Stephen, Psalm 31, Living stones, the 6th I am

I don't usually write on 4 pre-selected texts at once, but of course I think about them on Sundays when that day rolls around, and sometimes delight in the connections, and sometimes not, depending on how grumpy I am in the morning. These texts are from the Revised Common Lectionary, a process that was begun somewhat recently and continues to draw in readers within the Christian congregations, that all of us might together be learning from a set of common texts read in sequence over a period of three years. There are four readings in this ministry of the Word: from the 'Old Testament', from the Psalms, from the Epistles, and from the Gospels. (See here for lots of frequently asked questions).

The Revised Common Lectionary, first published in 1992, derives from The Common Lectionary of 1983, both based on the Ordo Lectionem Missae of 1969, a post-Vatican II ground-breaking revision of the Roman Lectionary.

The Jews have a similar pattern of learning from the Scriptures, but their focus is continually on Torah, the five books of Moses. They read them in sequence once a year. Associated with each section of Torah is a passage from the Prophets. Some of the Writings also have traditional times when they are read, e.g. the Song of Songs during Passover, the Lamentations on the 9th of Av, and Esther at Purim. But it appears that in both Christian and Jewish tradition, the lectionary will not cover the whole of the canon during a complete cycle. I note in the link above that to read from the Scriptures in synagogue is called aliyah, literally, going up, or ascension. It is also the word for the whole burnt offering. Reading in public is therefore clearly important, as important as going up to the land.

So what about this week in Christendom? The first reading is from Acts (instead of the OT). I miss an OT lesson. The reading from Acts is about the death of Stephen, who asks the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit. In Ecclesiastes 12:7 we read that on death, the spirit returns to God who gave it. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." One question arises immediately, why did Stephen (or why did Luke, the author of Acts depict Stephen so) put this request to the risen Jesus? Does this relate to what is expected of Jesus by those who knew him after his own ascension? Notice that the ascension of Jesus represents the acceptance of and completion of his own self-offering.

The next 'reading' is Psalm 31 - with a great chunk removed. (I object to the cutting out of the difficult bits of Scripture - and the readings in the lectionary seem to be strangely selected at times.) There is a clear reference to entrusting the spirit in verse 5 (Hebrew Psalm 31:6). This is a traditional Psalm for Compline, the last service of the day. The entrusting of the spirit at the end of the day is entrusting to sleep, that in the new day, we may also awaken. The first use of awaken is in Psalm 3:6 and the last in Psalm 139:18. So we see a clear link to the words of Acts 7:59. The words of this psalm are also on the lips of Jesus at the time of his crucifixion (Luke 23:46). The Psalmist, Jesus, and Stephen are seen in a single tradition.

Then we have a reading from 1 Peter, itself dependent on the Psalms, Psalm 34:9, 118:22 (part of the traditional psalms for Easter Day) and the Prophets, Isaiah 28:16. If we continue the thought experiment of one tradition, the Psalmist, Stephen, and Peter are now living stones in a temple of which Jesus is the cornerstone. They are a holy priesthood offering a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through the anointed Jesus. The building of the temple is the work of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Comforter is a rich word reflecting God's essential forbearance and forgiveness throughout Scripture, e.g. Isaiah 40:1 and also Simeon's song in Luke 2:25. (Consolation = comfort, paraclete in Greek, nacham in Hebrew.)

Now are we prepared to hear the Gospel? John 14 is part of 'the farewell discourse', a favorite portion of many readers of the NT. How well do we read it? Is our reading exclusive? Is it a comfort to us and to others? Who is this dwelling-place that we are in? (Funny question, eh?)

Psalm 90:1 has the idea for dwelling-place embedded in it.

My Lord, a dwelling-place you yourself have become for us from generation to generation.

The connection to the psalm is direct but via another Greek-Hebrew door. And where is the place that Jesus is going to? The place is a cipher for the temple, the place where God has set his name, the new temple that we have already been referring to. And our questions are many, but the confidence that we read of in John's farewell discourse on the role of the Spirit to which we have been entrusted, that confidence is as great as any question we ask.

