Weekly Recap for Tuesday, December 20, 2016 from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "She beckons women everywhere to speak out for God’s justice... This and more in our Free Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week."
Last Week At ProgressiveChristianity.org ...We delved into the topics of: A New Nativity, Mary, Gifts for Children and Christmas Eve.
Visit our website to join in on the discussion and to view our thousands of spiritual resources!
We are entirely reader supported, please support us today.
ProgressiveChristianity.org is a global portal for authors, scholars, theologians and liturgists to share their resources for the progressive spiritual journey.
-------
Let It Go (A New Nativity)Chris Glaser
This may be a new way to comprehend our selves as Christ’s body. Mystically we breathe in his Spirit, even as he nourishes us and quenches our thirst. His breath, body, and blood flow through us, unclenching our minds, our hearts, our hands. Jesus is born again in us into a world desperately in need of release.
Let It Go (A New Nativity) by Chris Glaser
Have you ever been in the grip of something? Something that wouldn’t let go of you or that you couldn’t let go of?
Have you ever felt possessed or been obsessed by something?
Have you ever felt possessed or been obsessed by something?
Or, after doing something, asked, “Whatever possessed me to do this or that or the other thing?”
What about being gripped by fear? Or overtaken by anger? Or grief? Or anxiety? Or stress? Or lust—that is, an overwhelming desire to have something or someone?
Have you had the experience of being in the grasp of infatuation—that is, something that felt like love but was more like fear of being deprived of the object of your attraction?
Have you ever been possessed by an addiction—that is, something that once gave pleasure but became more about fear of being deprived of it? We tend to think of drugs or alcohol in this regard, but it may be something as ennobling as our work, our convictions, our causes, even our compassion. (Yes, compassion! We know compassion has “possessed” us when we experience burnout in its wake.)
Once I was looking for the remote control and I became absolutely obsessed with finding it right then and there. “What was that all about?” I wondered later. Surely the margaritas earlier in the evening did not help. But there was something more. As I get older, I misplace more things, I have greater difficulty finding things, and I don’t like it one bit. I was gripped temporarily by anger at myself, gripped for the moment by fear of losing my faculties, gripped by anxiety over loss of control that the remote symbolizes in our age. After all, it is called the remote control!
My obsession with finding the remote alarmed Wade and some friends who had joined us to watch a film together—and I apologized. Where was my Christian calm? Where was my Buddhist detachment? What happened to my “spiritual” demeanor? I’m a “propagandist” for the contemplative life, for God’s sake—why do I let the “things of this world” trouble me so much?
Well, you know, we’re all “works in progress,” as they say.
I invite you to make a fist with one hand, as tight as you can. Put whatever anger, stress, or fear you can into that fist. Do you feel the blood being squeezed out of your hand along with all of its oxygen that feeds the cells?
Now keep it clenched and, with the other hand, try to open it. No luck, huh? Now release your fist slowly. Feel the blood flowing again, bringing oxygen—breath—into its flesh. With your other hand, gently massage your hand, caressing its palm, running fingers along the inside of the fingers that have been clenched. Feel the pleasure of it. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly. Take another deep breath and imagine that breath coming into your heart and radiating through your blood vessels to the palm of your hand, then to the tips of your fingers.
Almost all of us at one time or another become like clenched fists. The agenda of a day may slowly constrict us. Worries at work may cramp us. Expectations of others or of ourselves may constrain us. A diagnosis may confine us. Anxieties about world events may restrain us. We need release.
Last week’s Midrash referenced one possessed by an unclean spirit. In an encounter with Jesus, the unclean spirit convulses the man, screaming, and releases the person from its grip. What may possess one person for a lifetime may possess any of us for a moment. We all need release.
Nowadays what was understood as unclean spirits are neatly catalogued by doctors and therapists in diagnostic manuals. Treatments and medicine are prescribed. This gives an illusion of control—knowing what it is, knowing what to do. But control is not release. Jesus releases. He does not simply control.
Think of the fist you just made. Your other hand may be able to control it, but to open it requires another strategy that inspires the cooperation of the clenched hand.
This may be a new way to comprehend our selves as Christ’s body. Mystically we breathe in his Spirit, even as he nourishes us and quenches our thirst. His breath, body, and blood flow through us, unclenching our minds, our hearts, our hands. Jesus is born again in us into a world desperately in need of release.
Visit Chris’ Blog Progressive Christian Reflections
READ ON ...
-------
Have you had the experience of being in the grasp of infatuation—that is, something that felt like love but was more like fear of being deprived of the object of your attraction?
Have you ever been possessed by an addiction—that is, something that once gave pleasure but became more about fear of being deprived of it? We tend to think of drugs or alcohol in this regard, but it may be something as ennobling as our work, our convictions, our causes, even our compassion. (Yes, compassion! We know compassion has “possessed” us when we experience burnout in its wake.)
Once I was looking for the remote control and I became absolutely obsessed with finding it right then and there. “What was that all about?” I wondered later. Surely the margaritas earlier in the evening did not help. But there was something more. As I get older, I misplace more things, I have greater difficulty finding things, and I don’t like it one bit. I was gripped temporarily by anger at myself, gripped for the moment by fear of losing my faculties, gripped by anxiety over loss of control that the remote symbolizes in our age. After all, it is called the remote control!
My obsession with finding the remote alarmed Wade and some friends who had joined us to watch a film together—and I apologized. Where was my Christian calm? Where was my Buddhist detachment? What happened to my “spiritual” demeanor? I’m a “propagandist” for the contemplative life, for God’s sake—why do I let the “things of this world” trouble me so much?
Well, you know, we’re all “works in progress,” as they say.
I invite you to make a fist with one hand, as tight as you can. Put whatever anger, stress, or fear you can into that fist. Do you feel the blood being squeezed out of your hand along with all of its oxygen that feeds the cells?
Now keep it clenched and, with the other hand, try to open it. No luck, huh? Now release your fist slowly. Feel the blood flowing again, bringing oxygen—breath—into its flesh. With your other hand, gently massage your hand, caressing its palm, running fingers along the inside of the fingers that have been clenched. Feel the pleasure of it. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly. Take another deep breath and imagine that breath coming into your heart and radiating through your blood vessels to the palm of your hand, then to the tips of your fingers.
Almost all of us at one time or another become like clenched fists. The agenda of a day may slowly constrict us. Worries at work may cramp us. Expectations of others or of ourselves may constrain us. A diagnosis may confine us. Anxieties about world events may restrain us. We need release.
Last week’s Midrash referenced one possessed by an unclean spirit. In an encounter with Jesus, the unclean spirit convulses the man, screaming, and releases the person from its grip. What may possess one person for a lifetime may possess any of us for a moment. We all need release.
Nowadays what was understood as unclean spirits are neatly catalogued by doctors and therapists in diagnostic manuals. Treatments and medicine are prescribed. This gives an illusion of control—knowing what it is, knowing what to do. But control is not release. Jesus releases. He does not simply control.
Think of the fist you just made. Your other hand may be able to control it, but to open it requires another strategy that inspires the cooperation of the clenched hand.
This may be a new way to comprehend our selves as Christ’s body. Mystically we breathe in his Spirit, even as he nourishes us and quenches our thirst. His breath, body, and blood flow through us, unclenching our minds, our hearts, our hands. Jesus is born again in us into a world desperately in need of release.
Visit Chris’ Blog Progressive Christian Reflections
READ ON ...
-------
No More Lying About MaryNancy Rockwell
She gives birth in a barn, lies down animals, and welcomes weathered shepherds in the middle of the night. She is determined, not domestic; free, not foolish; holy, not helpless; strong, not submissive. She beckons women everywhere to speak out for God’s justice, which is waiting to be born into this world.
