John sharing his research on Matthew & the Jewish environment.

 

Readings:

Genesis  2, 7-9; 3. 1-7,  The Lord God planted a garden in Eden.

Psalm 51,  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Romans 5, 12-19,   Through one man sin entered the world.

Matthew 4,  1-11.

 

     

Hi, Betsy.

 

The Gospel of Matthew and the Jewish Synagogue—Talk One

This is the first part in a short series on the relationship between the Jewish synagogue and the Gospel of Matthew.  My primary source is John Shelby Spong’s book titled, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, published 2016.

 

 

Ash Wednesday at Marlene's house.

 

Spong is a retired Episcopal Bishop and a Biblical scholar. Other references include The Catholic Study Bible, published 2011, edited by Donald Senior, C.P.; and the Constitution Dei verbum in 1965 by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI at the 2^nd Vatican Council.

 

 

Ash Wednesday, Lynda & Tom.

 

Pius XII’s encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu (tr. “Inspired by the divine spirit”) in 1943, encouraged all Catholics to read the Bible, and that Biblical study should be in the original languages. And he allowed for the use of the historical-critical method for understanding Biblical texts.  

 

 

The Choir on the stairs.

 

The 2^nd Vatican Council’s Constitution Dei verbum (tr. “Word of God”), in 1965, was set up by Pope John XXIII when (before he died) he nixed the first draft by a Vatican-only group, and asked for another draft from a group balanced with conservative and progressive biblical experts.

 

 

Jackie reading.

 

The second draft, accepted by Vatican II and approved by Paul VI, is progressive, acknowledging that Biblical interpretation requires the insights of historical analysis and literary analysis, and an understanding of the purposes of the text as written for its original audience.    

 

 

Frank reading the Gospel.

 

Bishop Spong begins his study with the necessity of being knowledgeable about Jewish culture, Jewish symbols and Jewish storytelling; otherwise we are unable to understand the Gospels. Most Christians are unaware of the Jewish context of the Gospels. We need to know how the gospel stories would have been understood by the Jewish gospel authors and by the Jewish audiences they originally were written for.

 

 

Remember, you came from dust & you will return to dust.

 

Being Jewish, Jesus and his disciples attended the Jewish synagogue during Jesus’ lifetime and for 2 generations following Jesus’ death, about 55 years.  It follows naturally that the memories of Jesus were deeply associated with the synagogue.  

 

 

Ashes for you, Dearest Mabel.

 

People often overlook that the original disciples and the followers of Jesus were—like him—Jewish.  As Jews they would participate in the life of the synagogue and the weekly Sabbath liturgy. As a result, the synagogue became the setting where the teachings of Jesus and the stories about him were recalled and passed on.

 

 

 

Sandra reading from Genesis.

 

It’s commonly accepted that the split between the synagogue and the followers of Jesus didn’t happen until the year 88 of the CE. This means that Paul died as a Jew, his missionary goal being to open up Judaism to the Gentiles. So, when Paul’s converts gathered on the Sabbath to ‘break bread’ it wasn’t as a step toward founding a new religious movement (a church), but to add a whole new dimension to life in the synagogue. 

 

 

Carrie reading from Romans.

 

The timing of all this also means that the earliest gospels, Mark and Matthew, written before 70 CE, existed while the Christian movement was part of the life and practice of the synagogue. To end this first talk, let me repeat these three amazing facts: 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Michelle

 

1) Jesus’ followers were members of the Jewish synagogue for about 50 years following Jesus’ death; the split between the Jewish synagogue and the followers of Jesus happened in the year 88 CE; 

2) Paul died as a member of the Jewish synagogue in about 63 CE, over 20 years before the split happened; 

3) the gospels of Matthew and Mark, even perhaps Luke and Acts, were written while the Christian movement was still part of the life and practice of the Jewish synagogue.      

   

 

          Rosemary reading her Blessing of the Week.

 

No mid-week blog this week.  Gone to Mexico.

                  

Readings: Genesis 12, 1-4; Psalm 33, Lord, let you Mercy be on Us, as we place our Trust in You; 2 Timothy 1, 8-10; Matthew 17, 1-9

Genesis observations—

 What: the first book of the Bible.  5 main character clusters, Adam & Eve plus family, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.

 Author: not Moses, as popularly thought for centuries, before biblical studies began..  A composite with 3 major contributors, called the Yahwist, the Elohist, and the Priestly.

 

 Date: The events themselves, did not take place, myth.  The writers, at least 2 of them, the Yahwist and the Elohist, seem to be composing during the time of the kings (for example, King David), maybe 1000 years before Christ.

