Christmas Day 2017

I won't try to copy anything Fr. Martin said here.  I'll just tell you to go read it.

Think of it as a Christmas present.

Christmas Day 2017

In the reception of the poor and of pilgrims
the greatest care and solicitude should be shown,
because it is especially in them that Christ is received;
for as far as the rich are concerned,
the very fear which they inspire
wins respect for them.

The Rule of St. Benedict

YET if His Majesty, our sovereign lord,
Should of his own accord
Friendly himself invite,
And say 'I'll be your guest to-morrow night,'
How should we stir ourselves, call and command
All hands to work! 'Let no man idle stand!

'Set me fine Spanish tables in the hall;
See they be fitted all;
Let there be room to eat
And order taken that there want no meat.
See every sconce and candlestick made bright,
That without tapers they may give a light.

'Look to the presence: are the carpets spread,
The dazie o'er the head,
The cushions in the chairs,
And all the candles lighted on the stairs?
Perfume the chambers, and in any case
Let each man give attendance in his place!'

Thus, if a king were coming, would we do;
And 'twere good reason too;
For 'tis a duteous thing
To show all honour to an earthly king,
And after all our travail and our cost,
So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.

But at the coming of the King of Heaven
All 's set at six and seven;
We wallow in our sin,
Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.
We entertain Him always like a stranger,
And, as at first, still lodge Him in the manger.

Anonymous, 16th century.

It out-herods Herod

People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 25, 2017

I don't know what planet the man is living on.

That the person who wrote this sits behind the desk in the Oval Office scares me more than anything else he's done.

It's not the phrase that is cherished and beautiful; it is the season.  May it be so for you, whatever phrase you use (or don't).

I blame Bing Crosby.  And Irving Berlin.

Christmas Eve: 2017

And then at midnight, the priest comes out from behind the screen, and whispers to the person standing there; who passes the news on in a whisper, which spreads like flame, like ripples on water, across the expectant crowd:

"Christ is born.

"Christ is born."

Christ is born."







Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel

"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.

--Thomas Hardy

Christmas Eve Service: 2017

I. Organ Prelude

II. Adeste Fidelis

III. Invocation

IV. Gloria, Mozart

V. Hymn

VI. Scripture St. Luke 1:5-45

THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,

9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. 11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. 14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. 15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. 16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. 19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. 20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

21 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. 23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.

24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, 25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; 40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. 41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: 42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

VII. Magnificat (St. Luke I:46-55)

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

54 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;

55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

VIII. Scripture St. Luke 1:56-67

And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.

57 Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. 58 And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.

59 And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. 60 And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John. 61 And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. 62 And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. 63 And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all. 64 And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. 65 And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea. 66 And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.

67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying

IX. Benedictus (St. Luke 1:68-79)

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,

78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

X. Scripture St. Luke 1: 80; 2: 1-9

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid
him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

XI. Annunciato Angeli (St. Luke 2:10-12)

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

XII. Scripture St. Luke 2:13

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

XIII. Gloria (St. Luke 2: 14)

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

XIV. Scripture St. Luke 2:15-28

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; 23 (As it is written in the law of the LORD, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) 24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. 26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

XV. Nunc Dimmitis (St. Luke 2:29-32)

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

VI. Scripture St. Luke 2:33-40

And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. 34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; 35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; 37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. 38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. 40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

XVII. Gloria Patri

XVIII. Apostle's Creed

XIX. Collect and Festival Prayer

XX. Hymn

XXI. Epistle

XXII. Offertory

XXIII. Lord's Prayer

XXIV. Te Deum Laudamus

XXV. Benediction

XXVI. Postlude

 I have never thought of Christmas Eve as a time for a sermon.  Putting the sermon at the center of every worship service is a very Protestant idea, but even Protestants love the Service of Lessons and Carols of the Anglican Communion, and it eschews a sermon in favor of almost sola scriptura.  And there's the Lutheran v. Reformed split in Protestantism all over again:  the emphasis on liturgy in worship, v. the emphasis on the intellectual presence of God's word.  I stand uneasily with a leg in both camps, and whenever I led a Christmas Eve service I found it hard at first, and then easier later, to leave the sermon out.  But tonight....

This is what we have stayed awake for; and probably we will be asleep again when it happens.  This is what we were supposed to go out into the dark for; and probably we will stay with the sheep and attribute the angel's song to too much wine and too many late nights.  We will stay in and stare at the lights in our house rather than at the lights in God's sky, and we will miss the notice, busy as we will be worshiping the work of our own hands.  Even if we saw the star, even if we recognized it, would we set out, leave everything behind, find out what it meant, discover the new king, we who don't believe in kings at all anymore?  Would we fall down and worship, would we seek the home in Bethlehem, the feeding trough in the home invaded by smell shepherds coming late at night to tell us what they heard, sounding drunk and foolish and illiterate and not at all the right sort of people to be there.

Would we be the right sort of people?  Would we feel comfortable with the peasants in Bethlehem?  Would we wonder if we should have brought a gift, standing with the magi and their treasures?  Or would we just stay home, and stay asleep while wide awake.  If Joseph had not slept, would he have dreamed?  If we dreamed like Joseph, would we listen?  Or sleep in later that morning?

Christmas was once a public spectacle.  It still is for some churches:  word of the birth of the Christchild, of the first miracle of Christianity, is whispered from worshiper to worshiper at midnight.  Do we even bother to go out at midnight?  Isn't it too late, too cold, too much trouble?  We know how the service ends, do we really need to see it again?  Do we go to church on Christmas Day, even if Christmas comes on a Sunday?  Or do we stay home?  Isn't staying home easier?  Isn't staying asleep while wide awake easier still?

This time, for this occasion, we should wake up!  We should be fully awake!  We should run to the manger for the chance to see.  We should join our friends, not just our family, in worship and praise!  Christmas was once a public event, a spectacle, even.  The tPuritans in England and then New England condemned it because it was kept in drunkenness and revelry, but at least it was still kept publicly!  Today Christmas is a family affair, a private matter, set around a tree and decorated with wrapping paper, or it is a failure and we despair.  Christmas is a time to be sad that you are alone, when the message of the gospels is that you are not alone, that none of us are alone, that each of us is our brother's keeper, our sister's friend, that there is nothing we need more surely and completely than each other.  What madness is it that we divide ourselves into units at this very time of year when we should be opening our doors to everyone, playing host to the world as we like to think we would have hosted the Holy Family so many centuries ago.  It us Los Posados played all over again, a metaphor for our times.  We are all inn keepers, and none of us have any room for those we don't know.