We could spin out comment on this gospel considerably. The Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, God in Christ reconciling himself to the world in the one whose life redeems the world. Do we believe? Do we see the work that is being done? The creation and redemption of the world is what is seen in the words and work of Jesus which the Father is accomplishing (even now) through him. And greater works than these are to be done by those who believe because he goes to the Father. Somehow this needs to be translated, doesn't it? Some people are really uncomfortable with masculine imagery for God. I am not sure what can be done in this discourse, but the Spirit is not so limited, so I leave it unresolved - for the few seconds it takes you to get to the next sentence.

God the creator, in God the Redeemer, and God the Redeemer, in God the Creator are doing a work that we participate in through God the Spirit, and that is the same Spirit that is God in whom we live and who lives in us, in the same way as God the Redeemer lives in God the Creator and vice-versa. Our spirits are committed into the nurturing care of God who is Spirit.

To wrap up the thought, let's return to Psalm 31 - and here, let's look at a few words that go beyond guessing at the nature of God.

בְּיָדְךָ אַפְקִיד רוּחִי פָּדִיתָה אֹותִי יְהוָה אֵל אֱמֶֽת

Into your hand I entrust my spirit, you have ransomed me, Yahweh, God of truth. 

Yahweh, the personal name of God has its first entrance into the text of the Bible in Genesis 2:4. I always come back to one of my favorite poets, George Herbert, when I read that verse about the Day that the Lord God created the heavens and the earth. He says we count 300 (meaning 365) but we miss - there is but one (day) and that one ever.

The link is to the Five Mystical Songs #2
I got me flowers to strew thy way; I got me boughs off many a tree
But thou wast up by break of day, and brought'st thy sweets along with thee
The Sunne arising in the East, though he give light, and th'East perfume,
If they should offer to contest with thy arising, they presume
Can there be any day but this, though many sunnes to shine and endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we misse: there is but one, and that one ever.
Words by George Herbert
Simon Keenlyside
Graham Johnson, Piano

(Note that the Lego Movie has Emet = truth as the name of the hero!)

Well there is always a first post - this is too much and too little at once. Enjoy.

Discipline, persistence, love for the other, repentance

Away for 7 days and 300 posts accumulate in my reader. I don't read these on my mobile and I deliberately did not take a computer to NYC. But some of them were good - and some of the good ones I won't catch up on - unless you tell me to. Here are a few that intrigued me -

1. Larry Hurtado teaches on Early high Christology. The comment sections are really interesting in that they come from Christian readers who are just learning to read. See the linked post and the two prior ones. 
2. Rachel Held Evans intends to blog on the Common Lectionary. Now why didn't I think of this! I think I may try and do something. That would get me out of the Psalms for a bit.
3. Larry Behrendt at Jewish Christian Intersections has some good thoughts on the NT as usual. My comment there is reflected in the title of this post. He asks what is a good Jew? The question has many good comments. Diana and I had done the Jewish-Christian intersection by attending both Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue and St Thomas' a few blocks away. (Sarah came with us to the temple where one of her colleagues was playing.) The teaching from Torah on Friday surpassed the rather weak sermon at Evensong on Sunday (Sarah was on her way back to the UK by this time). Christians are not well trained in reading the Old Testament.
4. Oh and I mustn't forget Christopher Page - I responded to him this morning, hopefully not making myself too obnoxious.

There's a cop-out. I report on just over 1% of the posts I missed. If you posted and I missed it (May 5 to 13), let me know. 

New York, New York

We're back from New York. Here are some pictures from around the city.


The Winnipeg Symphony played at Carnegie Hall - a very fine performance - unique music, all Canadian.
R. MURRAY SCHAFER Symphony No. 1 (US Premiere)
DEREK CHARKE 13 Inuit Throat Song Games (US Premiere), Tanya Tagaq, Throat Singer
VINCENT HO The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (US Premiere) Dame Evelyn Glennie, Percussion

We finished our 7-days there hearing a graduation recital from Rose Francesca dePasquale, accompanied by John Root, a student of Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho at Morse Hall in the Julliard School, just hours before we had to be at the airport.

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

This long film is quite a lesson in how the body works and how wrong the food supply has been and continues to be these past 30 years. I was very surprised to see that fructose is a toxin. The only reason it is OK in fruits is that fruits have plenty of fiber to go with it so the 'alcohol without the buzz' is mostly carried out of the system by the fiber rather than metabolizing into the body as fat. As he says in the course, when G-d put a poison into our food, he also included the antidote with it.

