Metamorphosis Is Greater Than Its Phases

Transfiguration August 6, 2017
Ex. 1:13-21     Ps.99
2 Peter 1:13-21   Luke 9:28-36
 Lectionary Link

 The Transfiguration is featured at least twice every year on our liturgical calendar.  The story of the Transfiguration is always used on the last Sunday after the Epiphany, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent.  But the actual and designated feast of the Transfiguration is an annual fixed date on August 6.  And it just so happens, August 6th fell on a Sunday.  I think the last time that happen was in 2006.  But since it is feast of our Lord, when it occurs on a Sunday, it takes precedence over what would have been the 9th Sunday after Pentecost and Proper 12.

Transfiguration means metamorphosis.  The appearance of Christ was changed or transfigured in the presence of three of his student disciples.  The disciples of Jesus thought he was special before they climbed the mountain with Jesus but on the mount of the Transfiguration they had a profound confirming experience.

The Gospel writers followed a standard interpretive practice for presenting Jesus.  They used a method of presenting Jesus in  people and events like those found in the Hebrew Scriptures.  The Mount of the Transfiguration is a revisit of the theme of Mount Sinai.  God's presence in clouds, fire and light was known on Mount Sinai by Moses when he received the words of the law.  In contrast at the Transfiguration,  the voice of God the Father confirms Jesus as his beloved Son to Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John.

As a person who believes that writing has specific purposes for the writer and readers, I want to look at the functional purposes of the account of the Transfiguration within the early community of Christians.

I believe that in the account of the Transfiguration, we can find teaching about Christian metamorphosis, Christian transfiguration, Christian transformation.

We encounter metamorphosis in the cycles of growth.  Egg, larva, caterpillar, cocoon and butterfly.  If we are asked about our favorite stage in the life of a butterfly, most would say, breaking out of the cocoon and taking flight as a butterfly is the greatest stage.  Why do we like the butterfly stage?  It is such a stark contrast with the cocoon phase of seeming death.   But metamorphosis includes all of the stages equally and so the very process of metamorphosis is greater than any one stage. 

The Gospel writers proclaim the abundant life of God as a transfiguring life.   And we cannot always see and believe this.  If people only knew about eggs, larvae, caterpillar and cocoons then we would never talk about butterflies, we'd only talk about caterpillar and their deaths.

The disciples in the visionary experience of the transfiguration saw Jesus in his butterfly phase of existence before he attained it.  What would the resurrection look like before it actually happened?  That is what the disciples were able to see.  The disciple did not know that Jesus would go down the Mountain and end up on a cross and in a tomb in Jerusalem.  It was like Jesus saying, "You need to believe in the metamorphosis of my life because soon I will die before your eyes and be placed in the grave but just as the cocoon is not end of life for the caterpillar, so too the grave will not be the end of me."

What is the wisdom of the metamorphosis view of life?  The wisdom is the honesty about all of the phases and appearances as metamorphosis occurs.  We may want to hold onto to a particular phase of life as being final for us and for our loved ones.  In the experience of death we lose the appearance of our loved ones in a profound way; it is so profound that we begin to believe that the stage of death is greater than the process of metamorphosis.  The wisdom of metamorphosis is to learn to believe that everything continues to go on in some way.

I think that the Transfiguration story can be about how metamorphosis occurs in our moral and spiritual lives.  Moral and Spiritual metamorphosis occurs when we are able to experience the intervention of the witness of the very best values in our lives.  The witness of the life of Jesus set a new standard of excellence.  A mountain represents the place where earth meets heaven.  The church believed that the earth met heaven in the most complete way in the person of Jesus Christ.  In Jesus Christ we have been given the hope that the abundant life of God drives the process of metamorphosis in our lives.  This metamorphosis is honest to all of the stages and phases of growth.

Can the notion of metamorphosis be useful for us today in providing us insights about our spiritual lives?  Sometimes, I think that we can regard perfection to be a stable state of being that somehow we just going to reach and remain in.  This is not metamorphosis; metamorphosis included the recurrence of many different stages and one becomes significantly difference as one re-cycles through the phases.