So this Christmas take joy, and let your spirit walk out among your fellow men, and take the spirit and the season and even the reason for the season out to those you don't know, out to those you don't see, out to those whose cries you never hear.  Make this a Christmas you will remember, by remembering them.  Honor the journeys of Christmas, of the Holy Family, of the Magi, of the shepherds, by making a journey of your own.  It will take you to a strange and new and wondrous place.  Glory to God in the highest!

Amen.


The service is from the Evangelical and Reformed Hymnal.

Earlier that same day....

In all honesty, what is wrong with this man?

“We say Christmas again very proudly,” Trump told the troops.

Happy Holidays, y'all!

Advent 2017: December 24

Christmas Eve is the feast day of our first parents, Adam and Eve.  They are commemorated as saints in the calendars of the Eastern churches (Greeks, Syrians, Copts).  Under the influence of this Oriental practice, their veneration also spread to the West and because very popular towards the end of the first millennium of the Christian Era.  The Latin church has never officially introduced their feast, though it did not prohibit their popular veneration.  In many old churches of Europe their statutes may still be seen among the images of the saints.  Boys and girls who bore the names of Adam and Eve (quite popular in past centuries) celebrated their "Name Day" with great rejoicing.  In Germany the custom began in the sixteenth century of putting up a "paradise tree" in the homes to honor the first parents.  This was a fir tree laden with apples, and from it developed the modern Christmas tree.

--Francis X. Weiser

A very modern Christmas tree!

Farewell, Advent, Christmas is come!
Farewell from us both all and some!

1. With patience thou hast us fed,
And made us go hungry to bed;
For lack of meat we were nigh dead;
Farewell from us both all and some!

2. While thou hast been within our house,
We ate no pudding nor no souse, [pickled pork]
But stinking fish not worth a louse -
Farewell from us both all and some!

3. There was no fresh fish, far or near,
Salt fish and salmon was too dear;
And thus we have had heavy cheer;
Farewell from us both all and some!

4. Thou hast us fed with plaices thin,
Nothing on them but bone and skin;
Therefore our love thou shalt not win;
Farewell from us both all and some!

5. With mussels gaping at the moon
Thou hast us fed at night and noon -
Just once a week, and that too soon!
Farewell from us both all and some!

6. Our bread was brown, our ale was thin,
Our bread was musty in the bin,
Our ale sour before we did begin
Farewell from us both all and some!

7. Thou art of great ingratitude
Good meat from us for to exclude:
Thou art not kind, but very rude -
Farewell from us both all and some!

8. Thou dwellest with us against our will,
And yet thou givest us not our fill,
For lack of meat thou wouldest us spill [want to destroy us]
Farewell from us both all and some!

9. Above all things, thou art so mean
To make our cheeks both bare and lean.
I wish you were at Boughton Blean!
Farewell from us both all and some!

10. Come thou no more, here nor in Kent,
For if thou do, thou shalt be shent; [ruined]
It is enough to fast in Lent;
Farewell from us both all and some!

11. Thou mayest not dwell with none estate,
Therefore with us thou playest checkmate;
Go hence, or we will break thy pate!
Farewell from us both all and some!

12. Thou mayest not dwell with knight or squire,
For them thou mayest lie in the mire;
They love not thee, nor Lent, thy sire,
Farewell from us both all and some!

13. Thou mayest not dwell with labouring man,
For on thy fare no work he can,
For he must eat both now and then,
Farewell from us both all and some!

14. Though thou shalt dwell with monk and friar,
Canon and nuns once every year,
Yet thou shouldest make us better cheer,
Farewell from us both all and some!

15. This time of Christ's feast natal,
We will be merry, great and small,
And thou shalt go out of this hall;
Farewell from us both all and some!

16. Advent is gone, Christmas is come;
Be we merry now, all and some!
He is not wise that will be dumb
In ortu Regis omnium. [At the coming of the King of all things]

--English Carol, 15th century

It is strange that the gospel read at the beginning of the time of preparation for Christmas is that of the end of the whole history of the world.  Yet that is not really surprising.  For what is afoot in a small beginning is best recognized by the magnitude of its end.  what was really meant and actually happened by the coming, the "advent", of the redeemer is best gathered from that contemplation of his coming which we rather misleadingly call the "second coming."  For in reality is it the fulfillment of his one coming which is still in progress at the present time.

--Karl Rahner

Marana tha.

--1 Corinthians 16:22

Let's all sing like the birdies sing!

How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017

Yeah, old news already....

Start here, on December 21st:

The FBI’s top lawyer, James Baker, is being reassigned — one of the first moves by new director Christopher A. Wray to assemble his own team of senior advisers as he tries to fend off accusations of politicization within the bureau.

Baker told colleagues he will be taking on other duties at the FBI, according to people familiar with the matter. In recent months, Baker had been caught up in a strange interagency dispute that led to a leak probe and attracted the attention of senior lawmakers, but people familiar with the matter said the probe had recently ended with a decision not to charge anyone. The leak issue had not played a part in Baker’s reassignment, these people said.

This started something, because the next day James Comey tweeted:

Sadly, we are now at a point in our political life when anyone can be attacked for partisan gain. James Baker, who is stepping down as FBI General Counsel, served our country incredibly well for 25 years & deserves better. He is what we should all want our public servants to be.

— James Comey (@Comey) December 23, 2017

And today Ben Wittes joined in:

Ten things you actually should know about FBI General Counsel James Baker, removed this week by Chris Wray—all of them actually true.

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017

You can find the ten things at his Twitter feed.

Because apparently somebody decided this was a sign of the perfidy of the "deep state."  Where would someone get that idea?

Wow, “FBI lawyer James Baker reassigned,” according to @FoxNews.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017

He obviously doesn't know what this means, but he's sure it means something.  And it only took him 48 hours to find out what everyone is talking about.  And maybe if he fires Wray, he can get Baker assigned back?  Or is that not what he's thinking?

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017

Yup; FoxNews, again.  And also, by the way, reported first by the Washington Post.  But they're "fake news," right?  And this is what Comey and Wittes are talking about, in part.  The speaker is John Pistoles, former FBI administrator:

“Andy’s in a difficult position now . . . because of the hyperpartisan political environment,” he explained. “It’s disappointing to see how the criticism of the FBI is being used to try to undermine the credibility of the Mueller investigation. I think they’ve figured out they can’t undermine Bob’s integrity, so they’re just going to go after whoever they can dig up any dirt on.”

