Aphorism of the Day, October 14, 2016
Why is the nagging prayer of faith important within the freedom of injustice being a persistent reality of life? If injustice is an expression of freedom, faith and prayerful faith is also a persistent freedom. It is almost like Jesus is suggesting that when a majority of occasions of faithful prayer makes injustice a minority, then injustice must respond to the events of faith overcoming it. In a system of Freedom, it is important to cast many votes of faith to attain the majority over the freedom of injustice to prevail.
Aphorism of the Day, October 13, 2016
When the Son of Man come, will he find faith? The presence of injustice and the uneven distribution of luck and misfortune throughout the world can result in people not having faith. Injustice and oppression can be reason not to have faith. Conversely, if one lives in the lap of luxury one might not have faith because such easy comfort does not require the growth of any "faith muscles." Cynicism and anger about how unfair life is and entitlement make be threatening circumstances for living with faith. Faith is the attitude of inner contentment which rests upon a vision of hope inspiring positive actions in the "now." Though each person needs to have faith, faith necessarily has collateral salutary effects for one's community.
Aphorism of the Day, October 12, 2016
The freedom of an infinite number of things, events and occasions happening always, already in the now means that our lives can experience things which are beyond our direct control and sometimes the "fate" of things beyond our direct control can be experienced by us as injustice particularly if we believe that other personally directed forces are against our well-being. Prayer is how we use our language to relate to the ultimate Freedom that we live in. Can we still believe ultimate Freedom is a Divine Being which honors us by letting human worth be authenticated by participation in this freedom? Or because there can seem to be an uneven distribution of the events of negative events of freedom, do many decry Freedom as a Fatal Determining Being who seems to have favorites for no reason at all? Prayer is a language of faith of us constituting ourselves and responding to what is happening to us, even as we know we are not exempt from uneven distributions of the weals and woes of what can happen. The reason prayer as faith discourse is important is that it is a talking cure to adjust us to the reality of what is and that adjustment is not just passive paralysis but hopeful response in the best way given the limitations of the situation. Lots of people are crushed in bitterness by not knowing or seeking the recipe for lemonade.
Aphorism of the Day, October 11, 2016
The parable of the persistent widow presents prayer as holy nagging. There is an entire book which consists of lots of "nagging prayer" about how unfair life is. It called the book of Psalms. Prayer as holy nagging is perhaps psychologically healthy; God as the very big ear Therapist listening to endless nagging about how life is unfair to me. God as the Therapist on the other side of our "talking cure prayers" is probably good for social health since God is big enough to take our nagging and our nagging does not do much for relationship with family, friends and colleagues. So let it all out; the Sigmund Divine is ever attending and saying, "uh-huh, and how did that make you feel?"
Aphorism of the Day, October 10, 2016
"Life is not fair." This experience was illustrated in the parable of the widow who continually pleads to a judge for justice. It could be that the only way that life is fair is to say that freedom is fair, freedom is just. Freedom is perhaps the most awesome justice since the free conditions of the world involve people being inhumane with each other and often in harm's way to the terrors of natural events. Freedom assumes time and change and if justice is conceived as a "static" final state, it is incompatible with freedom. Great notions like love and justice need to be explicated within the condition of freedom because human beings cannot rest upon the past events of love and justice; they are continually beckoned to the present and future of love and justice within the conditions of freedom.
Aphorism of the Day, October 9, 2016
The conditions of change in the world means that states of being are continually in flux and crucial events of change are marked in language with words such as birth, sickness, recovery and death. How can life be regarded as healthy in the midst of the changes which are always already inevitable? Faith is the expression of being well, being healthy, being "saved" within the conditions of time=change. There is an unrealistic notion of health and wellness which denies time and change; a holding onto a "static state of perpetual comfort" as the condition of health. Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well." The leper had faith when he was a leper and when he was not one so faith is the "wellness" which embraces all conditions of life. The proverbial Job was "well" with faith, even when all appearances of health and fortune were missing.
