GOODBYE 2014 - HELLO 2015

Blessings and good wishes for 2015.

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS - DAY 6 - WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY

REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn
Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.^* When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’^* And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’

(John 7:53-8:11)

The Gospel story is quite clear and stands on its own.

Image from Web Gallery of Art

OH NO!

Ladies and gentleman of the USA, this is what your Republican Majority Whip in the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise, was up to in 2002. Louisiana blogger Lamar White broke the story.

According to recently uncovered posts on Stormfront, the Internet’s oldest and most notorious white nationalist and neo-Nazi forum, the United States House Majority Whip, Steve Scalise (R- Louisiana), was allegedly an honored guest and speaker at an international conference of white supremacist leaders.

From the Washington Post:

In a statement, Scalise’s spokesperson Moira Bagley emphasized that the then-state lawmaker was unaware at the time of the group’s ideology and its association with racists and neo-Nazi activists.
....

She added, “He has never been affiliated with the abhorrent group in question. The hate-fueled ignorance and intolerance that group projects is in stark contradiction to what Mr. Scalise believes and practices as a father, a husband, and a devoted Catholic.”

I'd say giving a speech to a group is an association.  Also, I'm beyond weary of public figures hiding behind their devout religious practices when they are confronted with their own mistakes and misjudgments.

And it's not just Democrats who are questioning Scalise's story.  Here's Streiff at Red State:

Did he know who he was talking to? 

Louisiana isn’t a big state. State legislative districts aren’t particularly large. In Mr. Scalise’s case, when he spoke to this group he’d been serving in the Louisiana legislature since 1996. David Duke and his operation were not obscure. In 1991, Duke won the GOP gubernatorial nomination and faced known felon Edwin Edwards in the general election. This resulted in former governor Buddy Roemer who had campaigned, unsuccessfully, on the slogan “Anyone but Edwards” deciding that “Anyone” did not extend to a former KKK Grand Dragon.

For Mr. Scalise to creditably claim he was unaware of the nature of the group we all have to be idiots.

Exactly, it beggars belief that Scalise did not know he was speaking at an event sponsored by David Duke's organization.

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS - DAY 5 - FEAST OF HOLY INNOCENTS

The Holy Innocents icon by Tobias Haller

The King's Apology

King Herod was a man who weighed things in
the scale of his own judgment, in
his selfish-ordered world,
in which his life out-weighed all other lives.

So in his eyes expediency demanded that
this infant rival king be dealt with ere
he came of age to threaten Herod’s throne.
The other children were collateral loss,
indeed somewhat to be regretted
(as the later letter put it) due
to over-zealous overkill
by members of the royal forces.
(Politicians wipe away their crimes
as handily as crimes wipe out their foes.)

What? Never saw that letter?
Search the archives and I’m sure you’ll find
it, signed with Herod’s hand and seal.
“Condolences to all bereaved in Bethlehem
of Judah. Please accept my sorrow for
your loss, occasioned by excesses on
the army’s part. Those found responsible
will face review and discipline. Sincerely,
Herod, King.”

(Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG)

Though it's the same year after year, I am always saddened and somewhat surprised that the feast days following the joyous celebration of the Nativity of Jesus include the feast of St Stephen, the first martyr, and the feast of The Holy Innocents.

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
   wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
   she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’

(Matthew 2:16-18)

Collect for The Holy Innocents and all innocents.

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS - DAY 4 - PRE-CHRISTMAS VIEW FROM THE SUPERMARKET

Not silver bells

Silver Knells
(don’t take it too seriously … really) Marthe G. Walsh

Hurry scurry, festive flurry,
 with a holiday flare,
extra effort to make all things pretty,
divine presence or just nonsense,
 we could all use a break,
and a pause from that app meant to sell …

scented cones, plum-ey scones,
   it’s profit time at the groc’ry,
jing-a-ling, cashiers sing,
   seasonal overtime pay.

In the kitchen, there’s fried chicken
   and twelve turkeys prepared
for the shoppers too stressed for home cooking;
see the carts roll, truffle tart stroll,
   toddlers making a scene,
and around all a myth mingling spell …

 scented cones, plum-ey scones,
   it’s profit time at the groc’ry,
jing-a-ling, cashiers sing,
   seasonal overtime pay.

