On the Transfiguration – 2020

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The most recent major feast day was The Transfiguration of Jesus; August 6, 2020. And just as an aside, we are now in Week 21 of the COVID-19 pandemic. So somehow I want to tie in our eventual recovery from that pandemic to The Transfiguration of Jesus.

Another aside: I’ve always found it really hard to get a good lead image for earlier posts on the Transfiguration. (Most paintings are way too long and narrow, like the one at left. It’s from my 2015 Greatest Miracle post, meaning that I had to wrap the type around the uppermost image, which I don’t like to do.)

So this year I opted for an image by Googling “covid a blessing to earth images.” I got the topmost image by first Googling Transfiguration Synonyms at Thesaurus.com. (And finding an article on how the Covid is “giving the planet a break.”)

Among the synonyms for transfiguration were advance, revision, and transformation. Somehow that led me to consider the transformation we here on earth are – and will continue to be – going through. Partly because of the Covid, but also because there may be some silver linings to this cloud. And how all that may relate to the Transfiguration of Jesus itself…

In order of posting, I wrote about this Feast Day in 2015’s Transfiguration – The Greatest Miracle in the World, then again in On the Transfiguration of Jesus – 2016. And see also last year’s (2019’s) “On to Jerusalem!” That post came up when I typed “Transfiguration” in the search box above right, but I’m not sure why. (After a quick review of the post.) But it’s an interesting commentary on pilgrimages in general, and especially my 2019 pilgrimage to Israel.

Which I could also say about Transfiguration of Jesus – 2016.

It’s an interesting commentary that Includes the image at right, tied to the idea how the Transfiguration “fulfilled a centuries-old dream for Moses.” Briefly, God kept Moses from entering the Promised Land. (Deuteronomy 32:48-52.) But in the Transfiguration, both Moses and Elijah joined Jesus at the top Mount Tabor (Matthew 17:3, e.g.), well inside the Promised Land. In other words, it took a thousand years after he died for Moses to finally enter the Promised Land. And again, that happened when he appeared with Jesus atop Mount Tabor:

Moses finally entered the Promised Land – [at] the Transfiguration – albeit a Millennium after he expected… Moses died some seven miles due east of the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, inside Jordan [on Mount Nebo], while in the Transfiguration he “met up” with Jesus on Mount Tabor, inside Israel and 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee.

But getting back to Transfiguration … 2016. (And its interesting commentary.) It gave me some points to add on today’s topic. I published the post just before a summer-of-2016 pilgrimage – actually two pilgrimages – the first involving a “mountain” hike, and second a canoe trip:

Next Tuesday – July 26 – I’ll be heading north to Skagway… From there I’ll spend four days hiking the Chilkoot Trail. (The ‘meanest 33 miles in history.’) Once that’s done, my brother and I will spend 16 days canoeing down the Yukon River, from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

Three days later – still driving from Utah through British Columbia up to Skagway – I posted an update. And the beginning of the update cited 2015’s “Greatest Miracle in the World:”

Transfiguration “stands as an allegory of the transformative nature” of the Bible-faith. (Indicating a “marked change…”) Other key quotes from the post include that God has His own time-table [and] that as a result, Bible-explorers generally learn quickly that patience is definitely a virtue. Which definitely applied to Moses. The thing is, while Moses was allowed to view the Promised Land … he wasn’t allowed to actually enter the Promised Land. That is, not until a thousand years or so after he died.

A couple notes. First, some people consider the Transfiguration “the greatest” because unlike the other miracles of Jesus, this one happened to Him. (In all the other miracles Jesus did things for other people. Also, some might consider the Resurrection “the Greatest Miracle.”)

The post also noted that Bible-explorers learn fast that patience is a virtue. Which applied to Moses, and now certainly applies to all of us suffering through the uncertainty and tragedy of a plague that seems like it will never end. But Moses probably thought along the same lines as we do today. In his case, “I spent all this time helping getting this rebellious people to their Promised Land, and I don’t even get to go in?” In our case, “When will this ever end?”

Moving on: According to Merriam Webster, “transfiguration” can refer to this Christian feast. Or to a change in form or appearance, or to a METAMORPHOSIS. In turn, a metamorphosis is a change of physical form, structure, or substance especially by supernatural means,” or a “striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances.”

Simply put, in the current plague we are surely going through a metamorphosis. In the case of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a striking “alteration in circumstances.” And since the change was so unexpected – mostly because we thought such plagues were a thing of the past – that change in circumstance seems, to many, to have occurred by supernatural means. (Notwithstanding a number of conspiracy theories abounding these days, by which secular types search for more sinister answers.)

But getting back to the point: What is it that makes the Transfiguration special?

Just that it’s “a pivotal moment,” like the one we’re going through now. It’s a moment where the mountain setting is presented “as the point where human nature meets God: the meeting place for the temporal and the eternal, with Jesus himself as the connecting point.”

And you could say the same thing about COVID-19. It’s another moment “where human nature meets God.” And where – if we play our cards right – we can reconnect with Jesus in a way we couldn’t have before. In other words, in this crisis we are definitely being “weighed in the balances.” Which means we don’t want to end up like Belshazzar, in Daniel, Chapter 5.

There the key phrase was, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” (Daniel 5:25.) Which is being interpreted, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” So as a result of the current pandemic we certainly don’t want to be “found wanting,” by God.

Something to think about…

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The upper image is courtesy of COVID-19 gave the planet a break. Now’s the time to keep up. The caption – as noted – is from Coronavirus Might Be The Biggest Blessing In Disguise. Which is another way of saying Every cloud has a silver lining. See also Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining – Deep English. Among other things, that post said when the Bubonic plague hit London in 1606, a young playwright named William Shakespeare “used the lockdown to his advantage.” And ours, “even to this day…”

The “greatest miracle in the world” is from Thomas Aquinas. He “considered the Transfiguration ‘the greatest miracle’ in that it complemented baptism and showed the perfection of life in Heaven.”

The lower image is courtesy of Belshazzar’s feast – Wikipedia. The “Handwriting on the wall” verses – see also Idioms by The Free Dictionary – are found at Daniel 5:25-28. And technically speaking, the phrase “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting” is found only at Daniel 5:27, and applies only to the word “TEKEL.”

On Mary Magdalene, 2020 – and Week 19 of “the Covid…”

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*I just got back from 4 days’ canoeing on the Missouri River – and no, the river wasn’t **this** low…*

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As the photo-caption above says, I just returned from a 4-day canoe trip on the Missouri River – 115 river miles, from South Sioux City to Omaha Nebraska. (Two weeks in all – three days’ drive out, four days back, the rest setting up or packing up.) Specifically, I got back last Friday, July 17.

And my last post was on June 20, Remembering Monday, May 18, 1992. (Including the image at right, it talked about the day I did my first Daily Office (Bible) Reading, on May 18, 1992.)

Which all means that I haven’t done a lot of posting lately on liturgical seasons or feast days. And on that note, the feast day for Mary Magdalene was Wednesday, July 22.

I’ve done a number of posts on this Mary “Maudlin,” including last year’s On Mary Magdalene – and all those “rules and regulations.” Also, On Mary Magdalene, and “conserving talents” (from 2018), 2015’s On Mary Magdalene, “Apostle to the Apostles,” and – from 2017 – On Mary of Magdala and James the Greater, Saints. (I.e., Mary’s Feast Day – July 22 – is followed by this particular James’ Feast Day, July 25.)

Last year’s post emphasized one indisputable: That Mary Magdalene showed way more courage and faith than the 11 male disciples, when push came to shove. Which is why St. Augustine called her the “Apostle to the Apostles.” See also Mary of Magdala | FutureChurch:

Mary of Magdala is perhaps the most maligned and misunderstood figure in early Christianity… Since the fourth century, she has been portrayed as a prostitute and public sinner… Paintings, some little more than pious pornography, reinforce the mistaken belief that sexuality, especially female sexuality, is shameful, sinful, and worthy of repentance. Yet the actual biblical account of Mary of Magdala paints a far different portrait than that of the bare-breasted reformed harlot of Renaissance art.

In turn that 2019 post cited 2018’s Mary Magdalene, and “conserving talents.” That was an early post exploring the idea of conservative Christians “playing it too safe.” That is, choosing not to explore the “rich tapestry of life.” That led me to conclude that “There’s no such thing as a ‘conservative Christian.’” (“It’s an oxymoron.”) Then too, that rules and regulations post brought up a standard conservative – and sometimes “Conservative Christian” – rant, that “all immigrants must follow all the rules and regulations.”

On that note, the post pointed out that Jesus – by His own admission – came into the world to save sinners, not those who blindly “follow all the rules and regulations.” (Mark 2:17, and 1st Timothy 1:15.) Which certainly applied to Mary, that “bare-breasted reformed harlot.”

Which brings up “the letter versus the spirit of the law.” That is, the “idiomatic antithesis” about those who “obey the letter of the law but not its spirit.” In a sentence, “Intentionally following the letter of the law but not the spirit” can be done by “exploiting technicalities, loopholes, and ambiguous language.” And it’s based on 2d Corinthians 3:6, “This” – the Gospel of Jesus – “is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.” That is, life in abundance. (John 10:10.)

