Covered

I've just read a post by a brother in Christ which I'm sorry I didn't read earlier, but it comes exactly where it should be, on the heels of some of my other current reading, and I want to commend it to anyone who visits my humble blog. This brother writes like a Church father sometimes, and this is one of those times. I am quoting the finalè of his post, In the Cool of the Day, because it really is profound, and very patristic. But please, don't take my word for it. Click on the link above, and read the entire post yourself. You too will be blessed.

The Old Testament is all about man trying to cover himself with his own animal sacrifices.
But that is missing the point.
God has to do it.
He did do it once again.
He who walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day, walked again in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And Ηe who was God in the Flesh became the only sacrifice that could make it all Good again.

"Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men."
Romans 5:18 NIV
Now we walk covered in the skin of Christ.

In His image again.
Looking again like the Maker.
Good. Purposeful. Image restored.
In Christ.

Have you believed?
Quit pretending your leafy cover is good.
It does not purchase eternal life.

Doubt that God intended eternity for his creatures?
Look at how He built timelessness (by any of our comprehensions) into His universe.

Are you readied for that promised eternal Good?
I invite you to explore "faith".

The last book of the Bible takes us forward to a new Eden.
To restored Good.
To eternity as it was intended.
To the very real presence of the One who first walked in the cool of the day to have companionship with His creatures.

Αξιος, αδελφε μου αγαπητε, αξιος!

Stop Trying To Hit Me and HIT ME!

Here's a passage written by J. Hudson Taylor which reminded me of the dojo scene in The Matrix, where Morpheus tries to raise Neo's perception of reality by saying, Stop Trying To Hit Me and HIT ME!

I don't know that we are told anywhere in the Bible
to try to do anything.

'We must try to do the best we can,' is a very common expression; but I remember some years ago, after a remark of that kind, looking carefully through the New Testament to see under what circumstances the disciples were told to try to do anything.
I did not expect to find many instances, but I was surprised not to find any.
Then I went through the Old Testament, very carefully, and I could not find that the Lord had ever told Old Testament believers to try to do anything.
There were many commands that appeared impossible to obey, but they were all definite commands:
And I think we all need to set ourselves, not to try to obey our Lord as far as we can, but simply to obey Him.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:
and his commandments are not grievous.

1 John 5:3 KJV

Lord of all, or not Lord at all

As I am coming almost to the end of my reading of the book J. Hudson Taylor, God's Man in China, by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, I came upon this remarkable passage, a quote from Hudson Taylor's own writings. I want to share this with all my friends, and I hope it touches them as it is touching me, to transform and renew our minds in Christ...

What did our Lord really mean by His command, "Preach the gospel to every creature"?
...
How are we going to treat the Lord Jesus Christ with reference to this command?
Shall we definitely drop the title Lord as applied to Him, and take the ground that we are quite willing to recognize Him as our Saviour, so far as the penalty of sin is concerned, but are not prepared to own ourselves 'bought with a price', or Him as having any claim to our unquestioning obedience?
Shall we say that we are our own masters, willing to yield something as His due, who bought us with His blood, provided He does not ask too much?
Our lives, our loved ones, our possessions are our own, not His; we will give Him what we think fit, and obey any of His requirements that do not demand too great a sacrifice?
To be taken to heaven by Jesus Christ we are more than willing, but we will not have this Man to reign over us?

The heart of every Christian will undoubtedly reject this proposition, so formulated; but have not countless lives in each generation been lived as though it were proper ground to take?
How few of the Lord's people have practically recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all!
If we can judge God's Word as much or as little as we like, then we are Lords, and He is the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole and obliged by our compliance with His wishes.
If, on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such.

'Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?'

The Great Divide

Right now I am really struggling with a lot of things, and many of them are covered in the 19th chapter of martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, The Cost of Discipleship, entitled "The Great Divide." Here are some excerpts...

Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not everyone who saith unto Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that Day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out devils, and by Thy name do many mighty works?" And then will I profess unto them, "I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:13-23)

The Church of Jesus Christ cannot arbitrarily break off all contact with those who refuse His call. It is called to follow the Lord by promise and commandment. That must suffice. All judgment of others and separation from them must be left to Him who chose the Church according to His good purpose, and not for any merit or achievement of its own. The separation of Church and world is not effected by the Church itself, but by the Word of its calling.

A little band of men, the followers of Christ, are separated from the rest of the world. The disciples are few in number, and will always be few. This saying of Jesus forestalls all exaggerated hopes of success. Never let a disciple of Jesus pin his hopes on large numbers. "Few there be..." The rest of the world are many, and will always be many. But they are on the road to perdition. The only comfort the disciples have in the face of this prospect is the promise of life and eternal fellowship with Jesus.

The path of discipleship is narrow, and it is fatally easy to miss one's way and stray from the path, even after years of discipleship. And it is hard to find. On either side of the narrow path deep chasms yawn.

To be called to a life of extraordinary quality, to live up to it, and yet to be unconscious of it is indeed a narrow way.

To confess and testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth, His enemies and ours, and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ, is indeed a narrow way.

To believe the promise of Jesus that His followers shall possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenseless, preferring to incur injustice rather than to do wrong ourselves, is indeed a narrow way.

To see the weakness and wrong in others, and at the same time refrain from judging them; to deliver the gospel message without casting pearls before swine, is indeed a narrow way.