I mean, it's not like he's the President or something.  He's too busy to watch TV!  Right?

Advent 2017: December 23

Then his father Zechariah, was filled with holy spirit and prophesied:  "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and ransomed his people.  He has raised up for us a horn of salvation in the house of David his servant.  this is what he promised in the words of his holy prophets of old:  deliverance from our enemies, and from the hands of all who hate us; mercy to our ancestors, and the remembrance of his holy covenant.  This is the oath he swore to Abraham our ancestor:  to grant that we be rescued from the hands of our enemies, to serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.  And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.  In the heartfelt mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will visit us, to shine on those sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace."

Luke 1:67-79, SV



Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
and German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody's imagined Christ child

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest of
Second Comings

--Lawrence Ferlinghetti

"May it Be Unto Your According To Your Faith"

Well, if seminary doesn't make you lose your childhood faith, ministry will.  If it doesn't, then you are a True Believer.

Anne Grant is not an exception to the rule:

Phil and I were ordained ministers. I had accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was four at the altar of a revival tent in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Growing up in those woods, I talked to Jesus—not an audible conversation so much as my heart’s constant refrain of love and gratitude. When we married in 1965, I called Phil my “second best friend.”

Even after I became a feminist, I seldom questioned familiar creeds. The idea of domination no longer fit my worldview. So, I asked Jesus, “Is there a name I can call you instead of Lord?”

“Sure,” came the lighthearted reply: “Call me Cramps.” I laughed at this divine nod to women’s bleeding and birth pangs. That was the sort of conversation God and I had: a relaxed, confident projection of my own evolving beliefs.

I could not account for other people’s beliefs about God. In 2003, when President George W. Bush grew impatient with the search for weapons of mass destruction and launched his tragic invasion of Iraq, I suspected he thought he was hearing from God, like Joshua at Jericho. He seemed to think Iraqis would eagerly lay down their arms before our triumphant Lord.

And so on and so on....

In the year after Phil’s cancer diagnosis in 2005, we had begun to take comfort in the BBC documentaries of Sir David Attenborough, who thrilled us with the wonders of nature and never mentioned God. We snuggled in bed and watched the lumbering scholar describe the marvels of planet Earth. His diction remained precise whether he knelt in mud or dangled from a giant redwood. His self-deprecating humor and matter-of-fact summaries of evolution soothed us. Breathtaking photography of animals and plants on far-flung continents filled us with awe.

Phil and I felt no crisis of faith when we told each other we no longer believed in a supernatural being. The bad midwife had freed us from magical thinking of religious ideologues. The good midwife had welcomed us into a vibrant world of natural wonder that had been here all along.

I have no problem with this narrative.  I figured out shortly after seminary that I couldn't account for other people's beliefs about God.  It's probably why I failed in pastoral ministry.  I mean, I always knew intellectually that I couldn't account for other peoples beliefs in anything; but to learn it existentially (and to use the word correctly in context!), is another matter.  It's a Kierkegaardian moment, and knowing the Knight of Faith was a construct of S.K.'s ethical narrators (not a theological precept, IOW) and also knowing even if I was a K of F (I'm not) no one would know it, I moved on for the sake of my family and myself.

My only problem here is the sin of pride displayed before this narrative is over:

Later we understood how evolution had changed us in imperceptible increments over a long stretch of time. We were like fish that crawled onto land and, over eons, evolved into air-breathing, live-bearing, warm-blooded beings without knowing how that happened.

No, not that bit; but what it leads to

During millions more years, some returned to the sea, where legs morphed into flippers instead of fins. They became dolphins, whales, and manatees. But they remained warm-blooded and still breathed air. Their tails lay horizontally and moved up and down, the way legs had propelled their ancestors on land. They would never again be fish. Never again hold their tail fins vertically and swish them side-to-side. The change was irreversible.

We had become secular Christians. Though deeply rooted in Christianity, Phil and I discovered that our growing edge was secular, not bound by old familiar creeds. We still value our kinship with many Christians, but we no longer believe that a self-aware supernatural being sent his only begotten son to die for us. We no longer believe a blood sacrifice will bring us everlasting life.

Well, neither do I; but I don't consider myself a "secular Christian."  Still, that's a theological matter, and theologically grounded these two don't really appear to be.  No matter; that's my burden, not theirs.  The discussion goes on in terms of neuroscience (which I dare say she understands no better than theology), and then this:

Atheists can sound as smug and superior as fundamentalists. Creeds—or their adamant absence—can turn to concrete, crush our humanity, and sink this lifeboat we all share.

As much as Phil and I wish we could be together forever, we accept the scientific evidence. We belong to a species that dies. When our brain cells disintegrate, our unique identities will disappear.

This truth makes our fleeting lives on planet Earth more precious than ever. 

Probably they will disappear.  No one ever really promised otherwise.  Jesus is notoriously vague about the hereafter.  He speaks of a house with "many mansions" in John, but in the synoptics he speaks of God being the God of the living and the dead; all are alive to God, which isn't exactly the Platonic ideal of an immortal and eternal soul.  That's all post-Pauline stuff, and its the same metaphysic that supports the idea of the blood atonement and the acceptance of Jesus "into your heart" (between ventricles?) that I was told about in my childhood, and never understood.

What I don't get is this atheist idea that Christianity is about a fear of death.  Oh, no, I do get it; I just don't like it, especially because it leads to the hubris that atheists are "better" than Christians because they don't fear death.  Say atheists who have yet to lie on their deathbed, I always note.

I've seen people die; lots of them.  I have yet to see one smile in bliss like a Hollywood death and pronounce their sure comfort that God will take them.  That's what the family says, the friends, the survivors.  Death for the person dying is an individual affair, the most existential (again!) experience you can have.  As the atheist Jacques Derrida put it:  "My death; is it possible?"  To imagine your death is to imagine that you die, as the ex-pastor says here, when your brain cells disintegrate.  Oh, you die much, much earlier than that, and nothing of you is left behind except an exquisite corpse, if you're lucky. Usually you don't leave that much.

Let's be honest, if we're going to be honest.

Tolstoy, I've always thought, got it about right (but who knows, right?).  The last words of "The Death of Ivan Ilyich":

And suddenly it grew clear to him that what had been oppressing him and would not leave him was all dropping away at once from two sides, from ten sides, and from all sides. He was sorry for them, he must act so as not to hurt them: release them and free himself from these sufferings. "How good and how simple!" he thought. "And the pain?" he asked himself. "What has become of it? Where are you, pain?"

