Children in the Sandbox

An Open Letter to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori:-

We write to you to encourage, strengthen and support your ministry with our prayers. We would like to suggest that as faithful Episcopalians we stop playing these games of attention getting. What do conservative primates get out of condemning gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people? Media attention. What does it cost them? Nothing. So what's their motive? Attention from western media to be sure. And the sense of power that comes from bullying others.
If you went into a sandbox in which some bullies said you can play here but your sister can't, would you stay in the same sandbox? If playground bullies are not willing to have all the members of the family in the sandbox then let's leave the sandbox. We can create another one. We help neither ourselves nor our sisters and brothers if we do not have the courage of our convictions to leave the sandbox. We will no longer pander to those who want to be noticed by the world's media.
We can become a place where Episcopalians who want to get on with protecting the environment and promoting the rights and dignities of all human beings can live and thrive. Is it an accident that God has given glbt people to the church already baptized as full members into the body of Christ? No, it is our gift to the world. We must continue to ordain glbt people and bless same sex unions because such people and such unions are gifts of the Spirit. And who are we to reject gifts of the Spirit?
We speak a resounding "No!" to more funding for discussions about ordination of glbt people or the blessings of same-sex unions, and a resounding "Yes!" to continuing those ordinations and blessings.
Jesus declares emphatically in Luke 14:26 that whoever comes to him and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters and even life itself cannot be a disciple. In this text and in other similar passages, Jesus promises that divisions in households will occur as a result of heeding a call to follow as a disciple. Such a follower is called out of a household, away from father and mother, even wife, children, and brothers and sisters in an extended family. Such a person overturns blood ties to follow a command of open table fellowship in which Jesus insists that invitations to a meal should be extended not to friends, brothers, rich neighbors or relatives but to the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind who cannot reciprocate. Jesus never says that everyone should be one happy family. It's time to take these words of Jesus about division between members of the same family seriously.
The world marches ahead of the church on many moral issues. Reactionary leaders of many mainstream religions, including Roman Catholicism, Islam, and the Anglican Church, have vitiated their moral leadership by maintaining positions that do nothing to relieve oppression, but rather serve to confirm powerful heterosexual males in their power, at the cost of women, children, and sexual minorities of the world. Where religious regimes like the Taliban are permitted to keep women in poverty and oppress them, those religious leaders, and others who fail to oppose them, have forfeited moral leadership. Where religious leaders fail to condemn on moral and religious grounds the recent murder of women like Zill-e-Huma, the social welfare minister in Punjab, they have forfeited religious and moral authority. Her murderer declared that women occupying senior positions was against the rule of God, and was an attempt to subjugate men. Religious leaders who do not speak up on behalf of oppressed minorities everywhere especially those in whom society has no interest have forfeited their moral leadership in the world.
The Episcopal Church has been in the sandbox with bullies far too long. It is time to stop negotiating with terrorists and allying ourselves with the spineless, and focus instead on doing some good in this world. The stakes are too high. With the passing of this generation into another one, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender question will be moot. If there is another generation on this planet.

Deirdre Good and Julian Sheffield

Jesus' Tomb

By now everyone will have heard of the (re)discovery of Jesus' Tomb and the accompanying documentary film to be shown this Sunday evening. In the 80's a first century burial site in Talpiot in Jerusalem was investigated. Of the 10 sarcophagi in the site, six were found with inscriptions, five of which were Aramaic and one was in Greek: Ossuary 80/500: Mariamene e Mara” – “Mariamne, and Mara (Martha)” Ossuary 80/501: Yehuda bar Yeshua” – “Judah, son of Jesus” Ossuary 80/502: "Matia” – “Matthew” Ossuary 80/503 "Yeshua bar Yosef” – “Jesus, Son of Joseph” Ossuary 80/504: "Yose” or “Yosa” – a nickname for “Joseph” Ossuary 80/505: "Maria” – a Latinized version of the Hebrew “Miriam.”

Today, there was a press conference at 11.00am in New York City and two of the sarcophagi have been on view on the NYPL (I said to a friend and colleague, Who would have imagined that we would be telling each other that Jesus' bone box is on display at the New York Public Library?) The authorities in Jerusalem may open the site to tourists.

There is more than one way to explain the relations of people to each other in the sarcophagi. We are not compelled to understand that Yeshua bar Yosef is married to Mariamne. We do not know what the relations of people to each other is except in the case of patronymics. Maria could be the wife of Matia or Yose or Yehuda equally well. Remember that more than one person was interred in each of the sarcophagi. As for the DNA evidence, we seem only to know that Mariamne and Yeshua do not share the same DNA and thus are not related. This does not compel us to think that they were married.

Textual Revisions as a key to understanding

A wonderful piece on NPR yesterday discusses reading redacted manuscripts as a way to understanding texts in an interview with Willard Spiegelmann, English Professor at SMU. Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art," for example, went through 15 drafts beginning not as a vilanelle (which is how it ended) but as notes on loosing things, titled "The Art of Loosing Things." The genesis of the poem, articulating the personal loss of a lover, is what later drafts return to. What we see is the history of a work, its creative process, and perhaps even embryonic genius at work.

