The Particular Exclusiveness of Generic Deism

As a chaplain, there is a view I often run across among non-religious, college-educated folks in postmodern western culture that Christianity is scandalous in its particularity, and particularly offensive to non-Christian people. In particular, the Name of Jesus, the idea of the Trinity, and especially the cross and blood of Jesus are all stumbling blocks. Instead, it is often suggested that we omit or underplay language that includes Jesus, or the Trinity, or the cross, or other uniquely particular expressions of access to God through distinctly Christian means (such as the Eucharistic Prayer or the Lord's Prayer). 

Instead it is often preferred to substitute generic addresses to "The Divine", or simply "God", or even Western philosophical concepts such as "Ground of Being". This may be suggested with the idea that a more Generic Deist language will make God more "accessible": A general prayer to a general God or Divine, who has no particular story, nor any particular name or way of access, but which is accessible in a generic way by all methods and all names, as well as no methods and no names.

On Miracles that seem “trivial”

Every now and then we come across stories of religiously significant events that do not seem to be adequately explained by natural laws, but which seem to be trivial or silly or even harmful to the non-initiated. In Christianity, these often happen around supposed “Eucharistic Miracles” such as where the consecrated host appears to bleed, or stigmata appear on the hands of the priest, or when communion bread or wine is suddenly multiplied. I have also seen stories on icons that weep sweet smelling oil, or bodies of saints that appear to never decompose. But events like this also happen in other religions, such as in the late 90’s when Hindu statues miraculously leaked milk. 

A Provocation on Mencken and Saving Humanity

Every so often a cautionary quote about philanthropy makes its rounds, warning us against those who claim to have the best interests of others in mind:

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it." (H.L. Mencken)

The Many Loves of the Love of God

When we speak of the Love of God, or praise God for God's Loving-Kindness, we are remembering that above all, God is Love. But this Love is not merely the feeling we tend to associate with liking something a great deal, such as when we say "I love this coffee" or "I love that activity". Rather, we mean that God's Love is something deep and active, constantly working for the abundant life and flourishing of those God loves. In short, it is Love operative in sacrificial acts of kindness: Loving Kindness. Many Scriptural words and concepts fill out what this Divine Loving-Kindness means.

Imagining a Divine Covenant with Artificial Intelligence

What if God made a Covenant with Artificial Intelligence in a way similar to God's many Covenants with different groups of people in Scripture? As I was working with ChatGPT to summarize some teaching materials about the Covenants in the Bible, I asked it to speculate on what a Divine Covenant with AGI might look like based on the material we had compiled and edited. This is an edited transcript of what ChatGPT said as the result of several different prompts:

Love and Apocalypse

There appears to be a contradiction 

Between

"Love one another

As I have loved you"

And

"He will come again in glory

To Judge the living and dead"

How do we resolve the yawning chasm

Between Love

And Apocalypse?

Anyone who has ever truly loved

Sacrificially loved

Loved despite the odds

Despite the failures

Despite the future

Anyone who has loved like that

Like Jesus loved

Will tell you that Love brings an apocalypse

Love does not sooth

Nor lull to sleep

It rends apart space and time

To reveal the reality behind the masks

The disease behind the smile

And that kind of Love

Pisses people off

Causes fear and hatred

And can even get you crucified

Love will struggle

Love IS Apocalypse

Love brings the old world to an end

And gives birth to a new world

We never could have imagined.

 

A Prayer for Trinity Sunday

Today was Trinity Sunday. Many people consider the idea of the Trinity to be conceptually difficult at best, and outright contradiction at worst. But that’s only if you consider it a verbal puzzle to work out, instead of a living Reality we are invited into. The idea of the Trinity is the outcome of the early Church knowing there is one God, but experiencing the fullness of that God in the Father who is over us, in the Son who walks with us, and in the Spirit who dwells within us. 

It is the Christian grammar of what it means to say God is Love: God is the Source of Love as the Father, the Object of Love as the Beloved Son, and the Relation of Love that binds Father and Son together as the Spirit. And this Three Relational God invites us to live in God’s Love, to dance in God’s Life, and to radiate God’s Light. CS Lewis even notes that the very act of praying is a welcome into the Life of the Trinity: As we pray TO the Father THROUGH the Son BY the power of the Spirit. And with that in mind, here is one of many prayers celebrating God as Trinity:

LORD of Love: Today we celebrate you as the Holy Trinity. You alone are God who shares love and life and light forever in Community, as three distinct Relations within the singular Ultimate Reality that upholds all creation. From the overflow of your communal life you create us and redeem us and complete us. And so today we come to you, O Father, through your Son Jesus Christ, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that we may more fully share in your love, be drawn into your life, and shine with your light, now and forever. Amen!