Which all leads us to July 25, the Feast Day for James, son of Zebedee. He’s one of several “James” in the New Testament, but this James is also called “St. James the Greater.” And incidentally, this St. James is the Patron Saint of Pilgrims. (Seen at left. See also Mary of Magdala and James the Greater, Saints.)

And speaking of pilgrimages – like my recent one down the Missouri River – see also the September 2016 post On St. James, Steinbeck, and sluts: “The point being that I’ve gone on a few pilgrimages in my time, and am fixing to go on another one this September.” September 2017 that is. That year my Adventurous Brother and I hiked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. (The French Way. Also, in the Sluts post, I noted that in the spiritual literature of Christianity, the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to “the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude.”)

The post also said a pilgrimage can be “one of the most chastening, but also one of the most liberating” of personal experiences. Which happened on 2016’s Chilkoot Trail hike:

For my part, I certainly felt “chastened” after we got back to Skagway from the Chilkoot Trail.(Although the 10-of-12 beers that my nephew and I shared – of the two six-packs I bought – helped a lot too.) And I had a blister-on-a-blister that got infected – that didn’t fully heal until three weeks after the hike – to further heighten the feeling of getting “chastened.”

So this post celebrates both Mary Magdalene, as “the Apostle to the Apostles,” and St. James as the Patron Saint of Pilgrims. And speaking of pilgrimages, they can also be a way to “escape a plague.” Or at least get away from it for four days or so. (But see also A Pilgrimage during the time of the Black Plague, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.)

Meanwhile, we always have “the Risen Christ” to fall back on…

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*Mary Magdalene – first to see the Risen Christ – thus* *“Apostle to the Apostles…”*

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The upper image is courtesy of Lower Missouri River – Image Results. “The image was accompanied by a 2012 article from the Sioux City Journal, about how the low water level – eight years ago – could hurt boating and tourism.” I borrowed the image from a post on my companion blog, On my “new” Missouri River canoe trip, from July 5, 2020. That post was a preview, and I’ll be writing a postmortem – not literally – in a future post. As in an analysis or study of a recently completed event. The caption for the photo originally said, “I just heard the Lower Missouri River near Sioux City was pretty low. Could it be this bad?” Quick answer: It wasn’t.

As to “Week 19 of ‘the Covid'” in the post title, see On St. Philip and St. James – May, 2020. There I explained that, to me, “the pandemic hit full swing – the ‘stuff really hit the fan’ – back on Thursday, March 12,” when the ACC basketball tournament got cancelled, along with other major sports. “So my definition of the ‘First Full Week of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ has it starting on Sunday, March 15 and ending on Saturday the 21st.”

Re: Pilgrimage to escape plague. See for example, “Flight of the townspeople into the country to escape from the Plague, 1630,” seen below, courtesy of Pilgrimage Escape Plagues – Image Results.

The lower image is courtesy of Rembrandt – The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen. (It’s the lead image in Mary Magdalene, and “conserving talents.“) See also On Easter Season – AND BEYOND. The full caption: “The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen, by Rembrandt (1638).” And speaking of “racy,” the artist Titian did two versions of Mary crying. For the “racier” – 1533 – version see Penitent Magdalene (Titian, 1533) – Wikipedia.

The Penitent Magdalene is a 1565 oil painting by Titian of saint Mary Magdalene, now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Unlike his 1533 version of the same subject, Titian has covered Mary’s nudity and introduced a vase, an open book and a skull as a memento mori. Its coloring is more mature than the earlier work, using colors harmoni[z]ing with character. In the background the sky is bathed in the rays of the setting sun, with a dark rock contrasting with the brightly lit figure of Mary.

For more on this “Mary,” see On Mary of Magdala and James the Greater, Saints, and also MARY MAGDALENE, Bible Woman: first witness to Resurrection, and What Did Mary Magdalene look like?

Remembering Monday, May 18, 1992…

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**Another** event from May 1992: Sister Act released – 11 days after I “started reading the Bible…”

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This post is on catching up on “skipped Propers” that often happen at the beginning of a new Liturgical Season. And about “going back to my roots.” Back to the day when I first started reading the Bible on a daily basis. Way back on May 18, 1992 – 11 days before Sister Act.

That is, two weeks ago last May 31, 2020, I did the Daily Office reading for Pentecost Sunday. (According to the Daily Office Lectionary – and my copy of “Year 2, Volume 2,” at left – of the four-volume set.)

But then for the next day’s reading, I had to skip ahead some 42 pages, to the reading for the week after “the Sunday closest to June 1.” So from that next Monday-after-Pentecost on, I had to – or really, chose to – read not only the reading for that particular day. In addition, I also had to (chose to) also read some of the “skipped Propers.”

Which means that by Saturday, June 6, 2020, I’d done the scheduled Daily Office readings, plus some skipped Propers. (And according to the Daily Office Lectionary, those Saturday readings were Psalm 55, Psalm 138, and Psalm 139, along with Ecclesiastes 5:8-20, Galatians 3:23-4:11, and Matthew 15:1-20.) But also on that Saturday I had to do some more catching up.

That’s because – as noted – Pentecost came on May 31, but after that the daily readings jumped from page 12 to page 54. (Of Year 2, Volume 2.) To explain better, “Proper 1” starts the readings for the weeks of the Season after Pentecost. And it starts with the Sunday closest to May 11. Which means that this year Daily Office readers had to skip ahead to Proper 4, for the week of the Sunday closest to June 1st. But because I’m assiduous, I don’t like to skip those “in-between readings.” (Readings “in between” those listed for Proper 1, up to the start of Proper 4.)

So each morning – that first week of June, 2020 – and after doing the “proper” reading for that particular day, I tried to read one or two of the skipped readings. And so, by that Saturday – June 6, 2020 – I had gotten caught up as far as the reading for the Monday of Proper 2. (For the Week of the Sunday closest to May 18. Which of course had already passed.) And there – on page 25 of Year 2, Volume 2 – I saw my handwritten notation, “5/18/92.”

As it turns out, that date was – as far as I can tell – the day that I first started reading the Bible, on a daily basis, through the discipline of the Daily Office. And the readings for that day – now over 28 years ago – started off with Psalms 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7. (Another note: When I’m in the process of catching up at the beginning of a new liturgical season, I normally skip the day’s psalms.)

Which brings up some of the main readings for that day, over 28 years ago, starting with Proverbs 3:11-2. (That set of proverbs began with “My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline.”) Those readings also included 1st John 3:18-4:6, starting with “Dear children, let us not love in word and speech but in deed and truth.” (Which seems especially appropriate these days.)

And also Matthew 11:1-6. (Which told of Jesus and John the Baptist – at left – with John in prison, asking if Jesus was “he who is to come?”) Which led in turn to this especially-relevant note, for today: The New Testament reading which included 1st John 4:1.

One version of that passage reads,”Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” (It continues, “because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”) Which – strange as it may seem – mirrors perfectly what I was trying to say in Pentecost 2020 – “Learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” For example, in that post I cited 1st Thessalonians 5:21.

In the Good News Translation, “Put all things to the test: keep what is good.” And in the Aramaic Bible in Plain English, “Explore everything and hold what is excellent.”

So the point of that last post was that by such open-minded “exploring,” we real Christians can achieve that rich life experience that Jesus promised. (John 10:10.) And that – to each individual – is the surest proof that God “is.” The surest proof that there is a God and that “He” is willing to work with us as individuals, to help us grow spiritually.

And as audacious as that claim sounds, it’s part of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

That – as noted in Pentecost … “pleasing to the Lord” – is a method of theological reflection. I.e., a spiritual discipline by which we attain personal spiritual growth. It’s credited to John Wesley (at left), who noted four sources of such growth: Scripture, tradition, reason, and Christian experience:

Apart from scripture, experience is the strongest proof of Christianity… Wesley insisted that we cannot have reasonable assurance of something unless we have experienced it personally… Although traditional proof is complex, experience is simple… Although tradition establishes the evidence a long way off, experience makes it present to all persons.

Which – as it turns out – is hardly a novel idea. (That is, it’s hardly unique to Christianity.) Consider for example what Gautama Buddha – seen “below” – once explained:

Do not believe on the strength of traditions even if they have been held in honor for many generations… Believe nothing which depends only on the authority of your masters or priests. After investigation, believe that which you yourself have tested and found reasonable, and which is good for your good and that of others.

Which – by the way – is a quote I cited in Jesus Christ, Public Defender. It’s now a Kindle Book but I originally published it in paperback form in 1995. (The Kindle edition was published under the nom de plume “James B. Ford.”) Then too – right after the Buddha quote, in Chapter 8, “The Bible, Yoga and Zen” – I went on to cite 1st Thessalonians 5:21 and 1st John 4:1.

That is, a mere two years after I started reading the Bible on a daily basis, I published my first novel, “Zen in the Art of College Football.” Then in 1995 – one year after “Zen Football” and a mere three years after I started Daily Office reading – I published Jesus Christ, Public Defender. (Now in its 4th Edition. And for more details on the life-long pilgrimage that followed, see – from February 2019 – the post On my “mission from God.”)

So, can you say to come full circle? But in the good way. Like the Buddhist anecdote: “A child looks at a mountain and sees a mountain. An adult looks at a mountain and sees many things. A Zen master looks at a mountain and sees a mountain.” But the point of all this is: My starting to read the Bible on a daily basis – back in 1992 – turned out to be a life-changing experience.