READ ON ...
-------
A Digital Christmas Gift
for Children and Grandchildren
Give the gift that will continue to give all year long - our Children's Curriculum in a PDF digital download for only $125.
A Joyful Path is behavior-over-belief curriculum that connects children with their own inner wisdom. It teaches interdependence, self awareness, respect for nature, stillness, forgiveness, prayer, meditation, and integrity. Using the Bible and other wisdom stories, A Joyful Path helps children learn how to follow the path of Jesus in today’s world.
Order Now ...
-------
Liturgy Selection
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the culmination of the anticipation and preparation of Advent. This is what we have been waiting for and now it is here. Traditions – whatever yours are – hold comfort and connection. For a little while, our world keeps a different kind of time.
Christmas Eve is the culmination of the anticipation and preparation of Advent. This is what we have been waiting for and now it is here. Traditions – whatever yours are – hold comfort and connection. For a little while, our world keeps a different kind of time.
-------
A Service of Holy Communion at Christmas
Minister: May it be well with you.
All: And also with you.
Minister: Life is a gift and we are to celebrate it.
All: May we rejoice in the beauty of this special time.
Christmas Eve is the culmination of the anticipation and preparation of Advent. This is what we have been waiting for and now it is here. Traditions – whatever yours are – hold comfort and connection. For a little while, our world keeps a different kind of time.
Christmas Eve is the culmination of the anticipation and preparation of Advent. This is what we have been waiting for and now it is here. Traditions – whatever yours are – hold comfort and connection. For a little while, our world keeps a different kind of time.
-------
A Service of Holy Communion at Christmas
Minister: May it be well with you.
All: And also with you.
Minister: Life is a gift and we are to celebrate it.
All: May we rejoice in the beauty of this special time.
A Service of Holy Communion at Christmas by Jane Keener-QuiatMinister: May it be well with you.
All: And also with you.
Minister: Life is a gift and we are to celebrate it.
All: May we rejoice in the beauty of this special time.
Minister: We celebrate tonight God-with-us
beyond our words, beyond our images,
for we know God is beyond those things.
But tonight we find joy in the image of God
coming to us in the form of the Christ child.
We sense God’s presence in creation
and in the immensity of our universe,
in the incredible display of life on this planet,
and in our consciousness
of something far greater than ourselves.
As Christians we rejoice in the birth of Jesus.
In him we see the fullness of possibility
to make God visible in our lives.
Like all of us he grew in wisdom as he aged.
He questioned. He searched for meaning.
He shaped his convictions.
He experienced love and came to know
love’s connectedness with God.
He stood firmly in his own religious tradition
and preached good news to all people dreaming
of a better humanity.
We rejoice that he taught us not to imagine
a manipulative, intervening God,
but one who is as close as breath
and as soft as a whisper,
yet as powerful in the focus of our lives,
as were the mighty warriors the Old Testament
but drawing us toward the good.
We rejoice that Jesus led people to discover
the sacred in the ordinary,
in the lowly, in everyday life,
in human yearnings to be better people,
and in being neighbor to one another.
Bread and wine,
the fruit of vine and earth.
He gave us these to keep us connected to the story:
We remember the night before he died,
according to our tradition,
when he shared a meal with his friends.
Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it.
He poured out the wine.
He gave thanks for all the blessings in his life
honoring the God so faithfully present
in his life and ours.
“Do this remembering me.”
We break bread as Jesus did remembering
the call to love generously and faithfully,
whatever the cost.
We pour out wine remembering
our responsibility to be bearers
of forgiveness, tolerance, and understanding.
May these ordinary things be blessed.
For they represent both the ordinary and the extraordinary
as Jesus calls us to follow him.
(The communion servers will come to the altar to receive the blessed bread and wine and then take their places at the front and back of the two aisles. Please go to the servers nearest where you are sitting, going where possible from the inside aisles and returning by the aisles next to the windows. Servers will also go to the balcony if needed. You are invited to take the wafer and dip it into the wine, a method known as intinction.)
All: To this commitment we give our “Amen”
and offer it as our Christmas gift
to our family and friends and neighbors,
as a sacrament to his life and death and resurrection,
in those days, and in our hearts even today.
Minister: And we join in the prayer Jesus taught us:
All: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Minister:
We give thanks for God being with us
in the love of family and friends,
in whatever has been,
in the circumstances of life now,
and in whatever the future holds for us.
And when we go out, may we share
generously of this wonderful gift we have received.
(With contributions from Rex Hunt)
-------
Christmas Eve 95
A baby waits in a dark, warm womb
Lulled by the sway of a donkey’s walk
Christmas Eve 95
A baby waits in a dark, warm womb
Lulled by the sway of a donkey’s walk
Christmas Eve 95 by Jim BurkloA baby waits in a dark, warm wombLulled by the sway of a donkey’s walk
Down a road in the night toward Bethlehem
A young man waits in a concrete cell
For the years of the curse of his crime to pass
What is left of Christmas now?
And what will be left of Christmas then?
A young girl waits by a lighted tree
Till her sleep can skip past the hours till dawn
When she will awake to her Christmas dreams
An old man waits for the phone to ring
And an earnest voice might offer a hint
Of a Christmas past, when his son was young
And a shiny train roared round the tree
A mother waits for the oven’s buzz
For the cry of her child, for the call of her mate
For the time to write, for a chance to think
Of the deeper things that the season means
The officer waits in her darkened car
On the side of a road on a freezing night
For the squeal of tires, for a drunken weave
For the family fight, for the noise too loud
For her shift to end in peace tonight
The student waits in the airport lounge
Brooding against her travel bags
Till the blizzard ends and the runway’s clear
Hoping to make it home in time
The trucker waits at the counter’s edge
For a cup of warmth to heat the night
For the sight of a face to dull the pain
Of family lost, of lovers left
A truck stop Christmas must suffice
A soldier waits in the Balkan night
Ears alert for the slightest sound
Eyes strained into the fearsome dark
At home there’s a chill in his young wife’s heart
He feels her pangs for him this night
A father waits in a cobwebbed barn
By flickering light of a lamp of oil
Holding the hand of his struggling wife
As their precious child is born to the world
And we now wait in a darkened church
Ready to have our hopes fulfilled
Ready to kindle that holy light
Ready to find the Christ within
Each of us who has come tonight
-------
Christmas Eve Responsive Reading
Leader: It is a night of anticipation, a night of waiting.
People: We wait, as Mary and Joseph waited for the birth of their son.
Leader: It is a night of anticipation, a night of waiting.
People: We wait, as Mary and Joseph waited for the birth of their son.
Christmas Eve Responsive Reading by Kevin BradleyLeader: It is a night of anticipation, a night of waiting.
People: We wait, as Mary and Joseph waited for the birth of their son.
L: We wait, surrounded by the darkness of night.
P: We wait, anticipating the coming of the light.
L: In a child, they would see the light of God expressing.
P: The child would show us how to be God expressing.
All: We will show the world how to be God expressing.
-------
READ ON ...
-------
Click on Amazon Smile and choose ProgressiveChristianity.org as your charity - when you shop Amazon donates .05%.
-------
Events and Updates
READ ON ...
-------
Click on Amazon Smile and choose ProgressiveChristianity.org as your charity - when you shop Amazon donates .05%.
-------
Events and Updates
GladdeningLight Symposium 2017Beyond Sacred and Secular Toward Unitive Consciousness
January 26th - 29th in Winter Park, Florida
GladdeningLight annual symposium of art and spirit with bestselling author, beloved teacher & Franciscan activist Richard Rohr, Haitian surrealist painter Frantz Zéphirin and world music trio Free Planet Radio.
