Following up a comment to phoenix5807's site, regarding the evolution of an "ism" from a philosopher's pov:

"The real essence of the subersion is indicated by the very term 'Christianity', which give to the matter the force of an 'ism'.  A word ending in 'ism' denotes an ideological or doctrinal trend deriving from a philosophy.  Thus we have positivism, socialism, republicanism, spiritualism, idealism, materialism, etc.  None of these words, however, denotes the philosophy itself.  In fact, it might be directly opposed to it.  Marx and Kierkegaard both tried to prevent their thinking from being reduced to an ideological mechanism.  But  they could not stop their successors from freezing their living thought into one (or many) systems, and in this way an ideology arose.  Even Sartre accepts the term existentialism without seeing how it perverts what he is saying.  The moment the mutation takes place from existential thinking to existentialism, a living stream is transformed into a more or less regulated and stagnant irrigation channel, and as the thought moves further and further away from the source it becomes banal and familiar."    Jacques Ellul  The Subversion of Christianity  (emphases mine)

this can go a long way towards explaining why/how we as students can get caught up in the original thoughts of a philosopher/teacher only to become appalled and disillusioned by the praxis of the adherents... it points towards the dilution of modern Christendom compared to the teachings of Christ...

i had my first ever massage today... completely, unbelievably relaxing... feet/legs/back/arms/shoulders/neck.... at the conclusion, when i walked downstairs to pay, my g/fs said i looked completely stoned... which is how i felt... even driving home in nj traffic w/ nj drivers in competition could not shake me... too bad it is so expensive - i could so get used to this! it is better than...italian food!

when my massage therapist, jewel, found out i was hoping to go to seminary this fall, she shared that she was going to be going to Philadelphia Bible University... so while she healed my body, we talked about healing souls... so all of me ended up refreshed... God puts ppl in the oddest places for me to find...

tomorrow, after St. Peter's, my cuz, Barb, and i will be going to Central Park to see The Gates... i was supposed to meet someone else there, but money issues for them as well... $$ bites like monkeys...

I gave my first sermon at St. Peter's this past Sunday, 2/13.... this is the basic bones of the sermon, but since I don't read from the notes or even refer to them during the sermon, the delivery was much more informal... v. different but the same.... lol

a couple from my first parish, Holy Cross, came...a couple from beacon (bethany and ryan) as well... craig and helena from group (v. cool since they are Jewish)... and of course donathan and my m.i.l.... bethany so could not believe i said "sex" in church, lmao... and i asked craig how he and helena would feel about me saying YHWH during the sermon, but they were ok with it - craig was surprised that i would even ask him becz he wouldn't expect anyone to change their religion for him, but i told him i would never be religiously imperialistic again...

so here it is - hope you like - but regardless, lmk, ok?

Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17, 25-3:9

Psalm 51

Romans 5:12-21

Matthew 4:1-11

To understand the importance of the Genesis text, we need to come to an understanding of the nature of the sin committed by the first man and woman...if, as (the passage from) Romans tells us, all sin came into the world from this act, it becomes imperative to understand this sin - what was so heinous that God's only reaction could be the eviction of humanity from paradise? from the very presence of the living God, for the story plainly indicates God dwelled there also? and why would God care so much?

first, to give us a hint as to the “why”, there is the interesting construction of the name for God. in the first creation story found in Genesis, chap 1, the name “God” is Elohim, which is a formal term, and suited for the telling of a tale of cosmic scope.  however, this passage uses Elohim combined with the true name of God, Yahweh, as in LORD God.  this true name of God is found wherever and whenever the covenant between God and israel is invoked, so the writer appears to be intentionally linking the God of covenant, Yahweh, with the God of creation, Elohim - quite appropriate for this more intimate tale of the creation of God's people. this also points to why God would care about the sin of these first humans - God is making a covenant with them, a sacred pact, which they are to break...

next, the “what” -- the act that is forbidden is to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  there is quite a lot of discussion about the nature of this tree, and why knowledge and the pursuit of it would anger God.  Scholars throughout the years have formulated five basic theses:

1. the fruit imparted actual knowledge about good and evil > this is inadequate.  The tree of life offered immortality, a province reserved for God, for divinity.  The implication, therefore, is that a similar restriction, a reservation to God, applied to the knowledge of good and evil, which doesn’t stand up and has little/no scriptural support.


2. the fruit imparted moral discernment > it is absurd to assume that humanity acquired this faculty only after eating the fruit, especially since an ability to discern  between good and evil, right and wrong, is implicit in God’s warning not to eat the fruit.