 

Subject: Last week touched upon Adam & Eve & how our ancestors speculated about how we came into existence and why life has suffering. 

Today we look at how the Jewish people thought their nation came into existence.  Abraham is like George Washington.  He is seen as divinely appointed, just as the people thought they were divinely appointed.  There is a quality about the reading that says, “God told me to take your property.”

References: Good News Bible, The New Interpreter’s Study Bible.

 

Homily by Ed Lamberty

 

Sorry, no homily in print today.  The video of the homily went a bit long & was a personal story.

 

Picture 1:   Sacrament of the Sick, Curtis & Barb

Picture 2:   Our Father, Wendy, Ray, & Jon

Picture 3:   Our Father, John, Charlie, Jan, Rick, & Jackie

Picture 4:   Ed Lamberty tells his story

Picture 5:   2 Kite sisters, Emily & Lindsay in from college

Picture 6:   Zoe & her buddy, Carol 

 

Readings: Ezekiel 37, 12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8, 8-11; John 11, 1-45.

Ezekiel: Again we make a big jump, from Samuel & David to the prophet Ezekiel. The time is ca. 580 B.C, the time of the defeat of the Hebrews and the Babylonian captivity.  Ezekiel is warning the people of the calamities that come and ends eventually envisioning a new Jerusalem.

How Many More Years You Got to Appreciate?

We hear it said all the time that we have around 75 years of life in us.  That means we got 75 Christmases to enjoy, 75 springs and summers, and 75 Thanksgivings.  And that is from the age of Cameron & Reid, Brady & Trey.  Now you kids who are 10 or 15 only have 65 or 60 more birthdays and Easters.  Those of you 50 have only 25 more Christmases.  I have, guess, only 7 more according to the profile. 

Marriage at 25 means 50 years of fun & companionship.  I got married at 65.  Not much time to experience the fun & companionship. 

Over the past 5 weeks I have talked about some secrets to making marriage work.

 

·       Stay away from divorce, but play,

·       don’t expect a perfect marriage, but work for perfect moments,

·       plan fun and date regularly,

·       empty out the back pack of my junk and keep communicating,

·       give with words, listening, and touch & hugs.

This final discussion is both a summary of the five previous weeks and also a focus on appreciation.  Appreciation for the person who agreed to marry me.  The temptation is to rattle off the Spanish saying, "El amor es Ciego," love is blind.  The response to the temptation is appreciation.  Appreciate the perfect moments, the companionship, and the anniversaries.  Celebrate the appreciation.

We only have a limited number of Christmases & Easters, perfect moments and anniversaries.  Let’s not blow it.  Appreciate each one.

How many more do you have to celebrate?

               

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-03-09.mp3 

Readings: Acts 1, 1-11; Psalm 47, God Mounts his Throne to Shouts of Joy, a Blare of Trumpets for the Lord; Ephesians 1, 17-23; Luke 24, 46-53.  

Ascension  of the Lord – Intro to the Readings

Today, we have a whole lot of Luke and a reading from Paul, or someone who knew him very well!

 

 

Our first reading is from the beginning of Acts and because of the feast, we leave aside John’s Gospel today and hear about the ascension from the very end of Luke’s Gospel.

 

 

 

The Gospel of Luke ends as it began (Luke 1:9), in the Jerusalem temple.

Luke brings his story about the time of Jesus to a close with the report of the ascension. He will also begin the story of the time of the church with a recounting of the ascension. In the gospel, Luke recounts the ascension of Jesus on Easter Sunday night, thereby closely associating it with the resurrection. In Acts 1:3, 9-11; 13:31 he historicizes the ascension by speaking of a forty-day period between the resurrection and the ascension. The Western text omits some phrases in Luke 24:51, 52,  perhaps to avoid any chronological conflict with Acts 1 about the time of the ascension.

 

 

Homily for the Feast of the Ascension

 

 

Faith is one of those items, which, try as we might, we will never be fully able to explain.  But I think there is a clue to this challenge in our second reading today.  There is a little phrase in there about the eyes of the heart.   I have never heard of the phrase “eyes of the heart” before, but the more I thought about them the more it started to make sense to me.

 

 

For most of my life beginning with my first catechism my faith seems to involve learning stuff:  information, ten commandments, seven sacraments, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, twelve apostles names, mortals sins and venial sins.  The list goes on and on.  As humans, today, we are almost obsessed with information, data.  I don’t think that people at the time of Christ were quite so obsessive as this.  Here is why:

 

In our first reading today from the opening chapter of Acts, Luke tells us that Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after the resurrection.  Yet in the gospel reading, also by Luke, if we pay close attention to the last chapter of that Gospel, Jesus ascended to heaven the same day as the resurrection!  Both readings are from the same writer.  Both readings coming from close to each other in their respective books, the last chapter of the gospel and the opening chapter of the Book of Acts, and yet this contradiction did not seem to matter to Luke or his audience. 

