end of the world as we know it

or why tom wright, rem, john dominic crossan, and the international bible society are all in agreement:

all these folks agree, either in song or scholarly writing or on the covers of bibles that it is the end of the world as we know it. but do we feel fine?

visiting several congregations of the church in bellingham recently, i've been struck by the insistance we seem to have to continue the arguments that divided us either from each other or from the world, back when the arguments meant something. so the "orthodox" christians are still insisting on their orthodoxy as trinitarians, but in words which were meaningful to arians but which are mostly merely quaint to people struggling to understand and to experience the trinity today. the "reformed" christians are still arguing against a midaeval understanding of "the mass" as sacrifice which is certainly no longer held by the catholic church, and which is, i am convinced, again merely distracting to those who are sincerely seeking the real presence of christ in their lives but who aren't privy to courses in church history.

so, again and again, let us pray, "lord, have mercy." send us into the world in peace, and give us strength and courage to love and serve you in gladness and singleness of heart. and give us courage to behold the world for which you suffered and died, and speak to it with co-suffering love.

rocky barjonas

it is always a little surprising that the church in her wisdom (allright, i'm being sarcastic here: the church as old men in strange clothes' insecurity) has put so much more attention on peter's declaration that jesus is the messiah that on any of the earlier declarations, often coming from people with less dramatic evidence. remember anna and simeon in luke's gospel? or nathanael's somewhat ironic declaration in john's?

but this week's lectionery gospel (in the revised common lectionery used by most of the parts of the church that speak european languages these days) has what has come to be called "the confession of peter."

i found the discussion at sarah laughed rather insightful on peter's role in the whole process, especially as related to men who consider themselves powerful and who wear clothes proclaiming the same.

stranger in a strange language

"woe is me! for i am undone;" not only "because i am a man of unclean lips; and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips . . .," (isaiah 6:5)but because i am a man of often mis-understood lips in a land of misunderstanding.

i bring this up because some of those of us who gather nearly daily to pray the psalms have discovered what seems to us a wonderful translation of the psalms, the psalter according to the seventy, which others of us who gather nearly daily to pray the psalms find just a wee bitte too olde englishe to be understanded.

this microcosmic problem seems to be a reflection of part of what is going on in most of the north american and european church today. my initial reaction was not quite as crass as "get over it," but it was more just "get used to it"--not terribly pastoral. and i justify this attitude by my feeling that a lot of what passes for trying to accomodate to what we so glibly describe as "post-modern" or something is really our saying to people that they have just been dumbed down and we treat them like that, and not as the ikons of god we say we believe they are when we're speaking our sunday best. (my own ikon here is my wonderfully orthodox maternal grandmother, a wesleyan orthodox christian with an eighth-grade education and a very subtle understanding of the word of god as written in the authorized (kjv) translation.

so. given that there is a gap between easy public grasp of some of our words of art, how do we bridge that. it seems to me that in many ways those of us who grew up among the ruins of christiandom (i'm a baby boomer, remember) are the real ones at a disadvantage because it was assumed we understood all the words of the church, and we were a bit embarassed to ask. younger folks don't have to be embarassed.

but we do desperately need to be in conversatio.

dormition of the theotokos/assumption of the b.v.m.

today, the 15th of august, is a feast the recognition of which as church dogma by pius xii karl jung called the most important event in western religion since the reformation.

it is the celebration of mary's entering heaven. the church in the east and in the west have slightly different understandings of the event, but they share it's centrality to understanding the working out of the incarnation of the second person of the trinity, god the son.

some of us of a more protestant mind-set sometimes have troubles with such a feast, thinking it is about worshipping mary, or making her part of or another side of the holy trinity.

kevin bond at st. paul's episcopal parish preached a wonderfully comprehensive and evangelical sermon about the unique role of mary as the theotokos, the bearer of god, yesterday, in which he expressed very clearly the teaching of the orthodox church about the uniqueness of mary: it's about the nature of her son; and in which he also made clear the ways we are called to be like her, bearer's of the good news about her son; and in which he pointedly reminded us of her words at the beginning of his public ministry, recorded in john's account of the wedding at cana: "whatever he says, do."

readings for the feast:
morning prayer: psalms 113, 115; 1 samuel 2:1-1; john 2:1-10
evening prayer: psalm 45; jeremian 31:1-14; john 19:23-27
liturgy: Isaiah 61:10-11; psalm 34; galatians 4:4-7; luke 1:46-55

arrogance and inclusivity

An old friend of mine with whom i share membership in a study group posed a question that comes up often in different guises: how do we hold to our faith in Jesus as the Messiah and as our Lord without making non-believers feel left-out or belittled or somehow of less value? (Of course, i really do feel that they are left out of some of the most wonderful experiences, which makes for me the question more what do we as followers of Christ experience that others do not?)

But certainly in the present modern or post-modern international-traded world, where anyone with access to a computer can set himself up as some sort of spiritual guru (see, even i have two web sites!), this question becomes one we should be facing more frequently than ever.

How would you answer?