felix hominum

Last Sunday of Epiphany/Transfiguration sermon notes Year A (Matthew 17:1-9)

There are two significant mountains in Scripture where God speaks.  In the southern part of the Sinai penninsula rises a mountain which has been known to the local Bedouin tribe for centuries as “Jebel Musa” – the mountain of Moses.  The landscape, like all of the Sinai, is harsh.  Ancient red granite rock greets the visitor to Sinai.  What is not rock is sand, and what is not sand is dust.  There are 2 main paths up to top. There is the main route which is used by the Bedouin, a series of switchbacks wide enough for a camel to walk upon.  There is another, rather less trodden path – it is comprised of hundreds of steps carved into the rock by monks many centuries ago.  The second path is appropriately named “The steps of repentance”.  It was designed as a form of penance for the monks of the Monastery of St Catherine, which has been part of the mountain for almost 1700 years.

When you finally get to the top of Sinai, there is a spectacular view of the desert landscape for miles around. It is a jagged and rough place – a fitting spot for human beings to experience the majesty and, yes, even the terror of coming into the presence of God.  It is the mountain of the giving of the Law – the commands which Moses gave to the people of Israel. 

NIne km west of Nazareth rises another mountain – Mount Tabor. It commands a view of fertile valleys, the villages around the sea of Galilee, and it’s slopes are covered with lush greenery and gardens.  It is the traditional site of the Transfiguration.  There is only one route up to the summit:  and though it is steep it is worth the climb.  As opposed to camel, you can take a Mercedes Benz stretch limo for about 30 shekels.  By the way, like the camel handlers in the Sinai, the taxi drivers are also Bedouin tribesmen.  When you get to the top you see the variety of greenery – Mount Tabor receives that rare commodity – “rain”.  Just as God spoke one set of words on the top of Mount Sinai, so he also spoke another set of words on the top of Mount Tabor.

If Sinai is the mountain of the Law, then let us think of Tabor – the mount of Transfiguration - as the mountain of Grace.

Law can only restrain us on the outside– but grace transfigures us on the inside.  We are invited to a new vision of God in the person of Jesus Christ, and we invited to be transformed by grace, not by law.  Perhaps you are still living on Mount Sinai – thinking that faith is only about following the laws – seeing God merely as the one who rewards or punishes.  Or you are thinking that keeping yourself “good” in God’s eyes is impossible, but you think it is what God wants of you anyway. 

Like Peter and James and John, we are all invited into a vision of God in Jesus.

And maybe like Peter our first reaction to being invited into a new vision of God in Jesus is to turn our attention elsewhere.

Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  On one level this is another echo of the Sinai stories - the making of booths.  But there is also another level to be considered.  Peter represents here an all too common experience in the church.  When God is doing something spiritual, we turn our attention elsewhere.  In this case it seems that Peter thinks what is required is a building project, as if walls and wood could contain God.

“God shows up – let’s go to Home Depot”

Now it doesn't of course have to be a building project, but when God in Jesus makes his presence known, that is what we should pay attention to.  If God is at work, don't get bogged down in the wrong things.  We can be like Peter when we spend our time and energy only on the "externals" - the mere trappings of church - and then we can miss out on the presence of Jesus in our midst.

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"

When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid."

The voice is like that which was heard at Jesus’ baptism.  Only this time there is an addition:  “Listen to Him.”  But when the disciples hear this voice, they are afraid. And so are we.  Because this also promises us something wonderful and terrifying at the same time.  God calls us to be transfigured as well.  He calls us to be his beloved, but he also calls us to share in the transfiguration of Jesus.  And that means change.  As we prepare to enter the season of Lent, God invites us to take a look at ourselves and see where we need to change: a habit, an action, an attitude.  We are often afraid of change – but the change which God has in mind is to make us more fully into the beloved children he has called us to be.  And sometimes this involves “growing pains”.  He calls us to be “Christ-like”.  As we learn to see Jesus, we begin to see who God calls us to be.

Now the law given by Moses was intended to shape and form people from the outside.  After all, how many people slow down when they know that a photo radar trap is up ahead.  That’s how the law works – it only makes a change in behavior from the outside.  But grace, transfiguration – is the kind of change that takes place on the inside, and as we open up our hearts and minds to the vision of God in Jesus, we receive the Spirit of God to be changed from the inside.

When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.   But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’

Touch from Jesus –

All too often we castigate these expressions of fear on the part of humans as some sort of divine bullying - as if the disciples' fear was God's fault.  It is entirely possible, and I think more likely, that human fear at the manifest presence of God is rather an indication of problems within ourselves, rather than in God.  Jesus touches and reassures:  do not be afraid.

This passage is a fitting end to the Epiphany season - we have followed Jesus from birth, to early childhood, to baptism - all events which gave us insight into who he is.  The Transfiguration gives us a "final" glimpse of who he is.  The season of revelation is complete.

Other sermon notes on the transfiguration here and my pic of the church of the Transfiguration welcome sigh here.

I'll add a few notes and details tomorrow...  You know, Moses and Elijah - representing the Law and the Prophets - bearing witness to Christ (as he himself said he wold fulfil);  Elijah & his mountain experience;  the difference between mere change and transfiguration;  whether or not you can see Armageddon from the top of Mount Tabor;   the echo of Moses' face shining in the Sinai stories to the imagery of the transfiguration; why Jesus orders them to tell no one;  learn to see the glory without the transfiguration,

sermon notes Epiphany 8, Year A, Matthew 6:24-34

Every year the American Psychological Association adds to the growing list of anxiety disorders which seem to be popping up.  The phobia list is a handy reference guide for anything which might cause you to worry.  Here are just a few to get you started:

Atomic Explosions- Atomosophobia

Bridges or of crossing them- Gephyrophobia.

Chopsticks- Consecotaleophobia

Mother-in-law- Pentheraphobia

Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing.

 

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus addresses the question of fear and anxiety and worry by pointing out three things to avoid, and two things to desire:  Don’t be worrying about food/ clothing/ and tomorrow;  instead seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness:

[31] Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?'

[32] For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

[33] But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

While there is a tendency to think primarily in terms of trusting (trusting God vs trusting wealth), Jesus begins by talking about serving.  The language used to set the scene is one of servitude or slavery.  Trust involves choice, but slavery involves no choice - it is forced upon you.  What we are faced with is not a decision as to whether or not we will serve a master, but only what kind of master we will serve.  And Jesus wants to prod the fence sitters: 

[24] "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.  [25] Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

"a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other."  There does not seem to be much middle ground there.  Can God and wealth be so opposed?  Well, perhaps not, but serving God and serving wealth certainly are.

It was one of the characteristics of the Roman Emperors that they would keep the people in perpetual anxiety over the necessities of life in order to get their allegiance and obedience.  But Jesus says that God’s kingship does not work that way.  God is not interested in keeping us in perpetual anxiety and worry, rather, He wants to free us from anxiety and worry: “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink”.

