Readings: Isaiah 60, 1-6; Psalm 72, Lord, Every Nation on Earth will adore You; Ephesians 3, 2-6; Matthew 2, 1-12.

Isaiah 60: author, date, subject

Author: 3 Isaiah (responsible for chapters 55-66)

Date: ca. 400, after the Babylonian Captivity, ended ca. 550

Subject: lines such as, Rise up in splendor, the glory of the Lord shines, people from the east will come with gold & frankincense.

source: John Shelby Spong

The Great Debate: Myth vs Fact

I have just had an epiphany event in my life.  I was visited by an old friend, a wise friend, maybe a wise guy friend.  He says, "Stack, you are a fraud."  You folks have known this all along.  He says that the homily I gave before Christmas on the Partridge in a Pear Tree was not true.  Sorry to have to tell you this.  The history was wako, did not happen.  As you can imagine, I was quite deflated, but figured he was right because he is more of a researcher than I. 

So, folks, the old geezer fraud fesses up this morning.  I confess that I did not do any research on the subject.  Somebody sent it to me a few years ago, and I did not even save the name of the sender. 

So, using my friend's research and my own, I discovered that maybe the symbols were connected to the old Christmas carol ca. 1990.  Apparently nobody knows.  It was pointed out that these symbols did not need to be secret because of persecution.  The Elizabethan protestants shared most of the same symbols.  No secret needed.  Plus the carol may have come from France.  So, everyone, erase that homily and the history I gave you.  I blew that one. 

It struck me in the midst of this, could we be witnessing the creation of a myth?  100 years from now how many people will believe the version that I presented?  Could this be an example of what took place in the bible?  You have certainly heard that biblical scholars have determined that the nativity stories are the result of literary liberties taken by Luke & Matthew, not factual history.  I can give you two simple examples.

First, Bethlehem.  It is thought that Jesus was really born in Nazareth.  But Luke & Matthew, the only writers dealing with the nativity, wanted to connect Jesus with King David.  David was born in Bethlehem.  It is pointed out that it is a long way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, it was winter, and Mary was pregnant.  A woman researcher commented, "Only a man would imagine such a journey possible for a pregnant woman."

Why were people going to Bethlehem?  To be counted in a census of all the descendents of David.  David lived a 1000 years earlier, had many wives and mistresses.  His offspring would have numbered in at least the thousands.  No wonder there was no room.  And imagine how skitzy Herod would be with these thousands of potentially hostile subjects just a few miles from Jerusalem.

Why did the writers use such literary liberties?  They want to show that Jesus was special, he was the figure 1 Isaiah predicted, the God-hero, the wonder worker, the Prince of Peace.  They had heard so much about the adult Jesus that they wanted to make his birth a God-hero event.  So, connect him with the Great King David.

Finally, secondly, there is one small but significant mistranslation.  In Isaiah 7, 14, it is said, "A young woman will have a child."  Matthew, most likely intentionally to craft his point, mistranslates the word young woman as virgin, and says 'a virgin will become pregnant' (1, 23).  And so it has come down. 

There are three ways to respond to these studies.  One is to say, "No problem, God can do all that stuff.  He's all powerful."   The trouble with this is that the evidence is becoming overwhelming.  Like still saying the earth is flat.

Or I can simply toss out the whole and stay home.

A middle ground could be to recognize that literary liberties have been used.  And still celebrate the event.  The event, the Prince of Peace gives me peace and gives me a longing to share the peace. 

I goofed up by not researching the Partridge in a Pear Tree.  Sorry about that.  What we may be seeing here is a myth process similar to the biblical stories.  Myth or fact?  How can I be an educated, intelligent Christian?

What do you think about all this?  What do you feel about it?

Sources: John Shelby Spong; Harvey Cox, Future of Faith; Catholic Encyclopedia on line; Snopes

Picture 1:  Epiphany Celebration begins

Picture 2:  Mass with Kevin helping

Picture 3:  35th Anniversary, Carol & Richard 

Picture 4:  Chloe dances (see video)

The Feast of the Holy Family, Fr. Tony

The Church for the Feast of the Holy Family is generous in offering us several readings to choose from.  I have selected for our First ReadingFirst Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28, and the Letter to the Colossians 3: 12-17 as our Second Reading, the Gospel is from Luke 2: 41-52.

The story in our first reading about the birth of Samuel to Hannah and her presentation of the boy Samuel to the priest Eli happens at a time of great change for the Israelites.  The time is around the year 1000 BCE. 

