Aphorism of the Day, October 31, 2020
Death has meaning in human experience, both the death of others and the pondering of one's own mortality. Death has its days on the calendar, days of remembrance even as in our plague we know the acceleration of the rate of people dying. In the Triduum of All Hallow's, All Saints' and All Souls, we attempt to integrate death into being a part of life and for some it might seem to be like putting lipstick on a pig. We poetically make it into a transition and we train ourselves to see afterlife instead of death. We remember the objective immortality of the Saints and Souls as we remember what they left behind for us who have not yet joined their cloud.
Aphorism of the Day, October 30, 2020
The Word was with God and the Word was God. This statement can imply several insights. Word is the "beginning," the arche, (Gk word from John) of human life as we know it. Word is the total field of everything that can be known or come to language. There is one valid use of a circular argument: Through Word, we establish that word is the unavoidable sine qua non for human experience as it can be known and in a circular and reflexive way, one must use Word to establish the priority of Word and language products. Word is always the presumed priority of anything human experienced, anything known at all. But what if I am an Eastern monk sitting and achieving Silent/Wordless nirvana? Sorry, one has presumed through Word, the entire context for the entire sitting and attaining of such nirvana. One never escapes Word, even when one fools oneself that one has ceased to think that one is living in a total fast from "word products." And this does not diminish the "fast from word products" as an extremely important method of "cleansing" the word palates so that from such "silence of ego deconstruction" one can "taste" word-things in new ways. Music, too presumes an existence in a worded life; but it is profoundly different from the word products of speaking and writing, that it can be a wonderful palate cleanser of our lives so dominated by word products. Of course, singing involves a mixture and an enhancement such that Augustine said "to sing is to pray twice."
Aphorism of the Day, October 29, 2020
Empathy is the force which assaults and breaks down the fortress of each person's epidermal wall. Am I locked within my epidermal wall? Is all that I am really inside of this wall? The presumption of the empathetic imagination is that an "imaginary I" can escape my interior prison and fly and penetrate another person's epidermal wall and confess that "I am enough like the one on whom I have projected myself into" that I can say "I identify with you in a significant way in all manner of feeling experiences." Empathy is when the "imaginary ego I" is astrally projected into another person and allow me to presume to identify and have the freedom to say and to respond with "I care" for you because "I care for myself and I also want the care of others."
Aphorism of the Day, October 28, 2020
The blessings and the woes of the Beatitudes may follow the prayer tradition of blessings and curses. Those blessed are the poor and the oppressed and the woes are wished upon the powerful, the wealthy and the oppressor. This martial arts program of Jesus for the oppressed is based upon the belief that it is better in the rule of justice to be oppressed than to be the oppressor. An oppressor is already cursed by choosing to be the worst expression of human behavior, not just by persecuting but by getting sadistic pleasure from doing the same. The curse is double on such an oppressor.
Aphorism of the Day, October 27, 2020
The reason that the Beatitudes of Jesus seem so radical for people of faith in favorable times is that they recommend a rule of life which I call Christian martial arts. How does one live in times of persecution in non-violent and non-retaliatory way and yet resist in a way that witnesses to the arc of justice? Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. were drawn to the beatitudes for the martial arts of Jesus of Nazareth. We often in our lives of "easy" faith just place these beatitudes on a pedestal of the "unattainable."
Aphorism of the Day, October 26, 2020
Every moment is an hierarchical moment, since a binary analysis pervades each moment. I am doing this and not everything else, thus indicating a preference, a privileging of one over the other. Consistent privileging creates the character of the hierarchy of preferences in one's life. Hierarchies occur for individuals and for communities and meritocracy usually informs the hierarchies of a community. Hierarchies in baseball are created from field performance, yielding statistics which are compared and the ultimate hierarchy of baseball is to be voted into the Hall of Fame and thus memorialized forever for anyone who cares about baseball. All Saints Day came about for the same dynamic; the merit of really good people gets noticed and when the merit is socially widespread the conditions are attained for the Faith Community Hall of Fame, the various ways in which church institutions "canonize" the people deemed worthy of being memorialized for their exemplary lifestyles. Lots of local people never get "canonized" except in the lives and hearts of those who experienced their saintly effects; All Souls' Day is the acknowledgment of a hierarchy for personal and individual local "saints."