If metamorphosis is an insight for our spiritual lives where are we right now?  What are you feeling like in butterfly terms?  An egg, larva, caterpillar, cocoon or butterfly?  Spiritual writers who have traced and written about their own spiritual journey have written about the recurring cycles.  New birth and excitement.  Curiosity.  Good fellowship and community.  Agreement and being insync with the lives of other.  But there are also the phases of apparent clouds, darkness aloneness, loneliness and even death.   St. John of the Cross wrote about the "Dark night of the soul."   Doubt, self disillusionment, disillusionment with others, doubt about one's ability to be usefully in sync with the lives of other in community.  What good am I if can cannot know how I can be winsome with others?  We may prefer to be in a spiritual state of mind of knowing God's presence and blessing to be obvious and apparent; who doesn't want that?  We may actually resent the process of metamorphosis, but do we want to be naïve, innocent Pollyannish, optimists who have not learned to appreciate the wisdom of living through the fullness of the cycle of metamorphosis?

The Transfiguration of Jesus happened before he was arrested, tried, beaten, killed on the cross, buried in the tomb and appearing in his resurrection body.  The Transfiguration was an event of assurance for the disciples to be able to hold on through the phases in the life of Jesus that they were going to have to experience.

Where are we in our spiritual metamorphosis today?  Wherever we are, remember we need to make an intentional spiritual effort.  The mountain is there; we'll never see the view at the top unless we climb and make the effort.  Jesus invites us to make an effort in the spiritual climb of life.  It may be difficult.  It may be mysterious.  Life throws us lots of clouds.  We can be blinded by the mystery of everything that we don't know about why things happen to us.  But even in the clouds of mystery of everything that we don't know we can have an experience of light.  We can have an experience in  finding the superlative direction for our lives.  In our experience of light, we can discover how our past events have been woven into the current providence of our lives.  Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus to indicate that past life of Israel supported and affirmed the new revelation known in Jesus Christ.

After climbing the Mount of Transfiguration, we have to go back down the mountain to the other phases of metamorphosis.  But we know that Christ will at future times and in different ways call us back up to the mountain when we can have our creative advance in our spiritual lives confirmed.

May God give us the grace and wisdom to embrace metamorphosis as honest to spiritual growth in our lives.  And may we have enough of the moments of the transfiguring light so that we can tolerate the phases in spiritual metamorphosis when light does not seem so apparent.  May God help us embrace Transfiguration as the very principle of our spiritual lives today.  Amen.

Sunday School, August 6, 2017 The Transfiguration

 Sunday, August 6, 2017     The Transfiguration

Metamorphosis

What if a caterpillar saw a butterfly and thought:  “Someday I am going to look like you.  I won’t have to crawl on the ground.  I will be able to grow wings and fly.”

Transfiguration means metamorphosis

It means we are always changing.  We change in cycles.  Why cycles?  Because we repeat things that we done in the past but when we repeat things they are different and we are different.

The meeting of Jesus, Peter, James,John, Moses and Elijah on a cloudy mountain top with a dazzling light show seen on the face of Jesus was a way of showing the disciple about the past and the future.

Moses and Elijah represented the past.  They were present to show how the great people of the past supported the appearance of Jesus and his ministry.  The shining appearance of Jesus gave his disciples a vision of the future.  Jesus would have to go through a “cocoon-like” time in his life.  Jesus would be arrested, he would die on the cross and he would be placed in a tomb.  But after Jesus was place in the tomb, he rose again.  Before Jesus died and rose again, Jesus gave his disciples a special vision.  This vision would help them keep their hope even when Jesus died and was buried.

As a pretend caterpillar seeing a butterfly might think, “Someday I’ll be a butterfly,” so when the disciple saw the shiny Jesus on the Mountain, they thought, “Someday Jesus and us will be all shiny with the wings of the resurrection.”

Metamorphosis means that change happens.  But there is a shiny spiritual light within us that lets us know that even when things changes God’s Holy Spirit is always going to be the life of the resurrection within us.

Sermon:

  When it dark at night and you can’t see, what do you do?  You turn on the light, right?  And suddenly everything that once was a big black cloud of darkness becomes colorful and you can see the shape of everything.   Aren’t you glad that we have lights at night?

  Light is very important to the life of our world.  What is the name of the big light that we see in the sky each morning?  And what do we call those lights in the sky at night?

  Light is so important because we could not see if we didn’t have light.  Light is so important, it was used by the friends of Jesus to talk about the importance of his life.