I’ve been through a lot since then. The death of my first wife in 2006, getting re-married way too soon and to the wrong woman. Which led to a nasty divorce, the loss of my career and my home – and to feeling abandoned by God. (As in, “Lead us not to the breaking point,” but He did, and I broke.) All of which just might be the functional equivalent of the exile that led to the creation of the Old Testament as we know it. See “If I Forget Thee, Oh Jerusalem,” in which talked about my then-upcoming trip to Israel in May 2019.

Which brings up the point that in the past few years I’ve come through and had a number of great adventures. Like that 2019 trip to Israel. And like canoeing 12 miles off the coast of Mississippi for eight days. (See On achieving closure, or type in that search.) Or hiking the Chilkoot Trail, then canoeing 440 miles “down” the Yukon River in Canada in 2016. Or hiking the Camino de Santiago twice, once from Pamplona (2017) and once from Porto, Portugal (2019).

And I’ve been publishing two blogs, and a number of books as well. (For a partial list see For a book version.) In other words, I’ve overcome any number of obstacles and arrived at a rich, fulfilling life. And it all started back on Monday, May 18, 1992…

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An open-minded Christian can learn even from a “Fat Buddhist…”

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The upper image is courtesy of May 1992 – Image Results. See also Sister Act – Wikipedia, and Sister Act (1992) – IMDb.

The “liturgical seasons” link is to The Liturgical Seasons of the Catholic Church. But see also Liturgical year – Wikipedia, about the “cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read either in an annual cycle or in a cycle of several years.” And List of Anglican Church Calendars, on “my” church’s seasons. “Ordinary time” or the “Time after Pentecost” runs from Pentecost Sunday to the beginning of Advent, which leads to Christmas, and so on…

Re: Handwritten notations. When I do a “daily” reading on the noted day, or within three days thereafter, I put in the relevant date, such as “5/18/92.” That signifies that I have read both the main readings – normally Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel – and the Psalms for that day. But when I can’t do a reading “within three days” – like when I have to “skip some Propers” – I put a check mark. That means I’ve done the main readings but not the Psalms. And according to those dates and check marks, I’m now on my 14th trip through the Bible.

The John the Baptist image is courtesy of Wikipedia. The caption: “‘The Baptism of Jesus Christ,‘ by Piero della Francesca, 1449.”

Re: Monday, May 18, 1992. See Calendar 1992 May – Image Results.

The Buddha quote is courtesy of Lawrence LeShan‘s book How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery, Bantam Edition, 1975, at pages 101-102. See also On the Bible as “transcendent” meditation. Also, as noted, On my “mission from God.”

The citations to 1st Thessalonians 5:21 and 1st John 4:1 – following the Buddha quote – are at page 53 of the Third Edition paperback version of “JCPD,” in Chapter 8, “The Bible, Yoga and Zen.”

Re: “Come full circle.” See also Alpha and Omega (Freedictionary), or the Wikipedia article.

Re: “Lead us not to the breaking point.” That’s an interpretation from one of Garry Wills‘ books, and it seemed especially appropriate for my life. As in, “I was led to the breaking point, and broke.” See also Luke 11:4 (Bible Hub), which includes the usual translations of the Lord’s Prayer, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The Good News Translation reads, “And do not bring us to hard testing.” But for the reasons noted, I prefer “And lead us not to the breaking point…”

The lower image is courtesy of Fat Happy Buddha – Image Results. But see also Skinny Buddha vs Fat Buddha: Who is the Fat Buddha, noting the Fat Buddha wasn’t “Buddha” at all:

The Laughing Buddha, or the Fat Buddha, was a Zen monk called Budai who lived in China around the 10th century, meaning about 1.600 years after historical Buddha. Budai was as a bold man with a big tummy, big smile, large ears, wearing a simple robe… The fat Buddhist monk was known as a good-hearted, happy and content man of humorous personality, jolly nature, and eccentric lifestyle. Budai was nicknamed the Laughing Buddha because of his big smile and happiness he was spreading around him. Furthermore, Budai … became a famous character of Chinese folktales.

Thus the “Gautama Buddha – ‘below,’” with the “below” in quotation marks.

Pentecost 2020 – “Learn what is pleasing to the Lord…”

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We’re just starting the 12th full week of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Meanwhile, May 31, 2020, was Pentecost Sunday. That’s the 49th day (seventh sunday) after Easter Sunday, and it commemorates “the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks.” (As described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31.)

It’s also known as the Birthday of the Church, as noted in 2015’s Pentecost – “Happy Birthday, Church.” There’s more on Pentecost below, but first I want to talk about one of the Daily Bible Readings for last Friday, May 29.

It was from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. (The church at Ephesus, an “ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, three kilometres southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey.) And notably the “theme may be stated pragmatically as ‘Christians, get along with each other!‘” But the verse that caught my eye – last Friday – was Ephesians 5:10.

In the New Revised Standard Version, “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” But see also the Berean Study Bible: “Test and prove what pleases the Lord.” And the Weymouth New Testament reads, “learn in your own experiences what is fully pleasing to the Lord.”

In other words, Bible study – and following The Faith of Christ – is not a matter of fitting yourself into a pre-formed cubby hole, or becoming a “carbon-copy Christian.” It’s a matter of finding out what the Bible means to you, as an individual. (“We are supposed to create nimshalim for ourselves,” as noted in On three suitors (a parable).) And all that was pretty much what I was trying to say – again – in my last post “As a spiritual exercise:”

What matters is what you do with your faith and your life. What matters is how you follow the Bible… In other words if you work with [a] kind of “canary in a coal mine” spiritual exercise you could end up with all the proof you need: That there is a God, who is willing to work with you, and a “happy ending…”

So Ephesians 5:10 supports my theory that “the ‘factual accuracy’ of the Bible is pretty much irrelevant to an advanced Christian faith.” That is, a faith that goes “beyond the fundamentals” and doesn’t require that every word in the Bible be “inerrant.” (So too it seems to me that it “doesn’t seem to matter if a so-called expert found the actual ark used by Noah.”)

Note also Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, which said “to prove” is a work partly of thought and “partly of practical experience.” Or consider the Pulpit Commentary:

To prove is to ascertain by test and experiment. Our whole walk should be directed to finding out what things are pleasing to Christ… We are not to follow the tradition of our people, and not to take a vague view of duty; we are to prove the matter, to put it to the test. For the supreme practical rule of the Christian’s life must be to please Christ.

Which in turn is supported by 1st Thessalonians 5:21. In the Good News Translation, “Put all things to the test: keep what is good.” And in the Aramaic Bible in Plain English, “Explore everything and hold what is excellent.” Or as I said in On reading the Bible:

That’s what this blog is about: Developing into more than just someone who knows the bare “fundamentals.” Which is another way of saying that by reading the Bible with an open mind, you can reap its full benefit and do all that God intended for you to do.

Then there’s the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. That’s a method of theological reflection – of personal spiritual growth – credited to John Wesley. (At right.) Wesley said that there are four sources available for such personal spiritual growth: Scripture, tradition, reason, and Christian experience:

Apart from scripture, experience is the strongest proof of Christianity… Wesley insisted that we cannot have reasonable assurance of something unless we have experienced it personally… Although traditional proof is complex, experience is simple… Although tradition establishes the evidence a long way off, experience makes it present to all persons.

Note that Scripture – the Bible – “is the first authority and contains the only measure whereby all other truth is tested.” Which brings us back to Pentecost Sunday. And, “from an historical point of view, Pentecost is the day on which the church was started.”

Thus “Happy Birthday, Church!”

Pentecost also marks the start of “Ordinary Time,” as it’s called in the Catholic Church. And that “Ordinary Time” takes up over half the church calendar year, as shown in the chart below.

That “long season” started May 31st, and will end on November 29, the First Sunday of Advent 2020. And the Pentecost described in Acts 2 (v. 1- 41) “was a momentous, watershed event.”

For the first time in history, God empowered “all different sorts of people for ministry. Whereas in the era of the Old Testament, the Spirit was poured out almost exclusively on prophets, priests, and kings,” on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit went to “‘all people.’ All would be empowered to minister regardless of their gender, age, or social position.”

Which is a pretty good way to celebrate the Birthday of the Church…

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*“Ordinary Time” – at left – takes up over half the Church year…*

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The upper image is courtesy of Try Learn What Is Pleasing To The Lord – Image Results.

Re: Weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. See St. Philip and St. James – May, 2020. I figured the “stuff hit the fan” on Thursday, March 12, “when the ACC basketball tournament got cancelled.” Thus, “my definition of the ‘First Full Week of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ has it starting on Sunday, March 15.“

Text and images on Pentecost were gleaned from prior posts, On the readings for Pentecost (6/8/14); On Pentecost – “Happy Birthday, Church!” (2015); and Ascension Day and Pentecost – 2016.

The full Bible readings for Friday, May 29, 2020 are: “AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32, Jeremiah 31:27-34; Ephesians 5:1-20; and Matthew 9:9-17.

Re: Pentecost and the Holy Spirit given to all. See What is Pentecost? Why Does It Matter? – Patheos.

The John Wesley image is courtesy of Wikipedia. Caption: “Statue of Wesley outside Wesley Church in Melbourne, Australia.”