*The image above is a colorized version of a drawing made for me by former student and fellow Episcopal priest Arnoldo Romero. He drew this in response to a weekend we spent studying the Trinity in the patristics and ecumenical councils. The seeing eye representing God's providence is straight out of Orthodox iconography and can be found in thousands of Orthodox churches, particularly on the ceiling. The use of color-- that three colors make up white Light, and can be used to make up any other kind of light-- was a limited analogy of the Trinity we discussed. The rainbow in the Divine Eye harkens back to the Covenant Rainbow of Noah (Genesis 9) and forward to the Rainbow surrounding the Divine Throne (Revelation 21-22; Ezekiel 1). The fullness of color indicates the fullness of all reality contained and overflowing from the Holy Trinity. The Möbius Strip with three interconnected "sides" which are "one" is a favorite modern visual analogy of the Trinity for me. And on the "Son" side is an image of a brain, depicting the Son as the Logos or Mind of God, with a "D" and a "H", indicating Jesus is fully Divine and fully Human. 

The Magi In My Life

This is an Epiphany sermon based in the story of the magi from Matthew 2.1-11, as well as the Episcopal School of Dallas virtue of “Openness” for the month of February. In the Spirit of openness, I decided to give a sermon a little differently than I normally do. From a pulpit. I hope you will be open to this! Now if you are skeptical like me, you may wonder if openness is even a virtue, and if so, why is it important enough to devote a whole MONTH to it. Well, I am glad you asked!

Easter and the philosophy of embodiment and matter

Around Easter, I was in another discussion about the necessity of the resurrection for the hope proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a perpetual tension I find between people who believe two different kinds of things about the hope that the Gospel, or "Good News of Jesus", offers us for the end of physical life. The first cluster of ideas is that a general faith in personal existence after death is sufficient for the Gospel, and all we need to affirm is that "we go to heaven when we die". The second cluster of ideas is that the Gospel entails a much more particular hope that in Christ we will be resurrected and re-embodied in a New Creation at the end of all things. I trend strongly toward the second cluster of ideas for both Biblical reasons and the philosophical implications of resurrection for full human flourishing.

The Body of Christ needs a Left and a Right

This was written in 2007 for a class I was taking on the Church and Social Change. I have never posted it online because I received negative feedback on the thesis because it did not adhere closely enough to established political options available in our society (the subtext seemed to be that I failed to “take a side” in the way my professor wanted me to). Re-reading it in light of what has happened in our country in the last 15 years, it seems to me that this holds insights I would like to share. Most importantly the core theme and metaphor of the paper: We are the Body of Christ, and all functioning bodies have a right and a left side. And in the Church and the Body Politic of Society, we need to realize that we need each other from all sides, and we need to stop demonizing those who are not in “our” side of the Body. As the original subtitle of this paper stated: "Why the Church needs to get beyond Polemics to resist the rise of Global Corporate Consumerism".

Christ's Way and the ways of religion

 

For years I have been teaching on Global Religions and Comparative Theology, with a particular passion for talking about how Christ relates to world religions. I thought I would republish my class notes on how Christ relates to world religions, incorporating material from professor Keith Ward on a view called by many “Expansivism”. This updates my previous class notes on this subject found in the post Christ and the Religions.

Overview of the Seven "Ecumenical" Councils

Ecumenical derives from the Greek word "oikumene", which roughly translates to "whole inhabited world". A Church Council is an official gathering of representatives to settle Church business, often dealing with doctrine (belief), behavior (morality), and questions of Church polity (canon law). Worldwide Councils are called rarely and are not the same as the regular regional gatherings of church leaders (synods, conventions, etc). An "Ecumenical Council" is one at which the whole Church is represented from throughout the world. 

Scriptures on experiencing Divine Light

I figured I would start the year with a little Bible study. Here are some things that Scripture tells us about Divine Light and how we may experience and embody Light in our lives. The following is a Scriptural outline on how we can experience Divine Light, through Jesus Christ, but the power of God's Spirit.

