A New Temple

With Pentecost this coming Sunday, I thought the following insight might be helpful.

A few weeks ago, I was reading one of Richard Rohr's email meditations when he got to talking about Paul's influence on his (Rohr's) faith. Humans being a temple for the Spirit is part of Paul's theology that has influenced him. Rohr pulls in part from N.T. Wright's two volume study on St. Paul in which Wright declares: the new temple of God is the human person.

Rohr writes:

On the day of the dedication of "Solomon's Temple," the shekinah glory of Yahweh (fire and cloud from heaven) descended and filled the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-13), just as it had once filled the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 40:34-35). This became the assurance of the abiding and localized divine presence of Yahweh for the Jewish people. This naturally made Solomon's Temple both the center and centering place of the whole world, in Jewish thinking.

This is the Temple that is destroyed when Israel is taken into Babylonian captivity. In Nehemiah and Ezra we read of the construction of the second Temple.  However, Rohr points out that the shekinah doesn't appear (ever) during the second Temple period. 

What do the disciples/apostles experience in the upper-room on Pentecost? Sounds to me like the shekinah entering them, they (we) become Temples.

This gave me such a new insight into Pentecost that I just had to share it with you.

Blessed be.
Joel

Cultural Differences

The other day, Bob at Boat Bits posted this delightful video. He was thinking in terms of different sailing rigs. I got to thinking about cultural differences. As a resurrection people, can we even function as before? Or even in terms of becoming people of the water rather than people of the land, how do we relate?
Enjoy. This really is delightful.
Blessed be
Joel

Concentric Circles Of Care

I've had some recent conversations regarding boundaries and caring for others. In essence what these conversations have boiled down to is this: how do I (as a caregiver, a pastor, a nurse, a friend, a ... etc) deal with my own issues and not bring them to bare (as a bear?) to the "person of need"? Most of the people, no all,  I've been in conversation with (myself included) strive to keep our own stuff in check. We all grant that we are not always successful, but we persist onward. 

Then my wife asked if I'd seen following LA Times article? I found the imagery so helpful I'm posting the link here: "How Not to Say the Wrong Thing." I hope you find this helpful as you continue to share your compassion with others.

Blessed be,
 

Joel

Nepal Aid

I just wanted to make a quick plug for those in Nepal. May we continue to keep them in our prayers. If you'd like to like to help beyond prayers through a monetary donation, the Aid organizations on this page's tab (to the right) have a long history of working with the local populations over the long haul.
Blessed Be,
Joel

If First Justice Then Peace Follows

In preparing to preach for a colleague of mine yesterday, I was doing some reach on a quote from John Dominic Crossan. I could remember him saying something about Justice and Love but I could only remember part of the quote: "If we have justice with out love then we have ..., and love with out justice is ..." Well, I found it (and some other things I'd forgotten, too) thanks to the internet!

Here is the quote:

"Love and justice cannot exist alone," he replied. "Justice without love is brutality. Love without justice is banality. They go together like body and soul." 

 But what also struck me was Crossan's discussion of Roman peace versus what Jesus was arguing towards:

The Roman Peace might have the following slogan: First Victory, then Peace. To establish peace, conquer the people, move the Empire's troops through the area, and peace will follow. I should mention that in many ways this did work. A person could move from what is modern day London to Alexandria on the Roman roads, staying in Roman towns and do so unmolested. But this peace came with enormous consequences for the local populations.

Jesus argues instead for what might have the following slogan: First Justice, then Peace. And the kind of justice that Jesus is arguing for is distributive justice (rather than a justice of retribution/vengeance). I think (though Crossan doesn't mention it in his talk) that restorative justice is also at play. By that I mean, restoring people to the large community.

Please see “PeaceThrough Justice: Reflections on a Lecture by John Dominic Crossan” by CandaceChellew-Hodge for more of her notes on this lecture. 

With the events unfolding in Baltimore this week, the above seems all the more apropos than ever.

Blessed Be,

Joel

Earth Day, 2015

Happy Earth Day.
I hope you are able to enjoy time outside, especially today, in what many theologians regard as the first book, or first Bible (creation itself).
In that light, I share a few quotes from Meister Eckhart. Enjoy.
Blessed be,
Joel

All creatures are words of God. My mouth expresses and reveals God but the existence of a stone does the same and people often recognize more from actions than from words. (Sermon 1)

When God is efficacious in the soul, he loves his deed. Now wherever the soul is in which God accomplishes his deed, the deed is so great that this deed is nothing other than love. Again, love is nothing other than God. God loves himself and his nature, his being, and his divinity. In the same love, however, in which God loves himself, he also loves all creatures, not as creatures but he loves the creatures as God. In the same love in which God loves himself, he loves all things.
     Now I shall say something I have never said before. God enjoys himself. In the same enjoyment in which God enjoys himself, he enjoys all creatures. With the same enjoyment with which God enjoys himself, he enjoys all creatures, not as creatures, but he enjoys the creatures as God. In the same enjoyment in which God enjoys himself, he enjoys all things. (Sermon 3)

Saving Coral

I continue to send you Easter wishes of finding Resurrection around you. I'm currently knee deep in projects, how about yourself? Seems to be that time of year.

Speaking of Resurrection, I flung the following article intriguing and thought I'd pass it along.

"Scientists Have Found a New Way to Save the World's Coral Reefs, And It's Pretty Fishy," by Katie Valentine

Blessed be,
Joel