See the Ordinary Time image in 2015’s Pentecost – “Happy Birthday, Church.”

“As a spiritual exercise…”

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As a Spiritual Exercise, back in 1989 I started looking for new ways to “help” my favorite college team – Florida State University – win its first football national championship… (The image at right shows the 1524 book, Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. I just used a different method.)

At first it was a matter of finding the right ritual sacrifice, in the form of exercise, and especially aerobics. (Initially a series of wind sprints over a 3-mile course; the goal was to finish the three miles in an ever-faster speed.)

It was only later – in the spring of 1992 – that I added the discipline of Daily Bible Reading. And just as an aside, during that next football season – in the fall of 1993, and after much drama, with twists and turns of fate – the Noles squeaked by Nebraska to win that first national title. (In a game they were expected to win easily.)

In the 27-plus years that followed – 30-plus, if you go back to 1989 – FSU football won two more national titles. (For a more complete listing of such “wins,” see On my “mission from God,” and “Unintended consequences” – and the search for Truth, including the image at left.) But there have been a number of heart-breaks as well, including losing the national-title game at the end of the 1996 season. (To our arch-rival Gators, no less.) And the past two seasons have been especially bad, with the Noles suffering back-to-back losing seasons.

On the other hand I’ve learned a lot of valuable spiritual lessons along the way.

Then too, this “spiritual exercise” has given me lots of insight into how the original Children of Israel must have felt when they did all the right things – and yet ended up conquered and sent into exile. (The functional equivalent of having back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in a dog’s years? And especially after establishing a 14-year college football dynasty?)

What brings all that to mind is the recent series of Daily Office Old Testament readings. Those recent Daily Office readings reminded me of all the twists and turns, the add-ons and “do not do” list of things that thwarted spiritual progress for Moses. And for his success on the field.

For example, that recent string of Daily Bible readings had a set rules and regulations – starting with Leviticus 8:1-13,30-36 – back on Sunday, May 10 (2020). And they’ve have been jumping around ever since. (After starting at Chapter 8 – and after leaving Exodus 40, 18 to 38, on Saturday the 9th – they jumped from 16 to 19 to 23, and so on, “to this day.” Exodus 40, for example, goes into great detail on “Setting Up the Tabernacle.”)

The point is that – over the past 30-plus years – I too have gleaned a number of “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots.” (Not unlike those of Moses, set out in Leviticus.) Rules like “Thou shalt not listen to Panzerlied* on your iPod Shuffle in the days leading up to a game.” Or “thou shalt listen to ‘We Are the Champions‘ whenever it comes up, on your Shuffle or the radio.” (Because it brings good karma.) Also, “Thou shalt have thy monthly church-tithe check in the office safe before a game starts, at or near the first of the month.” And so on… Of course those rules haven’t guaranteed success, but neither did Moses’ rules and regulations, listed in Leviticus over the past weeks in the Daily Office.

So just like Moses – and especially like those who tried to follow his rules “to the letter” – for the past 31 years or so, I’ve been “working with God,” trying to get Him to help my teams win. But again, it hasn’t always worked out. And so you could easily say there have been far more disappointments and heartbreaks. On the other hand, by combining my Ritual Sacrifice with Daily Bible reading, I’ve learned some valuable spiritual lessons.

For one thing – again – I’ve experienced how those early Hebrews must have felt, when they thought they’d done everything right. But then – for whatever inexplicable reason – they were disappointed if not shocked by how bad things turned out. I’m sure they felt like saying to God, “You OWE me.” I did everything You asked, and this is how you treat me?” But along the way I’ve also learned – based on my experience – that there was and is some kind of causality at work. That is, some mysterious “Force” out there which (or Who) responded to my prayers and sacrifice, ritual or otherwise. Though many times not in the way I expected…

Another thing I’ve learned – over the past 31 years, and a host of both disappointments and triumphs. I’ve become convinced – by and through my day to day interactions with this “Force” – that the “factual accuracy” of the Bible is pretty much irrelevant to an advanced Christian faith. That is, to me, it doesn’t seem to matter if a so-called expert says he’s found the actual ark used by Noah somewhere in Turkey.

Or whether Jesus feeding the 5,000 is just a miracle, “taken only on faith,” or a parable whose lesson is that if we followed the example of Jesus, we could end world hunger “tomorrow.”

What matters is what you do with your faith and your life. What matters is how you follow the Bible, and in doing so follow the example of Jesus. And for that matter His disciples (including Paul, that “Johnny come lately” who wrote like a lawyer, with so many lawyer-like convolutions).

In other words if you work with this kind of “canary in a coal mine” spiritual exercise, you could end up with all the proof you need: That there is a God, and that “He” is willing to work with you, and that somewhere along the line, there’s a “happy ending…” And it can all come by and through the “spiritual discipline” of daily Bible reading, combined with your own version of a “canary-slash-coal-mine” way of keeping on the straight and narrow.

And incidentally (on a related note), next Thursday, May 21, is Ascension Day. For more on that feast day see 2014’s On Ascension Day and subsequent posts listed in the notes.

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The upper image is courtesy of Spiritual Exercise – Image Results. Also, the image to the right of the first full paragraph refers to the “Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (Latin original: Exercitia spiritualia),” with the caption, “Exercitia spiritualia, 1548 First Edition by Antonio Bladio (Rome).”

A note on the post title. It’s similar in style to a Papal bull, that is, it’s “first few words of the text,” the incipit, i.e., “the first few Latin words from which the bull took its title for record keeping purposes, but which might not be directly indicative of the bull’s purpose.” See Wikipedia.

Re: Panzerlied. I first heard it in a 1965 film, see Battle of the Bulge (film) – Wikipedia. It’s a rousing song that goes well with road trips or picking up trash in a diesel-powered golf cart for the local branch of Keep America Beautiful. Unfortunately it has negative connotations having to do with the murder of “Jews, gypsies and fairies.” For more on the song see Wikipedia, or for a live version Panzerlied (Battle of the Bulge with english intro) – YouTube. For more on “Jews, gypsies and fairies,” see Slaughterhouse-Five Quotes | Shmoop: “The British had no way of knowing it, but the candles and the soap were made from the fat of rendered Jews and Gypsies and fairies and communists, and other enemies of the State. (5.14.4).”

See Thou Shalt Not – Image Results. And Thou Shalt Not (musical) – Wikipedia.

The causality image is courtesy of Causality – Image Results.

Re: Ascension Day. See also On Ascension Day 2015, Ascension Day and Pentecost – 2016, and Ascension Day 2017 – “Then He opened their minds.”

The lower image is courtesy of Canary Coal Mine – Image Results. This particular image accompanied an article, “Idioms in the news: Canary in the Coal Mine[,] ShareAmerica,” from November 2014: “Someone/something that is an early warning of danger.” An earlier image – “now defunct,” since the original post – was accompanied by an article, “I am the canary in the coal mine,” which also explained the idiom:

The tradition at that time – to foretell the toxic environment down in the [coal] mine – was for the miners to take a canary down with them on their daily journey… The canary is very susceptible to the toxic gases that were common in the mines, and would die when the gases were at a toxic level – signaling to the miners that they had to immediately exit.

See also canary in a coal mine – Wiktionary, about a thing sensitive to adverse conditions, which “makes it a useful early indicator of such conditions; something which warns of the coming of greater danger or trouble by a deterioration in its health or welfare.”

In my case, if I was doing something wrong in my daily life, a loss by FSU or “another team of mine” would indicate the need to stop doing that! (Not unlike the old Henny Youngman joke, where a patient says, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” To which the doctor replies, “Then don’t do that!” See Henry Youngman Jokes – Henry Youngman One Liners Jokes.)

On St. Philip and St. James – May, 2020

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*Saints Philip and James the Lesser – together in the “Basilica of the 12 Holy Apostles…*”*

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It’s Thursday, May 7, 2020, and we are now in the eighth full week of the COVID-19 pandemic. And since wisdom begins with the definition of terms – said Socrates, at right – I’ll clarify.

To me, the pandemic hit full swing – the “stuff really hit the fan” – back on Thursday, March 12. That’s when the ACC basketball tournament got cancelled, and March Madness and college baseball were called off. About that time too the NBA, NHL and and other major professional sport seasons all ended. (For what those college sports mean to me, see June 2018’s “Unintended consequences” – and the search for Truth, and February 2019’s On my “mission from God.”)

So my definition of the “First Full Week of the Covid-19 Pandemic” has it starting on Sunday, March 15 and ending on Saturday the 21st. And the pandemic shows no signs of abating, which means we’ll get used to a “new normal.” (With social distancing, extreme caution and shortages of all kinds.) So what did people do in the Olden Days when disasters struck?

One answer comes from the 1759 novel Candide, by Voltaire. It opens with the hero – Candide – “living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise.” But from there things go downhill:

The work describes … Candide’s slow and painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes Candide [by] advocating a deeply practical precept, “we must cultivate our garden,” in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, “all is for the best” in the “best of all possible worlds.”

