Posts from far away coming soon to a place near you

Hey - all ye of the Victoria deanery - pass this one around, and get on twitter and Facebook so you can begin to see this new player in BC.

Alastair McCollum is the new appointee as rector of the parish of St John the Divine. Here is his letter of farewell to his five-point parish.

Say hello to him at @revdal  - become friends with him on Facebook. He comes from Axminster.

Male and female

I don't usually write about this subject or about creationism or about other things. What a relief. But There are some who study and write well about these issues. And I am grateful to them that I don't need to. I left a comment here this morning, however, that relates to this important religious subject.  So I am going to tidy it up a bit - remove the typos! and republish it. But it is still quite thick - add water and stir.

Kurk Gayle ponders the potential domineering aspects of patriarchal culture, but besides the Father image for God there is also the

pervasive and governing image in the Bible of God as husband, and of Israel as bride. Rashi is clearly aware of it in his interpretation of the image of the lilies (see the Song of Songs and certain Psalm inscriptions such as 45 and 69) as students of Torah. Father and son, like husband, are metaphorical. It’s a double wedding: Father marries Israel, Son marries Church. But both are one since it is Zion, the holy city, Jerusalem, that carries the image of bride (Isaiah 54:5, Revelation 21:2). Father does not marry son; father loves son and gives all things into his hands. That love is expressed as Spirit. God is Spirit (John 4:24). We are drawn to worship is in spirit and in truth. Truth is painful – bloody per the image of Zippora as Moses wife (Exodus 4:25). Israel is married to Torah – and released and remarried through the death of Torah incarnate (Romans 7). That God seeks such to worship him is a placing of Spirit in time. This is itself incarnation. 

Under all this is the theme of obedience – the obedience of faith (Habakkuk, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews). He is your Lord (Psalm 45). In some sense that is paradoxical since such obedience is neither slavery nor a submission to a domineering power. It is instead a release into dialogue and interaction, an interaction that sees God learning. Who is this that comes up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? (Song 8:4) Who is this, looking forth as dawn, beautiful as the moon, pure as the sun, terrible as those of great intensity? (Song 6:10).
Jesus question 'Who do people say that I am?' may reflect these questions in the Song. Do the people fast when the bridegroom is with them? 

Given the sin of humanity, the second Adam, (who is actually primal – for the one who comes after was before), the second Adam completes the betrothal. Who is it that is complete? The answer – extensive and endlessly generative of further questions – is in the story of the Psalter of which I have written in my own intense way these past 7 years. (E.g. Psalm 7, the invitation to be judged ‘for the completeness that is in me’, Psalm 15:2 הֹולֵךְ תָּמִים, walking in completeness, a phrase expanded on in Psalm 18:20-37, the first time that complete is used as a frame in the Psalms. Note how ‘Torah is complete’ (Ps 19:8) and its mirrored use in 19:14 – then I will be complete. Note the completeness of Psalm 26 reflecting Psalm 1, the lament of Psalm 38 – framed by lack of completeness and so on.) 

So much as I concur with the egalitarian view, there is, through this imagery, a serious set of problematic paradoxes. But the imagery will stand a great deal of tension and intensity. These images reveal and capture and include all our gendered being. They will not support coercion without tenderness, or self-seeking without self-giving, or violence without also absorbing the same. They are all demanding yet all submitting. All powers eventually bow the knee (another metaphor) in adoration (the story of the Magi) and so our powers which (as I pointed out here) we raise to idolatrous use, are submitted to the non-power of this child. Metaphor carries reality and is itself incarnated in the one who receives its tenor. (I always knew there was possibility in being a tenor). 

All joy for those who are the complete of the way (Psalm 119:1).

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to all blog posters, Tweeters, Google plussed, and face-bookies on my many lists.

I pick my post of the day from James McGrath here.  Twelve cellos in the snow - alone yet playing together.

Messiah part 1 is playing in the background on CBC, our CD of the Christmas Oratorio, on hold. Family will arrive for dinner in this blustery part of the world sometime this afternoon. Some will have to brave the Malahat - but it is still snow-free at the moment.

Grey dominates the upper half of my view over the straits of Juan de Fuca, roofs dominate the lower half. With a little imagination, I can remember that the trees are green - but blowing black is their true colour at the moment against the grey and through the rain spattered window.