On the flat roof, there’s no real proof,
 of an elvish night flight,
just a sale sign with icicles jolly;
the menorah’s in the lobby
   near the Kwanza display,
and the waft through packed aisles you might smell …

scented cones, plum-ey scones,
   it’s profit time at the groc’ry,
jing-a-ling, cashiers sing,
   seasonal overtime pay.

Time for a humor break.  Thanks, Marthe.

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS - DAY 3 - FEAST OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST

St John's Episcopal Church - Thibodaux, Louisiana

Today is Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas and the feast of St John the Evangelist, the patron of my church. The Fathers of the Church believed John the Evangelist was the author of the Gospel, three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation and the same person as John the Apostle and John of Patmos.  Later scholars suggest rather that a disciple of John the Apostle wrote the Gospel and three Epistles and that John of Patmos was a different person, because the writing style of the Book of Revelation is too different from the Gospel and Epistles.

Pictured above is the stained glass window at St. John's Episcopal Church in Thibodaux. The detail in the glass shows a snake coming out of the goblet in John's hand. According to legend, the emperor Domitian offered poisoned wine to John, but he blessed the wine and the poison came out of the goblet in the form of a snake.  A painting by El Greco illustrates the same legend.

Collect of the day

Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light; that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John, may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain to the fullness of eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS - DAY 2

Glade jul by Viggo Johansen

The Cultivation of Christmas Trees - T S Eliot

There are several attitudes towards Christmas,
Some of which we may disregard:
The social, the torpid, the patently commercial,
The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight),
And the childish — which is not that of the child
For whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angel
Spreading its wings at the summit of the tree
Is not only a decoration, but an angel.

The child wonders at the Christmas Tree:
Let him continue in the spirit of wonder
At the Feast as an event not accepted as a pretext;
So that the glittering rapture, the amazement
Of the first-remembered Christmas Tree,
So that the surprises, delight in new possessions
(Each one with its peculiar and exciting smell),
The expectation of the goose or turkey
And the expected awe on its appearance,

So that the reverence and the gaiety
May not be forgotten in later experience,
In the bored habituation, the fatigue, the tedium,
The awareness of death, the consciousness of failure,
Or in the piety of the convert
Which may be tainted with a self-conceit
Displeasing to God and disrespectful to children
(And here I remember also with gratitude
St. Lucy, her carol, and her crown of fire):

So that before the end, the eightieth Christmas
(By “eightieth” meaning whichever is last)
The accumulated memories of annual emotion
May be concentrated into a great joy
Which shall be also a great fear, as on the occasion
When fear came upon every soul:
Because the beginning shall remind us of the end
And the first coming of the second coming.

The final verse especially resonates with me, since I turned 80 on my last birthday. One tends to ponder beginnings and ends and comings and goings.  Turning 70 was absolutely liberating for me, because I felt free to release my eccentric inner self.  Of course, some might say the eccentricity was freed long before, and I wouldn't quarrel with them.  Turning 75 was a landmark, reaching three quarters of a century (Amazing!), but marked no great change otherwise.  Turning 80 was momentous, awesome, a gift, three score and twenty, but also accompanied by the consciousness of limitations that increase, even if one ages well and remains in relatively good mental and physical health.

The days of our life are seventy years,
   or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
   they are soon gone, and we fly away. 
(Psalm 90:10)

And that, my readers, made me laugh.

Note: Maria Popove at Brainpickings tells of her discovery of a copy of the first American edition of the last of Eliot's Ariel pamphlets, and posts pictures of the pamphlet.  A lovely edition it is, indeed.

Image from Wikipedia.

THAT'S HOW I BELIEVE

Collect - Christmas Day

O God, who makest us glad by the yearly remembrance of
the birth of thy only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that as we
joyfully receive him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure
confidence behold him when he shall come to be our Judge;
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one
God, world without end. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

A favorite passage from one of my favorite books is the quote below from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte, two young Englishmen, meet at Oxford in the period between the two world wars. Charles is not a believer, and Sebastian is from an aristocratic Roman Catholic family. After they've been friends for a while, Sebastian brings up the subject of his faith and Catholicism. What follows is the dialogue between the two:

Sebastian: "Oh dear, it’s very difficult being a Catholic!"

