There are lots of interesting differences among the four Gospels. Here is an interesting one to contemplate. Click on the image for a readable version.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Friday, May 8, 2015
Clamoring to Concede Freedom of Religion
By clamoring for financial concessions and support (from federal, state, and local governments), thereby transferring
our responsibilities to others, we people of faith have slowly given up freedom
of religion in the United States of America. It started innocently enough when
we were overwhelmingly, at least nominally, Christian and when we almost all
agreed that Churches were important to the general welfare and the common good and
that every marriage of a man and a woman resulting in children who would be raised
and cared for by a full time mom and a wage-earning, grocery-buying,
mortgage-paying dad was a key building block of our society. We all pitched in
to make those things happen by granting financial concessions to churches and
their pastors with tax exemptions, housing allowances, etc., to married couples
by allowing them to pay lower taxes with joint tax returns and lots of
exemptions, and to all citizens by letting those who wished to do so take tax
deductions for gifts to their churches.
The so-called establishment clause in the US Constitution, "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof..." was not violated, but Congress made many laws
encouraging the establishment of religion and rewarding the free exercise
thereof. And that worked fairly well so long as we were overwhelmingly
religious and Christian and of pretty much one mind about what was good for the
USA. And the unfairness inherent in the facts that singles, couples without
children, and folks who didn’t give money to their churches had to pay higher
taxes to make up for the rest of us was not a major problem.
But then we became “diverse” and “multicultural,” and the
definition of “church” was broadened to include some things the old-fashioned
Christian church considered just plain wrong, and the concept of “non-profits,”
even profitable ones, getting tax advantages similar to those of churches
became popular. And people began to believe that it is unfair for only some “family”
configurations to get tax advantages. A fundamental truth is that when
concessions are offered by government, the citizens will clamor to receive
them. (Government governs best when focused on doing its job rather than on devising concessions-for-votes
programs.)
Even Christian charities, hospitals especially, began to
clamor for government grants and government insurance payments, all of which
came with strings attached, some of those strings requiring that some
Christians deny or abandon core beliefs or lose funding.
So, here is my suggestion. Let’s render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s
and unto God what is God’s and pay our own way without asking others to
shoulder the burden for us. Let’s pay property taxes on our property and fair
and flat income taxes on our incomes. Let’s fund our own charities with no
government involvement. Let’s eliminate financial motivation for following the
commandments of Christ and leave only the Holy Spirit as the prime mover. By so
doing, we can begin to regain the freedom of religion that we have lost. I
believe such a change would lead to bigger and more powerful Churches taking up
space in the world, proclaiming freely the Gospel, speaking freely on public
issues, paying their fair share for government provided services, asking for
nothing and giving everything, inspiring and attracting believers, and a lot
fewer storefront churches doing little other than paying utility bills, making mortgage payments, and supporting founding pastors
and their families.
We would have true separation of Church and State, most IRS
employees would take early retirement, politicians would quit spending their
time granting concessions for votes, freedom and faith would take giant
steps forward, and the clamoring would cease.
(Revised slightly May 10th, 2015)
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Richard John Neuhaus: Liberal Lutheran to Conservative Catholic
A new biography, Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square by Randy Boyagoda, does quadruple duty. It provides a well-researched and documented critical look at the life and work of Neuhaus, in the context of US history, including sociological trends, from the 1960’s through the early 2000’s, societal pressures on and changes in the role of the Church, or religion in general, in public life, and the continuing struggle over unresolved Reformation issues among and within Catholic and Protestant bodies. It is a great read.
Neuhaus (1936-2009) was raised the son of a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor in Canada, received the Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and served as pastor of Brooklyn’s low income, mostly minority, St. John the Evangelist Lutheran Church in the 1960’s. He preached and spoke in favor of social justice and civil rights and against the Vietnam War, and became well known as a liberal activist. As his liberal friends and associates moved leftward and more secular in the 1970’s, Neuhaus moved right and became a strong spokesman for conservative Judeo-Christian ethics and positions on public issues.
One of a diminishing minority of Lutherans who saw Lutheranism as a reform movement within the universal Catholic Church, Neuhaus gave up on Lutheran reform, was received into the Catholic Church in September, 1990, and was ordained a Catholic Priest a year later. Included in the biography are his eloquent explanations of the reasons for this change and for his shift to conservatism.
A prolific and powerful writer, Neuhaus is perhaps best known for The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, published in the mid 1980’s, and comprising a direct challenge to the emerging Political Correctness movement. Neuhaus later assured his own access to the Public Square through founding of First Things: America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life. The journal achieved a paid circulation of more than 30,000 and has continued after his passing.
