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For
Yr. C Planning
Advent-Epiph.
BOOKS
Theological
books
I read recently:
-Brickner,
Finding
God
in Garden
Resources
by
Category:
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category.
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sch term
-discussion
resources
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Comment
Spanking,
Liberal
Muslims
-Series
for SUMMER
Bob's
Storybook
Interpreting scripture
and
the faith through
stories,
plays, dramatic liturgy, movie reviews
Book Reviews
Theological
Books I've read recently
Stories:
1. for Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
+
A Modern Parable of Hope <Hopeparable>
+Smile, Originally
written for White Gift Sunday.a
land where smiling was the highest value. -Is 61:10,Ps 126Ro
14:17,Philip 4:4 A101
+Kaitie-isms,
a toddler's response to Christmas trees and Santa.-Ecc 3:5,1 Cor
16:20 A103
+Katie-ism,
God Too.
A 2 Year Old's talk of what makes us grow strong. Mt 4:4 A105
+Angelo,
the Deaf Angel.
This is a story of deaf angels on Christmas Eve. Written within a
deaf congregation. -Lk 2:8-20 A206
+Telling
the story of the Magi to
childen -Mt 2:1-12 A110
+Transforming
Bear (humor for transfig. Sunday) <ransfigaBear>
+The
Magi story for Children <magiforchild>
2. Plays for Advent/Christmas
+The
Midwife's Letter
, a Christmas pageant set in a worship service for Sunday. Originally
written to be enacted by senior adults from the congregation
(and may be done as an inter-generation project). A203
+Mary
Remembers, an
intergenerational play in which Mary tells her Grandchildren of the Nativity. A108.
3. Stories for Epiphany/Lent/Summer
+Transforming
That Bear (transfig
Sun.)<EpC8bearstory>
+Jesus
First Trip to the Beach,10-year-old
Jesus' is taken by his family to Lake Galilee for the first time -Mk.
4:7
A406
+The
Greatest Picnic, a
story of a family that was present for the feeding of the 5000. -Jn
6:1-14 A408b
+
3 Yr. Old Steven Sees the Light Jn
3:19-21 A111
+How
the Market Place Became the Highest Value.
A fable about choosing the "bottom line" over other values. A302
+The
Wilderness: setting
the temptation of Jesus in a local setting and in our time. Mt4:4f,
Mk 1:13, Lk 4:1f A411b
+Jesus
and the woman at the well.
Jn
4:1f
A 416
+Nicodemus
visits Jesus at night Jn
3:1f A412
+Adult
Children of the Church. Three children of a church family
choose to live by apparently different values. A story interpretation
of being 'Born anew'. Jn
3:1-21 A350
+A
family at the Fair - a
story about temptation Mk 1:13 A214a
+What
a Beautiful Bird - about how we see others Mt.
7:1f A214b
+Jenny's
Forever Smile. A story
about death. 1Cor, 15:35f A214c
+Jesus
vs Satan, Joke <Jesus vs Satan>
4. Stories for the Easter Season
+Remembering
(Between Cross and empty tomb) -Lk
23:56 A428
+Faith
reborn on the Road to Emmaus -Lk
24:13-35 A427
+Doubting
Thomas who saw with his hands -Jn
20:19-31 A426
+Peter
goes back to fishing -Jn
21:1-19 <castnetsstory>
5. Pentecost and after
+ The
Story of Pentecost Acts
2
+The
woman who washed Jesus' feet with tears.-Luke 6:36-50 P2
+Strawberry
Patch Grace Rom.
3:21
+Comment
on the story of Mary and Martha Luke 10:38-42
+
Creator and Chaos, Friends
in Creation, Gen1:1f, A435b
+
A Voice of Hope
overcoming chaos Is.
52:7 A436
+ Changing
location, but not changing yourself At
Graduation A434b +Hagar
and the God who Hears Gen
16 & 21:9-21 A438
+
Forgiving Jacob (the
unforgiving servant) -Mt.