He turned his attention to it.

"Yes, here it is. Well, what of it? Let the pain be."

"And death...where is it?"

He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death.

In place of death there was light.

"So that's what it is!" he suddenly exclaimed aloud. "What joy!"

To him all this happened in a single instant, and the meaning of that instant did not change. For those present his agony continued for another two hours. Something rattled in his throat, his emaciated body twitched, then the gasping and rattle became less and less frequent.

"It is finished!" said someone near him.

He heard these words and repeated them in his soul.

"Death is finished," he said to himself. "It is no more!"

He drew in a breath, stopped in the midst of a sigh, stretched out, and died.

However, at the beginning of the story, when Ilyich is already dead, the widow tells a friend how her husband screamed unceasingly for three days, until death stopped his throat.  Ilyich experiences joy; the world sees a screaming, dying person.

Which is correct?  And is Ilyich right?  Well, at the moment of death, death is no more.  Is there an afterlife?  Who knows?  "One short sleep past, we wake eternally," John Donne memorably put it, sure, as St. Paul said, of the resurrection.  Later we decided it was a short step from this life to the next, nary a break, hardly even a passage.  Is it fear of death that drives this belief from sleep to mere transfer station?  Ilyich is only nominally a Christian, yet death terrifies him, and the priest offers him no comfort at all.  Isn't Christianity about avoiding death, being spared from death, leaping over death into Paradise?

Nope.

Maybe you think it is.  May it be unto you according to your faith.  Me, I don't think about it.  All that focus on death is morbid, to begin with; it's also escapist, if all you care about is accusing brownie points redeemable at the Pearly Gates.  Life is for living, not for thinking about what happens when you die.  You die, that's all we know.  That doesn't mean that's all I know about God, because while Grant thinks she's describing the merely material world in which she finds such wonder, I hear a description of the Creation, of which God has made humankind stewards.  No mention in her narrative of what we're doing to those wonders she so admires; and clearly her Christianity never taught her about Adam's stewardship of Creation in Genesis 1 (I'm sure the emphasis was on Eve's sin in Genesis 2).  Whatever it was, just don't tell me know how superior you are (especially by denouncing such arrogance before engaging in it) because you are bravely unafraid to die.  I have no death wish, but that's not the same as not being afraid to die.  I dare say I will fear it at the time; the unknown is always scary.  I was scared to get married; I was scared to stand up in court on my hind legs and address the judge; I was scared to give my first sermons.

Let's make this seasonal:  the coming if the Magi will be celebrated in 2 weeks, on January 6.  The gifts they bring:  frankincense and myrrh, oils and scents for burying the dead so the smell of decaying flesh is not too repulsive.  These are the gifts they bring the 2 year old child, and right after their visit the Holy Family flees to Egypt to escape the Massacre of the Innocents.  Mark's gospel doesn't even end with the resurrection, just the death (the original; the disciples find only an empty tomb).  Even in John's gospel, when Jesus learns of the death of Lazarus, does he snap his fingers and say "No big!"  No:  "Jesus wept."

Christianity isn't about escaping death.  It's about accepting it.

If you aren't afraid of death, you aren't there yet.  You may well be there long before you die; I've seen that, too.  Where is the person in the body of the Alzheimer's patient convulsively performing physical actions while tied in a bed for their own safety, unable to speak or even eat or recognize anyone, even themselves?  Sometimes we seem to be gone long before our brain cells disintegrate, so expecting your death to be in your control is no advance on the rest of us.  Indeed, it makes you one of us.

Just try not to be smug about it next time, okay?

Advent 2017: December 22

Then Hannah offered this prayer:

'My heart exults in the Lord,
in the Lord I now hold my head high;
I gloat over my enemies;
I rejoice because you have saved me.
There is none but you,
none so holy as the Lord,
none so righteous as our God.

Cease your proud boasting,
let no word of arrogance pass your lips,
for the Lord is a God who knows;
he governs what mortals do.
Strong men stand in mute dismay,
but those who faltered put on new strength.
Those who had plenty sell themselves for a crust,
and the hungry grow strong again.
The barren woman bears seven children,
and the mothers of many sons is left to languish.

The Lord metes out both death and life:
he sends down to Sheol, he can bring the dead up again,
Poverty and riches both come from the Lord;
he brings low and he raises up.
He lifts the weak out of the dust
and raises the poor from the refuse heap
to give them a place among the great,
to assign them seats of honor.

1 Samuel 2: 1-8, REB

 And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
    Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
    and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
    and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
    and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Luke 1: 46-56, NRSV

My soul extols the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has shown consideration for the lowly stature of his slave. As a consequence, from now on every generation will congratulate me; the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and his mercy will come to generation after generation of those who fear him. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has put the arrogant to rout, along with their private schemes; he has pulled the mighty down from their thrones, and exalted the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has come to the aid of his servant Israel, remembering his mercy, as he spoke to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

Luke 1:46-56, SV

Brief Meditation for the Longest Night of the Year

Sort of in response to the comment in the post below, have I mentioned that I actually admire Dave Chappelle?

Chappelle, who lives in rural Ohio town Yellow Springs, said he sees Trump supporters all the time, and he said they’re not as hateful as they’re made out to be.

“To my surprise, you know what I didn’t see? I didn’t see one deplorable face in that group,” Chappelle says. “I saw some angry faces, and some determined faces — but they felt like decent folk.”

“In fact, I’m not even lying, not to sound f*cked up, but I felt sorry for them,” Chappelle adds. “I know the game now. I know that rich white people call poor white people ‘trash,’ and the only reason I know that, is because I made so much money last year, the rich whites told me they say it at a cocktail party — and I’m not with that sh*t.”

The oldest con in America, one that predates the Constitution and all that, is the idea that rich people deserve to be rich, and poor people deserve to be poor.  It's an idea promoted by rich people (remember when non-landowners couldn't vote?  That's the "original intent" of the Constitution.) to keep poor people in their place.  And long after the 13th Amendment rich whites kept it up by making sure any anger poor whites had was directed at poor blacks, not at the people with their foot on the poor white family's throats.  To this day rich white men get a pass for their white supremacist attitudes so long as they aren't as blatant about it as Trump and Bannon (when you aren't blatant about it, it's not about race because it's never about race; not in America.).