GladdeningLight Symposium 2017
Beyond Sacred and Secular Toward Unitive Consciousness
Richard Rohr at GladdeningLight where Everything BelongsGladdeningLight annual symposium of art and spirit with bestselling author, beloved teacher & Franciscan activist Richard Rohr, Haitian surrealist painter Frantz Zéphirin and world music trio Free Planet Radio.Participate for as little as $30 (Friday night’s lecture) to $330 (all symposium activities including Thursday’s artists reception, Friday’s hosted exhibition and the weekend’s essential sessions with Father Richard + planned special events to be announced).
Winter Park, Florida is twenty-five minutes by taxi from Orlando International Airport. A car will not be necessary, as all Symposium events are within walking distance or served by shuttle from host hotels.
The charm of Florida village life in Winter Park serves as our backdrop along with The Alfond Inn and its stunning contemporary art collection, the Park Plaza Hotel on historic Park Avenue (both within walking distance of all activities) and the Comfort Suites Downtown Orlando (accessible via free shuttle van scheduled to & from the Symposium).
Hotel reservations may be made online for The Alfond Inn at $249 per night using the discount code GLADL at checkout, the Park Plaza Hotel at $199 per night by calling (407) 647-1072, and the Comfort Suites Downtown Orlando at $110 per night by calling (407) 228-4007.
Schedule of Events
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Artists Reception on the lakeview lawn at the Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens, 633 Osceola Avenue, Winter Park, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Friday, January 27, 2017
Social meet & greet for Symposium registrants, GladdeningLight Lounge, All Saints Episcopal Church Mary Martha Room, 338 E. Lyman Avenue, Winter Park, 9:00 – 11:00 am
Exhibition tour of Frantz Zéphirin: Contemporary Visions of a Haitian Mystic hosted by the artist, Polasek Museum, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Prelude by Free Planet Radio, All Saints Thomas Center, 7:00 pm
Opening lecture, Richard Rohr, 7:30 pm, $30 single admission
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Prelude by Free Planet Radio, 9:00 am
Morning session, Richard Rohr, All Saints Thomas Center, 9:30 am
Afternoon session, Richard Rohr with Free Planet Radio, 2:00 pm
Evening performance by Free Planet Radio, Tiedtke Concert Hall, Rollins College, Winter Park, 8:00 pm, free and open to the public
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Concluding session, Richard Rohr with Free Planet Radio, All Saints Thomas Center, 10:15 am, free and open to the public
Images
Start:
January 26, 2017
End:
January 29, 2017
Location:
All Saints Episcopal Church
Thomas Center
338 E Lyman Avenue
Winter Park FL
Google Map
Contact:
Randall B Robertson
Organization:
GladdeningLight
Website:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=tawsuydab&oeidk=a07ecxjgz3d080cfb37
Email:
info@gladdeninglight.org
Telephone:
407-647-3963
Read On
-------
View all upcoming events here!
News
Job Listings
*** Remember to send us your Events and Job Postings - we will advertise them on our website free!
Facebook
Twitter
Website
Email
YouTube
Copyright © 2016 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Point Fosdick Drive NorthWest#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States
-------
Weekly Recap for Tuesday, December 13, 2016 from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Can you love everyone, including your enemies? This and more in our Free Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week."
Weekly Recap for Tuesday, December 13, 2016 from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Can you love everyone, including your enemies? This and more in our Free Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week."
Last Week At ProgressiveChristianity.org ...We delved into the topics of: Gratitude and Inclusion, What Makes a Christian?, Winter Comes to Standing Rock and Birth.
Visit our website to join in on the discussion and to view our thousands of spiritual resources!
We are entirely reader supported, please support us today.
ProgressiveChristianity.org is a global portal for authors, scholars, theologians and liturgists to share their resources for the progressive spiritual journey. -------
Table The“a”logyA Reflection of Gratitude and Inclusion
Mary Aktay
“[W]hen you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”[Luke 14: 13-14]A Reflection of Gratitude and Inclusion
The alternative interpretation, of Eucharist as a Sacred Meal, takes all the meals which Jesus shared with his followers – and not merely one – as emblematic of the God who is poured out in generous nourishment for all people, a God we come to know mysteriously yet intimately every time we share food with loved ones. Eucharist is a formal ritual re-enactment of this experience, known to peoples of every age and culture. ~ Diarmud O’Murchu
I spent Thanksgiving 2015 three thousand miles away from my family. My hosts in Scotland prepared a traditional American feast for us travelers with all the “fix’ens” so we would feel at home and not miss our loved ones so much. The table was beautifully set and I was humbled by all the trouble they took to make us feel welcome and restore our anxious souls.
It caused me to pause and think about the Gospel message of Love and acceptance (make that “embrace”) and how it has been taken over by the patriarchal theology of sacrifice and redemption. The table Jesus sat at with his friends enjoying life has been replaced by an altar of sacrifice and death.
Preoccupation with sacrifice has led patriarchal Christianity to an adulterated view of God. Like Abraham on Horeb, the sacrifice of Issac, the destruction of self, becomes an acceptable, even holy, response to a God we do not know well enough to realize that God and creation would never ask such a thing. Endurance, fortitude, and sufferance became the center of the spiritual life, not joy, not holy abandon, not the carnival of goodness everywhere. Gone was the access to the beauty of the Garden, and in its place emerged the fear of the serpent. Gone was the wedding feast at Cana and in its place Golgotha alone.
The first Christians gathered in in ekklesia, or house churches, as they “did not have a system of sacrifices.” They were a “mixture of Jews and gentiles, salves and free persons, males and females. What brought these people together was their experience of a call from God in Christ that transcended their ethnic social and gender differences.” They had no separate buildings in which to celebrate the Eucharist; they simply met in each other’s homes, having learned from Jesus that there is no distinction between the sacred and the secular.
An altar separates those elite who are in power or are vested and chosen to perform the ritual from those who observe it. It reduces those who cannot join to mere spectators of, rather than participants in, the mystery. An altar of sacrifice is meant to impress and intimidate. Only a select few are valued at the altar. A table is meant to invite and inspire. Everyone is valued at a table. Everyone is sacred. A table unites everyone.
Jesus grew up around Sabbath and Seder tables. He participated in Jewish hospitality and sharing. He often used meals in his ministry to bring people together and used table feasts and banquets in his parables to illustrate his message of all-inclusive love.
Zacchaeus was told to prepare a meal because Jesus and his disciples would be dining with him. Zacchaeus thought as a tax-collector despised by his community, he was unworthy but Jesus didn’t think so. The “New” translation of the patriarchal liturgy has the congregation say: “O Lord I am unworthy for you to enter under my roof. Say but the word and my soul shall be healed.” But Jesus didn’t think of him or any of us as unworthy. In both my Inclusive Catholic Community and Intentional Eucharistic Community we say: “O Lord, YOU make us worthy to receive you; and by your words we are healed.”
Jesus spoke of the ‘table healing’ in the parable of the Prodigal Son where his father has a huge celebratory meal to welcome and restore his errant child home (much to the consternation of his judgmental older brother). On the road to Emmaus the disciples recognize Jesus in the “breaking and sharing of the bread,” not in some ritualized recitation of prescribed words, or symbolized sacrifice. I think Jesus would be recognized at Thanksgiving tables everywhere.
“Why should anyone be deprived of table fellowship, of the sacred meal, and the experience of the Body of Christ?” ~Barbara Fiand, SNDdeN
In his last Seder meal Jesus asked that we do as he did in memory of him: that we live as he did and love as he did. Feminist Thealogy seeks to remind us once again that ALL were welcome at the Seder meal. No one was turned away. Somehow our male hierarchy has forgotten that and decides who shall partake and whom shall be excluded. Feminist theology includes everyone.
