Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Fr John Behr on St Athanasius' “On the Incarnation” talk 2

Excerpt:

“… through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He’s talking about creation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not the preincarnate Word who later becomes Jesus Christ. That’s mythology.

Just to put it in a very precise nutshell, just stop and think about this: we say repeatedly in our hymnography, “Jesus Christ was born outside of time from the Father, inside of time from the mother.”

… Does the first happen before the second? When people say “Yes,” I say, “How long before?” Was he born from the Father 5,000 years before he was born from the mother? 10,000 years? A million years? It doesn’t work like that! Eternity is timeless, not temporal.

What we want to do is make it quasi-temporal—“born from the Father and then later on did this.” In fact as soon as you do, you fall into Nestorianism. You’ve got a prosopon for the Word of God, a prosopon for Christ, and they’re distinct.

The way that Athanasius would do it: you’ve got the theological statement, “Jesus Christ IS God become man.” Fundamental confession: “Jesus Christ IS God become man.”

There’s a hierarchy in there, but is there a temporal narrative? Did he go from being God alone to being God Incarnate?

… No, Jesus Christ IS God, become man. There’s a logical priority to the “is” but not a temporal priority. “He IS” and this is what he has done: he’s become man. Epistemologically, it’s the other way around: “he became man. This is the one we know. And he’s the one we say IS the Word of God.

CLICK HERE for talk 1 

Edited by @creativeorthodoxy

Jessica Williams - Introducing our Resident Poet (Bio)

Editor's Note: Jessica Williams is the latest addition to our cadre of regular writers. We've asked her to introduce herself below.

Originally from Sacramento, California, I grew up tucked into a forest in Washington State with an Aunt and Uncle who thought they’d provide a home for me “until my mother was better.” As the days of waiting for that turned into years, I found myself stretched between these two places, holding out hope for a dream that I watched slowly disappear.

I write about the pain of my childhood a lot. I grew up in a loving but broken family full of addiction, abuse and abandonment. My parents spent most of my life in prison and neither overcame the grips of addiction before their recent deaths. I tell their story because it is also mine and because it is the primal learning ground for so much of my life.

I discovered God through a small country church that welcomed me into the family. The language of the church being a “family” and its members being my “brothers and sisters” filled a deep ache in my young heart. The church offered what I needed most: love and belonging.

This has (remarkably) remained true for me, even as I began to deconstruct, challenge and rethink the traditional/conservative beliefs I grew up on. That reality gives me hope for the church today and it is why I remain loyal, even as I persist in pursuing change. 

My deep devotion to the church and to see others receive this gift of love led me to go to Bible School and to enter missions at a young age. My husband and I spent the first 8 years of our marriage devoted to missionary work in Malawi, Africa. Our ideas and beliefs about this kind of work shifted through the years and we transitioned accordingly, moving from the mega-organization that trained and sent us there to a more grass-roots, locally founded and run NGO that focused on community development.

But, the real faith shift happened for me when I became a mother. When I became a mother my heart broke open. This was a love like no other and it changed everything. Long held beliefs no longer made sense to me. What kind of a loving God would eventually allow the eternal torment of his/her “children”? In my experience, once you allow yourself to start questioning such foundational teachings there is a domino effect. Other themes, such as the church’s ties to colonialism, the exclusion and oppression of minorities of all kinds, and white Christian supremacy became impossible to ignore in our context. After our third child was born we found ourselves not just confused by our place in that system but deeply unsettled by how we might be contributing to it. Though we’d always imagined we’d live elsewhere, we found ourselves moving back to my husband’s hometown – Winnipeg Manitoba.

Once resettled I let go of the idea of formal ministry and I trained as a doula – supporting women in childbirth. I have loved this work. Even so, my unsettled mind and heart would not relent and my theological questions persisted. I allowed those questions to take me on a journey and I’m so thankful that I did. Following that trail of questions eventually led me to the fine people at St. Stephen’s University, where I am currently a graduate student in their Masters of Ministry program. The teaching I’ve encountered here has felt like the theological treasure I’ve been searching for.

I write words and poetry as a way to understand this life, as a way to process pain, and as a way to express the faith I know and long for. I believe in Love and that we are loved completely but I am still discovering how this is true. I believe that everything and everyone belongs but I can see that we are not living in this reality just yet. I see myself as a student of this Love. I am just learning. My hope is that learning and focusing my attention on Love will ultimately lead to my becoming that Love in the world around me. If there is a goal, I think this is it.