Another odd thing I noted from his comment - "you don't exercise to burn calories". You can't do it. You exercise to (if I remember) decrease tension, and get the metabolism working faster so that the body is better able to remove waste.

I don't drink soft drinks (except in the odd G&T) but I do like all those sauces even on my delicious tofu burgers! Most of us, I am sure, are largely unaware of what goes on in the processes of assimilating food. Whew! What a complex of issues.

Free adaptation, translation without word boundaries

I find some dynamic equivalence neither dynamic nor equivalent, but I was just imagining how one might drive through a psalm with an earth mover.  Here's  Psalm 16 (I will never get out of Book 1).

Alright, you want me to write, to gold-plate your love. Consider me Beloved.
Preserve me? Really? Refuge in you? I said so.
You said in fact to the One who cannot be named - "You are my governor.
I have nothing that is good outside of you."

All those famous, revered - thieves and robbers!, Dead Rulers of all stripes.
I have zero delight in them.

The world follows them with adulation, rushing headlong into oblivion.
You won't find me drinking to them, or even naming them.

You, Unnameable, my share - you know how I drink to you,
You are even my cup.
You will keep track of me.

You promise, and the pleasure is your pledge, binding on you,
for me, even me, an inheritance beyond imagining.

I will say so to whomever asks - I will repeat your advice,
indeed I will come as close as I can, without misleading,
to your chastening hand on my vital center.

So, the One who is remembered by that Name and I
have a bargain, continual, face to face,
governance unmediated - so I am unmovable,
my heart glad, my glory rejoicing, my flesh living in trust.

You will not throw me off into shadowy places with Dead Rulers.
You will not allow anyone within your love and mercy to see destruction.
You will show me the path of life,
satisfaction, gladness, your continuing presence,
pleasures in your governance always.

Glory to the One who creates, the Same who redeems, and the Holy
who was, who is, and who continues, with us eternally, Amen.

And here's my rigid rendering.

מִכְתָּם לְדָוִד שָׁמְרֵנִי אֵל כִּי חָסִיתִי בָךְ	1	From gold, concerning atonement, through inscription, of David. Keep me O God for I take refuge in you.
אָמַרְתְּ לַיהוָה אֲדֹנָי אָתָּה טוֹבָתִי בַּל עָלֶיךָ	2	(You said to יהוה You are my Lord) My good pales beside you
לִקְדוֹשִׁים אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ הֵמָּה וְאַדִּירֵי כָּל חֶפְצִי בָם	3	About the holy ones that are in the earth of them and of majesties ... Is all my delight in them?
יִרְבּוּ עַצְּבוֹתָם אַחֵר מָהָרוּ בַּל אַסִּיךְ נִסְכֵּיהֶם מִדָּם וּבַל אֶשָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹתָם עַל שְׂפָתָי	4	Let their idols increase following they rush headlong I will not spill out their libations with blood neither will I bear their names on my lips
יְהוָה מְנָת חֶלְקִי וְכוֹסִי אַתָּה תּוֹמִיךְ גּוֹרָלִי	5	יהוה is the portion of my share and my cup You yourself maintain my lot
חֲבָלִים נָפְלוּ לִי בַּנְּעִמִים אַף נַחֲלָת שָׁפְרָה עָלָי	6	Pledges have fallen to me in pleasures Indeed for me there is a glistening inheritance
אֲבָרֵךְ אֶת יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר יְעָצָנִי אַף לֵילוֹת יִסְּרוּנִי כִלְיוֹתָי	7	I will bless יהוה who advises me Indeed in the nights my vital centre chastens me
שִׁוִּיתִי יְהוָה לְנֶגְדִּי תָמִיד כִּי מִימִינִי בַּל אֶמּוֹט	8	I have agreed with יהוה in front of me continually for he is at my right hand so I will not be moved
לָכֵן שָׂמַח לִבִּי וַיָּגֶל כְּבוֹדִי אַף בְּשָׂרִי יִשְׁכֹּן לָבֶטַח	9	So my heart will be glad and my glory rejoice Indeed my flesh will dwell in trust
כִּי לֹא תַעֲזֹב נַפְשִׁי לִשְׁאוֹל לֹא תִתֵּן חֲסִידְךָ לִרְאוֹת שָׁחַת	10	for you will not forsake me to the grave You will not permit one within your mercy to see destruction
תּוֹדִיעֵנִי אֹרַח חַיִּים שֹׂבַע שְׂמָחוֹת אֶת פָּנֶיךָ נְעִמוֹת בִּימִינְךָ נֶצַח	11	You will make known to me a path of life satisfaction of gladness in your presence pleasures at your right hand always

