Do Clothes Make the Person?

22 Pentecost, A p26, November 5, 2017
Micah 3:5-12           Ps. 43
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13,17-20 Matt. 23:1-12
Lectionary Link
On Tuesday, I was greeting students coming to the preschool and the teachers and the children were all in Halloween costumes.  And a parent asked me, "Fr. Phil, where's your costume."  And I said, "I'm wearing it.  I'm dressed as an old priest."   And he replied, "Well, your costume is really authentic."

The oracle of Jesus in the early church's Gospel includes some comments about costume religion.  And that hits home to us Episcopalians since we like to use vestments in our liturgies.  We have a long tradition of liturgical haberdashery, especially in our High Church tradition.  We like color and ceremony; we like aesthetics.  But we need to remember that it is not clothes that makes the person, even though this might be a common cliché of culture or a quote of Mark Twain who said, "Clothes makes the man; naked people have little or no influence on society."

Clothes have meanings.  This is particularly evident with the clothes which we call uniforms.  Uniforms announce the occupation of the persons wearing them.  In a hospital, doctors and nurses have "uniforms."  Police and fire personnel have uniform.  Clothes make a certain kind of announcement about a person before we actually know the person.

Clothes make false announcements at certain times, like at Halloween.  Lots of little princesses, superheroes, policemen and firemen seen on Halloween.  It's fun to pretend and make a false showing of oneself.  It's fun to play and act and appear to be someone or something that we are not.

Jesus said that it is inauthentic to wear the outward signs of faith and religion when there is not an inward and authentic practice of religion.

In outward religion, along with the clothes of faith, there comes the institutional titles.  Rabbi, teacher, Reverend, Father, Pastor, Confessor,  Rector, Presbyter and Bishop.

The words of Jesus warn us about becoming too over-identified with the outward signs of religion and position.

His words are harsh.  He cries to us: Don't play at religion.  Don't wear the costumes of being religious unless we are doing the inner work of faith and religion in the transformation of our lives to manifest the true character and identity of the life of faith.

What is one of the best ways to have our truer selves revealed and be delivered from our over-identification with outward appearance?  It comes from those who know us apart from our outward identities.  How does the children of police and fire personnel know their parent?  They know them as mom or dad, not as officer or captain.  How do the children or spouse of priest know their parent or spouse?  Not as father or pastor but as mom or dad, or dear take out the trash.

When people don the uniforms of their professions, it is natural for them to expect a certain degree of respect for what the uniform represents.   At the same time, a person who is called to a profession knows that the love of doing one's calling is more important than getting any respect for doing what one is called and loves to do.

The words of Jesus cite religious people who had the appearance of religious office but who did not have the inner charism or the calling of the office.  They were like religious police who expected respect for the uniform even while they misused the power of the uniform.

The words of Jesus are exaggerated speech to provoke authentic living.  Jesus said, "don't call anyone your teacher or father or rabbi.  Call only God your Father and only have one teacher, the Messiah."

Some biblical literalists have used this passage to forbid the use of any religious titles at all.  Persons have told me it is wrong for people to call me Father Phil because of these words of Jesus.  But if one is crassly literal, one could by the same logic be forbidden to call one's own parents mom or dad, because we really only have our heavenly parent.

I believe the wisdom that is being taught by Jesus is the importance of uniting office and charism.  I can have the office of rector, priest, teacher but not have inward grace and charism of doing what priestly, leader teachers are supposed to do.  And it is a shame when people have titles of authority but do not have the inward grace of actual character in their calling.

A doctor can be brilliant but have really off-putting bedside manner; some doctors can really contradict their very healing arts with their lack of personal tact with the people whom they are called to heal.

For a Texan, this saying of Jesus is like the saying, "He's all hat and no cowboy!"

We can be seduced to live our lives as religious pretenders.  We can get the "certificates" of baptism, confirmation and ordination and still fail to get into the spiritual flow of the grace of God that we can access with authentic faith in our professions.

I don't believe that Jesus is against religious professions or any profession.  What Jesus wants is the authentic uniting of the inward grace of God's calling to complement the outward certificates of professional competencies.  We need both.

If we pretend in our profession of faith, we actually may still get public approval because we "look" the part for those who do not know what we are really like.

As harsh as the indictment as the words of Jesus seems, his words are really an invitation for us to connect the outer appearance of our lives of faith with the inward grace of the winsome performance of love and justice and kindness.  And isn't this what all want?  Don't we want to live with authentic connection between what people think that we do, with God's grace working in us to give us calling and love in what we do?

And what does it mean to know God as our heavenly parent?  And the Messiah as our instructor?  I think it means that we are less hung up on the outer trappings of our professions, and motivated by a sense of calling, love and service of others in what we do.  And we cannot fake this for ourselves.  We know when we are authentically connected with charisma and grace, because then we help others be and become their better selves too.