The Middle Way of Erasmus - Brian Zahnd

The Middle Way of Erasmus
Brian Zahnd (originally posted at www.brianzahnd.com).

Ever since becoming familiar with the Renaissance theologian and Christian humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) some ten or twelve years ago, I have often wished that Erasmus could have won the day during the theological tumults of the 16th century. By which I mean, I wish that the Renaissance-era Church in the West could have experienced reform without the divorce and subsequent Protestant fragmentation. (Recently I wrote some thoughts on the Reformation in a piece I called “Beyond the Wittenberg Door.”)

This month Ron Dart published a collection of essays on Erasmus under the title Erasmus: Wild Bird. Ron Dart is a Canadian professor, scholar, and theologian with considerable expertise in Church History, Patristics, George Grant, and Thomas Merton. Dart has written 35 books and is an accomplished mountaineer. He’s also a personal friend and there are few people for whom I have as much respect as I do Ron Dart. He is an inspiring example of a wise and contemplative academic.

In his latest book Dart asks, “What would the Christian Church be like today if the guidance and wisdom of Erasmus in the early 16th century had been followed rather than the reactionary Protestant thinking of Luther or Calvin or the equally brittle response of the Roman Catholic stance at the Treaty of Trent?” Throughout this collection of essays Dart makes these points about Erasmus:

1. Erasmus was probably the finest Bible translator and exegete of the 16th century.

2. As one of the best Patristic scholars of his age, Erasmus embodied what might be described as “radical conservatism” — radical in that Erasmus was a prophetic voice calling for deep reformation (to the degree that the Catholic Church put Erasmus’ writings on the Index of Forbidden Books until the 20th century), but conservative in his respect for received tradition and in his commitment to preserving the unity of the church.

3. Erasmus would never have been so reactionary as to set spirituality against religion, as many are prone to do in our reactionary and secular age.

4. Erasmus was a trenchant critic of war and especially of Christians fighting one another in the name of the Prince of Peace. The early Anabaptists were enormously influenced by Erasmus.

5. Erasmus lived during a time when Islamic militancy was on the rise. Most Christians responded with their own reactionary, hawkish militancy. Erasmus, reminiscent of St. Francis of Assisi, advocated the Christlike way of peace.

6. Erasmus threaded together a more mature and nuanced mystical theology — a way that was contemplative while rooted in the Bible and Church Fathers.

I think you can see how a study of the life and work of Erasmus of Rotterdam could be extremely relevant for today. And Ron Dart’s Erasmus: Wild Bird is an excellent place to start.

Recently when I remarked to a friend how I wished that Erasmus could have won the day, my friend replied, “perhaps he will yet.” That beautiful thought gives me hope.

BZ

(The artwork is Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1523.)

Invite Them—Bring Them—Compel Them: The Escalating Compulsion of Grace. —Brad Jersak

Invite Them—Go Bring Them—Compel Them to Come

The Escalating Compulsion of Grace

Brad Jersak

 

The Parable of the Great Supper

¹⁵ Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

¹⁶ Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many,¹⁷ and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 

¹⁸ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ ²⁰ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 

²¹ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 

²² And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’²³ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”

Authentic Invitation, Free Response, Escalating Compulsion

Prior to and aside from the horrific notion that God pre-selects some to eternal life and others to everlasting damnation, historic Christianity held high God’s desire that everyone is invited and that all would freely respond to his grace.

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:7)

God’s invitation is authentically universal (“whoever desires”) and wholly uncoerced (“take freely”).   

With that firmly in mind, what are we to make of the Parable of the Great Banquet, where Jesus describes an escalating use of pressure in the invitation?

1. Group 1 – At first, the Man/Master (God) INVITES “many” to his banquet—he announces that “all things are now ready.” But the RSVPs are not coming in as hoped. Jesus labels these responses “excuses.” They are meant to sound absurd. Who takes out a mortgage on a property sight unseen or buys five oxen before test-driving them? And who gets married but doesn’t think the invitation includes their spouse as the “plus-one” to bring along? Jesus wants us to know this first group are not merely busy—their polite excuses communicate real rejection.