The way is unutterably hard, and at every moment we are in danger of straying from it. If we regard this way as one we follow in obedience to an external command, if we are afraid of ourselves all the time, it is indeed an impossible way.

But if we behold Jesus Christ going on before, step by step, we shall not go astray. But if we worry about the dangers that beset us, if we gaze at the road instead of at Him who goes before, we are already straying from the path.

For He is Himself the way, the narrow way and the strait gate. He, and He alone, is our journey's end. When we know that, we are able to proceed along the narrow way through the straight gate of the cross, and on to eternal life, and the very narrowness of the road will increase our certainty.

The way which the Son of God trod on earth, and the way which we too must tread as citizens of two worlds on the razor edge between this world and the kingdom of heaven, could hardly be a broad way. The narrow way is bound to be right.

Dreaming of Heaven

No matter where we go, in place or in time, across all cultures, we find that all human beings have one thing in common, without exception. We all have this idea that somehow, things are not as they should be, that there is something flawed about all we do, all we experience, in this world. There is always present this feeling of wanting to be home, but just when we think we’ve found home, it too turns out to be just another way station on the caravan of souls going… somewhere.

This idea, or feeling (because it seems to transcend mere thought and seems to issue from another part of our being, the heart maybe) can almost be described as what defines mankind and sets us off from other creatures. Though there are animals that build and organize, it seems that they always follow the same logic, and their creations never deviate very much from an instinctual standard. Could this idea of ours also be something of the same sort, an instinctual standard that is inseparably part of us, the very thing we were created to do?

In any case, we have this idea, but we cannot fulfill it. We are living in a world that is already perfect, yet somehow we find ourselves unable to be happy here. Some part of us keeps dreaming of heaven.

The one true American fairy tale, The Wizard of Oz, in its film version exceeded the scope and content of the original children’s books, becoming in the process another heavily endowed myth of our dreaming of heaven.

Every religion and philosophy the world over has arisen out of mankind’s dreaming of heaven. It comes even before the discovery of God, and is probably what has pushed us into that search for Him. If there is a heaven, there must be a God. Does that make sense? Well, maybe not to all. Buddhism doesn’t need a God, but in some of its forms, it still wants, looks for, and promises heaven. It’s interesting that a similar experience can provoke at least two different responses.

Once there was a rich and cloistered prince who left the palace and walked through the world. He saw there four things that impressed him: a sick man, a poor man, a beggar and a corpse. All of these are things that he knew were intrinsically wrong, and the books about him say that “he was filled with infinite sorrow.” Ultimately, after much searching and thinking, this man came to the conclusion that none of this was real, and that escape was possible and necessary. This escape, though, was not dreaming of heaven. It was something more like not dreaming at all. Why was this? Because this man considered that what he experienced in the world was itself just a bad dream. He created a path of escape from dreaming. This man was Gautama, called the Buddha.

In another story, there was a poor man who left his workshop and walked through the world. He saw there the brokenness of people, experiencing the rigor and hardship of their lives, joined them in their alternating sorrows and joys, tasted with them the bitterness of their exile from home, their dreaming of heaven. He shared with them this strange, inescapable feeling that things were not right in the world. He was born into a religion that tried its best to give men a system of rules which, if they lived by them, promised to make their lives in this world right, so that they wouldn’t need to dream of heaven. This religion even had a God who gave the rules and tried His best to get the people to follow them. Though they had the rules, and the belief that following them would set the world right, they didn’t follow them just the same. They didn’t, but the poor man did, and by following and fulfilling the rules to the uttermost, he opened a path of escape from dreaming of heaven, by opening a path of entering into heaven. This man was Jesus, called the Christ.

We all have the same experience as these two men, as have all men in all ages and cultures. Every time we think we’ve found home, somewhere to be comfortable, where everything is “as it should be,” something or someone spoils it. In the film The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo, “It’s that feeling you have had all your life. That feeling that something is wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad, driving you to me.” Morpheus in Greek mythology is the god of dreaming. Dreaming of heaven. The Wachowski brothers sure packed a lot of truth into that first film.

Here, if nowhere else, is the common experience that unites everyone, the knowledge that all is not well with us and with our world. Religions and philosophies offer answers and explanations, hoping to strengthen our dreaming of heaven to the point where maybe the dreaming will be enough for us, and sometimes just trying to get us to not dream at all. But where did the need to dream originate? Who told us that all is not well? And people dream only of things that they have seen and experienced somewhere, even though the dreaming sometimes distorts them beyond recognition.

The answer to all this, does it come from the prince turned enlightened one, or from the carpenter nailed to a tree?

To dream or not to dream, that is the question.

And if we must dream, who will wake us up?

The reward of virtue is to see Your face,
and on waking, to gaze my fill on Your likeness.
Psalm 17:15 Jerusalem Bible

A first point of entry

Examining the reasons why Buddhism supplanted Nestorian Christianity in early medieval Japan might give us some insight on how to evangelize the Japanese people today.

Buddhism in Japan is a very highly developed philosophical system, divided into many sects, but understanding some things about the two main ones, 天台宗 Tendai and
眞言 Shingon, can help us see into the Japanese mind.

Just as the overall influence of Christianity has lingered in the cultures of the Western world long after it has ceased to be the faith practiced by more than a minority of people, so also has the influence of the Japanese version of Buddhism cast its shadow over the Japanese people for many generations, even though relatively few Japanese can be said to actually practice it. The ritual aspects of Buddhism, as well as of 神道 Shinto, the native Japanese religion, affect most Japanese at least in the culture of the family.