I was raised in a denomination where ministers did not have vestments.  I am now in a church which has vestments and titles.  I read the words of Jesus when we didn't have vestments.  I read the words of Jesus now when I wear vestments.  And clothes don't make the person.  Titles of respect and authority don't make the person.

What makes the person is the inward connection to God as our heavenly parent and to the Messiah, the Christ.  And if we live and work from our connection to God and to the Messiah, we can hope to unite the outer office and the inward charism of our lives so that we can winsomely present Jesus Christ to the people in our world.  Amen.

Sunday School, November 5, 2017 22 Pentecost, A proper 26

Sunday School, November 5, 2017   22 Pentecost/ All Saints’ Sunday,  A proper 26

Theme:

Being what we appear to be

At Halloween we wear lots of costumes

We look like other people.  We dress up as firemen and women, police men and women, ghosts, witches, cats, princesses and superheroes.

But we are not the person of our costume.

Halloween costumes are fun.  It is fun to act like we are someone else.

But in our lives, Jesus warned about acting like someone we’re not.  Jesus saw religious people dressed up in their religious clothing; he saw people in the clothes they put on to pray.  But religious clothing should not be like a Halloween costume.

If on the outside we look like people who pray and go to church, but the rest of the time we aren’t kind and loving, then we have a problem.  We are lying because we are saying that love God but in our heart and in our actions, we do not show this to be true.

If we say that we are Christians and we come to church and we look like we follow Jesus, then we also need to do what Jesus ask us to do, to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Jesus taught us that the way we show ourselves is also the way that we should be.  Jesus wants us to both present ourselves as Christians and to actually live as Christ wants us to live.

Sermon:

Text:

  What holiday did we just celebrate?  Halloween.  And on Halloween you get to wear costumes and some of you are wearing your costumes today. 

  Halloween is fun because it allows to pretend that we someone or something else.  And pretending is fun.  It allows us to exercise our imagination.

  But sometimes pretending does not work.

  What if I dressed up like a doctor tomorrow and I had a costume on for performing surgery.

  Should people come to me for surgery?

  What if I wear a fireman’s costume tomorrow?  Should people call me to put out a big fire?  Why, not?  I am not a fireman…I’m only pretending to be a fireman.

  It is fun to pretend but remember pretending is only a game.  If we wear a Spiderman costume, it does not mean that we can really jump off a building and create a web to keep us from hitting the ground.

  Today we have read a story about Jesus.

  Now Jesus loved children and I’m sure that he would play pretend games with them.  But he knew that there was a time to pretend and a time when you can’t pretend.

  Jesus saw some religious leaders who were pretending.  They were dressing up in their religious clothes, but they were not serving or helping people.  In fact, they were making people’s lives harder.

  Jesus was saying: Loving God and loving our neighbors is something that we cannot pretend about.

  Just because we wear the right religious costume, we cannot pretend to love God or our neighbor.

  Jesus said, “If we want to be leader, we are not a leader by putting on a costume, we are a leader by helping and serving people.”

  If I put on a police uniform, does that make me a police man?  No.  I have to take special training and I have to actually work as a police man and protect the safety of the community.  If I don’t do the job of protecting the community, I am not a police man.

  Let us have fun tomorrow with our costumes pretending that we are someone else.

  But let us not pretend about loving God and loving our neighbors.  Let us find ways to serve God and our neighbors.  Amen.

Family Eucharist for November 5, 2017

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 5, 2017: Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: The Lord is Present,

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

People:            And Blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  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: The Lord Is Present  (Renew!,  # 55)

The Lord is present in his sanctuary, let us praise the Lord.  The Lord is present in his people gathered here, let us praise the Lord.  Praise him, praise him!  Let us praise the Lord!  Praise him, praise him!  Let us praise Jesus!

The Lord is present in his sanctuary, let us sing to the Lord.  The Lord is present in his people gathered here, let us sing to the Lord.  Sing to him, sing to him!  Let us sing to the Lord!  Sing to him, sing to him, let us sing to Jesus?

The Lord is present in his sanctuary, let us love the Lord.  The Lord is present in his people gathered here, let us love the Lord.  Love him, love him, let us love the Lord!  Love him, love him, let us love Jesus.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  .Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Alleluia (chanted)

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 First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians

We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 107

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, * and his mercy endures for ever.

Let all those whom the LORD has redeemed proclaim * that he redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

He gathered them out of the lands; * from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

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 Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father-- the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted."

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. (chanted)

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.

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.

Offertory Music:  I’ve Got Peace Like A River  (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 122)

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.  I got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

I’ve got love like a river….

I’ve got joy like a river…

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 our 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 up 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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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.

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 Song: Let All Mortal Flesh, (Renew! # 229)

Let all mortal flesh keep silent and with fear and trembling stand.  Ponder nothing earthly minded for with blessing in his hand.  Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary as of old on earth he stood, Lord of lords in human vesture in the body and the blood, he will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way, as the Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day, that the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.