18:21-35 A443
+The
Invitation, a
play - Wedding Feast parable -Mt22:1f -A109
+Jesus'
First Trip to the Beach, 10-year-old
Jesus' is taken by his family to Lake Galilee for the first time Matthew
3:13; 4:18; 8:23; 8:32; 14:22. Mark 3:7f; Luke 5:1f; John 6:16f; 21:1f
A406b
+ Helping
the enemy-My Aunt Flo -Mt. 5:44, A434b
+What
a Beautiful Bird - how we see others Mt. 7:1f A214b
+The
Wilderness: setting
the temptation of Jesus in a local setting and in our time.Mk
1:12 A411b
+Woman
who washed Jesus' feet with tears. Luke 6:36-50
+
Nicodemus
visits Jesus at night Jn
3:1f A412
+ Born
as a Child of God -Jn3:1-17 A215d
+
Jesus
and the woman at the well. -Jn
4:1f A
416
+ Living
Water -Jn4:5-42
+ Feeding
the Multitude.
A
liturgical enactment -Jn
6:1-15 A102 A214e
+ The
Greatest Picnic, a
story of a family that was present for the feeding of the 5000. -Jn
6:1-14 A408b
+Doubting
Thomas who saw with his hands -Jn
20:19-31 A426
+Jenny's
Forever Smile. Story
about death. -1Cor,
15:35f A214c
+The
Medak Pocket, Canadian
Peacekeeper heroism PPCLI
+
Child's reading of Micha 6:6-8
I guess I simply find that our hearts capacity to love has no bounds.
6. Social Comment via Story
The Village series
+Part
1,The Bottom Line Becomes the Highest value Mt.6:19-24 A302
+Part2,
Joan Paul Comes to the Village Acts
17:16-32 A302cont.
+Growing
up to Be a Voice of Hope A436
+Forgiving
Jacob (the unforgiving servant) Mt.
18:21-35 A443+he
+Invitation, a
play - Wedding Feast parable Mt22:1f A09-Mk
1:12
+The
Wilderness: setting
the temptation of Jesus in a local setting and in our time. Mt. 4:1-1 A411b
+Temptation,
a family is tempted to cheat A214a
+Jesus
First Trip to the Beach,
10-year-old Jesus' is taken by his family to Lake Galilee for the
first time -Matthew
3:13; 4:18; 8:23; 8:32; 14:22. Mark 3:7f; Luke 5:1f; John 6:16f;
21:1f A406
7. Dramatic Liturgy
+Anointing
in Worship and
Pastoral Care Rational and practice A213
+Wedding
Banquet parable Matt
22,
a play, "Invitation,".
A109
+A
Palm Sunday
worship service, complete with message Palm
Sunday A212
+Good Friday Mark's
drama of the passion
- A
service of readings and dramatization Goodfriday1
+Feeding the Multitude. A liturgical enactment of John 6:1-14. The total roup or worshippers, children, youth, and adults are involved in an interpretation of the Biblical story, The Feeding of the Multitude. Originally Written for White Gift Sunday. A102
+Celebrating
World Mission.
A dramatic service of worship focusing on world mission.Is
52:7,Acts 13:1-4;Mt
28:19 A501
Invitation,
a play of the parable of the Wedding FeastA109
Search: Bible *Advt.-Xmas- Ep. * Lent -Easter * Pene. 1-14 * Pent 15f * Child + Story * Liturgy * Social * Pastor * Mission
Listed alphabetically by author
New to me >> Balfour Brickner , God in Garden-see below
Donald Harman Akenson: Saint Saul (A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus) McGill- Queens University Press, Montreal and Kingston 2000.
