[Oe List ...] Order Ecumenical

Sun Apr 17 18:30:13 CDT 2011

I’ll try this email with another name and edits to what I wrote below. 

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Herman Greene
Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2011 12:11 PM
To: 'Order Ecumenical Community'
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] A Lenten Reflection

Very beautiful Jaime. What you wrote reminds me how important it is that our
spirituality be passed on. Of course it is in some way, and yet . . . .

I think the “and yet” is the reason Jack keeps calling us back to give some
ongoing form or aspect to the Order Ecumenical. It’s a calling I can’t leave
aside. Not being able to leave it aside I am concerned that if this be done
the spirituality of the Order Ecumenical emerge as a fresh reality and that
we not fall back into our past orthodoxies and even fundamentalisms. We have
rich and diverse life experiences gained in the years we were in community
and since to bring to this. Surely one thing we would change is “All the
Earth belongs to all the people,” to “All the Earth belongs to All.”

Many of us are in the sunset of life, yes just like the glow that lights the
sky in evening, a golden age. Then there are those who were young in those
days and are in the middle of their lives and have integrated their
experience from our life in community in different ways. We must see that
this mystery of spirit that we carry with us is carried forward. Some who
were most capable of doing this have already passed on.

I thus renew a call I made a year ago for people to write on those things
that made us what we were and what we have become, and do so with the
experience, knowledge and wisdom that has come to us over the years, not
simply by way of repeating what we said then . . . things like contextual
ethics, secondary integrity, the Iron Man (and Woman), the missional life,
the missional family, intentional-comprehennsive-futuric and archaic,
knowing-doing-being, living out of two suitcases and so many other things.
John Cock has a good list in one of his books, I’ll copy it and send it out.

One might write on what it was s like for you when you first encountered
these one of these “ideas”; what happened to you; how you have integrated
this into your life in dispersion; strengths, weaknesses, dangers; how this
things can inspire and guide present and future generations.

What if people took these topics and wrote 3-5 pages (not more than 6) and
some editors worked on them and turned them into a meditation or spiritual
guide book. One topic, of course, would be “the Order Ecumenical.” 

And why not call the book, The Order Ecumenical, and acknowledge those who
live out of this deep missional spirituality are the continuing Order
Ecumenical? 

This could be a start of the next stage. I personally have seen the
continuing Order Ecumenical as a lightly structured reality, a way of
honoring a deep spirituality and commitment more than anything else, and
some kind of symbol that binds us together (and almost only that). For me,
that’s the Congolese cross.

Herman

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Jaime R Vergara
Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2011 5:03 AM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Oe List ...] A Lenten Reflection

OpED Saipan Tribune, this coming Tuesday:

LENTIL IN MY LENT

Have not turned Vegan but lentil in my diet has become prominent as the
protein-high bean is inexpensively available fresh in the market here in
northeast China.

It was in the sweltering heat of August ’77 in Maharashtra in India, in the
small village of Maliwada not too far from the famed Ellora caves, that I
joined an international faculty of colleagues with the Ecumenical Institute
conduct an 8-wk residential Human Development Training School for some
participants eager to learn how to effectively change the course of their
community’s future.

The vision might have been nebulous to many but to this passionate raging
bull of human creativity, “all the earth – all the goods, all the decisions
of history, and all the inventions of humanness – belongs to all the people”
was not a political cliché that went with standing at attention to the
strains of L’Internationale, or singing the octaves of Amazing Grace with a
strangely warmed heart.  

It came with a cosmic missional marching order of the intense magnitude of
the liturgical tradition of servanthood before the stations of the Cross
that heeded the metaphors of someone like Rabindranath Tagore who invited us
to the task of “empowering the villages to meet their own requirements.”

It was our goal to intensify the knowing, doing, and being of creatureliness
before the human journey, among dreamers and adventurers in the faculty and
students of what became the HDTS, trusting that in the process, and in the
investiture of our lives in a servanthood style (for some, patterned in the
footsteps of the Galilean carpenter), a profound transformation to
individual and community would occur.

Squatting in the earth dusts of Maliwada’s HDTS mess hall, we broke chapati
flatbread with bowls of lentil dahl, a side dish in the more affluent tables
in Mumbai, but a luxuriant main course to the starry-eyed school
participants wrestling with the economic contradiction applied at the
village level - of effective access to resources, efficient management of
the means of production, and equitable sharing in the distribution of
benefits. The political call to actively participation in decisions that
affect everyone’s life, and recovering the reality of the cultural
profundity of the human journey as invented in the Asian subcontinent and
other regions of the planet, guided our curriculum. Curried red lentil
graced out celebrations as we swayed to Mahatma Gandhi’s ecumeni-secular
yearning in Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram.

