Aphorism of the Day, May 31, 2021
The Gospel records some accusations against Jesus. He was a glutton and winebibber and ate with sinners. He was mad. He sold out to the devil and did his exorcisms and wonder works with the help of Beelzebul. Jesus responded by saying that it was logically inconsistent for the devil to work against himself by casting out his own loyal demons. The attribution of good deeds as being demonic is the epitome of those who were so jealous that they denigrated the good by mischaracterizing the source of the goodness as being evil. Jealous people will often overturn values to criticize the one who is the brunt of their jealousy.
Aphorism of the Day, May 30, 2021
The articulation of the Holy Trinity by Councils of the church was in part the attempt to translate the Gospel words of Jesus about his relationship to his Father and to the Advocate Spirit into words of Greek philosophical thinking. It is unavoidable for a popular movement to resist mixing and assimilating and converting and modes of articulation familiar to those who are converted. The articulation of the Trinity was the evangelical success indicating the process of Christianization of all things. Is it being conformed to the "image" of the world, or is this the baptizing of all things human in the name of Christ? The success of Christianization for the Emperor Constantine has resulted in people of Christian persuasion to reside in Christian Empires which have not always done completely Christ-like things, e.g., slavery and subjugation of women, persecution of minority, and justifying genocide (native Americans for one). As we revisit the pivotal moment in the articulation of the Trinity in conjunction with Empire Christianity, we may need to actually return to words of Jesus about his relationship to the Father and the Spirit as a rebuke to what Christianity became in many of its "empire" behaviors.
Aphorism of the Day, May 29, 2021
With language, we are perpetually trying to signify what seems to be extra-linguistic or that which is not language as if everything which we purport to signify could have knowable existence or reality outside the use of language (impossible as that would be). Once we're reconciled to our language prison, we can realistically begin to accept our calling to use language in the best possible ways, and what can define best? The theophanies of the divine coming to language users and in the case of the Christian tradition, God coming to the purview of language users as a Trinity of Persons. What could be the function of Trinity of Persons as being best? The highest value is dynamic relational One Fellowship as a source for inspiring the best way to living as diverse members of human community in dynamic personal fellowship. If addicted idolatrous individuals need a grace encounter with a Higher Power for interdiction and sobriety, the oft warring human communities need a grace encounter with the Higher Power of Personal Relational Fellowship, which has come to our language in the naming of the Trinity.
Aphorism of the Day, May 28, 2021
How is the Trinity unavoidable? God is a Fathering plenitude from whom all beings come. Jesus the Christ as the eternal Word. Word is the unavoidable reality of human existence without which nothing is known. Anthropomorphism, using human analogy about God, is really anthropo-linguistic performance and Christ the eternal world is the accounting for why it is valid to use language to speak about human language users and their relationship to God as ultimate language user. Spirit is the mysterious way we account for the fullness of all environment, an omnipresence which is the ground of all mutual recognition. The above might be insights on how Trinitarian God-reveal is unavoidable for those who use human language.
Aphorism of the Day, May 27, 2021
God, by definition would be before human history, but God has a human history in that God has come to the language of people who purported to have theophanies or experiences of the sublime such that the beyond human designation of God became the fitting superlative. Christianity is in the biblical tradition regarding the "history" of God and Jesus in how his words explained his relationship with God as Father and God as Advocate Spirit provided the inspiration for knowing God as a Trinity of Persons in unity. The relational perspective of God as presented by Jesus was seen to be well within the Hebrew Scripture tradition which included explication of the divine with many personal names for God based upon God's attributes. When the relational notion of the Trinity was "translated" into Greek philosophical language, one might cite this as one of the reasons that Jews could come to think that Christianity has left an "authentic/pure" monotheism.