Someone I read pointed out that we can trust Jesus to take away our sins and give us eternal life, but we have trouble trusting him for the next sandwich.  Says a lot, doesn't it?

Jesus gives us a roundabout question: “Isn’t life more than food and clothing?” -  of course we are supposed to agree with him that "life is more than food, and the body more than clothing".  But we are then faced with the question:  what is the "more"?  Have you ever found yourself asking – is this it?  What the "more" is will be told in verse 33.  But for now we are told what we are to avoid:  worrying about life in terms of food, drink and clothing.  In a society whose advertising industry is built on the foundation of worry, this is either a frightening or a freeing message.  Think of the collect for morning prayer (BCP): "whose service is perfect freedom".

[26] Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  [27] And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? [28] And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith?

So how does Jesus propose we stop our worrying?  Jesus turns our attention not to the negative characteristics of "wealth", but to the positive characteristics of God.  It is interesting how his persuasion proceeds.  He does not preach here against the evils of wealth or possessions.  Instead, Jesus asks us to consider the character of God, our "heavenly Father."  This is the true starting point, and a good lesson in apologetics:  begin with the goodness of God, rather than with the fault of that which you are trying to condemn. 

Secondly, we are invited to consider ourselves in terms of realizing that we are worth something to God – look at the birds of the air;  “are you not of more value than they?” We might tend to slip over this verse, perhaps out of a fear of  - oh I don't know -  thinking too highly of ourselves or something like that.  Fair enough;  there is more than enough back-patting in Christian circles;  why do we need an affirmation or mini-course in self esteem at this point?  Jesus asks us to consider, really consider, that we have value in God's eyes.  I wonder if this is more connected with the preceding thought:  our value in God's eyes is due to the goodness of His character, rather than of ours.

[31] Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?'  [32] For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  [33] But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  [34] So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."

 

 

 

 

 

Here we have the goal and purpose of the church – to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.

What are our priorities? – as individuals and as a community?

Have we ever done anything which requires us to trust God?

 

There is a good deal of food for thought when this gospel passage is heard alongside Isaiah:

They shall feed along the ways, on all the bare heights shall be their pasture;  they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them...But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me." Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.  See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

 

 

 

The question about what we shall eat and drink takes can take on a new meaning when heard in the context of communion.  With what do we feed our souls?  There is a marvellous answer to that question for those who hold to a higher view of the sacramental grace offered to us in the Eucharist.

Dante's Purgatory: Canto XX; avarice, poverty, generosity

Dante & Virgil continue to weave their way through the souls of those whose sin was excessive love of worldly things - avarice.  The poet summarizes the process of repentance on the mountain with a wonderfully simple image:

the mass of souls whose eyes were, drop by drop,
shedding the sin which occupies our world
XX.7-8

How is sin overcome?  By sheer willpower to do good? By an abrupt turning (conversion) to what is good and virtuous?  Well, at least in this canto, Dante gives us the image of the relationship between the sorrow of repentance and the progress toward virtue.  Perhaps we live in age when the idea of actually being sorry for one's faults is a bit gauche.  Not-the-sort-of-thing-we-do, at least at our church.

Mount Purgatory reminds us that there is, for most of us, no shortcut to virtue.  Mind you, those of us who are notoriously fault-ful will find that many of our closest companions wish that we would at least try to hurry along the path.  Nevertheless, I suspect that the tears of repentance are a form of mourning or grieving, as one "dies to sin", to borrow New Testament language.

The souls who are on this level sing a two-fold song.  During the day they recite examples of the humilty of Mary who gave birth in a lowly stable, and the generosity of Nicholas (yes, the original Santa Claus).  But as night falls they cry out examples of avarice and greed.  Thus Dante and Virgil see virtue and vice juxtaposed as day and night, and the reader can easily grasp what the poet is conveying.

Toward the end of the canto Dante feels the mountain shake and tremble, accompanied by a shout so loud that it startles him.  This prompts Virgil to draw closer to him and reassure him with the words "You need not fear  while I am still your guide". (XX.135)  In the story of the poem, we learn that the exuberant shout of Gloria in excelsis comes as the mountain releases the soul of a penitent who is ready to "move up".  While Dante does not immediately understand what is happening in the mystery of grace, the presence of Natural Reason (in the figure of Virgil) should be enough to keep him from fear.

"Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it."

The facebook page & protests in Cairo today

Fascinating world we live in.

Here's the facebook page that is calling for dissent, and here's some BBC video of what is happening on Cairo streets today.

Dante's Puragatory Canto XIX - exposing the Siren

"You saw," he said, "that ageless sorceress
for whom alone the souls above must weep;
you also saw how men escape from her."

XIX 58-60

Previously we learned that Dante had encounted a Siren in his dreams.  The dream ended as Virgil, under the direction of a "saintly lady", tears apart the outward garment of the siren and exposes for what she is on the inside.  We are told the name of this saintly lady who initiated exposing the Siren - she is perhaps a type of all the saintly ladies of Dante's world:  Mary, Beatrice, Lucy.  Likewise the Siren does not have a specific name given - she is as well a type of all deception which has an outwardly attractive appearance but inwardly is corrupt. 

How is it that we are capable of being so deceived, and how is it that we can escape from such deception?  The Siren herself tells Dante that "whoever dwells with me seldom departs/ I satisfy so well" (XIX. 24). 

LIke all self-deceptions, it is difficult to see the truth except by persuasion from outside oneself.  In Dante's dream it was a figure of grace (the sainlty lady) who begins the process.  Human reason (the figure of Virgil) is able to complete the task of realizing the truth of self-deception, but because it is bound by the falsehood which the human will has embraced, it cannot begin the process unaided. 

This is a pattern for the spiritual life, and for the purgation of the sins of Avarice, Gluttony and Lust which will be addressed by Dante.  Each has an outwardly attractive power which binds human will power, but each has an inward corruption which in the end not only fails to satisfy, but ultimately destroys.  The movement out of self-deception begins not with ourselves, but with divine grace.

Interface Worship / Epiphany: Revelation!

Interface Worship at St. Paul's Anglican Church, 10127-145 St., Edmonton will celebrate the season of Epiphany with an alternative worship service called “Revelation”, Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 7:00 pm.

This service will include poetry by Mark Polet, prophetic painting by Lori Youngman, music led by Kathleen Pate, prayer station devotional exercise, meditative time, open art tables, the Bread of Life liturgical sculpture, a Black Water Reflecting Pool, and the extensive use of original symbols, rituals, and imagery. The Eucharistic liturgy allows worshippers to embody the themes in a unique sacramental ritual of enduring quality and significance.

facebook event page

 

Sermon notes for Epiphany

The progression of the Christmas season began not only with Advent, but many months before.  With the Annunciation it was the angel Gabriel who spoke directly and clearly to Mary about the child who would come.  And throughout the Gospel stories leading up to the Nativity, angels and direct revelations were prominent – they figured in the stories of Elizabeth and Zechariah as they waited for the birth of John the Baptist.  On Christmas eve, too, we remember that there was a revelation to the shepherds in an unmistakable and sure fashion:  the glory of the Lord shone round them, a heavenly chorus filled the skies, and they were told in certain terms to go to Bethlehem, and they would find the child Jesus.