Akenson puts argues that before the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, there was a multitude of versions of Judaism, and that Christianity and modern Rabbinic Judaism are built on the only two Judaic religious movements to survive 70CE. Further he argues, the pre-70 world of Jesus (and St Paul) was very different from the post 70 world in which the present Gospels were written. Paul (Saul) therefore is a source for understanding the real Jesus (Yeshua).
As Akenson reads the epistles, Paul (Saul) sees Jesus as a not so special Jewish person of the latter second Temple period, except for his aura of holiness which transcends his death. Jesus' death and resurrection are where Paul locates God's power and presence in Jesus.
Akenson also argues that we can clues about the historical Jesus from Paul's assertion that he is an imitator of "the Lord," and that "Christ lives in me."
Along the way he criticizes the Historical Jesus movement for what he sees as its de-Judaizing of Yeshua of Nazareth with inadiquate scholarship.
Lloyd Axworthy: Navigating a New World, Knopf Canada 2003. Not a theological work as such, but an excellent support for those who wish to make the world a humane place. He is writing in support of the notion that the prime purpose of human society in all its manifestations is to provide security (safety, heath and nutrition, education and employment (simply put, Human security). Axworthy advocates Human Security as the value to guide Canada's role in the world. Axworthy served Canada as federal government minister for immigration and foreign affairs. He is now regent of the University of Winnipeg, and social activist.
Reginald Bibbey: Restless Gods (The renaissance of Religion in Canada). Stoddart 2002.
This book is full of good news for those on the front lines of parish ministry. Sociologist Bibby declares that the secularization of Canadian society and disappearance of the church that was predicted by himself and others in the last decade, has not happened. He says that his most studies show that the free fall of the Old Line churches has stopped and they now appear to be attracting enough new members to be stable. He claims also that Canadians who do not attend church, continue to look to the church of their roots as a spiritual resource at key points in their life. In part this is because people find that science doesn't give them answers to the "why?" questions of life.
He advises the church to not remove non-attenders from their rolls, but to warmly see them as members, and to be in touch with them, and welcome them on those occasions when they turn to the church.
Marcus
J. Borg, The
Heart Of Christianity, Harper.
I
found this to be a faith-saver for one who has trouble finding faith
through either the conservative or liberal approach to Christian
scripture and doctrine.
Brickner, Balfour, Finding God in the Garden, ch.II. Little Brown and Company.
As I see it, Brickner is saying that sex is a good thing. It is a good part of God's creation in the garden and in human relationships. Sex is good in heterosexual, homosexual and in premarital relationships. It is good in bonding humans and is good in procreation.
The garden analogy, and nature generally, have both limitations and openings as a way to understand human sexuality. For instance, the garden is naturally promiscuous. Even those who practise human promiscuity rarely openly advocate it.
Nature also uses sex as a means of control and organizing its societies. For instance, bees in the garden allow only on female to procreate while the males become drones who are driven away, the other females become workers to feed the queen's infants. In many mammals only the strongest male gets to procreate.
In human society we have generally not allowed females to be in positions of leadership. Women have also had little control of their bodies in their role in procreation. However, women have, unlike some other species, had evolved to to hide their monthly periods of fertility, so that males wanting to procreate are encouraged to bond with females in a lasting sexual and supportive relationship. Humans also seek to control sex by surrounding it with moral and ethical strictures and laws.
Bicker attributes our present sexual difficulties to Christianity which, he claims, chose agape Love over erotic love and taught that sex was the doorway to sin, as opposed to the Hebrew people who, he says, saw sex as a gift from God. Christians took these notions from the culture in which Christianity grew up. They does not seem to come from Jesus, but from the emperor Constantine.
Brickner's view of agape love seems to be quite narrow and other-worldly. A language scholar, C.E.B. Cranfield says of agape: "This root [agape] was apparently chosen [by early Christians], because it was free from erotic associations and conveyed the idea of a love that showed itself by helping its object rather than desiring to possessing it." This is how Christians understood both the nature of God and of discipleship.
Chapter 3: To me, the important point made in chapter 3, is what he says about the nature of God with respect to prayer.