I still remember the seminary class (I've mentioned this before) where a skit from a "mega-church" was played on video, a skit involving a woman obviously meant to be "white trash," and the object of derision and scorn.  Everyone laughed but me, and when I pointed out the harshness of deriding "poor white trash" who could easily have been my family members, I was told to take the joke and get over it.  Except by two people:  a fellow Southerner (this was in St. Louis, but the class was largely mid-westerners) and the one black woman in the class, who had come in angry at whites and, after two years among us, had taught us something about the source of her anger, as we taught her we didn't hate her because of her skin color.  She actually apologized to me after class, having seen my point.  No other person in the class ever did.

Racism is not just racism (pace Mr. Coates), it is also a matter of class distinction.  Mr. Chappelle is absolutely right, and like him, I'm not with that shit.

Especially at this time of year.

Advent 2017: December 21

THREE old men, of whom one had a bad reputation, came one day to Abba Achilles. The first asked him, "Father make me a fishing net." "I will not make you one," he replied. Then the second one said, "Of your charity make one, so that we may have a souvenir of you in the monastery." But he said, "I do not have time." Then the third one, who had a bad reputation, said, "Make me a fishing net, so that I may have something from your hands, Father." Abba Achilles answered him at once, "For you, I will make one." Then the two other old men asked him privately, "Why did you not want to do what we asked you, but you promised to do what he asked?" The old man gave them this answer, "I told you I would not make one, and you were not disappointed, since you thought I had no time. But if I had not made one for him, he would have said, 'The old man has heard about my sin, and that is why he does not want to make me anything,' and so our relationship would have broken down. But now I have cheered his soul, so that he will not be overcome with grief."

--The Sayings of the Desert Fathers


THE justice of God,
which will pass judgment on human justice,
will reveal itself with the brightness of sunshine
on the day of the resurrection,
but not right now.
Now Jesus must drink the chalice of suffering
down to the last drop.
He must walk the way of the cross to the very end, enduring the limitless atrocities of injustice
against the innocent.

--Leonardo Boff

At that time Mary set out in haste for a city in the hill country of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's house and greet Elizabeth.  And it so happened, when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby jumped in her womb.  Elizabeth was fill with polity spirit and proclaimed at the top of her voice, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  Who am I that the mother of my lord should visit me?  You see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby jumped for joy in my womb.  Congratulations to her who trusted that what the Lord promised her would come true."

Luke 1: 39-45 (SV)

You have trusted no town
With the news behind your eyes.
You have drowned Gabriel's word in thoughts like seas
And turned toward the stone mountain
To the treeless places.
Virgin of God, why are your clothes like sails?

--Thomas Merton

Advent 2017: December 20

Since Adam, being free to choose,
Chose to imagine he was free
To choose his own necessity,
Lost in his freedom, Man purues
The shadow of his images:
Today the Unknown seeks the known;
What I am willed to ask, your own
Will has to answer; child, it lies
Within your power of choosing to
Conceive the Child who chooses you.

--W.H. Auden


The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare
Through the hollow of an ear;
Wings beating about the room;
The terror of all terrors that I bore
The Heavens in my womb.

Had I not found content among the shows
Every common woman knows,
Chimney corner, garden walk,
Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes
And gather all the talk?

What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,
This fallen star my milk sustains,
This love that makes my heart's blood stop
Or strikes a Sudden chill into my bones
And bids my hair stand up?

--W.B. Yeats


We do not prayer that your birth according to the flesh shall be renewed as it once occurred upon this day.  Rather do we pray that your invisible Godhead may be grafted into us.  May that which was then accorded after the flesh to Mary alone now be granted in the spirit to the church:  that faith unquestioning may conceive you, the spirit free of all corruption may bear you, the soul overshadowed by the power of the Most High may quicken with you evermore.  Go not forth from us; spring forth rather from within us.

--Mozarabic Rite

"The little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes"

If he did he couldn't be heard over the whining coming from the White House:

“While the President and this administration has been very focused on how we can better help the American people, I think oftentimes the media is focused on other things,” Sanders said at her daily briefing.

She claimed that “90 percent of the coverage” about Trump “is negative” and claimed the media is “certainly not talking about the growing economy, certainly not talking about the crushing of ISIS, not talking about the creation of jobs.”

“If people were focused a lot more on those things in the media, I think that his numbers would be a lot higher,” Sanders said. “We anticipate that they’re going to go up as more and more of these things continue to happen.”

The economy is due to Obama (what has Trump done, except misunderstand what the Dow Jones means?); Obama killed Osama (it was a coalition that did in ISIS); and job creation?  Again:  Obama.

What has Trump done?  Signed a lot of executive orders that got tied up in court.  Hired the biggest gang of grifters and con-men to ever set foot in a public building.  Played golf like he was a retiree.   Whined like a high school girl who had to take her cousin to the prom.

"Believe me!"

A story in the @washingtonpost that I was close to “rescinding” the nomination of Justice Gorsuch prior to confirmation is FAKE NEWS. I never even wavered and am very proud of him and the job he is doing as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The unnamed sources don’t exist!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2017

And your investigators will be back from Hawaii any day now, with amazing information about Obama's birth certificate.

And you had the largest inaugural crowds in history, and have been the most productive President in U.S history, despite not yet passing any major piece of legislation.

And you've never lied, right?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's Christmas, let's write dumb and pointless things about Jesus!  Valerie Taricot (who else?) obliges with the empty insights!

Cropped hair, not long. Jewish men at the time of Christ did not typically wear their hair long. A Roman triumphal arch of the time period depicts Jewish slaves with short hair. In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he addresses male hair length. “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him?” (1 Corinthians 11:14 NRSV). During the 1960’s conservative Christians quoted this verse to express their disgust against the hippy movement and to label it as anti-Christian.

Yeah, probably.  It's a cinch Jesus didn't look like this:

I used to tell people, back when they knew who I meant (it's hell getting old!) that Jesus probably looked like Yassir Arafat.  Certainly not like a white guy with a high forehead and long, curly locks.  Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Married, not single. In 2012, when an ancient papyrus scrap came to light referring to the wife of Jesus (most likely a forgery), some Catholics and Evangelicals were scandalized at the very thought. But unlike the Catholic Church, Jews have no tradition of celibacy among religious leaders. Ancient writers documented exceptions like the Apostle Paul or the Essene sect precisely because they violated the norm. In the Gospels, Jesus is called rabbi; and all great rabbis that we know of were married.  A rabbi being celibate would have been so unusual that some modern writers have argued that Jesus must have been gay. But a number of ancient texts, including the canonical New Testament, point to a special relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus. For example, the non-canonical Gospel of Phillip says, “[Jesus] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her [word missing].”