Aphorism of the Day, October 25, 2020
In reading an ancient text, one needs to be humble to practice empathy for the situation of the ancient people. We consider Aristotle to be brilliant and relevant to us today in so many important ways, at the same time Newton or Einstein make his physics seem really crude. We need to exercise the same empathy in ready the Bible, in that we do not regarded the cultural details of some very simplistic things to be precisely absolute in the way that they were understood or formulated; what is absolute is the attitude of each person in their own time striving for the highest insights on good living, scientific living, artistic living, poetic living and spiritual living.
Aphorism of the Day, October 24, 2020
When persons act as though they are above the law and view laws encroachment on personal freedom, it means that such people have not learn the teaching mission of the law, which is to learn empathy.
Aphorism of the Day, October 23, 2020
Asking Jesus what the greatest law is begins with agreeing about a tautological definition of God. God is the One that none greater can be conceive. So, it follows that greatest would at the very least include divine existence, and greatness would imply worthiness of worship. And even if one cannot accept a great Personal God, one can at least admit that one lives within a Plenitude that is greater than us and because we have language we cannot but transact in Plenitude in personal ways.
Aphorism of the Day, October 22, 2020
One might say that one of the motives in law-making is empathy? Putting ourselves in each other's shoes to appreciate what is harmful to us as being harmful to all. And yet the laws of empathy cannot take into account the vast differences among people in their situations and so people get angry when a law for all doesn't seem to fit their own situation. We, therefore have the clash between what should be applied in a Federal way and what should be a mere local options. Often extreme individualist cry, "I am an island and what I do on my island doesn't affect you, so stay off my island with your rules." The law of empathy would imply that no one is an island and that we have to take all people into account, even if laws cannot be micro-tuned to everyone's situation.
Aphorism of the Day, October 21, 2020
Often we simplify in our society what being a conservative or a liberal means. A conservative is one who believes in deregulation and a liberal is one who wants to put regulations on everything. Such simplification is not true; what has more literal significance is that we are idiocentric regulators, meaning if it is hurting us personally then we want it to be regulated. When the government adds up all of the idiocentric complaints and then applies the regulations across the board and it is called politically correct, then party spirit kicks in and it becomes a fight between libertarian individualism and distributively applied justice. In short, we prefer the rules which protect us better than the rules that protect others. Jesus tried to reduce regulations to the law of empathy: Love God, i.e., have some empathy for the Big One who grants so much freedom, and love your neighbor as yourself, i.e., develop empathy and appreciate that most rules come from the attempt to enforce empathy. Why because, not everyone chooses empathy as their rule of life.
Aphorism of the Day, October 20, 2020
In the ancient world, one of the way in which the power of the rule was legitimized and promulgated is that God or the gods ordained for the ruler to be such. The presentation of the "messiah" or anointed one in the context the history of Israel is how the divine right of kings came to Israel. The Psalter includes what are called "Royal Psalms," which present as both praise to God and the chosen monarch simultaneously. Jesus stumped his interlocutors with contradictions in one of these Royal Psalms with the accepted assumption of the day, that David wrote all of the Psalm, including the Royal Psalms about his own grandeur. "The Lord said to my Lord..." If David wrote this the second "my Lord" refers to someone other than David. If it is a courtly hymn of praise about the King, then the second "my Lord" refers to David. One can see how fluid the interpretations were of the "messiah" in the early church.
Aphorism of the Day, October 19, 2020
It doesn't seem fair that Moses is not allowed to go into the Promised Land. He did everything to get the people there but was not allowed to go in. This story bespeaks of life and leadership ending with lots of things undone and unfulfilled and it reminds that no matter what we do we still have a solidarity with the future, whether we want it or not.
Aphorism of the Day, October 18, 2020
"Jesus, you show no deference to anyone including the Caesar, so you probably against paying taxes, right?" Being impartial does not mean that one does not recognize the "differences" among people in how they are known within any social situation. What makes us equal is being made in the image of God, and indeed this should have social consequences in how we treat each other. All are created equal but each has a different path to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And we should understand our taxes as a way to level that path so that all have an adequate pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
Aphorism of the Day, October 17, 2020
God was too "profound" for Moses to see God's face. Moses was permitted to see God's backside. Perhaps one can only see God as God leaves and we ponder in retrospect and not in "real time" the Having Been of God. Now is ironic since we food ourselves about it because as soon as we think it, we are only thinking about the Having Been formerly known as Now.