“[W]hen you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14: 13-14
Patristic theology is one of atonement. It has changed the table of nurturing sustenance into an altar of sacrifice. Patriarchal theology asserts that only the son of God could make up to God for the sin of our first parents of turning away from God, thus reducing the Divine Source to a petulant tyrant rather than the life giving womb of Love.
Folks let’s call things by their names. It’s murder. You did my boy in, and it’s by forgiving you this most deeply rooted sin that I change you forever. So let’s have a party to celebrate till the end of the world your emancipation from hating me and killing one another to disguise this ugly secret. ~ Sebastian More speaking for God
Feminist theology is one of At-One-Ment. It recognizes what we do to each other is what we do to God. Like the Prodigal Son we are reconciled and reunited with each other as family regardless of our background, culture, sexual orientation, religion or even lack thereof; and regardless of our shortcomings!
It is in the context of Jesus’ meals with marginal people as anticipations of the kingdom of God that we should understand the accounts of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes as well as the meals shared by the risen Christ with his disciples… And it is in this context that we should interpret the Last Supper of Jesus as well as the early Christian rite if the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians refers to the Lord’s Supper twice, each time calling the Corinthian Christians to greater communal unity, because of ‘the bread that they share.’ ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many are one bread, for we all partake of the one bread.’ (10:17).
Rather than focusing on the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins, we celebrate “in memory” of his life and teachings, proclaiming that by his example of unconditional love Jesus has restored us and made us whole. It is this restoration we celebrate as “Eucharist—Thanksgiving.” As nourishment for our journey, we take in the body of Christ to become who we already are, the Body of Christ.
“So now, if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle Paul speaking to the faithful: “You are the body of Christ, member for member.” [1 Cor. 12.27] If you, therefore, are Christ’s body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord’s table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! You are saying “Amen” to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. When you hear “The body of Christ”, you reply “Amen.” Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your “Amen” may ring true! But what role does the bread play? We have no theory of our own to propose here; listen, instead, to what Paul says about this sacrament: “The bread is one, and we, though many, are one body.” [1 Cor. 10.17] Understand and rejoice: unity, truth, faithfulness, love. “One bread,” he says. What is this one bread? Is it not the “one body,” formed from many? Remember: bread doesn’t come from a single grain, but from many… Be what you see; receive what you are.”~ St. Augustine
Women sacrifice their bodies in birth. Men sacrifice their bodies in death. It seems to me that our Source of All Life would prefer the former.
When we are at table we “birth” community. We serve each other. We nourish and nurture each other. We become more of what we already are, the Body of Christ. We can let go of our fear and anxiety and embrace love. This is our Eucharist: This is our Thanksgiving, no matter who or where we are!
“The table is the earthly manifestation of God’s presence, the ‘heavenly feast,’ where all are fed and sustained and no one suffers want.” ~ Diana Butler Bass
Thanksgiving literally and figuratively turned into Christmas and I was home with my family. For the first time in over 10 years I was able to have both my daughters with me on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. All the superlative adjectives in the dictionary could not describe my feelings at our Christmas table. My grandchildren were giggling. The adults were laughing. The good cheer was overflowing. A Thealogy of Table was spread again before me.
Luke places the birth of Jesus in the most humble of circumstances, a stable surrounded by his family, yet also attended by strangers. But there were really no strangers that night as all of creation became his family including the creatures that surrounded him. I watched my grandchildren play with the animals in the crèche and have them talk to the baby Jesus. My grandson asked, “What does ‘manger’ mean?” I answered that it was where the farm animals ate their meals. He responded: “Oh, they were at their table too.” Out of the mouths of babes… We are called as followers of this child to include all of creation at our table, not sacrifice it to our material or spiritual needs. Feminist thealogy calls us to “immerse ourselves in creation with new respect.”
I watched my family serve each other at table and thought of how, as followers of Jesus, we are called to serve each other, to minister to each other, to “embrace” our relationships with each other and celebrate our interconnectedness just as we celebrate his birth. “The relationship between Christians is to be one pf mutual service, not one of mastery and servitude. At the end of the Gospel of John Jesus tells the disciples that their relationship has now become one of equals.” A table thealogy is one of equals ministering to each other in gladness and joy. It is a sacrament. It is Eucharist.
According to 1 Cor 10:21 the “table of the Lord’ was the Eucharistic table. Table ministry therefore, was most likely the Eucharistic ministry, which included preparation of a meal, purchase and distribution of food, actual serving during the meal and probably cleaning up afterwards. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, (Acts 2:46).
Just as today, most likely it was women then who did the meal preparation, food purchase and distribution, actual serving during the meal and clean-up afterward. Perhaps that is why patriarchal theology ignores or dismisses the table meal as less important than, and subordinate to, a sacrificial altar. But to me, this nourishment is the most important sign of God’s abiding love. And isn’t this “sign” the actual sacrament?
As we nourish and sustain each other, we enter the “Kin-dom of God — a kindom, if you will, without boundaries. It is about getting into the rhythm of God’s life, i.e., thinking with God instead of thinking for God,” very much different from patriarchal theology of “Kingdom” through which it claims that it alone has the authority to speak about God and for God, the ultimate male monarch.
The Aramaic translation of “the Lord be with you” is “the Lord sustain you.” Table is all about continued sustenance. It doesn’t stop. It’s not a one-off time and space event. It echoes the “rhythm of God’s life” and is everlasting and eternal. Jesus is continually reborn in the stables of our hearts and lives through us and with us on our individual and collective journeys.
Communion is primarily not a thing, however sacred, but an action, in which we are publicly renewing the pledge to make our lives increasingly conformed to the generous, unselfish life of Jesus. That’s what he meant when at the Last Supper on the night before his execution he said, ‘Do this in memory of me.” He said that while he was breaking a loaf of bread and passing it around to his friends at table…The Eucharist — Communion — is food for the journey of life.
We remember that “pledge” every time we share a meal, every time we are at table, whether that table is in a church, or in our home, or in lands far away, because the table is first and foremost in our hearts. Mary Aktay
Thanksgiving – Christmas
Eucharistic Prayers
Chittister, Joan D. Heart of Flesh, A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, Wm B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1998, p. 146
Harrington,SJ, Daniel, The Church According to the New Testament, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham MD (2001) pp 49-50
Karban, Roger, Celebrations, Oct. 2007,
Luke gives great prominence to Jesus’ table ministry: ( 7:36-50, 11:37-52, the kingdom of God 14:1-24)
Fiand SNDdeN, Barbara, On Becoming Who We Are, Crossroads Publishing Co, NY, NY (2013) p.73
Theology means study of God; the word theo is a masculine form. Some feminists today prefer to speak of study of thea – feminine form – hence thealogy. Theology of Everything
Moore, Sebastian, The Contagion of Jesus, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, London, (2007) p. 31
Harrington,SJ, Daniel, The Church According to the New Testament, pp 46-47
I am reminded of the beautiful poem by Alla Renée Bozarth
Before Jesus Was His Mother
Before Jesus
was his mother.
Before supper
in the upper room,
breakfast in the barn.
Before the Passover Feast,
a feeding trough.
And here, the altar of Earth,
fair linens of hay and seed.
Before his cry,
her cry.
Before his sweat of blood,
her bleeding and tears.
Before his offering,
hers.
Before the breaking of bread and death,
the breaking of her body in birth.
Before the offering of the cup,
the offering of her breast.
Before his blood,
her blood.
And by her body and blood alone,
his body and blood and whole human being.
The wise ones knelt
to hear the woman’s word in wonder.