The image of Neuhaus based on the biography and on his quotes therein is of a bigger-than-life, somewhat rude, impatient, and outspoken man who loved bourbon and cigars and didn't hesitate to consume even the cigars in a friend’s living room. However, watching him speak on one of the many YouTube videos available (example), he comes across as a loving pastor serving God and neighbor. Well, I suppose that too is a bigger-than-life image. You can download the book to your Kindle or iPad here.
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Published also on www.permanentfixes.com.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
My New Favorite Bible Verse
Just as anybody running for political office needs to have a
ready answer to the question, “What are you reading?” anybody spending time in
Christian circles needs to be able to reveal, just in case, his or her favorite
Bible verse. Being the energetic, works oriented, dirty hands kind of guy I am,
I have recently responded to the question with Ephesians 2:10: For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the
good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.
Never mind that there are 23,262 verses in the Old
Testament, 4,084 verses in the deuterocanonical books, and 7,958 verses in the
New Testament for a grand total of 35,304 verses in the Catholic Bible. And from
that massive inventory, I should choose a favorite?
Never mind the problem that division of Sacred Scripture
into chapters and verses, although a fairly recent development in the history
of Christianity, only seven hundred or so years ago, was done prior to much
advanced textual analysis which is of great value in discerning where the
logical divisions, the divisions we show in modern English with sentences and
paragraphs, most likely were intended and understood, by the ancient writers
and their readers and listeners, to be.
Never mind the fact that my choice may reflect some personal
bias just as selection of stories to report on the evening news may reflect
biases of the news organizations. I've never heard anybody claim it as a
favorite, but it has become common to hear Leviticus 20:13 quoted in support of
a political position. Exodus 31:14,
which prescribes a similar punishment for a different offense (death for
desecrating the Sabbath), just doesn't seem to carry the same level of
importance. And I have already confessed that my selection of Ephesians 2:10
reflected a personal bias in favor of action.
Never mind that a lot of verses are considered out of bounds
because they are difficult to understand. I had a pastor a few years ago who
liked to say that there are no throwaway words in Sacred Scripture. I believe
he is right, and, if that is true, there are certainly no throwaway verses in
Sacred Scripture. Still, following the example of Mark Twain who said he wasn't
bothered about scripture he didn't understand but just worried about the
things he did understand, we tend to read right over those verses that are
difficult to understand or to reconcile with our pre-conceived theologies. For
example, I have often failed to recognize such as, "Amen, amen, I say to
you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not
have life within you,” “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the
earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword,” and “Otherwise, what will
people accomplish by having themselves baptized for the dead? If the dead are
not raised at all, then why are they having themselves baptized for them?” We
will rarely hear any of these controversial words pulled from context and quoted
as favorites! Even Jesus lost followers when He made the flesh and blood claim.
And never mind the fact that context is essential to
understanding of the Bible and that picking individual verses out of context
can easily result in misleading interpretations and understandings. One reason
I am abandoning Ephesians 2:10 as a standalone favorite is that it ignores important
context. Immediately preceding it are Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it
is not from works, so no one may boast. That might be the favorite of a person
whose personal theological bias favors the “saved by grace don’t have to do
anything” position while my former choice seems to favor “works righteousness,”
the idea that we can work our way to eternal salvation. But these verses taken together, seem to
destroy both extreme positions. Apparently, grace and works are opposite sides
of the same coin. So, when I chose one as my favorite, I really should have
preserved some context and kept the two together. Or I could have chosen James
2:17: So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Here is another context issue. A popular verse and good
candidate for favoritism is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me.” (KJV) Those words, yanked out of context, are so
affirming that, in a popular culture that treasures affirmations, we may easily
forget that they are the words of St. Paul, a man who, when guilty of
persecuting the Body of Christ, had been struck blind on the road to Damascus,
“caught up to the third heaven,” and assigned the task, by Jesus, of taking the
Gospel to the Gentiles. He had followed that charge, suffering much along the
way, even some unidentified “thorn in the flesh” which, in spite of Paul
begging three times for relief, the Lord had not removed. I think it is safe to
say that I ignore context if I stretch the meaning of that verse to support
shooting par golf, picking a stock that becomes a “ten-bagger,” running an
eight minute mile at age 72, or remembering the Hebrew and Greek I worked so
hard for at the seminary. I clearly cannot do all things. As for context in this particular case, St.
Paul seems to have been thanking the Philippians for some support they had provided
him and telling them not to worry because God was giving him the strength, not
to eliminate, but to survive, even with suffering, whatever problems came his
way. I should have such faith and patience!
