Aphorism of the Day, May 31, 2020
Can we be a part of "esprit de corps" today which also has the peaceful, just and loving imprimatur of the Holy Spirit today?
Aphorism of the Day, May 30, 2020
Revelation is an unveiling, of what always was. The "unveiling" of God as Holy Spirit on Pentecost does not mean that such a metaphor for omnipresence did not exist before. It is just that the Spirit came into understanding of people as being a Personality of God.
Aphorism of the Day, May 29, 2020
One cannot avoid the miscarriage of and the uneven practice of justice when the standards of meted arrest and punishment are radically different for people of different race and social status. White collar crimes account for the massive theft of public and personal resources and such criminal are often shielded and protected by a bevy of attorneys who know how to keep their clients image from suffering any loss of dignity. Meanwhile in a local store, an event involving but pennies in comparison results in an "arrest, punishment and accidental "execution" of a citizen who was respected in his community. Jesus of Nazareth was aware that the way law was practiced did not benefit many in the class of people whom he called to his movement. If law does not approximate the practice of justice then the practitioners can become fearful tyrants. Jesus "fought the law" and the law won by putting him on the cross. What does the afterlife of a dead person evoke in a community? What is the aftermath of a dead person wrongly killed by law officers in a country which says justice is its main principle?
Aphorism of the Day, May 28, 2020
"spirit" can refer to both enduring character of group identity but also exigent manifestation and temporary "out burst" of "spirit" group behaviors. The recent unjust death of a black man by over-zealous policing angered people to the point of unifying a "mob spirit" resulting in a wide ranges of behaviors, some peaceful protest and others revengeful acts as expressions of helplessness against such unchecked racism. One can "blame" the spirit of the mob for good and bad results but such a "spiritual" phenomenon highlights the energy which impels counter-action and the more enduring "spirit" of justice which can have very imperfect and fragile practitioners in humanity. Holy Spirit of Pentecost fame involves the understanding of an invisible, personal, omni-present God who can get activated in community events of people arriving at group identities for godly purposes and such events of effervescence can be misunderstood as "drunken" behaviors, being ecstatically joyful or inspired by the co-experience of the mystery of God.
Aphorism of the Day, May 27, 2020
Language becomes "tautological" when a community for inter-communication accept meanings for words, much as in an equation which implies for the purposes of this equation x=2. In theology, communities attain prior commitment to meanings so for the purposes of our theology and community and biblical interpretation, God mean this, Son means this and Holy Spirit means this and sacrament means this. et al. Whether definition is set by council and creed or other means, there is sufficient agreement on terms to keep the community in practical group identity. Communities are organized around their commitments to agreed upon meanings of terms, which is in effect a paradigm.
Aphorism of the Day, May 26, 2020
When does a signifier lose its exact identity with what it signifies? When is a metaphor no longer regarded as the "thing in itself," but rather a pointing sign? Take the word "spirit;" comes from words meaning wind or breath, or invisible things which we really believe in because we see their effects without seeing them. So, wind or breath or spirit seem to be adequate metaphors for the Spirit, even though one cannot equate what we mean by wind or breath with the Signified Spirit. Signifiers are metaphors/similes which with long usage and community habit become totally identified with what is Signified. We can make a museum display of Spirit in this way; we place a closed bottle on display with the title of "air." Even though the unseen air is trapped inside of the bottle; people become to think that the bottle is the air, even when it is a bottle of air. The bottle and the air go together and without the air it is just a bottle. We might say that the world in a like manner is a world of Spirit even as Spirit is a word in the world which designates some mystery that it is not.
Aphorism of the Day, May 25, 2020
What does Pentecost mean? It refers to a privileged group Apparent Effervescence. Personal and individual effervescent occurs which are events of inner insight and enlightenment. Public events of apparent effervescence can be analyzed and classified on a continuum of goodness. On one end is the "apparent effervescence" which occurs in an angry, hateful, bigoted mob of people, but what kind of "spirit" or effervescence is this which "unifies" people in hatred? There are more benign occasion of public effervescence like patriotic rallies or sporting events where "public" spirit is palpable. Pentecost is regarded to be on the Holy side of Apparent Effervescence since it unites around the experience of one's "Christ nature" which results in love and justice and Gospel "good news" behaviors.