The world has not ended for some. The end is truly desirable, like the birth of a child. All creation groans - you can hear it in the injustice and violence and coercion and invidious desire that pollutes our gold, frankincense and myrrh - unoffered to the child.  What is this domination that we should submit - to be ruled by a child? Or will it be that a little child, dominated, will lead them.

Friends - the child is not carrying a gun. The myrrh represents his own fragility and mortality. The child has neither silver nor gold. He is wholly exploitable. The child seeks no power but has been given that name that is above every name. Frankincense, adoration, worship, religious power is a slight turning to the left or the right or the centre. It is a small step, a slight turn to return. The great response is quite unexpected. Woe is me says the prophet. For my eyes have seen and my ear hears. Go to them and say - hear, see. And be deaf and blind no longer. You know that was not the immediate answer. The way back from the idolatry that is injustice, exploitation, deadly force, the opposites of gift, is long and tortuous, narrow, with dangerous cliffs, landslides, falls... but it is a way.  A slight turn, a treacherous way? no longer?

How can there be a longer in the now?

There is light on the eastern horizon. A strong east wind blows the clouds along.There is white in the grey upper half of my view. The drops on the window shine in anticipation. Messiah plays on as do Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Blog servers.

Isaiah 3

I think I will only do bits and pieces of this since at the moment it is too hard for me. I am attempting to make an interlinear of Isaiah, comparing the Greek of the LXX with the Hebrew. Two problems, I read Hebrew slowly - but this is a good way to improve the speed of muttering, and I read Greek hardly at all and at the moment I have no dictionary.

So here is verses 1 to 8 of chapter 3. I am way behind - and every now and then I need to go to the kitchen and stuff a squash or grind some nuts for a cheese ball. (or arrange for some picture show or other.)

If anyone out there gets where I think I'm going, feel free to help me fix these first stabs at the gigantic cloak that is Isaiah. I wonder how those ancient translators thought - and whether they were using the same text as source as we have today. (Sometimes they don't seem to be translating what I see in the Hebrew.)