Aphorism of the Day, May 26, 2021
What is prior, the Trinity or the field of language through which the Trinity has come to be revealed or known? Anything that can be known, is known because we assume the priority of Language. Even though language refers to that which is not language, it uses language to do so. So when one says, the Trinity was before "language and language users," one has to use language to make the case. The Trinity is an articulation within language users who accept the presentation of the words of Jesus as they have been transmitted in the writings of the church regarding the relationship between Jesus, his Father and the Advocate whom he was sending in his absence. We tend to merge Father, Son and Holy Spirit in that we regard each to be omnipresent. What is the difference between the indwelling Risen Christ and the indwelling Spirit within the human person? Please discuss and get back to me with exact and authoritative precision(whose authority will you accept). Or can poetry ever be reduced to "empirical precision?"
Aphorism of the Day, May 25, 2021
We can treat the Trinity as "church administration to legislate unity regarding the the Christian understanding of God," or we can understand it as it came to us in the presentation of the particular way in which Jesus was in relationship to the divine. Church doctrine or personal relationship? Relationships leave the question of mystery open.
Aphorism of the Day, May 24, 2021
How do deity receive personality? Anything which comes to language has "personality" since personality is an attribute of a language user. The understanding of God as a Trinity of Person is to confess that life is about relationship and relationship needs the model of highest relationship for guidance.
Aphorism of the Day, May 23, 2021
How can the unseen Spirit be known? In the gifts, the fruits and the manifestation of virtue in one's life. The gifts of the Spirit are the general ones associated with baptism and listed in Isaiah 11 as qualities of a "utopian" person. Wisdom, knowledge, counsel, understanding, fortitude, piety and the fear of God. In the church, gifts are the empowerment for specific ministries. And the fruits of the Spirit overlap with the gifts and the cardinal and theological virtues: Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. The long and short of it is that Spirit is known in how people live best with each other and toward God. How does Spirit as Word of God totally script one's life in thought, word and deed?
Aphorism of the Day, May 22, 2021
How does the word "Spirit" work for you as an effective metaphor? Breath or wind are invisible energy showing outward effects but can such metaphors attain a "personality?" Does Great Person of Mystery ever present work? Or is
Spirit an inward constellation of "words" as in the words of Jesus: "My words are Spirit and they are life." Is Spirit the mysterious constellation of inner Words which evoke the impression that our lives are God-touched, or touched by the Sublime? How can Spirit be personal? Everything that comes to language is personal since having language is what defines the essence of human personhood.
Aphorism of the Day, May 21, 2021
In the world of diversity, what is the point of speaking about "oneness" or "unity?" Universe means one from the combination of many. The universe is "one" community of many members. Oneness might be a way of speaking, in that we can say that there is a community of languages within the one human feature of "having language." Pentecost was the day of many languages and what did this prove? It proved the Oneness of the Eternal Word from the beginning. Not matter what one says or does with any language or within any human culture, all are unified by the fact that they "have Language."
Aphorism of the Day, May 20, 2021
How far can the metaphor "Spirit" reach in meaningful insights? Spirit is breath; Spirit is wind. Wind is not seen but its effects are seen. Breath is not seen but its effects are known. Therefore these metaphor seem to be fit for God as Spirit who is unseen but whose effects include "breathing evidence of life," and a hidden engine in the world making the branches of life's tree move back and forth. Spirit is the mystery of of what we do not control with our knowledge. A meaningful way for me to understand the Spirit is to designate Spirit as the Ground of mutual experience that everything in life has with everything else, and for us as sentient beings, it means realizing that we are not alone.
Aphorism of the Day, May 19, 2021
It is good to ponder the One Expanding Container of the incredible diversity which exists within that great Expanding Container. Can that great container be called One if the One surpasses the One in future states? We say a person is the same "one" as a baby and as an adult in have identity over time, and yet being incredibly different in the various temporal states of being "one" person. Oneness in time for human beings and for the Divine is a mystery of identity and we invoke the word Spirit to account for the play between unity of identity within the plurality of temporal states of becoming.