 

The only conclusion is that the detail, the facts themselves were not that important.  The event was looked at thru the eyes of the heart.  As I said on Easter Sunday, the fact of the Resurrection cannot be proven; neither can the fact of the Ascension.  They can only be seen thru the eyes of faith, thru the “eyes of the heart”

 

This week I was watching a new TV program “Into the Universe” from Steven Hawkins, the world's most famous living scientist which is all about the origins of the universe.  Even as intelligent a person as Hawkins cannot find God in our universe, and I believe the reason is quite simple. 

 

 

He is not looking with the eyes of the heart; he is looking through the eyes of a scientist who looks for hard data.  Our God is outside all of that.  Our God is in a totally different world.  His is the world of caring, the world of loving, of taking care of the poor, the sick and the lonely.  Our God has one simple rule, love one another. 

 

This kind of stuff is only visible thru the eyes of the heart.  And so today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, we can only celebrate it emotionally, not intellectually, because the notion of someone rising from the dead and going up where-ever doesn’t make any sense from a scientifically observable point of view, but is easy to accept in the context of a God who loves you and me unconditionally.

 

Picture 1:  Fr. Tony Begins

 

Picture 2:  Fr. Tony & Buddies, Marianne, George, & Ron

 

Picture 3:  Coffee time, Curtis, Warren, Ken & Cindy, Teresa & Tom, & Mabel

 

Picture 4:  Old Geezers, Tony, Jerry, David, & Stack

 

Picture 5:  Backpacking talk, Lynda, Bill, Daniel, & Claire

Readings:

Ezekiel 37, 12-14,   I will open your graves and have you rise.

Psalm 130,  With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Romans  8, 8-11,  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

John  11, 1-45,  The raising of Lazarus.

 

 

Make Lazarus live.  Make life happen.

Guess what, I have a story about France this morning.  I want to use it to exemplify the metaphor of giving life that is contained in the Lazarus story.  I would propose that Jesus metaphorically gave life to Lazarus, something all of us can do, give life.

There is a tour company known as Fat Tire Bike Tours.  Founded a few years ago by, of all things, an Aggie who made good in life, the company has tours in a number of European cities, Paris included, naturally. 

 

 

Rosemary & I have used them a few times in Paris and we find them terrific.  A week ago we joined a group that was going to visit the home of Claude Monet, an hour train trip northwest out of Paris into the province of Normandy.  On these distant trips you take the train out to the location, like the palace of Versailles, for instance.   Then you pick up bikes and ride.

Our tour was meeting at the St. Lazare train station in Paris and going to Giverny, the simple, but beautiful garden home of the impressionist artist, Claude Monet.  Twenty eight people met at 10 A.M. at gate 22, and we split into two with a guide for each.

 

 

Our international group of Chinese, Australians, Irish, Americans, and a 28 year old New Zealander guide rode the train to Vernon, a neighboring town to Giverny.   We picked up bikes, went to buy picnic lunches at a farmers’ market, rode to the edge of the Seine River that ran through the town, and had a picnic.

On the picnic the group came alive.  The guide had his French girl friend with her two French girl friends.  Another sparkling young couple from Australia revealed that they were just engaged the evening before.   Life came to the group as pairs or individuals revealed glimpses into themselves.

 

As the day went on, (we traveled together from 10 to about 7 in the evening), Rosemary & I began to reveal ourselves and we also focused on hearing the stories of others.   We targeted particularly 3 groups.

One, of course, was the Australian couple.  We invited them to tell the amusing story about how the engagement planned never took place, but still was dear.  I said I knew an old priest who would do their wedding cheap.

 

 

Then we spent a lot of attention on the guide and his girl friend.  They were not engaged, but we, of course, almost had them married.  I suggested that same old geezer priest would  do their wedding. 

Thirdly, we focused on a Chinese family from California, a mother, an 18 year old high school senior, and an 11 year old, shy daughter.   The 18 year old especially talked about his hopes and dreams, to go to Georgetown, to become a doctor, to work for Doctors without Borders. 

 

 

He said he wanted to work internationally like I had done.  I affirmed his dream while pointing out I did this in 74 years and he still had time at 18.

The mother was extraordinary.  Leaving China, speaking Cantonese and another Chinese language, Erica, did not seem daunted by the prospect of financing Jacob’s educational dreams.

 

 

By the time we arrived again at gate 22 in the St. Lazare station about 7:00, an amazing closeness and life pervaded the group and everyone was hugging.  Jacob even asked to use us as the subject of a project he had to compose for his classes.  He took our picture.  I was flattered.