Remember that after the People had been lead from slavery in Egypt, passing thru the desert with Moses and then coming to the Promised Land, they had basically invaded the place under Joshua.  After this they had continued their worship of Yahweh as a loose Confederation of Twelve Tribes.  They would meet each year at Shiloh, which we shall hear referred to in our reading today.  But external forces were beginning to invade. 

At this time they were under pressure from the Philistines and also the Ammonites.  The Tribal Federation was not proving effective in defending them.  In this period the People were ruled by a series of Judges and our boy Samuel turns out to be the last of these Judges.  He is the one who anoints Saul as the First King, and of course King David immediately follows Saul.  

And so the People move from this Tribal Confederation to a Monarchy.  One which was to split after the death of Solomon into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

The gospel reading today from Luke tells of an incident in the early life of Jesus.  It serves as a bridge between the Infancy stories of the Birth of Jesus and the beginning of His public ministry with His baptism by John at the Jordan.

The reading itself is interesting.  If we were to put it into today’s world, it would be like taking a trip from Dallas to San Francisco by bus.  Imagine the scene.  A couple, with their 12 year old, going all that distance in say a caravan of buses.  They spend a few days in San Francisco and then are heading back. The first overnight stop on the way back is in Salt Lake City.  The parents have been in separate buses and figure the kid is with the other!  To their consternation, he is still in San Francisco.  Imagine the dialogue as they try get back to the City. Imagine three frantic days of searching for a 12 year old!  And then in desperation going to the Cathedral of the day and finding him there.  I am not too sure my dialogue would have been as gentle as Mary’s, and I certainly wouldn’t have appreciated the comment about being about my Father’s business!! 

All families are different!  But they seem to have a common purpose.  A safe place for humans!  At least that would seem to be the current intended purpose.  I suspect in earlier times the purpose had much more practical terms, namely making kids who could become helpers in the fields so that we could produce more crops. 

I want to turn to the second reading though as a kind of recipe for a successful family.  In Paul’s time it was for a successful community, which indeed I feel a family is also.  I would like to think that our community here is an extended family, where we can care for each other and support, encourage, and share in success or cry with loss and failure.  Paul talks about putting on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, and then over all these put on Love.  What kind of a family would you have if we could follow this advise! 

As we begin another year, a time when we take stock of our lives, perhaps we can try to implement this behavior.  Imagine what it would be like.

Picture 1:  Tony Begins the Mass of the Holy Family

Picture 2:  Vivian Miller's baptism

Picture 3:  Vivian's family

Picture 4:  The Beautiful Zoe

: Great clip on the Nativity Drama (if pressing the arrow does not start the video, move the red dot)
 

Readings: From the Midnight Mass, the best–Isaiah 9, 1-6; Psalm 96, Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord; Titus 2, 11-14; Luke 2, 1-14.

Isaiah: author, date, subject–

  Author: Isaiah is one of the three great OT prophets along with Jeremiah & Ezekiel.  This is partly because of the size of the work, 66 chapters, but even more so because Isaiah is so beautiful and influential in the Christian story. 

There are really three Isaiahs, chapters 1-39, 40-55, & 56-66.  How do we know?  Simple.  Different styles of writing, different vocabularies, different slants to the message.

Date: 1 Isaiah, our selection is put together ca. 700 BCE.  2  Isaiah, ca. 500 BCE; 3 Isaiah, ca. 400 BCE.

Subject: As always, there has been predictions of doom & destruction.  This passage, however, is the flip of this.  Listen for words like rejoicing, making merry, joy, peace, a God-hero Child is born.

Source: Bishop John Shelby Spong

Where is the God-Hero Child?

This past fall Gloria Eshelbrenner got married in Seattle.  She is Richard & Carol's daughter.  Rosemary & I got invited to perform the ceremony, beautifully located over water at a yacht club.

Rosemary & I went on the Monday before the wedding so that we could visit the city, which was the first time for both of us in Seattle.  A great city.  Just do not look at the weather forecast today and for the past 4 weeks.  

One morning we walked down hill into the center of town and went into a Starbucks, what else, just across the street from the Pike St. Market.  It was a marvelous old corner location with a high ceiling, mirrors on the walls, and wood paneling.  Must have once been a bar.

We got our lattes and went looking for a place to sit.  There were the usual tables & chairs and also groups of four leather easy chairs squared before wooden topped coffee tables.  All were more or less occupied. 