At his feet the six winged seraph, cherubim, with sleepless eye, veil their faces to the Presence, as with ceaseless voice they cry, “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Lord most High!”

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: If You’re Happy, (Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 124)

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know, then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.

……make a high five…

……make a low five….

……shout Amen!…

Dismissal:   

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

People:      Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, October 2017

Aphorism of the Day, October 31, 2017

Halloween has come to be have a rather mixed identity in America.  Among the "babies thrown out with the bath water" in the Reformation by many post-Reformation Christian churches was the logical corollary of the resurrection expressed as the Communion of Saints.  The Communion of Saints is the cloud of witnesses of the faithful departed through the mercies of Christ.  Believers in the resurrection treat those witnesses as though they still live on.  The growth of the Cult of Saints in the tradition of the church seemed to put devotion to the Virgin Mary and the saints in competition with devotion to Christ.  Why pray to Ever Blessed Mary and the saints when you can go to the Main Man, Jesus, Himself?  In the extreme reaction to the Cult of Saints, the triduum of All Hallows' Eve, All Hallows' Day and All Souls Day lost its liturgical role in many post-Reformation Churches.  So what did we get in America?  A day to party with spooks and witches and giving the kids a day to wear costumes and collect candies.  And many of the churches long detached from the traditions of All Saints' and All Souls' decided that all of the spooky stuff was Satanic and "non-Christian" and so they forbid participation in the Halloween fun, seemingly finding demons and demonic in such stuff.   Even though for the kids, it is mainly about the costumes and the candy and about the community ritual of secular fun.  Churches with the All Saints' continuous tradition need not be apologetic about the anthropologically sound tradition of venerating faithful departed persons, even heroic persons for their contribution to our lives.  For Christians who engage in resurrection logic, they believe those who have departed in the mercies of Christ live on, and if they live on, one can still talk to them without implying a competition in one's devotion to the Risen Christ.  People, All Hallows' Eve is an expression of Easter.  Please have fun but don't lose the connection.

Aphorism of the Day, October 30, 2017

On our way to All Hallows' Eve when for the kids, it's mostly about the costumes and candy, we might reflect about what is lost in how it has become a commercialized cultural tradition.  Common to all cultures is the reverence and respect for those who have died.  Christianity as a conquering religion came to many pre-Christian places and stated: Our veneration of ancestors is greater than yours, in fact your veneration is "ancestor worship" and is "sinful."  The "valid" veneration of one's ancestors was presented as the Communion of Saints and Souls and an articulation of a hierarchy of the "value" of the departed to the lives of the still alive.  The church got involved by grading saints through canonization and part of the grade was determined by intercessory events of the posthumous becoming "known" to the living.  There came to be designated "heroic" saints with recognition through official promulgation by the church.  In the liturgy of the church the lesser saints who are those local to you and me became the "souls" of All Souls Day.  So we do designate as "heroic" the saints and souls who contribute to our lives and many saints and souls attain legendary status because our dream-space is a liminal state of connecting with the invisible realm, and the normal natural laws of science do not pertain in dream-space.  Today's secular Halloween is filled with costumes of fantastic heroes and all of the kings, queens, princes and princesses of material from the imagination of human dream space.  We should not forget to unearth from the secular Halloween the human tradition of venerating people who visibly made a difference to this world and are absolute in their past existence even as they are invisible in their present existence.  We confess that we are all too human in wanting a continuing connection with the "telling" persons of universal and local and personal history who are gone to the realm of the invisible.

Aphorism of the Day, October 29, 2017

One could say that law in its most universal form is an expression of the very function of language, i.e., the assigning of value and behaviors of using word in the now vis a vis every other use of words to which one has access.  The essence of law is to establish value with defined purpose and in sacred scripture the law is to teach us to live toward our "better angels."  We achieve this by honoring the most inclusive Ego of all, God, the Great I AM.  Acknowledging our partial ego existence within the Community of the Great I AM provides us the connection with Higher Power to exert the kind of controls which allow us the gift of empathy, or the ability to co-exist in mutually beneficial ways with other egos living within the Great Ego I AM.  We live the life of law on a continuum of the most general to the most specific and when we get stuck on a particular cultural detailed expression of a law, one can absolutize or make an idol out of a temporally provincial application of the great law.  The solution is to draw back to the source of legal thinking which is expressed in the Summary: Love God, Love one's neighbor.  Love oneself.  From this general Summary one goes forth each day to make new applications in new situations, even as it often means the messiness of "the devil in details" compromise.  Living legally, from General Law to detail application can be done while honoring all of the rules of one's societies which are promulgated and practiced for the actuarial objectivity needed for successful community living.