Or as Voltaire put it in another setting, “Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one’s [own] garden.” (Voltaire’s Solution to a Life Full of Thorns.) And speaking of Eden – as in “a place or state of great happiness [or] an unspoiled paradise” – that seems to be what we used to have, before Covid-19. Or at least it seems so in hindsight…

Then there’s what historian Kenneth Clark said in his 1969 book Civilisation, about what some people did during a time of great upheaval. (Like today’s.) Writing about the violence brought on Europe by the Protestant Reformation, he said that whatever the long-term effects,

…the immediate results were very bad; not only for art, but bad for life. The North [of Europe] was full of bully boys who rampaged around the country and took any excuse to beat people up… All the elements of destruction were let loose.

So a great upheaval – with elements of panic and destruction “let loose” – can come from either other people (“bully boys”) or from nature itself. So what do we do, in the process of riding out this storm? Or as Clark put it, “What could an intelligent, open-minded man do in mid-sixteenth-century Europe?” Or for that matter, here in America this 2,020th “year of our Lord?”

His short-and-sweet answer, “Keep quiet, work in solitude, outwardly conform, inwardly remain free.” Which as a result of the European wars of religion created a figure new to Europe but “familiar in the great ages of China: the intellectual recluse.” (Which at this point evokes – to the writer anyway – the old Maynard G. Krebs repeated line, “You rang?“)

Yet another answer is to “Keep on keeping on.” As in, “to persevere,” which means to persist or remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement. Which brings us to the discipline of continuing our Daily Bible Reading. And that includes but is not limited to tracking liturgical feast days. In turn, the last major Feast Day was Friday, May 1. That was the feast of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles. (That link goes to the day’s Bible readings.)

I covered the day in Philip and James – Saints and Apostles (2016), and Saint Philip, Saint James, and “privy members,” from 2017. But for starters, the article Saints Philip and James the Lesser – New Daily Compass explains one reason why the two saints are remembered together:

The two apostles Philip and James the Lesser are remembered with a single liturgical feast because their relics, transferred respectively from Hierapolis and Jerusalem, were placed together in the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles [“Santi Apostoli“] in Rome.

The 2016 Philip and James noted great confusion about this James (“the Lesser”) in part because of the number of Jameses in the New Testament. (It also explains the reference to “privy members.”) Fortunately we know a lot more about Philip, and especially that he serves as a lesson that God’s love is universal. As shown in the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.

The post starting by noting that as a eunuch the Ethiopian was beyond the pale – if not untouchable – from a “legal” standpoint. See Deuteronomy 23:1, which in the King James Bible – the one God uses – puts the matter rather delicately: “He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.“

Yet Philip, guided by God’s Spirit, does not hesitate to share the good news of God’s love and salvation with this less than whole Ethiopian and to baptize him into the faith, to welcome him into the life of the Christian church. This new faith is for all, God’s love is for every human being no matter what disability or disease or affliction has come our way.

(See “Wesley Uniting Church.”) In other words, the point of Acts 8:26-40 – Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch – is that God’s Love is Universal. (See also Jonah and the bra-burners.*) So here’s to “Philip and James – Saints and Apostles,” and their Feast Day. And furthermore, here’s to a God whose love is so universal that He’s willing to accept anyone. (Who turns to Him. See John 6:37.)

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The upper image is courtesy of Saints Philip and James – Franciscan Media. Caption: “Image: Detail of reredos | Polytych by Maestà | Wikimedia.”

Re: The ending of Candide. Wikipedia had the ending – “we must cultivate our garden” – translated into French, “il faut cultiver notre jardin.” But see also Candide Conclusion Summary & Analysis from LitCharts, which worded the ending as “All that is very well … but let us cultivate our garden.”

Re: Kenneth Clark. The quotation from Clark is from the hardcover book version of his Civilisation (TV series), at page 161. For an interesting sidelight on “Sir” Clark, see A new book reveals Kenneth Clark was also a bed-hopping, wife-stealing rogue.

Though ostensibly a happily married man with a dutiful and caring wife … he couldn’t keep his manicured hands or his swooning heart away from other women. He was a serial adulterer, a constant seeker of affairs, even [the] wives of his close friends. This upright pillar of the Establishment was … as one of his detractors put it most succinctly, ‘a frightful s**t’.

Re: “Santi Apostoli, Rome.” See Wikipedia, which noted this “6th-century Roman Catholic parish and titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, dedicated originally to St. James and St. Philip whose remains are kept here, and later to all Apostles.

Re: “Jonah and the bra-burners.” See the January 2015 post:

Clearly, the Book of Jonah … is the product of that school of Jewish thought which was universalist and which opposed the nationalist view… It is the universality of God and the attribute of divine mercy that are the lessons of Jonah. Those who think of the book as nothing more than the story of a man and a whale miss the whole point.

And finally, a side-note. On this May 7th I was listening to a “Great Courses Plus” course on the Old Testament. This lecture included the story of Adam and Eve, and what caught my eye was the inclusion of the term “who was with her” to Genesis 3:6. A similar conclusion – to the lecturer’s – was reached in PerryDox – BeJustAChristian » Genesis 3:6:

I have concluded this is an adverbial phrase which has great meaning. It helps the reader understand what really happened. Sadly, that means Adam could have stopped Eve since he “with her” and not deceived. Instead, he abdicated his leadership … and allowed her to usurp his authority… Adam was “with her” the entire time physically; but when Eve needed him, he was absent spiritually.

I will explore this topic further in a future post.

The lower image is courtesy of The Baptism of the Eunuch – Wikipedia.

On St. Mark, 2020 – and today’s “plague…”

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*“The* *Four Evangelists,” by* Rubens. **St. Mark** is third from the left, symbolized by the lion…

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The next upcoming Feast Day is April 25, the Feast Day for Saint Mark. He actually wrote the first Gospel – chronologically speaking – and also the shortest of the Four Gospels.

On the other hand, for the longest time this short-version was the most “dissed” of the Four Gospels. But then the Gospel of Mark went on to become a kind of Cinderella story.

Garry Wills wrote What the Gospels Meant. It said that for many years the Early Church Fathers pretty much neglected Mark’s Gospel. I.e., Mark was the “least cited Gospel in the early Christian period.” But this Cinderella “got her glass slipper,” beginning in the 19th century.

That’s when Bible scholars finally noticed the other three Gospels all cited material from Mark, but “he does not do the same for them.” The conclusion? Mark started the process and set the pattern of and for the other three Gospels. And as a result of that, since the 19th century Marks’ “has become the most studied and influential Gospel.”

See 2015’s On St. Mark’s “Cinderella story.” (Which added that among other problems, Mark’s written Greek was clumsier and more awkward than the more-polished Greek of Matthew, Luke and John.) But while Mark has long been viewed as the “author of the second gospel,” that doesn’t mean Matthew was written first. As Isaac Asimov noted:

Matthew is [listed] first of the gospels in the New Testament because, according to early tradition, it was the first to be written. This, however, is now doubted by nearly everyone. The honor of primacy is generally granted to Mark … the second gospel in the Bible as it stands.

(Asimov, 770) Then there’s the matter of the symbolism of the Four Evangelists. (“Traditionally, the four Gospel writers have been represented by the following symbols.”) Matthew, author of the ostensible first gospel, is symbolized by a “winged man, or angel.” Luke, who wrote the third gospel, and the Acts of the Apostles, is symbolized by a winged ox or bull: “a figure of sacrifice, service and strength.” John, author of the fourth gospel, is symbolized by an eagle.

Then there’s Mark. “In Christian tradition, Mark the Evangelist, the author of the second gospel is symbolized by a lion – a figure of courage and monarchy.” (See Wikipedia, which added that the “lion also represents Jesus’ resurrection.” That’s because “lions were believed to sleep with open eyes, a comparison with Christ in the tomb.)

There’s also the matter whether Mark’s Gospel – as we know it – really contained the ending as it now reads in most Bibles.. That is, the Great Commission, found in found in Mark 16:14–18. Thus the question: Did Mark really write that ending?

According to some critics … Jesus never speaks with his disciples after his resurrection. They argue that the original Gospel of Mark ends at [Mark 16:8] with the women leaving the tomb (see Mark 16).

Note that Mark 16:8 says, “they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Which would of course be a bad place to end a Gospel of hope.*

Or see Mark 16 – Wikipedia, “Modern versions … generally include the Longer Ending, but place it in brackets or otherwise format it to show that it is not considered part of the original text.”

In plain words, it seems that Mark originally wrote his Gospel at a time of great suffering in the early church. And that later redacters felt that original was too bleak; it didn’t offer enough hope. Be that as it may – and as Asimov noted (902) – Mark’s Gospel was designed “to circulate among Christians the story of the sufferings of Jesus and his steadfastness under affliction. Perhaps this was in order to encourage Christians at a time when they, generally, were undergoing persecution.”

And that earthly suffering – that “persecution” – may well be mirrored in the unforeseen and largely inexplicable “end times” that we seem to be suffering through today. (“Who could foresee the coming of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic?”) So what could be the point of that shorter ending? One thing the Mark 16 – Wikipedia article noted:

Mark’s narrative as we have it now [ending at Mark 16:8] ends as abruptly as it began. There was no introduction or background to Jesus’ arrival, and none for his departure. No one knew where he came from; no one knows where he has gone; and not many understood him when he was here.

It went on to say that Mark’s Gospel “becomes the story of his followers, and their story becomes the story of the readers. Whether they will follow or desert, believe or misunderstand, see him in Galilee or remain staring blindly into an empty tomb, depends on us.”