Still, in spite of all these issues that complicate favorite
verse selection, I don’t want to come across as a Grinch, saying I just don’t
have one, nor do I want to preach a crowd-clearing, sleep-inducing sermon such
as in these preceding paragraphs. I believe I have a new choice that is
consistent with Catholic teaching about Sacred Scripture, “All Sacred Scripture
is but one book, and this one book is Christ, because all divine Scripture
speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ.”
My new choice is a verse of worship and adoration of the
Triune God who has demonstrated his grace and mercy and steadfast love (That’s
a hint.) through Jesus Christ. It is all about God and does not contain any
first person pronouns. Its key words are repeated several times in slightly
different arrangements in Sacred Scripture, and it expresses a central theme
that runs throughout. And the proof of it is affirmed in Jesus’s “True Vine”
discourse: John 15:13 No one has greater
love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Psalm 145:8 seems to say it all: The LORD is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
That is my choice, and I’m sticking to it…at least until I
learn more.
By the way, here are the other expressions of the same idea:
- Exodus 34:6-7 The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
- Numbers 14:18 The LORD is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the fourth generation.'
- Nehemiah 9:17 But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them.
- Psalm 86:5 for you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
- Psalm 86:15 but you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
- Psalm 103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
- Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
- Joel 2:13 Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
- Jonah 4:2 for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.
And this from the Gospel of John about God’s demonstration
of His grace, mercy, and love: John 15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down
one's life for one's friends.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Seeing More Clearly, Thankfully
I know the photo is poorly focused, but this is what I was looking at this morning, just four days after left eye cataract surgery, before the 9 a.m. Mass at St. Peter's Catholic Church: beautiful, century old works of art depicting the Birth, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus. I snuck my iPhone out and hurriedly snapped the picture after marveling at how different the windows looked using only the newly repaired eye rather than both eyes. I thought of doing a blog post.
Left eye covered, the windows were beautiful. But, with right eye covered, the colors were markedly brighter, the whites especially whiter, allowing so much more light to enter. (I can only imagine how much better they might look to someone who didn't get his maternal grandfather's color blindness gene, passed along to him by his mother.) I have about six more weeks now for making such comparisons before the scheduled April 1 surgery on the right eye. After that, I may tend to forget how much improvement resulted, so I am writing this blog post at least partly as a permanent reminder.
What a wonderfully simple miracle cataract surgery is, performed in my case by an ophthalmologist who, sensing my nervousness about having him cut into my eye, assured me that they have the process down to a fine art and that he has done thousands. I said, IV needle already in my arm, "I am in your hands," and he replied with a big smile, "I pray that God is going to bless you through me." I relaxed.
Of course cataract surgery is nothing new. It was first documented more than 400 years before that horrific crucifixion of Christ depicted in the center window above. It was primitive, of course. The "surgeon" would wait until the cataract was hard and completely opaque and brittle and then strike the eye with sufficient force to break up the cataract, the pieces of which would remain in the eyeball but allow some light to enter, providing very limited and unfocused vision. You can read about it here. I'm guessing cataract surgery was not widely practiced until the process used today was invented in 1967 by Dr. Charles Kelman, his incredible story and obituary here.
Now, to borrow some words of Hank Williams, Jr., it seems to me that all my rowdy friends are having cataract surgery. I'm guessing that otherwise we would all be slowly going blind and that, in Bible times, blindness of varying degrees was probably as common in old age as skin cancers and forgetfulness are today. Forms of the word show up 47 times in the Gospels, most often in the Gospel of John which proclaims Jesus to be "The Light of the World," an effective cure for spiritual blindness, and which gives us the wonderful story, in Chapter 9, of the healing of the man born blind and the frustrations the Pharisees experienced trying to figure out how that happened and how to convict Jesus of sin for healing on the Sabbath. One of the most well known Bible verses today is the response of the healed man when questioned by the Pharisees: "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." That single chapter could be developed into a major motion picture, which would probably be a shame.
My cataracts are being caught early before significant reduction in vision, but I certainly look forward to and am thankful for the opportunity to stop the deterioration and to see more clearly. Lest I forget the blessing, I will go back and read this post once in a while.
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Here is a little better picture of the windows. St. Peter's has a process under way to publish a book of professional photos of the windows along with full descriptions and histories of each.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
The Bible Story vs. Bible Stories
Here is an update of a chart from an earlier post. It has not been simplified, and, to get a readable copy, it will be necessary to click on the chart. The reason for the update is preparation for a new Bible study group, and I always like to begin any subject with the view from 30,000 feet. This is an attempt to give a Christian view of Sacred Scripture, the Whole Bible Story, from maybe 50,000 feet...not much detail included. It is a demonstration of my commitment to the *Single Page Principle.