Aphorism of the Day, May 18, 2021
The Bible is evidence that revelation does not cease because new times uncovers new meaningful truth that was not publicly evident in the past. To try to pretend that revelation has ceased while new discoveries arise from the cumulative knowledge of everything in every field is to try to be an "arbitrary" stop on knowledge and the pragmatics of knowledge, in an almost Amish way. People live as a result of science and then in the biblical mindset climb into a "compartmentalized" biblical mindset to co-exists with everything that has happened in the cumulative world knowledge. This disjunction causes the confusion in the social and political order today.
Aphorism of the Day, May 17, 2021
In the mystery of life, the exploration for what drives it has become so microscopic that Spirit has been the sub-nano explanation for the driving force of omnipresent life and the ground which conducts the mutual experience that each being can have with the others. But of course, Spirit is a word in the field of language and without language and consciousness of being language users, there could be no articulation of Spirit or anything else.
Aphorism of the Day, May 16, 2021
What is the relationship between what has always been the case and the realization by people of what has always been the case? The articulation of the law of gravity does not suddenly make gravity true since its truth has always been; it only makes it meaningfully true in the life of the one who through discovery articulates the law because it is relevant to the articulator contextual "worldview." Salvation history unfolded in realization of some things which had always been true.
Aphorism of the Day, May 15, 2021
Does the realization of a meaningful truth in a later time "cause" the truth to have always been true, or only unrealized or undiscovered or lost or inaccessible in the past? Newton's realization about gravity did not "cause" gravity to be true; it had always been true. If Jesus prayed for the mystical unity of people with God as the church believed that he did; was this only the realized truth of what had actually been true from the beginning of humanity, namely, that humanity is made to be united with God by virtue of bearing the divine image?
Aphorism of the Day, May 14, 2021
The Ascension departure is prefaced with words of Jesus, "lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age." God as creator originator was trying to saying "Lo I have been with you since the beginning of the human age." When did the human age begin? Since humanity had words/language and knew they had the same. Christ as eternal Word, knew that Language would not leave humans because when there is no longer language or language users, then the age ends, because the knowing of there even being existence would pass away.
Aphorism of the Day, May 13, 2021
Holy Scripture purports to be revealing or an unveiling. And what is unveiled? The obvious, namely that God, a name for the friendly originator of everything, is in fact IN everything. So God's omnipresence is what is unveiled. But too many manifestations of omnipresence come in the guise of what is harsh, painful and evil and human history shows that humanity is alienated from the favor and blessing of God's omnipresence. Salvation history, culminating in Jesus, is an attempt to unveil a right relationship with God's friendly omnipresence in apparent ways to lure us to love, justice, joy and an integrative Good News which can incorporate even pain, evil and death.
Aphorism of the Day, May 12, 2021
Inter-spatial biblical travelers or those who did not have a regular transition to the afterlife were Enoch and Elijah, perhaps Moses, and the latest one in Catholic tradition was the Virgin Mary. Such people were "taken" or Assumed into heaven having been found worthy to avoid a "normal" death. These "taken" people seem to have "re-entry" abilities in that Enoch, Elijah and Moses were apocalyptic figures, with Elijah and Moses re-appearing on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Virgin Mary has reappeared in significant "apparitions" in places which have become shrines of the same. The Ascension of Jesus is regarded to be distinctively different from the "Assumptions," but also contains the tradition of a re-entry or return of Jesus with more than apparitional implications in biblical tradition.
Aphorism of the Day, May 11, 2021
The prayer of Jesus has an ambiguous meaning: "That they be one and you and I are one." This could refer to the individual souls union with God or it could refer to unity among the followers of Jesus. It could mean both, but it would seem contextually to refer to the individual as child of God coming into the oneness experience with God.
Aphorism of the Day, May 10, 2021
In the long prayer of Jesus in John's Gospel, it reveals a "confused" time, when Jesus says, "while I was with them." This is indicative of it being an "ascended Christ" prayer channeled through the writing of John's Gospel. Having the mind of Christ and speaking in Jesus' Name was how the channeling mode of communication of the oracle of Christ within the early Christ communities was portrayed. The early channelers of the words of the Ascended Christ believed those words were the words of Jesus and could become worthy of "red letters" in latter day print editions. How many "presumptuous" preachers preface their sermons with "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?" Are all sermons prefaced with these words worthy of being considered the words of Jesus Himself? Certainly the words of such preacher have different "canonical" status worldwide even though one hopes that they have "inspired appropriateness" for the particular occasion.
