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My Professors

"My people. . . the ones fully relating my virtues" (Isaiah 43:21)

living that relates
my virtues from the
knowing that describes
my virtues to the
hearing that instills
my virtues to the

discerning that perceives
my virtue of loving
love that encompasses
my virtue of freeing
freedom that champions
my virtue of serving

Call to Fast, Pray, and Read Week Two

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αλλάξουσιν ισχύν (Isaiah 40: 31)

in case the reader missed it, the next verse repeats it

αλλάξουσιν ισχύν (Isaiah 41:1)

For the God-awaiting, and for the rulers over them, and for the one who brings justice

ισχύν

It appears miniscule floating in the middle of all this white space. To Isaiah, it’s central.

Strength, Power, Might, Force, Ability, Am/Is/Are-ness

This hard-to-translate-into-English-because-of-its-layers-of-meaning word, The Book of Isaiah repeats 15 times over 13 chapters.

That’s hard to miss in the Greek.

Isaiah is a prophet of justice proclaiming a power that can bring to life his prophetic vision. God, as the source of this justice-achieving power, is able to imbue humans with it.

αλλάξουσιν

Gamers have a phrase-- Power Up. It refers to finding an object in a video game that gives the player an extra ability. It might be heftier firepower, stronger shields, longer life, greater speed, claiming objects that make the game easier to play and winning it more likely is a power up.

God’s power, according to Isaiah, is something along these lines. Isaiah is not describing a human power, such as force of personality or strength of intelligence, but instead Isaiah’s message conceives of God’s power as an in-addition-to and other-than our natural abilities.

“Renews their strength” is not an adequate translation of αλλάξουσιν ισχύν. “Adds another ισχύν” to those they already have, is closer to the Greek.

I’ve spent this week contemplating how I’ve been powered up by God in the past. What kept coming to mind is the number of times that God gave me the ability to love my enemies and pray for my persecutors. Definitely not a strength that comes to me naturally.

I admit to a certain amount of grumpiness that in the midst of justice-seeking discernment of UMC next steps, “love your enemies” is the lesson God imparted. Apparently, I needed reminding.

I suspect that the ισχύν given is different depending on the needs of the individual. God has given me love of enemies. What power is God imbuing you with that will aid the movement forward?

Call to Fast, Pray, and Read: Week One

Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images

The invitation arrived last Sunday announcing a six-week intention to fast, pray, read
From June 24 to August 4 seeking The Will Of God
     During this season of disaffiliation, these collective interventions feel like the appropriate call

After joining the witness list, I began the assigned lesson: Isaiah 40-66

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 40, Verse One

First word: παρακαλείτε
     Looks like parakeet
     Sounds like Paraclete, which looks like
          παράκλητος, which is sometimes translated
     Helper-Comforter-Advocate
          Derived from
     παρα--  As in Close Beside
     καλέω-- As in Make a Call
                As if being close to the situation, the legal advisor makes the correct call and the client is  
               comforted
          Sometimes symbolized as a White Dove or as a Red Flame
     Never to my knowledge as a parakeet, a species of parrot with a potential lifespan of twenty
             years unless living in pet confinement, in which case the average lifespan is cut by three-
             fourths
                 One Part)      Inadequate Nutrition
                 Two Parts)    Poor Hygiene
                 Three Parts)  Cages

     Echoed in the final word of the first pericope: παρακαλέσει
As if Isaiah’s God is like a shepherd who comforts the pregnant ewes
        by advocating for a healthy diet and a safe shelter and the freedom to rest in green meadows and
        wander beside tranquil waters and then goes on to help them realize these rights

The first word of the prophecy is comfort.  The last word of the prophecy is comfort.
     As in, the Church called into being by the Paraclete will worship Isaiah’s God, and every one of its members will be close beside the comfortless, and its leaders will all teach the lesson that helping those in need of advocates is an act of worship, and this witness, spoken and lived, will distress the comfortable, who will confess and repent and will become a legal power that makes the correct call and protects the vulnerable, or they will leave the Church of Isaiah’s God and find a congregation that is not so distressing to their status quo.

Thus ends the first week of discernment.

The Good Book Week One

Luke 1:17 -- απειθείς εν φρονήσει δικαίων.  The angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that his son John will convert the unpersuaded to correct practical wisdom.  They are currently unpersuaded by God or by God's teachings.  John, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will have the ability to persuade them to both believe and act according to God's justice.

φρονήσει means a visceral understanding of the action to take.  δικαίων identifies this as not just any practical wisdom, but the understanding of the just or righteous ones.