ChVs	Text	Translation
3.1	כִּי֩ הִנֵּ֨ה הָֽאָד֜וֹן יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֗וֹת מֵסִ֤יר מִירֽוּשָׁלִַ֨ם֙ וּמִ֣יהוּדָ֔ה מַשְׁעֵ֖ן וּמַשְׁעֵנָ֑ה כֹּ֚ל מִשְׁעַן־לֶ֔חֶם וְכֹ֖ל מִשְׁעַן־מָֽיִם	ἰδοὺ δὴ ὁ δεσπότης κύριος σαβαωθ ἀφελεῖ ἀπὸ τῆς ιουδαίας καὶ ἀπὸ ιερουσαλημ ἰσχύοντα καὶ ἰσχύουσαν ἰσχὺν ἄρτου καὶ ἰσχὺν ὕδατος
3.2	גִּבּ֖וֹר וְאִ֣ישׁ מִלְחָמָ֑ה שׁוֹפֵ֥ט וְנָבִ֖יא וְקֹסֵ֥ם וְזָקֵֽן	γίγαντα καὶ ἰσχύοντα καὶ ἄνθρωπον πολεμιστὴν καὶ δικαστὴν καὶ προφήτην καὶ στοχαστὴν καὶ πρεσβύτερον
3.3	שַׂר־חֲמִשִּׁ֖ים וּנְשׂ֣וּא פָנִ֑ים וְיוֹעֵ֛ץ וַֽחֲכַ֥ם חֲרָשִׁ֖ים וּנְב֥וֹן לָֽחַשׁ	καὶ πεντηκόνταρχον καὶ θαυμαστὸν σύμβουλον καὶ σοφὸν ἀρχιτέκτονα καὶ συνετὸν ἀκροατήν
3.4	וְנָֽתַתִּ֥י נְעָרִ֖ים שָֽׂרֵיהֶ֑ם וְתַֽעֲלוּלִ֖ים יִמְשְׁלוּ־בָֽם	καὶ ἐπιστήσω νεανίσκους ἄρχοντας αὐτῶν καὶ ἐμπαῖκται κυριεύσουσιν αὐτῶν
3.5	וְנִגַּ֣שׂ הָעָ֔ם אִ֥ישׁ בְּאִ֖ישׁ וְאִ֣ישׁ בְּרֵעֵ֑הוּ יִרְהֲב֗וּ הַנַּ֨עַר֙ בַּזָּקֵ֔ן וְהַנִּקְלֶ֖ה בַּנִּכְבָּֽד	καὶ συμπεσεῖται ὁ λαός ἄνθρωπος πρὸς ἄνθρωπον καὶ ἄνθρωπος πρὸς τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ προσκόψει τὸ παιδίον πρὸς τὸν πρεσβύτην ὁ ἄτιμος πρὸς τὸν ἔντιμον
3.6	כִּֽי־יִתְפֹּ֨שׂ אִ֤ישׁ בְּאָחִיו֙ בֵּ֣ית אָבִ֔יו שִׂמְלָ֣ה לְכָ֔ה קָצִ֖ין תִּֽהְיֶה־לָּ֑נוּ וְהַמַּכְשֵׁלָ֥ה הַזֹּ֖את תַּ֥חַת יָדֶֽךָ	ὅτι ἐπιλήμψεται ἄνθρωπος τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ ἢ τοῦ οἰκείου τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ λέγων ἱμάτιον ἔχεις ἀρχηγὸς ἡμῶν γενοῦ καὶ τὸ βρῶμα τὸ ἐμὸν ὑπὸ σὲ ἔστω
3.7	יִשָּׂא֩ בַיּ֨וֹם הַה֤וּא ׀ לֵאמֹר֙ לֹֽא־אֶהְיֶ֣ה חֹבֵ֔שׁ וּבְבֵיתִ֕י אֵ֥ין לֶ֖חֶם וְאֵ֣ין שִׂמְלָ֑ה לֹ֥א תְשִׂימֻ֖נִי קְצִ֥ין עָֽם	καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ἐρεῖ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ οὐκ ἔσομαί σου ἀρχηγός οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ μου ἄρτος οὐδὲ ἱμάτιον οὐκ ἔσομαι ἀρχηγὸς τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου
3.8	כִּ֤י כָֽשְׁלָה֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם וִֽיהוּדָ֖ה נָפָ֑ל כִּֽי־לְשׁוֹנָ֤ם וּמַֽעַלְלֵיהֶם֙ אֶל־יְהוָ֔ה לַמְר֖וֹת עֵנֵ֥י כְבוֹדֽוֹ	ὅτι ἀνεῖται ιερουσαλημ καὶ ἡ ιουδαία συμπέπτωκεν καὶ αἱ γλῶσσαι αὐτῶν μετὰ ἀνομίας τὰ πρὸς κύριον ἀπειθοῦντες διότι νῦν ἐταπεινώθη ἡ δόξα αὐτῶν

