Monthly Archives: June 2021

On “John T. Baptist,” Peter and Paul – 2021

Bucking traditionZechariah (prophet and father of “the Baptist”) wrote, “My son’s name is John…”

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Last Thursday, June 24, was the feast day for the Birth (Nativity) of St. John, the Baptist. Next Tuesday, June 29, is the feast day for remembering St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles. Turning to the earlier day, John the Baptist was the prophet “who foretold the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus, whom he later baptised.” The Bible readings are Isaiah 40:1-11Psalm 85Acts 13:14b-26, and Luke 1:57-80. Luke tells how Elizabeth – the cousin of Mary (mother of Jesus) – came to be a mother, and how her husband got struck dumb.

The time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced…  [T]hey were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John…”

For more on John see The Nativity of John the Baptist, a post from June 2015. That post includes an image and text about John falling victim to Salome. (Illustrated at left.)

The text from Mark 6, verses 14-29 indicates that “Salome had danced so well for King Herod that he swore he would grant her any request. Her mother, Herodias, who sought revenge on John the Baptist, persuaded Salome to ask for his head.” 

On another note, John represents “Law, not Grace. Among men born of woman … he has no superior. But anyone who has been born anew in the kingdom of God has something better than what John symbolizes.” That something better is Jesus, who represents grace. (As in “My grace is all you need.”)

Turning to the other feast day, June 29 is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, who “died together.*” It honors “the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul.” Unfortunately the Bible doesn’t give details about the deaths of Peter or Paul, “or indeed any of the Apostles except for James the son of Zebedee.”  (See e.g. Acts 12:2.)  But early tradition said that they were martyred at Rome, at the command of the Emperor, and were buried there:

As a Roman citizen, Paul would probably have been beheaded with a sword. It is said of Peter that he was crucified head downward[. And thus as St. Augustine wrote,] “even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood…”

See John the Baptist, Peter and Paul – 2016, which described one of the disputes between Peter and Paul. This one came to a head with the Incident at Antioch. And of that dispute Wikipedia said, “The final outcome of the incident remains uncertain resulting in several Christian views of the Old Covenant to this day.” But briefly, that question involved how much of the Old Testament “law” was to be binding on Christians. (A question – including that of a requirement of male circumcision – which remains “even to this day.”

So to me the main point of the Feast of Peter and Paul – togther – is that it’s okay to have a difference of opinion between Christians. Or even to “squabble” from time to time. And for that matter, that it’s okay to argue with God too, if and as necessary. (As long as you pay the proper respect, you could end up a lot stronger, “spiritually and otherwise.”)

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“Scholars Disputing” – a painting of Peter and Paul managing to work together… 

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As indicated in the main text, this post was gleaned from prior posts, The Nativity of John the Baptist (2915), and John the Baptist, Peter and Paul – 2016.

The upper image is courtesy of the link – Benedictus (Song of Zechariah) – in the Wikipedia article, Nativity of St. John the Baptist.  The caption:  “Detail of Zechariah writing down the name of his son (Domenico Ghirlandaio, 15th century, Tornabuoni ChapelItaly).”

Re: “My grace is all you need.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. For more on Peter and Paul, including the movement of their “remains,” see Peter, Paul – and other “relics.”

Re: Peter and Paul, who “died together.” See On Peter, Paul – and other “relics:”

On 29 June we commemorate the martyrdoms of both apostles. The date is the anniversary of a day around 258, under the Valerian Persecution, when what were believed to be the remains of the two apostles were both moved temporarily to prevent them from falling into the hands of the persecutors.

 In other words, the June 29 feast day is an ancient celebration, as “the anniversary either of their death or of the translation of their relics.” Note too that the “Valerian Persecution” mentioned, of 258, involved the movement of the remains of Peter and Paul – the “relics” – not the date of their deaths. (They would have to have been over 200 years old.)

Re: Arguing with God. See the post, On arguing with God, which said that maybe – just maybe – we are supposed to “argue with God,” or “wrestle with God,” or even “wrestle with the idea of God.” Maybe, just maybe, that’s how we get spiritually stronger, by “resistance training” rather than passively accepting anything and everything in the Bible, without question or questioning.

The lower image is courtesy of Two Scholars Disputing by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon … (web gallery of art.)  The explanatory section added that the most likely explanation of the painting is that it “represents St Peter and St Paul in conversation,” or even Argument:

Rembrandt omits the attributes by which the two apostles were traditionally identified, he relies only on their physical characteristics … and on what they are seen to be doing, that is earnestly discussing a text which the one (St Peter) is explaining to the other.

For other interpretations and/or images, see also canvasreplicas.com/Rembrandt, and Two Scholars Disputing by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn.

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For more on the blog and its main themes, see the notes to Pink Floyd – and Pentecost Sunday, 2021.

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On D-Day and St. Barnabas – 2021

A reminder of this past June 6: Saint Augustine was an early advocate of the Just war theory...