3. the fruit imparted sexual knowledge > there is no hint anywhere in Scripture that sex is wrong for humanity or that it is reserved for God, quite the opposite.


4. the fruit imparted omniscience > at first glance this is logical, since good and evil make up the whole, like heaven and earth, except that Adam and Eve did not gain omniscience as a result of consuming the fruit, only shame and a recognition of their nakedness.


5. the fruit imparted wisdom > although wisdom is seen as one of the highest pursuits humanity can attain, wisdom literature (such as Job & Proverbs) makes it clear that there is a wisdom that is God’s sole preserve, which one should NOT aspire to attain.  To pursue this knowledge without reference to revelation is to assert human autonomy…to neglect the fear of the LORD, which, according to Prov 1:7, is the beginning of knowledge, by deciding what is right without reference to God’s will would be a terrible sin indeed.  It would be the rejection of God, Godself, and the punishment could only be the separation of Creator from creation. And so the primordial couple is cast from Eden.

If the OT reading points us to the “why” and the “what” of our condemnation, Psalm 51 gives us hope that the LORD will reconcile us in the end.  While acknowledging that it is in acts of rebellion and waywardness that we have sinned, the psalmist asks God to cleanse and restore us, to return us to God’s presence and to restore the joy of salvation.  If we only agree to return from our willful ways and restore wisdom to its rightful place, allowing the will of God to decide right actions, then we will be welcomed since “a broken and contrite heart, o God, you will not despise.” 

But how is this hope to be realized?  If the first sin was so heinous that it forever drove a wedge between Creator and creation, how can this rift be healed?  Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans how Yahweh tried to rejoin with God’s people by making covenant with them during the time of Moses and the Exodus, but the people had hard hearts, and never truly succeeded in keeping the Law of the Lord. So, God broke through into human history once and for all by becoming incarnate within Mary, Theotokos (qeotokos) the God-bearer, who bore Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.  By this one act God brought God’s kingdom directly into our world, and by Jesus dying on the cross, brought salvation and reconciliation into God’s creation. Even though the single sin of Adam and Eve brought the death of separation from God to all creation, the single reconciling act of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross covered all the many acts of wanton rebellion, cruelty, and sin perpetrated before and after that sacrifice.  It is this gift of God, of God’s Son, that is powerful and righteous enough to compensate for all of the evils that plague God’s good creation.    The kingdom of heaven is at hand – Shalom is here, we just must work towards its realization.  

How does one work with God to bring about this reconciliation, this kingdom of heaven on earth, this Shalom?  By every little act that we do or don’t do.  During his sojourn in the wilderness, Jesus recognizes that more is at stake than simply succumbing to temptation.  Jesus is rewriting the paradigm of Exodus – whereas Moses and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years and ultimately succumbed to temptations and fell away from Yahweh, Jesus is called to exemplify obedience to the will of Elohim Yahweh under the pressure of severe testing and at the cost of self-denial.  The goal of obedience to God is accomplished, not by triumphal self-assertion (the sin of autonomy committed by Adam and Eve), not by exercise of power and authority, but by the way of suffering, service, and humility.  We as God’s people are called to self-sacrifice, for it is in taking care of others that we can reconcile them to each other and ultimately to God.  We are called to humility, for we realize that all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God.  Obedience to the will of the Almighty alone is the measure of true discipleship, and it is God’s will that all should ultimately be reconciled – all creation within itself and to its Creator.  We can only accomplish this by relying on the example and help of Jesus – only Jesus succeeded, so he must be our guide.

Homework assignment: to go out into the world with eyes open to opportunities to bring about Shalom.  We all have within us a propensity to sin, but it has been overcome by the atonement made once and for all by Jesus Christ.  Therefore we need to refocus our attention from what is wrong within us to what is right about God’s good creation.  All around us are people needing healing, needing a friend or a helping hand.  As we respond to the needs of other folk, we help them to see the face of Jesus in us, and thus we become God’s hands in the world.  We need to bring the love of God to the world, to help reconcile all of the world to itself, and finally to God.  Only then will we know real peace, true Shalom.

  i have been thinking about the concept of presence that Eckhart finds so essential... it seems to me that, since he defines 'being present' as being in contact with your ontological (fundamental) self, with Being, and since he equates Being with my concept of God (without gender, completely outside time, yet indwelling with all humanity), then Eckhart is in essence saying that truly being present is being in commune/contact with Being (God)... this means being truly present would put one smack dab in the center of God's kingdom here on earth... which would definitely give us the grace, space, and power to promote Shalom for all species of being. this in turn implies our active participation with God to actually realize God's vision of reconciliation (Shalom) to all beings and between all beings on earth.