Aphorism of the Day, May 24, 2020
Does God the Father answer the prayers of Jesus? Apparently not when it involves the free will of men and women. If Jesus prayed that his disciples might be "one," then such has not really generally happened in churches throughout the ages. But the prayer may be answer as individuals have come into their oneness with God as their heavenly parent.
Aphorism of the Day, May 23, 2020
If Word is God from the beginning then worded human beings best bear the image of God in the quality of their word life. And what is the best use of our word life? Prayer, but not just ritualized, formulaic prayer; rather prayer as the total response of being intentionally committed to God when one's body language has become continuous oblationary prayer in one's offered deeds of love and justice.
Aphorism of the Day, May 22, 2020
Can we be a part of "esprit de corps" today which also has the peaceful, just and loving imprimatur of the Holy Spirit today?
Aphorism of the Day, May 30, 2020
Revelation is an unveiling, of what always was. The "unveiling" of God as Holy Spirit on Pentecost does not mean that such a metaphor for omnipresence did not exist before. It is just that the Spirit came into understanding of people as being a Personality of God.
Aphorism of the Day, May 29, 2020
One cannot avoid the miscarriage of and the uneven practice of justice when the standards of meted arrest and punishment are radically different for people of different race and social status. White collar crimes account for the massive theft of public and personal resources and such criminal are often shielded and protected by a bevy of attorneys who know how to keep their clients image from suffering any loss of dignity. Meanwhile in a local store, an event involving but pennies in comparison results in an "arrest, punishment and accidental "execution" of a citizen who was respected in his community. Jesus of Nazareth was aware that the way law was practiced did not benefit many in the class of people whom he called to his movement. If law does not approximate the practice of justice then the practitioners can become fearful tyrants. Jesus "fought the law" and the law won by putting him on the cross. What does the afterlife of a dead person evoke in a community? What is the aftermath of a dead person wrongly killed by law officers in a country which says justice is its main principle?
Aphorism of the Day, May 28, 2020
"spirit" can refer to both enduring character of group identity but also exigent manifestation and temporary "out burst" of "spirit" group behaviors. The recent unjust death of a black man by over-zealous policing angered people to the point of unifying a "mob spirit" resulting in a wide ranges of behaviors, some peaceful protest and others revengeful acts as expressions of helplessness against such unchecked racism. One can "blame" the spirit of the mob for good and bad results but such a "spiritual" phenomenon highlights the energy which impels counter-action and the more enduring "spirit" of justice which can have very imperfect and fragile practitioners in humanity. Holy Spirit of Pentecost fame involves the understanding of an invisible, personal, omni-present God who can get activated in community events of people arriving at group identities for godly purposes and such events of effervescence can be misunderstood as "drunken" behaviors, being ecstatically joyful or inspired by the co-experience of the mystery of God.
Aphorism of the Day, May 27, 2020
Language becomes "tautological" when a community for inter-communication accept meanings for words, much as in an equation which implies for the purposes of this equation x=2. In theology, communities attain prior commitment to meanings so for the purposes of our theology and community and biblical interpretation, God mean this, Son means this and Holy Spirit means this and sacrament means this. et al. Whether definition is set by council and creed or other means, there is sufficient agreement on terms to keep the community in practical group identity. Communities are organized around their commitments to agreed upon meanings of terms, which is in effect a paradigm.
Aphorism of the Day, May 26, 2020
When does a signifier lose its exact identity with what it signifies? When is a metaphor no longer regarded as the "thing in itself," but rather a pointing sign? Take the word "spirit;" comes from words meaning wind or breath, or invisible things which we really believe in because we see their effects without seeing them. So, wind or breath or spirit seem to be adequate metaphors for the Spirit, even though one cannot equate what we mean by wind or breath with the Signified Spirit. Signifiers are metaphors/similes which with long usage and community habit become totally identified with what is Signified. We can make a museum display of Spirit in this way; we place a closed bottle on display with the title of "air." Even though the unseen air is trapped inside of the bottle; people become to think that the bottle is the air, even when it is a bottle of air. The bottle and the air go together and without the air it is just a bottle. We might say that the world in a like manner is a world of Spirit even as Spirit is a word in the world which designates some mystery that it is not.