By asking these people to tell their stories, I saw them come alive. Reciprocally, their stories enlivened me and Rosemary.  We were mutually giving new life.

I repeat my idea, Jesus metaphorically gave life to Lazarus.  And we give life to each other.   That is what our community attempts to do.  That is what Mike’s ideas about a beans & rice brunch and a penitential rite do for us.

To whom are you giving life?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for bringing up our gifts this morning, Carrie & Paul & Mike.

 

 

Readings:  

 Isaiah 35, 4-7,  Be strong, Fear not.  (Isaiah at his best!)

Psalm 146,   Praise the Lord, My Soul.

 James 2, 1-5, Did not God choose those who are poor?

Mark 7, 31-37,  His speech impediment was removed.

 

 

 

Thanks, Dearest Zoe, for lighting our candles this Sunday morning.

 

 

Isaiah observations

 

This selection is from Isaiah 1.    It is a time when Judah, the southern kingdom, is threatened by a powerful neighbor, Assyria (ever hear of this place today?)  Isaiah saw that the real threat to the life of Judah was not simply the might of  Assyria, but the Kingdom's own evil ways.  Guess what is coming, the Babylonian Captivity. 

Today's passage is much more on the hopeful side.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading our Blessing of The Candles this morning, My Dearest Georgie.

 

Be Strong, Fear not.  He comes to save You.

I want to talk this morning about fearing not and being strong, because he comes to save us.

The summer of 1970 was the summer before I got ordained here in Dallas.  I had two more years of theology study in Toronto.  That summer of 1970 I was interning as a chaplain at Boston City Hospital in a Pastoral Counseling program run by Andover-Newton Theologate.

 

 

Welcome in, Natalie & Jim. 

 

 

I lived in the Jesuit  residence in Dorchester.  There were about 4 of us Jesuits.  Because a great Jesuit of the house worked with the kids of the neighborhood  our house was a total safe zone.  The younger kids would look through the windows of the dining room & living room during meals and when we had guests.  We told them your car will not be touched if you park here and they know you are friends.

Remember the Plow Shares 5 and the draft board burnings that Summer?  One of the guys lived with us.

 

 

 

I got The Best Team.

 

 

Every morning I would get up and walk to the hospital through the somewhat famous Roxbury area of Boston.  I never had a problem.  They knew who I was.

My day consisted of visiting patients, typing up interviews verbatim, and taking part in rather confrontational group sessions of 5 or 6 with a supervisor.  I think I came close to getting kicked out for refusing to redo one of my verbatims. 

My most favorite part of the day was visiting the patients.  I loved this dynamic.  There were some powerful sessions.

 

 

 

And we got The Best Music.

 

 

I remember especially one old tough white Bostonian, a former Catholic.  I asked him what became my favorite question, How do you feel about dying?

For a day or so he said, No problem.  Another day he tells me I’m going to hell when I die, but so be it.

You know why.   He and his first wife had divorced years ago.  He  married his recently deceased wife and had kids and a 25 year  happy marriage.  

 

 

 

For Hue our Total Community Blessing on your operation this Wednesday.
 

 

I could not believe it.  This may have been my first with this phenomenon.  I had already concluded that hell was a gimmick of the writers of the time and did not exist.  It was good for keeping in line the people of the tribe.

Would you have sent that guy to hell, for ever? 

What about you?  Where you going?

I think the old guy died peacefully.

 

 

 

Okay, Joe, can we trust you to get that birthday cupcake home to Marsha. 

 

On The Light Side:   (A little old, but still good)

 

On their way to the church to get married, a young Catholic couple 
were involved in a fatal car accident.

Being good Catholics the young couple find themselves sitting outside 
the Pearly Gates waiting for St. Peter to process them into Heaven.

While waiting, they begin to wonder: could they possibly get married 
in Heaven?

When St. Peter finally showed up, they asked him.

St Peter said "I don't know. This is the first time anyone has asked. 
Let me go find out" and he leaves them sitting at the Gate.

After three months, St Peter finally returns, looking somewhat 
bedraggled. "Yes" he informs the couple " I can get you married in 
Heaven".

"Great!" said the couple "But we were just wondering, what if things 
don't work out? Could we also get a divorce in Heaven?"

"You must be joking" says St. Peter, red-faced with 
frustration, slamming his clipboard on the ground.

"What's wrong?" asked the frightened couple".

"OH, COME ON!" St. Peter shouted "It took me three months to find a 
priest up here …..Do you have any idea how long it'll take me to find 
a lawyer?"

 

Blame Ken Cramer for this, not Me!