Births and marriages are intertwined with Shinto rituals and regulations. Human mortality is addressed and ministered to by Buddhist monks and their rites.

When a child is born, its name is registered by the local Shinto shrine, and enrolled among “the living” and commemorated and prayed for, in general, with ceremonies. After the person lives his life and dies, his name is transferred to “the dead” and is commemorated as a “kami” or god. When a person moves, they can have their name added to the “list” at the Shinto shrine where they now live. People go to Shinto shrines to ask for help of the kami in their day to day lives, but only the “religious.”

Death, on the other hand, and what happens to the dead is actually the domain of the Buddhists, almost their specialty. This is their function for the “non-religious” Japanese. Those who actually do practice some form of Buddhism would find much more to do than just funeral rites. In an odd sort of way, practicing Buddhists in Japan can be compared to their Christian counterparts, people who go to church regularly and volunteer for various churchly activities. Again, these are both minorities in each culture. In conclusion, when a Japanese dies, he is often cremated and buried in a cemetary on the grounds of a Buddhist temple. What happens after that has some similarities to cemetary customs in any culture: graves are cared for, flowers and incense offered, people speak to the dead, etc., as if they could hear, and they are often resorted to when guidance is needed. “Just ask Mom.”

Back to Japanese Buddhism, it’s worth noting that it really is a different “religion” from other forms of Buddhism. Great emphasis is placed on the boddhisatva, that is, a being who has attained the status of an enlightened being (a buddha) but who has relinquished, at least temporarily, leaving the world of men and instead chooses to be “left behind” to help other mortals still struggling to break free. Both Tendai and Shingon forms of Buddhism emphasize that “anyone can become a buddha” and this idea is at the back of the Japanese mind, a noble principle of self-sacrifice, even self-immolation, for the sake of others. This pervasive legacy is a first point of entry for Jesus Christ. “…anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for My sake, and the sake of the gospel, will save it.” (Mark 8:35) “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) “This has taught us love—that He gave up His life for us; and we, too, ought to give up our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16) The contexts of this self-sacrifice may be different in Buddhism and in Christ, but the content is the same. In each case, one foregoes one’s personal well-being and safety, so that others can escape, like a man using his body to keep open a collapsed mine shaft entrance, so his work-mates can get out.

So far, a first point of entry for Christ into the Japanese mind has been identified. Where did this emphasis come from in Japanese Buddhism, that makes it so distinctive? Could it be one of the evidences of Christ which Nestorian Christianity bequeathed as a legacy to the Buddhist wave that overcame it?

More to follow.

A price too high to pay

“We are all brothers and sisters with one heavenly Father and on this beautiful planet, which we are all responsible for, there is room for everyone…”

This quote was posted on an Orthodox blog that I visit, and there followed a string of comments, in the main critical of Patriarch Bartholomaios of Constantinople. Following is my comment on the issue.
Take a look at the original blog post and string of comments here.

Although I am a Greek Orthodox, I am not sympathetic to the current Patriarch, but I also do not expect much from a man of the world such as he is. Yet, reading his address in its entirety, the quote under consideration, when put back in context, does not offend my Christian sensibilities.

Theologically it is incorrect, as was pointed out. In the context of human cooperation, and especially of hospitality, it is non-offensive. We can call people "brothers" even before they are saved because we have a hope for their salvation, yet we do not permit them the communion cup. There should never be, in our social exchanges with non-Christians, even a trace of triumphalism or "spiritual imperialism," neither of which are part of the commission of Christ "to make disciples of all nations." The patriarch's purpose in addressing the assembly was not to evangelize them, but to say that he would continue to offer to them the hand of friendship in (I would assume) whatever ways are not contrary to Christ, whose ambassador he is.

Ecumenical dialog with leaders of various non-Christian religions is, in my opinion, a waste of time and a temptation to dissimulation for the sake of some level of "unity" which is at best practical but not authentic. The patriarch has done enough damage by his published writings and various meetings in this regard to make many Orthodox Christians uncomfortable with his leadership, especially when he arrogates to himself such prerogatives as might an Eastern "pope."

We have no pope, and will not, and the patriarch of Constantinople can speak to the world for us only if he speaks truthfully. I have yet to see this patriarch go forth "to make disciples of all nations," as he could if he dared.

But that would mean martyrdom,
and for this patriarch, it's a price too high to pay.

Easier or harder?

PRESCRIPT: I could not think of a title for this post, but on the drive home from work, thinking about one of the themes presented, I remembered a lunch I shared with some pilgrims and (at that time) the three sisters at the Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner John the Baptist. Listening to sister Agní give us her testimony in Greek, I learned a new word I hadn't heard before, when she concluded her witness with the words δεν ειναι ευκολο (dhen ínai éfkolo), “it ain't easy.” Hence the title, asking, [does believing in Jesus make your life] easier or harder?

Have you ever been invited out to lunch by a group of three or four people whom you know for the most part only slightly, and been invited maybe out of a sense of obligation? And maybe these people knew you to be a Christian, though none of them were, and that might make the social setting a bit awkward? And to top it off, you might’ve been in a foreign country, where they were speaking a language you didn’t quite understand?