We will probably use this by just taking turns reading and discussing each of the verses, context included.
* My principle that all important ideas and concepts can, with enough work, be illustrated on a single page. It is an extension of Winston Churchill's position that if someone needed a long speech, he needed very little time to prepare but, if they wanted a short speech, he needed a lot of time.
We will probably use this by just taking turns reading and discussing each of the verses, context included.
* My principle that all important ideas and concepts can, with enough work, be illustrated on a single page. It is an extension of Winston Churchill's position that if someone needed a long speech, he needed very little time to prepare but, if they wanted a short speech, he needed a lot of time.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Jesus and the First Person Singular
In a Sunday morning class, we were watching a Fr. Robert
Barron video in which he talked about the modern tendency to trivialize Jesus
as a very smart and very nice guy with a good philosophy of life and lots of
interesting stories. The fact is, he said, that Jesus was an unusual and
disturbing person who challenged those around him and created a lot of
discomfort.
He mentioned the question Jesus asked of his disciples, “Who do the people say I am?” and suggested
that great teachers and spiritual leaders, Deepak Chopra, Buddha, Mohammed,
Confucius, for example would explain a way of thinking and living but would not
be concerned about who people thought they were. I could add Tony Robbins, Zig
Ziegler, T. D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dale Carnegie, and Norman
Vincent Peale to his list of folks who wanted or want to show us a different
way (some perhaps making a lot of money in the process) but don’t express
concern about who people think they are and don’t use a lot of first person
singular pronouns.
It made me think about the extensive use of the first person
singular by Jesus. Here are some examples:
"Come, follow me,"
Jesus said, "and I will make you
fishers of men." - Matthew 4:19
But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own
dead." - Matthew 8:22
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew
sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow
me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. - Matthew 9:9
"Everyone
therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my
Father in heaven.” - Matthew 10:32
Whoever loves father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and
follow me is not worthy of me. - Matthew
10:37-40
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” -Matthew
11:29
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me
scatters.” - Matthew 12:30
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take
up their cross and follow me.” - Matthew 16:24
“Whoever welcomes one
such child in my name welcomes me.” - Matthew 18:5
“For where two or three are gathered in my
name, I am there among them." - Matthew 18:20
Jesus said to him, "If
you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." - Matthew
19:21
“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." - Mark 1:1
Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Jesus said, "I am; and 'you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the
Power,' and 'coming with the clouds of heaven.'" - Mark 14:61-62
“Listen, I am casting
out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I
finish my work.” - Luke 13:32
"I am he
(Messiah), the one who is speaking to you." - John 4:26
"I am the bread
of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me
will never be thirsty.” - John 6:35
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows
me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life." - John
8:12
He said to them, "You
are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.”
- John 8:23
Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am." - John 8:58
“I am the gate.
Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find
pasture.” - John 10:9
"I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” - John 10:11
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow
me.” - John 10:27
"I am the
resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will
live” - John 11:25
Jesus said to him, "I
am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” - John 14:6
"If you love me,
you will keep my commandments.” – John 14:15
"I am the true
vine, and my Father is the vine grower.” – John 15:1
Christians read the words “I am,” the most fundamental first
person singular declaration, coming from Jesus, especially in John 8:58 above, as
hearkening back to the words of God when Moses encountered him in the burning
bush in Exodus 3 and, upon being challenged to step up and lead the Children of
Israel out of Egyptian bondage, asked God who he should say told him to do such
a foolish thing. God replied, "I AM
WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus
you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
Jesus was certainly loving in his encounters with many
people but doesn’t seem to have been a “Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild” as
suggested by a once popular hymn (based probably on Matthew 11:29 minus the “yoke”
issue) except perhaps in his dealings with children. With followers and
potential followers, he was confident and direct with such imperatives as, “…sin
no more,” “sell your possessions,” and “keep my commandments.” His teaching challenges us to focus our own use of the first person singular to statements
such as, “I believe,” “I confess,” “I pray,” “I forgive,” “I love,” and “I
will.”
We may be in danger of trivializing Jesus by asking a
subjective question such as “What would Jesus do?” Often what he did was heal people, cast out demons, or perform other miracles, make outrageous claims or demands on his followers, or tell wise and provocative
stories. Those are not things we do very well. It may be more helpful in our
spiritual journeys to first ask, “What did Jesus say?” and “What did Jesus do?” Then we can focus on what we
will say and do in response.
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