Then we celebrate Epiphany – the coming of the Magi to adore and worship the newborn King, the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles.  If Christmas is about the shortest route from here to Bethlehem (as the Shepherds discovered), then Epiphany is about a longer, ‘pilgrim’ road to Christ.

Instead of angels and visions, we have the image of the magi following a sign in the skies – in nature – and for a longer period of time.  The magi see the intentions of God in the skies.  This is not new:  Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens themselves declare who God is, and that his handiwork is seen in created nature.  But still with a tinge of the “Christmas miraculous”, it is a peculiar kind of sign – “we observed his star at its rising”.  The magi know that there is something significant happening.  In a way we might in all likelihood hazard a guess that they even believed in the divine.  But the whole story of Epiphany reminds us that a general belief in God is a beginning point, not the end point.

The magi have a general idea of this God and this King of the Jews, but they don’t know how to find him.  The general revelation that God gives us are evident everywhere, and the wise pay attention to God’s hints about Himself that he has placed in the world.  Traveling by starlight is a wonderful thing, it got the magi to the right country.  But God does not want us to come to a country – to a merely general idea of God.  He wants us to find Jesus.

In the Epiphany story there are several characters who have the opportunity to find Jesus, but refuse.  First we have “Herod, and all Jerusalem with him”.  Matthew says that they both had the same reaction – “They were frightened”. They are afraid of something new – a new power that they have no control over.  Herod is frightened because the new king of the Jews is a threat. Herod  is the ruler and there is room on his throne for no other.  The people are afraid because they are afraid of Herod -= anything that upsets him, upsets them.  They know Herod is a bit of a tyrant – and anything that makes him upset is a threat to their peace and well being.  At all costs – don’t get Herod agitated.

I need to avoid the temptation of reacting like Herod:  I am threatened that God wants to somehow be King in my life, ‘rule’ my life.  Who is on the throne of my life?  Is it Jesus, or is it me?  There can be only one ruler, one king.  Is it Jesus, or is it me?  Herod decided that there was no room for Jesus in his world.  I am in charge of my life, and no one else.  Self sufficient, self determined, and in the end, self centered.

The people who make up “all of Jerusalem” in the story are frightened like Herod, but for different reasons.  They are perhaps a step ahead of Herod.  They have not placed themselves on the throne of their lives.  They do not say “I will rule my own life”.  Instead, they have let someone else rule their lives.   But they have picked the wrong person.  They have decided to let Herod rule their lives.  Why does Matthew say “Herod, and all of Jerusalem with him, was frightened”?  Jerusalem is frightened because Herod is frightened.  They have thrown their lot in with Herod their ruler, instead of with God, their true Lord.    Whatever Herod thinks, they think, whatever Herod says, goes.  If Herod is scared, then we better be scared, or at least act like it.

We are like “all Jerusalem” when we are controlled by someone else’s reactions and someone else’s opinions.  The people of Jerusalem were afraid of Herod – he controlled how they felt.  They were really at his whim.  It is a very subtle, but very powerful, form of fear.  “All Jerusalem”  is  like someone who is constantly waiting for someone else’s reactions, someone else’s approval or disapproval, someone else to tell them how to act, what to do, someone else to tell them how to live.  The only problem is, they picked the wrong king.  They picked Herod instead of God.  We don’t need to pick Herod, but as long as we fail to choose God, it doesn’t matter who controls us.

So Herod does a smart thing.  He calls together the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and finds out exactly where the new king is going to be born.  He knows where to go – find the people who know the scriptures – the chief priests – the professional clergy are supposed to be paid to know these things.  Herod does not go to the Temple or to the Scriptures to get closer to God; he goes for his own purposes.  He wants information for his own purposes.  He wants the Temple and the Scriptures to serve his own ends, not God’s purposes.  If we approach the Temple (the Church) and the Scriptures in the spirit of Herod; we will have missed the point.  Both the Church and the Scriptures are God’s, and are intended to serve his good purposes.

So the chief priests and the scribes read the scriptures – they know the Scriptures well – it does not take long before they give Herod the answer to his question.  The new King will be born in Bethlehem.  But chief priests do not themselves have any personal interest in going to see the new King.  Amazing.  They had all the information from God right in front of them, and they don’t bother to do anything with it.  Maybe Herod did not tell them that the wise men had come.  But no matter, they were blind to the presence of the star, which the wise men had followed all the way from the east, and they are blind to the importance of their own scriptures.  At any rate, they were too busy playing church to actually take the time to find God.  They have no love for the object of which the scriptures speak.  They know the King will be found in Bethlehem, yet they do not bother to go.

So how does the story proceed?  Herod calls the wise men secretly.  That alone is a warning sign.  Why secretly?  He sends them on their way with a bit of a false promise.  Go and find the child, and then let me know so that I may do him homage as well.  As the wise men head out – there ahead of them is the star – it’s still there, but no one is paying any attention.  God gives us signs, but often we are blind to their presence.  Herod is looking at his throne, the scribes are looking at their scriptures, the people are all looking at Herod, and only the wise men still recognize that the star is still there.

The wise men do what the others do not – they actually make the effort to get to where Jesus is.

2:9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 2:10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 2:11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 2:12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

So the magi have finally found Jesus.  And what is their response?  Their first response is joy – “they were overwhelmed with joy”.  That is what happens when we find Jesus.  That is what awaits us at the end of the journey.  Next, they paid him homage – they worshiped him and acknowledged Him as King.  After the joy comes the worship.  That means acknowledging Jesus as King.  Jesus as the center.  Jesus as Lord.  And then, after joy and after worship, comes offering of their gifts.  In response to who Jesus is and the joy He gives, we offer ourselves and our gifts to Him.

So how do you find Jesus?  Maybe we all can start out like the magi – with a general idea of God, and a general idea that He is guiding you.  Like the magi, we need to turn to the scriptures.  If you don’t read them, you will never really get the specific directions that God is trying to give you.  Approach them with the right spirit, the right purpose.  Ask for help along the way - the church is meant to be that way.  The wise men knew when they needed to ask someone else for help.  And pray.  Ask God.  When you find Jesus, rejoice.  After all, He is God.  Put Him in the center.  Ask yourself whether what you are doing honors him a King.  Offer to him what you have, who you are.

The way forward for any of us is an Epiphany story.  It is about us paying attention to the signs of God around us:  the visions, the dreams, the stars and the Scriptures.  It will be a pilgrim story:  it took the magi up to two years to find the destination they were looking for.  Patience in God’s work is not always appreciated in our instant world.  But we trust that for us as a people, we will find our joy as we worship him, and offer ourselves to our King.