Everyday reasoning including irrationality

A review of Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland by Nicholas Lazzard in today's Guardian Review Section commands purchase and reading of the book. First published in 1992, the book explores the extent of irrational thinking on a daily basis. Mr Lazzard says, "There are few books about psychology that can make you laugh out loud; this is one of them."

Daily examples of irrationality are:

1. Leaping to a decision.
Much irrationality results from simple laziness. We jump to a conclusion without taking the time to think things through. On the other hand, we all know people who analyze to excess. When the cost of additional analysis exceeds the expected loss that may be avoided by such analysis (or the expected gain to be achieved thereby), it is time to stop.

2. Inadequate brain cache.
A human can hold only a small number of ideas in his mind at one time...... When faced with a complex decision, a decision maker must use at least elementary principles of decision theory if he or she is to arrive at an optimal result. Even the simple method outlined by Benjamin Franklin -- writing down pros and cons in two columns on a sheet of paper -- can greatly increase the probability of reaching a rational decision. More advanced techniques can be used to advantage in complex cases.

3. Self-deception.
This well-known pillar of irrationality can be explained by reference to the principle of cognitive dissonance -- the mental conflict that occurs when cherished beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new evidence. The tension aroused by this conflict is eased by various defensive mechanisms: denial, rejection, avoidance, and so forth.

An example of this in the book: "Almost everyone reading these pages will at some time have paid money to see a bad film or a bad play. Despite excruciating boredom, people often refuse to leave, even if the show is so bad that they would have paid a small amount of money to avoid seeing it at all. Thus, they irrationally suffer a double blow - they have spent money and they endure an hour or two's needless boredom. The sensible thing for them to do is to leave, which means they only suffer the monetary loss."

What do you do in such cases? I confess clinging to the irrational belief that while the book I am reading or the movie I am watching is execrable, it must (surely) get better if I go on reading/watching it. On only one occasion have I left a movie before the end. Its easier for me to abandon a book. If I can't finish it, I give it away.

Moreover, there are assumptions we make that cause us immense difficulties:-

The first is: "Because it would be highly preferable if I were outstandingly competent, I absolutely should and must be. It is awful when I am not. I am therefore a worthless individual."

The second irrational (and unprovable) idea is: "Because it is highly desirable that others treat me considerately and fairly, they absolutely should and must do so, and they are rotten people who deserve to be utterly damned when they do not."

The third is: "Because it is preferable that I experience pleasure rather than pain, the world absolutely should arrange this and life is horrible, and I can't bear it when the world doesn't."

How the current Episcopal debate comes across

Recently, I met a clergyman from another branch of the Christian Church that does not ordain women. It was after Susan Russell and Kendall Harmon had been interviewed by Margaret Warner on the PBS Lehrer Newshour on Wednesday of this week. Since he brought up the topic of current debates in the Episcopal Church, I asked his opinion. "Of course its a good thing to get these matters out into the open," he began. Then he added emphatically, "They were interviewed for TWENTY FIVE minutes!!" commenting on the unusually large segment of the newshour given over to the debate. He added, "The woman looked professional and well-dressed, but I was surprised that she wore a piece of jewellery around her neck without a cross!" Cottoning on to the direction of the discussion, I inquired about the sartorial aspects of her dialogue partner, Kendall Harmon. "Oh dear," he said, "He must have lost weight recently because his collar was hanging off his neck. And you could see that the button on his cuff was undone."

There you have it. To all of us making public statements about the current debate: Caveat spectator! Viewer beware! The content of our discussion is immaterial; the issues decided. What matters is how we look.

Women and Words: March 6-7, Wake Forest University

"Women and Words" is the fifth conference in the Phyllis Trible Lecture series. This year's conference focuses on the power of religious language as it is used by women and about women to restrict or transform. In addition to three leading feminist scholars of religion who will focus on biblical language, the language of worship and theological language from a global perspective, this year’s series also features acclaimed writer Mary Gordon.

H'm. Helpful tip from the Guardian

This could be very handy. Especially these days. Especially the bit about ability to wring complex meanings from a single line. Must bone up a bit on creating intellectual frisson.

What Joseph saw

In the Ethiopic birth narrative, The Road to Bethlehem, Joseph went off to find a midwife "and as he went along the road, the earth trembled, and the oxen and sheep stood looking up into heaven." This is a brief reference to miraculous events accompanying Jesus' birth.

According to the Protevangelion of James, this is what Joseph saw:

XVIII. I And Joseph found a cave there and brought Mary into it, and set his sons by her: and he went forth and sought for a midwife of the Hebrews in the country of Bethlehem.

2 Now I Joseph was walking, and I walked not. And I looked up to the air and saw the air in amazement. And I looked up unto the pole of the heaven and saw it standing still, and the fowls of the heaven without motion. And I looked upon the earth and saw a dish set, and workmen lying by it, and their hands were in the dish: and they that were chewing chewed not, and they that were lifting the food lifted it not, and they that put it to their mouth put it not thereto, but the faces of all of them were looking upward. And behold there were sheep being driven, and they went not forward but stood still; and the shepherd lifted his hand to smite them with his staff, and his hand remained up. And I looked upon the stream of the river and saw the mouths of the kids upon the water and they drank not. And of a sudden all things moved onward in their course.