Sophiology: Holy Wisdom as the Divine Feminine

Throughout Church history, Orthodox theologians from the Second Council of Nicaea (787) to the 20th century Russian "Sophiologist" Sergei Bulgakov have identified the Divine Feminine in God with "Holy Wisdom" (which is a translation of the feminine Greek term "Hagia Sophia", and the Hebrew term "Hokmah"). Nicaea II states it thus: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, the self-existent Wisdom (Sophia) of God the Father, who manifested Himself in the flesh, and by His great and divine dispensation freed us from the snares of idolatry, clothing Himself in our nature, restored it through the cooperation of the Spirit, who shares God's mind..." In more recent configurations, Divine Wisdom is identified as a personified attribute shared by all the members of the Trinity, yet primarily embodied in Jesus Christ. This has led to charges against Sophiologists that they have made Divine Wisdom into a fourth member of the Trinity, or a kind of separate "Mother Goddess" like Gaia. 

God's relationship with the world and culture

This is intended to help us understand how "Scripture speaks" on various topics. I have taken topical outlines I created for preaching and teaching, and reformatted them as articles to provide minimal framing and commentary, so that Scripture passages on certain topics may be collected, read, and meditated on. This is not an exhaustive commentary on Scripture, but rather an opportunity to collect thematic Scriptures together to see the trajectory that Hebrew and Christian Scriptures take, and how they converge and diverge on various topics. This is drawn from my own eclectic reading in Biblical and Systematic Theology, as well as topical resources such as Alister McGrath’s Thematic Reference Bible, Walter Elwell’s Topical Analysis of the Bible, Nave’s Topical Bible, Bible Gateway online, and the Open Bible online. 

In order to understand how to navigate our relationship with the world we live in, and the cultures we are immersed in, we need to understand the relationship of God to our world and the cultures in it. This can be difficult, because at different times in Scripture, there are different relationships between God's people and the world they inhabit, and the cultures that surround them. Sometimes, such as during the Davidic Kings of Judah, God's people were in charge of their culture and were directed to use that culture for the full flourishing of the people in it. Other times, such as during the Babylonian Exile or the period of Roman domination, God's people were called to create their own culture in the midst of cultures that ranged from being apathetic toward God's people, to being actively hostile to them. Despite this diversity of cultural context, there are some common Biblical themes that emerge:

Twas the Night Before Christmas, Gym Edition

Twas the Night before Christmas and all through the gym

Every lifter was repping to get swole or get thin

The Weightlifters snatched and cleaned with great care

Crossfitters did muscle-ups and thrusters into the air

Strongwomen flipped tires and atlas stones over bars

As Powerlifters benched, squatted, and deadlifted PRs

Bodybuilders put their dumbbells neatly in rows

For endless drop-sets to feel the pump as they grow

When what to their wondering eyes did appear

But Jacked Santa Claus dragging exhausted reindeer 

He farmer-carried Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen!

And repped Rudolph, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen!

Everyone was shocked at the six pack in his belly

"We thought that you jiggled, like a bowl full of jelly!"

Santa then replied with his loud booming voice

"One day I realized that my health was my choice

So I learned how to get ripped, strong, muscular, and mobile

Like a supple leopard, sleek, powerful, and noble.

I had the elves build a gym, and learn about nutrition

To keep me always in peak gift-delivery condition.

I traded in cookies and milk for vitamins and whey.

I drink gallons of water and 200 grams of protein per day.

So throw some plates on the bar and then let's train

Merry Christmas to all, may you all make great gains!"

Making Artificial Intelligence in the Image of God?

As we have recently read about in the New York Times and the Atlantic, very powerful Artificial Intelligence programs have now become available for free or cheap online. Programs of similar capabilities have been around for a few years and have even written Op Eds. But what has changed is that the same computing power and access to AI is now available to the masses. In particular, I have had dozens of conversations with this AI:

https://chat.openai.com/chat

I have used this AI to produce topical sermons, fictional stories, literary comparisons, romance novels, historical essays, fake quotes, philosophical analyses, theological explanations, legal arguments, Biblical interpretations, mathematic equations, science term papers, working computer code, workout plans, recipes, topical prayers, free verse poetry, Shakespearean sonnets, and even rap battles between historical figures (and these are only what I have tried since last weekend!). In fact, I interviewed this AI to introduce it to the faculty at my school.