Heard this before, and:  "Nope."  The argument that Jesus was ever called "rabbi" is strictly from the Gospel of John, where the term is used.  Problem is, rabbis didn't become a distinct class of Jews until after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., and the end of Jewish temple worship (which petered out slowly, not on Jan. 1 (no, there wasn't one in 71 C.E., but work with me here!) 71 C.E.  John's reference, for an audience in the 2nd century, was an anachronism for an itinerant preacher from the early 1st century.  For reference, Jesus was dead by circa 35 C.E., long before the Temple was defiled and Temple worship began to fall (and modern Judaism arise).  John's gospel was written in the early 2nd century, long after the Temple fell.  As for the historical Jesus, being an itinerant is the more established fact of the life of Jesus of Nazareth (and I didn't say "established,"  I said "more established"), so it's doubtful he had a wife wandering around after him.  References to Mary Magdalene and Jesus are all distinct retrojections derived from Luke 7:36-50.  You could look it up.  Not, in other words, an historically sound conjecture at all.

Hung on a pole, not necessarily a cross. For centuries scholars have known that the Greek New Testament word “stauros,” which gets translated into English as cross, can refer to a device of several shapes, commonly a single upright pole, “torture stake” or even tree. The Romans did not have a standard way of crucifying prisoners, and Josephus tells us that during the siege of Jerusalem soldiers nailed or tied their victims in a variety of positions. Early Christians may have centered in on the vertical pole with a crossbeam because it echoed the Egyptian ankh, a symbol of life,  or simply because it was more artistically and symbolically distinctive than the alternatives. Imagine millions of people wearing a golden pole on a chain around their necks.

No, not really.  "in our lit. of the instrument by which the capital punishment of crucifixion was carried out.....a stake sunk in the earth in an upright position; a cross-piece was oft attached to its upper part, so that is was shaped like a "T" or [a cross]."  That's from the definition of stauros in Bauer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, the go-to resource for the language and literature of the Christian scriptures.  I've read three books by Dom Crossan and reviewed the Scholar's Version translation of the gospels by the Jesus Seminar.  Crossan doesn't even think Jesus was buried in a tomb, but more likely was tossed in a shallow pit like most Roman political prisoners.  Yet I've never heard this idea that stauros more likely means a pole (Festivus!) than a cross.  I'm sticking with the Biblical scholars and tradition on this one.

The ankh idea is entirely fanciful; another pseudo-Puritan argument that symbols from the Catholic church were derived from "heathen" practices.  Again, you could look it up, especially at Christmas (which the Puritans outlawed, on the same grounds).  You think I exaggerate, but I have a friend in the ministry who is of distinctive New England Congregational stock.  He told me proudly how his "meeting house" (modeled on one in New England, but here in Texas) could be used for Jewish worship simply by removing the hymnals from the pews, which had a cross on them (and it was used by a synagogue).  Anitpathy, weak or strong, against "heathen symbols," runs deep; no doubt Taricot picked it up from her evangelical upbringing.  Then again, a lot of on-line atheists think they are skeptical and modern when they repeat talking points that were old when Cotton Mather mouthed them.  As for wearing gold poles around our necks, 1st century Christians would be equally perplexed by our crosses.  Mostly they preferred fish.

Short, not tall. The typical Jewish man at the time of the Roman Empire was just over five feet tall, which makes this a best guess for the height of Jesus. That he is typically depicted taller likely derives from the mental challenge people have in distinguishing physical stature from other kinds of stature. Great men are called “big men” and “larger than life.” In ancient times they often were assigned divine parentage and miraculous births, and the idea that Jesus was uniquely divine has created a strong pull over time to depict him as taller than is likely. A good illustration of this is the Shroud of Turin, which is just one of many such Jesus-shrouds that circulated during medieval times and which bears the (now reproduced) image of a man closer to six feet in height.

Well, probably; but again, setting the Shroud of Turin aside:  who cares?

Born in a house, not the stable of an inn. The miraculous birth story of Jesus is a late, maybe 2nd century addition to the gospels, and consequently it contains many fascinating mythic elements and peculiarities. But the idea that Jesus was born in a stable got added to the Christmas story even later. In the original narrative, Joseph and Mary probably would have stayed with relatives, and the phrase “no room for them in the inn (gr: kataluma)” is better translated “no room for them in the upper room.” Later storytellers did not understand that people of the time might bring animals into their ground floor, as in Swiss housebarns, and they assumed that the presence of a manger implied a stable.

This one I actually agree with; and it is a misreading of Luke to imagine Jesus' parents were banished to a barn for the night.  A gross insult on the famed hospitality of 1st century Palestine, too.

Named Joshua, not Jesus. The name Joshua (in Hebrew Y’hoshuʿa meaning “deliverance” or “salvation”), was common among Jews in the Ancient Near East as it is today. Joshua and Jesus are the same name, but are translated differently in our modern Bible to distinguish Jesus from the Joshua of the Old Testament, who leads the Hebrew people to the Promised Land. In actuality, though, the relationship between the two figures is fascinating and important. Some scholars believe that the New Testament gospels are mostly updated retellings of the more ancient Joshua story, remixed with episodes  from stories of Elisha and Elijah and Moses. A modern parallel can be found in the way that Hollywood writers have reworked Shakespearean tropes and plot elements into dozens of modern movies (though for a very different purpose).

Jesus is the transliteration into Greek of the Hebraic "Joshua."  So?  And yeah, some scholars believe all kinds of nonsense.  It's what makes scholarly horse-races.  Or keeps the literary school of Northrop Frye alive (fugeddaboutit!)

Number of apostles (12) from astrology, not history. Whether Jesus had 12 disciples who ranked above his other devotees is an open question, as their names vary from list to list. Since the Gospels echo the story of Joshua, the “12” apostles most immediately mirror the 12 tribes of Israel. But the number 12 was considered auspicious by many ancient people, including the Israelites, and the 189 repetitions of the number 12 in the Bible ultimately may derive from the same pre-historical roots as the 12 signs of the zodiac and 12 months of the year. Astrotheology or star worship preceded the Hebrew religion, and shaped both the Bible and Western religions more broadly. One might point to the 12 Olympian gods or 12 sons of Odin, or the 12 days of Christmas or 12 “legitimate” successors to the prophet Mohammed.

"May" is the key word in that paragraph; "may," but probably doesn't.  Stick with the 12 tribes explanation.