There was hardly any utopian dreaming associated with this endeavor; it was
ontologically grounded in the sheer exercise of freedom that one can effect
transformation standing over the abyss of shaky knowledge sans footnotes of
scholastic certitude, the indeterminate nature of outcomes unaided by market
analysis and statistical surveys, and the paucity of recognized tenure of
certificated professional acceptance.

UN Secretary Dag Hammarskjold once counseled: “The Way has chosen you, and
you must be thankful.” We heeded his advice but gave it a slight twist: “We
create the way; we are grateful.”

There’s a serenity that comes with knowing that your doing reflects the
lifestyle of gratitude.  It shows in the meticulous care one gives a
crumpled hanky, or the respect one accords a stranger you strike an imaginal
conversation with in a foreign land, or the assertive but non-obtrusive hand
you extend when someone takes a literal or figurative fall. You know there
is more to the enjoyment of life beyond the laughter even from a staged
tragicomic pratfall. 

A difficult situation presents itself and is met with courageous trust
supplanting the incursion of fear, a stillness in the soul abides above the
agitation of an insistent kneejerk response, a sense of universal belonging
among solitaries warms one’s solitude, and the impulse to rush judgment sees
intuitive reliance on common sense.  The fundamental stance of faith, hope
and love blossoms in the creative imagination of gratefulness, turning a cup
half-full wondrously full-filled, reshaping deep and hidden despair into the
awesome discovery of unique yet greatly affirmed personal significance. The
blithe and flighty Que sera sera becomes assurance of Anshallah, and the
fright before the mystery of our lives resounds with grateful Amen!

A concerted corporate journey along this trail left scars in our soul when
the group institutionally called itself out of being from its immense
journey.  Before Nike made it a slogan, we just went out and did it! - our
shaken, shattered and broken lives scattered in the catwalk of human
history.  Orange County Republicans branded us on Congressional record as
communists, and because the acronym of our program was “ICA,” a Philippine
government official thought us to be Company operatives who failed to
protect his benefactor Marcos from the spineless political Left!

Lent in my lentils remained as an aftertaste, but now in Dong Bei’s
resurgent China, it is physically back in our dietary regimen, and in
gratitude, we intone an archaic formula to Gaia: this is my body, take, eat,
it is given for you.  In the sunset of our years, we heed the words of the
prophet on the subway walls, though this time, it is brightly lit and
printed simply with a check mark: Just Do It!

j'aime la vie

-----Original Message-----
From: elliestock at aol.com
To: Dialogue at wedgeblade.net; OE at wedgeblade.net
Sent: Fri, Apr 15, 2011 4:38 am
Subject: [Oe List ...] 4/14/11, Spong: Exploring the Story of the Cross,
Part VI The Enigma Called Judas

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Exploring the Story of the Cross, Part VI The Enigma Called Judas

The anti-hero of the Christian story in general and of the crucifixion story
in particular is one who is known as Judas Iscariot. Scorn and ridicule have
been heaped on this figure over the centuries of Christian history. Much
anti-Semitism has flowed from the depiction of this character. No one
anywhere names his or her child “Judas.” The name itself has become the
synonym for betrayal, for being stabbed in the back. The phrase “thirty
pieces of silver” is referred to in print time and time again in the context
of other incidents of traitorous behavior. When Judas is depicted in
Christian art he is portrayed in dark and sinister tones. Events in western
Christian history from the Inquisition in the 14th century to the expulsion
of the Jews from or the ghettoizing of Jews in almost every country of
Europe at one time or another, to Martin Luther’s call for the burning of
synagogues, to the violence and killing frenzy of the Holocaust in the 20th
century are all rooted substantially in the biblical portrait of Judas and
through him applied to all Jewish people. It does not escape notice that the
name Judas is identical with the name Judah, by which the entire Jewish
nation was called, Judas being simply a Greek spelling of that name. Given
this history, what can we then say about the literal biblical character
known as Judas Iscariot? Can 21st century people, employing the critical
tools of biblical and historical scholarship now available to us, cast light
on this figure? I think we can.