Holding up her sacred child,
her God in the form of a babe,
she said: “Receive and let your hearts be healed
and your lives he filled with love,
for This is my body,
This is my blood.”
Bass, Diana Butler, Grounded, Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution, HarperOne NY, NY (2015) p. 182
Chittister, Joan D, Heart of Flesh, A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, p. 167
Ruether, Rosemary Radford, Sexism and God-Talk, Toward a Feminist Theology, Beacon Press, Boston MA (1993) p. 65
Elizabeth Schussler Foirenza describes the deaconate (diakonia) as ‘Serving at Table.’ (Acts 6:2, 16:34 cf Luke 10:40, 12:37, 17:8) Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her, Crossroad NY, NY (2005) p.165
Lasch, Kenneth, E. Feast of Christ King
Levine, Etan, Analetica Biblica, The Aramaic Version of Ruth, (II 2,3-4) p.68
Rento, Richard G. It’s Not Necessary So, A Senior Priest Separates Faith from Fiction and Makes Sense of Belief, to be published by Caritas Publishing, Theinsville, WI 2016
READ ON ...
-------
“[W]hen you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”[Luke 14: 13-14]A Reflection of Gratitude and Inclusion
The alternative interpretation, of Eucharist as a Sacred Meal, takes all the meals which Jesus shared with his followers – and not merely one – as emblematic of the God who is poured out in generous nourishment for all people, a God we come to know mysteriously yet intimately every time we share food with loved ones. Eucharist is a formal ritual re-enactment of this experience, known to peoples of every age and culture. ~ Diarmud O’Murchu
I spent Thanksgiving 2015 three thousand miles away from my family. My hosts in Scotland prepared a traditional American feast for us travelers with all the “fix’ens” so we would feel at home and not miss our loved ones so much. The table was beautifully set and I was humbled by all the trouble they took to make us feel welcome and restore our anxious souls.
It caused me to pause and think about the Gospel message of Love and acceptance (make that “embrace”) and how it has been taken over by the patriarchal theology of sacrifice and redemption. The table Jesus sat at with his friends enjoying life has been replaced by an altar of sacrifice and death.
Preoccupation with sacrifice has led patriarchal Christianity to an adulterated view of God. Like Abraham on Horeb, the sacrifice of Issac, the destruction of self, becomes an acceptable, even holy, response to a God we do not know well enough to realize that God and creation would never ask such a thing. Endurance, fortitude, and sufferance became the center of the spiritual life, not joy, not holy abandon, not the carnival of goodness everywhere. Gone was the access to the beauty of the Garden, and in its place emerged the fear of the serpent. Gone was the wedding feast at Cana and in its place Golgotha alone.
The first Christians gathered in in ekklesia, or house churches, as they “did not have a system of sacrifices.” They were a “mixture of Jews and gentiles, salves and free persons, males and females. What brought these people together was their experience of a call from God in Christ that transcended their ethnic social and gender differences.” They had no separate buildings in which to celebrate the Eucharist; they simply met in each other’s homes, having learned from Jesus that there is no distinction between the sacred and the secular.
An altar separates those elite who are in power or are vested and chosen to perform the ritual from those who observe it. It reduces those who cannot join to mere spectators of, rather than participants in, the mystery. An altar of sacrifice is meant to impress and intimidate. Only a select few are valued at the altar. A table is meant to invite and inspire. Everyone is valued at a table. Everyone is sacred. A table unites everyone.
Jesus grew up around Sabbath and Seder tables. He participated in Jewish hospitality and sharing. He often used meals in his ministry to bring people together and used table feasts and banquets in his parables to illustrate his message of all-inclusive love.
Zacchaeus was told to prepare a meal because Jesus and his disciples would be dining with him. Zacchaeus thought as a tax-collector despised by his community, he was unworthy but Jesus didn’t think so. The “New” translation of the patriarchal liturgy has the congregation say: “O Lord I am unworthy for you to enter under my roof. Say but the word and my soul shall be healed.” But Jesus didn’t think of him or any of us as unworthy. In both my Inclusive Catholic Community and Intentional Eucharistic Community we say: “O Lord, YOU make us worthy to receive you; and by your words we are healed.”
Jesus spoke of the ‘table healing’ in the parable of the Prodigal Son where his father has a huge celebratory meal to welcome and restore his errant child home (much to the consternation of his judgmental older brother). On the road to Emmaus the disciples recognize Jesus in the “breaking and sharing of the bread,” not in some ritualized recitation of prescribed words, or symbolized sacrifice. I think Jesus would be recognized at Thanksgiving tables everywhere.
“Why should anyone be deprived of table fellowship, of the sacred meal, and the experience of the Body of Christ?” ~Barbara Fiand, SNDdeN
In his last Seder meal Jesus asked that we do as he did in memory of him: that we live as he did and love as he did. Feminist Thealogy seeks to remind us once again that ALL were welcome at the Seder meal. No one was turned away. Somehow our male hierarchy has forgotten that and decides who shall partake and whom shall be excluded. Feminist theology includes everyone.
“[W]hen you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14: 13-14
Patristic theology is one of atonement. It has changed the table of nurturing sustenance into an altar of sacrifice. Patriarchal theology asserts that only the son of God could make up to God for the sin of our first parents of turning away from God, thus reducing the Divine Source to a petulant tyrant rather than the life giving womb of Love.
Folks let’s call things by their names. It’s murder. You did my boy in, and it’s by forgiving you this most deeply rooted sin that I change you forever. So let’s have a party to celebrate till the end of the world your emancipation from hating me and killing one another to disguise this ugly secret. ~ Sebastian More speaking for God
Feminist theology is one of At-One-Ment. It recognizes what we do to each other is what we do to God. Like the Prodigal Son we are reconciled and reunited with each other as family regardless of our background, culture, sexual orientation, religion or even lack thereof; and regardless of our shortcomings!
It is in the context of Jesus’ meals with marginal people as anticipations of the kingdom of God that we should understand the accounts of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes as well as the meals shared by the risen Christ with his disciples… And it is in this context that we should interpret the Last Supper of Jesus as well as the early Christian rite if the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians refers to the Lord’s Supper twice, each time calling the Corinthian Christians to greater communal unity, because of ‘the bread that they share.’ ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many are one bread, for we all partake of the one bread.’ (10:17).
Rather than focusing on the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins, we celebrate “in memory” of his life and teachings, proclaiming that by his example of unconditional love Jesus has restored us and made us whole. It is this restoration we celebrate as “Eucharist—Thanksgiving.” As nourishment for our journey, we take in the body of Christ to become who we already are, the Body of Christ.
“So now, if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle Paul speaking to the faithful: “You are the body of Christ, member for member.” [1 Cor. 12.27] If you, therefore, are Christ’s body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord’s table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! You are saying “Amen” to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. When you hear “The body of Christ”, you reply “Amen.” Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your “Amen” may ring true! But what role does the bread play? We have no theory of our own to propose here; listen, instead, to what Paul says about this sacrament: “The bread is one, and we, though many, are one body.” [1 Cor. 10.17] Understand and rejoice: unity, truth, faithfulness, love. “One bread,” he says. What is this one bread? Is it not the “one body,” formed from many? Remember: bread doesn’t come from a single grain, but from many… Be what you see; receive what you are.”~ St. Augustine
Women sacrifice their bodies in birth. Men sacrifice their bodies in death. It seems to me that our Source of All Life would prefer the former.
When we are at table we “birth” community. We serve each other. We nourish and nurture each other. We become more of what we already are, the Body of Christ. We can let go of our fear and anxiety and embrace love. This is our Eucharist: This is our Thanksgiving, no matter who or where we are!