Aphorism of the Day, May 25, 2020
What does Pentecost mean? It refers to a privileged group Apparent Effervescence. Personal and individual effervescent occurs which are events of inner insight and enlightenment. Public events of apparent effervescence can be analyzed and classified on a continuum of goodness. On one end is the "apparent effervescence" which occurs in an angry, hateful, bigoted mob of people, but what kind of "spirit" or effervescence is this which "unifies" people in hatred? There are more benign occasion of public effervescence like patriotic rallies or sporting events where "public" spirit is palpable. Pentecost is regarded to be on the Holy side of Apparent Effervescence since it unites around the experience of one's "Christ nature" which results in love and justice and Gospel "good news" behaviors.
Aphorism of the Day, May 24, 2020
Does God the Father answer the prayers of Jesus? Apparently not when it involves the free will of men and women. If Jesus prayed that his disciples might be "one," then such has not really generally happened in churches throughout the ages. But the prayer may be answer as individuals have come into their oneness with God as their heavenly parent.
Aphorism of the Day, May 23, 2020
If Word is God from the beginning then worded human beings best bear the image of God in the quality of their word life. And what is the best use of our word life? Prayer, but not just ritualized, formulaic prayer; rather prayer as the total response of being intentionally committed to God when one's body language has become continuous oblationary prayer in one's offered deeds of love and justice.
Aphorism of the Day, May 22, 2020
In the long prayer of Jesus in John, Jesus curiously says, "I am no longer in the world..." Is the writer channeling the oracle of the Ascended and absent Jesus? Jesus also said in his prayer, "I gave them the words that you gave me." Word is with God and is God from the beginning. The words that Jesus spoke are spirit and life. Jesus is praying "words" to his Father, and so word is the currency of life itself. The question is how do we use word in speaking and in body language acts. One could say that for John's Gospel, Word is the currency of life itself and it is creative, but because it is subject to time and freedom it can also be abuse=used wrongly.
Aphorism of the Day, May 21, 2020
"Glorify me with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed." What was the glory of Christ before the world existed according to the Gospel of John? Christ was Word, the entire discursive universe which attained a definitive particularity in Jesus of Nazareth but Jesus in his Ascension was to be removed from the particular and be subsumed back into the entire generality of the discourse of Word from which all things that can be known are "created" or have knowable "being." This is similar to the poetics of St. Paul who calls the Risen/Ascended Christ as All and in All. Word and Word's reflexivity , i.e. about Itself in all discursive manifestation is the most accessible metaphysics. John's Gospel provides the basis for a post-modern Word mysticism.
Aphorism of the Day, May 20, 2020
The prayer of Jesus in John 17 seems to be an oracle of the Risen Christ since Jesus refers to himself in the third person and his work in the past tense. He is acting "ascended" even when the Johannine chronology does not indicate that such has happened. Such writing seems to be mystagogy of the early church trying to train mystics.
Aphorism of the Day, May 19, 2020
The Ascension solves a mystery of the absence of Jesus of Nazareth and the post-resurrection appearing of the Risen Christ. Why doesn't Jesus or the Risen Christ come in such "apparent" ways to those who would like him to? He's ascended; he has evaporated from eyesight to another realm.
Aphorism of the Day, May 18, 2020
The mysticism of John's Gospel is expressed in the oracle prayer of Jesus who prays to the heavenly Parent, "that they may be one as we are one." This has often been used to indicate a concern for "church unity," but in Johannine mysticism it more likely refers to coming into the "power/authority" to be a child of God and so bear in the most complete way the "familial" image of God on one's life. John's Gospel is so concerned about God as Father because the mystical path leads to the recovery of what it means to be made in the divine image and know that the spiritual genetics of the heavenly Parent is manifest in oneself.