Atonement, sacrifice, reconciliation, salvation

Immediate thoughts on 'atonement'.  Why put 'atonement' in scare quotes? To recognize that every word we use, especially loaded words, is interpreted by us in our own inference engine - brain, culture, and language processed together in ways we are largely unconscious of. The stimuli for this post is Christian Brady's recent post and his sermon (referenced in the post).

Brady asks: Was the Passover sacrifice an atoning sacrifice? and answers No.

The one word answer has a short explanation and a few comments so far. His sermon is an important read. In it he notes several specific roles for a sacrifice, and implies we ought to know more about the Hebrew sacrificial system - in order to 'understand' where they are coming from.  Can we only understand from a position of 'having been reconciled'? Do all of us have some example of reconciliation with another / others from which we can see?  If we do not (Oligarchs, kleptocrats, and rulers who abuse their people), is there any 'salvation' for such?

O dear - what a complex set of questions! Another thought in the back of my head is the excellent lecture series by John Searle on how language works. I listened to these in random order on  my drive across the country from Victoria to Winnipeg. It kept me awake and laughing. And yet another important piece of evidence for who we are and how we think is this short series by AKMA. Here's a quote:

Absent a subsistent “meaning” that provides a polestar for interpretive validity, we reckon the soundness of our interpretive activity by more proximate criteria. A tremendous proportion of interpretive legitimacy is not itself reasoned out, but “caught”, assimilated, from the interpreters whom one regards as authorities. - See more here: 

If we did 'understand' would it do us any good? Yes, I think so, to the extent that our understanding is a germ that works within us to change who we are and how we act. Understanding sacrifice, atonement, salvation, reconciliation... where does one start?

Start with the inference (from the buzz around us) that there is such a thing. We do not need to behave as thugs or robbers to get our way. (All who came before me were thieves and robbers, John the Evangelist records this parable of Jesus - from the Good Shepherd, John 10:1 ff.)

It is clear that some people do behave this way. The international scene is rife with examples.

If there is such a thing - is it desirable to know it?  Self-interest is at the root of this question. When I was a young believer (in what? you say), in what I then perceived to be the message of the Christian church in Toronto, I (we) came home, one evening, wondering who would baby sit our children. A young woman said hello to us, one whose situation had not been appealing in the past. The words came to us from the ether: if you believe, why do you not trust her to sit for you?

And she did - reconciliation was effected without a word, but with an action, and I recall that there we no specific negatives. (Yes there are negatives and positives - measured with respect to what? A relative and somewhat unconscious measurement of again self-interest beginning to border on respect and care for others. I.e. reconciliation - in this case a reconciliation of an attitude that was within us!)

That is a sufficient beginning.

A little note on the Song of Songs on the restless nature of love

The atenach ^ is a sign of rest. In the music, it is the subdominant. The music comes to a rest at that point. In traditional plainsong, there may be a 2 beat pause.

It is rare that there is no atenach in the verse  [1641/23150 in the WLC]. I have [had at this time] noted only a few places so far where they are missing and the verse is essentially one thought without pause. But I was just redoing the first secton of the Song since I had changed my technique and wanted to include the Hebrew. Because of a quirk in the music program, when I copy and paste (carefully due to other quirks), I have to re-enter by hand all the breath marks (they do not get copied).

As I was doing this, I noted that most of the verses in this first part of the Song have no atenach. The lovers are not at rest. You might be curious to know where the verse come to a rest in this love song. The music is in the usual place. Verse 1 - no rest. Verses 3 and 4 have a rest - and I have assigned them to the chorus since they all contain a first person plural. Verses 5 to 8 have a rest. Verse 9 to 17, 2.1-2 have no rest. This is very unusual. 2.3, 5, 7 have a rest.

It appears that love may be at times restless!