“The table is the earthly manifestation of God’s presence, the ‘heavenly feast,’ where all are fed and sustained and no one suffers want.” ~ Diana Butler Bass
Thanksgiving literally and figuratively turned into Christmas and I was home with my family. For the first time in over 10 years I was able to have both my daughters with me on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. All the superlative adjectives in the dictionary could not describe my feelings at our Christmas table. My grandchildren were giggling. The adults were laughing. The good cheer was overflowing. A Thealogy of Table was spread again before me.
Luke places the birth of Jesus in the most humble of circumstances, a stable surrounded by his family, yet also attended by strangers. But there were really no strangers that night as all of creation became his family including the creatures that surrounded him. I watched my grandchildren play with the animals in the crèche and have them talk to the baby Jesus. My grandson asked, “What does ‘manger’ mean?” I answered that it was where the farm animals ate their meals. He responded: “Oh, they were at their table too.” Out of the mouths of babes… We are called as followers of this child to include all of creation at our table, not sacrifice it to our material or spiritual needs. Feminist thealogy calls us to “immerse ourselves in creation with new respect.”
I watched my family serve each other at table and thought of how, as followers of Jesus, we are called to serve each other, to minister to each other, to “embrace” our relationships with each other and celebrate our interconnectedness just as we celebrate his birth. “The relationship between Christians is to be one pf mutual service, not one of mastery and servitude. At the end of the Gospel of John Jesus tells the disciples that their relationship has now become one of equals.” A table thealogy is one of equals ministering to each other in gladness and joy. It is a sacrament. It is Eucharist.
According to 1 Cor 10:21 the “table of the Lord’ was the Eucharistic table. Table ministry therefore, was most likely the Eucharistic ministry, which included preparation of a meal, purchase and distribution of food, actual serving during the meal and probably cleaning up afterwards. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, (Acts 2:46).
Just as today, most likely it was women then who did the meal preparation, food purchase and distribution, actual serving during the meal and clean-up afterward. Perhaps that is why patriarchal theology ignores or dismisses the table meal as less important than, and subordinate to, a sacrificial altar. But to me, this nourishment is the most important sign of God’s abiding love. And isn’t this “sign” the actual sacrament?
As we nourish and sustain each other, we enter the “Kin-dom of God — a kindom, if you will, without boundaries. It is about getting into the rhythm of God’s life, i.e., thinking with God instead of thinking for God,” very much different from patriarchal theology of “Kingdom” through which it claims that it alone has the authority to speak about God and for God, the ultimate male monarch.
The Aramaic translation of “the Lord be with you” is “the Lord sustain you.” Table is all about continued sustenance. It doesn’t stop. It’s not a one-off time and space event. It echoes the “rhythm of God’s life” and is everlasting and eternal. Jesus is continually reborn in the stables of our hearts and lives through us and with us on our individual and collective journeys.
Communion is primarily not a thing, however sacred, but an action, in which we are publicly renewing the pledge to make our lives increasingly conformed to the generous, unselfish life of Jesus. That’s what he meant when at the Last Supper on the night before his execution he said, ‘Do this in memory of me.” He said that while he was breaking a loaf of bread and passing it around to his friends at table…The Eucharist — Communion — is food for the journey of life.
We remember that “pledge” every time we share a meal, every time we are at table, whether that table is in a church, or in our home, or in lands far away, because the table is first and foremost in our hearts. Mary Aktay
Thanksgiving – Christmas
Eucharistic Prayers
Chittister, Joan D. Heart of Flesh, A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, Wm B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1998, p. 146
Harrington,SJ, Daniel, The Church According to the New Testament, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham MD (2001) pp 49-50
Karban, Roger, Celebrations, Oct. 2007,
Luke gives great prominence to Jesus’ table ministry: ( 7:36-50, 11:37-52, the kingdom of God 14:1-24)
Fiand SNDdeN, Barbara, On Becoming Who We Are, Crossroads Publishing Co, NY, NY (2013) p.73
Theology means study of God; the word theo is a masculine form. Some feminists today prefer to speak of study of thea – feminine form – hence thealogy. Theology of Everything
Moore, Sebastian, The Contagion of Jesus, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, London, (2007) p. 31
Harrington,SJ, Daniel, The Church According to the New Testament, pp 46-47
I am reminded of the beautiful poem by Alla Renée Bozarth
Before Jesus Was His Mother
Before Jesus
was his mother.
Before supper
in the upper room,
breakfast in the barn.
Before the Passover Feast,
a feeding trough.
And here, the altar of Earth,
fair linens of hay and seed.
Before his cry,
her cry.
Before his sweat of blood,
her bleeding and tears.
Before his offering,
hers.
Before the breaking of bread and death,
the breaking of her body in birth.
Before the offering of the cup,
the offering of her breast.
Before his blood,
her blood.
And by her body and blood alone,
his body and blood and whole human being.
The wise ones knelt
to hear the woman’s word in wonder.
Holding up her sacred child,
her God in the form of a babe,
she said: “Receive and let your hearts be healed
and your lives he filled with love,
for This is my body,
This is my blood.”
Bass, Diana Butler, Grounded, Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution, HarperOne NY, NY (2015) p. 182
Chittister, Joan D, Heart of Flesh, A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, p. 167
Ruether, Rosemary Radford, Sexism and God-Talk, Toward a Feminist Theology, Beacon Press, Boston MA (1993) p. 65
Elizabeth Schussler Foirenza describes the deaconate (diakonia) as ‘Serving at Table.’ (Acts 6:2, 16:34 cf Luke 10:40, 12:37, 17:8) Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her, Crossroad NY, NY (2005) p.165
Lasch, Kenneth, E. Feast of Christ King
Levine, Etan, Analetica Biblica, The Aramaic Version of Ruth, (II 2,3-4) p.68
Rento, Richard G. It’s Not Necessary So, A Senior Priest Separates Faith from Fiction and Makes Sense of Belief, to be published by Caritas Publishing, Theinsville, WI 2016
READ ON ...
-------
The Elephant in the Living Room
Part 1 of the series, What Makes a Christian?
Frank Lesko
If there is any doubt as to who is included in the list of people to show love toward, the New Testament is clear – the commandment to love includes everyone...
Sometimes I think that the collective witness of Christianity is best expressed by the expression, “the elephant in the living room.”
I can close my eyes and envision millions–perhaps even billions–of Christians in this large room, all talking, milling about and being energetic about their faith–but virtually ignoring this giant elephant who is right there in the middle of it all.
They even have to bend and contort themselves to see around this elephant, but they continue to ignore him.
What is this elephant?
Let’s look at it this way:
Christians profess that God Himself lived on earth in the person of Jesus Christ.
You with me so far?
God Himself walked among us, teaching, preaching and showing what He meant by His life example. He was very clear what was the most important.
That giant elephant is the Greatest Commandment.
I hear Jesus saying: Of all the things you do, do this.
If you’re gonna put your time and attention anywhere, put it here: Love God and love neighbor abundantly.
Yet, how often is this preached?
Of course, it is mentioned.
What I mean is: How often is it preached like this?
How often is it preached the way Jesus preached it:
With intensity,
Centrality,
And a sense of utter, singular importance?
I’m sometimes baffled by our ignorance–it must be some kind of collective denial. But it is certainly immensely disrespectful to the person Who we claim is God.