I’ve had that experience a little bit, but only in part. Sometimes when I’ve visited the Greek monastery in the forests just beyond Goldendale, Washington, I’ve found myself seated at table for lunch with some of the sisters and their guests, and all of a sudden, everything goes Greek on me. That leaves me out of the conversation for the most part, because I only know Biblical (koiné) Greek, the dialect we use in the church services. My knowledge of the demotic dialect is limited to being able to listen and understand maybe about half, and as for joining in a spirited talk, well, kalimera and yasou don’t go very far. The difference is this, that I am with other people who I’m certain are followers of Jesus, all Christians like me, so no matter what happens, I never feel uncomfortable, even when I’m left out of a conversation. But getting back to the other scenario…

In a foreign country, like Japan. The Japanese can be very formal and shy when they don’t know how to deal with a situation. One of the women who talked so animatedly with you last time you went to lunch, this time tries her best not to look at you. A sense of nervousness seems to have flipped the language switch, and you find everyone is talking Japanese to each other, leaving you out of the conversation, except when they want to know something from you. So you just sit there quietly, sad on the inside. Maybe the thought comes to you, “This must be what it’s like, in some small way, for Christ, who is present, sitting with them and with millions of others, watching them and waiting for them to come to Him.” Then maybe a surprise question was popped on you, waking you from your brain-fugue. The friend who invited you tells you, somewhat apologetically, that they were all just discussing why Japanese people do not have nor need a religion. You can see where this was coming from, and now you know why the averted glances. What can you say? Well, you just tell them the truth, and hopefully in words they can understand.

And from there, you start witnessing, about how religion from the world’s viewpoint is something you add on, like a topping. “One has their work-life, their social-life and their religious-life. But with Christ it’s different.” From the look in the women’s faces, your friend suddenly realises that he’s going to have to translate, since he knows English best. You pause a moment to let him catch up, and then, “Christ becomes your life and encompasses you,” you tell them. Returning a moment to the topic of their conversation, religion, you continue explaining the difference between what they and most people think, and what is really true about religion and Jesus Christ. You tell them, “If one believes in Christ, their life does not get easier, like religions teach, but it gets harder.” Their puzzled looks, and your friend’s initial remark about the Japanese not having or needing a religion, prompts what comes next. You try to make the point that you agree with them, the Japanese do not need a religion. Far from it, because their life is so well-organized, it would only bog things down. But what they do need is Christ.

It gets quiet again all of a sudden,
and you drop one final seed into what you hope is fertile soil.

You make the point that, if they want an easy life, then they shouldn’t bother with Christ—He’s not for them. But if they want to know the truth, then they have to believe in Him, and the consequence of this belief will be a life of struggle.

You don't know if they understood,
but you pray that God will give the increase.

Living with the saints

I’m still reading the biography of J. Hudson Taylor, and I am making headway.
It's an interesting and inspiring life story, and so real that I feel I’m right there with Hudson and his people, young missionaries from the British Isles having just made a dangerous ocean crossing to land safely in China, where they have now changed completely into Chinese dress—for the men that meant shaving the front of their heads and putting on false queues—quite a change for mid-19th century Europeans.

But they don’t seem to mind, nor do they complain of the moderate hardships they experience in their day to day lives. Everything is for Jesus to them, and to them He is so real, so present, that nothing can deter or discourage them. I feel very close to them, and to my other saints, because we all have Someone in common, a living Lord who is with us at this very moment, and all the time, whenever we can tear ourselves away from earthly preoccupations. This experience is the reality behind the words of the cherubic hymn in the divine liturgy, “Let us set aside all the cares of this life, that we may receive the King of all…” and in the hymn sung at the service of compline, “for God is with us.”

I imagined the wonderful cameraderie these missionaries shared, as they ventured into the inland regions of China where literally “no [European] man had gone before,” to carry the good news that through Christ we are reconciled to God. It made me think of such moments in my life, and in the lives of the saints I know, how turning around from their own pursuits, they gave themselves to love and serve one another. This thought reminded me of an incident in the life of Sergei Fudel, who was for most of his life a state prisoner in the Soviet Union for his Christian faith. He writes…

During my endless wanderings through the corridors of the Butyrka Prison in Moscow, I suddenly met Father Valentin Sventitsky. Rather foolishly I asked him, “Where are you going?” His face lit up with a kind of inner warmth as he answered, “To be with you!” He was always such a reserved man, severe, exclusive, but that day I felt a ray of kindly, all-seeing saintliness shining at me. He approached my soul, which was in need of his help. He was like a “staréts” [an elder]. This is what prison life can make you see (Light in the Darkness, p. 108).

Reading about Hudson Taylor and his fellow missionaries drew me closer to them and also to the saints I was already on familiar terms with. They are all so similar, and these are the closer examples that have influenced me to be the way I am. So for better or worse, it’s their fault! But this is the way that’s always seemed right to me, even though to others, even other Christians, well, they simply can’t seem to deal with it.

I'm going back now to join my newest friends, the saints of the China Inland Mission, who without having known or ever heard these words from the Orthodox service, lived lives as examples of what they mean…

Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One. We venerate Your cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Your holy resurrection. You are our God. We know no other than You, and we call upon Your name. Come, all faithful, let us venerate the holy resurrection of Christ. For behold, through the cross joy has come to all the world. Blessing the Lord always, let us praise His resurrection. For enduring the cross for us, He destroyed death by death.

Prayer of a hunted man

Psalms for the 29th Day
139 140 141 142 143

Psalm 142
Prayer of a hunted man

To Yahweh, my cry! I plead.

To Yahweh, my cry! I entreat.

I pour out my supplications,

I unfold all my troubles;

my spirit fails me,

but You, You know my path.