Charles: "Does it make much difference to you?"

Sebastian: "Of course. All the time."

Charles: "Well, I can’t say I’ve noticed it. Are you struggling against temptation? You don’t seem much more virtuous than me."

Sebastian: "I’m very, very much wickeder," said Sebastian indignantly."

Charles: "… I suppose they try to make you believe an awful lot of nonsense?”

Sebastian: “Is it nonsense? I wish it were. It sometimes sounds terribly sensible to me."

Charles: “But my dear Sebastian, you can’t seriously believe it all."

Sebastian: "Can’t I?"

Charles: "I mean about Christmas and the star and the three kings and the ox and the ass."

Sebastian: "Oh yes. I believe that. It’s a lovely idea."

Charles: "But you can’t believe things because they’re a lovely idea."

Sebastian: "But I do. That’s how I believe."

I love the passage, because Sebastian describes how I believe, too. It's very much the stories, the myths (not myths in the sense of something that's not true - myths in the sense of universal truths) that are a great part of what draw me into Christianity.



A Blessed and Merry Christmas to all!

JOURNEY TO BETHELEHEM

Icon of the journey to Bethlehem in the Monastery of Chora in Constantinople

The story of the journey of Mary and Joseph as pictured in the icon mosaic:

There is an icon of their trip in the Monastery of Chora in Constantinople (Istanbul).  In it we see Joseph with a slight stoop and a gate of an elderly man.  He was generally thought to be about 80 years of age at this time.  His eyes are turned toward Mary who has her head turned towards him.  One of Joseph's sons is leading with his mantle flowing and carrying a bundle of provisions for the trip.

Apocrypha written after the four canonical Gospels, the earliest of which was the Gospel of James, from about 150 AD, state that Joseph was a widower, who had children by his first wife.

A Christmas poem by the gay poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, who converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism and became a Jesuit priest.

Moonless Darkness Stands Between

Moonless darkness stands between.
Past, the Past, no more be seen!
But the Bethlehem-star may lead me
To the sight of Him Who freed me
From the self that I have been.
Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;
Now beginning, and alway:
Now begin, on Christmas day.

A GOOD ADVENT

Alpha and Omega stained glass window, circa 1883, near the front door of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. (Rev. 21:5-8)

During the last week or so, and even before, but especially in the last week, I have been steeped in Advent, my favorite season of the church year, the time of anticipation and becoming.  I can say honestly that I've had a good Advent.  I love the readings from the Lectionary, which are wonderful, though they are, by no means, all sweetness and light.

The Annunciation - Fra Angelico - Fresco

The Incarnation, in which God comes down to become human, like us, in Jesus, not in a perfect world, but in a messy world, as it was then, and, as it is now, he comes to make all things new, to give us the water of life.  When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, a virgin at the time, to tell her that she had found favor with God and would have a son, Jesus, Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she was "perplexed".  "How can this be?" Though Mary was perplexed by the angel's message, her response was, "Here I am, the servant of the Lord."

So.  Jesus' mother Mary was an unwed, pregnant, teenager, whose betrothed, Joseph, was inclined to dismiss her quietly, so as not to embarrass her.  Still Mary would have been left as one of the despised, pregnant with no husband, until an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him God's plan was that he take Mary, the pregnant teenager, for his wife, though he was not the father of her child.

Before Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph had to journey to Bethlehem for a census, where they found no place to stay.  When the time came for Jesus to be born, Mary gave birth in the only shelter available, a stable, with only the breath and nearness of animals to keep them warm. 

How lowly a birth for the Son of God!  Is there a message in the story of Jesus' humble birth?   A few months after the the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, she visited her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist at an advanced age.  After meeting Elizabeth, Mary prayed the following prayer, the Magnificat, which I love, and which gives us a vision of the Kingdom of God.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’ 

Yes, there is a message in the Christmas story.

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation,
that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a
mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Images from Wikimedia Commons.