* * *
The Greatest Commandment is in all 4 Gospels:
In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus makes a connection between following this commandment and one’s closeness to the Kingdom of God:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus tells us that all other laws are to be read through the lens of the Greatest Commandment. All other laws are qualified by–and cannot be otherwise understood–outside of this context:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus not only gives the command to love God and neighbor, but he also says this is what you must do to inherit eternal life. How often have you heard that preached at church? I am not a betting man, but it would be easy money to say that most preachers only mention this line in order caution us not to take it too seriously–using other lines from the Bible to qualify–or outright negate–this statement by Jesus Himself. They say that Jesus could not possibly have meant what He, you know, actually said:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus then tells the story of the Good Samaritan. He gives the answer in verse 37:
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
In John 13:34-35, Jesus states that our very public witness of our Christian identity itself depends on whether or not we love one another. Otherwise, people will not recognize that we are indeed Christians. Jesus tells us to follow his example. Jesus not only gives the commandment to love, but also states that His life has modeled this love.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
If there is any doubt as to who is included in the list of people to show love toward, the New Testament is clear–the commandment to love includes everyone from those in our own Christian group to the widows, orphans, outsiders, marginalized people on up to and including our enemies. In other words: Everyone. There is no shortage of Scripture citations to back this up. We will explore this further in the next post, stay tuned!
Visit Frank Lesko’s Blog The Traveling Ecumenist
READ ON ...
-------
If there is any doubt as to who is included in the list of people to show love toward, the New Testament is clear – the commandment to love includes everyone...
Sometimes I think that the collective witness of Christianity is best expressed by the expression, “the elephant in the living room.”
I can close my eyes and envision millions–perhaps even billions–of Christians in this large room, all talking, milling about and being energetic about their faith–but virtually ignoring this giant elephant who is right there in the middle of it all.
They even have to bend and contort themselves to see around this elephant, but they continue to ignore him.
What is this elephant?
Let’s look at it this way:
Christians profess that God Himself lived on earth in the person of Jesus Christ.
You with me so far?
God Himself walked among us, teaching, preaching and showing what He meant by His life example. He was very clear what was the most important.
That giant elephant is the Greatest Commandment.
I hear Jesus saying: Of all the things you do, do this.
If you’re gonna put your time and attention anywhere, put it here: Love God and love neighbor abundantly.
Yet, how often is this preached?
Of course, it is mentioned.
What I mean is: How often is it preached like this?
How often is it preached the way Jesus preached it:
With intensity,
Centrality,
And a sense of utter, singular importance?
I’m sometimes baffled by our ignorance–it must be some kind of collective denial. But it is certainly immensely disrespectful to the person Who we claim is God.
* * *
The Greatest Commandment is in all 4 Gospels:
In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus makes a connection between following this commandment and one’s closeness to the Kingdom of God:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus tells us that all other laws are to be read through the lens of the Greatest Commandment. All other laws are qualified by–and cannot be otherwise understood–outside of this context:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus not only gives the command to love God and neighbor, but he also says this is what you must do to inherit eternal life. How often have you heard that preached at church? I am not a betting man, but it would be easy money to say that most preachers only mention this line in order caution us not to take it too seriously–using other lines from the Bible to qualify–or outright negate–this statement by Jesus Himself. They say that Jesus could not possibly have meant what He, you know, actually said:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus then tells the story of the Good Samaritan. He gives the answer in verse 37:
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
In John 13:34-35, Jesus states that our very public witness of our Christian identity itself depends on whether or not we love one another. Otherwise, people will not recognize that we are indeed Christians. Jesus tells us to follow his example. Jesus not only gives the commandment to love, but also states that His life has modeled this love.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
If there is any doubt as to who is included in the list of people to show love toward, the New Testament is clear–the commandment to love includes everyone from those in our own Christian group to the widows, orphans, outsiders, marginalized people on up to and including our enemies. In other words: Everyone. There is no shortage of Scripture citations to back this up. We will explore this further in the next post, stay tuned!
Visit Frank Lesko’s Blog The Traveling Ecumenist
READ ON ...
-------
The pipeline is still under construction. 6,000 people are staying on site to protect the water. “Millions” of human beings and all things of nature will be affected if/when the pipeline leaks the toxic chemicals used to move the oil through the pipe.
Re-upload from original posting: https://www.facebook.com/unify/videos…
READ ON ...
-------
-------
Liturgy Selection
Birth
Every birth is a miracle. The Christmas story gives us a chance to relive, to re-experience that miracle every year.
-------
Every birth is a miracle. The Christmas story gives us a chance to relive, to re-experience that miracle every year. Everyone has his or her own favorite metaphorical context for deeply feeling the miracle of new life. Like poet May Sarton, who wrote, “Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers.” What context holds your deepest connection to the miracle of birth?
Every birth is a miracle. The Christmas story gives us a chance to relive, to re-experience that miracle every year.
-------
Every birth is a miracle. The Christmas story gives us a chance to relive, to re-experience that miracle every year. Everyone has his or her own favorite metaphorical context for deeply feeling the miracle of new life. Like poet May Sarton, who wrote, “Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers.” What context holds your deepest connection to the miracle of birth?
-------
Christmas Poem
The last candle burns
The waiting’s almost over
Soon we’ll hear a baby crying
and we’ll know that God is no mere idea
Christmas Poem
The last candle burns
The waiting’s almost over
Soon we’ll hear a baby crying
and we’ll know that God is no mere idea
Christmas Poem by Jim BurkloThe last candle burns
The waiting’s almost over
Soon we’ll hear a baby crying
and we’ll know that God is no mere idea
Soon we’ll feel what Mary feels with the baby in her arms
And we’ll know we’ve met God in person
A person among us, weak and wanting, wise and growing
Soon we’ll know what is divine about being human
and human about being divine
One candle burning
One star shining in the night sky
One child lying in a manger’s straw
One God, among us, Emmanuel!
-------
Jesus, You Were Born at Christmas
Jesus, you were born at Christmas,
like us, a child of God.
Jesus, You Were Born at Christmas
Jesus, you were born at Christmas,
like us, a child of God.
Jesus, You Were Born at Christmas by J. William FlandersJesus, you were born at Christmas,
like us, a child of God.
Born within a Jewish family,
like us, children of God.
Jesus, you lived and died to teach us
God is where love starts.
Jesus, born again at Easter,
born into our hearts.
Click here to see the score: Flanders.Jesus You Were Born
Click here to hear the hymn: Audio Player
00:00
00:00
Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.
Copyright 2013 by William Flanders
-------
The Birth of Jesus
Born to a poor uneducated carpenter and his partner
All: Jesus was one with oppressed humankind
The Birth of Jesus
Born to a poor uneducated carpenter and his partner
All: Jesus was one with oppressed humankind
The Birth of Jesus by Roger CourtneyBorn to a poor uneducated carpenter and his partner
All: Jesus was one with oppressed humankind
Born in a stable with the animals
All: Jesus was one with oppressed humankind
Born in a foreign land as a stranger
All: Jesus was one with oppressed humankind
Born a nobody, Jesus became the role model for everybody
All: Jesus was one with oppressed humankind
-------
READ ON ...
-------
Click on Amazon Smile and choose ProgressiveChristianity.org as your charity - when you shop Amazon donates .05%.
-------
READ ON ...
-------
Click on Amazon Smile and choose ProgressiveChristianity.org as your charity - when you shop Amazon donates .05%.
-------
Events and UpdatesPoetry to Nourish the Soul
Roger Housden — bestselling author of the Ten Poems to Change Your Life series — is back, offering a month-long feast of poetry. ... he finds just the right words to reinvigorate you, drawing you into a space of amazement, courage, and insight.
-------
Poetry to Nourish the Soul“Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.”
— Mark Strand
Roger Housden — bestselling author of the Ten Poems to Change Your Life series — is back, offering a month-long feast of poetry. Those of you who have taken his e-course on “Poetry to Transform Your Life” know how he finds just the right words to reinvigorate you, drawing you into a space of amazement, courage, and insight. And you will be happy to know that this e-course brings you a whole new set of poems!