  Jesus said that he was the light of the world.  Today, we’ve read in the Gospel about how the disciples saw the face of Jesus shine when they went up a mountain with him.  In this vision that they had, Jesus appeared to them as a bright light.

  Did you know that education and learning is like light?  When we don’t know how to do something; it is like living in darkness.  But when someone shows us how to do something suddenly its like a light that comes on.  Your parents and your teachers and grandparents are like lights in your life, because they show you and teach to do some things that you didn’t know how to do.  And your life becomes better when you learn how to do new things.

  Jesus is the light of the world.  He came to show us how to live better lives.  He showed us that the best way to live is by loving each other, caring for one another and forgiving one another.

  And he also said to his friends:  You too are lights in this world, because you have to live in such a way to show people God’s love.  You are a light in this world if you help people to live better lives.

  So that is why we sang the song, “This little light of mine.”  To remind us that Jesus is the Light of the world because he showed how to live better lives.  And we too are supposed to be lights in this world, to show people how to live better lives.

  Today is the feast of the transfiguration when the disciples of Jesus saw that his face shone with a bright light.  They knew that Jesus was the light of the world.

  Today is a day that we remind ourselves that we are to be lights in this world to help people live better lives and to help people know that God loves them.

  Okay let turn on our lights today and let our lives shine with God’s love. Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 6, 2017: The Feast of the Transfiguration

Gathering Songs: This Little Light, Awesome God, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain, Shine, Jesus Shine

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: This Little Light of Mine (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 234)

1-This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.  This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

2-Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going to let it shine.  Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

3-Don’t let anyone, blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine.  Don’t let anyone blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

4-Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine.  Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Book of Exodus

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 99

Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; * he is the Holy One.

"O mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; * you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

About eight days after Jesus had foretold his death and resurrection, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"--not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Song: Our God is An Awesome God (Renew!  # 245)

Our God is an Awesome God, He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love.  Our God is an awesome God.

Sing three times

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Hymn: Climb Up Sunshine Mountain (The Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 30)

Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, heavenly breezes blow.  Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, faces all aglow.  Turn, turn from sin and doubting, look to God on high; Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, you and I.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Shine, Jesus, Shine  (Renew!, # 247)

Refrain: Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with the Father’s glory, blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire;  Flow, river, flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy, send forth your word, Lord, and let there be light.

1-Lord, the light of your love is shining in the midst of the darkness shining; Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us, set us free by the truth you now bring us.  Shine on me, shine on me. Refrain

2-Lord, I come to your awesome presence from the shadows into your radiance; By the blood I may enter your brightness, search me, try me, consume all my darkness.  Shine on me, shine on me.  Refrain.

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, July 2017

Aphorism of the Day, July 31, 2017

The Gospel of John does not include an account of the Transfiguration.  In the Transfiguration story, a visionary event, the face of Jesus is "lit up" indicating that Jesus is light to this world.  The writer of John skips the story and goes directly to metaphorical equivalence uses an "I am" phrase.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus is not reported to be on the Mount of Transfiguration but he is reported as saying, "I am the Light of the World."   Note the contrast: The Transfiguration event is a visionary situational event of Christ appearing as light whereas in the Gospel of John, Jesus declares himself to be Light.  Light in the Transfiguration story lines up comparatively with Moses whose face was lit up on Mount Sinai.  In the Gospel of John the very notion of light and the implications of light become a metaphorical identity for Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, July 30, 2017

Jesus said a scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven is one who can bring out of his treasure what is old and new.  A scribes occupation assumes that the scribe is a "writer."  Writing is a technology of memory which allows thoughts and ideas to be retained in written form with a stability that usually does not happen in an oral culture.  A scribe is not just a calligrapher copyist of the Scripture; a scribe also writes commentary to bring out of the wisdom source Holy Spirit, new applications of "old" words.  The universal commonness of human experience even across time means that correspondences with the "old" text of Scriptures can be found in one's current situation.  Some naïve interpreters of the Bible believe that the meanings and details of Scripture are as static and stable as the imitation which occurs when one copies a written text.  To explicate the treasure of correspondence between the ancient text and one's current situation is the treasure hunt of the scribe of the kingdom of heaven.  Read the Scriptures and go forth and be the playwright of one's own life by writing a Scripture inspire script for living today.