2. Group 2 – The second invitation is not to the general “many,” but to a second group: “the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind.” It sound like more than an invitation. There’s a greater urgency—“Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city.” And the Servant (singular, for God the Father is sending Christ himself) is to BRING Why is that? First, notice that these are impoverished people with disabilities who need someone to bring them. Willingness isn’t the issue—mobility is. And from where? Why are the poor and disabled in the streets and lanes? In the context of his culture, Jesus clues us in—these are likely lower-caste, infirmed beggars. In any case, something more than an invitation is required. Even if they willingly respond, they still need someone—a care-giver or Good Samaritan if you will—to pick them up and bring them in.
3. Group 3 – But even then, some place settings remain vacant. The Master tells the servant to go out further—beyond the lanes and city streets to the highways and hedges. But it’s more than geographic. The implication is that the Servant should go further out into the margins of society. The preachers and commentators of yesteryear saw in this third campaign a call to the “sinners”—those who never got invitations because they were excluded by sin—society’s dregs, the perverted and the treacherous. The social untouchables that the Gospels exemplified by “tax collectors and prostitutes.” And these, the Master says, must be COMPELLED.

CLICK HERE to Download the full PDF for "Invite—Go Bring—Compel to Come"

Foreword to Ron Dart's Erasmus: Wild Bird, by Wayne Northey

Foreword

This is, a trenchant, at times poignant, (in Ron Dart’s oft-used expression) “plough-to-soil” book.

In the early 1980s, as part of completing a Masters of Theological Studies degree at Regent College, University of British Columbia, I focussed my Church History studies on the pre-Constantinian Church, and on 16^th-century Anabaptism – much taken then by that Tradition. (As it turned out, Ron Dart was also doing a Masters Degree then at Regent – though we barely knew each other at the time. Ron has since become a dear friend.) I had first come across the Anabaptist Peace Tradition in January 1975 through John Howard Yoder’s classic book: The Politics of Jesus. That Yoder tragically betrayed that position profoundly through any number of sexual assaults against women is utterly devastating to his own theological peace witness (as clicking on the underlined will indicate – if you are reading a digital Kindle version – or online on his name cum sexual assault).

That the Anabaptists were not the lead peacemakers of the 16^th century is part of the burden of this book. Erasmus and the English Reformers were without doubt, as you will see in this volume, the lead writers and performers of Peace in that century. Even more: by the very participation of Anabaptists in breaking with the Roman Catholic Church, they engaged in what Ron Dart many times has written about – the sowing of the DNA of schism in the Church Politic. And schism has been one hallmark of the Protestant Reformation ever since.

In fact, “The Reformation” to refer to Protestantism’s inception in the 16^th century, in light of this volume, is a misnomer. Erasmus and the English Reformers were the leaders at that time in urging the Church towards reformation. “The Great Schism” is more apt, not “Reformation”, one that led to endless Church schisms ever since, and to our incredibly fragmented Western world in many respects…

I no longer these days read Yoder – and rarely Anabaptists/Mennonites – to better learn/try to practise Peace Theology. And I take a dim view of books like Palmer Becker’s recently published Anabaptist Essentials(Harrisonburg: Herald Press, 2017), which not only fails even to mention Erasmus and the English Reformers in his (for instance) woefully inadequate “overview” of Church History, it also sadly prattles on about the “uniqueness” of Anabaptism over against other Traditions, thereby indulging in part the same spirit of superiority tribalism encountered in the 16^thcentury – that hardly sounds “peacemaking”.

In so doing not only is Becker seriously out of touch, but contrary to ubiquitous claims otherwise and by him, Anabaptism proves to come up short even in its (for Becker et al. exclusionary) claim to be an historic Peace Church (like no other). For starters, as Ron/Erasmus points out, how can a “Peace Church” be simultaneously a “Schismatic Church” from the get-go?

In light of this volume’s discussing the “Radical Reformation” (Anabaptists), modern-day Anabaptists/Mennonites can do perhaps no better than pause and consider this gentle corrective to some of the self-congratulatory tone of past and current promoters of a sadly enduringly schismatic Tradition.

That said, the final Appendix book review of From Suffering to Solidarity: The Historic Seeds of Mennonite Interreligious, Interethnic, and International Peacebuilding, (Foreword by Marc Gopin, edited by Andrew Klager, Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2015), highlights “the best of the historic Anabaptist-Mennonite peacebuilding way”. And for that “way” at its best, one in which I participated many years through Mennonite Central Committee Canada, and now through a provincial arm, one can indeed be profoundly grateful.