In ancient times God was pictured as a deity who resided in a place known as heaven. Much like earthly emperors God ruled from a throne (Isaiah chapter 6) and like an earthly ruler received petitions from the people.
The God Bickner describes is not like this. Bickner's God is not a controlling Divine Being who will respond to our prayers, making sure our teams win in ball games and our armies win at war, or who saves some people in natural events (like earthquakes, hurricanes, cancer) and allows others to experience a painful death. Nor is God a like a bellboy who runs around to carry out our requests.
I would personally add: "Nor does God cause these natural disasters or personal tragedies to test us."
The God Brickner describes is so different from the god of the ancients that it could be called a non-deity. We find the non deity described as an "idea, a paradigm," (p.56); "a force," (p.66)."
This view of also affects the way he understands prayer. This God does not act on our behalf, but rather "is the power that helps us bring justice [and comfort] into the world (p 56, 60, 62)
Chapter 4, Compost and Death.
-In this chapter in which Brickner speaks of death and existence after death, using a compost pile as an analogy. I find two strong and somewhat contradictory view. The first is found on page 71. Of the notion that there is conscious life after death and the dead can communicate with us is beyond his belief. Hen says : "I find that hard to accept. Then on page 86, after affirming the scientific assertion that energy is everlasting, he goes on to equate energy with the spirit. From there he makes the leap of faith that sees his daughter,Sarah, is "immortal" (p. 86): "we do live on" (p. 93).
His conclusion that we live on in a form different form our fleshy existence reminds me of St. Paul's view of death and life after death in 1 Cor. 15:35-46.
In the end, I am left with the question: does Brickner's abandonment of personal immortality and replacing it with an impersonal life beyond death, really work?
Finally, I note that Brickner lumps Christians all together as if all branches of Christianity saw life after death, or the resurrection of Jesus in the same literal way.
.Tom
Harpur, The
Pagan Christ,
Thomas Allen.
I
found this book to be challenging and exciting. Harpur asserts that
the Christ myth existed long before Christianity came to be. Harpur
writes that one mark of the "pagan" Christ was the belief
that every person could manifest the Christ in themselves, but the
Christ was not fixed to any one historical figure. This continued
until the church claimed that Jesus was the only Christ, and worked
to eliminate all schools of thought that differed - such as
gnosticism, and other forms of paganism.
Harper
challenges me to see Jesus as one manifestation of Christ, but not
the only one. For me this is not entirely outside what many
Christians believe. While seeing Jesus as their model of
Christ-among-us, they can also see Christ in other historic men and
women (within and without the church) and in themselves as the Body
of Christ.
In The Pagan Christ, Tom Harpur proposes that the whole of our scripture is myth. By "Myth" Harpur means they embody the truth we seek for the journey and fulfillment of our souls (and I would add, for the journey and fulfillment of our communities). Regarding the Gospels he quotes Alvin Kuhn who sees them, from the nativity to the resurrection to be not the story of a historical Jesus, but story of our own souls. Likewise the Creation, Exodus and other biblical stories are wonderful eternal myths which leads through our own search for identity, liberty, and belonging as spiritual beings.
In one sense this is not at all new. Every Sunday thousands of preachers will read the account of the Hebrew slaves escaping Egypt and ask their congregations questions such as: "What is your slavery from which you seek to escape? What is the Red Sea you must cross? etc. Or at Christmas, Christians will rehearse the Bethlehem story and be asked if there is room in their heart for the Christ that they may become?
What I did find to be challenging in what Harpur asserts is the notion that nothing in the Bible is historical. In some ways this too is not new. Many have for years read the creation stories as powerful myths which tell us that we can see ourselves as children of a loving Creator. How else could they be read? Certainly they are not history. The same may be said of the stories of Jesus birth. Many of us will have always read the nativity as myth designating the spiritual birth that we and our communities may seek as Jesus is born within us. In doing this I have always kept the belief that there is a kernel of history (even cosmic creation history) behind all this. Harpur says, No, it is all myth.