Aphorism of the Day, July 29, 2017

Jesus recommended that we be scribes trained in the kingdom of heaven.  A scribe was a reader, interpreter and expositor of the available texts who found in the written traces of the "old" text new insights for living now.  Such a scribe knows that reading is always in the now, so an "old" text should be seen as new in current, "right now," experience.  It is foolish to think that a text exists only in the past that is gone.  An old text is new when it is read because reading occurs in the now.  In our reading we seek to know a continuity of Spirit with the genius expressed in the Scripture even though we know the eternally continuing Spirit will inspire us to arrange and rearrange our lives to apply the genius of past wisdom into our lives now.

Aphorism of the Day, July 28, 2017

Jesus likened the realm of God to correspond to the one who knows jewelry who discovers the perfect pearl and sells everything to purchase the perfect pearl.  What is the pearl of our lives?  What is the organizing principle around which we have sacrificed everything to honor?  Is it the genuine pearl of the Gospel message of knowing God or have we run after "artificial" pearls that have glitter but fail to represent the reality of the divine presence?

Aphorism of the Day, July 27, 2017

From the Psalms: "I will incline my ear to a proverb * and set forth my riddle upon the harp."  Jesus as a communicator is presented as a wisdom teacher who used proverb, aphorism, parable, hyperbole and riddle to teach.  One had to become an insider to crack the meaning of his riddle.  Wisdom insight come as disciples have their lives transformed to be able to perceive that one lives in God's realm.  The practice of wisdom means that one does not enforce meanings; one is patient to see a person become constituted to be able to under the unobvious as obvious.

Aphorism of the Day, July 26, 2017

The Gospel of Matthew editor put five parables of the kingdom as pithy aphorisms to evoke a sense of what it means to perceive the kingdom of heaven.  Small insignificant beginnings can become the scaffold of cultural advance.  The effects of the kingdom are like the uncanny effects of yeast.  The kingdom is known with the excitement of an "inside" trader:  "I know the value of something that others don't."  The kingdom is the excitement of finding the chief value of one's life around which to organize one's life. The kingdom is like sorting a net full of the catch of the day in that we occasionally have to decide what is worth keeping as what we want to define our character.  We have to "throw away" that which did not contribute to excellence.

Aphorism of the Day, July 25, 2017

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast?  How so?  It is a stealthy awareness which grows from within people even when the external order seems to be controlled by kings, presidents, armies and leaders of business.  The kingdom of heaven is the inside job of access to God-awareness that can winsomely occur anywhere, anytime.

Aphorism of the Day, July 24, 2017

The Gospel writers refer to the kingdom of God/heaven as a secret that can only be known to those who are privileged to be insiders.  It sounds rather exclusive but it is simply the mystery of the conditions being right for some people to embrace and understand a message when others do not.  Some people tout the language of "predestination" as some sort of exclusive status.  Predestination is but the crisp language of saying that this happened instead of that so that predestination rather than being the conscious pre-determination of things to happen according to an intervening God, it can simply be a faith orientation to the obvious, namely to what has happened.  The Gospel writers were trying to deal with the obvious fact that some people were persuaded by the message of Christ and that persuasion was obvious in the transformation of their lives.  The Gospel writings are also about the obvious fact all did not accept the message of Christ.  The New Testament has a positive message but the churches arose in response to the opposition to the Gospel.  Without being a strict Hegelian of citing thesis, antithesis and synthesis to give insight to the growth of historical ideas, one can note that dissatisfaction with the dynamics of an existing paradigm makes easier the conversion to a new paradigm.

Aphorism of the Day, July 23, 2017

The parable of the weed and the wheat presents the wisdom of knowing that the conditions of freedom intertwine conditions of good and evil together.  The moral universe is always in the flux of the constellation of contextual judgments based upon the appraisal of whether something is good, bad or evil faced by the appraising party.  The patience of God is an affirmation of the freedom conditions which inhabit all occasions and events with agents having degrees of freedom relative to their own natures.