So read, digest, learn, then ponder wistfully as Ron briefly does, just what kind of a Western world we might have had today, had Erasmus been broadly heeded conjointly with the English Reformers. And with that, we may further ponder where we all go from here on our continued peacemaking paths vis à vis the Church and the World.

In the end, as Ron often signs off on his missives: Amor vincit omnia: Love conquers all. Amen. Maranatha!

Wayne Northey, Agassiz British Columbia
December 14, 2017

CLICK here for Wayne's expanded article, including video, Ron's Introduction and an essay titled, "REFORMATION 500: ERASMUS, THE FILIOQUE CLAUSE, AND THE FATHERS: THE IRENIC QUEST FOR PATRISTIC UNITY"

"Can you imagine Jesus EVER saying ..." Richard Murray

Can you imagine Jesus EVER saying any of the following things?

I have inserted Jesus' name in brackets for effect:

"Thus saith the LORD [Jesus]... Slay both man and woman, infant and suckling."

- 1 Samuel 15:3

"Joshua destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD [Jesus] commanded."

- Joshua 10:40

"The LORD [Jesus] delivered them before us; and we destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones."

- Deuteronomy 2:33-34

"And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD [Jesus] commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.... Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him."

- Numbers 31:7, 17.

"The wind of the LORD [Jesus] shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and... Samaria shall become desolate... they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up."

- Hosea 13:15-16

"With thee will I [the LORD Jesus] break in pieces the young man and the maid."

- Jeremiah 51:22

I am convinced that people who demand a hyper-literal reading of the Old Testament have never actually read it (at least in its entirety). They just seem to blissfully (or conveniently) ignore the horrible implications of the above and below passages. The church fathers Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, John Cassian, and Augustine all thought it was akin to blasphemy to read these types of passages literally because of how horrendously they malign God's character.

To say that the following passages, in their LITERAL sense, accurately describe the words, attitudes, and actions of the God revealed by/in Jesus Christ is an abomination. Sadly, this abomination is what has created atheists, chilled children's hearts, and robbed Christianity of its coherence. Let's take a look at the unthinkable verses in the Old Testament. 

A poem for the fourth Sunday of Advent, A poem for Peace - Jessica Williams

 

A poem for the fourth Sunday of Advent, A poem for Peace.

 

Calm the voices \ quiet the sounds,

Christ is with us \ and Grace abounds.

 

Settle the sorrows \ still the soul,

Love is here \ and close to know.

 

Let it linger \ in the air,

God is coming \ low to care.

 

Revealing beauty \ declaring worth,

Love has come \ to all the Earth.

 

Like a mother\ bringing peace,

Love is mighty \ and will not cease.

 

Slowly teaching \ throughout all time,

The humble joy \ of Love divine.

 

As every child \ then and now,

Enthrones the Godhead \ again somehow.

"On the Incarnation" lecture 1 - Fr. John Behr at Orthodox School of Theology (U of T)

Things That Do Not Make for Peace - Jonathan Martin

This sign was right across from the Church of the Nativity. As usual, Bethlehem is ground zero for where the dragon makes war with the lamb, for hope & history to war with one another. As usual, tension in the air.
.
As usual, Palestinian Christians are getting screwed by, oh, everyone else. It’s Christmas time, yet tourists are too afraid to come to Bethlehem again. Everybody knew that President Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would de-stabilize the region, with no real strategic goal. Except—flex for the base. A war-mongering base that would rather usher in an apocalypse than prevent one in Jesus’ name. A base that doesn’t actually care about Israelis or Palestinians, despite their pro-Israel talk...because they’re all just pawns on an eschatological chess board. Knock them down, stand them up, who cares, so long as I get raptured?
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These are not the things that make for peace. Our reckless gestures send real shockwaves across the land where Abraham’s sons live in such fragile peace, many in pieces.
.
These are Abraham’s sons too, on the wrong side of apartheid. Still, throughout the ancient land, in places like Bethlehem, is a strong presence of those who worship the risen Christ. God is moving in Palestine. Yet they wonder year after year, why their brothers & sisters in the West uncritically support every move of one nation-state, & won’t even recognize they have Palestinian family who share in the body & blood of Christ?
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Yeah I hate your presumptuous charts & graphs & your hackneyed prophecy schemes-your apocalyptic fantasies at the cost of your sister’s dreams. It is not the way of the King or of the Kingdom, the certitude you grasp at the expense of their safety.
.
Bad eschatology kills. Made for TV prophets raise support for a war machine, when the Lamb has already won the war. If it is not for peace for both Isaraeli & Palestinian, Jew & Arab, Christian & Muslim, it is from hell, & back to hell it must go. Frivolous charlatans with your polyester Armageddon, who don’t know the difference between real people in the Middle East & figures on some flannel-graph! The King will yet make this right when he comes round.