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I just got back from a lightning, one-week mini-vacation. First to Rockville Maryland – for my grandson’s wedding – then on to Pigeon Forge Tennessee for a family get-together. (Including a day-visit to Dollywood, illustrated at left.)

I got back home late last Thursday (6/10/21), and over the long Recuperation Weekend that followed, I checked my blogs. My last post on this blog – “Pink Floyd – and Pentecost Sunday, 2021” – came back on May 29, 2021. So it’s about time another post on this Blog, but lucky me, just last June 11 was the Feast Day for St. Barnabas. And five days before that we – or some of us – remembered D-Day, back during World War II. Which is a reminder that life isn’t always a bowl of cherries.* Or put another way, we are called to vigor – spiritual discipline – not comfort. (See About the Blog, above.)

There’s more on that below, but first a word about St. Barnabas.

The Bible first mentions Barnabas in Acts 4:36:  “Joseph, a Levite, born in Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (son of encouragement), sold a field he owned, brought the money, and turned it over to the apostles.”  And Barnabas the Apostle – Justus added that even after Paul’s Damascus Road experience, most Christians in Jerusalem “wanted nothing to do with him. They had known him as a persecutor and an enemy of the Church. But Barnabas was willing to give him a second chance.” (Which is pretty much what Jesus is all about.)

To sum up, if it hadn’t been for Barnabas’ willingness to give Paul a second chance – Paul, the formerly zealous persecutor of the early Church – he might never have become Christianity’s most important early convert, if not the “Founder of Christianity.*”

But what’s all this about “just war” and our annual remembrance of June 6 as D-Day, a key turning point in World War II? Just that the lessons our American armed forces learned in that war can teach us a valuable lesson today about the better way to read and study the Bible.

That is, American armed forces succeeded on D-Day – and contributed greatly in winning World War II – because of our native INGENUITY. (That is, because as Americans we are inherently creative and constantly ask questions.) We constantly look for better ways of doing things. On the other hand there are some “Bible-thumpers” who look at the Faith of the Bible as a way of “trying to create a culture that rewards conformism and stifles creativity.” 

In the same way, one theme of this blog is that the very same question-asking, probing method of Bible study is far better for both an individual reader and our society as a whole. It’s far better than just saying, “Oh, I’ll take everything that slick-haired televangelist says at face value!

My point is that Bible reading should be an adventure. It should help us reach our full potential, as individuals and as a nation. It should help us become happier, more creative and able to find better ways of living lives of abundance. And that’s as opposed to the concept of “sin,” and how some of those same Bible-thumpers seem to relish making other people feel guilty.

On that note see On June 6, 2016 and also On D-Day and confession:

Maybe that’s what the Bible and/or the church concepts of sin and confession are all about… When we “sin” we simply fall short of our goals; we “miss the target.” When we “confess,” we simply admit to ourselves how far short of the target we were. And maybe the purpose of all this is not to make people feel guilty all the time… [M]aybe the concepts of sin, repentance and confession are tools to help us get closer to the target “next time out,” even if we know we can never become “perfect.”

Also on that note see On sin and cybernetics, from 2014, which added this: “Maybe the concepts of sin, repentance and confession are simply tools to help us realize the purpose Jesus had for us, to wit: To ‘live life in all its abundance.’” (See John 10:10, above.)

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You can’t hit the target without “negative feedback…”

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The upper image is courtesy of Just war theory – Wikipedia: “The purpose of the doctrine is to ensure that a war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria, all of which must be met in order for a war to be considered just.” For more information google “christianity and just war theory.”

Re: Life as a bowl of cherries. (Or not.) See Life is just a bowl of cherries – Idioms by The Free Dictionary. Originally meaning everything was great, the “slangy phrase, often used ironically, gained currency as the title of a song by Ray Henderson,” performed by Ethel Merman in the in the Scandals of 1931. “Today it is nearly always used ironically…”

Re: Vigor, not comfort. From Evelyn Underhill’s book Practical Mysticism:

Hearing now and again the mysterious piping of the Shepherd, you realize your own perpetual forward movement. . .  Do not suppose from this that your new career [as a Christian] is to be perpetually supported by agreeable spiritual contacts, or occupy itself in the mild contemplation of the great world through which you move.  True, it is said of the Shepherd that he carries the lambs in his bosom;  but the sheep are expected to walk, and to put up with the bunts and blunders of the flock.  It is to vigour rather than comfort that you are called.

Re: The Apostle Paul as a “Founder of Christianity.” A search “st paul founder of christianity” leads to wildly divergent opinions. But see also A brief guide to the Apostle Paul, and why he is so important.

A final note: Most of this post was gleaned from On St. Barnabas and On St. Barnabus’ Day, 2015. The lower (“arrow”) image is courtesy of “releasetheape.com … 2012/12/arrow-target1-890×556.png.

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