I find it difficult to let go the notion that there really was a Jesus. For instance on a recent Sunday I present at a baptism service in which Jesus was pictured as giving a special place for children. In my heart and se se of mission I want there to have been a real incarnate person who defended as full persons, children and others who were and still are marginalized.
Harpur also challenges me to go further in my my own Christian reading of the bible as myth. He declares that the purpose of these great myths is not to lead me to imitate Christ, or even have Christ in me, but rather to encourage my own potential to be Christ, to bring to life the divine spark within me.
This can lead to flipping over of the way we have been accustomed to defining Jesus Chris. Up to now I have seen Jesus as a historical figure with some mythic dimensions added. Now I have the alternative of perceiving Jesus as an mythic figure with a kernel of historicity.
To see an attempt to use Harpur's point of view click here
David Keck, Forgetting Whose We Are, Augsburg. Alzheimers, the theological disease.
Raise
Q.s such as:
-Is
remembering is central to the Christian faith? - ie "Do this in
Remembrance of Me."
-What
are the similarities between caring for an Altz. patient and
worshipping God?
-Does
faith/theology depend totally on aspects of life seemingly
unavailable to Alzh. patient: the brain, being fulfilled by faith and
on being active in the faith? May the Soul transcend these? Does
Resurrection depend on these?
Keck
finds no
Biblical stories
of Alzh. , but wonders is this disease drives us back to elemental
aspects of our faith such as creation and the Cross. Alzh. may be
seen as creation in reverse, from order to chaos. In Alzh. we see the
helpless suffering of Christ on the Cross.
God's
Memory
is the foundation of our hope. We are not just what we remember
or forget. We are what God remembers and forgets.(Gen 30:22; Ex 3:15;
Ps. 89:1-2).
---000---
Luise
Schotterof, Sylvia Schroer, Marie-Theres Wacker: Feminist
Interpretation, The Bible in Women's Perspective.
Fortress, Minneapolis. 1998.
Translated
from German by Martin and Barbara Rumscheidt
An excellent introduction, and setting out of women's perspective on the Bible as it has developed over the last 100+ years. Deep bibliography.
Divided
into three sections:
I.
Historical, Hermeneutical and Methodological Foundations;
II.
Toward a Feminist Reconstruction the History of Israel;
III.
Toward a Feminist Reconstruction of the History of Early Christianity
---000---
John Shelby Spong: A New Christianity for a New World (Why Traditional Faith is Dying, and How a New Faith is Being Born). Harper San Francisco 2001.
Spong addresses those "who feel spiritually thirsty, but know that they can no longer drink from the traditional wells of the past" (p. 17). He begins by denying key points of so-called traditional Christianity such as Jesus' acts of miraculous healing, his virgin birth. Then he goes onto propose what might be the core of a faith without these. For instance, the "liturgy of the future" will not only "be the recollection and rehearsal of our sacred stories," but will also "celebrate the long human journey from the first form of life in a single cell...." (p. 206). He proposes that, while the "Christ figure will continue to our central icon, " we will "cease portraying this person as one who came to rescue us by dying, " but rather as "a Christ who can help us see that when we are fully human, we become channels for that which is fully divine...." (p. 210-213).
----0000----
Walter Wink: The Human Being (Jesus and the enigma of the Son of the Man). Augsburg Fortress 2002.
Here Wink does a study of the Son of Man sayings in the Bible. His purpose is to "seek a Jesus who is not the omnipotent God in a man-suit, but someone like us, who looked for God at the center of his life and called the world to Join him(p.11)." He argues against the Atonement Christologies, and for a Christology that grows out of an assertion that Jesus died, not by hand of God, but by the power of the anti-God "Domination System" (p. 94).