"The hopes & fears of all the years" - Jonathan Martin

“The hopes & fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” 

In the grotto of the Church of the Nativity, at the spot where Mary is said to have laid Jesus in the manger.

I was last here in 2006, & my experiences could not have been more different. 11 years ago, I experienced the basilica as sheer sensory overload: the crowds felt too overwhelming, the competing souvenir shops too kitschy. Intellectually, I didn’t know what to think about the disputed historicity of any such holy sights.
.
This time, the world felt very different from the little town of Bethlehem. This year, all the tourists are staying away. This time I wasn’t overwhelmed by all the activity or surrounding religious kitsch. This time, my eyes flooded when I descended the steps into the grotto.
.
Look, I have no idea if this is the actual historical site of the manger. And in what is sure to be a disappointment to some, I could care less. I don’t believe that any evidence demands any particular verdict, I was not won over by “the case for Christ,” I don’t know about the historicity of much of anything.
.
I believe in the story of the Church. That’s what’s different between then & now, for me. I heard a story from witnesses I found trustworthy. I believed them, so I believe in him. I believe in his birth, & life, & resurrection, as a matter of faith.
.
Because I believe in the Church’s story, I believe in the pilgrims that have come here desperate to find the real estate where the glory touched the ground. I believe in the unkempt assortment of oddball pilgrims who came here chasing down some dream, hopeful, cynical & wild-eyed; sometimes only curious. I believe in them, so I believe in the pilgrimages they made.
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Inside that grotto, hundreds of thousands of people-young & old, rich & poor, disabled-have crawled into that little space full of dreams & disappointments, looking for God. Is that not enough to consecrate any space, to make any ground holy? Would the Christ child have to poop on this exact spot, for the Holy Spirit to be there? Doubting, dreaming, hoping, seething-misfits come over & over again. Has Christ been here, in the midst of so much human fragility & chaos?

Obviously.

 

Jonathan Martin: Author of How to Survive a Shipwreck & Prototype; founder of The Table. Not optimistic, but hopeful. Not unafraid, but unwilling to be silent. @jonathanmartin on twitter.

Trudeau, Israel and the Palestinians - Ron Dart

The fact this past week President Trump decided to move the American embassy to Jerusalem has, understandably so, raised intense reactions  within Israel, amongst the Palestinians and globally. The fact that Prime Minster Justin Trudeau has been rather mute on the issue does need to be noted. What are some of the reasons the reigning Liberal Party might be pro-Israeli and Zionist (in a subtler sense, perhaps, than the more religiously oriented Conservative Party)? There are 3 reasons I think that might explain such softness towards Israel by such liberals commonly known as Progressives Except Palestine (PEPs).

First, there has been a tendency within the Liberal Party since the days of Lester Pearson to support Israel. Pearson was on the UN Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) in the 1940s that brought the state of Israel into being. Pearson’s break with William Lyon McKenzie King on this issue (King was closer to the British position) set the stage for the Liberal Party to bend more towards the Jews and Israel than the plight of the Palestinians. There is now, in Israel, the Pearson Park that honours his contribution to formally establishing Israel via the UN as a state in 1948. Such a tale has been well told in David Bercuson’s Canada and the Birth of Israel: A Study in Canadian Foreign Policy (1985). Although Pearson is often hailed as Canada’s peacemaker, his track record is much different than the image Canadians hold high about him. The Palestinians certainly don’t nod in respect to Pearson in the same way as does the state of Israel. So, the Liberal Party since Pearson has a history of not substantively critiquing Israel.

Erasmus: Wild Bird - by Ron Dart

Professor Ron Dart (University of the Fraser Valley) shares 10 highlights from his book titled "Erasmus: Wild Bird," available on Amazon here @ $6.10 hardcopy / $2.99 on Kindle.  