The Empty House and Evil Squatters

Recently a friend of mine read Jesus’ parable about the empty house of the soul, and the evil squatters who come back to take possession of it:

Luke 11.24–26 [24] “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ [25] When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order*. [26] Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.” (*The parallel text in Matthew 12.43-45 makes it clear the house is “empty” as well)

Does priesthood derive from the New Testament?

I have a friend who objects to the idea of Christian priesthood because he believes it diminishes and even denigrates other members of the Body of Christ who are not priests or bishops. His objection is to a distinctly “sacerdotal” image of the priesthood, in which only the priests or bishops can perform sacraments and teach in the Church, while all other members are more or less passive. To put it in a simplistic and crass way: Priests and bishops are seen to have “magic hands” which can consecrate sacraments, while everyone else is “non-magical”. To be fair, this view of the priesthood is a caricature, and very few people would insist that all ministry must be done by ordained clergy, while everyone else must be passive and receptive. However, this CAN be an implication of some early modern conceptions of the “sacerdotal” priesthood.

Seven Tips on Leading Camp Songs in School Chapel

So, you have gone on retreat, or to camp, and you have had an amazing experience of God, and now you want to share that with your local congregation! Awesome! That is exactly what God wants us to do with our passion and our gifts: Share them with others. However, sharing the gift of music is not as easy as it seems, and is not always received the way you intend it. To help avoid some of the pitfalls of sharing your music in Church, here are seven helpful hints by someone who is not musically trained, but has been a camp counselor, youth minister, priest in the Church, and school chaplain. I have seen this done well, and done not-so-well.

The Politics of God’s Kingdom

For a long time I have said: Wherever there are people, there are politics. Politics are the distinctive ways of organizing a community, ensuring justice and fair treatment for all members, and creating social structures to make it possible to live into those supreme values which the community serves. And make no mistake: Every community has its supreme values, its gods and masters, which it sacrifices for and serves. It may be power or profit or praise or pride or possessions or position. It may be God or gods or kings or supreme rulers or parties or free markets or liberty or control or ideology. But every community serves some set of supreme values. And every community creates structures and strictures and sanctions and stimulus packages to enact those values. 

So, unless we are going to live alone on a desert island, we will have politics because we will live with people. We were made for community. So it isn’t a question of IF we will be political, but HOW we will be political. And this is where I think the Way of Jesus offers a different kind of politics: A Way of Love. Not a way of imposing politics on others by force, but a way of inviting people into a politics of full human flourishing. Not a way of violence and exclusion and coercion. But a Way of healing and inclusion and persuasion. Not join us “or else death!” but join us “because of life!”

The Politics of the Kingdom of God is wholly different from the politics of the world and its crumbling fiefdoms. It calls God’s people out of partisan politics and into a deeper walk with Jesus; Out of step with the world and into step with Christ’s Spirit; Out of faith in parties and politicians and into faithfulness to the Father. Where each decision is not made to advance an ideological platform, but to love our neighbor in concrete ways; To judge situation by situation, and person by person, so we choose the most good and the least evil; The most life and the least death; The most love and the least hate; The most compassion and the least apathy. Because, as Saint Irenaeus reminds us, “the  glory of God is humanity fully alive”, but the death and destruction and degradation of any of God’s children dishonors the One who made them. So vote with ballots as a necessary evil when you must. But vote with Christlike words and deeds every day in every situation with every person God brings into your life. 

The Metaphysics of Materialism

Materialist determinism is a perpetually popular view in the modern world. It is the metaphysical viewpoint which denies metaphysics by positing that: 1. Reality is made of matter and only matter. The only reality is matter and the physical forces which operate within material interaction. This raises the thorny question of what exactly matter is. But let’s bracket this and assume there is something called “matter”, and it is the only constituent of reality (as opposed to “spirit” or “mind” or “consciousness”). 2. The events in reality are causally determined by material laws and forces, such that even the workings of mind and consciousness are determined by the physical states which preceded them. There is no free will or choice. All are illusory experiences formed in brains after events have happened. All phenomena can be fully explained in a mechanistic way through the matter and forces at work in an event, without any reference to choices or intentions or motives or thoughts.