And so it might be today. Maybe the point is that both today’s Covid-19 “persecution” and Jesus’ seemingly unexplained death – with “Mark” ending at Mark 16:8 – have the capacity to be mysteries. “Mysteries” that are a part of life, or the challenges by which we can learn, develop and grow stronger, spiritually and otherwise.

And so both the solution to Mark’s mysterious “shorter ending” and the outcome of today’s Covid-19 affliction may largely “depend on us.” What will we do with this unexpected calamity? Will we go forward and grow stronger, or turn back the clock and start turning on each other?

As variously defined, a mystery can be “something secret or unexplainable;” or something of a puzzling nature; or a secret or mystical meaning; or finally, a “religious truth not understandable by the application of human reason alone (without divine aid).”

In other words, the terribly anguished – and arguably original – ending of Mark‘s Gospel at 16:8 is (according to Pagels), “nevertheless not the ending… [T]here’s a mystery in it, a divine mystery of God’s revelation that will happen yet. And I think it’s that sense of hope that is deeply appealing.” Which sounds a bit convoluted and not very helpful.

But one answer may come in 2016’s On St. James, Steinbeck, and sluts. That post talked about pilgrimages in general – and society’s rituals – and what we can learn from them. For one thing, it noted the book Passages of the Soul: Ritual Today, by James Roose-Evans.

That book said that a healthy sense of ritual “should pervade a healthy society,” and that a big problem now is that “we’ve abandoned many rituals that used to help us deal with big change and major trauma.” And you could easily call our present Covid-19 pandemic both a “big change and [a] major trauma.” The book added that all true ritual “calls for discipline, patience, perseverance, leading to the discovery of the self within.”

In other words, through discipline, patience and perseverance we can discover things within ourselves – from this latest pandemic – that we would never have known otherwise. As for a “pilgrimage,” it can may be described “as a ritual on the move.”

The key point there is that – in any pilgrimage, like the one we’re going through with today’s “plague” – we can “quite often find a sense of our fragility as mere human beings.” And if nothing else, Covid-19 reminds us of our “fragility as human beings.” Which brings us to The Plague by Camus, and a quote from Part 1, early in the book:

Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.

Which certainly seems true of this latest pestilence. It certainly came as a surprise. Then too there’s this recent Salt Lake Tribune review of “The Plague,” with this relevant point:

Being alive always was and will always remain an emergency; it is truly an inescapable “underlying condition…” This is what Camus meant when he talked about the “absurdity” of life. Recognizing this absurdity should lead us not to despair but to a tragicomic redemption, a softening of the heart, a turning away from judgment and moralizing to joy and gratitude.

One possible lesson? The current pestilence might lead to a massive change in our present national life, and especially our national political life. The present Coronavirus might lead to a general and sweeping American “softening of the heart.”

Along with “a turning away from judgment and moralizing to joy and gratitude.” Or even a realization that there “are more things to admire in [all] people than to despise…”

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The upper image is courtesy of Peter Paul Rubens: The Four Evangelists, which noted: “Rubens portrayed the four evangelists while working together on their texts. An angel helps them… Each gospel author can be identified by an attribute. The attributes were derived from the opening verses of the gospels. From left to right: Luke (bull), Matthew (man [angel]), Mark (lion), and John (eagle).” See also Four Evangelists – Wikipedia – included as a link in the top image – and/or Harry Truman and the next election.

I borrowed some text and images from 2015’s On St. Mark’s “Cinderella story,” 2016’s More on “arguing with God” – and St. Mark as Cinderella.

The Cinderella image is courtesy of Cinderella – Image Results. Also, for more “theology,” see The Theology of Mark’s Gospel | Preaching Source.

Re: “Asimov, 770,” etc. Referring to Asimov’s “Guide to the Bible: Two Volumes in One.” (Avenel Books, 1981.)

Re: “Bad place to end this Gospel of hope.” For an extended and learned analysis, see Did Mark Write Mark 16:9-20? A Textual Criticism Case Study. Or Google “mark 16:9-20 controversy.”

Re: “Mark 16:8, 4th C.” From Mark 16 – Wikipedia, full caption: “Mark ends at 16:8 in the 4th-century Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209.”

The lower image is courtesy of The Plague – Wikipedia.

Happy Easter – April 2020!

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*Jesus – “kicking down the gates of hell” – with Satan (at bottom) “bound and chained…”*

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Today – April 12, 2020 – is Easter Sunday. That is, the …

… festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary [circa] 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

And incidentally, the painting (icon) at the top of the page shows Jesus as “having kicked down the gates of Hades.” It also shows “Satan, depicted as an old man … bound and chained.” See On Easter Season – AND BEYOND, and Frohliche Ostern – “Happy Easter!”

Which could lead to one of this morning’s Daily Office Readings, Exodus 12:1-14. Specifically, Exodus 12:13, “I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you.” Which could be a reassuring Easter promise, in this time of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.

For more on more traditional views of Easter, check the two post-links cited above. But clearly this Easter is different, mostly because of the current coronavirus pandemic.

Which leads to this: Back on March 12 – what seems so long ago, and in light of the pandemic just then making headlines – I checked out two books from the local library. (Not realizing the libraries around here and the country would be closed, “for the duration.” And that I wouldn’t be able to return them for that “duration.”) One book was The Plague, by by Albert Camus.

The other book was What Jesus Meant, by Garry Wills. I figured it might cheer me up. And it did, but initially I was most struck by this passage:

Christian leaders have often rebuked the rebelliousness of young people by offering them a pastel picture of the young Jesus as a model of compliance and good behavior. They make this mystifying child an examplar of “family values” in the most restrictive and conformist sense. But there are many indications that Jesus was more like those restive and resisting children who have all the idealism and absolutism of youth – young people who chafe against the boundaries of the past and who are panting to explore new horizons…

Which is pretty much one main theme of this blog. That the Bible was not meant to stuff you into some cubby hole, or make you just another a “carbon-copy Christian.”

Instead the Bible – and especially the message of Jesus (see John 14:12 and Luke 24:45, above) – was meant to help people break through the boundaries of the past and “explore new horizons.” Unfortunately – and as Garry Wills noted near the end of his book – many who “call on His name return often to the forms of religion He renounced.” Which brings up an opposing view to his, What Garry Wills Thinks Jesus Meant | Bible Thumping, which said this:

[A]ccording to Wills’ social justice Jesus, if we don’t love everyone, help the poor, and affirm homosexuals, then we will not be saved. But it gets worse… Matthew 25:35-40 does not command Christians to help the poor; it commands Christians to help other Christians – brothers – when they are in need, especially during persecution.”

Which I assume means that in the current coronavirus pandemic, the writer would help only “other Christians,” but not all Christians. Only those who agree with his Wingnut version of Christianity. (And incidentally, a “wingnut” is a person with “extreme, and often irrational, political views, primarily those considered to be right wing.” Which sounds about right.)

At the very least, “Wingnut” interprets the Bible in a “most restrictive and conformist sense.”

And that sounds a bit like one headline I read this morning, Trump Reportedly Weighed Letting COVID-19 ‘Wash Over’ U.S. Note the difference – and maybe the similarities – in “wash over” and “pass over.” And how in this case, the latter would be preferable to the former. As in, “Would you rather the Coronavirus ‘wash over’ America, killing millions in the process, or have this latest plague pass over our house and not strike us down. (Or compare this “wash over America” idea with the Conservative Christian health-care plan, which seems to be, “Let ’em die!”)

And by the way, it’s not helping the poor or “affirming homosexuals” that saves you. It’s believing in and following Romans 10:9, “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.” See Do this – “and you WILL be saved!” (Dumbass…)

But seriously, the “wingnut” view is a cross all us real Christians have to bear. And the only thing we can do – to try and “fight the good fight” – is not to refer to such wingnuts as “dumbasses,” tempting as that may be. Instead it’s getting out the real Christianity, the one that follows the Great Commission of Jesus, to wit: Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” (See also 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think… God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.”)

Or as I’ve said before, “If Jesus was a conservative” – like Wingnut – “how come we’re not all Jewish?” (See “For many are called, but few are chosen.”) But we’re digressing here…

The Good News is that it is Easter, which means we celebrate Jesus – the Risen Messiah – rising from the grave “in a blaze of glory[,] holding the white banner of victory over death.” (Which is – after all – “what Easter Sunday is really all about.” Not Easter bunnies or Easter eggs…)

Which means in part that – as applied to even this latest and most devastating “plague-slash-pestilence” – it can be said, “This Too Shall Pass.” Which among other things means some day – maybe some day soon – we won’t have go around wearing those dorky-looking masks…

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*Which would you prefer: Let the Plague “wash over you,” or be “passed over?”*

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The upper image is courtesy of Easter – Wikipedia. The full caption: “Icon of the Resurrection, with Christ having kicked down the gates of Hades and pulling Adam and Eve out of the tombs. Christ is flanked by saints, and Satan, depicted as an old man, is bound and chained.” Used here, an icon is “a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic, and certain Eastern Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks but ‘an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion.'”

Other Daily Office readings for this Easter: “AM Psalm148, 149, 150; PM Psalm 113, 114, or118[,] Exod. 12:1-14 [AM]; Isa. 51:9-11[PM]; ; John 1:1-18 [AM]; Luke 24:13-35 [PM], orJohn 20:19-23 [PM].”