Reading the Psalms Christianly: Apocalyptic Poetry and Resurrection Prophecies - Brad Jersak

Reading the Psalms Christianly

Apocalyptic Poetry and Resurrection Prophecies

Brad Jersak

 

Psalm 17 (18):4–19 (Orthodox Psalter)

For the end [telos], for the child of the Lord, David: what things he spake unto the Lord, even the words of this ode, in the day wherein the Lord delivered him out of the hands of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul; and he said:

⁴ The pangs of death surrounded me, and the torrents of iniquity sorely troubled me. ⁵ The pangs of hades encircled me, round about the snares of death have overtaken me. ⁶ And in mine affliction I called upon the Lord, and unto my God I cried; He heard my voice out of His holy temple, and my cry before Him shall enter into His ears.

⁷  And the earth shook and was made to tremble, and the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were shaken, because God was angry with them.

⁸ There went up smoke in His wrath, and fire from His countenance set all aflame; coals were kindled therefrom. ⁹ And He bowed the heavens and came down, and thick darkness was under His feet. ¹⁰ And He mounted upon cherubim and flew, He flew upon the wings of the winds. ¹¹ And He made darkness his hiding place, His tabernacle round about Him, dark water in the clouds of the air.

¹² From the far-shining radiance that was before Him there passed by clouds, hail and coals of fire. ¹³ And the Lord thundered out of heaven, and the Most High gave forth His voice. ¹⁴ And He sent forth His arrows, and scattered them; and lightnings were multiplied, and troubled them sorely. ¹⁵ And the well-springs of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were revealed at Thy rebuke, O Lord, at the on-breathing of the spirit of Thy wrath.

¹⁶ He sent from on high, and He took me; He received me out of many waters. ¹⁷ He will deliver me from mine enemies which are mighty and from them that hate me, for they are stronger than I. ¹⁸ They overtook me in the day of mine affliction, and the Lord became my firm support. ¹⁹ And He led me forth into a spacious place; He will deliver me, because He desired me.

How does one read the Psalms “Christianly”? Which is to say, how do the Psalms anticipate and inform their telos or fulfillment in Christ, and how do Christians read the Psalms as a Christian book of prayer.

Using Psalm 17 (LXX) from the Orthodox Psalter, two brief points are well worth noting. First, David models how Jewish apocalyptic imagery is descriptive of events rooted in this world. And second, we see how his near-death experiences transpose into resurrection prophecies.  

A Poem for the third Sunday of Advent. A Poem for Joy. Jessica Williams

A soft snow fell steady this week,

adding layer after layer of winter-white

over trees, and sidewalks and city streets.

 

Over all things left unsheltered.

 

A gentle blanket of warmth was given,

a covering of comfort and care

for anything left opened

and exposed.

 

I watched in wonder

at the capacity of Creation

to touch and to welcome everything

with Beauty and Love.

 

A soft snow fell steady this week,

like a blanket of glory descending…

on Everyone.

The Church Fathers on Death, Resurrection and the Four Elements — Andrew Klager

I’m always fascinated by what physical creation — or, as St. Gregory of Nyssa categorizes it, the sensible created realm — is trying to communicate to us and why it has the form, dimensions, spatiality, dynamics, and materials it has as opposed to other possible alternatives. Why are we limited by time and space, and why did God decide that these constraints should exist?

Many of the Church fathers and later Christian theologians took for granted the four elements that Empedocles identified as the fundamental components of the cosmos: earth, water, air, and fire. In St. John of Damascus’ ‘Philosophical Chapters,’ he writes, “In general, an element is that first thing from which something is made and to which it is ultimately reducible. In particular, however, an element is that of which a body is made and to which it is reducible — and such are fire, water, air, and earth.”[i] And St. Gregory Palamas tells us in the 14^th century that “the four elements out of which the world is fashioned balance one another equally, and that each of the elements has its own sphere, the size of which is proportionate to its density, as Aristotle also thinks.”[ii]

Although this relatively simplistic model has been supplanted by much more complex taxonomies in modern science, they still retain an observable foundational structure that — in the writings of many of the fathers — reveals an eternal truth that answers different questions than those that factual truths might satisfy. They help us contemplate the mysterious when science has dulled us to the mystery of the “natural” world through its materialistic explanations that, although helpful in many important ways, demystify the disturbing peculiarity of existence. The fathers help draw us back to this wonder.

A poem for the second week of Advent. A poem for Love. Jessica Williams

A poem for the second week of Advent. A poem for Love.

 

Last night I lit a candle

and watched it burn for Love

in the windowsill.

 

It burned

while sirens screamed

on Main Street in my town

–a violent sound.