Aphorism of the Day, October 28, 2017

We live in a "Christian world" where many Christians are divided by "having a common Savior and God" (apologies for altering the Shavian quote regarding the English and the Americans being divided by having a common language).  Historically, the divide has been expressed with some very "unChristlike" behaviors toward each other (and worse towards non-Christians), e.g. burning and torture of heretics, sacking each others cities, etc.  It could be that we have elevated truths to administrative idols whose venerations are enforced for community solidarity and so we-they communities exist.  Protestant-Catholic, Orthodox-Catholic, Baptist-Episcopalian.  Each communion or denomination for their own separate integrity have unwittingly idolized doctrinal markers that with many years of hermeneutic contortions have been legitimized in "Christ's name."  It could be that the actual wisdom teacher Jesus was in fact one who problematized all thinking regarding God and his own identity precisely to avoid the idolization of any doctrinal position.  He problematized the thinking in his day regarding the Messiah and the early church maintains a range of ideas to provide insights into the meaning of Jesus: Son of Man, Son of God, Suffering Servant, Anointed King or God's chosen one for a holy purpose, Vine, Door, Light, Lamb, Shepherd et al.  Any of these in a range of insights can be latched onto as a final doctrine or they can be seen as the method of problematizing idolatry regarding a "know it all mentality" regarding a very big and mysterious God.  The Jesus of the Gospel should be a warning to anyone that we don't know it all about him, God, or ourselves and the invitation to humility about all is the cure from any temptation to idolize a doctrine and make it a "security blanket" in the face of awesome mystery.

Aphorism of the Day, October 27, 2017

Sometimes we can live with preconceived interpretations of Jesus and his own thinking about Messiahship, as when he quotes a Psalm attributed to David, "The Lord says to my Lord."  "If David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?"  This rejoinder could be simply the wise response to problematize those who want simple and easy answers about something which has no simple and easy answers.  Jesus shows them the inconsistency of their own logic and it is a warning to us about having absolute precise understanding about anything including "revelation."  The denying naïve believe that "revelation" happens without personal interpretation within context, relative to whom ever is interpreting.  Interpretations can always be problematized because the very habit of coming to Language means it can and will be deconstructed through processes of language.  Revelation should be regarded as serendipitous moments of insights which motivate personal transformation and when people try to capture and codify revelation for standardized presentation, one finds something akin to trying to trap air in the bottle.  One only sees the bottle but not the air. 

Aphorism of the Day, October 26, 2017

How does one interpret the past to explain the present?  People interpret the past differently and thus their identity is constituted differently and they have a different mission based upon their interpretations.  This is precisely the case with the notion from Hebrew Scripture of Messiah.   When Christian expositors began with the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and his appearance as "Spirit event" in the lives of people, they interpreted these manifestations of Kingly power in the inner and spiritual realm.  In the visible realm, Jesus was not a king like David with an army to deliver the people of Israel from Roman tyranny.  For those who wanted a battling king and not a king of hearts, Jesus could not be a Messiah and such interpreters remained in the synagogue.  For those who followed a "Spirit-Risen Christ" winning hearts and invisibly converting Gentiles, Jesus was a candidate for fulfilling the Messiah of Hebrew Scriptures.  However they had to delay his more Davidic appearance to a "Second Coming" and they had to view his first coming more in the mode of the Suffering Servant as exemplified in his death on the Cross.

Aphorism of the Day, October 25, 2017

The New Testament tradition is a "creative" interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures and sometimes the authors of the New Testament rely on some sweeping generalizations, like David wrote all of the Psalms, (including the ones that were written in the Babylonian captivity many years after he lived?).  The oracle of Jesus in the Gospels also voices the same interpretive assumptions as other New Testament writers to show the portions of the Hebrew Scripture which would be templates for Jesus as the Messiah.  Oracle Jesus in Matthew quotes a Psalm: ‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?   It is assumed that this Psalm could not be David referring to himself, as in "God said to me, David," so "my Lord" had to be someone besides David.  However if the author of this Psalm was penning a honorific to his royal highness, David, it would have different referential meaning.  Most scholars today do not think David wrote all of the Psalms.

Aphorism of the Day, October 24, 2017

Law in its most general sense is the very use of language because language results in a string of signifiers, signifying other signifiers, hence assigning values.  When value is assigned law is evident since values create the hierarchies of living evident in human behaviors and speech.  Revelation represents an understanding that superlative values are given "from above" as a way of legitimizing them for community prescription.