The first questions we need to raise are very basic. Is Judas actually a
person of history or is he a mythical character, a symbol that the original
writers and hearers of the gospels would have understood, but whose meaning
escaped later non-Jewish readers? To begin to answer these questions, I turn
first to the record regarding this figure in the New Testament itself and
see what light a critical study of those various books might say about this
major character in the Jesus drama, which the gospel writers were creating
forty to seventy year after the crucifixion.

I begin with the earliest Christian writings that we possess the authentic
epistles of Paul, all of which can be dated between 51 at the earliest and
64 at the latest. This makes them just 21 to 34 years after the crucifixion,
which makes these Pauline writings the closest writing we have to the
historical events surrounding the crucifixion. They are also one or two
decades before the first gospel (Mark) was written and four to five decades
before the last gospel (John) was completed. So our first task is to examine
what Paul, the original New Testament writer, had to say about Judas
Iscariot. The answer surprises many. Paul said nothing about Judas. Not a
single, solitary mention of his name! Pressing deeper we ask if Paul says
anything about an act of betrayal. The answer to that question is vague,
since it depends on how one Greek word is translated. In I Corinthians,
written in the mid-fifties (54-56) Paul says in chapter 11, “On the night
that Jesus was handed over, he took bread.” Paul then proceeds to relate the
story of the institution of the Christian Eucharist, known as “The Lord’s
Supper.” Note three things about this single reference. First, there is no
indication in his text whatsoever that Paul identified the meal with a
Passover meal. This identification would come later only when the gospels
were written. Second, the word used in this single text is properly
translated “handed over” not “betrayed,” which means that the idea of
betrayal was based on a later, harsher rendering of that word. In the
Pauline text by itself here is no indication that this “handing over”
constituted an overt act of betrayal. At the very least it is not as strong
a word as people have assumed in Christian history Thirdly, there is no
sense in this original reference to the handing over of Jesus that it was
the work of one of ‘the twelve.” So the first question we face is what do
these omissions mean? Could Paul simply have assumed the truth of what came
to be thought of as the “traditional view” of betrayal without actually
mentioning them? That would be in the category of possible but not probable!
An act as painful and scandalous as betrayal at the hands of one of the
twelve would be hard to ignore. If such a tradition were known could it
possibly have been omitted? I do not think so ,which leads me to suggest
that it was not known.

Recall that Paul was a student of the law as well as an educated rabbi and a
rigid observer of Jewish liturgical forms. The words “handed over” are quite
passive and do not seem to imply a planned act of traitorous behavior such
as that described in the gospel accounts where Judas has contact with the
Temple authorities well in advance of the act and even agrees on the amount
of the payment that he is to receive for his cooperation. The clinching
argument for me is that Paul, just four chapters later in the same epistle,
describes the resurrection appearances by saying: “He (Jesus) first appeared
to Cephas (Peter) and then to the twelve.” Note “the twelve!” Judas is still
present. Could the traitor still be part of the intimate band of disciples
if he had brought about the death of their leader? That is to me
inconceivable! So, I conclude that in the writings of Paul there is no hint
that one of the twelve was the traitor, which means that the Judas story has
to be a story that developed after Paul’s time and is thus not an original
part of the tradition. Recall that thirty years later Matthew would say that
Jesus appeared only to “the eleven.” All of these data point to the
probability that betrayal at the hands of one of the twelve named Judas was
not a fact of history, but an interpretive addition to a developing
tradition.

When Paul was forced later to defend his own apostleship, an activity that
permeates his authentic writing, would it not have helped his cause to refer
to the defection of one of the twelve, to bolster his apostolic claim as one
whom he said “was born out of due time?”

Having filed these first seeds of doubt, based on contemporary biblical
insight, I now turn to the gospels and trace in them the development of the
story of Judas. Lining up the gospels in the order in which they were
written and focusing only on what each gospel says about Judas, we discover
that between Mark, dated in the early 70’s, and John dated in the late 90’s,
the figure of Judas grows more and more evil. Judas is mentioned for the
first time in written history in chapter three where Mark introduces the
twelve and identifies Judas as the one who betrayed him. It is of interest
to note that both Luke and John tell us of another one of the twelve who is
named “Judas,” but who is not Iscariot. It appears that a good Judas is also
in the Christian memory in the 1st century. When Mark first describes Judas‘
traitorous act, he does so in a fairly low key fashion. In this first gospel
Mark mentions no bribe and no stated motive; he does say, however that Judas
betrayed Jesus with a kiss at midnight. Then Judas disappears from Mark’s
story and is never mentioned again. Matthew, the second gospel to be written
(82-85), builds on Mark’s story, but he now supplies the motive, a bribe of
thirty pieces of silver. Matthew goes on to tell us that Judas repented and
hurled the thirty pieces of silver back into the Temple and then went and
hanged himself. The Judas story is clearly growing. Luke, writing about a
decade after Matthew, explains Judas’ actions as having been done at the
impulse of “the devil.” John, writing between 95-100, suggests that Judas
was a thief and that he would do anything for money. John also says that
when Judas left the upper room to do the dastardly deed, he walked out of
light into darkness. At that moment “it was night.” says the Fourth Gospel.
As the years go by Judas grows darker.