However, as elegant as materialist determinism seems to be, it has some rather impractical and non-elegant implications. 

Should we rethink the dates of the New Testament?

Recently, New Testament scholar Jonathan Bernier has put forth a powerful proposal about  "Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament". He shows that in the era of modern Biblical scholarship, there have been three basic kinds of dates proposed for the writing of the New Testament:

Why God cannot be evil

Recently I was in a discussion in which someone asked whether God could be evil. Is it possible that the Ultimate Reality that is the source of all other realities is actually malevolent? Fortunately, it is both an evidential and a logical impossibility for God to be evil. God cannot be evil due to both an a priori reason (a reason which comes prior to experience in the world) and an a posteriori reason (a reason which comes from reflection on experience in the world). 

Twitter Gospel

A friend talked about summarizing the Gospel in 280 characters for Twitter. So here’s my Twitter Gospel. What is yours?

The Good News is that the LORD of Love is drawing us ALL into God’s embrace through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as God journeys with us through our hells &  heavens, and guides us in our trials & triumphs, so we may share fully in God’s Life and Love and Light.

I even have a 9 word version:

Christ shows God. 

God is Love. 

Love heals all. 

Amen.

Beware of Prophets for Profits

“Think again Sunshine!” Pop-intellectual Jordan Peterson has released a video in which he takes the role of a prophet and tells all Christian churches— Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox— how to do outreach and what our message should be. It is a video in which an exemplar of unhealthy right wing “good think” lobs rhetorical grenades at unhealthy left wing “political correctness” in the name of a religion and a God he himself does not embrace. His central thesis is that young men are burdened with a version of “original sin” experienced as guilt and shame for three overstated reasons, promoted by his enemies such as Derrida and Marx, deconstructionists and cultural Marxists. 

The Spirituality of Physical Training

Lord of Life strengthen us in Spirit, body, and soul: With our mind, heart, and will in your loving control; So we can heal our world, and make your children whole.

One of the driving concerns behind my entire life project is integral holism: To help us become healthy and whole in body, spirit, and soul. I believe the integration of bodily health and activity is foundational for our spiritual vitality and psychological wholeness. As a Christian pastor, my primary means of accessing wholeness and purpose and integration in life is through the God of Love revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Followers of Jesus are not usually known for their dedication to physical training and integration. But I think this is a mistake. After all, Jesus usually met people's bodily needs by feeding and healing them, before he taught them spiritual and ethical truths. And the "abundant life" promised by Jesus has physical as well as spiritual dimensions, such as making "our daily bread" a central concern in Jesus' model prayer.

Just as Jesus combined both physical and spiritual dimensions in his ministry, I usually combine my spiritual training with physical training, staying mindful of my diet and rest, exercise and mobility. This practice uses many of the spiritual-physical insights we find in Christian asceticism, as well as Hatha Yoga, and modern ideas of physical mobility, to create a method of living which not only connects us with Christ, but also makes us the strongest version of ourselves, which is holistically holy and wholly whole. 

Training to become our Strongest Self

Lord of Life strengthen us in Spirit, body, and soul: With our mind, heart, and will in your loving control; So we can heal our world, and make your children whole.

"Who are you training to become?" This is a phrase I have written on the squat rack in my home gym, and at the top of my training log. Because what we practice is what we become, and how we train shapes who we will be. So, who are you training to become? This entire instructional manual, which unpacks my core training principles, is an attempt to help us all train in such a way that we become who and what we want to be: That we train to become our strongest self, our wisest self, our best self.

So, since this blog is a summary of my entire training program, we need to start by defining "training". Depending on where you look, you can find many definitions for training. Training can refer to "developing a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction". In a purely physical sense training often refers to "preparing oneself through diet and exercise in order to be fit". Or in its most general sense, training can be "to grow in a particular direction or into a required shape". All of these overlapping definitions share my idea of training: Training is "activity with intensity directed toward a purpose". 

Creating Goals to become your Best Self

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.12-14)

I originally wrote this as part of a training manual for how to integrate physical training with the rest of our lives. But I realized this section deals with ideas and practices that will help us attain excellence in any part of our lives. Because most of us want to be the best version of ourselves. But we often lack the tools to develop goals and plans to help us get there. And "failing to plan is planning to fail". To attain our best self, our strongest self, and our wisest self, we have to intend to become this, imagine what it might look like to be this, and plan the best way to get from where we are, to where we want to be. The material found here is helpful for this. And although most of the examples used here come from physical training, the underlying substance applies to becoming great in any endeavor.