----0000----
In
the small town in which I grew up I had a classmate whose mother and
two brothers lived in the deepest poverty. Nesbit, the eldest of
these boys overcame all the chaos of their lives to become a creative
writer, pas-tor, social activist and generally a voice of hope. His
brothers, Warner and John, on the other hand, descended into
alcoholism and died in mid life.
I
met Nesbit recently at John's funeral. He and I went for coffee
after the service. We talked of the old days. Eventually he spoke of
Warner and John.
Emboldened
by this, I asked if he ever wondered how it was that his life and
theirs fumed out so differently. How did it happen that his life
became grounded in hope, while theirs seemed to drown in despair?.
He
welcomed this interest, and replied, "1 can't speak for Warner
or John, but I do know what enabled me. It seems to me that I was
given two gifts or graces. The first of these was love and
affirmation; the second was a sense of the Holy.
The
first came initially from my mother. She saw my birth as something
of a miracle. Her body was twisted, crippled and left extremely thin
by adolescent spinal meningitis. No one expected her to have a lover
or children. Her delivery of a beautiful healthy child was a
contradiction of that, which filled her with wonder. I was the apple
of her eye.
By
the time she was 21, and I was four, three more children had been
born to my parents, adding to the burden of their 1930s poverty
(Brian, the last, lived just a few months). Mom sought to receive
each one with deep affection, but was overwhelmed by motherhood under
those conditions. When my father abandoned us, she showed amazing
courage and strength.
I
know that the early affirmation I received from her carried me
through many experiences of defamation in school and playground. It
also led me to seek out other adults, such as the United Church
minister and the social worker who would also affirm me. This was the
first grace that set me on a hopeful path.
"1
think I see the effects of this in your life," I said.
"Yes,
I became convinced that we all must plant hope through support for
children and their families, begin-ning with those close to us, and
including the children of the world."
"You
have been supportive of the UN's universal children's rights, and
its opposition to the use of children as soldiers."
"Yes,
It is very significant that Jesus gave special attention to children."
"You
said you received one other grace?"
"Yes,
a deep sense of the Holy. Do you remember, Rev. Bill Jacks? He
always treated me as a real person. We were not a church family, but
he knew who I was, and when I met him on the street he would stop to
talk with me. I was deeply moved by this, and led by it to believe
that this was the nature of Holiness."
"This
led you eventually into the church?"
"yes.
I became convinced that the church could bring hope to families and
to the world, by reminding us that all persons and the Earth itself
are sacred, and to be treated with respect.
"Some
of my fondest memories are of our little family being able to laugh
and love in the midst of the chaos. God was with us. Just last week I
received a letter from John that was full of good humour. I could see
the Spirit giving him hope him In the midst of his struggles. This is
a third grace; to be shown the Spirit present in those who seem most over-whelmed
by chaos, and to humbly acknowledge their neighbourly gifts."
This
visit left me thinking,
----0000----
This
reading based on Micah 6: 8, a passage from the Bible.
Along
time ago there was faithful person named Micha. Micha was a person
who liked going to worship services at the temple.
Just
like now, a very important part of worship in Micah's time was the
offering of the people.
In
those days an offering could be money, or cooked food for the
minister, or almost anything that you thought would please God.
So,
Micah wondered: What would be a good offering to bring to the
temple?. What can I bring to worship that would really, really make
God smile?
Suddenly,
the answer popped into his head. Hey, he cried out, I know what
really, really pleases God!
Micah
knew in his heart that the best offering is to live a good life.
It
pleases God when we are fair,
It
pleases God when we are compassionate,
and
it pleases God when we are humble.
So,
the next time I go to worship, I will offer God what really, really
pleases God. I will offer Love for my neighbours,
This
is the Word of God to us from Micah.
Search: Bible *Advt.-Xmas- Ep. * Lent -Easter * Pene. 1-14 * Pent 15f * Child + Story * Liturgy * Social * Pastor * Mission