Aphorism of the Day, July 22, 2017

Language converts the events of time into a time-lapsed version of time because words and language stand in place of experienced contexts.  Of necessity language is reductive in relaying what is not language.  Parables are story units which "speed up" time.  The Parable of the wheat and the weed is a time-lapsed story about a patient God who is not time-lapse because the divine is everlasting.  Our era of time-lapsed stories of cinema and television tend to make us impatient because we want the great problems in life to be resolved in the way in which they are resolved in a two hour action adventure movie.  A dilemma in life has to do with being patient in life even while being profoundly urgent about exacting appropriate measures of justice.  Justice delayed is justice denied and uneven justice for people in our world creates the condition of being uncomfortably patient tinged with a sense of helplessness about how to effect justice for all.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 21, 2017

An insight from the parable of the weeds and the wheat is the acknowledgement of the tolerance of the conditions of freedom which permits for good and evil.  By destroying the very conditions of freedom, the very basis of morality and the limited free agency of persons would disappear.  Freedom is the underlying condition for the validity of morality.  Without choice, there is no morality.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 20,2017

The parables of the kingdom of God/heaven are wisdom stories to instill to the listeners nuances of perceiving that we live always, already in God's realm.  In nostalgia one could look to "David's kingdom" as the model kingdom or one could look at a reign of a future David-like ruler (messiah).  The parables of Jesus are not about the past or future realm of God but about recognizing the present and always realm of God.

Aphorism of the Day, July 19, 2017

The conditions of freedom in the world means that life is experienced as a mixture of "good and evil" or as the parable mirrors, "wheat and weeds."  The probability of good and bad co-exist in the greater field of freedom.  To attempt to "surgically" remove all that is bad would imply the cessation of the very conditions of freedom which in turn would invalidate the very value of what is good and what is bad.  The conditions of freedom like farming have cycles and there are times of harvest when the produce is sorted from what is discarded.  The parables of Jesus about the kingdom or "realm" of God provide insights about living in the realm of God known too as the realm of freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, July 18, 2017

One of the features of stories in language art is that time flies because language presents time-lapsed presentations of what is happening.  One might say that in our modern world that we live by time-lapsed presentations of news presentation and television and cinema and manifold video/virtual/cyber media.  In a movie, the great problems get presented and resolved in but 90 minutes.  The actual effect of continuous presentations of time-lapsed stories is that we can become impatient with "real time" life.  Probably the fickleness of public opinion has to do with our being enslaved to the impatience bred by the constant diet of time-lapsed life in video and writing.  Impatience can happen when life does not really imitate time-lapsed speed.  The parable of the Weed and the Wheat is a time-lapsed story which presents the counter message of the real time patience of God.

Aphorism of the Day, July 17, 2017

The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds gives us an insight about the mutuality in the differences between values.  The sun shines on both weed and wheat indiscriminately.  The soil supports the growth of weeds and wheat in such intertwined ways that one cannot get rid of the weed without sacrificing the wheat.  The symbiosis between weeds and wheat means that God is patient and not rash about thinning the crop.  God is very patient about the divine attribute of freedom which is shared with all.  One cannot remove the ground of freedom by seemingly removing all of the "weeds" from the garden of creation.

Aphorism of the Day, July 16, 2017

Parable is "word art."  One get trapped into how the "word art" imitates real situations and in contemplating the art one is to carry the value analysis that occurs during the contemplation of the "word art" into the real situations of one's life.  The Gospels are examples of "word art" and they include the further genre of "word art," the Parable.

Aphorism of the Day, July 15, 2017

The parables of Jesus were teaching tools as mnemonic devices in an oral culture.  One can remember a principle embedded in a story easier than a list of "brute" theological "facts."

Aphorism of the Day, July 14, 2017

What makes agricultural success?  Does God maintain the world like a highly sophisticated agribusiness farmer trying to control all elements that pertain to the success of the crop?  The parable of the sower presents the insight of God as an indiscriminate broadcast seeder who aims the handful of seeds toward cultivated soil but the wind carries some of the seeds to unintended places.  The parable of the sower admits the mystery of randomness in the success of God's word in the lives of people.  When a person cannot accept one's good news, it may be that the conditions that persuade agreement and commitment are not present.  In our day of political and religious polarization we have come to hold that people can hold the same religious beliefs differently enough to present challenges to effective cooperation and collaboration.  The parable of the sower is an acknowledgement of the mystery of why some people come to believe what they come to believe.  This is perhaps why the words of Jesus to the early evangelists who experienced rejection were: Shake the dust off your sandals and move on.  You can force people to agree or accept your good news when they are not ready.