 

My Christmas Wish List: part 1

Yes, I know all you folks are thinking to yourselves:  "What shall we get felix hominum for Christmas this year?"  Let me make your shopping experience easier:  red-hot cinnamon candies, straight from Dante's Inferno:

 

courtesy the good folks at Archie McPhee, where there is lots more for that special stocking stuffer.

Dante's Purgatory: Canto XIX: The Dream of the Siren

There came into my dream a woman, stuttering,
cross-eyed, stumbling along on her maimed feet,
with ugly yellow skin and hands deformed.

I stared at her.  And as the sun revives
a body numbed by the night's cold, just so
my eyes upon her worked to free her tongue

and straighten our all her deformities,
gradually suffusing her wan face
with just the color Love would have desired.

And once her tonge was loosened by my gaze
she started singing, and the way she sang
captured my mind -- it could not free itself.

Purgatory XIX. 7-18

During the night Dante dreams of a Siren.  What is fascinating (and frightening) is the way in which she is tranformed before his eyes from repulsive to desirable.  Musa (207) points us to Carroll (p.247) and concludes that perhaps what is happening is the gradual change from being repelled by vice to acquiescence, and finally to embrace.

What exaclty is this dream about?  It is about Dante's ability to transform the horror of the Siren into something desirable, merely by the force of his own gaze.  This is not a tranformation she makes of her own power.  The human soul, looking at sin square in the face, should recognize its "ugliness".  But then the change begins.  Sin does not in itself become less ugly;  we make it so.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I have a recollection of ancient theories of the power of sight - a sort of projecting of the power of sight outward to the object seen.  There may be something of that notion to this episode in Purgatory.  But since I'm too slothful to look it up, I'll leave the analogy from ancient medical theory for the time being.

What is significant is that the Siren would not have the power over Dante's mind ("it could not free itself") had he not in some sense given that power to the Siren.  It is he who "projects" on her the aspect of desire - "just the color Love would have desired".  It is he who gives her this pleasing appearance, and in the end he is trapped by her.  He has transformed her by his gaze, and in the end he cannot escape from hers.  It is an image of the way in which we gloss over sin, at first perhaps tolerating it, and in the end denying it to be sin at all.  We come to think it beautiful.  Once we have given it this pretense of good and beauty, we are then powerless to escape it.

Advent - He's On His Way

Big Valley wheat pool

Dante's Purgatory, XVIII: "As much as reason sees"

Dante packs a lot into this Canto.  We are going to have to attack this rather like I attack a buffet:  go for what is familiar first, and then fill up the edges with the other stuff.  Virgil is attempting to explain to Dante the nature of love.  Think love with a capital L, and not in the Hollywood sense.  This is love in its biggest sense, as the force which keeps the universe going.  This is love as an inward movement of the soul.  Love is something like gravity - it is the thing which (as the 60's song says) "makes the world go 'round". 

So here we are, beings who are created to love.  We begin by desiring things which please us.  This is the first stirring of love.  Since we are created in order to love, how can we then be blamed for loving wrongly?  And how is loving "wrongly" even possible?  As Dante puts it to Virgil:  "how can you praise or blame it for its love of good or bad?"  In other words, isn't there a kind of determinism about the whole thing?  How can there be ethical judgment about love?  Virgil begins his reply:

I can explain to you
as much as reason sees; for the rest, wait
for Beatrice - it is the work of faith.
Purgatory XVIII. 46

Here again Virgil recognizes the limits of human reason in understanding these things.  For love is not a human construct;  it is divine.  it is both an attribute of and a gift from, God.  Even, we might say with the author of John's letter, it is the nature of God himself.  So neither you nor I will understand the true nature of love without Beatrice - without the divine aid of faith.

While reason has its limits, it also has its role in directing our natural inclinations, our natural "loves".  We need not consent to every inclination which arises within us.  And it is the faculty of reason which is charged with this task, transforming natural inclinations into 'rational' love.

you have the innate faculty of reason,
which should defend the threshold of consent...

Let us assume that every love that burns
in you arises through necessity:
you still have the power to restrain such love.
Purgatory XVIII. 63 ff

Here I think we need to turn to another poet - John Donne - who articulates something of the same sentiment in Holy Sonnet XIV. Look it up and read it through a few times.  Seriously.

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Here Virgil tells Dante that reason, exercising its ability to restrain and direct our desires, finds its expression as the "noble power Beatrice knows as Freedom of the Will" (73).  And in fact the whole of purgatory is about reclaiming the freedom of will which was lost through sin.

Dante's Purgatory: Canto XVIII: What is Love? (part 2)

Some years ago I was hiking with a group of students in Mount Robson Park.  As fate would have it, there had been a flash flood the previous evening.  The natural consequence of such an event is, of course, that the bridge over which I had hoped to cross was completely washed out.

One of the rules I follow in the mountain backcountry is akin to that of Sam Gamgee - rope.  Never travel without rope.  It is not only useful for vertical movement, but for horizontal as well.  It is much easier to ford a mountain river with rope than without.  Trust me on this.  Or if not, try it both ways and then let me know the outcome.

At any rate, this is where we are today.  There is no easy bridge at this point in the poem.  The questions don't get any deeper than this:  what is love?  If I manage to get across this particular section without being swept away, it is only because others will keep me grounded and anchored.  There are points in this section where I have to admit that any answer I give, or any attempt at interpretation will be completely inadequate.  Nontheless, onward ho!

It should be clear to you by now how blind
to truth those people are who make the claims
that every love is, in itself, good love.

They think this, for love's substance, probably,
seems always good, but thought wax is good
the impression made upon it may be bad.

Purgatory XVIII 33ff

We are created to love, and love appears to be a force which is unavoidable.  We have attractions and desires upon which we act.  So how can it be that love can be either good or bad, Dante asks Virgil.  Love is not, in Virgil's explanation, something which we as human beings create out of ourselves, it is (as we will see later in Paradise) the very thing which allows the entire universe to exist.  The soul is created to move toward that which pleases it (20 ff.).  It is completely "natural" in one sense of the word.  So how can any "love", any genuine movement of the soul toward that which it loves, be the subject of ethical judgement?  Can love be either good or bad?  Dante addresses Virgil:

if love comes from a source outside of us,
the soul having no choice, how can you praise
or blame it for its love of good or bad?

Purgatory XVIII 43ff

I'll see if I can find the answer after lunch, and before tonight's study group...

 

 

 

what a sheet music should look like after an hour of practice

Autumn Leaves, the "annotated" version...

HUSA - our latest support project

We were grateful to have Sarah Pollock join us last Sunday to talk about her work with HUSA, a grassroots organization which does great work in Tanzania.  Sarah is a nursing student at the U of A who caught a vision and is making it happen.  Here are some snippets from HUSA's hompage:

Currently HUSA Center for Children is caring for 49 children between the ages of 3-16 years. Thanks to our gracious supporters, the children are recieving 3 meals a day, have a rented shelter and are all attending primary school, vocational training or tutoring sessions.
Although great achievements have been made with the center, more is needed. The current rented house is in need of repairs and is not large enough to accomadate beds for all the children. By 2012, it is our goal to have built a new home with a small farm to help sustain the center finacially. To see our goals and plans click here. 