Aphorism of the Day, October 16, 2020
As God's coins bearing the divine image we are to render the "tax" of God as in loving God and our neighbor, and this "tax" turns out to be the very best for the common good of humanity. The common good of the world is not achieved because too many are not "paying" their divine taxes.
Aphorism of the Day, October 15, 2020
A Caesar would mint coinage with his image/icon on the coins as proof of his rule and right to collect taxes. The Genesis story indicates that God placed the divine image/icon on human beings as proof that human beings belong to God in a special way. The tax which God wants to collect is worship, the acknowledgment of Divine Singular Greatness not because of lack of divine esteem but as a simple matter of fact about the obvious Plenitude with engulfs all humanity within the universe.
Aphorism of the Day, October 14, 2020
If Jesus said to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, did that mean he was not going to be a Messiah King to overthrow the Emperor and liberate Israel. For many, being the Messiah meant an actual liberation of the homeland which history tells us Jesus never did. The Jesus Movement did eventually convert the Caesar and the Empire and Empire Christianity became a watered-down version of what the Jesus Movement had been.
Aphorism of the Day, October 13, 2020
Before the era of computers, icon was mainly a term which referred to religious paintings, most notably deriving from the Eastern Orthodox world. Icons were/are regarded to be almost like another "sacrament" in that they are means of grace for the viewer. The iconoclast movement challenged that the veneration of icons bordered on idolatry and yet the supporters of the religious and devotional import of icons prevailed. A coin with the icon of the Emperor on it was said by Jesus to belong to the Emperor in that he could collect taxes. But in good old Genesis theology, the Emperor actually belonged to God because people are God's icons and God's coinage. The question: Are we God's coinage to be in circulation to be a paranoid, narcissistic Caesar or are we being spent for love and just purposes. How do we bear the "image" of God. Can God move the cursor over the divine icon on us today and click and get us to do the divine works of love and justice.
Aphorism of the Day, October 12, 2020
The "render unto Caesar, the things of Caesar" saying is a wisdom saying implying because the "image"=likeness=icon=face of God is even on the Caesar, then Caesar belongs to God so Caesar should be rendered unto God. It is quite a clever wisdom mot.
Aphorism of the Day, October 11, 2020
Spiritual elitism? "Many are called few are chosen?" How does that jive with automatic assimilation into the church through infant baptism? Isn't rain, the water which baptizes and chooses everyone under the sun? It could be that chosen me the realization of "relationship" only happens at any given time to a lesser number of people than the entire relationship. All are called to love and yet only a few at any given time are actually realizing the "apparency" of love. Life is about moving from the general call of God into the apparency of being chosen. Those who know beam without bragging because it is such sweet serendipity.
Aphorism of the Day, October 10, 2020
The Gospels are evidence that the traces of the words and ministry of Jesus were being remembered in diverse and inexact ways to be applied in the pastoral situations of various Jesus Movement communities, some still associated with the synagogues and some not. To try to precisely harmonize all of the Gospels internally and with each other is a violation of how the various applications of traces of Jesus were applied in specific situations within a community at a certain time and place. To try to make a static universal interpretation to be the same for all times and places for an "artificial" textual unity is a violation of the text.
Aphorism of the Day, October 9, 2020
The presentation of divine speech and action within the Bible is different. It is curious that God seems to speak and act in more anthropomorphic ways in the distant and even pre-historic past and the God of "love" is more often a God of anger. For example, in the Flood event, God decided that the world was so evil that everyone except eight people had to be destroyed so there could be a "new start." God threatened the same at the golden calf event. God said to Moses let me consume all of the people and start over with you. It is quite interesting that Moses is one who reason with an angry God regarding the "promise" God had made to the Patriarchs. It behooves us to look at Scripture as the "art" of how the identity of the people of Israel was being formed by religious scribes who wanted to cement the identity of Israel with the Lord G-d. That Lord G-d of the pre-historic era is seen to be radically jealous and angry at unfaithful behaviors, even to the point of genocidal events (Flood/golden calf).