Aphorism of the Day, July 13, 2017

The Gospels are parables and they include parables.  They are parables of the life of Jesus which instantiate the beliefs, the liturgical and spiritual practices of the early followers of Jesus.  Just as the parables attributed to Jesus create "word lenses" through which followers attained insights, so too the Gospels themselves are "word lenses" through which the church interpreted the meaning of the life of Jesus in the lives of those who found those "word lenses" significant for the transformation of their lives.

Aphorism of the Day, July 12, 2017

A parable is an interpretive lens though which one can see the world.  There is no pristine seeing of the world; it is always contextually interpreted.  The Parable of the Sower was an interpretive story that was spun by Jesus to enable listeners and later readers to gain insights on why the Gospel was successful with some people and not others.  The brilliant insight is this:  Gospel success depends upon the right conditions.  Why can't the conditions be right for everyone all of the time?  The parables of Jesus reveal a submission to the freedom of the organic order.  Spiritual transformation happens within the acceptance of the freedom of the organic order of this world.  Parables provide insights without trying to imply precise final explanations as to why things happen.

Aphorism of the Day, July 11, 2017

A fallacious approach to biblical words is to assume that because things are written in the Bible, they have been caused to happen in that way.  The Parable of the Sower does not tell us what causes the Gospel to be successful, it only refers to the vague insight of the condition being right in the life experience of the person who hears the Gospel and responds in the ways that express life transformation.  Predicting the success of the Gospel is as precise as predicting the exact time of when it will rain.  It rains when the conditions are right.  One can be completely right about predictions if one says it will happen when conditions are right.

Aphorism of the Day, July 10, 2017

Some of the parables of Jesus are followed by commentary to "explain" the meaning of the enigmatic parable.  The parable of the sower is a wisdom story that gives insights about why the a message is successful for some and not for others.  The parables do not "solve" a mystery as much as they acknowledge the mystery of the freedom of why things happen.  Why is something successful?  The context has to be right.  This is pretty much a vague, but true answer as to why anything happens.  The freedom of constantly changing "life contexts" means that success, failure or indifference can happen anytime.  Freedom is the Merry-Go-Round in the times of people's lives that even the Gospel must ride.

Aphorism of the Day, July 9, 2017

In Paul's writing, he seems to describe sin in an extreme form as abject addiction.  Sin is the experience of being so out of control of one's life that one need higher power intervention.   Through addiction and idolatry might be psychological features of sin, sin is unique to the life situation of each person.  My sin isn't worse than yours; it's different.  The Bible is not about legislating metaphors for what you need to define as your sin; rather the Bible provides personal examples of people who have known and confessed their understanding of how they came to believe that they had failed to live up to what they believed God wanted them to be in excellence.  Jesus said to take his yoke upon us.  Being yoke means we are pulling together and that we don't pull the load alone.  The yoke of Christ as regard the load of our sins is to know that Christ is with us as interior presence but also in the fellowship of fellow travelers who are yoked with us in the task of mutual care as we try to aid each other in the experience of grace.

Aphorism of the Day, July 8, 2017

One can get the impression in Paul that "sin" is elevated to its most extreme manifestation, destructive addiction.  Paul took the notion of sin from living in the state of "religious defilement" and defined it as living in the condition of being out of control in one's life.  I can't be the ideal person that I want to be?  Sin is the condition of losing the maximal conditions of personal freedom in one's habits.  "I cannot do what I want to do; some force or condition does not allow me a freedom which should be mine.  Wretched man that I am; who will deliver me from this body of death?"  The Gospels and the writings of St. Paul can seem to valorize the extreme.  People who are "extremely" sinful can be extreme in going in the opposite direction toward goodness since they experienced how low they can go and can come near to destroying their lives.  What about the person who has the composition and life experience not to be extreme in any behaviors?  Such a person who does not see the need for an extreme life makeover, does not make the effort in "extreme" righteousness.  St. Paul wrote that we should not increase our sin in order to increase our experience of grace, but he hints that we may not really appreciate grace and forgiveness if we have never come to the experience an extreme need for forgiveness.  Does St. Paul make Christianity into a 12 Step program even if everyone does not seem to need the program in the way in which Paul needed it?  "I don't need as much grace as you do, since I have not become as extreme in my addiction."  One might note that one's past habits can rule the present.  Paul was complicit in religious persecution and murder to the point of calling himself the "chief of sinners."  His entire ministry may be seen as sublimating compensation for the fact that he had been complicit in the death of people like St. Stephen.