Vision:
To become a reputable Community Based Organization (CBO) that is
responsive to providing care and support to children and youth orphaned
by HIV/AIDS in the Kimamba, Kilosa region of Tanzania.
 
Mission:
To provide quality care and support to orphans in Kimamba. 
 
Objectives:
1.        Provide prompt and quality assistance to orphaned children in Kimamba.
2.        Stabilize the children’s psychological and social well being.
3.        To raise awareness and decrease stigma towards HIV/AIDS within Kimamba, by providing            education and participating in community awareness groups.
4.        Reach the children before the parents die to plan for the child’s future.
5.        Support each HUSA child through their school education.

 

Buying a Jeep in Edmonton: Part 3

Scene 3, Act 2:

sales rep backs out of office, clutching papers with numbers all over them. 

"I'll be right back.  I'll have to talk to the manager.  You know we are going to lose money on this deal."

rep goes into another part of building.  customer cannot overhear conversation, which actually goes as follows:

"Hi Bob.  What did you think of the Oilers game last night?"
"Not much, I thought they could have put more effort into clearing the puck from their zone.  But overall they have been off to a good start, so we'll see how the season goes."
"By the way, do you have any of those little Bic pens with our logo on it?  I think if I give this guy a new pen he will sign the deal in a few minutes. I'll let him sit for a bit longer.   Hey, great haircut!"
"Thanks Bill.  Now go soak him.  Tell him we sold 6 of these units just yesterday, and if he doesn't get it today, he'll regret it forever."

rep returns to customer

"This is the lowest I can go without getting fired.  You know what bosses are like.  He's mad that I even offered it to you at this price.  How would you like a new Bic pen - all fancy with our logo on it?  I'm telling you, if you get it today at this price, not only will your kids do better in school, but your wife will find you irresistable for the remainder of the powertrain warranty, which is a full 5 years."

 

Okay, so maybe it's not really that bad.  Then again, maybe sometimes it is.  Just to continue the update for all those who are curious, the final cut narrowed it down to 3 places:  Derrick Dodge/Jeep (where I previously bought a Cherokee Classic 4x4), Capital Dodge/Jeep (where our present minivan came from) and Sherwood Park Dodge/Jeep. 

Up next:  the dotted line.

 

 

William Watson Lodge, GRIT & dads of kids with disabilities

I recently spoke to the AGM of an organization which delivers educational and development services to children with disabilities.  The organization is locally known as GRIT - Getting Ready for Inclusion Today.  They are self described as "an exemplary, fully-inclusive, non-profit early childhood program for children with disabilities 2 ½ – 5 ½ years of age."   While I tend to do a lot of public speaking (it comes with the territory in my line of work), it took me quite a while to figure out and put on paper exactly what I wanted to say.

I have read a fair bit of the literature on the topic of family dynamics situations where one or more of child has some form of disability.  But this was more about my own personal experience, as a father who happens to have a child who lives with a disability.  I'll not reprint here everything I said there, but I do want to highlight a few anecdotal items which I believe are important.  These are the sorts of things one hears after the formal address is finished, over coffee, with other parents who are simply looking for a place to tell their story.

None of this is absolute, it is merely a pencil sketch of a few conversations, so let that guide your interpretation.  First come the logistics.  And by this I mean the countless extra trips to doctors, specialists, therapists, assessors, psychologists - you name it, and chances are your kid has had more appointments in a few short months than you have had in your whole life.  Many times it is (in a 2 parent family) the mom who does this.  And many times it is the dad who catches up afterward.  He was at work perhaps, and simply cannot find a way to be there for these events.  This has led in some instances to dad feeling disconnected, playing "catch up".  From the perspective of the mom, it is doubly exhausting to have to retell the entire experience a second time.  She has already heard once that Jane or John has this or that wrong, that nothing can be done for X, that her child will need extra work here or there.  Many two parent families I spoke to that evening found this to be the case.  Sometimes the dad will feel disconnected from what is happening and try to get more involved, more supportive.  But sometimes the feeling of disconnect will result in a feeling of helplessness, and perhaps even further alienation from their child's life.  This is only one small topic among many:  how do fathers get more involved, more informed and more supportive?  And most important of all, is there a place for them to simply tell their story. 

I'll give the rest of talk & some of the feedback in bits and pieces over the next little while.  A few days after I spoke at the AGM, we had a chance to spend a few days as a family at William Watson Lodge.  It is a facility developed specifically to provide outdoor recreation for persons with disabilities and their families. It is set in a fabulous location:  on the shores of Lower Kananaskis Lake in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta.  Our second daughter lives with Down Syndrome, and so we "qualified" as a family to stay at the facility.  For people with mobility challenges, there are some wonderfull accessible trails with amazing views of the Rockies.  It really is a great place to spend a few days.  We are hoping to get back there again next spring, or even during the winter for some X-country skiing & fireside laziness.

 

 

 

 

Buying a Jeep in Edmonton, part 2

Today's test drive was a 5 speed Patriot, base level with few options.  Took it for a spin out of Capital Dodge/Jeep down in south Edmonton.  Overall, I'd say the staff were pretty good.  Went out for the test drive with one of their new sales-trainees.  He's just learning the business & the products, so I took it down a few roads that I know of south of the city where we could see how the suspension handles on less-than-perfect roads.  Not bad, actually.

Did I buy it?  No.  Not because it wasn't close to what I wanted (they are looking for a similar model for me but without A/C).  More because (as those who know me well understand), I like to do a fair bit of research.  You don't spend 20 years around academic institutions without some of that rubbing off in other areas.  They made a good effort at the sale, but weren't high pressure when I said I was still looking at models in another place.  The sales rep I dealt with had a pretty down to earth approach:  "It's my job to sell you the vehicle, so that's what I'm going to try to do." 

Btw, we had a chance to get out to the mountains last weekend:  William Watson Lodge on the east side of the Spray Mountains.  I'll tell you about it sometime.

Buying a Jeep in Edmonton: part 1

Well, it's that time again.  Several years ago we chronicled the adventure of buying a minivan, and now the time has come again.  So for the next little while, as a bit of a diversion, I'll fill you in on the automotive shopping experience.  I mean, after all, who doesn't love shopping for a vehicle?  Images of high pressure sales and slick ads come to mind?  Well, have no fear.  I will do your dirty work for you! 

So what exactly will I be looking for?  Well, I'm planning to get one of these.

Your first stop is of course the net.  After that, it's contacting the dealers to see what they can do.  Over the weekend I'll be visiting 2 of them:  Capital Jeep and Sherwood Park Dodge/Jeep.  These two (out of several dealers I contacted online) were the quickest to respond.  One dealer seems to have lost my email and forgot what I was looking to buy.  So I kinda crossed them of the list for now.  Tomorrow it's off to Capital and then Sunday to the Sherwood Park dealership.