Prophecies recalled, not foretold. Even people who aren’t too sure about the divinity of Jesus sometimes think that the way he fulfilled prophecies was a bit spooky, like the writings of Nostradamus. In reality, Scooby Doo could solve this one in a single episode with four pieces of information: First, Old Testament prophecies were well known to 1st century Jews, and a messianic figure who wanted to fulfill some of these prophecies could simply do so. For example, in the book of Matthew, Jesus seeks a donkey to ride into Jerusalem “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet” (Matthew 21:4). Second, “gospels” are a genre of devotional literature rather than objective histories, which means that the authors had every reason to shape their stories around earlier predictions. Third, scholars now believe that some Bible texts once thought to be prophecies (for example in the Book of Revelation) actually relate to events that were past or current at the time of writing. Finally, a psychological phenomenon known as the “Barnum Effect” ensures that those who want to believe in prophecies (or astrology, for that matter) will find amazing coincidences if they look hard enough.

Well, yeah; that's one of the safeguards against reading the Hebrew Scriptures as mere prelude to the Christian ones.  First thing my OT professor told us on the first day of class.  It is important to regard the Hebrew Scriptures on their own terms, not as merely window dressing for the prophecies made popular again this time of year.  Alternatively, the "prophecies" were not so well known in 1st century Palestine as Taricot assumes (nor do I assume Jesus actually rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the cheers of the people.  A wandering preacher from a hick backwater like Judea in the city of Jerusalem?  Who would even notice, especially at Passover?).  Literacy was not widespread, and knowledge of scripture would come from Temple worship, not from Sunday school or weekly Bible study.  The teachings of Scripture as applied to daily life were known; but the expectations of a Messiah were probably not the common currency of life among the descendants of Abraham in Palestine, any more than they are today.

Some Jesus quotes not from Jesus, others uncertain. Lists of favorite Jesus sayings abound online. Some of the most popular are the Beatitudes (Blessed are the meek, etc.) or the story of the woman caught in adultery (Let he who is without sin cast the first stone) or the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, which, we are told, sums up the Law and the Prophets.) Which words actually from Jesus? This question has been debated fiercely by everyone from 3rd century Catholic Councils to the 20th Century Jesus Seminar. Even Thomas Jefferson weighed in, but much remains unclear. The New Testament Gospels were written long after Jesus would have died, and no technology existed with which to record his teachings in real time, unless a he wrote them down himself, which he didn’t. We can be confident that at least some of the wise and timeless words and catchy proverbs attributed to Jesus are actually from earlier or later thinkers. For example, the Golden Rule was articulated before the time of Christ by the Rabbi Hillel the Elder, who similarly said it was the “whole Torah.” By contrast, the much loved story of the woman caught in adultery doesn’t appear in manuscripts until the 4th century. Attributing words (or whole texts) to a famous person was common in the Ancient Near East, because it gave those words extra weight. Small wonder, then, that so many genuinely valuable insights ended up, in one way or another, paired with the name of Jesus.

Again, welcome to the cutting edge of 19th century Biblical scholarship.  I haven't checked to see if the story from John is really only known after the 4th century, but simply the footnotes in the Scholar's Version translation (by the Jesus Seminar) make me very, very dubious that the story is 2 centuries older than the gospel itself.  What's interesting is that she doesn't pick on "This is my body, broken for you.  Take, eat; do this in remembrance of me."  My NT professor said they spent a whole graduate seminar trying to find a corollary or even a similar statement anywhere in the known ancient world literature, and couldn't.  Actually, standing by itself absent the eucharistic theologies of the last 2000 years, it's an extremely puzzling statement, and entirely sui generis.  Just sayin'.....

And she doesn't even mention the salient seasonal fact that Matthew's gospel has the magi, Luke's the shepherds and angels, and never the two do mix; except in our nativity scenes and Christmas stories and imagination.  Oh, well; same as it ever was.

Advent 2017: December 19

The angel of the Lord came upon Hagar by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur, and he said, 'Hagar, Sarai's slave girl, where have you come from and where are you going?'  She answered, 'I am running away from Sarai my mistress.'  The angel of the Lord said to her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to ill-treatment at her hands.'  He also said, 'I shall make your descendants too many to be counted.'  The angel of the Lord went on:

'You are with child and will bear a son.

You are to name him Ishmael,

because the Lord has heard of your ill-treatment.

He will be like the wild ass;

his hand will be against everyone

and everyone's hand against him;

and he will live at odds with all his kin.'

Hagar called the Lord who spoke to her by the name El-roi, for she said, 'Have I indeed seen God and still live after that vision"?  That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.  Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named the child she bore him Ishmael.  Abram was eighty-six years old when she bore Ishmael.

--Genesis 16:7-16, REB

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinths of Mamre, as he was sitting at the opening of his tent in the heat of the day.  He looked up and saw three men standing over against him.  On seeing them, he hurried from his tent door to meet them.  Bowing low, he said, 'Sirs, if I have deserved your favor, do not go past your servant without a visit.  Let me send for some water so that you may bathe your feet; and rest under this tree, while I fetch a little food so that you may refresh yourselves.  Afterwards you may continue the journey which has brought you my way.'  They said, 'Very well, do as you say.'  So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, 'Quick, take three measures of flour, knead it, and make cakes.'  He then hastened to the herd, chose a fine, tender calf, and gave it to a servant, who prepared it at once.  He took curds and milk and the calf which was now ready, set it all before them, and there under the tree waited on them himself while they ate.

They asked him where Sarah his wife was, and he replied, 'She is in the tent.'  One of them said, 'About this time next year I shall come back to you, and you wife Sarah will have a son.'  Now Sarah was listening at the opening of the tent close by him.  Both Abraham and Sarah were very old, Sarah being all past the age of childbearing.  So she laughed to herself and said, 'At my time of life I am past bearing children, and my husband is old.'  The Lord said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say "Can I really bear a child now that I am so old?"  Is anything impossible for the Lord?  In due season, at this time next year, I shall come back to you, and Sarah will have a son.'  Because she was frightened Sarah lied and denied that she had laughed; but he said, 'Yes, you did laugh.'

--Genesis 18:1-15, REB

There was a certain man from Zorah of the tribe of Dan whose name was Manoah and whose wife was barren; she had no child.  The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, 'Though you are barren and have no child, you will conceive and give birth to a son.  Now be careful to drink no wine or strong drink, and to eat no forbidden food.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, an no razor must touch his head, for the boy is to be a Nazirite, consecrated to God from birth.  He will strike the first blow for Israel's freedom from the power of the Philistines.