Aphorism of the Day, October 8, 2016
For Jesus in the Gospel, being "well" means having faith. The diverse conditions of "health" befall us all in very uneven ways. It is wrong to just present Jesus as one who heals or cures and makes us all better. If healing was permanent, we would never die. This is why we need to look to the Gospel teaching of having faith as the condition of being "well." People with terminal illnesses can still be well. Another Gospel teaching of Jesus about being well is the active faith of the community in including all people with welcome and care. Community faith and community wellness means that we include with care all people in need.
Aphorism of the Day, October 7, 2016
The mention of Samaria and Samaritans in the Luke-Acts writings probably means that early churches included Samaritan members and church gatherings could be found in Samaria. The Gospels as a storied presentation of the life of Jesus to mirror the practices of the early churches means that there is an origin discourse for the encounter of Samaritans with Jesus Christ. Writing Samaritan acceptance of Jesus into the Gospel narrative would express the living oracle of the Risen Christ encountering the Samaritans who actually claimed to have a traditional "Israel" lineage dating from the time of Joshua. The Samaritans in the New Testament are an indication that the Gospel of Christ was appealing to a variety of sects and groups, including Zealots, Pharisees, followers of John the Baptist and Sadducees, plus the Gentiles. Ironically, a Samaritan convert to Christ and a Jewish follower of Christ could say in healing of their ancient division, "In Christ, there is no Jew or Samaritan."
Aphorism of the Day, October 6, 2016
Jesus said to the thankful Samaritan leper who was healed: "Your faith has made you well." This encoded the notion of salvation wellness in the early churches. This was contrasted with the notion of physical and spiritual health being the condition of being certified by the authorities in the classification system of the purity code in Judaism. St. Paul proclaimed that Samaritan and Gentiles could have Abrahamic faith which is what made them well, i.e. saved and acceptable by God. Gentile Christian "wellness" challenged the exclusive system of the purity code for determining salvation wellness.
Aphorism of the Day, October 5, 2016
Under the ritual purity codes, a leper was "unclean" and thus quarantined from society. The ritual purity code functioned as a religious public health taxonomical system. The public needs to be "protected." It is a valid impulse except one of the outcomes was the loss of access of "ritually impure" people to the health of the community. The healing Jesus was first of a person who violated quarantine rules and in his state of healthiness he welcomed those who had been unwelcomed due to the quarantine. Health is not just about a physical "cure;" it is about health as a caring community.
Aphorism of the Day, October 4, 2016
The Gospel stories about Jesus actually encode the dynamics of what was happening in the early churches. 10 lepers were healed by Jesus; only the "foreign" leper returned to say thanks to Jesus. The "foreigners" in the church were ritually impure and segregated from the synagogue and yet these "foreigners" were thanking Jesus for making them clean and pure and acceptable to be included in the fold of God. The ritual meal in the inclusive churches was called "Eucharist" which means "thanksgiving."
Aphorism of the Day, October 3, 2016
The most blatant anachronism of the Gospel writers is the embedding of the Gentile Christianity within the narrative of the life of Jesus. How do the writers artfully try to be true to the Jewishness of Jesus in his own time and yet include in this presentation the subtle suggestion that Jesus was already reaching out to the Gentiles? The writing purpose of the early Christian writers in the way they presented Jesus vis a vis foreigners has to be included in what is regarded to be "inspired." The Gentile mission "inspired" the presentation of the narrative of Jesus in the Gospels.
Aphorism of the Day, October 2, 2016
When the disciple requested of Jesus, "Increase our faith," he essentially said, "Do it yourself." Do it through small individual deeds of faith which collect to become the "increase" of faith that is so desired. There is no easy way for faith to become the character of our lives; we have to practice it so that the quantity of actual faithful deeds result in being the character of our lives and in the uncanny results which can happen because of sustained faithfulness.
Aphorism of the Day, October 1, 2016
Why is the nagging prayer of faith important within the freedom of injustice being a persistent reality of life? If injustice is an expression of freedom, faith and prayerful faith is also a persistent freedom. It is almost like Jesus is suggesting that when a majority of occasions of faithful prayer makes injustice a minority, then injustice must respond to the events of faith overcoming it. In a system of Freedom, it is important to cast many votes of faith to attain the majority over the freedom of injustice to prevail.