The latter has a rather interesting take on marketing.  You can go online and read the owner's blog, which has a few interesting articles.  I especially like the title of one of his posts:  "Edmonton Dodge Jeep Chrysler Dealer To Sell Inventory Above Cost!!".  He takes a bit of a poke at over-hyped advertising in the car business.

I'll give you the update after visiting these two places.

sermon notes Luke 18: 9-14; Pentecost 22 Year C

Luke 18: 9-14

9] He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:

[10]  ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. [11]  The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. [12]  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”

[13]  But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” [14]  I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Jesus loved to tell parables with striking contrasts, and he loved to tell them to a particular audience.  He didn’t mind, though, if people other than his intended audience overheard what he was saying.  He tells this parable for the benefit of a particular group of people - “those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and regarded others with contempt.”  Let’s just start with his intended audience.  Who is Jesus talking to?

 The description given is two part - it has to do with their view of themselves, and their subsequent attitude toward others. In this Gospel story, these two things are connected - my high view of my own religious virtues, and my contempt for the failings of others.  Somehow the greater my opinion of my own greatness before God, the lower opinion I’m going to have of you.

Luke explains right away that this is a story about contrasts, told to people who see the world neatly divided into two camps – good people like myself, and rather bad people like all those other folk.  And so Jesus gives us a study in contrast in this parable.  It is a simple story of two men.  He says they both went up to the temple to pray.  So far so good.  Going up to the temple is a good thing, and going up in order to pray is an even better thing.  You know, My house shall be a house of prayer and all that stuff.  So far the two men are on equal footing.  But then the differences begin.

One contrast at the outset, before we even look at who the men are, and what they have to say, is the length of their prayers.  Now it might just be coincidence, and that’s it, but it seems to me that one prayer is rather long-winded and wordy;  the other prayer is only 7 words long, and it uses even fewer words in the greek.   Now I’m sure there is a place for long prayers, after all Jesus says elsewhere that the Pharisees like to recite long prayers in the marketplace.  And just because a prayer is long doesn’t make it long-winded.  But only one of the two prayers gets right to the point.  I’m just sayin it’s there.

Then Jesus gives us the cast of characters.  We have seen enough type cast movies to know that as soon as they are introduced, the bad guy and the good guy are easily identified.  “One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector”  From our vantage point we think we can see where this is going.  We think to ourselves, Jesus is going to give us an example of something to avoid, and an example of something to imitate.

Enter the Pharisee with sinister background music. 

“The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”

We suspect we are supposed to avoid the behaviour of the Pharisee, but what exactly is wrong with his prayer?

First, we note that he is “standing by himself” - he comes to the temple and has no desire to be part of the fellowship of the people of God.  His time at the temple, his prayer, his religion, is a matter for himself alone.  He neither needs nor is interested in needing, the rest of the community of believers.  You can come to the temple, and still be “by yourself”, simply because you don’t want to go through the trouble of actually loving your neighbour as yourself.  That is what the Pharisee is doing.  He’s right there in the temple, and yet he chooses to “stand by himself.”

Then we have his prayer.  He begins well enough: his first word is “God.”  But although God is the addressee of his prayer, God is not the center of his prayer.  God is mentioned once, and the Pharisee uses the word “I”,  4 times.   The prayer of the Pharisee is more concerned with what “I have done”, than what “God has done”.  “I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all my income.”

The prayer of the Pharisee highlights what his good character is, rather than what God’s good character is. 

The Pharisee’s spiritual focus is all on himself, and because of this he thinks that he himself is the standard and measure of what righteousness is.  He trusts in himself that he has accomplished all that is necessary to be right with God, and if God is not convinced by the fact that the Pharisee has made a few religious observances and tithed a few cheques into the temple collection plate, then God should just look around at some the awful people who come to church.   God, you should be grateful to have someone like me in your congregation to raise the moral average up a few notches!  By having me in the temple, thinks the Pharisee, I’ve raised the standard a bit on my end of the bell curve.

It is not a big stretch to see that the Pharisee “trusts in himself” that he is righteous, and from that beginning we can guess who the Pharisee’s real object of worship is going to be.

 

Enter the tax collector.

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'”

Just like he did with the Pharisee, Jesus tells us a little bit about where the tax collector is standing.   He is not described as “standing by himself”, but rather, he is “standing far off”.

What is the difference?

Like the Pharisee, he starts off well – his first word is God.  But that is where the similarity ends.  The tax collector is a picture of humility before God.  The tax collector knows that he is a sinner - he is at least this honest with God.  He also knows that his hope lies not in his own actions, but in God’s actions:  “God, be merciful”.  The Pharisee drew attention to his own character - the tax collector draws attention to God’s character – be merciful.  He highlights the character of God.  And as such, the prayer of the tax collector tells us more about God than the prayer of the Pharisee.

It is a worthwhile question to ask sometimes:  if someone is listening to my prayers, or to the prayers of the church, do they learn more about God, or more about me?  Who is at the center of our prayer?

What we have are two competing standards of righteousness.

The tax collector knows that the standard of goodness and righteousness and love is not "how well I do compared to my neighbours", but how well I do compared to God.  And we know that we all fall short of the ideal.  We do not love God with all our hearts, and we do not love all of our neighbours as ourselves.  If I think that I have “made it” spiritually, I am guilty of pride.  If I know I still have a ways to go, then God can help me get there. 

The Pharisee is content, even pleased, with his spiritual status - he thinks he has spiritually arrived.  The tax collector is not satisfied - he wants to be a different person, and he knows that only God can help him become what he is meant to be as a human being. 

Then come the uncomfortable words:

I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

I was rather hoping that Jesus would provide a third option.  You see, sometimes we can look at both of them and say “thank you Lord that I am neither like the Pharisee nor like the tax-collector”.  I am aware of all the faults of the Pharisee. We know all about churchy self righteousness and how often Jesus condemns that sort of thing in the Gospel. Nothing to see here.

But really, am I supposed to be like this tax collector? Surely I am not really supposed to be like this fellow.  I would much rather put myself somewhere in between on the “holiness scale” - I are not self righteous like the Pharisee, but surely I am not nearly as bad as the tax collector, with all of his unhealthy self-image and defeatist attitudes - the stuff that therapies are made of and self help publishing.  Send this man to Dr Phil!!

So I get caught in the very subtle net which Jesus has laid out.  Your see, we naturally abhor the Pharisee, because somehow we know that we are not supposed to be like him. But in our haste to avoid and condemn the Pharisee, we overlook the second half of Jesus’ point:  We are supposed to emulate, imitate, the tax collector, and if we say no to this option, we are no different from the Pharisee - we look at the tax collector and we thank God that we don’t need to be like him.