One square, fortunately had only one person, a late middle aged woman.  The woman wore bulky clothes without much color, a shawl over her shoulders, a stocking cap on her head, a coffee on the table in front of her, she was slouched and she was asleep.  I thought she must be a street person come in to take a nap & a coffee. 

There was no other place, so we decided we would give it a try, as long as she did not smell.  

We sat and began to enjoy the lattes when the woman, now on my left side, stirred and reached for her coffee.  I said something like, "Good Morning," and we began to talk.  

Turned out she was far from being a street person.  She was just getting off of work at an animal shelter, where she was the nighttime attendant.  We had not chatted for more that a few minutes when out from under her shawl and coat a little head emerged.  It was a little Chihuahua dog, very friendly and sleepy.  We spent probably a delightful half an hour talking with this Seattle lady and her little dog.  

I had done it again, folks, judged the book by the cover.  Whatever I thought she was in the beginning, she turned out to be a special blessing and gift to me & us. 

Where do you find these people blessings, these god-hero people?

Picture 1:  Christmas Eve, 2009

Picture 2:  Mass begins with Kevin helping

Picture 3:  The Nativity Drama

Picture 4:  The McGraths, Terry & Joy, Morgan & Tyler

Picture 5:  The Community Rectory in Snow, Christmas

Readings: Micah 5, 1-4; Psalm 80, Lord, make Us turn to You; let Us see Your Face and We shall be saved; Hebrews 10, 5-10; Luke 1, 39-45

Micah: author, date, subject, our selection–

Author: one of the minor prophets (because of length, 7 chapters), Micah is considered to be the author of these words.

Date: probably around 700-690 BCE, a contemporary of Isaiah, living in Judah.  He had witnessed the destruction of the northern half of the kingdom, Israel, by the Assyrians, ca. 720 BCE.  He watched Judah pay tribute to Assyria.  He forsaw the Babylonian disaster coming to Judah, the southern half of the kingdom, which finally took place in 590.

Subject: like all prophets, he predicted doom and destruction for Judah because of the injustice of the people, especially the rich over the poor.  Micah learned from Israel's destruction by Assyria, which he attributed to God's anger with those people. 

Then, of course, he predicts a return to peace and prosperity after the people are purified.  He speaks to Bethlehem as if to a persona and says that a new ruler will come from the town who will shepherd the people.  Why Bethlehem?  Because David was born there and the new David was supposed to come from the same royal village.

Asked what God wants of us (like penance, sacrifices of animals, goods, even children), Micah states one of the great lines in scripture: "What God requires of us is: 1. act justly, 2. love tenderly, and 3. walk humbly with our God." (6, 8)

Our Selection: God promises a just ruler will be born in Bethlehem, the place where King David was born, a royal village.

Sources: Wikipedia, John Shelby Spong

Jesus is Coming

Remember hearing the Christmas carol that goes, "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…a partridge in a pear tree"?  Ever wonder what on earth it means?  What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially a partridge in a pear tree have to do with Christmas?  Here is the rest of the story.

In England many years ago, the king, Henry VIII, got mad at the pope.  Know why?  He wanted to marry another wife, Anne Boleyn.  The pope would not grant him permission, so Henry banned Catholicism in England and destroyed churches & monasteries, collecting their money.  This started around 1550 and it lasted until about 1800, a long time.

Masses were forbidden and people were hung for breaking the law, especially during Henry's daughter's time, Elizabeth the daughter of Anne.  A number of Jesuits snuck into England at this time, celebrated secret Masses, were caught, tortured, and killed.  Rosemary & I even visited a delightful little town called Shrewsbury near the border with Wales.  A series of fun novels is written about a Brother Cadfill who lived in the Shewsbury monastery.  We saw the remains of the monastery destroyed by Henry's men.

What Catholics had to do was speak in code.  This Christmas carol is all code.  It was like a catechism for the people.  Here is the symbolism explained:

   The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus.

• Two turtledoves were the Old and New Testaments.
• Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
• The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John.
• The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
• The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
• Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
• The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
• Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
• The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
• The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
• The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in The Apostles' Creed.

Whenever Catholics sang this Christmas carol they were singing about what they believed despite the danger to themselves. 

How are you celebrating the freedom we have to openly sing our Christmas carols?

Picture 1:  Advent Altar

Picture 2:  Mass beginning with Kevin

Picture 3:  Nikki & Sabrina

Picture 4:  The Cookie Shoppe with Nikki & her brother Cameron & Angela in the background