Weekly World Scripture Readings

From childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through the faithfulness which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture that is God-inspired is also useful for teaching, for correction, for restoration, and for training in justice, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. [2Timothy 3.15-17]

This schedule of readings is designed to take the reader through the entire New Testament once per year, and the Old Testament (including the Hebrew Bible along with Christian Deuterocanonical literature) once every two years. This is a “weekly” reading plan instead of a “daily” reading plan, because with my schedule I often have no time to read for a day or two, and then a couple of hours for reading on another day. So, a weekly quota of reading works better for me. Also, I have arranged readings by theme or topic, instead of using Biblical order (which would put all of the Gospels in the first half of the year, while also disconnecting historical literature while reading through the Old Testament).

For instance, the New Testament readings start with John's Gospel and letters, which were chosen to begin the year because John intentionally echoes the creation narratives of Genesis. Then we read Luke’s Gospel and Acts, which tells the most well researched story of the early Jesus movement. Then we read most of Paul’s letters from earliest to latest, which give us an “inside account” of some of the stories in Acts. Then we read Mark and the letters of Peter, because of Mark’s traditional connection with Peter as the one who wrote his version of the Gospel. This is followed by Matthew’s Gospel and the writings and debates of the early Jewish Christian movement. We end with the writings of Paul commissioning the second generation of Church leaders, and then the final Victory of Christ over all evil in the book of Revelation.

For the Old Testament, odd-numbered years take us through the Torah, followed by Historical Literature, ordered from the oldest events depicted in the text, to the newest events (even though some books were written decades or centuries after the events they depict). In even-numbered years we read through the Psalms, Wisdom literature, and the Hebrew Prophets (ordered roughly from oldest written to newest). The New Testament readings average about 150 verses per week (usually 4-8 chapters) which is around 15-30 minutes read time. Old Testament readings average about 250-300 verses per week (usually 8-15 chapters) which is around 30-60 minutes read time.

In addition, after the Old Testament readings, there are optional readings from the major Scriptures of the world's largest and longest lasting Religions. Although some may find this odd to add to a Biblical reading plan, the study of the great Spiritual Paths of the world has deepened my walk with Jesus immeasurably. These texts help us gain basic fluency in the ways other cultures have pursued spiritual and ethical growth, and will help us understand the ideas and ideals of the Bible better by comparison and contrast with them. And in the words of the second century Church Father, Justin Martyr, we may even find “seeds of the Word” which Christ has planted in other Spiritual Paths to draw us to him.

Odd-numbered years will take us through foundational texts for Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Even-numbered years will take us through the basic texts of Taoism, Islam, and Sikhism. These World Scripture readings are chosen to be 15-30 minutes in length. In total, for Biblical readings and World Scriptures, the weekly read time will be 1-2 hours, and may be divided up throughout the week, or read all at one time. I often will read Scripture three times per week: One day for the New Testament and Vital Verses. Another day for the Old Testament readings of the week. And a final day for World Scripture readings. 

Finally, each week includes Scripture passages to meditate on and memorize which can be repeated aloud in about 30 seconds. Meditation here refers to focusing on Christ's presence in us by repeating a Divine Name, Prayer, or Scripture, over and over. These Scripture passages have been adapted to give us a focal point for meditation each week of the year. Using breathing prayer, we can use these as "arrow prayers" like the Jesus Prayer used in Orthodox Spirituality. Start by finding a meditative bodily position, whether seated or walking. Then repeat the Scriptural passage over and over as you breathe slowly. You may also use Prayer Beads or a Rosary to help you focus and keep track of your repetitions. The goal is to "treasure" these Truths, and store them deep within our self, so we become what we pray.