On the path I follow

they have concealed a trap.

Look on my right and see,

there is no one to befriend me.

All help is denied me,

no one cares about me.

I invoke You, Yahweh,

I affirm that You are my refuge,

my heritage in the land of the living.

Listen to my cries for help,

I can hardly be crushed lower.

Rescue me from persecutors

stronger than I am!

Free me from this imprisonment,

and I will thank Your Name once more

in the assembly of the virtuous,

for the goodness You show me.

(Yes, Lord, You know my path!)

Outside the gates of Paradise

The devil can’t stand to see anyone happy, and so he contrives by every possible means to spoil our joy. Wives and husbands torment each other. Parents and children antagonize each other. Employers and employees sabotage each other. And even most friends can’t stay friends for long. What’s wrong with us? And when the devil can’t get at us any other way, he even makes us a horror to ourselves!

But all this was foreseen, and we were warned, “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” Why must it be this way? How much love He has, that the Father sent His Son to us, to become a man like us, to feel the same pain of spoiled joy. He came to live among us, outside the gates of Paradise, and He died, leaving His holy body hanging on the tree, so that partaking of it as thieves, we could someday reenter Paradise, with Him.

Just as the peace He gives us is bestowed in the midst of battle, so is His joy bestowed in the midst of anguish. There is no higher way above, nor humbler way below, the way of the cross.

“If any man will be My disciple,

let him take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Brotherly love

Psalms for the 28th Day
132 133 134 135 136 137 138

Psalm 133

Brotherly Love

How good, how delightful it is,
for all to live together like brothers:

fine as oil on the head,
running down Aaron's beard,
running down Aaron's beard
to the collar of his robes;

copious as a Hermon dew
falling on the heights of Zion,
where Yahweh confers His blessing,
everlasting life.

The Christian Challenge

I really love the letter of holy apostle Paul to the church in Rome. There's really so much there to feed on, as to how to live as a Christian. It's not Jesus teaching us as He does in the gospels, but it's the Holy Spirit, whom He promised to send, and who will lead us into all truth (John 16:5-15), who speaks to us through the words of the holy apostles.

In my previous post I recapped a comment I left on a Muslim blog, in which I attempted to respectfully point out why I think that their efforts to reform Islam by editing the Koran to omit the verses that they feel "do not come from Allah" was not going to work. Although they subjugated many cultures of superior merit (such as Egypt, Babylon, Persia and Byzantium) and assimilated them into the Islamic empire and religion, the grafting of these good fruit-bearing branches to a tree bearing evil fruit did not change that tree. The thing to do is to chop down that tree, uproot it, and plant a new tree, one that bears good fruit. I concluded with the testimony that the Bible is the tree that bears good fruit, and that the good fruit is Jesus Himself.

By inviting them to turn away from reforming Islam and toward Jesus, I was taking a risk. I call that risk, "the Christian challenge." It's a risk because those who identify themselves as Christians don't always speak and act as Christians, as followers of Jesus. The content of "the Christian challenge" is what we find in the epistles, like these verses from Romans. Can we honestly invite Muslims or any other people into the fold of Christ's flock, if we ourselves do not follow what God is speaking to us here?

Do not let your love be a pretense, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying. If any of the saints are in need you must share with them; and you should make hospitality your special care.

Bless those who perescute you: never curse them, bless them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow. Treat everyone with equal kindness; never be condescending, but make real friends with the poor. Do not allow yourself to become self-satisfied. Never repay evil with evil, but let everyone see that you are interested only in the highest ideals. Do all you can to live at peace with everyone. Never try to get revenge; leave that, my friends, to God's anger. As scripture says: Vengeance is Mine—I will pay them back (Deuteronomy 32:35), the Lord promises.
But there is more: If your enemy is hungry, you should give him food, and if he is thirsty, let him drink. Thus you heap red-hot coals on his head (Proverbs 25:21-22). Resist evil and conquer it with good.

Romans 12:9-21

Jerusalem Bible

My Christian brothers, think of these words I just cited from holy apostle Paul. To me, this is a challenge to everyone who says he believes. My Muslim brothers, if you've visited my blog and just read what I have written, and what I cited from the Holy Bible, think about these words. Isn't this the way of life that deep down you too know is right? Compare these words of holy apostle Paul to what you find written in the Qur'an and the Hadith, just as I asked you to compare Muhammad with Mary the virgin mother of Jesus. Isn't the contrast obvious? Isn't the difference between the tree of evil fruit and the tree of good fruit inescapable?

Christian brothers, take the challenge. Muslim brothers, take the challenge. I invite the first to be what they claim to be in word and deed, and the second "to taste and see that the Lord is good." And to both I say, it is ours to begin the work, but it is God's to finish it.

Do not let your love be a pretense,

but sincerely prefer good to evil.

Romans 12:9

Reform Islam?

I recently discovered a new blog, "Muslims Against Sharia." This is a group that wants to preserve Islam as a religion of the modern world, and the way they want to do it is to "pull its fangs," that is, to edit out all that is incompatible in it with civilised life. One of the primary ways they are doing it is by editing out those verses in the Koran that they believe "do not come from Allah." I added the 129th comment to a post called Reform Koran, in which they decribe the process of Koran editing. The following is my comment. If you want to read the original blog post and the other 128 comments, click on the hyperlink above.