The woman went and told her husband. "A man of god came to me,' she told him; 'his appearance was that of an angel of God, most terrible to see.  I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name, but he said to me "You are going to conceive and give birth to as on.  From now on drink no wine or strong drink and eat no forbidden food, for the boy is to be a Nazirite, consecrated to God from birth to the day of his death." '

Manoath prayed to the Lord, 'If it is pleasing to you, Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come again to tell us what we are to do for the boy that is to be born.'  God heard Manoah's prayer, and the angel of God came again to the woman, as she was sitting in the field.  Her husband not being with her, the woman ran quickly and said to him, 'The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again.'  Manoah went with her at once and approached the man and said, 'Are you the man who talks with my wife?'  'Yes,' he replied, 'I am.'  'Now when your words come true,' Manoah said, 'what kind of boy will he be and what will he do?'  The angel of the Lord answered, 'Your wife must be careful to do all I have told her:  she must not taste anything that comes from the vine; she must drink no wine or strong drink, and she must eat no forbidden food.  She must do whatever I say.'

Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, 'May we urge you to stay?  Let us prepare a young goat for you.'  The angel replied, 'Though you urge me to stay I shall not eat your food; but prepare a whole offering if you will, and offer that to the Lord.'  Manoah did not know that was the angel of the Lord, and said to him, 'What is your name?  For we shall want to honor you when your words come true.'  The angel of the Lord said to him, 'How can you ask my name?  It is a name of wonder.'  Manoah took a young goat with the proper grain-offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him whose works are full of wonder.  While Manoah and his wife were watching, the flame went up from the altar towards heaven, and the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame.  Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell face downward to the ground.

The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson.  The boy grew up in Mahaneh-dan between Zorah and Eshtaol, and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of the Lord began to move him.

--Judges 13:1-20, 24 (REB)

There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, named Elkanah sone of Jeroham, sone of Elihu, sone of Tohu, son of Zuph and Ephraimite.  He had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah; Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.  Every year this mane went up from his town to worship and offer sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord.

When Elkanah sacrificed, he gave several shares of the meat to his wife Peninnah with all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave only one share; the Lord had not granted her children, yet it was Hannah whom Elkanah loved.  Hannah's rival also used to torment and humiliate her because she had no children.  This happened year after year when they went up to the house of the Lord; her rival used to torment her, until she was in tears and would not eat.  Her husband Elkanah said to her, 'Hannah, why are you crying and eating nothing?  Why are you so miserable?  And I not more to you than ten sons?'

After they had finished eating and drinking at the sacrifice at Shiloh, Hannah rose in deep distress, and weeping bitterly stood before the Lord and prayed to him.  Meanwhile Eli the priest was sitting in his seat besides the door of the temple the Lord.  Hannah made this vow:  'Lord of Hosts, if you will only take notice of my trouble and remember me, if you will not forget me but grant me offspring, then I shall give the child to the Lord for the whole of his life, and no razor shall ever touch his head.'

For a long time she sent on praying before the Lord, while Eli watched her lips.  Hannah was praying silently; her lips were moving although her voice could not be heard, and Eli took her for a drunken woman.  'Enough of this drunken behavior!' he said to her.  'Leave off until the effect of the wine has gone.'  'Oh, sir!' she answered, 'I am no heart-broken woman; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my feelings before the Lord.  Do not think me so devoid of shame, sir; all this time I have been speaking out of the depths of my misery.'  Eli said, 'Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant what you have asked of him.'  Hannah replied, 'May I be worthy of your kindness.'  And no longer downcast she went away and had something to eat.

Next morning they were up early and, after prostrating themselves before the Lord, returned to their home at Ramah.  Elkanah had intercourse with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her; she conceived, and in due time bore a son, whom she named Samuel, 'because,' she said, 'I asked the Lord for him.'

--1 Samuel 1:1-20 (REB)

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there happened to be this priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly clan of Abijah.  His wife, a descendent of Aaron, was named Elizabeth.  They were both scrupulous in the sight of God, obediently following all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.  But they had no children, because Elizabeth was infertile, and both were well along in years.  While he was serving as priest before God when his priestly clan was on temple duty, it so happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the customs of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.

At the hour of incense, while a huge crowd was praying outside, there appeared to him a messenger of the Lord standing to the right of the altar of incense.  When he saw him, Zechariah was shaken and overcome by fear.  But the heavenly messenger said to him, "Don't be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John.  And you will be joyful and elated, and many will rejoice at his birth, because he will be great in the sight of the Lord; he will drink no wine or beer, and he will be filled with holy spirit from the very day of his birth.  And he will cause many of the children of Israel to turn to the Lord their God.  He will precede him in the spirit and power of Elijah; he will turn the hearts of the parents back toward their children, and the disobedient back toward the ways of righteousness, and will make people ready for their lord.'

But Zechariah said to the heavenly messenger, "How can I be sure of this?  For I am an old man and my wife is all along in years."  

And the messenger answered him, "I am Gabriel, the one who stands in the presence of God.  I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news.  Listen to me:  you will be struck silent and speechless until the day these things happen because you did not trust my words, which will come true at the appropriate time.'

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, wondering why he was taking so long in the sanctuary.  And when he did come out and was unable to speak to them, they realized that he had seen a vision inside.  And he kept making signs to them, since he could not speak.  And it so happened, when his time of official service was completed, that he went back home.

Afterwards, his wife Elizabeth conceived, and went into seclusion for five months, telling herself:  "This is how the Lord has seen fit to deal with me in his good time in taking away the public disgrace (of my infertility)."

--Luke 1:3-24 (SV)

In the sixth month the heavenly messenger Gabriel was sent form God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David.  The virgin's name was Mary.  He entered and said to her "Greetings, favored one.  The Lord is with you!"

But she was deeply disturbed by the words, and wondered what the greeting could mean.

The heavenly messenger said to her, "Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  Listen to me:  you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called son of the Most High.  And the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father.  He will rule over the house of Jacob forever; and his dominion will have no end."

And Mary said to the messenger, "How can this be, since I am not involved with a man?"

The messenger replied, "The holy spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will cast its shadow on you.  This is why the child to be born will be holy, and be called son of God.  Further, your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age.  She who was said to be infertile is already six months along, since nothing is impossible with God."

And Mary said, "Here I am, the Lord's slave.  May everything you have said come true."  Then the heavenly messenger left her.

--Luke 1:26-38 (SV)