Christmas 2012

CHRISTMAS 2012

In his latest newsletter cum bible study of the Nativity stories, retired Bishop John Spong presents a strong case for finding clues to the birth of Jesus to Mary in very real, human circumstances. Four of Jesus’ ancestors listed in the genealogy of Matthew 1:1-18 were women of ill repute according to the Law of Moses – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Women did not appear in traditional Hebrew genealogies. So this was nothing to boast about in the strict Hebrew tradition.

Furthermore, it was Joseph who discovered Mary’s pregnancy and by the inspiration of the Spirit overcame his reluctance to marry her. His inspiration came in a vision of an angel speaking to him, a typical means of revelation in the Hebrew scriptures.

We may conclude from this interpretation of Matthew’s narrative that from the very first Jesus’ family life was very disturbed in terms of what we often define as “traditional family values.” On the other hand, this gives deeper meaning for me of the considerable distress a great many families are experiencing this year as Christmas approaches. It also reflects how much the names Jesus (Hebrew for ‘God saves’) and Emmanuel (‘Hebrew for ‘God with us’) may mean in the violent  and troubled times like those we are living through right now.

As we sing the familiar carols and read once more the ancient story of the First Christmas, we are reminded of how vulnerable and fragile life can be. This is so in our extended family and for so many other families around the world. We are made aware too that this may have been the case for the Holy Family long ago.

My prayer for you is that in spite of all you will enjoy to the utmost possible the peace, joy and love that Christmas brings. I hope too that you will be blessed in every possible way through the coming year.

-WISE

-WISE

This is not about wisdom. It’s about the suffix -wise, as in otherwise. Any dictionary will tell you that as an adjective or adverb it means something else, different from what is being considered. But what does it mean when attached, - with a hyphen or not - to other words?

Dictionary definitions state that in such instances –wise denotes a way of indicating an alternative manner of dealing with a thing, a position or a direction. For example, this sentence: I laid the planks length-wise indicated the direction in which I laid the planks.

We often insert such adverbs into our common conversation, as in salary-wise, health-wise or time-wise. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1998) considers that form of speech “inelegant.” I suspect that most people think otherwise.

Indeed, I suspect that the explanation of Webster’s Standard American Dictionary is closer to what most people think. Used as a suffix, -wise creates words that show awareness and concern of a particular subject. A person experienced in some professional field as the media or finance could well be regarded a media-wise or money-wise.

Perhaps we are just being pedantic is objecting to such adjectives. Or is snooty a better way of criticizing those attitudes, as an old-school teacher might demand better grammar and vocabulary in our use of the Queen’s English?

After reading some of the essays written by high school and even college students, I am grateful for my teachers who insisted that I take care with the way I use words and form sentences. Parsing compound complex sentences in senior public school grammar was distinctly unpleasant work. When I describe what that task entailed, all I get to my grandchildren is a stare or an abhorrent reply, “We never do that!”

THE GREAT ST. VALENTINE'S DAY HOAX

A quick Google search of St. Valentine reveals a mishmash of information. There could have been three or more Christian saints and  martyrs by that name. Some of them were buried various churches in Rome where their relics were relocated from distant places where they died.

In the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints February 14^th was celebrated as the date of the martyrdom of one of these saints. Little else is known of him except that his death occurred in North Africa. In 1969, Pope Paul VI removed this martyr’s feast day from the church calendar.

Apparently it wasn’t until the late 14^th century that there was any connection of St. Valentine’s Day with romantic love. In 1382 Geoffrey Chaucer, the English mediaeval poet, wrote a poem celebrating the engagement of King Richard II to Princess Anne of Bohemia. In modern English one line of the poem read, “For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."

There is an American legend with no historical basis whatsoever that on the eve of his martyrdom, St. Valentine wrote a letter to the blind daughter of his jailer whom he had healed and befriended. This is supposed to have been the first valentine. Certainly the greeting card and chocolate manufacturers and the florists must love promoting the legend and relationship. Next to Christmas, Valentine’s Day is a bonanza for their business.