Aphorism of the Day, October 23, 2017

We live in the midst of law as a global notion and law as context specific rules.  The Torah supposedly has 613 laws even as we reduce it to the Big Ten, or even further to the Summary.  Jesus, in Gospel sayings,  recounted the summary of the law as a corrective for those who made legal minutiae as social markers of acceptance by God, or religious society.  Legal minutiae highlights the importance of religious "legal" experts to micro-manage one's life to be designated as socially acceptable and also accepted by God.  The importance of rules should be that they teach us how to live in moral and ethical ways; not to enhance our membership in exclusive clubs.  The abbreviation of all of the laws into the summary of the law means that Jesus was highlighting the legal motive rather than the particular cultural rules of what was regarded to be of "good taste."  Love God, Love one's Neighbor.  Love oneself.  This is the heart of legal thinking.  It requires a sensitivity that inspires being in "good taste" or being appropriate to the situation too.  Each of us is breaking someone's rules all of the time but the motive of the laws, as expressed in the Summary,  moves us from the petty to the principle of the law from which we interpret and apply in ways appropriate to the situation.  Ethics is both principled and situational.  Ethics is absolute in the sense of the summary of the law but it is relative (related to the situation) in appropriate application from a heart of love of God, neighbor and self.

Aphorism of the Day, October 22, 2017

One of the sub-plots of the Gospel writings involve Jewish religious authorities trying to trap Jesus to say controversial and rebellious things about the Roman overlord, the Caesar, so that the Roman authorities would respond and "get rid" of Jesus as a too controversial rabbi for the religious authorities.  When the message got out that Jesus was a king, a messiah, it is seen as the last straw bringing his arrest.  The Roman authorities were responsible for the death of Jesus even if they had help from persons in religious parties of the Jews.  By the time the Gospels were written they indicate a rapprochement of the church with the Roman political situation since the churches were becoming increasing Gentile in membership and the synagogues were excommunicating followers of Jesus.  Hence the Gospels are rather more harsh on the Jews than the Romans.  This "harshness" on the Jews in the Gospel has been used for anti-Semitic actions in Christian history.  We should not generalize the antipathy of the Gospel contexts as being the rule for interfaith relationships today.

Aphorism of the Day, October 21, 2017

It is recorded that Moses saw the glory of God on Mount Sinai.  He did not see God's face (no one can look God in the eyes), but he was allow to see the "back" side of God as God passed by.  Everyone who used Roman currency were allowed to see the face of the Caesar stamped on the coins.  His image on the coins meant that he was the authority for collecting and spending tax monies.  We may not see God's face, but we are to find the image of God on and within each other as we honor the baptismal vow of respecting the dignity of all persons and seeking and serving Christ in all persons.  Honoring the image of God within ourselves as it has come to be manifested as the Risen Christ means truly honor our belonging to God.  We cannot see God but we can allow God and Christ to see through us.  We hope the collective seeing of God through us will help to heal our world.

Aphorism of the Day, October 20, 2017

The interlocutors of Jesus: "You show partiality to no one."  So what about taxes to the Caesar; isn't that showing partiality to the Caesar?  Come on, say something bad about the Caesar so we can get you on the record.  The dialogue is diagnostic regarding whether the message of the Gospel could co-exist with the Roman situation.  The reality is that it did.  Urbanization made the home churches important social clubs for newcomers to the cities.  The Roman situation of law and roads meant that there was a certain social stability and travel ability for the message of the Gospel to thrive and spread.  Rendering unto Caesar taxes could co-exist with everyone finding the image of God upon one's life as the Spirit of Christ was rising in many hearts.

Aphorism of the Day, October 19, 2017

In the biblical tradition, no one can see God and live.  It is a question of capacity.  The Contained can never comprehend the Container.  The partial can never be in equivalency with Whole to be able to say, "I see all."  When Moses was in God's presence to receive the law, he was allowed to see God's "back side."  How do we know God then?  We are told that God's "image" is upon human beings.  So anthropomorphism is established in the biblical tradition.  We cannot help but see God in humanity and have humanly seeing of the divine.  When Jesus spoke about the icon or image of Caesar on a coin, he was referring to fact that God's image was upon the Caesar even as Caesar paraded as the King of the World.  Caesar and everyone, always already bears the image of God upon them and even as humanity often poorly represents the image of God, humanity cannot escape the image of God being upon us.  So what do we do?  We nurture that image of God upon us by becoming made in the likeness of Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, October 18, 2017

The Caesars during the time of St. Paul employed the "cult" of Emperor tradition as the legitimization of their power.  They were designated as gods and sons of gods.  How did the Pauline promotion of the centrality and divinity of Jesus co-exist in such a context?  It was probably an advantage that the resurrected Jesus was not visible as a "threat" that could be seen and that the Christian movement was a "Spirit" unseen movement and was small enough to "fly under the radar."  One could say that Paul had strategies and tactics for the Christian Movement to survive and grow within the Roman context.  In the Epistle to the Romans, he obviously is writing against the debauched practices of the emperors, even while he does not tactically oppose the Roman emperors and their legal agents.  St. Paul encouraged the church to pray for the authorities because he saw the stealthy success of the Christian Spirit Movement in the lives of all kinds of Roman citizenry.  One might even imagine that the dispensing with ritual markers of the Christian religion in contrast with the ritual and public markers for Jews allowed the movement to grow because of "stealth."  Letters which had not yet become an "official" Bible was a tactic of communication and letters could be "secreted" from house church to house church under the radar of detection.  If the Roman genius was law, Paul understood that the conditions of living under law provided stable conditions for the growth of the movement.   Paul's tactic is instantiated in the oracle of Jesus in the Matthean situation of saying, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's."  An "oracle" saying of Jesus gave "origin" authority to what had become a Pauline tactic.