As a late-comer to this blog and blogpost, and not having been able to read thru all the previous 128 comments (that's a lot!), nevertheless I have this to say:

To edit out the offending verses in the Qur’an is a work for the entire Islamic people, or their representatives. This is, of course, an impossibility, because there is no such thing as an “ecumenical” Islam. There are far too many sectarian divisions.

There is an inherent absolutism in the Qur’an about its contents, that is explicit and cannot even be matched in Judaism or Christianity.

The absolutism in the TaNaKh (Torah-Nevi’im-Ketuvim) of Judaism is implicit, and though the words of the scriptures for them cannot suffer any change, they have a tradition of evolving understanding about them, such that the violent passages in the Torah are modified by the pronouncements of the later prophets, without the necessity of editing them out (G’d forbid!).
The absolutism in the Bible of Christianity is an extension of the same inherited from Judaism, in which it is admittedly a participant. A verse in the final book of the New Testament, the Revelation, is explicit that anyone who adds or subtracts from the words “of this book” will receive all the plagues described in this book. This verse is often erroneously applied to the whole Bible, but it actually only applies to the book of Revelation. The absolutism of the Christian Bible is still just an extension of that applied by Judaism, and the way in which it is moderated is the same as in Judaism, by an appeal to reason and adaptation to culture. For both Jews and Christians, this willingness to modify or reinterpret the actual, unchangeable texts, still elicits problems, controversies and divisions.

The absolutism of the Qur’an can thus be viewed as a fortified version of the absolutism of the other two religions “of the Book.” Yet, this absolutism contains, as has been pointed out in some of the previous comments, unsolvable contradictions derived from the very pages of the Qur’an itself. Analyzed by an impartial logician, the Qur’an contains self-contradictions at a level which cannot be combined with the level of its absolutism, and thereby disproves itself as an infallible and perfect utterance of Allah. Similar contradictions can be found in the TaNaKh of the Jews and the Bible of the Christians, but they do not invalidate these scriptures, because the level of absolutism is simply not as high as that of the Qur’an.

As an example, the Qur’an speaks of Miriam the sister of Moses as also being the mother of Jesus. This is a well known mistake, and by itself demonstrates a logical, historical error that invalidates the whole of the Qur’an, because the Qur’an is to be accepted as absolutely perfect and correct.

Another example, in the Bible Jesus makes reference to the eating of sacred food from the Temple by secular persons who should not have eaten it, as having happened during a particular high-priesthood. In historical fact, the high priest He cited was incorrect. Yet the Christians claim that Jesus is God, and that the Bible is inerrant. How can this single example not invalidate both claims? First, because they believe Jesus assumed the human nature with all its characteristics, including fallibility in knowledge as well as the temptation to sin (the Jews call this “the evil impulse”), it was possible for Him to make an error as being human, though they believe that because He was also God, it was impossible for Him to yield to temptation or to sin. Second, because the Bible is believed to be inerrant does not invalidate it because it is not considered to be the “Word of God” in the sense that the Qur’an is so believed. Instead, like the incarnation (descent into human nature) of the Son of God, the inspiration (descent into human literature) of the Word of God can exhibit the same possibility of error in historical facts and other details.

Now, for the Christian, one more fact or item of belief also strengthens the absolutism of the Bible without turning it into a blatant bibliolatry (idolatry of a book), and that is, the Word of God and the Son of God are both names of the same Being, who is considered to be a person (hypostasis) of the Holy Triad (One Divine nature in three hypostases). Therefore, to call the Bible “the Word of God” is, though universal and unchallenged, still a conventional simplification or application of the absolute belief that Jesus is Himself the Word of God (the Divine Logos of the Father), but that the Bible is His explicit, written "image," and therefore reliable.

The point of my comment is this, that the Qur’an claims to be what Jesus is, that is, the Word of God. Muhammad therefore becomes what the Virgin Mary is, that is, the means by which that Word entered the human world. Is it not obvious that here we have two completely and diametrically opposed ideas?

If you plant a tree, and year after year it yields bad fruit. If you cultivate it, if you graft onto it branches of other trees with good fruit, if you care for it and try to improve it in every way possible, and yet it bears bad fruit no matter what you do, then there is only one thing to do. Chop it down, uproot it, and plant a tree with good fruit.

The tree with bad fruit is the Qur’an.
The tree with good fruit is the Bible.
And what is the good fruit that is hanging on that tree?
It is Jesus.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

Run for your life

Psalms for the 24th Day
116 117 118 119:1-32

Reading the psalms this evening, reciting them and breathing them into me, fragrant as my bible is right now with the smell of basil from the feast day of the finding of the holy Cross, there I found some ρηματα (rhémata > living words) that nourished my soul, reminders of my path. (You alone, Lord, know my path.)

I have faith, even when I say,
‘I am completely crushed’.
Psalm 116:10

(Lord, You know what I mean when I recite this verse in prayer. And at times, I do feel completely crushed, yet there is no place I can be, or feel myself to be, where I do not have faith.)

Yahweh, I am Your servant,
Your servant, son of a pious mother,
You undo my fetters.
Psalm 116:15-16

(I can’t undo my fetters. I can’t do anything to free myself from bondage, Father. It is You alone who can free me, because You alone have freed me. “You undo my fetters.”)

I run the way of Your commandments,
since You have set me free.
Psalm 119:32

(In my distress I cried out to You, “Lord, why have You given me yet another day?” Your answer was instant, Your will to me was clear. You said, “I have raised you again to life, so that you can carry out My commandments.” Nothing more, nothing more had to be said. I heard Your voice, Lord, and I am satisfied. “I run the way of Your commandments, since You have set me free.” Glory to You, O God, glory to You!)

