THE ‘FIFTH’ GOSPEL?


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Japan, Bach and Jesus:

http://www.univforum.org/pdf/J_S_bach_in_Japan.pdf

Myth Born as Fact

“The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens — at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle.”

From:

Myth became fact, essay published in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, C. S. Lewis

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Art by Carol Bomer

 UNTIL SHILOH COMES (36″ X 36″ giclee on canvas)

 http://www.carolbomer.com/

UltraSound

UltraSound

  

Look! Joseph!  Look!

Space and time converge

In my belly!

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Test.

Submission:

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The Three-in-One now resides

Etched within a black and white sonogram:

A baby (no storm in a tea cup!)!

See the heart beating? The limbs akimbo?

“Put your hand on my side, Thomas.”

Can you feel the sound waves of My Being: Your God and My God immersed in time?

Yes! I feel it!

A kick!

A belly full of kenosis!

Fetal tissue,

Hanging on limbs –

The weight of glory descending down –

Soon will suffer evil

To save hoary Adam,

Banishing the body’s self-absorption called Death

From the garden and

For all.

(A womb may hold Him;  A tomb can not.)

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© Sally Paradise, 2010, All Rights Reserved

Alvin Plantinga & atheism’s arguments

Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 “Sorrowful Songs”

Song for Athene – Sir John Tavener (1993)

Miserere Mei Deus – Gregorio Allegri (1630)

All in the Family

“Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, but the sinner’s wealth passes to the godly.” Proverbs 13:22

NO INHERITANCE TAXES!

Exclusion & Embrace

Quotes from Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

“Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners. But no one can be in the presence of the God of the crucified Messiah for long without overcoming this double exclusion – without transposing the enemy from the sphere of monstrous inhumanity into the sphere of shared humanity and herself from the sphere of proud innocence into the sphere of common sinfulness. When one knows that the torturer will not eternally triumph over the victim, one is free to rediscover that person’s humanity and imitate God’s love for him. And when one knows that God’s love is greater than all sin, one is free to see oneself in the light of God’s justice and so rediscover one’s own sinfulness.” (p.124)

“Only those who are forgiven and who are willing to forgive will be capable of relentlessly pursuing justice without falling into the temptation to pervert it into injustice.” (p.123)

“When God sets out to embrace the enemy, the result is the cross. On the cross the dancing circle of self-giving and mutually indwelling divine persons opens up for the enemy; in the agony of the passion the movement stops for a brief moment and a fissure appears so that sinful humanity can join in (see John 17:21). We, the others – we, the enemies – are embraced by the divine persons who love us with the same love with which they love each other and therefore make space for us within their own eternal embrace.” (p.129

Volf & the Parable of the Prodigal Son:  “relationship has priority over all [moral] rules” that reconciliation – the ultimate goal of justice – could be made complete.” (p.164)

“Without entrusting oneself to the God who judges justly, it will hardly be possible to follow the crucified Messiah and refuse to retaliate when abused. The certainty of God’s just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it. The divine system of judgment is not the flip side of the human reign of terror, but a necessary correlate of human nonviolence.” (p.302)

Days of Heaven

It is no mistake.  Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year.  Thanksgiving Day, for me, ends one spiritual year and starts a new one.  This day, set aside for giving thanks, is the proper response to a life well-given from God.

As much as I relish Thanksgiving I have no taste for Christmas. At least not the Christmas that is now cradled in commercialism. Bah-humbug and then some!

As I sat in a restaurant last night waiting for an order to go, I heard, in the background, Christmas carols being played with elevator trance-like mantra-ese. O Little Town of Bethlehem has now become cool jazz! The angels of the big-screen bar TV announced the coming of a Savior – a Black Friday sale.  Outside the window I could see streets lined with wreaths, decorative lights and people scurrying about in cars, driving into the silent night of sales.  Bah-humbug, squared!

Christmas aside, my life, stuffed with good things, is something to give thanks for. Here is a short list of what I am grateful for …

The colorful and cuddly afghans my mother knitted for her grandkids.

 My father’s love for music and art and his leadership downloaded into me.

 A paycheck for the last four years.

 Another year of not receiving anything from the government except freedom.

 A God fearing mother and father who continue to serve the Lord.

 My parent’s marriage of 56+ years still going strong.

 My four children, each one healthy and strong

 A great church home; godly priests and friends

 The Common Book of Prayer

The Eucharist: the body and blood of my Lord

 A car to use, a bed to sleep in, food to eat.

 Recovery from a rear-end car accident.

 And, the Exceptional Country I live in:  freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from dictatorship, freedom from religious oppression, freedom from strife, freedom to work and pay my way, freedom to become.

The good news of Jesus Christ, the Gospel:

God has dealt directly with evil (anti-creation, anti-love, destroyer of God’s good space, time and matter) thru the death and resurrection of His son.*

 Death, the final enemy, has been dealt a death blow by Jesus Christ:  “One short sleep past, we wake eternally; and death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.” John Donne*

 Tomorrow begins another year of my spiritual journey, a journey which will prayerfully take me past the road-stops of greed, self-pity and shallowness into the fully sated days of heaven.

*see N.T. Wright’s book, Evil and the Justice of God, IVP books, copyright 2006