Aphorism of the Day, May 9, 2021
The followers of Jesus were called disciples, apostles and children of God. Perhaps their highest status was to be called by Jesus, friends. Friendship is perhaps the epitome of human relationship and if one can be a friend of Jesus and God the Father, one knows oneself in a different way. Luke-Acts are books written to someone or anyone named Theophilus, meaning friend/lover of God. It is a mystical moment to discover oneself as a "friend of God."
Aphorism of the Day, May 8, 2021
On Julian of Norwich Day, it is good to remember how patriarchalism had squeezed the feminine as being equally metaphorically representative of God and all things in life. If we didn't allow the feminine to be equally representative of reality, we are truly impoverished in how men and women are formed by the speech acts of humanity. We need to be in the age of correction and Julian's Mothering theology is a good place for inspiration.
Aphorism of the Day, May 7, 2021
"If you love me you will keep my commandments." This seems like Jesus being presented as a "new" Moses who is issuing commandments. But the main commandment was to love as Jesus loved his disciples. This is in agreement with what Paul wrote, "love is the fulfillment of the law." Love is about the art of living well with God and people and as a "art" it can not be reduced to matters of law and jurisprudence, though, love would include living lawfully for the common good.
Aphorism of the Day, May 6, 2021
John's Gospel is built around Jesus as the one who reveals a special relationship with God as his Father. He called this relationship love which was not just in theory but in honoring the "commandments" of his Father. This love between Father and Son, was to spill forth by God's Spirit and be the essence of the relationship between Christ and his followers, who like Jesus, would keep the "commandments" of Christ as proof of their love.
Aphorism of the Day, May 5, 2021
There is a threat by aggressive people: "I'm going to live inside your head." And the truth is that the people live inside of each other; we can't help but take each other in, with various regard on a continuum of positive adoration to the opposite end of loathing. Jesus recommended a way way to live inside of each other: "Abide in me and I in you." How so? With mutual love. Mutual love is the best way that we can inhabit each other.
Aphorism of the Day, May 4, 2021
"If you love me, keep my commandments." In reducing love to "mushy" feelings, it is hard to associate commandments and love. If love is a "compelling feeling," why would I need to be told to keep some rules? Perhaps this is not about rules, it is about a check up on how one is living? Is what I say and do worthy of Christ? If so, then my life can be an indicator of my love relationship with Christ. It is a check against hypocrisy, of being publicly associated with Christ, but having words and deeds which are not worthy of him.
Aphorism of the Day, May 3, 2021
Love is one of those divine equivalency words, as in "God is Love." "God is Love" is quite a cosmic statement, without any seeming particular event unless it is seen as omni-active in the relational sustaining of everything that is, in a very unconditional way, meaning that God's sustaining love in a contradictory way sustains even the unloving events which occur in human relations. This would mean that God as Love means the total adjustment to the conditions of freedom.
Aphorism of the Day, May 2, 2021
God has appeared in human language use; in fact God appeared in human language use which referred to Word as being God.
Aphorism of the Day, May 1, 2021
The "classical" Greeks had "four loves," eros, storge, phile, and agape. They had various gods and goddesses who mythologically represented "aspects" of human love. Eros was an Olympian god of love as was Aphrodite. Agape was marital love or love of one's profession. Agape through use in the Septuagint morphed to become the "greatest love" to be identified with God in the New Testament. God is agape. Sacrificial and unconditional nurture is implied in "agape." Compared with the virtues of faith and hope, Paul said that agape was the greatest. If we take human relationship at its very best, it would be be "agape," and God analogically is the superlative case of "agape."