Next, we take all of the biographical details found in gospels about Judas
and search the Hebrew Scriptures about other traitors in Jewish history to
see if we can see any literary connections. The result of this search is
that every detail attributed to Judas in the gospels is present in earlier
stories of traitors in the Hebrew Scriptures.

First we look at the Genesis story of Joseph being “handed over” by his
brothers, a band of twelve, to be sold into slavery in Egypt. The brother
who decided to receive money for this deed was named Judah. I do not think
that is coincidental. In the David cycle of stories in the book of II Samuel
the king was called “The Lord’s Anointed,” the same word that would later be
translated “messiah.” He was betrayed by a man named Ahithophel, who also
broke bread with King David around the table just as Judas was portrayed as
doing at the last supper in the gospel narratives. This same Ahithophel,
when he recognized the consequences of his actions, was said to have hanged
himself. That detail is added to the Judas story by Matthew. The idea of
being betrayed with a kiss is also found in the David cycle of stories when
Joab, David’s military Chief of Staff was replaced after Absalom’s rebellion
by a man named Amasa, Joab sought out his successor under the guise of
congratulating him. When he found him, he drew Amasa by the beard to give
him the kiss of friendship only to disembowel him simultaneously with a
dagger. Mark has Judas kiss Jesus in the Garden to fulfill a signal given to
the Chief Priests. Luke, writing in the book of Acts, suggests that Judas
died not by hanging, but by falling down and having “all his bowels gush
out.” Is the literary fate of the betrayed Amasa at work here?

Finally, in Zechariah 9-14, the Shepherd King of Israel is betrayed to those
who are traders in the Temple for thirty pieces of silver, which was then
later thrown back into the Temple, just as Matthew says Judas did with his
thirty pieces of silver.

A study of Hebrew sources reveals Judas as a composite of Old Testament
traitors described in the Bible. Perhaps Paul did not know about the Judas
story because it had not yet been developed. The Judas story grows darker as
the years go by because not being history it is still being created. Every
detail in the gospel portrait of Judas can be found in earlier biblical
traitor stories. Is it then not possible that Judas is a literary figure, a
corporate symbol developed for an interpretive purpose to serve some
apologetic Christian need? I think this conclusion is both possible and
probable. What purpose would such a story serve? I will turn to that
question next week and seek to address it then.

~John Shelby Spong

Read the essay online
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Question & Answer

Ben Cox , via the Internet, writes:

Question:

We met at Stetson University in Florida several years ago. I am the Pastor
of Colby Memorial Temple in Cassadaga, Florida, a Spiritualist Center. I am
currently reading your book Eternal Life: A New Vision –Beyond Religion –
Beyond Theism – Beyond Heaven and Hell. Are you familiar with the
Spiritualist ideas on death? If so, how do you respond to those ideas in
relation to your Christian thinking, even though you obviously think outside
the box? Would very much like to hear from you. I do use your material on
Easter when teaching the Easter experience to my congregation. 

Answer:

Dear Ben, 

Thanks for your letter. I am not sufficiently familiar with “Spiritualists”
ideas on death to write about them and I also find that when “Spiritualists”
define Spiritualism” there is significant internal disagreement that causes
me to have some difficulty in getting a firm handle on what they mean. I do
not mean to be pejorative in this comment, but only to observe that this is
slippery language, as is all language that attempts to describe that which
is beyond the ability of the human mind to describe or to test in the normal
way of doing investigative scholarship. As I understand those who refer to
themselves as “spiritualists” their approach does not shape my primary
understanding of life after death. I do not accept any dualism between the
physical and the spiritual. I start from the perspective that the spiritual
is a dimension of the physical. I would be interested if you could show me
where the language of the “spiritualists” differs from or supports my
conclusions in my book Eternal Life: A New Vision. 

Good luck with your Easter sermon. 

~John Shelby Spong 

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