Draw me in Your footsteps, let us run.

Song of Solomon 1:4

Not by us, Yahweh

Psalms for the 23rd Day
110 111 112 113 114 115

Psalm 115

The one true God

Not by us, Yahweh, not by us,
by You alone is glory deserved,
by Your love and Your faithfulness!
Do the pagans ask, ‘Where is their God?’

Ours is the God whose will is sovereign
in the heavens and on earth,
whereas their idols, in silver and gold,
products of human skill,

have mouths, but never speak,
eyes, but never see,
ears, but never hear,
noses, but never smell,

hands, but never touch,
feet, but never walk,
and not a sound from their throats.
Their makers will end up like them,
and so will anyone who relies on them.

House of Israel, rely on Yahweh,
on Him, our help and shield!
House of Aaron, rely on Yahweh,
on Him, our help and shield!
You who fear Yahweh, rely on Yahweh,
on Him, our help and shield!

Yahweh remembers us, He will bless,
He will bless the House of Israel,
He will bless the House of Aaron,
He will bless those who fear Yahweh,
without distinction of rank.

May Yahweh add to your numbers,
yours and your children's too!
May you be blessed by Yahweh,
Maker of heaven and earth!
Heaven belongs to Yahweh,
earth He bestows on man.

The dead cannot praise Yahweh,
they have gone down to silence;
but we the living, bless Yahweh
henceforth and forevermore.

Εν Ιορδάνη βαπτιζομένου σου

Psalms for the 23rd Day
110 111 112 113 114 115

Psalm 114

Hymn for the Passover

fulfilled at the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the honourable Forerunner

Alleluia!

When Israel came out of Egypt,

the House of Jacob from a foreign nation,

Judah became his sanctuary

and Israel his domain.

The sea fled at the sight,

the Jordan stopped flowing,

the mountains skipped like rams,

and like lambs, the hills.

Sea, what makes you run away?

Jordan, why stop flowing?

Why skip like rams, you mountains,

why like lambs, you hills?

Quake, earth, at the coming of your Master,

at the coming of the God of Jacob,

who turns rock into pool,

flint into fountain.

The Messiah: King and Priest

Psalms for the 23rd Day
110 111 112 113 114 115

Psalm 110

The Messiah: King and Priest

Yahweh's oracle to You, my Lord,

‘Sit at My right hand

and I will make Your enemies

a footstool for You’.

Yahweh will force all Your enemies

under the sway of Your sceptre in Zion.

Royal dignity was Yours

from the day You were born,

on the Holy Mountains,

royal from the womb,

from the dawn of Your earliest days.

Yahweh has sworn an oath

that He will never retract,

‘You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek,

and for ever’.

The Lord is at Your right hand.

When He grows angry He shatters kings,

He gives the nations their deserts,

smashing their skulls,

He heaps the wide world with corpses.

Drinking from the stream as He goes,

He can hold His head high in victory.

A childlike people

Another cool, misty dawn. I wake up in darkness and offer my morning prayer to You, Lord, thanking You beyond what my words can express. You have saved me, and given me another day.
Whatever is Your will for me today, Lord, let it be done.
Help me to follow You.

There is a covering of grey, translucent clouds hanging low over the city as I drive to work. Crossing the Columbia River, I look eastwards down its course and see the silhouette of Mount Hood, sharply defined against a brightening sky in the sliver of clarity between earth and clouds. It arises from its blankets of fog to greet the morning, its crest almost disappearing again in the waters above the firmament. No wonder the native people venerated the peak as a god, Wy’east, and gave him personality. They were a childlike people.

My thoughts drifted between prayer and memory.
Japan, and the dawn, its sun rising as a red disk against an off-white, cloudless sky. There too, a childlike people invest a mountain with personality, Fuji-sama, as he arises in a gentle slope from the sea, but his peak is high and mighty, also a god, a kami, watching over his islands and his people. Encircling him a host of ordinary mountains like attendants. The dreams of a childlike people, to console them with hopes of what they know not, to allay their fears of what they do know—death.

Father, let these childlike people awaken, putting off their coverings of myth, to meet Your Son. The roots of our fears strike deeper than we dream. Lord, uproot these tares that Your hands have not planted, and plant Your true seed in us and in them, so that we can stand up and see You as You are, and know that You are with us, as You promised, even to the end of the ages.

The love of God

Not my words, Lord, but Yours.

Not by us, Yahweh, not by us,
by You alone is glory deserved,
by Your love and Your faithfulness.
Psalm 115:1

Psalms for Day 22: 107, 108, 109.

How do we know that God loves us?
Aren’t we just too small and unimportant to bother with?
Doesn’t He have better things to do?
Or maybe it’s just that we don’t want Him to love us, so we prefer to remain in the dark about it.
That’s easier, because we can be “our own” men, not owing anyone anything, especially not owing Him.
What does the Word of God say about God’s love?
Here are some examples from Psalm 107.

Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good,
His love is everlasting:
Let these be the words of Yahweh’s redeemed,
those He has redeemed from the oppressor’s clutches,
by bringing them home from foreign countries,
from east and west, from north and south.
(Verses 1-3)

These words are for God’s hereditary people Israel, and are prophecy fulfilled in our day, as the return of Israel to the land proves. He addresses His own people first, and proves His love by always bringing them back. If you are a follower of Jesus, the Son of God, then you too are addressed in these words. He has redeemed you also from the oppressor’s clutches. Who or what is the oppressor? Death itself, which oppresses everyone. How has He redeemed you? By the precious blood of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, that is, Jesus Christ.

