Forgiveness... freedom.

“Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?”

— Kim Phúc, NPR in 2008 (a Vietnamese-Canadian best known as the child subject of a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. The iconic photo taken in Trang Bang by AP photographer Nick Ut shows her at about age nine running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.)

from Lowell

Let go and let God.
One day at a time.
First things first.
Live and let live.
Time takes time.
Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
Live life on life's terms.
You can't think your way into a new way of living... you have to live your way into a new way of thinking.
Your worth should never depend on another person's opinion.
Learn to listen and listen to learn.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
Feelings are not facts.
Progress, not perfection.
Keep it simple.
This too shall pass.
Easy does it.
Keep coming back.

From Lowell's blog...

Our duty is to respond humbly to what God has given us, and expect to see God's presence and grace in the unexpected circumstances and people.

S Y N C R E T I S M

"I see syncretism as a first step in moving beyond religion toward spiritual practice. Eventually we will realize that God is unknowable, so creed is untenable. What matters is how compassionate and just we are. Those religious ideas and practices that enhance our capacity for compassion and justice will become part of our lives, regardless of the religion from which they come. And to that I say, Amen."

-- Rabbi Rami Shapiro

...and this coming from a Jew? There is hope and it is good!

Summer Reflections

I have finished my reading assignments for the year: EfM Year 1.

I love to read Lowell Grisham's blog (see this page for a link). Today I read the following:

Rabbi Shapiro suggests that there are "three major phases of life." After we have spent some time, usually some considerable time, achieving some degree of financial success, most people find that pursuit unsatisfying, and shift into a second phase of accumulating -- this time "accumulating spiritual things the way you used to accumulate material ones. You 'collect' gurus, seminars, retreats, and mystical experiences in pursuit of the next spiritual high."

He says that this second phase of spiritual accumulation eventually "proves unsatisfying, and you enter the third phase -- divestment. You simplify your life externally and internally. You stop chasing gurus and focus on those few people who really matter to you. You stop shopping for enlightenment and make peace with not-knowing. You realize that life isn't a question to be answered or a problem to be solved but a gift to be enjoyed, both in solitude and with loving friends. The first two phases are hard work. The third is pure play."

I took a moment to look up this Rabbi Rami Shapiro and found:

"Organized religion is sane and not silly when read as myth and poetry rather than science and law. Religion speaks nonsense when taken literally, but reveals some of the deepest truths of humankind when understood mythically, poetically, and even allegorically—that is when it is read with an active and creative imagination."

Excellent stuff! I am now a follower if Rabbi Shapiro's blog.

Chapter 34 - Wisdom & Apocalyptic Literature

Wisdom Literature: common to many Near and Middle Eastern cultures.
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job

Apocalyptic Literature: Alexander the Great, Syria, great changes for Judah.

The mind of the wise may perceive wisdom, but wisdom herself issues only from YHWH.

Proverbs...
Ecclesiastes...
Job...

Job addresses the "good things happen to bad people and bad thing happen to good people" - Punishment and reward are beyond comprehension. We continue to wrestle with justice and obedience - ethics and religion are bound together. More than moralistic bookkeeping.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrates the temple - revolt. From Wikipedia, "What began in many respects as a civil war escalated when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenizing Jews in their conflict with the traditionalists. As the conflict escalated, Antiochus took the side of the Hellenizers by prohibiting the religious practices the traditionalists had rallied around. This may explain why the king, in a total departure from Seleucid practice in all other places and times, banned the traditional religion of a whole people"

Aristotle: supreme essence or "Being Itself" - which we might call "God" - but without name or specific cultus.

YHWH - anthropomorphic and constantly involved in the activities of humankind - obedience

Greek tolerance posed a great threat. It made the stubborn insistence of Judaism on the supremacy and jealousy of an old tribal deity look naive.

Pogrom - term dates from Czarist Russia but the practice dates from Antiochus Epiphanes (Epimanes).

Judas the "Maccabee" or "Maccabeus" - Chanukkah/Hanukkah - defeat of the Syrian force in Jerusalem and re-dedication of the temple.

Chasidism groups: quiet piety, interpretation of torah, apocalyptic writers.
Pharisees - expanded oral tradition of interpretation of the torah
Sadducees - literal interpretation

Apocalyptic - to uncover or to reveal - outgrowth of the wisdom tradition

The Book of Daniel: two parts - a series of six narratives (chapters one to six) and four apocalyptic visions (chapters seven to twelve).

The phrase 'son of man' is a primarily Semitic idiom that originated in Ancient Mesopotamia, used to denote humanity or self. The phrase is also used in Judaism and Christianity. The word used in the Greek, translated as Son of man is ἀνθρώπου, Anthropos. The Book of Daniel's use of the phrase son of man is different because it describes an event of eternal significance.[4] Parts of the text originally written in Aramaic, this portion of the volume deals with a vision attributed to the author about "the times of the end": Daniel 7:13-14 The expression occurs 82 times in the four Gospels, and is used only in the sayings of Jesus. It only occurs four times in other New Testament books.

Common theme: "the historical accuracy of the story has no bearing on its theological thrust."

During and after the Exile, under the influence of Babylonian and Persian systems of belief, a great change becomes noticeable in the angelic lore of the Jews. The more the monotheistic idea took hold of the people—permitting no being to interfere with the absolute supremacy of YHWH—the greater became the need of personifying the working forces of life, and of grouping them in ranks around the throne of God to form His royal court. His transcendent nature demanded a more definite system of heavenly functionaries attending Him and awaiting His commands. Gradually the celestial government was formed after the pattern of the earthly one, as it presented itself, imposing and well organized, at the Persian court. (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1521&letter=A interesting reading)

Eschatology - eschaton - last things

First clear statement of resurrection: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Successive world ages
One like a human being
Symbolism involving numbers and beasts
Supernaturally determined future
Woes of the time immediately preceding the end
Last judgment and resurrection
Developing angelology

The effect of the rise of apocalyptic on the formation of the NT can hardly be overstated.

Chapter 33 - The Psalter

One hundred and fifty psalms

Difficulty in dating individual psalms

Hymns of praise or laments

Often laments can turn into songs of praise

Divided into five books

Psalm 22: did the early Christians find this psalm fit the actual details of Jesus' death or was the story shaped by the details of the psalm.

Psalm 58: The psalm is not a "fight song" after which the participants go out and wreak vengeance themselves... (except in modern-day Israel when dealing with the Palestinians) Why can't we have the words of our faith in our hearts which we take into the world instead of leaving the words in holy books or in holy places? I look at what our nation and other nations have done - nations that consider themselves to be Christian or Jewish. Let's complain to God - give God all our grievances and then leave it at that - the vengeance, the punishment is God's; not ours.

Use of the psalms by early Christians... the early church.