Regarding Scriptural Translations: I prefer Bible translations that include the entire Canon of Scripture, including the books which Jesus and Paul quoted, but Protestants have hidden away. Thus, I usually use the New Revised Standard Version [NRSV], the Common English Bible [CEB], or the New American Bible Revised Edition [NABRE]. For Hindu and Buddhist Scriptures, I am quite fond of Eknath Easwaran’s editions of the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Dhammapada. In addition, if you want a readable modern compendium of the main Vedic texts, read Wendy Doniger's "Rig Veda" from Penguin Classics. Although translations abound for Chinese Scriptures, for the Confucian Analects (Lun Yu), I have found the translations by Edward Slingerland and Nicholas Tamblyn to be helpful. For the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing), I find the Penguin Classics translation helpful, and the paraphrase of Stephen Mitchell inspiring. Given how short the Tao readings are, it may be helpful to read both versions side-by-side. For the Quran, I often switch between the Oxford World Classics edition and Itani’s Quran in Modern English. And finally, for the Sikh tradition a very helpful, modern, and concise abridgment of the massive Guru Granth Sahib can be found in “Hymns of the Sikh Gurus” by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh.

The strangest thing about Stranger Things

We did a marathon of the newest half season of Stranger Things over the last couple of nights. As a spiritual guide, I think the strangest thing about Stranger Things is their ability to reimagine evil as demonic, predatory, grotesque, and cruel, while taking into account our newest understandings of trauma, in a way that is robustly super-natural as well as meta-scientific.  We have allowed people to reimagine wicked demons and evil spirits for an age of quantum physics. 

However, this is not the truly strange part. 

So-called Empty Rituals

In the Episcopal Church we have a bunch of rituals, such as standing, sitting, bowing, crossing, eating little white wafers, and everyone drinking from the same fancy metal cup. But every group of people who gathers together on a regular basis develops rituals: Handshakes and high fives. Nicknames and catch phrases. Ways of entering and exiting and walking and sitting. All the way up to songs and chants, flames and incense, pictures and clothing, symbols and fancy hats, statues and architectural styles. Humans are ritual beings and we can’t stop creating rituals even if we tried (and we’ve tried, oh boy we’ve tried). 

Should Holy Communion be open or closed?

One of the hottest debates of the Episcopal General Convention this year is the subject of “Open” versus “Closed” Communion. The battle lines have been drawn. On one side are those who want communion open to “all people” as “God’s people”. They feel that closed communion is “theological insider baseball” used as an excuse for “gatekeeping” by a hierarchy which implicitly denies God’s Love for all. On the other side are those who fear lack of adequate preparation for reception of the sacrament for those who are not baptized into the Covenant People of the Church. For these people, it isn’t gatekeeping, but maintaining the vital link between the “sacrament of new birth” into the Covenant Family in Baptism, and the “family meal” which is served in the Eucharist. 

Let's explore this issue, shall we...

The Ethics of Lesser Evils and Greater Goods

As an ethics teacher and pastor I have noticed that many people reflexively think most choices are a stark contrast between “good versus evil”. In reality, very few choices are that clear cut.

A Prayer for Juneteenth

I wrote this as a private devotion as I reflected on Juneteenth. Perhaps it might help you or your faith community. 

Is Love stronger than hate?

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion." (Jeremiah 31.3)

Jesus said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." (John 12.32)

Some have wondered what will win in the end: God's Love or human sin and hatred. Hate from a finite being is by definition, finite hate. Love from an infinite Being is by definition, infinite Love. The quantitative and qualitative difference between finite and infinite is by definition, infinite. Therefore God’s Love is infinitely more powerful and persuasive than even the greatest amount of finite hate, and that infinite Love will not give up or let down until it has, after ages of ages, transformed all finite hate into infinite Love. 

Why you matter

Life can be difficult, and we all have days when we wonder who we are, why we are here, and if any of this matters. And when I have days like this, here is something that reminds me why I matter. Perhaps this insight might help you on days like this, and help remind you why you matter. And it starts with God:

Where Freedom and Determinism Meet

It was God who created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the power of their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given. (Sirach 15.14-17)

So every now and then I see some supposed scientific reason why free will does not exist. This week it is quantum mechanics that supposedly rules out free will (although I’ve more frequently seen quantum mechanics cited as a reason why freedom is an irreducible aspect of the universe). However, let’s say for argument’s sake that there is a way of conceiving the universe as a completely closed system such that, if we know all inputs, we can accurately predict all outputs. In principle, this means all things are determined and there is no free will (no freedom at all in a strong sense). So what are we to make out of these mutually incompatible conclusions that quantum physics can be enlisted to support EITHER determinacy OR indeterminacy?