There are two possible ways to substantiate the connection of February 14^th with romance. The Romans had a fertility festival called Lupercalia which they celebrated from February 13-15. This had been adapted from an earlier Greek mid-winter festival dedicated to the marriage of the gods Zeus and Hera. The Christian Church banned this festival at the end of the 5^th century CE. But such a ban may not have changed the celebration by the common people. Fertility in human relationships cannot be so easily controlled.

There are also hints of the legend about St. Nicholas of Myra in our modern Valentine’s Day. His reputation for giving gifts expressing love is a major part of our modern way of celebrating St. Valentine’s Day. Of course, his generosity is still remembered more at the end of the year in our modern commercial world under the guise of Santa Claus. That festival was adapted from the early Dutch settlers in the United States in their practice of celebration of the feast of St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas) on December 6^th.

I have always found St. Valentine’s Day at least a little boring and at most embarrassing. It was just that in my elementary school days when our teachers insisted on having a valentine exchange in our classroom. These days I much prefer expressing my love for my wife of more than sixty years on her birthday just a few days earlier in February.

THINKING BEYOND THE BIBLE

Over the past several centuries, since the time of Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo (1564-1642), we have been learning of the true nature of the universe we live in as consisting of space, time and energy. Thus it has become impossible to think in the biblical concepts of God, Jesus and ourselves living in a three-tiered universe of heaven above, hell below and our planet in between. Yet our theology, our thinking, and our words in worship, preaching and everyday conversation still reflect this biblical view, commonly called “theism.” How can we develop a different way of saying what we believe that reflects the true nature of our existence?

That is a question which has been on my mind for most of the past year. Theologians and preachers try – often in vain – to create a synthesis of the most up to date scientific knowledge and the traditions of a sound religious faith. Our pastor refers to one common synthesis of scientific knowledge and Christian theology as “Evolutionary Christianity.” Many of the congregation he serves is either very puzzled or disbelieving of his attempts to expand their thinking beyond a comfortable biblical literalism or a modest liberalism.

“Reject theism; but think differently and accept uncertainty” is how retired Bishop John Shelby Spong wrestles with such issues. He does not believe in the traditional view described by theism. He rejects it as a deus ex machine system. In other words, God is Creator of the universe, but external to it and occasionally intervening in it natural processes to change life, and human life especially, according to his immutable purposes. On the other hand, despite feeling that he has a lot of company as a “Christian in exile,” Spong has written that he still appreciates worshiping in traditional Christian churches using traditional liturgies based on trinitarian creeds.

Is Spong’s viewpoint indicate a more satisfactory way to move forward in faith following the way of Jesus? Bruce Chilton, like Spong also an associate of the Jesus Seminar, has written that the way forward is to follow the path of Jesus’ prayer commonly called “the Lord’s Prayer” or the Paternoster. In his latest imprint, The Way of Jesus to Repair and Renew the World, (Abingdon Press, 2010), Chilton presents the original Aramaic words of that prayer as a pattern for a moral and a liturgical life that people may pursue. It may lead us to a common goal of living respectfully of others’ religious traditions in our violent age.

Does research in the intersection of science and religion like that covered on the website of the Metanexus Institute offer another possible way of thinking? The latest Metanexus blog posted by Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams posit the expectation that a shared cosmology could become the basis for a unified view of what may actually be true. (http://www.metanexus.net/blog/shared-reality-based-science ) “Cosmology may seem to be a subject that is completely irrelevant to any normal human endeavour, but it could turn out to be not only practical, but our salvation…. This may be humanity’s best chance for a very long and successful future, and our best chance for infusing today with the excitement and optimism necessary to get.”

After all, the Bible begins with a cosmology – two different cosmologies, in fact. Since we now believe that evolution has been proven and science has taken us almost as far back to the beginning as the Big Bang, this approach is certainly something to pursue. It is a hopeful as well as a religious point of view.

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