And here are the words that repeat in the Hebrew - or so I think so far. This section is bound by Judah and Jerusalem.

Selected recurring words (1 to 8)

Word and gloss * first usage

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

20

Vs

Root

מירושׁלם καὶ ἀπὸ ιερουσαλημ

░

1

ירושׁלם

ומיהודה ἀπὸ τῆς ιουδαίας

░

1

יהודה

משׁען ἰσχύοντα

░

1

שׁען

ומשׁענה καὶ ἰσχύουσαν

░

1

שׁען

כל

░

1

כל

משׁען ἰσχὺν

░

1

שׁען

לחם ἄρτου

░

1

לחם

וכל καὶ

░

1

כל

משׁען ἰσχὺν

░

1

שׁען

ואישׁ καὶ ἄνθρωπον

░

2

אישׁ

מלחמה πολεμιστὴν

░

2

לחם

וזקן καὶ πρεσβύτερον

░

2

זקן

שׂר --

░

3

שׂר

ונשׂוא καὶ ... σύμβουλον

░

3

נשׂא

נערים νεανίσκους

░

4

נער

שׂריהם ἄρχοντας αὐτῶν

░

4

שׂר

ותעלולים καὶ ἐμπαῖκται

░

4

עלל

העם ὁ λαός

░

5

עם

אישׁ ἄνθρωπος

░

5

אישׁ

באישׁ πρὸς ἄνθρωπον

░

5

אישׁ

ואישׁ καὶ ἄνθρωπος

░

5

אישׁ

הנער τὸ παιδίον πρὸς

░

5

נער

בזקן τὸν πρεσβύτην

░

5

זקן

בנכבד πρὸς τὸν ἔντιμον

░

5

כבד

אישׁ ἄνθρωπος

░

6

אישׁ

בית ἢ τοῦ οἰκείου

░

6

בית

שׂמלה [λέγων] ἱμάτιον

░

6

שׂמלה

קצין ἀρχηγὸς

░

6

קצה

תהיה γενοῦ

░

6

היה

והמכשׁלה καὶ τὸ βρῶμα

░

6

כשׁל

ישׂא καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ἐρεῖ

░

7

נשׂא

לא οὐκ

░

7

לא

אהיה ἔσομαί

░

7

היה

ובביתי ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ μου

░

7

בית

אין

░

7

אין

לחם ἄρτος

░

7

לחם

ואין οὐδὲ

░

7

אין

שׂמלה ἱμάτιον

░

7

שׂמלה

לא οὐκ

░

7

לא

קצין ἀρχηγὸς

░

7

קצה

עם τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου

░

7

עם

כשׁלה ἀνεῖται

░

8

כשׁל

ירושׁלם ιερουσαλημ

░

8

ירושׁלם

ויהודה καὶ ἡ ιουδαία

░

8

יהודה

ומעלליהם μετὰ ἀνομίας

░

8

עלל

כבודו ἡ δόξα αὐτῶν

░

8

כבד

Keys to reading the Bible for the first time

Bible? which one? I really mean mostly the TNK or what Christians in a different order call the OT. But the process applies equally well to the NT.

What is the purpose of reading the Bible? It is not to get smarter than everyone else around you so you can have power. And though some knowledge may protect you from those who desire power (and who doesn't), it is not to figure things out as if to explain the world away. It is not even so that you individually might be saved - even if you are lost (and who isn't lost at various times and places - the only place we got lost in Israel was in Nazareth - The one who sits in the heavens was laughing - I could hear it when I backed the rental car into a telephone pole). So why? It seems there is an invitation in the air. Maybe there's a good story there. Maybe some carefully researched poetry. Maybe some sense of age or some observations that fit with our own.

I didn't expect to deal with that question, why. I wanted to ask more how rather than why. Several people have asked me 'um.. what should I read first' - and like many, they tend to start at the beginning and plough through. Few make it past Leviticus. Most get stopped by or before the 10 chapters in Exodus on the Tabernacle. And if they get to the end of Deuteronomy, they are thoroughly confused by the variations in forms of law. Leviticus is a great place to start - at least one verse: love your neighbour as yourself. Deuteronomy has the first great commandment and the formative Hear O Israel.  But you aren't likely to find these by hunting and pecking.

What did I do? I ploughed through from the beginning. It was frequently painful. And I didn't know that I had no idea what I was doing. It's not actually important to read in sequence. It's not a cover-to-cover type book. It's more like a library. In neither testament is the sequence of the books related directly to chronology.

I put the question 'reading the bible for the first time' into Google and an Inter-varsity page came up first. It's not bad advice. The best part of it is the suggestion that you read the Psalms concurrently with everything else - one a day.  But would I start with Mark and then read John?  Would I even start in the NT?

In my current state, I think I would do this if I were starting over - and repeat randomly: I would use RSV or NRSV or JB or KJV if I were feeling archaic. (I read too slowly in Hebrew or Greek to do more than a few verses at a time. I always check the original language for related words. It's just not possible in a translation.)

Start with short books and bits and pieces of books and let a question arise from each book - don't necessarily answer these questions.

• read Ruth - good story - four chapters, 1 hour - read it out loud. Why is this in a different place in TNK from the place it has in the OT?  Who are these Moabites?  (Check them out with a reference search engine in your language of choice.) Now you have a bit of knowledge of Torah, Prophets, and Writings - and you know there is no way this question is going to go away for some time.
• read Jonah - good story - four chapters - 1 hour - read it out loud. Why is this one called a prophet when there's a thinking ship in it? Who are these Ninevites?  Enemies everywhere (Psalm 3:1)! And they get a mention in Matthew. In Jonah, you can summarize the story with 8 words. 
• skim Genesis 1-5 - a multiplicity of stories - and your introduction to a long genealogy. (There was a short one in Ruth). I don't think you can read Matthew without recognizing the tradition he is coming from - a tradition that begins with 'these are the generations of ...'. There are enough questions on Genesis to sink Jonah's thinking ship. (Say that quickly.) Anytime you want you can reread these stories - especially read chapter 1 to 2:4 often - and learn to sing it or at least listen.
• Now you are ready for some serious stuff about creation. Leviathan is not mentioned in Genesis 1 - how come? Find all the places where Leviathan occurs and examine how this creature relates to the created order. So you now are reading Job 3 and 41, Psalm 74, and 104, and Isaiah 27.
• skip back to Isaiah 1, just one chapter. Then read Psalm 49. What's going on with blood and ransom?