Aphorism of the Day, May 17, 2020
"Glorify me with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed." What was the glory of Christ before the world existed according to the Gospel of John? Christ was Word, the entire discursive universe which attained a definitive particularity in Jesus of Nazareth but Jesus in his Ascension was to be removed from the particular and be subsumed back into the entire generality of the discourse of Word from which all things that can be known are "created" or have knowable "being." This is similar to the poetics of St. Paul who calls the Risen/Ascended Christ as All and in All. Word and Word's reflexivity , i.e. about Itself in all discursive manifestation is the most accessible metaphysics. John's Gospel provides the basis for a post-modern Word mysticism.
Aphorism of the Day, May 20, 2020
The prayer of Jesus in John 17 seems to be an oracle of the Risen Christ since Jesus refers to himself in the third person and his work in the past tense. He is acting "ascended" even when the Johannine chronology does not indicate that such has happened. Such writing seems to be mystagogy of the early church trying to train mystics.
Aphorism of the Day, May 19, 2020
The Ascension solves a mystery of the absence of Jesus of Nazareth and the post-resurrection appearing of the Risen Christ. Why doesn't Jesus or the Risen Christ come in such "apparent" ways to those who would like him to? He's ascended; he has evaporated from eyesight to another realm.
Aphorism of the Day, May 18, 2020
The mysticism of John's Gospel is expressed in the oracle prayer of Jesus who prays to the heavenly Parent, "that they may be one as we are one." This has often been used to indicate a concern for "church unity," but in Johannine mysticism it more likely refers to coming into the "power/authority" to be a child of God and so bear in the most complete way the "familial" image of God on one's life. John's Gospel is so concerned about God as Father because the mystical path leads to the recovery of what it means to be made in the divine image and know that the spiritual genetics of the heavenly Parent is manifest in oneself.
Aphorism of the Day, May 17, 2020
If we live and move and have our being in God, as Paul confirmed in his Mars Hill discourse, then we and all are contained by the ultimate Container. There can be nothing outside the Container, except that Container as it grows and accrues further occasions of Becoming the Ultimate Container. Nothing affects the Container from outside, but everything from inside does because everything inside shares degrees of the freedom of becoming. The Container is the parent of all and human beings share the highest qualities of the Parent Container and so they have the authority to be children of God, following the One who Uniquely bore divine Childhood status, Jesus. And within the great Container we have the freedom to experience love as the connecting force and to know that we have an inner Advocate to make the case for our purposeful being.
Aphorism of the Day, May 16, 2020
The Gospel of John is about the experience of a family relationship with the divine as being a child of God. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit is to give one the authoritative sense of being in God's family and to realize this, one can be freed from the sense of being psychologically determine by one's nurture or one's nature and experience another kind of primary determination which derives from having this mystical birth experience.
Aphorism of the Day, May 15, 2020
The Gospel of John is about the experience of a family relationship with the divine as being a child of God. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit is to give one the authoritative sense of being in God's family and to realize this, one can be freed from the sense of being psychologically determine by one's nurture or one's nature and experience another kind of primary determination which derives from having this mystical birth experience.
Aphorism of the Day, May 15, 2020
The account of St. Paul in Athens, agreeing with the poets who said, "we are divine offsprings," indicates that Paul saw a rapproachment between he Gospel and the "pagan" pre-Christian poets. The Gospel is about people realizing that they are children of God. The Gospel is about Jesus showing us how we are really made to be the better "angels" and how to realize/activate/be empowered/come into the authority of the image of God upon our lives.
Aphorism of the Day, May 14, 2020
If we live and move and have our being in God, then God is the great Container and God does not have environment because God is the Environment. Someone who does not have "environment" cannot be relative except to a Future Self.
Aphorism of the Day, May 13, 2020
In the internal symbolic order of the writer of John, persons are given power to become children of God, not born of the will of the flesh but of God. As a follow up, the oracles words of Jesus in the Johannine church reiterate that the disciples would not be left orphans. If John's Gospel is about living in the parallel kingdom of God; it is also about living in the parallel family of God and this Gospel goes at great length to establish the heavenly parent who was revealed by Jesus who was the Holy Sibling who gave everyone coat tails to be received into God's family.