Aphorism of the Day, October 8, 2020
Jesus presented God as an "unrequited party host." What if God threw a party and no one showed up? It is true that no one is required to see the Vast Plenitude of the universe as a friendly Presence within which is written an invitation a feast which is saying "I have given all of this to you," now can we talk and commune. We feast and live on our portions of this Vast Plenitude and we often do it in unsharing ways as some have much and many have very little. The feast of God is an invitation for us to commune and commit to enacting the program of "there's enough to go around for everyone." And still not enough takers to the feast of God.
Aphorism of the Day, October 7, 2020
In the parable of Jesus when the party giver is disappointed about his guest A list and B list invitees don't want to attend and so when everyone is invited, the logic turns counter: everyone is invited but you get punished if you show up in the wrong clothes. What one finds is that a very inviting and inclusive host still has standards. Everyone one is completely invited and included, but there are still rules that govern. This expresses some akin to the irony of St. Paul: "Shall we just continue to sin so that grace can continue to abound?" The delightful inclusion of the invitation does not take away the continual responsibility of repentance.
Aphorism of the Day, October 6, 2020
The parable of Jesus gives the impression that there is an A list, B list C list and whomever else list to be invited to God's party. This is only a reflection of human "dispensational" narrowness and not the carte blanche invitation that God gives in creating all in the divine image. We cannot be a slave to the limited and piecemeal dispensational perspective which often seems to be presented in specific biblical witness. If God is not a God for all, then the notion of God becomes inconsistent.
Aphorism of the Day, October 5, 2020
One can see the parables of Jesus as providing insight about the built-in "karma" of the laws of nature. The person who goes to the wedding without wedding dress when it was the custom of the host to provide garments so that there was "fashion equity," can represent the built-in probably outcome of not following the natural, social and spiritual rules. The severity of the punishment is built-in to the violation of natural laws. If you jump off a building you go "splat." It is harsh but true.
Aphorism of the Day, October 4, 2020
If the parables of Jesus sometimes seem to be severe, it might be an interpretive misunderstanding. His parables represent a reflection of what does/can happen within the conditions of freedom in the world. The seeming binary nature of judgment and punishment can seem harsh but in a moment of experience of a moral agent one notes that what happens immediately is binary with everything that did not happen. Binary in the interpretive moment sets apart what one perceives to be judgment with everything else that could have been happening. The succession of our interpretive occasions means that in the moment we are limited to that apparent finality of the "binary." But what deconstructs a former binary is the arising of another binary and the notion of mercy and grace can always be a subsequent binary option to judgment and punishment, which are needed as interdiction to patterns of evil.
Aphorism of the Day, October 3, 2020
The first and tenth commandment can be matched in practiced. We are to worship God as the one God. And we are not supposed to covet. Covet is the energy of desire focusing upon the wrong things for the wrong reasons. But if we can transform the energy of desire by focusing it upon the one who is truly worshipful, then with this method of focus we can let our desire pass through the other things as transparent objects which we enjoy but don't put them in the place of God.
Aphorism of the Day, October 1, 2020
Stewardship is the goal of biblical salvation. This is based upon coming into a contractual covenant with God who owns all because the Divine Plenitude is before us and will be after us and we have only temporal duration in our state of being moral agents. As stewards the recognition of God as our Owner is chiefly acknowledged by living with care for each other in love and justice. If divine revelation means anything, it is the lure of God for us to care for God by caring for each other and our world as a special gift on loan to us while we live as moral and contractual, covenantal agents.
Aphorism of the Day, October 2, 2020
When one has a big mortgage on one's home, in real financial terms, the lender "owns" the home. But the one who has the loan is still called the owner of the house, who is given the task of the full care of this assets. There is an insight here in our stewardship roles; we are given the permission by God to appear to be the "owners" of our lives and our world and it is a significant "ownership" role because of our freedom. But really God who was before us and who will outlasts us is the Big Generous Lender who lets us prance as "owner" while rooting for us to leave our property better than we found it for those who come after.