Aphorism of the Day, October 13, 2016
When the Son of Man come, will he find faith? The presence of injustice and the uneven distribution of luck and misfortune throughout the world can result in people not having faith. Injustice and oppression can be reason not to have faith. Conversely, if one lives in the lap of luxury one might not have faith because such easy comfort does not require the growth of any "faith muscles." Cynicism and anger about how unfair life is and entitlement make be threatening circumstances for living with faith. Faith is the attitude of inner contentment which rests upon a vision of hope inspiring positive actions in the "now." Though each person needs to have faith, faith necessarily has collateral salutary effects for one's community.
Aphorism of the Day, October 12, 2016
The freedom of an infinite number of things, events and occasions happening always, already in the now means that our lives can experience things which are beyond our direct control and sometimes the "fate" of things beyond our direct control can be experienced by us as injustice particularly if we believe that other personally directed forces are against our well-being. Prayer is how we use our language to relate to the ultimate Freedom that we live in. Can we still believe ultimate Freedom is a Divine Being which honors us by letting human worth be authenticated by participation in this freedom? Or because there can seem to be an uneven distribution of the events of negative events of freedom, do many decry Freedom as a Fatal Determining Being who seems to have favorites for no reason at all? Prayer is a language of faith of us constituting ourselves and responding to what is happening to us, even as we know we are not exempt from uneven distributions of the weals and woes of what can happen. The reason prayer as faith discourse is important is that it is a talking cure to adjust us to the reality of what is and that adjustment is not just passive paralysis but hopeful response in the best way given the limitations of the situation. Lots of people are crushed in bitterness by not knowing or seeking the recipe for lemonade.
Aphorism of the Day, October 11, 2016
The parable of the persistent widow presents prayer as holy nagging. There is an entire book which consists of lots of "nagging prayer" about how unfair life is. It called the book of Psalms. Prayer as holy nagging is perhaps psychologically healthy; God as the very big ear Therapist listening to endless nagging about how life is unfair to me. God as the Therapist on the other side of our "talking cure prayers" is probably good for social health since God is big enough to take our nagging and our nagging does not do much for relationship with family, friends and colleagues. So let it all out; the Sigmund Divine is ever attending and saying, "uh-huh, and how did that make you feel?"
Aphorism of the Day, October 10, 2016
"Life is not fair." This experience was illustrated in the parable of the widow who continually pleads to a judge for justice. It could be that the only way that life is fair is to say that freedom is fair, freedom is just. Freedom is perhaps the most awesome justice since the free conditions of the world involve people being inhumane with each other and often in harm's way to the terrors of natural events. Freedom assumes time and change and if justice is conceived as a "static" final state, it is incompatible with freedom. Great notions like love and justice need to be explicated within the condition of freedom because human beings cannot rest upon the past events of love and justice; they are continually beckoned to the present and future of love and justice within the conditions of freedom.
Aphorism of the Day, October 9, 2016
The conditions of change in the world means that states of being are continually in flux and crucial events of change are marked in language with words such as birth, sickness, recovery and death. How can life be regarded as healthy in the midst of the changes which are always already inevitable? Faith is the expression of being well, being healthy, being "saved" within the conditions of time=change. There is an unrealistic notion of health and wellness which denies time and change; a holding onto a "static state of perpetual comfort" as the condition of health. Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well." The leper had faith when he was a leper and when he was not one so faith is the "wellness" which embraces all conditions of life. The proverbial Job was "well" with faith, even when all appearances of health and fortune were missing.
Aphorism of the Day, October 8, 2016
For Jesus in the Gospel, being "well" means having faith. The diverse conditions of "health" befall us all in very uneven ways. It is wrong to just present Jesus as one who heals or cures and makes us all better. If healing was permanent, we would never die. This is why we need to look to the Gospel teaching of having faith as the condition of being "well." People with terminal illnesses can still be well. Another Gospel teaching of Jesus about being well is the active faith of the community in including all people with welcome and care. Community faith and community wellness means that we include with care all people in need.