Aphorism of the Day, May 12, 2020
One might say that the "fatherization" of God is most pronounced in John's Gospel. If the forced weaning from earthly parents was a common experience for many followers of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus was an experience of another kind of parentage. Jesus said, "I won't leave you as orphans," as parentless people without heritage. The image of the heavenly parent was on Jesus and he promised identity with the image of the heavenly parent on all who wanted to know this heavenly identity.
Aphorism of the Day, May 10, 2020
In the oracle words of Jesus, he is the way, the truth and the life. We have in our Greek philosophical ways reduced "truth" to propositional syllogistic consistent, coherent and comprehensive adequacy. Truth perhaps should be seen more as "honest" coherence with the life purpose of love and justice=God's will, rather than philosophical arguments about how to best defend the reality of Jesus of Nazareth.
Aphorism of the Day, May 9, 2020
How many New Testament "lives" are there? At least three: bios, pseuche, and zoe. They are parallel lives in the Gospels. Physical life, soul life and "abundant life." Jesus promised "abundant" life, or a kind of Life in life that pertained the experience of eternality within oneself, which in St. Paul was the evidence or the downpayment on ones afterlife.
Aphorism of the Day, May 8, 2020
"Show us the Father and we will be satisfied." And Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." We cannot see our "eyeball" because our eyeball is being seen through. The familial image of God on humanity is like eyeball, not seen but being seen through. Jesus was the one who totally was given over to being seen through by God and so his familial likeness with God was complete. He invited everyone to realize one's divine likeness by being seen through. Surrender to being seen through.
Aphorism of the Day, May 7, 2020
As Stephen was being stoned and watched by Saul, Stephen asked that "their sin not be held against them." Saul, breaking that important commandment about not killing, must of had his conscience buried in tons of rationalization, only to resurface in such a personality snap when he became confronted on the road to Damascus. "How did I ever justify murder as being my religious duty?" He spent the rest of his life trying to make amends, and amend he did.
Aphorism of the Day, May 6, 2020
Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you've seen the Father." This means that Jesus uniquely realized the image of God upon him in such a profound away and he could not see himself separated in any way. Bring to surface and consciousness the God-image upon ones life is our lifetime vocation. And Jesus did it best as an example for us.
Aphorism of the Day, May 5, 2020
One of the features of "apocalyptic" Christianity is more concern about the afterlife than this life. Jesus told his disciples via the oracle of John's Gospel, "I go to prepare a place for you because my Father's house has many dwelling places." It's like he was saying, "Hey, guys don't worry about the afterlife, we've got it covered." One way to mirror the dwelling place in the afterlife is to work to make sure everyone has a dwelling place in this life.
Aphorism of the Day, May 4, 2020
In John's Gospel, Jesus is either a real estate agent or in charge of housing assignment: "In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places." KJV used "many mansions," which sounds a bit more Downton Abbey upscale.
Aphorism of the Day, May 3, 2020
The discourse on the Good Shepherd in John's Gospel, is a teaching oracle of the early church on the characteristics of leadership and how Jesus modeled the sacrificial qualities needed to respond with empathy for persons in need. One can note that many leaders today prefer to be "served" rather than "serve."
Aphorism of the Day, May 2, 2020
The metaphor of Jesus as the "Good Shepherd" is essentially the incarnation of the "Lord is my Shepherd" of Psalm 23. If God were a visible Shepherd of people, what would God look like in human form? Jesus. Is Jesus so much an emptying of God into human form or is he the truthful embrace of accepting anthropomorphism as a valid way to speak about the non-human divine?
Aphorism of the Day, May 1, 2020
If we live and move and have our being in God, then God is the great Container and God does not have environment because God is the Environment. Someone who does not have "environment" cannot be relative except to a Future Self.
Aphorism of the Day, May 13, 2020
In the internal symbolic order of the writer of John, persons are given power to become children of God, not born of the will of the flesh but of God. As a follow up, the oracles words of Jesus in the Johannine church reiterate that the disciples would not be left orphans. If John's Gospel is about living in the parallel kingdom of God; it is also about living in the parallel family of God and this Gospel goes at great length to establish the heavenly parent who was revealed by Jesus who was the Holy Sibling who gave everyone coat tails to be received into God's family.
