to meet you and others in your group. If you would contact Jeanne Raymond, who is my agent and contact (at Karthala@orange.fr (22-24 Boulevard Arago, 75013 Paris). She can apprise you of the exact times and places.
The verse you ask about is in the Sermon on the Mount. It makes adultery the sole justification for divorce; that is a Matthaen adaptation. The point in this text is the permanence of the marriage vows. They were meant to be incapable of being dissolved. In that society, however, a woman could not divorce her husband, only the husband could divorce the wife. Equality between the sexes was not yet an idea that had been born. Making it more difficult for the man to divorce his wife was the agenda. If Matthew had his way a man could only divorce his wife if she were guilty of adultery, and anyone who would marry a divorced and adulterous woman (for there should be no other kind) was participating in her ongoing adultery.
The sacredness of the marriage vows was and is an important asset in the stability of the whole society, but there are reasons today for allowing divorce that does not impugn the integrity of the divorcing partner. Should a woman be forced to live with an abusive husband? If the relationship has placed both partners into depression, should the relationship be forced to be continued? If a man in a mid-life crisis leaves his wife for a younger woman, is the abandoned wife doomed to live a single, loveless future? Life is so much more complicated than the laws of the past seemed to understand.
I am a remarried widower. My first wife died of cancer in 1988 and I married my second wife Christine in 1990. She was a single, divorced woman, who separated from her husband in 1982 and received a “No Fault” divorce in 1986. She and her first husband remain good friends to this day and they share the love and responsibilities of their two children, now grown up. I support, as an ideal, faithful monogamy and life enduring marriages. I think we do take our partners for better or worse, in sickness and in health, ‘til death us do part. When the ideal, however, proves not to be possible, the wholeness of one’s life in my mind takes priority over the rules of one’s religious tradition. That makes me a “liberal” I suppose. I think it makes me realistic about the complexities of modern life. I adore my wife. We have now been married for over 26 years. If we use biblical standards that one knows the goodness of the tree by the goodness of the fruit it produces, then I bear witness to the fact that my life is made whole in this marriage. I am expanded, I am a more loving, more patient, more caring and more giving person today than I have ever been before. I, therefore, do not hesitate to define my marriage as “of God” and I live in gratitude for the gifts my wife gives to me. I hope that I have helped to create in her the same responses.
The ultimate law of life is love. How love is worked out in the particular circumstances of life is not by keeping the rules, but by becoming more whole. It is a lot harder to do than people think, but the results are more blessed than rigid rule-following could ever produce.
I hope we meet someday.
John Shelby Spong
SHARE AND READ ONLINE HERE...
Announcements
Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@johnshelbyspong.com or 253-507-8678.
---------------------
Question & Answer for Thursday, 11 February 2016 - "'God' and 'Truth'?" A New Christianity for a New World with Bishop JOhn Shelby Spong on the News and Christian Faith
HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR
Question & Answer
George Kokich of Ottawa, Canada, writes:
Question:
I am an open-minded and lifelong truth seeker and enjoy your thoughtful commentaries on spiritual topics. Given my spiritual journeys to date, I think that one of the most profound spiritual ideas with infinite implications that I have recognized is that the words “God” and “Truth” are synonyms. It appears that most people, however, have not reflected on what the implications include. I would appreciate your thought on this issue.
Answer:
Dear George,
I like your idea with these caveats. The word “God” only points to a reality, the word is not the reality, while the word “truth” refers to something that is always unfolding, is never static and ultimately cannot be captured in the vessel of human words. So while “God” and “truth” may not be synonyms, they clearly are overlapping concepts. I would say the same thing about “God” and “love,” “God” and “being,” and “God” and “ultimate reality.”
Why anyone thinks that God can ever be defined in human words amazes me. Why anyone thinks that the truth of God can be captured in the words of a creed startles me. Why anyone thinks there is such a thing as the “true faith,” the “orthodox position” or the “final truth” in a set of doctrines and dogmas sets my teeth on edge. Such talk has done nothing except turn the concept of God into a human idol.