Aphorism of the Day, October 7, 2016
The mention of Samaria and Samaritans in the Luke-Acts writings probably means that early churches included Samaritan members and church gatherings could be found in Samaria. The Gospels as a storied presentation of the life of Jesus to mirror the practices of the early churches means that there is an origin discourse for the encounter of Samaritans with Jesus Christ. Writing Samaritan acceptance of Jesus into the Gospel narrative would express the living oracle of the Risen Christ encountering the Samaritans who actually claimed to have a traditional "Israel" lineage dating from the time of Joshua. The Samaritans in the New Testament are an indication that the Gospel of Christ was appealing to a variety of sects and groups, including Zealots, Pharisees, followers of John the Baptist and Sadducees, plus the Gentiles. Ironically, a Samaritan convert to Christ and a Jewish follower of Christ could say in healing of their ancient division, "In Christ, there is no Jew or Samaritan."
Aphorism of the Day, October 6, 2016
Jesus said to the thankful Samaritan leper who was healed: "Your faith has made you well." This encoded the notion of salvation wellness in the early churches. This was contrasted with the notion of physical and spiritual health being the condition of being certified by the authorities in the classification system of the purity code in Judaism. St. Paul proclaimed that Samaritan and Gentiles could have Abrahamic faith which is what made them well, i.e. saved and acceptable by God. Gentile Christian "wellness" challenged the exclusive system of the purity code for determining salvation wellness.
Aphorism of the Day, October 5, 2016
Under the ritual purity codes, a leper was "unclean" and thus quarantined from society. The ritual purity code functioned as a religious public health taxonomical system. The public needs to be "protected." It is a valid impulse except one of the outcomes was the loss of access of "ritually impure" people to the health of the community. The healing Jesus was first of a person who violated quarantine rules and in his state of healthiness he welcomed those who had been unwelcomed due to the quarantine. Health is not just about a physical "cure;" it is about health as a caring community.
Aphorism of the Day, October 4, 2016
The Gospel stories about Jesus actually encode the dynamics of what was happening in the early churches. 10 lepers were healed by Jesus; only the "foreign" leper returned to say thanks to Jesus. The "foreigners" in the church were ritually impure and segregated from the synagogue and yet these "foreigners" were thanking Jesus for making them clean and pure and acceptable to be included in the fold of God. The ritual meal in the inclusive churches was called "Eucharist" which means "thanksgiving."
Aphorism of the Day, October 3, 2016
The most blatant anachronism of the Gospel writers is the embedding of the Gentile Christianity within the narrative of the life of Jesus. How do the writers artfully try to be true to the Jewishness of Jesus in his own time and yet include in this presentation the subtle suggestion that Jesus was already reaching out to the Gentiles? The writing purpose of the early Christian writers in the way they presented Jesus vis a vis foreigners has to be included in what is regarded to be "inspired." The Gentile mission "inspired" the presentation of the narrative of Jesus in the Gospels.
Aphorism of the Day, October 2, 2016
When the disciple requested of Jesus, "Increase our faith," he essentially said, "Do it yourself." Do it through small individual deeds of faith which collect to become the "increase" of faith that is so desired. There is no easy way for faith to become the character of our lives; we have to practice it so that the quantity of actual faithful deeds result in being the character of our lives and in the uncanny results which can happen because of sustained faithfulness.
Aphorism of the Day, October 1, 2016
Increase our faith." The classical Greek word "pistos" was the goal of rhetoric. "Pistos" means persuasion. Fast forward to the koine Greek of the New Testament and "pistos" means "faith." So what is the relationship between persuasion and faith? Faith is the expression of the constituting motivation of one's life which expresses the degree of persuasion toward the motivating focus. In the Christian community faith was the cumulative constituting faith acts motivated by the hopeful belief in God in Christ such that an undivided persuaded person attained the character of faith to achieve the uncanny results of faith.
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