 so, if being present means union and participation with God, and if this could be seen as a sort of heaven on earth, what would the opposite look like?  i think Jean-Paul Sartre gave us a pretty good pic in his classic play, "Huis Clos" (No Exit, in English i believe)... here we have 3 ppl, completely at odds in sexuality and in temperament and in world view, who have died and are stuck in a room with... no exit.  they cannot sleep or even close their eyes (their eyelids have atrophied), and while they are completely aware of what goes on in their former lives as well as what goes on within the room they share, they can do nothing (make no decisions) to affect or change their sitch in any way... these ppl are all v. self-oriented, and completely out of touch (Eckhart would say 'unconscious') with any real feelings, even for themselves.  nothing can change, so everything stays the same, contrasted to the lives of their former world, where ppl make choices and move onward... sort of like "Groundhog Day" on acid - a true hell...

  today is donathan's b'day... i get younger every time he has one since the day before his b'day i am four years older, but the next day i am only three years older... so i offered to pamper him and indulge him in whatever way his heart desired > he worked three hours of overtime, and then wanted to watch MXC (which is ok, but not quite what i had in mind) and after dinner he claimed his indulgence, so i..... updated and "typed" his resumé... i wonder if i will end up doing cover letters for him on valentine's day?  oh well, sometimes u just gotta say "wtf"...

 my boss hired her sister back to 'help' me with special projects becz i am behind... so her first project was to be trained by me which put me two hours behind... maybe i am missing something here?  the only good thing is that if i can get her up to speed, and if i get accepted to seminary in the fall, and if i can get loans to pay for it, she can take my job and i won't feel guilty about leaving my bosses hi and dri...

a v. close friend told me a wonderful joke [well, wonderful for us (theological) geeky types anyway]>  two ppl were attending a lecture by a prominent German scholar, and after the scholar had gone on for about half an hour, they realized they were bored rigid, so one turned to the other and said "well, i think i've had it - let's leave" and the other replied, "ok, i agree, but lets at least wait until he reaches the verb"... (rim shot)

 "...perhaps the sexes are more related than we think, and the great renewal of the world will perhaps consist in this - that man and maid, freed of all false feelings and reluctances, will seek each other not as opposites but as brother and sister, as neighbors, and will come together as human beings, in order simply, seriously, and patiently to bear in common the difficult sex that is laid upon them... "

"Because he loves as a man only, not as human being, for this reason there is in his sexual feeling something narrow, seeming wild, spiteful, time-bound, uneternal...This advance will change the love experience...alter it from the ground up, reshape it into a relation that is meant to be of one human being to another, no longer of man to woman..."

"And this more human love (that will fullfil itself, infinitely considerate and gentle, and kind and clear in binding and releasing) will resemble that which we are preparing with struggle and toil, the love that consists in this, that two solitudes protect and border and salute each other."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Eckhart Tolle has been talking about worrying and waiting: “You are identified with your mind, which is projecting itself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear.  There is no way you can cope with such a situation, because it doesn’t count… All that you ever have to deal with, to cope with, in real life – as opposed to imaginary mind projections – is this moment… What is wrong with this moment?  You can always cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future – nor should you have to.  The answer, the strength, the right action or the resource will be there when you need it, not before, not after…Is your goal taking up so much of your attention that you reduce the present moment to a means to an end?… Are you waiting to start living?…”(p 85)  >You will never be ‘x’ enough, so you might as well do it now!< 

“Waiting is a state of mind. Basically it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present… You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life.  Life is primary.  Life is your deepest inner Being.  It is already whole, complete, perfect.”  >Shalom is present within – God’s reconciliation just waits to be claimed.<  “The mistake lies in using [goals] as a substitute for the feeling of life, for Being.  The only point of access for that is the Now… When you fully accept what you have got, you are grateful for what you have got, grateful for what is, grateful for Being…” (p 86) >It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got – Sheryl Crow<  “So give up waiting as a state of mind.  When you catch yourself slipping into waiting – snap out of it.  Come into the present moment.  Just be and enjoy being…” (p 87)

In Perth Amboy this morning, and crossing Water Street, I enter the parking lot of the Raritan Yacht Club, where I decide to sit for a while on a bench.  Stretching out into the water to my left is a fishing pier, the locked gate at the land end tells of it being private property; across the Kill from the pier is Staten Island.  The sun is not very high yet, and silvers the water rippling in from the bay – if I shade my eyes I can see the Atlantic Highlands along the horizon.  The only other people are an ambulance crew taking a break in the parking lot behind me.  They barely make my radar until they start feeding a pigeon, which draws flocks of screaming gulls.