Re: The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. See the specific Wikipedia article, and Coronavirus – Wikipedia: “The name ‘coronavirus’ is derived from Latin corona, meaning ‘crown’ or ‘wreath,’ itself a borrowing from Greek [for garland or wreath]. The name refers to the characteristic appearance of virions (the infective form of the virus) by electron microscopy, which have a fringe of large, bulbous surface projections creating an image reminiscent of a crown or of a solar corona.”

Re: “What Jesus Meant.” The “Christian leaders rebuked young people“ quote is from the 2006 Viking-Penguin hardback edition, at pages 7-8. The “near the end of the book” quotes are at pages 137-142. Also, Wills’ original had “his,” referring to Jesus, in the lower case. I capitalized “His name” and “He renounced.” (In an abundance of caution.) On another note, Wills commented – on page 20 – on the accusation that Jesus was “a drunkard and a glutton,” at Luke 7:34. Wills wrote, “For Jesus to be called a drunkard and a glutton was not a light criticism.” In fact, such was a serious violation of Levitical law. See Deuteronomy 21:18-21:

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you.

Re: “This Too Shall Pass.” See e.g., Is the Phrase, “This Too Shall Pass” in the Bible? The answer? Apparently not, or at least not directly. The link-article noted, “In Deuteronomy 28, the phrase, ‘It shall come to pass’ is repeated twice.” I.e., in Deuteronomy 28:1 and Deuteronomy 28:15. The article noted a number of other passages with similar thoughts.

The lower image is courtesy of Plague Doctors Beaked Mask – Image Results. For more on the “beaked mask” get-up, see the notes to On Moses, Illeism – and “10 Plagues.”

On Moses, Illeism – and “10 Plagues…”

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*As Jesus said in* Matthew 10:34, *“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword*.” *(Or a **rod**…)*

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

This blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (See John 6:37.) The second is that God wants us to live lives of abundance. (John 10:10.) The third is that God wants us to do even greater miracles than Jesus did. (John 14:12.) The fourth – and most overlooked – is that Jesus wants us to read the Bible with an open mind. See Luke 24:45: “Then He” – Jesus – “opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”

And this thought ties them together:

The best way to live abundantly and do greater miracles than Jesus is – as noted – to read the Bible with an open mind. For more, see the notes or – to expand your mind – see the Intro.

In the meantime:

A week or so ago – Thursday, March 27, just after Coronavirus 2020 “hit the fan” – the Daily Office Old Testament readings switched from the end of Genesis to the start of Exodus. Specifically, with Exodus 1:6-22. The following day, March 28, Moses “introduced himself.”

Exodus. 2:1-22 began with how Moses’ parents met: A man “from the house of Levi” married a Levite woman. (About the time the “new” Pharaoh in power commanded that all male Hebrew newborns be thrown into the Nile, because the Hebrews – now slaves – had grown so numerous…)

That child was named Moses. He was named “Moses” by Pharaoh’s daughter (who became his “stepmother”). Because “she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” And that child went on to write Exodus – his own story – and the other first five books of the Bible, the Torah.

One strange note: Moses wrote about himself in the third person. (As in Moses writing of himself, “Moses doesn’t like that.”) For more background on the subject, see On Moses and “illeism,” from May 2014. In turn, illeism is “the act of referring to oneself in the third person instead of first person.” Further, “Illeism is sometimes used in literature as a stylistic device.”

Interestingly, Wikipedia lists a number of “Notable Illeists,” including Jesus Christ, “found referring to Himself as ‘Jesus’ (as well as the ‘Son of Man’), as in John 17:1-3.” But Moses didn’t make that list, despite the fact he is one of the earliest writers in history to use the device.

(Which he may well have borrowed from God, as noted in “the burning bush.” See GOD THE ILLEIST: THIRD-PERSON SELF-REFERENCES AND TRINITARIAN HINTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.)

Since those late-March readings, Moses has gone on – in the Daily Office – to discover his true identity. (In part because he killed an Egyptian overseer abusing a Hebrew slave.) He also went into hiding as a fleeing felon; talked directly with God through the “Burning Bush;” and returned to Egypt to get Pharoah to “Let my people go.” But Pharaoh wouldn’t listen…

Which brings up the 10 Plagues of Egypt. (Like the Fifth Plague, at left.) They were inflicted on the Egyptians later in Exodus, by the agency of God. (And Moses.) The question is: How might they relate to us today? One example that Camus wrote, “last century:”

Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.*

Which seems true of this year’s Covid-19 “pestilence.” It certainly came as a surprise. But is there a connection between this plague and a message God might be trying to send us?

Which could bring up what Jesus said in Matthew 10:34. In the GWT, “Don’t think that I came to bring peace to earth. I didn’t come to bring peace but conflict.” Or as generally translated (like in the KJV, the one God uses), “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Which are strange words to come from Jesus, but for some clarification we can look to Matthew 10:34 – Commentary & Meaning:

By the “sword” may be meant the Gospel, which is the means of dividing and separating the people of Christ from the men of the world, and … as also of divisions, discords, and persecutions arising from it… [N]ot that it was the intention and design of Christ … to foment and encourage such things; but this, through the malice and wickedness of men, was eventually the effect and consequence of his coming.

Which to me could mean that – lately, especially in America, “Light of the World” – God saw way too many “divisions, discords and persecutions.” But now for the most part we’re seeing a new meme. Rather than all the “us against them” or “the opposition is ruining America,” it goes like this: We’re All in This Together: Facing the Coronavirus Crisis. (One example.*)

Which – most people would say – is a pretty refreshing change of tune. (I.e., a change in people’s attitudes, “usually from bad to good, or from rude to pleasant.”)

For one thing, it is true that “pestilences have a way of recurring in the world.” But the “truths of the Gospel will remain uncorrupted forever.” And that brings up one final note: Holy Week 2020 starts this Sunday, April 5. And that “Holy” week’s upcoming lessons will feature some of Jesus’ “most important teachings on love and unity.” (Which is about dang time…)

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The upper image is courtesy of Plague Doctors Beaked Mask – Image Results. Caption: “Circa 1656, A plague doctor in protective clothing. The beak[ed] mask held spices thought to purify air, the wand was used to avoid touching patients. Original Artwork: Engraving by Paul Furst … Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).” See also Why plague doctors wore those strange beaked masks:

In 17th-century Europe, the physicians who tended to plague victims wore a costume that has since taken on sinister overtones: they covered themselves head to toe and wore a mask with a long bird-like beak. The reason behind the beaked plague masks was a misconception about the very nature of the dangerous disease… [The outfit] included a coat covered in scented wax, breeches connected to boots, a tucked-in shirt, and a hat and gloves made of goat leather. Plague doctors also carried a rod that allowed them to poke (or fend off) victims… (Emphasis added, to relate to the caption at the top of the page.)
Their headgear was particularly unusual: Plague doctors wore spectacles … and a mask with a nose “half a foot long, shaped like a beak, filled with perfume with only two holes, one on each side near the nostrils, but that can suffice to breathe and carry along with the air one breathes the impression of the [herbs] enclosed further along in the beak…” [The] iconic and ominous look, as depicted in this 1656 engraving of a Roman doctor, is recognizable to this day.

Re: “God the Illeist.” The article provided examples: “Exodus 33:19 has Yahweh promise Moses, ‘I will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you…’ In 2 Sam 7:11, Yahweh assures David that ‘Yahweh will make you a house.’ Hosea 1:7 has Yahweh comforting the prophet that ‘I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by Yahweh their God.’”

Re: “10 Plagues [of Egypt].” Wikipedia noted the “traditional number of ten plagues is not actually mentioned in Exodus, and other sources differ; Psalms 78 and 105 seem to list only seven or eight plagues and order them differently. It appears that originally there were only seven (which included the tenth), to which were added the third, sixth, and ninth, bringing the count to ten.”

The “pestilence” quote is from Albert Camus‘ 1947 novel, The Plague. It’s from Part 1, Vintage International paperback edition, 1991, originally published 1947, at pages 36-37. See also “Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

The “Fifth Plague” image is courtesy of Plagues of Egypt – Wikipedia. Caption: “The Fifth Plague: Pestilence of livestock, by Gustave Doré.” See also Exodus 9:1-7.

Re: “We’re all in this together.” See also The funniest coronavirus memes to get you through, Ashley Tisdale’s “We’re All In This Together” Quarantine Dance, and – from New Zealand, Coronavirus: We’re all in this together. And we can only succeed together.

Re: “Truths of the Gospel will remain uncorrupted forever.” See 5 New Testament Promises for the Church Today, Tomorrow, and Forever.

Re: “Change of tune.” An added definition: to “change one’s attitude, opinion … or stance on something, typically in a way that is more positive or agreeable.”

Lower image courtesy of Holy Week 2020 – Image Results. For some words of explanation, see Holy Week 2020 | Day Finders noting the week honors “precious moments of Jesus’ last days on Earth:”

With Palm Sunday, it tells us about Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The days of Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday makes us remember the events of fig tree cursing and the temple cleansing. The days of Holy Wednesday and Maundy Thursday commemorate Jesus prediction about his betrayal and death, and also reflect some of His most important teachings on love and unity. The days of Good Friday and Black Saturday mourn the Passion, Crucifixion, and Passing of Jesus. The last day, called the Easter Sunday, shares with us the joy of Jesus Resurrection from the dead.