What Joseph saw is the miraculous effects of Jesus' birth on nature in which what normally happens is suspended. This is a way of speaking about the virgin birth to which the fleeting reference in the Ethiopic story alludes. In the icon of my previous post, the shepherd reports these astonishing event to Joseph since he had seen the sheep and tried to use his staff. (I must acknowledge with gratitude help from Prof. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona on this point).

These two posts show that two details in an Ethiopic story of Jesus' birth belong to what we would call noncanonical material. However, the Ethiopic canon of scripture contains many more books than our canon. It is probable that The Road to Bethlehem also includes oral traditions found also in the Protevangelion of James.

Joseph and the Shepherd

Another detail from the next paragraph of the Ethiopic nativity story The Road to Bethlehem is as follows:

Joseph looked around, and he saw a cave where animals were kept and he led Mary to it. Then he went off to find a midwife. As he went along the road, the earth trembled, and the oxen and sheep stood looking up into heaven.

Since this paragraph doesn't actually mention a shepherd, here's an icon that shows the scene to which this paragraph alludes (the animals are behind the shepherd on the right). Why does the earth tremble? Why do the animals stand looking into heaven? (Discussion in the post to follow in a day or so :)

Mary's Vision While Pregnant with Jesus

I've been perusing (from the library) A Synopsis of the Apocryphal and Infancy Narratives assembled by J. K. Elliot (Brill, 2006). It includes material from three newly published and unfamiliar Irish texts: a poetic version of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and nativity stories in the Leabhar Breac ("The Speckled Book" dated to 1411) and the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum (texts first edited by Martin McNamara in 2001 in the Corpus Christianorum Series Apocrypha 13 and 14).

Under the heading "Mary's Vision of Two Peoples" the Protevangelion of James 17:2 (or 12)records:-

And (Joseph) saddled the ass, and put her upon it, and Joseph and Simon followed after her, and came near Bethlehem, within three miles. 6 Then Joseph, turning about, saw Mary sorrowful, and said within himself, "Perhaps she is in pain through That which is within her." 7 But when he turned about again, he saw her laughing, and said to her, 8 "Mary, how does it happen that I sometimes see sorrow and sometimes laughter and joy in your face?" 9 And Mary replied to him, "I see two people with my eyes, the one weeping and mourning, the other laughing and rejoicing."

Pseudo-Matthew 13 has a similar version:-

When, therefore, Joseph and Mary were going along the road which leads to Bethlehem, Mary said to Joseph: 'I see two peoples before me, the one weeping, and the other rejoicing.' And Joseph answered: 'Sit still on thy beast, and do not speak superfluous words.' Then there appeared before them a beautiful boy, clothed in white raiment, who-said to Joseph: 'Why didst thou say that the words which Mary spoke about the two peoples were superfluous? For she saw the people of the Jews weeping, because they have departed from their God; and the people of the Gentiles rejoicing, because they have now been added and made near to the Lord, according to that which He promised to our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for the time is at hand when in the seed of Abraham all nations shall be blessed.'

The Leabhar Breac 66-7 has a version of this story as does the Liber Flavus 66:

'O father,' said Simeon, 'the maiden is speaking and I do not know whom she is addressing.' 'I think that she is suffering from tiredness and distress,' said Joseph. And when Joseph looked at Mary he saw that she was alternately sad and joyful. 'How is it, girl', he said, 'that at one time you are grieving while at another time you are happy?' 'I see two peoples,' she said, 'one of which is in mourning and the other in gladness and sacred scripture tells us to weep with the mournful and to rejoice with the joyful.' Joseph told her to go to bed and rest. 'O Simeon,' said he, 'Annoint the virgin's feet with oil.'

Now listen to a modern nativity story from Ethiopia, The Road to Bethlehem, (Macmillan 2000) loaned to me by Jemonde Taylor who was in Ethiopia in January:

Some months later, Herod the king sent out his officers to bring each person into their own city. So Joseph brought a donkey, and he sat Mary on it, and they started out along the road to bethlehem. After they had been travelling for a while, Joseph turned and looked back at Mary, and she was smiling and laughing. "The baby is about to be born," she said. "What shall we do, where shall we go?" said Joseph.

It would be easy to pass over this paragraph if one was not aware of the long tradition of Mary's prophetic vision as her child is about to be born. In the tradition of the prophets Mary feels within herself the pain and the joy of God's verdict. Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us that the prophet is a person who holds God and humankind in one thought at one time, and at all times. All prophecy is one great exclamation: God is not indifferent to evil! God is always concerned. God is personally affected by what humanity does. God is a God of pathos, namely, feeling transformed into action. In Mary's case, this is the joy and sorrow of a birth that brings division as a consequence of it.

Epiphany in Lalibela

A report from the Guardian (UK) of Timkhat, feast of the Epiphany, in Lalibela complete with all-night vigil and baptism early next morning.