 

It burned

while pastors prayed

for weak structures

to keep us safe

–from earthquakes.

 

It burned

while women wept

and reckoned with

the secrets that were kept.

 

It burned

while families seeking refuge

walked through wars

unceasing.

 

It burned

while hate was speaking

out its fear,

and grief was growing

ever near.

 

Last night I lit a candle

and watched it burn…

I watched it burn for Love

in the windowsill.

‘The Tao’ of Advent: FOLLOWING ‘THE WAY’ - Lane Walker

Advent 2017
‘The Tao’ of Advent
FOLLOWING ‘THE WAY’

Tao means The Way. It can be used to mean the “natural law”, or the WAY of right and wrong that everyone knows, more or less—not just Christians. It is basic truth that has been revealed to everybody, not just Christians. Christian theologians call it “general revelation” (see Romans 1-2).

Historically Christians believed that blind and tyrannical self-preservation, a constant pursuit of general self-happiness and a pervasive dread of self-misery is the result of people ignoring the Way (the “Tao”) basic truth and the virtues. Ignoring the basics of goodness and truth, or forgetting virtues like self-control, honesty, courage, wisdom, or respect for authority will lead to terrible events, such as Herod and the Magi, Friedrich Nietzsche and the Nazis, and our more recent examples of Rodney King and the L.A. riots.

Christians and noble pagans (Plato) also believed that living according to virtue and teaching appropriate responses to the “Tao” is basic to character formation and living as humans with integrity, whether in children, in Christians, or in anyone else, even pagans or Magi.

WHAT IS THE WAY?

The full practice of Advent is to remember and teach how one should live a life guided by, filled with, in harmony with: truth, beauty and justice. This three-ness (truth, beauty and justice) is really one whole, Tao or ‘Way’. This Way runs through all nature, including human nature.

Thomas Merton and George Grant: When Justice and Peace Embrace: North American Prophets - by Ron Dart

Introduction

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) is viewed by many as one of the most important Christian writers of the 20^th century. George Grant (1918-1988) is considered to be one of the most significant public intellectuals in Canada in the latter half of the 20^th century. Both Merton and Grant had an integrated vision of the faith journey that, judiciously so, threaded together a contemplative vision, life in the church and a prophetic and public commitment to the larger issues of peace and justice. 

There are those who elevate the notions of contemplation and spirituality to the point in which spirituality and religion become, almost, enemies—the former is idealized, the latter demonized. There are those who ignore the deeper demands of the contemplative life, bury themselves in multiple church and parish activities and never enter the quieter and slower moving depths of the faith journey—it’s a case of the Mary-Martha, Martha and Mary dilemma—which should be prioritized and why? contemplation or action, action or contemplation? Then, there are those who attempt, always imperfectly and inadequately so, to live the contemplative journey within the religious framework of the church. Such an approach often ignores the broader and more comprehensive reality of public life that touches such perennial issues of justice and peace:  economics, ecology, politics, social issues, militarism and culture are part of such realities. There are, of course, those who fragment the sacred and profane and reduce the issue of justice and peace, the hot button issues in the culture wars, to the secular realm—there are always tendencies, when this is done, to slip into the political ideology of the right, centre or left when defining, clarifying and acting on the larger and more significant issues of justice and peace. It should be noted at the outset that Merton and Grant had a highly integrated and holistic notion of peace and justice, hence to understand their thinking, such a perspective must be embraced.

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Ransoming hostages and posting bail get God's attention - Bob Ekblad

I have been closely following the European refugee crisis due in part to my regular teaching of mission courses in the UK and around the world. Two years ago I visited the refugee camps in Calais, France, where I met refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran and many other countries (see update) who were seeking entry into the UK.

Months before visiting Calais I had run into Ismahan, a friend from Ethiopia living in Paris. She had visited us at Tierra Nueva back in 2009 before moving to France. It was then that I connected her to a church in Paris where we have close ties. When I saw her I told her about my plans to visit Calais and asked if she had any contact with East African refugees in France.

Ismahan became distressed and told me that her 15-year-old brother was being held captive in Libya and was in grave danger of being killed. She shared how her brother had paid a trafficker to bring him from Ethiopia to Europe. In Libya he’d been captured by pirates, who were demanding $12,000 ransom. She asked if I would accompany her to a part of Paris where there were lots of refugees. She hoped to find someone who might know how to effectively get ransom money to the traffickers to secure her brother’s release.