Aphorism of the Day, October 17, 2017

What about Jesus and taxes?  He said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's; give to God what is God."  Interlocutors were trying to trick Jesus to be "against" Caesar by opposing the Caesar's taxes.  If Jesus could be shown to be "against" Caesar, it would hasten his demise.  Caesar's image was on the coins; God's image is mysteriously within everyone.   Jesus said to tend to that mysterious image which is upon our lives.  People have found and nurtured the mysterious divine image on their lives within every possible political setting meaning that the kingdom of heaven is "within people" no matter what kind of politics is found in one's external setting.

Aphorism of the Day, October 16, 2017

Icon.  A sacred painting or "image."  The Septuagint translation of Genesis states that humans were created by God in the "image" or "icon" of God.  Jesus was given a coin with the "image" or "icon" of the Caesar on it.  Jesus said, "Give to the Caesar the things that have his "icon" stamped on them (let the Caesar have his taxes), but give to God the things that have God's "icon" stamped on them, i.e., all human beings including the Caesar.  Jesus understood a good biblical pun.

Aphorism of the Day, October 15, 2017

Many are called, but few are chosen.  This is the harsh elitism of the Gospel.  Jesus told a rather harsh parable about an angry unrequited king dealing with subjects who won't come to the wedding party of his son.  This same king removes with strong eternal punishment someone who is not dressed in proper wedding attire.  The Gospel writers were wondering textually why God is not universally winsome in the hearts of all people and the conclusion is God calls all but few come into the experience of being chosen.  This may seem to smack of too exclusive elitism and it could be that such elitism is not a public thing, it can only be known in the hidden recesses of one's inner life and that it is such a unique gift experienced in such a unique way resulting in such wonderful life transformation that one wishes that everyone could be chosen even as one knows that one cannot make it happen for anyone.  It is a gift that can arise in anyone's experience but the many who don't find it are distracted by the clutter of alternate things to revere instead of the divine life within.

Aphorism of the Day, October 14, 2017

The parable of the king who invites guests to feast presents God as an unrequited party giver.  But the parables are buried in human behaviors and human logic in that they trace how humanity has defined what it means to relate to God in the "prescribed" ways of the various faith settings.  People come to accept or reject God's invitations in various ways and they themselves within their community pre-define what it is to have faith to accept or reject God's invitation.  The Gospel parables are vignettes of the chaos of competing human judgments and one should accept the insight about the chaos of competing human judgments about the divine, even while one should not presume to know precisely as to whether there is a preferred or winning judgment.  Parables invite word participation within a language field to give one insights about the ambiguities of life to inform our imperfect actions even while resisting some algorithmic interpretation of what God really means or what Jesus really meant.  Fundamentalists have problems with the uncertainty in the precision of biblical interpretation so they try to set the certain and final and precise meanings.  While such certainty may provide what becomes the "objectivity" for community constitution, it involves a proud certainty which results in the "excommunication" of those who differ.

Aphorism of the Day, October 13, 2017

Casting a "wedding crasher" dressed in the wrong garb into outer darkness seems a bit extreme, as told in a parable of Jesus.  In a modern context imagine a football player showing up to play the game in a baseball uniform.  He would not be allowed to play and the owner, coach and team might be upset by the refusal to conform to the rules.  The hospitality of God must be embraced on God's term, namely, God provides the "uniform" of grace and forgiveness.  One should not offend God's hospitality with a "pride" of thinking one's own accomplishments demand God's grace.  Just take God's grace on God's own terms; it is adaptable enough to one's condition and one need not arrogate oneself to be more deserving of God's grace because of one's "pre-existing" conditions.

Aphorism of Day, October 12, 2017

Parable logic of Jesus:  A wedding guest wears the wrong vestments to the wedding and is cast into darkness.  The logic seems to use extreme human over-reaction to something trivial as an inciting exaggeration.  The parable forces listener to consider some of the extreme behaviors of human earthly power and invites listeners to understand how the kingdom of heaven is about a loving God who provides garments and the outer appearance of righteousness as a gift of one's entry to the always already divine party of the kingdom of heaven.  All are equal in the kingdom of heaven and given the garments of righteousness by the chief of the feast.