More to avoid guano than anything else, I begin to walk south.  Once I pass the Yacht Club itself, there are no more people, and soon the sound of sanders against fiberglass hulls fades away.  Looking out over the water I see a mix of fresh water ducks, Canada geese, cormorants (aka concubines…), a few brown gulls, but mostly I see the smaller, gray gulls.  Peace steals over me, and all is so still that when a flock of sparrows flies overhead, I can hear their feathers in flight.  I have become conscious of the sun, warm on my face, and the slight wind as well, coming from the land.  Smells of salt water mixed with fresh…the sounds of wind and wave against the shore…the cries of gulls…the cawing of crows from the city behind me… (I have always loved the calls of crows, and the years that West Nile Virus decimated their populations stand out as the most silent summers I remember.)

As I walk, I feel my legs move, swinging freely from my hips, and I try to make as little sound as I can.  My breath, contrary to the labored asthma of the night, moves easily in and out.  I am aware of the sense of God, of Being, that is present in the trees and the grass, the snow, and even the gulls lined up on the railing.  Trying to move while remaining in the Now, and staying connected to the deep feeling of Shalom, I notice that even the gulls that are within touching distance do not move, although they push off in screaming flight when another walker goes by… Did you know that, while ducks just dip their heads below the waterline to feed, tipping their butts to the sky, seagulls leap into the air about a foot, then dive directly into the water to get their food?

A friend revealed to me that they were not 100% sure/comfortable about the practice of Paedopatism... so this post is for her...excerpted from a paper, so pls excuse any (in this case inadvertant) pedantism...

Paedobaptism is the baptism of infants.  In contrast to those churches, such as the Baptist churches, whivh practice the ‘baptism of believers’, the sacrament of baptism is administered to infants in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and other Protestant churches.  While not having the amount of scriptural support enjoyed by the baptism of believers, infant baptism can be supported by Scripture in the story in Acts of the baptism of the jailor and all his family (presumably there were infants and young children).  Likewise, when Jesus commanded his disciples to go and baptize in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he clearly did not specify who should receive this baptism.  Our Lord is silent in this regard.

Baptism is regarded as a sacrament by most mainline churches, although for the Baptist it is considered an ordinance, not a sacrament.  Whether or not it holds sacramental value, baptism is considered to be the primary rite of initiation into the Christian faith.  There is some question as to what happens during baptism, not just with the sign of water or the seal of the promises of Christ.  There seems to be an underlying something that has even the Baptist church, which does not view the rite as a sacrament, still considering it a requirement for membership.

One view of the sacrament is as being an opportunity for communal witness, for the community of faith into which the baby is born to make promises to support the child in his/her walk of faith, and for the adults to renew their own baptismal vows.  The signs and seals are present, and the adults participate in this communal witness as well.  For others, though, the sacrament is more than that.

Both the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Church hold baptism as a full sacrament, a visible sign of and inward and invisible grace.  The difference comes in the quality of that grace.  The Roman Catholic sees the sacrament as intrinsically imparting grace apart from any action of the baptized, an infused grace, which actually is necessary for salvation.  For the Episcopalian (Anglican), the grace is the grace of God, freely given to all who believe, and is responded to on behalf of the presented child by the parents and godparents of the baby.  The sacrament is not viewed as essential for salvation, but provides a spiritual help for the child’s walk in the Christian life.

Since the infant is not old enough to be able to profess any belief on his/her own, some would question whether the sacrament could be considered valid, let alone efficacious.  As the first step in the Christian life, it is easy to see why parents, thrilled by their own experience of God’s grace, would want their children to partake also.  However, provision should be made for the child to make their own faith profession as soon as they are capable, and this is why most churches that practice infant baptism also have the rite of Confirmation.

I used to be ambivalent about infant baptism.  I felt that it was helpful in keeping parents committed to the Christian path, since they might be more likely to adhere to Christian beliefs and practices if they were providing an example for their children.  I now feel that there is some activity of grace that takes place during the rite that transcends simply being a communal witness.  I feel that if I had not been sealed to Christ’s resurrection and the promises of that resurrection as a child, I might not be studying for the priesthood today.  Because she was baptized as an infant, I rest in the promises of Christ for my niece, who is in the midst of that teenage angst that can often corrupt, if not destroy, faith in God.  I do not see baptism as being necessary for my salvation, but it has been an incredible spiritual help in my journey, and that is due to its inherent grace.  Something happens there, more than just damp hair…