I'm comforted by the notion of instinctively knowing how to react in a situation, but also fearful of any religious leader who claims to know what God wants the followers of that leader to do.  

If the course of action is limited to imitating the behaviors of the saints, then perhaps that narrowing of all possible actions to only the saintly ones will protect the persuaded from mistaking a human opinion for the voice of God.

Good Book Club for Lent

The Episcopal Church is hosting a Lenten/Easter devotional practice that anyone can join.  The Good Book Club provides resources for reading the Gospel of Luke during Lent and the Book of Acts during the Easter season.  Find those resources here.  My goal is to read along in the Koine Greek Bible.  Thanks Episcopalians!

Reject the Numbness, II

Myrrh

And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.
-Mark 15:23

Why did you refuse their mercy?

Without it, the impact of nail through

tissue-bone-tendon

drove undeadened into the brain.

The agony of gravity

reverberated undampened

against the ears.

How thoughtless of you Jesus,

to make the moment more difficult for them.

Reject the Numbness

Jesus was offered myrrh-ed wine (ἐσμυρνισμένον) before the crucifixion, but he didn't take it.  (Mark 15:23)  Apparently, such wine was commonly offered to the crucified because of myrrh's pain-deadening properties.

The image a Jesus rejecting myrrh keeps coming back to me as I read tweets and Facebook posts.  So many people are anxious and feeling unsafe that I'm tempted to numb myself to their pain.  The number of hurting and worried people is that overwhelming.

There are plenty of ways I could choose numbness over engagement -- block Twitter and Facebook accounts, ignore certain news outlets, spend my free-time pursuing pleasant distractions.  Then I remember Jesus facing the cross without cutting the pain, and the temptation to dropout fades.

Why did Jesus choose to feel the pain of the crucifixion when he had an alternative available to him?  His choice was a brave one, and it makes me feel brave.  I can face what's happening in society because I am in communion with this type of Savior, one who can endure the pain and triumph over it.  I anticipate that he will give me victory over the anxieties of today, too.

The Failed Doorkeeper

Resolution

A Lack of ἀπόλλυμι Experience

  Janine di Giovanni's documentary "7 Days in Syria" obviously made an impression on me. Because of it, the images of what is left of the city of Aleppo are at the forefront of my mind as I contemplate the word απολέσει.

To be a more perfect example

Jesus is My Superhero

Studying Mark 5:1-20 while at the same time reading Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber with these results . . .

There's fear and then there's fear

Verbs of the Good-Soil People

Parable of the Sower, Part 2 of 4

Fertility not Fecundity

Parable of the Sower, Part 1 of 4

Jesus is angry-sad with me

Their Faith-Act

Theological Worlds

Light to Darkness to Light Again

“Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth,

but the glory of the LORD rises and appears over you.”

--Isaiah 60:2

The reference to darkness in the Crucifixion scene intrigues me because it seems to be an allusion harkening back to the Genesis Creation.  The same phrasing appears in Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44 just before Jesus dies* --

“darkness (σκότος) there was (ἐγένετο) on the whole earth (γῆν)”.

The same three Greek words noted in this Crucifixion verse are also found in Genesis 1: 2 and 3  --

“But the earth (γη) was unseen and unready and darkness (σκότος) upon the abyss and God’s spirit bore down upon the water” (1:2)

“There was (εγένετο) light” (1:3)

The Genesis verses bring to mind the image of the earth in a lightless and watery womb, waiting to be born when suddenly God’s contractions begin.  God speaks the word and light is born.  Once the waters are parted, the earth will fully emerge.

As Jesus hangs upon the Cross dying, this process begins to be reversed.  The earth moves back into the darkness.  It is as if the creation is undone when Jesus is crucified.  

The Crucifixion marks the end of the world made in Genesis.  I imagine a reset button being pushed.  God calls a do-over so that the earth may be born anew.  After a three-day gestation period, the Resurrection occurs and the New Creation is born of the Spirit.

Faith that the Spirit is still causing the New Creation to mature from infancy to adulthood is the source of my hope for the social order.  I want to align my efforts with the divine creative process that is moving the Earth from darkness to light.  

My difficulty identifying what the Spirit is up to is the obstacle that impedes my sincere efforts and stymies my good intentions.  I confess my ignorance, attempt to temper my advocacy with meekness and humility, and keep trying to be faithful.

___________________

*  The darkness appears in the Gospel of John as well, but it is not an exact parallel:  
John 20:1 -- “it still being dark (σκοτίας), Mary Magdalene went to the tomb”

Knock off our rough edges