In each daily email, you will receive:
a poem chosen by Roger for its ability to refresh your soul
a short commentary on the poem by Roger;
guidance on how to consciously reflect on the poem;
a simple practice based on the poem’s theme for you to bring into your day;
a video recording of the poem read by Roger (new!)
Roger Housden is one of the Living Spiritual Teachers profiled on Spirituality & Practice. He has received S&P Best Spiritual Book Awards for six books, including For Lovers of God Everywhere: Poems of the Christian Mystics, Keeping the Faith Without a Religion, How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful Imperfect Self, and Chasing Rumi: A Fable About Finding the Heart’s True Desire. We at S&P are also big fans of his collections of “ten poems” to open your heart, to set you free, to last a lifetime, to change your life again and again, and to say goodbye. He is renowned for his inspired recitations of sacred poetry.
For this e-course, Roger has chosen a superb collection of poems from Mary Oliver, Marie Howe, C.P. Cavafy, Ellen Bass, Thomas Merton, Rumi, Kabir, Jack Gilbert, Pablo Neruda, and many others.
Good poetry is food for the soul. It wakens us to the world around us in fresh and unexpected ways and gives voice to our deepest loves and longings. It bids us open our eyes to what is most authentic and nourishing. And what better way is there to begin a new year of your life than this soulful and playful engagement?
For more information and to give you a taste of things to come, click here.
Images
Start:
January 1, 2016
End:
January 31, 2016
Location:
Online Course
Register:
$49.95
Contact:
MaryAnn Brussat
Organization:
Spirituality & Practice
Website:
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/course/view/10162/poetry-to-nourish-the-soul/key/tcpc
Email:
brussat@spiritualityandpractice.com
READ ON ...
-------
View all upcoming events here!
News
Job Listings
*** Remember to send us your Events and Job Postings - we will advertise them on our website free!
Roger Housden is one of the Living Spiritual Teachers profiled on Spirituality & Practice. He has received S&P Best Spiritual Book Awards for six books, including For Lovers of God Everywhere: Poems of the Christian Mystics, Keeping the Faith Without a Religion, How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful Imperfect Self, and Chasing Rumi: A Fable About Finding the Heart’s True Desire. We at S&P are also big fans of his collections of “ten poems” to open your heart, to set you free, to last a lifetime, to change your life again and again, and to say goodbye. He is renowned for his inspired recitations of sacred poetry.
For this e-course, Roger has chosen a superb collection of poems from Mary Oliver, Marie Howe, C.P. Cavafy, Ellen Bass, Thomas Merton, Rumi, Kabir, Jack Gilbert, Pablo Neruda, and many others.
Good poetry is food for the soul. It wakens us to the world around us in fresh and unexpected ways and gives voice to our deepest loves and longings. It bids us open our eyes to what is most authentic and nourishing. And what better way is there to begin a new year of your life than this soulful and playful engagement?
For more information and to give you a taste of things to come, click here.
Images
Start:
January 1, 2016
End:
January 31, 2016
Location:
Online Course
Register:
$49.95
Contact:
MaryAnn Brussat
Organization:
Spirituality & Practice
Website:
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/course/view/10162/poetry-to-nourish-the-soul/key/tcpc
Email:
brussat@spiritualityandpractice.com
READ ON ...
-------
View all upcoming events here!
News
Job Listings
*** Remember to send us your Events and Job Postings - we will advertise them on our website free!
FacebookTwitterWebsiteEmailYouTube
Copyright © 2016 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Point Fosdick Drive NorthWest#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States
-------
Why do we do this?? from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Every year at this time we ask ourselves, why do we do this? Why all the hard work and seemingly endless hours to barely scrape by each month?"
-------
Why do we do this?? from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Every year at this time we ask ourselves, why do we do this? Why all the hard work and seemingly endless hours to barely scrape by each month?"
Why? Because people regularly write us and tell us that our site keeps them going. Why? Because our children need to be spiritually nourished and taught about a Christianity that is meaningful, relevant, inclusive and compassionate.
Why? Because Jesus taught a path of resistance to inequality and we want to continue spreading that gospel.
Our supporters often cite the incredible blessing and support system that progressive Christianity has been to them. Therefore, we ask that those who have been positively affected by progressive Christianity take a few moments to pay it forward so others can reap that same benefit and find that same safe harbor.
Why? Because of emails like this:“When I came across your website, I was moved to tears. What I read deeply resonated with me. I thought I had to leave Christianity because I was so disillusioned with my faith, but coming across likeminded people has marked a turning point in my life. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Keep spreading the message! X” ~Katherine
Please donate now as we work toward of goal of $60,000 raised during our annual end of year fundraiser. As a thank you for your donation of any amount we will send you a free copy of our 8 Points Study Guide PDF.
.We simply can't do this without you. Help us continue to grow this vital movement. Donate today
Share
Tweet
Forward
+1
Thank you from your friends at ProgressiveChristianity.org!
Copyright © 2016 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Point Fosdick Drive NorthWest#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States
-------
To all our readers... from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Keep ProgressiveChristianity.org
Time is running out in 2016 to help ProgressiveChristianity.org. We are sustained by donations averaging about $25. If everyone reading this right now gave just $15, we would reach our goal of $60,000 by the end of the year.
We are a small non-profit with a very small staff trying to do big things in this world. We keep our site free of external ads so that you can trust and rely on what you see and experience here. Most of what we offer, we offer for free. And that includes thousands of articles, books, liturgy and community resources, music, reviews, curricula, and a thriving and growing international network of people like you searching and building community, all with a focus on spiritual practice, sacred community and positive social transformation.
ProgressiveChristianity.org is a global portal for hundreds of dedicated volunteer authors that simply want the movement to grow. For the same amount one spends on coffee each month, you can help sustain an organization dedicated to spreading the word of a compassionate and informed Christianity.
Please help us keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and growing.
Thank you.
Please donate now as we work toward of goal of $60,000 raised during our annual end of year fundraiser. As a thank you for your donation of any amount we will send you a free copy of our 8 Points Study Guide PDF.
.We simply can't do this without you. Help us continue to grow this vital movement. Donate today
ShareTweetForward+1
Thank you from your friends at ProgressiveChristianity.org!
Copyright © 2016 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Point Fosdick Drive NorthWest#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States-------
-------
To all our readers... from ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Keep ProgressiveChristianity.org Time is running out in 2016 to help ProgressiveChristianity.org. We are sustained by donations averaging about $25. If everyone reading this right now gave just $15, we would reach our goal of $60,000 by the end of the year.
We are a small non-profit with a very small staff trying to do big things in this world. We keep our site free of external ads so that you can trust and rely on what you see and experience here. Most of what we offer, we offer for free. And that includes thousands of articles, books, liturgy and community resources, music, reviews, curricula, and a thriving and growing international network of people like you searching and building community, all with a focus on spiritual practice, sacred community and positive social transformation.
ProgressiveChristianity.org is a global portal for hundreds of dedicated volunteer authors that simply want the movement to grow. For the same amount one spends on coffee each month, you can help sustain an organization dedicated to spreading the word of a compassionate and informed Christianity.
Please help us keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and growing.
Thank you.
Please donate now as we work toward of goal of $60,000 raised during our annual end of year fundraiser. As a thank you for your donation of any amount we will send you a free copy of our 8 Points Study Guide PDF..We simply can't do this without you. Help us continue to grow this vital movement. Donate today
ShareTweetForward+1Thank you from your friends at ProgressiveChristianity.org!
Copyright © 2016 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Point Fosdick Drive NorthWest#80
Gig Harbor, Washington 98335, United States-------
No comments:
Post a Comment