Some were living in gloom and darkness,
fettered in misery and irons
for defying the orders of God,
for scorning the advice of the Most High;
who bent them double with hardship,
to breaking point, with no one to help them.
(Verses 10-12)

What is this? Does the loving God fetter those who defy Him and scorn His advice, that is, His Word? Does He really send them hardship, try them to the breaking point, and withhold all help from them? You cannot escape this. It’s here in the scriptures. You can’t make up a god out of your false hopes, and then search for Bible verses to prove your ideas. Why would God do these things to people who reject Him? That doesn’t seem very loving now, does it? Perhaps they’re right to reject Him, if that’s the kind of God He is. What else does it say?

Then they called to Yahweh in their trouble
and He rescued them from their sufferings;
released them from gloom and darkness,
shattering their chains.
Let these thank Yahweh for His love,
for His marvels on behalf of men;
breaking bronze gates open,
He smashes iron bars.
(Verses 13-16)

What? Is that all it takes? If you’re heading down the wrong road, and things are just getting worse and worse, all you have to do is just “call to Yahweh”? That just seems too simple, doesn’t it? Surely, somebody has to pay for the wrongs, if they were wrong to begin with! Yes, and Someone has. It’s He who broke “bronze gates open” and smashed “iron bars,” when He descended into She‘ol, into Hades, into Hell…

Isaiah knew it would be so.
“The world of shadows mourned,” he cried, “when it met You,
mourned at its bringing low, wept at its deluding.”
The shadows seized a body and found it was God;
they reached for earth and what they held was heaven;
they took what they could see: it was what no one sees.
(Chrysostom, Paschal Homily)

The psalm continues with more examples of the love of God.

Some, driven frantic by their sins,
made miserable by their own guilt
and finding all food repugnant,
were nearly at death’s door.
(Verses 17-18)

So here’s a bit more about what’s going on. It’s not just God that punishes man with the penalties of sin, but the sins themselves have an effect on those who commit them. What’s this? Their guilt makes them miserable? How can this be possible? Is there a real right and wrong? Or do people suffer like this because they really do know that there is a God, and that His ways are holy?

Then they called to Yahweh in their trouble
and He rescued them from their sufferings;
sending His Word and curing them,
He snatched them from the pit.
(Verses 19-20)

What does it say that God does when the afflicted call to Him? He sends His Word and cures them! How is this possible? What can it possibly mean that “He sends His Word”? What is this “Word” and how does it cure anyone? Can it possibly be what is called the scriptures? Backtracking to an earlier psalm for a moment, we might find the answer in Psalm 19, where the Law, Torah, is described in a way that makes us think whether it might be what Psalm 107 is calling the Word…

The Law of Yahweh is perfect,
new life for the soul;
the decree of Yahweh is trustworthy,
wisdom for the simple.

The precepts of Yahweh are upright,
joy for the heart;
the commandment of Yahweh is clear,
light for the eyes.

The fear of Yahweh is pure,
lasting for ever;
the judgments of Yahweh are true,
righteous every one,
more desirable than gold,
even than the finest gold;
His words are sweeter than honey,
even than honey that drips from the comb.

Thus Your servant is formed by them,
observance brings great reward.
But who can detect his own failings?
Wash out my hidden faults.
And from pride preserve Your servant,
never let it dominate me.
So shall I be above reproach,
free from grave sin.
(Verses 7-13)

“Thus Your servant is formed by them” and “free from grave sin” seem to be saying that the “words of Yahweh” have the power to shape us and free us from sin. It sounds like this might be the answer to what is meant by God “sending His Word and curing” people who “called to Yahweh in their trouble.” If this was true for them, can’t it be true for us as well?

Psalm 107 reveals to us a lot about how God, the living God of Israel, thinks and acts, showing us that God really does have a distinct personality, and isn’t just a “cosmic process.”

Sometimes He turned rivers to desert,
springs of water into arid ground,
or a fertile country into salt flats,
because the people living there were wicked.

Or again, He turned a desert into sheets of water,
and an arid country into flowing springs,
where He gave the hungry a home
in which to found a habitable town.
(Verses 33-36)

It isn’t just the mindless and purposeless forces of nature that change things on earth after all, but the just judgment of God that He expresses within time. Here’s an interesting verse…

Pouring His contempt upon the nobly born,
He left them to wander in a trackless waste.
But now, He lifts the needy out of their misery,
and gives them a flock of new families;
at the sight of which, upright hearts rejoice
and wickedness must hold its tongue.
(Verses 41-42)

Whatever else we think, we can see as we look around us, especially in these times, how these very things are happening. The “old money” families, despite their wealth and prestige, are coming unglued. Their control of whole nations has brought them nothing but inner decay, moral and spiritual. On the other hand, are we alarmed when we see the prosperity, in our United States, of the new immigrants, the Latinos, the Koreans and other Asians? These latter are by and large “people of the Book,” who take God at His Word and rely on His faithfulness…

Mary declared, “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.”
(Magnificat, Book of Common Prayer; Luke 1:52-53)

Psalm 107 concludes with this thought about the love of God…

If you are wise, study these things
and realise how Yahweh shows His love.
(Verse 43)