Look at the words we use to describe God: Infinite, immortal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. Have you noticed that they are descriptions of human life with all of the human limits removed? Human life is finite, mortal, limited in power, in space and in knowledge. The human concept of God is that of a human being without human limits. Is it not apparent that we cannot define God except in human terms? While that is inevitable when we make excessive claims for our own definitions, when we seek to assert that the Bible is inerrant, the Pope is infallible, the “faith” can be captured in creeds, doctrines and dogmas, we have become idolaters, we have become religious imperialists. At that moment, Christianity begins to die.
So worship and God, the object of worship, always point beyond themselves. God is never an object, not even a being. God is a mystery into which we walk. God is not a noun that we are compelled to define, God is a verb that we seek to live.
So let “truth” be an analogy for the word “God,” but never a synonym.
Thank you for your letter.
John Shelby Spong
READ AND SHARE ONLINE HERE...
Announcements
Many of you ask where you can find liturgies and resources that align with Bishop's Spong language and theology. New relevant church resources that are truly progressive and spiritual. And the answer is HERE and HERE and HERE!
That's what we do- we are the global portal for progressive Christian spiritual resources.
Let us know if you need help finding something specific...orshare yours today!
Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@johnshelbyspong.com or 253-507-8678.
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Question & Answer for Thursday, 11 February 2016 - "'God' and 'Truth'?" A New Christianity for a New World with Bishop JOhn Shelby Spong on the News and Christian Faith
HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR
Question & Answer
George Kokich of Ottawa, Canada, writes:
Question:
I am an open-minded and lifelong truth seeker and enjoy your thoughtful commentaries on spiritual topics. Given my spiritual journeys to date, I think that one of the most profound spiritual ideas with infinite implications that I have recognized is that the words “God” and “Truth” are synonyms. It appears that most people, however, have not reflected on what the implications include. I would appreciate your thought on this issue.
Answer:
Dear George,
I like your idea with these caveats. The word “God” only points to a reality, the word is not the reality, while the word “truth” refers to something that is always unfolding, is never static and ultimately cannot be captured in the vessel of human words. So while “God” and “truth” may not be synonyms, they clearly are overlapping concepts. I would say the same thing about “God” and “love,” “God” and “being,” and “God” and “ultimate reality.”
Why anyone thinks that God can ever be defined in human words amazes me. Why anyone thinks that the truth of God can be captured in the words of a creed startles me. Why anyone thinks there is such a thing as the “true faith,” the “orthodox position” or the “final truth” in a set of doctrines and dogmas sets my teeth on edge. Such talk has done nothing except turn the concept of God into a human idol.
Look at the words we use to describe God: Infinite, immortal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. Have you noticed that they are descriptions of human life with all of the human limits removed? Human life is finite, mortal, limited in power, in space and in knowledge. The human concept of God is that of a human being without human limits. Is it not apparent that we cannot define God except in human terms? While that is inevitable when we make excessive claims for our own definitions, when we seek to assert that the Bible is inerrant, the Pope is infallible, the “faith” can be captured in creeds, doctrines and dogmas, we have become idolaters, we have become religious imperialists. At that moment, Christianity begins to die.
So worship and God, the object of worship, always point beyond themselves. God is never an object, not even a being. God is a mystery into which we walk. God is not a noun that we are compelled to define, God is a verb that we seek to live.
So let “truth” be an analogy for the word “God,” but never a synonym.
Thank you for your letter.
John Shelby Spong
READ AND SHARE ONLINE HERE...
Announcements
Many of you ask where you can find liturgies and resources that align with Bishop's Spong language and theology. New relevant church resources that are truly progressive and spiritual. And the answer is HERE and HERE and HERE!
That's what we do- we are the global portal for progressive Christian spiritual resources.
Let us know if you need help finding something specific...orshare yours today!
Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@johnshelbyspong.com or 253-507-8678.
---------------------
View all upcoming events here!
News
Job Listings
FacebookTwitterWebsiteEmailYouTube---------------------
Our mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Pt. Fosdick Dr. NW#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States
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