Aphorism of the Day, May 12, 2020
t is interesting that Jesus promised to send an "advocate" to be with his disciple-friends. An advocate is like a lawyer working on one's behalf affirming one's standing. Satan means "accuser" so the Advocate Holy Spirit is the discovery of one's own "Defense Attorney" against the "accuser."
Aphorism of the Day, May 11,2020
One might say that the "fatherization" of God is most pronounced in John's Gospel. If the forced weaning from earthly parents was a common experience for many followers of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus was an experience of another kind of parentage. Jesus said, "I won't leave you as orphans," as parentless people without heritage. The image of the heavenly parent was on Jesus and he promised identity with the image of the heavenly parent on all who wanted to know this heavenly identity.
Aphorism of the Day, May 10, 2020
In the oracle words of Jesus, he is the way, the truth and the life. We have in our Greek philosophical ways reduced "truth" to propositional syllogistic consistent, coherent and comprehensive adequacy. Truth perhaps should be seen more as "honest" coherence with the life purpose of love and justice=God's will, rather than philosophical arguments about how to best defend the reality of Jesus of Nazareth.
Aphorism of the Day, May 9, 2020
How many New Testament "lives" are there? At least three: bios, pseuche, and zoe. They are parallel lives in the Gospels. Physical life, soul life and "abundant life." Jesus promised "abundant" life, or a kind of Life in life that pertained the experience of eternality within oneself, which in St. Paul was the evidence or the downpayment on ones afterlife.
Aphorism of the Day, May 8, 2020
"Show us the Father and we will be satisfied." And Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." We cannot see our "eyeball" because our eyeball is being seen through. The familial image of God on humanity is like eyeball, not seen but being seen through. Jesus was the one who totally was given over to being seen through by God and so his familial likeness with God was complete. He invited everyone to realize one's divine likeness by being seen through. Surrender to being seen through.
Aphorism of the Day, May 7, 2020
As Stephen was being stoned and watched by Saul, Stephen asked that "their sin not be held against them." Saul, breaking that important commandment about not killing, must of had his conscience buried in tons of rationalization, only to resurface in such a personality snap when he became confronted on the road to Damascus. "How did I ever justify murder as being my religious duty?" He spent the rest of his life trying to make amends, and amend he did.
Aphorism of the Day, May 6, 2020
Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you've seen the Father." This means that Jesus uniquely realized the image of God upon him in such a profound away and he could not see himself separated in any way. Bring to surface and consciousness the God-image upon ones life is our lifetime vocation. And Jesus did it best as an example for us.
Aphorism of the Day, May 5, 2020
One of the features of "apocalyptic" Christianity is more concern about the afterlife than this life. Jesus told his disciples via the oracle of John's Gospel, "I go to prepare a place for you because my Father's house has many dwelling places." It's like he was saying, "Hey, guys don't worry about the afterlife, we've got it covered." One way to mirror the dwelling place in the afterlife is to work to make sure everyone has a dwelling place in this life.
Aphorism of the Day, May 4, 2020
In John's Gospel, Jesus is either a real estate agent or in charge of housing assignment: "In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places." KJV used "many mansions," which sounds a bit more Downton Abbey upscale.
Aphorism of the Day, May 3, 2020
The discourse on the Good Shepherd in John's Gospel, is a teaching oracle of the early church on the characteristics of leadership and how Jesus modeled the sacrificial qualities needed to respond with empathy for persons in need. One can note that many leaders today prefer to be "served" rather than "serve."
Aphorism of the Day, May 2, 2020
The metaphor of Jesus as the "Good Shepherd" is essentially the incarnation of the "Lord is my Shepherd" of Psalm 23. If God were a visible Shepherd of people, what would God look like in human form? Jesus. Is Jesus so much an emptying of God into human form or is he the truthful embrace of accepting anthropomorphism as a valid way to speak about the non-human divine?
Aphorism of the Day, May 1, 2020
A good shepherd is one who uses power, knowledge and wealth to help "sheep," or those who are vulnerably in need. The opposite of a good shepherd is the exploiter who uses power, wealth and knowledge to take advantage of the weak, the poor and ignorant.
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