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As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly. (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency…

So in plain words, this blog takes issue with boot-camp Christians. They’re the Biblical literalists who never go “beyond the fundamentals.” But the Bible can offer so much more than their narrow reading can offer… (Unless you want to stay a Bible buck private all your life…) Now, about “Boot-camp Christians.” See for example, Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?” The gist of that post is that starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly. (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency…

Now, about “Boot-camp Christians.” See Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?” The gist of that post is that starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” Also, and as noted in “Buck private,” I’d previously said the theme of this blog was that if you really want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*” In other words, exploring the mystical side of the Bible helps you “be all that you can be.” See Slogans of the U.S. Army – Wikipedia, re: the recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001. The related image below is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.” *

http://www.toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg

Re: “mystical.” As originally used, mysticism “referred to the Biblical liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.” See Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism. (“That’s what the Bible was originally about!”)

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR?

Do this – “and you WILL be saved!”

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*Empty shelves in Melbourne Australia. Do they symbolize the emptiness in people’s lives today?*

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

And this thought ties them together:

In the meantime:

This year’s Season of Lent continues. (See Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.) But the 2020 version of this “solemn religious observance” is made even more solemn by the recent Coronavirus pandemic.

On that note – and if you want to open a “whole new can of worms” – try Googling the phrase, “No atheists in foxholes.” Some say that familiar aphorism is an attack on atheism, while others say it’s really an attack on Christianity. But it’s pointless here to argue which version is true. (See Titus 3:9, “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies … because these are unprofitable and useless.”)

The real point is that – especially in times of crisis like the one we’re in now – most people are way more likely to look for some source of spiritual comfort.

Which should come from the Bible, but for many people that Bible is way too long and way too complicated. Which raises the question: How can you best explain the Bible in the simplest possible terms? You know, in the kind of short-and-sweet sound bite that most people expect these days? (Since so many of them “have the attention span of a gerbil.”)

For me the best possible Bible sound bite – the best short summary of the message of the whole Bible – is Romans 10:9, “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.” (In the Good News Translation, fittingly enough.)

Of course John 3:16 is a nice sentiment too, but it’s a general statement “for the whole world.” To me, Romans 10:9 best sums up the entire message of the Bible. It’s more personal, and offers the kind of personal guarantee that many people are looking for in this time of crisis.

Which – in a way – brings up the DOR Gospel reading for March 19, Mark 6:30-46. It tells of Jesus feeding the multitude (or “the 5,000”). I covered that reading in two posts, Another view of Jesus feeding the 5,000, and Then Jesus “opened their minds.”

The problem is, that “other view” threatens the faith of some people. But it also supports the theory that we can solve any problem, ourselves, using the lessons of the Bible.

In Jesus “opened their minds,” I summarized the difference between the traditional (narrow-minded?) interpretation of this parable, and one that’s more in line with reason and experience.* I.e., in the narrow “traditional” interpretation, Jesus performed a fairly-routine magic trick. (A “pure miracle, plain and simple.”) The miracle can’t be explained rationally and was never meant to be understood rationally.

But since Jesus was and is the Son of God, what’s the big deal?

Poof, He made some extra food appear. But isn’t that the least you could expect from a close blood-relative of the Force that Created the Universe? On the other hand there is a non-traditional view, and that non-traditional view forces people to “expand their minds.” But it can also make some people very nervous, and even threaten their faith.

It’s based on the idea that many people in Jesus’ time never left home without taking a spare loaf of bread – or some other foodstuff – stashed in the folds of their robes. Under that theory, Jesus started off with a lesson in faith, and/or a lesson in sharing. In turn that example got a lot of other normally-greedy people to act on that faith, and share what they had.

Which led to this ending in the post:

Suppose the lesson Jesus intended to teach us was that – by His example – He got a bunch of normally-greedy people to share what they had. That by His example, Jesus got those normally-greedy people to share so much of their own stuff that no one – in the crowd of “5,000 plus” – went hungry. And more than that, there was even a surplus. The question is:

Which would be the greater miracle?

(If that’s too subtle: The Son of God making some extra food appear, or – by His example – getting a lot of greedy people like us to share so much that no one in those “5,000-plus*” went hungry?)

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So what’s that got to do with the present Coronavirus crisis? Just this, that we can solve this problem by pulling together, and by avoiding the temptation to be greedy and selfish. (In other words, by following the “non-traditional” example of Jesus in Mark 6:30-46.)

More to the point, by realizing that all life is just a gift we should cherish and enjoy, while we can. (See 1st Corinthians 4:7, “What is so special about you? What do you have that you were not given? And if it was given to you, how can you brag?”) And that the better way to live is to do what Jesus did, to love and care for all people in all conditions, “even to the point of death.”

Or as one writer said recently:

Being alive always was and will always remain an emergency; it is truly an inescapable “underlying condition…” This is what Camus meant when he talked about the “absurdity” of life. Recognizing this absurdity should lead us not to despair but to a tragicomic redemption, a softening of the heart, a turning away from judgment and moralizing to joy and gratitude.

That’s from a review of Albert Camus’ “The Plague.” Written in 1947, The Plague tells the story of a “plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran.” The novel poses a number of questions about “the nature of destiny and the human condition.” The book’s characters, “from doctors to vacationers to fugitives,” all show the effects of a plague on a community.

One lesson? If we as a nation believe in and act on Romans 10:9, we “will be saved.” And in what could be an even greater miracle – greater even than the Son of God making some extra food appear? – it might even lead to a massive change in our present national life.

That is, the present “Coronavirus” might lead to a general and sweeping American “softening of the heart.” Along with “a turning away from judgment and moralizing to joy and gratitude.” Or even a realization that there “are more things to admire in [all] people than to despise…”

And wouldn’t that qualify as an “even greater miracle than Jesus did?” (John 14:12.)

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The upper image is courtesy of 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic – Wikipedia. The full caption: “Supermarket shelves that stock dry pasta varieties are almost empty due to panic-buying as the result of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. This was taken at a Woolworths supermarket in Melbourne, Australia.” The article further noted: “The outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. As of 21 March, more than 275,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 185 countries and territories, resulting in more than 11,300 deaths and 90,000 recoveries.”

Re: Atheists in foxholes. For other views, see Atheists in Foxholes, in Cockpits, and on Ships, or We Should Stop Saying There Are No Atheists In Foxholes.

Romans 10:9. Note that Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is one of the first books of the New Testament, generally said to have been written somewhere between 55 and 58 A.D. (“C.E.” to the politically correct.) As to which NT book was first: I Googled “what was the first book of the new testament to be written,” and got a variety of answers. Some authorities say Galatians and the Letter of James came before Romans, while some say the Gospel of Matthew was the first written, in 35 A.D. Which would be two years after the presumptive year of Jesus’ crucifixion. Isaac Asimov – in his Asimov’s Guide to the Bible: Two Volumes in One – indicated that Romans was most likely written in 58. As for James, Asimov wrote of the letter possibly being written any time between 48 and 90 A.D. (See pages 1159-60.) He agreed that Galatians was “possibly the earliest of all the books of the New Testament to achieve written form. (1116.) As for Matthew and Mark, he suggests the former was written around 70 A.D., preceded by the latter – Mark – by some four years or so. (771,903)

Re: The Gospel reading for March 19. The other readings were “AM Psalm [83]or 42, 43; PM Psalm 85, 86,” Genesis. 46:1-7,28-34; and 1 Corinthians. 9:1-15. March 19 was also the Feast Day for St. Joseph, with the following readings, “AM: Psalm 132; Isaiah 63:7-16; Matthew 1:18-25[,] PM: Psalm 34; 2 Chronicles 6:12-17; Ephesians 3:14-21.”

Re: “Reason and experience.” See Wesleyan Quadrilateral – Wikipedia, about the “methodology for theological reflection that is credited to John Wesley… This method based its teaching on four sources as the basis of theological and doctrinal development. These four sources are scripture, tradition, reason, and Christian experience.”

Re: “5,000-plus.” See Mark 6:44. In one translation, “The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.” In another, “A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.” See also Matthew 14:21, “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

Re: “As one writer said recently.” The full citation is Alain de Botton: In ‘The Plague,’ Camus reminds us that suffering is random.

The “feeding” image is courtesy of Feeding the multitude – Wikipedia. The caption: “Jesus feeding a crowd with 5 loaves of bread and two fish,” by Bernardo Strozzi, circa 1615.

The lower image is courtesy of The Plague – Wikipedia. The full caption is from a quote in the book: “Dr Rieux resolved to compile this chronicle.”

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…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency…

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR?

DOR Scribe

Expand your horizons – Read the Bible with an open mind

On the Transfiguration – 2020

On Mary Magdalene, 2020 – and Week 19 of “the Covid…”

Remembering Monday, May 18, 1992…

Pentecost 2020 – “Learn what is pleasing to the Lord…”

“As a spiritual exercise…”

On St. Philip and St. James – May, 2020

On St. Mark, 2020 – and today’s “plague…”

Happy Easter – April 2020!

On Moses, Illeism – and “10 Plagues…”

Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

Do this – “and you WILL be saved!”

Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

Which would be the greater miracle?