Aphorism of the Day, July 7, 2017

Caught in habit that you cannot kick?  Did the devil make you do it?  Paul said it was "sin" that made him do the things that he did not want to do.  In Paul, sin is the engagement of projected desire upon an object that leads to addictive behaviors.  Another name for this kind of addictive behavior is "idolatry."  In idolatry one's desire is focused upon an object such that it becomes an psycho-magnet compelling repetition of behaviors which leaves one out of control and one feels bifurcated into an "I" who is controlled by "sin" which has attained an alter-personality.  Sin is a wrong relationship, a wrong management of one's desire such that one begins to lose control of one's behavior.  Interdiction through the sobriety of fasting from a seeming programmed harmful repetition, can be achieved through an experience of the Higher Power of the indwelling Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, July 6, 2017

For St. Paul, sin was the burden of his life in that sin was the habitual tendency to be unable to do and perform what one regarded to be the moral ideals of one's life.  Sin was the condition of knowing what was right but being unable to perform it because one's behavior were locked in by addictive patterns.  The rest promised by Jesus comes because being yoked with the "graceful presence of Christ" one tolerates oneself as a sinner even while one recovers from the effects of one's sins and ignorance through the gradual practice of self-control which comes through progressive enlightenment.

Aphorism of the Day, July 5, 2017

Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you."  This is a metaphor referring to the technology of pulling a heavy load.  Life can be a burden which is often wearisome.  A double yoke allows two animals to pull the load in coordination.  Being yoke with Christ is not a promise to avoid burdens in life; it is the experience of someone pulling alongside us sharing the load.  The lifestyle offered by Jesus was not an escape from the problems of living; it is a wisdom path to orchestrate and manage all of the particular conditions of freedom that can come to us in life.

Aphorism of the Day, July 4, 2017

Jesus quoted this in referring to the conformity demands of the public: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’   John the Baptist and Jesus were not religious in the way that many people wanted them to be.  They did not "conform" to the existing religious paradigms.  Since they "stood out," the pejorative was used to designate their "aberrant" behaviors.  They were called demonic, mad, sinners, trangressors of ritual practice, glutton and drunkard.  John and Jesus were proposing individual escape from being but "social clones" in proposing the power of one's freedom to resist the "everyone's doing it" syndrome.

Aphorism of the Day, July 3, 2017

In the ironic words of Jesus, "Father, you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants."  This may be like the Arab riddle for those who believe that God has 100 names but human beings only know 99 of the names begging the question, "Why does the camel have a silly grin on his face?"  Answer: Because he knows the 100th name of God and he's not telling.  An infant is someone who is not an active language user and a metaphorical way to express mystery is to say that there are things which have not come to language yet.

Aphorism of the Day, July 2, 2017

Imagine a child who has left the religion of her parents and then she attempts to convert her parents to her new faith by saying they can convert and retain most of their faith if they simply embrace the new.  This may be what is happening in the Gospel of Matthew.  The Jewish architects of the Christian message become worried about the rejection of the parent faith community and so they try to convert the "hold out" community members to the notion that the innovations of Gentile Christianity were compatible with the practices of the synagogue.

Aphorism of the Day, July 1, 2017

Holy means distinct, different and special.  The God of the Hebrew Scripture was holy and special among the "gods" of the heavenly counsel.  This "unique" God was understood in the development of Israel as a people who were trying to know themselves as unique and holy in their devotion to their Holy God.  They developed "purity rituals" to mark themselves as unique, special or distinguishable from those who worshiped other gods.  When the outer signs of uniqueness, separation and segregation become barriers to inclusion of "outsiders" then the religious paradigm places limits upon the growth of the community.  The Christian paradigm departed from the synagogue paradigm by giving up external markers of "Jewishness" in favor of compromise to Gentile cultural habits tolerated as compatible with devotion to Christ.  For the Gentile Christians, being "in the world but not of world," no longer meant being circumcised or observing dietary customs of Judaism.  Christianity erased the rituals of exterior markings of "holiness" with a proclamation of an inner Holy Spirit as the determining sign of inclusion in a faith community.  Still, Christianity has developed inclusion rituals to consolidate and inculcate members into community practices for community identity.  With the development of inclusion rituals, Christian practice became its own segregation in difference and distinction.  Overthrowing previous inclusion rituals did not exempt Christians from developing their own in new social contexts.