If we simply condemn the Pharisee, then we are no different. - It is just a bit of a cycle.  The Pharisee judges the tax collector, and we judge the Pharisee, and we, like the Pharisee, thank God that we don’t have to be like the tax collector - we don’t need to beat our breasts in dramatic fashion, we don’t need to implore God’s mercy - we are not like the Pharisee, but neither do we really want to be like the tax collector.  Do we really implore God’s mercy in our prayers?

The truth is that Jesus is holding up the tax collector as the true model.  What does the tax collector do? Jesus says:  “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

What is it to have the humility of the tax collector?  It is an attitude of dependence upon God for all we are and all we have.  It is a recognition that our lives are a gift - that we are not self-made, and that if we are to become the kind of people Jesus calls us to be, we will not do it by our own efforts, we will do it by acknowledging who God is, and calling upon God for help in becoming what we are meant to be.

well, that's where I'm starting for now

How to potty train a horse...

photo:  Joe Walker/2010

 

What is "sacred" text?

Interesting thought from our Anglican Primate Fred Hiltz on books, & burnings & September 11:

That day, it seems to me, should be marked by gatherings for prayer, and expressions of mutual respect for our various faith traditions and the texts we all regard as sacred.

Here are a few open questions for all the members of the panel.  On what basis does one regard a text as sacred? What does Bishop HIltz mean by the phrase "we all regard as sacred"?  Who are the "we"?  What do the majority of Islamic scholars have to say about the text called the New Testament?  Can one regard another's text as "sacred" and posit that it is not actually revelation, or that it is incorrect on a number of major points? I'll attempt to answer some of these after some conversation with my betters later on today.

For fun, let's pretend-translate this into politics and see if the same structure of thinking holds true for something like a Palin v Obama election on Nov 4: 

That day, it seems to me, should be marked by gatherings for voting, and expressions of mutual respect for our various political traditions and the policies we all regard as sacred.

Btw, we had our first feast of most excellent corn on the cob from the veggie garden yesterday evening.

In other news:

The Bishop of Amritsar has called on the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil to protect Christians in northern India after a mob burned down the oldest school in Kashmir and also attacked other Christian institutions.

The Church of North India's Rt Revd Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, wrote that it was “with a heavy heart” that he informed the President of the complete destruction of the Tungmarg Tyndale Biscoe branch school that provided “quality education to five hundred fifty children from one hundred fifty villages around Tangmarg.”

The school, managed by the Diocese of Amritsar, had 27 staff and 16 support staff and had been founded in 1996 by Tyndale Biscoe and Mallinson School Educational Society to cater for the economically deprived sectors of the community.

The whole three-storey wooden structure with 26 classrooms, computer labs and a library containing, among other books, copies of the Quran was completely destroyed on Monday after being set on fire by a large mob that marched on the school after hearing reports of a man desecrating the Quran in America. None of the staff were injured; they all managed to escape the blaze.

story here

my dinner with Catholics (nor ever chaste, except thou ravish me)

A post by Scott Bader-Saye drew my attention to an article in which Pope Benedict laments the use of sacro-pop in worship.  The article is well worth the read, and makes some interesting points.  The standard quote is that much of contemporary church music is of the "Jesus is my girl/boyfriend" variety.

Some time ago I had dinner with Catholics.  I am distanced enough from the event to be able to fully digest it.  At one point the topic of conversation turned to priestly celibacy and all things related thereto.  To my surprise, I discovered that none of the other guests had read much (if any) of the catholic thinkers and poets of years gone by.  There was a great deal of consternation when it was discovered that (for example) the medievals saw a connection between romantic and divine love.  As had thoughful persons before them.

Those who have followed this writer's offerings over the course of some time have probably come to realize that I believe Dante has a bit of wisdom to impart.  Not the least of this is the relationship between the romantic and the divine.  In our day and age, we tend to collapse the two:  as a culture we think that anything romantic must in and of itself also be divine.  And so, in reaction to this error, when we run across the romantic in contemporary christian music, others of us may tend to think that it must be rebuffed.  After all, such familiarity offends the transcendence of God, and tends to elevate human feelings or emotions to the level of the divine.

I suspect that underneath the admittedly banal lyrics of much contemporary christian pop music is a truth yet to be articulated.  We need a John Donne to tear up their lyric sheets and give them a seminar.  God is his lover.

 

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

excerpt, Holy Sonnet XIV

 

Dante's Purgatory: Canto XVIII: What is Love? (part 1)

Master, the light you shed has made
my sight so keen that now I clearly see
all that your words mean or what they imply.

So I beseech you, father, kind and dear,
define love for me, please, which is, you say,
the source of every virtue, every vice.

Purgatory XVIII.10 ff

 

In the last Canto Virgil began his discourse on the nature of love.  Here Dante gets right to the point:  "define love for me".  Easier said than done, one may think.   So Virgil leads Dante through several steps in order to explain more fully the nature of love.   Cast aside Hollywood and Hallmark if you wish to follow Virgil at this point.  Love in its infancy is the soul's movement toward that which pleases it.  There is in humaniy an "apprehensive power" (22) which forces the mind to be "attentive" to the thing it desires.  And if the mind is attentive, the mind inclines toward the object it desires: "that inclination is love" (26) Virgil tells Dante.  So we begin with an inward image of the thing we wish to love, and then we incline toward the thing itself.

This first movement of the soul is what Dante will call "natural";  we are created to love.  The example given by Virgil here is of fire moving upward to its natural place: "inspired by its own nature to ascend, seeking to be in its own element". (28)  Language here might be a problem for us.  We contemporary westerners tend to use the word "natural" in different senses that what Dante means.  Sometimes "natural" means "what I want".  For Dante, humanity is created by God with certain characteristics and certain purposes, so what is "natural" really means according to our nature as intended and created by God.  "Natural", then, is not necessarily what I want, but what God intended for me at my creation.

It is with this in mind that Virgil says to Dante:

It should be clear to you by now how blind
to truth those people are who make the claims
that every love is, in itself, good love.

(34-36)

Next up:  what then is "good love", and what distinguishes it from "bad love"?

 

Food & Conversation with Brian McLaren & John Franke

Food and Conversation with McLaren and Franke: Join authors Brian McLaren and John Franke for an evening of good food and great conversation on October 1st from 6:30-8:30 pm at Rutherford House, U of A Campus. Tickets are $200, which includes a $100 tax receipt and an autographed book. For tickets call 780 439 7344, or email.

 

For those of you who may not be attending this event, you are in luck!! There is an alternative.  Beers and fries with Joseph Walker on October 1st from 6:30-closing at Dewey's on the U of A campus.  Beer is $3.75, jugs for under $11, which includes pouring one for me from each pitcher ordered.  I'll be sitting just to the right of the pool tables.  I will also be available to sign your books for you.

Sermon notes: Pentecost 12; Luke 12: 49-56

(This is being posted under the duress of some really dodgy wifi, keeps cutting out in the middle of formatting.  I shall have to tonsure me a scribal monk to do this sort of work.)