Aphorism of Day, October 11, 2017

The Parable logic of Jesus Christ.  A king set a wedding feast for his son.  He invites an A-list.  They refuse to come.  He punishes them.  King invites and compels others to come.  They come.  One does not have proper wedding attire.  King punishes the mis-dressed severely.  Therefore, few are chosen.  Are parables to be interpreted as one-to-one correspondence of an "angry vindictive God" or do the represent the harsh reality of coming to the event of being the few who come to enlightenment?  Why is it just a few?  Spiritual enlightenment does not come with group identification; it comes with context specificity in an individual's life.  When the few happens in myriad occasions it becomes the many.  Few is a metaphor for awareness of the kingdom happening only in the context specific individual life experience event.  The parable run counter to the status quo of group rate automatic salvation.  A person does not achieve health until he or she achieves it, one at a time.

Aphorism of the Day, October 10, 2017

A parable of Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a king to sends out a wedding invitation to his preferred A-list of guests for his son's wedding.  The invited guests have better things to do and the king as unrequited party giver is angry that they do not respond so he punishes them and invites those who weren't on the original A-list.  The early church analyzed the "market" appeal of the Gospel; why did some respond and others have a rather ho-hum view?  The answer was, "Many are called and few are chosen."  Certainly one could interpret this in light the antipathy between church and synagogue or it could be the few who are chosen represents the particular timing in the life of a person when spiritual awakening occurs.  People can go for a long time and not be aware but suddenly life circumstances present the opening for one to become a part of the "few."  One of the reason we continue to do "church" is so that people who have not yet become a part of the "few" will still find a community that has been faithful to nurture the experience of transforming enlightenment.  People resist enlightenment when it is always offered because their inner and outer lives have not come to the harmonic experience of the few.  It is easy to be "bored" with enlightenment when it has no appealing relevance within all of the other things that commands the time and devotion of one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, October 9, 2017

Sometimes the parables of Jesus include harsh language of punishment exacted by kings and landlords on "offenders."  The parables use the logic of human "eye for an eye" punishment.  We have the choice to believe that God thinks like human in God's judgment or whether we believe God in Christ reconciles all to God in loving one's enemies to the very end and the ends beyond the end of death.  It could be that "apocalyptic" Christians have more anthropomorphic views of God like those presented in Hebrew Scripture of an "oft" angry and interdicting and punishing God.  One sees this in the preachers who interpret specific hurricanes and natural disasters to be an angry God doing "smart" bombing of those whom the preacher is "opposing."  Such views present a very cruel God who does not "smart" bomb with natural disasters since the collateral damage of one's presumed "good guys" is also a reality of any disasters.  Unfortunately, this kind of "primary naiveté" in presuming to know divine motive and causal connection behind everything is the kind of false security that many who call themselves Christian hang on to. 

Aphorism of the Day, October 8, 2017

How less is more.  There are 613 commandments in Hebrew Scripture.  Historically, we've come to favor the 10 commandments or the further reduction to the "summary" of the law: Love God and love one's neighbor as oneself.  The 613 commandments included many items of ritual purity that St. Paul did not regard to be necessary to be practiced by Gentiles in order to be "written" into the contract of God's covenant with people.  So the reduction of the required rules meant that more people were let into the church that separated from the synagogues which required embracing more of the 613 commandments for "official" membership.

Aphorism of the Day, October 7, 2017

The phrase "Let go and let God," is found among 12-steppers in sobriety quest.  One of the secrets of accessing the sense of being aided by a Higher Power involves relinquishing the "ownership" of one's life, body, soul and spirit and allowing the Higher Power to "own" and thus become the source of regulatory control.  Finding the "Clean Heart of the Holy Spirit" below our desire is the secret to regulatory control of how desire is projected upon the objects which can easily become objects of adoration unto the idolatry which characterizes addiction.  St. Paul describes giving up the ownership of one's being as declaring the body to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  He states, "you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price."  Freedom from addictive behaviors starts with the profound stewardship insight that we and the entire world belongs to God.  Our prayers are efforts to be good stewards of our own desire and how we use desire to energize enjoyment of the good things in our world without being addicted to them.

Aphorism of the Day, October 6, 2017

"Possession is nine tenths of the Law" is a folk legal aphorism as is "God helps those who help themselves."  God as a seemingly "absent landlord" who does not seem to punish human tenants for "not paying" with one to one correspondence of punishment with each event of "failure to pay," is a "weak" God in the sense that God defers to the greater conditions of real freedom and those conditions allow the strong to "help themselves."  If only the strong help themselves as the prelude to a strength devoted to helping others who are not so strong to help themselves then "helping oneself" can honor the aphorism of Jesus, "to whom much is given, much is required."  We can ignore God's right to all because we don't fear a God who will intervene with context specific punishment.  Some have theories of specific karma in how our acts always "pay forward" in specific ways.  We should all fear the greatness of God as the greatness of real freedom into which we dip with our limited freedom to prove that God's love and justice are the greatest lures in the field of this great freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, October 5, 2017

The Gospel parable about the tenant who lives the notion of “possession is nine tenths of the law,” sums up the human dilemma.  It does seem like we can “own” things as our own and yet the purpose of the Gospel is to persuade us that we own thing in a better way for ourselves and for the benefit of the world if we acknowledge God’s ownership on whose behalf we serve as stewards.  By killing or denying God’s gentle reminding collectors we perpetuate the myth of our actual ownership of anything.  We are a small part of a Big System which owns us all.  So we should take good care of everyone and everything in the neighborhood of our influential sphere.