You can see if you do a search on this word (carelessly glossed in the KJV) that it would rapidly move you into several possible directions. Blood - to covenant - to sacrifice - to atonement.

• OK read Leviticus 16.
• Ransom - and you are ready for the Gospel of Mark.  Allow 2 hours for a read-out-loud performance.
• And this word for cover-price is also the flower Camphire, the henna plant - so you could read the Song for the first time. 
• or you might follow up with Job. Allow yourself to do this one over several days or even weeks. But do enjoy Leviathan and the eyelids of dawn.
• read Qohelet, just to make sure you keep the questions coming.
• You need a lot more introduction to poetry before you tackle the Gospel of John.  
• So do read a psalm every day - start with the paired Psalms 1 and 2. (Warning - self-serving link: If you use my book, you will find it points you to nearly every part of the Bible from a Psalm).  
• You need several more Psalms (2, 5, 10, 14, 18, 19, 32, 36, 44, 51, 53, 69, 94, 106, 117, 120, 122, 140, 141, 143) before taking on Romans. Paul models his opening argument in chapters 1 and 2 on Psalm 50.
• But do read Romans - out loud from start to finish - give yourself 2 hours. What does Paul mean by the obedience of faith? Romans will carry you to Galatians, Hebrews, and Habakkuk.

Then as an antidote to rhetoric and argument, find the songs in the Bible. If you have a Bible that distinguishes poetry from prose, this will not be too difficult.

• For examples: Genesis 49, Jacob's blessings
• Exodus 15, the song of the sea
• Numbers 23 and 24, the oracles of Baalam. 
• Then Deuteronomy 33, Moses' blessings
• 1 Samuel 2, Hannah's song
• Luke 1 and 2. Magnificat - Mary, Benedictus - Zechariah, Nunc Dimittis - Simeon.
• Where do we find the new song? (In the Psalms of course 33, 40, 96, 98, 144 and 149, also Isaiah 42 and Revelation 5 and 14).  
• You have to read Revelation someday. Hint - it's about the Lamb.

Notice - you are meeting people and places and hearing testimony.

• Don't forget Lamentations. What is the relationship of Israel and their Scriptures to the message to the churches? Who is the speaker of chapter 3? Compare Psalms 42-4 and 89.

As far as the NT is concerned, I have my prejudices. It's got some horrible places (and Revelation is not one of them) that need a very well-oiled question-generating soul to read them. Don't believe every written condemnation or order that you read in the letters in the NT. Consider that you might be mis-reading it. What tone of voice is in use? Isn't that strange - most people warn you off the Old Testament, but I have warned you off parts of the New. Why does God require such a need for judgment?  Be careful you don't misread the loveliness of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. When Jesus says - judge not lest you be judged, he is not talking about remaining in a state of naive ignorance and stupidity. See Psalms 7, 26, 35, and 43 and invite the judge to judge you.)

If you complete the above, I expect you will be hooked. But be hooked for love and not for power. There's so much more. One could live in the Psalms and all they reference for a lifetime. How would you answer Jesus question: who do people say I am? (Mark 8:27) The questions should keep arising in you - refining and developing as you mature into this fascinating collection so carefully preserved for us. Don't lock yourself in with answers. As R. Akiva teaches, be able to return from Paradise with your sense intact.
---------------
Bob - what would you do now? There are large chunks of the Bible I don't know particularly well. Chronicles for example, and Ezekiel, Ezra-Nehemiah, eleven of the Twelve, in fact there's about 3/4 of the TNK that I have not read closely. And even what I have read and translated for myself, I forget.

Recently - in the last 2 years or so, I covered Samuel with a group. I found it a tough read - it seemed quite disjointed in places, as if there were bits missing. I didn't have time to do 3 or 4 chapters a week in Hebrew so I had to work with my usual translations and squirm when others were reading translations that I think are too generous with their paraphrases.

I am at the moment following my nose. I hope to stay with the Isaiah Facebook group for the year. I expect that will cover a lot of ground. I don't read to hear the word of God. I think God teaches me always whether I am reading or not. The Bible pointed me to God, but the Bible is not God.  I am not going to try and tell you how that works or how it happens. That would be to lock the doors that are yours rather than mine. But let me be clear: I am not conservative. I am not a literalist, but I pay attention to every jot and tittle when I am reading. That does not mean I take them at their surface value. The Bible is full of complexity and contradiction (and so is every other book, institution, tradition, or person who claims otherwise including science.)  There are things we don't know and will never know in the sense of being able to control and describe.