  I have a baptism with which to be baptized,
and what stress I am under until it is completed.

On August 14 of this week, the church remembered two Christians who lived and died under the shadow of such a baptism.

During World War II, Bonhoeffer played a key leadership role in the Confessing Church, which opposed the anti-semitic policies of Adolf Hitler. He was among those who called for wider church resistance to Hitler's treatment of the Jews. While the Confessing Church was not large, it represented a major source of Christian opposition to the Nazi government in Germany.

He was both a pastor and a theologian.  He is most famous for his book “The Cost of Discipleship”, and in distinguishing between what he called “cheap grace” and “costly grace”.

"cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."

In contrast to this is costly grace: "costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Such discipleship was costly for Bonhoeffer: he was executed by hanging at dawn on 9 April 1945.    August 14 is also the commemoration of Maximillian Kolbe.

"On August 14, 1941. a modest  Franciscan friar, Maximilian Kolbe, was executed at Auschwitz. Two weeks earlier, a prisoner had escaped from Auschwitz. The camp's rule was that if one prisoner escaped, ten died in his place. All day the weak and underfed men from the escaped prisoner's block were made to stand in the sun without food and water. When the man was not found, a prison guard called out the names of ten men who were to die in his place.

When Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek heard his name called, he cried out, "Have mercy! I have a wife and children." But mercy was a commodity in short supply in Nazi death camps.

Into the gap stepped Maximilian Kolbe. He moved forward silently. Asked what he wanted, he replied, "I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children." Hesitating a moment in face of this noble gesture, Commandant Fritsch accepted the replacement. Maximilian and nine others were sent to starve to death. During those two weeks, Maximilian led the victims in hymns and prayer.

When he became too weak to speak aloud, he whispered his prayers. After two weeks, only four of the ten were still alive. Maximilian alone was completely conscious. The guards needed the space for more prisoners and decided to hasten the deaths with lethal doses of carbolic acid. Maximilian was last. Weak though he was, he raised his arm to receive the injection, triumphantly embracing martyrdom."

We know some of these details, because the guard who kept the records was so impressed during Maximilian's two-week ordeal that he logged more detail than was required.

[source:  Christian History Timeline]

[50] I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!

We have two images of Jesus’ baptism in the Gospels.  The first is his baptism in the river Jordan.  We stand as observers and hear the voice of God declare that Jesus is the chosen one, the Beloved.  It is often this first image which we think of when we hear the word baptism – the reassurance of God’s love.  It is the image we most often turn to when we have baptisms in our church.  We think of baptisms as benign at worse or joyful at best.

When Jesus speaks of baptism, his baptism, it is a powerful, even frightening and dangerous event.  In Mark 10, Jesus also spoke about his “baptism”: James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’

When Jesus talks about “baptism”, he does not speak about white dresses, presents from godparents and a light lunch afterward.  He speaks of the cross:  that “stumbling block” which somehow is at the center of his earthly mission, and the call to discipleship.

Jesus speaks to us today about the cost.  It is both the cost of his own mission, and the potential cost of our own discipleship. The reading from Hebrews gives us examples of others who were “baptized” with this baptism of Christ.  Though they lived before his time, they too “took up their cross” by faith.  They knew the cost of faith.  And they by faith looked forward to "a better resurrection" [11:35].

What is it to have a passionate faith?  A faith that matters?  A faith that makes a difference.  And how does one get such a faith?  Again, the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us: Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our wedding anniversary, the 4 kids gone to Grandma's...

finally, looking forward to a good night's sleep.

John Franke & Brian McLaren: mission, future, hope

for more info or to register, look here.

"Support Gun Control: use both hands"

As seen on a T shirt while getting boat fuel in southern British Columbia last week.

I'm just sayin'.

Dante's Purgatory Canto XVII - the Center of the Center is Love

The center of the center is love.  Readers of Dante have long noticed that this Canto falls in the middle of the Purgatorio, which is itself the middle of the poem as a whole.  And that in this Canto Virgil begins his speech on the nature of love.  Love, then, is the very center of Divine Comedy.  Virgil will begin to tell Dante that all sin is a distorted attempt at love.  We either love too little, or we love the wrong things, or we love lesser things too much.  What Purgatory does is realign, purify and redirect our love.  It is love which gives rise to all our actions, and indeed (as Dante quotes Boethius at the end of the Paradiso) it is love "which moves the sun and the other stars".

In order to walk with Dante and Virgil in this and the following Cantos, it might be necessary for us to put aside our own definitions of the word "love", and try to grasp what the poet means when he uses the word.  This is no easy task.  We use the word almost too freely.  Our contemporary definitions or ideas about "love" may be quite foreign to Dante's world.  But at least trying to grasp what Dante means is needed in order to climb further up the Mountain, and come closer to the entrance to the Paradiso.

In the story of the poem, Dante and Virgil emerge from the smoky fog of the Wrathful, and the sun begins to set.  They can climb no further on Mount Purgatory:  without the Sun (God), there is no ascent.  Just as the sun begins its descent, Dante experiences 3 visions of wrath.  These visions are internal.  Dante tells the reader that he sees these things "in my imagination" (XVII.19); "into my soaring fantasy" (.25); "in my imagination" (.34).  Now it may also be the case that we need to rethink what is meant by "imagination".  Dante, who draws heavily on some of Augustine's themes of journey and pilgrimage from the Confessions, may well have in mind Augustine's use of the term imagination from book X of that work.  Imagination is not merely "daydreaming", nor is it restricted to "creativity".  Rather, for Augustine, imagination is that power of the mind to think, or in some sense even be (ok, let's go for Aristotle here) pure potentiality.  It is a greater power and scope of the human mind than what we normally think of when we use the term "imagination".  Again, it is worth noting that these visions, these images, are within Dante.  They are not external to him.  The movement is from outward things to inward things.

Once they have been forced to stop by the setting sun, Dante asks Virgil about the next level (the Slothful) which they are just reaching.  This gives Virgil an opportunity to begin his speech on the nature of love, which will continue into Canto XVIII.

Neither Creator nor his creatures ever
my son, lacked love.  There are, as you well know
two kinds: the natural love, the rational.

Natural love may never be at fault;
the other may: by choosing the wrong goal,
by insufficient or excessive zeal.

While it is fixed on the Eternal Good,
and observes temperance loving worldly goods,
it cannot be the cause of sinful joys;

but when it turns toward evil or pursues
some good with not enough or too much zeal-
the creature turns on his Creator then.

XVII.91ff

What else is sin but a failure, or misdirection, of love?  Our problem, explains Virgil, is found in the structure of the Purgatorio.  There are sins which are the result of loving the wrong things (the lower levels); sins of loving too little (the middle levels); and then sins of loving  too much, or to put it another way, loving good things out of proportion to our love for God.  The Slothful, whom they will encounter next, are an example of those who "love too little";  the Lustful, whom they will meet later on, are an example of those who "love too much", so to speak.