Aphorism of the Day, October 4, 2017

A dominant motive of the New Testament writings is the disappointment by writers about the members of the synagogue refusing to accept the religious innovation of Jesus being the Messiah.   The New Testament writers used the Hebrew Scriptures to support the innovation and interpreted the life of Jesus as a seamless continuity with Hebrew Scriptures.  When it came to actual division it could be said that the strategy of evangelism was the main disagreement: Christians believed that Gentiles were exempt from ritual purity practices which gave Jews their unique identity.  Christian did not believe that requiring the Gentile citizens of the Roman Empire to follow all of the ritual purity customs was possible.  They did not believe that Judaism limited in part to the practices of ritual purity could be a "universal" faith offering a welcoming inclusion to all in accessible ways.  While Christians proclaimed a spirituality which did not involve being conformed to the "image" of the world, the people of the synagogue believed that Christians did conform to the image of the Roman world by discontinuing the commitment to ritual purity customs.  St. Paul "spiritualized" the physical signs of ritual purity.  He said it was more important to have one's heart "circumcised" rather than undergoing actual circumcision as a "sign" that one's life was different in matters of faith practice than the practices of devotions to the gods and goddesses common to the people of the Roman Empire.  The parables of Jesus cite those who thought they held "exclusive" stewardship of God's blessing as "gatekeepers" who kept people out of God's kingdom.  The parables of Jesus indicate that those who were "last" to attain "favored" status in God's eyes were "first" in sharing an equality of inheritance as God's children.  How do we move on from being locked into the "temporal provincialism" of the New Testament so dominated by Christians who felt rejected by the synagogue community because of their messianic "innovation" regarding Jesus and the disagreement over customs of ritual purity?

Aphorism of the Day, October 3, 2017

One of the 10 Commandments is "Thou shalt not kill."  But it does not specifically say, "Thou shalt not prevent the killing of fellow Americans with guns."  So whatever is not specified is not strictly forbidden.  If one does kill with a gun, one can be prosecuted and punished.  America prides itself on pragmatism and actuarial wisdom in making preventive legislation and the insurance industry relies on actuarial statistical data to set rates and pay outs.  We accept safety legislation on seat belts, baby toys, baby cribs, cigarettes, furnaces and a myriad of other things.  But we (law-makers) don't write much safety legislation regarding what kinds of guns should be available to the general public.  We have been taught to accept our "Wild West" ethos of everyone's freedom to be a gun slinger carrying his gun into the proverbial saloon of American life.  Actuarial wisdom is obvious; if guns are ubiquitously accessible and have rapid firing capability, then the statistical probability of more death and injury is certain.  Is the gun issue a reflection of our having the largest military budget in the world?  Does being the most weaponized military in world express itself in the micro-situation of every citizen free to be a "one person militia" to claim second amendment privileges?  We are not really Constitutional literalists when it comes to the Second Amendment.  As long as we act on actuarial foolishness, we will not convert the American ethos regarding guns.


Aphorism of the Day, October 2, 2017

The actual separation of the Jesus Movement from Judaism is given theological justification in Paul's letter to the Roman Church.  Essentially, Paul wanted Judaism to confer blessing on the disregard for keeping the ritual purity requirements of Judaism to Gentile followers of Christ.  This was of course, unacceptable to the members of the synagogue who believe their very identity would be threaten by such allowances.  The Gospel literature present Jesus as the origin for this eventual separation from Judaism.  Jesus could have been interpreted as merely a reformer of Judaism but he came to be interpreted as a founder of a new "religion."   He became the "chief cornerstone" that the builders rejected.  Surely, this is not so cryptic observance of the destroyed Temple which had lost its cornerstone and Jesus became the figurative starting point for a new "building of people."

Aphorism of the Day, October 1, 2017

Kenosis is the "self emptying" of God to be known in human form.  This expresses the theology of the obvious, namely, that we legitimize adequacy in human experience the ways that we think the holy, extra-human reality of God is known to us.  It instantiates the obvious, namely, whatever is and can be known by human beings ultimately comes to language.  Even though language or word may be subsequent to God/ALL THAT IS, in actual practice having language is co-extensive with the knowledge of God or of anything.  We have to use language to confess that God and life exists before language.