So why bother? That's the question we started with.  It's a bit circular.

Lord, who will guest in your tent?
who will dwell on your holy hill? (Psalm 15)

The submission of the powers

I know - it's not yet Epiphany - but sometimes all things flow together. We had our St Barnabas Christmas Pageant yesterday - 40 children and 160 onlookers and stage managers. The hall was bursting at the seams.

The setting was of a story of the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. [adapted from Gunhild Sehlin's book "Mary's Little Donkey"] The three wise men were three robbers. Angels and birds mixed their dancing metaphors. Joseph and Mary visited the shepherds on their way. (All accompanied by excerpts from J. S. Bach.)

The contrast between lush Nazareth and dry Bethlehem - between Galilee and Judea - between Israel and Judah - seemed to me to suggest geography and politics in this tale. Also striking was the repentance of the three robbers. The gifts were different from the traditional and obvious sense, but here gold could mean economic power through theft, frankincense could be priestly power through collusion, and myrrh could be mortal power through force and violence.

A pageant by children and later with this background - (not mentioned in the pageant, but heard by me in a new way while singing in the evening service of the nine lessons and carols at the neighboring parish of St John the Divine) - with this backdrop of pageant fresh in my mind, I heard that "Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him".

Jerusalem, the Place of the Name, the Place of the Holy, the heavenly bride - troubled? You better believe it.
------------
Because of the current readings in the Isaiah reading group, I hope to post an analysis of Isaiah 2 in Hebrew and Greek.  I haven't started it yet, but the ancient languages are not required to examine the circles in the text - and this is what is surrounded by them, (verses 12-16), even in an 'old' translation:

Yes, this will be the day of Yahweh Sabaoth
against all pride and arrogance
against all that is great, to bring it down
against all the cedars of Lebanon
against all the oaks of Bashan
against all the high mountains
   and all the soaring hills
against all the lofty towers
   and all the sheer walls
against all the ships of Tarshish
   and all things of price
[JB 1962]

Repetition in the text does not indicate a 'chorus' but rather it is a marker that what is surrounded is the significant message.

Then note how these verses above refer back to the pride of Jacob, a land full of soothsayers, sorcerers, silver and gold and treasures beyond counting, horses and chariots without number, his land full of idols. They bow down before the work of their hands...  (verses 6-8). Do you see the three gifts here?

Why is Jerusalem (never mind Herod - he's just the symbolic figurehead) - why is all Jerusalem troubled at news of the arrival of their king, at the sight of the terror of Yahweh, at the brilliance of his majesty (verses 10 and 21)? [There are two significant concentric circles in this passage 9-10 and 18-21, surrounding 11 and 17.]

Because Jerusalem (New York, London, Ottawa, Moscow, Melbourne, Pretoria, Rio) - all that is desirable - all that desires - is complicit in using the gifts of economy, priesthood, and war on their own behalf, and for their own protection, and not for the care of the poor, the hapless, the marginalized, the afflicted and the exploited. Read the psalms.

Jerusalem is not alone in this - either in Isaiah's day, nor in Luke's day.  This is what is meant by idolatry. Pure and simple - it is injustice.

Is it only Yahweh who can judge the world with equity (Psalm 67 among others)? Is it not the children of God who must judge rightly (Psalm 82:2)? Yahweh asks these beni Elohim, Until when will you judge with injustice?

Until when, O Lord,  עַד־מָתַי (Isaiah 6:11) - you know the answer...

the dust, the fishes and the twelve

This morning I was reading our 1996 newsletter after our eldest son's near fatal accident. I used two of James McAuley's poems in that letter. Here is verse 3 of his Jesus:

And when a dove came to his hand,
He knew that hell was opening behind its wings.
He thanked the messenger and let it go;
Spoke to the dust, the fishes and the twelve
As if they understood him equally,
And told them nothing that they wished to know.

Our 1992 letter uncovers the growing realization that our fourth child was disabled from birth. So little we knew.

There is no place to stand that can be spoken of lightly as if the weight of loss, mental illness, or disability were easily borne. No disability is or can be borne alone. It is and will always be borne by the whole community. Violence, whether of economics or weapons, is an insufficient price for self-protection.

The fences enclosing the vine are breached. All may forage who pass her way and the wild creature of the field shepherds her.